no thank you for the message! ur too kind! holy shit! i hope you're having a great time of day, whatever that is at this time!

(i did pick back up the faereri one this year, but then trigun happened, you know how it is)

so! the sensory-based writing came with time, honestly. the way they function now is i think of tastes and smells and visuals just a lot generally. they tend to just come out like that, bc i put myself in the perspective of whichever character is the pov for that moment, and i wonder how they'd think about it and what would catch their attention (it just so happens eren's eyes r beautiful). what helped me get better at that was thinking about what textures things have - like what does this voice feel like, or what does this weather taste like? i didn't start out that way and was a lot more direct.

also i use a thesaurus when i find myself using the same word too much........

i don't really take notes for my work. i have a general outline in my noggin that's the plot, and then other stuff hangs on it like coats. sometimes i have to move them around, but not often. i think a lot about, for example w eren and his mom, how their relationship is literally impacted by the faerie lore and what happened to eren as a bb, and so i don't really forget. i just have to attach them to things.

when i got """"a real person job"""" when i moved at the end of 2017 into 2018, i did start bringing a notebook to work so that when i get my lil inspos i can write down the dialogue and quotes and stuff that i really like so i can add them in later.

does that answer?

stop me if you’ve heard this all before

we’re back at it again on no man’s land

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Pairing: Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D. Wolfwood Rating: Explicit Summary: (“you’ve been shot,” said Vash the Stampede, who shouldn’t’ve been there, who’d run away from home under Elendira’s watch at least two years before, maybe even longer ago than that. Nicholas had only seen him once or twice, but a face like that had been unforgettable.

“very astute.” There’d been copper and iron on his tongue, past his lips. “thanks for telling me.”

Vash’s hands covered his own and pressed down harder, his frown covering his whole face—furrowing his eyebrows, twisting his lips, scrunching his nose. Twins someone had told him at onboarding or whatever had passed for it, but the resemblance was passing. This had been someone different, distinct and disarming. A face broken in by softer expressions.

“keep that energy,” blood had been welling through Vash’s fingers, slower than it had been. The City said nothing in return. “i think i can fix this.”

“can i see your credentials?” His breath had blown bubbles through his chest. —and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning— “are you qualified for that?”

“i misspoke. you can take that energy down, like, half-a-watt.” )

 [READ ON AO3]

i sought him whom my soul loved

two posts in two months? who am i.

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Pairing: Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D. Wolfwood Rating: Explicit Summary: “That’s quite the scowl you’re wearing,” the bartender says, the same dirty sunshine casting itself across the bridge of his nose. “Your drink ain’t to your liking?”

“Drink’s fine,” he replies, and neither of them mention that it’s only half empty. “But I’m hoping you can help me with something.” He hates having to get to this part—in any other trip around this rock, it’s nothing but noise. It’s more work avoiding information. And yet, no one so far had said anything, had known anything— “I’m looking for someone.”

Around him, the story is taking its traditional shape against his shoulders, creaking at the edges like the premonition of a storm through the woods. It doesn’t fit him, he thinks. It hasn’t fit him in a long time.Nicholas places his sunglasses on the bartop, arching one eyebrow as the bartender watches him, glancing toward his glass of watered-down whiskey. The ice had melted an hour ago. “The town’s a big place. I’m guessing you haven’t had any luck so far.”

“No,” Nicholas tells him, pushing aside his glass. “But he’s hard to miss. He’s blonde, hair like needles, with a doofy face, probably some shades he wears. Usually wears red. Causes problems by breathing."

[READ ON AO3]

i know i’m known for giving love away

i’m inconsistent at best, sorry everyone for all you put up with on the regular - or irregular, in my case.

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Pairing: Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D. Wolfwood Rating: M Summary: The most awkward thing about it all is the stupid Get Out smeared across the wall in bioluminescent garbage, along the far wall across from the entryway, prominent in its placement. Handprints are peppered beneath it, dragged down as if through blood. If it wasn’t so overstated, so fucking cliche, maybe it’d make his stomach turn—or maybe it wouldn’t. It’s hard to tell these days, the things that hit his hindbrain versus the things that don’t.

“This,” Nicholas says, gesturing at the wall, “is embarrassing for the both of us.”

The thing haunting the house doesn’t have a name that he knows, and Meryl hasn’t given one if she’s privy to the information. So it’s just the Haunt, and Nicholas, and the desert that’s hiding them both.

The Haunt drags a hand-shaped force through the faintly glowing text, spiteful in its delivery. Underneath it, something else begins to come alive, the letters bigger, the strokes broader, two fingers wide instead of one.

Get. Out. Underlined for emphasis. Circled to make a point. And beside it, a frowning face with angry eyebrows—a child’s threat.

[READ ON AO3]

everybody knows we’ve got unfinished business

unfortunately, i wrote about cid and nero in final fantasy ffxiv, it got too long, and now here we are. this was actually too long to post in a tumblr text box, so all we have is the AO3 link, y’all.

embarrassing.

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Pairing: Cid nan Garlond/Nero tol Scaeva Rating: M Summary: To think, Garlond had the absolute temerity to be angry that he’d taken that risk onto his own shoulders (shoulder?), literally, figuratively, or otherwise? He had the audacity to lash out at him? It’s as though nothing could make the man happy—or, more likely, there was not really anything Nero could do to please him, except that brief moment, where neither of them had been looking at each other, just ten heartbeats worth of a space—

(“‘tis hardly fair to compare my youth to omega’s solitary existence...”)

From here, it is unrealistic to believe that there is a world or a time or a future where Nero stays here, where he enjoys staying here, where Cid enjoys him staying here, where they work toward a common goal. The possibility that they lean close and share secrets, that they share coffee and humor, and whatever else, feels just as unviable. The potential for that future had slipped by long ago, too long ago to measure. Maybe that future had never been meant for this Nero and this Cid at all.

[READ ON AO3]

may death never stop you

hi everyone, i’ve risen from the dead. back on my bullshit with some naruto and some healing. 

happy holidays!

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Pairing: Naruto/Sasuke Rating: T Summary: (Tea steam condensed on the window, and a thin line of moisture had dragged itself down on a misshapen path, led by a bead of icy water. Through the haze, there were shapes of patrons, shapes of dishware, shapes of shopowners—a figure haloed in light and another swallowed by the shadows of a back room, barely glimpsed in the brief clarity given by the condensation, fogging up again as the steam again sighed against the window.

“did you hear?” the window carried the conversation through its panes, a murmur against wood and glass. The news had traveled slowly here to the Land of Snow, if only because the village was remote enough to miss, and yet even this was delayed by those standards. The snow had known for eons, it seemed—because there were flakes of it born from the Valley of the End. “the uchiha clan is done for good. last one kicked it not too long ago.”

The window’s tone had changed, delivering a different timbre, a different patron rumbling deep from the back of their throat. “jackass,” the window relayed like the shifting of the earth, so low was it spoken. “that news is three fucking years old. you’re late.”)

Or you can [Read on AO3]!

honey if you stay, i’ll be forgiven

and we are back on ryssa brand with a star wars au, non-linear storytelling, and naruto. truly, the twelve-year-old versions of ourselves that we’ve kept under lock and key are never really dead and gone, are they?

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Pairing: Naruto/Sasuke Rating: T Summary: (“don’t go,” the only thing that Naruto had been able to say to that was a completely unrelated statement, coughed up from deep within his chest, “i love you.”

If heartbreak had a face, Sasuke would’ve been wearing it. Something split into the air between them, throwing shards and debris into the Force. Naruto had to lift his hands to his face to check for broken skin, as though he would’ve found blood on his fingertips. 

The darkness had eaten him up in that moment, wrapped around him, pulling him under. He’d vanished from the Force, leaving behind the texture of ozone, static scattering itself across his skin. 

Naruto waited there, the sunrise creeping its way across the floor some hours later.

The shadows hadn’t opened back up again.)

[Read on AO3]!