#i have those two half written fanfic reviews to complete

[scarlet-sam-chaos]

the urge to give up on EVERYTHING and disappear >>>

[guusagi]

MCR Fanfic Rec/Review List!

tl/dr: This is an MCR slash fiction recommendation list with various ratings, multiple ships, AUs and sections; not only with summaries but also my non-spoilery thoughts. I'm going to be yapping a lot in this one. MINORS DNI (as in i cant stop you from reading these but no comments plz🙏) Section 1: Danger Days / Fabulous Killjoys Section 2: The Infamous Fics (for example: Unholyverse) Section 3: Desolation Row Section 4: Various MCR AUs Pairings listed: Frank/Gerard; Fun Ghoul/Party Poison; Jet Star/Party Poison; Jet Star/Party Poison/Fun Ghoul; Frank/Mikey; Pete/Patrick (from FOB)

Welcome and be warned (or enjoy), this is a pretty long and wordy list! I've been actively reading mcr fics for about a month and a half now, so I felt compelled to do something with all this energy. The idea for this blog post came to me because I had to share my newfound knowledge!!

Part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/guusagi/766055506866569216/mcr-fanfic-recreview-list-2

If you can't stand RPF (real person fiction), feel free to just browse the Danger Days section, as I personally think it's disconnected enough from the band to be enjoyable. I was uncomfortable with rpf at first but I ended up loving these fics so much I stopped caring lol! I will still mention how much real life is involved in each fic so there are more options with different levels of comfort for you.

The most common ship on this list will be Frerard, because not only it's the easiest to find, but also cus a lot of amazing fics are written about these two! I also included some Frikey, cus it's underrated in my eyes and so good! I also found some Rayrard and poly ships yay!

I will start with some Danger Days fics cus that's how I started reading MCR fandom fics, and I LOVE the setting of this album and the Killjoys comic series! Party Poison/Fun Ghoul is the main ship, but you’ll also find Party Poison/Jet Star! There's also a poly ship (Party Poison/Fun Ghoul/Jet Star).

I decided to also yap about the most infamous fics in the fandom, like Unholyverse and A Splitting of the Mind (plus a 3rd one). I was skeptical at first, but what a ride it was reading these fics!

I also included a few Desolation Row AUs cus there's not tons but I ADORE the music video and it makes for an interesting punk/rebellion theme.

And finally, I’ll highlight some other general AUs, as well as a few MCR as a band fics for those who enjoy rpf in particular. This is my longest section.

Please feel free to explore the full tags on AO3, as some fics might have stuff that's triggering to some. If you want to avoid smut I will specifically mention if there is any, sometimes we just want cute fluff! I also will mention if there's something iffy like an age gap, or non-con, I personally do not go out of my way to read either, but there are 2 fics on this list that include those.

Also I love longfics so this is gonna have a lot of stories with around or over 100k words.

The structure of each fic rec is as follows:

-Name of the fic, and the author. -Rating and if the fic includes smut. -The main pairing, as well as sub pairings if relevant to the story, also what type of AU it is. -Main POV, who’s the main character of the story! -Are the characters MCR? If the fic is written with mychem as a band similar to real life (also if it follows their trajectory in life, like their wives and kids, or if it’s an AU where those relationships don’t happen), or if they use the same irl names but are not in a band like an AU. In the case of the killjoys, if their ‘city names’ are the same as mcr or not. -Status is if they are completed fics, works in progress, or abandoned/on hiatus. I also added amount of chapters and word count, and if it's a oneshot or otherwise. -Links will send you directly to the fic on AO3, if it’s a collection of stories I link that instead. -My summaries are just what I personally thought was the main plot of the story. -Personal thoughts are my observations on the fic, how much I enjoyed it, what I found unique about this story, and my feelings overall. I also will specifically mention if the fic has a happy or angsty ending, for those who either enjoy or don’t enjoy sad endings. I love happy endings but I did give some sad endings a try, even if I don't go out of my way looking for them.

—————————————————————————-

Section 1: Danger Days AUs

This is how I got started with MCR fanfiction. I wanted to read fics about mcr and was uncomfortable with rpf at first (like I mentioned before, I got over the discomfort cus I ended up loving the non-DD fics as well). Danger Days is a super fun universe, and I really enjoy the idea of the Killjoys. I hope I picked a good variety of options!

Don't Need the System by LiberXI

Rating: Explicit (smut in final chapter) Pairing: Frerard - Party Poison/Fun Ghoul Main POV: Fun Ghoul Are the characters MCR?: No, but they use the same irl names. Status: Completed, total of 25 chapters and 144k words Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55799308 My Summary: This is a Party Poison origin story! Fun Ghoul gets captured by Bl/ind to reintegrate him into Battery City's society. Little does he know, the supervisor he's been assigned to is none other than Gerard, the face of Bl/ind's Propaganda! Gerard doesn't really know how human interaction works and shenanigans ensue. Personal Thoughts: This is actually quite the unique spin on the danger days formula compared to most I've read, where Party Poison is not yet themself but being an active part of the System! Gerard uses he/him pronouns throughout half of the fic, then they switch to they/them. Korse is sort of their guardian and grants them privileges most don't get. For example having a lot of luxuries, as well as being off pills. They are still mostly controlled and very naive about the world. Most of the fic takes place within Gerard's apartment, as Fun Ghoul is not allowed to leave. The writing is super compelling and you can't help but read the next chapter as soon as you finish the previous one! The relationship between Gee and Ghoul starts off on the wrong foot but it's honestly super cute after that. I'm still actively reading this one, so once this story is complete I’ll attach an updated review.

Edit 10/23/24: So the fanfic JUST ended! I read the final chapter today and man, yep, there was smut alright! There's only smut in the final chapter, so you're safe if you want to avoid those types of scenes (also I want to warn that there is usage of the f-slur in one portion of the final chapter, but it's used with consent). My thoughts on the story have not changed, I still love it to bits!! I'm sad that it's already over but that's life for you haha, all things come to an end. If you are iffy about reading WIP fics, now you can totally read this one start to finish!

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

I Believe We're the Enemy by Test_subject_306

Rating: Mature (no smut) Pairing: Party Poison/Fun Ghoul Main POV: Fun Ghoul Are they MCR?: No, only Frank is mentioned by his real name. Status: Completed, 39 chapters and 104k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8097178 My Summary: Party Poison gets captured by Korse, and is presumed dead by Fun Ghoul and the others. However, Party returns in an altered state, completely brainwashed. It's up to Ghoul and the others to get the old Party back... will they succeed? Personal Thoughts: Good god, this one was a wild ride! I actually had to take breaks to read a softer/less angsty fic between chapters, cus man this story HURT. Party Poison is brainwashed as all hell, and pretty nasty with the others... A fair warning, I think it's important to mention that this does NOT have a happy ending, but man the ride was so worth it! It's sort of an open-ended conclusion. If you read A Splitting of the Mind, that's how I'd describe the ending's structure.

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

Graffiti On Your Grave by Honestmouse (Part 1 of "Sing It Out")

Rating: Teens and Up (implied scenes but no smut.) Pairings: Party Poison/Fun Ghoul & Jet Star/Kobra Kid Main POV: Various! Are they MCR?: No, they use unique names. Status: WIP; 3 out of 4 parts have been completed so far, with a 4th one in the works. As of 09/16/2024 there has been a collective total of 64 chapters and 269k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1909105 My Summary: Post-SING music video, our Killjoys are near death when they get rescued by an underground resistance in Battery City. This story takes place after The Girl is safely secured. They navigate their new home, and meet many new people, most notably The Youngbloods. Personal Thoughts: The world-building in this one was awesome! A new place to navigate, a lot of characters to meet, and overall a compelling story! I was pleasantly surprised that our killjoys had their own original names and not just the usual MCR band member's names. This really helped with keeping the immersion, especially if you enjoy Danger Days fanfics cus of the ease of separation. This is also only part 1 of a series called Sing It Out, and I'm not done with reading the others yet!

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

Tongue Tied, In Distress by tired_stressed

Rating: Not Rated (there's only implied sexual content, aka ‘fades to black b4 they bang’ kinda deal, so I’d personally say teens and up) Pairing: Fun Ghoul/Party Poison/Jet Star (yep, it’s poly over here!) Main POV: Fun Ghoul Are they MCR?: No, and only their killjoy names are used. Status: Unfinished with no updates since 2023, 31 chapters and 152k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41650503 My Summary: Fun Ghoul and Jet Star reconnect after losing each other as kids. Ghoul also HATES those from Battery City, which is ironic because it was thanks to Party Poison and Kobra Kid that he gets to see Jet again. Ghoul has to reluctantly accept a deal between them, and they somehow end up teaming up for longer than he expected. Personal Thoughts: Despite this being an unfinished/maybe abandoned story, I still wanted to recommend it! I honestly really enjoyed the writing, and how much Ghoul HATED Poison's guts at first. This is sort of an enemies to lovers trope for Ghoul and Party, while being a childhood friends to lovers trope for Ghoul and Jet. Also not to mention how it's the only poly relationship I found and read from the fandom so far. I can't delve deeper into it without spoiling so that's all! Plz read it!!

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

doesn't have to all be destruction by spelling bee

Rating: Mature (implied sexual content, no smut) Pairing: Party Poison/Jet Star & pre-established Kobra Kid/Fun Ghoul Main POV: Jet Star  (for once, poor Ray is never the main character) Are they MCR?: No, they use unique city names. Status: Completed, 26 chapters and 156k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17909432 My Summary: In this universe, people can manifest superpowers! Bl/ind wants to find them all and train them to work for the government, but Poison and Kobra manage to escape without their powers being revealed. Fun Ghoul has been abandoned in the desert since he was young, and Jet Star is an agent for Bl/ind, although reluctantly. Poison, Kobra and Ghoul team up as teenagers, and when Poison gets captured for conversion, Jet Star helps them escape, and decides to join them. It's up to Jet to figure out how to live in the desert, and perhaps become a killjoy himself. He also needs to learn how to control his strange superpower... Personal Thoughts: This fic was recommended to me by a fellow mcrmy friend! I really enjoyed the plot, not to mention the fact that it has some rareships imo! It’s so refreshing to have the protagonist be Jet Star/Ray for a change! Party Poison/Jet Star is really not explored very often, and what a shame cus with Poison's sass and energy, and Jet's kindness and..grounded..ness, it makes for a nice dynamic where they compliment each other very well! Fun Ghoul/Kobra Kid is already an established relationship, which is a nice change of pace, though I sort of felt disappointed that we only got a bit of backstory on how they got together cus, they're so stinkin cute (and later I came to learn that I just love frikey..)! Also the sexual content is only implied, so you're safe if you don't want to read smut.

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

Overall Thoughts on this Section:

And that wraps up my Danger Days AUs, there are MORE I've read/completed, but I wanted to highlight the ones I thought were either unique, and/or have very decent writing. Danger Days and the Killjoys make for an excellent background for fiction, and many people have created self-inserts and OCs. There's probably plenty of original killjoy character fics that I haven't found yet.

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

Section 2: THE BIG THREE!

I wanted this next section to focus on three very (in)famous fanfics from the MCR fandom. I started reading Unholyverse sorta ironically, expecting a My Immortal moment, but I was super pleasantly surprised! After finishing that series, I decided to read the other two and man I'm glad I did. So yeah, whatever I say here may be nothing new but I wanted to share my thoughts on them!

So, without further ado..!

Unholyverse by Bexless

Rating: Mature (lotsa blood, especially in Part 1, there's eventual smut at part 3 i think? i forgor...) Pairing: Frerard - Priest!Gerard/Body Piercer!Frank (with sub-pairing Mikey/Ray) Main POV: Frank Are they MCR?: No, they use MCR's irl names but this is an AU with no relation to the band. Status: Completed, 5 parts total and 186k words. Link: Republished on AO3 by bexless, separated by the main parts (full collection: https://archiveofourown.org/series/9795) My Summary: Frank works in a tattoo shop as a body piercer, training under Bob (Bryar) to become a tattoo artist. Mikey works as their receptionist, and Brian is the owner of the shop. Ray is sort of a hair stylist and makes herbal concoctions I guess?? Frank's world turns upside down, when he gets himself a mysterious tattoo one night from a stranger that is itching him badly...suddenly he's bleeding all over?? He also meets Gerard, Mikey's brother, who's hot and also a priest, oops! I guess they also have to travel together and vanquish demons as a team?! (If you know of the movie Stigmata, this is basically the plot of that movie apparently? I didn't watch it myself) Personal Thoughts: I have a lot to say about this one. Due to the nature of Gerard's job as a priest, this story has MANY discussions about religion, specifically Catholicism. If you aren't comfortable with that, I understand if you skip. My personal relationship with religion is that my family is Catholic, but my parents are non-practicing so the most we've done was attend Church for weddings and Easter? I also went through Communion. I personally do not identify with the Catholic faith, but I still managed to enjoy this fic a lot and was glad I gave it a chance. It's really hard to find where to begin with this one, cus honestly... this was one of the best fanfictions I have ever read, period! Which is shocking to me cus when there's a famous fic in a fandom, it's usually because it's like, My Immortal or something (aka so bad it's good). Rarely have I seen popular fics with genuinely high quality writing. This could also be cus I do not interact with fandoms much and have always kept my distance? The writing was genuinely clever and quick-witted, as well as super compelling. I'm a fairly calm reader and don’t often react out loud to things I read, but I found myself cry-laughing at many parts of Unholyverse. Maybe it's cus it took itself a little bit more seriously due to the era it was written in, and it could be seen as cheesy by today's standards. I also just think the writer is very good at writing funny dialogue, maybe it wasn’t taking itself that seriously after all (idk im neurodivergent lmao). The characters feel so believable, and I found myself seeing them as completely original characters pretty quickly. The relationship between Frank and Gerard is SO slowburn it hurts, but it hurts so good! The tension and pining is crazy, and I wish I could say more but I don't want to spoil!! I want to revisit this fic again soon, in fact I'm itching to re-read it now! This story is so good I wish for it to be published one day with changed names to make it original. Also, Fall Out Boy is in this fic LOL!

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

A Splitting of the Mind by Shoved2agree

Rating: Explicit (smut mostly at the end, this is a mental institution AU so fair warning) Pairing: Frerard Main POV: Gerard Are they MCR?: No, they use their irl names but no relation to the band. Status: Completed, 21 chapters and 144k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535958 My Summary: We follow Gerard, a mental institution patient, who believes he's the only normal one there. Gerard believes there is a group of people who want to kill him, so he has selective mutism to keep “them” from finding him. There he meets Frank, a new addition to the ward, and instantly feels a connection with him he's never felt with another person before. The story is very psychological so be warned. It's not a fluffy story at all, and doesn't have a happy ending, but it's at the very least a hopeful one! Personal Thoughts: What isn't there to say about this one..? It's also in my top list of fanfiction in general. It's a truly well-written story, you think you start to understand how Gerard's mind works, and then you don't. It's not a spoiler to say that he suffers from Schizophrenia, he's just completely unaware of it, or in denial it's hard to say. The way his inner thoughts are described are very compelling, I personally do not know anyone who suffers from this condition, nor do I know much about how it works, so I will not judge which part of the portrayal was good or bad, but at the very least it didn't seem offensive and it seemed to be respectful. I actually got super immersed in his thought process and I couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't at times, just like him. I can at least say that it didn't feel like it was glorified at all. Frank's reason for his admission to the institution is also super heartbreaking and raw. Overall this story was definitely not a happy one, but I truly enjoyed this fic, the ending was just, god my heart😭... one of the best written scenes in fiction, not even kidding. I highly recommend you read this if you can stomach a sad yet hopeful ending.

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

The Anatomy of a Fall by novembersmith

Rating: Explicit (smut near the end of the fic, this is a high school AU and there’s an age gap (kind of, not really, can't say without spoiling) but Gerard is 18 from my understanding.) Pairing: Frerard Main POV: Gerard Are they MCR?: No, but they use the same names though. Status: Completed, 12 chapters and 107k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/155168 My summary: Gerard moves to a quiet town in the middle of nowhere with his mom and little brother Mikey. Imagine a sort of Forks in Twilight kind of gloomy and mysterious atmosphere. Gerard goes into the woods one day and meets a strange boy called Frank. He doesn't seem to go to their school despite being his age, or at least, he hasn't bumped into him yet. This boy is super cool but really mysterious, they become close friends quickly and hang out together after school in the forest. There are also a lot of strange acts of violence happening in this town, and Frank wants to find out what is going on in this weird small town. Personal Thoughts: There's a twist that's hinted at super early and kind of obvious, this is a ghost story after all, but it doesn't ruin the experience at all. Gerard takes longer to realize what Frank's deal is than the reader but it's totally the point! This story was another great one from the line-up, and it DOES have a happy ending, yay! I really enjoyed the relationship between Gerard and Frank, the progression felt natural, and the mystery is great and has an excellent payoff methinks. The world building in this one was really good as well, I could totally picture this little town. Also, it comes with ''official'' art!

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

Overall thoughts on this section:

I started off reading Unholyverse, assuming it was the most popular fic because it was similar to My Immortal in infamy. However, that could be further from the truth! Without repeating myself too much like in the review, it was super well written and compelling and I fell in love with this story! I also loved the other two I read. If I had to ''rank'' the fics to my personal preferences it would be something like Unholyverse > A Splitting of the Mind = Anatomy of a Fall. If you have been hesitant with reading these famous fics like I was, please give them a chance!  I do have to admit, I deliberately ignored “A Dove Keeper” due to its severe age gap. Let’s pretend there’s just 3 infamous fics ok??

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

Section 3: Desolation Row AUs

I wanted to give the AUs based on the Desolation Row cover/music video some love! They are few and far between, which is a shame. This MV altered my brain chemistry not gonna lie, it was one of the best looks for the band imo. These fics are mostly oneshots, but on the lengthier side!

Truth on the Airwaves by stoplightglow

Rating: Mature (implied sexual content, no smut) Pairing: Frerard Main POV: Gerard, but it switches out of his POV often. Are they MCR?: Despite it being an AU, i’d say yes. They call themselves My Chemical Romance and sing their songs. Status: Completed, Oneshot with 34k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15704250 My Summary: This is a prequel to the Desolation Row music video, it also includes a ‘what happens after’ epilogue. Gerard is an office worker in a boring job, but the government is censoring the world more and more, they even banned booze and fun apparently! Gerard and company decide it’s time to take matters into their punk rock hands. This is an AU where MCR become a band to protest against censorship and illegally tour to spread hope and rebellion. With the help of a radio host, they spread their illegal music to the masses. They call themselves My Chemical Romance and create the Bullets album and more! Follow their shenanigans and see what happens :D Personal thoughts: This was the first desolation row fic I read, and man was it fun! This fic is transparent about the members being MCR, but it’s still an AU. The writing is super fun, Gerard is confused about how he feels about Frank throughout the fic in the cutest way possible. I love it! I also like the fact that they included what happens after they get arrested in the music video. It’s a happy ending yay!

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

Heaven's Not About Your Reputation by impertinence

Rating: Mature (some smut) Pairing: Frerard Main POV: Gerard mostly. Are they MCR?: Pretty much yes! Still AU though. Status: Completed, oneshot with 28k words. (this might actually be one of the oldest fics on this list, from 2009) Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27280 My Summary: This is a collection of scenes with Gerard and the gang touring with their music, rebelling against the government and overall pissing off the cops. Gerard and Frank got some shit going on, after kissing each other to prove a point on stage, they’re confused about what this all means. Personal Thoughts: Not too much to say about this one, the writing is very good and is the main reason I recommend it. The scenes of their shenanigans are super entertaining too, lots of bickering and banter in this one! It’s quite short (for my standards) but definitely worth a read!

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

Overall thoughts on this section:

There aren’t many fics here, as truthfully there isn’t too much to work with in Desolation Row, but the ones that I did read were pretty great! My personal headcanon is that this AU takes place before the apocalypse in Danger Days, as the government is starting to get super involved with people’s freedom of speech but isn’t completely controlling everyone just yet. I wanted to put this section before the other AUs, so that we can give our Desolation Row AUs some extra attention!

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

Section 4: Various MCR AUs

Finally, I’ll be highlighting some other MCR AUs that don’t fit in a specific section. I’ll add an extra description for each one; like high school, or college, other jobs, childhood friends, enemies to lovers ect. This is also the section with the most recommendations so buckle in!

I'll start with some "MCR working at a store" AUs!

"that was easy" by metaleaterz aka The Staples Fic

Rating: Explicit (smut included) Pairing: Frerard & background Ray/Mikey Main POV: Frank Are they MCR?: No, they have their own separate paths in life. Status: Completed with 14 chapters and 88k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25903483 My Summary: Frank is in college and running out of money fast, Mikey tells him to apply to Staples and work there with him, Ray and Gerard. Brian is their manager too! Frank and Gerard's relationship blossoms from there and shenanigans ensue. This story was based on a tweet Frank posted about working at Staples one time, but just being high and not actually working much LOL. Personal Thoughts: This is actually another very popular fic, and was written in 2020! Most of the popular fics I've read were written before mcr's break up, so it was a pleasant surprise! This story was honestly super funny, the Staples setting is iconic asf, but the romance in this one was also extra cute and it was super satisfying when they finally get together hehe! I highly recommend this one, it also has excellent writing.

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

Emotional Brilliance by kopperblaze

Rating: Mature (no smut) Pairing: Frikey (Frank/Mikey) & some poly?Lindsey/Ray/Gerard Main POV: Mikey (for once lmao) Are they MCR?: Nah, but Frank is part of a band and so is Ray. Status: Completed, Oneshot with 20k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501146 My Summary: Mikey loves working at Lush, he really does. Despite his music career not working out for him, he loves working there with Ray. Unfortunately, Frank, who used to bully Gerard in high school, gets hired to work with them. Mikey hates his guts, but Frank is much more friendly than at school, maybe people do change..? Personal Thoughts: Finally some Frikey! (Hope the ship name is correct lol) No for real, I love frerard like everyone else, but frank/mikey is a close second. I'd like the ship even more if there were MORE FICS about them!! This one was pretty cute, and Mikey's hatred of Frank is super funny to me, because he really doesn't have a reason anymore, does he? Lush is also another funny setting, I can't imagine how they can stand the fruity smell in that store, it's so overpowering I never stepped into it much. This one was short but it felt complete! Anyways please give this one a try we need more frikey appreciation in this house!!!

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

We Used To Be Friends by ladyfoxxx

Rating: Explicit (smut included near the climax/end) Pairing: Frikey; bassist!Mikey x School Teacher!Frank Main POV: Frank Are they MCR?: No, Mikey is a bassist for The Used and Frank is a school teacher. Status: Completed, Oneshot with 50k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/458760 My Summary: Frank used to be a part of a band before it split and ultimately ended his music career. Mikey managed to join The Used as their bassist, but Frank had not been contacted by him in years. Frank has since become a high school teacher, and one day Gerard finds a way to make the two reconnect! Mikey invites Frank to join them on their tour around Jersey during Spring Break, and he agrees reluctantly. Follow Frank on his tour as he navigates some old feelings and has a taste of what it's like to tour again. Personal Thoughts: Eeeek this was so cuuute! I usually don't read oneshots because I love me a longfic, but 50k words ain't nothing to sneeze at either. Also this fic made me fall in love with the frikey ship, like seriously it's too cute. I like Mikey's aloofness in fanfics, he's so deadpan in an endearing kind of way. I felt bad for Frank being insecure and it hit me a little too close to home cus he was so relatable haha. This is a fun story with some drama, but it ends happily! Honestly this fic will make you love this ship.

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

When We're Both Thirty by Helena_Hathaway

Rating: Explicit (smut near the end) Pairing: Frerard (childhood friends, to enemies to lovers) Main POV: Frank Are They MCR?: Nope! Just the same names and a "if MCR wasn't a band" AU. (Gerard works in art for example) Status: Completed, 30 chapters and 84k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2757812 My summary: Gerard and Frank had been inseparable as little kids, they loved each other before they could put a name to it. They sign a contract saying if they don't get married at 30 years old, they will marry each other! Unfortunately they have a falling out and end up hating each other's guts throughout most of their school life, and lost contact after high school. They are both approaching 30... and their moms try to reconnect them once more. However, both Gerard and Frank still hate each other, so they both agree to help find themselves partners to avoid getting married! Personal Thoughts: This was a super fun story, I also devoured this one. It's like, an enemies to lovers too so one of my fave tropes hohoho! I love how supportive their moms were, so much so that they shipped their kids together! The writing was very solid, and these two are total idiots! I love when ppl write this ship as idiots in love, it's just so obvious they have a thing for each other but are holding old petty grudges. Their attraction towards one another, despite trying their darndest to still hate each other, is highly entertaining. I strongly recommend this one! It’s super sweet, funny and the payoff is so worth it!

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

Before the Second Show by CharredLips

Rating: Teens and Up (no smut, this is a fluffy one) Pairing: Frerard (Bullets Era) Main POV: Frank Are they MCR?: Yes, but this is an AU where they don’t meet their irl partners. Status: Completed with 18 chapters and 75k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32276128 My Summary: This story is set during the Bullets era, and as the title suggests, it takes place during the very early days of MCR. Frank is the new addition to their band as they start their first tour, cramped van and all. However, he’s starting to have weird feelings about Gerard and is unsure what to do with them. Gerard is also feeling something but Frank is unaware that it's mutual. These two are complete idiots in love! This story also just follows the typical early 2000s band tour shenanigans; sleepless nights, driving all day and all night, eating junk food, getting wasted and smoking cigs, little to no showers etc. what's not to love?! Personal Thoughts: This is the only “true” rpf story on this list, the only difference is that in this AU Gerard and Frank don’t end up with their irl partners. Also this is a teens and up rated fic so you don’t have to worry about smut, perfect if you like the ship but don’t want to see em bang. I gotta say, this fic was SUPER FUCKING CUTE! Their mutual pining, how obviously they like each other and try to be near each other at every waking (and sleeping) moment, this is just so fun and precious. They’re so dumb, omg! I might be biased towards the idiots in love tag. There’s a lot of secretive intimacy (non-sexual) and hiding to do gay stuff together and man it was fun to read. I do wanna say tho Gerard has pretty bad self-esteem issues, and talks down on himself a lot, and it might hit a bit too close to home for some (like me). This one also has the cutest happy ending ever though!! Another banger!

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

Did You Miss Me? 'Cus I Missed You by LiberXI

Rating: Explicit (smut with plot) Pairing: Frerard Main POV: Frank Are They MCR?: No, this is a college AU Status: Completed with 3 chapters and 35k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48104839 My Summary: Frank is starting college and is super excited to enjoy the freedom that comes with that. Mikey and Ray go to a college party with Frank, and he bumps into Gerard, who also lives on the same college campus as the others. They used to hang out a lot more back a few years ago, and Frank is super happy to see him again. While chatting it up and having a smoke together, Gerard and Frank realize that they had missed each other much more than they both expected. Personal Thoughts: This is the 2nd fic from LiberXI that I'd like to recommend, but it's also the most explicit I apologize lol. They wrote a lot more fics than I thought and found this little gem after reading the latest chapter of their DD fic (Don't Need The System). This is definitely a self-indulgent fic rec, it's short and sweet, with smut and their relationship is just rly cute and wholesome. So sort of fluffy smut?! IDK I just wanted an excuse to recommend this one here if anyone likes shorter fics, since I put so many long ones on this list lol. I also love this author's writing style a lot.

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

The Calypso Initiative by theficisalie

Rating: Explicit ("activities of the alone variety" in some chapters, smut near the end) Pairing: Frerard (small age gap, Frank is 11 and Gerard is 16 when they meet; they don’t hang out much nor pursue each other till they’re both over 21) Main POV: Frank Are They MCR?: Nope this is a superhero/school AU Status: Completed with 20 chapters and 91k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/280176 My Summary: A superhero AU, where ppl with "mutations" are heavily monitored. They have to either work for the government or live in the streets as fugitives. Frank is 9 years old when his family abandons him, he is found by heroes-in-training Mikey and Gerard, and joins them in their school/compound which educates young mutants and teaches them to control their powers. Frank and Gerard's relationship becomes distant after Gerard becomes a part of an official hero team, and doesn't seem to have time for him anymore and is constantly ignoring him. Yet Frank still wants to join their team, will he succeed? Personal Thoughts: I was super hooked by this one! It's honestly a great story and the format is super satisfying. We follow Frank's journey from living with a group of other abandoned mutant children in the city, to learning how to control his unique powers at the compound, and growing into an adult who is ready to fight crime with his best friends (Gee, Mikey and Ray). I will say though, there is a bit of an age gap between Frank and Gee, Frank being the younger one. I feel like what the author did was pretty tame compared to other fics like a dove keeper (which is waaay worse like the age gap is 17/40 ew, sorry.) Gee and Frank are friends when they're younger and drift apart in between, interacting barely until Frank's 25-ish? So it doesn't feel predatory at all in my opinion. That's about as much as I'm willing to spoil, feel free to skip if any sort of age gap makes you uncomfortable!

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

Marked like a bloodstain by drunkonyou

Rating: Teens and Up (no smut) Pairing: Frerard, with sub-pairing Rikey Main POV: Frank Are They MCR?: Nope, this is a vampire AU. Status: Completed, 12 chapters and 56k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29563299 My summary: This story is set in modern times (aka youtube, tiktok stuff is mentioned.) Frank and Ray work in a record store, and one day a tall pale man named Mikey asks to get hired for their night shift, and mentions having a brother with a chronic illness. He gets hired right away! One night, Frank goes to a haunted mansion, and there was Dracula working there, scaring guests...and he was really hot?! He comes back another night just to ask him out, and it's the start of something new! Personal Thoughts: Gosh this was a cute one too! I don't particularly seek out vampire stories, but this one also had a unique spin! Gerard and Frank's relationship is more angsty fluff, but it's so good!! I don't want to spoil much else, so that's all I've got to say! This is another one that's safe for the no-smut enjoyers.

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

I am not the Phoenix that you wanted by GhostintheBathroom & Xygenscenic

Rating: Explicit (the first chapter has smut, then it cools down for most of the fic with smut sprinkled in more sparsely) Pairings: Patrick/Pete from FOB; Frerard and Ray/Mikey Main POVs: Various Are They MCR?: Yes and so is Fall Out Boy. AU story still! Status: Completed with 18 chapters and 98k words. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1659725 My Summary: SO this one is unique, it’s actually a Fall Out Boy / MCR / Danger Days crossover. FOB’s Patrick and Pete have an unhealthy relationship; Pete is always on and off with his current girlfriend, while also taking Patrick to his bed. One day, they are taken to the future of California in 2019, where they meet the Killjoys of Danger Days! Time-travel, dimension hopping, fighting hot babes who want to kill them. Courtney Love is somehow involved in all of this as well. This fic is a wild ride from start to finish! Personal Thoughts: This fic isn’t a pure MCR fic, if anything it focuses more on FOB’s Pete and Patrick, which is why I put this as my last fic rec. I still added it to my recommendation list cus it’s honestly one of the craziest, most unique plots I’ve seen in a while. I gave this story a chance despite me not being super familiar with FOB, and glad I did. The plot is absurd but somehow still able to keep its focus, the villains and overall premise are hilarious, and the way they tie together MCR and Danger Days is super unique. Give this story a read if you wanna have a great laugh and go through an emotional rollercoaster as well. The amount of times I laughed or gasped at certain reveals, really got me excited to recommend this one. My summary is super vague cus I don’t want to spoil the absurdity of some plot twists and reveals haha.

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

Overall thoughts on this section:

This collection of fics were a super entertaining read. I honestly started out being weirded out by rpf fics of the band, but I quickly was able to suspend my disbelief and enjoy these stories as their own separate thing. AUs save the day once more! It might have helped that MCR as people have changed a lot since then, and they feel like a separate entity from their past selves. I also read so many of these that their irl names don't bother me anymore thanks to exposure therapy lmao!

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

That concludes my MCR fic list!

Thank you so so much for reading, this took me a few weeks to work on and I'm so happy to finally be free from my shackles! I am still actively reading new mcr fics, probably until I get super sick of them like I did with ffxiv fics a few months prior. For the time being I am going to leave this post as is, and make a part 2 eventually if I have more things to recommend. If you read this whole thing you're a trooper. I'm saved. I'm FREE!!

In conclusion: Thank you to the Danger Days album for starting this all; Frerard is an awesome dynamic for slash fiction; Frikey is so cute and underrated but is growing on AO3 from what I've seen; mildly embarrassed to admit I read mcr smut now; I'm cringe and I'm free; I know I'm having my teenager mcr fan phase at age 28 but I don't care! Anyways, enough yapping. Now I rest, thank you again!

[the-tmnt-ficfinder]

Ficfinder finds: The Lemonade Leak

Chapter 23: The Warden

Chapter 23 Summary: No Summary

The Warden: Appraisal and Ratings

(Don't know what fanfic "Appraisal and Ratings" means? Check out my explanation on my Main Masterpost! Looking for a different fanfic to read? Head on over to my Fanfic List Masterpost!)

Disclaimer: This fanfic is only available to those who have an Ao3 profile. This fanfic is written by @turtleinsoup, so go show them some love and support!!

The fanfic ratings are not based on quality, favoritism, or how good I think it is, but rather, how intense a subject may be. Like a movie review, or the tags on Ao3, letting the readers know what to expect.

Plot: 💛💛💛💛💛

"Plot is five out of five!! We get a little bit of a flashback to the childhood of the disaster twins, which is wonderfully fascinating!! Then, after that, you get dumped straight back into the stress of the current situation. A lot of things happen in this chapter. Plot important thing!

Suspense/Mystery: 💛💛💛💛🖤

"Suspense/Mystery is four out of five!! In the beginning of the chapter, there's not as much mystery, and mostly just confusion, though during the second half, the suspense and mystery levels ramp right up!!"

Angst/Hurt: 💛💛💛💛💛

"Angst/Hurt is five out of five!! This chapter has a lot of angst and hurt, and sad little bits that will absolutely tear your heart apart! The first half of this chapter, is more on the sad side, while the second half is more on the stressful side."

Fluff/Comfort: 💛💛🖤🖤🖤

"Fluff/Comfort is two out of five! In the first half of the chapter, there is some comfort, but only just a little bit. As soon as the writing progresses, that comfort goes right away."

Emotions Conveyed: 💛💛💛💛🖤

"Emotions Conveyed is four out of five!! This chapter has wildly intense emotions!! From the sad little confusion of the beginning, to the wild fear later on!! This chapter really encapsulated a lot of emotions!!"

Drama/Tension Level: 💛💛💛💛💛

"Drama/Tension Level is five out of five!! The drama and tension is completely through the roof in this chapter!! So many things happen!! The second half of the chapter has the most tension, with high amounts of it being between Donnie and Leo."

Triggers: 💛💛💛💛💛

"Triggers for this chapter are five out of five. This chapter has a lot of triggers in it. A lot more than usual, though that's for a good reason. In the authors note, these are the triggers listed.

- Non-consensual drugging | touching - VERY UNCOMFORTABLE "MEDICAL INTEREST"-MOMENT IN THIS GUYS - Dehumanization - Gun Violence

In the beginning of the chapter, there is also implied starvation and hunger in children, and child neglect. There are other triggers, so make sure to keep in mind that this chapter is not for the faint of heart."

Legibility (Reading): 💛💛💛💛💛

"Legibility (Reading) is five out of five!! This chapter reads really smoothly! It has minimal amounts of crazy texts in it, but is rich in detail!"

Legibility (Audio): 💛💛💛💛💛

"Legibility (Audio) is five out of five!! As this chapter has no crazy text or anything like that, its able to be listened to in audio book format!!"

Length: 💛💛💛💛🖤

"Length is four out of five!! Chapter 23 of The Lemonade Leak takes about 43-44 minutes to listen to!!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next Chapter ->

<- Previous

The Lemonade Leak: Story Ratings and Chapter List

Personal thoughts on chapter below cut (Contains Spoilers)

Content Warnings: Donnie & Leo (No fr. This is the censored version of the chapter! I got too nervous before uploading so I went back and edited out the most fucked-up parts. I might upload the uncensored version separately one day, or have some of it happen in the final fight, but rn I’m too nervous to do that today :’) <3)

What you mean, ‘censored version’?! Like, I wanna see what you had planned!! Seriously, for reals, I hope what you originally wrote is included later on or something, I’m so incredibly curious now!! 

Donnie had been alive for five whole years when he finally felt like he had acquired a good enough grasp of the English language to vocalize his first-ever sentence. “Do this again and I’ll kill you with my teeth.” “Okay,” Leo said and did it again.

Awwwww ^^ that’s surprisingly adorable!! I’m assuming that this means Donnie was nonverbal till he was five. It’s cute thinking about this from Leo’s perspective. While Donnie is massively annoyed by him, Leo’s just so thrilled to hear his twins voice, that he does the annoying thing again, as any five year old would. 

Donnie was lying on his tummy, so the pressure would keep his hunger-pain at bay.

Oh no… :( poor boy 

“Fine, I don‘t care.” Leo laid down. Which was to say, he ruffled through their newspaper blanket, plucked the stuffing from a burst pillow seam, and shuffled otherwise through their nest in ways that more-or-less exactly failed to make it more comfortable. “Hey,” Leo whispered, ten seconds later. “Dee. Donatron? Daddy thinks you can’t talk out loud. Do you wanna prank him? Doniffer? Can you say ‘Bumbershoot’?”

Ha!! This is even funnier after understanding what bumbershoot means lol. It means umbrella. It’s an old slang word that was around the year 1800. Bumber referred to the umbrella bit, and shoot referred to the handle!!

“Oh, I know that one!” Leo leaned in and squinted at the bloated pulpy cover. “Ox of- Ox fox dinosaur!” “Oxford Dictionary. Volume three.” Donnie shifted back onto his tummy and pried the book open with care because the pages that weren’t part of the pulp fell out easily. “Volumes one and two were about other languages, probably. That means there are at least three languages in the world,” Donnie explained.

Oh my gosh, they are just far too precious!! This entire scene is so sweet, but also heartbreaking. The poor boys, hungry, reading wet ruined books. They’re trying their best.

Papa used to pat his shell and try to make Donnie eat by cooing and using airplane trickery – scoff. Donnie had endured those displays with grace, though it was hard to look dignified while having a napkin tucked into one's collar. The wrongness stayed on the bottom of every spoon, and Dad had stopped his trickery a while ago. Today he just placed their food in front of them and stared at nothing for a whole while after. (Donnie missed the airplanes.)

I’m going to cry. Whyyyyy the poor boys?!? Hhhhhhhh poor boys T^T

“You,” Donnie cleared his throat, “You know when the TV receives a dead channel? That dancing static, Papa sometimes complains about? It’s from the Big Bang that made everything. He hates it, but he can always watch the birth of the universe.” “No way!” Leo whispered, eyes sparkling, and Donnie felt something warm swell up in his chest at his brother’s flapping hands. “The static is stars! That’s so cool, Dee, we gotta tell people!”

This little misconception is incredibly adorable. I’m enjoying how though Donnie is smart, as he is lacking information, he has the incorrect perception on things, so instead, he and Leo fill in the blanks. It makes sense!

Donnie pushed Leo’s hands off. “There is no obligation on your part to do anything. Such is the essence of the matter.” “Oh boy, Dee,” Leo grinned. “You saying that just broke the irony meter!”

Y’know, something I’m enjoying seeing, is how they talk. Despite being five, they speak quite uniquely. To be honest, the way Leo talks reminds me of old movies, like romcoms, or talk shows. Like the kinds they’d play in the 80’s and 90’s. Perhaps, as Splinter watches high amounts of tv, the boys learned to talk from some of his programs. It would make sense, as children adopt their speaking habits from what they hear most of, and in this case, I believe that to be the tv. 

“That nickname is ancient,” the young voice answered. “You won’t be around long enough to find use for it. Call me Bishop.”

When I first read this fanfic, I hadn’t seen any other TMNT iterations. Now that I have, I catch small things like this!! The name, Bishop held no importance to me before, though now? It’s very important. 

“Thank you,” Donnie said. He re-angled the Wardove against Rook’s cheek, turning the barrel against the bone. “Bishop, please turn to my brother; - don’t look don't look around so blankly; I'm talking about the other bipedal turtle in the room - he keeps his phone in his hoodie. Go retrieve it from him.”

Just- this whole situation-oh gosh, the tables have turned!! This part was honestly so wildly surprising!! A sudden plot twist, completely unexpected!!

The lines of Leo’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes opened. Perhaps reflexively, perhaps controlled. The wet pull of Leo’s second eyelids flashed white for a second before Leo looked at him. His familiar sweet eyes were colder than starlight on steel.

I love how well the pacing is!! Particularly, I love how small bits are highlighted like this, really pulling attention to small actions. It really helps slow down a wildly speeding moment to drag out the tension, and improve the suspense. 

[princesscolumbia]

Ranma 1/2 Thoughts, Meta Edition

I have consumed...a lot of Ranma 1/2 content.

I mean, this is kinda what happens when you're a repressed transgirl who discovers the manga a year into a marriage that you got into to "fix" being trans and be "a real boy" in a desperate bid to fill the hole that you wouldn't learn for two decades could only be filled by living as your true self.

I've encountered precisely four (4) types of Ranma 1/2 fans in that time:

Transwomen who see Ranma as their idealized expression of the gender experience ("I'm not like this because I want to be, it's a curse. A curse that gives me a smokin' hot body and HUGE tits! But it's tooootally a curse, for realsies! I'll find a cure any day now, see how hard I'm looking? I'm trying sooooo hard to find a cure...")

Transmen who see Ranma as their perfect representation of their gender experience ("I'm a guy, damnit! This body...it's a curse! I hate it and I want nothing better than to be cured, but all sorts of Life Bullshit keeps getting in the way!")

Lesbians who kin either Ranma (butch NB lesbian) or one of their love interests (Akane - comphet closetted butch lesbian, Shampoo - Strong, smokin' hot bad bitch who goes after what she wants, Ukyo - transmasc coded genderfluid NB)

Completely clueless nimrods who miss the FUCKING POINT and are only into the show for the martial arts and think it would be better if Ranma got cured and they stopped having funny stuff happen.

(In case it's not obvious, IMHO the last group are the worst parts of the fandom and need to Go Away. Most of the toxic stuff that exists in R.5 fanspaces is because of this group of assholes which includes the incels that think everything would be better if Ranma just did stuff that's questionable from an ethics and morality perspective and chased after Shampoo because she's the closest thing to a Barbie-doll these closet fascists can allow themselves to fantasize about playing with, completely ignoring that she's a complex character that's a subversive pastiche to the Japanese racist stereotypes of the 1980s.)

I'm not kidding when I say that in the early days of the public Internet (before Facebook and Twitter ruined it for everyone), Ranma 1/2 was the SINGLE largest fandom by a MASSIVE stretch. I once checked my math on this by going to Fanfiction.net (before the massive purges) and brought up the Big List of All Fandoms and right there at the top with a MASSIVE number of fics was Ranma 1/2 by a HUGE margin. It took three fandoms (Star Trek, Doctor Who, and I believe Naruto if I'm recalling correctly) to have their combined total number of fics exceed the number of R.5 fics on FF.net...and that was JUST FF.net. There was an entire separate index (The Penultimate Ranma 1/2 Fanfic Index) that had the single task of listing, not even curating or reading or reviewing, ONLY Ranma 1/2 fanfics. Not fanart, not commentary, no RP blogs or chat transcripts or whatever, JUST fanfics. And only about half of those linked to FF.net, meaning that if you dig up the archives you'll find at least 60% of all fanfics that people had managed to index in the Ranma 1/2 fandom are missing because they were never properly archived and just...faded from the Internet as the public servers and places like Geocities started disappearing. You can find teasing, tantalizing hints of larger works that all we have left, like scraps of ancient papyri revealing a quote from a missing book of the Bible, are single chapters backed up on niche sites that managed to get spider-crawled by Archive.org, but many great works are just...lost. (There's an ero fic called "Playing with Water" that was SUPER hot and featured elements that we have tags for on porn sites but didn't really have proper words for back in the day...but even back when it was first being written finding the thing was hard...and today? Nearly impossible.)

(If you wonder why I'm such an absolute RABID advocate of AO3, this is why)

For me, Ranma will always be the transfemme coded genderfluid hero that we needed in the late 80s and early 90s. We were on the tail end of the AIDS pandemic, and just like COVID-19 there were a bunch of assholes who used it to ride to power and marginalize queer folk. It was easier to do with AIDS, of course, given the absolutely massive numbers of queer cis men and transwomen who contracted it and died. (Sidebar: the reason "L" comes first in "LGBTQIA+" is because it was the Lesbian nurses who were the caretakers of the Gay men who were dying in numbers large enough to be counted as a tragic statistic instead of a mere tragedy) and while the world was starting to acknowledge (again) that gay men was a thing that existed and they weren't actually trying to corrupt the youth, what we now call "transgender" was still listed in the DSM as a mental disorder that required treatment to "cure." According to the cultural majority in damn near every field you can imagine, the Gender Binary was the only way to exist and if you didn't fit neatly into one or the other then you were Damaged™ and had to be Fixed™ for The Good of All People™ (but specifically so cis-het-white folks, usually men, could feel comfy and not be confronted by things that made them feel icky and might have cooties). It's a truism that's treated as a joke that transwomen get into coding and wind up doing IT work in such massive numbers that between us and the furries we ARE the foundation of the modern Internet. And into the fanspaces packed to the brim with closetted AMAB transwomen who hadn't yet had their egg cracked came this plucky martial artist that gets to swap their gender with a splash of water but somehow still winds up the best of the best, the finest martial artist of their generation. (Goku can suck it, Ranma would turn the Kamea-meha right back on the over-muscled, braindead loser with a food fetish and still make it home in time for Kasumi's dinner)

I'm no sociologist, anthropologist, behaviorist, whatever, but I suspect that the reason Ranma Saotome spawned such a large fanbase so early in the modern Internet's history was specifically because the series created a safe space where people could talk about gender issues with a degree of separation that helped strip away the stigma surrounding feeling like you were in the wrong body.

I get why people like the martial arts aspect. I mean, Ranma kills a demigod. This is NOT something to sneeze at. I also understand the transmen who latch onto Ranma as a kin because I get the feeling like you have no control over what your body's doing and you're going through your days in existential dread of what might be dragging you further and further away from what you always knew was right and correct about yourself. It's a terrifying thing and here's someone who (esp. the anime version) IS a guy trapped in a girl's body.

For me, though, and for a LOT of transwomen out there, Ranma is transfemme. And, yes, canonically Ranma states right near the end of the manga that they're both and they kinda forgot about the 'cure' when they had to pick between that and the really important stuff and that they're okay with being fluid ('cause water, gettit?!) about their gender and it's a damn shame this was the 80s 'cause a continuation might wind up showing Ranma embracing being both...

BUT, and this is a transfemme thing, I know, if you continue the parabolic arc of Ranma's character development, the logical conclusion (for us) is that she eventually decides that she's a woman and just lives in her "cursed" form the majority (or all) of the time.

And yes, this is because that's the transfemme story arc. In the manga in some distant part of the multiverse that peers into our universe and for some reason decides to make me the MC (god, that must be a FUCKING BORING manga by our standards, I weep for those fans), my story arc is the gradual progression of uncracked, closetted transgirl to transitioned out and proud transbien mom. At one point I swapped back and forth between gender presentations because it was safer for me to appear in some spaces as the male that they thought I was. Now I would prefer to die before being forced to go back to pretending to be a man again.

Ranma has the choice, and good for them. Until the Kaisufuu is permanently destroyed, even if the "curse" is locked, they have the option of going one way or the other based solely on their own, personal desire. I can't say I'd be comfortable with that option being available. In that theoretical manga where there's a reboot that gives me a condition like Ranma's, I'd probably wind up destroying the equivalent to the Kaisufuu just because of the threat to my mental wellbeing it presents.

So it's not a stretch to imagine Ranma making the same choice. She's a woman now, she has the life she never realized she wanted because she never had the choice so didn't know she was allowed to imagine it, but now she's happier than ever and why would she ever go back to that struggle of being a guy that only ever brought her pain and challenges and heartache?

[subterraneanna]

This critique of 1964 deep cut Where Love Has Gone asks of DeForest Kelley’s Sam Corwin: “…is he gay? Impotent? A satyr? Maybe it’s clearer in the book.” Well, you don’t have to read the book to answer one of those:

✔️He’s a hedonist ✔️He hangs with baddies ✔️He scampers around with panpipes a tobacco pipe ✔️It's implied he's not a real man (so maybe half man?) ✔️He’s preoccupied with sex (and endlessly tries to bang his equally promiscuous married friend with zero discretion) That’s a satyr, folks. And while he’s only drinking in one scene, this randy fellow's natural habitat is a wine-soaked gallery opening so it’s safe to say that’s another box checked off. Most unusual for a satyr, however, is his apparent shape shifting ability as he majestically emerges from his cut-to-the-present chrysalis as an upstanding silver fox, ready to stir up all your daddy issues. 

This painting is in various states of completion, but I stepped back and got hit with a Dogs Playing Poker vibe 😬 so I think it's time to call it quits. After all, it was only intended to be a 30-minute sketch but somehow turned into a nearly 3-month painting. At some point I realized working this hard on something inspired by an unpopular garbage movie probably wasn't the best use of time, but there was no turning back. Hopefully it finds its way to the small fraction of people who've seen this film. If you're wondering why there are two Sam Corwins, one explanation is that I painted two, couldn't choose between them, and forced both into the composition. But in keeping with WLHG’s trashy, sex-fueled melodrama, let’s instead imagine that after Valerie’s departure, Sam found comfort in the tufts of a wayward tribble (hey, "when you're dying of thirst, you drink from a mudhole"), unleashing a pestilence of bisexually asexually-reproducing, lusty tribble-goat-men upon poor, unsuspecting San Francisco. Could this be the 200-years-in-the-making backstory here? It's all coming full circle. I've never written fanfic, but I'm suddenly giving it some serious consideration... BTW if anyone knows the location of “Dr. Sam’s old stand”, please send the address. I’m just, you know, looking to get a professional review of some, uh, artwork… Obviously. Prints available

[jeannereames]

I'm new to reading about Alexander the Great, and I read your books first, then Mary Renault's. I like your Hephaistion a lot better, and Olympias (Myrtale), but the two novels were a lot alike in the story itself. I saw at least one reviewer said that yours was like a retelling of hers: "dangerously similar." So I wondered how much her first novel on Alexander influenced yours?

You’re not the first to ask, and the answer is: very little.

When I get that line about my novel being “too much like” Mary Renault’s, or even “fanfic” on Mary Renault, it tells me the reviewer is completely unfamiliar with the ancient sources themselves. For those who are familiar, I never hear this (perhaps because where we differ is obvious).

Unlike the novelist who makes up a completely original plot, when writing historical fiction, at least of this type, there IS a historical thread to follow. I’m not copying Renault. I’m following Plutarch, Diodorus, and, to a lesser degree, Justin. So is she.

Where we “cross” is on the historical elements in the original sources.

If you remove those bits, our two retellings don’t have much in common. Likewise, even in some of the elements from those sources, we differ in interpretations. My novel also begins a good deal later in ATG’s life. We do both end with the same event—I suspect because, when history gives you a “made for Hollywood” incident like the murder of Philip, you don’t turn it down. LOL. Also, for me, it’s the “natural joint” between Alexander-the-prince and Alexander-the-king. Just as the end of Alexander’s stay at Mieza with Aristotle forms the hinge between the two novels—or originally, the hinge between two halves of one novel. (Which is why I was able to divide it in half, when Riptide insisted that I do so in order to publish it, due to its original length.)

But the plain fact is I’d written my own before I’d ever heard of Mary Renault. I backed into Alexander as a result of some grad classes at Emory. He kept popping up in lecture, and I realized I had NO idea who he was. As an English major, I’d read Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra,” so I knew the “big” Roman-era names. But I’d managed to get out of both high school and my BA at the University of Florida without taking any (real) history classes. Now I was running into mentions of people (and places) with which I was completely unfamiliar.

So, I waltzed over to the Emory library and picked out two bios on Alexander: Nick Hammond’s Alexander the Great: King, Commander, and Statesman, and Peter Green’s Alexander of Macedon (the original version, with pictures…I picked it because it had pictures). As I’ve said elsewhere, I couldn’t have selected two more different views of the conqueror if I’d tried. And that’s what intrigued me…so I kept reading. Then I decided to write a novel about the “making” of him (coming-of-age), and the importance of Hephaistion in his life (because Green was so dismissive of the poor guy). Hephaistion was originally much clearer in my mind. In fact, he’s the (real) protagonist of Dancing with the Lion…certainly for the novel’s first half (Becoming). So I’m glad to hear you liked how I portrayed him.

It was only later that somebody said, “Oh, hey, have you heard of Mary Renault?” English major or no, I hadn’t. I did pick up her novels on Alexander but read only a little way before putting them down precisely because I didn’t want to be influenced by her work. In fact, I read nobody’s novels on him until I finished my original (way too short) rendition. Then I started on the second draft (which turned out to be way too long).

But by that point, my picture of Alexander, and even more so, Hephaistion, was quite set. As was the story I wanted to tell.

So no, Mary Renault’s novels had little impact on the genesis of Dancing with the Lion. But you are not the first person to wonder.

Ironically, Mary Stewart’s Crystal Cave and her subsequent Arthurian Saga had a much greater impact on how I chose to tell Alexander’s story. I did read those as a teen girl, and they fomented a fascination for King Arthur in me that lasted into college. The fact I wound up getting a PhD in Greek history is ironic, as I actively avoided it in high school and (undergrad) college, all my love given to Celtic and Scandinavian myth and history. I still do enjoy Celtic myth, btw. And it was with some amusement that I realized the tale of Alexander and Hephaistion was the foundation for the legend of Arthur and Lancelot. That probably IS part of why Alexander and Hephaistion gripped me so.

So yes, a “Mary” did influence me, but Stewart, not Renault. 😊

[greenapricot]

2023 fic year in review

Doing my 2023 fic year in review in February bc that's how things are going in 2024 so far.

Total number of fic: 5 (1 still in progress)

Total word count: 24,217

Fandoms written in: Lewis (3), Endeavour (1), Our Flag Means Death (1)

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected? Less. Though I didn't really have any specific expectations about quantity, just that I wanted to write things I enjoyed writing regardless of the reception, as opposed to past years when I was fixated on the idea of writing a certain amount of fic per month. 2023 felt much more relaxed writing-wise and I'm also about halfway through a super self-indulgent fic that is probably going to end up being around 20k and I'm very pleased with that.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? The Names of All the Winds (Lewis, James/Robbie, magical realism au, alternate meeting). The aforementioned fic that's half done. I am having so much fun reliving my own holiday on Lake Garda by sending slightly alternate universe Robbie and James there and also writing magical realism which I hadn't done in a while.

Did you take any writing risks this year? I wouldn't call it a risk exactly, but Patterns Unfamiliar (Lewis, James/Robbie, hurt/comfort) was a fun challenge. My writing is usually very visual and it was interesting to have to describe what was happening in the story when the POV character was in complete darkness.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year? Finish TNoAtW, which I'm actively working on and hope to manage by the end of March.

And I've said this the last two years running, but I really do want to finish the sequel to Lead me wild to your dark roads my Lewis/Shetland xover (currently titled The last place we left off). I did do a fair amount of work on it before I entered the fic challenge that spawned TNoAtW, and wrote a good portion of the Shetland fic interlude that I've realized needs to go between the two stories. So both of those are next in line after TNoAtW.

Then there's the Blackbeard's Building & Renovation fic idea that was spawned in discord, in which Ed is a builder and Stede an interior decorator (each with their own crews) and they are both hired to work on the same house at the same time. Some kind of OFMD/Grand Designs-ish fusion. And, as ever, those three Lewis casefics that are mostly plotted and not anywhere close to completion.

Most popular story of the year? One thing at a time (Lewis, James/Robbie). It was spring, I had allergies, so I wrote a fic in which James had allergies. It seems to resonate with folks :D

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Nothing like poetry (Endeavour, post-s6 Ronnie Box angst). It has the least number of comments and kudos, but I don't actually think it's under-appreciated. Ronnie Box ruminating on the terrible mess his life is post-s6 is just very niche.

Most fun story to write: TNoAtW for all the reasons I mentioned above and adding my own photos to it. And it remains fun.

Most unintentionally telling story: I should probably make up another question to go here bc I never have a good answer for this, but The Most Remarkable Thing (OFMD, Ed/Stede, domestic fluff) was basically me putting my love of gardening and living a quiet life in the woods into fic form.

Biggest disappointment: I wouldn't say it was a disappointment, but I really did think I was going to finish the Lead me wild sequel in 2023. I think I'll finally finish it in 2024 though (this time for sure).

Biggest surprise: TNoAtW growing into what looks like it will be the third longest fic I've ever written.

Tagging people just for the fun of it (no pressure though): @bryndeavour, @thankyouforbeingsowrong, @vita-s-west, @mcgstarroar, @mr-iskender, @ronniebox

[radiowrites]

2023 Writer Year-In-Review

Hi, I’m RaisedonRadio & FortressofmyPast on AO3 and FF.net. This is an on-going tradition since 2015. Check out my past year-end posts: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.

Tagging a few, but if you come across this, consider it an open tag! You’re welcome to tag me back, I’d love to read it!

@writercorianarose @shesailsships @talesofsorrowandofruin @azdesertwillow @goneahead @littlemissfandomworld @dreams-of-kalopsia @halleyuhm

Big change for me compared to last year—in addition to NaNoWriMo, I actually posted fanfics! I tried to add some new questions to this year’s edition, I hope they might even move out of my tiny circle.

Total Word Counts: 51,920 for 2023 NaNoWriMo 15,570 on 2022 NaNoWriMo project 19,193 for July 2023 Camp NaNoWriMo (mostly fanfics) 28,310 in published fanfics (this number is overlapping with camp nano, I wasn’t paying attention, so I’m not going to add everything together)

Total Number Of Completed Works: 10 Total Number of WIPS worked on this year: 10 or so How Many WIPs do you still have: 23

Looking back, did you write more than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected? I wrote way more than expected! I seriously didn’t think I would do NaNoWriMo again. And I published ten fics! That’s ten more than last year!

Did you take any writing risks this year? The NaNoWriMo project was definitely a risk for me. I basically had an idea and no outline. It was quite a challenge to my perfectionism issues—I had to basically never reread anything and just keep going, fully aware that I can better foreshadow the ideas that came up halfway through in the next rewrite.

Biggest Surprise: I wrote for NaNoWriMo again, which I was pretty sure wouldn't happen lol, and hit the word count, all through discovery writing, and having very little idea where I was going with it.

Biggest Disappointment: I dropped that above mentioned project the moment November ended! I can tell it has potential, hidden in there. I will definitely return to it.

Do you have any writing goals for the new year? I’d love to at least finish the first draft of the 2023 NaNoWriMo project, bringing it to a tentative end so I can actually reread it and go from there. And keep writing fanfic, and maybe even work on the 2022 nanowrimo project…

Fanfiction Questions Below! (if you don’t write fanfiction feel free to skip or rework the questions for your original works.)

Fandoms I’ve written in this year: I wrote fics for 7 different fandoms! For the following kdramas: Island, Tale of the Nine Tailed, Memorist, Royal Secret Agent, W: Two Worlds, May I Help You?, and a little Korean Web drama called Handmade Love.

Your most popular story of the year? That would be Besides You with 327 hits and 47 kudos. However Superhero got the most comment interaction with 4!

The story that was easiest/or most fun to write: I Think He Knows was fun to write! I do just love brooding with a heart of gold formerly immortal male leads.

Hardest story to write: Rescue Me, Superhero, Restore, and Prayers & Promises were four works that I had left for dead, and came back and found them to be basically finished and just needed proofreading. (So just in case anyone wondered how I turned out three of those in like two days: they were actually done and I was hellbent on getting them out of my WIPs list)

Your sweetest story: That would definitely be Superhero. I altered my normal narrative style to better fit the child’s character, and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Your saddest scene: I feel like I hit a lot of angst this year, but nothing really sad?

The sexiest moment you’ve written this year? *coughs* I wrote five pieces of smut. (Half of my fanfics were smut this year?!) Umm, I’m torn between Beside You and Don’t Blame Me? But also Never Be the Same and Take On Me???

Your favorite tag: (whether you use it the most or just something witty/perfect for the story) My brother announced to me that he reads all my tags (he was trying to embarrass me about one of my smut pieces) so I did a shout out to him in the next fic. He saw it within the day, I was actually impressed.

Most unintentionally telling story: (have you accidentally or purposefully exposed a detail about yourself?) Religious guilt seems to be a reoccurring tag this year. In all seriousness, not quite sure why, but yet it kinda makes sense? (its complicated lmao) And for some reason not one, but two fics ended with marriage proposals?! (I’m so single.)

Are any of your fics named after/heavily inspired by music? I’m RaisedonRadio and it would be concerning if—checks list—less than 8 of the 10 fics weren’t named after songs, haha! (I’m actually just really bad at naming fics…)

Good To You and Besides You are both songs by the band Marianas Trench, and are heavily inspired by the songs. Rescue Me is by OneRepublic, one of those more vibes than lyrics inspired. I Think He Knows by Taylor Swift was definitely on repeat for that fic, as well as Don't Blame Me. (Poems), Prayers, and Promises was more a steal the name of the song by John Denver, for some reason I think Cold by Corbyn was on repeat when writing that one. Take On Me was named more for the similarities between the MV and the series! Never Be The Same was for the vibes of the song by Camila Cabello but not really the lyrics.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? Maybe it’s cheating but I’m not sure if I can really choose? I know it’s not a common writer sentiment but I really do like them all for different reasons.

Like I churned out Good To You and Besides You within ten days of each other in July, after not writing any fanfic basically for a year and a half.

And then I pulled Rescue Me out of the dead drafts pile and made myself work on more description.

I Think He Knows was my first foray into a brand new fandom.

Don’t Blame Me is one of my rare canon divergence fics.

Restore was another dead draft that I found to be mostly complete, and decide to release into the world even if I knew there was so much more I could have done with it.

Prayers and Promises was not only another new fandom, but for some reason, I decided to write for a side character. It’s still sitting on just 1 hit and that makes it all the better that I really wrote it for myself.

Superhero was out of my comfort zone of writing for a kid’s perspective and I was so happy with how it turned out.

Take On Me was a draft sitting at less than 1k words and I challenged myself to finish it before the new year, and got it done in two days.

And then, to finish it all off with the intense desire to have ten fics under the belt for 2023, I wrote Never Be The Same in less than two days for the last drama I had watched, and the speed that the last two fics were actually finished was a huge change for me.

Fanfiction risks you took this year? I wrote fanfic for not one, but two fandoms that I had to create the first tags for on AO3! Also, as I started to slip into just writing for kdramas this year, I’ve basically become my own proofreader and editor at this point. Any mistakes are my own, lol.

My favorite part of fandom this year: That would be getting two kudos and a comment on I Think He Knows, one of the fics that is the first in its fandom tag. To actually connect with more fans of such a tiny project was so cool!

Thanks for reading and here’s to next year!

[endiness]

s4 of tua thoughts/review

~

to start with the (semi) positives…

overall, i found the season… entertaining. i'm not quite sure if i liked it per se, but i did find it entertaining and i wasn't that mad about it or how it all ended, or at least the concept of the ending.

i'm so glad that the show focused on klaus and allison's relationship and their relationship with claire. klaus's relationship with ben is by far my absolute favorite relationship in the entire show, but if the show wasn't really going to focus on them in the last season, then i'm glad klaus and allison's relationship really got the focus because their relationship is probably my second favorite.

also, lowkey love the idea of them living together especially with allison still being an actress. it is giving "this happened in a fanfic" vibes. same thing with klaus getting buried alive. like, thanks for the fanfic content 👍 and also thanks for the continued misfits parallels 👍

i loved klaus getting to blow up at everyone. and i also loved allison refusing to be seen as the bad guyTM.

i don't think robbie was given the best material to work with this season, but when he did get good material to work with, he really brought it. like, his acting in the scene with claire when he relapses was great.

the show had me shipping five and lila, negl 🤷‍♀️ (also, i have to say: i cannot take people who say that lila cheated on diego seriously. like, no nope nah. if you are stuck in what more or less constitutes as a pocket dimension for over half a decade facing the very real possibility that you will never escape from it, like. it ain't cheating at that point. sry not sry. it just isn't.)

i think the show ultimately focused way too much on gene and jean for such a short season, but i do have to hand it to the actors for doing a good job.

i thought the fight scenes were pretty good and tbh i really enjoyed just how brutal everyone got to be. like, diego jumping and spinning and manipulating the bullets is a classic. i think the way viktor's power displayed itself this season was cool. same with allison. s/o to klaus for finally getting to levitate, too.

now onto the negatives…

i did not care about, or like, jennifer at all. so the show wasting so much time on her was extremely annoying to me given that the season was so short. also, as someone who almost always absolutely despises "destined for each other" relationships because they are usually incredibly poorly written as writers generally tend to rely on that aspect of it instead of, y'know, actually bothering to develop their relationship… yeah, ben and jennifer's relationship did not escape my disdain. and i think it was such a waste of ben's character for him to have spent so much of his screen time on this completely brand new character and not with his family, which the show didn't do the best job of developing anyway given that this isn't og ben but sparrow ben.

also, i don't even understand the whole thing with jennifer anyway? like, why did reginald not just kill her from the beginning? wouldn't this have solved a bunch of problems? and why was everyone so obsessed with killing ben? didn't reginald say you had to kill one of the two vessels, meaning either ben or jennifer? like, just kill jennifer. literally who the fuck cares about her. 🙄

that klaus's storyline this season was being a hypochondriac, relapsing, sex trafficked, buried alive, and then erased from existence. nobody likes that. especially as most of those things weren't really treated that seriously by the narrative. like, klaus went through a massive amount of trauma in a very short amount of time (like he always does), he never got to deal with it (and while the show hasn't always been the best about addressing klaus's trauma, like! it definitely did a lot better in previous seasons!), and then he was just erased from existence. like wtf. also that klaus was 0% involved with the whole "reginald killed his ben" storyline. again, wtf. 🙃

i still cannot stand viktor 💅

i don't mind the concept of the "erase yourself from existence to save the world" ending, but i feel like overall the show did not do the best job in executing it. like, for one thing, if you're gonna go for that ending, i think it is an absolute must that things need to be character driven as opposed to plot driven. and this season was extremely plot driven. on top of that, i think the show introduced the whole idea way too late. like, things need to be building to that solution and not introduced at the last minute, basically. like, it should've been building to that solution since day one and not, like, what. 10-15 minutes before the end?

also, i feel like the whole thing was so unsatisfying for the characters? like, if you're going for that type of ending… it really only works if it feels like… things were resolved with the characters. and i don't really feel like that. like, i can kind of see it for allison because so much of allison's story was just trying to get claire back and with it ending with the way it did, claire was still alive which was ultimately allison's biggest goal. so i think for allison's story it can be satisfying. maybe not the best ending, but all things considered and taking every other character into account, i think that ending for her works better than everyone else. and i guess sort of the same thing with lila because a lot of her story was initially tied up with her family, too, and she ended up saving them. and kind of five in the sense that, idk, i guess he solved the problem that is the apocalypse, lol. (even though he was also trying to save his family and he didn't get to do that...)

but yeah, for everyone else? like, diego got erased knowing that his wife wanted a break and then cheated on him (i still think it's ridiculous to view it that way, like, as an audience member, but i think it's more understandable from diego's position, obviously, even if i was in the same position i'd be like fair enough tbh.) luther got erased kind of doing nothing all season? like, his story last season was very focused on sloan and that's where his story ended off and then the show just went with completely erasing her and that's that. 🙃 i already talked about klaus, but yeah. that he ends up getting erased after going through highly traumatic things that are never addressed. and, like, ben didn't even get to go out with his family?

just, overall, i don't think it was particularly satisfying for any of the characters because not a lot of the season was that character driven. (plus i think there's also stuff that just does not make sense with the ending. like, claire and lila's kids should not actually exist. allison was erased from the timeline as was lila and diego. their kids should just not exist. i don't care that they were in some kind of time travel subway. they should not exist. also, like, the actual problem was reginald releasing the merigold, so like. i think the focus should've been on stopping him from doing that in the past as opposed to like. we are kind of retroactively erasing ourselves from existence by letting this monster eat the merigold that made us in the first place.)

[haloburns]

ectoblastfromthepast fanfic review 2022

oh man this was a big writing year. i published more than double what the last eight years on ao3, and i've written probably about an extra 100k that i haven't/cant be published yet. dove into two big phandom events this year (phic phight and invisobang) and wrote almost 90k for each. got burnt out from those and struggled to finish the year strong, but was able to post some stuff in december anyway!

Fic Count: 42 new, 1 carried over Overall Word Count: 369,436 Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Wynonna Earp and Charmed (crossovers with DP), Percy Jackson, and Bones

1. totally worth it

Fandom: Percy Jackson Pairing: Percy/Annabeth (Percabeth) Rating: G Total Word Count: 171 words Completion Date: 03-09-2022 Notes: I wrote this when i was working on fluff practice for ghost light, and a friend of mine asked for this. first and only PJO fic so far, but it's cute and dumb and i like it a lot. this is the shortest thing i wrote this year!

2. it never hurt like this before (and now it's too late to lie)

Fandom: Bones (2005) Pairing: Temperance Brennan & Angela Montenegro Rating: G Total Word Count: 862 words Completion Date: 03-07-2022 Notes: Also a first and only for this fandom. Rewatched the show, and there's an episode where Bones, the MC, sees too much of herself in their case and it kinda fucks her up. She tells her partner, Booth, she loves him. But he's already in a relationship, so he gently turns her down. the episode ends with her leaving and crying, and i wanted her to have some catharsis. the idea stuck with me and i wrote it pretty much in one sitting.

Danny Phantom Works (under the cut because... well... y'all know lmao)

3. when you sneeze so hard you accidentally half-die in front of your boyfriend for the first time

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar (OC) Rating: G Total Word Count: 297 words Completion Date: 05-02-2022 Notes: I was in the midst of allergy season and i was very angry abt it so i took it out on my blorbos lmao my original end fic note: "but no literally im posting this waiting on my inhaler for my allergies by my entire state is trying to kill me. fuck kentucky, fuck maple trees in particular, and fuck myalgic encephalomyelitis 😭 there's so much pollen on my car 😭😭😭"

4. something's not quite right...

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 501 words Completion Date: 10-04-2022 Notes: This is an Ectober prompt fill, and it fills in a chronological gap leading up to my invisobang. I had a lot of fun writing CW's pov and in present tense, something i don't do often.

5. second death by allergy attack

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 1,024 words Completion Date: 10-22-2022 Notes: I promise i wasn't still having allergy issues by this point lmao this is an ancient wip i had that i started back in my early fandom days but never finished. the idea is gone, my notes are incomprehensible, so i cleaned it up and posted what i had! it's a non-au work, one of very few i posted this year

6. sin fransisco (dp x charmed)

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: Teen Total Word Count: 1,107 words Completion Date: Started 06-17-2022, WIP Notes: This fic I started bc I'd been toying with a Charmed/AU crossover for a while (still angling for a buffy one...) and the Charmed episode of the same title proved the perfect opportunity. had to figure shit out and it's been stalled in limbo as more important/deadline sensitive fics came to the forefront. I have another 2k written, but it's not ready for publishing

7. teach me how to fight

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: Teen Total Word Count: 1,206 words Completion Date: 10-05-2022 Notes: Another Ectober prompt fill, this one is a really cute fighting practice between Danny and Teo after the events of Invisobang. Surprisingly stayed very SFW, even though this could easily stray into NSFW territory lmao

8. love at first fight

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom (Pitch Pearl) Rating: G Total Word Count: 1,244 words Completion Date: 09-21-2022 Notes: This is a pitch pearl coffee shop enemies to lovers au that i started with Trance and Emeralds it has been SO MUCH FUN. i love this fic. this is the meet cute in the Perky Beans Cafe AU

9. the last night of sadness (it was clear he couldn't go on)

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 1,441 words Completion Date: 10-06-2022 Notes: JOAN MY BELOVED i wrote this fic for Ectober, it's an outsider POV for my invisobang with an OC i created. she's a medium that isn't aware of that, and she and danny become friends later on. it's very good and emotional, and the writing style was a lot more fun to mess around with in something that wasn't majorly important to the AU but still fun to write

10. one... two... wait, how many are there?

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: G Total Word Count: 1,608 words Completion Date: 04-30-2022 Notes: PHIC PHIGHT BABEY. i woke up on the last day of phight with this idea in my head. it's little, and it's mostly just filler in around the series, but i love it so much. dan is babey

11. walk the white line at midnight (dp x wynonna earp)

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom (Pitch Pearl) Rating: G Total Word Count: 1,667 words Completion Date: 09-10-2022 Notes: another pitch pearl fic based on my favorite other show wynonna earp. danny is wynonna, and phantom is doc holliday. i want to do more with this au but it takes time to translate it and mix the two

12. you’re the best thing to happen to me

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: G Total Word Count: 1,780 words Completion Date: 11-22-2022 Notes: i wrote this as a tumblr prompt i think a year before i published this as fluff practice. then i realized i could actually make it fit properly in the au and brushed it off and dusted it up so it was suitable for the AU. it's very cute

13. hold onto me

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: G Total Word Count: 1,793 words Completion Date: 10-02-2022 Notes: this is a shiptember prompt and it was basically an excuse to write danny taking care of mateo. i write a lot of mateo taking care of danny, and i decided it was time to turn the tables.

14. with every sin, i still wanna be holy

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 1,926 words Completion Date: 12-16-2022 Notes: This one is a set of notes, no actual prose, that Dan sends to the people he wants to make amends to. It also has pictures on the notes that I've drawn in addition to the writing

15. by all means i'm gettin' mad (that don't mean i don't feel sorry for you)

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 2,288 words Completion Date: 10-10-2022 Notes: Another Dan fic, where Danny goes to talk to him about his sentence post-invisobang, and the tenuous relationship they start to build. I loved writing this one, I love Dan 💖

16. feed the boy (like and subscribe!)

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 2,663 words Completion Date: 04-21-2022 Notes: Phic Phight! Danny has to eat fear, and they find a fun way to do it. Involves pranking Wes and teenage shenanigans, which are always the best

17. my resistance was once much stronger (i can't go on like this much longer)

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: G Total Word Count: 2,694 words Completion Date: Started 10-23-2022, WIP Notes: this is one of the last pieces for the "this is the road to ruin" arc, the last big one. i'm very very excited to finish this

18. heaven's grief brings hell's reign

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo AguilarRating: T (eventually E) Total Word Count: 2,860 words Completion Date: Started 09-25-2022, WIP Notes: This fic has been fighting me forever, I wanted to finish it before the year was up but I did not. It's the smut. Soft smut is not my forte apparently

19. see the lightning in your eyes

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 2,964 words Completion Date: 04-27-2022 Notes: a phic phight prompt i LOVE. lost time my beloved 💖

20. you better promise me i'll be back in time

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 2,990 words Completion Date: Started 04-27-2022, WIP Notes: another phic phight, and this is one i'm so eager to continue. i've started chapter two, i just haven't finished it yet!

21. morning adrenaline rush

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: T Total Word Count: 3,397 words Completion Date: 09-05-2022 Notes: A continuation of "i'm not okay (i promise)" that didn't fit in the story but I wanted to tell so badly

22. i tried hard to make it inside your arms alive

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: T Total Word Count: 4,050 words Completion Date: 10-14-2022 Notes: ohhhhhh this one is so good. it's mateo's pov of what happens in "this is the road to ruin" at the end and... man. it's hard. it's very emo and i love it. good angst.

23. does anyone in this house knock?!

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 4,156 words Completion Date: 04-21-2022 Notes: a lovely Good Fenton Parents fic post-reveal from Phic Phight. i love this fic so much. the first one is soft and sad and sweet, and the second one is funny and sweet

24. new kinds of firsts

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: T Total Word Count: 4,387 words Completion Date: 09-27-2022 Notes: Writing Danny and Mateo's first date after everything theyve been through was so much fucking fun. They're so cute and stupid, i love them

25. decaf to fenton, we have a problem

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: G Total Word Count: 4,599 words Completion Date: 04-30-2022 Notes: I recently reread this fic from Phight and oh man. oh man it's good. and so funny.

26. sore loser

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: E Total Word Count: 5,024 words Completion Date: 09-30-2022 Notes: this is purely indulgent smut with zero plot whatsoever. i'm very proud of it. it's the first kinky thing i've posted which took a lot of courage. i worked on it for months before finally posting

27. four years, that's all you've got to endure

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 5,118 words Completion Date: 02-12-2022 Notes: Swore to the gods I wrote this in 2021... turns out i did not! i want to do more high school shenanigans with danny and the gang, but i gotta think up some first...

28. slip through my fingers

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom (Pitch Pearl) Rating: G Total Word Count: 6,356 words Completion Date: 11-20-2022 Notes: part three of the coffee shop au!! i love this one so much. the chase??? gods, i love that trope. i really need to finish the next part of this...

29. a christmas surprise

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: T Total Word Count: 6,447 words Completion Date: Started 12-26-2022, WIPNotes: I am literally the worst at finishing holiday fics on time. a hallmark ghost light au i have YET to complete.

30. in the shadow of your heart

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: T Total Word Count: 6,609 words Completion Date: Started 06-18-2022, WIP Notes: This is a self-indulgent Atlantis au i have also yet to finish. me?? starting fics i never finish??? neverrrr

31. when the nightmare fades

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: T 2022 Word Count: 6,105 words Total Word Count: 7,014 words Completion Date: 05-26-2022 Notes: I started this way back in like. november of '21, when i started the series. but it took me six more months for canon to catch up so i could finish it. and the last three chapters changed so drastically from beginning to end... man. it feels like it took forever, but i really only took six months??? wild

32. longer than the song of the whippoorwill

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: E Total Word Count: 7,244 words Completion Date: 07-27-2022 Notes: this is the first smut of the series!! my favorite bookmark comment on the series actually relates to this one. its something like "the tags say there is pornfic. i do not see it. maybe ao3 is bugging. EDIT 7/27: FOUND IT!" it cracks me up every time. do they enjoy the pornfic or are they enraged??? i will never know also it's got actual plot in it so i was more comfortable posting it first than say... sore loser that has 0 plot and is literally just smutty

33. nine and a half lives

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: G Total Word Count: 8,804 words Completion Date: 04-18-2022 Notes: THIS IS MY FAVORITE PHIC PHIGHT PROMPT EVER. KITTEN!DANNY. WHOEVER CAME UP WITH THAT (wait i thInk it was catmiint. my beloved.) IS THE BEST. IT ALSO HAS DOOFENSCHMIRTZ IN IT BECAUSE I COULDNT HELP MYSELF (yes u read that correctly. THAT doofenschmirtz)

34. against doctor's orders

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: T Total Word Count: 9,976 words Completion Date: 07-14-2022 Notes: I also really love this one. kinda plot-adjacent but mostly Relationship Stuff, talking and smooching. it's great. i get to flesh out my other OCs too which is fun

35. i fought you for so long (i should have let you in)

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Valerie Gray Rating: G Total Word Count: 11,740 words Completion Date: 04-07-2022 Notes: What's this?! a gray ghost fic?! yeah, its a phic phight prompt and i love it. its got some great textures, and it was a lot of fun to write in val's pov for a little bit

36. such a big, big world (and only the tools to deal with a tiny portion of it)

Pairing: None (hints at Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: G Total Word Count: 11,809 words Completion Date: 04-30-2022 Notes: big thanks to bib again for this title, it's literally one of my favorites. this whole thing is great, it's mostly the OCs talking about danny and his weirdness in the early school months. did i use phic phight to flesh out my au a little more?? yes, yes i did (and i'm sure annoyed people endlessly. oh well.)

37. hey, dad, look at me, did i grow up according to plan?

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 11,847 words Completion Date: 04-18-2022 Notes: good (learning) parents fenton!! this follows immediately after my version of phantom planet where danny only reveals himself to his parents, and this is their reactions. the kitchen chapter is my favorite.

38. wait til the day you finally see (i've been here waiting patiently)

Pairing: Danny Fenton/OC Tony, Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: T Total Word Count: 11,958 words Completion Date: 10-23-2022 Notes: *vibrates out of my chair* this one is a whim fic (yes almost all 12k) bc of a weird throwaway line in an earlier fic and i couldnt help but make mateo a little jealous of tony. and then proceed to write 12, angsty, angsty k about it. that last chapter is so fucking good, yall can thank dream_trance for that one. its one of his ideas given extra spicy life

39. and they were history project partners

Pairing: None Rating: G Total Word Count: 17,278 words Completion Date: 04-30-2022 Notes: (i finished so many phics 4-30...) Dunno what it was about phic phight but I think i wrote two wes-related fics??? i either wrote Srs fics or Meme Fics, it seems. (wes is always a meme) but this one is one of my best. i also have a UFS version planned for. eventually. maybe.

40. quit telling everyone i'm (permanently) dead!

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: M Total Word Count: 23,607 words Completion Date: Started , WIP Notes: I AM SO MAD I DIDN'T FINISH THIS ONE BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR. listen. i worked my ass off. but then the boys decided on drama, and then i went back to work.... i'm almost done though. only an extra 6k hanging around........ :sob:

41. it's just another day without you (and i can't sleep)

Pairing: eventual Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: T Total Word Count: 37,175 words Completion Date: 01-29-2022 Notes: i'm SUPER proud of this one, especially because i fucked around with narrative stuff, but i think its too subtle to be noticeable... still love it tho.

42. i'm not okay (i promise)

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: T Total Word Count: 38,838 words Completion Date: 05-08-2022 Notes: another proud baby. the culmination (kind of) of months of planning and many, many rewrites. i think i was working on this one in tandem with phic phight, actually...

43. this is the road to ruin (and we started at the end)

Pairing: Danny Fenton/Mateo Aguilar Rating: M Total Word Count: 88,917 words Completion Date: Notes: …my four biggest works can literally be summed up "i cause danny and mateo excessive amounts of angst and pain for fun." MY INVISOBANG. MY BELOVED. LOOK AT IT. I SPENT ALMOST NINE MONTHS ON THIS FUCKER. IT IS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER WRITTEN. I CAN SCREAM ABOUT THIS FOREVER. LOOK AT THAT WORD COUNT. literally one of the first fics i thought of for the au, and i posted it over a year later. (got the idea in sept. '21, i finished publishing like... two days shy of an exact year.)

Man... this last year was a WILD writing year. and this is just what i published. y'all should see my wips.

[4th-make-quail]

another book down for my bingo card! currently looking like this - although i'm a lot of stories into Jewel Box (I need to finish a full short story collection for hard mode to count), but I needed a break because every time I finished one, my brain was like "ok cool!!! book finished!!! fanfic time??" lol (also the stories are very weird too).

i've been reviewing these on my dreamwidth, but for the sake of the interest i'll drop them here too! has anyone read any of the books on my list? what did you think of them?

I'm aiming for both hard mode and hero mode this year, and it's been fun so far! picking books to meet hard mode specifications was really really fun as well heh.

Book bingo is a yearly reading challenge hosted on r/Fantasy.

HARD MODE: For an added challenge, you can choose to do 'Hard Mode' which is the square with something added just to make it a little more difficult. You can do one, some, none, or all squares on 'Hard Mode' -- whatever you want, it's up to you! There are no additional prizes for completing Hard Modes, it's purely a self-driven challenge for those who want to do it.

HERO MODE: Review EVERY book that you read for bingo. You don't have to review it on r/Fantasy. It can be on Goodreads, Amazon, your personal blog, some other review site, wherever! Leave a review, not just ratings, even if it's just a few lines of thoughts, that counts. As with Hard Mode there is no special prize for hero mode, just the satisfaction of a job well done.

1. The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri - Prologue and Epilogue Hard mode: must have both (DONE) This is a sequel to The Jasmine Throne, and it didn't disappoint. I absolutely loved it, there was a lot of intrigue and I still loved the central relationship, but the ending was such an awful cliffhanger I desperately need book 3, oh my god!! I thought the upping of the stakes was really well done, and as usual I loved Suri's lush writing style. 5/5

2. The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling - Under the Surface Hard Mode: At least half the book takes place underground or underwater (DONE) This was very very slow going. It's been languishing on my kindle forever so I figured I'd try it out, and while the premise was really good - a caver takes on a dangerous job and the book is told from her pov with only her handler for company - I thought it was a bit clumsily written with lots of repetition, I wasn't really sold on the relationship and I found both characters quite annoying tbh lol. Solid okay. 2/5 3. Godkiller by Hannah Kaner - Book club or readalong book Hard Mode: Must read a current selection of either a book club or readalong and participate in the discussion. (DONE) I really enjoyed this one! It was light and easy to read, and it set up a lot of intrigue in the plot so far. I enjoyed the premise of godkillers being basically mercs who, well, kill gods, and I really ended up shipping the main two characters haha, which always helps. It also had really excellent portrayal of disability, with the main character being an amputee living with chronic pain, and she has a Deaf sister. The people in the discussion threads on r/fantasy seemed to think it was too basic and boring, but idk I really enjoyed it. I'll be picking up the next book for sure! 5/5

4. The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett - Eldritch creatures Hard Mode: The book is not related to the Cthulhu mythos. (DONE) I already knew I loved Jackson Bennett's writing because I devoured the Divine Cities trilogy years ago, and the Tainted Cup did not disappoint! I picked it up on a rec from someone on the booknook comm on dw, and I'm really glad I did - it was absolutely fantastic! His worldbuilding is second to none for imagination and interest imo, and I really loved the characters a lot. It was fast-paced and hilarious, and the mystery elements weren't overwrought or drawn out too much. Also I REALLY shipped Din and his officer who's name I have forgotten so I was very pleased by that storyline heh. Really really good, I cannot wait for the second book!! 5/5

5. The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes - Criminals Hard Mode: Features a heist. (DONE) Unfortunately coming off the high of Tainted Cup, this book was absolutely dreadful. The characters felt very one-note, the writing was trying WAY too hard to be funny, and the worldbuilding was shallow and nowhere near detailed enough to be interesting. It also just felt very idk. Almost clumsily written? It switched very quickly between POV characters but their voices weren't developed enough for it to be noticeable, and he has a real over-reliance on epithets like "the death priestess" to refer to his characters. Also one of the romances was like.. all of a sudden we're told this one character has a thing for another, but he's not shown us this at all so it just comes out of left field lmao. AND ALSO like, it felt uncomfortably racist at very many points. Idk, it was just not a good book. Very evident after reading an actually good book just before it which hit a lot of the notes this one was trying for but fell very flat with. 1/5

[calenlily]

2021 fic year in review

Total # of Completed Works: 30

Total Word Count: 67374 published on AO3 (plus probably quite a bit more on WIPs, but I don’t have a system for tracking those)

Fandoms I’ve Written In: BtVS/AtS, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992 movie), Fairytales & Related Fandoms, Original Work, Stardew Valley

Looking Back, Did You Write More Fic Than You Thought You Would This Year, Less, Or About What You’d Expected?: More. 2020 was an extremely productive writing year for me, and then I ended up in near-complete writer’s block from sometime in mid-November all the way into April 2021. So when I looked back at the end of the year and realized that I’d somehow managed to surpass my 2020 published word count (even if only by a slim margin), I was very surprised and impressed with myself.

What’s Your Own Favorite Story Of The Year?: Gotta be Buffy And Angel Versus Dracula. It’s the first time I’ve done a full episode rewrite like that, and one of the longest and plottiest things I’ve written in a long time (which is admittedly a low bar, but long and plotty are very much not my strengths), and I’m so glad I stretched my writing muscles to do so. Reworking the canon scenes to reflect changes in cast and storyline and provide sufficient context without wholly rehashing canon was a fun puzzle. I got to practice my ensemble writing skills and my action scene skills, and I’m really happy with how it turned out in terms of the balance of action and humor and romance and of plot versus character/relationship focus. And the bite and hurt/comfort scene in Act II (which I consider the emotional core of the fic and originally was going to be the entire story before it started expanding in scope on me) is probably in my top five for my favorite scenes of intimacy I’ve ever written.

Did You Take Any Writing Risks This Year?: I’m not quite sure whether to define them as risks, but I definitely did quite a few things this year that were venturing in new territory for me as a writer. I wrote my first threesome fic (and then within a month and a half wrote three more). I wrote my first explicit BDSM fic, my first explicit noncon fic, and my first major character death fic. I wrote two new-to-me fandoms (Buffy movieverse, and Stardew Valley), and three new POV characters in my Buffyverse fics (Willow, Joyce, and Dawn).

Do You Have Any Fanfic Or Profic Goals For The New Year?: Publish at least one fic per month (on track for January and February so far; this has been my ongoing goal for a few years and I keep coming close but not quite making it). Get more of my non-exchange projects finished and published. Write a broader range of fandoms and pairings, since my 2021 output was vast majority Bangel and even less that wasn’t Buffyverse.

Most Popular Story Of The Year?: By kudos, my most popular was Give Yourself Over. Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow got the most comments.

Story Of Mine Most Under-Appreciated By The Universe, In My Opinion: The Stanford Slaying Society. I mean, it’s Connor&/Dawn pre-ship gen, I knew it wasn’t going to have a huge audience. But I’m still sad it hasn’t gotten more love because I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Most Fun Story To Write: Probably Clearing the Air, which was the fic that finally broke through my writer’s block last spring, and incredibly self-indulgent for a fic that doesn’t include any smut. It’s one part indulging my love of cathartic conversations, and then the whole bit with Buffy being in denial about her attraction to Faith and Angel accidentally calling her out on it just amused me too much not to write.

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Probably (There’s a Reason Not to Want This) But I Forgot, which is far too rooted in my college relationship drama; both main characters are basically me, except when they’re my best friend and my ex.

Biggest Disappointment: I’d have to give that title to Noble Idiocy. I can’t say it did badly, but it’s lagged in engagement compared to the other E-rated multi-chapter fics in the same series just enough that I can’t help noticing, and it’s especially frustrating to me because it’s one that took a lot of effort to write.

Biggest Surprise: I’ve been blown away by the performance of where’s the girl with the blaze in her eyes? It’s probably the darkest thing I’ve ever written, and between the Major Character Death warning, the weird Buffy/Willow flirting, and being Buffy/Angelus without any smut, I’d expected it to have a fairly small audience. Instead it’s the most bookmarked thing I’ve written this year, has gathered some amazing comments, crested 50 kudos within a few months and still has new kudos coming in fairly regularly, and has a great hits-to-kudos ratio into the hundreds of hits. (It’s also one of my favorite things I’ve written recently, despite having struggled a lot to get the idea into words on a page in the first place, so I’m all the more thrilled that it’s doing so well. There may be sequels in the works.)

Thank you for tagging me @mrs-steve-harrington

Tagging: Whoever wants to do it, since this is belated as hell

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Got any good novel recommendations for Kirk and Spock? (I have amassed a sizable collection of EU material, but not really settled down and read it)

Ohohoho I was WAITING for this one (literally. I have had this sitting in drafts for so long and I have thought about it, like, every day so I am very happy to finally get to answer!)

As you may or may not know, I am obsessed with doing reviews (shocker, right?) and keep detailed accounts of each Star Trek book I read/buy. At this point, I've got a decent number of books (just over 15) and let me tell you HONEY I have thoughts

You're looking specifically for Spock and Jim, so I'll give you the best books I've read for them, and then also some ones to avoid haha. There are snippets from my yet-to-be-posted reviews under each of them to give a little more insight! I haven't included any plot comments but I'll eventually post my complete reviews if you're curious :)

The Good Stuff

Strangers from the Sky

Absolutely remarkable. A lovely read. Everyone was completely in character the entire time, with COPIOUS amounts of triumvirate content and very good character analysis. Spock and Jim are main, but Bones is also substantial and doesn't leave you feeling like he's been forgotten about. Reallllly good Spirk moments but not in a raunchy way, it's just like Wow They Are Really T'hy'la's, Huh? Also some quality Old Married Spirk content as well!

New Voyages 1

The first of two fanfic-turned-EU-canon complications, and it is chock full of absolute gold in both quality writing and Spirk content. (The original cast members wrote intros/endorsements for the stories, so it's officially approved!) Some stories are not quite as good as the others, but the ones that are good are legendary. Ni Var is my favorite piece of Star Trek writing to date. It's an absolutely beautiful Spock-and-Jim-centric story (yet without leaving Bones behind! He is involved and excellent) that feels both completely believable and utterly heart-wrenching. I will never forget the ending. The Winged Dreamers is another really solid story, with another oft-screenshotted Spirk scene (well-deserved!) and further Spirk throughout, and a good deal of triumvirate content. A natural and poignant read. The Mind-Sifter can be a bit jarring at first, but the payoff (both in general development and with Jim and Spock) as the story progresses, and especially at the end, sets it all to rights. (Really, that ending scene!!!) And finally, The Face on the Barroom Floor is less Spirk (it has one moment but is definitely not a focus), but it's still a pretty decent story.

New Voyages 2

I haven't gotten through this one entirely yet, but the stories I've read are of a similar caliber to those from the first volume, and I would absolutely recommend it as well! It has the excellent Spirk poem Soliloquy along with a charming story from Nichelle Nichols herself that has many notable Spirk moments. I'm sure there are some more gold nuggets in the other stories, too!

Doctor's Orders

The dynamics are largely focused on Bones and Jim or Spock interacting, since Bones is the main character, but there are a few moments where everyone is together, and two VERY notable Spock and Jim moments (even though one of them is actually in a Spock and Bones interaction!! It really showed how deeply Bones understands the both of them, and the bond between them). I loved how the book handled all of their relationships, as each of the characters is undeniably close with both of the others.

Crisis on Centaurus

This one is more subtle from a Jim and Spock perspective, but still has many good moments worked in throughout the story. There's a particularly nice moment at the end that really made me smile. On the whole, the characters are authentic, and everyone gets development and insight; not too much focus is given to one character, and they felt pretty believable. A solid read!

The Not-So-Good Stuff

The Price of the Phoenix

If you're looking for Spirk, you will find it here. This one is so blatantly Spirk that you don't ever have to look for it. In many places, this is handled pretty darn well, but overall, the book felt like slash fanfic after the (excellent) opening section--and nothing against fanfic, but that's not what I was looking for. It distinctly stopped feeling canonical, because of how unbelievable some of the character decisions and situations were. (I then found out that it was in fact originally a slash fiction piece that was revised and then published officially. Its original title was "Never Mourn for Black Omne.") Many scenes made me deeply uncomfortable, and the book largely was just difficult to get through. Overall, I might reread it for the feels at points, but I'm not gonna heavily recommend it if you're looking for a quality Star Trek novel.

Black Fire

This one's a doozy, folks. The characterizations of literally every character are off-base (to say nothing of the utterly wack premise). The first half of the book has the worst-written Spock I have ever read, and the other characters are similarly mishandled (although not quite so extremely). The characterizations do get stronger as the book goes on, but it's not enough to balance out the mistakes of the first half. The Spirk content woven throughout, and more noticably present at the end, does its best, but is ultimately overshadowed by the largely unsatisfying story. (It's also quite easy to read Spock as aroace, and a few scenes specifically bolster that reading, but even that isn't enough for me to like it.) You might give it a try if you want to laugh at how ridiculous it is, but honestly, I found it more frustrating than anything, and I wouldn't recommend it.

I think this oughta give you a decent-enough place to start! Let me know what you think of them (and if there are any stories you think I should read--I am always eager for recommendations, and especially things to review!). And I will eventually publish my full collection of reviews...at some point!

[vtforpedro]

2021 Fic Year in Review thanks for tagging me @thotinshield !!!! Total # of Completed Works: oh geez this varies between two accounts so uhhh vtforpedro - 14 - 158615 words balladofathinman - 5 - 200030 words (this acct has a 91k wip also mostly written in 2021 and I'm counting it b/c that's a lot of words shhh) Total Word Count: 450,186 words believe it or not, this is actually about half of what I wrote last year lmao Fandoms I’ve Written In: The Hobbit, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, MCU, Fargo Looking Back, Did You Write More Fic Than You Thought You Would This Year, Less, or About What You’d Expected?: I was hoping to write less because my health improved, but only one of those happened lol but I got a lot of art done, too, so I'm happy with the medium I achieved! What’s Your Own Favorite Story of the Year?: hmm... new morning for bagginshield. probably one of us most know (sooner or later) for gradence Do You Have Any Fanfic or Profic Goals for the New Year?: to remember that I finish long, chaptered fics before posting them for a REASON lmao otherwise probably just to finish wips, make sure I get some quality bagginshield in :D Story of Mine Most Under-Appreciated by the Universe, In My Opinion: hmmmmm.... a couple of them this year that have made me genuinely sad tbh Most Fun Story to Write: I had an absolute blast writing green, green grass of home Most Unintentionally Telling Story: if Credence Barebone and his anxiety exist in the fic, WHOOPS. the most relatable character I've ever written. his anxiety is very different from bilbo's, who I don't relate to nearly as much (in anxiety. he is highly relatable in other ways). really interesting to think about that actually haha Biggest Surprise: that I wrote not one, not two, but THREE stucky fics and one has over 500 kudos!!!! still shocks me tagging: whoever has NOT been tagged yet, which means if you're thinking 'well I haven't been tagged' then guess what! you're tagged c: and tag me back so I can read yours! much love to you all!

[or-ng-c-ss-dy]

2021 FIC YEAR IN REVIEW

thanks @sublightsleeper!

number of completed works -- 36 (35 if you don’t count ‘(my day will come) if it takes a lifetime’ which i started in 2020 and finished in 2021)

total word count --  245980 on ao3. should’ve written one last fic lol, would’ve hit 250k.

fandoms written in -- just wrestling. if we want to get pedantic, aew, chikara, and pwg.

did you write more, less, or about what you’d expected? -- i’d say more. i’ve done 100k years in other fandoms before. i’ve gotten better since those days but still, 250k is. a lot lol. 

what’s your own favorite story of the year? -- i’m notoriously bad at picking favorites. i really like a lot of the visuals in ‘at home, surrounded by vultures’. i’m not counting ‘(my day will come) if it takes a lifetime’ in this since half of it was written in 2020...although more of it was posted in 2021, so maybe i should count it? if we count it, it’s definitely my favorite haha. if not, it’s probably vultures. 

do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year? -- i’ve posted about them a little. i wanna do another longfic and also the big swampy fic.

most popular story of the year? -- ‘wound and unwound’, a very serious fic about chuck taylor being a quickshot lmao. it was very well received and i’m very proud of it, so i’m happy that everyone liked it.

story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion -- ehh....it’s sorta hard to tell, obviously stuff posted more recently isn’t going to have as many hits as something that’s been up for awhile. if a fic is “under-appreciated”, it’s also because it might be too niche or weird. and i love niche and weird, but i’m not gonna get sore over people being like “that’s weird” when i write a fic about daily’s place being a real, sentient being that really wants chuck and orange to bang it out lmao.

most fun story to write -- i loved doing any of the mini-bang fics, it’s really fun to host those events and to write out the prompts. particularly ‘another answer i don’t understand’ for the halloween bang and ‘the endless heat’ for the summer bang. beyond those, i loved writing “the biting cold” with @kentucky-gentleman, i definitely want to do more collab fics with my friends this year. 

biggest disappointment -- i didn’t finish ‘the long wait’ like i wanted to. idk what’s even going on there anyway, i love the concept and it’s not like i had no creative drive lol, it really just fell between the cracks. i will pick it up and finish it eventually!

biggest surprise -- i think the biggest surprise didn’t necessarily come from my writing itself, rather the reception to it and to the chuck/oc fandom as a whole. it’s gotten bigger than i ever thought it would, which is incredibly fun and a little scary, but it mostly just makes me happy. i love writing these two and i love that others love them just as much, it really is great!

i think everyone that i’d tag has been tagged already. thanks again, kerri!

[procrastinatorproject]

Fic writer review, thank you to @thelaithlyworm  for the tag <3

how many works do you have on AO3?

Ten? Oh no, it’s actualy 12 now!

what’s your total AO3 word count?

86,468

how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Grand total of 1: Star Trek: Picard - although my latest offering might branch a bit into other Trek as well.

what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

“Passengers”

“And a Barrel of Gagh”

“CMO’s Log”

“Preparations”

“Game Night”

Which is actually kinda interesting. I wrote Passengers, Preparations, and Game Night while the fandom was still a lot more active (especially in the Aramis in Space corner), so that makes sense. The CMO’s log has had chapters added every few months, giving it probably the most exposure of any of my fics. Barrel of Gagh, though? I think I’m gonna attribute that to Thimblerig turning it into a truly, TRULY brilliant piece of podfic. Also the fact that it’s whump involving a character played by Santiago Cabrera. ‘tis A Thing..... :D

do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I really try to! I love talking with people in the comments and just... thanking the people who found the time and energy to leave comments. But especially in the last few months I have gotten very bad at keeping up with the comments and now there’s about two dozen that I have neglected to reply to for a painfully long time 🙈

But I will get there! Because I love that kind of interaction!

what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

So far, none of them have had angsty endings. Angsty middles, yes, but not endings. I’m just a sucker for everyone being happy in the end. Or at least on the way to being better, and supported and cared for on that way.

do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I haven’t yet, but I’m definitely not opposed. One of the threads of my 200k unpublishable whump scenes takes place in a continuity that has existed in my daydreams for... I wanna say six years at the very least, probably longer. It’s mostly straight-up Star Trek, but with the twist that it involves the Wraith, the telepathic, hive-minded alien race from Stargate: Atlantis that suck the life force out of you with their hands? Or, well, at least a variation thereof.

I once typed up the world building for that particular setting and it took me three hours to try and make it all make sense. So it’s... involved. But not necessarily “crazy”. And I’m not sure I’m ever actually going to publish any of the stories I have set in it (not least because that would envolve finishing any of them and bringing them into a form that is interesting to read for anyone but me...)

have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope.

do you write smut? if so what kind?

Hm, not yet. I do enjoy reading smut, but only under very specific circumstances. I think I may eventually try my hand at smut, but the inner prude is still very strong. Writing about Rios and Xyr making out (which, honestly, was really tame, all things considered) made me melt in a puddle of blushing embarrassment, so full-on smut is probably beyond me at the moment. One day!

have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. Though litigating that in a fandom like ours would be... tricky. ST:Pic is way too small to steal stories outright. But similar or the same ideas pop up all the time. And it’s a complete coincidence. Reading the book that recently came out and that has a kinda similar setting to a lot of my stories (pre-season 1, early in Rios’s history as captain of Sirena, dealing with original characters, holo shenanigans, friendship with Raffi, etc.), I was struck by just how many elements, both scenes or story beats and little details, were similar to things that have cropped up in my writing. And it is entirely coincidental, because I am beyond certain that the author doesn’t read fanfic. Just... for legal reasons. Not to mention I wrote a bunch of the things I saw parallels to while the book was already in production, and some of them are only in my drafts.

So there is a ton of convergent evolution going on in this particular section of the fandom, and trying to litigate who came up with certain plot ideas or character beats when would be a sysiphean disaster. Some things are clear and whenever I use any of them I give credit where I can, but people will have very similar ideas. It just happens. So no, I haven’t had either a full-on story or “an idea” stolen, and I might change my tune if it ever does happen, but so far, I’m trying to practice equanimity, so I’ll be better at it should I ever need it.

have you ever had a fic translated?

Sadly no. My dad keeps complaining that all my fic is in English so he can’t read any of it, but honestly? I’m kinda glad for this very convenient excuse. Maybe if I ever feel like I want to practice my interpreting skills, I will give translating the stories into German a shot. We’ll see. Otherwise, if anyone feels inspired: Have at it! Just let me know, okay?

have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not quite. I have a draft of off-the-cuff worldbuilding that I wrote on Discord with @curator-on-ao3 and that I would love to turn into an actual short fic (letters from a conference on holo-ethics), but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

what’s your all time favorite ship?

I don’t really do shipping.

what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I WILL NEVER ACCEPT DEFEAT!!!! One day, I will write the next installment of Star Trek: La Sirena! I have so many ideas for that continuity and those characters. I’m not going to abandon them!

what are your writing strengths?

Hmmmmm. Probably detailed worldbuilding? Ask me something about, say, a technological or cultural aspect of Star Trek and chances are, I have thought about it in the past or will come up with three different sets of intricate lore within half an hour. (Things like... the architecture of San Francisco, or Will there still be taxi drivers? or the treaty between IKEA Intergalactic and the Borg Collective, or the Universal Translator, or Emergency Services or Why There Are Very Few Ambulances On Earth Anymore etceterah etceterah...)

I’m also good at slapping together off-the-cuff plot ideas (if, say, you need an explanation for how Seven and Agnes ended up stranded on a desert island, I could probably give you three different scenarios pretty quickly. Just don’t ask me to make them poignant or actually write them.

I’m also very, very good at beginnings.

what are your writing weaknesses?

Everything that isn’t a beginning. Especially endings, or rather: finishing something, but also just... keeping momentum.

I think my dialogue is somewhat samey and not distinct enough between characters. (Also my witty banter is... let’s just say it doesn’t come to me naturally...)

And I also struggle with keeping things brief and to the point. I can write you 30k of whump covering a span of three hours, but fitting a whole story in the same space? Much more difficult!

I have also avoided writing full-on action so far, but where it has crept in it has always been a struggle and been workshopped a lot with the indefatigable beta.

Otherwise, I don’t know. My self-perception is always a little warped, so I’m not sure what other people would say my weaknesses are.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Oof. Well. I have used Spanish sentences in my fic and done the thing where they’re translated in the end note, but I’ve mostly done it sparingly. I’ve also done the ‘“What do you want?” he said in Spanish.’ It’s tricky. But I will likely keep doing it in some instances, even if it’s a bit annoying.

(It also really helps to have a native speaker of Spanish as a beta, even if it’s Spanish from a different region than you’re character.)

Speaking of regional: I’m also torn about the whole “phonetically writing out accents” issue. Some people love it, some people hate it, I’m really unsure because I’m not a native speaker of English, so I’m not even sure I’m consistent in my narrative voice’s regional quirks. So far, I’ve mostly gone with describing that an accent is happening, and only writing out when phrasing actually differs from standard English. Like Ian (Scottish) saying “dinnae” but not writing “I” as “ah” as you’d see on, say, Scottish twitter.

Though it can be a very useful tool if, for instance, you want to indicate a characters accent getting stronger as they get tired or upset. 🧐

Anyway, I don’t think there is one right or wrong answer here and everyones milage will vary.

what was the first fandom you wrote for?

Published? ST:PIC

Actually first? Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Pretty much simultaneously, though I did write more for LotR. On graph paper, mind, with my fountain pen turned upside down so I could write smaller. I still have folders worth of those stories that I urgently need to digitize before they fade and I lose them forever...

what’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I’m going to quote @thelaithlyworm here: I Love All My Children Equally! I honestly couldn’t say. They are different and I love them for different reasons but I love them all.

Thank you for the tag! ❤ I’ve kinda lost track of who all has done this already or has already been tagged, so feel free to ignore me! But I tink I’m tagging @curator-on-ao3, @aini-nufire, @29-pieces, @flowers-creativity, @highfunctioningflailgirl, @cristobalrios and @the-goofball. And anyone else whom I forgot or who feels inspired to do this!