Just Reblogging Again Because It Makes Me Happy.

Just reblogging again because it makes me happy. 🥹

Benny & Joel

I am absolutely dying over this piece of art that the wonderful @bumblepony surprised me with, commissioned from the amazingly talented @miranhas-art (who has made some of my favorite Pedro character art on Tumblr). Based on a scene from chapter 15 of As Long as You Follow:

Sometimes these evenings were a little different. Sometimes wine flowed a little more generously (for her) while familiar music played from Alexei’s CD player. He danced with her now whenever she asked him to, without protest, because he didn’t have it left in him to ever again deny her anything that he had the power to give. She was at her happiest when he twirled her slowly around the living room, and there was something nostalgic about these steps – something familiar that pulsed under his skin when she laughed as he lifted her arm and carefully spun her, something so free about how she always danced barefoot, her hair swaying back and forth against her back, something special about the way she always kissed him first, because even when he led their steps, she led everything else –

– something exciting about the afternoon where Ellie left a little earlier than usual, sunlight still spearing through the tall living room windows while Lindsey Buckingham crooned through the stereo speakers and Benny twirled through the motes of dust lazily, a glass of wine in one hand, her hair glittering in the light. She and Ellie had gone to the beach earlier in the day when he’d been occupied with fixing the balcony door, and she’d donned another donated dress for the occasion; a cascade of white with splashes of emerald leaves and blossoms, the skirt loose and flowing, and when she danced, a bittersweet thought struck Joel: that this was probably the closest he would ever get to seeing her in anything that even remotely resembled a wedding gown.

Sunburn kissed her shoulders with a rosy glow, a blush mirroring the flush on her cheeks, and when she beckoned for him to join her, curling two fingers in and out as she swayed, he did so with no hesitation, drawn to her like a moth to a flame – though he took her hand, first, spun her around slowly, and then wrapped her up against him from behind, all the better to trail his lips down her neck and over her shoulder, leaving fleeting white marks against her heated and red skin. And there was just something about this that felt different even when it was achingly familiar; there was a rawness to it, an uninhibited surrender in the way she tilted her head back with a longing sigh, finding rest against his shoulder, the way she tipped the wine to her lips and drank long sips, then held it up so he could do the same.

I put these two through so much - and I love that when the opportunity arises, people choose to show them in their better, happier moments. ♥️

For the ask game, 10, 38, and 69 please 🙏🏼

10.) at what point in the process do you come up with titles, and how easy or hard is that for you? I just pull up the Wiki page for Fleetwood Mac, scroll down to "studio albums," close my eyes, and whatever my finger lands on, I pluck a song title from that. ..I'm kidding. But only kind of. 11.) how many stories do you work on at one time?

I generally have one larger project going on (since I fell back into fanfiction, I have been working on GYOW, and then immediately ALaYF, worth about a half a million words combined) and usually at least one short story I have on the side, for when I need a break from my longer fics. I don't like to dabble too much in too many projects at the same time.

69.) how do you write emotional scenes? do you ever feel what the characters feel?

Depends on my mood, and what's going on. I will say that I tend to draw on real-life experiences a lot, so yes, often the accompanying emotions that I write for my characters are ones I can at least relate to.

No one talk to me, I'm being gay and doing crimes

Congratulations for nailing the exact part of the problem I have with Joel fics!!! Joel Miller would never!!!

I'm not entirely sure which part of my Joel Thoughts you agree with, but assume this is about the smut.

Hey, look - it all has a place and an audience, you know? I'm not trying to yuck someone's yum, or say that anyone is in the wrong for the specific way they like to write their smut.

I would like to see a little bit more of a...softer...Joel in smut, though. Someone recently told me that they liked my smut because it felt "safe," and I don't know that I have ever been that flattered - and usually, that's the kind of stuff I'm into. But that's just me, and what I like to write and read.

Some of ya'll are freaks and I support that, too. At the end of the day, I'm simply Team LET 👏 THAT 👏 OLD 👏 MAN 👏 FUCK.

I have torn my way through Go Your Own Way and will start the sequel soon and I am so obsessed with Joel and Benny!

I am curious if you ever thought about what would happen if Benny had kept the baby or if that was ever considered. Joel thought it would have ended them but I don't know, it's hard to think that it would have!

Hello! Thank you!

Spoilers ahead for GYOW, for anyone who hasn't read it:

I think this is an interesting question, and the answer to that is complicated. I personally did not consider having Benny choose to continue her pregnancy - it wasn't what I wanted for the plot, or the characters.

If she did, in some parallel universe, choose differently, I think she would have thrown herself into motherhood 100%. I think she would have allowed her love for her child to override any hatred for their biological father (eventually) and she would have been content with that decision (eventually).

I think Joel would have tried, and that's the best I could say for him.

In the end, I can't say for sure that it would have ended their marriage, but it certainly would have damaged it.

hi 👁️👁️