#need a cinderella au fic stat

[yorqia]

Princess Shadowheart 🌙✨🪻

[kiwiana-writes]

Fic Writing Review 2024

Bringing this back from 2023 even though the year isn't over yet!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass but don’t feel like you have to do this either.

Words and Fics (fics written in 2024 only)

124,619 words published to AO3. Down a bit from 2023 for sure. Turns out transing your whole gender and also writing an original novel slows your fic progress a bit. Who'd have thought.

132,218 total words written in 2024 (so far; the year isn't over yet!), 11,288 words written in 2024 that have not yet been published, 7,990 words written in 2023 that have STILL not been published (RIP).

4 published fandoms: Red White & Royal Blue (book), Red White & Royal Blue (film), The Pairing, Cendrillon | Cinderella

Most recent drop: We gonna need some brand-new jeans, my last-minute Smutsgiving contribution aka 930 words of straight-up feederism porn

Longest (published) fic: Years of dreams just can't be wrong (the Anastasia AU), still a WIP, currently at 13,330 words

Longest (published) oneshot: Like loving the stars themselves (the Doctor Who AU) at 7,219 words.

Top Fics by Kudos (fics written in 2024 only)

Warm like the glow that you feel head to toe [RWRB, Alex/Henry, rated E, 5,131 words]

All the Lonely Starbucks Lovers [RWRB, Alex/Henry, rated E, 5,895 words]

None of my love will go to waste [RWRB, Alex/Henry, rated E, 5,306 words]

I pictured you with other girls in love [RWRB, Alex/Henry, rated E, 5,187 words]

A midnight medication (just show me where it hurts) [RWRB, Alex/Henry, rated E, 2,121 words]

Miscellaneous Data From My Unhinged Spreadsheet about 2024 fics

The highest percentage of private bookmarks goes to I can't relate to desperation, the kinktober omorashi/humiliation combo prompt fic. Which is… not exactly surprising lmao.

Out of 54 fics published in 2023, 47 were explicit, 1 was mature, 4 were teen and up, and 2 were general audiences

As well as the juggernaut Alex/Henry, I also wrote: Alex/Alex/Henry (no, that's not a typo), Alex/Nora, June/Nora/Pez, Oscar/Rafael, Zahra/Shaan, Kit/Theo, and Cinderella/Cinderella's Prince

1 fic didn't have a title sourced from anywhere. 2 were sourced from the media/AU fusion source, 2 were puns, 4 were from literature/poetry, and the remaining 45 were song lyrics. Of the song lyrics, 7 were Taylor Swift; 5 were Matt Nathanson; 2 each from Sabrina Carpenter, Mýa, Hozier, Bon Jovi, and The Jane Austen Argument. Then just a shitload of artists with 1 each.

My highest kudos/hits ratio was on A midnight medication (just show me where it hurts), the paediatrician Henry AU - this one did surprise me!

Stats specifically about Kinktober

30 works, exactly 40,000 words (I was proud of that one lmao)

26 were Alex/Henry - including the one that was also Alex/Alex/Henry. 1 each for: Alex/Nora, June/Nora/Pez, Oscar/Rafael, and Zahra/Shaan.

16 Alex POV (including the Alex/Nora), 11 Henry POV, 1 Nora POV, 1 Rafael POV, 1 Shaan POV

The longest was Every version of yourself tonight, the Alex/Alex/Henry selfcest/time travelling threesome fic

Most popular by both hits and kudos was Always seeing colours 'cause you showed them to me, the artist!Henry waxplay fic

Least popular by both hits and kudos were the non-FirstPrince ones, which I wasn't surprised about - I knew that was the likely trade-off!

Highest kudos/hits ratio was One touch (but you felt enough), the one with Henry's magical healing dick

Highest percentage of guest kudos was on Like the dancing smoke that rose, the Oscar/Rafael cigar play

Podfic stats

Total recorded and posted podfic length this year was 7:03:11

Average podfic length was 47:01

Average words per minute was 146.66

The rest of 2024:

I still have a few Fandom Trumps Hate fics to post, as well as one Christmas exchange fic, and I'm hoping to have Anastasia AU finished posting by year-end as well!

Tagging @blueeyedgrlwrites @cactusdragon517 @celeritas2997 @cha-melodius @clottedcreamfudge

@cricketnationrise @dumbpeachjuice @everwitch-magiks @firenati0n @getmehighonmagic 

@hgejfmw-hgejhsf @indestructibleheart @inexplicablymine @lilythesilly 

@myheartalivewrites @nontoxic-writes @notspecialbabe @orchidscript 

@piratefalls @rmd-writes @sherryvalli @sparklepocalypse @stereopticons 

@thesleepyskipper @thighzp @tintagel-or-cockleshells @welcometololaland @whimsymanaged and, as always, anyone who wants to play! 

[jtl07]

jtl07 fics, 2024 round up

tbh I felt a bit odd doing this because I was like, oh I didn't really write the last half of the year - but then I remembered shenanigans and all that and was like, JT, you totally were writing; just because it wasn't posted on ao3 doesn't mean it doesn't "count."

which is interesting too - looking at just word count for example, I had 47k total words posted on ao3 this year vs the 34k words posted (thus far) here on tumblr. that's kinda crazy to me - I didn't expect to write this much when I first started shenanigans. but I guess it really was what I needed what with all the changes this year (new city, new job, new hobbies like acting and stage combat, new and returned martial arts - plus the general messiness of healing)

so under the cut, I'll have some numbers similar to last year's recap just to see how everything went this year. there's no real conclusions here, and tbh I'm not sure if I'll do this again next year, because while it's interesting, I don't want to start chasing numbers yknow? (if you feel like asking about some of the fics i've written, feel free to ask a question from here!)

i guess the big takeaway is what matters is that I'm writing stuff I'm proud of, stuff I'm having fun with, and generally having a heck of a great time with everyone <3

ao3 stats

I posted 10 fics total this year on ao3. after doing all the nerdy things (looking at number of interactions, etc) here's what this year's spreadsheet looked like:

my top 3 fics this year were:

with this ring (will you, will i)

cooking with my (dead) mom

i see you clearly now (i hold you dearly now)

not really a surprise, as these were all quite popular from the jump. what was surprising, however, was when i combined stuff from 2023, cooking with my (dead) mom took the top spot from darling, call me yours:

cooking with my (dead) mom

darling, call me yours

i see you clearly now (i hold you dearly now)

that melts the blood inside our veins

past tense, future perfect

tumblr stats

okay so now shenanigans and noodles!

most notes: hickey (119 notes)

longest to write: the good boy prompt and @littledata's 2nd attempt at breaking shenanigans

longest word count: part 2 of the random cinderella au (1,394 words)

shortest word count: blushing (129 words)

first off, technically, the nametag one had the most notes (152) but since I posted it on ao3 as well, I didn't want to like double-count. also, not surprised at the ones that took a long time to write - generally, I tried to timebox my noodles and shenanigans but these two prompts were difficult in different ways (practice and the prompt, respectively) which was a fun challenge, and totally the point of shenanigans!

[tryalittlejoytomorrow]

2022 AO3 Year-End Fic Review

tagged by the lovely @winterlovesong1 , thank you dear! finally getting around to doing it before the 2023 review! 😹😹😹

1. What is your AO3 account?

tryalittlejoytomorrow - I’m a strong believer in being easily found lol

2. How many words did you write total in 2022?

according to the AO3 stat page, 444k - but according to my math, which is way more accurate if I only count works and chapters published in 2022 and not works that were started before but finished then, more around 184k

3. How many fics did you publish in 2022? How many multichapters vs oneshots?

9 fics - 6 oneshots (including one massive 20k) and 3 multichapters (two massive post s3 case!nace fics)

4. What was your longest fic? Your shortest fic?

Longest Fic: by the prospect of the touch, by the memory of the feel (we are undone by each other) , my (first) monster of a post s3 Nace case fic, 55k

Shortest Fic: remind me once again just who I am because I need to know , The Missing Scene between Nace (you know the one), 2k

5. What was your most popular fic? Your least popular fic?

I’m counting comments as the only real way to quantify popularity because kudos mean nothing to me. It takes one second to leave a kudo but it can mean a hundred things: ‘twas okay, nice!, love it!, love it but not enough to bother saying something, will read later. Only comments say what they mean to say.

Most Popular: when it’s too heavy to carry, remember this moment with me (they say love is a journey), Nace undercover married fic

Least Popular: remind me once again just who I am because I need to know, the ultimate nace missing scene where Nancy tells Ace about tanking her grades - honest to God, this might be the failure that sticks the most

6. What fic didn’t perform as well as you thought it would?

Definitely the aforementioned missing scene where Nancy shares about tanking her grades with Ace. This feels like The Scene and I thought people would care more - then again, maybe they just didn’t care about my version of the events. It’s definitely the one fic people didn’t like that tore at me a little, made me cry and want to stop writing for them.

7. What fic performed way better than you thought it would?

mmmh, I’d say undercover married fic? since it’s not a “breaking the curse” fic I thought people would care less about the case or where the story went, especially at a time when all people cared about was breaking the curse.

8. What was your favorite fic you wrote from 2022?

I’m a Libra, I hate picking - but I guess the three fics I loved writing most are also three of my least popular ones but who cares (I do), I still love them (a lot)

home edit my beloved: Bess and Ryan host a home edit show and redo Nancy and Ace’s house as they’re expecting. More emotions ensue because why the hell not. HOME EDIT MY BELOVED is perhaps my singular favorite nace fic of all times and it kills me that no one cares about lol (derogatory)

pizza man AU: Nancy gets drunk and falls in love with the pizza man. once again, I had so much fun working on this AU for Ash’s birthday and everyone hated it and this is definitely the moment when I dropped out of that fandom bc I recognized many people’s names amongst the kudos who are people who used to bother to comment and who didn’t anymore so you know - maybe I should be someone who wrote for these two but doesn’t anymore too. it gets me stupid emotional because this fic means a lot to me but alas, opening your heart to fandom can be both a beautiful and terrible thing indeed.

and my you’ve got mail/a cinderella’s story helnik AU where they fall in love online despite being enemies IRL: I hate that the helnik fandom is so dead because I had such fun working on this but the feedback was so inconsistent and small and it’s a shame because I love their dynamic but it seems not worth it, you know? for four people to enjoy it after I spent so many weeks on it.

9. What was your favorite fic that somebody else wrote in 2022?

I don’t even need to think about it: The Stars Are Fire, by my beloved @flythesail . I cannot even comprehend how much I love this story but beyond it, the girl who wrote it, so I’m going to steal someone else’s words who hopefully will somewhat encapsulate my feelings: “What I feel for you can’t be conveyed in phrasal combinations; It either screams out loud or stays painfully silent but I promise — it beats words. It beats worlds.”    

10. Tag your friends to have them do this year-end fic review as well!

tagging @flythesail @scarletslippers 💜

[bearholdingashark]

2020 Fic Roundup

(I wasn’t tagged for this, I just wanted to, so if anyone who wants to do it is looking for a reason to do it, I say go for it :D) 

Total 2020 Word Count: 129,544

Total 2020 Hits: 45,048

Other 2020 AO3 Stats:

Kudos: 4,996

Comment Threads: 262

Bookmarks: 625

Subscriptions: 84

Links & Titles to 2020 Works: 67 fics under the cut (along with other questions)

Something New (Miraculous Ladybug) 

The Nearness of You (Miraculous Ladybug) 

Hold Me Til the Morning Comes (Miraculous Ladybug) 

A Certain Step (Wonder Woman (Movies - Jenkins)) 

Took A While (But You Found Me) (Knives Out (2019)) 

Between You and Me (Knives Out (2019)) 

Let's Give Them Something to Talk About (Knives Out (2019)) 

Ambush (Knives Out (2019)) 

Come Meet My Eyes One Moment More (Knives Out (2019)) 

You'll Be In My Heart (Knives Out (2019)) 

So Close (Was Waiting Here With You) (Frozen (Disney Movies)) 

Intentions (Knives Out (2019)) 

Beginnings (Knives Out (2019)) 

No Place Like You (Knives Out (2019)) 

Whatever May Come (Your Heart I Will Choose) (Knives Out (2019)) 

Not Just A River In Egypt (Knives Out (2019)) 

A Total Eclipse of Rationality (Knives Out (2019)) 

And Here We Are In Heaven (Knives Out (2019)) 

Dog Days (Knives Out (2019)) 

Someone To Hold (Knives Out (2019)) 

Shall We Dance (Knives Out (2019)) 

Matchmaker, Matchmaker (Knives Out (2019)) 

I Crave You Close (I Need You Near) (Knives Out (2019)) 

Trust Exercises (Knives Out (2019)) 

All This Time (Knives Out (2019))

Pull Me Out (Knives Out (2019)) 

The Further Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel (The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy) 

The Way You Look Tonight (Knives Out (2019)) 

You're My Sweetheart (Knives Out (2019))

Apologies (Knives Out (2019)) 

That Pivotal Moment (Knives Out (2019))

Hit Me Like A Vision (Knives Out (2019)) 

Shock To My System (Cinderella (2015)) 

Run Into You (Knives Out (2019)) 

Call Me Maybe (Knives Out (2019)) 

Been Thinking 'Bout You Lately (Knives Out (2019)) 

Close To Home (Knives Out (2019)) 

Can I Call You Mine? (Knives Out (2019)) 

The Play's The Thing (Knives Out (2019)) 

An Ever-fixed Mark (Knives Out (2019))

Fathers & Daughters (Knives Out (2019)) 

Remember Me (Knives Out (2019)) 

Let Me Love You (Knives Out (2019))

Can We Make This Dream Last Forever? (Knives Out (2019)) 

Wishing You Every Happiness (Knives Out (2019)) 

Possibilities (Knives Out (2019)) 

Divergent Thinking (Knives Out (2019))

Are You Going To Kiss Me Or Not? (Knives Out (2019)) 

You Are Mine (To Keep Warm) (Knives Out (2019)) 

I Just Wanna Be Where You Are (Knives Out (2019)) 

Somebody To Lean On (Knives Out (2019)) 

Always On My Mind (Knives Out (2019)) 

Very First Page (Knives Out (2019)) 

All Your Perfect Imperfections (Knives Out (2019)) 

Baby, Baby, Baby (Knives Out (2019))

Lessons (Knives Out (2019)) 

In The Middle (Knives Out (2019)) 

Tale As Old As Time (Knives Out (2019)) 

All My Stars (Knives Out (2019)) 

Giving Love in a Family Dose (Knives Out (2019)) 

If My Heart Was A House (You'd Be Home) (Knives Out (2019)) 

Sleuths (Knives Out (2019)) 

To Become Yourself (Maleficent (Disney Movies)) 

Let Me See You Through (Princess Tutu)

O Tannenbaum (Little Women (1994)) 

We Are Stars (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (TV))

Time To Lose Yourself (In A Morning Star) (Wonder Woman (Movies - Jenkins)) 

Favorite Fic:

I’m going to cheat and pick a series, rather than a fic, Some Kind of Wonderful, my Cablanca Single Dad ‘verse. I feel somewhat justified as if I was better at longfic, it probably would have been one story instead of a one shot series. It’s not quite done, although we’re definitely in the home stretch. It started from a conversation with @maplesyrupao3, who graciously allowed me to claim and run with her idea. :D I’ve so enjoyed writing this AU and am excited for the stories that should be posted soon. 

Hardest Fic: 

I’m going to say So Close (Was Waiting Here With You), my Frozen Enchanted fusion. Besides being my longest fic this year, I had actually finished it, and then right before posting the last chapter or so, I lost what I had written. It kind of threw a wrench in the works. I didn’t want to rewrite it at first, so I put it off and then I got sucked into the Cablanca hyperfixation and then a pandemic happened. I want to go back and finish it, and that’s a goal for 2021. 

Do you plan on taking prompts in 2021?

I do, although, as always, no promises, but prompts are always welcome. :D

What was the best thing about 2020?

Writing wise, I wrote much more than last year, and even in previous years, both word count wise and story quantity wise. I also hit 200 fanfics posted on ao3 since I started posting in 2012, along with over 100k for this year’s word count around the same time, which felt pretty good. Most of this can be blamed on my Cablanca obsession earlier this year, which is coming back, which honestly, I was not expecting. It’s nice, though. 

What was the worst thing about 2020?

Yeah, I’m going to skip that one. 

 Any last thoughts for 2020?

This has been a year and then some and I know that it being 2021 now won’t automatically change things for the better, but it does feel kind of nice to have this year behind us. Even with the struggles, I feel good about my writing this year, and hope to carry that feeling forward into 2021. 

Goals for 2021:

I’m continuing a couple of goals from last year. 

Finish a few WIPs/hiatused fics that are left hanging

Use smaller goals to get help me started on writing sessions (ex: write 100 words, write for 10 minutes)

Comment more consistently on fics I read

[real-fakedoors]

star-crossed just hit 1,000 kudos!

(klance / cinderella AU / fantasy & medieval elements)

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR AMAZING LOVE AND SUPPORT.

like, just, wow.

I never thought this story would amass such a loving audience and im humbled everyday when i log into AO3 and see the steady uptick in kudos, comments, bookmarks all of it. I check the stats on this fic religiously and I promise if you’ve even VIEWED the fic I’ve noticed, I watch it that closely. thank you, from the very bottom of my heart; there aren’t adequate words to express my gratitude.

I wanted to at least share something to mark this milestone, so here is the working introduction to the second installment. I’m so excited to get some of my other projects finished so I can dive back into this. :)

Lance had heard his fair share of folk tales from his Mamá, about people who rise above the station of their birth, about triumphing against bitter odds, about falling in love and living happily ever after. He remembered a lot of awfully convenient montages, glossing over the finer details of consequences. What happened to the villains? Did they get thrown in jail? Executed? Or what about the hero’s best friend, ex-lover, family—do they miss the hero once they go on to live their big, exciting lives, or is it always a happily ever after?

Maybe those are just the stories people like to tell. The stories people like to remember, where everyone is happy and the bad things only happen to bad people.

Most of the tales Lance knew didn’t tell him what happened when people are stuck living in the poverty they were born into, no matter how hard they try to get out of it; or what happens when the odds are not in the hero’s favor; or how love is so painfully unconditional, and impossible to explain, and that it could kill you much faster than any magical weapon or poisoned apple if you let it.

He was staring at the pages of an old tome, thick but well-maintained, the pages all in decent shape. It had been pulled from the archives by Sir Coran before he and the others returned to Altea, and Lance had found himself zoning out on the image of a pretty blonde human in the arms of her pretty human Prince Charming.

A weird thought occurred to him: would stories be written about Keith, like this one? It was easy to forget that Keith was indeed a figure of legends, would be memorialized like all the Princes and Queens and rulers that came before him.

Would people make up harrowing things to say about them?

Lance almost laughed out loud before turning the page. “Pfft. No.”

Because, first of all, Prince Charming? Out of the long list of words Lance would use to describe his fiancé, charming was not really one of them. Irritable, thoughtful, and just mullet, to name a few.

 and, a few other small things to share in celebration, I’ve included two scenes beneath the cut

deleted scene from epilogue pt. 2 untitled dream sequence from the second installment

deleted scene from epilogue, pt. 2 conversation between paladins, Allura and Coran keith POV

[Allura continued.] “I want to give you the best answer available, I need to have all the information surrounding this whole mess first. For that to happen…” she sighed, a sound of abrupt sadness slipping through a clearly, if not expertly, worn façade. “I need to ask you all a favor, but once again, unfairly, much of the burden for this falls to Lance. It is of paramount importance that you tell me exactly what transpired between you and Lotor, starting from the first night he approached you.”

The tan-skinned teenager blinked a few times, and Keith thought he looked paler than when he and Shiro first arrived. Gently, he gave Lance’s hand a little squeeze. “Oh. Umm. I mean, I can, I just -- what do you need to know?”

Fingers steepled in front of her nose, the Princess sighed. “As much as you feel you’re comfortable sharing, I suppose, but I would say the more the better. I just don’t know enough of what the Galra have planned, or if this is connected to Zarkon, Lotor, the witch -- none of them, all of them?” she sounded unusually frustrated, a fist coming down on the table. The mouses scurried towards different paladins, leaving the two Alteans to stare at each other. Keith didn’t mind the mouse, but he did glower at Allura -- she didn’t mean anything by it, he knew, but perhaps the nonverbal warning would be enough to have her compose herself. No need to project her anger towards Keith’s fiancé.

“I — I mean, I can try, some of the stuff Lotor said was really…” he paused to bite his lip, and Keith felt a strange twist in his stomach when Lance’s eyes darted anxiously towards him. “It was sort of… personal. I was kind of trying to forget about it, to be honest. Thinking about it makes me… I don’t know, I can tell you if you think it’s important, but it might...make you mad?”

By the end, Lance wasn’t talking to Allura anymore, and Keith’s hand was moving before he could really think about it.

“Hey, stop that,” the Prince said, brushing his thumb over the abused skin of Lance’s bottom lip so he might stop with the self-harming habit. “Don’t bottle things up for my benefit. If you have something you want to say, say it. I can’t promise I won’t get mad, but I can promise I’ll get over it.”

Shiro barely concealed his snort with a cough. “Wow, Keith, that might be the most mature thing you’ve ever said.”

Keith attempted to kick Shiro under the table. “Fuck you, old man.”

That made Lance laugh, and while Pidge made a point to do a loud gagging demonstration, it did little to distract from the simple pleasure Keith felt at being responsible for eliciting such a pretty sound from his fiancé.

Lance’s shoulders were still visibly tense, but he didn’t look quite as uneasy about the subject when he met Allura’s steely, blue-soulfire gaze. “Okay. I guess, what, start from the third night of the ball? That’s when I really interacted with Lotor. A little on the second night, but he was mostly just being a dick.”

Nodding, the Princess gestured for Coran to take a seat beside her. A writing utensil and fresh piece of parchment seemed to materialize in the advisors’ hand.

“Queen Krolia has managed to supply some basic information on what happened when you and Lotor spoke privately in the infirmary, but due to the nature of your healing, the resources expended on gathering testimony, and all the other din of these past few quintant, it doesn’t appear you’ve given any sort of statement about what you and Lotor talked about -- the night of the peace summit, and then explicitly what was discussed that night in the infirmary. I know this is asking a lot, but it’s important that we’re all on the same page if we’re to try to fight whatever this is.”

“I — well — I guess I just hadn’t thought about, like, talking to anyone about it, like in a reporting-way.” He looked thoughtful for a moment before choosing a place to begin. “The night of the peace accord thing, he said I had to dance with him, or he was going to tell the realm that I was in a relationship with Keith. In retrospect, it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but he had… framed it… in a sort of shitty way.”

“Meaning?”

Lance swallowed, his hold on Keith’s hand slipping away as his complexion took on a rosy tint. “Uhh… well, he said, um… like, it was insulting to me to, ya know, sleep with Keith. He said I could do a lot better… and obviously implied that he was the better option. Like, it would have been a big scandal or something for both Keith and you, since, like, both of you were still supposed to be getting married at the time? That’s about when Coran showed up. Oh, and er, he also saiiiiiid…” his voice turned sing-songy, face even redder. “That I was special, and uh, that he would find a way to ‘make me his,’ basically no matter what. He said ‘Keith is your price’, which like, I don’t know if I’m super okay with the idea of talking about myself in those terms, but… I didn’t really have a good comeback that wouldn’t put both your reputations in jeopardy, so I just didn’t answer.”

From the side of the table, Hunk looked like he wanted to reach over and scoop Lance up like a baby. “Buddy...”

Lance cleared his throat, staring at Coran’s hand as it flew over the page, not meeting anyone’s eye. “I’m fine, Hunk. The next time I saw him was after everything, I was in that private room Sir Adam let me use. I woke up, and I was just like, bam, on the ground. It was sort of dizzying and I hadn’t been sleeping super well so I guess, I just didn’t know how to react at first. He told me back talk wasn’t —” A pause, and Lance pursed his lips. “He told me not to talk and to just listen. So, ya know, I wasn’t in a position to fight him, so I did as he said. I mean, my back was exposed and he basically was standing on me so I didn’t have a choice.”

Lance sat up, back arching a bit as he ran his hands through his hair. Keith noticed his fingers were shaking when he pulled them back down and into his lap again. Silently, the Prince was simmering beneath the surface, his blood hot and roaring in his ears. The edge of his vision had tinted red.

“And then there was a lot of the same stuff again. He was super fixated on the fact that I was with Keith. I don’t know, I feel like he jumped around a lot, because after that there was this big monologue about how the realm was about to go to war. And that no matter what happened, as long as... I was alive, there would be a war… unless I became one of his ‘consorts.’ I know, it was really fucked up.” Lance added the last sentence quickly, arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Um. He went through this whole list, pretty much. He said Daibaazal would absorb Olkarion, and then Altea would be next or something. And that his dad is on some super fucked up power trip, feeling like he’s not important anymore with Marmora and Altea around. And that the guy who had the bomb, he asked me if I saw him -- I did. He looked… Olkari, but Lotor seemed like he expected that? Like, he said it was probably an Altean shape-shifted as an Olkari. Um… what else… oh, yeah. Um. He gave me an ultimatum, and said if I didn’t go along with him, my choices were:” Lance began ticking them off on his fingers, one by one. “Let Zarkon kill me, like, I think he said make an example or maybe a martyr of me or something; make a statement that I was the one who set off the bomb so I might not get literally murdered by his Dad, instead, I would, hah --” he let out a humorless chuckle -- “I could just fucking hang for it instead. How messed up is that? Or I could let the realm go to war if I stayed in Marmora. Or, lastly, I could agree to be his -- his personal bitch, basically. I don’t know what goes into being a consort but I have an idea, and I -- yeah. I didn’t have much of a choice, though I told him to fuck off and that I’d rather let Zarkon kill me with his bare hands than spend another second with him.”

Keith had never in his life tried so hard to control the devastatingly violent impulse of his Galra heritage, but his gums tingled with the insistent pressure of fangs pushing against his mouth. Even the skin of his fingers felt strange, like he could so easily just let go of his control and the tips could sharpen into claws in seconds if he let them.

Breaking Lotor’s wrist now felt pathetically underwhelming. He should have just killed him. The realm would have been better for it.

“Anyway... Lotor wasn’t super happy about that, I know, shocker. And he basically said he would buy my family, you know, since we’re all fucking slaves or whatever, if I didn’t do what he said. I didn’t -- I didn’t know what to do. I want to say I would never agree to that but just, f-fuck, I’m sorry.” Lance’s voice cracked at the end, the sound of tears edging into his tone. His arms, already folded over his chest, tightened. “So, yeah. That’s when the Queen showed up.”

“Stars above, I’m so… sorry. I had no idea it was that severe.” Allura sounded disturbed, and both Hunk and Pidge were exchanging nervous glances with each other. Keith couldn’t see Shiro, seeing as he was turned to face Lance, who was staring down at the box on the table in front of him with a clenched jaw and dry eyes.

“I’m okay,” Lance said for the second time, and some of the immediate emotion had drained from his voice. “Keith’s mom showed up before I had to agree to anything. That’s all that happened with Lotor, though. The only other thing was the vision-dream thing I had with Blue… I told you guys about that while Keith was getting his stitches, right?”

Various people nodded, and Keith vaguely remembered hearing Lance’s voice, too-loud to be speaking to people nearby but that was just how Lance was, somewhere off to his side. He made a mental note to ask him to re-explain the details to that later.

“...So, yeah. That’s all I can really remember. I don’t remember Lotor mentioning anything about Oriande or any of this stuff.”

“Yes, well,” the Princess laid out both her hands on the table, and as if a silent call, all four mice returned to her in a sudden rush of paws and squeaks. “I’m not sure of anything at this point, but I am near certain that this is the witch’s doing at minimum. Whether it is Zarkon or Lotor who she is aiding, we will still have to consider all of this information. The fact that Lotor seemed to find it unacceptable that you die, so much so that he was willing to blackmail you, leads me to believe he might be more invested in this than I had previously thought. It could have been his pathetic attempt at courtship, but I’m not sure. Whatever it is, the reality is the same: something is happening to the realm, and if more corruption like that we saw earlier from that Beast spread, I fear the whole realm may be in danger. For now, we will have to continue to gather information, try to understand what exactly they’re planning.”

unpublished from part 2:

untitled dream sequence

lance POV

His legs weren’t working properly.

Lance felt them buckling, like his torso and arms and head and heart were weighed down by the entire universe. Why? Why couldn’t he use his legs? He wasn’t even standing, so the fact that his dumb legs weren’t working seemed especially frustrating to him. Laying on his stomach, Lance pushed himself up to a sit-up, the bottom half of his body utterly useless at the moment. Ugh.

Someone was calling his name, but the voice was warbled and hard to place, like he’d been trapped beneath the ice of a lake and there was someone pounding on the other side, trying to find him.

Craning his neck, it was with a small start that he realized he knew this place, dark and infinite and magnificent in every direction, but he couldn’t move. What was it called? Why couldn’t he remember? Blue told him about it...

“Blue? Blue, are you here?” He turned, annoyed by his lack of motion, but blinked in surprise at the sight of something much, much bigger than the little kitten he was expecting.

Lance’s mouth dropped open, but no sound came out.

It was the single most beautiful, overwhelming things he’d ever seen.

About fifteen paces away, a massive tree sprouted from the ground, crowded by iridescent leaves. There was no breeze that he could feel on his face or brushing through his hair, but the leaves danced and shimmered anyway. A million colors, reds and blues and greens and whites and yellows -- and every color in between, peach and cream and mahogany and turquoise and blush and lavender -- colors that he didn’t even have names for, was pretty sure weren’t even on the real spectrum of light, all glittering crystal-bright in the dark expanse of the empty space around him. In every direction, the ground was the black surface of an endless ocean, rippling when Lance moved but otherwise flawlessly reflective. It sent back an inversion of the same sight, an overwhelming sense of purity, of flawlessness, of flowing sublimity with the roots at the center.

Lance couldn’t breathe, awestruck.

What was it? Why was it here?

Oh, gods. Lance used to believe people had always been dramatic when they heard a song or saw a painting so beautiful that they were brought to tears, but this was his comeuppance for that attitude, evidently. His cheeks were wet, and the corners of his eyes were pulsing light blue.

This was definitely some sort of… something otherworldly. Magical.

Shit. Shit, shit, uhhh, fuck, this was probably important, wasn’t it? Was this some sort of dream-vision thing? In his stream of consciousness, dream-Lance tried to will himself to summon a dream-roll-of-parchment and a dream-inkpot, but all that amounted to was making him strangely dizzy.

After attempting to summon things, and dealing with the subsequent disappointment, Lance hauled himself up as best as he could with his hands, sort of like a mix between a push-up and an army crawl.

Chewing his lip, Lance eyed the immaculate branches, overlapping but never touching, a faultless flow of leaves brushing back in forth, almost lazily.  It was a sort of breathtaking, heart-stopping, gun-wrenching sort of beauty.

Blinding, almost.