#the goal is to finish all 31 chapters and post one a day for all of October

[underwhelmingalchemist]

When I say I'm bad with fanfic deadlines, I need you to understand that it is May 10th and I'm working on my kinktober fic (unofficial prompts) for this year. And it's still not a guarantee that it'll be done by October

[canonicallyobserving911]

“I’m still in love with you but... I needed to learn how to love myself too!”

Fanonwriter2023 on AO3

Where CANON and FANON collide!

Season 7 FANON Speculation: Buddie Multi-Chapter Fanfic - Hiatus Reading: “I’m still in love with you but... I needed to learn how to love myself too!”

Chapter 33 is now available on AO3.

This is an EPIC LOVE STORY!

“I’m still in love with you but... I needed to learn how to love myself too!”

Currently 33 chapters completed: 1.548M Words; Rated: Mature

Please note: Chapter 33 was so big; I had to divide it into two separate chapters and Chapter 34 will be posted within the next few days. I'm still editing it and it's possible I'll be done with it tomorrow but if not, I'll do my best to post it on Tuesday.

___________

Here are two angsty conversations from Chapter 33. One is between Eddie and Bobby and the other one is between Buck and Bobby.

___________

Eddie

Bobby takes a few seconds and shuffles through some papers and when he looks up, he says, “Thanks Eddie and like I said out there, this won’t take long.  I asked you to meet with me because first I want to inquire about your ACP and CCP studies.  How are you coming along with them?”

“It’s going great and I’m almost halfway through the ACP course and my plan is to finish it by the first week of March and after I finish the final exam, I’ll start working on my CCP.  I looked at the calendar and my goal is to finish it no later than the third week of April.”

“That’s great and thanks for providing the update.  The reason why I asked is because I’m creating the March and April schedules but after speaking with Clarissa Felton, the Critical Care Paramedic Supervisor, I wanted to let you know your schedule will be slightly different from A-shifts.”

~~~

Buck

Since he hasn’t responded, Buck lowers his head and deeply inhales to steady his nerves.  He didn’t want the conversation to go in this direction but now that they’re here, he decides to ask him the one question he didn’t want to mention but it’s all or nothing now so he goes for it.  “Bobby, will you ever see me as someone who could be interim captain so that uh… one day when you retire, I can be promoted to captain of A-shift at the 118?”

He clears his throat as the words he’s about to say taste like ash on his tongue, “Honestly, no because I don’t think you’re ready.”

Buck feels like he’s about to jump out of his skin.  His heart is racing, his chest hurts and his eyes are stinging because Bobby’s response felt like a kick to the chest.  He rapidly blinks to prevent the tears from welling in his eyes because he refuses to let Bobby see him cry.  He’s hurt in more ways than one and he never thought he’d be here in this place where the one person he’s always looked up to inside of the department just crushed his dream and at this moment, he’s 100% positive he’ll never be captain.

Why will Eddie’s schedule be different from A-shifts for his last two months at the 118? 😉

How will Buck respond to Bobby’s answer about him training to be captain of the 118? 🙃

___________

This is an EPIC LOVE STORY!

Fic Summary: Months after Buck and Eddie were hit by the same lightning strike; they’re still struggling with the aftermath of it.  But before they make their love confessions, they’ll spend time getting to know themselves as individuals first. Eddie learns to enjoy the simple things in life as he participates in activities on his own and with new friends while Buck learns the rest of the 31-year-old deep dark family secret about his conception and birth. Their journey to forever is still a work in progress but once they finally admit they’re in love with each other, everything that follows their love confessions will be cataclysmic.

__________

Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1 - Eddie makes a new friend while Buck receives devastating news regarding the sperm donation he made for Connor and Kameron.

Chapter 2 - Buck does a lot of research to learn more about the abnormalities found in his red blood cells and Eddie starts a new therapy journey that’s all about him and not the traumas he’s experienced.

Chapter 3 - After more than a month, Buck and Eddie finally spend time together outside of work but it doesn’t end well and they part with a lot of uncertainty regarding their places in each other’s lives.

Chapter 4 - Eddie has a few realizations about his life which causes him to consider moving back to El Paso, TX while Buck continues to be reminded of his past which causes him to take an impromptu road trip across America.

Chapter 5 - Both Buck and Eddie have difficult conversations with their parents and Buck finally learns the truth behind the reason why his mother despised him while Eddie finally tells his mother about the way she tries to control him.

Chapter 6 - More than two weeks after Buck pushed Eddie away after suggesting they needed a break; Eddie decides to try again. Eddie’s there for Buck when he’s at his worst just like Buck was there for him when he was at his worst and he won’t let Buck give up.

Chapter 7 - After Buck’s mental breakdown, Eddie has his back the same way Buck had his when he had his own breakdown more than a year ago.  They share several vulnerable and emotionally intimate moments with one another and they begin to realize their small, sweet and caring gestures matter just as much if not more than any grand gesture ever could because these are the foundations of a long-lasting love relationship.

Chapter 8 - Buck, Eddie and Chris all have their own therapists and during their sessions, they reflect on their pasts while they’re in the present so they can prepare for their future together as a family.

Chapter 9 - Buck and Eddie are there for each other when Buck has to testify as a witness during the trial.  But by the end of it, they’ll both realize their individual and shared traumas are going to keep resurfacing until they talk about them, deal with the fact that they’re in love with one another and face the fact that they can’t live without each other.

Chapter 10 - As Buck and Eddie finally begin to confront their past traumas, they realize how much they need each other to fill in the gaps of their memories.  Additionally, the universe screams at them for what appears to be the one hundredth time so Buck can realize he doesn’t have to ‘find it’ because he already ‘made it’ and Eddie’s reminded tomorrow isn’t promised and he doesn’t have to die alone if he doesn’t want to.

Chapter 11 - A “virga” or dry thunderstorm is in the forecast but once the rain starts, the thunderstorm happening outside won’t be able to match the storm brewing inside between Buck and Eddie.  It’s the universe’s final scream and when the tumultuous winds begin to blow, they’ll have one last chance to hold onto everything they’ve built over the last six years or they’ll lose it all forever.

Chapter 12 - Buck and Eddie have always shared a deep physical attraction and an emotional intimacy that’s unmatched but now that they’re in a relationship, they’re learning how to navigate the romantic intimacy they’ve been waiting for six years to explore. The love they have for each other is a once in a lifetime, soulmate, love of their lives type of love that transcends space and time.

Chapter 13 - While navigating the newness of their romantic relationship, Buck and Eddie take advantage of every moment they spend together. As their individual lives, people from their pasts, time constraints and the possibility of losing each other again make attempts to interrupt and interfere with their journey to forever, they love, care for, support and hold onto each other even tighter to withstand it all.

Chapter 14 - Buck and Eddie can see the lights at the end of the tunnels regarding the results of Buck’s Cancer Screening along with everything else they’re dealing with. But are the lights they see exits to the tunnels or are they headlights on different runaway trains that are speeding towards them in an effort to interrupt their forever?

Chapter 15 - Buck and Eddie have known they were exactly who the other one wanted in a partner since they met six years ago when they agreed to have each other’s backs. They’re in a romantic relationship, they’re both preparing to ask the other one to spend forever with them and by the end of the seventh week into their relationship, together they will plan their most important and greatest adventure for their future.

Chapter 16 - As Buck and Eddie begin to prepare for their marriage ceremony that will take place in Rome, Italy in December 2023, they start planning their first international adventure as a romantic couple. Even though Chris is still the only person they’ve told about their relationship, several people who know them have already witnessed the love they share and as the days continue, others will witness it too.

Chapter 17 - As Buck and Eddie get closer to departing Los Angeles for their international adventure, a moment in time will remind them; life is fragile, tomorrow isn’t promised and every second of everyday should be cherished because everything can change in an instant. The result of that realization will cause them to hold onto each other even more.

Chapter 18 - As Buck, Eddie and Chris prepare for family gatherings before and during the Thanksgiving holiday, the “Santa Ana Winds” start to blow and all sorts of expected and unexpected familial drama ensues.

Chapter 19 - As Buck and Eddie get closer to their wedding day, the universe begins to align everything so that some of their parent and children's relationships are strengthened while others come to an abrupt end.

Chapter 20 - With only 14 days remaining until Buck, Eddie and Chris depart Los Angeles, CA traveling to Rome, Italy, for their first family adventure, an early morning conversation about “tying up loose ends” helps Buck and Eddie realize there are still several things left unfinished on their ‘To Do’ lists. The question is will there be enough time to complete all of them?

Chapter 21 - Buck, Eddie and Chris are finalizing their ‘To Do’ Lists, double checking their itineraries and packing their suitcases in preparation for their trip to Europe so they can board their flight that departs Los Angeles, CA on Friday, December 15, 2023 at 3:25PM.

Chapter 22 - While Buck, Eddie and Chris spend the first 8 days of their European family adventure in Italy, their primary reason for going will be fulfilled as well as several others they hadn’t considered or anticipated.

Chapter 23 - As the Diaz Family continues their Italian family adventure, they’ll say, “Ciao” or hello and goodbye to a lot of things almost immediately after they become an official and legal family.

Chapter 24 - After Buck, Eddie and Chris arrive in London, England on December 24th; the Diazes immediately start preparing to spend their first family Christmas together. During their stay, each of them will hear a few choice words that will be the life raft to get them home to complete their searches to be seen and to be found.

Chapter 25 - After spending more than two weeks in Europe, Eddie, Buck and Chris are back in Los Angeles and they’re getting ready to attend Maddie and Chimney’s New Year’s Eve party. During the event, they have plans to make two surprise announcements but the question is, who’s really going to be surprised, the Diaz family or their found family at the 118?

Chapter 26 - Buck and Eddie are once again faced with their greatest fear of losing each other but this time it could be permanent and if it is, then they won’t be able to spend the rest of their lives together.

Chapter 27 - After Buck resumes therapy, he’ll continue to face the fact that he “DIED” in March 2023 and during those sessions, he’ll learn about the 7 stages of grief. As he continues his healing journey, Eddie will be right by his side just like he promised and the Diaz family will start to deal with their three minutes and seventeen seconds loss as a family.

Chapter 28 - Two years ago, Eddie was asked, “What are you afraid of?”; twice, once by Frank and once by Buck but he only answered one of them without deflecting. Since that time, he’s been to therapy and him and Buck got married but the question resurfaces when Frank asks Buck the same question and Buck asks it of Eddie for the second time. However, when Buck asks, his reasoning will be about something else entirely.

Chapter 29 - After Buck and Eddie have an emotionally intimate conversation regarding their dreams, they make several decisions that will affect their future. When everything falls into place, they’ll realize one of those decisions will result in them no longer being work partners.

Chapter 30 - In 2018, Buck and Eddie met at the 118 and after some initial apprehensions on Buck’s part, they became work partners and they agreed to have each other’s backs. It’s been more than 6 ½ years, a lot’s happened, they got married in December 2023 and they have the family they both chose. With Eddie leaving the 118 in 3 months and Buck getting closer to moving past his grief, what will him losing his work partner mean for him?

Chapter 31 - As Buck’s life hangs in the balance from what’s suspected to be another bradycardia event, Eddie’s by his bedside, their son is being cared for by relatives and their found family is in the waiting room. During this time, many questions will surface that could possibly lead to the truth but will everything be revealed before it’s too late?

Chapter 32 - On January 2, 2024, the figurative skies over the Diaz family became gray and filled with storm clouds. Buck’s recent trauma, Chris’ school project and Eddie’s paramedic studies combined with the attack on Buck’s life, all those things contributed to the grief they’ve been experiencing. However, as the middle of February approaches, will the dark clouds dissipate so blue skies can return?

Chapter 33 -Now that “New Beginnings” are on the horizon for the Diazes regarding their future as dual residents of the United States of America and Italy, Buck and Eddie review their career qualifications and they consider educational options for Chris.

Chapter 34 - Will be posted within the next few days.

__________

Read chapters 1-33; they're available on AO3.

Continue reading on AO3

[bluedillylee]

Kinktober 2024: All 31 days of Kinktober finished! 🥳

AO3 link to the Kinktober 2024 series

Kinktober 2023

I am very proud of myself for posting everyday of October, it was a tough goal I set for myself and I’m very happy I judged correctly and was able to hit it.

I think that I prefer to organize it like I did this year over last years version (series vs chapters) it feels more organized this way and I think I'll do it this way again next year

I'd love to know which day was your favorite one!

As for pairings/characters I'd like to include next year...

A proper sorceress orgy! it will be a major challenge to keep track of everyone's hands and feet haha

Milva :) I really thought about including her in this one but for sure in next years

Emhyr/Vilgefortz I feel like has some potential

Mousesack. He surprised me but I really want to see if I can work him in more

Tissaia/Vilgefortz has already been requested

[steamberrystudio]

31/12/2023 Devlog

Hey everyone! Time for the bi-weekly tumblr update for Steamberry stuff! Except I skipped one because I can't remember why.

I half-wrote it but I think I just wasn't feeling up to finishing and posting.

I haven't been doing extremely well health-wise lately but still powering through.

Summary

Finished writing Chapter 5.5 (the new chapter in WSC)

Finished editing Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of Asher's path

Finished all the profiles for the GS lore book

Have started wrapping up the "side stories" and additional content for the GS lore book

Ramble

Okay so in my last update I was in the middle of editing chapter 5 and was nearly to the start of chapter six in editing Asher's route. I finished up chapter 5...

At that point when I was looking ahead, I started feeling like I wanted to add in a transition scene to move between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.

As I started plotting out this scene, one of my ideas took on a life of its own and I realised that it might be better to interject a new, fleshed out story incident that would allow me to slow the pacing as well as flesh out the setting and universe a little more. This incident would also let me tie into some earlier events and connect them to something that occurs in chapter 6, also foreshadowing the chapter 6 incident.

Ultimately, this became too much to call a "scene" and I decided to branch it off into a supplementary chapter (IE a chapter a bit shorter than the others and meant to be released along with another chapter.)

Then that chapter ended up being 30,000 words.

So that happened.

After finishing that I went on to finish editing chapters 6, 7, and 8. I am currently on chapter 9. I only have a few more chapters before I'm finished editing Asher's path. As always, during my edits, one of the main things I do is flesh things out.

So obviously the word count has grown from that (and, you know, the 30k extra chapter I invented).

Currently the word count is 468,000 words.

Other Stuff:

I have received several new BGs and a new BG sketch. BGs are continuing to come in at a fairly steady pace.

I now have all the BGs for The Ophelia and the artists are working on other locations finally. OwO

I've also been, here and there, doing small tweaks to the sprites, small additions and fixes.

Gilded Shadows:

As I mentioned, I finally got through all the character profiles. There are so many more characters than I remembered in this game.

Then I got halfway through and realised that I forgot five. And had to insert them, which...meant rearranging pages, which is a pain in the butt. However, that is now complete.

What I'm working on now is finishing up some of the short stories and drabbles I have planned or partially written out and getting them into the lore book. 

As well as gathering any other content. The lore book is currently about 350 pages. And I am really hoping to wrap it up soon.

Upcoming Weeks:

Next couple of weeks I will be trying to wrap up the lore book and wrap up editing Asher's Path.

When I finish editing Asher's path I'll be moving on to finish drafting the end sequences for the four remaining characters. I'm starting to have an idea of where the word count is going to end up but will have a better idea for sure when Asher's edit is complete.

I have written over 100,000 words since mid-August, just plugging away and trying to hit at least 1000 words a day.

I hit my year end word count goal of 466,000 words for When Stars Collide but unfortunately did not finish the draft because the draft has grown in size.

But I am really hoping to finish it early next year so we can fully move into phase 2 of When Stars Collide.

I am also hoping to get the final KS stuff resolved for Gilded Shadows early next year as well (the lore book, art book, and some residual art and stuff).

For now, I shall just keep plucking away at it until it's all done.

And that is all for now. I will see you all next year.

[jaydick-week]

❤️💙 JAYDICK WEEK 2024: Event Schedule! 💙❤️

Are you excited to get going on your WIPs? Check out the following schedule for JAYDICK WEEK 2024: WIP BASH!

Rather than assigning three prompts for each day, the whole week is open for posting of all kind. Whether you choose to work on adding one chapter to your unfinished magnum opus, or whether you try to finish seven works, this week is intended to be a space for you to celebrate any amount of progress, no matter how small.

Need motivation? We will also be setting word progress goals for those of you who love deadlines. Check those out below!

❤️💙 Upcoming Schedule

Now - April 14: Work Period! January: Show off your WIPs! Jaydick Week WIP Bash: April 14 to April 20, 2024.

❤️💙 WIP BASH Progress goals!

December 31: 20% done! January 31: 40% done! February 28: 60% done! March 31: 80% done! April 14: WIP Finished!

❤️💙 Even More Motivation

Prompts from previous years! Jaydick Fanfic! Jaydick Fanart! Message us off-anon for the Jaydick Discord Server!

Questions? Comments? Check out the links below!

FAQs | RULES | ASK | WIP BASH FAQ

[the-conversation-pod]

The VIIB Awards 2024: Special Class

Finishing with Part 5 of 5 of the Very Important Internet BL Awards, we are handing out our awards for our special class dramas!

We will be awarding Honorable Mentions to shows that did something specifically notable, and we will be awarding awards for Best After School Special, Best Family Drama, and Best Slice-of-Life Drama.

Thank you for spending the last week with us! Please tag us with your own awards!

Timestamps

The timestamps will now correspond with chapters on Spotify for easier navigation.

00:00 - Welcome 01:23 - Introduction 03:03 - Interlude: The Beach - Moonlight (2016) 04:18 - Honorable Mention: The Day I Loved You 10:26 - Honorable Mention: Chen Yi and Ai Di 15:44 - Honorable Mention: Sasake and Miyano: Graduation 21:41 - Sixth Man: Mark Pakin Kuna-anuvit 31:33 - Standout Queer Narrative: Moonlight Chicken 38:02 - Standout Queer Narrative: The Warp Effect 41:30 - Standout Queer Narrative: What Did You Eat Yesterday? 2 46:54 - Outro

The Conversation Transcripts!

Thanks to the continued efforts of @ginnymoonbeam as transcriber, and @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader, we are able to bring you transcripts of the episodes.

We will endeavor to make the transcripts available when the episodes launch, and it is our goal to make them available for past episodes (Coming soon thanks to @wen-kexing-apologist). When transcripts are available, we will attach them to the episode post (like this one) and put the transcript behind a Read More cut to cut down on scrolling.

Please send our volunteers your thanks!

00:00 - Welcome

NiNi

Welcome to The Conversation About BL, aka The Brown Liquor Podcast.

Ben

And there it is. I’m Ben.

NiNi

I’m NiNi.

Ben

And we’re you’re drunk Caribbean uncle and auntie here sitting on the porch in the rocking chairs.

NiNi

Four times a year we pop in to talk about what’s going on in the BL world.

Ben

We shoot the shit about stories and all the drama going into them. I review from a queer media lens.

NiNi

And I review from a romance and drama lens.

Ben

So if you like cracked-out takes and really intense emotional analysis…

NiNi

If you like talking about artistry, industry, and the discourse…

Ben

And if you generally just love simping…

NiNi

There is a lot of simping on this podcast…

Ben

We are the show for you!

[fanfare sound]

01:23 - Introduction

Ben

And we're back. We have reviewed all of the shows under the more traditional frameworks. We've gone over which talents we were really fond of, which pairings we're really fond of, who we thought did a great job assembling a show, and what were the bangers of the year.

It's time to award the shows so good that they would have skewed the results, or in our estimation, are not primarily driven by romance in a way that makes them fit under the traditional BL criteria.

NiNi

Here in our Special Class Awards, we have three award categories, and each award category can have multiple awardees, which is why it's special. [laughs] 

So our three categories are Honorable Mentions, the Sixth Man Award, and our Standout Queer Narratives Award. In Honorable Mentions, we're going to be acknowledging key contributions to the genre from various filming markets and traditions that are perhaps outside of the main and the ones that we discuss. In the Sixth Man Award, we want to acknowledge the most valuable and versatile supporting actor of the year. And under Standout Queer Narratives, we want to acknowledge queer works that are not primarily romances.

03:03 Interlude: The Beach - Moonlight (2016)

Kevin 

“That breeze feel good as hell man.”

Chiron

“Yeah it do.”

Kevin

“Sometimes round the way, where we live, you can catch this same breeze. It come through the hood and it’s like everything stop for a second ‘cause everyone just wanna feel it. Everything just get quiet, you know?”

Chiron

“And it’s like all you can hear is your own heartbeat, right?”

Kevin

“Yeah…feel so good, man. “

Chiron

“So good…. “

Kevin

“Hell, shit make you want to cry, it feel so good.”

Chiron

“You cry?”

Kevin

“Nah. But it makes me want to… What you cry about?” 

Chiron

“Shit, I cry so much sometimes I feel like I'ma just turn to drops.”

04:18 Honorable Mention: The Day I Loved You

NiNi

So let's start with our Honorable Mentions. And this year we have three. I'll let Ben take you through them.

Ben

The first one I want to acknowledge this year is a show from the Philippines called The Day I Loved You. [Applause sound] I don't think I ever actually managed to write about this show because you're reacting to a show that is fundamentally tragic. I remember watching it with Kyra, and we called it, like, the Nicholas Sparks BL of the year. 

In this show, we have a femme boy who's kind of bullied at school but doesn't seem to care about it. He ends up developing a thing with the new hot guy at the school who's here from Singapore, and there's, like, a love triangle with his best friend. And we realize that the reason why he's been holding back romantically in this story is because he has a debilitating condition that is gonna involve him declining and losing control of his limbs and other mobility along the way. So he's leery of beginning something with someone. 

The way this plays out is really beautiful. There's a richness to the way a lot of the Filipino storytelling is done that I really connect to all the time. Even when I'm not watching BL, I really like Filipino cinema when I have the opportunity to really engage with some of their work. And even though BL in the Philippines has been really struggling with the lack of investment right now. 

This show is really well produced—it's available on YouTube—and takes the dynamics here very seriously. The best friend is not going to be the one who's chosen because he doesn't want his best friend, who he knows loves him, to also go through the ugliness of his decline. His suitor in this eventually pushes past some of these barriers, but the show never downplays the seriousness of Eli's condition. His condition worsens. It is not a pretty experience. But there is this beautiful amount of heart in it. 

This show is the one that has stuck with me quietly all year long. I think about the show at least once a month or so, and have been trying to find a way to properly write about it. In a year where we didn't really have a lot to point to from the Philippines that we really thought a lot of folks should rally behind, this is one of the standouts that I think you all should go back and watch if you can handle a tragic romance, not unlike the experience you might have with a Nicholas Sparks movie or book.

NiNi

So, I have not seen The Day I Loved You because I feel like I am not emotionally capable of watching that right now. It's the same reason I haven't caught up on Eternal Yesterday. There are some things that I'm holding in reserve because I don't think that I have the emotional bandwidth or capacity to handle right now. But I was sort of following along while you and Kyra were doing your watch, and I am looking forward to getting around to it when I have the emotional wherewithal to stand up to the tragedy, because I do sometimes enjoy—I guess ‘enjoy’ is a strange word—but enjoy a good tragic romance. 

I tend to enjoy work from the Philippines, especially when the production quality lines up with the ideas they're trying to espouse. And so, given everything that you've said about it to me up until now, it's on my list. I just don't know when I'm going to get to it.

Ben

I think the production quality is about where The Boy Foretold by the Stars is. It's slightly under Gameboys.

NiNi

I think that's a good spot to land.

Ben

The music's good, like the song that they selected for the intro is a banger. It's called Sweet + Wild by YANCO—such an excellent song.

NiNi

I love Filipino music, as you are well aware, so really looking forward to that.

Ben

It's a really excellently put together little production. There's a lot of heart in the story and it takes its characters and its conceits really seriously, in a way that I found really compelling. And I continue to be really impressed with the way the Philippines explores Catholicism and Christianity inside of BL. It's one of the unique things that the Philippines can do, and I like that they do it well consistently.

NiNi

It's one of the things that draws me to them as well, being a lapsed Catholic myself. Lapsed? Former? What's the terminology these days? Having grown up Catholic, it's one of the things that does draw me to the Philippines, and I feel like I understand a lot of what they are getting into in their narratives and in their characters because of that.

Ben

The Day I Loved You from Regal Entertainment, directed by Easy Ferrer, starring Tommy Alejandrino as Nico, Raynald Tan as Eli, and Rabin Josh as Justine.

10:26 Honorable Mention: Chen Yi and Ai Di

NiNi 

Our next Honorable Mention award is not for a show. It is for a couple coming out of Taiwan from the show Kiseki: Dear To Me, Chen Yi and Ai Di. [Applause sound] It has been a long time, for me anyway, since a side couple completely took over the show from the main couple to the point that I'm kind of only slightly sure what happened to the [laughs] main couple on Kiseki? But I know for sure what happened to Chen Yi and Ai Di. [laughs]

Kiseki was a mixed bag. It was a strange year from Taiwan. Nothing really landed. They did quite a bit that I ended up, in the end, not watching. I think Ben, you watched most of it?

Ben

Unfortunately.

NiNi

It was a very strange year. The only thing that drew me in was Kiseki and then, it was a strange show. I didn't expect something like that from Lin Pei Yu. But the light in the tunnel was definitely Chen Yi and Ai Di, played by Nat Chen and Louis Chiang. 

They play orphans who basically grew up inside the mafia. Chen Yi thinks he's in love with the mafia boss, while Ai Di is in love with Chen Yi. Hijinks ensue. Let's just put it that way. Hijinks ensue. And then Ai Di goes to jail for four years, but before he goes to jail, he and Chen Yi have sex while Chen Yi is, shall we say, altered? And then Ai Di goes to jail and Chen Yi is left with his feelings trying to sort of understand how he feels and where he stands with Ai Di. Then when Ai Di gets out of jail, he's pissed, and trying to keep his distance from Chen Yi. But Chen Yi has now realized how in love he is, and he's not gonna let that stand. 

It is one of the crackheads ships I've ever seen. But also kind of delightful in a way? [laughs] But the important thing is that they really took over the show. I don't mean that in a critical way. I mean that of all the things that were happening on Kiseki, they were easily the most interesting. 

Ben 

So it was a weird year for Taiwan and part of why I wanted to talk about these two is because there's just been less activity from Taiwan and the BL front. Some of that has to do with a lot of complicating factors [laughs] we won't get into on this podcast. But in all the things released—quick aside, there is an interesting project happening right now in Taiwan in that the Friday Taiwanese BLs are being produced by a single company doing a dedicated for BL project. I don't think it's been that great personally, but it's rare that we get dedicated BL commitment in a time slot, and while I don't think the projects have been really strong, the things that Taiwan is good at remain. Like, the overall cast chemistry from Taiwan still remains the best. They are very good at getting the whole cast to believably play off of each other, even in characters who only interact once or twice in the whole show. It is always impressive and especially with the romantic and sexual chemistry. I enjoy the paired chemistry of actors from Taiwan, more [than] the other BL producing countries more often than not. 

In this particular show, I think both couples had really strong performances as couples with each other. And we ended up focusing on Ai Di and Chen Yi a lot because they're the mafia boys and Louis Chiang's character wears a choker the whole time, and is always trying to murder someone, and he's shorter than everyone, and everyone loves that! Every time I see this boy getting a little bit mad, I'm like, yes! Kill them! 

But they were really good. And it was funny, like, the show shifts towards the back half where we spend a great deal of time focusing on them, and they get the final shot of the show. It's so weird! This side couple legitimately won. I'm just amazed by that choice. 

NiNi 

A choice it definitely was. With all that said, Honorable Mention award to Chen Yi and Ai Di from Kiseki: Dear to Me from Taiwan, played by Nat Chen and Louis Chiang. 

15:44 Honorable Mention: Sasake and Miyano: Graduation

NiNi 

The third and final Honorable Mention award this year goes to an anime project. Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation. [applause sound] 

Ben, lead the way. 

Ben 

Okay! Let's talk about anime. So, yaoi is old, a lot older than people realize. We have art made by, we suspect to be women, going as far back as the 1400s, of guys sucking each others dicks. This is not a new phenomenon. At all.

And so, when we're talking about, like, what is BL doing, what is BL, where is BL going? A big question is always what is happening on the written front? What novels are popular in various cultures, and in, for Japan in particular, it's going to be manga. A significant amount of content is adapted directly from manga because manga is already successful, it has a built in fan base, and the manga itself serves as a storyboard and it's very easy to win fans over by taking popular panels and recreating them on screen for maximum impact. What's also notable is, when something is doing really well, it's going to get an anime adaptation. Anime is far more expensive to produce than live action content. 

So, Sasaki and Miyano is a story about these guys in high school. One is a little bit older and is going to be graduating soon. His name is Sasaki and he helps Miyano in an instant where these guys are bullying one of Miyano’s friends, and Miyano wants to jump in. Sasaki sees that Miyano wants to help, and he jumps in to help, kind of gets his ass whipped anyway, but the two of them start hanging out. 

Sasaki learns pretty early on that Miyano is a fudanshi—this is the boy version of a fujoshi—he reads BL all the time. He is one of us. But he doesn't think of himself as queer at the beginning of this. Sasaki ends up becoming very fond of Miyano, starts reading BL because it's very important to Miyano, and a relationship blossoms between them. Where this particular show is fascinating for me is because Miyano is a fudanshi, and Sasaki is not. And this is evinced most notably in the movie that released this year: Graduation, where Miyano’s understanding of what m/m romance is supposed to look like is influenced by BL, and we get this really incredible moment in the movie where after sorting through some of their stuff, they're having this moment that is sexually charged. And Miyano, who's shorter than Sasaki, and because he's more petite, a lot of people might expect him to be the uke-slash-bottom in this instance, he stops the moment that they're having and says, “I'm not an uke.” And this is also backed by the fact that Miyano does not have uke hair [laughs] but Sasaki does. 

NiNi 

[laughs] I know what that is now. 

Ben 

It also gets confused because Sasaki has yaoi hands. 

NiNi 

Okay, wait, pause. What are yaoi hands? 

Ben 

So whenever you're watching yaoi—animated yaoi—seme my hands are fucking enormous, because they want you to focus on their fingers and stuff, so their hands are fucking enormous. 

NiNi 

Listen, the things I learn on this show. 

Ben 

It's interesting because Sasaki, who just recognizes his attraction to Miyano, and maybe knew about himself already—it's a little unclear on that front. He doesn't care what position Miyano wants him to take, he just wants to be with Miyano. It's not that explicit, like the show's not going to point the camera at us and go, “Let's break down and talk about the [laughs] social politics of BL and how it impacts the youths’ maturation.” But it's apparent that it's one of the things it's thinking about because we get this really excellent presentation through Miyano, who is struggling to contextualize their relationship because his primary framework for understanding relationships between two men is formed by BL, which is not a great source, obviously [laughs] for this ‘cause BL is fictional, and is trying to just have fun with a lot of readers preconceptions of stuff. So, we get to watch them figure out what their relationship is going to be while deconstructing some BL presumptions. And it's a really enjoyable experience watching this really adorable little show. 

NiNi 

My brain is still stuck on yaoi hands. 

Ben 

All right, legit. Legit. You can pause right now and you can go Google yaoi hands. It's a whole thing. 

NiNi 

I believe you. [laughs] I'm gonna wait until after the show. So… 

Ben 

Ginny is in the fucking transcript right now Googling ‘yaoi hands.’ 

[both laugh]

NiNi 

Ginny, I don't know if I should say I'm sorry or you're welcome. 

Ben 

The third and final award goes to Sasaki and Miyano, developed by Studio Dean. 

21:41 Sixth Man: Mark Pakin Kuna-anuvit

NiNi 

Our next category of awards is the Sixth Man Award. We are going to name the Sixth Man award for its inaugural awardee, and the inaugural Sixth Man awardee is one Khun Mark Pakin Kuna-anuvit. [fanfare sound] Mark Pakin, the most valuable and versatile supporting actor of the year. So this award shall forever be known after this as the Mark Pakin Sixth Man Award. 

Bestie, I want you to go first here. Why is Mark Pakin not just our inaugural winner, but why is this award being named after him? 

Ben 

It's easy to get caught up in the ships, and the leads, and all the actors, and the big romance parts. But a big part of any successful story is going to be how well the lead characters play off of their supporting characters. It's notable when you look at Mark's credits since 2021, when he first appeared in a small role in I Promised You the Moon, since then every single show he's been in has been one of the highlight shows of the year. 

Mark was in Bad Buddy, My School President, The Warp Effect, Moonlight Chicken, Only Friends, and now Last Twilight. Mark picks good projects and he makes them better because he can play whatever is needed of him in each of these shows. And because, as NiNi says, I bring the lore, when you watch the behind the scenes stuff and what people say about Mark, he is a huge presence behind the scenes helping manage morale and the overall mood of the set when he's present. Mark is working even when the camera is not in front of him, and making sure people are taken care of, and making sure people are grounded, and making sure that people stay in the right headspace so that they can do the work. And it clearly pays off. 

Mark is really talented and you can feel how effective he was as one of the oldest actors on My School President in particular, and helping Gemini in a lot of his scenes. Mark plays so well with Fourth in Moonlight Chicken. Mark has a couple of moments with Earth in Moonlight Chicken that I still think about, like particularly the scene where Saleng receives the dowry gift from Jim, or the scene where he's leaving in, like, episode one and he's kind of shuffling out of the place. Or even just his goofy ass showing up at the end now that he's moved into, like, a value position at the water park he's working at. 

Like, it's so incredible to watch Mark work whenever he's on screen. You are just so excited that he's back on screen and he does that completely from a supporting role. He is doing a great job without stealing the show or the scene from the other people that are in it. No disrespect to some of the other actors out there who are really talented, but they can't help but chew the scenery and take over every moment that they're in. Mark is really good at dialing in his performance to exactly where it needs to be in any scene, any moment. He can go really high or really low. He can go big or small as needed, and then turn it on a dime. And it's so impressive to watch. It's notable that every show he's been in has rated highly with audiences. And I just at this point find it hard to not see a pattern with his presence, and people's general love of his characters, and the shows and the storylines around where his character is involved. 

NiNi 

This year I watched Mark's play—technically six, if you consider the Our Skyy: My School President AU?

Ben 

Kind of counts. We'll call it six. We had six different versions of Mark Pakin on our screen this year. 

NiNi 

And all of them were different. Every single one of them was different. And if you expand out to his other roles, every role that he has ever played, he is a different person. I do not know how he does that. I talked in the Moonlight Chicken episode about how loose he plays as Saleng. His body language is loose. The way that he speaks is loosened. It's such a different version of him that comes up as Nick in Only Friends. You can feel some of the anxiety that comes off of Nick. You can feel his vulnerability. Compare that to Tiwson in My School President, who is nothing if not confident. Ultimately, utterly confident. Every single role that he plays is just different. Physically, he acts differently. He sounds different. The way that he interacts with the other characters becomes different. He is building these characters right in front of our eyes, almost in a weird way, in real time. And then when you see him off the clock—well, not off the clock—but when you see him behind the scenes and you see him just sort of being Mark, that's a completely different person, too. 

I am not the lore person, Ben is the lore person. But I did happen to see within the last couple of days a conversation on some one of these variety shows between Mark and Namtan. And Namtan is talking about being on the Last Twilight set and working with Film on the upcoming GL Pluto. And the way that Mark interacts with Namtan, and the way that they discuss acting, and the way that he supports her in those moments in the variety show. Like, he's kind of interviewing her but also praising her. I just think about what it's like to have somebody like Mark in your corner on set. And he did this too, we saw, in some of the behind the scenes on Only Friends. There's a particular one that I'm thinking of where Force played a fairly difficult emotional scene. And after the scene was over, Mark was there to say, “Yeah, guy, that was really good.” And to discuss in detail and specificity what about the way the that Force acted in that take really worked. 

Ben 

He was gassing Force up, and Force was eating it up. He was a little shy about it, but Mark came in and was yelling at this man. He's like, “You did amazing! You fucking crushed that, dude!” 

NiNi 

Mark is what I like to call an actor's actor. I don't know what else to say about this dude. He's only 25. There is so much ahead of him. 

Ben 

He's playing a very serious character on Last Twilight right now, and I remember seeing in one of the early behind the scenes things Aof was talking about Mark and he's like, “We weren't sure what was going on. Like, Mark was playing the scene and we were like, wait, what's going on? Mark Pakin’s on screen but we're not laughing or smiling.” And they asked Mark about it and he's like, “Well, I'm not playing a comedic character. Like, this is pretty—it's a pretty sad character, guys.”

NiNi 

One of the stories of this year, I think that we're going to get into a little bit in the year in review, is people finally putting some goddamn respect on some comedic actors' names. Because, guys comedy is hard. It is so hard. It is harder in certain ways than playing drama. And so when you get a really good, really good comedic actor, you should know off the bat that they're gonna be good at drama, because it's just easier. Mark Pakin is a really fucking good comedic actor. I don't know where this kid came from. 

Ben 

Nadao Bangkok. 

NiNi 

Well, yes, there was that. [both laugh] He's only 25. He's got so much ahead of him. But in terms of what's already behind him, gotta give him props for that. And that is why he is both the inaugural Sixth Man award awardee and is going to be the person after whom this award is named going forward. So congratulations to Mark Pakin Kuna-anuvit. 

Ben 

We're big fans of yours, Mark, if you ever hear this. Please keep working. We love everything you're doing, and I'm really glad you committed to acting. 

NiNi 

I genuinely cannot wait to see what this kid does next. 

31:33 Standout Queer Narrative: Moonlight Chicken

NiNi

We are now in the Standout Queer Narratives category of our Special Class awards. These three shows are chosen because while they might be in genre, they're not really of genre.

Ben

So, BL is a romance genre. The thrust of BL is about the romantic relationship at its core, and seeing it to completion. You go to a BL and you expect the very pretty boys in the intro to flirt with each other a bunch and eventually sort out their dramas and pair up by the end. Sometimes we're dramatic and they don't pair up, but we come to the genre because we want to see the cute boys get together. There's a big difference between a queer drama and a queer romance. And BL is romance. And so if you're wondering where Moonlight Chicken was  [fanfare sound] [laughs] for the last week with us, it's why it's here. We talked about this in our episode, which you can go listen to. We praised it for, like, an hour and a half. 

Moonlight Chicken is a family drama. The only ‘I love you’ said in the whole show is between Jim and Li Ming. The relationship between Wen and Jim is important, but it's primarily about how Jim's queer experience has further weakened the version of his life he thought he was building, and how Wen is an opportunity for him to not perpetually punish himself for the way certain things went wrong. It is important to the story but their romance is part of the drama around the diner, and the people who are connected to Jim. Like, Saleng and Praew are not a side couple, and I wouldn't even classify Heart and Li Ming as a side couple in this. They are just one of the dynamics that's being explored in this show, and it has resonance with Jim because Li MIng is Jim’s son in all but name. And so that's the crux of the whole story here. 

Moonlight Chicken is truly fantastic, and I don't know that if we put Moonlight Chicken under the traditional scope we were doing in the award show that it would have won in every category it was in, but it would have probably superseded a lot of these just because of the scope of the project. That is not fair to the other shows, because the other shows are operating under the presumptions of romance as a genre. 

It may feel like we're splitting hairs to some of you, and I'm sorry I can't make it more clear or explain this better. But we don't like to put bad bitches up against each other [NiNi laughs] on this podcast.

NiNi

Not even in our awards shows.

Ben

Like our award shows are really about, like, these are the top two projects that we really like the most. We give them awards because it's more dramatic for us to fight over who's better than the other one. But it isn't good to put a project like Moonlight Chicken up against the other shows that we talked about earlier this week with you all. 

NiNi, any other things you want to add for Moonlight Chicken, since we've already gushed over the show once this year.

NiNi

I mean, we spent—unedited—close to three hours talking about Moonlight Chicken. I don't know what I can say that I haven't already said about this show. It is not primarily a romance. There are some parts of the audience that kind of bounced off of it or bounced off parts of it. And that's because it's not a romance. And that's okay if you come to this genre expecting romance, and you see Moonlight Chicken and you're just kind of like, “Oh, I don't know.” I'm going to judge you a little bit, but ultimately, yeah, you're right. It's not a romance. What it is is a haunting, absolutely haunting examination of love and loss and family and intergenerational trauma. It's about community. It's about coming to terms with yourself at literally every stage of being. Coming to terms with yourself in your youth, coming to terms with yourself as you start to become a real adult, coming to terms with yourself in your middle age. I have no more words, so I'm not going to try.

Ben

It has Mark Pakin in it!

NiNi

[laughs] If you haven't watched this and you like things like Parenthood or Friday Night Lights.

Ben

Aging ourselves immediately.

NiNi

Go watch it.

Ben

It is our Standout Queer Narrative as the family drama of the year that we were most enamored by.

NiNi

Moonlight Chicken produced and aired by GMMTV, starring Earth Pirapat Watthanasetsiri and Mix Sahaphap Wongratch among others, including the Sixth Man Mark Pakin, and directed by Aof Noppharnach Chaiyahwimhon.

38:02 Standout Queer Narrative: The Warp Effect

Ben

Our next show that we wanted to talk about was The Warp Effect [fanfare sound] as our after-school special [laughs] show of the year. It also has Mark Pakin in it!

NiNi

[laughs] This is not a coincidence. I think Ben is right. I think that putting Mark Pakin in your show automatically raises the level.

Ben

So, despite our [laughs] mixed bag of Jojo shows this year, he and NiNew did a really good job on The Warp Effect, exploring the social politics of sex, and how they impact people even 10 years later for the things you do in high school. I think they did a good job with the sex ed 101 component of it. You could see some of Jojo's Gay OK, Bangkok roots coming back there. And it was a lot of fun seeing Jojo work with a large cast of men and women talking about the way sex worked for them, how it didn't necessarily always work for some of them. And it was so legible! Like, it was amazing to me from week-to-week how much recall I had of that show from week-to-week, ‘cause that show was packed. It had like three to five threads it was juggling in every single episode, and yet I was still able to hold them from week to week—and as you all know, I watch too much. So, the likelihood that I forget stuff is high. 

It was so much fun to watch this for the 12 weeks it was on.

NiNi

One of the things that I think it did really well is balance its themes with its narrative. I think that a lot of shows this year sort of failed at that balance. I think The Warp Effect was probably the strongest at doing that all year. It doesn't fall into the BL categories because it's not a BL.

Ben

The main character is literally straight.

NiNi

But we wanted to acknowledge all the things that it did really well, and also acknowledge that it was a very queer narrative, because the main character, yes, is straight and he has straight problems. But within the show we have a gay couple, a lesbian couple, Mark Pakin in a relationship with a trans woman.

Ben

Who Mark made blush all the time. [both laugh]

NiNi

Again, that behind the scenes stuff he's so good at. We had couples involved in kink, which kink is not technically queer, but they're definitely in the vicinity.

Ben

They're getting their asses beat with us on the streets. They count.

NiNi

We've got an aromantic character. We've got bisexuals, we've got everybody in this show. It is super queer in only the way a Jojo show can really be. And it was just fun to watch. It is an after school special that did not feel preachy. It was lighthearted where it needed to be. It was serious where it needed to be. It's a great show and definitely one of the standout great narratives of the year. 

The Warp Effect produced and aired by GMMTV. Starring everybody you can think of [laughs], directed by Jojo Tichakorn Phukhaotong.

41:30 Standout Queer Narrative: What Did You Eat Yesterday? 2

NiNi

Our final Standout Queer Narrative award, and our final Special Class award goes to the granddaddy of this podcast. It’s What Did You Eat Yesterday? Season 2, guys. [fanfare sound] Do we even need to explain this?

Ben

The only thing that could have possibly made What Did You Eat Yesterday? 2 better was if Mark Pakin was somehow involved with it.

[both laugh]

NiNi

I can’t stand you. So What Did You Eat Yesterday? falls into the slice-of-life genre. We would have talked about What Did You Eat Yesterday? ad nauseam in our Om Nom Nom episode, which you would have heard if the editing is right… last week… sometime?

Ben

Oh my God.

NiNi

[laughs] Don't quote me on that. Listen guys, the editing is…it's gonna be what it is. So we would have waxed poetic about this show for, at the very least, an hour.

Ben

And you've already heard Ginny’s supercut of me mentioning the show unprompted all year long.

NiNi

You would have definitely heard Ben, bringing up What Did You Eat Yesterday? every chance he gets in our holiday clip show. 

This show is amazing. Nishijima and Uchino are amazing. I did not expect to get more What Did You Eat Yesterday? this year. The fact that we got it is a gift.

Ben

This season 2 picks up a little bit after the movie. Shiro and Kenji been together for about eight years now, and we continue with more stories about their lives. The big theme for this season: they are dealing with the fact that they are in their 50s now. They're getting older and they're going through physical and emotional changes, and there are changes going on in their personal, professional, and family lives that they also have to manage as well. 

This show remains kind of unique. BL is romance. It’s focused on people getting together. What What Did You Eat Yesterday? is focused on as a slice-of-life food drama, is about a couple staying together and dealing with the things that come up in their lives. Less than a handful of shows allow us to return to characters and see how they're doing and if they're going to make it and stick together. And What Did You Eat Yesterday? is so important in that regard, not just because it's about a long-term relationship. It's also about older gay men. And it's super important that we conceive of the idea that there are older gay couples. We do get to grow old with each other. That's also–and marriage equality is important. You want your boys to grow old together? There are gays who are old right now. You deserve to see gays getting older together and doing their best for each other. 

What a lovely season we had because everybody got to grow this season. We got to see Shiro take on more professional responsibility than he was maybe willing to. Kenji got to grow professionally as well. Wataru was still a bitch the whole time, but he feels like a friend now?

[both laugh]

NiNi

I'm still creasin’ over the 50 balloon. [laughs] Oh God, that was such bitchy energy. I love it.

Ben

I just love how at this point, Kohinata and Wataru feel like their friends. And that was so important for me that we got to see them having a relationship with another gay couple. Kenji finally got to meet Kayoko this season. What a delight that was.

NiNi

And Kayoko treating him like a celebrity when she runs into him in the grocery store. So fun. Great, phenomenal, fantastic show anchored by some of the best performances by two of the greats.

Ben

Man, that's another thing we should talk about. The-the other reason why we need older gay characters: we deserve to see more veteran actors in the genre. This is not a knock on the young and up-and-coming talent or the OGs who are still doin’ the work. We deserve to see veteran actors bringing veteran-level talent to this genre more often than we do.

NiNi

What Did You Eat Yesterday? produced and aired by TV Tokyo, starring Nishijima Hidetoshi and Uchino Seiyou. You have won the coveted standout Queer Narrative Special Class award from The Conversation.

46:54 Outro

That is going to wrap us up on the 2023 Very Important Internet BL Awards, the VIIB Awards. It's kind of sad to see this go, but we will be back with the VIIB Awards next year when we get to discuss a whole new bunch of stuff. 

Looking forward to it. With that, we out. 

Say “bye” to the people, Ben.

Ben

Peace!

[serving-saucy-fanfics]

My Kinktober 2024 Masterlist & First Kinktober Experience (with my Overall Opinion & Tips for Month-long Challenges at the End) 🍁🔥

Warning: As Kinktober is a challenge centered around sexual content, there are sexual terms like kinks in the chapter titles!

Before October: I'm excited, maybe I'll try Kinktober this year.

Day 1: People tell me that spooky season has begun, I think "Yay, more fanfic & fanart". 💕

Day 2-5: Exactly. I wanted to be one of those people. 😆🤭 Well, let me look at a few lists and see what I could write

Day 6: Hm, why not take this prompt to a fantasy level? Also, can I make the reader's sex neutral like people make their gender neutral?

->Yes. Yes, I can: You Raise Me Up (So We Have Sex in the Air) — Fluffy NSFW Homelander x Gender-neutral Reader /AO3

Day 7: Okay, Okay, I've got this. Someone else wrote a fic for this character with a similar kink once, I can write this knowing that a good execution of it is possibly.

->voilà: Gotham!Edward Nygma x Reader: Doctor, Doctor, Please (Think Better of Yourself) Chapter 1: Comfort and Negotiate (Medical Play, nothing explict) /A03

I wanted to write an actually explicit ending but the lead-up to a kink I wasn't that familiar with took up all of the fic.

Still, I made it and oof, uploading it to tumblr & AO3 took time.

But wow, I can write and publish something in one day?! 😮 Crazy. 😁

I go to bed tired.

Day 8: Hm, maybe I could write something for this character from a show I watched way back who totally needed some happiness.

->Thomas Barrow x Reader: Sit Back, Relax, and Enjoy (Handjob/Fingering, smut can be skipped) /A03

Again I started the fic on the dame & finished writing in the evening (this is the start of a bad rhythm 😅).

Day 9: I guess if I wrote something for a character from an fandom I'm not really active in, I could also write something with one from a show I stopped watching...containing one of the reasons why I stopped watching it.

->Serena Waterford x Reader: Confusing Comfort to Forbidden Comfort (Non-Con but not main pairing!) /A03

To finish this one in time, I definitely stayed up too long. Writing something in one day for four days in a row is too much for me.

Day 10: Yeah, even if I like the prompts & characters, it takes up way too much time! 🥺

Still->Loki x Reader: Icy Pleasures with a Hint of Lust (Ice Play, the smut can be avoided) /AO3

An interesting thing I noticed: establishing reasons for trying out something kinky (which might not be the reader's thing) often took up enough pages that I could mark the beginning of the smut & people could still read the part before. 🤔 I like it ✅

My sleep schedule though? Has been getting progressively worse since the start of my Kinktober writing.

Day 11: Tired and knowing that I really wanted to post the fic for the next day, I ended my streak today. It was worth it.

Day 12: This idea I already had a few days before, so I thought it would be done faster. On the contrary: I didn't manage to post in time, wrot the end at night, and then forgot to post it! 😭

->Regina Mills x Reader: Mirror, Mirror, Cheering Up (Mirror Sex, smut avoidable) /AO3

Day 13 to Day 17: Mhm, not really feeling it anymore. I'd rather take my time with fanfics, especially if they're about intimate things like sex.

Day 18 & 19: Still, I started working on a story for Day 19, which wasn't finished by then.

Day 20-31: On one hand, I realized how crazy writing something every day would've been giving that my life is already hard enough, but on the other hand I still began new fanfics as well as sequels for the ones I'd written.

As time went on, my goal became to publish at least those, which I didn't manage to do but I'm okay with.

My overall thoughts on Kinktober:

It was a good opportunity to write things that I wouldn't have necessarily written otherwise (cause writing sexual things can sometimes feel like telling too much of yourself, even if something's not even my kink 😂😆)

Even though I'm not much of a horror fan, I wish there was more October-y/autumnal/spookiness. This month has a lot of potential, so "just" writing kinky fics doesn't feel that special to me, since I'm open to write a lot of them anyways. 🎃

Finding out about a bunch of new kinks was fun but for every one of those there were at least two I already knew, just with a different name 😂

My tips for month-long challenges:

brainstorm in advance (for example for me at least one day already helped a lot), ideally for the whole month

set realistic goals, even if they're not the same as those of other artists. Remember: a month-long challenge means that there will be more art than usual regardless of whether you participate or not, people probably won't notice that you don't post every day 🧡

My tips specifically for Kinktober:

Don't underestimate the time consent talks & foreplay can take.

though if writing this much smut is too much, you can also focus on those things 😚

If you know that "hard" kinks can be difficult for you to find out about, make your own list (not gonna lie, I was shocked at at least one kink I found on someone's list)

If the idea of purposefully writing (about) non-consensual things like rape bothers you, make your own list!❗Almost all that I looked up had some type of non-con on it without a warning beforehand.

I hope this helped someone interested in challenges like this or that it felt relatable 😙🧡🤝

If you did a challenge like this: what was it like for you? Do you have other tips & tricks?

[polizwrites]

PoliZ’s WIP Update -   4 Sep 2024

A slower writing week - had a busy long weekend!  I touched five fics (4 new & 2 WIPs)  for a total  of  1678   words.   

On Ao3, I posted: 

  Chapter Two of Love is Like a Muscle (and you make me want to flex). WinterIron massage therapy turned sexytimes.    

On Tumblr I posted: 

Misleading Information - WinterIron double drabble fluff. 

A Sweet Favor - WinterIron fluffy ficlet.     

I’m juggling  20+  active/semi-active WIPs with my current  deadline being the new WinterIron Gets It Done server bingo event  which runs til the end of September.  

See  below cut for what I’m working on/planning to work on - arranged more or less by bingos/challenges/etc.  As always, feel free to send me   prompts or plot bunnies as well as asks regarding  any of these projects  or any other WIPs I’ve got out there.   Interaction really helps feed the Muse and keep me motivated!

Hot Bucky Summer 2024 [HBS_R2] (Ends 31 Aug)

Finished this fun challenge from the  @buckybarnesevents folks  by completing all thirteen weekly challenges to create (usually NSFW) Bucky-centric fanworks!  Masterpost 

* Week 13 (August 24th - 30th) -  FREE WEEK + Optional Prompts: Mutual Masturbation  –  Posted Chapter Two of Love is Like a Muscle (and you make me want to flex)  It came in at 1024 words and crossed over with my TSTOT Row 3: Lab Sex and  WIB N2 - Mutual Pining  squares.  

Tony Stark This or That  [TSTOT_24] (Ends 31 Aug 2024)

I signed up late and then promptly forgot I had a card - so was happy to get four of the eight prompt choices done  - I’ll be making a masterpost later this week. 

* Row 3: Lab Sex - see HBS Week 13 above

WinterIron Gets It Done Bingo [WIGID] (Ends 30 Sep 2024)

This new WinterIron Discord server event runs through the month of September and is a flash bingo where you choose one or more  five-square bingo strips to complete.  I’m targeting to get at least two strips done for a blackout - with a stretch goal of three - I’ve currently got 3 fills across two strips. 

* Engagement_1 -  Post a Prompt:   I shared the following dialogue prompt  “Halfway to hell is still not a recommended destination” (Picard TV series) – I’d love to see what any of y’all do with it, WinterIron flavored or not!   

* Classic_3 - Only in New York - Wrote up a double drabble to cross over with the BaBB September:  Mission Gone Wrong prompt, where Tony brings his tinkering skills to the kitchen - with less success than he’d hoped.  Misleading Information came in at 200 words and posted this morning.  

* Classic_4 -  “This is Avengers business, ma’am.”   Posted A Sweet Favor  yesterday to Tumblr - Tony goes the distance to bring his boyfriend a fondly-remembered treat. It came in at 320 words. 

Build-A-Bucky Bingo [BaBB_R1] (Ends 31 Oct 2024)

Another fun year-long  event from the folks at  @buckybarnesevents!  Each month there’s a list of prompts and you choose (at least) one  each month for your card!  At thirty-three  fills and two months to go, I seem to be going a bit overboard …. 😁

* May:  Bucky’s Trigger Words -  combined this with a previous  Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF251 Out There] for Just To Live One Day Out There - a Winter Soldier self-reflective ficlet. It came in at 312 words and will get posted to Ao3 Real Soon. 

* September: First Meeting - filling this with the upcoming Chapter Nine of  A Sugar-Coated Pill  where Bucky gets to meet Obadiah Stane.  Needless to say, he doesn’t get along with the older alpha.  I’ve got 307 chapters written and am targeting publishing by the end of the month.

* September:  Mission Gone Wrong - see WinterIron Gets It Done Bingo - Classic - 4:  Only in New York prompt above. 

Flufftober 2024  [FlfT_24] (Runs 1-31 Oct)

This writing challenge hosted by @flufftober  runs for the month of October, but the prompt list has already been published, so you can get a jump start!  My goal is to write one fic a week that incorporates these prompts - here’s some possible crossovers - if there’s one that sounds really good - let me know! 

* 1. Lost Pet Meet Cute - crossover with  BBB C2 - Bonded animal?

* 5. Acorn, Chestnut, Pine Cone - crossover with TSB R2 - I love you 3000 or  R3 - AU: adventurers/explorers  for some Daddy & Morgan fluff? 

* 10. Bet, Game, Contest - crossover with BBB U5 - Secret Admirer?

* 11. Ingredients & Spells - crossover with TSB S3 - KINK: Aphrodisiacs? 

* 18. Bewitched - crossover with BBB B1 - Magic? 

* 22 - Heirloom - crossover with WIB G2 - Edwin Jarvis &  TSB T2 - Wedding -  A tie tack or cuff links that Tony gifts to Bucky as his ‘something old’? 

* 30. “Forever?” - this feels like a good match for WIB N4 - A/B/O: Mates  maybe the prequel to the wedding fic mentioned above? 

Whumptober 2024 [WmpT_24] (Runs 1-31 Oct)

This writing challenge hosted by @whumptpber  runs for the month of October, but the prompt list has already been published, so you can get a jump start!  My goal is to write two fics (whump isn’t normally my bag)   that incorporates these prompts - need to  explore more potential crossovers. 

* No. 2: TRUST ISSUES - Amusement Park | Role Reversal | “You got away with the crime while the knife’s in my back.”  – crossover with WIB  N5 - "I'm here for you."  and possibly pJBB - C2_B2 - Being there for someone after a traumatic event

WinterIron Bingo 2  [WIB_R2] (Ends 16 Dec 2024)

Signups are still open for pre-made cards for Round Two of this super-fun bingo event! I have seventeen  fills and zero WIPs at the moment - setting this aside for the moment, as I have other time-sensitive events going.  

* Iron Soldier (One Bingo, One Fill) - looking at combining my Column B prompts: Matchmaker, Bucky Riding Tony, Stark Gala, Inside Joke and Threesome.  Still working on a plot - if you have any suggestions/want-to-sees - let me know! 

* I3 - Car Sex -  Have a fun ficlet in mind for this - some of the dialogue & such already worked out in my head.  

* N1 - Hair Pulling Kink -  thanks to a fun prompt from @scottxlogan  - I filled this square with Untangling Their Attraction - where Tony’s offer of assistance leads to mutual kink discovery (not as racy as it might sound).  It’s coming in at 544 words and will post to Ao3 before this event is over. 

* N2 - Mutual Pining - see HBS Week 13 above. 

* N5 - "I'm here for you."  - Possibly the next chapter of  Lady Natasha’s Consort and Lord Steve’s Companion ?  

* O3 - Love Confession - Circling back around to Chapter Seven of  A Little Bit Carried Away - where Pepper learns about the impulsive offer Tony made to Bucky after they spent the night together.   It’s drafted at  1029 words and will cross over with TSB K3 - Pepper Potts and my pJBB C1_A1 - "Promise me you won't get mad."  prompt.  Slated to post on 9 Sep. 

Bucky Barnes Bingo - Round Six [BBB - R6]  (Ends 31 Mar)

This amazing bingo event from the folks over at @buckybarnesbingo is back!  I have thirteen  fills with one WIP at the moment, but a couple  more crossovers planned. 

* K4 - Last Times/Farewells - combined this with a previous  Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF257 Count The Days ] for  Short-Timing It - a pre-war (just barely) Bucky & Steve (Stucky if you squint) ficlet. It came in at 313 words and will post to Ao3 before the event is over.   

Tony Stark Bingo - Mark VIII [TSB_R8]  (Ends 31 May)

This amazing bingo event from the folks over at @tonystarkbingo is back! Late signups will start next month if you want to join in on the fun!  I have  five  squares filled and three WIPs - I need to plan out more crossovers! 

* T1 - Watching Helplessly -  Posted Stranded Among the Stars  to Tumblr on Friday as a crossover with the Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF265 Galaxies Away]. It’s a Nebula & Tony ficlet set on the ship - it came in at 345 words and will get posted to Ao3 before the event ends. 

* A5 - excessive - Used this towards the August Tony Stark Round Robin collaborative fic - Tony throws Bruce a birthday party and shenanigans ensure.  I’ll share the link once it gets posted. 

* R4 - Bartender - Got inspired by another song to start Some Other Beginning’s End - Tony’s a bartender dealing with an a-hole patron (Brock) and his just-broken-up-with boyfriend (Bucky).  It’s sitting at 1028  words and I plan to cross over with my  pJBB  C2_A2 - "You deserve someone who makes you happy."  square. I may try to squish a few other squares in before I’m done. 

* K3 - Pepper Potts -  see WIB O3 - Love Confession above

Hawkeyes Bingo [HB_R2] (Ends TBD) 

Working on this  Tumblr event - got a 3x3 card and am looking forward to creating more  Clint-centric content and trying my hand at a bit of  Kate Bishop fic as well!    

* A3 - Awkward Flirting – this might be a good entry into my first femslash fic with Kate/Yelena?    

* C1 - Magic -  Combined this with a previous Flash Fiction Friday prompt  [#FFF259 House of Cards]   for   Keep a Steady Hand.  Clint notices Bucky getting frustrated with a task and offers to help.  It came in at 632 words and will post to Ao3 possibly later this month.   

Post July Break Bingo 2024  [pJBB_24] (Ends 30 Jun 2025)

As I mentioned above, I requested two 2x3 cards for this  Discord-server only event from @julybreakbingo  – so if you want to join in the fun, let me know and I’ll try to get you an invite!  I have one fic posted & two WIPS  and need to figure out some more crossovers. 

* C1_A1 - "Promise me you won't get mad." - see WIB * O3 - Love Confession

* C2_A2 - "You deserve someone who makes you happy."  -  see TSB R4 - Bartender.  

* C2_B1 - Courting/courted in a different way than they're familiar with -  posted A Symbol of Devotion on Tumblr as a crossover with the Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF267 Gifted Violets] - a bit of Stony fluff with Tony  buying Steve little things for his apartment.   It came in at 374 words and will get posted to Ao3 before this event is over. 

Warm and Fluffy   Bingo  [WFB]   (no end date)

Eight fills on my card, courtesy of   @warmandfluffybingocards  - need to try for another crossover or two!

* I2 - Vulnerable Drunk - matched this up with a previous Flash Fiction Friday prompt of [#FFF258 Milky Way Dreams]  for Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines -  a MIT-era Tony & Rhodey ficlet, where a drunk Tony shares a childhood dream with his best friend.  It came in at 318 words and will get posted to Ao3 at some point.   

————

On  other creative fronts:  I am working on a Dizzy the Vulture  plush figure for a commission.       

If  you’re looking for one of a kind gifts for birthdays or other celebrations, check  out Stuffed With Character    over on Facebook for a full list of my designs (now over 150!).   These soft stuffed figures are  mostly Marvel and monsters, but I have some Star Wars, Star Trek, DC   and Disney figures as well. Plus I love to take custom design   requests  for any fandom!

[skyward-floored]

2, 8, 9

2. How many fics did you post this past year?

10! Not counting individual chapters of things (otherwise it’s in like... the 70s o_O)

8. What's your favorite work you posted this past year?

Oh that’s really hard to say... probably Pup or Lost Time, I really like how both of those turned out :D

9. What are you most proud of accomplishing in your writing goals this past year?

I did all 31 days of whumptober, which is always a big one! I also finished two fics with multiple chapters, which for me is a big deal. I’m pretty happy with what I accomplished!

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 10.31.2023

Sorry this is a little late, I was trying to get something done yesterday and then I got overtaken by Halloween Festivities and didn't get a chance to post it, but this update is as of 10/31.

This week was pretty slow to get going--as per last week's update, I really didn't know how to get started with Chapter 3. I had to sort of think about it for a few days, during which time no writing-writing took place, but I did eventually get it figured out, and now I have a pretty solid outline for Chapters 3 and 4. I was able to get about halfway through Chapter 3, which involved writing one new flashback (which I had a false start on, but the second try came out good) and reworking two present-time scenes, one which needed a lot of work, and one which needed just a little (mostly deletions).

This week's wordcount: 23,299 (+5,439), with about 2,387 of new content.

I am very close to having more in my "clean, contiguous" version than in my "old pile of crap" version (24,245), and that ought to happen this week. My goal for this week is to finish Chapter 3, which two flashbacks (one of which is half-written) and one new real-time scene.

I've been having really mixed feelings on my progress. On one hand, half a chapter per week is proving to be pretty doable, and I'm able to see real progress every week, and it's giving me a nice amount of "I wrote!" satisfaction. On the other hand, if, as I projected last week, this story goes to 10 chapters, that means it will take me 15 weeks, which feels like forever. On the other hand, that will mean it took me almost exactly two years to write, all-told (including time I wasn't actually working on it). Maybe I should just be grateful if I can actually get it done in 15 weeks.

I made a joke about it being November and trying to hype myself up to NaNoWriMo-style push my way through this thing, but that's actually a really bad idea. I still think about that "writing is just behavior" post every single day of my life. You only get to write each story once, and I think it's important to take my time and enjoy the story I'm in, right now. Also, we're getting into the busiest and most miserable time of year for me right now, and I think it's extremely important to keep writing as a treat I get to do, not an arbitrary word count obligation that I made up to torture myself with.

On a final note, I'm in one of those weird brain-places that I get sometimes where I really have not looked back over any of the stuff I've finished. My usual writing state is to enjoy re-reading the stuff that I've read, but right now, it's all "Don't look back! Forward only!" I do think this is good, because I know this will pass eventually and there will certainly be time to edit, later, but I am also really worried that everything I have written is going to be absolutely horrible when I go back to it later. (In general, I'm usually pleasantly surprised to find writing I haven't looked at in a while to be better than I remembered, but it's not guaranteed, you know?)

(no art this week)

[ladyazulina]

August 1st

Hello! I'm happy... or content, happy sounds in a wavelength a bit extreme.

July finished and I have new projects to work on. Isn't it a bit weird that just the change of days from 30/31 to 1 also change so many things?! Like, they're just two consecutive days, but... objectively? They're so far apart. It's weird.

I would rather change projects when I finish some, but like that's not really happening soon, I will have to be weird too.

I didn't think about doing a sort of 'closing of the month'... that makes me remember Patreon and it's nothing fond to remember, so... but I do want to share the big chunk of words I wrote last month! (Yesterday! And the thirty days before it!)

So, for July I wrote an impressive account of 25.770 words. I worked mostly in Iron Valley (with 9.725 words - and still didn't get to finish the first day of Linney's Campaign), and here on Tumblr (counting the words of all my posts, adding to a 7.421 total). I also wrote more of Mimi that I remember... oh, yeah! I finished Chapter 4, finally (with 5.849 words, not the chapter per sé, it has a lot more words than that). There were a few other things, but that was the biggest part of the whole account.

This month, though, even when I want to still write on Mimi and Iron Valley and maybe other stories, my priority is to make an outline of AngelDemon.

I initially wrote it around 2015~2016, a story from a perspective of an angel and a demon, the same story. I wanted to remake it (the same way as every other old project) because I'm intending to take part in an award competition I no longer remember the name of next year (because it's impossible for me to make it this year). I have a plan that I expect to adhere to and it starts with this month of making an outline. I'm going to read that old work to take the information from there to make the outline. So at least for this month, it should be easy to write about other things too... let's see how much of that is true.

I forgot about 4thewords until this precise moment, but as this is the last writing of the day, I will be using all the other writing to make out the first part of it.

I will continue battling these dudes, though

I still have 15 more to go.

(5 more to go so far)

SO, I wrote this post earlier today

Worked in: Narrative Elements. Words written: 178.

I think I was kind of productive today, I also made

Worked in: A post for my personal Instagram. Words written: 342.

And so far, I'm doing good with my August main project

Worked in: AngelDemon. Words written: 1.554.

I didn't know until today how I was really going to work on it, and how it's a double POV story with the same amount of chapters (26) on each side, I think I will work on one chapter of each per day. I did so today, I doubt the chapters are too long to be difficult to work with. I started doing bullet points, but finished developing those bullet points in concise, precise information for the future, to try to erase the need to reread while rewriting next month.

The point is that it was successful.

Pretty very much successful. And I'm very content.

So I will be running this very post through 4thewords to know how many more- uh, Reenu are defeated, so that would make...

Worked in: This very post. Words written: 672.

(Only 2 more are left)

And to wrap this up for today, the summary:

Total words: 2.746. Lower daily goal: 100 ✅ Higher daily goal: 300 ✅ 4thewords goal: 444 ✅

A lot of talk on the first day of the month, don't get accustomed to it.

We have tagging now 😭: @aziz-reads

[catchingbigfish]

writing plans for the rest of 2023

aka, yet another accountability post i'll laugh at in a few months when i realize how off track my plans have gone again

i am freakishly close to done with the first draft of Conversion; i'm at 57k words as of right this very second, and i'm trying very hard to not go past 90k words on the first draft (even though i think it could edge closer to 120k if i let go with full reckless abandon), and really, my target is to make it a tight 80-85k words. plus, my weekend plans to swap my office and bedroom (who the fuck decided the largest room should be the place you sleep?? that makes no sense!) have been thwarted by my fiance getting sick again, so if i run another few 4-5k days in a row? i might knock this out within the week.

on top of that, i'm enrolled in julia inglis's new shadow doll course (it's a shameless indulgence of mine) which starts august first, so it seems like the prime time to consider exactly how i plan to spend late summer/early fall and nanowrimo this year. here's my current plan:

finish the first draft of Conversion by July 31. this seems very doable so far, unless i really do let go and indulge in all those side conversations and small subplots boiling around in my brain.

spend all of august really delving into the shadow doll course, giving my brain a serious break from writing, and channel all that energy into other types of creativity. this also seems doable, but there's a chance i'll be forced onto a business trip in late august. if that's the case, it'll probably be three or four days, and i'll go ahead and do my first read-through of conversion on the trip. (i read So It Goes way too early and i realize that now -- i have to find a way to force myself to give it at least three weeks before i read through Conversion.)

spend september working on a developmental, high-level, birds-eye-view revision of the first draft of Conversion. if all goes according to plan, i'll use the first few weeks to draft new character sketches and go back to tidy up any mischaracterizations from the characters developing along the drafting process, tighten plot points that i think are dragging, and do a new zero draft based on the first draft plus any new additions i think are necessary, then spend the last few weeks doing the actual drafting for any new scenes i need (and hopefully, for the love of god, creating actual chapter breaks in there). this also seems doable.

get Conversion ready for alpha-readers and zero draft the sort-of-sequel Apostate (👀) in october. yeah i'm basically fully committed to this idea now, lol. the working title is Apostate because i'm terrible at titles and i think it's a fun counterpoint to the title Conversion. i've realized my original cult fiction concept works unreasonably well as a follow up to Conversion (and that's one of the two reasons the ending changed so dramatically), so i'm going for it. i'm not confident i can do this all in october, but i'd love to do nanowrimo again this year and draft Apostate during the month, so this is like my stretch goal. also, i'm not comfortable calling it beta reading just yet, but i'm hoping to get Conversion to a point where i can hand it off to some people who can tell me if it's working, where things are lacking, and any glaring issues i can't see because i'm too close it. (if all goes according to plan, i hope to make a call for alpha readers in early october and have the draft handed over by november so i can force myself to only work on Apostate that month! i wouldn't expect readers to actually dive in until after november, since most likely, they'll be doing nano too -- but it's just the best way to motivate myself). this is definitely the goal i see most likely to fall off track.

spend november drafting Apostate. again, the entire concept of writing Apostate is definitely the weakest link in my plans, but it would be so nice to do!

take december off. seriously, if i actually do this in the way i want, i will need *so* much of a break it's unreal.

[canonicallyobserving911]

Several Sentences Sunday

Fanonwriter2023 on AO3

Where CANON and FANON collide!

FANON FanFic: Buddie Multi-Chapter - Hiatus Reading: “I’m still in love with you but... I needed to learn how to love myself too!”

Chapter 32 will be posted one day this week!

This is an EPIC LOVE STORY!

Currently 31 chapters completed: 1.384M Words; Rated: Mature

#1 {Previous Snippet}; #2 {Previous Snippet}; #3 {Previous Snippet}

__________

It's been a minute and I apologize for the delay but I'm working on my multi-chapter fic again and Chapter 32 is in progress. My goal is to post it this week. Reminder, there are only 9 chapters left and they're going to be good. 😜😉🤗🙃😊😁

Don't forget, Buck and Eddie are still waiting to hear about the house in San Gimignano.

__________

I'm excited to finish writing Chapter 32 because at the end of Chapter 31, Buck was trying to process everything that happened to him and Chris Friday evening while they were inside of Super Target. After his heart stopped and he had to be revived by a cardiologist, who just so happened to be shopping on the next aisle, he spent time after he was revived but unconscious seeing glimpses of his future life with Eddie over the next 20 years.

More than three hours later, after he woke up, he was so exhausted he spent hours sleeping as his body recuperated with Eddie by his bedside. The 118 was there in full force to support Buck, Eddie and Chris and after Eddie made the connection to Lucy and Jonah's other victims, Buck gave Athena and Detective Romero a statement the next day. Early Saturday morning, they were eventually captured but the aftermath of the things they did are affecting Buck and Chris in a major way and all Eddie wants to do is take his husband and son back to Italy so they can keep healing. Will they get the final word on the house they bid on that's located in San Gimignano, Italy in this chapter? 🤷🏽‍♀️

__________

Here’s another snippet from Chapter 32 of a conversation between Buck and Eddie.

__________

When Eddie leaves the room, Buck leans back against the couch and smiles because he’s spending time with his husband.  They’re having a great day at home alone and they have plans for their family this evening too.  In three hours, after they pick Chris up from school, they’re returning home and they’ll help him with his homework, if he has any, then they’re going to cook dinner together and they'll have dessert which consists of slices of New York style cheesecake for him and Chris and carrot cake for Eddie.

His smile widens when he thinks about how things are finally getting back to normal because it’s been more than six weeks since the bottom fell out of their lives.  In three days, they’ll celebrate their two month wedding anniversary and he can’t wait.

As he looks at the ceiling, he’s about to lift his head when he hears a knock on the door. He stands up and walks towards it and once he’s in front of it, he checks the peephole and when he sees it’s a SpedEx delivery driver, he figures it’s their vow renewal invitations and he opens it.

“Hello, may I help you?”

“Yes, I have two packages here one for Mr. Edmundo and Mr. Evan Diaz and another one for Evan Buckley.”

Buck furrows his eyebrows for two reasons.  First, they’re only expecting one package and second, everyone knows he took Eddie’s last name when they got married, including Margaret and Phillip so he’s not sure who sent a package with his former last name on it.

While standing in the doorway, he instantly has a flashback to January 2nd when he got the package from Malone and it causes him to briefly close his eyes.  When the delivery driver starts talking, he shakes himself out of his reverie and listens.

“Can you sign here and here please for both boxes?”  He says as he points at the screen.

“Uh… yeah but who sent the package that’s addressed to Evan Buckley?”  He asks because he’s not sure he wants to sign for it and he’s thinking about telling him to take it back.

The driver looks at the box and admits, “It doesn’t have a return address or a sender’s name on it so… sorry.”

“Ok, thanks.”  He responds as he scribbles his signature on the digital notepad two times.

“Thanks sir and have a great day.”

“You do the same.”  He replies and he closes the door.

After he locks it, he looks at the heavier box and reads it’s from the 118th Avenue Printing Press and he remembers Eddie said it’s the name of the company who printed their vow renewal invitations.  Once he looks at the other box, he reads the label and all he sees is some chicken scratch handwriting that resembles the one he’s seen on B-shift's work schedule.  Then he instantly recognizes it belongs to Captain Reynolds, however, he can’t think of any reason why someone would send something to him at the firehouse that has to be forwarded to his home address.

The longer he holds it, the heavier it becomes and he doesn’t realize it’s been several minutes since he accepted the delivery until he hears his husband’s voice ask, “Hey amore mio, are those the invitations?”

He looks towards the hallway, shakes his head no, then points at the other box and explains, “Uh, no… those are the invitations.”

Immediately, Eddie’s on alert because his husband has a haunted look on his face that resembles the one that he wore on January 2nd, so he takes off and runs towards him.  Once they’re face to face, he says, “It’s ok.  I’m right here.  Let me take it from you.”

He wants to speak but his tongue feels like there's an invisible weight on it, so he slowly nods as Eddie removes it from his hand.

Once he’s holding the box, he takes Buck’s hand in his and leads him to the couch.  After they sit down, he examines it and after he notices Captain Reynolds bad handwriting, he realizes it was forwarded to them from the firehouse but he’s not sure what it is.  He meets Buck’s eyes and says, “Do you want me to open it and look at it?”

“Yes… please.”

Eddie pulls the perforated tab back, removes it, then he opens the flap.  After he slides the contents out, so they’ll land on the side of the couch that’s farthest away from Buck, his eyes widen when he sees what’s inside.  He quickly thumbs through the papers and after he makes it to one with a red background, he stops, reads it and looks at his husband.

Buck’s breath hitches in his throat and he asks, “What is it?”

“Amore mio!”  But those are the only words that come out of his mouth.

Who sent Buck a package? 👀

Will it contain something good or not so good? 🙃

__________

Fic Summary: Months after Buck and Eddie were hit by the same lightning strike; they’re still struggling with the aftermath of it.  But before they make their love confessions, they’ll spend time getting to know themselves as individuals first. Eddie learns to enjoy the simple things in life as he participates in activities on his own and with new friends while Buck learns the rest of the 31-year-old deep dark family secret about his conception and birth. Their journey to forever is still a work in progress but once they finally admit they’re in love with each other, everything that follows their love confessions will be cataclysmic.

__________

Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1 - Eddie makes a new friend while Buck receives devastating news regarding the sperm donation he made for Connor and Kameron.

Chapter 2 - Buck does a lot of research to learn more about the abnormalities found in his red blood cells and Eddie starts a new therapy journey that’s all about him and not the traumas he’s experienced.

Chapter 3 - After more than a month, Buck and Eddie finally spend time together outside of work but it doesn’t end well and they part with a lot of uncertainty regarding their places in each other’s lives.

Chapter 4 - Eddie has a few realizations about his life which causes him to consider moving back to El Paso, TX while Buck continues to be reminded of his past which causes him to take an impromptu road trip across America.

Chapter 5 - Both Buck and Eddie have difficult conversations with their parents and Buck finally learns the truth behind the reason why his mother despised him while Eddie finally tells his mother about the way she tries to control him.

Chapter 6 - More than two weeks after Buck pushed Eddie away after suggesting they needed a break; Eddie decides to try again. Eddie’s there for Buck when he’s at his worst just like Buck was there for him when he was at his worst and he won’t let Buck give up.

Chapter 7 - After Buck’s mental breakdown, Eddie has his back the same way Buck had his when he had his own breakdown more than a year ago.  They share several vulnerable and emotionally intimate moments with one another and they begin to realize their small, sweet and caring gestures matter just as much if not more than any grand gesture ever could because these are the foundations of a long-lasting love relationship.

Chapter 8 - Buck, Eddie and Chris all have their own therapists and during their sessions, they reflect on their pasts while they’re in the present so they can prepare for their future together as a family.

Chapter 9 - Buck and Eddie are there for each other when Buck has to testify as a witness during the trial.  But by the end of it, they’ll both realize their individual and shared traumas are going to keep resurfacing until they talk about them, deal with the fact that they’re in love with one another and face the fact that they can’t live without each other.

Chapter 10 - As Buck and Eddie finally begin to confront their past traumas, they realize how much they need each other to fill in the gaps of their memories.  Additionally, the universe screams at them for what appears to be the one hundredth time so Buck can realize he doesn’t have to ‘find it’ because he already ‘made it’ and Eddie’s reminded tomorrow isn’t promised and he doesn’t have to die alone if he doesn’t want to.

Chapter 11 - A “virga” or dry thunderstorm is in the forecast but once the rain starts, the thunderstorm happening outside won’t be able to match the storm brewing inside between Buck and Eddie.  It’s the universe’s final scream and when the tumultuous winds begin to blow, they’ll have one last chance to hold onto everything they’ve built over the last six years or they’ll lose it all forever.

Chapter 12 - Buck and Eddie have always shared a deep physical attraction and an emotional intimacy that’s unmatched but now that they’re in a relationship, they’re learning how to navigate the romantic intimacy they’ve been waiting for six years to explore. The love they have for each other is a once in a lifetime, soulmate, love of their lives type of love that transcends space and time.

Chapter 13 - While navigating the newness of their romantic relationship, Buck and Eddie take advantage of every moment they spend together. As their individual lives, people from their pasts, time constraints and the possibility of losing each other again make attempts to interrupt and interfere with their journey to forever, they love, care for, support and hold onto each other even tighter to withstand it all.

Chapter 14 - Buck and Eddie can see the lights at the end of the tunnels regarding the results of Buck’s Cancer Screening along with everything else they’re dealing with. But are the lights they see exits to the tunnels or are they headlights on different runaway trains that are speeding towards them in an effort to interrupt their forever?

Chapter 15 - Buck and Eddie have known they were exactly who the other one wanted in a partner since they met six years ago when they agreed to have each other’s backs. They’re in a romantic relationship, they’re both preparing to ask the other one to spend forever with them and by the end of the seventh week into their relationship, together they will plan their most important and greatest adventure for their future.

Chapter 16 - As Buck and Eddie begin to prepare for their marriage ceremony that will take place in Rome, Italy in December 2023, they start planning their first international adventure as a romantic couple. Even though Chris is still the only person they’ve told about their relationship, several people who know them have already witnessed the love they share and as the days continue, others will witness it too.

Chapter 17 - As Buck and Eddie get closer to departing Los Angeles for their international adventure, a moment in time will remind them; life is fragile, tomorrow isn’t promised and every second of everyday should be cherished because everything can change in an instant. The result of that realization will cause them to hold onto each other even more.

Chapter 18 - As Buck, Eddie and Chris prepare for family gatherings before and during the Thanksgiving holiday, the “Santa Ana Winds” start to blow and all sorts of expected and unexpected familial drama ensues.

Chapter 19 - As Buck and Eddie get closer to their wedding day, the universe begins to align everything so that some of their parent and children's relationships are strengthened while others come to an abrupt end.

Chapter 20 - With only 14 days remaining until Buck, Eddie and Chris depart Los Angeles, CA traveling to Rome, Italy, for their first family adventure, an early morning conversation about “tying up loose ends” helps Buck and Eddie realize there are still several things left unfinished on their ‘To Do’ lists. The question is will there be enough time to complete all of them?

Chapter 21 - Buck, Eddie and Chris are finalizing their ‘To Do’ Lists, double checking their itineraries and packing their suitcases in preparation for their trip to Europe so they can board their flight that departs Los Angeles, CA on Friday, December 15, 2023 at 3:25PM.

Chapter 22 - While Buck, Eddie and Chris spend the first 8 days of their European family adventure in Italy, their primary reason for going will be fulfilled as well as several others they hadn’t considered or anticipated.

Chapter 23 - As the Diaz Family continues their Italian family adventure, they’ll say, “Ciao” or hello and goodbye to a lot of things almost immediately after they become an official and legal family.

Chapter 24 - After Buck, Eddie and Chris arrive in London, England on December 24th; the Diazes immediately start preparing to spend their first family Christmas together. During their stay, each of them will hear a few choice words that will be the life raft to get them home to complete their searches to be seen and to be found.

Chapter 25 - After spending more than two weeks in Europe, Eddie, Buck and Chris are back in Los Angeles and they’re getting ready to attend Maddie and Chimney’s New Year’s Eve party. During the event, they have plans to make two surprise announcements but the question is, who’s really going to be surprised, the Diaz family or their found family at the 118?

Chapter 26 - Buck and Eddie are once again faced with their greatest fear of losing each other but this time it could be permanent and if it is, then they won’t be able to spend the rest of their lives together.

Chapter 27 - After Buck resumes therapy, he’ll continue to face the fact that he “DIED” in March 2023 and during those sessions, he’ll learn about the 7 stages of grief. As he continues his healing journey, Eddie will be right by his side just like he promised and the Diaz family will start to deal with their three minutes and seventeen seconds loss as a family.

Chapter 28 - Two years ago, Eddie was asked, “What are you afraid of?”; twice, once by Frank and once by Buck but he only answered one of them without deflecting. Since that time, he’s been to therapy and him and Buck got married but the question resurfaces when Frank asks Buck the same question and Buck asks it of Eddie for the second time. However, when Buck asks, his reasoning will be about something else entirely.

Chapter 29 - After Buck and Eddie have an emotionally intimate conversation regarding their dreams, they make several decisions that will affect their future. When everything falls into place, they’ll realize one of those decisions will result in them no longer being work partners.

Chapter 30 - In 2018, Buck and Eddie met at the 118 and after some initial apprehensions on Buck’s part, they became work partners and they agreed to have each other’s backs. It’s been more than 6 ½ years, a lot’s happened, they got married in December 2023 and they have the family they both chose. With Eddie leaving the 118 in 3 months and Buck getting closer to moving past his grief, what will him losing his work partner mean for him?

Chapter 31 - As Buck’s life hangs in the balance from what’s suspected to be another bradycardia event, Eddie’s by his bedside, their son is being cared for by relatives and their found family is in the waiting room. During this time, many questions will surface that could possibly lead to the truth but will everything be revealed before it’s too late?

Chapter 32 - Will be posted soon.

__________

Read chapters 1-31 are available on AO3.

Continue reading on AO3

Chapter 32 will be posted one day this week.

[kinetic-elaboration]

December 31: The New Year

New Year’s Eve. Doesn’t really feel like it. I don’t want to spend too much time really thinking about the transition to a new year or what have you… it makes me feel nervous and anxious. I’m in that part of my vacation where I can’t enjoy my vacation much because I can only think of it ending. And then going back home and returning to daily life… Well. But it is the last day of the year so I’m going to talk a little about 2024.

First, I have some general life resolutions. The first isn’t really a New Year’s resolution so much as it is my usual post-vacation resolution, except this time coming off of a longer break and with some more resolve. I want to get myself together. I want to stop living the way I’ve been living. It hasn’t made me happy. I want to push myself to do things, to go to sleep earlier, to eat better, to keep a better schedule. I want to feel steadier and more in control. I want to get my literal house in order (my apartment) because I think I deserve a better environment than the one I’ve given myself. And I’ve been on vacation long enough that all of this seems plausible. No big deal!

My regular New Year’s resolution is that I want to expand my creativity this year and make more things. I want to try some more ambitious knitting projects. I want to re-learn how to sew. I want to learn how to bind books. I want to hold things I’ve created with my own hands.

Finally, I have some… plans, ideas for writing next year. I definitely didn’t do most of what I intended for 2023 in 2023. A big part of that is the Time Loop coming up and taking over my life. For 2024 as a whole, I don’t have specific goals or ideas. I have some immediate plans, and we’ll see what happens after that. I do think it would be a good idea for me to significantly lower the number of ideas on my wip list, or in some way redefine the list, not by writing All the Things (simply not possible) but by culling ideas that are not actually of interest or plausible. But, on the other hand, why does it matter if I have a long list of ideas? No harm in that.

So, my writing plan for the coming…unknown period of time:

Finish the Time Loop: I still have 4 more scenes of the draft left. This is such a taunting number! But getting them done is going to remain my first priority. I will also prioritize editing the remaining three unposted chapters. I am not going to post Ch3 until the draft is finished but otherwise, I’ll be posting as soon as I can edit.

Jasper/Monty fic: This is an old one from 2017. Last year I figured out mostly how I want to finish it. I think I can do it in 3 scenes. It’s going to take some prep work (re-reading everything, fixing up the outline) but in terms of writing it’s not the biggest project and that’s why I want to get it over with. I like what I have already written and I want to share it, and that’s my motivation for writing it.

Bellamy/Miller Road Trip: I planned this random fic out to 7 (7!!!) chapters, a ridiculous proposition. But planning it has been quite fun and I want to try my hand at actually writing it. My idea is to write just the first chapter, then take a break for another project. Obviously this is a project so niche it has an audience of one, so I’d like it to be… fun? Over the top of it wants to be? We’ll see.

Southern Gothic AU: I know I need to take this more seriously and put it in a higher priority if I want to finish and post it for Halloween 2024. I know. It’s… scary. But yeah I should be working on this as well.

Free writes and writing exercises: I have July Break Bingo prompts I’m still pulling from and I’ll be starting K/S Bingo in January. We’ll, uh, see how that goes.

So, yeah! The truth is there is a lot of stuff on my WIP list that excites me and a lot of newer ideas percolating and just… a lot. I sure do like writing (hypothetically). My only real-real goal about it this upcoming year is have fun and enjoy what I’m doing. There are no end goals here; there’s no finish line. I just… would like to feel a little better, that’s all.

In many ways, this was a tough one, I’m not going to lie! I’m looking forward positively to 2024!

[campdigimonth]

Camp Digimonth 2023

Hi everyone!  Camp Digimonth 2023 is coming!  I have gathered information for interested parties beneath the cut.

Event Date:  January 1-31, 2023

How it Works:  The purpose of Camp Digimonth is to establish creative habits for a new year by making Digimon content together!  Each participant is asked to set their own goals for the month to suit their creative needs.  All kinds of content creators are welcome (writers, artists, gif makers, cosplayers, whatever your heart desires!).  Participants do not need to stick to one medium; you can write and draw, etc!  And remember that planning and refining are vital parts of creation.  If you want to spend the month outlining new projects or editing old ones, that's great, too!  Content from all Digimon series/games/movies/drama CDs/novelizations/etc is welcome!

There are no prompts in this event.  Participants are encouraged to work on existing projects or projects on their to-do list.

Sample Goals:  

-Time based: Create for x unit of time per day.  This type of goal is especially helpful for folks wanting to establish a daily creative habit and for people who work in multiple mediums.  It can also avoid the pressure of having to generate specific units of finished products.

-Number based:  Draw y images per day/month, write z words per day/month, etc.  This goal is similar to Nanowrimo's goal of writing 50,000 words per month/1,667 words per day, except that you can set your own goal.  Maybe 10,000 words total or 5 finished drawings sounds fun to you!  

-Project based:  Finish a oneshot or short story from your to-do list, knock out that series of drawings you've wanted to make, create that epic gifset, etc!

How to Participate:  You can be as involved or independent as you'd like!  Use the hashtag #campdigimonth2023 and tag @campdigimonth to mark any post you want reblogged on this Tumblr blog.  

-Declaring goals:  I will start checking the #campdigimonth2023 tag in early January 2023 for your Goal Announcements!  Once you have landed on a goal for yourself, you can share it with everyone following the Camp Digimonth blog :D  Share what you will make with everyone, so we can get hype for your upcoming content!  

-Share your content:  Use the same #campdigimonth2023 tag to mark any content you would like shared on this blog from January-March 2023 (the later months are intended for more coverage for multi-chapter fics and comics, or any works too complex to complete in January).

Content Rules:  

1.)  All content must be original (no reposting/content theft) and created during January 2023

2.)  Submissions are accepted

3.)  OCs are welcome (human and fakemon)

4.)  Character bashing/ship bashing/season or game bashing is not allowed

5.)  Tag any potentially triggering content

6.)  Shipping/romance is welcome as long as it is work safe and obeys all other guidelines

7.)  This blog and the Discord chat are FAMILY FRIENDLY.  The mods have no way to know how old everyone is, so to prevent any issues, all content reblogged on the official Camp Digimonth Tumblr and discussed/shared in the Discord must be fit for general audiences.  Sample topics that will not be reblogged/will result in a Discord ban include, but are not limited to: sexually explicit content, violently graphic content, incest, human x digimon romance pairings, highly dark themes (drugs/torture/non-consensual actions/etc), pedophilia.

Notes on the Camp Digimonth Discord Server:  At this time, the server members have voted to keep the server closed to new entrants.  However, everyone is welcome to join the event on Tumblr.

Notes on Reblogging

I (ahiddenpath) will reblog posts in line with the content rules above and tagged   #campdigimonth2023 on this blog.  Please allow 48 hours for me to reblog and queue your post.  After 48 hours, please feel free to send me a gentle reminder via Tumblr DM or the Discord if I missed your post.  I am but mortal!

Notes on Questions

Got questions about this event?  No problem!  Use this blog’s ask box to ask them!  Please note that anon asks are turned off on this blog.

Thank you so much for your interest in Camp Digimonth!  I look forward to creating together!

[polizwrites]

PoliZ’s WIP Update - 11 Oct 2023

A less-than average week as Real Life took center stage.   I touched 3  fics (2 WIPs & 1 new works)  for a total of  1954 words.

On Ao3, I posted: 

An A-maze-ing Afternoon Together - established Stephen/Tony fluff  ficlet

Lessons Learned -  a Sam/Clint meet-cute ficlet. 

  Tony Stark Bingo Mark VII - September Round Robin - post-Avengers  Tony/Bruce friends to maybe something more. 

A Sign of the (Sexy) Times -  WinterPepperony silly, sexy ficlet (no actual smut) 

I have  18 semi-active WIPs  😬 with my  current  deadlines being the Sam Wilson Bingo that wraps on Oct 15, the Halloween Horror Bingo and the  the Fictober/ Flufftober/ Whumptober prompt challenges that all wrap at the end of the month.

See  below cut for what I’m working on/planning to work on - arranged more or less by bingos/challenges/etc.  As always, feel free to send me   prompts or plot bunnies as well as asks regarding  any of these projects  or any other WIPs I’ve got out there.   Interaction really helps feed the Muse and keep me motivated!

Seek & Destroy Collab

After reading @psychiccatpanda‘s amazing   Morguna and the Green Queen, I  got the itch to explore the Soldier’s POV and talked  Faustie into   collab’ing with me!  We’re working on a new part of the series, and I’ve  contributed about 900 words towards the  2500-ish we have so far.   Going to see if I can squeeze any of my BBB squares into this fic.

 Sam Wilson Bingo [SWB_R3]  (Ends 15 Oct 2023)

I have eight fills and zero WIPs - targeting a Column G bingo and perhaps one more fill before the bingo wraps up.  

* B4 - Natasha Romanoff -  Maybe add on to my Card Sharks drabble, where  SamNat & Steve conspire to create a polycule with Bucky?  This idea crosses over nicely with my BBB KINK: Seduction mission square and maybe I can squish a Fictober or Flufftober prompt in here. 

* G2 - Teacher/Teacher AU - Posted Lessons Learned on Monday - a No Powers AU FalconHawk meet (mostly) cute ficlet that crossed over with  Flufftober Day 9 “: "I wouldn't do that if I were you.”  and came in at  414 words.   

* G4 - Adopting a Pet - posted a moodboard for this where Joaquin brings a stray cat home and  Sam and Bucky (pretend to) disapprove.  Shout out to @hannahshattuck3121 for the assist on the Joaquin pics!  

Halloween Horror Bingo - [HHB_23] (Ends 31 Oct 2023)

Just signed up for this event, hosted by @halloweenhorrorbingo. After picking three horror films, you get a 3x3 card (with 3 alternates) with prompts based on those films.

* B1 - Dealing with Extreme Cold  - seems like a good match with my BBB Cold   and or SVB Last Resort  square along with Whumptober: Thermometer  & Fictober "It's not too late, let's go."

* ALT1 - There’s something under the bed - Finished up  A Hairy Situation -   WinterHawk Werewolf AU  that’s  coming in at a nice, round 2200 words and crosses over with my BBB "This might as well happen"  square. Targeting to post on Friday the 13th. 😁

Fictober/Flufftober/Whumptober - [FFWtober_23] (Ends 31 Oct 2023)

I’m lumping these three prompt challenges together as I plan on mixing and matching with a goal of using at least four prompts from each list by the end of the month for a total of 12 prompts.  I’m a little behind at only three used so far, but we’ll see what the rest of the month brings!  

* Whumptober Day 2: Thermometer  see  HHB Dealing with Extreme Cold 

* Fictober Day 3: "Okay, show me."   see SWB  Joaquin Torres above.  

* Flufftober Day 6. Corn Maze -  posted  An A-maze-ing Afternoon Together (fluffy IronStrange established relationship ficlet) on Friday.  It crossed over with my TSB  Tony/Stephen square and came in at 451 words.  

* Fictober Day 9: "I wouldn't do that if I were you."  See SWB Teacher/Teacher AU.  

* Fictober Day 12: "I'm not saying I didn't like it."  Wrote up a short Chapter 2  to  Caught By the Rain and Blinded by the Lightning  as a crossover with my  TSB Pairing: Tony/Thor square.  It came in at  567 words and will post on Thursday.  

* Fictober Day 24:  [melting emoji]  - combine with  TSB  "Get back in bed!"  Tony has a fever and won’t listen to his partner. Maybe throw in a little Whumptober too? 

* Fictober Day 27:   "I don't know if they will accept this."  - This could be a fun combo with TSB  T2 - KINK: Cock-blocking 'bots. 

WinterIron Bingo  - [WIB_R1]   (Ends 16 Dec 2023)

I have sixteen fills completed and two WIPs for this brand-new bingo event that I’m helping mod!  Along with crossfilling against my other bingos,  I’m going to try to combine my B column squares for the Iron Soldier badge (complete a bingo with a single work). – Alpha Tony Stark, “That was not my intention.”, James Rhodes, Alpine loves Tony and Blind date.   (Tony POV remix of A Sugar Coated Pill?)

* N1 - Bucharest –  I think I can fold this into a future chapter of My Love is Vengeance -  where a young!Tony and a recovering!Bucky have been kidnapped by Hydra, who still thinks Bucky is the Soldier.  

* G2 - Eye contact during sex - This will come into play in Chapter 6 of A Sugar-Coated Pill, where Bucky figures out what making love really means, with Tony’s help. It’s crossing over with BBB KINK: Gentle Sex and is up to 830 words.

* G4 - AU: College Students – looking to expand Beaten to the Punch with some backstory on Bucky and Tony as science camp counselors to fit with this square - will also cross over with my WFB  Volunteering Together square.  

* O5 - Gentle – use this poem  as inspiration?

Stucky’Verse Bingo Round 1 - [SVB_R1]   (Ends 22 Dec)

Eleven fills, two WIPs and a couple of ideas.

* A1 - Harem - crossover with CABB Secret/Forbidden Relationship - Bucky and shrimpy!Steve are both concubines - they love each other more than their lord. I poked at this a little for 71 words.

* A4 - Fairy Tale Curse  - this seems custom-made for a continuation of Beyond the Beast😁  Nothing written yet, other than some Vague Ideas.  

* C3 - FREE - Need to find a good match for Chapter 2 of   Half of the Flesh and Blood That Makes Me Whole   - a Bucky POV remix of at least the first part of Take What Was Wrong (And Make it Right), which is current sitting at  52 words.  I’m expecting at least one more chapter, possibly two, depending on how far I want to take the remix.   

* C5 - Last Resort - see HHB Dealing with Extreme Cold 

Bucky Barnes Bingo  - [BBB_R5]   (Ends 10 Jan 2024)

I’ve got  eleven fills,  four WIPs,   and a couple more Vague ideas.

* B2 - KINK: Seduction Mission - might add a new chapter to Card Sharks - where Sam/Natasha and Steve finish what they started to get Bucky onboard for a poly partnership.

* B5 - Cold - see HHB  Dealing with Extreme Cold

*  U1 - Never the fall that kills you -  I’ve got a WinterIron hanahaki fic idea for this that I might play with or check against Whumptober prompts 

* U3 - Fireplace -  Working on a 1980′s No Powers WinterIron fic set at a ski lodge where Tony’s being wooed by poetry and love letters that Bucky wrote to someone else.   Started poking at this as a crossover with a Love Letters prompt and it’s sitting at 129 words.

* C2 - Yelena Belova–   The plan is to use this prompt in the next chapter of Peresmešnik,  (aka Three Avengers and a Baby), which is currently sitting at 1303 words (600-ish of which are mine).

* C5 - Marriage of Convenience/Pretend Couple -  next chapter of   Lady Natasha’s Consort and Lord Steve’s Companion.    Got a spark of an idea the other day that might get me a bit further on this fic.  

* K3 - Magic -  Aro!Bucky healing with a kiss idea?

* Y1 - Gentle Sex – In-progress Chapter 6 of Sugar-Coated Pill- see WIB Eye Contact During Sex.

* Y3 - Alpine  - see WIB Iron Soldier combo.

* Y4 - Forgotten Things -   using this for Chapter 4 of   You Can’t Stop It With a Gun  - it’s sitting at  116 words at the moment.

* Y5 - "This might as well happen"  - see  HHB  Alt1 

* May Adopted - Insomnia - finally got this filled with The Dead of Night, which also filled a Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF211 An Old Friend] along with my JBB FREE square. It came in at 317 words and will post to Ao3 before this event ends.

* August Adopted: Take the Shot - sounds like a WinterHawk fic to me… maybe cross over with JBB Touch-starved?  Whumptober/Fictober possibilities as well. 

Tony Stark Bingo Round 7  - [TSB_R7]   (ends 15 Feb)

Thirteen  fills and one WIPs, with a couple of ideas in play.  

* S1 - Galaxy - possibly use in final chapter of   Never More to Go Astray ?  

* S2 - KINK: Multiple Orgasms  - Posted A Sign of the (Sexy)Times  this morning - 425 words of a WinterPepperony not-quite-smutfic  (fade to black before actual sex, but there is Sexual Content)  thanks to a NSFW shitpost over in the WinterIron Discord server  (and @rebelmeg’s awesome commentary).

* S3 - Pairing: Tony/Thor - see Fictober Day 12 above. 

* T2 - KINK: Cock-blocking 'bots - see Fictober Day 27 above

* T3 - A pairing you've never done - @SomeSortofItalianRoast and I are looking at collabing on a  Steve/Tony/Scott fic - possibly throw in a  Flufftober/Fictober prompt?  

* T5 - Shawarma - possible crossover with SAUB Canon Divergence – Battle of New York-related?

* A2 - KINK: Concubine - possible crossover with SAUB Gentle Dom

* A5 - Building your friends - used this for the Tony Stark Bingo Mark VII - September Round Robin - contributed 395 words to the overall fic.    

* R1 - Animal Transformation - DemonPanda shared a fun prompt on the WIB server - Tony as a short-haired werewolf who needs to cuddle his pack members for warmth.

* R5 - Doppelganger/Evil Twins -   The Flash Fiction Friday prompt [#FFF214 Broken Mirror] got me at least a good start on the idea I’ve been playing with for this square. I posted NamNori on Tumblr and have a general idea of how I want to build on it to also fill my SAUB AU: Crack square. It’s currently sitting at 360 words.

* K2 - "Get back in bed!"  -  see Fictober Day 24  above

* September Adopted:  Tony/Stephen - see  Flufftober Day 6 above

Stony AUniverse Bingo  [SAUB_R1] (ends 15 Feb)

Another brand-new bingo I’m helping co-mod!   Six fills, three WIPs and several  crossover ideas already!

* S1 - Edging - Filled this with Ringing in the New, where Tony makes a suggestion to improve/change up their love life. It’s a crossover with a Flash Fiction Friday prompt: How Do You Use ‘It’? and came in at 324 words - I will post it to Ao3 before the event is over.

* S2 - AU: Crack - see TSB   Doppelganger/Evil Twins

* S3 - AU: Wings - see SVB FREE square

* S5 - Accidental Baby Acquisition - see BBB Yelena Belova

* T1 - AU: Fantasy -  CoffeeOwl shared a really cool dragon!Steve/indebted!Tony prompt in the ACB Discord server that I may be playing with for this.

* T4 - AU: Canon Divergence - see TSB Shawarma above.

* N2 - Mutual Pining - crossover with CABB Royal Knight?

* N3 - Gentle Dom - see TSB KINK: Concubine above

* Y4 - AU: Soulmates  -  @chrissihr  posted a cool idea about Animated soulmarks, where  only your SM sees your mark move - may try to do something with this!  

Captain (America) Bottom Bingo - Round 2 [CABB] (ends 28 Feb 2024)

I signed up for a 3x3 card for this bingo and have four fills, one WIPs and a couple of crossover ideas.

* A2 - Secret/Forbidden Relationship - see SVB Harem

* B3 - Royal Knight - see SAUB Mutual Pining.

Post July Break Bingo  [JBB_23p] (Ends Apr 2024)

@julybreakbingo is running another event to tide participants over with a 2x3 non-fandom-specific card - I got mine earlier this week and am checking it over for potential crossovers.

* A1 - “It’s you. It’s always been you.” - This might fit in with my TSB Doppelgangers/Evil Twins fill NamNori above :: ponders::

* B1 - Ask the neighbor if they know why your apartment is haunted  - I gotta do something with this for Spooky Month - maybe combine with TSB Old Ghosts or something off my HHB card  :: ponders:: 

* B2 - Character’s personality is split into two different beings – I’ve never played with Bucky & the Soldier being two different people, but this seems like the perfect opportunity! Will see what might be a good crossover on BBB or WIB (or even SVB)

*  C1 - Touch Starved – another good fit for a Bucky-centric fic. (Steve or Tony or Clint) possibly crossover with BBB Take the shot?

Warm and Fluffy   Bingo  - [WFB]   (no end date)

I got my card from  @warmandfluffybingocards back in February but really haven’t done much with it  - however, I’m picking it back up for some crossover possibilities!

 * O5 - Volunteering Together – see WIB AU: College Students

————

On  other creative fronts:  I am working on a Bela Lugosi Dracula  Stuffed With Character figure in progress for a commission and have signed up for the Marvel Trumps Hate event - so keep an eye out for my auctions! 

If  you’re looking for one of a kind gifts for birthdays or other celebrations, check  out Stuffed With Character    over on Facebook for a full list of my designs (now over 150!).   These soft stuffed figures are  mostly Marvel and monsters, but I have some Star Wars, Star Trek, DC   and Disney figures as well. Plus I love to take custom design   requests  for any fandom!