#obviously not long for a fic

[hiding-under-the-willow]

He's so horrible and scary and sad. And so obviously I love him and he's my favorite <3

@silverskye13 Your horrid little knight

[justaz]

king merlin after meeting lady guinevere and sir lancelot’s baby and falling in love: arthur. i want a baby.

king arthur, not looking up from his paperwork: …what?

merlin: give me a baby.

arthur, sighing: merlin, you studied to be a physician. i don’t think i have to be the one to tell you how impractical that is.

merlin, rolling his eyes: this is why i’m the brighter side of the coin

arthur, finally looking up: wha-

queen merlin using magic to transform her body: i. want. a. baby.

arthur:

arthur:

arthur: *stands up from his desk so fast his chair topples over, multiple parchments flutter to the ground, his tunic is already off*

[steviewashere]

Mmmmm

"Losing My Religion" by R.E.M.

A Steddie break-up fic where Steve, hopeless romantic Steve, is in a whirlwind romance with Eddie. And Eddie who finally gets his big break and plans to leave Hawkins in the rear view. It starts slowly, just little things Steve doesn't take to heart: Eddie getting distracted in the middle of a cuddle session or a kiss or even sex, Eddie pulling away quicker (but he's still loving on Steve so he doesn't really care), maybe cancelling more on their date nights or claiming that he's got plans already made with the Corroded Coffin boys.

And then the space between them just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and Steve is left behind in the dust. Abandoned again. He's always looking to Eddie, but Eddie's not looking back. They're arguing more. There's a knot, a strain weighing on their relationship.

When Steve begins to pull back, Eddie barely puts in the effort to keep him tethered. And Steve, gullible and hopeless romantic Steve, lets Eddie get away with it. Because any attention is better than none. Even if he's going to bed alone every night, waking up to a going cold space beside him. Even if he's biting his fist during an argument, saving the tears for a quick shower. Even if he has to choke back on his emotions, because any big outbursts he thinks will push Eddie further away. Will spiral them out farther.

But then Eddie just abruptly leaves. Leaves their life, their friends, Hawkins as a whole. And Steve has to get his number through Wayne, who thought the boys were still together.

And it's not until Eddie answers with a, "Hello? Oh—hold on, babe, somebody's on the phone," that Steve finally puts two and two together. They aren't even dating anymore. He hangs up before say anything.

Eddie's left with the distant sound of somebody breathing on the other side and the dial tone. Never to hear from Steve again.

...anyway!

[landinrris]

Football AU: In which Carlos is a Premier League football player and Lando is his long-term boyfriend who owns a pottery business.

[funkylittlelurker]

Crackpot theory I quit literally came up with just now.

They're gonna introduce Amy in S4, that's a given. And I know people really want Silver. Like, really want him.

So what if it was both?

This is what I came up with.

They intro Amy. Yada Yada. She goes on and on about this wretched man in purple who is on a mission to rule the world. She immediately recognizes Sonic, and seems to think he's going to save the world or something. She also mentions that she got a lot of cool gadgets from Tails, including her hammer. Tails is... Confused. Really everyone is confused. Hijinks ensue.

Meanwhile, Stone has become a psudeo villian. That one interpretation where he just wants to finish Robotnik's work. Bid sad wet cat energy. Sonic goes to check up on him, thinking 'Hey, Eggman tried to take over the world once, what's twice? Also, didn't he come back from the dead that one time?' Stone is less than enthused. Obviously the Doctor is still dead, idiot. He talks about how he just wants to complete the doctors work, and he just wants to be left alone. Sonic is weirdedout by his sadness and ditches.

Hijinks galore! Amy is trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to get Sonic to stop 'the man in purple', while Sonic just wants to chill. And what do you mean Stone is doing legit scary evil stuff?

Oop. We pan in on Robotnik, still alive. He's as confused as we are. A shadow looms over him.

'as if that's what I wanted, more hedgehogs'

He scoffs.

What do ya know, Silver saved him from the ark explosion! Cause he wants to stop the end of the world. Also this weird man in purple.

So Rob recovers, and Stone gets more evil, and Sonic is tired.

Somehow, someway, there's a big climatic scene, and the three groups meet each other.

Amy and Silver freak, cause that's not just 'Agent Stone', that's 'The Man in Purple'. Rob freaks cause, what do you mean his agent is like this because of him? And Stone freaks cause, well, the Doctor's alive!

Yada Yada, Stone and Rob become the campey evil yaoi couple everyone wants

Haven't quite figured it out 100% yet, but this is a good starting point, yeah? I wanna write this.

I'm gonna write it.

[turtleplushi]

I need to stop drawing them my god

[anistarrose]

after Story and Song, the non-Magnus members of the IPRE plus Carey and Killian start packing bags for their big group adventure of Killing Governor Kalen As Dead As Possible, and some of the people who aren't as desensitized as Merle and Taako are to Angus being at murder scenes express some apprehension about the eleven year old coming along for this one. Merle and Taako instead claim they don't want Angus to come because they think he'll snitch (Taako is exaggerating slightly to get a rise out of Angus, but no one can quite tell if Merle means it).

Angus assures them that of course he agrees this is a morally justified murder, and therefore not one to snitch about, but he really wants to come because even in all his years as a homicide detective, he almost never gets to watch murders be committed with his own two eyes! just think of the learning opportunity, sirs! it's not every day I get such an ethically defensible chance to study murdering techniques so up close and personal!

eventually Lucretia sits him down. she gently points out that due to the number of people involved, and those people's particular skillsets, Kalen is going to be murdered in a fashion that not one single person on Faerun has ever been murdered in before or ever will be murdered in again.

and sure enough, when Kalen is stabbed with eighteen knives, immolated in fire, shot full of enough crossbow bolts that they look like turkey feathers, suffocated in an impenetrable magical bubble, impaled by the divine spear of Della Reese, bitten in half by Dupree the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and run over by a literal spaceship all before being resurrected as a zombie to do it all over again... Angus has to agree. she had a point.

however, he does sit his assorted parents down afterwards, and gently asks if they've ever heard of an "alibi" or "reasonable doubt" in their lives. why were you so concerned about me snitching, sir? how was bringing the planar system's only spaceship not snitching on yourself?!

[anghraine]

Further contemplated the femslash Spirk concept while I was going to sleep, inevitably, and concluded:

I am perfectly aware this has been done before in the last, you know, nearly 60 years of this ship's towering fandom influence; I've definitely seen art and cosplay. However, I'm deliberately insulating myself from reading any other versions until the finer details are more nailed down in my own head.

McCoy is definitely still a man (specifically DeForest Kelley c. TOS) because it only later occurred to me that 1) thematically, I definitely prefer this trio as a mixed gender group and 2) the advocate for emotion and instinct and human warmth being a male doctor and the voice of logic and discipline being a woman and technically his superior pleases me greatly. I also like the McCoy-Kirk brotp as a male-female friendship that is intense, complex, and 100% platonic.

I'm still figuring out how Kirk being repeatedly menaced by the woman of the week would pan out with f!Kirk. With m!Kirk it feels like the show pushes him having an irresistible appeal to women in general (regardless of the woman's morality) that is where this ultimately comes from, but he's got a lot of Odysseus tropes to him as a character that make his femme fatale allure and willingness to use it as a tool more interesting than as the inevitable fate of a female space captain. Also, even in a femslash context, it feels homophobic for it to always be women sexually harassing f!Kirk.

Kirk's going to be Jessica instead of my original idea of Deborah. I was thinking of what would be a sturdy, ordinary name in the Midwest comparable to James that would also abbreviate conveniently to a common short form (Jim / Deb / Jess). I wanted the shortened version to be something that could carry the emotional weight of Spock's very occasional "Jim" without feeling that the nickname itself is more significant than Jim is for a dude from Iowa. I also wanted to avoid the -y/-ie endings of so many English nicknames (sorry, Francophones). Deb seemed to work well enough, except I'd forgotten that I have a considerably older family friend who not only uses Deb (and is named Deborah) but happens to have very similar coloring and background to young Shatner. As I was plotting the femslash, the association with her felt increasingly weird and uncomfortable, so I switched to Jessica (chosen for reasons largely unrelated to it also beginning with J, but that helps!).

Does Jessica Kirk wear the miniskirt and go-go boots while issuing non-negotiable orders from her captain's chair? Definitely.

[phoenixtakaramono]

(Illustration drawn in 2022)

The Boys S4 Sneak Peek (2024)

*surprised Pikachu face*

[babychosen]

serendipity (Ch. 1/3, 2631 words) by Anonymous

Rating: Mature

Pairing: Angela Giarratana/Amanda Lehan-Canto

Summary: Two strangers, a kiss cam, and a free romantic getaway - what could go wrong?

i would like to dedicate this to (or just shoutout) the following people:

@sage-lights, @unknownteapot, @xxsuicidalravenxx, @okiankeno, @poppyfamily, and @shesmore-shoebill

big BIG thank you to all of you for writing fic and being supportive of this little amangela community. i would have quit fic a long time ago if it weren't for all of you incredibly kind folks and your inspiring works (and words!!)

[groovinrightalong]

What do you mean if I’d held out one more day I would’ve updated for Mike birthday

New chapter up🫡

[barrencelenny]

coldflash fics 2024 wrap up!

I spend too much time hanging around in the coldflash tag on ao3 so here's some data I gathered on the fics published this year!

a total of 171 works published/updated by 87 writers (+orphaned and anonymous authors). it brings the total fics in the tag up to 4991 fics, we're almost at 5000! this is a total of approximately 2,924,914 words, which is over 1.5 times the entire ASOIAF series lol (technically this is an overestimate because I didn't bother excluding word counts of longfic chapters published before 2024 whoops)

34 people published a coldflash fic for the first time this year! welcome, we are very happy to have you :)

14 people published fics in a language other than English (5 Russian, 2 French, 2 Spanish, 2 Chinese, 1 Hungarian, 1 Portuguese, 1 Czech)

16-ish cross over fics (obviously this ship has way more crossovers than usual because len goes over to the legends so I didn't count those, but I DID count those highschool/college/groupchat/watch the show au's where every arrowverse/dcu character is chucked into one fic as a crossover) (my post my rules lmao)

1 podfic, 1 fic set in someone else's fic, and 2 translated fics! the transformative works are getting transformed :D

8 gifted works. much generosity, very wow

most fics: 🥇Lady_Meg_666 with 20 fics 🥈SoftBoyDepot with 10 fics🥉BeauregardsTaxicab with 7 fics

highest word count: 🥇 BeauregardsTaxicab with a total of 519,382 words 🥈alex_jude with a total of 155,458 words🥉MK_Morreaux with a total of 95,957 words

longest fic (began prior to 2024): 🥇Arrowverse watching arrowverse with 381,534 words 🥈That Rare Arctic Thunderstorm with 233,199 words🥉Just for a Second with 118,757 words

longest fic (began 2024):🥇Mr. Blue Sky with 268,722 words 🥈There Are Some Strings on Me with 124,404 words 🥉 This Is What You Came For with 107,485 words

oldest fic writers: 🥇 moriavis first published 25 December 2015 and published 07 February this year 🥈coldflasher first published 28 September 2016 and published 17 December this year 🥉n_a_feathers first published 02 October 2016 and updated 12 May this year

funniest tags goes to "Canon is an Ecclesiastical term and I am a heretic," "Slow Burn but just the feelings part they're having sex the whole time," and "Barry Keeps Learning Things About Himself"

least funny tag goes to "no beta we die like Leonard snart" WHY WERE THERE TWO FICS WITH THIS STOP I'LL CRY

most use of taylor swift lyrics as titles goes to alex_jude with three fics. literally no one else is competing in this category lol

thank you to all the fic writers who kept me well fed this year love you <3

[lucabyte]

i am looking at nohats au 👀 please share more

So! NoHats! I'm going to grab you and use this to ramble. A Lot.

The NoHats AU is @samhainian's it's just that I'm the strange little freak who takes the words said unto me and executes on them. But I can still do a little explainer on what our overall thoughts and vibes are. (And, that we are in fact propping up a little box with some cheese under it here. 🪤 Please (PLEASE) feel free to pick up what we're putting down.)

We're far from the only ones exploring a "what if siffrin fucking died" AU, though the main difference with NoHats is the placement of the death in the timeline. Instead of being 'Mal Du Pays Wins' or 'Act 6 encounter goes horribly wrong', the death is… Just after the (literal) falling action.

(This placement is because Sam is a comic book fan who thus has become used to characters being ripped away at the cruelest times by shitty writers. THANK FUCKING GOD adrienne is not that and isat is delightful yippieee, but, back on topic.)

Giving the party the full understanding of What Happened that you get by putting the death after black hole siffrin, but before the A6 encounter leaves an interesting gap to be filled. See, making Siffrin's death very much not Loop's fault means that… this once again reads (when not read as simply a tragedy...) as the universe doing what it sees fit to fulfull Loop's wish… Thus making Siffrin's death Loop's fault again, but only in their eyes. And only in a way they could express if they were honest about who they were…

And this is where having had excuse to waffle about my general Postcanon Loop thoughts the other day comes in handy, because Sam and I have that as our canon-compliant reading to begin with, NoHats plays off of a lot of the same readings of Loop's character. Namely: Uh Oh Somebody's Lying By Fucking Omission Again. (BECAUSE TO BE FAIR THIS TIME… HOW THE FUCK WOULD YOU HANDLE THAT?)

Now, neither Sam nor I are fanfic writers, so this has been a little bit trapped in our heads and DMs (and my unfinished art but,)

But our thoughts on how NoHats like… Goes.

Siffrin's death is peaceful, but that does not mean the aftermath of it is. I can't imagine the party takes it well, especially after understanding the circumstances of the Loops. (And, of note, in A5 where nobody had the discussion on what to do with each other's bodies should something happen…) But I'd imagine it traumabonds them somewhat (understatement of the century) and now knowing how the rest of the party feels, they resolve to travel together for the forseeable future.

The party track down Loop to deliver the terrible news, since they were clearly Siffrin's friend too, and invite Loop along to travel at least long enough to (let them grieve) get the burial over with. Loop, here, can be helpful in knowing what Siffrin would've wanted where the party would be at a loss. Loop, I think, takes a bit of a lead on the funerary aspects of it all, because, um. (Performing rites on your own body, huh?)

Then, as things are after a death, life just… Kind of has to continue on as normal. The party travel, pick up Nille, and get to know Loop as this mysterious new person. Maybe in this situation they might stay in Bambouche for a while to give Bonnie more stability since. They are probably taking it the worst. It would've come out of absolutely nowhere for everyone in the party obviously but god, for a kid? For A Kid?

It should be stated NoHats is not intended to be grimdark, just y'know. An exploration of grief. This is also why it's got a bit of a lopsided focus on Bonnie vs the rest of the party because hhrrhghghhghghhhghhghhh <- incoherent

Now, a crossroads.

How does the party discover Loop to be Siffrin? How long does it take. How much have the party embraced them as part of the family (especially with something as intense to bond over as this)?

There's the Odile option. Have her put it together and have to bring it up somehow. This could also be done by Isabeau, perhaps. He's smart. (which. God. If anything's the real Isabeau Torment Nexus it's this)

Then there's the other option batted around by Sam and I. The: The Universe Dislikes Duplicates option.

The items in the house that fzzt away when inspected. The Universe doesn't like there to be two of something, at least not when they're acknowledged. But one of something is just fine…?

Which is to say. I'm not a personal proponent of 'Loop getting their body back'. EXCEPT …… except this one time.

There's only one Siffrin now, so they don't need to be obfuscated to exist.

Consider, if you will. Loop swallowing their guilt for long enough to be comfortable. Falling back into old habits. Without another Siffrin around to compete for the niche of, they actually begin to act like Siffrin again. Not intentionally, it's just… The party is as welcoming as they've always been. And the party swears they keep catching glimpses of a face under all the light.

Then, one day, while still not fully human again, the resemblence becomes undeniable. Loop having not even noticed until everyone looks at them like they've seen a ghost.

Has it been months? How long have they kept up this lie? Is it even a lie, to them? They're Loop. But they were, once, Siffrin.

Even after explaining it, does that make it better or worse?

Bonnie cuts through the betrayed, struck-nerve reactions with a sobering "I missed you."

… Anyway !

Yeah so that's the vibe for NoHats. As for LoopLoops? That's more nebulous. I think it can go anywhere really in the NoHats timeline. I err personally toward the "Loop continuously replays the last 10 minutes before Siffrin's death almost immediately after they find out and have to parkour their ass up the House in the most distressing situation possible to try and get them to hold on, just please hold on." (Remember! Siffrin can remember the contents of Loop's loop backs in the A6 fight!)

But there is the possibility that this happens months, or worse years down the road. One last Loop back. Throw it all away for the chance to just get that one thing you didn't know you even wanted but now know you NEED.

Misc:

Okay miscellaneous time.

This is where I admit that I have a bunch of unfinished NoHats art that I haven't gotten around to yet because I feel like a right tool being so obviously Loop-Centric with my fancontent (I AM . . I REALISE I AM NOT DOING MUCH TO BEAT THE ALLEGATIONS.) So like if people want to see that please say because euaghghghhfh <- the nervous.

this is like the most fucked up place to do isaloop fr. anyway.

one of Sam's mid-game observations that I'm just going to share for no particular reason is that Bonnie's hair shares a bunch of shapes with Siffrin's. The flick up at the top, the 3 pronged shape of the fringe… just something to think about.

Without 2 Siffrins around to compare each other to it'd likely be a lot harder to notice Loop's similarities. Doesn't mean that those similarities don't sting more in this context though.

If you do NoHats without LoopLoops. The concept of this all fading into memory years down the line while they just have slightly-glowy but otherwise regular Siffrin hanging out is fucked up to think about. Just like real grief. Augh

6. a peek into the original dms as a treat from us

[timelessdragonlord]

AO3 summer stats are out. MERLIN STANS RISE😤 write more fics, one shots and series. Have multiple pairings tagged, make more pairings to tag (ex: George & Brass). It’s time for Merlin to take over AO3 and rise above all the Harry Potter fics.

WE

CAN

DO

THIS

(Merlin is circled in red in the first pic and blue in the second pic)

[sunciv]

noone (and i mean noone) will convince me that this:

wasn't followed by some intense makeout

[lagunaseca2013]

How do you think Marc takes the brews Val is pregnant with his baby?

excellent question, anon! I'm not really sure if this is about reverse omegaverse or post retirement so I'm gonna go w post retirement bc I've been daydreaming about torturing that old man w pregnancy so buckle up!

I mean honestly I think marc is pretty happy! I actually don’t know if he’s talked about it before but he seems to want to start his family after retirement (rosquez soulmatery strikes again) when he can focus on it 100 percent. in this universe I don’t think marc is going to be like suddenly ready to retire just bc he has the ninth and vale is accidentally pregnant, but I think the fact that vale is at least retired and can be fully there for the baby would probably be enough for him to be okay with the situation. vale is also at least tangentially obligated to be at a lot of motogp races by virtue of owning a team and mentoring half the grid so when the baby is old enough he would get to see them a lot more than is maybe standard in this sport. (idk I could be wrong about what’s standard here I got into this like a month and a half ago)

if you���re asking how I think the actual reveal goes, well……..I think it doesn’t go as bad as it could. vale is a fucking mess when luca leaves him home alone to wait for marc. but he’s also like—relieved? at least a little bit, I mean the poor old man has been out of his mind horny and nauseous for weeks at this point and fully just thought he had some kind of mystery terminal illness. a baby isn’t a death sentence. also, he’s already decided he’s keeping it. the doctor tried to hand him an abortion brochure and the idea of it made him sick to his stomach.

obviously none of this was planned so he’s maybe coming at it from a staunchly solo angle of I’m keeping it you can be there for us or go to hell type of thing. marc is completely delighted tho so that doesn’t become an issue. I think they probably don’t have the serious conversation about it that they realllly should (remember marc came to the ranch for the explicit purpose of hammering out the reconciliation bc they’ve just been having tender intimate sex and not discussing it) and instead, you guessed it, have crazy romantic sex. marc is like fully ready to let vale fuck him, gets on his hands and knees at first and vale is like wait, and turns him over and he’s like all I’ve been thinking about for weeks is having you inside me again.

and then marc fucks him in missionary and there’s a lot of breeding kink and possibly saying I love you (rosquez be normal challenge absolute fail) and it’s RAW so marc’s come is like dripping out of him around his cock (he is cockwarming marc soft for emotional reasons). they probably do a lot more fucking, vale sleeps more than he has for the last two months that week (with or without marc inside him teehee) and marc gets to fuss over him and take care of him which is a brand new dynamic for them! pre divorce they didn’t exactly take care of each other, but if anything in the rare moments it was vale taking care of marc by virtue of being fourteen years older etc.

they order every prenatal vitamin that amazon carries and like a billion different baby development books. vale is high risk bc of his age but the ultrasounds and blood work said the baby was healthy and everything looked okay so they don’t have to worry about health stuff quite yet. (keep in mind vale got pregnant at his age on the first try; let’s just say his body has really decided to be equipped for a baby idk none of this has to be real or scientific lol) marc can’t exactly cook but he tries his best and either vale elbows him way from the stove when necessary or they order in and feed each other in bed like disgustingly in love people do.

I think they push the serious conversation off for as long as possible and just sort of live together for as long as they can get away with it. vale knows it’s probably early enough that he can still ride but he’s petrified of something happening to the baby so when they go to the ranch he just watches marc go wild by himself and shouts pointers at him that marc playfully does not listen to. marc is also feeling rather delicate about his health wrt being alive and well for his future baby so he’s playing it pretty safe out there too.

they’re basically having a babymoon phase of only seeing each other, fucking constantly, and lounging around. I have this awesome image of them watching a bunch of pregnancy movies and when they get to juno vale, under full influence of first trimester hormones, sobs through like half of it. marc is bewildered and amused and secretly really happy to be big and strong for vale who he has never seen before vulnerable and soft like this, even before everything. it’s domestic bliss until marc starts getting increasingly annoyed calls from ducati about preseason obligations and vale has also been fending off Uccio and the academy and a billion other people who don’t believe him when he says he’s not sick anymore and just needs some time—omg wait maybe 100km gets canceled, that would be crazy juicy—and the motogp community and media in general thinks vale is dying.

marc is like struggling bc he absolutely does not want to leave vale, in fact he never wants to be without vale ever again, but vale is spooked by the reminder of real world obligations and gets weird and cold. tries to push marc away and insist that he needs to go do his job (he is subconsciously testing marc; if you leave you FAIL) marc is having ptsd flashbacks to the last time he was in tavullia (hello ranch visit trauma) which involved. a lot of the same cold shoulder and manipulation tactics.

it’s a bad time for all! they get into a blowout screaming match where vale tries to kick marc out while literally clutching at his clothes, white knuckled, marc is sobbing and holding vale in a death grip whispering into his neck I won’t leave you please don’t make me go vale I can’t lose you again I promise I’ll do anything I need you both.

the insane “compromise” they end up with is (let’s say ducati make that skiing thing an annual trip) vale GOES WITH MARC to the event and stays with him in the hotel/cabin/whatever (even tho he literally has a house there) and they don’t even try to explain it to anyone in the team. pecco knocking on marc’s door the first morning so they can catch up over breakfast and vale answers, sleep rumpled, wearing one of marc’s tshirts and they both just stare at each other dumbfounded until marc returns from his shower and and smiles all fake at pecco like why are you just standing there weirdos :)) come sit and have an espresso, pecco I’m almost done getting dressed :))

vale calmly makes a nonverbal pecco an espresso and slaps marc’s ass when he bends over to rummage through the one giant luggage that they appear to be sharing. pecco is texting luca paragraphs under the table. it’s absolute fucking scenes when they have the big fancy team dinner with the long tables and marc shows up w vale as his plus one. and vale refuses a glass of champagne for the toast……..