I Just Wanted You To Know That I Am OBSESSED With Your Writing And With Benny And I Hope Your Fics Go

I just wanted you to know that I am OBSESSED with your writing and with Benny and I hope your fics go on forever even when you move on from this current verse. You are crazy talented and I share your stories with my friends to read because they just do not get enough attention!!!

^ Basically what I looked like while reading this. Thank you, anon. ❤️

I actually forgot about this, but I was calling the WIP Silver Springs anyway, so...I guess it's official, now.

And let me tell you, it's appropriate, because that son of a bitch is definitely not getting away from the sound of the woman that loves him.

What should I name my TLoU AU?

Keep in mind it's basically a modern AU of my fic, Go Your Own Way.

I feel attacked.

Bright Fire, if you please

Bright Fire is fun. I started writing it, but it just never ended up going anywhere. Basically, Ellie and Joel make it to Bill and Frank's compound, but Bill and Frank are still there. Not much has changed - Frank is still sick, but because they're still alive they (they = Frank) insist they stay for a night, and rest up before continuing out west.

Joel considers pawning Ellie off on Bill, but it's very apparent he won't leave Frank, who doesn't have a lot of time left. There is angst about Tess, of course, who was a friend to Bill, and a dear friend to Frank.

It pretty much means everything to Ellie, meeting two queer men happily in love at the end of the world.

Small snip:

“Stay there.”

For once, Ellie didn’t need to be told twice. Joel approached the fence alone, the DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE sign zip-tied to the chain-link already enough of a warning to curb any spark of defiance. She could hear it, anyway; the low hum resonating through the air, audible over the breeze and the twills of birds in the nearby trees – and this was far from the first electric fence she’d been around, so she knew better than to get too close to it.

She watched, instead, a knot of apprehension tightening in her stomach; observed him shift on his feet slightly, hesitating for only a moment before he reached out, his hand still swollen, his knuckles scabbed and puffy. His thumb tapped a keypad quickly, six beeps stinging at her ears before a deeper hum groaned from the fence, a button on the keypad gleaming green. She didn’t miss the slight sigh of relief that pushed out of his lungs when the gate unlatched itself and swung open just a few inches, or the way he rounded his shoulders before he turned to face her again.

“Listen to me,” he said, and there was just enough gruffness in his voice to draw her gaze up to him. His jaw was set, his mouth a hard line. “You stay close. Don’t talk to ‘em, don’t answer any questions they ask you – I’ll handle everything. You keep that –” he gestured vaguely to her arm, neither her bite marks nor her bandages visible under her jacket sleeve, “covered the whole time. Y’hear me?”

“Sure thing,” she responded, somewhat dully. “You got a muzzle you want me to wear, while we’re at it?”

He didn’t answer; only huffed impatiently without bothering to rise to the bait, and she scowled even as he gestured for her to walk ahead of him. The gate groaned shut behind them, the latch snapping with a finality that severed the world outside, even if she could still see it between the metal links. That persistent hum immediately returned, prickling the hairs on Ellie's neck and setting her teeth on edge.

They walked together down a wide street now, her eyes sweeping across every building that they passed. She hadn’t known quite what to expect from Bill and Frank’s, but it certainly wasn’t this – what amounted to a whole town contained within electrified metal, the houses and other buildings comprised of peeling paint and sagging siding, but still whole, standing tall. Fall gnawed at the edges of summer here, and what the trees hadn’t managed to hold onto now blew across her feet, colorful leaves swirling in the wind and catching against the curbs. Ellie had never been in a place like this before; still filled with the remnants of Before, while so open, smelling of fresh air and crisp leaves. “How many people live here?” she asked, finally noticing that she’d begun to lag behind his much longer strides, and jogging to catch up.

“Just Bill and Frank,” he replied, though his mind seemed to be elsewhere, his gaze focused on a large white house looming on their left. 

It was by far the largest one on the street, the paint a little less faded, the grass more neatly shorn. There were colorful flowers set into two large clay pots at either side of a white-painted wooden gate at the edge of the yard, and Ellie paused in front of one of them, bending down to sniff at the bright orange blossoms experimentally. “Don’t touch anything,” he called over his shoulder. Ellie, sure he wasn't looking, quickly squeezed a petal between her fingers. It gave away quickly, darkening and becoming slick against her skin, and she wiped her hand off against her jeans just as he paused, turning to look at her with an expectant expression. “C’mon.”

They didn’t even manage to make it halfway down the walkway before the door to the house burst open. “Oh, shit,” Ellie breathed, and it was instinct that made her duck behind Joel. A broad figure, his scruffy face contorted in a mask of fury, stormed down the porch steps, a shotgun clutched tight in his hands and the muzzle aimed right at them. She shot a panicked glance at Joel, expecting some decisive action, a whispered instruction, maybe even a mirror image of the weapon currently pointed at them. But he only grunted slightly, his fingers twisting over the pistol still holstered at his side but not drawing it free.

“Seriously?” he asked, clearly unimpressed. 

“The hell you think you’re doing?” the man practically barked, his eyes still squinting down the barrel of his gun. “You just show up, don’t even radio ahead –”

“Didn’t have time, Bill,” said Joel impatiently. “Put the damn gun down.”

“Who is that?” Bill demanded, the shotgun dipping momentarily towards Ellie's direction as she peered around Joel’s back. Before she could react, Joel, with unexpected swiftness, moved a step sideways, placing himself squarely between her and the barrel of the gun – and this surprised her more than she would have liked it to. “Easy, there,” said Joel, his voice edged with warning. “We’re just passin’ through. Headin’ west, figured we’d stop here for supplies. You owe me after that last run, Bill –”

“I owe you – what, is this a damn joke–”

“Bill!” Another voice echoed from within the house, laced with exasperation. The shotgun dipped momentarily, Bill's jaw clenching like a vise. He didn't relax, eyes still narrowed at them, but his shoulders slumped, his righteous fury simmering down to a grudging suspicion. “For god’s sake, Bill, will you put that thing down?” The door to the house still stood wide open behind him, and there was a heavy thud from somewhere inside.

“Frank!” Bill turned on his heel, disappearing into the house without another glance at them. They could hear him inside of the house; more thumps following a string of muffled cursing.

“Dude.” Ellie took a step back from Joel. “What the fuck. I thought these were, like…friends of yours.”

“Just…stay here,” Joel huffed, shaking his head – and then he left her, too, disappearing into the house, his hand drifting away from his pistol with every step. 

Sunny Side of Heaven

Nobody mind me, I'm just over here happy-sobbing about this piece of fanart that @march-flowerr commissioned from @mote-of-star-dust, based on a scene from my GTHB fic, Sunny Side of Heaven.

🦋🦋🦋

As they watch, more and more of the swarm are coming loose from the tree – and then they erupt, like floating lava. All at once, an entire branch of them breaks free, and they begin falling through the air as a spiral, a chain reaction that unleashes the swarm from the trees in a cascade of orange and black. In just seconds they’re completely enveloped – and she gasps, instinctively takes a step toward him, and it’s second nature for him to wrap his arm around her shoulders, steadying her.

Everything about this is overwhelming to the senses; the air is full of orange and black, his good ear is hearing nothing but the rustling of wings that drowns out the rest of the world, and he can feel them, their delicate touch a constant whisper across his skin. Ellie’s shoulders tense against him, and for a breathless moment he’s blinded – by flashes of color, and a love so fierce that it all borders on unbearable – and he wishes that it was all easier, that this girl standing next to him, leaning into him can just know that the tangle of love and grief, for him, is sometimes indistinguishable, but that it’s also not her burden –

– and then it ends, the cloud lifts, the vibrant azure of the sky and the bright sun begin to shine through once again, and they’re left to stand together on that blanket, stunned and smiling and overwhelmed. They watch as the swarm ascends, and soon there are only flecks of orange left – including a single monarch that clings to Joel’s hair, wings bending slowly, blinking down at Ellie as she snorts back a laugh.

“Here –” she says, and he bends without question so she can reach, her fingers sweeping lightly at the butterfly until it finally flutters away, a zigzag of warm color against the clear sky that joins the few dozen other stragglers still circling through the trees. He watches it fly away, and he doesn't say it out loud, but he thinks it: Hi, baby girl. Behind them, their horses stir restlessly, and Shimmer whinnies softly, both horses pawning nervously at the earth, dark eyes following the cloud as it slowly winds its way south, low against the ground.

Thank you, my friends. 😭