#ask meme response

𝐴𝑠𝑘 𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒 - 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡: 263

“Într-o zi…” his father murmured, leaning down to speak in his ear as a heavy hand on his shoulder lightly jostled him, “das wird dir gehören, Karl.”

(One day… this will be yours, Karl.)

He stared up at his father’s muddy, featureless face, and though he was too blurry to tell if he had eyes, he knew that if he did, they would be filled with pride and love as he looked down at him.

Karl turned away and looked past the workers milling about to instead look upon the gargantuan factory. It stretched so wide and so tall he feared it would scrape the clouds - looming over the land in its enormity like a great, yawning metal beast. It clanged and groaned like one, belching smoke and growling where it stood, but… no, it wasn't a beast. It was a loyal, steel guardian that had served his family for decades. And would serve him, when he grew old enough.

“Es wird mir gehören?”

The hand on his shoulder squeezed, and he could hear the grin in his father’s voice. “Es wird dir gehören.”

(It will be mine? / It will be yours.)

“... Es gehört jetzt mir, Papa.”

(It’s mine now, dad.)

Now the factory was run down and cold, no longer boiling and growling, ready to ravage. It was asleep now, overgrown with no one to tend to its grasses, no workers milling about like bees, no one feeding the dormant beast.

Even though he was taller now, it didn't loom any less.

A hand tugged at the chain and pulled his father's dogtags from under his shirt, clasping them in his palm.

Through years alone, it had fallen. But now, with this as his gifted domain, he would bring it back to its old, golden glory. He'd rebuild the whole thing if need be, he wasn't yet sure how bad off it was, but he knew one thing for sure:

The Heisenberg factory would live to protect and serve again.

Alastor and Mod have to have a cook off and the anon's are the judges! (And no poisoning!)

"I'll be presenting my well-known and beloved jambalaya, alongside a spiced sinner flesh roast for my fellow cannibals!"

"Uh."

"What is it? Haven't you cooked something? Or did you screw up mac 'n cheese for the fifth-"

"I HAVE NO PROBLEMS MAKING MAC N CHEESE. And. I made a breakfast skillet..? It's not pretty. But it's good!"

"Did you cook the eggs on high heat again?"

"No! I actually cooked them on medium heat and seasoned them and everything. I've improved."

"Hmm. I suppose we'll let the anons be the judge of that."

Ask meme response.

...every time I play a game like this you come in with something that desperately wants to be a gamefail. I see you.

ONE: The breakup isn't anybody's fault, and that makes it so much worse. If Henry could blame Alex—if Alex had cheated, if he'd let fame get to his head, if he'd started holding the money he was earning over Henry—it would be a lot easier to move on. The pressure of trying to maintain privacy just got to be too much.

TWO: They don't text. They don't call. Clean break. Sometimes, when it's late and Henry's drunk, he pulls up their text thread and just reads through it. Once or twice he could swear he sees the typing indicator flash up for a moment, but it's always gone before he can figure out if it's just his imagination.

THREE: The first time Henry hears Can't Seem To Shake You he's on his knees in a club bathroom, Alex's voice barely discernible through the walls and over the throbbing bass. He almost thinks he can tune it out, but the start of the chorus knocks him straight through the solar plexus, and he ends up leaving the stranger unsatisfied and pissed off, walking home to try to sober up and with the lyrics circling around in his head: But you tell me I'm good and you laugh when you come, and you kiss the taste of yourself off my tongue

FOUR: The obsession with the subject of Alex's latest album reaches a frenzy most commonly associated with Taylor Swift's discography. There are thinkpieces and Buzzfeed quizzes and deep-dive Twitter threads analysing Alex's body language with every semi-famous person he's ever been photographed with.

(Henry appears in exactly one, but it's enough for him to see a noticeable bump in book sales.)

FIVE: It's Pez who first messages Henry when Storm Your Castle is released on streaming. Henry listens to it fourteen times, crying on the floor of his bedroom, and then he picks up his phone, scrolls down to Alex's contact, and hits Call.

Hi and thanks so much for sending this in! :D

Mikey ask game

6. do you have any mikey-centric fic recommendations? (including any your wrote!)

Yes!

The only Mikey-centric fic I ever wrote actually ended up being my most popular and is the only of my fics that still does numbers sometimes, lol. I'm proud of it (wanted to write something different than usual and had a lot of fun doing it!), so I have to recommend I, Mikey!

Sometimes, Mikey is so good it hurts. In and out of a Purple Dragon warehouse without so much as pulling his nun-chucks out? Psh. Consider it done, with a stamp of awesome upon it. James Bond theme song and everything.

If I was going to edit it, I'd go with the suggestion a review had of going with the Batman (or modified for a play on a Justice Force) theme song instead of James Bond. It's been 14 years, and I still distinctly remember that I went with James Bond because I completely blanked on anything superhero-based to go with instead lmao.

There is, of course, also Nekotsuki's timeless classic Mikey-and-Leo-centric Underdark, which I still re-read sometimes (as well as the more recent sequel).

He’s hanging upside down in the middle of the great underdark, weighed down by a half hysterical turtle in the middle of a bunch of pipes and water and rock that are conspiring to kill us both off, and Leo still manages to sound like he Has A Plan.

There's this amazing tearjerker that stemmed from a 2k3 sibling ages headcanon (again, Mikey and Leo focused).

He didn’t have to keep it all together, he didn’t have to be strong. Not when he had a big brother like Mikey around.

I haven't done a lot of fanfic in many years for mental health reasons, so a lot of the recent stuff I've read has been more group-focused, so I don't have any good recent Mikey-centric stuff, but I'm sure it exists!At some point, I had bookmarked a couple apocalypse-inspired Mikey fics from Rise, but I'm not sure what happened to them. :(

11. favorite outfits of his?

Oh, the fun.

90s movies was a look. I love how simple they went. xD

I will never get over Mikey just wearing a turtle costume to hide his turtle identity in 2k7 lmaoooooo.

So many iconic 2k3 looks, but this one is always the first to pop into my head. (Second one is the one where they're in pants and jackets to sneak into the Purple Dragons iirc? but they look like they're wearing 50 layers because they're so bulky lol.)

I think this is the only clothes he wore in MM, but loooooook at his dorky little outfit! So precious!

Rise is the hardest because they are the only iteration of the boys who actually have any sense of fashion. So many good looks! I'm going with this absolute icon. Work it, Mikey!

I've only watched like two episodes of the late 80s tune, but this came up on an unrelated search and I love it lmao. Dang, if Mikey doesn't pull this look off.

Send a 👫and I’ll write four headcanons I have about our muse’s relationship @jaigalorad You didn't specify muse, so ya get two for Tiny and two for Elias!

Tiny - 1. Tiny and Rex were both Gen 1 Clones, and as such were both part of the Clone Wars from the start. As time and the war raged on, Tiny often tried to spark something of a competition with Rex; always returning from missions with bombastic stories of his accomplishments and playfully goading Rex to return in kind. Though Rex tended to be the more level headed and modest of the two, his stories typically won the 'contests'. 2. Tiny often volunteered to run drills with the 501st whenever possible. He would say 'Any soldier that could keep up with them could handle anything thrown their way, droids or otherwise.' After doing this a while, he started taking much of what he learned back to the 235th; never failing to praise Rex's regimen, example, and leadership as he tried to instill in his men what he'd learned. Elias - 1. After hearing about Tiny's drills with the 501st, Elias would sit in on them. He didn't so much participate as spectate, and always left impressed with how hard they pushed themselves to be ready. It made him grow a rather healthy respect for them all, in particular Rex.

[Talk about someone]

[mentioning @kingdomofbellows ]

"Irene... We have had a rocky start in our marriage - that was mainly due to my own disposition and mentality, mind you. I wanted it to keep its nature purely transactional. I came with the offer at a time I knew some unrest was brewing with other kingdoms, specifically to take advantage of the possibility that she would need resources, manpower and allies."

Even behind his mask, maybe for the first time ever, he appears... embarrassed as he speaks.

"I was wrong to believe she did not have control of the situation. As I lived with her, I learned that she was much more tenacious, resourceful and determined than I first gave her credit for. I also learned she was very headstrong. We had so many arguments."

"But she never called for us to split. I was not going to let go of the power that the marriage brought me and I thought that was the same line thought she had. I was very wrong...," he chuckles, playing with the ring fitted over his glove. "She wanted a marriage formed from love, not political interest. And she worked, in her own unique way, with me to make that happen. Her teasing always fired up in the best way; her laughter would be contagious were it not for the moments where I want to get back at her."

He takes off the rings and just holds it for a bit, as if afraid to lose it.

"When allowed to, she can be affectionate and considerate to the point I was surprised that it was the same woman I married. I don't know if she did it consciously or if it came naturally to her, but she made me tear down my own assumptions about her and she managed to touch every spot of mine that I forgot was hurting."

"She has accepted me for who I am while making it clear to me what bullshit of mine she was unwilling to put up with. She didn't 'fix me' or became some sort of.. 'angel'... She simply showed me I can better myself and stood by my side while I did it."

He slides the ring back on, voice starting to choke up now.

Queens of Vale but with Elderburn instead of Freezerburn

Hmmm, not sure if this means rewrite the QoV setting for Elderburn or just do an arranged marriage AU with Elderburn, but for the former, I'd need to have Jacques double down on the invasion by sending Winter to lead it in a bid to weaken her standing among the Atlesian nobles and/or use her as a martyr to further his own ends. This would put Winter and Yang in opposition during the battle where Yang earns her Dragon of Patch moniker and Winter would likely realize the losing fight and order a retreat to save what ships she could. Realizing that invading Vale is a lost cause, Winter would propose the marriage as a political alliance with the only collateral she, as heiress apparent, has: herself.

A lot of QoV is focused on how Yang and Weiss establish their relationship, how they work through cultural misunderstandings, and how they teach and learn from each other to grow into their positions as the Queens of Vale. A QoV with Yang and Winter would come from a different angle- as an active participant in the war, Winter wouldn't have the cultural blindspots Weiss has, but would consider herself effectively a prisoner of war. Meanwhile, Yang would respect that Winter fought in the war herself (even if she wasn't a particularly talented warrior by Valen standards) and try to connect with her via combat. That would probably frustrate both of them and the tension would ratchet up until they reached a breaking point where Winter accepts that Yang isn't looking down on her and Yang starts really connecting with Winter outside of what she thinks is their one thing in common.

OOOOH hehe hello MJ i keep seeing you pop up reccing a shard or two and just know that every time i see it, i send up a little prayer that your pillows are cold on both sides.

ANYWAYS (most of my followers on this blog aren't RWRB fans but who cares) a shard or two is definitely a weird fever dream of a fic. I read the entire book in like 24 hours (this was just before the movie came out, so less than a year ago) and I, having a strange interest in politics, was like 'hmm, you know what? not enough politics'. So now we have a shard or two. I've always had a interest in politics and I always felt weird about being that person who has a strange in-depth knowledge about the US government, but I think writing the fic helped me think about politics in less of a pessimistic way, like 'here's what I would want to see in modern-day politics'. It also kind of raises the philosophical question of how good people function in a corrupt system without being corrupted themselves, and Alex is such an interesting character to play with on that front because I view him as so idealistic that he refuses to be corrupted purely out of spite and stubbornness.

So, that's how it got started, I think. I told myself I wasn't going to start another WIP while I have one going for a different fandom, but here we are. I originally intended for it to be way shorter than it was (here I was thinking last October that 20k was an insane length for chapter 1, and then chapter 3 ended up being 100k all put together), but it's been such a fun passion project and a real stress-reliever for some reason, and a great way to develop my writing. Somebody in the comments asked me if I write professionally (I do not, and I likely never will, but I appreciate the sentiment).

As for director's commentary, I'm just spitballing here but I have so much fun stuff to share so here ya go.

I know there's this whole debate in the fandom about whether or not Alex goes into politics post-canon, like either go into local politics or start his own firm or whatever, and I generally don't see a lot of people saying that he would go into upper-level politics like he does in the fic. Very rarely do I see any post-canon fics that delve into what Alex's future career might look like if he ran for any office, so I kind of just did it myself, as one does. I do remember seeing CMQ say on their Instagram that Alex wouldn't run for president, but he might run for governor of Texas, but I kind of pulled a Harry Potter fandom and ignored the author (sorry not sorry), but I did make a reference to it early on in chapter 3 for anybody who's looking for any easter eggs). Regardless, it's very fun writing a Gen Z politician who gives no fucks (Alex is Gen Z, I'm taking no critiques on this). I'm so excited for people my age to start running for office. We're going to kill it, I feel it in my bones (you won't catch me up there, but maybe in some health policy behind-the-scenes work, who knows).

The names for the characters were a ton of fun to come up with, and I tweaked them all the time, but here are some tidbits behind some of them:

Edward McKinney's (opposed the amendment in chapter 2 and was Alex's opponent for the Democratic nomination in chapter 3) last name is a play on William McKinley (the 25th US president) to kind of bring this mindset to the table that McKinney is exactly who your stereotypical politician is who would run for president.

Pinkley's name is also a reference to Charles Pinckney, who ran for president in 1804 and 1808 as a Federalist. For no particular reason. I was just having fun with it.

Treacher's name actually comes from the word 'treacherous' because I originally intended for him to be way more of a villain than he ended up being, because I thought it would be interesting to have a political opponent who isn't necessarily an enemy.

Aksel Wolter's (the guy who overthrew my man Onderburg for the Baltonian presidency) name was originally going to be Signe Wolter, but then I saw a cool TikTok that compared some enemies throughout history and saw how similar their names were (George Washington & King George, Jesus & Judas, Obama & Osama, etc.) so I thought it would be cool to have an Alex and an Axel, but the spelling was too similar so that's how we ended up with Aksel because that's also a way it's spelled in northern Europe.

Erik Onderburg's (you know who he is, RIP 😈) original name was Henrik, and that got all the way into the published version of chapter 2 (he's mentioned towards the end), and then when I was writing the first scene of chapter 3 and realized that Henrik and Henry were way too similar, I had to change it.

Ellie (full name Elena) is named after Ellen, with a bit of a Hispanic twist. I think Alex and Henry's deal was if they had a girl, they'd name her after Ellen, and if they had a boy, they'd name him after Arthur. I like to think the middle name would have been Orion either way.

Hunter Weaver (the in-universe replacement of Anderson Cooper) has nothing to do with WASPY Hunter. That was a total coincidence and completely unintentional. But, hey, if you want to believe they're the same person, go for it.

All the research in there is legit! Wikipedia has been a fucking godsend for election results and facts about government structures outside of the US, but it kind of sucks trying to relay stuff into two decades in the future. You never know what kinds of issues are going to be important in 20 years, so I actually kind of avoided that problem by just relating it to some of our current issues today: queer rights, specifically in trans communities, election fraud, 3rd party candidates, human rights issues (ikyk) and so on. And the makeup of NATO, the UN, G20, etc. haven't changed because I can't see into the future.

I also had to do a surprising amount of math? Trying to figure out dates and stuff was way more difficult than I anticipated, especially for election results and percentages, but I realized I really don't need to pull out my TI-84 calculator for a fucking fanfic, but I'm also terrified of the prospect that somebody will correct me on any of my math or research so the calculator stays. It makes for some funny moments, though, like when I realized that if Alex actually ran in the 2040, he would really have Teddy Roosevelt beat for the post of 'youngest president' by, no joke, 3 weeks. So that's kind of fun (and how I firmly decided to have that be the timeline of things).

I write most of the speeches the characters give myself, but I use chat gpt to get me started sometimes (the product is always pretty bland, so it's really just a reference for structure), but I use real-life speeches for reference too. For example (and a bit of a sneak peek), in chapter 4, Alex is giving a speech to the UN General Assembly, and I lifted a couple phrases directly from one of Obama's speeches.

Writing this fic on google docs was a terrible decision. When i was writing chapter 3, the entire word count was well over 160k and the software was getting so laggy every time I needed to control f something for reference. So chapter 4 and beyond is currently being written in a new google doc. Speaking of which, having to switch all my formatting over onto ao3 with chapters this long is a pain in the ass. 0/10 do not recommend having to go through each chapter and fix the formatting every time just because I wanted to have fun little article inserts.

I was going to make it smutty and then i chickened out. i deeply apologize for my cowardice (i've never done smut before).

I guess if you want a couple sneak peeks for chapter 4, I can do that too 😜

If this next chapter had a motto, it would be "every president has their tragedy". Yes, that should probably scare you. (honestly, I'm a little nervous to write it too, just because I know it's pretty dark but hey, if Disney can show Mulan killing 2,000 Huns in an animated children's movie, then I can tag this as mature and not be worried about traumatizing people, okay?)

If it had a theme song, it might be 'Fourth of July' by Sufjan Stevens or 'Abstract (Psychopomp)' by Hozier. (Don't be scared, you'll be fine, because if the chapter after that had a theme song, it would be 'Dog Days are Over' by Florence and the Machine)

So, all the chapters are titled with 5 stages of career development (completely arbitrary, I worked off Indeed's for a while and then I said 'fuck it'). Stage 1 was Establishment, stage 2 was Maintenance, stage 3 (spanning ch. 3 and 4 on ao3) was Advancement. So stage 4 (ch. 5 on ao3) will be Obstruction, so take that how you will. But stage 5 (ch. 6 on ao3) will be Resolution, so that should make you feel better. They're sister chapters, so although the conflict itself is resolved in chapter 4, the lasting changes and long-term effects of that conflict will be mostly featured in chapter 5 (which, honestly, is the one I'm most excited to write because I feel like it's that moment when Alex really grows into himself).

And a little fun knowledge just for you: there's actually going to be a stage 6 (ch. 7, on ao3). I was going to surprise readers by adding on a chapter after I publish stage 5 with a 'psych! you thought this was over, suckers'. Stage 6 is titled 'Reflection', so I'm planning for it to be about how Alex leaves office dealing with the idea of his own legacy and accomplishments (but as I teased in Stage 3, he won't actually be 'done').

I think that's all I've got in me. Chapter 4 is in the works, but it's taking way longer than I'd like (I've only just started part 1 😬) since I started a new job that's kind of sucking the life out of me. I'm very excited to share it, though! I'll be sad when it's over (maybe I'll do a missing moments oneshot series after, who knows).