#THE FIRST FANFIC YOU'VE WRITTEN IN SIX MONTHS BITCH

[mehoymalloy]

Fic Author Self-Rec!

Thanks for the tag, @foibles-fables

The Rules: Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

Trying to run the gamut rather than going with recency bias (because Otohan, obvs~), so from oldest to most recent, we have:

Prometheus Bound (Aloy/Tilda van der Meer; Horizon Forbidden West, Rated M)

The fanfic I started writing for! This was my first "fine I'll do it myself" moment (because canon Horizon simply did not utilize Tilda to the best of all her manipulative, bitchy potential), as well as my first longfic! Also the first true sign of my thing about awful older women.

When the Darkness Comes (Silga & Untalla; Horizon Forbidden West, Rated M)

My Horizon Big Bang piece, and the first fic I ever wrote all at once before posting. Look I just adore these two NPCs that never meet in-game; they're now best friends because I said so and they hold a very dear place in my heart.

Let Me Lay Waste to Thee (Imogen Temult/Otohan Thull; Critical Role, Rated M)

Y'all. What can be said (Strap in I'm bout to say so much because I'm feeling especially sentimental, I should probably check my period tracker..) While working my way through c3, I got to ep33 (the "is she your favorite" episode), and instead of being traumatized by imodna angst, I saw the horrible awful murderous bitch tenderly and terrifyingly urging Imogen to give in and thought 'surely someone else has noted the Tension these two have.' Well APPARENTLY if anyone had they didn't do anything about it, because a couple weeks later I created their ship tag on AO3. Exploring this fucked up rarepair was the reason I picked back up writing after a six month break post-Big Bang, and ultimately Otohan became Thee Reason I kept writing. I never truly got the concept of a blorbo until Otohan (which is insane given we know next to nothing about her canonically and I just made everything up. Well, I extrapolated a lot but still I did so quite well imo). ANYWAYS, I love Themb. Y'all know this. Of course the first fic I wrote for them is my fave.

Unexpected Company (Grace/Athena; Stray Gods, Rated G)

If I somehow didn't realize I had a thing about awful old women, this made it embarrassingly obvious. I maintain that Grace and Athena really are wonderful foils to each other. I still absolutely intend to one day get back to the slow burn long fic I have for them, but this lil oneshot was such a fun way of dipping my toes into it through Athena's perspective.

A Dance With Danger (Imogen Temult/Otohan Thull; Critical Role, Rated T)

Obviously, Imogen and Otohan are tough to make work in a believable way (tho I like to think I do so well), especially when strictly constrained to a more canon lens. This fic was my way of tackling them from that strict angle, and my god was it difficult and immensely fun to write. 'What if Otohan attended the Jrusar ball waaaay back in ep 13?' was already a super fun concept, but taking an Imogen that was so much less knowledgeable and practiced with her powers and giving her the opportunity to get that information by literally dancing around this dangerous-but-can't-put-her-finger-on-why person? Mwah, they just WORK, people, I've been saying this for going on two years and I will keep saying it!

No tags from me but please feel free to nab and tag me, anyone who wants to~

[flutiebear]

Six Sentence Sunday

Luminerik, Mardi Gras AU. Terran is a dancer in the Soldiers of Smile, marching in a Mardi Gras parade. Erik spots him in the crowd. Sparks fly. This is nonsense, and I apologize for nothing.

(it’s also a lot more than six sentences but I figured y’all wouldn’t mind)

(also sorry for the second person present. I tried to move away from it, but turns out I can’t write this asshole without getting all up in his business apparently but again I APOLOGIZE FOR NOTHING)

And that's when you see him: A vision in velvet and feathers, with broad shoulders and jaunty hips and hair as sleek as the silk on his thighs. Like the other Soldiers of Smile, he's wearing a doublet and tights, but whereas the rest of the marchers wear green and scarlet, he wears royal purple—the color of princes. Of kings.

He spots you, too.

For a split second, he loses the beat.

A heartbeat later, he finds it again. And now he is shaking his quite literal tail feathers, a collection of massive lavender plumes fanning out from his backside, none of which could have come from any real member of the animal kingdom, not unless ostriches now come 50 feet tall.

It's ridiculous. He's ridiculous. This whole damn holiday is ridiculous, and you love it; you have never loved anything more.

The dancer twirls closer, showing off a devastating pirouette and even more devastating backside, and your heart skitters against your ribcage like it might escape. He reminds you of the dolphins that sometimes strafe your Catalina at sunrise and sunset; how they leap and gambol so freely, with nothing tying them down and nothing holding them back—the way you've always wanted to, but never could.

Throwing his hands into the air, he grapevines toward you. Over his face is a mask in the shape of a butterfly. You wonder what he looks underneath. Hideous, probably. At least, you hope so. No one person should be this beautiful, this luminous.

Suddenly, you realize he's not just dancing toward you, but that he's actually coming toward you. But it's too late for you to flee. He's right in front of you.

Your breath catches in your throat.

He leans toward you, close enough that you can see the ocean-blue eyes twinkling behind the porcelain mask. For a brief, wild moment, you think he is going to kiss you. But that would be ridiculous, too. So ridiculous, in fact, that you can't move, you can't breathe, for how ridiculous the thought is.

While you stand there, dumbstruck, still as a statue, he slides a strand of beads around your neck. His fingers linger on your throat for the barest fraction of a second, skimming along the necklace that Mia made you when she was six.

That slight touch is a bolt of lightning.

Catching your eye, he gives you a meaningful look, one that shoots down your spine and ignites your heart, and just like that, you know the answer to every question you've never asked; you know precisely who you were meant to be; you know you would lay down your life for this complete stranger; and just when you think he'll ask you to, just when you think you will—gladly—follow wherever he leads you—  

—he winks.

Then he is gone.

The parade marches on. The beat marches on, and on, and on. But you—you are forever changed.

You have no idea who that guy was.

But you will.

[makeste]

I was glad to see you enjoyed my Top 10 ask. You did mention you had a ranking for the arcs - would you do a ranking for them? Like, worst to best? (My guess (of the arcs you've finished): Internship arc, Hero Killer Arc, License Exam, USJ, Intro Arc, Culture Fest, Battle Trial, Pro-Hero arc, Final Exams, Sports Fest, Camino Ward, DvKp2; since you haven't liveblogged Joint Training Arc yet, no clue.) Just curious.

good morning evening everyone, and welcome to another Wednesday episode of “makeste tries to answer asks from two months ago while on the bus.” this one is a bit of an interesting challenge since it involves ranking and that always takes me a long time, but as you said, I did have an ongoing ranking of the arcs in my head, so we’ll see. at the very least the ones at the beginning and end shouldn’t be too hard, and you can probably guess them already. (in fact, you actually did.)

(ETA: yeah this took me two sittings to do, so I ended up posting it on the ride home lol. I just like BnHA you guys. almost as much as I like talking about how much I like it!)

okay so here goes.

14. Basement arc - yeah so let’s just go ahead and get this over with. this is the one and only BnHA arc that I actually dislike. fortunately it’s an outlier and suffered from a bunch of one-time issues, most of which stem from the fact that Horikoshi was apparently trying to write a longer and darker arc than usual. well he succeeded! and thankfully learned his lesson. and at least this arc gave us Eri and Mirio and some good Kirishima flashbacks and Chekov’s Quirk-Be-Gone bullets and the Highway to Hell. hopefully the anime can improve on the rest.

13. Provisional License arc - okay, so it might surprise a few people that this arc is all the way down here. let me explain. this is a perfectly fine arc, and I like it well enough, but it’s a bit longer than it needs to be, and not that much happens in it aside from our introduction to best boy Yoarashi Inasa, and the Great Toga Conspiracy (which is admittedly excellent). there are some great moments (Aoyama doing his best impression of “THE BEACONS ARE LIT” from RotK comes to mind), but overall it’s fairly forgettable, and it suffers from being placed directly in between my two absolute favorite arcs, which means I have a tendency to overlook it, which isn’t really the arc’s fault.

12. Hero Killer arc - this one is interesting because I really lost patience with it during my first read-through, but strangely enough when I watched it in the anime I actually really enjoyed it. it was also much shorter than I remembered. I’ve belatedly realized that reading it while doing commentary really slowed me down, because for the parts that I wasn’t feeling, doing the commentary took a long time and also left me dwelling on a lot of the things I didn’t like. but in actuality, Stain’s Annoying Rants aside, this is a pretty enjoyable arc full of Big Hero 6 flashbacks, hot revenge-driven Iida, Gran Torino’s introduction, Deku learning full cowl, Bakugou’s Best Jeanist internship, and Todoroki saving Deku and Iida’s lives by being glued to his phone when he really should have been paying attention to his own internship. get off that social media already Shouto.

11. USJ arc - this is a great arc, but it just feels small compared to everything that happens afterward. but it’s fun to look back on because there are lots of little hints for future developments to come. the traitor theory, for instance. and this is also our introduction to the League and to Tomura and the Noumu. and that final fight between All Might and the Noumu is still one of my favorite scenes in the whole series, especially in the anime. it’s so fucking good you guys. shit.

10. Intro arc - just FYI, I lump everything from the first chapter up until USJ into one arc since it’s easier. anyways, so this is roughly on the same level as USJ, but gets a slight edge because there are some iconic moments here. namely, the first chapter (which is still one of the best shounen intro chapters I’ve ever read, if not the best); Kacchan VS Deku 1; the entrance exam; and our introduction to the rest of class 1-A, particularly Ochako and Iida. oh, and Aizawa! gotta love how he starts out all ready to expel some bitches only to wind up falling in love with the whole class. fatherhood agrees with him.

9. Band AU arc - I actually love this arc. I just love all of the ones above it on the list a bit more, and I can’t really justify it being any higher than this. but it has The Band and the Babysitting Squad and Mirio being the best big brother in the world and Eri being just ridiculously, astonishingly cute. Gentle and La Brava are also great villains, if not quite my favorites. there are a few questionable plot holes in the arc, and it lacks any sort of big impact on the rest of the series, but it’s basically a canon filler arc and it’s so much fun and I can’t wait to see it animated.

8. Fanfic Lodge arc - you guys this arc started out so fucking cute and ended up so fucking tense. and this was our intro to the League of Villains proper, including Spinner, Twice, Tuxedo Mask, the prodigal Todoroki son, and my best girl Toga. Deku VS Muscular is still hard for me to read (his liiiiiiiimbs) but it’s one of Deku’s best moments regardless. and the angst at the end of the arc is almost unparalleled. god I love it.

7. Final Exam arc - a.k.a. the one where all the kids team up with each other to shoot their teachers in the fucking face. this arc has it all: Momo character development, Bakugou character development, TodoMomo, BakuDeku, and Aizawa being a total badass. (and All Might too, but he’s kind of overkill tbh. which is its own kind of awesome though.) there’s so much good stuff in this arc that this description is a bit vague because if I got any more specific we’d be here all day. it’s just a lot of good stuff that I like.

6. Joint Training arc - dudes I love this arc so much. class B and their array of ridiculously awesome quirks! class A and their impeccable teamwork! Bakugou joining the OFA Scooby Squad and showing off his new WIN AND RESCUE COMBO! Monoma! Shinsou!! SIXQUIRKS!!! god there’s so much great content.

5. Endeavorhawks arc - this arc would be even higher except that it’s a bit short (though it’s perfectly paced, so that might actually be a plus) and it doesn’t feature as many of my faves. but Hawks’s intro + our intro to The Great Noumu Conspiracy + Todoroki Family Drama + some of the best character development I’ve seen in a shounen manga (god I still can’t get over what a ballsy move it is to try and redeem Endeavor) = solid gold. and it’s so well done. and caps off with one of the best plot twists in the series to date, which sets up what promises to be one hell of an interesting arc later down the line. just. it’s so good. possibly the best-written arc to date, even if it doesn’t quite top my list.

4. My Villain Academia arc - and this isn’t even done yet!! and it’s still already this high!! Tomura flashbacks! Toga flashbacks! TOUYA FLASHBACKS???! (we’ll see??) creepy cults! my new favorite character One-Handed Giran, the biggest badass in the whole fucking series! worldbuilding for days! Dr. Robotnik! more Noumu shit! etc. etc. this arc has been non-stop goodness and I almost feel spoiled at this point.

3. Sports Festival arc - the most fun of all the arcs. I have rewatched the cavalry battle in the anime like a bazillion times. there used to be this show on Nickelodeon called Wild & Crazy Kids where kids teamed up for all these zany competitions (water balloons were usually involved), and I fucking loved that show, and parts of this arc kinda have that same kind of spirit. it’s just fun. and then to top it all off we have our Shouto character development, as well as Bakugou’s little character arc that he also has which is excellent. not to mention what is probably Ochako’s most badass moment to date. love it.

2. Kamino arc - guyyyys where do I even start? this arc is perfection. good VS evil. All Might taking a stand even when he’s got nothing left in the tank, because the world needs him and he won’t let them down. the sheer visceral terror of AFO’s introduction. my favorite character getting fucking kidnapped and being brave AF and his friends rallying to save him yesssss. and the reveal of All Might’s secret, which is arguably the most powerful scene in the series. I get chills every time. “my heart is still the heart of the symbol of peace.” if All Might had announced at that moment that he was starting a new religion I would have been like “yeah okay.” I would follow him to the ends of the earth. how can one man be that selfless and brave. anyways this arc is absolutely incredible and objectively one of the best in all of shounen.

1. Deku VS Kacchan Part 2 - nothing to see here, just two boys who’ve known each other since they were in diapers, who’ve done everything together and have always been together but have never actually understood each other until now. just the two of them finally opening up to each other, because the one who always tried to act so tough actually isn’t that tough, in truth, and in spite of everything, he trusts the other enough to let his guard down around him this one time. just two rivals, sorting out their shit and figuring out what it all really means. and their dad, helping to facilitate the whole thing because he knows that one day, somewhere down the road, this bond between them will mean absolutely everything. is this really even an arc?? it’s only like six chapters, and only one event actually takes place. but do I care?? yeah, no. Deku and Kacchan’s relationship is the series to me, so yeah. to me it counts as an arc. and not just any arc, but the best arc.

so there you have it! I hope I haven’t accidentally left something out lol. but this should hopefully be a pretty definitive list, at least for now. looking back at all of this really makes it sink in just how good of a story this is, though. damn.