★ TLC Fan Events is about bringing the fans of The Lunar Chronicles together as a community to create any and all types of content regarding TLC. Shown below are upcoming events coming your way!
★ For more information, check out our FAQ & Rules page.
He doesn't remember his sister much. He only met her once before she was declared a shell and taken away. He remembers just her name and how her little her hands were.
Welcome to TLC Fan Events' fourth event! Over the next couple of days, we'll be celebrating the birthdays of everyone's favourite blondes: Jacin (our nonchalant king) and Cress (our incredible hacker queen)! This event will run from July 16th - 24th.
All contributions are welcome! Whether it’s fanfiction, fanart, music, cosplay, or anything else you’re inspired to create. We’d love to see it.
Please note: the prompts are simply suggestions meant to spark creativity. You can follow them as closely or as loosely as you’d like. There are no limits!
Here are this year’s prompts:
✦ Thurs: Jacin's Birthday Bash! (Not his actual birthday, but close enough)
↳ Celebrate Jacin's unofficial birthday! Show him celebrating, receiving gifts, spending time with friends, or maybe he even cracks a smile for once!
✦ Fri: Family Friday
↳ Show Jacin and Cress spending time with the families we love - found, chosen, or by blood.
✦ Sat: Cress' Birthday Bash!
↳ It's Cress' turn to celebrate! How would she party?
✦ Sun: Blond(e) Day
↳ Put Jacin and Cress together in any context! Friends, allies, family, romantic partners - anything goes!
✦ Mon: Rarepair Monday
↳ Pair up Jacin or Cress with someone else. Show some love to underrated romantic pairings that deserve a little more attention.
✦ Tues: Angst Tuesday
↳ Bring on the heartbreak! Explore hurt/comfort, emotional turmoil, bittersweet endings, or all the delicious angst in between.
✦ Wed: Wedding Wednesday
↳ Wedding bells are ringing! Create something inspired by proposals, weddings, anniversaries, or happily ever afters.
✦ Thurs: The Programmer's Playlist / The Royal Guard's Playlist
↳ Build a playlist or create something inspired by music that captures Cress' or Jacin's energy.
✦ Fri: Fluffy Friday
↳ Sweet, wholesome, and comforting. Share your fluffiest creations and give everyone a reason to smile.
To make sure we see and reblog your contributions, please use the tags #TLCFanEvents, #HBDJacin&Cress, and #HBDBlondies, and tag @tlc-fan-events on your post!
For more information, check out our FAQ & Rules page.
Psst! Still have questions? Feel free to send us an ask, and one of our mods will get back to you as soon as possible!
Hello everyone! Just a quick announcement that we are combining Cress and Jacin’s Birthday Events because the dates are almost a week apart. We’ll also extend the event because it is a double celebration. More details of the event are coming soon!
thank you SO SO SO SO MUCH @cinderswirecutters for not only being so insistent that i write this but also beta reading it and just generally being so amazing 🫶🫶🫶🫶 I LOVE YOU. also big thanks to @tlc-fan-events , the pride event is what got me to actually do it !!!
a/n: the long awaited crackship <3 do they talk in canon? no. but i love femme4femme. And iko is a lesbian idc. anyway finished in time for pride month 🥹 enjoy guys 💫
You’d think, after over a year, one would be used to the loneliness that came with not being like everyone around you. The jealousy over the spilled wine, the frosting stains, the slow dance in the living room…
It’s always the small things that got Iko. Usually she could ignore it, drown the feeling under giggles and words upon words, but when her friends got coupled up like this….well. There was no separating them, really. The reality was all of her friends were deeply in love and so…human. And Iko was…nowhere near that.
She huffed, pulling out her portscreen as she leaned against the kitchen counter. Four new messages.
I hope you’re having a good time.
I miss you.
Tressa does too.
I didn’t mean what I said, Iko.
He never did. That’s what he always said, anyway. Kinney and his goddamn mouth. Always talking, but never saying what he means. According to him.
Iko didn’t know what to do anymore, honestly. She told herself it’s just new relationship nerves, that every couple fights. It’s just a phase.
Looking at the happy couples in the living room, arms draped over shoulders, eyes never leaving each other’s gaze, smiles all around... well, it was definitely harder to convince herself that her relationship wasn’t a total and utter shit fire.
Iko sighed, twirling one blue braid around her finger as she considered Kinney’s messages again. To answer or not to answer? He’d probably want to call. It was easier to convince her of things when she could hear his voice.
God, she was pathetic.
She groaned and dropped her head in her hands. What she wouldn’t give to be Scarlet, or Winter—their love for Wolf and Jacin seemed to come so easy. They knew, with so much conviction, that this was their person. Forever.
“You can’t be sad. It’s a wedding.”
Iko lifted her head, surprised. A blonde girl stood at the entrance to the kitchen, her pink dress highlighting her cheeks and lips. Her green eyes sparkled as she looked to Iko for some sort of acknowledgment. In one of her hands was a wine glass, trace amounts of red wine still at the bottom.
“Uh,” Iko said. “I wouldn’t say I’m sad, exactly. Just, like….not happy.”
The girl took a few more steps into the kitchen, stopping by one of the cabinets. “Yeah, okay. That’s slightly better.”
Iko tilted her head at the girl. “…Émilie, right? Scarlet’s friend?”
Émilie grinned. “Guilty as charged.” She pulled out a full bottle of red wine from the depths of the cabinet and uncorked it. “And you are….”
“Of course,” Iko said. “They never mention me in the news articles. Even though I saved the world just as much as those other guys.”
Émilie laughed. “You were really there? Like really?”
She smiled. “Yeah. And everyone seems to forget that.”
“Well, don’t worry, gorgeous. I’ll remember.”
Iko’s fan sputtered in an unrecognizable way.
“Thank you,” Iko said, instead of acknowledging it. “I’m Iko. Cinder’s friend.”
Émilie’s eyes widened a bit before shaking her head. “Okay, I should be used to everyone around me being friends with huge political figures at this point.”
Iko laughed and put her port away. Kinney could wait for tomorrow.
“They’re not scary, I promise,” she said. “Well, Jacin is. But who cares what he thinks?”
Émilie smiled, taking a sip from the wine bottle. “Okay, I‘ll admit I don’t remember which one that is.”
Iko slapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from snorting. Émilie grinned as Iko laughed. “Sorry, I- he’s the guy Winter is hanging off of!”
Émilie’s mouth dropped open. “Him? The most beautiful woman in the world is with him??”
Iko would’ve felt jealous of that but, hey, it’s Winter. She was the most beautiful woman in the world. “He is really nice,” Iko giggled. “Deep, deep, deep down.”
“Super far down there. Somewhere.”
“Maybe.”
Iko’s fan sputtered again as Émilie laughed a big, real laugh. She felt, like... uncomfortably warm, too. She hadn’t felt like this since she was a service android and met Kai for the first time.
She pressed a hand to her cheek. She was fine. Nothing was wrong with her. She’d do a diagnostic run in the morning, or get Cress to do one. It was nothing.
“Do you wanna, like…” Émilie tilted her head towards the door, her wine bottle tipping dangerously. “Get away from the lovebugs?”
Iko laughed. “Would I ever.”
Émilie grinned and reached out, grabbing Iko’s hand and pulling her towards the door. Iko couldn’t help but giggle again. She felt mischievous, like a school kid sneaking out to a party. Except, they were sneaking out of a party. Could you call it sneaking if no one noticed?
Émilie and Iko stopped on the front porch. The blonde took another sip of wine, offered some to Iko (she declined), and looked up to the sky.
“So you were on the moon?” She asked.
Iko folded her arms across her chest. “Yep.”
Émilie turned to her. “What’s it like?”
“Cold. Lonely. Kind of horrible, actually.” The truth spilled out of Iko before she could stop it. She would have never told Cinder any of this. If she did, Cinder would insist on Iko going back to Earth, to stay with Kai, or Scarlet. Cinder needed someone. And they hadn’t been separated in so long. Iko didn’t know who she was without Cinder. She owed everything to her and loved her with every wire, every spark.
But even with Cinder, her bright spot in the dark, living on the moon sucked.
“Mm,” Émilie hummed. “Scar didn’t like it much either, I think. She doesn’t… like talking about it, though.”
Iko shuddered. “If I was her, neither would I.”
“Ugh! This is such sad talk. Why’d you make it sad??” Émilie huffed dramatically. “Let’s talk about… about… supernovas.”
Okay. Iko might’ve underestimated how drunk this girl was.
“Cause like…these huge, giant scientific marvels,” Emile continued, “just give up and collapse and it’s the biggest thing that happens to the universe. Isn’t that insane??”
Iko raised her eyebrows and nodded. She didn’t know shit about supernovas. She could look it up right now, and spew off a bunch of scientific terms to impress her, but she didn’t really feel like it. She would’ve done it if it was Kinney, just to one-up him. He could get so pretentious about stuff she didn’t know off the top of her head. You’re basically a computer, how could you not know?
Sometimes she wanted to punch him.
“Do you ever feel like that?”
Iko snapped out of her thoughts. “Like… what?”
Emile turned her green eyes on her. “Like one day you are going to give too much and just… explode. And never be the same.”
She almost said no on instinct. Of course not. Her life was perfect.
And then she thought of Kinney, and Luna, and the everyday politics and…and how not human she felt some days…
“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I feel exactly like that.”
Émilie cupped her face in her hands, smiling, her eyes never leaving Iko’s face, her cheeks flushed pink.
Iko wondered what it would be like to get drunk. To have the house and sky spin and feel nothing but mirth. To laugh and stare and hold hands with someone with no hesitation. To look at someone the way Émilie was looking at her right now without fear.
She hated being a stupid fucking android. One day, one day, she wanted to be human and actually feel Émilie’s warm hand in hers.
Iko held out her hand. “Wanna dance?”
Émilie grinned, stepping towards Iko and throwing her arms around her neck, pulling herself closer. Iko hesitated a moment, then settled her hands on the girl’s hips. They swayed softly to the faint music from the living room.
Émilie was very close to Iko now. She could count every freckle on her face. Not that she would- that would definitely be categorized under weird things to do as a human being. Iko nervously hoped her breath didn’t smell before realizing she couldn’t breathe. Right. Awesome.
“Do you have a dream?” Émilie asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Like… if you do anything… go anywhere… what would you do?”
Be a human. Obviously. But she couldn’t say that.
“I guess… I don’t know,” Iko said, surprised. “I’ve always just… followed Cinder, wherever she needed me.”
Émilie tilted her head. “That’s… a little sad.”
Iko didn’t want to agree, really. It would kind of suck if she did.
“What about you?” She asked. “Small town French girl have any big dreams?”
Émilie lit up. “I want to apply to an arts school in Paris for performance.”
“Wow. Big dreams.”
The blonde leaned back, grinning ear to ear. “Imagine me, on a big stage. Under the lights. Acting my ass off. I get standing ovations every night.”
And Iko could imagine it. This beautiful girl, under dazzling, blinding lights, her blonde hair a halo. Green eyes bright and looking right at Iko. Only at Iko.
Her fan sputtered again.
“I can see it,” Iko told her. “You look incredible up there.”
Émilie met Iko’s gaze with a smile so big it rivaled the stage lights in Iko’s mind. At that moment, Émilie wasn’t just beautiful, she was radiant.
“You look incredible now,” Iko said.
Émilie’s eyes darkened, just a bit. She glanced down, then back up again. And then, very suddenly, she leaned in and kissed Iko.
Woah. Woah.
Iko did not expect that. Kissing Émilie was nothing like kissing Kinney. Kinney… if she was being honest… kind of sucked. Émilie was soft and her hands brushed Iko’s shoulders and Iko kinda felt like she was on fire.
She realized she still hadn’t moved or reacted as Émilie pulled away quickly.
“Uh, sorry,” Émilie stammered. “Sorry, sorry, I’m drunk, I thought– I misread everything–“
“Um. What?” Iko said. She couldn’t really form a thought.
Émilie’s pretty face was now bright red. “I, uh. I’m sorry, I should go. Have fun.”
She was gone before Iko could protest.
She didn’t know why… why she would protest. She didn’t like girls. She didn’t ask to be kissed. She didn’t like girls.
But then again… she’d never really thought about it.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Very belated oneshot for Thorne's birthday event yayyy!!! @tlc-fan-events
Shoutout to that one person on tumblr who I saw mentioning thorne actually joining the military with a fake ID as a headcanon, can't remember who
Full fic under the cut, or read it on ao3
Cress had never made a cake before and as it turns out it wasn’t as easy as all the videos on her netscreen made it seem. Every surface of the kitchen of the Rampion was covered in white powder, whether it was flour or powdered sugar she wasn’t sure, the whole process had been such a whirlwind against the clock. The idea had come to her about a week before Thorne’s birthday, she had seen the cutest homemade cakes and thought to herself what an amazing surprise it would be for his birthday. It just so happened that he had to pick up a shipment of letumosis vaccines in a city a ways away from where the rampion was parked and had to take the pod ship. She knew that she didn’t have much time in order to get the cake done before he returned and as such she knew the cake wouldn’t turn out perfectly, but she had no idea baking a cake would take this long. Obviously it took longer than the video she was following, that much she expected, but she hadn’t factored in burning her first attempt and had all together underestimated how long it would take for the cake to cool down before frosting it. Now her second attempt stood before her with the frosting she has just finished putting on slowly sliding off, she wiped her brow with the back of her hand and sighed as she took in the disaster in front of her. She considered throwing the whole thing away and hiding all evidence the monstrous creation in front of her had ever come into existence, but before she had time to properly consider it she heard Thorne’s voice cutting through the loud opera music swirling around her.
“Honey I’m home,” he called out with a singsong voice.
“Shit,” the words escaped her as she frantically began to look for the pastel colored frosting she had meant to put the age he was turning, she knew he would be right around the corner and entering the kitchen any moment. Her eyes locked onto the green frosting as she grabbed a spoon and dipped the handle into it, she hurriedly carved 21 into the cake, crumbs mixing with the translucent remnants of the white frosting and the bits of green frosting that clung onto the spoon and barely transferred onto the cake.
“Fuck.”
“Why does it smell burnt?” Thorne asked, his voice getting closer. The opera music swelled even more, as if mocking the chaos of the situation she found herself in, she picked up the cake and practically threw it in the fridge.
“No reason,” she responded, panic tinting her voice. Cress leaned against the fridge as he stepped into the kitchen.
“Woah what happened here?” he asked taking in the mess she’d made with an amused look. Being so caught up in getting the cake done and hidden away once she’d heard his voice, she had forgotten for a brief moment that the mess in the kitchen would reveal her crimes, because yes the creation she had made was indeed a crime. He came closer to inspect the crime scene, he stepped in front of her.
“You have something here,” he said and wiped something off her brow with a finger, he inspected it, she could tell now it was frosting. How she had managed to wipe frosting onto her brow without noticing she had no idea.
“Hmm, suspicious,” he hummed.
“Cress?”
“Yes?”
“Would you mind if I got something from the fridge?” he smirked. She knew he was onto her and there was no point in trying to keep her crimes a secret anymore. She stepped away from the fridge which she had been guarding like a watchful guard dog ever since he stepped into the kitchen.
“Of course my captain,” she said sweetly while batting her lashes dramatically. Ever since they had fallen into a more comfortable and natural rhythm her calling him captain had become sort of an inside joke, of course she was one of the few people who had ever called him that earnestly, but once they became a couple calling him captain instead of Carswell felt a bit ridiculous, but after a while it had ended up circling back around and becoming some sort of weird inside joke between the two of them. She sighed in defeat and tried to hide the smile that was spreading across her face.
“Well well what do we have he-“ he was interrupted by the cake, which had been hurriedly stuffed in the fridge, falling out of said fridge and consequently crashing to the floor face first. They both yelped in unison at the scene unfolding in front of them.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t mean for that to happen,” Thorne rushed as he knelt to the floor trying to save the unsalvageable cake. Despite her cake being a monster she still felt a pang in her heart seeing the cake even more ruined than before she had put it in the fridge, it was her monster. The music around them came to its climax, and she sighed dejectedly.
“Darla, could you pause the music please,” Thorne requested having perfectly read her mood, he turned the cake over so it was no longer face first on the floor.
“It’s fine, we can make a new one,” she said, not sure if she was speaking to herself or to him. Thorne paused for a moment as he looked intently at the smashed cake they were now both crouched over, he became quiet in a way he usually didn’t unless there was something on his mind, his brows knitted together in thought.
“What’s wrong?”
“You know how I said I would be honest and deserving of you?” he asked. Now she forgot all about her worries of her misshapen cake.
“It’s just a cake don’t worry, accidents happen,” she said, a bit shocked he was that upset about the cake, she appreciated that he didn’t take her valiant cakemaking efforts for granted, but this was on another level. Thorne shook his head.
“No no, it’s not about the cake, or uhm in a way it is,” he explained. He stood up from the floor and placed the cake on the counter, Cress stood up next to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Uhm, I’m not turning 21,” he confessed.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I managed to somehow conscript in the military with a fake-ID,” Thorne explained.
“Once a conman always a conman I guess, sorry for not telling you before,” he added earnestly.
Cress felt all genuine worry that had been building up inside her melting away, at the same time she felt a bit disappointed in herself for not having figured it out when she was researching him back in her days on the satellite, how had she missed such a vital detail.
“How did you do it?” she asked, not being able to help herself. Thorne chuckled at the question and let out a sigh, he leaned his palms against the flour-covered kitchen counter his gaze was fixed on the countertop, not meeting her gaze as he answered
“I managed to hire a hacker that hacked into my ID-chip, was pretty gnarly stuff getting the thing out,” he grimaced, Cress let out an involuntary gasp at his explanation.
“I was kinda scared the guy was gonna harvest my organs and sell them on the black market while he was it if I’m being completely honest,” he chuckled and stretched his mouth out in an awkward smile.
“I don’t know why I did it,” he sighed, before interrupting himself, “Or that’s a lie actually. I was so desperate to get away from the pressure of my parents I’d do anything, and the military seemed like an easy way out,” he looked up from where his gaze had been fixed. Cress met his eyes and laid a hand on his back to comfort him, they stood there for a moment in silence before she pulled him into a hug.
“I don’t really know what it’s like having parents so I won’t judge, but the small little sliver of time where I knew a parent was a bit of an odd time in my life I’ll say,” she joked as she pulled away from the hug.
“Stars, I’m sorry… Looking back there was probably easier ways out but I was quite the reckless teenager, still am actually,” Thorne grimaced.
“Well then what number are we putting on the next cake then?” she quizzed in an attempt to lighten the mood.
