WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday

I was tagged by @sixhours. Have a snip from the next chapter of As Long as You Follow (which should be updated in the next day or two, and if you noticed I just added to the final chapter count again, no you didn't).

Tagging: @march-flowerr @two-birds-alone-together @bumblepony @becomethesun and @hypnotisedfireflies.

I think this segment was entirely my brain just being excited about all of my modern AU plans tbh.

Her exhaustion finally claimed her; her body, previously a taut knot of tension, now yielding to the comforting warmth emanating from Joel. And it felt…nice, in its own way, when she closed her eyes; his shoulder so firm against her cheek, the steady rumble of the engine a rhythmic lullaby. It reminded her of the more heady moments of her youth, of going out on dates with boys that had pickup trucks that made her mother shake her head and tut fretfully, of those days where her worries amounted to nothing more than the wind whipping through her hair and the pursuit of enough joy to drown out the persistent ache that always seemed to exist in her breastbone.

She wondered if this is what it would have been like, if things were different. If fate had dealt them a different hand, if she was older, or he was younger – everything she’d whispered to him on the bloodsoaked floor in that apartment building, this grand fantasy where the world hadn’t ended so catastrophically, yet they managed to find each other anyway. She’d tried to imagine him in his youth so many times before, had held that photo of her husband and her brother-in-law, clean-shaven and beaming, in her hands and tried to imagine what it would have been like to meet that Joel, to date that Joel, to fall in love with that Joel.

Would he have swept her off her feet with reckless charm just like the boys that came before him, who drove her around in trucks just like this, one arm around her shoulders, hand a little too eager to wander? Somehow, she didn’t think so. The image that materialized of him even as a foolhardy boy remained so steadfastly the man she already knew: the same protective instincts, the same aura of safety that had drawn her to him in the first place, the same warmth that he reserved for her and Ellie and shared so sparingly with others.

“Wake me up when you need me to navigate,” she said, her voice punctuated with a yawn. And he muttered something under his breath that, just from the one or two syllables she caught, was filled with irritation, but she felt the fleeting pressure of his lips press against her hair anyway.

I love that you included the pink and green helmets loooll

Jesse Ellie and Dina find a skatepark au

👻🦈!

👻 What is your wildest headcanon? I don't know that I truly have any ~wild headcanons. A lot of the ones I do have are based around my own OCs, so probably aren't that interesting to the general fandom. But a couple of fun ones I have:

1.) Everyone in Jackson knows to go to Eugene for weed - it's the settlement's worst-kept secret. And, I mean, it's not like it's illegal anymore, and the council doesn't have any specific rules against it, but Eugene still prefers to operate behind closed doors, and everyone is fine with that. It only becomes an issue when the younger teens get their hands on some, then suddenly parents are complaining about it, and Maria is highly annoyed about that but hesitant to really step in, at least in an official capacity, because she doesn't want to burn bridges with her own weed connection. (Privately, she'll tell Eugene to knock that shit off.) 2.) Speaking of Eugene, there are some patrol members that think his relationship with Dina is a little weird, and have concerns about it. Just like, "It's a little odd, right? They hang out outside of patrol. That's weird, isn't it?" Meanwhile, Dina just reminds Eugene of the daughter he left behind, and they spend time together while he teaches her about electronics and '80s speed metal. Joel is the only one who kind of 'gets it' - "they're fine, leave 'em alone." 3.) If anyone at the Tipsy Bison tries to play REM's It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine) on the jukebox, they either have to take an automatic ban from the bar for a week, or spend the next week wearing the stupid hat that they otherwise keep on the bear head (which changes a lot, because they dress it up seasonally). They could just take the song out of the jukebox entirely, but no one has ever brought that up as a solution. Tommy has worn the hat twice.

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write? For me, personally, I struggle with both Tommy and Maria - but especially Tommy. I'm no @march-flowerr, I have yet to really nail him as a character, but I try.

❤️

I really need to start keeping this in mind.

sometimes i need to remind myself that i'm writing fanfiction for free and i'm allowed to have a shitty sentence or two

As Long As You Follow ch 4! Because ao3 won’t let me leave a photo comment. This

Is truly stunning. I love this passage so much. ♥️

😭😭😭♥️

The perfect combination of two of my favorite shows - I literally think about that quote (and that character) all the time.

— “Fleabag” (2x04), by Phoebe Waller-Bridge