#a tag named apocrypha snippets

[irisfixation]

she asks kindly before sex if she could please have your safeword. you oblige happily; it's only after her knife draws blood, and you fumble for words that will not arise, that you realize the extent of your mistake. "it's perhaps one of the most basic fae tricks, yes," she tells you with a smile, "but you know, people tend to be far less cautious when it's not a name being taken!"

[illumiera]

Snippet Sunday

since I'm super late for WIP Wednesday (thank you for the tags I've received lately nonetheless! 💖) but trying my best to get into the writing groove after some low-energy weeks, I thought I'd share a snippet of my writing! here's a little something from the very beginning of the next chapter of i fear no fate (for you are my fate), featuring a trip down memory lane with Miraak:

There are no days in deathless Apocrypha, no nights, no stars, and certainly no sunrises. One could slip through the syllables and into Herma-Mora’s realm intending to linger for a month, a year, no longer, but then find themselves lured like an insect nectar-drunk to tome after tome, to the distant glittering promise of discovery, to the answers for which any scholar would have slain and stolen. One could just as easily take an off-handed glance at a date scrawled into the margins of some old spellbook and strangle themselves on a realisation that sticks in the throat like balled-up paper: the last person to remember their face has been ash or bone for a century or more, and now—now there is nothing and nobody left on Nirn for them to return to, not even if they still knew the way. Not even if they still knew their own names. Miraak has seen it unfold many, many times before. Once, eras ago, before he learned to stay away, he gripped a hapless fool of a mage by the shoulders, stared into his unfocused inkwell eyes, and urged him—in what must have been Cyrodilic, he thinks; Cyrodilic that had tripped from his novice tongue—to remember what he’d been called and where he’d come from. Urged him to remain himself, reckless enough to go wandering into Oblivion though he was. The change seized hold nonetheless, as it would have one day seized hold of him, and soon, the thing standing before him could not have been described as a man anymore. (He took to granting a few of them his mercy—when he could, at least. After all, which would any sane mortal choose if the decision were theirs to make: a thousand years of searing beneath the never-blinking eyes of the Gardener of Men, or a swift sword-strike to the juncture of the neck and shoulder before freedom, endless freedom? Perhaps Mora had dismissed his efforts at first, but when it became apparent that Miraak would not stop, or simply when his actions became more irritating than amusing, the Prince had exacted his toll. Between one heartbeat and the next, once-familiar passageways would twist and turn and lead him on without direction, burning-black waters would surge and swell and threaten to sweep him away or strip the flesh from his bones, and staircases he’d climbed sure-footed would rise and fall to chasms where extinction waited within. Lost in the library of the lost, Miraak had paced, and paced, and paced, until he’d thought he might go mad himself.)

no-pressure tags: @madam-whim @bostoniangirl21 @shadows-aflame @pinessydr @kiir-do-faal-rahhe @bougainvillea-and-saltwater @lilarus @hircines-hunter @theoneandonlysemla @miraakulous-cloud-district @elavoria @moriche and you, reader! if you have something to share, I'd love to see! 🤲

[fletchingbrilliant]

WIP Game

I got tagged by @fanby-fckry Don't say I didn't warn you

rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. tag as many people as you have wips. people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then post a little snippet or tell them something about it!

So I'm listing like, a lot of things here. I don't have a WIP folder, my partner (who is also my writing parter @zaebeecee hey babe) and I have a folder TREE based on franchise, including our original work. If you want to see what that looks like I will show you, but oh man it's..... a lot. Almost literal years of writing together is compiled here. (I only know the number cuz we set our anniversary as the day we started writing our now massive original project that is actually being published as a comic THIS YEAR) We have no idea what actual day we went 'yeah we are in a relationship now' because we are both guys and that's just one of the stereotypes we fall into lol I'm not posting EVERYTHING is what I'm saying cuz it's easily over 100 also I want Zae to have some to share too when I inevitably tag him. But I thought I'd sorta dance around a few different franchises for fun.

so here goes

The Radio Angel (Hellaverse)

Piratey Things (Hellaverse)

Dial Tone Heartbeat (Hellaverse)

Adam Ate My Baby (Hellaverse)

Hazbin Hotel: Apocrypha (Hellaverse)

Untitled ABO Project (Stardew Valley yeah oops haha trust me)

Flesh-Eater King (Hannibal)

Taming the Feral Heart (Hannibal)

The Ripper's Final Problem (Hannibal-Sherlock)

Hikari (Kingdom Hearts)

Harbingers of Dusk & Dawn (Final Fantasy - most of them)

Unnamed Fratt Romance (Daredevil/Punisher)

Empire of the Dead (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Ghost Story (Silent Hill)

The Horned God (Death Note)

Onryō Academy (Shaman King)

Pneumic Transanimation (Bleach)

weird enough? i had to leave a bunch for zae and also not like... overwhelm anybody but we are in fact going to continue work on all of these. getting them up on ao3? honestly i just don't know what stuff people would be interested in reading so this is a good opportunity to find out.

i didn't include anything from our original project, but we are also writing fanfics of our own babies i'm sure we're far from the only people doing that

HERE COME TAGS AND IF YOU ARE A VISUAL ARTIST TELL ME NAMES OF YOUR ART WIP FILES LET'S SHARE THE JOY

@zaebeecee

@storm89

@artisticallygay

@hunnipear

@zatyrlucy

@tethered-heartstrings

@tashasmigs

@jekyllandhamlet

@gotta-go-blast

@luxurydumpsterfire

[mid0khan]

WIP ask game !

I've been tagged by @samsalami66 , thank you darling ^^

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

It may be the occasion to find some motivation to actually finish some of those poor WIPs X)

Hopes and Expectations chapter 13 (Sandman)

GO prompts rumour (Good Omens)

Clockwork Heart (BBC Sherlock)

Johnlock Hanakhaki (BBC Sherlock)

Immortal Soulmates (BBC Sherlock)

Nameless Soulmates (BBC Sherlock)

A Dream you hold in your hands (Sandman)

Elvish dictionnary and grammar guide (Original work)

Travels in Elvish lands (Original work)

(As you can see, my Sherlock WIPs suffered when my hyperfixation on Sandman came crashing on me ><' )

And for tagging, uh, am I supposed to tag 9 people ? Whoops

Let's say @the-apocrypha @embroiderling @dragonnan @emihotaru @pumpkinkingsalem @aquabluejay @pluckyyoungdonna @fleabagoftheendless @amielot

Sorry if you have already been tagged, and of course no pressure !

[tj-dragonblade]

WIP Tag Game

Tagged by the fabulous @delta-pavonis, thank you!

RULES: post the names of the files in your WIP folder. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it!

I am mostly rotating through things that have been on my plate awhile and poking at them as they strike my fancy. Here are their working titles:

Impromptu Fishbowl Therapy (and here)

Victorian AU

Academic Conference AU

Treasure

Greek Vacation AU

Carwash Fic (and here)

Star Trek 'AU'

A3 Adoration

Tagging, no obligation, point me at your existing post if you've just done this: @chaosheadspace , @staroftheendless , @valeriianz , @kydrogendragon , @zzoomacroom , @the-apocrypha , @bruce-wayne-simp

[dsudis]

WIP Tag game

I was tagged by @pellaaearien and @notallsandmen, but I wasn't going to because I only have like... two fic WIPs that I can talk about, but @the-apocrypha did it so I will too. XD

RULES: post the names of the files in your WIP folder. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it!

Fic WIPs:

[Big Bang, still secret-ish for now, oh god so much writing to do this month still]

When Two Become One

Quick Now Here Now Always

I feel like everyone I know has gotten tagged already, but if you want to play and haven't been tagged, feel free to say it was me! :D

[dragonnan]

WIP Title Ask Game

Got tagged by the super talented @the-apocrypha.

I love tag games so thank you tremendously!!

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

So I am often not super imaginative when it comes to idea file names. While this isn't remotely EVERY idea I have - they are the ones with a somewhat more fleshed out concept:

@dragonnan (IDK can you do this with art?): sure thing! I can include some in-progress art that I haven't developed beyond the sketchy stage :)

Fanfics:

Faun Sherlock Story 2

Sherlock Allergies

The Fire in Which We Burn chapter 3 (Sherlock)

Sherlock Time Travel

Sherlock Witch Trials

Winged Sherlock

Sed Diabolus Chapter 14 (Avengers)

Aunt May and Loki

Stephen Strange with Wings

Peter Quill on Earth

Tony Stark and Wilson Fisk

Creepy Grooming Obie (Iron Man)

Peter Parker Kidnapped

Hob and his life (Sandman)

Fanart sketches:

Surprisingly I don't have many that are even developed enough to share. For the most part, once I get cooking on an idea, I'll obsessively work on it till it's completed. If the idea doesn't "catch" it will basically stay in this state forever lol.

Anyway, below we have

Mycroft holding baby Sherlock

Young Faun Sherlock

Doctor Strange getting impaled

Anime style Doctor Strange

Calliope and Dream

Tagging: @sgam76 @kitcat992 @ariaadagio @ceruleanmindpalace @aelaer @7-percent @disappearinginq @ahollowyear @englandsgray @cargumentluv as well as anyone else who'd like to participate :)

[daevastanner]

WIP Game

Thanks @crazy-ache for the tag (and for always making me feel like a celebrity 😭)

Rules: In a new post, list the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Current WIPs:

The Book of Binding — my OG work I’ve been drafting since March of 2023. An Adam and Eve retelling set in an alternate Victorian London where Enochian lore is not mere apocrypha but our history. An endearing and clumsy archivist teams up with Prince Asmodeus of Hell and Fallen Angel with a tragic past to prevent the apocalypse at the hands of the archangels.

Untitled Elucien Fanfic for my bestie Millie — When the bond snaps for Gwyn and Azriel, Elain intercepts a missive from Tamlin asking for assistance from any courts willing to help him prepare his lands for Calanmai and restore his reputation. Desperate to be rid of the budding romance between her paramour and the priestess, Elain flees for the Spring lying and tell Tamlin she’s been sent by the High Lord and Lady to see his gardens and lands are restored to their former glory. Lucien arrives to offer his services and in an effort to apologize to his former friend, Tamlin pairs the Vanserra with Elain to make preparations. When the magic of Calanmai heightens Elain and Lucien’s budding attraction, their one night stand result in Elain keeping a secret that breaks her heart. But what are the ramifications when Lucien discovers it sooner than she anticipated?

Untitled Gwyn rage fic w/ Gwynsand friendship — When Azriel is abducted by Koschei, Gwyn’s mating instincts urge her to go to war. Rhysand will not grant her the forces and Gwyn decides to make him change his mind… by any means necessary. Will Rhys be able to talk his friend down from her murderous intent or will Gwyn make a choice that will haunt her the rest of her life?

Tagging @hlizr50 who recently DREW Gwyn in my pajamas 😭

Edit: just realized this was supposed to be a new post… too late now 😆

WIP Game

Thanks for the tag @zenkindoflove !!

Rules: In a new post, list the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Current WIPs:

I’m Melting Darling, I Can’t Let Go (Elucien, two shot possibly?)

Random WIPs with no titles just word dumps:

- Elain meets the BOE

- Lucien/Elain drinking game

- Elucien Spring Court (multi chapter)

Tagging @daevastanner because I’m a big fan of your work and videos!!

[vellaphoria]

WIP ask game

@marirah thanks for the tag!!

Post the names of the files of your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you asks with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it. If you want, tag as many people as you have WIPs.

WIPs are listed beneath the cut because there are a lot of them. Though I'm pretty busy these days, so no promises that any of these will ever see the light of day lol

I'm tagging @shmoo92 and @themandylion, but only if you feel like it!

WIPs!

One shots:

Day 1: Time Loop

Day 4: Ablution

Day 5: Witcher AU

truth serum or dare

March YOTP - Roadtrip

April YOTP - When the Night Climbs Slow

July YOTP - Earth-3!Dick

October YOTP - Court of Owls Infiltration

November YOTP - Dark Waters/ Unternet lotus eater machine

December YOTP - Tim's s/o vs. Dick

Sacrifice/God AU

Uncomfeyness

Dragon!Tim

Long fics:

As Good as You Get | slowburn

Wrong Enough to Be Forgiven

The Point of the Mask

Peregrine

Ongoing fics/series:

Recursion Epilogue

In the Shadow of the Empire: Part II

RiTaC IV: Arguments

RiTaC V: Small Rebellions

RiTaC VI: Cold Comfort

RiTaC VII: Fealty

MTSCH Ch.4

Deadfall 13: Katabasis

Fact/Weapon: The Butcherbird

Apocrypha 9 v.2

Stars, Hide Your Fires (Space!Vampires)

Deadfall 14

[fourteenacross]

2017 Fic Year in Review

2017 in fic! I still have to get used to this looking so different to how it looked from like, 2007 to 2015. I also did a lot of like...weird not!quite!fic things? Which I’m counting in my word count, just because I did put thought into them? But I’m not sure if I should? I don’t know. Anyway, I’ve had two glasses of champagne and a glass of red wine, so WHATEVER. Hamilton: Ghosthunters full-length fic Birthday Shots (2069) Commercialism, Merit Badges, and Liquid Courage (8179) Communicable (24382) Well Deserved Recognition (3738) Truth or Dare, Jungle Juice, and a Linen Closet (8532) Q&A Saturday - June 6, 2015 (1120) everyone must breathe until their dying breath (116,690*)

Ghosthunters ficlets: Mattie and Alex texting (1708) John and Francis at boarding school (794) Washington after the air grows cold around me and you (423) August 14 (573) Molly and the haunted chair (1159) Laf's sad Christmas (1656) John on the phone with his dad (1543) John's PoV on Alex's birthday body shots (1606) Alex and John's tattoo (2326) John at the beginning of but i won't go far away (1032) John draws Alex (1888) John is reckless (2036) John explains his tattoo (1307) John and Alex eat poptarts in bed (1924) Jo and Mattie, Jo realizes she's in love (715) John's birthday and turtles (1275)

Ghosthunters apocrypha: John's in the hospital (840) The Schuyler-Hamilton-Laurenses get a dog (332) July 12 (1634) August 27 (1535) November 24 (4020)

Three sentence ficlets: Herc and breakfast (129) Angelica leaving for London (canon fic) (133) John falling in love (102) Alex and art (119) Ghosthunters + tetanus shots (161) Eliza, first day of summer (113) Laf meeting George and Martha for the first time (180) John, first kiss with a boy (165) Burr, drunk and alone (172) John and Francis, getting together (164)

Ghosthunters Not!Fic: John and Mattie, fake dating (2563)

Non-Ghosthunters Hamilton fic: John and Alex share a bed on a roadtrip (2396) Supplemental not!fic to the above (2497) Alex and John on the dance floor with a surprise slow song (2038) Alex and John, almost drowning (3076) Supplement to the above (2335)

Not!Fic: John and his ghost boyfriend (4555) John and Alex, "summer in the city" roommates for a summer internship AU (1491) John and Alex, "may we meet again" teen besties meet again as adults and fall in love AU (2347) Hamilton noir AU, "we get the job done" (1522) Alex and John, "the world turned upside down" BFFs -> lovers AU (6161) Fem4Ham, "helpless" soulmate AU (6613)

Gravity Falls: Mabel, first crush on a girl (118)

Great Comet Not!Fic: Sonya, No One is Alone (756)

MCU: Sam and Steve and trick-or-treaters (467)

Grand Total Fandoms: 4 Total Full Length Fic: 7 Total Ficlets: 46 Grand Total Stories: 53 Grand Total Word Count: 235,409* 

* I'm including all the words of the ghosthunters summer story that I’ve written so far, even the ones that haven’t been posted.

Overall Thoughts: Man, this list looks so long, but it’s still so far off the mark that I had intended to hit.

This was a hard year, creatively. It was for everyone, I think, but after having a really great upswing in 2016 when my meds had leveled out, it felt particularly dire to me, even though I knew I wasn’t alone. It’s hard to absorb that sometimes, you know?

I’m disappointed I didn’t finish this summer story before the end of the year. I was making very good time this summer and cranked out like 60k words on a really good schedule. I took a break for DragonCon and the associated scrambling and packing, and then never got back on the horse. It’s one of those things where I can’t tell if it was self-discipline or brain stuff or exhaustion, but I’m mad at myself all the same, cause I’m like that. I’ve still got another 30k to write and I’m going to try to get back on a schedule and stick to it to push out these last couple scenes, but I still keep kicking myself about the whole thing.

A lot of it comes back to something I was talking about in last year’s round up, which is not having, essentially, @pearlo in this fandom. I spent like, five years sending Erica a constant stream of fic ideas and dialogue snippets and talking out every fic idea and texting her in the middle of the night with AUs and all sorts of other shit and it’s a hard transition to not having that built in. It was how I worked out a lot of issues and also expressed a lot of joy. It feels a little like screaming into a void on here, at times, and while you’re all lovely and I appreciate all your encouragement and feedback, talking about your own work all the time occasionally makes one feel like an egomaniac. So...that’s a thing.

On to more positive things! I really liked doing those sort of not!fic things--it got some of my creative juices flowing when I was blocked on ghosthunters and scratched the itch of starting a zillion stories that I had great ideas for but no time to actually follow to the finish line. Doing ficlet memes and stuff, too, felt really good, taking requests and such. Holding in-person writing dates was super helpful, and having @lisapizza around to occasionally badger into hanging out with me so I could talk about this shit.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted? I definitely expected to finish more, but numberwise and contentwise. I probably shouldn’t be surprised that I got much less done than I intended, given how weird the whole year has been, but I’m still kind of bummed. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? Hmmmmm....I don’t know that there’s anything that I wouldn’t have predicted? Everything is pretty on par with what I’ve been doing for the past couple years? What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? I loved a lot of the stories I wrote this year, because I'm super obsessed with myself. [[< -- I think I've kept that sentence in for the past few years because it remains true]] It’s hard to name anything other than everyone must breathe until their dying breath. I’ve been working on it for two years, on and off, and it was one of the first bits of character building I did as I started to create the verse. There are a lot of wonderful little character moments in it and a lot of parts I really just genuinely enjoyed writing.

Communicable was also something I was working on for a while, and there are so many lovely quiet moments. @the-everqueen actually pulled out my favorite bit of that story for commentary--that whole night they spend together at the Washingtons’ and John’s conversation with Martha the next morning were a joy to write.

Outside of the ghosthunters, the #fem4ham soulmate AU has eaten my brain and soul, and the ficlet about John and Alex sharing a bed really made me wish I had a million extra hours in the day to write about that universe’s John and his struggles. Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Not any huge ones? I think my biggest “risk” is the same mistake I make over and over again--feeling pressured to give people an ETA on the next story and then....totally missing that deadline. I’ve gotta stop doing that, for serious. My best story of this year: Definitely everyone must breathe until their dying breath. There are a LOT of moving parts on that thing that are still only slowly unfurling. I wish I had finished the whole thing in 2017 /o\ My most popular story of this year: Okay, see, chaptered stories totally throw off AO3 stats. Hit counts, kudos count, comment count...all of that is inflated by repeatedly pushing those fics to the top of the tags and having people come back for each chapter and all of that. Also, timing? The stuff that was up in January obviously has more hits than the stuff that only just came up in December. 

That being said, I think everyone must breathe is probably my most popular fic, but who really knows? Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I wouldn’t say any of the full-length fics are under-appreciated, but I’m so obsessed with the #fem4ham that I sometimes forget that it has less than thirty notes and no one but @lisapizza (and @charmingpplincardigans, based on her comments today at brunch) really cared about it when I posted it XD

Most fun story to write: I wrote Birthday Shots in one sitting and it was the kind of doofy, dialogue-based stuff that’s always pretty fun to play around with. I also liked the ghosthunters apocrypha with John being loopy on anesthesia, which I wrote entirely on the plane to Heroes. John’s ghost boyfriend not!fic was also the first of those that I did and it was pretty fun! Story with the single sexiest moment: Deffo the sex in the woods in VII of everyone must breathe until their dying breath. Story with the single sweetest moment: Hm. There’s a lot of sweet, that’s kind of my whole deal. I think maybe the first house-sitting scene or the train ride after seeing Ned in everyone must breathe until their dying breath. Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: Nothing really. Nothing cracky for me this year. Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: The sharing a bed story and its backstory supplement were probably the things that had characterizations most different from the ghosthunters. It was a very different world to pick apart as I was thinking those through. Hardest story to write: Seeing as how I’m STILL WRITING everyone must breathe until their dying breath it is DEFINITELY THAT ONE  Biggest Disappointment: Just that I didn't finish more, I think. Biggest Surprise: That dumb bedsharing ficlet has over a hundred notes on tumblr. What the hell. I mean, I’m glad, but also surprised! Otherwise, I’m honestly just surprised you guys have stuck with me this long and been so incredibly patient 💜 Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Everything with Molly in everyone must breathe until their dying breath, for reasons that I’m foolishly hoping end up being moot, but realistically suspect are not going to come to fruition.  Plans for the next year: Goals for 2018! 300,000 words! Getting through two more anchor stories! Writing a non-ghosthunters Ham!fic! Work on my dumb novel! Maybe try some nonfiction stuff! I don’t know, just try to be more flexible and kinder to myself, but also get things done? God, who knows, the world is on fire.

[irisfixation]

faegirl gf writing you into a song.

she looks at your pronouns and decide that they don't fit into the meter and mouthfeel of the song itself. so she changes your pronouns. says they'll be more to her liking this way.

of course, this inadvertently alters your gender in the process. it just becomes a Universal Law that you can't be referred to by any names or pronouns besides your newly decreed ones, no matter how you or others try.

she can't be bothered to change them back.

[callunavulgari]

heather recs things pt. 2

This isn’t everything else. I could actually update that fic recs blog that I have daily and it still probably wouldn’t be enough. However, this is a list of my All Time Favorites. Most of them are from the actual tag, but some of them are too new (or not found on Ao3) or too old.

Boys by @caseyvalhalla. (Kingdom Hearts; Axel/Roxas, Sora/Riku) If you know me, you know that I’ve been yelling about this fic for the better part of a decade. Even now, years after I slowly drifted from the KH fandom, I can say without an ounce of doubt that this is my favorite fic. This is the one. And after nine years, I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.

Freedom’s Just Another Name For Nothing Left To Lose by @ synecdochic (SGA; Mcshep) By now, I’ve trawled through a lot of SGA fic. I’ve combed through old rec lists, gone through page after page on Ao3, and can say with confidence that this is the best one I’ve read. This is probably going to be the one that I take with me and it doesn’t even. God. I can’t even get into how much I adored this. How perfect and sad and raw it is, and how the day that I read this, Rodney McKay was completely changed to me.

Under the Table and Dreaming by snooter (Toy Story; Sid/Andy) is one of those fics that you can’t really explain with words. Because, I mean, c’mon. Toy Story? Really. But seriously. Go. Read it. Marvel in wonder over slash fanfiction for a Disney movie, because it’s in my top five.

Towards Zero by mirabella (Inception; Eames/Arthur) The first. The best. The only one that I still regularly think about. Arthur meets Eames projection before he meets him. It’s angsty and sexy and all kinds of awesome.

The Student Prince by FayJay (Merlin; Merlin/Arthur) Another fic that outlasted my interest in a fandom, this one has been reread almost as many times as Boys. Reincarnation, Arthur as a prince, and modern day magic. I was always going to fall for this one.

Arcana by rosa_acicularis (Sherlock BBC; John/Sherlock) Okay, so much like Doctor Who, over the years I’ve fallen out with Sherlock. However- this remains to be one of the best things that I’ve read. John Watson is Joanna. She is also a witch. The world building is excellent and Joanna herself is perfect. Hell, even Sherlock is perfect, okay.

Magpie by @waldorph (Star Trek AoS; Spock/Jim) is a Star Trek AoS fic where Jim and Spock pretty much grew up with each other. It is so incredibly gorgeous, almost 60k of, you guessed it, found family and friendship and a slow, slow burn that will leave your toes curling by the end. Also by waldorph is  strive seek find yield, which is basically a royalty AU. In space. It’s magnificent.

Inertia by @the-apocrypha. (Teen Wolf; Derek/Stiles(/Cora)) I know for a fact that I’ve talked about this one before, because it’s slowly and carefully inserted itself in with all the other fics that made my top ten fics years and years ago. You guessed it, this fic mostly focuses on friendship and emotional healing after various traumatic experiences for the three main characters. The fact that it’s roadtrip fic only made it more enticing. This is my feel good fic. Well, one of them. The one that I read when I need something to drop me straight into that syrupy sweet state of mind when you’re just quiet and slow and content. Lawrence of My Labia, the cracky mixtape made for the fic has also seen me through some shit, not gonna lie.

Not Easily Conquered by @drop-deaddream​ and @whatarefears​ (Marvel; Captain America; Bucky/Steve, Steve/Peggy) clocks in at over 100k as a whole and is one of my very favorite fics. It’s basically a canon divergent AU where Steve crawled out of the ice and married Peggy Carter instead of being frozen in ice for decades. Almost twenty years later, the world finds out about the lost letters of Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, which throws Peggy and Steve’s marriage into freefall. I can’t seem to find the words to do this fic justice, but just know that it’s one of those where you’ll have snippets from it pop into your head years after you read it, and you’ll still smile.

Heroes by @ryttu3k (Legend of Zelda; Zelda/Link/Groose) Before this fic, I never considered Skyward Sword as fanfic material. That was for Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, hell, even Twilight Princess. Those were the fics that I read and wrote. And then I read this in its entirety in the span of one very long night and never looked back.

to the sky without wings by @leupagus​. (Star Wars; Poe/Luke) Okay, okay. If you’d told me going into this fic that I would emerge from it shipping Luke Skywalker and Poe Dameron I probably would have... well, okay, I would have shrugged at you and said that anything’s possible, but I would have been pretty damn doubtful about it. I stumbled into this one blind, not knowing a damn thing about it, just that it was 80k of Poe Dameron backstory and as I was trying to write him at the time, desperately needed him to start clicking in my head. It’s a truly beautiful fic, fleshed out and horribly sad and exhilarating. It also contains one of the hottest damn scenes I’ve read in years, so look forward to that.

we built this city by @fahye​ (Raven Cycle; Gansey/Blue/Henry) is a Raven Cycle fic. Now, I haven’t read much fic for the series because somehow Stiefvater achieved literary nirvana and I was so satisfied by the books that I never actually went looking for fic. I was just content to let it stand. And now, I can’t remember when I actually started reading Fahye’s stuff, but I’m pretty sure it was back when I was into things like livejournal and Ouran High School Host Club. So it’s been awhile, and I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll always like the things she’s written, so I read it, because I had a bit of a hankering for Gansey/Blue/Henry and I figured she could satisfy that. And my god, was I right. This fic is beautiful.

[irisfixation]

putting a major character into a story where everyone has unique superpowers or magic or whatever. establishing, on their introductory scene, that this particular character has mind control powers.

and then having that character.... sit there, among the ensemble cast, through pages and episodes and films and years. with that one fundamental fact of their introduction still known and understood: this character can dominate the minds of others.

and yet - never betraying their friends, never scheming or being shown keeping secrets or manipulating others, not even by the narrative framing. no veiled hints to latch onto. they have this power. it does not matter. the story continues until it does not, until its conclusion has been reached.

and time carries on and lets the unspoken question of the narrative's trustworthiness gnaw through the audience like a parasite.

[irisfixation]

dating an eldritch horror who makes all you can see her - eyes open or closed, no matter where you turn, witnessing her all the same as she burrows into into every facet of your awareness. you'll fumble at first, then try to pull away, distract; how could you ever hope to turn from her gaze, when nothing that could help pull you away existed to save you?

[irisfixation]

an overheard conversation:

"-n't have anything against "forcemasc", i think it's cool just not for me, but... i think you misheard what i was saying. i said i'm into "forcemask", with a k. no not like covid masking. no i'm not against covid masking, i mask more than anyone i know. protect people's health, stop putting your comfort over others' safety. look we're getting away from the point. The Point - is that i said "forcemask", with a k. as in, a theatrical mask. as in wearing an archetypal role emblazoned to the degree of obscuring your own self. in being trapped in a role defined for you, and the horror and acceptance that comes from doing s-"¹

¹ [the audio cuts out here. no full recording has currently been found]

[irisfixation]

How about being a ghost who is haunting a house until one day a psychic comes along to try to communicate with you, but you possess her body and start taking over her life?

No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |

At first, she thinks she has won. The EVPs were clearer than ever, the seance went off almost cleanly enough to impress her - the house's old owners even tipped extra for her work.

It takes a while for her to realize. Minutes are missing, then hours. She is sleepwalking, more; she awakes in the middle of a street, in the middle of a field, further and further from her home each time. There's a humming in her bones that doesn't seem to leave.

As soon as she puts two and two together, of course, she springs into action. All too late. Her muscle memory has betrayed her - did that exorcist's phone number have a '78' at the end, or was it a '35'? (She would've known if her contacts were still in her phone.)

It takes two more days until her friends finally visit, asking where she's been. Something apologizes to those friends, something that has mastered her vocal cadence and awkward laughs already, something that she can only play passenger to now. Her friends smile, and it smiles with them, and only she can feel the true and mocking emotions contained behind that. She cannot move those lips to express the truth. She will never again be able to.