#i have read so many fixit fics

[astraerystarr]

Optimus Prime x Megatron fic recs!!

HII AGAIN, I had to delete my old account @numbraerys so I'm reuploading this rec list, sorry about the mess but I'll make the rec a little prettier this time ^^

Homesick For A Memory by Eisengrave, Maelikki [M, 9k w., Bay Movies]

Even Primes can lose their faith. But sometimes, their failed Protectors make good on their word given long ago.(weird little fixit for AoE because we stan a protective Megatron and an Optimus who is finally tired of his human hamsters. Also, homecoming.)

~ugly crying, screaming on my pillow, rolling around on the floor

The Silver Lining by GeminiWishes [Teen and up, 38k w., Transformers Animated 2007]:

After Optimus was expelled from the Autobot Academy, he had no sense of what to do or where to go. Desperate for purpose, he ends up on a mining crew that travels the galaxy. But when their ship is attacked, Optimus' life will change forever.

Whether or not he'll be able to handle those changes is yet to be determined.

~I ran around my room on all fours reading this

Some Kind Of Forever by auri_mynonys (FAVE) [E, 8625 w., TFP]:

A chance meeting in a bar near the Pits brings Orion Pax and Megatronus together.

~I freaking love this fic, I'm so glad it was one of the first I ever read

Adeste Fideles by Legitconcrusher (FAVE) [Teen and up, TFP, 57,632+ w, ongoing]:

“Oh, indulge me, Optimus. How many times have you answered your desire’s calls to walk among these pitiful creatures…in the flesh?”

In which Optimus shares with his greatest foe, and former friend - Megatron, the one time a year he allows himself to feel amid the throes of their War within a Christmas market.

The angsty slow burn Christmas AU no one asked for.

~absolutely wonderful to read and incredible writing♡♡♡♡

Gaining Perspective by Dragonlingdar [Teen and up, BayVerse, 105,732 w., Ongoing]:

Megatron and Optimus are turned into humans by a prototype weapon Starscream uses against them. In order for Megatron to get his revenge and Optimus to free himself of Megatron, they must reclaim their original bodies. However, will they still be Optimus Prime and Megatron by the time they do?

~I hyperfixated on this fic for a whole month after finishing it

Contact by auri_mynonys (FAVE) [E, 98,747 w., TFP]:

Orion Pax knows there's a word for what Megatronus means to him. He just can't quite put his finger on what it is.

Which is probably how he missed the moment where he asked Megatronus to marry him.

~Slow Burn♡♡♡♡♡

Plus One by auri_mynonys [E, 64,631 w., TFP]:

Megatronus has a party to attend. A high-caste date will lend him status in the eyes of his fellow gladiators, and Orion Pax is all too happy to play the part…

~this slow burn was slowly burning, I loved every second of it

Songs Of Metal And Sparks by EbonyAura [Teen and up, 58,741 w., Rock n' Roll AU, TFP]:

Imagine the Transformers Prime universe where war is nonexistent, and instead of the Autobot and Decepticon factions, it's the Autobot and Decepticon rock bands.

Imagine that both bands are nearly world famous, yet have no idea the other exists.

Imagine that Cybertron's festival of music is approaching, and with it, the chance for a lucky upcoming band to go on a world tour.

Imagine that both bands, ecstatic for the chance to finally reach world fame, are going to the festival.

~this cured my teenage heart that didn't get to read nice cute stuff like this

Optimus Prime Is Destined To Die!! by Chuzilllaa (FAVE) [G, 169k+ w, ongoing]:

Orion Pax is your typical archivist from a functionalist free universe and lives a peaceful life, but after dying tragically in a transport incident he’s reincarnated as Optimus Prime of the hit action novel Songs of the Spark, the beautiful but aloof eldest prince of the Prime lineage…who is a pathetic side character doomed to die a tragic death at the hands of the tyrannical Duke Megatron.

Of course his darling little brother Rodimus Prime is the precious hero and puts an end to Megatron’s reign, but Orion has no intention of dying a pathetic death! No! Not again! He wants to live damnit! So begins the attempts of a pax-turned-prime turning over a new leaf in the hope of living another day. Little does he know there’s a bit more to Optimus than a pathetic side character…

~I love this fic so. damn. much.

Lunch Date by Chuzilllaa [Teen and up, 6,000+ w, Earthspark, crack]:

With a new cafe opening at G.H.O.S.T headquarters, Optimus invites Megatron to try something new.

~fluffy and funny♡♡♡

At First Sight by Lyricality (FAVE) [M, 27,000+ w.]:

Optimus is the last of the Primes; Megatron is the greatest of Kaon's gladiatorial warriors. Their shared destiny - Optimus is certain - just needs a push in the correct direction.

~help I got obsessed with this fic and I can't get out

To give (in) by 0 (only_elsewhere) (FAVE) [M, 10,000+ w, Earthspark]:

After the war, Optimus confesses.

~aaashhksdkkklkosljdhjh

Victory Condition by astolat [E, 37,000+ w, TF Gen1]

“Do you want me to tell you a story?” Megatron said mockingly. “You won’t like it, Prime. It’s not a very nice one.”

~cave in fic with poetry and the heart wrenching story of Megatron's origins - my beloved

Cooking Off by zuzeca [E, 2000 w., IDW G1]:

Megatron and Optimus find themselves in an awkward position and learn some extremely personal information about each other.

~ Good reading ;3

[kirkodiletears]

I wanted to answer this question: (it's only a speculation)

"How intense is Luo Binghe love for the original Shen jiu and why is he so damn fixitated him for is it his looks or personality lol ? I'v read so many fics of Shen yuan identity reveal with Luo binghe and the peaklords that always ended positively but do you think it'd be the same in the canonverse? Like if Shen yuan were to reveal he wasn't the original would they react positively or negatively?"

I think 1st thing he feel in love was SJ's looks

"Shang Qinghua: “What was your first impression of the other person?”

 

Luo Binghe continued to reminisce and lightly said: “An aloof and remote, distant and untouchable immortal.”

then he started to do anything to gain SJ's attention/favor... He befriended with SJ's favorite disciple NYY, even if she always got him in trouble, then after he was pushed down to the abyss he realized that SJ would never return his feelings so he decided to destroy him, meanwhile he started to cope with it and started to pretend that SJ was a scum villain who couldn't love anyone but himself (that's probably why he never seen SJ's memories even if he was able to do so) and when YQY died he and SJ's reaction finally shattered his illusions...

Well, in my opinion, you pretty much nailed it. Especially keeping in mind the original intentions of Airplane to write PIDW as a yaoi novel with SJ (SQQ) and LBH as a OTP.

P.S.: Apparently I better quote the text of SVSSS, chapter 81 to be precise, to avoid ignorant comments. There's a huge misunderstanding going on in the English-speaking segment, probably dew to an English translation of SVSSS. Some readers are mislead by two quotes, that they take as a contradictory, which in truth, they are NOT.

The first one is from a Chapter "The story begins". It is the last chapter of the novel, after this the extras start. And this particular chapter is a culmination: this is where the truth is reveled. Like in a detective story, where we finally find out, who the killer is. This meant to become a real "bomb", that makes a reader go WOOOW!!! And this is THE KEY for understanding the whole story: the plot and the characters, especially Luo Bing-mei (and Luo Bing-ge). And speaks about the intentions of the Airplane. (original scrapped outline(c))

The second quote on the other hand speaks of an EXISTING PIDW. (original outline(c))

The first quote, from the final chapter:

Shen Qingqiu looked him up and down. “You don’t look crushed at all after all this foolish messing around ended up completely changing your own novel.”

Shang Qinghua said, “You can’t say it like that ah. Maybe you think it’s just all foolish messing around that isn’t worth a damn, but for Bing-ge, your foolish messing around is probably the meaning of this entire world.”

... holy s***, Great God Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky was able to say something like that?!

Shen Qingqiu was terrified. “F***. You didn’t turn back into the original character, did you?”

Shang Qinghua said seriously, “Don’t be like that. I’m also a young person with literary ideals. Of course, I have my own reflections and emotions.”

Shen Qingqiu laughed coldly. “What literary ideals? How come all I saw in the original work was shameless fanservice?” Not to mention his hand speed that could produce ten thousand words a day, and the courage to even occasionally explode with twenty thousand. If he didn’t have such equipment, there was no way 《Proud Immortal Demon Way》 would have been able to hold out before it was serialized!

Shang Qinghua spread his hands. “You think that I always wrote shameless content that lacked any integrity from the very start? I’ve also written belles-lettres4 before, but they were all unpopular, so I had no choice but to go down a path that catered to the masses. It must be said that writing novels is a very lonely undertaking. Rather than writing a stallion male protagonist who’ll be stereotypical in the end, it’s more in line with my philosophy for writing to create the current Bing-ge━this kind of weirdo male protagonist whose character is a bit more complicated, has contradictions and conflicts, and has a rough destiny.”

Shen Qingqiu concluded, “So, your philosophy for writing is to write about gay guys?”

Shang Qinghua: “Do you look down upon gay male protagonists? Works of art and artists all like to create gay guys. Belles-lettres favors gays, do you know that?”

He waved his arms wildly and passionately. “Cucumber Bro, if the System hadn’t chosen you, this faithful die-hard reader, perhaps the plot wouldn’t have deviated so thoroughly, thoroughly to the point that it deviated all the way back to my original scrapped outline. Even though the me back in reality━who couldn’t endure the loneliness and was under financial pressure━chose to finish writing 《Proud Immortal Demon Way》 according to other people’s preferences and what they found cool... now, all thanks to you, essentially everything that I wanted to write has already unfolded in front of my eyes. Cucumber Bro!”

He patted Shen Qingqiu’s shoulders with deep sentiment and solemnity. “You... are the chosen one; as for my career, I have no more regrets!”

... why did it sound like the System and this world were both products of Shang Qinghua’s resentment over scrapping that outline and going with what was mainstream?

Shen Qingqiu, who shamefully became this kind of “chosen one”: “Who’s your faithful die-hard reader?”

Shang Qinghua waved his hand and one-sidedly declared his victory. “I’m not going to talk to you; you’re an anti-fan.”

Shen Qingqiu was about to say, “I’m only an anti, not a fan!” when he suddenly heard Shang Qinghua starting crooning something like, “Emotions are warm, kindness hard to bear, lips moving together, desires turning the evening to the next morning, never resting from dawn to dusk.” The crucial point was that melody, which sounded extremely familiar to the point that it made Shen Qingqiu’s hands and teeth itch. He pointed at him and said, “Shang Qinghua, what are you singing?”

Shang Qinghua continued to croon. “The warmth of emotions makes gratitude hard to bear. Lips to lips, locked in a kiss. Let this night linger ‘til tomorrow’s dawn. Day after day, night after night; never to end. Will tomorrow be another today? When ‘til Zheng Yang reaches its zenith? As Zheng Yang ascends, the voice of Autumn stirs. A sheathless Xiu Ya, a spurt of cold nectar. Tragic pleas amidst choked sobs, thus in vain; for he rises again5...”

Shen Qingqiu was in disbelief. “F*** you—why don’t you just try and sing another line?”

Shang Qinghua said, “Great Lord Shen, why aren’t you listening to what I’m saying? You must never go around casually f***ing people. Bing-ge will go crazy. I’m telling you, this Resentment of Chunshan is equivalent to Shi Ba Mo6. You two are the legendary national homos, do you understand? I have no problems with you shutting me up, but ultimately it’s useless. You can’t possibly make all the countless people in the world shut up...”

The second quote, from the extras: "

System: 【Basic accomplishment of《Proud Immortal Demon Way》’s original outline, slight deviation of romance plot, objective accomplished. Function to return to original world download complete. Activate return home sequence?】

Basic accomplishment of the original outline, that he agreed with, all the holes which needed to be filled were filled. But, this “slight deviation of romance plot” isn’t quite right. Bing-ge is gay no━how can you say this is a “slight deviation”? Ay okay, okay. In fact, in his original outline, Bing-ge didn’t have a romance plot; he was doomed to fade away, alone and unaging forever. If you insist on adding a plotline, that’s whatever, but he’s wasted this many words… you mean he can return to his original world?!?!"

The second quote is very poorly translated into English. What it actually means, is that Bing-ge does not have ANY SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIP, LOVE. Nothing to do with he amount of partners he fucks. And yes - the ending for the tyrant he became in PIDW is not happy in a slightest. This is how his relationship with the harem is described by the PIDW reader's forum in the novel:

"Airplane really doesn’t know how to write romance plotlines, best if he just doesn’t. I feel like Luo Binghe doesn’t have feelings for any of his wives, he just wants to use them. And I can’t see any of those women with real moving emotion for him. "

[theyoungeragrippina]

🫶🏻 15 gentlebeard/blackbonnet fic recs

(17 if you squint)

hey legends, in this bittersweet period where a lot of a us are feeling gutted but simultaneously, rebelliously hopeful, i've emerged from my reading den to showcase to you all some of the brilliant talent we have in this fandom! these fics are some of the best of the best, and i hope you love them just as much as i do! <3

they are all complete, do not feature any ongoing steddyhands/edizzy/stizzy, and are above 20k words.

peruse part 1, part 2, and part 3 at your leisure if you want to compare our tastes/devour more fine literature, or check out my masterlist as an ao3 collection.

adrift between the dreaming seas by @dandy-pirate-time

49k, mature, locked

stede lives a cursed life on a moving island, until the monotony of his days is suddenly interrupted by the fearsome kraken.

this was such a fascinating & incredible idea! i love how it manipulates aspects of the original story and transforms them into parts of the cursed island <3 sweet & unique & magical. i want to hug poor stede.

Five Birthdays and a Funeral by @bizarrelittlemew

58k, explicit

"When Ed and Stede's friend groups merge, they meet at a birthday party, and Stede's life is turned upside-down. As they collide again and again, he not only has to figure out what Ed means to him, but what he means to himself."

stede gets to be oblivious and a bit of a silly goose as a treat. also: treasure hunts, lucius is the best, ed has a cat whom i would die for, such a sweet & heartfelt fic. you will be so unbelievably fond of this version of every character.

The Ghost of Frigate Point Lighthouse by @piratecaptainscaptainpirates

53k, explicit

"When history professor Stede Bonnet goes to investigate rumors of a ghost haunting the local lighthouse, he's thrust into a mystery centered around the ghost of one of the most famous pirates of all time."

was SO eager to read this and it did not disappoint!! it has everything - fun, magic, mystery, tired TA lucius, and a lil bit of seduction. good enough that i am worried the author may actually just be a sea witch recollecting events he personally witnessed.

Haunted by @thepirateroo

60k, explicit

"The Kraken is a famous spiritualist, working the music halls of 1920s London to help families communicate with their dead. But Stede Bonnet knows that underneath the fame and illustrious title, Edward Teach works as a ghost hunter, debunking the spirits he makes his living off."

this is, genuinely, in the top 5 fanfics i have read for any fandom EVER. i wouldn't bat an eyelid if i read this exact work as a published novel in a bookstore. the mystery is so good and had me guessing and re-theorising constantly, the characterisation is brilliant, and the emotions are perfect. i cried, i laughed, i felt sick with worry for the characters, and i couldn't stop reading until i was done.

haunt me, then by @hyruling

28k, explicit

"He releases the ropes slowly, barely registering the burn as they slip through his fingers. Then, fallible as Orpheus, turns to meet his ghost."

post s1 fixit fics ily. everyone needs some therapy. really VERY well written and a joy to read.

Homeward Bound by mari_who

51k, explicit

"In the long-ago year 2000, bouncy blonde boy-band member Stede Bonnet is 17-year-old Edward Teach's gay awakening. Decades later, Ed hears a voice he could never forget."

i said 'ohhh no poor ed/stede' so many times while reading this. a lovely exploration of emotion and human connection, and finding yourself when everyone else has always defined who you are on your behalf.

I just need some air by @cuddlytogas

26k, teen

"Stede Bonnet's been having panic attacks for almost as long as he can remember, suffocated by pressure and expectation... When [he] finally takes his life back — divorces Mary, moves to Melbourne, starts his own event management business — things get better, but he's still no good at parties. He still needs some air, even at the very events he's brought to fruition. Meanwhile, Edward Teach, renowned chef and owner of Blackbeard's Catering, is wondering why the newest bigwig in events still hasn't hired him."

zoomed through this faster than lightning mcqueen. such a lovely writing of stede, ed and the whole crew - it feels like there's depth in every character, even background ocs.

also fantastic australia rep (i was jumpscared by mention of the cotton on group) AND i've been to the bar the final scene takes place at!!!! most exciting reading experience of my life.

i'll be your treasure by @monksofthescrew

48k, mature

"Wasn't the Dread Pirate Blackbeard rumored to have a hoard hidden somewhere near Essex? It's a metal detecting AU. They're detectorists. They fall in love."

i LOVE this fic so much it is just,,,, so sweet. stede does self-discovery and is seduced. ed is a bit of a goose and i'm obsessed with him. doug and mary are lovely. alma is so cool and i love her.

+ the sequel! drift o'er the rolling hills, swim through the briny sea (made me cry. btw. doug keeps being the best.)

The Kraken's Sacrifice by @trinityofone

22k, explicit

"Every year, a person is chosen—supposedly at random—to be sacrificed to the Kraken, to quell the sea's worst storms and to stop the taking of ships... Stede discovers that there is much more to the creature than he was led to believe—and that they have a deeper connection than he could have ever dreamed."

i LOVED this okay. it was funny and sweet and gave an interesting spin to the ed-is-the-kraken genre. get both of these boys some self-esteem asap. also comes with art by @avatoh!!!!!

lovers in a dangerous time by @veeagainsttheday

52k, explicit

pacific rim au - "Edward Teach becomes a jaeger pilot, first with Izzy Hands and later with Stede Bonnet. It’s not easy trying to save the world and falling in love with your drift partner…"

made me feel every emotion under the sun, including foaming at the mouth jealous that i don't have a drift partner. absolutely, masterfully written. i've popped this link first since its the fic that focuses on stede & ed, but it was written as a prequel for:

+ catagory five: a shatterdome romance by @owlinaminor (27k, mature), which focuses predominantly on jim & oluwande, and which i also massively recommend reading (first). it's told through lucius' words and made up of journalistic notes and transcriptions, and its really terribly clever. i knew nothing about pacific rim before this, and now i'm really very invested. if i wrote something this fantastic (& creative & wildly unique) i would never shut up about it.

More of the Gravy Basket than of the Grave by @veeagainsttheday

36k, explicit

"Ed and Stede’s ‘unorthodox friendship’ ended four months ago when Stede left Ed without a word after Ed asked him to run away to a parallel universe with him. They’re thrown back together when they’re summoned to perform a supernatural exorcism at the Hillside Hotel during a blizzard."

this has got to be one of the coolest and most creative fics i have ever had the pleasure of reading. genuinely kept me guessing and so so intrigued, PLUS the most sweet stede & ed dynamic!!!

Nothing Missing in My Life by @semisweetshadow

63k, explicit, locked

"Hollywood action star Ed Teach is bored with his celebrity life. Everything changes when he meets Stede, a sweet extra working on the set of his latest film shoot. Stede doesn't know who Ed really is and treats him like a real person and Ed can't help wanting to keep him."

ed plays an action hero called jeff the accountant, and if that's not immediately the greatest synopsis ever idk how else to win you over. hilarious, clever, & so heartfelt. i gasped and said 'oh no' with a hand over my heart nearly as many times as i laughed out loud.

not pickles by smallestchurch

84k, explicit

"Ed's minding his business when the new neighbor's kid comes around holding a human puppet. It's creepy as hell, but as soon as the kid's father rounds the corner, Ed doesn't mind."

i actually feel a bit ill when i think about this fic because i love it so overwhelmingly. there's family, and healing, and good food and friends, and ed teach and louis bonnet become the dynamic duo they always had the potential to be.

Our Fangs Mean Death by @flawedamythyst

87k, teen, locked

"Master Vampire Blackbeard's afterlife is enlivened by the arrival of a new coven in town, lead by the self-styled Gentleman Vampire. Now here's a Master who doesn't mind shaking things up by wearing clothes 300 years out of date, buying a massive gothic mansion for a lair, and leading the most eclectic coven Blackbeard has ever seen."

ridiculously fun. this is the vampire novel/fic i didn't know i needed and i loved every silly second. stede really gets to fulfil his dad-ness. i'm furious i can't join the gentleman vampires coven irl, will just need to embrace the gothic vampire aesthetic in my own life.

Wayfaring by @justkeeptrekkin

35k, explicit

"The downside to being stuck on a desert island is that Stede's not awfully good at adapting. The upside is that he and Ed can finally have some peace and quiet– that is, if Ed ever wakes up from the gunshot wound in his stomach."

the sweetest desert island fic, feat. the cutest piglet in the world, a little bit of pining, a helpful skeleton named dusty, and some of the best & most accurately written stede and ed content ever (imo).

[dianadragonfly]

So, I was thinking about different fandoms and the fics that I love. What makes a good, satisfying fan fic? I realize it has 100% to do with the canon.

Take BBC Sherlock. I struggle so much with AUs where their beginnings are different. Sherlock is an astronaut, assigned to work with scientist John. (This is an example, not a dig at any specific fic). I can't. I can't. I realize BBC Sherlock is also an AU from Doyle, but BBC Sherlock and John are so fucking tied to "A Study In Pink" and John handing his phone to Sherlock that everything else seems false. Fun premise, but not the Sherlock and John I know.

A satisfying Johnlock fan fic needs to change the ending of the BBC canon. To think of these two men, who love each other so much, just continuing their parallel existences, never becoming anything more than crime-fighting buds, is just. . . it doesn't fit. It doesn't fit the show. It doesn't fit the characters Moffit and Gatiss created, even if they decided to not make it happen (as a special 'fuck you' to their fans). It's heartbreaking.

My favorite fics are fixits -- many of them deal with the aftermath of Euros and Mary, or some do "canon intercepts" and deal with Seasons 3 and 4 differently. Still, anything but John and Sherlock raising Rosie together as partners/lovers/husbands in 221B with Mrs. Hudson downstairs feels like a lie. (Some canon intercepts write out Rosie completely.)

If I had to write sequels to BBC canon, I'd pick "Drawn to Stars" by @totallysilvergirl or "Never Turn Your Back on the Sea” by @discordantwords . There's a thousand other ones, but those ring the most true to me.

"Heartstopper" fics don't have a lot of room to mess with the ending. Anything other than Charlie and Nick happily growing old together is so far out of canon and out of character that it doesn't even seem like it's worth exploring. There are a handful of ones that have one character or the other dying, but mostly, we understand right away that Charlie and Nick are endgame. We are 100% aligned with canon and creator on this.

Anything that isn't true to this ending rings as false as anything that isn't true to Sherlock's beginning. Fun to read, but not our characters.

With Nick and Charlie being so young in canon, their beginnings are so much malleable. Sherlock and John are tied to that lab. Nick and Charlie? not so much. They meet in grammar school. They meet in University. They meet after a hot hookup at a club in their 20s. They meet after broken marriages to Imogen and Ben. They meet during Nick's rugby career or as fellow teachers. They meet at gyms, at animal rescues, at psychiatric hospitals. They are single parents, University professors, rock star drummers, hot shot authors and academics. Their beginning isn't fixed. But the end always is.

I have so many favorites but I just re-read "Lavender Fields" and I think it's a perfect Nick and Charlie meeting up in their 30s fics. There's a ton of University fics too.

I haven't read nearly as many fics from other fandoms, so I don't know their quirks. I'm finding that fandoms that don't have a m/m pairing are hard to find a lot of fics for. (That's a whole 'nother post). But other m/m fandoms seem to have canon-compliant extra scenes. (Wanna see Achilles and Patroclus get freaky in a tent somewhere? Here ya go. That being said, there's one about Achilles waiting for Patroclus in the Underworld that breaks. my. damn. heart.)

Anyways, I need to do a serious look-through of other fandoms to see how this plays out.

I should add the links here to the fics I mention, just because.

[n7punk]

I've been reading your catradora fics for years (like I've moved on from the Fandom long ago bc life happened but I'm still subscribed to your fics and I'll still dip my toes back in the Fandom just for your writing) and I've been secretly hoping you'd join the arcane Fandom bc there's so much subtle context that's barely explored in the show and, with the way you handle catradora, I knew you could do so much with caitvi especially with the unspoken conflicts.

No pressure, obviously, but I hope you return to it 💕

aw thank you <3 i know myself well enough to know i'll very likely end up writing some more, but the thing with arcane is that the canon world is so dark i don't really want to spend a lot of time immersed in it, you know? fixit is a genre but while it's a fun show, it's mostly a vehicle to enjoy the lady characters for to me 😂 (tho ekko is the Best). the reason i dont think im going to write much, even for AUs, is that catra and adora are both my blorbos but only vi is my real blorbo in arcane if that makes sense. i really like other characters, sure, but not the same way i like her, so i just naturally will have fewer ideas if they're only coming from half as many angles.

[the-sparkling-diamond-satine]

Counting unpublished stuff only:

Pages: 868

(Words: 509,565)

What I have learned from this exercise is I have a lot of stuff in my drafts that I could post if I just bothered to edit it 😂 Past me thought “No one wants 100k of genderfluid Buffy fics! This is too self-indulgent!” and then I just kept writing without editing and planning to never post them haha, we’ll see if I ever decide to get them to a post-able state. Sometimes there is fun in just writing and not worrying about making it good so some of my stuff may never see the outside of a drafts folder but I do think I have a couple of readers who might actually enjoy genderfluid!Buffy fic so. For them, I’ll consider revisiting old projects someday :)

Writers! Forget number of WIPs, how many pages of google docs of all your WIPs do you have drafted?

[bloopitynoot]

Xichen Centric Fics

This is a list of fics for @ladyprophet !

(If you are ever looking for a specific flavour of fic and want recs- DM me! I love recommending fics. Also check out my active tags for other rec lists. )

Some specifics about this list:

the pairings are not so important (this list will have a variety of Xichen pairings because most of the fics I have read and love with him are him in some sort of relationship)

Complex portrayals preferred!

pre-canon if possible (I dont know how many I have with pre-canon, most of what I have is aftermath or modern au's).

Favourites encouraged (most of this list)

I have broken this list down into cultivation era and modern au's just for some differences. I have includes all varieties of fic rating and topic. Some of these are very crack! energy, some of them are heartbreaking; gotta have balance LOL.

Cultivation-Era Xichen Centric Fics

1. After Each Midnight Begins A New Day (54401 words) by Eleanor_Fenyx

Chapters: 10/10 Rating: Explicit Relationships: Lan Huan | Lan Xichen/Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao/Nie Mingjue, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Additional Tags: Threesome - M/M/M, Angst, Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon-Typical Violence, No beta we die like wei wuxian, Everyone's tender and kind, technically a time travel fix-it but like. Not in the way you're thinking, The time travel has already happened the fix-it has already happened, LXC wakes up into it and has to reconcile what he knows with what he's learning Series: Part 1 of 3Zun Fixit AU Summary: "'Count your blessings', they'll say. And after each midnight begins a new day. But don't place your bets on a word that they say - they'll put your life to rest…" When Lan Xichen wakes screaming from a nightmare in the middle of the night, it's unusual but not unheard of. In the five years since the collapse of everything he thought he knew in a temple in Yunping, nightmares are his nightly companions after all. What IS unheard of, though, is the startled exclamation from his left and the grumpy reply from his right. Nie Mingjue on his left. Jin Guangyao - no, Meng Yao on his right. What the fuck? Or: What happens when Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have already gone back in time to fix everything that went wrong and Lan Xichen has, apparently, just been dragged along to share in the 'happily ever after'.

Thoughts:

This is one of those that has the balance of a happy ending but also a LOT of trauma that Xichen has to work through.

The time travel fix has already happened and for some reason, Xichen keeps the memories of the previous timeline.

There is so much healing but also mind the rating and tags!

2. All of Our Memories Gather (72700 words) by geethr75

Chapters: 43/43 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Yanli/Jin Zixuan, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Jin Ling | Jin Rulan, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Jiang Yanli & Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Lan Jingyi, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan & Lan Jingyi & Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Nie Mingjue, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Lan Jingyi, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan & Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Time Travel Fix-It, Angst, Heavy Angst, Fix-It, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, not Jin Guangyao friendly, not jin guangshan friendly, Not Su She friendly, Not Xue Yang friendly, jin ling and his jiujiu, Golden Core Transfer (Modao Zushi), Golden Core Reveal (Modao Zushi), Canon Rewrite, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin-centric, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen-centric, jiang cheng friendly, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji Friendship, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Reconciliation, Established Relationship, established xicheng, Depression, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, canon can go fuck itself, let my boys be happy, Good Sibling Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Good Sibling Jiang Yanli, Good Sibling Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Good Sibling Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén, Good Sibling Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Good Uncle Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Good Uncle Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Good Uncle Lan Qiren, Good Nephew Jin Ling | Jin Rulan, Major character death - Freeform, only Jiāng Chéng enthusiasts allowed, Let's give Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen nice things, Don't Like Don't Read, Queernormative society Series: Part 18 of MDZS AUs, Part 12 of Xicheng AUs, Part 3 of MDZS Time Travel fix-it, Part 1 of Xicheng post canon time travel etc, Part 1 of Xicheng fix it Summary: Twelve years after the events of Guanyin temple, Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen are married and contemplating retirement when they along with their nephews somehow find themselves in the past immediately after the Sunshot campaign. They have to start over, and this time make different choices with the help of their nephews, and make sure that everyone they lost last time will stay alive this time Warning: THIS FIC IS NOT JGY FRIENDLY EXTREMELY JIANG CHENG FRIENDLY

Thoughts:

This definitely falls into the category of crack! fic. It is quite funny

Canon occurred, xichen and wanyin got married, 12 years later they go back in time.

Xicheng are absolutely shameless post time-travel selves and everyone else's reactions are so so good.

There is a bunch of angst though, but I promise it works out

3. A Bit of Ruthlessness (110111 words) by jirluvien

Chapters: 15/15 Rating: Mature Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Lan Huan | Lan Xichen Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Epistolary, Angst, Slow Burn, Courtship, Asexuality, Asexual Jiang Cheng, canon mashup, Author Is Overly Fond of Italics, No beta we die like wwx, JC is a sarcastic bastard and we respect that, LXC is ice outside hot mess inside, in this house we acknowledge Lan Qiren's hardships, and the existence of fabled fourth junior Ouyang Zizhen, character study turned story about healing and growth turned romance, choice and (dis)honesty and family as recurring themes, Hurt/Comfort Summary: When Jiang Cheng hears that Lan Xichen went into seclusion following Jin Guangyao’s death, it’s almost as if he can see the grabby hands of a restless ghost, reaching out for something to keep him company. For something warm and living and devastated. And as history has proved time and time again, the Lans are perfect victims when it comes to giving in to ghosts. Yeah, no. Not on Jiang Cheng’s fucking watch. A story about grief, determination, unexpected friendships, abandoned watchtowers, and letters. So many letters.

Thoughts:

This is one of several "epistolary fics where Jiang Cheng helps:

This one is a verion in which Jiang Cheng aggressively loves someone/bullies them into healing themselves

I am weak for fics where Xichen is very broken but heals, and this is one of them.

4. Picture of the Turning Sphere (168484 words) by omphalos

Chapters: 18/18 Rating: Mature Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Lan Huan | Lan Xichen Characters: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Lan Qiren, Lan Jingyi, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Nie Huaisang, Original Additional Tags: Background Relationships, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Reconciliation, Angst with a Happy Ending, Drunkenness, Part Epistolary, Mental Health Issues, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, past xiyao, Demisexual Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Healing, Blatant Plot Device, Post-Canon, pretentious titles taken from ancient Chinese poetry, too much use of Pinyin, Footnotes, CQL-heavy multicanon, British English Summary: Lan Xichen is a broken man no longer able to trust his own judgement. Jiang Wanyin was broken long ago, and he healed… badly. The cultivation world is off-balance, and it hasn't gone unnoticed. In the middle of an icy winter, a comet appears in the sky. Is it a warning? A celestial dragon? Have the gods, weary of waiting for cultivators to sort out their own mess, decided to take action? Over the course of three seasons, the two sect leaders are forced closer as they attempt to appease the gods and rebalance their land. Perhaps, in the course of their adventures, they will also find a way to rebalance themselves. TLDR: In which a fiery plot device in the sky forces two lonely, broken men to sort their shit out and find everything they'd been lacking in each other.

Thoughts:

Another healing fic, but not what I expected it to be.

This is both xichen and Wanyin working through healing together but also the fate of the world may rest on them doing therapy

this includes some really neat astrology elements

such a solid fic.

5 Children of the River (83938 words) by Achromos

Chapters: 28/28 Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Lan Huan | Lan Xichen Characters: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Original Female Character(s), Original Child Character(s) Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Post Mpreg, Slow Burn, Family Fluff, Children, Canon-Typical Violence, Magic, Falling In Love, Depression, Healing, Past Relationship(s), Light Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Translation Available, links to translations in author's note Series: Part 1 of Children of the River + Extras Summary: XiChen emerges from secluded cultivation after five years, feeling he has accomplished nothing in terms of mending his heart's wounds. But then he hears that something happened to YunmengJiang sect, and he thinks maybe helping them can distract him from the grief and self-doubt that threatens to consume him. However, he does not expect what he finds in Lotus Pier, which may just be what he was looking for this entire time.

Thoughts:

I am once again here with another Xichen healing fic. This one though was different than the XiCheng seclusion healing trope.

There is mpreg in this- but it's less about gender/ABO and more that strong cultivators regardless of gender can do this- if that's important to you. I think the mpreg is pre fic but more might happen later I am not 100%

Anyways xichen goes to lotus pier, healing happens

6. This Is Not A Courtship (Said the Bridesgroom to the Suitor) (132165 words) by midnightsnapdragon

Chapters: 9/9 Rating: General Audiences Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Lan Huan | Lan Xichen Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Epistolary, Slow Burn, we're talking Austen-level slow burn here, because these idiots are living two different kinds of period drama repression, Touch-Starved Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Asexual Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, version 12.4 of the "jc sends him letters in seclusion" fic you've all read before, yunmeng shuangjie have already reconciled no I will not elaborate, Queer-Normative World, Implied Past Xiyao, Pining, a cup of grief a cup of healing and oh god oh fuck I dropped the oblivious potion Summary: “Why doesn’t Hanguang-jun just ask his brother if he’s all right? Write him a note, or something?” Wei Wuxian winces. “You’re not technically supposed to do that when someone is in seclusion.” “So? This is his brother. Shouldn’t that be more important than Lan Clan’s three thousand rules?” “Aw, Jiang Cheng, would you write me notes if I were in seclusion?” “Yeah, to tell you to stay there.” “Jiang Cheng!” “Well, so what? It seems like Zewu-jun just wants to be left alone.” And Jiang Cheng can’t blame him. Sometimes it takes every ounce of self-control he has not to wade into the lily fronds and join the frogs in their screaming chorus at dusk. “What am I supposed to do about it?” In which Jiang Cheng proves to be a questionable grief counselor but a faithful correspondent, and no one has seen Lan Xichen since his little brother's wedding.

Thoughts:

This is the fic I was debating reading (I read it after same moon shines) and omg, I think it's one of my fav healing fics.

Both Xichen and Wanyin heal through the power of letters

They are idiots (miscommunication due to personal traumas), but the story ends well.

Xichen-centric Modern Day Au's

1 Beneath Your Skin (147201 words) by Wrenwolf

Chapters: 24/24 Rating: Explicit Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen/Nie Mingjue Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Tattoos, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Humor, Fluff and Humor, Angst and Humor, Sexual Humor, Bad Humor, Slapstick, the things we do for love, Wangji has plans that keep getting derailed, Xichen is terrible at shipping but tries really hard, Wei Ying has plans that epically fail, Nie Huaisang is done with everyone's shit, Brotherly Love, feelings are good, Love Makes Everyone Stupid, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, explicit sex eventually, disaster humans, chaotic gays, Two POVs, Way more angst than I anticipated, much swearing, A touch of kink, Panic Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, Found Family, Xichen's love is a dangerous thing, Nie Mingjue suffers (quite literally) for love, Rabbit-babies, I say again - rabbit-babies!, Eventual WangXian, Surprise relationship that will remain spoiler-free here, HEA because dammit the boys deserve it Summary: It really hadn’t meant to turn out this way, to get so out of hand but what could he do when faced with that smile? The sparkle in those stormy eyes that lit like lightning down Wangji’s spine? Say yes, of course. Every. Damn. Time. Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen have moved to a new town, away from the reach of their uncle. Everything's going well until Wangji is literally bowled over by the love of his life, local tattoo artist Wei Ying. Wangji isn't good with words and feelings, but Wei Ying is good with tattoos… and, well, that might be a way for Wangji to get his message across because love has made him an idiot, it seems. OR Love is hard, but tattoos are easy?

Thoughts:

Okay this is more wangxian than xichen, but xichen is in it and the mingjue/xichen relationship is a mess (in the best of ways)

Xichen's love language is accidentally injuring mingjue (too flustered to function)

it is very cute, a little crack!

2. Heartstrings of Home (42704 words) by WaitForTheSnitch

Chapters: 4/4 Rating: Explicit Relationships: Lan Huan | Lan Xichen/Nie Mingjue, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Nie Huaisang, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Lan Qiren, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Nie Huaisang, Nie Huaisang & Nie Mingjue, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen & Lan Jingyi, Lan Jingyi & Nie Mingjue Additional Tags: POV Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen Needs a Hug, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen Adopts Lan Jingyi, Good Sibling Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén, Protective Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Pining Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Pining Nie Mingjue, Friends to Lovers, the act of raising an entire kid together without confronting your feelings, Moving into your best friend's house and just never moving out, Good Uncle Lan Qiren, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting Summary: “Lan Xichen?” the voice on the other end belonging to an unknown caller asked. “This is he,” Lan Xichen said, as he poured his congee into his bowl, as he brought it, and the tea he’d prepared earlier to the table. “I’m very sorry to be the one to inform you. Your cousin and his wife were involved in a hit and run last night, where their car was hit head on at an intersection. I’m sure the detectives can give you more information about the accident. Neither of them made it. They passed away on the scene. I’m calling you in regard to the custody of their son.” And just like that, he felt the world begin to spin. - Or Lan Xichen is thrust into the unexpected role of parenthood, as he and Lan Jingyi attempt to navigate their new waters together. He's just lucky to have such a good friend like Nie Mingjue by his side. And staying in his house. Indefinitely. To help him out, of course.

Thoughts

Lan Xichen get's custody of JIngyi after his parents die

The relationship development between Mingjue and Xichen is absolutely stunning

You do see Xichen go through it for a bit though, a little grief, a lot of "i don't know what the fuck i'm doing" but he get's through it

3. save face (46139 words) by detachedwanderer

Chapters: 11/11 Rating: Explicit Relationships: Lan Huan | Lan Xichen/Nie Mingjue, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BDSM, Submissive Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Dominant Nie Mingjue, Bottom Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Top Nie Mingjue, Oral Sex, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Rope Bondage, Subdrop, Aftercare, ruined orgasm, handjob, Praise Kink, Degradation, Nipple Clamps, Misunderstandings, Masturbation, Phone Sex, Spanking, Cock Cages, Chastity Device, Multiple Orgasms, Fluff and Smut, Background Wei Ying/Lan Zhan, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui is a Wen, Child Wen Yuan - Freeform, Domestic Fluff, Developing Relationship, Getting Together, Love Confessions, Collars, Bratting, Biting, Cockwarming, Semi-public masturbation, Top Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Bottom Nie Mingjue, Sir Kink, Birthday Sex, NMJ is still domming btw, regardless of if he's topping or bottoming, bottom NMJ top LXC is only for ch 8, Autistic Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Good Sibling Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén, Married Lan Huan | Lan Xichen/Nie Mingjue, Blindfolds, Riding, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Sex Toys, Orgasm Control, later chapters are heavy on the smut and light on the plot, Possessive Sex, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Angst, Desk Sex, Office Sex, Semi-Public Sex, Gags, Prostate Milking, Exhibitionism, but like just as a kink, not one sees/catchs them, Insecurity Summary: Across the conference table was the man who'd seen him cry on his cock and listened to Lan Xichen's whines. Their eyes met and Lan Xichen was filled with dread. - Lan Xichen meets with a stranger for a scene, expecting to never see him again afterwards. His life becomes more complicated when he ends up working with Nie Mingjue.

Thoughts

This is VERY explicit so be warned, but it is very well written. If this isn't your cup of tea though no worries!

Xichen's personal life starts leeching into his professional life and it gets complicated.

Happy ending with Xichen and Mingjue BUT be warned there is an ex appearance who does not respect boundaries.

4. Faire thee well (77622 words) by Scrippio

Chapters: 8/8 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Wen Qing, Jiang Yanli/Jin Zixuan, Nie Mingjue/Lan Xichen/Jin Guangyao Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Renaissance Faire, Mutual Pining, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, No beta we die like wwx, Slow Burn Summary: In which Wei Ying does magic tricks, Lan Zhan sells flower crowns, and Mingjue is a blacksmith, because the whole gang works at the Renaissance Faire and no one quite knows how to function.

Thoughts:

Scrippio is one of my fav writers in the MDZS fandom and this fic is wholesome as heck

It is more wangxian centric, but the whole gang is there at the renn faire

A really comforting read- I cannot express how wholesome this entire fic and au is.

That's what i've got :)

If you have fics you've loved, I will always take recs back! I read like a fiend and love getting recommendations.

I hope you enjoy at least some of the ones on this list!

[justawanderer]

Ao3 wrapped [writers edition - 2024]

Tagged by @foodsies4me , thank you!😊

01. How many words have you written this year?

Published in 2024: 100,221

I didn’t even realize how many words until right now! Wow!

02. How many works did you publish this year?

I published 9 completed works in 2024 and added 10 chapters to my WIP started in 2023.

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

Contingencies my baby, part 1 of my MO for Malec.

But in terms of whole works for 2024:

Why don’t we go Somewhere only we know this was a beast in its own right.

Is was created for a bang and i appreciated the collab. Also there is a ton of world building.

04. What work of yours has the most hits?

Contingencies overall

For 2024 completed works:

Party Ready

05.  What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

A Visitor and Effort

They are season 3A reaction fixit fics and were written to appease my own wants from the show. I love both of them. I just didn’t realize others would as well.

06. Favourite title you used?

The Mage’s Keep: A Magical Sanctuary for those Burnt Out on Life

I love when stories have disproportionately long names, especially since this was a crack fic written in response to a post by Harry shum jr on ig.

07. If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?

My collab partner and I decided on Keane’s some where only we know for our Bang fic. So by stats that’s the group and song used most.

08. Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

Malec 🥰

09. Favourite pairing you wrote for this year?

Malec!

Honorable mention to Jace/Simon which I wrote a gift fic for for Xmas. It was fun to step outside my Malec comfort zone.

10. What work was the quickest to write?

Party Ready

Is the first smut I’ve ever written. Whole thing was written and published in 45 minutes driving home from my birthday weekend. (Which is why it’s unedited.)

11. What work took you the longest to write?

Why don’t we go Somewhere only we know

I had 10k words written, realized it was 100% backstory and unnecessary so i scrapped it and then it was like pulling teeth to get the rest of it together.

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

3+ finish contingencies write and complete one of the two companions and start the other. Also I just assume there will be more smaller fics, most likely more 3A argument fix it’s, because I can’t help myself.

13. What’s your longest work of the year?

I added more to Contingencies than everything else combined, but Somewhere only we know is longest completed work.

14. What’s your shortest work of the year?

Becoming Magnus Bane at 1,210 words. It’s more of the concept of a fic than a fic.

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

Contingencies!

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

AU-Canon Divergence

In this house, we fix the continuity errors of the show and make it more Malec.

17. Your favourite character to write this year?

I love both Magnus and Alec, but I identify with Alec so much and his voice is so easy.

I also really enjoyed writing Simon this year.

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Jace- I just can’t get the hang of it. Which is bad because he has two big chapters coming

Izzy-there’s a reason I’ve never added her pov. I can’t get her voice right.

19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

Malec! With maybe Simon/Jace added in!

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

Contingencies-i am writing this for myself. It’s the fic I’ve wanted to read since I got into the fandom so I reread it for enjoyment and also to keep up on plot threads I started.

21. How many kudos in total did you get this year?

I don’t keep track. I write for myself. It’s always lovely to see that people like my work. Also amusing to get notifications on random fics months after writing.

22. Which work has the most comments?

For 2024:

I would be the best boyfriend. Which is delightful because this was such an angst fest.

23. Did you do any collaborative work this year?

Yes.

Somewhere only you know was in collaboration with Better_than_Chocolate.

It’s a quest fic with enemies to lovers Malec that takes place in the UnSeelie realm.

24. Did you write any gifts this year?

I wrote 2!

Best laid Christmas plans for Cor321

This one is Jace/Simon Xmas fic

And I Dare You Pretty Boy for @just-add-butter

This one is instant marriage ooey-gooey Malec love

24. Did you write any gifts this year?

I did! I got

Santa Tell Me from @demy85

26. What’s your most common category?

M/M

27. What do you listen to while writing?

I am not the type to listen while actively writing, but while brainstorming in the car I usually have pop-punk on and flesh out fic ideas.

Muse, Marianas Trench, and the Punk goes Pop albums mostly

28. Favourite work you wrote this year?

I dare you pretty boy, which is my most favorite trope.

Effort because it’s the essence of what I think Malec is and will be.

29. Favourite line/passage you wrote this year?

I have a couple, but the singular line I’ve gotten the most feedback on is

“Magnus has just finished cleaning the kitchen, or well, the two burner stove, accompanying tiny oven and equally child-sized refrigerator and single square foot of counter space, when the door opens and God walks in. “ from I dare you pretty boy

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

How easy it was to maintain consistency while writing and updating. The more you do it!

I have seen so many of these. I believe im the last person. But if you see this and want to play, then feel free!

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

WIP title ask meme

Prompt: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

-

I was poked to do this months ago, twice at least - once by @docholligay and I think the second was @jeejyboard, but I can't find the tag for the life of me. SORRY. I felt like doing something a bit more meta today re:writing and post about The Process, and this was a perfect excuse - thanks for thinking of me. So here's some actual effort! I went and dug deep, trawled through some really old stuff, which was fun. I write and scribble down way, way more than I actually polish and post (which I assume is probably normal, but who knows). 

General info, for whoever is interested: I mostly use Google Docs with offline backups for fic writing, as I shift between computers a ton, and I put fandom tags at the start of my filenames for organisation. I have a ton of prompt/meme/ask/event collection files - for example, the very latest: "[BG3, STRAHD, SM] Fic Prompts 2024". In these I jot down both the prompts people send or that are listed and the ideas/outlines/notes for each, then when I really get going with a certain fic I spin it off into a separate document. 

I hate coming up with titles and usually do that last, so most of my document names are silly references for my own amusement or just a boring old brief description of the main concept. For instance, my latest posted fic Cerimonia Compedum was for most of its WIP-hood known simply as "[BG3] Tadpoled Isobel". Sometimes I keep different versions/revisions/parts of the same WIP in different files, and if that's the case I've grouped them here. Note that for simplicity's sake this post includes my "solo" fic only, no collabs or coauthored stuff, of which there is also a bunch. 

Some of these are ancient and hit me in the face with "12 years ago" timestamps. Some ficlets will never make it out of the mixed prompt plot bunny dumping grounds into their own doc. I think Sailor Moon 10-ish years ago was the one outlier fandom where I actually wrote most of my concepts out fully and posted them. The ol' brain is currently overproducing stuff for the more recent BG3 flavoured moon lesbians (and no, that ship name will never stop throwing my HaruMichi-loving ass for a loop). Note that some of the SU WIPs on the list I've already posted about here, here, here, and here.

Obviously all of these vary wildly in terms of completion level, word count, refinement, and age (and capitalisation, apparently). So yeah, here's the list, roughly sorted by fandom - ask away, if you feel like it!

[BG3] Moon-chosen, Moon-guided | Moon-chosen, Moon-guided - Part III [BG3] Cerimonia Alārum | ISOBEL TO THE RESCUE AU [BG3] Tremulous Cadence followup | The Return of the Moon Daughter [BG3] Wizard Tower AU | Aylin & Rolan stuff [BG3] Karlach/Minthara Act 2 conclusion aka why are paladins Like That [BG3] I'm having something very strong indeed

[STRAHD] The d'Avenir Treatise verse tidbits [STRAHD] Road Trippin' [STRAHD] In-character notes & ficlets

[SU] eeEEeeeeEE BISMUTH | Bismuth ficlets | Like talking to a wall | Muse. Galatea. Suffering. [SU] SU Daemons HDM AU [SU] The Adolescence of Rose Quartz | But I don't think anyone turns into a car  [SU] Freedom To And Freedom From | Pearlrose Fixit | i love suffering!!! [SU] Forge Showdown AU [SU] Pearl Playing the Field TM | All I need in this life of sin is me and my pearlfriend [SU] The Grand Aventurine Heist (Not Really Grand And Only Slightly A Heist) | oh no who let Rose read the Scarlet Pimpernel

[SM] Future Vision blatantly ripped me off THANKS REBECCA | PUU fic [SM] Outers fall of SilMil | michific | The End is the Beginning is the End

[DS9] Kira fic bits

[TLOK] Five Times Kya Healed Lin and One Time She Couldn't | Kyalin fluff [TLOK] R.C. Noire | Lin BAMFong

[WATCHMEN] Silhouette fic bits

-

That's it! I don't think I have a single person that I know writes fic left that hasn't already been tagged in this, so feel free to do it (again) if it strikes your fancy.

[nickfromguesswhohateclub]

10 Questions for Writers

tagged by dear @whatiwouldnotgive!!

How many works do you have on ao3? // 64!!! but a lot of them are short, like under 4k, and they are incredibly bad.

What's your total AO3 word count? // 313,079! really been beefed up by the 99k words of goosemav fic i wrote last year

What fandoms do you write for? // right now, just top gun, although i could be persuaded to write another stranger things or IT fic if the inspiration came to me. i also need to finish my reservoir dogs fixit.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?// i try to!! but i'm very, very bad at it. i do read every single comment i get, and appreciate them dearly!

Have you ever had a fic stolen? // no, thank god

Have you ever co-written a fic before? // nope -- but i have gone back and forth in dms with people sending paragraphs about various ideas until we run out lol

What's your all-time favourite ship? // HEY. okay. so, right now it's goosemavcarole. but very close seconds are scaurice, heleonard, cheleanor, creamsicle, simmosa, steddie, and reddie. you actually CANNOT make me pick i will smash my computer

What are your writing strengths? // god fuck if i know. i like to think i'm good at writing medical stuff because it's a spinterest of mine. and i hope i can write good in character dialogue.

What are your writing weaknesses? // finishing things! i'm a chronic wip abandoner. i'm also not great at prose, or endings.

First fandom you wrote for? // ......warrior cats. i wrote self-insert warrior cats fic with my friends in 6th grade. but i don't even count that. the first time i actually intentionally wrote fanfic and knew it was fanfic, the fandom was dead poets society.

i tag lovely @ghosttotheparty!

[starsscarmyceiling]

HI MERRICAL HAS TAKEN OVER MY LIFE WHAT TO I DO WHERE DO I GO PLEASE HELP MEEEEE

Hiii! I am sorry I am finally getting around to my asks! I finally finished the game so I am officially back online!!!

Hopefully you're still with us! If you still need some assistance navigating, have no fear, ya girl Katie's here!

Welcome to our growing community! I think it is so very wonderful so many new Merricals have joined us! It makes me so very happy.

Alright, well, first of all need some fic? Well, I gotta complied fic rec list here and also just a fic rec tag for just all the Merrical fics I reblog. Also...if you're interested in writing and want some prompts I got you covered too.

I guess I can self-promote too...if ya like modern AUs and coffee shops, then HEY I got just the fic for you with our lovely disaster children still being idiots with quiet when i'm coming home. And then...well I've discovered that a lot of new Merricals don't even know of Battle Scars' existence...but it's a novel set between JFO and JS...and well I am not going to lie to you it really wasn't well received by us Merricals for many various reasons. I basically wrote a review of it here. It's a long story but basically I feel like the characters weren't really cared for and I got so upset I wrote a fixit fic set after the events of BS called what's grown between (surgery scars). You 100% don't have to of read BS to enjoy, and you are still can read the book OBVS I am not in charge of you lol, but...yeahhhh again, it's rough.

I also got a lot of stuff in the works too! So look out for those...eventually lol.

Finally come meet us on the Merrical Discord! We are so very normal over there...

Hopefully this is helpful to you anon. Here are great Merrical peeps to follow!

@believe-in-alderaan @namesonboats @jan-uarys @wayfaringjedi @ahsokastechie @misfitz-7 @myfaenwy @mistressorinoco @vox-reginae @thefoolwhofollowshim @starryjediknight @dagangeraa @fancyfrey @thatsouthernanthem @comeoniwantacoolname @vexthejester

I love us 💕💕💕

[msfcatlover]

msfcatlover: @the-overanalyzer What do you want to know? I have /many/ thoughts for this, and I don’t really know which ones to start with.

the-overanalyzer: @msfcatlover Honestly all of it, this is *such* a neat idea.

All my thoughts? Okay, I’ll do my best.

First, sources. I think my love for the memory-sending version of the time travel fixit trope is blatantly obvious, and I read a lot of them. Then one day, just after I started really getting into Batfam stuff, I read this TMA fic called “Deja Vu” by CirrusGrey (fantastic writer, btw, everyone who likes TMA stuff should check out their fics,) which has all 4 members of the original archives crew getting sent back from their moment of death to just before the series started; the thing is, they all have different amounts of information, so they all have very different priorities. Like, Tim thinks the Unknowing is the biggest threat, so he buckles down trying to stop that, Sasha thinks she just had a weird dream because she died before they really knew anything about what was going on, etc. They might as well be coming from completely different futures, their concepts of reality are so different!

Which got me thinking: What if they were? What if you genuinely had a fixit in the memory time travel vein with multiple protagonists being sent back to before everything went awful, but every single one of them is from a different basically apocalyptic future, so they all have completely different priorities on what needs to be fixed? All tripping over eachother’s plans, not realizing they’re not alone… and at the same time, being so truly, completely alone, because they’re the sole survivors of their individual timelines, and no one really knows what they’ve gone through; even the people they love most and want to rely on are going to be dramatically different from any version of those people each of them ever knew.

And, um, the Batfam is kinda perfect for that setup, isn’t it? But, obviously, I can’t find that fic. It doesn’t seem to exist. (Although, if you like the concept of multiple characters trying to fix the same timeline, “Time to Protect You” is a really excellent read. Also, if you like Dick having a worse adoption addiction than Bruce does, read “Time to Protect You.” It’s fun.)

Ever since I had that thought, I have been brainstorming. This. Monster. Because, y’see, I have to at least rough-draft each of their future timelines to know what each of their priorities would be. So there’s like, five full fics worth of content in the backstory for this fic. (I have made myself cry doing this. More than once. Lotta… lotta funerals & heroic self-sacrifices while loved ones watch helplessly in these WIP notes. And one formal “identify the body” scene that is somehow worse than all of them.) And that’s before they all start meddling in the timeline!

But you asked this on the Damian post. So, everything about Damian?

…This is gonna get long.

.

Damian is undergoing one of the most dramatic time shifts of all of them; he was in his late 20s when he got sent back. Since all 5 affected Robins are being sent back to the day Jason & Bruce were supposed to meet, that puts Damian somewhere between 4-6yrs old on arrival.

Another fic I really love from the TMA fandom (whose title I can heartbreakingly not remember right now) had Jon sent back to his first supernatural encounter, and one of the things that fic emphasized was this dichotomy between Jon’s decades of lived experience and the fact that he still has the body of a child. Which means he has the brain chemistry of a child. Which is going to impact his behavior.

So, in my story Damian’s not just a 28yr old stuck in a 5yr old body trying to get people to take him seriously, he is a 5yr old with 28yrs worth of memories, and that is a huge difference. (That’s not going to show much in this post, since I’m summarizing grand scale things with a few short scenes, and also Damian’s instincts are different from most 5yr olds thanks to, erm, everything. It would mostly be in the minutia of his behavior. But it is important to me.)

.

Is the rest of the family worried about Damian? Yes, obviously, that’s their baby brother. But none of them can rescue him alone (most of them need to completely retrain their bodies, even before gaining allies & equipment,) and as depressing as it is, they all believe he should be relatively safe where he is until they can assemble what they need to go bring him home. After all, both Ra’s & Talia need Damian healthy & intact for their plans to go forward.

Damian on the other hand, is now stranded on the other side of the world from all of his most trusted allies (even if they don’t know him yet,) and trying to hide his sudden shift in personality & priorities while surrounded by people who are very invested in his personal development. Hell, even Damian’s workouts & warmup routines have changed since he was a kid; how is he supposed to explain where he learned Dick’s balance exercises or Tim’s post-computer hand/wrist stretches? And on the other hand, Damian’s not used to a body with these proportions; how is he supposed to do anything like this?

(Damian did come back at the tail end of a fever that left him bedridden for a long while, so at least he has a short-term solution for that last problem.)

And remember: none of them know the others came back. As far as Damian’s concerned, he’s on his own.

.

What Damian does is steal tiny bits of equipment to dissect for parts, and recreates the sound-emitter from Jimmy Olsen’s watch. It’s a huge gamble, because Damian can’t test it. The sound should be outside of human hearing range, but if anyone hears/detects it before Damian’s ready to escape, he’ll be caught. Even if the emitter does work, Damian can’t risk calling Superman to Nanda Parbat; the League has measures against kryptonians (Superman’s timeline is somehow even messier than the Bats’ at this point, so I’m going with Clark & Kara both being fully established heroes already,) so if Superman did come to investigate, he could get hurt or captured, and if Clark gets away or stops to analyze where the sound is coming from then he might realize it’s just a test and assume it’s some sort of trap when Damian does set it off

Basically, Damian has one shot at this, and he just has to trust his own tinkering skills are good enough because a test-run could ruin everything.

.

Damian’s future was an alien invasion that left the Earth like a wasteland, the remaining heroes leading the resistance. He had more relaxing nights then than he has now, constantly monitoring his own words & actions, surrounded by enemies, with no allies to fall back on, in a body that seems more weak & helpless than it ever has before.

(Part of me also thinks Damian might’ve lost a limb in that war? It’s tripping him out—possibly literally—to have it back, when it’s only been phantom pain for so long.)

So, y’know, it’s not just that Superman is the only hero Damian can call who will both probably hear him, get there in time to actually be backup, and won’t be immediately suspicious of Damian (probably.) It’s also that Damian needs access to interstellar resources if he’s ever going to stop that invasion, and even with nearly 2 decades to plan it, the better Damian’s starting point the faster he can do that. (It definitely has nothing at all to do with how much Damian’s missed Clark, Jon, Lois, the whole extended family… it’s been years since Damian’s spoken to any of them, even the survivors off fighting on other fronts. And there were not a lot of survivors; the enemy knew to target their most powerful warriors first.)

.

People who say you can’t lie to kryptonians are idiots who don’t know them. Here’s the secret: have a good excuse for a raised breath/heart rate and make sure the emotions of your lie match what you’re actually feeling in that moment. A stutter, skip, or mild increase will be lost in the racing, and all your pheromones will agree with your words. Easy. (Cass could tell the difference, but she’s not here, is she? Damian has no idea where she is—but she’ll be fine. It took a crashing spaceship to kill Cassandra Wayne, and she survived just fine on her own before joining the family. Damian doesn’t need to worry. She’s fine. She’ll definitely be fine.)

Damian waits for the next time they move him, waits for the first big city, and makes a break for it. He slips through the guards’ fingers with skills they didn’t know he has, and proceeds to make one of the most illogical choices for a normal escape attempt: Damian heads for the tallest building he can get to the top of. As soon as he reaches the roof, even before picking the lock, Damian activates his emitter. He barricades the door behind him, and stands there, buffeted by wind, struggling to stay upright.

Damian can’t hear the emitter. Damian can’t hear his own voice when he raises it against the wind, yelling to Superman for help. Damian thinks he can hear his guards running up behind the door, but that’s impossible; it must be his own blood pounding in his ears.

The wind changes direction, and Superman is there.

Damian knows the picture he paints: a too-small child with too much scar tissue, eyes wide & wild, panting & terrified, still dirty from the run through the city below, clutching a device he shouldn’t have. (A stranger Superman has no reason to trust, even though Clark was always more credulous than any of the Bats. A boy wearing League garb under his clothes, even if Clark might not recognize it.)

(Damian doesn’t remember Clark ever being this big, but it is Clark, cracking through the Superman mask in confusion & concern.)

Damian’s never been one to leave things half-finished. “Please,” Damian begs, glancing back at the door behind him, “I’m running from the Shadows. They’re after me, they’ll be here any moment, they’ll kill me if they do! Please, help me!”

The door jumps in its frame. The barricade holds.

Clark opens his arms. “Of course, son. Where do you want to go?”

Damian leaps into Clark’s arms (and oh, oh, he has missed this. The soft strength & nearly overpowering warmth all kryptonians have. Arms that fold around Damian’s back like a shield—because they are, because Clark & Jon & Kara & Kon know their own strength and would rather risk being hurt themselves than let their charges be hurt. Being held by his uncle, who died over a decade ago and has never met Damian, but still holds on like Damian is something precious & important. Yes, Damian can admit he missed this.)

“Anywhere,” Damian whispers, wrapping his arms around his uncle’s neck. “Anywhere they can’t find me.”

(That last part is lost to the rush of speed, but Damian knows Clark heard it anyway.)

.

Here’s what Damian is counting on: Clark Kent is not a stupid man, even if he can be swept away by his emotions. Superman does not often fight the League of Shadows and will not know where necessarily would be safe from them, so he will take Damian to a secret base. Superman would not expose another hero’s identity without asking first, so it will either be a Justice League base or somewhere safe for Clark. Damian is still dressed like an assassin under his travel clothes and is still very much armed, so hopefully Clark would not bring Damian anywhere Damian might pose a threat.

So, a Justice League base, the Fortress of Solitude, or (if Clark is critically underestimating Damian) the farm.

Damian knows he’s struck gold when temperature drops. The Fortress makes this so much easier than having to find some way to hide Damian’s connection to Batman from the entire Justice League, and Damian never wants to bring trouble to Ma Kent’s doorstep. Damian’s relief is genuine, and he doesn’t bother trying to hide it when Clark sets him down.

The next part is the tricky bit: Damian has to sell his cover. A League-trained child assassin defecting would not know much of the outside world, would not know what was expected of him. Damian knows all that from experience. After months of hiding in Nanda Parbat, it’s not hard to slip back into that mindset, those mannerisms. They’re almost comfortable; hopefully the cold & alien environment will cover for the rest. Damian drops to his knees as he would before any significant authority (his mother, his grandfather, his family when he needed them to understand his remorse was full-hearted & genuine,) and begins with, “Thank you. I owe you my life.”

.

From there, Damian begins spinning the web that he hopes will save the world, rather than collapse & take Damian down with it. Truths & half-truths, genuine emotions, flickers of vulnerability, and a demeanor far too formal & professional to belong to anyone having a proper childhood. Fear of both the League & its enemies, any of whom would kill to have Damian back. Full, open acknowledgment of the suspicions Clark really ought to have, because the second Clark mentions the League to anyone who knows, Clark will receive the full run-down of how dangerous any League operative is.

(Damian insists on being locked up, telling Superman that his allies will only suspect Damian more—rightfully!—if he’s not. Clark is horrified by the idea of imprisoning a child who can’t be older than 6. They compromise with a guest room in the Fortress, the alien architecture as good as any lock any hero could cook up.)

(Damian insists on being disarmed, despite his own obvious discomfort with doing so. Clark tries to tell Damian that’s not necessary, and Damian points out how easy it would’ve been to slip a kryptonite blade into Superman’s chest from the second he let Damian into his arms. Clark looks a little green himself, and lets Damian finish.)

(Damian does not lie about lineage, at least not on his mother’s side. He does make it very clear he is not interested in meeting his father, confirms that his father is a very dangerous man, and heavily implies that his father’s displeasure with Damian’s upbringing might be dangerous to Damian himself. Damian also heavily implies his father knows of Damian’s existence and chose to be distant, drawing on the lingering, long-stifled bitterness of those early awkward days at the manor—wounds that don’t hurt anymore, not really, but that Damian can never forget—to really sell it.)

(Damian knows better than to try to convince anyone he’s had some sort of miraculous change of heart. No hero with experience with the League will see that as anything but a trap. Damian instead simply says he doesn’t like killing, expresses discomfort when pressed on his morals, and implies his escape has to do with a personal betrayal of some kind. Much easier to believe.)

.

The most direct lie Damian tells is that he got the frequency from his grandfather’s notes on known kryptonian biology. Damian drowns that in his own self-chastisement, admitting the inability to test the device in any way that mattered and Damian’s lack of an exit if the plan went wrong. Damian calls himself reckless & stupid for not having a backup. Clark catches Damian’s eye, and tells Damian he’s wrong; that Damian’s not stupid, Damian’s very clever for putting that together.

“You did good, son,” Clark says, Superman gone and replaced with only the kindness & pain of a man with a heart too big for this world, and a father with a boy not that much younger than Damian. “You did the best you could with what you had, and what you pulled off was pretty amazing. I’m sorry you had to go through that alone.”

“…Oh,” Damian says. He blinks. He breathes. And for the first time since Dick died, Damian cries. For everything he’s done, and everything he’s lost. For the family he’ll never have, and the childhood he never did. For a world that will—hopefully—never be. No wailing, no screams. Just soft, hitching breaths and tears that don’t seem to stop.

Clark pulls him close, and Damian buries his face in his uncle’s chest. And cries.

.

Damian knows the picture he paints:

Here is a boy, running for his life. A dangerous boy. A frightened boy. A boy who’s so alone, he has to rely on alien strangers for help. A boy desperate to be trusted, to not be seen as a threat. A boy who already knows there’s nowhere safe for him in the world.

An abused child will tug at any hero’s heartstrings. But Damian knows exactly which ones to pluck to stay safe under Clark Kent’s cape.

It’s intentional. It’s manipulative. It needs to be done. Damian has 17yrs to win trust, to build a network, to stop the invasion. The longer he can stay off the Bats’ radar, the better. He knows he has to play the long game.

(It doesn’t matter that it’s all true.)

[wifiwuxians]

20 questions writer meme.

tagged by @heyholmesletsgo THANK YOUUU

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

not counting things i'd rather remained anonymous, 21!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

513,621 lol

3. What fandoms do you write for?

mdzs, vaguely tgcf, hotline miami (though mostly past tense) and we'll see about the future

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Wei Wuxian's Super Special Super Secret Book Club still reigns supreme with 1229 kudos, and will most likely be my legacy despite it being the second fic i ever wrote for the fandom (i think?)

If You're Reading This, It's Too Late with 513, one would think i'd still be messing around with this AU but i'm happy to leave it where it is and just keep messing around with the crackship

Dawn Chorus, my most precious baby, at 251 by some miracle despite being oc/canon. you guys spoiled me with the love for this one tbh. none of my other xue yang centric works got anywhere near this close and i'm at peace with that because he's bonking my oc in this one and they have a kid.

The Book Club Extras at 232, which is hilarious when compared to the original but at least new readers will see there's more and maybe in the year 2055 i will publish them for fun

Frozen Pond with 156 at the end of the list, written for my friend @petitjams and taking place in a silly AU we made together (wen chao stays winning on here which is very funny)

i'm attributing the popularity of the first two to mostly being centered around super popular characters, because my later stuff is naturally better yet struggling haha

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

always unless they're like just emoji, because i like conversation! though i may also reply with a little heart hehe

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i wouldn't call it angstiest ending, it's bittersweet, but the threads that bind us is my top pick. and it also needs more readers so go read it. your hands and mine has a bit of an 'angsty' ending but only for song lan. xue yang had it coming :p 💖

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

excluding the two above, so far they all have a happy ending, or at least neutral??? i'd say Book Club, though, because that's the massive 'everybody lives!!' silly fixit fic

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope. i hope i didn't just jinx it. i get hate on art and through anon though! woo! (not anymore on here tho thank god)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do and i feel like it sucks so i almost always end up fading to black LMAO my actual explicit stuff remains private... it's like too embarrassing for me. i got judged for it as an 18 year old and 10 years later haven't gotten over it. i like bondage and bdsm though and that seems to crop up in private 😏

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

i do on occasion! i love roleplaying them, but the only one i have out there is The Way To His Heart Is Through His Stomach (Oh God Please Don't Eat Me), which mixes mdzs and tgcf characters in a unique setting :3

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge, but i've had art stolen plenty so i wouldn't even be surprised

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, a few have been translated into russian!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

NOT YET BUT IT'S IN THE CARDS

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

all time? jeez. somebody tell me why i always freeze up and go blank when asked these simple questions? it's like i forget who the fuck i am. i feel like i should also say songxiao? but they're relatively new so it doesn't seem correct. fuck it. my all time favorite ship is [DATA MISSING OR CORRUPTED-- PLEASE PROCEED TO NEXT QUESTION]

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

haha... (looks at my abandoned hlm fic with the seventh chapter halfway written) haha...

16. What are your writing strengths?

i'd definitely say dialog. it makes sense, since the stuff i'm most used to doing is drawing silly comics. i also like to ping-pong emotions around and feel like i'm pretty good at that too

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

using the same words over and over and feeling like i never write Enough, like everything is always light and never in depth. i don't like making scenes too heavy with padding but i also feel like i need to find a balance

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

i'll do it only if it's a language i speak!!! this doesn't apply to peppering words like gege and stuff just for funsies. i think the best way to go about it is to just tell the audience what language they're speaking in that moment

19. First fandom you wrote for?

we're gonna have to go back to when i was 10 years old here lol... i think it was tokyo mew mew in terms of stuff i put online (oh god)

20. Favorite fic you've written?

it's hard to pick favorites, but i once again must say the threads that bind us in terms of work i'm most proud of.

i tag whoever sees it, plus @sugarapplebaby because ily

[joyouslee]

MLC Chinese fic rec: 疏雨洗遗剑 by 为君唤雪梅花天

Link to the first chapter of the fic.

(To get to the next chapter, go to the end of the chapter text - not the bottom of the page - and click the left button.  There may be other posts by the author in between the chapters, just keep clicking left.)

My translation of the title:

A Drizzle of Rain Washes the Sword Left Behind

The title is from a poem that describes how the writer’s zhiji has died, and the writer’s tears wash the hairpin (here, sword) left behind.  One lifetime passes too quickly, and he hopes that in their next life the lost item will lead her to remember him.  Poem is here: https://so.gushiwen.cn/mingju/juv_d08094354c13.aspx

Pairing: Li Lianhua | Li Xiangyi / Fang Duobing

Main story has 13 chapters, and there’s an extra with 7 chapters.

Author’s summary (my translation):

Platonic threesome, lao-Di is an iron-straight man with pure friendship with the other two; the other two are a couple.

Fang Xiaobao is reborn after the canon conclusion to a world where he doesn’t exist, and plans to help Li Xiangyi go against the heavens and change his fate (so it’s basically yifang).

The first few chapters are mostly about difang (platonic) and hua lives only in conversations and memories, the latter half is mostly yifang.  Purely drama based, nothing to do with the novel.

三人组友情向，老笛铁直男和另两位纯友情，另两位CP。

大结局后的方小宝重生到一个没有他的世界里，准备帮李相夷逆天改命（所以基本上是夷方场）

全文前几节笛方CB向居多花活在对话和回忆里，后半夷方多，纯按剧的设定编私设与书无关。

—

As you can see from my recs, I love time travel fixits.  I love all of the many and varied ways writers go back to fix what happened, the choices the time traveler makes.  (The only thing with time travel fixits is that I always cry thinking of FDB’s family in the first timeline dealing with his loss, which is not always addressed, but I still think about it.)

In this one, FDB goes back and he makes friends with DFS first.  Their friendship is adorable and a strong foundation for this fic, and ultimately the reason FDB is able to save LXY (and his shifu).  There’s also a very affecting scene with FDB and HXH.  It’s very slow burn, in that it’s fairly platonic for most of the story.  

Go read and come back to talk about it!  (If you have a lofter account, please leave the author a comment or <3.)

See my general warnings but it’s pretty much PG relationship-wise, mainly a lot of dialogue and fade to black.  No specific warnings.

[sanguinarysanguinity]

Tagged by @verecunda, thank you! I've lost track of who has been tagged, so please jump in if you'd like to play!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

176, give or take a few that are in currently anonymous collections.

2. What's your total AO3 wordcount?

737,590

3. What fandoms do you write for?

My current main fandoms are the Hornblower novels and The Flight of the Heron. But I also write one-offs as please me, either for exchange assignments or pinch-hits, or because I got bit by a plot bunny. (Yes, plot-bunnies are carnivorous!) This year, I've written for Hornblower (novels and TV), The Flight of the Heron, Vokosigan Saga, Elementary, ACD Holmes, Leverage, A Rip Through Time, and Wild Things (1998).

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Sincerity of Dust (Mycroft/Lestrade - Sherlock TV) Etta Candy's Last Stand (Etta Candy/Wonder Woman) Three Continents and Many Nations (Elementary gen; Joan Watson has broken hearts around the world) Baker Street Papas (Holmes/Watson, kidfic) Foundations (Elementary gen; Bell-centric fixit AU)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, because I was taught to write thank you notes. Also, because sometimes I can lure a commenter into a conversation, which is always fun -- and sometimes they even become a friend.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Heh. *rubs hands gleefully* I have a little sideline in fics that made people cry. Let me show you some of my favorites!

The Golden Sand Bush/Hornblower Once again a prisoner of the French, Hornblower awaits his execution.

Cock on the Right background Bush/Hornblower/Maria For as long as he bears them, Bush's tattoos protect him faithfully.

Telling the Bees Elementary gen Sherlock returns from Switzerland, but Watson does not.

Brandy and Soda Holmes & Watson; Mary/Watson (7 Per-Cent Solution) Holmes returns to Baker Street.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh, fuck if I know. I've been accused more than once of writing only bittersweetly happy endings. But here, have a story in which Horatio Hornblower, that sad wet miserable bastard, is simply happy for a day:

Nothing So Much Worth Doing

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not often. Earlier this year a commenter objected to a pwp being a pwp. Which. Dude. As a later commenter replied (so I didn't have to! blessings on their house!), the story was exactly what it said in the tags and summary, so take some personal responsibility and don't click on what you don't want to read.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. Slash, femslash, threesomes; vanilla and kinky; realistic and fantastical; first times and well-seasoned olds. I haven't yet written anything that would bring the antis after me, but that's the kind of thing that I'd put under a different pseud anyway.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Absolutely. Probably Elementary x Bee-Man Comics: THE BEST BEE FIC ON MARS.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had a couple requests this year for permission to translate a story (both granted), but I don't know the current status of either project.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

@phoenixfalls and I have a story we've been co-writing; every once in a while we talk about finishing it. I'd very much like to; I think it's great fun.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Pass.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a Twin Peaks x Buffy crossover that I quite like, but which I am extremely unlikely to ever finish. Every now and then I think of it wistfully, though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Well-organized and precise prose, and strong characterizations.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Inelegant prose, and wobbly characterizations.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

An insidious trap, if your characters speak the other language better than you do. (With the exception of William Bush in French, they always do! Why do I write all these classically-educated assholes?)

My usual solution is to paraphrase the dialogue through my pov character, at whatever their level of comprehension is. After all, that's what the reader needs to know: what the pov character understands. Paraphrasing also circumvents the wild card that some of my readers will know the language and some won't -- this way, no reader has an advantage and no reader is left scrambling for a translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Ask Dr. Eldritch! a webcomic written by the talented evannichols.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Whichever one someone just left a lovely comment on.

[whetstonefires]

hey I was the one who asked about ao3 I'm sorry if the question came off as odd, I love your takes on mdzs and was wondering if you ever wrote any fics because you have really great diction on your posts and I thought 'This person could make really great fics' so I thought id ask, that's all

it's fine! lmao it just really looked like i was potentially getting set up for some weird anon hate game.

thank you! and the answer is i do have an AO3--i used to link it here a lot--but it's only got two mdzs fics on it. despite my having struggled to focus on any fandom besides mdzs for like two years.

because what happened when i got stuck in this fandom like a suction cup directly to the brain is, i wound up reading a lot more smut than i usually tolerate, because of the nature of the novel and how their relationships with sex are meaningfully integrated with their characterization and development as people and relative to one another. so a lot of the smut in this fandom has substance in a way i care about.

and my writing always reflects my reading material in a 'ooh i could do that like this' kinda way, so i started generating my own fic concepts with a sex element that i wanted to explore.

and then i got really invested in this new form and its tricks and affordances, so the only fics in this fandom i've actually been finishing are E-rated, because i'm inspired by the learning process.

(also because it turns out this shit is so easy to write, like you can cheap out on so many structural and narrative elements if you put sex in there, i'm so mad about this still. cheap!!!)

and having finished them i want to share, you know?

so i got a different ao3 for that, since mostly i like and write gen stuff, and i didn't wish to subject my existing subscribers to my learning to porn. i'm not sharing it here though, sorry, because everyone i've shared it with (upon request) has been weird about it.

the fic isn't even particularly outre! i'm remixing stuff that's done a lot in the fandom, according to my own artistic sensibilities! i do not know what the Weird is and what private conclusions are being made about me as a person on the basis of my very ace sex pollen remixes and shit. but it makes me anxious so i will Not be doing it anymore.

anyway as a reward or something for the guts to come back with your name out and take another shot and for the compliments <3, which of these not-sexy mdzs fic concepts do you vote i thwack into a postable form over the next month or so, and put on my main?

post-canon wwx gets amnesia back to the yiling laozu in burial mounds era and his current life explained very badly by lan jingyi, and concludes the lan have coerced him into a very creepy situation

funny wangxian modern au incorporating the height thing i was talking about earlier this week, where the main plot is ripped off from an autobiographical anecdote the singer told at a concert i went to and i was like, this would make a great one of those modern aus people keep writing. oh no now i want to.

time travel fixit outside pov, where wwx and wen ning get physically catapulted back from the qiongqi pass to before the war, and go and intervene just before lotus pier can be destroyed, wearing a mask and spooky cloak so no one will know the yiling laozu is wei wuxian (and a weimao so no one notices the ghost general is wen ning but let's be real that was less likely to happen for several reasons)

thing where the misunderstandings go off in a different direction early on, and wwx thinks lan wangji and mo xuanyu were actually an item and his impersonation has been tragically successful. very funny dramatic irony concept that is in execution going to be like 70% angst. some of it very funny angst though. (this one is the least developed because it doesn't really suggest its own plot.)

find what already exists at Kieron_ODuibhir lmao.