#i had no choice but to update my fic on ao3’s anniversary

[azaraeth]

Chapter 4: we were just creatures in heaven

Summary:

"When November arrived, it took most of L.A.’s color with it. The rolling green hills on the outskirts of the city turned a washed-out khaki, and there was only a smattering of autumn foliage here and there to indicate that the place had ever been green to begin with.

For Sasha, the browning landscape struck her as a stark reminder that they had really left the verdant, ever-tropical world of Amphibia behind; she had not experienced an autumn on Earth in almost two years."

A look into the past and into Sasha and Anne's first year back at school & on Earth since Amphibia

---

not going to lie I've been sitting on this chapter for awhile but it got delayed since I like to have a good chunk of the next chapter written before I publish and depression writer's block was kicking my ass for chapter 5 up until recently! plus, I wanted to make sure I could finally break my "four chapters" fic curse. but the evil has been defeated so here she finally is <3 it's been challenging but also fun to create Sasha's parents' personalities so lmk what you think

A/N: Sasha’s father has a different last name (Nakamura) as her because her mother kept her maiden name during their marriage and passed it down to Sasha. as is implied with that, Sasha in this fic is half Japanese

chapter title is from "Creatures in Heaven" by Glass Animals.

Thank you to @glacecakes for beta reading!

[unioncolours]

One Majsasaurus Year!

Today is a very special day for me. This day marks the one-year anniversary since I uploaded the very first chapter of my very first fanfiction. It has been one year since I stepped into the Naruto/Boruto fandom as a content creator.

This post is going to be a sappy meta post about my year as a content creator and my relationship to my fanfictions, to my writing and to my fandom and friends.

Please continue reading down below 💕⬇ 

I began watching Naruto in 2019, and by summer 2019 I had seen Shikamaru’s arc in Shippuden. I was blown away by his character and I was a full shipper of ShikaTema by then. I could not wait until we got to the end of Shippuden, and began googling the next gen characters (and spoiling the end game couples at the same time) and you can only imagine my satisfaction when I found out ShikaTema became canon and they had a son.

Very soon after this I came up with my first fanfiction idea, the one that gave birth to my very first fanfiction Shadows and Sand. I believed that idea had been done before, but after vacuuming through both ff.net and ao3, and I found nothing, I decided to write it myself.

I may have written fanfictions only for a year, but prior to this I was hardcore into the original writing world. I had written two fantasy novels and five full length plays before I wrote my first fanfiction, one of which was published, so the art of writing was something I was fairly used to.

The fanfiction writers I had read and followed to this point were Big Fandom Name writers with strict schedules and lots of readers. Every time they uploaded a new chapter their audience would write comments like “Your spoiling us with these tight schedules” and so on. I really liked the idea of a consecutive schedule and decided to write the whole first fic in its entirety, so I could “spoil” my potential readers with updates.

Shadows and Sand ended up being 35 000 word long, divided into eight chapters. This was the first story in my whole life I had ever written completely in English (and it was not easy). Going back to Shadows and Sand is cringy for me, mainly for the way I expressed myself in English, thought I still think the plot is great.

Here is one of the lines from Shadows and Sand I to this day think is amazing:

“She [Mirai] looked into his eyes, but he [Shikadai] didn’t look back, because he was already staring into a nightmare where his dad was dead because of his mistakes.”

For a totally new fanfiction writer, with no “fanbase” prior to this, I would say I got quite a lot of comments (around 15 in total on the eight chapters) and I was extremely happy for that.

I uploaded the whole thing in a week and a half, satisfied and proud of the result. At the final chapter I got a comment where the commentor wrote something along the lines of “Well written angst and well written fluff”. I pondered about those statements for a long time, thinking, yes, this was actually angst, even if I in the moment of writing – then I was still unused to the tagging system and the tropes of fanfiction, didn’t categorise the fic as angst, because I thought angst could only be chopped off limbs and painful deaths. But this fic had angst as well. Tiny angst, but still. And a rather powerful feeling rose in my chest from that moment. This is what I want to do in the fandom. To write heartfelt stories that make people feel.

  One week after I uploaded the final chapter of Shadow and Sand my fingers began to itch. I wanted to write more. Wanted to explore the little grain of world building I had already created. Wanted to write more Shikadai and Inojin kissing.

And thus, To go down with the Sun was born.

I began writing Down with the Sun with only one vision – something epic and an explosion. The plot was evolving as I was writing and the result ended up being just beautiful. And I became obsessed with this story. I wrote it in racer speed, 50 000 words in 26 days (that is madness, I tell you, MADNESS!) and then the rest 30k in 20 days. I could not think of anything but this story and the Next Generation Kids I put through trials and hell. I felt true euphoria while writing this story that unfolded under my fingers like in a dream. It was a mania, and a damn strong one.

The first thing I did when I woke up was writing, the last thing I did before going to bed was writing it. I prioritised writing this story above all in my life.

At the time of uploading, the fic did not get that much recognition. I got about one comment per chapter. When I uploaded the final chapter, I got two comments on that one, which was a tiny bummer, since I had hoped for more. It was a lonely, but lovely job to write Down with the Sun, mostly with my own thoughts as company, since the readers were rather quiet with feedback.

But I loved the few comments I got and I still got kicks from just the single act of uploading a new chapter. Because in the end, I wrote for myself and even more for the characters and plot. Finishing the story was the greatest motivator.

I uploaded the final chapter of To go down with the Sun December 7th, 2019.  And I still to this day love the story I created, even if I know that I’d definitely re-write some elements from the story if I’d write it again. But I still love it.

   After To go down with the Sun I wrote the fic that I hold the least emotional value to, Earning a weasel’s trust. The story is cute and short (11 000 words). It was a nice little project focusing on Temari’s motherhood to Shikadai that I wrote in a week. It got close to no feedback or attention, but it didn’t make me sad, because I needed to write and share that story and then move on with my life. I am though happy I wrote it.

At this time in my creative process I had been really lonely. It had been me with my own head and the characters. I had no beta reader and no one to bounce off ideas or anything. I had no fandom friends. I am still amazed I had written around 130k words without almost any support whatsoever in the span of four months.

This all changed in late December 2019. I found a Discord Server that I basically begged to get to be part of, and it really changed my fandom experience. Prior to this, my fandom experience had been lonely, and I just produced and consumed content. There was no interaction between anyone, except me replying to commentors.

And now, I found friends. I found people who loved the same pairing and show as I, and it felt almost life changing. This was the time when fandom really felt like… a hobby. A home. Before, it was a creative outlet, now it became a community.

I thrived.

The mod of this server @loknnica, hosted during this time a writing contest, which I eagerly wanted to take part of. I wrote my contest fic, Branded by Love, during January 2020, in which I made Shikamaru betray Konoha for Suna and Temari, and their son Shikadai became the One Tail jinchuuriki. The fic was 10k words long, and OUCH, the backstory I came up with. As soon as BbL was finished I decided that I wanted to write a long version of this canon divergence-world I had created.

In February 2020 I began writing Trial of the Heart, the epic version of Branded by Love. And damn, damn, damn what an epic story was born out of my fingers and brain. I love ToH, I loved what it turned out to be, a heart-wrenching and sad story of Shikamaru, Temari and Shikadai in a world of war.

While writing ToH the writing contest was ending and to my big, big delight, I WON! Branded by Love and I won the contest! This was precisely the boost I needed to really feel validated in my rather specific writing style and choice of plots.

I wrote ToH almost non-stop for four months, and in the beginning of June, the 28th chapter was uploaded. Trial of the Heart ended up being 123 000 words long. In four months, a whole damn NOVEL was created from my keyboard.

The pride, guys. The pride and joy I felt was like a drug injection.

Finishing off works is the greatest, greatest dose of motivation and pride. To write, write, write and finish. And let go of your work, to upload it with a great smile on your face.

During the spring and summer of 2019 three very important friends entered my life.

Vee (@veeganburger on twitter),

Becks (@notquitejiraiya on twitter)

Spooky (@spookymoth on twitter).

These three wonderful ladies really made me feel valid as a writer, and made me love my own work as well. During the spring To go down with the Sun had gained quite a lot of attraction, and the kudos and comments came. All the loneliness I had felt during the autumn was replaced by joy and love of sharing my works. These women have shared their thoughts of my work (and art) to me and I have also in privacy felt secure to talk with these women about nothing and all at once. They never fail to cheer me up.

I love you.

I had also gained the nickname “Shikadai’s tormentor” after multiple times forced that poor boy into horrible situations in my works. The user @shikanaradai’s nickname is Shikadai’s protector and we have an ongoing joke about being archenemies because of this. Ah. The fandom bubble was and is so lovely when you can experience inside jokes with friends. They became my friends, and I gained so much from this.

ANYHOW.

During Trial of the Heart I wrote a friendship between Shikadai and Inojin and I realised I missed writing them as a couple, like I had done in To go down with the Sun. With the support of Vee, who was really, really excited for a new fic where those two boys are a couple, I decided to write a sequel to To go down with the Sun, which I named To dance above the Stars.

In the wait before I began writing that one, I wrote two one shots, 48 hours to live – a next gen focused fic based on a manga chapter from the Boruto manga, and a pure Shikadai x Inojin one shot, I found love in the eyes of a boy, because at that time I knew already I had dug my own grave with that pairing.

I began writing To dance above the Stars in June 2020 and uploaded the first chapter at the end of the same month.

Simultaneously as I wrote Above the Stars I also wrote/edited three fics, one of them called The End, for an application to become a writer to the ShikaTema zine Everything I never knew I wanted. The results of the application came in the middle of July, when I had written a good chunk of Above the Stars.

I WAS ACCEPTED!

I am now officially one of the five writers for that zine!

To dance above the Stars got better recognition that I ever imagined. I was terrified that no one would want to read it, because it was a sequel and had very niched themes. A rare gay next gen pairing in focus and a story with extremely heavy emotional themes. I was so unsure anyone would want to read. The same feeling of loneliness that I had experienced during To go down with the Sun came back a little bit. That it in the end would be only me and my text.

How wrong I was.

To dance above the Stars got wonderful feedback, and more kudos than for example Trial of the Heart got. I received wonderful comments, and even fanart! I was so extremely happy and felt a new powerful emotion. It almost felt like my fic had its own little world in the world of fics, if that makes sense? Like a miniature fandom. During the late summer To go down with the Sun got translated into Russian by a wonderful reader of mine, enabling my texts to a wider audience, which I am extremely honoured by.

As I write this, it is September 2020. One year ago, I was writing Shadows and Sand and struggling through stringing English sentences together and that was also when “my” version of Shikadai was born. One year ago, I was writing what I to this day think is the best fighting scene I have ever written – and I write a lot of fight scenes. One year ago I was listening to “I just want to be brave” from the movie Lion King to get into Shikadai vibes and the mistake he did in that fic, a song I revisit for this reason time and time again.

I remember naively thinking that I will finish Shadows and Sand and then maybe write something else as well. Little did I then, in September 2019 know, that I would one year later have written closer to 400k words of fics, centred around Team 10 or around the Nara family. One year, almost four hundred thousand words.

Now, one year later I had won a writing contest, written three full length NOVELS as fics, been accepted to a wonderful zine, and found lovely, lovely friends. I even got crowned as a “Queen” for the Shikadai x Inojin ship, Shikajin as it is called, since I am one of the like three people who write for that ship, and have to this date written around 180k words for them. Which is a lot, haha!

I feel like I have conquered a tiny corner of the great fandom sandbox, and let me tell you, I thrive in my own corner. I might have few followers on twitter compared to many other creators, but I still want to provide content for those who want to see it. I might write rather niche works, but they filled a space where no fics were, and enriched the fandom in their own ways, even if I haven’t gotten tens of comments on each chapter. I have gotten around four comments each chapter, but it felt like okay.

I might not mod great zines like many of my friends do, something that did for a few months bring great stress into my fandom life. Am I a second-hand fandom member because I don’t want to moderate a zine, was something I often thought about. Am I lesser worth because I don’t do these amazing projects? No, I am not. And I feel very satisfied by just following my friends’ journeys and look at beautiful twitter accounts for zines.

I want to put my energy on writing intriguing plots and difficult fight scenes. Every fandom experience is valid.

In my heart I know my fics and content are good. Maybe not as good as native English writer’s content, but they’ve got a heart and soul on their own, and I really feel like I do have a Majsasaurus genre, trope or theme going on in my fics. And to be honest, I love it, and I accept that other people might not love it as much, or not at all. But it doesn’t matter. What I think of my own content matter.

  If any of you, who read this, have commented even once on one of my fics, thank you.

If any of you have ever interacted with me on twitter through comments, thanks you.

If any of you have pressed the follow button on either twitter or tumblr for me, thank you.

If any of you have left kudos to me, thank you.

If any of you have read my stuff but don’t want to comment because of different reasons, or if you feel shy to reach out, thank you for reading and I appreciate you as well.

 That was one hell of a Majsasaurus Year. Here’s to the next year. Cheers!

Thank you, all of you. You make my fandom experience complete.

 -        Majsasaurus Bex

[mistresspandora-archive]

Mistress Pandora’s Outlander Bingo Master Post

Since I haven’t updated my bingo master posts in a while...

These are in the order they were posted (so the newer stuff is farther down). More stories below the cut! Fics are linked through the titles.

Title: The Anniversary Crossover Verse: Supernatural Square: Touch Starved Pairing: GEN (Dean Winchester & Jamie Fraser, Dean/Jamie adjacent, if you squint) Rating: M for violence and gore Summary:  It has been ten years since Jamie's beloved wife Claire was killed by literal monsters. Ten years since he started down this path, ridding the world of vile darkness, once abomination at time. Ten years since, and Jamie's raid of a vampire nest gets interrupted by two brothers, hunters themselves.

Title: Trying Another Tactic Square: Inopportune Boners and What to Do About Them Pairing: Jamie Fraser/Lord John Grey Rating: E (Exceptionally Explicit Erotica - please read the tags on AO3) Summary: The genesis of the argument wasn't important. Yet here Grey was, once again engaged in a shouting match with Jamie Frigging Fraser. Until they realized why they were fighting, and it had nothing at all to do with the words that were said. Time to try a new tactic.

Title: Sticky Fingers, Sticky Sheets Collaborator(s): @levisqueaks​ Square: Bed Sharing Pairing: Lord John Grey/Tom Byrd Rating: E (Exceptionally Explicit Erotica - please read the tags on AO3) Summary: It had been years of wanting. Carefully contained desire set loose at last by the right circumstances, a moderate supply of good brandy, and a healthy dose of thrilling recklessness.

Title: Chapter Five Collaborator(s): @iihappydaysii​ Square: After an Injury/While Hurt Pairing:  Jamie Fraser/Lord John Grey Rating:  E (Exceptionally Explicit Erotica - please read the tags on AO3) Summary: After a remarkably stupid mishap leaves Jamie blinded and incapacitated, Lord John reads to him to pass the time. Unfortunately, their choices of reading material are somewhat limited.

Title: Please, Master Me Square: Hand Feeding Pairing: Lord John Grey/Stephan von Namtzen Rating:  E (Exceptionally Explicit Erotica - please read the tags on AO3) Summary: Lord John Grey and Stephan von Namtzen have an arrangement. Sometimes, when Grey has exhausted himself in the execution of his many duties, von Namtzen offers him freedom from worry for a time, relieving Grey of his burdens. Caring for him in their own particular way.

Title: Howl at the Moon Collaborator(s): @levisqueaks​ Square: Creative Interpreations of Doggy Style Pairing: Ian Fraser Murray/Roger Mackenzie Rating:  E (Exceptionally Explicit Erotica - please read the tags on AO3) Summary: While surveying his newly-granted land, Roger reveals to Ian a frightening secret about his journey back from the Mohawk years ago. This is all porn, y'all, also an AU Scene for 05.08.

Title: Friday Night at Sugar Shack Square: Coffee Shop AU Pairing: Lord John Grey/Brian Randall (gender swapped Brianna Randall Fraser) Rating:  E (Exceptionally Explicit Erotica - please read the tags on AO3) Summary: Brian Randall's Friday night plans to ogle the cute guitar player are derailed when a gorgeous man dressed as a redcoat literally falls into his lap. The guy really is British and seems to think he's from 1765.

Title: Lord John and the Sea Monster Square: Tentacles Pairing: Kraken!Jamie Fraser/Privateer!John Grey Rating:  E (Exceptionally Explicit Erotica - please read the tags on AO3) Summary: When John Grey is swept from the deck of his brother's privateering vessel during an awful storm, he finds himself face to face with the sea monster who's been following him for twenty years.

Title: Two and Twenty Square: Coming Untouched Pairing: Lord John Grey/Tom Byrd Rating:  E (Exceptionally Explicit Erotica - please read the tags on AO3) Summary: Here, as equals, so far away from the trappings of station and society, reading sonnets and drinking French wine, there was no reason whatsoever that Tom Byrd shouldn't, kiss Lord John Grey.