#fic review ask game

[felixravinstills]

For the ask game!

Wow! Max really blew his chance here, but it was inevitable given how things were going. He really should have planned this out better, alas...

Okay, I feel like the comment happens in a different part of this hypothetical fic, but can also vaguely correspond to this moment... Also I borrowed Hector and Cleopatra for this, hope you don't mind, Medea!

Thanks for the ask!

Snippet below:

“Hector!”

He turns at the sound of Maximinius’ voice.

Hector pauses and waits for his friend to jog over and continuing down the street with Maximinius at his side.

They’d agreed to meet at the university library to study together, but he’s glad to see him sooner. From the urgency in Maximinius’ voice, Hector thought he had something to say, but after his initial greeting, Maximinius takes up his signature silence, Hector figures that his friend must have just been trying to get his attention for a while.

He has been distracted quite a lot to day.

Hector looks over at the dark-haired man and finds Maximinius tugging at the cuffs of his sleeves.

He frowns. 

“What’s wrong?” Hector asks. His best friend is not ones for nerves.

Maximinius inhales then exhales. Hector is starting to worry.

What could be bothering his friend so?

“Hector,” he says slowly as if testing each syllable on his tongue. “Would you do me the honor of going out with me?”

Hector blinks.

What—

“Maximinius!” Another voice cuts into his thoughts.

A flurry of blond curls and white and blue print snowflake invade his vision.

Maximinius is much taller than Gloriam Snow, but she’s practically scaling up him as she clings to his arm, her coat blanketing both of them.

A few passersby eye them, and Gloriam straightens herself out from being practically draped over Hector’s friend, but she doesn’t

Hector understands now.

“Of course, I’ll go out with you,” he says, without any hesitation. He ignores Gloriam’s gasp completely.

The three of them are getting more looks, and Hector swears that he hears someone snicker.

“It’s a date,” he adds with a wink to Maximinius.

Gloriam’s hands release Hector’s friend’s arm as if she’s been burnt.

An odd sound escapes the back of her throat before she squeezes out an “excuse me” before scurrying away from them. Hector holds in his laugh until she disappears from view after turning a corner.

“Well, that got her off your back!” Hector says with a smile, clapping Maximinius on the back and resuming their walk to the library.

“Let me know if you need me to pretend again.”

“Pretend,” Maximinius repeats.

“Yes,” Hector responds. “I don’t mind! I’m not exactly Gloriam Snow’s biggest fan either. Anyway, I have to introduce you to Cleopatra. I asked her to meet us at the library!”

Hector checks his watch.

“She should be there right now. C’mon, we can’t keep her waiting.”

Hector can’t fight the grin on his face. He’s been waiting for this all day.

He hopes that she and Maximinius get along. He can’t think of any reason why they shouldn’t.

[ficwip]

fic writer asks

revised from last year's questions!

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!)

What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer?

What piece of media inspired you the most?

What fandom(s) did you write for this year?

What ship(s) captured your heart?

What character(s) captured your heart?

Did you write for a new fandom or ship this year?

What fic meant the most to you to write?

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?

What fic was the easiest to write?

What were your shortest and longest fics this year?

Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023

What were you go-to writing songs?

What were your go-to writing snacks?

What was the hardest fic to title?

Share your favorite opening line

Share your favorite ending line

Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Share an excerpt from your favorite scene

Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out?

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

What did you use to write? (e.g. writing programs, paper & pen, etc.)

If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

How did you recharge between fics?

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

What’s something that you want to write in 2024?

[kindlingkeen]

WAIT jason's murder world tour?! FROM THE EYES OF THE BATS?!??? hell YES

i feel like a lot of people just forget about his travel training, like just go Pit → Gotham so i'm always excited to see stuff about what he got up to!! and from the bats' perspective is such mwah DELICIOUS

(in response to this and this, and maybe this, from the wip title ask game)

Wow, this is getting a lot more interest than I anticipated. And here I was worried that Incident Review was going to come across as boring.

One of the things I love about the world murder tour is that it’s canon (or it used to be - for the love of god dc, get your shit together) but it’s so vague and open-ended. So you can do anything with it. Makes my little fanfic writer brain squeal with joy.

Thanks for the ask, anon!!! 🩵

[cha-melodius]

For 2024 in review, question 9! 💕

Ooh good question!! Thanks so much for sending it in!

9. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

Probably Body and Soul(mate). I had such a clear idea for this fic and it really flowed easily while I was writing. I think because I was so excited by the concept and how I worked it out, and it was the perfect combo (for me) of action and emotion. Some of the latter action scenes were so incredibly cinematic in my head that I can still very vividly picture them as if they were a movie.

[Fic Year in Review Asks]

[anchoredarchangel]

17, 18, 19 PLEASE AND THANKS

Roop, my beloved who was literally just telling me in the DMs how much she hates picking favorites - I'm sure you picked these numbers completely at random.

17. Share your favorite opening line

Unfortunately, it’s probably going to have to be the opening of Hope, because nothing could possibly set up that fic quite like:

“Did you fuck the Prince of Wales?”

18. Share your favorite ending line

I think because of the entire motif leading up to it, the ending line that probably hits the hardest for me is from A Spark and Flash Paper:

And Henry—Henry wants to burn with him.

19. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Okay I'm with you now, choosing favorites is fucking hard, so we're going with the first thing that came to mind, because that's gotta mean something, right. From Valour and Cowardice:

“I want you all the time,” Henry says fiercely. “Not just in secret. Not just behind closed doors or with thinly veiled excuses. Not just in stolen moments or when no one’s looking. I want you in the daylight. On my front bloody porch, without the whole world having something to say about it.” “Well, if you’re having me on the front porch, the neighbors might have something to say about it—”

[awwyeah107]

My 2024 Fics Review

This is a round-up of the fics I published in 2024—including a list of the fics, some of my thoughts on each of them, and a customized AO3 wrapped of my own :)

Quick list of my fics this year:

Lost and Found (9,489 words, 3 chapters, T)

Meeting the In-Laws (1,280 words, oneshot, G)

but for the look in his eyes (10,057 words, 3 chapters [in-progress], M)

A Rude Awakening (1,600 words, oneshot, G)

Mondays In Imladris (1,127 words, oneshot, G)

I'm putting my thoughts on my fics and the AO3 wrapped below the cut. Names of the fics below are colored just to make it easier to distinguish where I start talking about a different fic, there's no specific reason for the colors other than I like them. All links for my fics go to AO3.

Lost and Found (9,489 words, 3 chapters, T)

Date/month published: April

One-sentence summary: In the aftermath of the second kinslaying, Maglor and Maedhros are faced with the disappearance of a pair of twins; years later, another pair of twins—this time under the Fëanorians’ care—are missing.

My thoughts: I’m going to be completely honest: I adore this fic. When browsing through the lists of AO3 wrapped questions, the question “What was your favorite work you published this year?” came up, and as I ran through the list of fics I published in 2024, this one gave me the clearest sense of warmth and fondness. I love each of my published works for different reasons and in different ways, but this one has had the most “straightforward” timeline of writing, publishing, getting interaction, and rereading—and I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. One of the reasons I wrote this fic was because I had been thinking about how Maedhros would have reacted to the news that Eluréd and Elurín had been left in the woods, and I wanted to write about that. I didn’t want to leave it there, though; I really wanted to give Maedhros some hope, and so came the idea to write a follow-up kidnap fam story where Elrond and Elros get lost in the woods and Maglor and Maedhros find them. (I had intended to draw parallels of twins being lost, which I…sort of did. Looking back, I could have tried doing that more strongly; I think the story would have come out differently, which would have been fine, but I believe I ultimately succeeded in writing the story I wanted to write—and read.) Many parts of this story came easily to me (that first scene just flowed so easily, like water down a stream), but I took my time working through the writing process and not rushing it. I had originally started writing it midway through 2023, wrote a lot of it through the fall, gave it a pause in early 2024, and returned to it in the spring (by which point, it mainly required editing). I feel like I learned a lot through writing this fic, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even the frustrating parts, because I was writing. I could say so much more about this fic, but I’ve already said a lot, so perhaps another time. XD

Meeting the In-Laws (1,280 words, oneshot, G)

Date/month published: August

One-sentence summary: Caranthir is nervous about meeting Haleth’s father and brother for the first time; Haleth is sure everything will go well.

My thoughts: This one was so fun. I have never, ever come up with a fic idea, wrote it, and published it in the same day. Granted, it helped that this was fairly short, and I didn’t feel the need to give it a very defined setting XD As I put in my author’s notes: “So, this morning, the idea of Caranthir meeting Haleth’s father and brother and being awkward and nervous about it popped into my head. As soon as I could, I started writing it, and then bam, the fic basically wrote itself with minimal editing. It practically fell out of my brain fully formed, which virtually never happens.” I was thinking about Silm characters during my work shift, as one does, and then had the idea for the fic, kept getting ideas for what to write, finally wrote down a few snippets on my phone to keep for later, and then immediately picked it up as soon as I could after work. It quickly coagulated into a light, humorous, sweet fic with a somewhat serious yet warm undertone. (Now I feel like I’m giving a review for a drink of some kind XD) I really enjoyed writing all of Caranthir and Haleth’s interactions; some of the phrasing for the meeting was tricky to work out, but I felt like it all came together pretty well in the end. I doubt I’ll write and finish anything this quickly again—my stories very rarely form so fast, and I really do like taking my time on the writing journey—but it was a fun challenge that I think worked because I wasn’t pressuring myself.

but for the look in his eyes (10,057 words, 3 chapters [in-progress], M)

Date/month published: August (last updated in November)

One-sentence summary: Celebrimbor sneaks out to accompany Maedhros to the parley with Morgoth, and he is captured instead of Maedhros.

My thoughts: I love writing this fic and am intimidated by it in equal measure. It’s the kind of fic I never thought I’d write, largely because I didn’t think I had it in me to write a long during/post-Thangorodrim type fic. However, after I initially came up with the idea of Celebrimbor being taken instead of Maedhros (which happened because of theScrap_Witch’s fic “Despair Like Poison”), I found that I kept thinking of what might happen in that sort of story. As you can see in my comment thread on that fic, I kept coming up with more and more ideas for it. The story started to come together in my head and I was like “am I doing this now?……yeah. I think I am.” So I began writing. And I kept getting ideas. I’ve gotten SO MUCH inspiration for it over the last several months. I have tons of scattered scenes and snippets for it, and I have a basic outline that’s gotten more and more complex as I go. I’ve written multi-chapter stories before, but never published any, and never really finished them either. Lost and Found is the exception to that, but I had all of it finished (with a very few last minute edits) before I published it, and it wasn’t a very long fic. This one almost immediately started shaping up to be a (probably much) longer fic, and the fact that I started publishing this without having it all written feels a bit like diving into deep water. I really want to be able to finish it, for myself and for readers. Honestly, the readers are a fair amount of motivation right now, because I could see myself at some point going “eh, I’ve worked on this a bunch, I generally know how it ends, I can live without having written all of it.” But the thing is, nobody else knows how it ends. I’m a little terrified I won’t finish it, especially because the ending right now still feels very open-ended (ha), but I am trying not to think about that and simply focus on expanding what I have. I keep having to remind myself that the readers don’t know what happens next, and I may not know specifics, but I do know some of the long term things and the overall shape and form of the story. Every so often I’ll get what I call an “evil thought” (usually a flash of an idea for something ultra-angsty to add to the story, whether it’s a scene or an action or a line), and I’ll throw my head back and give a villainous cackle…no, not really. But I’ll grin and generally get excited, because oh boy, this is going to cause the characters so much painnnnnn and give the readers SO many feels. So far, out of all the chapters, the first chapter is my favorite. I certainly like the other two. But it’s the first fruit of the initial idea that sprang into my head, and I’m really proud of it. There’s a lot of feeling in it, a lot of hopefulness and shock and angst. I worked really hard to flesh it all out, and I am quite happy with the result. As for 2025, I truly have no idea how far I’ll get with this fic this year. It would be awesome if I managed to finish it, yet I could see it taking longer than a year (I mean, I spent roughly 8 months on Lost and Found, which is just three chapters long). I haven’t had a lot of inspiration for it lately, though I think that’s partially due to current life circumstances and stresses. It’s also a pretty dark fic (which I waxed eloquent about in my author’s note for the first chapter, and could wax eloquent on more tbh XD), and so I can only take writing so much at a time. All that being said…it would be pretty cool if I could get it done this year. Or at least through a certain chapter that’s a bit of a turning point ;)

A Rude Awakening (1,600 words, oneshot, G)

Date/month published: October

One-sentence summary: In which Maitimo is the latest victim of Makalaurë’s early morning bagpipe playing.

My thoughts: Writing this one filled me with absolute glee. As I mentioned, I had a lot of fun writing Meeting the In-Laws, but this one was fun in a slightly different way—I think because I’ve had real-life experiences that helped me to write it well. (I’ve never been woken up by bagpipes like Maedhros was, but I know people who do play pipes and knew enough about the instrument itself to describe things in the fic.) There were some parts to write that were more difficult than I expected: It took a little while for me to figure out exactly what Maedhros had done to annoy Maglor, and the explanations or backstory for certain things (like why the family didn’t often go to Maglor’s bagpipe competitions) felt like they dragged a little. Those were the weakest points of the fic, but I think they were rather necessary to fill it out. However, I really enjoyed writing the rude awakening itself, as well as Maglor and Maedhros’ interactions; those parts flowed quite easily. I’m quite happy with how I established Maglor and Maedhros’ dynamic. Also, I knew right from the start that it was a fic largely for myself; I definitely wrote it with Alantie (dreamingthroughthenoise here on Tumblr) in mind because it was our conversation that inspired this, and I planned on sharing/publishing it, but it’s also one of the fics I wrote simply because I loved the idea. (I think it’s also why some of that exposition stuff felt forced, at least to me: I didn’t need to write it down for myself, but the readers needed it.) In any case, even with a bit of clunkiness, it’s still fun to read and fun to recall the memories of writing it.

Mondays In Imladris (1,127 words, oneshot, G)

Date/month published: September (for Imladris Week)

One-sentence summary: Imladris is filled with magic that allows it to move rooms, hallways, and any part of its structure, causing both whimsy and mayhem for the residents.

My thoughts: I really hope I can do more with this AU, because I love the concept so much! I reread this fic for my review, and I genuinely enjoyed it. It feels polished, like I had hoped it would when I published it, and I’m still very happy with my lively writing tone. To be honest, I was kind of hoping for a little more interaction than this fic got (don’t get me wrong, I was delighted with the couple of comments it got!), but I know it’s an AU of a niche book series, so I can’t be surprised. I wrote this not only out of love for Imladris but also out of love for the Castle Glower series, and I can feel that fondness seeping through the words. Once I had the idea for this fic, I wrote a whole lot of stuff and then did SO MUCH editing and sanding down. I worked really hard to get the phrasing and tone right, and I think I managed to smooth out any roughness and keep the voicing pretty consistent throughout! And since I wrote a lot that I didn’t use in this fic, I have some snippets that I might form into fully-fledged oneshots…we shall see :)

AO3 Wrapped Questions

(From the AO3 wrapped list I used last year and the one I found this year. I like statistics when it comes to Spotify Wrapped, but I don't really care for stats much on AO3—I'd rather focus on things I can write about instead of kudos and hits, so that's what I'm doing!)

How many fics did you post this past year + biggest surprise while writing this year? I published 5 fics, and the surprise is that I published more than 1, lol! 4 out of those 5 were unplanned as of the start of 2024, which very much surprised me. (Lost and Found was the only fic I published that I had planned/hoped to publish when I started the year.) I’ve historically taken a long time to write fics, even oneshots, so the fact that I wrote several (I’m including individual chapters of “but for the look in his eyes”) in less than a year was exciting. Of my 5 fics, 3 were oneshots and 2 were multi-chapter fics.

How many published works are you leaving unfinished going into the new year? 1 (“but for the look in his eyes”).

What are you most proud of accomplishing in your writing goals / published works this past year? I didn’t specifically set any writing goals for 2024, but I really hoped I would be able to get Lost and Found done and published, and I did!

Do you have playlists for any of your fics/wips? Yes! I have a playlist for Lost and Found. I also am slowly building a playlist for “but for the look in his eyes,” but I haven't revealed it yet.

Favorite title you used? I answered this one in an ask, but I wanted to include that in my fic round-up/review, so here’s what I put: I'd say it's tied between A Rude Awakening and Mondays In Imladris. "A Rude Awakening" was just SO perfect for the fic, and it leapt into my mind as soon as I thought "what should the title for this fic be?". "Mondays In Imladris" fit the naming convention for the Castle Glower book series (the titles are all "[day]" at/in [place]"), and the point of the fic was that it was a Castle Glower AU, so I was delighted to name it the same way.

What work was the quickest to write? Meeting the In-Laws, by far; I wrote it in a single day. XD

What work took you the longest to write? Lost and Found—it took roughly 8 months.

How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year? By “in my docs” I’m counting that as “I’ve actually started writing these/have a really detailed outline,” lol! I have two Tolkien ones and two Inkheart ones, so four in total. No clue if I’ll finish any of them in 2025, but I hope so! Whether or not I finish them, I definitely want to work on them.

What WIP are you taking into next year with you? “but for the look in his eyes” :)

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag? I came up with this one and it always makes me laugh: “No beta we die like…uh…never mind,” which I initially came up with to use on Lost and Found. It was because I was originally going to say “No beta we die like Eluréd and Elurín,” but I was like “oooh, that is so blunt and it’s sad, I don’t know if I really want to say that!”, so I essentially wrote down what I was thinking XD and just kept using it because I liked it.

Which published work of yours have you reread the most? Ooooo, this one’s hard, but I think either Lost and Found or “but for the look in his eyes”. I do tend to reread fics or parts of fics multiple times in the few days after I publish, so I think because they both have multiple chapters, they’ve gotten more rereads from me overall.

What do you listen to while writing? 95% instrumental folk music with adventure vibes (from composers I found on YouTube), 5% other stuff that goes along with what I’m writing in the fic XD Adrian Von Ziegler gets a lot of listening time from me (he actually ended up being my top artist on Spotify this year!!! That’s definitely thanks to listening to songs on loop while writing fic), and so do Peter Crowley and Brunuhville.

Share a line/paragraph/snippet that you were especially proud of (or one of your favorites) from a work this year! There are so many parts from each of my fics that I enjoy, but this was one bit of dialogue I particularly loved from Meeting the In-Laws:

He let out a deep sigh. “Okay. But…what do I say to them?” His voice had become a whine.

“Just be yourself.”

Caranthir’s expression conveyed skepticism about this idea. “Love, I don’t think my ‘self’ is the most pleasant person to be around. As you should know.”

“Alright, then, be yourself on your best behavior.”

Give us a sneak peek of one of your upcoming works! This is one of my favorite snippets from an Inkheart fic I’m writing. Context: Mo is teaching Dustfinger about things in our world today.

[Mo is speaking here] "Virtually nobody living in society would go to bathe in a river or outdoor water source. In fact, if you spend a while in water outside—for example, in a lake—it’s common to come in and wash off in the shower.”

Dustfinger stared at him like he had two heads. “You get under a stream of water…to clean yourself from just having been in water.”

When one put it that way, it did sound kind of funny.

AO3 wrapped questions that I came up with and wanted to answer :)

Describe each of your published fics from this year in one word. Lost and Found - classic Meeting the In-laws - spontaneous but for the look in his eyes - in-progress A Rude Awakening - bagpipes Mondays In Imladris - whimsical

What did you learn from your writing this year? First, that I tend to write VERY long intro author’s notes XD I also learned how to let a scene breathe a little more, that I don’t have to narrate everything in a scene, that I can take my time (and taking my time often leads to better writing), that writing ending author’s notes is harder to do than I thought, that writing in present tense takes some getting used to and influences my word choice, how to explore a character’s emotions more, how to use punctuation more stylistically to convey a feeling or thought even when it’s not entirely grammatically correct, that it helps to relax and write characters based on my own understanding of them instead of fanon interpretation/what I’ve seen, that my own interpretation and understanding of a character will grow as I write them, that getting the tags and formatting and stuff ready for publishing fics always takes longer than I think it will, and that some fics will come easier than others—and that’s okay.

What fandoms have you not written for that you would like to in 2025/the future? I’ve had a few ideas for Longmire fics after watching the TV show this year, so it would be cool to actually get into writing those!

Also, thank you so, so, SO much to anyone who's commented on my fics this past year. As I wrote in my Thanksgiving post, I always get excited when I see a comment in my inbox, and they really do mean a lot. ❤️

Finally: if you got all the way to the end of reading this, thank you! Hope you enjoyed :)

[deadgirlwalking91]

10, 12, 18

Heyyyy Muse! Thanks for the ask! <3

10. What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

Ohhh I'm going to have to say Friends With Benefits. There was something really satisfying about completing my first ever multi chapter fic 🥰

12. What fic was the easiest to write?

The Mistletoe Match! It was just fluffy, cheesy holiday fun that was, in all honesty, a bloody good time.

18. Share your favorite ending line

Answered, but reposting:

From chapter 16 of Thank You for the Venom:

"Surrendering didn’t mean that she’d lost.

It meant that she’d won."

[fellowshipofthefics]

Can you believe the year is almost over? We can't! 🎉

As we charge towards the new year, we wanted to encourage you guys to reflect on your accomplishments for this year! Have you participated in a new event this year? Reached a writing goal? Or maybe you posted your first fanfic! We want to know!

Feel free to use the questions below as a guide to recap your year, or let followers ask you specific questions from this list. Whatever you want to do with these questions, it doesn't matter, just be sure to celebrate the victories!

Remember: all progress is good progress!

What is something new you tried with your writing this year?

Did you participate in any fandom events?

What's been your favorite project to work on?

Hardest project to work on?

Did you start any projects?

Did you finish any projects?

How many WIPS do you have now?

Share your favorite scene/line!

Share your favorite story title!

What does your writing system look like? (i.e. brainstorming, writing, editing - how do you do it?)

What's the best atmosphere for you to write?

Any particular snacks or drinks while writing?

Do you form playlists/soundtracks for your stories? Or even just for your "writing time"?

What advice would you give to a new writer?

What are some goals you have for 2024?

✨ Here at FOTFICS we want to thank everyone for another fantastic year! We have a lot of fun new things coming in 2024, and we hope to see you there!

Happy Holidays, everyone, from all of your fellowshipofthefics mods! @lordoftherazzles @ahufflepuffhobbit @fantasyinallforms

[squarebracketsmileyface]

For the review thing! 17 or 18! I love hearing about open or end lines!

The 2024 In Review ask thing this is from

Okay this took me ages to choose for the favourite ending line lol, I only had two candidates for favourite start line, but I had like six favourite ending lines that I had to choose from.

17. My favourite start line (paragraph but shush) is:

“Jay grinned, watching the way Alex and Brian wrestled in the short grass, fighting over the last sandwich, which Brian had ‘Oh so selfishly stolen right out from under our noses!’. They tumbled over and over each other, grabbing wherever they could to try and keep each other from achieving their goal.”

From If It Ain't Broken You Break It. It's such a happy moment, a really fun and soft and happy way to start the fic before it devolved into just so much angst. (Read the tags if you wanna go look at this fic too, it's a bit heavy in places). All the happy moments in that fic are there to highlight how good things could be, so that the bad moments felt worse, and I'm so glad I started the entire fic out with a happy moment because of that >:]

18. My favourite ending line (....okay this is technically multiple paragraphs but most of them are like one or two sentence paragraphs) is:

“Did Jay want kids too?

One day?

Not now, definitely not now. That’d be an awful idea… but one day, four or five years down the line maybe, would kids be a part of their future? Would they be parents? Together? Parent their children so that they grew up without feeling like they needed to be tipsy constantly to cope with even just being alive.

God, Tim hoped so. He hoped his and Jay’s relationship would last that long.”

From My Girl, My Girl, My Girl (You Will Be) I'm being so loose in my definition of a last ‘line’ but I love this last little bit. It's only the last line of My Girl so far, because I've only posted up to chapter 3, but I love it. It's so soft and so sweet and Tim and Jay deserve to get to be parents together one day. They deserve to stay together long enough to reach a point where they're stable and safe enough to have and raise kids together :(

[sc0rpiflow3r]

for the 2024 in review ask game:

5. what ships captured your heart?

17. share your favourite opening line; and,

21. whats something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? did it change the story?

Hii!! Thank you for the ask ❤️❤️

5. What ships captured your heart?

Oh, there are so many. What can I say, I’m a hopeless romantic.

Right now, I’m obsessed with Timebomb (Ekko/Jinx) and Jayvik (Jayce/Viktor) from Arcane.

As for HP, well, all the ones I have WIPs (Dorlene, Tomarrymort, Prongsfoot). They’re my babies, and I love them.

17. Share your favorite opening line

Without a doubt, it’s the one from Fetters.

I love opening lines that grab your attention, and I think I did that with Fetters.

21. What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

YES. I’m actually facing a big dilemma in two of my fics (Dissonance and Fetters), because I had outlined the stories with some characters dying, but now I don’t want to kill them 🫠

Anyway, we’ll see.

2024 Fic Review

[snickerdoodlles]

hi, yes, hello. do you have any silly headcanons to share? 🥲💕

i love how pointed the 'silly' is here XD *spins roulette wheel*

Arm has been in love with Khun forever. Khun hasn't been in love with Arm as long, but it's been so long he's shocked to discover it. after some flailing into romance, people's reactions to their new relationship go like:

Porsche: lmao what is it with Theerapanyakuls and their bodyguards, good for you Arm!

Kinn: hadn't seen this coming but!! he is very happy for Khun!!! Kinn loves love!!!!

Kim: how the fuck did you not see it Kinn

Pete: fucking finally

Pol: you weren't already dating????

Send an ask, get a headcanon

[felixravinstills]

the ravinstill family is actually normal, well adjusted, and loving (i’m genuinely curious what they would look like without all that….ravinstillness)

ask game

Lily, I'm gonna be so real. I think I chose the most not fulfilling your request way to fulfill your request.

I think to try and keep them the same people while also trying to get them anywhere near normal, well-adjusted, and loving (outwardly. inwardly, I think they all genuinely care for each other. they're just bad at it), I introduced Time Traveling! Max... A character who is actively talking to his brother (wow!)

Unfortunately, we have only moved from no communication basically to... uh selective communication. And also today, we can momentarily glance over at Max's brother who I do think about a lot. He's weird too. Like in my mind... all the Ravinstills are weird.

Anyway, thanks for the ask!

Snippet below:

Felix was a loud and fussy baby.

“He’s not like that when he’s older,” Max had told him when Albanus had remarked upon it.

Albanus had nodded. He was the one who is only half-listening now as he rocked his newest grandson in his arms.

That other time— that other world, it hardly matters to him. Half the time, he’s not convinced it’s anything more than his brother’s imagination.

Besides, time proves Max wrong. Sure, Felix doesn’t cry as much, but he’s chattering away like Albanus did when he'd been that age. At the age of five, He’s all smiles and his favorite thing to do is have his parents swing him up into the air as they walk down the Corso.

Leaning his arms on the railing beside the stairway of the Presidential Palace, Albanus asks if his brother if prefers this version of Felix to the quiet one he remembers in his head. He stand in the ensuing silence, watching Max's jaw work and brow furrow.

After a moment, he shrugs.

“I should care, I think, that he’s different,” Maximinius says after another beat. He opens his mouth to speak again, and then closes it.

Albanus smiles. Both are his grandson, so to Max, it doesn't really matter if he's changed.

"Some of him is the same," Max offers, and Albanus doesn't ask him to elaborate.

He doesn’t ask why Maximinius only really talks about Marius, Gnaeus, and Felix from that other world. He only likes listening to the topic, because he knows that Max hasn't shared his supposed memories with Volumnia. It's nice having one over on her.

He watches Max watch the rest of their family— Albanus' brood of children and grandchildren. The two youngest of Albanus' grandchildren get along today which is a relief. Kassandra loves to be a little instigator, and Felix gets uncomfortable when she speaks ill of their great-uncle.

Today, she's braided his hair, and now, she's painting his nails. She's got a shade of blue for each finger, or so she says. Felix is quite excited about it.

“He’s happy now, because of what you’ve done here," Albanus tells his brother, because he needs to know that he forgives him for all the things that didn't happen.

Max looks at him. It’s a familiar expression. It’s the one he wears looking at , observing the changes.

Albanus raises a finger before he can open his mouth again.

"I don't want to know."

Maybe Albanus has changed from that imagined time in Maximinius' mind. he can’t say for sure if he has. It might be for the best that he never knows for sure.

He remembers when they were children, and his words went in one of Max's ears and out the other. His brother had always seen him as an idiot, and you don't confide in an idiot unless you're crazy enough to believe you've got some second chance at life after fucking it up the first time.

Albanus thinks he should care about that, but Max was his brother and that old world wasn't this one.

His eyes return to the scene below him.

Perhaps, that is their family's problem. They can't bring themselves to care for much of anything except each other.

The children have not yet noticed the president and their grandfather peering down at them.

Albanus shakes his head as he watches three bottles of open nail polish tip over onto the beautiful red rug.

Four teenagers and one young adult scramble to minimize the damage while Felix and Kass start pointing fingers— badly painted ones at one another. It's neither of their faults, they say.

Beside him, Max clears his throat, and all heads turn towards them.

It's not good for the children to know the extent of what they can get away with, so Albanus prepares to care about the rug.

[writingkitten]

(Review anon) A Manuel AND Maxim story? Are you trying to summon me specifically? I'm 👀

YOU KNOW IT REVIEW ANON 😍🥰😘

‘“Mio angelo, you needn’t run away from us,” the one behind you whispered.

The one in front of you took the shape of a handsome man, his hair perfectly styled and facial hair trimmed. He also wore a finely tailored suit, and held a cane.

“Yes, hear us out, darling,” he said, his voice taking on a suave British accent, “I think you’ll be very interested in what we have to say.”’

[kindlingkeen]

insight into Jason’s world training tour from the Bats' POV??!? you're killing me, man. (and Jay. you're going to kill Jay)

(in response to this and this from the wip title ask game)

🥺

Sorry, anon. No killing intended.

And Jay will be fine. Except for the bruises, and the blood loss, and the head injury. Oh, and the light torture. And the captivity. But we’re at least 10,000 words away from any of that!

Thanks for the ask, anon!! 🩵

[cha-melodius]

25, 28, 30 for the year in review my love!

LOLA MY DEAR thank you for sending these!!

25. How did you recharge between fics?

Lmao the latter half of this year has been one writing deadline after another with no recharging, and I fear I might need a substantial break after this. USUALLY after a long fic, I will spend some time not writing and instead doing lots of mystery jigsaw puzzles, watching cooking competitions, and not thinking about writing. Sometimes I've done ficlet prompts to help recharge without getting into anything too substantial.

28. If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

Well my two first and biggest thanks are @celeritas2997 and @cricketnationrise without whom I am sure I would have disintegrated or gone mad by now. Best doc gremlins a girl could ask for. I also need to throw a special shoutout to @firenati0n who I've spent so much time commiserating and laughing and bitching and and chatting with, and who's been such a constant source of support.

30. What would you like to write next year?

Answered this one here, but I can also add potential ideas kicking around like a Star Trek AU, Inception AU, and Beren & Luthien AU.

[anchoredarchangel]

9, 16, and 20 please!💜

Hello Ash! Thank you for the ask!! 💫🤍

9. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

Hilariously, I consulted an outside opinion for this one, and because my time spent writing The Consequences was just described to me as "manic" and "deranged" I've been informed the correct answer was probably either fic in my series The Shadows They Frequent. Purely because they were little shots of porny dopamine that I did not work myself into a fine lather overthinking. Unfortunately, I cannot argue with this.

16. What's your favorite title of the year?

This is so tough, because oddly enough, titling fics is one of my favorite parts, so I'm unjustifiably attached to all of them.

For two very different reasons, I'm going to say it's a tie between The Cosmos in His Palms, because the romantic monologue it's pulled from means a great deal to me - as does the scene of origin. And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, The Throne He Deserves, because the reveal of the titular line was so satisfying. The people were NOT prepared.

20. Share your funniest line

In the same vein, I’m picking the first thing that jumped readily to mind. And honestly, why shouldn’t my funniest line actually be during a very tender, emotional sex scene. That feels like my brand. From Valour and Cowardice:

Those last two brain cells appear to have left the building. Vacationing in the prostate, maybe. Alex can confirm it’s very nice there this time of year.