2. 5+1 Fake Frat Boy Alex

"What about me?" Henry says. "Christ, Alex. The whole bloody time."

cat gravestones found on roadarch.com

via _bioluminessence_ on tiktok

All Those Christmas Clichés: Advent 2023

Because I'm the emperor of terrible decisions... fuck it, let's do an advent fic. Daily triple drabbles, set 1-25 December 2023, using the prompt list from @youneedsomeprompts found here.

All Those Christmas Clichés

December 1st: Making an advent calendar for a friend/loved one

Whore.

do you like apple pie

Bestie what if... I tell you I haven't tried it yet.

Broke: Izzy said “I want to go” because he legitimately believed his life’s journey had reached its end.

Woke: Izzy said it so that Edward could move on, a comforting lie in the service of seeing to his beloved captain’s emotional needs one last time.

Bespoke: Izzy went into the gravy basket when he got shot, where Sea Witch Buttons appeared to him and told him if he chose life, his ultimate fate was handling the customer complaint department at Ed & Stede’s Bed & Breakfast & Seafood Restaurant & Freelance Carpentry Business, and knowing this, chose death.

WIP Wednesday Word Search!

Thanks for the tag in this one, babies. @read-and-write- @firenati0n @songliili @kiwiana-writes @rockyroadkylers @gayrootvegetable and @hgejfmw-hgejhsf! 💗 Also: appreciation post for my friends who endlessly tag me in these games/challenges even though I'm not the most active and consistent person on this platform. I love you all.

RULES: use this generator to generate three random words (or however many you'd like to do!) and share the lines where they show up in your WIPs!

The words I got were acquaintance, monk, and challenge.

acquaintance - Exes to What? AU

There’s a bunch of classmates, celebrities, Nora posting a photo dump about their weekly Austen-binge with June popping in every so often in the slides. Pez in another outfit that never fails to fill Alex with awe; they’re the most stylish person he probably knows, and that’s saying something with his revolving door of acquaintances and friends. Ellen with her recent campaign publicity pictures. His dad doesn’t have instagram, but every now and then Oscar’s face shows up on news outlets as the current-seating senator of California. And then, unmistakably enough to Alex’s eyes, there’s also Henry.

monk - ATLA AU

Alex was already in the Avatar State, and finally looking around the room — littered with Fire Nation army uniforms and the remains of a monk who clearly meant something to Alex and June — it's not hard to understand why.

challenge - fake fratboy!Alex who's actually just an animal shelter volunteer AU

So Henry doesn't ask Alex where he goes or why he has new cuts on his hands or what he gets up to whenever he's not in school — only looks at him as if all the burning questions he wants to send Alex's way was his newfound telepathic skill. Does so in the next few days because he can't just let go of things like that, and ultimately only stops when Alex finally shoots back a quizzical look at him. He doesn't look angry, per se, but the littlest hint of a challenge does start resting on his eyebrows whenever he spares Henry a glance.

I combined both games so I'm not sure who to tag that hasn't done it yet but if you already did, take this as a round two I guess the word search is FUN. @blairwaldcrf @later-2-dae @dragonflylady77 @leojfitz @14carrotghoul @matherines @44whispers @movetoheavens @mudbloodpotter05 @happiness-of-the-pursuit @inexplicablymine @user-anakin @littlemisskittentoes

WIP Wednesday!

I was tagged by @ssmtskw and @littlemisskittentoes this time! (both your fics look SO GOOD)

I'm really excited this week because. Okay, listen. I started a new WIP. I had, like, five already, but we were talking in the server last week about how there are almost no "Alex fell first" fics, which is kind of understandable because it's hard to come up with a scenario where it would be him instead of Henry, BUT! I was thinking about it a couple days ago, and I swear, it was an actual lightbulb moment.

Everyone who's read the book knows Alex had a massive crush on Henry way before he realized it for himself, and I'm convinced that crush goes all the way back to the days of J14 magazine. I mean, come on, sneaking into June's room to touch a picture of Henry's hair? Multiple times? 😂 Alex, bless your heart, babe.

Anyway, that led my train of thought to Alex getting snubbed at Rio, and the whole concept of unrequited crushes, and then came the lightbulb moment: Hanahaki AU. I've seen a few where Henry has it, but only, like, one where Alex does. And now there will be another! This is not the kind of vibe I usually go for with my writing, but it's been fun to branch out!

It's, um, slightly evil (big whumpy angst vibes), as I have already been told several times by multiple people in the server who have seen snippets, but I'm having so much fun writing it. So, here's a snippet from my newest WIP, which will either be titled "i picked the petals, he loves me not" OR "come and meet me in my garden"

---

Alex has been snubbed by political peers plenty of times before, and he would be probably snubbed by plenty more, but for some reason this rejection had hurt a hell of a lot more than any other. His heart had dropped into his stomach when Henry turned away from him, with that look on his face like if he didn’t get away from Alex fast enough, he might give him fleas.

The thing is (and it’s kind of embarrassing to admit, even to himself), Alex used to look up to Henry. Until pretty recently, as a matter of fact.

Recently, as in, about two hours ago.

He’d always been aware of Prince Henry as a general concept. The royal family is always in the news for some reason or another, so Alex grew up seeing candid shots of Henry with his parents and siblings in magazine spreads, in waiting rooms and grocery store check-outs. But he can still remember the first time he saw a picture of Henry in one of June’s magazines where he hadn’t been with the rest of his family, just featured on his own in one of those locker-sized tear-out posters, with his name printed across the page in big block lettering and a little blurb about his hobbies in the corner. Henry had looked so bright, and happy, and full of life, and easy-going. Alex had been maybe a little bit obsessed with that picture for… a solid two years. Though his obsession with the boy in the picture ended up lasting much longer.

For all the fucking good it did him, in the end.

How does the saying go? Never meet your heroes. Alex gets it, now.

If Henry really is the reason he’s spending his evening coughing up flowers instead of getting wasted at the diving finals with his sister and best friend, Alex doesn’t know if he should be madder at Henry for being a dick, or at himself for being naive enough to believe they could be friends.

---

I think I've already seen some of these people's posts on my dash today, but I'm gonna go ahead and tag @read-and-write-, @suseagull04, @affectionatelyrs, @inexplicablymine, and @anincompletelist!

I recently read this Red White and Royal Blue fanfic on AO3 called It's Nice to Have a Friend by mainstreamelectricalparade. Guys it was so freaking adorable, I had to make some fanart for it

I would’ve tagged the author but I’m honestly not sure if they have Tumblr. I’ll just tag the fic instead

What a year this week has been.