#coliseum adventures

[cyronite-fr]

omg I'm free. I'm free from the Training Fields. I got an egg. I can finally move on to the Woodland Path venue. I've been in the training fields since December.

[mobian-fr]

Please make him real

[kaikaykoa]

just finished dotdd iunno what to do with myself

[monorayjak]

Off-Topic Tuesday

Welcome to the first Tuesday in the new schedule, Off-Topic Tuesday. Every Tuesday will be me writing about, well, basically whatever comes to my mind. It may relate to projects, it may relate to world events, it may relate to random things that happened in my real life – the point it, it can be anything and it’s meant to just get whatever I want to say out. So, with that out of the way, on we…

[yuurei20]

Malleus Facts Part 94: Magic (pt3)

Malleus explains that he cannot fix his Roaring Drago toy because he cannot repair what he doesn’t understand, but having read the manual he is capable of fixing Diasomnia's microwave, so it seems he is capable of understanding machines.

We see another one of Malleus’ abilities during Spectral Soiree: he casts a spell over the campus that traps the inhabitants inside and stops time, in addition to kidnapping half of the student body (which soon increases to all students on campus).

This is later revealed to be preparation for a Halloween Party and Escape Room that was managed with ghost magic―not Malleus’ alone―and with Lilia’s full approval and cooperation, making it difficult to tell how much of the adventure was Malleus’ doing.

Another of Malleus’ powers seems to be an as-of-yet vague ability to return things to their “proper” form, as we see him do during Spectral Soiree (despite how he had never seen the Sparking Hall’s true form before) and Book 5.

In Book 6 it is revealed that this ability works on humans as well.

(It is interesting that two of the three instances that this ability has appeared has involved Vil.)

Malleus also seems to have a power that is similar to that of the Thorn Fairy: he says that he is capable of emulating her ability to fill a space with briars “in mere seconds,” though we do not see him do so. (Briars might also be a part of his unique magic?)

Malleus himself describes the Thorn Fairy of legend as a “controller of thunderclouds and brains” who “possessed insurmountable magical might.”

Malleus says that he imagines people feared her and kept her at arm’s length specifically because of how powerful she was as “respect grows into awe, and over time, awe turns into dread. Such is the way of things.”

Malleus is strongly affected by Lilia’s announcement that he will be retiring, and his subsequent explanation that “there are some things that not even (Malleus) can change.”

Lilia uses a joint defensive magic lesson to take place in the coliseum as an example of unchangeable destiny, but Malleus’ displeasure summons rain.

It is not specified if this change in the weather successfully altered the “destiny” of those who were supposed to have an outdoor lesson.

[tinytime10]

So everyone knows that the links are short, even in the linked universe. Time is tall compared to the other links but still barely average height. My head canon for why a lot of the links are as short as they are is malnutrition.  Okay hear me out a lot of the shortest ones started their adventures extremely young. Food being far from the easiest thing to acquire in the middle of a dungeon or when you're being actively hunted by the Hylian guards.  Legend, Hyrule and Wind, probably would have grown to be a lot taller had it not been for that. Of course Four is that tiny because Minish Magic.

 For Wild I think it's just genetics. Twilight and Sky both started their adventures later in life and had fairly stable childhoods, and had access to plenty of nutritious food. They grew in a very normal way. Time had to deal with malnutrition a lot as a child, because the little boy was not eating very much meat growing up. But the reason he's so tall compared to the rest of the chain is because of the Fierce Deity Mask.

 Now with Warriors my favorite boy has one tragic childhood in my head cannons. Growing up on the streets of Castle town and being a Coliseum kid he was starved all the time. He didn't get three meals a day until he was in the military. The thing is he probably used the Triforce  various other magical items so much at a still relatively young age. (I headcan in the war to have started when he was 17 and ended when he was 20) Much like time I can sort of blame the height on Magic and a little bit of genetics.  

I don't know if anybody cares but I thought it's interesting.

[brittle-doughie]

In the Golden Cheese Kingdom, there’s the coliseum where the Brave Gang have to fight their way out while cookies watch for entertainment. Could I request a scenario where Y/N Cookie is traveling with the Brave Gang (Black Raisin, Gingerbrave, Wizard, Strawberry) and Y/N is absolutely stoked to fight in the coliseum being extremely overconfident and excited for any challenge from the coliseum. I’d like to see the reactions from Mozzarella, Smoked Cheese, and Cheesenbird as well to the peculiar joy of Y/N

The crowd roared with their cheering and shouts of excitement, ready to see the monsters duke it out amongst each other within the colosseum.

You, Gingerbrave, Wizard, Strawberry, and Black Raisin had made your way there for the Monster Games, determined to see if Golden Cheese would make her appearance.

“There’s so many Cookies that gathered to watch the monster fight, huh Y/N Cookie?”

You were too busy having your eyes dart around the various monsters, growling and thrashing at their caged cells. Mouths adorned with sharp teeth that want nothing more then to tear into whatever they get a grip on.

Afraid? Nervous? Head out the way you came?

No.

You. Were. Excited…

“Instead of trembling in fear, these Cookies reverse the invaders’ aggression on each other! Pretty smart, in my book!”

“I-Is Y/N Cookie okay? They look to be twitching a lot…”

“Y/N Cookie? Where are you going?!”

You dashed towards the center of the colosseum as you brandished your golden blade, the colosseum lights making it shine.

You called out to whoever was in charge and listening that you wanted to face the monstrous horde! You’ve handle every caliber of creature Earthbread had thrown at you and these monsters will join them in the dirt!

“Y/N Cookie! What’s the plan here?!”

“Hang on, Y/N Cookie might be onto something here. By fighting the monsters, we’re creating chaos in the arena. Doing that has to bring Golden Cheese Cookie out to see what’s going on.”

Black Raisin runs to the center and goes to Y/N Cookie’s side, holding their hand as she hyped up their appearance in the colosseum.

“EVERYONE, OVER HERE! WE’VE COME FROM THE OUTSIDE TOO! ALLOW US TO FIGHT THE MONSTERS! TONIGHT, VICTORY WILL BE OURS!”

“Oh? It looks like we have new unexpected contenders! Especially that joyful one with the sword, hehe~ How overconfident and so sure of themself, yet so brave and intriguing~ I’ll place all my coins on them~”

“Too overconfident…especially from a cookie that came from the outside. An outlander…I’d like to come down there and wipe the smile off their face myself…”

“They don’t seem to be overselling themself to me, maybe they really are that strong. Or is that just an excuse to get up close and personal with them~? I wouldn’t blame you~”

“That’s NOT what I meant…”

The two would then glance at you, still boasting about your strength and determination to tear through the groups of monsters in waiting. Mozzarella’s smile only grew wider as Smoked Cheese’s glare got harsher…but couldn’t help giving a small smirk himself.

“And if they do get bruised, I shall give them lotz of healingz! Chirp! Chirp!”

Black Raisin turned to you as she gripped your hand tighter, nodding to you as you did the same to her.

“Time to wreak havoc!”

———————————————————————

Adventurer Cookie was startled when Olive Cookie suddenly tear the text in her hands, Olive herself was taken aback by what she did.

“Woah! What happened?!”

“I-I don’t know! I think the olive oil made my hand slip!”

[thelost-comic]

Keep reading... [X]

Beloved Audience, we are delighted to announce that the Sponsors have had their fill, and the first installment of the latest adventure of the Great Coliseum is now available for your consumption free of charge!

In this introduction, you will meet the key players of the upcoming season, and learn why the last was cut short unexpectedly in the middle of an episode. We fellow Watchers apologize for the wait, and hope you enjoy the rest of this tale enough to forgive our fumble.

Real life translation: Chapter one is now available for free for everyone to read!

The website and comic are both meant for mobile viewing, and the link above brings you directly to the chapter one landing page, where you can check the content warnings before reading.

All pages are fully described in ALT text both here and on the site.

If the link ever breaks for some weird reason, the URL is thelost.space. If you want to be notified when new chapters come out, follow this blog! The only posts will be updates on the comic itself, so you can enable notifications without getting spammed!

Want early access for chapter 2+? [X] Want the fonts and/or main brushes used in the comic? [X] (dialogue font will be available later today)

[cyronite-fr]

so no egg?

[mobian-fr]

I'LL TAKE IT

[bigball-thefrog]

i was kinda wondering if you could write something with Sabo. Like the reader is a current Strawhat but they were formerly part of the revolutionary army awhile back. And the reader and Sabo were close with eachother and eventually Sabo caught feelings for the reader. Like maybe they crossed passed during Dresrosa something like that☝🏻idk but thanks anyway!

Hi hi, I've just finished your request and I hope it is up to your standards, this is the second longest one shot I've written so I hope it is good, please enjoy.

Warnings/Tags:

Fluff

Dressrosa spoilers

______________________________

Narrator POV

You were only five when it happened, when your village crumbled and turned into rubble and flames. You wondered around trying to find your parents but instead you came across someone else. A tall man covered in a cloak, you couldn't see his face and felt quite intimidated by him, but he carefully took you by the hand and led you to a ship where other people were. They were the revolutionary army, and the man that helped you was their leader, Monkey D Dragon.

Since then you were taken in and raised by the revolutionary army. It was hard at first but after a year you had learned to read and study and began learning to fight. When you were ten years old you were one of the best there. Then one day they bought in a new boy, named Sabo. He showed exceptional abilities in both fighting and knowledge. So soon, you two became rivals, always trying to be the smartest and strongest. As you both grew your passion for being the strongest and smartest calmed down and the both of you finally started to be civil with each other and became friends and soon best friends. But, you calming down with your competitiveness wasn't because of you growing up and maturing, it was because you weren't passionate about being a revolutionary anymore. Yes you didn't mind helping people and liberating countries but... You wanted adventure! And freedom, not planning and missions and training daily. You eventually voiced your complaints to Dragon and surprisingly to you, he was willing to let you go, and he even had an idea. You both left for a place called Logue Town, he used his powers and you ended up landing on a pirate ship, that ship was the Going Merry, the ship of the Strawhats. When you were found you explained your situation and their captain, Luffy, let you join, and from that day you were now an official a Strawhat.

Meanwhile Sabo was upset. You had left while he was on a mission so hadn't said a word about leaving and when you came back, you were just gone... Dragon explained everything and he relaxed a little but, he missed you so much. Through all the, training, learning, missions, and competitions together Sabo had grown feelings for you and was planning to confess... And now you were gone and he didn't know where you were since you were out on the open sea as a pirate. But then when the newspaper report about the Strawhats in Alabasta came out and he managed to see a glimpse of you, and you looked fine, he was happy. Since then he was following your adventures with the Strawhats, gloating and bragging about being close with you whenever a new story about the Strawhats came out, and when you received your first bounty after Enis Lobby, he was quick to hang your bounty up as some ort of trophy. Then when Ace died and he got his memories back, he hung all three of your posters up, You, Luffy and Ace, now the people most dearest to him... His feelings managed to die down a little during the two years of training but when the reports of the Strawhats being back came out and he saw you and how you had grown up in those two years, all his feelings came crashing back, you looked stronger, and more mature.. Boy was he blushing when he saw how you looked again.

-------------------------------------------------------------

You were currently sitting in the coliseum in Dressrosa, you were tasked with lookin after Luffy while he fraught for the flame flame fruit. You had met Ace back in Alabasta so you knew how much this fruit ment to Luffy. It was now the final fight with the last four competitors against Demante, Luffy was in a disguise with a fake beard, cloak, sunglasses and a helmet on, going under the name Lucy so he wasn't caught by any of Doflamingos people. But when he came out for the final fight he seemed different. He wasn't wearing the sunflower shirt as before and he seemed to have a different attitude, and the fact that he was now carrying a metal pipe as a weapon.. It seemed familiar somehow but not the Luffy kind of familiar, like it was someone else from your past. You got closer and watched the battle, his fighting seemed more calculated than usual and once again you were hit with the feeling that this wasn't your captain but someone else. Once he managed to get the flame flame fruit you saw him take a bit from it, why on earth would he do the when he already has a devilfruit?! But then he used the flame flame fruits powers and you were confused, did Luffy somehow have the power to use two Devilfruits like Blackbeard? No, even if he could, Luffy wouldn't use another fruit, and he said he wanted Aces fruit to go to someone he trusted so this definitely wasn't your captain.

Then he made the giant hole that drained the coliseum and into the secret underground factory, you jumped down with them. Once the chaos had cleared you saw the guy impersonating your captain and tackled him, "Who are you, and why are you pretending to be Luffy-..." That, scar... You took off the sunglasses and fake beard and.... "SABO?!??!" He chuckled and sat up and you got off him, "The one and only, how have you been?" He said and smiled at you. You looked at him up and down and saw how he had grown, you blushed a little but just ignored it, "Well I'm assuming you're here because of the Doflamingo situation but... How do you know Luffy, and why were you pretending to be him in the fight?" "Well, I wanted to be the one to inherent my brother's Devilfruit." you looked at him puzzled. Did he mean Aces fruit? Why did he call him his brother? Wait a minute... "You're Luffy's other brother?!?!" Sabo smiled, "Yes, sometime after you left I got my memories back and remembered my childhood with Ace and Luffy. When I heard Ace's Devilfruit was here, I didn't want it to fall into the hands of someone I didn't trust, so I decided I wanted to be the on to carry his Devilfruit powers." You nodded in understanding. It made sense that he would want to have Ace's powers since that was also his brother, "Wait, but since you were there in the arena, where's Luffy? I'm supposed to be watching him." "He's probably at Doflamingos castle by now. You sighed and Sabo chuckled, "So now you know the pain of having to look after Luffy huh?" Sabo smirked, "I don't know how you and Ace could handle him as kids..." Sabo laughed and looked behind him, "I'd love to catch up right now but I came here for a mission. But hey, since you don't have to look after Luffy now, do you wanna help me and the revolutionary army?" You looked over Sabo and saw them and smiled, your old friends. "I'd love to." You accepted and both ran to go join them.

--------------------------------------------------

After all the chaos that took place in Dressrosa, you and the other Strawhats were all hiding and healing in Kyros' house in a flower field, away from the people and away from the marines. While Luffy was asleep, Sabo had come to say goodbye, he chatted with everyone for a bit then had to leave, you followed him out, wanting to walk him back to the boat and catch up. It was a calm walk, both of you telling each other about the adventures you both went on since you left and it was nice to see your best friend again, that was until Sabo looked more serious and looked at you, "So... Care to explain why you left all of a sudden those two years ago?" Sabo asked, your heart dropped. You knew this question was coming and you were dreading it but you managed to confess, "I wasn't... Happy anymore, with the revolutionary army.. Yes I loved helping people and countries but... I wanted more, I wanted to explore and adventure, when I wanted and wherever I wanted, with the revolutionary army it was either constant planning, fighting, training and I just got tired... The sea called out to me and I wanted to explore it. I told this to Dragon and he was actually the one that put me on Luffy’s ship. And I haven't regretted it... The only thing I regret is that I never got to say goodbye to you..." You finally got it all off your chest, Sabo's face softened and he pat your head, "I get it, you saw the chance at your happiness and you needed to take it, I'm glad you went for it and found where you belong. Even though I'm upset you left, I'm glad you're happy." He smiled at you and you smiled back. You both continued talking and eventually you got to their ship, you caught up with the others there but, they had to leave, you now had to say goodbye to Sabo after not seeing him for two years..

Sabo saw your upset look and embraced you, you wrapped your arms around him and just started sobbing. He lightly rubbed your head and tried to calm you down, "Hey... Please don't cry, you're acting like we're never going to see each other again..." "B-but, you're a revolutionary, I'm a pirate, we both go in different directions, how are we ever gonna meet again?! And just when I got to see you again, all the things I've wanted to tell you, all the things I've wanted to say!" Sabo sighed as he continued to comfort you, "Well it might not be too hard..." you looked up at him puzzled, "I just got my memories back, you really think I'm not gonna be keeping an eye on my little brother? And you too~" you smiled and he ruffled your hair, "I doubt this is going to be the last time that one of your pirate adventures lines up with one of our missions, and when that happens again, at least we're on the same side~" you nodded. Before you could respond and finally say goodbye, Sabo leaned down and kissed you right on the lips. And not just a peck on the lips, but a deep and meaningful kiss. He pulled away and cupped your cheek, you just stood there dumbfounded, "There, I've stolen a kiss from you so now we have to meet up again and you have to come see me, so you can steal one back~" Sabo let go of you and got on the ship. You snapped out of your shocked state when you heard the ship begin to move, you ran up to the edge and stood as far as you could to see them off and wave goodbye to Sabo.

Now, you were filled with a new feeling. A feeling of determination to steal that kiss back, a feeling of excitement for seeing your childhood friend again, a feeling of love...

______________________________

Alright, I have two more requests that I will try to finish this week, so please enjoy this for now, and I'll see you next time

Kelly🐸

[losttrailsmaps]

In the sun-kissed lands of these Ancient Lands, where myths danced with reality and philosophers pondered the very essence of existence, a timeless tale of heroes and gods unfolds. Here, amidst marble temples and olive groves, the echoes of a bygone era resonate with the promise of epic adventures and profound wisdom.

Hello everyone! Welcome to another map pack, one that is influenced by one of my favorite time periods in history- Ancient Greece & Rome.

This pack includes 16 total maps including a Coliseum, Academy, the Mediterranean coast, and much more!

Check out the map pack here, the first 6 are free to download!

[arbiterlexultionis]

Instant Eternity

Time travel involving the infinite realms is truly a bizarre thing. Sometimes it follow one set of rules, and sometimes that set of rules may as well not exist. Usually, however, it works in one of two ways, the first is when the time travel is achieved through artificial means such as clockworks portals and allows for the altering of the timeline as one would expect time travel would allow. The other type of time travel is through natural means, portals usually, and it’s just that, Natural. That portal to the past opened up in the past the same moment it did in the present. If you step into the portal in the year 2000 then you already stepped out of the portal hundreds of years ago. It’s A Thing That Already Happened. Danny himself experienced this, as while chasing Vlad through time they fought in the middle of a Roman coliseum and, whoopsy daisy, set a really big fire. A fire which Danny had learned about years before he even had his accident.

So, the infimap can take the user anywhere, anywhen. And the infimap is just that, a map. It doesn’t make new roads, it just drags you across already existing paths. So it is a natural form of time travel, if you use it to go in time to kill your grandfather in order to insure your never born your interference will result in your grandparents falling in love and your birth.

Danny realizes that anytime he needs to heal from a battle or has gone 156 hours without sleeping or eating he can use the infimap to pop back to the past for a few days and then have the map bring back to the “Present”, exactly one second after he left. A three week vacation that lasted one second. At first he’s really wary about using this, worried about accelerated aging or getting lost in the time stream and a hundred other issues. At first.

It’s been months sense the accident. Sam and Tucker have both shot up several inches. Danny, on the other hand, hasn’t grown sense the accident. At all. They fought a ghost who could rapidly age opponents, a single slap turned Tucker into a decrepit old man. The ghost wrapped his hands around Danny’s throat and spent 5 minutes trying to strangle him while Danny bought time for Sam and Tucker to pull off the plan. The sucked him into the thermos, his influence on time ceased so Tucker returned to his proper state. “Jeez it sure is lucky he didn’t try and age me, right guys? Ha ha ha”. Danny gets blasted through a natural portal while making a trip through the zone and spends years trying to get home, not aging a day.

He can’t deny it after that, can’t ignore it. He’s immortal. He’s going to live forever. He’s going to watch his friends and family whither away and die out. He’s going to have to spend the rest of his life wandering from place to place trying not to get outed as the same 14 year old who save someone’s great great grandma 100 years ago.

After having his first middeath crisis, suddenly the only reasons he had to not spend years on end wandering the world and the past is gone, even if he loses the infimap, worst case scenario he’ll just take the long way home. Suddenly, he’s dreading the next 80 years of the “Present”. He decides that if he’s going to watch his friends and family grow old and frail he’s going to make sure it’s takes as long as it possibly could, from his perspective. By the time they’re 20 Danny’s gonna have 200 years under his belt.

He becomes a temporal tourist, hopping into the past every time the late night fights and schoolwork become to much. Spends years in every civilization imaginable, mastering every skill he can, leaving legends in his wake.

I feel like Danny and his adventures do have a lot of potential for story’s, as it’s a pretty good setup for having Danny in any type of time period or historical event for extended periods of time, fighting in the trenches of World War I, exploring the Americas during the era of colonialism, sailing the seas a swashbuckling vigilante pirate. I, however, have most of my related ideas being based around crossovers. So most of that will be in part two, so that people who like to filter out all that can still see this post.

[dramarising-replacement]

watch out I'm about to dump several years worth of salt here I know everyone finds the meme of tidelord running off to get milk hilarious, and I did too at first, but at this point i do not give a shit about the tidelords disappearance. it's been actual years of just nothing-burger nontent tied to a gamemode that's only 6% done after 11 years. i don't care. dragcave.net is able to consistently release walkaround event games, pvp snowfort games, and new activities/collectables for holidays and it's team is a fraction of the size.

making tidelords disappearance some super mysterious Deep LoRE thing spanning actual real-life years was stupid, tying it into a minigame release when they can't even consistently release dragons on their DRAGON WEBSITE was even stupider.

just bring him back in some ministory and admit that connecting him with adventure mode was a mistake. IT'S FINE TO ADMIT YOU WERE WRONG SOMETIMES, STAFF. i'm so sick of reading about the BiG MySteRY oOOooO WhAT COuLD It BE after 10 fuckin years. and after seeing what they've done with the coliseum "gameplay" and their utter failure at basic balancing in a turn-based rpg with every venue expansion and mob layout, i absolutely do not want to think about what other awful, grindy and unfun games they'd come up with. coliseum gives awful rewards for time invested and i dread imaging what a slog adventure mode is going to be.

[autumnslance]

LynMars's FFXIV Write 2024 Master Post

We're back again! The list and links for all of my completed prompts for this year's FFXIV Write. Stats and ramblings about writing will go under the Read More cut. Eventually these will be revised in some manner and tossed onto Ao3.

Asterisks again mean there's wolship nonsense happening.

01. Steer - Vignettes of less sociable times over Aeryn's life. 02. Horizon - WoL at the end of Ultima Thule, EW 6.0. 03. Tempest - WoL returns to Amaurot to contemplate, EW 6.4. 04. Reticent - C'oretta & Dark Autumn have a chat. Sort of. 05. Stamp - Aeryn finds a memento while cleaning, post-EW 6.0 06. Halcyon - Tanzel, Emelia, & understanding grief. Backstory. 07. Morsel - Zenos heading to Camp Broken Glass, EW 6.0. 08. Free Day! 09. Lend an Ear - Emperor Varis is very much alone. StB patches. 10. Stable - Hydaelyn as the avatar of Light. Endwalker. 11. Surrogate - Weird West AU. Unexpected new roles for the Strikers. 12. Quarry* - Dominants AU. Thavnair comes to Tural's aid. DT 7.0. 13. Butte - Dark Autumn versus seedkin in Xak Tural. DT 7.0. 14. Telling - WoL reflects on Emet-Selch's expected reaction. EW 6.0. 15. Free Day! 16. Third-Rate - Aeryn's annoyed by the Unbound. DT Role Quests. 17. Sally - Dark pays a final visit to a traitor, post-StB 4.1. 18. Hackneyed* - Aeryn, Thancred, & terrible literature. 19. Taken - A young wood warder tries to save his sibling. Backstory. 20. Duel - Wuk Lamat's challenge does not go as expected. DT 7.0. 21. Shade - WoL ruminates on some of their ghosts. Thru DT 7.0. 22. Free Day! 23. On Cloud Nine - A chocobo & her Warrior of Light. End ShB 5.0. 24. Bar - 2 different adventurers starting out. Legacy & ARR. 25. Perpetuity - Aeryn, Deryk, & questions of faith. EW 24man raid. 26. Zip - C'oretta helping out Hamon at the Coliseum. Technically DT. 27. Memory - In a future, music makes Iyna remember. EW Patches. 28. Deleterious - Aeryn & Shale discuss regulators & history. DT 7.0. 29. (Free) Deleterious 2* - Thancred & self-recrimination. ShB 5.0. 30. Two Heads are Better than One - Gulool Ja Ja muses. DT 7.0.

Previous years: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

Ended up a touch Aeryn-heavy this year, though Generic WoL, various NPCs, the other OCs, forays in the FC's AUs, and some supporting family cast members make appearances. There's even a callback to a previous FFXIV Write entry. Lots of Endwalker and Dawntrail due to recency bias, but it manages to span the spectrum from backstories through various expansions.

I only did 1 Free Day, due to having 2 solid ideas I ended up writing for that prompt. It was right at the end of my annual birthday vacation week, so I was pretty rested (may also be why they're among the longer entries!). Unusually, the rest of that week's works are not any longer than the others.

I'm also still working on some original writing, though, so that did cut into fanfiction time.

Below 500 words: #2 Horizon (347), #3 Tempest (415), #7 Morsel (499), #10 Stable (400), #13 Butte (477), #14 Telling (355), #17 Sally (464), #20 Duel (499), #24 Bar (462).

500 - 1,000 words: #1 Steer (944), #4 Reticent (581), #5 Stamp (588), #11 Surrogate (964), #12 Quarry (844), #16 Third-Rate (564), #18 Hackneyed (577), #19 Taken (915), #21 Shade (764), #23 On Cloud Nine (728), #25 Perpetuity (958), #26 Zip (592), #27 Memory (810), #30 Two Heads are Better than One (500).

Over 1,000 words: #6 Halcyon (2,479), #9 Lend an Ear (1,326), #28 Deleterious (1,099), #29 Deleterious 2 (1,231).

Shortest: #2 Horizon Longest: #6 Halcyon

Total: 20,382 words. Not my shortest but far from my longest. Comparing with the previous years, I can see a clear improvement in my grasp of both NPC and OC voices, and more confidence in general.

Even so, "Butte", "Sally", "Bar", and "Zip" were the hardest for me this year, and I may need to warm up to them. I love "Halcyon" for a lot of reasons, and am also fond of the lighter offerings in "Duel" and "On Cloud Nine." I like a lot of the others, particularly when trying to get into NPC heads (even if they're really weird places to be ffs, Zenos).

Not too many shippy entries this year, one of them for one of the AUs, one mostly talking about it rather than seeing it, but I like "Hackneyed" a lot as it's been awhile since I've written about Aeryn & Thancred's literary tastes (and opposite ways of treating their books).

These will eventually be revised and added to Ao3, and then we await next year!