#my unpublished section of fic is now

[dirthenera]

Last Six Lines

Tagged by @crackinglamb , thank you!

Tagging @enigmalea , @buttsonthebeach , and whoever else would like to join in!

“You worry where your responsibility meets your power,” Solas said calmly. She nodded, trying to stop her leg from bouncing again. “All you can do, all any of us can do, is the best you can with the knowledge you have. It is folly to take on the guilt of gods. You cannot know the outcome to all things. You cannot know before what only the experience of having taken action will teach. You cannot afford to crumple under the weight of ‘what if.’”

From the next chapter of Secrets From Dreams!

[baejax-the-great]

Hello, new follower here 🌟 I was wondering if you have an idea of what the final chapter count for Broken Oaths will be? Whats your writing process like? Do you already have an outline of how you want the story to go? Love your work 💕

I've had the basic outline for the final chapter written since the start. This fic, when I started writing, was meant to be like two chapters. So the final chapter is... the original second chapter. 🤡 I have scenes written that will need to be changed now due to the 70k words I wrote between then and now, but the basic order of events remains unchanged.

I also just realized I read your question wrong and you asked about chapter count. Given that my original estimate was two chapters and we are now on chapter 16, uh, I truly cannot say with any certainty. But I'm guessing 20. Probably fewer than 34. We are definitely in the latter half of this fic.

Usually I have things planned out a little better than this. I write scenes as they come to me, often the dialogue first and then the rest of it, make descriptive chapter headings (the last one was 'Arguments and Horses', though one of the arguments is going to take place next chapter now. Par for the course with this fic 😔), and then figure out how to get from point A to B to C. I conceptualize these points both as events in the story AND where the characters need to be emotionally for the events to have the correct impact.

Sometimes the path I've outlined is too short for pacing reasons, so I have to go back to brainstorming. Sometimes I didn't get them emotionally where I thought they would be when I outlined, and the characters make different choices (honestly was planning on having them bone in chapter 15 but Achilles was absolutely not feeling it). That's when things can start to get a bit chaotic.

Oaths has been chaotic from the start. Let's hope I stick the landing (and that I do it in fewer than 34 chapters)! And thank you!

these are the headings I have in my doc for Oaths. As you can see at the start, I truly didn't know this was going to be multiple chapters and didn't bother with an outline.

Here's Water in the Dawn for comparison:

Maybe they don't seem all that different, but I had a much firmer idea in WitD of where I was going from the start.

[swiftsaltsweet]

A short 3 page chapter for shits and giggles is turning into a more funny (with plot relevance and character revelations) 13 pages and more chapter and I'm struggling to figure out how I got here.

Narrator: Her love for Hei-Ran, Kelsang, and Jianzhu gossiping and bitching at each other was how she got there.

Anyway, that chapter isn't coming out for a good while TT0TT I'm bad for writing it but.....THE URGE WAS TOO STRONG!

Why won't it come out anytime soon? Because it's like.....6ish+ away.... in Arc 2.... of Two Knives.

"You haven't even finished the interlude LET ALONE start with Arc 2's early chapters and you're doing this????" Yes I have a problem. u_u

[lusthurts]

welcome!! <3

i thought it was about time i post a little introduction, share some things about me, and maybe keep a record of my wips and current fics in a somewhat organized way? my ao3 is getting a bit out of hand...

so hello! my name is maddie! pronouns are she/her and i'm currently 23 years old <3 you will see me yap A LOT about glee, formula 1, harry potter (the marauders specifically), baseball, and maybe some other things from time to time...i love to complain and analyze media by shouting into the void about shows from 20 years ago. i'm also a feral swiftie and read copious amounts of fanfiction. my biggest special interests at the moment are seblaine & niff, which is the inspiration for all of my fics.

note: no promises but i'm not opposed to prompts..feel free to send them in my askbox and i'll see what i can do!

my fics/wips/finished works!

find my ao3 here!

the slow burn series - a seblaine au where blaine stayed at dalton

How Bright We Burn - a retelling of season 3 where seblaine meet, become friends, then enemies, then fall in love

Brighter Than The Sun - follows seblaine through the summer between junior & senior year in ohio, paris, & saint-tropez

Until We Burn Out - a retelling of season 4 where seblaine are now dating and navigate warblers politics, competition with the new directions, and relationship troubles together (WIP)

Fragile Little Flames - jeff's retelling of the events of the series, specifically regarding his relationship with nick - not a necessary read for the series but has been one of my favorites to write (WIP)

Untitled Sequel - follows seblaine and the warblers through the college years...tbd on what this will look like

one shots:

kiss you anyway - christmas smut, season 3 au, infidelity

'til the veins run red and blue - canon compliant kinda ethereal fic where seblaine drive around together after a halloween party

If We Make It Through December - holidays future fic where seblaine run into each other at the airport on the way home for the holidays

as you kneel, i'll be watching you fix me - smut based on the i want you back scene from canon

11:11 - canon compliant fic where sebastian apologizes for slushygate, probably one of my favorite things i've ever written

The Way I Loved You - exes to lovers featuring background niff where seblaine reunite and hook up at thad's wedding

Champagne Supernova - crackfic where seblaine don't remember anything that happened the night before while drunk and have to retrace their steps to figure it out

invisible string - sebastian gets cheated on and tries to drown his sorrows when he runs into blaine at the bar

Paper Thin - enemies to lovers neighbors au where seblaine live in next door apartments

slipped away like a bottle of wine - season 3 au where blaine visits dalton to celebrate the warblers sectionals win and has a long and healing talk with sebastian

multichapter fics:

yours for the weekend - a tis the damn season songfic where seblaine have a tradition of hooking up at thanksgiving when blaine returns home to ohio (WIP)

something for my soul somewhere - a music & lyrics au where songwriter blaine & washed up popstar sebastian fall in love

Something More - a post-canon future fic where songwriter blaine's daughter befriends lawyer sebastian's niece at school

For Real This Time - my first seblaine fic! not very proud of this one anymore but it's basically a season 4 au where blaine reconnects with sebastian post breakup with kurt

future fics/unpublished wips:

"the things i do (when i picture you)" is a smutty one shot where they have phone sex

a seblaine/warblers band au

a teachers au where seblaine are both teachers who work in adjacent classrooms and all the students ship them

a ta/student au where sebastian is the ta for one of blaine's classes at nyu

an infidelity au where season 3 happens the exact same but over time blaine does cheat on kurt with sebastian

a niff future fic where they never got to be in love bc nick couldn't get his shit together

many have suggested a harry potter seblaine au, so i'm thinking about this...would probably be drarry/dramione adjacent bc i think that fits the characters best

below the cut, i've written a non exhaustive list of some of my favorite things! i'm happy to yap about any of this literally ever!

favorite things!

shows:

i've watched most things but am super down to talk about the above fandoms as well as degrassi, shameless, grey's anatomy, gilmore girls, how i met your mother, one tree hill, brooklyn 99, new girl, modern family, greek, the cw arrowverse, bojack horseman, stranger things, suits, freaks & geeks, outer banks, heartstopper, young royals, bridgerton, the sex lives of college girls, pretty little liars, heartbreak high, scandal, school spirits, sex education, teen wolf, the summer i turned pretty, never have i ever, ginny & georgia, squid game, 13 reasons why, euphoria, this is us, tiny pretty things, 90210, nashville, big little lies, the fosters, parks & rec, and grand army. wow that's a crazy list lol. also happy to take show recs!!

movies:

impossible to list all of them but im a big fan of rom coms, biopics, and movies that make you feel extremely strong emotions, especially if gay. current favorites include:

All of Us Strangers

Dead Poets Society

High School Musical 2

Prisoner of Azkaban

Mamma Mia!

When Harry Met Sally

Barbie

Walk the Line

books:

again, way too many to choose just one favorite but here are some i can't stop reading and rereading:

Red White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

music:

love all these artists but i thought it'd be more fun to pick specific albums so here's that!

speak now (taylor's version) by taylor swift

melodrama by lorde

prelude to ecstasy by the last dinner party

the rise and fall of a midwest princess by chappell roan

the secret of us by gracie abrams

apocalypse whenever by bad suns

stranger in the alps by phoebe bridgers

the record by boygenius

rumours by fleetwood mac

bury me at makeout creek by mitski

superache by conan gray

emails i can't send by sabrina carpenter

stick season by noah kahan

young the giant by young the giant

fuzzybrain by dayglow

being no one, going nowhere by strfkr

my head is an animal by of monsters and men

landmark by hippo campus

melophobia by cage the elephant

guts by olivia rodrigo

beginnings by girl in red

memoir of a sparklemuffin by suki waterhouse

wait by arlie

how will you know if you never try by coin

when we were friends by the backseat lovers

hot fuss by the killers

i need to stop just listing music lmao but trust i could go on forever

[unanswered-stars]

Thank you so much for tagging me @jules-writes-stories @highlordofkrypton @achaotichuman

1. How many works do you have on AO3? I'm a but a wee babe in the ao3 world so just 7 but I have several WIP's that are on pause currently. I had originally had a fic planned for each day of Eris week but haven't been able to write in awhile so might be some time before those are published but once I start posting again you can expect Eris chaos to reign.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 36,487 I struggle to write long chapters and most of my works end up being around 2,500.

3. What fandoms do you write for? A Court of Thorns and Roses

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Shadows of Regret and Redemption| Azris - My first published work. A oneshot that grew legs and started to run. I am not completely happy with it thus far but I have the end plotted and I'm excited to eventually bring that to life.

Daughter of Autumn | Azris - Now this one absolutely shocked me with its popularity. Started as a fun little drabble for Gwyn Week 2024 and of course turned into Azris central.

The Beginning and End of Friendship | Azris - So many people screaming in the comments at me on this one. More screaming to come when I post part two I’m sure.

Two Souls Entangled| Azris - A tiny part of my soul via a short poem for Azris Week 2024.

Heaven Help the Fool Who Falls In Love: The End | Azris - This is the first piece I wrote for fanfiction and it is my precious baby. Only one chapter posted but I have several in need of editing before I publish the remainder. It's very heavy and I haven't had the mental space to read through it again.

5. Do you respond to comments? Every single one! They bring me so much joy. I have currently stayed away from my comment section for my own mental health but when I start posting again I will get back to everyone's comments, promise.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? All of my works are fairly heavy on the angst. TBaEoF comes to mind but I think for published works I’ll go with The Ending of Darkness which is a short little piece about @jules-writes-stories OC Mithras x Sylvan which I have a part 2 almost completed which is equally as angsty (sorry). Unpublished works definitely The Burning of Leaves and The Death of Shadows which are two fics I had planned for Eris week but are currently on pause (poor Eris I was really putting him through the wringer for Eris Week).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Daughter of Autumn. Mostly because Cassian has the closing line and he just always says the darndest things.

8. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I have not, nor do I plan on it. Please don’t hate me 😅 Just not my writing jam. I love finding unique ways to explore a relationship and conveying those same emotions and feelings without the smut. That being said some of my favourite stories and authors use smut as such a wonderful exploratory storytelling device and it is delightful. I love reading others contributions to the smutsphere. So so many talented writers out there giving us all our smuttiest dreams. I truly do not think that my smut contribution is even necessary when you have things like To Become a Vanssera by @acourtofladydeath and Why Not Me by @thomasisaslut both absolutely rife with smut and use it beautifully to convey their story (albiet in very different ways).

9. Do you write crossovers? Not yet, and probably not ever because I can hardly keep up with writing ideas I have for one fandom.

10. Have you ever had a fic translated? No.

11. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, but it sounds delightful.

12. What is your all-time favorite ship? Azris most definitely for writing. I definitely have a big soft spot for Samwise and Rosie from LOTR (my husband is Samwise reincarnated and I am irrevocably in love with him). I have a WIP for Thesan and his lover and that dynamic and storyline has been so incredibly fun to explore as well.

13. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I started writing a Tarquin UTM oneshot that is incomplete and while I am still in love with the story I really struggled with writing the voice of Tarquin. This one will only ever get finished if I can finally figure out the right tone for this man’s internal dialogues.

14. What are your writing strengths? I have been told my writing reads like poetry which is one of the biggest compliments you could ever give me. I also love writing parallels but there’s definitely a lot of room for improvement there.

15. What are your writing weaknesses?  Editing haha. But actually, I find that my characters voices don’t feel very distinct and that there is a lot of overlap in the way they speak and think and it can be hard to distinguish who’s talking/thinking. I feel like my characters resemble a cookie cutter suburban neighborhood where the walls and trim might be a different colour but they’re all built exactly the same. If anyone has some tips please feel free to comment or message me!

16. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I absolutely love reading it but unfortunately the only other language I know isn’t really a language at all. Pidgin, which is basically just native slang. I was playing around with it in my Tarquin fic a bit but seemed a tad too niche.

17. First fandom you wrote for? LOTR in middle school. I have a printed multi chapter booklet that is a rewrite of Sam and Frodo’s journey through Mordor that I made for my English class one year.

18. Favorite fic you’ve written? My favourite multi chapter by another author is undoubtedly A Court of Shadows and Ashes by @futurehunt Mother Save Us From Your Twisted fate by @chunkypossum which got a stunning part 2 for Eris Week this year! My favorite of my own published works is either HHtFWFiL:TE or The Ending of Darkness. Of my unpublished works honesty The Burning of Leave or The Death of Shadows are both strong contenders. For non Azris I have a Beron fic WIP for @sjmvillainweek day 1 that will probably get prioritized over the other two.

No pressure tags (and sorry if you've already been tagged): @the-darkestminds @born-to-riot @chairofchaos @thomasisaslut @chunkypossum @acourtofladydeath @shadowsandlint

[thefandomlesbian]

AO3 Wrapped 2024

tagged by @gaylilsherlock

1.) Biggest surprise while writing this year?

Developing an interest in Gunsmoke. That was an accident, I swear.

2.) How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year?

I have every intention of trying to make 2025 year the year of completion. I am finishing the last two of my short Gunsmoke fics (The Horse Thief and Venom in Violet), and after that, I'm going to finish typing my multiple notebooks of content on IN A DREAM YOU FOUND A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY (believe it or not, this fic is almost completely finished... IN my notebooks, not on my computer). Then, I'm going to finish my Gunsmoke multichapter, dead hands. And after that, my priorities include trying to tackle the behemoth of repairing Not Bigger But Brighter and maybe completing Box Full of Darkness at long last.

So, I suppose the straight answer is I'm not planning on starting many, if any, new works next year; I'm hoping to bring several of my long unfinished fics to their finale.

3.) Favorite character to write this year?

JAMES EVAN WILSON. Without challenge. I invented his entire family and gave them a complex lore for my Hilson HS AU fic (unpublished and I intend to keep it that way). I love him so much, and I took a lot of liberties in giving him lore. To me, he's almost an OC in a way. I definitely love him more than any of the others! He's my blorbo.

4.) The character that gave you the most trouble this year?

I'm gonna go with Lisa Cuddy. I feel like my portrayal of her has strengthened with time, but she's a struggle for me, which is probably why I haven't written any Stacy/Cuddy fic, even though I adore the ship an unreasonable amount and rarely see work for them.

5.) What's one pairing you want to explore next year?

Stacy/Cuddy!

6.) Did you receive any gifts this year?

I believe I got tagged in a couple posts on Tumblr! But no, I didn't receive any gift fics on AO3.

7.) Did you do any collaborative works this year?

Other than private roleplays, no. But my beta does a bombass job!

8.) What do you listen to while writing?

While I'm actively writing (thinking of words to write down), I listen to white noise. While I'm transcribing @libbymania I sometimes will listen to music instead of white noise, or rarely I'll listen to an old radio episode. For brainstorming and sometimes transcribing, I try to make playlists for each one of my fics! And when I'm searching for inspiration, I'll often scroll down have-you-heard-this-band and listen to 2-3 songs of each of the last 10 artists and try to glean ideas from the fresh music. This exposes me to a lot of music I otherwise never would have heard, and I've found a lot of my new favorite bands this way!

9.) Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Uhhhhh there are a lot and I'm sure there are more in the notebooks I haven't transcribed! But this is a section from an upcoming chapter of JOY!

As [Wilson] studied House’s face, azure eyes pooling with tears (stinging from the wind, perhaps, or perhaps genuinely distressed, genuinely fearful, though the notion of the latter was uncomfortable, so he pushed it away), he lost all of his words. He could say nothing kind enough, acerbic enough, observant enough, to greet the sight of House’s mouth hanging agape, the overworn wool hat dangling from between his fingers, his shoulders loose and helpless in posture, the slouch to the right where his knee could no longer fully straighten—this was the powerless man who had flanked Wilson’s bedside for months, the one he had seen in his lucid dreams when he was immobilized by drugs and could only view the world when someone held his eyes open, always hunched in pain, sometimes staring, sometimes too weak to look. House was staring now, fighting for his composure. Wilson waited for it to reassemble.

He closed his mouth, swallowing tightly, shifting his jaw. He tucked the hat into the pocket of his jacket, extending an open-palmed hand to Wilson, fingers curling to beckon him back. He didn’t speak. But he was pleading for Wilson to return.

He had no choice but to fall back, obediently placing his hand in House’s, where he was tugged persistently back to his side. “I wasn’t anywhere near the edge.”

The quick sentence was easy to make out on his lips. “I know.” House was squeezing his hand tight enough to hurt.

“Then why were you scared?”

“I wasn’t scared.” The grip didn’t loosen. Wilson gingerly broke away from it.

“You looked scared.”

Tags!!

@oddlittlestories @someguywriting @thatwholethingwiththeduck @greghousepogging @greghousebignaturals

[sparklepocalypse]

Last week everyone was like, “good thing AO3 doesn’t do a ‘your year in review’ thing like Spotify!” and this week we’re all like “anyway here’s my 2023 AO3 year in review!” So. Anyway, here’s my AO3 year in review -- thanks to @anincompletelist for the tag! Open tag — if you wanna participate, do it! If you don’t, don’t; I’m not the boss of you.

Check it out under the jump:

2023 by the Numbers

Published Words: 123,740 since the RWRB movie pulled me kicking and screaming out of a semi-permanent fic writing hiatus in late September 2023. (Yeah. All those words in essentially one quarter of the year. I am bonkers.)

Published Stories: 37, all in the Red, White & Royal Blue movie fandom -- 22 of them are also tagged with the RWRB book because I kept character descriptions vague enough that readers could self insert whatever characteristics they wanted. All of them are Alex/Henry (be still my little ‘shipping heart).

Unpublished Words: 28,113 and counting in the Big Giant AU (KHIX). I have no other WIPs with actual story written in them, currently, but I do have a to-do list that’s 33 ideas with various levels of detail long.

Most Recent Drops

Sip You Like Cosmic Juice [rated E, 3,122 words] inspired by @orkazh-arts’ rugby!Henry piece. What if RWRB, but Henry plays rugby instead of polo? Alex POV at the charity sporting event. Oral sex, banter, and Henry’s thighs.

So I Will Weather the Storm [rated E, 9,804 words] my RWRB Advent fic. What if RWRB, but Henry's a helicopter rescue pilot in the RAF and Alex falls off a mountain? Oral sex, anal sex, Christmas. One of my favorites!

I'd Wanna Be Felled By You, Held By You [rated E, 2,310 words] my take on what happens when Alex lets Henry borrow his clothes at the lake house. Oral sex, making out against walls, anal sex, possessiveness.

On My Mind (Let's Go) [rated E, 10,751 words] my NYE fix-it fic where Henry boxes out Green Dress Girl, seduces Alex with dance, and gets his damn kiss (and more). Oral sex, anal sex, anal fingering, Henry’s ballroom lessons. One of my favorites!

Top 5 By Kudos

What's Symbiotic Will Always Be [rated E | 2,622 words | 1,157 kudos] The one where Henry develops a breeding kink. Out of all of my Kinktober fics, this one is the most qualified to be called absolute filth. God I love this fandom.

Take it Down Low / Make Me Get High [rated E | 2,092 words | 971 kudos] The one that’s been described by at least one person as “that rimming fic.” Again, you degenerates are fabulous.

In the Low Lamp Light, I Was Free [rated E | 3,156 words | 750 kudos] The one in which Alex bottoms for the first time in Paris, because there are two condom wrappers. Now we’re getting into my genre: porn with feelings.

I'd Wanna Be Felled By You, Held By You [rated E | 2,310 words | 670 kudos] The one in which possessive Alex really likes Henry wearing his clothes. One of my more recent ones and one of my favorites.

On My Mind (Let's Go) [rated E | 10,751 words | 601 kudos] The one in which Henry gets his New Year’s Eve kiss (and then some).

My Favorites Published in 2023

Only including fics that don't appear in either of the other sections above, so I don't clog up your dash with the same link multiple times here...

Bloom [series | rated M/E | 7,655 words] the fandom’s first sex pollen ‘verse on AO3 (unless someone wrote some without tagging it; I checked more than once!).

This is Holy Ground (The Flesh I'm Made Of) [rated E | 3,491 words] the fic in which Alex is a god who’s new to the whole deity business, and Henry is his acolyte.

Down On My Knees; Wanna Take You There [rated E | 7,787 words] the Renaissance Faire AU with glory holes and Pancake, the best horse in the universe.

If We're Caught in a Wave (I Will Carry You Over) [rated E | 5,944 words] the fandom’s first tentacle porn fic (again, unless someone wrote it without tagging it, as with the sex pollen). Alex is Alex and Henry is a cecaelia — AKA octoHenry.

Slide, Crawl into the Shades of Light [rated E | 4,851 words] the fic in which Henry has a bad week and asks Alex to overstimulate him into oblivion.

Amazed at How We Talk (Once, Successfully) [rated E | 8,782 words] the fic in which Henry and Alex don’t get hit by a cake, and Alex goes on Grindr at Buckingham Palace — AKA the harlot flat fic.

Blame My Poor Romantic Mind for the Mess We Made [rated E | 1,570 words] the fic in which Henry writes poetry on Alex’s naked body and then tops him.

A Few Other Stats & Facts About My Fic

Which RWRB canon did I lean on? Well, it should be no surprise to any of you that I’m an RWRB movie writer if you read the first chunk of this post. 100% of my RWRB fics published in 2023 are tagged with the movie fandom, while 59% of them are also tagged with the book fandom because I kept details vague enough that they could fit with either canon. I did not post a single RWRB fic that was tagged with only the book fandom. (And here’s my secret: I’m always picturing the movie characters when I write fic in this fandom. Always.)

What was my ratings spread? of the 37 fics I published in 2023, 2 were teen and up, 1 was rated mature, and the other *thirty-four fics* were explicit.

Where did my titles come from? All but one of my fic titles were sourced from song lyrics; the remaining title was pulled from a love letter written by Herman Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne. I also put together a Spotify playlist for my Kinktober title songs.

What did I listen to while writing? A lot of M83 while writing plot and dialogue — enough that it put me into the top 0.5% of M83 listeners on Spotify for 2023. I also listened to the playlist Songs I’d respectfully get railed to while writing smut.

Canon-compliant or AU? While I’ve written a few things that are completely canon-compliant (missing/expanded scenes mostly), I’m a sucker for both AUs and canon-divergent fics!

Things I'm Hyped for in 2024

The Big Giant AU (KHIX): I’ve been working on this since September, but then Kinktober happened, and then Kinktober burnout happened, so I only recently started plugging away at it regularly. It’s going to be long. It will make people ugly cry. It will make people giggle. It will probably make people [redacted]. It’s already 28k words long, and I’m nowhere near finished. This will not be published until the first draft is complete, because I know me and abandoning WIPs.

Hanahaki AU: I’ve never written this trope but I love it and I need to do it. The end.

Runaway Prince: Henry runs away. Alex finds him. More to come. (Them to come as well.)

More in the Ren Faire, sex pollen, harlot flat (no cakegate), and octoHenry AUs.

And a few movie AUs and one-shot ideas I've got up my sleeve.

[selkienight60]

20 questions for writers

Thank you for the tags: @goldenraeofsun @they-reap-what-we-sow @wildsofmarch

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

64

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

431,388

3. What fandoms do you write for?

DC. But I am considering a foray.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

When It Rains

Distress Signal

Asimov's Integral

Home

Well-Versed Replacement

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do my absolute best, but spoons are sometimes in short supply.

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

Darling, everything I write is tagged "Angst with a Happy Ending." I really don't know what to tell you. For the sake of the question I will answer: Cape Cuddles.

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

Either "Thanks, Dad." Or Epicenter, maybe?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

-Sigh- Yeah.

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

I do not.

10. Do you write crossovers?

No, I am not an enjoyer of these mostly.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Oh, yes, actually. Inasmuch as fanfic can ever be stolen. Someone copy-pasted large sections of one of my stories into their own story. Truly a strange story, but I'm not generally a subscriber to "You can have fanfic stolen" idea. I'm more a Two Cakes girl, myself.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, quite a few! Also podfics made for me too!

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

Several, but I never add my name to them.

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

Like ever? Ough. Ummm. Impossible to know, I'm sure Destiel is up there though. And Stucky.

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

I finish all my WIPs. Eventually.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I used to wonder. Now I simply accept that I will never be good enough for myself and I continue plodding along.

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

No thoughts, head empty lol.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

OUGH. Published? Possibly Supernatural? Unpublished (age 11) Elektra, the movie, lmao. I gave her a dojo, which is something every girl wants and needs.

20. Favourite fic you've written?

Asimov's Integral. I've thought about this question a lot, lmao.

Right, tags for: @dottie-wan-kenobi @silverandsunflowers @batbirdies @a-canceled-stamp

[thevioletcaptain]

WRITING MEME: *steeples fingers* talk to me about a WIP you've got goin' on

This is such an impossible open-ended question for my indecisive brain because I have far too many works in progress and just choosing which one to talk about is hard 😭 But let's give this a try.

Gonna take the roulette approach (opening my WIP folder, closing my eyes, scrolling up and down several times, and then clicking without looking) to save myself from The Initial Struggle.

OKAY. The WIP I landed on is an as-yet-wholly-unpublished DeanCas fic titled One More Chain Does the Maker Make. Whoo!

Here's an assortment of bullet-point notes about it!

The premise: 15.06-adjacent alternate canon fic! Jack kills Chuck before they even know he's been resurrected, and his influence on the world--and on Dean in particular--lifts away. Dean leaves, fearing that Cas won't feel comfortable coming back to the bunker to see Jack if he's still there, and also because he feels the need to be on his own for a while as he figures out who he is without Chuck pulling his strings. He goes no-contact, and ends up working on Jesse & Cesar's ranch, where he eventually realizes that he's gay, and that Chuck's manipulations ran even deeper than he'd thought.

Yeah, that's right -- it's a gay!Dean fic, which I've wanted to write for a while. It's been a really compelling concept to explore, considering everything else I've written has been bi!Dean, and once I started thinking about it from the Chuck-manipulation angle I knew I had to write it.

The title is a lyric from The Maker Makes by Rufus Wainwright, which I didn't realize was written specifically for Brokeback Mountain until right now when I went to find a youtube link.

It's a rare fic for me in that Dean legitimately doesn't already know that he's in love with Cas. He's felt it for a long time, but Chuck has been fucking with him so intensely that it's very much been an allegory of the cave situation. He's been looking at the shadows of his love, but now that the chains are gone, he can look at it directly.

Dean stays on Jesse & Cesar's ranch for several months overall, and when he eventually reaches out to Cas it sets off a long period of writing emails to one another, then texting, then calling. The epistolary section of the fic is HEAVY on the pining and it's been a lot of fun to write.

This fic also features a favorite trope of mine: namely that Dean looks at Cas in his ill-fitting suit and dumpy trenchcoat and sees an absolute brick house stud, while the person he's just been gushing about him to looks and sees Just Some Guy.

Dean! Befriends! A horse!

There's also a subplot with a radio show, but I'll save further details on that for when I eventually post it.

I hope this was at least somewhat interesting! Thanks for the ask <3

If anyone wants to know more about this fic, or another WIP, or something I've posted on Ao3, feel free to send an ask :)

[blackmageeljin]

Hey! Just wanted to reach out and let any followers mostly here for my work on Repeat:|| know that I AM STILL WORKING ON IT! I REALLY AM!

I have about 20-25k words currently unpublished and am like... 1/2 to 2/3 to the end. I'm sure with Missing Link dropping soon KH will be driving the serotonin bus again and the hyperfocus will Get It Done.

Previously, it was easy to denote a section as 'done' when they moved on from a world, and so I could easily publish those sections. But as I entered the finale, keeping all the timey whimey stuff sorted and dealing with significantly more moving parts and suddenly a much larger cast of characters, I resolved to not begin posting again until the whole thing was done so I would have the luxury of shifting things around as needed.

It has taken a lot of time and recovery to just be able to feel comfortable using Tumblr again, or posting any kind of writing. I have a few Hazbin fics up because that fandom is generally less changed and it is easy to hide behind the Asexual Vore Demon. Also, I am not playing 5 dimensional time travel chess writing for it haha, so it is something that is just a lot easier to produce if I am not having a good health day. But honestly, even that took a lot of courage and I waited a long time before posting, as my agoraphobia became significantly more severe for a while. I spent a lot of time catching up in JJBA in the past few years too, but haven't posted any of the writing I've done for it for fear of the witch hunting doxxing campaigns that go on over ships and things over there.

Admittedly that has taken longer than anticipated for a lot of reasons ranging from ye olde social anxiety and fandom drama to just real world stuff. A tree fell on my house! On a happier note, I now have two goats and they are named Xehanort and Eraqus.

Admittedly, besides logistics, I am waiting until it is done to post because I don't want to deal with any drama/fallout for how I handle things like Xehanort's Actual Motivations™, how characters who have previously not had screen time get characterized, my understand of certain metaphysics, people being upset things Are Wrong when in fact I am referencing something that is explicitly canon from KHUX and such that they haven't played, a lack of understand of the inherent themes of moral philosophy and the duality of history, and, you know, people generally being bitchy. The finale is a turning point in a few ways, in that both the tone shifts and that it's when all the 'hot takes' come fully to light, so I am nervous. For people who have been nothing but supportive I will finish this. For you and for myself and for Sora and Xeha. But fuck if fandom spaces aren't as safe as they used to be, and I'm tired.

As a teaser some general things to look forward to are: Riku finding out about The Boyfriend, light squad screen time, yelling at Yensid, Ansem SoD but he has awkward estranged dad energy, ominous Vanitas implications, things that come out of Lea's mouth, Kairi being relevant.

And if you read this far, here's a lil preview snippet for you:

"After I do that, you gotta hand over your guardian.” Sora clarified. When Ansem nodded he reached his own hand forward and shook.

“Deal.”

Sora half expected some kind of sinister dark magic to flare up when they shook hands… but nothing happened. It was almost anticlimactic, just a normal handshake. That was… good? But it still left Sora waiting for the other shoe to drop again.

Sora turned around to face the other two who had come with him. “Alright then. I… guess I have some work to do.”

Xehanort began to answer, only to be cut off.

“Oh, and Sora? One more thing.”

Sora half turned back to the heartless, getting ready to give him an ear full for trying to pull something, but-

“Be sure to take careful care of my youngest self. By Vanitas’ logic, he is as my precious baby brother. It would be remiss of me not to do my familial duty and ensure the well being of his heart.”

To which Sora, unsurprisingly, turned bright red and began floundering helplessly.

“You!” Xehanort was not faring much better.

And Vanitas had gone from poorly hidden laughter to full blown cackling. Then he stepped forward and high fived the Heartless.

And that was… huh.

Something about that, about seeing Ansem of all people acting like a regular guy… high fiving his friend and laughing over something stupid and- and normal like teasing someone over their boyfriend and not something super evil or sadistic. He was a Heartless- and in a way, Vanitas sort of was too, right? But right now they were just acting like regular everyday people…

Sora adopted an overly dramatic serious expression and gave Ansem a salute. “I’ll have him back by 10, sir!”

“Sora!” Xehanort hissed full of betrayal. Sora flashed him an apologetic grin. Ansem’s grin was significantly less apologetic, if not amused.

“Good man.”

[weavingstarlight]

for the LU write-a-thon ask game!

What WIP are focusing on right now?

What is your favorite WIP (published or not)?

What is an unsung WIP of yours you'd like to promote?

What do you like most about your own writing?

Who is your favorite character to write, and what do you like about how you portray them?

Oh man, we’re doing EVERY question, are we? That’s fine with me! Let’s go in order:

Current WIP: Guiding Lights (slowly updating) and Panic (Not At The Disco) (unpublished) are my two main focuses right now, though when I get stuck I tend to pick up a random WIP to try to get unstuck. One is a longfic which can loosely be described as “the Chain goes on a road trip through Wild’s Hyrule;” the other is “an artsy one-shot glitch fic.”

Favorite WIP: It feels a little like cheating to say Guiding Lights when there’s just so much in it, but it really is my baby as far as stories go. I’ve put a lot of my heart into it, and many of the things that I love about it haven’t even shown up in the published chapters yet. I can’t wait to get to some of the later sections, and I very much hope some people will join me for the journey.

Unsung WIP: I’m going to go with War Games for this one! It’s a collaborative AU with 4 other writers, focusing on a hypothetical timeline where Spirit joined the other characters in the War of Ages. We’re slowly working on preparing Volume 1 of the main longfic, so keep an eye out for it!

What I like: I like being able to feel a rhythm in my writing! Variation in word and sentence length, assonance and alliteration, staccato and legato patterns… I love playing with it all. Sometimes it’s a struggle, but when it clicks, it feels so nice.

Favorite character: Legend is doing me favors in Guiding Lights by having a lot to say and a lot of ways to say it. He’s smart (intellectually) but has juuust enough emotional intelligence to get himself into trouble with it, he’s both curious and well-informed, and every time I give him the POV he finds ways to add more little details to the story for me. I feel like the more I write him, the more connections I find with him — which could be either a good thing or a bad thing, I guess!

Okay, I think that wraps things up! Thank you for the ask, feel free to send follow-up questions if y’all have any!

[not-krys]

It's that time again! Happy End of 2024, everyone!

Didn't put out as much finished work this year, but the numbers for this year... oh my gosh, the numbers...

They're a lot bigger than last years numbers... by a lot.

Previous Years Summaries and Total Word Count Overall 2020: 38,023 2021: 23,687 2022: 31,848 2023: 42,865

For this year's art summary, click here!

And, as always, my masterlist, to see all my fics in one place!

And now, without further ado, let's crunch some numbers!

----------

Finished Posted works to tumblr/ao3: 4

-Everything's Okay Now [Lucifer x Miri (OC) Drabble]: 822 -Traveling Adventures of Mr. Fox and Miss Mouse Part 3: 1,340 -Sensual Morning [Comte x Reader]: 568 -Are We Happy? [Vincent x Abby (OC)]: 1,417

Total Word Count on Published Fanfics: 4,147

Published WIPs (That Were Written In or Updated In 2024): 14

-Spiral [Simeon & Miri (OC)]: 1,424 -Hold My Hand [Houki (OC) x Mitsunari, Ophelia (OC) x Kennyo, Thea (OC) & Issac, Abby (OC) & Jean, Miri (OC) & Mammon]: 2,941 -Creation: [Leonardo feat. Abby (OC) x Vincent, Miri (OC) & Luke & Barbatos]: 757 -Do Not Disturb [Abby (OC) x Vincent, Clara (OC) x Nokto, Miri (OC) & Satan & Simeon, Houki (OC) x Mitsunari feat. Mitsuhide]: 1,996 -Old [Abby (OC) & Theo, Miri (OC) & Simeon, Ophelia (OC)]: 1,805 -Magic [Miri (OC) & Asmodeus]: 1,494 -Can You Hear Me? [Houki (OC) & Nobunaga, Miri (OC) & Belphie, Abby (OC) x Vincent, Clara (OC) & Rio]: 3,153 -Eyes [Maddie (OC) x Harr, Ophelia (OC) x Kennyo, Houki (OC) x Mitsunari, Miri (OC) & Satan]: 1,924 -Two Roads [Miri (OC) x Lucifer, Abby (OC) x Vincent, Ophelia (OC) & Ranmaru]: 1,471 -Tears [Miri (OC) & Beel & Belphie, Abby (OC) & Comte]: 1,751 -OC Would You Rathers: 1,402 -Sprinto sessions for Mr. Fox and Miss Mouse Part 3: 1,007 -Miri Receives the Ring of Light: 1,614 -Second Glance Part 5 Sections I've Got Thus Far: 1,430

Total Word Count on Published WIPs: 24,169

Unpublished WIPs (That Were Written or Updated in 2024): 2

-Miri and Beel fic: 355 -Miri's full profile: 6,029

Total Word Count on Unpublished WIPs of 2024: 6,384

Essays/Commentary/Other Writings:

-Houki Profile: 1,033 -Clara Profile: 1,286 -Ophelia Profile: 1,394 -What was the reason you decided to create an OC?: 337 -How would your OC define love?: 348 -Which came first: your OC's personality/backstory or their appearance?: 759 -Ikemen Daily Questions: Do you have an OC for any of these games?: 1,499 -OC Brainrot Introductory Post: 1,749 -OC Brainrot #1: Thea and Abby and the Rivals Fight At The Mansion: 1,068 -OC Brainrot #2: Miri, Magical Ancestry, and Mortality: 937 -OC Brainrot #3: Miri and Memories of the Eight of Us: 1,046 -OC Brainrot #4: Bullying Napoleon: 879 -OC Brainrot #5: In Another World: 1,547 -OC Ship Chart [Houki x Mitsunari, Abby x Vincent, Miri x Lucifer]: 1,041 -Drawing Notes for my OCs: 2,159 -Ophelia Asks: 592 -Emoji Asks (Orange, Yellow, Red): 6,384

Total Word Count on Other Writings: 24,058

Total Word Count for 2024: 58,758

[blutopaz15]

18, 27!

LINK TO THE ASK GAME

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

Oh gosh...there's a section that I got a few compliments on in the last chapter my ttm moon nexus fic. (Gosh, that was SO long ago now, omg...not long after TTM came out, and certainly long before "Dear Callum")

They're having some big feelings time and...

It's not my favorite thing stylistically at this point, but that whole fic is hella nostalgic for me so I look back on it fondly. I think a lot about Rayla being SO alone in the world aside from the boys...and I think this is one of the first times I really articulated that in fic?

27. Is there a fic you were nervous to post/share? Why?

below the cut for nsfw stuffs

probably the "madwich" I wrote a while back: familiar. I had some friends read some drafts because I was nervous that I'd written Callum being too rough, to the point that I was worried about it getting into dubcon territory 😅 (which, like, nothing wrong with folks writing/reading dubcon, but that wasn't my intention so...)

As far as still unpublished...............I have brainstorming (and a partial draft!) for a spicy take on ttm rayllum at the moon nexus that I don't know will ever see the light of day...for reasons that I'm sure y'all can imagine.

[pisoprano]

I've been tagged for this game by @lady-de-mon-coeur

Rules: we're given specific words to find in our wips/fics, share the section they appear in, and pass it on!

My words were:

support, touch, realise

Reserve words: kind, truth, dance

Support:

From an as of yet unpublished chapter of The People You Call Home:

“Can you give our viewers some examples of positive thinking?” Alya asked. “Thinking about the support you have from your friends,” Chat said immediately. “Oh, absolutely,” Ladybug agreed.  “I know when I’m feeling my most down, Chat Noir is amazing at encouraging me.  And I have known amazing people who have done the same for me in my personal life.  To those people I say: you may not know you’re helping Ladybug, but you have no idea how much your love and support have meant to me.” “And what do you recommend for people who don’t have those supportive friends?” Alya asked, moving her microphone towards Chat Noir. Chat Noir looked right at the camera.  “To everyone who doesn’t have people who care in your life right now: I know how hard it is.  Maybe you had someone who loved you before, but they’re gone now.  Maybe the people who should care about you don’t give you the support you need.  Maybe you want to ask for help, but it just feels so impossible.  Please don’t give up hope.  You aren’t unloveable.”  He looked at Ladybug, then at Alya.  “You might be surprised how much people really do care when you find them.”

Touch:

From Loveybug's inevitable crash (with added bonus words that I wrote while I've been compiling/polishing all my Loveybug one shots):

“There’s nothing wrong with being you,” Tikki assured her. “You’re a great Ladybug because of how much you love people.” “But not a great Loveybug. She’s who I become when I let myself love too much and I lose control of my feelings and I’m just so nrgghhh!” she waved her arms wildly in the air, “and… no one wants that me!” “Maybe Catwalker does?” “Yeah, right.”  Marinette slumped in her chair.  “If he cared, wouldn’t he have touched me back by now?” So many times, Loveybug had wrapped her arms around Catwalker, whether that be a hug of greeting, holding onto his neck when he had carried her out of danger.  She’d even held his face in her hand once to kiss his cheek. He hadn’t told her to stop.  But he only touched her back when he had to. Didn’t that mean that he was secretly uncomfortable and only putting up with her because it was his job to do so?  With his constant formality and acquiescence, she wasn’t sure if Catwalker even knew how to say no. Tikki gave her an encouraging smile.  “You won’t know until you ask.”

Realize:

From Part 20 of Runaway Catwalker (Ao3 link):

Alya: You've just been so overwhelmed after losing both Chat and Adrien... I didn't want to burden you with even more things to worry about. Marinette: I get it. You were trying to be a good friend. Alya and Marinette grab each other in a hug that they both need. Alya: By keeping you in the dark?  I made Chat vulnerable by doing that!  I should have realized I was making the same mistake by not telling you. Marinette: It wouldn't have made a difference.  You're right: We should have told Chat about Rena Furtive.  And if you'd asked me before tonight?  I would have given you permission to tell Catwalker what Chat should have known all along.  He seemed so perfect, I never thought that he could be so untrustworthy.

Since I didn't use my reserve words, I'll let anyone who hasn't been tagged take them:

kind, truth, dance

And add a few reserve words of my own:

friend, laugh, real

[freneticfloetry]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Will I ever get enough of these? No? Thanks to @liminalmemories21, @strandnreyes, @welcometololaland, and @reyesstrand for the tags!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

45. RIP to the lost works of my OG fandom, published on a ship board/archive that no longer exists. (I still have most of them, they just won’t be seeing the light of day. Like ever.)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

368,184. (Again, RIP to all those now-unpublished words — with them I’d be somewhere around 800k.)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

LOL So glad this question is phrased the way it is. Right now, I’m only actively writing in 911 Lone Star fandom, though I have a WIP in Magicians fandom that I fully intend to finish. Historically, I’ve written in about 40 fandoms (36 on AO3), most with a single fic. Thanks, Yuletide!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Ashes and Flame (Every You and Every Me), The Hunger Games Trilogy (I get a kudos email for this one at least five times a week. How are people still finding and reading this little fic?)

Lost in Translation, The Losers

Deck the Halls with Daddy Issues, pre-film Avengers MCU

Big Girl Pants, New Girl

Shells of a Long-Ago Lifetime (Faces That Once Were Mine Mix), Supernatural

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

99.9% of the time, absolutely. Comments are my biggest motivation — the serotonin section fuels my muse. If people take the time to tell me they read and enjoyed a fic (especially if they tell me why), I like to at least thank them for that. There have been times when Real Life has been Happening A Lot and comments on the more popular stuff have gotten by me, and I feel weird about going back months after the fact to respond — that Hunger Games fic, for instance, has a couple pages of unanswered comments.

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

Posted, probably Of All Our Yesterdays. I am typically an Angst with a Happy Ending writer without fail, but the boys of the Black Dagger Brotherhood don’t do typical happy, and Phury is lowkey the angstiest of the bunch.

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

I’m actually gonna say scenes from an unfinished story, because I think Quentin Coldwater having this happy ending, the way this one happens, is the biggest fuck you to show canon and its creators that I could possibly craft.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I recently got my first hate comment! I posted about it, but I’ve also left it up in all its glory.

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

I do now! Not that I haven’t in the past — I wrote several het scenes for my very first ship, and Quentin and Eliot had some delightful married kitchen sex we picked up right in the middle in What Baking Can Do — but I feel like Tarlos has really helped me unleash my inner smut writer. My smut from Carlos’ POV has a lot of feelings (LOL), but the stuff I’m writing from TK’s POV is a little sillier and dirtier and more fun. With feelings.

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

I do love me a good crossover. Outside of canons I’ve crossed that exist in the same universe (We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For, in Jessica Jones/Luke Cage fandom, plus And to All a Goodnight, for two Jennifer Crusie books), I once wrote tens of thousands of words of a ridiculously plot-heavy Roswell/Angel crossover that will forever hold a soft spot in my heart, a randomly cracky and super angsty Supernatural/Grey’s Anatomy, and a minor character-focused Supernatural/Sarah Connor Chronicles, Requiem, that I still sort of love a lot.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

That Hunger Games fic has been swiped a few times. Weird.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Again, the Hunger Games fic — it exists somewhere on the internet in Dutch. And that one, the SPN/TSCC crossover, and an old Dexter fic, Dinner and a Show, have been podficed.

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

I have! An old friend and I once cowrote ~25k of our idea of fluff, which was basically hijinks, smut, and torturing our leading man with a boom box and Billy Joel.

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

For ships that I’ve written… Hmm. I think, before I wrote to build a home, I would’ve said it was a tossup between Tarlos, Queliot, Chlollie, and Jules/Robin from Troubleshooters, but now there’s just no contest. Weewoo Husbands for the win. For ships in general, Tarlos still tops the list, alongside the ones I mentioned, the OT3 (Eliot/Hardison/Parker), Arthur/Eames, Phedre/Joscelin from the Kushiel’s Legacy books, Frank/Karen from the Netflix Marvelverse, Aidan/Sally from Being Human US, and my MCU crack cube of Steve/Nat/Bucky/Sam.

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

God, this is such a throwback, but it’s probably Adagio in B-Flat, the Sherlock music porn murder mystery I half wrote and got hopelessly blocked on.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, I’d say, especially banter. And understanding characters, I guess? I’m good at making characters sound like themselves, whether they’re speaking or internalizing. And, I’m now proud to say, plot. That’s something I wouldn’t have dared to claim this time ten years ago.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Oof. Brevity. I have completely lost the ability to write short (and, by extension, to the point). I’m also the slowest writer in the world, thanks to my tendency to edit every sentence within an inch of its life.

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

My Lone Star mutuals are laughing right now. Clearly I hate it. 😊 I’ve written three fics that feature Spanish, two sort of significantly, and all my old Firefly fics have some Mandarin in there somewhere.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

OG Roswell. So much OG Roswell. Michael/Liz, specifically, with a side of Kyle/Isabel.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

It almost feels like cheating, since it’s my most recent fic (and the only one I’ve published so far in my current fandom), but I’m so stupidly proud of to build a home. Carlos is such a touchstone character for me that writing him was oddly therapeutic. And I think I’ve said this before, but writing the two of them together was like the evolution of the clarity I found writing Queliot, which was the first time I’d really explored a ship in fic where I loved both halves of the pairing even close to equally — it helped me unearth my Carlos and who he is in my heart, but it also helped me uncover the true depth of my love for TK.

No pressure tagging @orchidscript, @heartstringsduet, @never-blooms, @rmd-writes, @walkinginland, @paperstorm, @mixtapestar, @catanisspicy, and @alrightbuckaroo!

[mengyao]

do I know about welcome to dark fuck princess island yet... if not I would like to.

HAHA... welcome to dark fuck princess island is the amalgamation of stuff pruned from two other beefleaf fics, one being my big unpublished postcanon sqx fic and the other being the most recent one i posted, which was supposed to have a postcanon section to it that i had to cut due to a deadline that was going to come before i could finish writing it...

i have plans to do a sensitive, emotionally realistic character study of postcanon shi qingxuan that charts a believable beefleaf reconciliation arc while prioritizing sqx's agency and self-worth. that's the big one. this is the wretched idfic runoff of that other fic, which is superior in every way but makes you wait quite a bit longer for them to fuck nasty

to be more specific... my postcanon sqx fic originally had a real deep vein of gothic romance going on that i eventually realized was chafing super hard at the main thrust of the story, which has a pretty different tone and vibe to it. (it's obviously still a little bit gothic romance because it's a romance fic about getting back together with the ghost who killed your brother so you know.) so i took the stuff that was the most, like, lesbian phantom of the opera out of there and combined it with stuff that i cut from my most recent fic (which in case you haven't read it, is about them hooking up lesbianly during the long con era in a way where he xuan is power tripping hard via some non-negotiated d/s and verbal humiliation stuff. lol,). that cut stuff was about beefleaf reuniting postcanon in a mildly dubcon lesbian harlequin romance manner and having really ill-advised sex shortly afterwards, which is like, surely going to have negative implications for both of their mental health and well-being. but sqx is also experiencing a lot of intense emotions over the fact that the sex they're having is unambiguously lesbian in nature and it's really emotionally confusing and guilt-inducing that even though she's legitimately pretty scared of this person a) they both clearly still desire each other carnally despite everything and b) whatever else sqx may be feeling, she realizes that hx still "gets" her gender more than anyone else has or possibly ever will... she feels seen... :(

it's some kind of situation where sqx gets sick or injured in some way in their day to day life, wakes up at nether water manor having been benevolently kidnapped, and then proceeds to be a gothic fantasy ya novel heroine wandering around the haunted mansion she's not technically "imprisoned" within but also has no way to leave... also after the first interaction or two they have, which are just supremely awkward because they're both in the same place they were when Alla That happened and also in the same forms they were then, hx is female form-ing it up... this is really genuinely just trashy erotic horror, so sqx is like unpacking the implications of their now retrospectively dubcon dalliances past while finding herself thrilled and terrified to discover that it doesn't make her want hx any less... i think sqx has also been having gory horrific erotic dreams about hx intermittently over the past however-long-it's-been. and she feels really fucked up and stupid and embarrassing for not being over it.

but this is not like slow burn or anything so they DO have sex again way more quickly than they ought to and the vibes are super rancid but like, in a sexy way, like peak [ao3 tag voice] Consensual But It Shouldn't Be. "on god you two should never see each other again for your own good but it's too late now so you might as well give in to your dark passions" shit. the most embarrassing aspect of all of this is that i think it ends with some kind of impulsive shotgun elopement which, in my head at least, is modeled after this one corvosider fic i read 10 years ago that nonetheless left a BIG impact on my psyche

so. that's. that. LOL