Sunny Side Of Heaven

♥️♥️♥️

I still stare at this all the time. Just such an amazing bit of art brought to me because of two of my faves.

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. 😭

I have dragged myself to a coffee shop and am going to force myself to write, even if it's not great. Keeping myself accountable: starting word count is 2,988.

EDIT: Final count, 3,485. Nowhere near what I hoped to accomplish, but at least I finished a scene.

Stand On the Rock.

And don’t tell me no!

I have given you so many snips at this point that you've read most of what I've written, haha. Stand on the Rock is a slice-of-life one-shot that takes place in my People Still Listen to Fleetwood Mac in the Apocalypse series. I gave Tommy and Maria three kids in that universe (one biological child, and two older children they eventually adopt) but those stories aren't really about them, so I never really got to flesh them out the way I wanted. The story really ended up growing as I got into it, so we actually get a glimpse of how Tommy and Maria begin seeing each other, and then fast-forward into them trying to deal with the fact that the children in their house now outnumber them. Have a tiny snip:

“One dance – then I’ll fuck off,” Tommy promised, covertly wiping his palms against his jeans and then extending a hand out to her. Maria didn’t reply for a solid few seconds, and it was an eerie thing to be on the receiving end of such an intense gaze. The weight of her stare pinned him into place, a laser that felt likely to bore right through him – but she took his hand anyway; lightly, hesitantly, as though she was afraid she was condoning something wicked if she at all squeezed his fingers or showed any enthusiasm whatsoever about what she was currently instructing her body to do. 

“That a promise?” she asked, and he snorted, drawing her a little closer, taking a chance to slip his arm around her waist – and this resulted in a rather withering look, certainly, but after a quick scan around the room confirmed many other dance partners in similar poses, she seemed to relax a little, the tension slowly seeping out of her shoulders. She settled into his hold, if not with enthusiasm then at least with a grudging acceptance.

“I’ll getcha it in writing,” he said with a nod, and she choked back a laugh. For a wonderful few moments, she allowed him to lead her; they swayed with the crowd, following the melody of a vaguely familiar country ballad that Tommy thought he’d last heard in an Austin dive bar, but wasn’t entirely sure. And it was easy – easy to lead, to keep his arm wrapped around her waist, to try to pretend as though he’d ever been this nervous at any point in his life that did not involve him aiming a gun at someone. “So,” he said finally, slowly turning on the spot, apparently determined to immediately ruin this, “Jay, huh?”

“Oh, here we go,” she sighed. 

“Nice guy,” he said, “but don’t you think he might be a little…I dunno…young, for you?”

“Is this how you flirt?” Her voice held an edge to it – he grinned anyway. “By telling women they’re too old for their dance partners?”

“Nothin’ to do with you,” he reasoned, and he took a step back from her, quickly, lifting her arm – and though she was surprised by it, she followed his lead, allowing him to spin her. When they came back together, it was with a laugh that she tried and failed to hide. “Just him. Don’t get me wrong – Jay’s a nice fella. Real nice – but, do I really gotta say it?”

“Say what?” she asked coolly.

“C’mon, now,” Tommy huffed, “you know what I mean. That one – he’s a boy. You don’t need that. You need –”

“So help me,” she warned, rolling her eyes to the ceiling, “if you finish that sentence with ‘a man,’ I’m leaving.”

I just want you to know that I read Go Your Own Way in just a couple of days and am now most of the way through the sequel and I am in love. There are a lot of fics that pair Joel with ocs and then present a pregnancy but I just really appreciate that you went the other way about it and have shown another side and that you have approached that subject with such compassion. Your OC is so well developed, I just love her. I really hope those two manage to have a happy ending but also I am hoping she doesn't have a surprise pregnancy or something, though I don't think you would do that. I can't wait to catch up!

Hi, anon. And thank you - glad you've enjoyed my blorbos. ☺️

I struggle with the concept of motherhood, myself, and these fics are part of how I work through that. I'm not really trying to say anything about anyone else's fics by writing my version of it, you know? That's the great thing about fanfiction; there are so many different ways to write things, and there's truly something for everyone, haha.

I thought it was important for them to try to find happiness in other ways, considering this - which is the reality of many people (myself included). The characters all mean a lot to me, and I'm happy to have been able to share their (mis)adventures with other people, and that others have enjoyed them.

if you're an adult man with natural blonde hair that's a sign from nature to show that there's something deeply evil going on with you like the brightly colored frogs