Please keep interacting with this post because when I come to tumblr to procrastinate, this shows up again in my notifications and guilts me into writing again
Written for the KaiShin Secret Valentines event hosted by the lovley Mac at @dcmkkaishinevents!
Gift for: @kairei-chan
Rating: M
Relationship: KaiShin
Fandom: DCMK. Detective Conan & Magic Kaito
Link to AO3
Summary:
Shinichi has been keeping a mental list.
- Garlic avoidance.
- Suspiciously cold hands.
- Sleeping like a corpse.
- Questionable sun tolerance.
Evidence suggests: vampire.
He just doesnât realize it yet.
-----
It was super fun writing when I managed to wrangle my muses. They are like hyperactive cats with zoomies sometimes. But with some catnip and good vibes sent my way by the giftee (unknowingly) to wrangle my cat muses. I made it through! đ€
And I'm sorry if this is a hot mess. I feel really rusty on my writing. I haven't finished anything properly beyond half-assed one shots for like 7 years. So I hope it's readable đ€Łđ
Your time spent enjoying the creative process is infinitely more valuable that any final project you create. So stop putting yourself down for never finishing or posting those WIPs because every moment you spent creating something you loved is a moment not wasted. Your progress and talent is measured by your passion not your number of posts.
For the wheel of fortune 2025 KaiShin event. Led by the lovley @dcmkkaishinevents
I decided to combine a few prompts for this one. The first prompt didn't keep my muses awake, so I decided to spin once more.
I feel a little rusty, haven't written in a hot minute. But here it is!!
For this short I used:
Genre: Hurt/Comfort and Time travel.
Object: Rainy day and park bench.
Warnings: Mentions of wounds, blood, dying.
Shinichi gets shot one rainy evening.
It was a miss on his part. On his way home from a long day at work. The rain pitter pattered on his umbrella. A short cut through the local park. He didn't see the figure lurking in the dark. Didn't see the glinting gun, hidden due to the glimmering rivulets of water reflecting the lights in a magical dance all around him. Didn't hear their footsteps crunching on the gravel, the rain dampening the sound. Didn't react in time. Didn't get away in time, his shoes slipping in the mud. The park, flooded by puddles because of rainy weather.
By the time he noticed it was too late.
The shot rings out, muffled by the rain. Shinichi stumbles, clutches at his side. His knees give out, his umbrella slipping out of his fingers. The culprit turns and sprints away from the scene. Shinichi curses. His breaths heavy, trying to breathe through the pain. His jacket quickly soaking through without anything to protect him from the rain.
He looks around, a park bench catching his attention. He forces himself up on trembling knees, slowly making his way over to the miserable looking bench. He makes it after an eternity. Heavily sitting down. He pants desperately for breath. His hand clutching his side in a death grip. He can see the blood seeping through his fingers, staining the tan jacket he got on his birthday from Kaito half a year ago. It's his favourite.
He rummages through his pants pockets with his fumbling free hand. He snatches his phone from its clutches and manages to get the screen to open despite the water. He tries to get his trembling fingers to cooperate to dial for an ambulance but the phone keeps slipping out of his cold fingers and his vision is growing too blurry to see. The phone slips out of his hand down to the gravel below with a soft and wet thud. He sighs in frustration and struggles weakly to bend down to pick it up. He manages through way too much effort and sits up again.
His breaths are heaving out of his lungs while he sits there for a moment with the phone weakly grasped in his hand. He is growing quite cold and tired, oh so tired. The phone slips out of his hand again, down to the gravel beneath the bench. But this time he makes no effort to get it back. He struggles weakly but gives up and just sits there and breathes for a moment more.
The tiredness is creeping up on him more and more and his hind brain is screaming at him to stay awake. But he can't figure out why that is such a bad thing. Maybe it would be okay to sleep? Maybe it would be okay to rest his eyes for a bit. His heavy eyes flutter shut. Yeah that⊠that sounds good. He can feel himself slipping away into the comforting darkness.
â-chi!â
Who is calling for him?
â-nichi!â
He recognizes that voice.
Someone touches his cheek, it's warm and he can't help but lean into the touch.
âShinichiâ Someone says his name with such relief in their voice that he hums to show them he is awake. The thumb resting on his cheek caresses his skin so very affectionately for a moment and then the fingers slip away and down to his neck.
The voice keeps talking and he can hear a tinny voice he doesn't recognize speaking back, but the detective can't comprehend any words spoken. But the familiar baritone that is so close, brings him such comfort that he feels himself drift away again.
The voice falters in alarm and then the palm on his cheek returns with the voice sounding desperate, spewing words he can not understand. But there are a few words that penetrate the fog in his brain.
âPlease Shinichi. Open your eyesâ
It's said in such a heartbroken desperation that he can't help but flutter his heavy eyes open.
âThere you areâ the voice says wetly as his eyes focus on a familiar face.
âK-Ka- i- toâ the detective says, his words are slurred and raspy.
âYup, now I want you to stay awake. The ambulance is on its way. Just hold on please.â The thief says softly, desperately.
Shinichi weakly hums in confirmation and leans into the hand on his cheek. His eyes demand to close, but Kaito told him to stay awake, so he forces them to open again.
He focuses on Kaito's face, taking him in. He looks rough, heavy eye bags under his eyes like he hasn't slept in days, if not having gotten any proper rest in weeks. He has a thickening beard that Shinichi's slow brain says wasn't there this morning. He looks overall rough around the edges in a way Kaito rarely does, especially not recently. Alarm bells are chiming in the back of the detectiveâs mind but his thoughts are so muffled and scattered that he can't string a deduction together.
So instead he weakly lifts a trembling hand up to his cheek to caress his face, his beard tickling his palm. Kaito leans into the touch with a shuddering breath, his expression so heartbroken and relieved. He doesn't even care that Shinichi is spreading blood over his cheek. Where does the blood come from?
Before his scattered brain can string enough brain cells together to ask, the rain-deafened evening is pierced by sirens. Red light stings his eyes, blinding him. He squeezes his eyes shut. He can feel a squeeze to his hand which makes his eyes flutter open again. When did Kaito take his hand? âYou will be okay.â Another squeeze and a comforting caress to his cheek.
âStay awake and stay strong for me. Okay love? Pleaseâ
âShinichi hums in confirmation and weakly squeezes his hand back.
Kaito then untangles his hand from his. And suddenly it becomes very clear that Kaito had been holding onto his hand from the moment he woke him up. As he feels the loss as soon as his hand lets go of his own.
âK- Kaito?â He slurs out as people are suddenly surrounding him on all sides. Fast talking people that blurs around him in a flurry of movement. Lights shining into his eyes that makes him wince. Uncomfortable touches making him shy away and weakly try to fight them off.
A comforting hand lands on his head from behind him. Long slender fingers combing through his hair in comfort as the baritone of Kaito's voice comes back to mutter comforts into his ear.
âIt's okay, it's just the EMTs doing their work. You are safe. You are okay. Just stay strong.â
He keeps comforting him up until the ambulance staff straps him into the cot in the ambulance. He gets a mask over his nose and mouth, an EMT pumping the bag, making it easier to breathe. An EMT asks if Kato is coming with them, but he doesn't hear his answer. And Shinichi's blurry eyes catches Kaito starting to leave and captures his wrist in a pitiful hold. Kaito turns to him with a small startled smile. The detective can't seem to make his heavy tongue cooperate to form words, so he just makes a questioning sound in the back of his throat.
Kaito gives him a sad smile and puts a hand on his to make him loosen his weak hold. He picks up his hand and brushes a quick kiss to his knuckles.
âDon't worry, you are in good hands, I'll meet you there. Stay strong.â Is all he says and then leaves out the back of the ambulance and disappears from view.
The ambulance ride is a blur of motion, sounds and words that are flying over his head at speeds his sluggish mind can't make sense of.
His eyes flutter open when a hand touches his own. His eyes meet a white ceiling that is rushing by in a blur. He turns his head and meets eyes with Kaito, an expression of deep rooted fear in his eyes. He lacks the eyebags and the roughness from before, his beard nowhere to be seen. Shinichi wants to ask him about that.
But suddenly they enter a new room and Shinichiâs hand is pried from Kaito's as people are screaming instructions in commanding voices. It's all blurring together in a mess of sights and sounds until another mask gets put over his nose and mouth and suddenly he is feeling sleepy again.
No.
Kaito told him to stay awake.
To stay strong.
He can't sleep yet, he promised.
He has to stay awake.
He loses the battle and goes under, despite his pleading mind.
â--
He startles awake to beeping. His mind struggled to recognise the sound for a moment. But when he does, he opens his eyes to a stark white ceiling with antiseptics stinging his nose. The hospital.
He feels a squeeze to his hand which makes him turn his face. His gaze catches on the rise and fall of Kaito's back as he lays there sleeping, with his hand in Shinichiâs own. Shinichi takes a deep breath in and winces at the stinging blooming in his side. Right, he got shot. Shinichi squeezes Kaito's hand to gently wake him up. Kaito groans and squeezes his hand back before he lifts his sleepy gaze. His indigo eyes widen as they take in Shinichi and he stands up quickly to give Shinichi a gentle hug.
âYou're awakeâ he says and squeezes Shinichi a little tighter âWhen I got the call that you had been shot I was so worried. I'm so glad you made it. It was a close call, stupid detective.â He sniffs, his voice getting suspiciously wet.
âI'm so glad you are alive. They said it was a miracle that you made it until they arrived at the scene.â
Shinichi frowns in confusion. What is Kaito talking about?
âGot the call? Kaito- What? You were there Baro. Why would you get a call?â
Kaito sniffs and backs away from the hug so he can look into the detectiveâs eyes. His eyes are teary.
âShinichi, love. What are you talking about? I wasn't there.â Kaito caresses his cheek affectionately with a wobbly smile. âI got a call from Meigure-Keibu saying you were shot.â
Shinichi feels even more confused.
âBut-â
âI'm flattered you conjured me up while on death's doorstep loveâ he says with a touch of humor, more tears falling down his cheeks. His smile falters. âTsukiyomi, I wish I was there. I would tear myself apart if I knew you died out there all alone in the pouring rain. That was too close.â he says wetly. And goes in for another hug. Shinichi leans into him in comfort. Letting him cry into his shoulder.
But Shinichiâs mind is spinning a mile a minute. He is sure he wouldn't have been delirious enough to hallucinate. Kaito had been so real at that moment. At his side, while he sat there on the park bench in the pouring rain.
â------
A bearded young man stands by the door, peering into the hospital room. He is dressed as a doctor, a stethoscope around his neck. Watching the hugging pair with a sad smile on his face, his indigo eyes exhausted and teary eyed. He watches the scene for a few seconds more, before he reaches into the lab coatâs pocket and takes out a red gem. He rolls it in his hand for a moment and then crushes it in his hand. The small pieces of the gem glitters around his hand for a split second. And in the next moment. He is gone.
Bill 9495 would allow the US government to kill OTW and Ao3. (And any other organizations that help LGBTQIA+ or homeless or immigrant or womb-having or etc communities!!) Call your 2 US senators and tell them NO!
Full text of the bill.
I see this is bad, but I don't know my senators.
No problem! Enter your address here, and you'll get your 2 senators and your House Representative. The House has already passed this bad bill. Call the senators. Their phone numbers will be listed under their names.
I don't know what to say, though.
Very little, actually! I just called my two senators.
One had an "Opinion Voicemail" set up for me to say, "Hi, my name is [XXX] and I live in your state. I want you to vote NO on 9495. It's very bad and I feel very strongly about this."
For my second senator, I said the same thing to a staffer with a tally sheet.
No one is expecting you to defend your opinion or to give your reasons. You can explain yourself, but you won't be talking to the senator directly. No need to worry about sounding super-political or ultra-smart.
Does this really work?
Yes, actually! What makes it work isn't that any one of us gives a speech so powerful that we single-handly change the hearts and minds of the US Congress. It's a group effort.
When hundreds of us call and bitch about it to each of our senators, that's 100 senators from 50 states with 100 headaches from all the calls.
Some senators are cool and already agree to vote NO on 9495.
Some senators need to be made aware of just how many of us there are. We're watching. We're voting.
Do your duty as a US citizen. Keep AO3, its writers, & its readers safe.
Please go watch Sex Explained on Netflix. Not only is it a great resource for the basic sex education that is sorely lacking in the U.S., but some of yaâll need to take a deep breath and remember the difference between fantasy vs reality. This purity culture thing that weâre going through right now is directly harmful to responsible, healthy sexual expression.
BTW this woman, Lisa Diamond, is a noted psychologist and has been pushing for greater understanding of womens sexuality as a whole.
I feel like a good chunk of people need to hear this about fanfic too. If someone likes dark/messed up shit, it doesnât mean theyâre one bad day away from going out and killing babies, please calm the fuck down.
I was today years old when I learned that when you type âotp: trueâ in AO3 search results it filters out fics with additional ships, leaving only the fics where your otp is the main ship
Some tips for using a few words to describe voices:
1. Tone Words: Use tone words to convey the emotional quality of a voice. For example, you can describe a voice as "melodic," "soothing," "sharp," "gentle," or "commanding" to give readers a sense of the tone.
2. Pitch and Range: Mention the pitch and range of the voice. Is it "deep," "high-pitched," "raspy," or "full-bodied"? This can provide insight into the character's age, gender, or emotional state.
3. Accent and Diction: Describe the character's accent or diction briefly to give a sense of their background or cultural influences. For instance, "British-accented," "Southern drawl," or "formal."
4. Volume: Mention the volume of the voice, whether it's "whispering," "booming," "murmuring," or "hushed."
5. Quality: Use terms like "velvet," "silken," "gravelly," "honeyed," or "crisp" to convey the texture or quality of the voice.
6. Rate of Speech: Describe how fast or slow the character speaks, using words like "rapid," "slurred," "measured," or "rambling."
7. Mood or Emotion: Indicate the mood or emotion carried by the voice. For example, a "quivering" voice may convey fear or anxiety, while a "warm" voice may express comfort and reassurance.
8. Resonance: Describe the resonance of the voice, such as "echoing," "nasal," "booming," or "tinny."
9. Timbre: Mention the timbre of the voice, using words like "rich," "thin," "clear," or "smoky."
10. Cadence: Highlight the rhythm or cadence of speech with descriptors like "staccato," "lilting," "rhythmic," or "halting."
11. Intonation: Convey the character's intonation by saying their voice is "sarcastic," "apologetic," "confident," or "questioning."
12. Vocal Characteristics: If applicable, mention unique vocal characteristics, like a "lisp," "stutter," "drawl," or "accented 'r'."
Did I daydream this, or was there a website for writers with like. A ridiculous quantity of descriptive aid. Like I remember clicking on " inside a cinema " or something like that. Then, BAM. Here's a list of smell and sounds. I can't remember it for the life of me, but if someone else can, help a bitch out <3
Reminders for new ao3 users (in no particular order):
- filter your searches like you would on a library website or in an online catalogue
- donât post placeholders, fic searches, or recommendations as fics. DONâT! Itâs against ao3 TOS
- there is no algorithm. ao3 sorts by date posted/updated unless you filter with specific search criteria
- ao3 is a non profit. that means it doesnât sell ads to make money â it only survives on donations. this is why it can show you so many fics without ever flashing an ad or pop up at you!
- report fics that break TOS when you see them (I.e., placeholder fics, searches) to help other users navigate better
- the tag âdead dove, do not eatâ doesnât equate to gore/awfulness automatically. it is a complementary tag that enhances current tags. E.g., if the fic is tagged âgoreâ and âdead dove, do not eatâ the author really wants you to mind the gore tag
- most fandoms have a variation of âno beta, we die like (x character)â and they all link back to the âNo betaâ tag
- publishing a new fic sometimes means it wonât show up in the fandom/pairing tag for a few minutes
- subscribers receive update emails at different times, depending on when you update/publish your fic. thereâs no good way to predict when an e-mail will be sent â it can be in 30 seconds, or two hours later
- some fics are restricted by authors to those with ao3 accounts only. if you see a blue lock in the upper right corner, that fic is only visible to logged in ao3 users
- you can block commenters now! this didnât use to be a thing
- updating a fic just to stay at the top of the pairing tag/fandom tag is a dick move. unless youâre legitimately editing or adding chapters, this just annoys readers and fellow authors, and people will skip over your fic
- make sure that you tag your ships correctly, both romantic and platonic. Putting an â&â between a pair of names means that the ship is platonic. Putting a â/â between the characters means its romantic. For example: âGreg & Steveâ = platonic. âGreg/Steveâ = romantic. They are NOT interchangable.
- if your fic includes original character/s or reader insert or y/n or etc, then TAG THOSE IN THE CHARACTER TAGS. Not just in the relationship tags!! They are characters in the story, so include them in the character tags. Failing to do so means people who want to find fics with those tags wonât be able to, and people who want to exclude fics with those tags wonât be able to.
- NEVER EVER EVER ADD A LINK TO A PATREON OR KO-FEE ACCOUNT OR ETC. Ao3âs entire legal protection hinges on the fact that no one is making money from fics. If you start commissioning fics or linking to a monetary platform, you are in breach of the Ao3 terms, risking legal action, and risking ao3 as a whole. There are loads of authors/companies who WILL sue if they think youâre making money off their intellectual property.
- seconding what OP said about Dead Dove Do Not Eat. It doesnât automatically mean âgoreâ; it just means âheed the tags.â It means âHey yeah when I tagged this as [thing] I was NOT fucking around, ok? Only read this fic if youâre OK with reading [thing].â
additions from someone who has posted way too much on this site please listen to me:
there are no best times to post but generally sunday and monday are a good zone for traffic
you must double check and make sure the publication date matches the day a chapter is posted or it wonât show up on the first page of updates. sometimes you have to physically edit the posting date multiple times for this to be fixed.
on that note: artificially editing your publication date so your fic shows up at the top when you havenât added a chapter is the dickest of moves and will make you a pariah. do not do this. yes everyone will notice.
editing existing chapters doesnât count as updating a fic and wonât change the publication date.
ao3 usually adds weird spaces after italics if you copy and paste in your writing pre-formatted. it doesnât add these until after youâve saved a draft or posted so you have to re-edit.
check the âadd space after paragraphâ option in your word precessor of choice to avoid having to delete an extra space between all your paragraphs on ao3.
when you add a second chapter to a one chapter fic, your original start/end authors notes will now be appended onto the notes of every chapter unless you move them to the now extant first chapter notes sections. this is confusing, but youâll see what i mean.
to post on anon: add your fic to the anonymous (anonymous) collection. itâll take up to fifteen to minutes to show in the tag once posted. itâll show up (to you) as AUTHOR NAME: fic title. no one else sees it this way. it will never show up on your own dashboard unless you go to your stats page. if you ever de-anon, all your subs will get an email about it as if it were just posted.
if you update multiple fics at once, ao3 will group the updates into one email.
to transfer a fic to a new ao3 account: make a new account, make the new account a co-author, remove the old account as co-author.
you cannot mention money changing hands for fic on ao3, ever. donât say commissions. say a fic was requested if you must say anything. your fic can get taken down for this.
reply to comments or never complain about engagement in fandom.
per that: EVERY TIME YOU EDIT A COMMENT, THE AUTHOR GETS A NEW COPY OF YOUR COMMENT IN THEIR EMAIL. we can see all the edits. be aware.
tagging is both a warning and an enticement, do so accordingly. you really donât need to tag things that fall outside that unless you want to.
on that note: please donât do the âshort fics for 300 different fandoms in one ficâ thing. no one wants to scroll past that. i mean you can but it just makes it harder for people to find the thing youâve written that they want to read.
if you are really bad at summaries just think of it as a movie tag line and donât say youâre bad at summaries. donât neg your own fic.
re all the questions i saw in replies: fic searches are people looking for specific fics. i donât know what the fuck a placeholder fic is but these arenât fanworks and you canât post them. you canât post discord links or rp requests or complaints about fandom. you can post fanart and meta essays. thatâs allowed.