#aniron48

[themirokai]

Hello there! Maybe 3, 29, or 30, if you haven’t answered some of these yet?

And my New Year’s resolution is to finally watch The Sandman so I can catch up on the intriguing fics I keep seeing come across my dash! Excited about this. 😁

Hello and thanks for the ask! I am thrilled that you're going to watch Sandman. :-D Obviously I highly recommend it.

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

I got asked this twice, which gives me the opportunity to give two answers! For you, to further tease the Sandman stuff, I'll say it's The Century Gentleman. This is a straight up post-canon getting together story, which isn't usually what I write and I'm proud that I feel like I pulled it off pretty well. This didn't get quite as much attention as some of my other Sandman work. Two reasons for that are that it was too long for me to post on tumblr and because a lot of people have written straight up post-canon getting together stories for this pairing, and a lot of those people are much better writers than me. I'm more than happy to dwell in my weird, fluffy, not-having-much-to-do-with-canon lane, but I was also proud of this one.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Oof, I've written a lot that I've liked this year, but we'll stick with this line from the Century Gentleman, since I do feel like it is a banger:

“You’ve given me an eternity,” Hob murmured, “and all I want from it is more time with you.”

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

The realities of writing for big new fandoms! I posted my first fic on AO3 in December 2020 and for most of 2021 I was writing Mystrade (Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade) fics in the Sherlock fandom. The Mystrade fandom is a fantastic group of people who gave me the kindest welcome to online fandom I ever could have asked for and they are a passionate and devoted group, but there's not a ton of people who are active. The other fandom I wrote for in 2021 was Person of Interest, which again has a small community of very lovely people, some of whom I am privileged to consider friends now. But in 2022 I watched and started writing fic for Arcane which had just come out in late 2021, and I latched on to the same pairing that a LOT of others did. The stats on my stories blew me out of the water. A whole bunch of people started following me on here! It was wild. And then I watched Sandman literally the day it aired and started writing for it and again the stats knocked my socks off. Now I'm writing these silly little non-romantic ficlets and lots of people are reading them and enjoying them and following me on tumblr? It's been a shock in the best way possible. I'm really glad I've had both the small intimate fandom experience and the big new fandom experience. But I'm extra glad I had the small fandoms first so that I can appreciate the difference.

Sorry, that was a very long answer! Thanks again for the ask!

Here's the ask game if others are interested!

[foxsoulcourt]

tis spring around here which means LoTs of purples

[thestalwartheart]

wip tag game

Thank you for the tag @patrice-bergerons! ❤️

RULES: Post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic / original / anything) and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence.

The last line I wrote was in a completely new 00Q fic I'm working on:

At least for six months it is.

Tagging @anyawen @dude-watchin-with-the-brontes @spiritofcamelot @eleanor-is-fine @l219tj @sweetbabyangels @aniron48

[cookiemom6067]

My spontaneous podfic of @aniron48's "in a space that they belong"

[foxsoulcourt]

Bookmarker’s Notes: Did this work smash into me, taking my breath away while I read it OR did it work on me like glacial ice, cleaving a line straight into my most tender heart?

Both. It did both. Simultaneously

How @aniron48 did this within 839 words is a deep mystery, but she did. I hope the experience is similar for you too.

My goodness, what a wonder. It’s s u b l i m e. 💜

for the age of the earth, and after

This short fic came a bit out of nowhere--I didn't plan it, I didn't anticipate it, and suddenly, here it was. It's a bit of steam with feelings, and I'll let it speak for itself, except to say that apparently this is what happens when you read about the Kantian idea of the sublime at an impressionable age. You can read it on ao3, or here, below the cut.

(Oh, and the lovely picture above is from Smithsonian Open Access: Mountains in Jamaica. It seemed fitting.)

It starts when Bond says, “Tell me how you like it,” and Q says, “Slow.”

They are fully undressed, standing next to Q’s bed, and this is already different from his usual, isn’t it: both of them bared to the other; no clothes left on that might conceal a weapon, no formalwear rucked hastily out of the way that has to be set to rights again, after, masking what they’ve done. Only the two of them, and nothing to hide.

And ‘slow’ isn’t something he’s indulged much, either—not in years, not since her, and not when desire, most days, is a stepping stone, and survival the other side of the river: stay too long in one place, and you might slip before you make it across.

But this is Q, finally and for the first time; Q who is lying down on the bed by the window, and even through the blinds, the light crests his body like dawn on the mountains. 

Bond sits down beside him, running a hand over the dip of his stomach, and the jut of his hip. “I learned mountaineering, as a boy,” he says, almost to himself. “They sent me out alone, with a compass and a map.”

“And what did you learn, out there in the wilderness?” Q asks, chasing his touch. “Perseverance and fortitude? A sense of direction?”

Bond lingers on Q’s chest, spreads his palms wide and runs gentle fingers across the nipples that are as sinfully red as Q’s mouth. “I learned how to pray,” Bond says, and he leans down to take one between his lips.

He can hear Q’s heartbeat, like this, close as they are, and then Q pulls him closer still, one arm around his back, and his legs entwined with Bond’s. He draws Bond up for a kiss, and whispers in his ear. 

“Set me to rights,” he says. “But take your time. Lots of lovely things take time.”

Bond was a navy man, before he was an agent, and he remembers how to take an order. He sets to work mapping Q’s body with his hands and mouth, a cartographer taking the lay of the land, and he thinks, incongruously, of the old family Bible, of the times he sat in church as a lad, hiding a smirk when the priest read aloud from the Old Testament about a patriarch who lay with his wife, and knew her. A clumsy euphemism, he’d thought then, but not now, not when it’s knowledge he craves above all else, to know Q as no one ever has.

”I want to know you by touch, after this,” Bond says. “I want to memorize you by inches.” He moves his fingers just so, showing Q what he means, and for a time, it seems all Q can do in response is breathe. But then—

“Glaciers,” he says, spreading his legs so Bond can move between them. “Glaciers travel by inches. Impossible to see with the naked eye, but they can cleave mountains in two. Create valleys and lakes as they go.”

Bond accepts the invitation, draping Q’s long legs over his shoulders and kissing each of his knees, pressing in, pressing close as Q cries out.

“‘Cleave’ is a contronym,” Bond says, his hands gentle on Q’s body as he waits for his breath to even out, and his grip to loosen. “It means itself, and its opposite. To split apart, or to join together.”

“And which,” Q asks, his voice unsteady in Bond’s ear, “do you mean to do to me?”

“Both, God help me,” Bond says, and he kisses Q like it’s an invocation. “Both.” 

His hips are moving almost involuntarily, now, and it’s a mercy for them both, though they stay as slow as they promised. Before tonight, Bond had always thought of creation as a furious thing, had imagined Earth formed in fire and catastrophe, in ice and violence. There’s some of that here, too, he thinks, a searing need coursing just below the surface like a river of molten rock. But the history of the Earth is so vast that it’s written in geologic time, in eons and eras, epochs and ages; in a call and response of oceans and mountains, faultlines and tectonic plates. In movements imperceptible but ceaseless, toward, and toward, and toward.

They were always headed here, Bond thinks, his muscles aching from the strain of keeping his rhythm steady as the need between them builds. They were always meant to come together like this, both of them perpetual forces building to a convergence that’s no less cataclysmic for all it’s been coming on by degrees. He wants to tell Q all of this—he means to tell him. But what he says instead is as much of a prayer as those he said as a boy, alone and in the Alps, staring down a glory that could destroy him. “Hold tight to me,” he says, and again, “hold tight,” and he does, and Q does, and they will.

[stinastar]

Last Line

Well, I haven't really been writing much lately other than random notes for things, and other than that, I have a number of WIP I've been bouncing between... IDK what the last line I actually wrote is, and this isn't really a line, but whatever, have this from a silly lambden modern au thing I may or may not properly write...

Lambert: I am never drinking again. I’m going to join a monastery. G: Yeah ok well I have to get to work, so Esk: Lily (the goat) is expected to give birth, so I have to check on her. Make sure you write.

Caring, loving bros, lol

tagged by @major-trouble 😘 tagging @alllthequeenshorses @bastardofmothman @veritasrose @newnamesamecharlotte @aniron48 @cicerfics and anyone who sees this and wants to join!

[aprettyspy]

Spring flowers 2023, West of Ireland

@bishybarnaby @foxsoulcourt @aniron48

[kettykika78]

the second step, light and shadows

First step of a 00Q image ispired by @aniron48 for FTH2023 THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WIP

[themirokai]

Your 00q-Mystrade crossover fic is amazing! I don't belong in either fandoms but I had fun reading. Do you have some recs for 00q fics? I have been curious about that ship thanks to gifs and your fic is looking to be my gateway drug into fanfiction.

Hi Anon! Thank you so much! I’m very glad you liked Sort It.

So, I’ve only really dipped a toe into 00q and I got to it through “Q as a Holmes brother.”

BUT I have some fabulous mutuals who are active in the James Bond fandom, and I’m hoping they can provide some rec lists.

@aniron48 @stormofsharpthings @saturn-in-retrograde can y’all help out? Or maybe spread this around? Anyone else have good 00q recs?

Thanks again Anon!

[themerc]

Fic Author self rec meme

thanks @anyawen for always tagging me <3 Idk who's been tagged already but let's try some of my faves, @mr-iskender @samanthahirr @boffin1710 @kitten-kin @aniron48 if any of you feel like it, would be interesting to see which ones of your works you'd pick as your favourites. I have relatively few works posted so far so I'm only going to rec three that are special somehow. To Tell The Good From Bad, Villains From Heroes Mission fic, 18 chapters, my entry for the 00Q RBB 2021. By far the longest and plottiest fic I've written so far, a NTTD fix-it of sorts, written before the movie even came out. Tenacity Another NTTD inspired piece that doesn't really fix anything, but Bond lives, if only because Q won't let him die. This fic is my personal favourite but also the outlet of all the pain that NTTD caused me, and fairly graphic. You've been warned.

The Best Proof Of Love A crossover with London Spy. WIP but fully plotted and outlined. A close collaboration with Anyawen and I believe, thanks to her, the very best I can produce - even though the reception hasn't quite been what I'd hoped for. It has also been dreadfully difficult to write at times. Still, it remains my feel-good story because I've enjoyed working on it very much and I just love the complicated relationships between all the main characters.

[foxsoulcourt]

I'm so.in.love with this series.

Bookmarker's Notes:

The way @aniron48 crafts the story of these two humans turning towards one another, at the beginning (2nd installment) + again later one (1st) is absolutely sCrUmPTiOuS. Love which arrives later in life has a tender sweetness that is different from anything else. There have been previous loves or maybe previous missteps, so when a match comes into view, goodness ... well, read how it happens for these two, savouring all the steps + poetry + tenderness involved.

An Ever-Fixed Mark

"It’s extraordinarily presumptuous of me, I know, but how would you feel about killing two of the proverbial birds with one stone?” Phillip shifted in his office chair, his errant heart beating fast again. “What did you have in mind?” “Well, Phillip,” Blanc said, his voice low and pleased, “if you’re amenable, I’d very much like it if you’d come with me to take a look at a painting.”

Or, Blanc and Phillip won't let a little thing like an intractable case get in the way of their first date.

It's safe to say that Benoit Blanc and Phillip have lived rent-free in my head for a while now, even more so since I wrote A Good Man last month. I couldn't resist writing a follow-up to that fic, An Ever-Fixed Mark, which is now up on ao3.

This story follows directly on the flashback section of A Good Man, which is about the night Phillip and Benoit Blanc met. I'd recommend reading that one first, but you don't necessarily have to in order to enjoy this one. An Ever-Fixed Mark includes a first date, fluff, a trip to an art museum, soft boyfriends, Phillip being full of surprises, and a little mystery-solving, as a treat. I hope you enjoy this one, friends!

[spiritofcamelot]

Collab prompt table complete!

I had so much fun making the different mock magazine covers suggested by @aniron48 @wambold @kitten-kin @bergamontTea @dassandre-00qpidsarrow @ato-the-bean @boffin1710 and @castillon02

You can find all of them, plus a bonus, in my mock magazine covers tag.

[foxsoulcourt]

further along in the northern hemisphere spring

That's your Bleeding Heart @gluupor, now in full bloom!

@bishybarnaby, a confession : the Edgeworthia is not turning out as spectacularly as I had anticipated (hoped). I'll keep my eyes on it (now that I remember e x a c t l y where it is on the walking path) to let you know how it turns out when it leafs up.

Some more blueberries-in-the-wild for you @aniron48! (pink flowers next to the cherry blossoms) When I saw that leaf underfoot I knew I had to take a pic for your small human.

[thestalwartheart]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you for the tag, @aniron48 ❤️ This was such a nice way to wrap up this year, and to remember what I'd written!

Tagging @cicerfics @dixkens @dassandre-00qpidsarrow @boffin1710 @samanthahirr and whoever else wants to play along!

Answers under the cut!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 82! I feel like I blacked out and blinked and woke up with a horrifying number of fics!

2. What’s your total A03 word count? 385,997 😨

3. What fandoms do you write for? James Bond mostly. Also Glass Onion/Knives Out. I don't write for The Witcher anymore, but I have in the past. On my laptop is a lot of unfinished Star Trek fic - mainly Kirk/Spock - and a crack at some Arthur/Eames (from Inception).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

being with you (is the best of all)

date, interrupted

the places you leave in the dust

a rank above

by any other name

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I do try to, and I mostly succeed. I like to thank people for investing their time with my work, and I also like getting to know people in fandom. There's still 100+ comments I need to get back to, and some of them are very old. I will get to them though!!! I promise!

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Anything involving the MCD tag. There was also a short called garden that was very sad for other reasons.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Either being with you (is the best of all) or dispatches from the division.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not really, though I've had a few rude comments and bookmark notes. One person let me know across three chapters that they hated my characterisation of Bond so much they were tempted to rewrite the ending! But most people are lovely. The Bond fandom is small and most of us have our heads screwed on the right way.

9. Do you write smut? Frequently and without shame. There are 29 E-rated fics in my backlog for your reading pleasure.

10. Do you write crossovers? I have a Knives Out/James Bond crossover series where Bond and Blanc are detectives competing for Q's attention.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes and I am endlessly grateful for people who are more talented with languages than I am ❤️

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Just a team poem for 007 Fest, though I have worked with beta readers.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship? Kirk/Spock forever.

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I had a multiverse fic I posted a chapter of that I don't think I have the energy for anymore. I was so undecided about the ending that I lost interest in writing it.

16. What are your writing strengths? I think I'm good with characters and details. My writing has been called immersive by a few people, and I do really pride myself on building atmosphere. I think I can turn a good phrase occasionally too!

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I need to get better at proofreading for typos. I'm quite lazy with plotting and planning as well. I definitely need to work on that for an original novel I'm writing!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I only do it if it's necessary, and I'm so glad AO3 now has a hover feature for immediate translation. One of my pet peeves at uni was how often scholars used random French and Latin words or phrases when they didn't need to!!!

19. First fandom you wrote for? HP, probably. Or Glee. Those fics have been purged from the internet now 😂

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written? Either dispatches from the division or the WIP I'm in the process of posting now, called the age of change.

Shout out to everyone who has made it to the end! As a reward, please enjoy this picture of my cat flopped over in her cat tree ❤️

[cookiemom6067]

podfic of @aniron48's "peaceful, easy feeling"

[patrice-bergerons]

I was reading about the Fighting Temeraire on the National Gallery's website today and the sheer applicability of the below to Bond at the start of Skyfall took me out:

When exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839, the painting was accompanied by lines Turner had adapted from Thomas Campbell’s poem, Ye Mariners of England: ‘The flag which braved the battle and the breeze, / No longer owns her.’

Because that's exactly it when M orders the shot, isn't it? A disowning, which is close to a betrayal but not exactly that - everyone knows after all that the Navy will discard a ship that has served its use and she will take her last voyage without the flag of the nation she served all her life flying proud on her mast.

But for Bond, the abandonment and the rejection are there just as sharply still, not only at the hands of England but equally of M's, and when he least expects it, too.

It was @aniron48 who put it the best in all the flags we've hung i think when she said "one person can feel like an entire country, sometimes" and-

“I wondered, after, if maybe she felt that way, too. If when she gave the order to take the shot, she wasn’t just Mansfield. If she felt like she was doing it as England."