#stevedarren

Work in Progress Wednesday

Creators: work on or post something from your WIP. This is your weekly reminder to get something down on paper (real or virtual). It's also a chance to share your progress with your followers and give them a sneak peek of what's to come!

Fans: leave a comment on an unfinished fic and let the writer know how much you love it. Reblog an artist's sketch and let them know you can't wait to see the final product. Send someone an ask cheering them on!

- @ao3commentoftheday​

Right now, I have four long fics in the works. Idiot Savant is still my top priority, so I try to write a bit of it every day. If I get ideas or inspiration for the others, I'll write down a scene or two, or a bit of dialogue to string together later.

I won't talk about all my fics, just the three I'm most fixed on at the moment :D

Idiot Savant  (Published, Incomplete)

So, for those that keep up to date with IS, last chapter the boys had a run-in with the wolfman and had real, actual confirmation that vampires exist. Now that they're 'safe,' chapter 12 will deal with Steve's mental state and him trying to come to grips with everything.

I actually cut this chapter in half mid-way through drafting. I've done this in chapter 9 also, but I was able to combine the last scenes that should've been in 9 with chapter 10. My chapters are 'done' when I reach a certain point in the plot or complete a certain set of events. I originally planned for chapter 11 to go all the way up to the big confrontation between the vampaneze and vampires. But, once I saw that my word count was at 10k and climbing, I had to cut it at Mark's arrival. I also wanted to give readers more time with Mark, Larten, and Gavner, so having them appear in more chapters than originally planned helped. 

With IS, I really try to weave and flesh out as many characters as I can. Mark Ryter, for instance, appears in book 9 briefly as a vampet and is later killed by Vancha during interrogation. He didn't play much of a role in the series, but I wanted to know more about him and his place with the vampaneze. So, I made him this know-it-all Dubliner with a knack for illegal firearms and espionage XD He also appears in some of my other works, but I really wanted to include him in IS to get a larger scope of the world.

Lilac Heartthrob (WIP)

This is my next big project. "Lilac Heartthrob" is the working title, but it may stick just cause I'm growing fond of it :)

This series takes place over books 8-12 and goes in a much different direction than the original series. It picks up midway through book 8 when Darren and Steve meet up in Edinburgh to investigate vampaneze activity. I wanted to dive more into Darren's experience at school and his growing sense of self away from the mountain. It also deals with Darren and Debbie’s relationship, Darren’s sense of age and maturity, his growing independence from Larten, and his relationship with Steve. It's wholly a starren series, but it will also deal with a lot of issues Darren faces as a young prince and all the trauma he's experienced. Later parts of the series, like Part II and III, will also have a lot of political intrigues cause I just adore that shit. 

Unlike Idiot Savant, this series will also go in-depth on the parts of vampire and vampaneze culture that don't get explored in CDF. I'm doing lots of research into where vampire mountain logically would be in the real world, the travel patterns of vampaneze and vampires, the religious aspects of their culture, mating and courtship, the social hierarchy of the vampaneze, etc. 

I'm super excited about this series, and as soon as Idiot Savant is completed I'll be posting this regularly. I hope one long fic under my belt will really help me with the pacing, development, and characterization of this story : D

On King Street (WIP)

I literally got the idea for this two weeks ago and I'm already super invested. Basically, a teenage Darius gets sent back in time to an alternate universe where he meets his dad and uncle as young adults. It's very heartwarming and short (3) chapters), and it touches on those growing pains parents experience when their kids grow out of the nest. It mergers the AUs in Idiot Savant and Lilac Hearthrob, allowing me to get self-referential between both series. This is very much a Darius fic and deals with his emotions towards his family and himself, and it deals with the different iterations of characters between the fan series and cannon.  

“Gannen,” Darren whispered to the elder Vampaneze, “who let them play chess again?”

“A dead man, my Lord Consort…”

He sighed. “Who’s winning?”

“...Steve.”

“Charna’s guts!”

“Shouldn’t you be happy for your husband’s victory?”

Darren ‘tsked’ away his in-law’s dig. “We both know he’s a sore winner,” he said, fearing that devilish grin Steve sported.

“He just took Larten’s rook…” Gannen noted.

Chess pieces clattered on the ground to the backdrop of Larten’s curses and Steve’s manic laughter.

“...and there goes the chessboard.”

“Mr. Crepsley—!” Darren shouted, dashing towards his mentor and husband. “That’s a new set! Put it down!”

“Maybe I should thank you,” said Steve looking out from Vampire Mountain, “for not blooding me then.”

Larten sounded out words from a thin novel. “I am concentrating,” he said, “I have no time for your sordid humor.” 

But laughter from below the mountain had Larten peering over the pages.

Darren and Darius practiced their swordsmanship in the moonlight. The Vampaneze Prince never went without his father’s crossbow, but he made an exception for his uncle.

“Kinda wonderful,” Steve said, “bein’ a dad.” 

Larten’s eyes followed Darren, laughing in retreat at a rapier’s end.

“Yes,” Larten smiled, “it truly is.” 

A gluging of wine was the only audible sound.

But, if you listened exceptionally close, one could hear the blood vessels in Steve’s skull implode.

Danny, who stopped mid-bite at the palpable tension, turned to his elder brother with a confused look. “ Those types?” he mouthed across the table.

Steve considered, only briefly, chucking the fork in his good hand clear through Rebecca’s eye socket. “What do you mean… ” Steve began in forced calmness. “ Those types?”

“Fairies.” Rebecca deadpanned. “Is it really safe for him to be playing with healthy young men? I mean, nothing against your little friend, but I wouldn’t want my little Daniel to get any diseases. All the running and shoving, and not to mention the showers, it just doesn't seem safe, does it?”

Danny gave his mother an uncertain look. “What’s not safe about it?” he asked.

Steve’s nails carved deep, crescent cuts into his palms. He felt the screams bubble up in his throat. Before he could let loose the burning words, Rebecca quipped up again.

“Well, it be like letting a slag into the boys dressing room, don’t you think Daniel?” Rebecca said to her husband, who downed the rest of his wine. “I mean, he’d only be a distraction to the other boys, and should anything happen, you know boys being boys and all, half the team would catch AIDs or something.”

Steve should’ve bitten his tongue —should’ve bitten it clean off in his own mouth—but no amount of therapy and self-inflicted dismemberment could hold him back.

“That talk from experience, Becca?” Steve said casually.

Daniel Sr. choked on his wine.

Danny’s mouth hung agape.

Rebecca nearly broke the very wine glass in her hand.

“Not personal experience, of course, don’t want to insinuate anything,” added Steve. “But, I mean, callin’ my friend a slag? Oy vey, you must know’em very well then. What’s that saying again? Takes one to know one.” 

Words: 21,657 Chapters: 3/12, Language: English

Fandoms: Cirque du Freak | The Saga of Darren Shan - Darren Shan

Relationships: Steve Leonard/Darren Shan

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Steve "Leopard" Leonard, Darren Shan, Angela Shan, Dermot Shan, Annie Shan, Original Characters

Additional Tags: Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Homophobic Language, Internalized Homophobia, Recreational Drug Use, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Swearing, Eventual Smut, Eventual Romance, Drunk Sex, Masturbation, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Timelines, Domestic Violence

“Annie,” Darren sighed over his teacup, “I know it’s normal to talk about married life, but my husband is your ex—”

“You kidding?! I’ve been dying to dish about Steve! No offense,” his sister assured.

“None taken,” Darren laughed. It was nice to finally talk about his marital bliss and woes.

“So, how’s the sex?”

Earl Grey sprayed over the table while Darren choked on embarrassment. “Annie!”

“Good, right?!” She lamented. “Why do the worst guys have the best dick—”

“ANNIE!”

“Calm down Darren, I had a baby with him.”

“And I don’t wanna hear how you made that baby!”

Words: 45,854 

Chapters: 6/12

Fandoms: Cirque Du Freak| The Saga of Darren Shan - Darren Shan

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Steve "Leopard" Leonard, Darren Shan, Angela Shan, Dermot Shan, Annie Shan, Sarah Leonard, Daniel Leonard, Danny Leonard, Mr. Tall, Original Characters

Additional Tags: Alternate UniverseAlternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Original Character(s), Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Homophobic Language, Internalized Homophobia, Recreational Drug Use, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Swearing, Steve swears alot, Smut, Eventual Romance, Drunk Sex

“You were in my room?!” Steve walked up to the patch, but his eyes never left his mother’s. The chalky scent of gypsum filler stuck inside his nose. “What about privacy and personal space and all that bullshit?!”

“Stephen, lower your voice, please.”  She stepped past the threshold of Steve’s bedroom, a hand up and extended in a calm fashion. But when Steve recoiled at the sight, she folded them together atop her chest. A soft smile quirked at her lips, but her light brows knitted themselves fraught with concern. “I know you’re upset, and I didn’t mean to intrude on your space or anything, I just wanted to fix the wall.”

“You couldn’t wait till I got back? I could have done it if you gave me some time or warned me.”

“With what happened last night, I got so worried. That’s all, love. I wanted to fix it up before you got home.”

“Alright, wall’s fixed, you can leave now.”

“Well, maybe we should talk about what happened last night, Stephen.”

“There’s nothing to talk about! I got angry. I threw my fucking phone. That’s it.”

His mother lowered her gaze. Her hands folded themselves atop her chest, playing with the fabric of her boatneck and house sweater. Those brown eyes darted to the other wall only briefly.

Steve followed the line to the wall directly over his desk. Where his Elle Macpherson poster hung, now slightly askew. He felt the red cloud over his mind again. “Did you take down my fucking poster, too?” He strode to his desk and ripped it down to reveal another fresh patch. “What the hell?! Do you go snooping through my shit now, is that what this is?”

“No, no love, it fell when I was patchin’ up the wall an’ I-”

With an eye-roll and an exaggerated huff, Steve tossed his arms in the air. “Oh, that’s fucking convenient.” He tapped the fresh patch with his knuckles, detesting the bone dry texture.

“Stephen, don’t talk to me that way,”  her voice, though trembling, took a stern edge. “Is that how you broke your hand? You told me it was from your aggression therapy, but now I see two separate holes in the drywall and you are very defensive about them.”

“I’m defensive because you're in my fucking room taking shit down and going through my things! Fercockt, what’s so hard to understand?”

She took a deep breath, her hands moving up from her chest to the bridge of her forehead. Sarah Leonard, in the sternest voice she could muster, asked: “Stephen, how did that hole get behind your poster?”

Steve felt that rebellious vein surge up. His mother was never a stern woman by any means, but to see her stomp down her own meekness flared something within him.

But then he saw her face. Her voice hid a lot, like the quiver of her lip and the nervous shake to her finger. And maybe that’s why their screaming matches through closed doors and the upstairs's floorboards never got them anywhere. If Steve had seen his mother like he was seeing her now, when he was being a right shit at his tender ages, maybe they wouldn’t be here. If Steve had seen the terrified look in his mum’s eyes, how her face went taut and her lips shivered on a constant stream of placative phrases, maybe he would have realized how scared she was.

He couldn’t lie. Not now.

Next Chapter —–>

So, if you like Cirque du Freak and if you ship SteveDarren (problematic rarepair? sign me the fuck up) go check out my fic Idiot Savant on AO3 ❤️