#2023 year end roundup

[crackinglamb]

AO3 Year End Roundup, 2023

Normally, I'd do this in a couple days, but we're close enough for government work (and I'm on a deliberate break anyhow, so nothing new is being posted). Normally this would also be a tag game, but I haven't seen it floating around yet, so...

Hey, you wanna do your own roundup? Go for it. Yes, I mean you (looking at you, DAFF crew). Consider this an open invite. Tag me back so I can see what y'all have been up to.

Words posted: 241,283 . This total has had subtracted from it the amount that already existed for the fic that carried over from last year (which was WG, of course). So this is actually what I posted this year.

Additional Words Written: ~166K. I have several WIP's going on in the background. One of which is finished and will begin posting after New Year's. Another of which is about halfway done. The rest are...procrastination projects/getting the wiggles out. They may never see the light of day. But they count as writing, so they are included.

Grand total of words: 407, 283 (goodness gracious)

Fandoms: 2

Works: 12, 11 of which were new.

Highest Kudos: Into the Current, at 271 (just like last year, I'm not counting WG since it wasn't new). The Iron Bull/OFC, rated E, 79K words, complete.

Highest Hit Oneshot: The Mighty Fall, at 706. Sookie Stackhouse/Eric Northman. Rated T, 2900 words.

New Things I Tried: I wrote a trio of fics for True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries this year. The WIP that's finished and waiting for the new year is a continuation of this series.

I also posted a ficlet I'd originally posted here on tumblr for archiving purposes. Some Years Into the Future...

Fic I Spent the Most Time On: Driftwood, my Bullmance series. Writing ItC itself wasn't particularly long, about two months, but T3, the next fic, is still being written. At first it was all going to be one long fic, but then I decided I've had enough of epics (meaning any work significantly over 100K words), and split it into parts.

Fic I Spent the Least Time On: The Mighty Fall. I have finally gotten to use the tag 'I wrote this instead of sleeping'. 🤣

Favorite Thing I Wrote: Usually, I have trouble with this category. I'm poly, you know. But this year, I actually DO have a fave. Okay...I have two.

How Deep the Bullet Lies - a gift for @rosella-writes, for the Solas Lovers Exchange. Solas/Cassandra Pentaghast with a whumpy open ending. Rated M, 4200 words.

More Than Mere Stone - a gift for my beloved @ir0n-angel in the same exchange. Solas/F!Trevelyan, pure fluff. Rated G, 1500 words.

Favorite Thing I Read: In Twain, by CatC. It's everything I wanted in a 'background character gets caught up in events' fic. With a sizzlingly hot Bullmance and So Much Cole. I think I've read it three or four times already. At least. If you need something comforting and wonderful, I cannot recommend it enough. It's simply delightful, and so is the author. Rated E, 172K words, WIP.

Something I Finished: I did it, at long last. I finished What a Wicked Game to Play. It was the focus of NaNo (and took literally three days once I put my mind to it, hence much of the other writing I did that hasn't been published). It feels really good to have my beloved Behemoth marked with a green checkmark. The story itself isn't finished, and I'll eventually write more for Imogen and Co., but for now, it is Done.

Writing Goals for 2024 – Keep on keeping on. I want to finish T3, so I can start posting it. I want to finish a couple other things from the WIP list. There will of course be a new Fluffuary prompt list. Biggest goal, however, is simply not to burn myself out. I've started waiting to publish until a fic is finished, which has done wonders for my stress levels. No more posting gaps on an in-progress fic.

Allow me to Gush about some things I wrote this year.

(Otherwise known as: honorable mentions)

Out of the Dark - Lark Cadash was once going to have an epic fic to her name. But I'm Tired, and frankly, I'm bored with rewriting the events of DA:I over and over again. So I've turned her into a series, where I can just put up oneshots and short chaptered things in no particular order that add up to one big story. This is one of them. Post-canon, Lark goes into the Deep Roads to find the answer to a riddle that's bugged her for her entire life. She gets more than she asked for, with a side serving of sad Solas. I've had many of the headcannons included in it for a long time, with no home. Now, they're out there in the world. Rated G, 4800 words.

What Lies Beneath - my actual giftfic for the Solas Lovers Exchange. I had such fun writing this, and had ideas for it as soon as I received the assignment. I got to set something in the Hissing Waste, which is one of my favorite places in the game, as well as write a polyship for my two favorite romances. F!Cadash/Solas/Iron Bull, rated T, 3400 words.

Maker Damned Fools - back in 2020, I wrote a Varric/Hawke short little thing for the first Fluffuary. I always wanted to go back and expand it into a fuller story. Add it to the pile of Things I Finished This Year. From their meeting to post-canon. Rated E, 32K words.

What a Wicked Game to Play - *deep satisfied sigh* It took two years and ten months to complete, with near constant weekly updates. It's 412K words by itself (not counting the rest of the series). It contains about 350 embedded images of either screenshots or fanart. It is both the highest hit (over 90K) and highest kudo'd (1535) work on my archive. Affectionately known as 'the Behemoth', extensively written with my signature yeeting of canon. Imogen McLean, MGIT, Inquisitor, beloved of Fen'Harel. I am stupendously proud of this work, but I am also incredibly happy it's done. I set out to write an epic, and I damn well succeeded. Rated E.

See y'all on the flipside! 💕

[recurring-polynya]

My Tumblr Year in Review 2023 (homebrew edition)

Per this post, I guess they aren't doing the personal Tumblr Year in Review this year, which made me very sad, so I decided to DIY as much as I could using JetBlackCode's Tumblr statistics tools.

I had 313 original posts this year, and got 12,405 notes. (JetBlack's numbers don't exactly match up to previous years' Year in Review, but it's close enough). This is a little lower in posts than last year, but a little higher in notes.

Top 5 Posts:

5. Mid-Century Menos

4. some shinigami and their hobbies

3. Sowing/reaping, but make it fanfic

2. Do shinigami have blood transfusions?

Some Oddly Specific Comparisons Between Renji and Ken Barbie Movie

Big year for posts for me! #1 and #2 both blew up because other people added stuff to them (and then #2 got reblogged by a Tumblr-famous person), but that's how Tumblr works, so thanks, friends, for inflating my notes for me! #3 was really strange because it has accumulated notes very slowly, but steadily. Every day, I get notes on that post. Also, every day I think about the person who reblogged it with the tags "I would simply write my fanfic from start to finish and not have this problem." Imagine, having a brain so functional (couldn't be me).

I am very happy that I had two fanarts in my top 5 again this year, especially considering that I didn't draw all that much this year. I guess that makes the shinigami hobbies post my all-time #1 fanart. Not bad, considering I didn't even color it!

[sysig]

Contain yourself Captain (Patreon)

[chocomd]

2023 Year-End Fic Round Up

Thanks @nyamadermont for the tag!

Words written (published or not, WIPs totally count too!): 83,051 published, 800 in a wip

Smut scenes written (if applicable): 0

New things I tried: Writing hanahaki and darkly tragic fic for Kataang, a short fic for The Expanse (my GOAT live action show), and Zukaang fic.

Fic I spent the most time on: Enough, my Kataang hanahaki fic, and it was by far one of my favorite fics I've ever written.

Fic I spent the least time on: That would be one of my Zukaang ficlets, but I couldn't tell you which one. They were all written for the @flashfictionfridayofficial challenge, which is to write a fic between 100 to 1000 words long for a prompt on every Friday, all within 24 hours. Since I also work and sleep, I only had a few hours to write each fic.

Favourite thing I wrote: It's a toss-up between Enough, my Kataang hanahaki fic, and the very dark and possibly more tragic sequel, The Deal. It was like something inside me was unleashed? I honestly had the best time writing those fics. Like I felt more free to be creative with Kataang and ATLA than I've ever felt before.

Favourite thing I read: Ohhh this is a tough one. I'll have to go with two faves. One is Stay With Me, a hanahaki Dimileth fic, from the fe:3h fandom that seems to consistently put out amazing fic (how???). The other is Electronic Memorial, a short fic (only 800 words!) for The Expanse, but it's one of my favorite fics I've ever read.

Writing goals for next year:

Write more Zukaang fics - oneshots, short multichaps. The flash fiction Zukaang ficlets were me getting my feet wet and trying my hand at writing Zukaang fic. Now I have all these ideas I'm itching to get on paper!

Start writing fe:3h fic, FINALLY. Like the Dimitri-kills-Rhea fic I've been promising @itsmoonpeaches since forever. I am absolutely OBSESSED with this Sylvain/Blue Lions fan video by @cyandemise and it's single-handedly giving me the inspo I need to write that fic and a few other very angsty BL fic ideas.

I have 800 words written for a Kataang wip that I've kind of paused on writing. I really want to finish it in the hopefully-not-too-far-future, but I need to take a break from writing Kataang for a while (it's been 3 years of almost nonstop Kataang lmao) and come back to it with fresh eyes.

Tagging (no pressure): @itsmoonpeaches @northerngoshawk @benwvatt @my-cabbages-gorl @justoceanmyth @flameohotwife @shameaboutthedilettantism and anyone else who wants to do it!

[sakarrie-creates]

2023 Fic Round-Up/Reflection

Got an early start this year! I technically was shooting to get it done before the new year but I feel like I’m still within a reasonable window, so I’ll take it! Here’s my 2023 Writing Summary! Overall, I think I actually did okay! As usual, my rambly reflection stuff is under the cut. Happy 2024 people!

2023 Stats:

Fics Started: 12 Fics Fully Written: 12  Fics Posted: 5 New WIPs: 0 Total WIPs: 20 (ish?) Words Written: 53,686 (55,598 if including fic outlines that haven’t been turned fic) Words Posted: 34,805 Fandoms Written For: 3 (+1 for Merlin FTH outline) Events: 4 (+3)

Posted Fics:

Supernatural (Gen): 2

When it Rains, it Pours (13,779): As part of Chuck's "reliving of his greatest hits," Sam starts having his painful visions again. He doesn’t want to believe it, but the nightmares keep coming true and now, he's beginning to worry it’s not just visions. During their last hunt, Sam could have sworn that the machete he was reaching for threw itself. Dean didn’t seem to notice anything but later that night, Sam finds a small trail of blood coming from his nose.

He needs to tell Dean—he knows that. But Dean’s been struggling a lot between Chuck and losing... well, most everyone. He's just barely beginning to bounce back, and Sam was his only constant right now. He’ll just have to keep a handle on it until they can take care of Chuck. Set around s15e4 Atomic Monsters. 

Whatever it Takes (1,875): Gadreel's possession of Sam has more serious side-effects than Dean ever imagined. Now, his brother is sick, hurting, and close to giving up. But Dean is determined to make this right. 

The Owl House (Gen and Implied/Background Ship - Huntlow): 2

What Doesn't Kill You (Gives You Trauma) (1,737): With the reconstruction of Hexside finally complete, a sense of normality has been restored. Fortunately, that includes Grom. Unfortunately one of their own has been declared King. Hunter doesn’t even know which fear he'll have to face. He certainly has enough painful memories for Grom to take its pick. With a bit of luck and support from his friends, though, he might just make it through the night.

Frenemies (1,737): Hunter gets a mysterious message telling him to meet them at the night market. He really should have realized Luz would be behind this. Or: Post-ASIAS, Luz doesn't like the idea of Hunter suddenly showing up at Hexside and almost kidnapping her friends.

Code Lyoko (Gen): 1

No One’s an Island (7,612): Yumi is tired. XANA's attacks have been relentless and it's wearing her down. Between school, home life, and Lyoko, she's not sure how much more she can handle. After all, there's only so much weight one person can take. Except, it's not just Yumi's burden to carry, and her friends are going to do whatever they can to remind her of that. 

Specifics:

Events Participated In:

SPN Summergen (Fic), Player Appreciation Week (Art), Weird People MEP (Edit), Dear Fellow Traveler (Animatic), SPN Gencest Bang (Fic), Fandom Trumps Hate (Art/Fic), Mirage and Mischief Zine (Fic), and LOTS of zine apps (Fic, Art, Mod).

Best/worst title?

Best title: None of them super jump out at me, but Whatever it Takes and Between the Lines of Fear and Blame both come from songs where the song vibe/lyrics match the fic PERFECTLY. The latter is a bit long for my tastes, but it’s grown on me. What Doesn’t Kill You (Gives you Trauma) makes me chuckle too, but it’s got the same length issue as well as trying out a new style from my norm which I had mixed feelings on.

Worst title: Oof, well as usual, I didn’t particularly like most of my titles this year. I think Frenemies has to take the cake though. It started as a working title but then I got lazy and just left it when I posted. It feels so generic and not... aesthetic enough? Poetic enough? Literally no idea why it bothers me so much but it does.

General Questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

I honestly can’t remember what I was expecting this year (and it’s tradition that I can’t look back at my goals ‘til I answer these questions, so it will remain unknown). I certainly hoped to be able to do more since last year was a fairly barren year creativity-wise, but I’ve also been quite aware for a while that being in school sucks out my soul makes it difficult to create. With that, I think I probably was in the ballpark of what I was expecting. I might have predicted it being more spread out, though, which is a rookie move considering that my classes are clustered haha. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I think I’d just barely gotten into TOH at the start of the year, so that wasn’t COMPLETELY unpredictable, but I did write some Huntlow (aka, romance) fics, which is abnormal for me! Additionally, I can’t remember if I discovered The Sentinel this year or last, but that definitely wasn’t expected. Just got the DVDs so I can finish watching the series! Oh, also writing Code Lyoko was a new experience (not counting my random 6th grade fanfiction I wrote in notebooks lol).

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

I’m split quite a bit on this one. On one hand, I really like my Grom fic (so far) so I’m hoping that will continue to flow as I wrap it up. I also like my unposted fic about Willow dealing with Hunter’s near-death and Camila comforting her. Of those that are currently posted, though, I think I might go with No One is an Island. It was a lot of fun trying to figure out how to write Yumi and the other Code Lyoko characters, and considering the small size of the fandom, it was fairly well-received too!

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

Same as the last two years! Fragmentation’s views are hard to really predict since view counts have been down since September, but the total views has officially surpassed the overall word count at 21.4k views (vs 20.7k word count). Which is AMAZING. It’s always a bit wild to me to consider, but I’m so great people are enjoying my fic. Next is still The Problem With Good Intentions at 12.6k, which surprises me less now that I’ve seen just how alive and well the Once and Future Fandom is haha. From the fics I posted this year, it would be When it Rains, it Pours at 1.5k.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

A Letter to Never Be Read on FF.net never really got any traction, but I think I’m over it by now. As for more current underappreciated fic... I think I might actually go with When it Rains, it Pours again. Even though it had the most views, it’s a fairly long, multi-chap story and didn’t get many reviews in between chapters. That’s part of the challenge with bangs and posting dates, though, so nothing too shocking there.

Hardest story to write?

It’s really hard to say! I was struggling with burnout a lot during my zine app timeframes, but most of those fics haven’t been posted yet. It might be Whatever it Takes just cause I had such a hard time coming up with something that matched the prompts as well as my preferences. When it Rains, it Pours was also a challenge at times, but mostly in trying to find motivation to write anything.

Most overdue story?

It’s Only Natural is still very very overdue, but it’s not super popular (and is on FF.net), so it’s not one I’m stressed about. I think about A Long Ways Home a lot, though. I wanted to work on it recently, but unfortunately my writing energy needed to go towards FTH so that continued to be put off. People have left some very supportive comments on it recently, though, which I majorly appreciate!

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

It hasn’t been a very writer-heavy year, which means less opportunities for writing risks. Writing for Code Lyoko was something of a risk in that I had no idea how it would turn out, but it wasn’t actually that adventurous. I also explored different types of grief in an unposted zine app piece, but I think in the end it turned out solid! My biggest risk was probably a different ficlet I wrote for a zine app. It was of young Eda and Grudgy, so both about characters I’m less invested in and in the sports genre, which is totally new for me. Unfortunately, that risk didn’t pay off. I actually felt pretty good about it, but when I sent it for feedback from a mod friend, they really didn’t like it. Everything’s subjective so it’s possible that it would still be enjoyable for some people, but suffice to say, I didn’t use it for any apps in the end.

How’d this year compare to your goals of last year?

Okie here we go! I think my goals were fairly reasonable last year if I remember correctly so I’m tentatively optimistic I’ll have some stuff to check off! 

Oof last year had a bunch of paragraphs of reflection here. I think I’m gonna focus more on bullets this year haha.

Goals from 2022:

-Unfortunately, keeping my scholarship has to be my biggest goal this year again so gonna put that here in case it's the only thing I can check off come December.

-A Long Ways Home (at least 1 new chapter) -SPN Summergen-At least 3/7 Player Appreciation Week days-Catch up on comment replies -At least do some more brainstorming for bigger CS aus -Huntlow/Owl House fics?-One zine?

If crazy inspired year: -All of A Long Ways Home -All Player Appreciation Week Days -WIP Bang with It’s Only Natural -Post More CS One-shots -Write out more big AU scenes -Other Zines

Oof, okay so apparently I was not crazy inspired this year lol. To be fair, I did do a bit more exploration in art and lots more in merch, so it wasn’t a totally uncreative year. And I doubled my word count overall from last year! Plus I did apply to a LOT of zines this year... I just unfortunately didn’t get in to nearly any of them. Next time maybe though! I’m a pinch hitter for a couple so that’s something at least!

It’s also been a year with lots of burnout and anhedonia for me, so brainstorming has been completely unachievable for most of the year. It’s been sad and I feel a little bad for my poor friends who love to brainstorm with me, but thankfully they have other sources. I’m scared to say anything, but I’ve felt more recently like maybe some interest is returning, so I’m crossing my fingers that it will still be there by the time FTH/Mirage&Mischief stuff is finished and school starts.

I actually met my goals this year too! In fact, my stretch goal had 25k posted, which I doubled in total and surpassed in written too, which is really impressive for me! Not to mention, I finished EVERY SINGLE fic I wrote this year!! That’s WILD for me. To be honest, it’s probably more a sad reflection on how I was writing purely for external deadlines rather than myself, but hey! Still got them all done and wrote a lot of words. Overall, thank you last year Sakarrie for keeping things achievable cause I actually did meet/exceed my goals! 

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

Well, I was a little relieved to find that I’d met them this year, so I think I’m going to try to keep things not too high again. Overall, though, I think I want to have a little more room for creative freedom in what I’m writing this year. For how little creative work I was doing, I did a TON of events, and at many times, those obligations stopped me from working on something I was feeling more inspired by. My fandom interests jumped all over this year (main focuses include: TOH, Merlin, Code Lyoko, The Sentinel, Dragon Prince, She-ra, Handplates (Undertale), and Centaurworld). Honorable mentions to Amphibia, SPN, and Miraculous Ladybug too... and that’s all just the stuff I’ve had long hyperfixations on this year. There’s tons of fandoms outside of those that also grabbed my attention on and off this year.)

Anyway, my hope is that I’ll be able to write similarly or more this year, but based on my own fickle inspiration, rather than only writing when I hate to for events. With that, I think I’m going to just stick with the Gencest Bang and zine obligations as the only writing events I’m planning on this year. I also hope to do Player Appreciation Week and Summergen again, but both of those could be art if needed. 

I also 100% failed in my comments goal from last year, but my mindset is slowly getting healthier I think. I do leave comments occasionally, but they still feel like way bigger deals than they should be. I’m getting better at letting old tabs go, though! I’m also fairly behind on responding to comments of my fics, but that one’s a lot more manageable.

Additionally, I want to have a pinned post on my tumblr page and ao3 profile page where people who are interested can see my current status on projects. I don’t expect it would be updated all the time, but it might help me keep track of everything.

Okay so! Goals for next year: -Have a solid zine portfolio -Make pinned update post -Post at least 4 stories -Embrace/follow the inspiration -Finish first draft A Long Ways Home -Gencest Bang -Summergen Exchange -Code:Swap -Player Appreciation Week -Apply to more zines

So, finally work counts goals are...

Easy Goal Word Count Goal: 20k (at least 10k posted)

Stretch Goal (aka, if I don’t die from school agAIN): 60k (at least 30k posted)

Ultimate 2021 Word Count Goal: 38k

[pokimoko]

Poki's Top 10s for 2023

I ended up enjoying a great many new pieces of media this year so, for no reason other than doing it for myself, I thought I do a roundup of all the ones I loved the most. So, in no particular order, here are some lists.

Top 10 TV Shows*:

Severance

Ted Lasso

The Last of Us

The Fall of the House of Usher

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

A League of Their Own

Fionna and Cake

Scavenger's Reign

Daisy Jones & The Six

Pushing Daisies

*excluding continuing shows I didn't start watching this year, such as 'Our Flag Means Death', 'Heartstopper', 'Doctor Who', 'The Owl House', and 'Good Omens'. They all certainly would have made it onto this list otherwise, but that wouldn't be fair to all the new shows I watched so instead they are getting listed here as honourable mentions

Top 10 Movies:

Nimona

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3

Good Night Oppy

Sing a Bit of Harmony

CODA

A Silent Voice

The Truman Show

Stranger Than Fiction

Entergalactic

Top 10 Video Games*

Portal 2

Omori

The Wolf Among Us

Guardians of the Galaxy

God of War: Ragnarok

The Quarry

Gris

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

Control

*that I finished the main story for in 2023, so this list doesn't include any games I played but have not completed as of posting this (RIP 'Disco Elysium' and 'Tears of the Kingdom', maybe next year)

Top 10 Books/Graphic Novels

'How It Feels to Float' by Helena Fox

'Project Hail Mary' by Andy Weir

'Dungeon Club: Roll Call' by Molly Knox Ostertag and Xanthe Bouma

'I Hope You Get This Message' by Farah Naz Rishi

'Red, White & Royal Blue' by Casey McQuiston

'Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues' by H.S Valley

'The Martian' by Andy Weir

'House of Hollow' by Krystal Sutherland

'Watch Over Me' by Nina LaCour

'The City We Became' by N.K Jemisin

Top 10 Podcasts

Wolf 359

The Silt Verses

Seen and Not Heard

Dust: Chrysallis

Life with LEO(h)

The Bright Sessions

StarTripper!!

In Strange Woods

Malevolent

Mistholme Museum

And that's it for 2023. Fare thee well, you wonderful, terrible, so-so year.

[deng-yi-deng]

Drama round-up 2023

This is one of the best drama years I've had since I started watching in 2019. I think I've finally learned when to drop and when to say - maybe another time.

there were some standouts, but for me the top three were:

Oh no! Here comes trouble

Ripe Town

Till the End of the Moon

reviews (in the order I watched things) under the cut

The Blood of Youth 少年歌行 (3.75/5)

2023 started off on an unexpectedly good note with a really fun well-done wuxia. It had lots of what I enjoy in a drama: ensemble cast of friends, good pacing, some humor, lots of fighting, and a fairly logical plot. Sure, there was a little bit of over-the-top silliness, but it's a wuxia, not a historical drama, so I enjoyed it. What it did not have a lot of was romance - which is fine - though there was a really sweet angsty sub-plot with two minor characters, one played by cutie Cao Yuchen, if that's your jam. Besides that sub-plot I personally didn't find any of the (many) other CPs had chemistry or added anything to the overall drama, and yes I am including those folks who ship the MLs.* Costumes, effects, and visuals were all great, and acting was ok. There was a mix of younger and more seasoned actors which I think helps. Ngl I immediately fell for Liu Xueyi as Wu Xin, and will be watching more of his dramas.

Weak points were the dubbing and (some) acting. VA was done by the donghua VAs, and it took me until 3/4 of the way through to get used to their voices with the actor's looks. Many didn't fit well, especially Xiao Se (Li Hongyi). Which brings me to the #1 weak point - Li Hongyi. His character should have been interesting, and thus was chosen as the main ML, but the man's face does not move. It really detracted from the whole drama, especially when the plot moved to revolving entirely around him and who would inherit the throne. I started to groan every time the camera focused on him and his unmoving upper lip and vacant expression. There were so many more interesting side characters - from the 'older generation' as well as the younger, that I wish we had spent time on instead of focusing on the imperial family power struggles.

*it is impossible to have chemistry with an inert substance

League of Nobleman - dropped

Grammar aside (yes, the English title annoyed the crap out of me) the production value and look of this drama was really good. The plot was fairly interesting but for some reason overall it didn't grab me and I dropped it around ep 10. I think this was because I had just soldiered through one lackluster male lead, and had to deal with one again in Song Weilong. Everyone else was good, and I heard that it got better towards the end, but I'll never know. The real problems for me were two fold: the lazy plot device of the water-hypnotism thing (this is supposed to be historical, not wuxia, so I am less tolerant of vaguely magical/occulty things that just happen to make solving the crime easier) and the fact that the drama was trying soooo hard to pretend to be a dangai and get you to ship absolutely everyone with the ML. If that's your thing, then you might enjoy it.

Under the Microscope 4/5

Dubious at first because of the slightly 'Rain man' treatment they were giving the ML. You also have to give it lots of drama leeway in terms of historical accuracy (w/r/t the role of the lawyer) which was done for obvious dramatic reasons.

If you can overlook those two things, it was satisfying - well paced, and well plotted. The look was much more realistic than typical costume dramas, and joy of joys, large portions of it used live audio (not dubbed) which gave it even more of a realistic feel. I wasn't completely sold on Zhang Ruoyun's performance, though I do think he's a good actor - it might have been the writing or direction, difficult to know. I'm fairly sensitive to portraying neurodivergent characters. All the supporting characters and their performers were really good which is what eventually won me over.

Till the End of the Moon 4.5/5

This should probably rate it's own post. I've defended the ending once, and will do forever - it is not a BE. It fit the themes of the drama perfectly. This drama will either continue to be divisive, or everyone will move on with their lives. It won't leave me though, I'm scarred for life. (the personal emotional damage is what earned it the extra .5 in my rating. I've never cried this hard over a drama ending.)

So far this is the only xianxia I've seen that manages to be about more than romantic love. Though it stuck to some familiar plot devices - the three arcs, destiny/fate, multiple cps - it was about so much more than the main cp and I hope paves the way for more like it, turning away from tired tropes and towards a literal xianxia - the story of Immortal Heroes - not just fairy-tale love.

The biggest flaws (outside of Xixi's inconsistent heavy makeup and an overuse of sparkly effects that obscured the action during fight scenes) can be blamed pretty squarely on the NRTA rules. Tantai Jin was a bit too whitewashed. Li Susu's character arc was difficult to follow because of all the many many cuts. I was very frustrated towards the end as the majority of really brutal editing seemed to be done in the last arc - it made the plot confusing and character motivations - especially for Li Susu - unclear. Overall, it was good but could have been even better if we had all the episodes and production had gone even further with the Dunhuang aesthetic and farther from typical xianxia/wuxia tropes.

Oh No! Here Comes Trouble 5+/5

I was worried I'd need to give up cdramas forever after the emotional beating I took watching TTEOTM. Luckily tumblr came through and kept putting gifs of this on my dash. An absolute gem. Funny and heartfelt drama about paranormal investigation, friendship, family relationships, death and grief, high school bullying - it really had it all. Twelve episodes were not enough!!! It's rare that I can literally say "I laughed, I cried" about any show but it was true for this one (and maybe the Good Place.) The friendship among the characters, and their really supportive families was so heartwarming. Which was needed since there were also lots of dark themes about isolation and loneliness, abuse, and death. The attention to detail in the sets and character names and backstories were so clever, it was obvious how much love the production had for the show. My only quibbles are that the first couple eps that set the characters were a little long to get through, other than that a practically perfect drama in every regard.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook - on indefinite hold

Not as good mystery-wise as Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty but mostly fun. Decent acting (this is the first time I've watched CY and he's OK, if not particularly compelling for me.) I should have liked this more because as a wuxia/mystery it's absolutely 100% up my alley but found myself falling asleep during some episodes - there is way too much exposition and not enough 'show' when it comes to the mystery solving aspect. I most definitely skipped all the tender scenes between CY and CDL's characters (🤮).

I ended up putting it on hold, but I might pick it up again for Xiao Shunyao's character. I think the main reason people went bonkers for this drama on tumblr was because they loved shipping the MLs, which - whatever.

Hikaru no Go 5/5

Finally watched this after having it on the list for a couple years and it was absolutely as good as people said it was. Touching and sweet without being overly sentimental. The child actors were fabulous - I was almost sad to see them grow up and be replaced by the main actors. Each character really feels like they're a complete person, their motivations and actions are individual and understandable. Who knew I'd love a drama based on a manga about Go?

Ripe Town 5/5

Everything about this short drama was absolutely top notch. It was like watching a prestige western drama or mini-series. I want more of these, please! Luckily I've heard that Tencent is making a series (like iQiyi's "light on") that will specialize in these shorter dramas.

The cinematography was gorgeous and set the mood so well. Acting was excellent from everyone. The plot was TIGHT. The pacing was ON. Direction was so good. Audio was live, not dubbed for most of it (aaaaaaaah my beloved ambient audio.) I looked forward to each new episode and lamented that there were only 12. The suspense built with every episode as we learned the backstories of our characters and what happened 20 years ago. There was even humor - dark, adult humor, not slapstick. The only slight failing for me was the very very end - there's an unnecessarily twist that, while it didn't ruin the drama, didn't really help it either, and in fact muddied some of the character motivations somewhat. Aside for that would have been the best cdrama I've ever seen.

Love is Panacea - dropped

Yet another modern drama starring my favorite actor that I simply could not get through. Sorry Xixi. He and Zhang Ruonan were both good (though her stiff faced kiss scenes were not) but the plot was a melodramatic mess that overshadowed a really sweet message about facing adversity. The direction made it look like a cheesy idol drama in spots, and the secondary characters (Dr. Gu's family) were beyond annoying. Please let him stop acting in these sub-par modern dramas. I have no idea why it did so well on CCTV8 other than the fact that he looked stunning through most of it.

The Story of Kunning Palace 3.75/5

Honestly not entirely sure how to rate this, but out of all similar dramas I've ever watched this was pretty well paced and generally well acted. I definitely looked forward to each episode but did eventually find myself 2x'ing through some of the slower scenes and romantic longing looks with the OST in the background (yawn.) The revenge plot was well done, and more interesting than the 'who will she pick' romance plot, though even I found myself rooting for one of our MLs more than the other (even though it was obvious who would get the girl).

The biggest downside for me was the directing - the spins, the terrible backlight - it was so dated and so noticeable that it took me out of the drama. Though Bai Lu did a good job, I won't say it was her strongest performance. Zhang Linghe was criticized for his performance and at first I disagreed strongly. His character was a little exaggerated but it's a costume drama, come on. Around ep 32 though I understood what people meant. His character was too unhinged to be taken very seriously - I mean, how many times can you stab yourself without the audience thinking you're nuts? His shouting and throat grabbing was just a bit over the top and was more like deranged stalker behavior than hopelessly obsessed lover. How much of that was direction (see my earlier criticism) I don't know, but at the end...he's all fine. Gets the girl, loves kitties, etc. etc. Ngl, I did not expect such a pat HE and it kind of didn't fit. Folks who love HE loved it though.

[formulaorange]

2022 End of the Year Anime Summary

2022 has been a hell of a year. Here's everything I've watched and the awards for the top series!

We've completed 83 shows this year!! A total of 1132 episodes! Which adds up to 415 Hours or 17 and a half days! My 2022 top 3 shows were: Ousama Ranking/King's Ranking Summertime Render Bleach: Thousand year Blood war Honorable mentions: Spy Family Vinland Saga Sabikui Bisco Aoashi

We increased our standards a little and dropped a few more shows than last year: Couple of Cuckoos Devil as a Part Timer S2 Uncle from another World When will Ayumu make his move Akiba Maid Wars Keep it Cool Guys It's been a solid year for anime watchers, we got some highly anticipated releases and long awaited reboots. Here's a sneak peek at what we should look forward to for 2023: Vinland Saga S2 - JAN Misfit of Demon King Academy S2 - JAN Tokyo Revengers S2 - JAN The Vampire Dies in No Time S2 - JAN Demon Slayer S3 - APR Dr. Stone S3 - APR KonoSuba S3 - APR Hell's Paradise - APR MASHLE - APR Ousama Ranking S2 - APR Oshi no Ko - APR Jujutsu Kaisen S2 - JUL Bleach Thousand year Blood War Part 2 - JUL Needless to say, it'll be a stacked year and will definitely keep us busy. Here's to 2022 and what 2023 has in store!! 🎉

2021 Anime Summary - Link

[oh-a-very-toxic-octopus]

Read in 2023

[muffinlance]

State of the Muffin Report 2023-24

Happy belated birthday to my fanfics! Little Zuko turned six back in March. <3 

Behold, my annual roundup stats, because you can get fanfic from the math teacher but you can’t get the math out of the fanfic:

[id: Screenshot of an excel spreadsheet showing my 2023-24 word counts. Important info is that over six stories, I wrote 104k words, for a monthly average of 8.6k and a daily of 284 words. End id.]

Fanfic:

After not touching the birthday fic itself since 2019, Little Zuko v the World is finally finished! Woooo.

Otherwise, a slow-but-steady sort of year on the fanfic front.

Serious Face Writing & RL:

Li’s Friends has now raised $4,206.21 USD for wildlife charity, not counting gift matches. <3

Finished the second book in my original fic series, Fox’s Tongue; The Skin Stealer’s Son officially launched yesterday! (Affiliate link, so that if you happen to buy it, Amazon pays me extra money for the privilege.)

I also created a secondary tiny human, and she is a DELIGHT. She was last seen a half hour ago crawling after her brother like a particularly aggressive tripod, Hop on Pop in one hand, and slap-screaming at it until he read it to her. My children. <3

Year Six (2024-25) Goals

Fanfic: 

Gonna finish the new case of Dark Night in Ba Sing Se. Gonna finish it so good. (This is a donation fic for the winner of my Fandom Trumps Hate charity auction and is therefore due by the end of the year, so woo artificial timelines! Ah external motivations, how I missed you from my school days.)

I’m incredibly excited for Blindsiding Badgermoles, and have that same lovely external motivation in the form of my sensitivity reader, so planning to focus on that this year.

Finish the current book of Towards the Sun. We’re currently on the final field trip, so that should be very doable. —I say, using the exact same wording for the third year in a row. Honestly this one’s less a goal than a joke to see how many years it’s actually going to take me. And hey, I’ve been making progress! We now have the delight that is Lady Jun! Third year’s the charm?

Serious Face Writing & RL: 

Get a solid start on Fox’s Tongue Book Three, Face of the Wolf King.

Get out large print editions of the first two books.

Continue raising children.

Special thanks this year goes to First and Secondborn, who blessed me with the ability to still manage over 100k in a year, which is way more than I anticipated at this time last year.

Cheers,

MuffinLance

[jariten]

Recurring themes in 2023: my year of lesbian and yuriful manga

Doing this a little different when summarizing 2023. Since I stuck to my decision to not start buying any new licensed series and mainly did cultural catchup for both english and japanese manga I didn't really read enough hot new releases in 2023 for them to warrant a list of their own as they usually do. So to catch up on the months without a roundup as well as a year end summary I will do some themed lists!

The first came to easy since a noticeable trend was how much lesbian and yuri manga i made time for. For clarity I make a subjective distinction of lesbian and yuri works, just as some works I'm more inclined to describe as a Gay or LGBT story rather than a BL if it wasn't published in a BL imprint or invests time to do cultural or social commentary. Now to the list:

Among my favorite lesbian manga read in 2023 are: The Girl That Can't Get A Girlfriend by Mieri Hiranishi Moonlight Flowers by Mutsumi Tsukumo Indigo Blue by Ebine Yamaji Umibe no Kain by Minori Kimura

I won't reiterate too much as I already talked about it in a roundup but Hiranishi gave an extremely refreshing perspective on being a woman who loves masculine women, the dark story of her first heartbreak and the path forward. Love that Viz took the initiative to give her a graphic novel edition and promote her platform by licensing The Girl That Can't Get a Girlfriend. I've always found women's manga to be a not that secret treasure trove of lesbian stories yet I hadn't read the classic that is Moonlight Flowers... Just a truly suspenseful and romantic story of lesbian love as liberation and freedom that I can't recommend enough. Just with a clear warning of depictions of intimate partner violence that could be upsetting.

Yamaji has a well known track record of exploring lesbianism as well as bisexuality and I think Indigo Blue was extremely interesting in its explooration of the protagonist and her journey to figuring out what she wants as she's caught between two relationships. Another story of a woman's journey to confront who she is and what she wants: Umibe no Cain was a rather heartbreaking story of a young woman seeking refuge with a woman older than herself and as they start forming a frienfdship she begins to face the hurt and trauma she faced from her mother. But as the two women grow closer their relationship might take a turn that they can't come back from.

In the yuri-ish category: Kimi no Kureru Mazui Ame by Kaiko Fuyumushi OL to Ningyo by Mai Shiba

Won't reiterate too much of Kimi no Kureru Mazui Ame as I already talked about it in a roundup but love bite sized depictions of a miserable adolescence and toxic yuri but not quite. And if you found yourself taken by the more supernatural stories in this collection then may I recommend OL to Ningyo? Described by the author themselves as yuri-ish this collection depicts the bonds of human girls and their non-human counterparts. Humans, vampires, tengu, mermaid, and oni all face their own challenges and conflicts both romantic and otherwise.

In the Now That's What I Call Yuri category: Natsu to Lemon to Overlay by Ru & Miyako Miyahara Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta (The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All) by Sumiko Arai Sukeban to Tenkousei by Fujichika

Natsu to Lemon to Overlay is the manga adaption of a yuri award winning novel novel that I picked kind of at random. An aspiring voice actress struggling to make any career moves are requested by a mysterious woman to read the obituary at her own funeral. What happens next will warm your heart. The Guy She Liked is one where I'm just going to assume most if not all of you are aware of so I'm just going to say that I like it and am looking forward to the next volume 👍 And last but not least: an adorable 80's throwback with some truly heartwarming moments and developments not to mention very funny: Sukeban to Tenkousei by Fujichika

[jeffstormer]

I was asked to write about one of my favorite TTRPGs of 2023 for Polygon's year-end roundup.

I was very excited to get to gush about @decovulous's MASKS OF THE MASKS, a game that embodies everything I love about superhero comics and TTRPGs.

[sysig]

2023 Art Purge

Original edition! Ended up having to split the doodles into two parts, I didn’t mean to end up with so many left over but oops - onto the commentary!

Remember crayon Edgar? I drew this one at the same time! Loosely based off Circus Baby but really just more of a general cutesy look - layering with colours is fun :)

Eyes, every year. Two general eyes, and two characters! Bottom left is Souichi, and bottom right is Vivian :) Vivian always gets a spare eye haha

Some concept art for a false backpack I still kinda wanna make - it’d be a prop for a game I made earlier this year, as the prize container! It’s meant to be kind of like a pop-up shop that can fold away fairly small and hold a bunch of small items safely and inconspicuously, though it wouldn’t actually work as a real backpack lol

Some Cherubsona concept art, thinking about their hair and the light rays - I considered having a single asymmetrical hair tuft, I think while I was still on the fence about having asymmetrical wings as well - I’m happy with the final design :)

And some baby angels! Based on my DQIX/AGE headcanons/actual canon lol, took a few tries to get a design I was happy with before settling on the bottom-most one with the fuzzed ears, lolling about haha. Cute!

Also thinking about “Fallen” designs, since my cherubsona is meant to be a fallen angel - or even just biblically accurate angels! Maybe they became more normal-looking after falling haha

More Charm doodles based on the Hungry idea - neither Frankenstein nor Zombies were quite what I was looking for, but they were close! Poor Charm, even if it is a Look

More eyes! Concept sketches of the Yanderapy boys :D Mitsu’s swirls and Ishida’s sleepy ♥ eye expression haha

An alternate panel of Mitsu being shy to admit his love language haha, I wanted his expression to be a little more visible but him hiding in the book is also very cute haha

Little doodle of Ishida singing Daisy Bell! He’s half-crazy all for the love of Mitsu after all

Technically these are from later in the year but I was really hoping to have the set up for a silly concept rolling - Ishida wants to play a game! The game would allow each of them to take a turn, with the goal of the game to be to sneak a gift into the other’s bag or pocket when he’s not looking. A cute and silly and fun concept to reverse pick-pocket the other and give a little treat! Totally harmless and not at all strange or weird or with any kind of underlying sinister vibes!

The punchline of course was that since they’re both yanderes that it basically turns into stalking each other, which as featured here, Mitsu is very into, who could have guess lol. The double punchline is that they’re both so aware of/obsessed with each other that they notice each other right away, but play along because it’s obvious that they’re both enjoying it haha It’s yandere enrichment! Ishida would also get a real rush from “hunting” Mitsu, as would Mitsu enjoy being “hunted” - yet more twisted love languages ♥

Random deer :) Actually one of the animals I considered for Dahlia early on but decided to scrap, because I don’t know how to draw deer lol

Also went through a couple scrapped designs for her artist friend, just to make sure I explored all my options thoroughly! I’m glad I did, but I’m happiest with the one I decided on, of course

Brief Dahlia and Tala meeting. They’re unsure of each other! Squirrels and dogs don’t have the best track record admittedly

Bit of vent :( Bar’s always good for it ♥

Bucket! :D Been a bit since I drew anyone from that cast, though I somehow made him on-model by accident lol, and of course he’s still cute! That’s the important part really

Eyesssssssss <3 <3 On the left were some quick comparisons between dot/filled-in eyes and eyes with a differentiated pupil and iris, since I’ve been defaulting to dark eyes a lot lately (it’s the Vargas influence lol); and on the right were a bunch of Cure eyes! I think at least partially studied off of some character creators? Lots of eye styles to choose from, which one suits her the best hmm. She has very sparkly eyes

And another sort-of study off a character creator haha, it’s very cute! Not very Cure, though

One of the early ideas that made me want to dig her out of storage was actually an animation idea that was maybe a liiiiiittle ambitious to go about making without her having a fixed design lol - I’ve always been a fan of magical girl transformations that completely glow-blot out the body and then they explode into frills and bows and fluff at the end haha. I would still like to come back to the idea at some point!

Ended up with a good handful of muscle studies, even after the ones I already posted - a lot of the poses ended up silly haha

And a lot of skull/face/neck studies as well, with mixed success :P

I’ll get it figured out eventually!

Sometimes it’s fun to just doodle around, shapes :) My own original human style feels so constantly in flux with the fanart I like to make and having so many non-human characters haha, probably doesn’t help that I prefer high stylism

A trio! They look kinda familiar, hmmm....

Yet more eyes lol, the first trying to figure shines. You can really see what a lack of editing does to the implied shapes pfft ♪

Always trying to figure out how to dragons! Another one I’ll have to get to Someday. There’s gotta be a trick to them >:0

Out of general studies and tests - hey I thought Just Desserts already had a sona??? And that she was like the most important and best and all that?? I got curious what my sona might be in the JD universe without being the villain haha, and I came up with a Chocolate-Chip Brioche Bun lad! :D I’ve always had something of an affinity for brioche, also somewhat inspired by Edgeworth’s cravat haha. But would Charm still exist and be wreaking havoc, or would this be the alternate universe Charm equivalent?? ‘Cause they’re definitely not “Charm”

Speaking of Charm tho! She’s holding a tooth lol - something something, candy people mining teeth? Because cavities? I dunno lol, but she’s certainly not all that much bigger than a tooth so that’s some fun scale for you :)

And finishing off with some cutesie little chibis :) I made the first as a reference for proportions, and the second to show how my holosona would look in that style haha, what a cute evil computer

[sterekbingo]

Sterek Bingo 2023-2024 roundup!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this round of SterekBingo! We had 45 people sign up for the main bingo, 15 for our Valentine's event, and 13 for our Winter edition.

Some stats for the year! We had 119 fan works for our main bingo, 19 for our Valentine's Event, and 25 for our Winter edition! We're loving all these amazing new Sterek works!

Here are the Bingo winners from this past year 😁

Main Bingo Event

EvanesDust (card 1) i've known it from the moment that we met (no doubt in my mind where you belong) "That’s fate." "Darling, you look perfect tonight."

Alikatastic The Descendant Unconventional Activities The Beginning Of The End The Flu and Human Bodies

EvanesDust (card 2) i’ll love you more with every breath  The Rental Boyfriend i know that it might sound (more than a little crazy but i believe) today

EvanesDust (card 3) kids say (and do) the darndest things  perfect slice of life  The Great New Year's Eve Stand-off of 2023 the best start to a new year 

pinkviper Moonburnt See Me In Hindsight At Ease In Your Own Shell  Some Like It Hot (Take It All Off) 

alicetallula 'My Anchor' "My, my... What big teeth you have~" "Let's sceal the deal with a kiss, big guy~" "What ?!"

Winchesterek You and I Collide sails & tides burnt cookies for always 

Winter

Winchesterek the promise of more ornaments and traditions All I Want For Christmas sledding snow families

mcargentlinski wish come true  skating over frozen lakes just like this i saw papa kissing santa claus  i once believed love would be red, but its golden 

lgraewrites Knit One, Purl Two (I think I want to marry you) When the Stars No Longer Dance Warm and Cozy Meet Me Under the Mistletoe Cold Winter Night

EvanesDust dashing through the snow  a good surprise  it only took a minute  more than a maybe  more than enough 

Valentines

angeleyz4ever Cuddles Sterek Bingo  Weekend Away  Mates  Fated Love Once In A Lifetime Chance 

Escharis Lunatic Keep Faith Upon a Star  Hold me  Let's do it like they do it on the discovery channel

[negrowhat]

BL Superlatives of 2023

Instead of doing a roundup (which I still might do) I just decided to do my own Best of 2023 for the handful of BLs I watched this year.

Series I Finished for the Couple- A Boss and A Babe. The plot had way too much going on and a lot of the pieces didn't flow well and a lot of things really pissed me off. Also the only side characters I liked were Porsche and Jack. But I LOVED Boss Daddy Gun and his Cher Bear. They filled me with joy and warm fuzzies and I loved how dependent they were on each other. Gun got was able to let his guard down and Cher found someone he could be vulnerable with.

Love Scene the Made Me HOLLER- Love in Translation. YangPhumjai fucking nasty across their freshly opened convenience store. They fucked in front of the security cameras and with the way they were slamming each other into the shelves I'm surprised more merchandise wasn't all over the floor. 10/10 love scene. Also I adore YangPhumjai.

Messiest Plot-Moonlight Chicken. Between the cheating, crying, screaming, and fighting I was thoroughly entertained. They had my emotions all over the place. I loved the series in it's entirety. (No I haven't watched OF or that would've won lol)

Dilf of the Year- Jeng from Step By Step. Everything about that man screamed 'Daddy'. He was sweet but stern. A very gentle Dom. He ran multiple businesses. He wore dad jeans on his off days. He had a beautiful smile and a BANGING body. And all he wanted to do was cook and take care of Pat...maybe teach him a few thangs. Sigh yeaaaa He was Pat's daddy idc.

Most Likely to Get Jumped- Saengtai from La Pluie. Don't you dare lie and say you didn't want to fight him at SOME point in this series. Tai was just very selfish and did not know how to apologize. He blamed everyone else for everything and he acted like a spoiled brat through most of the series. And I for one wanted to beat him up a couple of times. He's so cute tho.

Best Dressed-Chen Yi x Ai Di from Kiseki: Dear to Me. One favored collars, sweaters, and bright colors and the other had more of a biker-streetwear-combat style and somehow they ended up matching 79% of the time. They looked good together. The stylists popped off.

Most Goodest Boy- Woo Seung Hyun from the New Employee. Just a sweet 28 yr old man eager to work and be his very best. His bubbly personality is easy to love and I just want to squish his face, kiss his forehead, and hug him for hours. I see why Jong Chan fell in love immediately.

Most Sad Boy-Seo Jae Won from The Eighth Sense. He shut himself off to the people around him and allowed terrible people into his life because he didn't care enough to show them who he was in real life, he covered everything with a mask and acted the way people would expect so they wouldn't seem him crumbling inside. He blamed himself for his brother's passing and also for Ji Hyun's accident. He felt like he deserved every bad thing that happened to him and every bad person in his life. Ji Hyun brought light into his life after being shrouded in darkness for so long.

Hottest Couple-KingUea from Bed Friend. The love scenes always delivered. That kitty play scene?????? There was consent everywhere which was also sexy. King was such a green flag and they were hot together. Uea wasn't afraid to be sexy and King was a bonafide bisexual himbo who refused to be shy about sex and all it entails. They were grown and sexy type of hot.

Hottest Scene-The oil rubbing scene from I Feel You Linger in the Air. Not explicit, but extremely sensual. You can feel the desire and tension in that rub down Jom gave Yai. And then Jom going into his room to rub himself down and relive the moment that just passed??? HOT AF. Personally, I think IFYLITA was the most sensual series I watched all year. The series focused a lot on intimacy and physical touch.

Most Potential-Step By Step. This series had all the makings of a perfect plot but then everything just sort of got away from them. The office part of the office romance sort of stepped on the romance part. There was too much business involved and it made the conflict between the two mains unnecessary and annoying. Also they completely neglected the side couple and made their storyline almost non-existent. The eps were long af and yet the time wasn't placed in the right parts of the storylines and some scenes felt like a waste...even some eps. It was a bummer because I liked all the characters and first leg of the series. JengPat are top notch and I wanted more from JaabJane.

Fave Side Dish-YiwaMarine from Wedding Plan. Ooops slipped some girls in! Gawd I LOVED THEM! Yiwa was such a sweet talker! She was def a smooth operator. That line about her liking being short so she could kiss Marine better????? SWOON! I could totally see why Marine could never stay mad at her and was always blushing. They were just the perfect pair of girlfriends turned wives and I'm sad we didn't get invited to their wedding.

[wolfpants]

my year in fic

It's 5am and I can't sleep, so what better way to keep me sane than this lovely roundup post @sorrybutblog tagged me in! Tagging @citrusses @getawayfox @oknowkiss @sweet-s0rr0w @tackytigerfic @skeptiquewrites @mallstars @sitp-recs @moonflower-rose @danpuff-ao3 @writcraft @wrapped-up and anyone else who sees this and wants to play too!

Sorted newest to oldest ✍🏻

Thickets | Drarry | E | 17.3k

When Draco returns to the UK after two decades of building his career as an internationally-renowned artist to look after his ailing, estranged father, he crosses paths with his former flame, Harry Potter, in the most unexpected way.

Waiting for the Moon to Rise | Drarry | E | 8.9k

When Harry and Draco move into Grimmauld Place straight out of Hogwarts, the last person they expect to find taking up residence is Bill ‘divorced, dishevelled, and dangerous’ Weasley. But what if their new, furry little problem is the help they need to finally bring them closer? Stranger things have happened, Draco supposes.

Terrible People | Drarry | E | 52.8k

What happens when Harry and Draco end up on the same Muggle gay cruise? They certainly didn't plan for it to happen (but their friends might have). They're stuck with each other for a week, they might as well make the most of it, right?

A Saviour's Guide to Manners and Decorum | Drarry | E | 13.1k

Honorary Minister Harry Potter (yes, he's fully aware his job title is meaningless, and he quite likes it that way) is a disaster at public events. After seven years of dealing with his boorish behaviour, cringey table manners, and clumsy dancing, the Ministry's press team take matters into their own hands and hire Wixen Britain's leading Etiquette and Deportment Expert, Draco Malfoy, to take on the challenge of cleaning up Harry's image before the Ministry's 300th Anniversary Celebration Gala.

Everybody Hates a Tourist | Drarry | E | 51.5k

On a stag do in sunny Brighton with the Gryffindor lads, the last person Harry expects to run into is Draco Malfoy. After a glimpse of Malfoy’s Muggle life in Britain’s gay capital, Harry’s curiosity gets the better of him and he finds himself returning to the seaside again and again, drawn to the city, drawn to this new version of Malfoy that Harry barely recognises from school.

Precious Metal | Ronarry, Dron, Drarry | M | 28k

Precious metal awaits in an abandoned, cursed cottage on the Isle of Jura. Ron’s illegal hunting ring is on it, but disaster strikes when he runs into a jumpy and suspicious Draco Malfoy, camped out where the treasure is hidden. What happens when they accidentally unleash a bond curse when both of them harbour feelings for the same man?

Trillium | Dronarry | E | 13.4k

Harry and Draco are shagging. Ron’s got a hunch, and the only way to find out is to volunteer his services alongside Harry’s in the Big Malfoy Manor Cleanup of 2010. What could possibly go wrong?

Kinkuary '23 | Various pairings | M - E

A collection of 28 short fics spanning different pairings and inspired by the Kinkuary 2023 prompts! A mix of M and E ratings. Expect rare pairs, Drarry, crossgen, group sex, dirtyhotwrong... you name it!