#ao3 wrapped tag

[lilolilyr]

✨ao3 wrapped 2023✨

Haven't seen this tagging meme around at all yet this year, so I thought I'd start it myself!

2022

Works published: 74, very similar to last year! a bit less but the year also isn’t over yet :D edit: by the time I’m getting around to post this, it’s on 86! Yay!

Wordcount: 118254 I’m happy I made it past 100k! That was my tentative goal and I didn’t think I’d make it with how slow it came along for most of the year, but with flufftober and the events I did manage :D

Kudos: 3184

Hits: 31833

Bookmarks: 267

Subscriptions: 114 and I’m at 157 user subscriptions right now? Who follows my multifandom mess of an Ao3, doesn’t that completely clogg up your email inbox? Maybe I’m just biased bc I rarely check my fandomy email and when I do it’s always a mess xD but I think tag lists on tumblr are so much more useful

Most popular by kudos: Gave myself a Fright, a Mirandy (DWP) fic with 301 kudos

Most hits: same fic, 2404 hits

Longest: lonely hearts on remote roads with 10811 words - Milippa road trip AU my beloved!

Shortest: I wrote nine drabbles (100 word ficlets) this year, they’re the shortest ones :)

Most Comments: my podfic of the Mirandy longfic Jigsaw has 14 comment threads - damn, that’s a year with few comments! In past years the whole top 5 commented on fics had more than that. Oh well!

Fics that made me cry: Grief, a fanfic where I project my own feelings about a dead pet onto Myka, and recording the Jigsaw podfic also made me really emotional a lot

Fics that made me smile: so manyy! For example the Berena fic Happiness surrounded by Snow

gifts:

- the first chapter of ‘Time Dilates’ by @barbarawar as my Bering and Wells gift exchange gift back in February, thanks!

- ‘Blame it on Circumstance’, a wonderful sequel to the fluffy fic @squishmittenficfan made me for the Berena gift exchange in 2022, and another sequel Blame it on Love posted just a few days ago I haven’t actually gotten around to read yet but am already very excited for!

- ‘never borrow Helena’s clothes’, a fic for the Bering and Wells advent by @jesstrel that I have beta read for them :)

I have gifted some fics as well this year, I tend to gift people fics when they helped me with it by beta reading or cheering me on, or when I was writing to someone’s prompt! I know I adore getting gift works on Ao3 and I love to share that happiness :)

collaborations:

Halloween fic and art collab with @thewalkingmeepa, that was fun!

Drunken Considerations, a Bering and Wells collab fic with @lavendelhummel :D first time I made a collab while actually in the same room with the other person xD

Both collaborations and part of an event were the fic & podfic works Where No Flan Has Gone Before (Star Trek humor) with @bookgirlfan and Which Mere Modernity Cannot (modern Dracula) with @artax-risen, and the Bering and Wells Advent Calendar with @lavendelhummel @purlturtle @akittennameddaisy @viharistenno @jesstrel @sallysetonbw @violetren @thiakerrigan @tryingthisfangirlthing that is still ongoing! finished now, I take too long for tagging memes xdxD

events:

- Flufftober (I managed to make something for every single day of the month, yay!)

- Berena advent

2022 version

Tagging, if you want to do it, everyone already tagged above as well as @die-schwanenkoenigin @amysnotdeadyet @lesbianlotties @guardianrock @73chn1c0l0rr3v3l @danisnotmyname @batnbreakfast @sapphicscholar @tabsolanya @sterenheart @wibblywobblyida @forestcircle @ongreenergrasses and everyone else who sees this!

For ease of copying: Works published: Wordcount: Kudos: Hits: Bookmarks: Subscriptions: Most popular by kudos: Most hits: Longest: Shortest: Most Comments: Fics that made me cry: Fics that made me smile: gifts: collaborations: events:

sapphicscholar purlturtle die-schwanenkoenigin amysnotdeadyet squishmittenficfan viharistenno lesbianlotties bookgirlfan

[thelaurenshippen]

ao3 wrapped simulator

you read for 67,680 minutes. that's 47 days straight.

you read 812 fics total, but you read 76 of them more than 4 times.

for a total of 35 million words.

you showed the love by leaving 704 comments on 297 fics. your most common comment was "AKLDDASKFJLKSDFJHAJSHFIUELNAKDCNAGKDH!!!!!!"

you love to revisit. you hit the "kudos" button not realizing you'd already left kudos there 1,304 times

your top tags were:

pining

slowburn

hate sex

fluff

major character death

you're a night owl. your reading peaked between 11pm and 4am

you were an explorer! this year you read 4 tags for the first time: A/B/O, gen fic, praise kink, crush at first sight

there was one ship you loved most of all: for the ninth year in a row, your top ship was hannigram

but you're not monogamous. you also read a lot of stucky, scully/mulder, and animorphs

and you were in the top .01% of readers in The Expanse (TV) tag

and you were in the top .001% of writers for a ship our automated system can't even find because it doesn't have enough tagged fics

you wrote 17 fics this year, for a total of 1.4 million words. 16 of those fics were explicit.

wow! you're passionate! you created 85 bookmarks with the book mark tag "i wanna die"

your fic town is nome, alaska. no, we're not going to explain this.

thank you for spending another year on ao3 <3

[coefficiente]

ao3 bookmarks wrapped (end of year) - interest survey

edit: try it out here!

Presents a summary of your stats from your bookmarks via some colourful graphs - only needs your html data uploaded. Completely automated, requires no programming knowledge, no use of dynamic web scraping, entirely cloud hosted, and your data is only stored privately on your google drive.

^ graphs above are script generated

sound like fun?

[mblematic]

blorbo wrapped this year you spent 184719028347 minutes thinking about your poor little meow meow

[honestlydarkprincess]

✨Fic Writing Review 2023✨

Words and Fics

161,525 words published to ao3

5 fandoms (9-1-1, Hannibal, The 100, Top Gun, and Teen Wolf)

Most recent drop: race to the sun (rest when it's over) (3.5k/Explicit)

Longest Fic: (mis)understanding the assignment (12.5k)

Top Fics by Kudos

to feel the need of your touch 

i lit the match, the firemen can do the rest

raw denial

a father's day misunderstanding

all my favorite monsters, they got fangs

Fandom Events in 2023

Kinktober 2023 (multi-fandom)

Upcoming Events and Projects for 2024

I have about 30 or so active wips at the moment so what I work on/finish in 2024 is anyones guess

I might do kinktober again but it would be a short version, I don't think I can do all 31 days again

Instead of Kinktober though I might try to do Whumptober

we shall see!

tags and rules under the cut!

Tagged by: @monsterrae1, @underwater-ninja-13, @wikiangela

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

tagging: @bigfootsmom, @lovebuck, @maygrantgf, @father-salmon, @giddyupbuck, @negansmiith, @loserdiaz, @devirnis, @spotsandsocks, @jeeyuns, @malewifediaz, @spagheddiediaz, @princessfbi, @barbiediaz, @singlethread, @stagefoureddiediaz, @chimneybuckley-han, @madneyporchengagement, @swiftietartt, @theotherbuckley, @hippolotamus, @hoodie-buck, @eddiebabygirldiaz, and @homerforsure

[astroprongs]

Imagine there was a Spotify wrapped for ao3

“you’ve read intermission by zeppazariel 10 times”

“you’ve cried 30.00 minutes while reading Wolfstar AUs this year”

“your most popular ship was Marylily”

“You were on top of 1% of marauders readers this year”

“You read the most marauders stories on October 31st”

[frownyalfred]

ao3 wrapped [writers edition]

Created by @floydsin. I stole it from @lurkinglurkerwholurks

How many words have you written this year?  327,224 words! Dang!

How many works did you publish this year? At least 20, probably more.

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?  borderline. That plot was complicated for me and it took a LOT out of me to write it.

What work of yours has the most hits?  borderline.

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?  a sky of honey. I was surprised at how many people liked the previous fic and wanted to see more! I didn't expect that.

Favorite title you used?  savestate. it's a bad pun that made me laugh.

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?  I owe Kate Bush for most of my fic titles, lbr.

Pairing you wrote the most for this year?  Superbat <3 my beloved

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?  Lex & Bruce in a sky of honey was actually a surprise fave. Lex's dialogue and bickering with Bruce is so much fun.

What work was the quickest to write?  Ironically, the first few chapters of borderline.

What work took you the longest to write?  bloodletting takes a while to update because of the mando'a translations. Probably 3-4x longer than a normal chapter update.

How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?  Just one or two so far.

What’s your longest work of the year?  a sky of honey, clocking in at 95,618 words.

What’s your shortest work of the year?  do it again.

What WIP are you taking into next year with you? too many...

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?  not beta read...so real, bestie.

Your favorite character to write this year?  Probably Thomas Wayne, surprisingly. He's so funny to me.

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?  Bruce.

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?  Clark/Slade

Which work of yours have you reread the most?  borderline since I needed to remember where I was going while writing it, and then probably bloodletting.

How many kudos in total did you get this year?  39,650

Which work has the most comments?  borderline. though I had to delete a LOT of threads there so it's probably even higher.

Did you do any collaborative works this year? I bother @januariat every few days to discuss a sky of honey, so yes.

Did you write any gifts this year?  Several for @audreycritter and @lurkinglurkerwholurks

Did you receive any gifts this year?  Yes -- several from @audreycritter and @lurkinglurkerwholurks as well as a few from folks writing about borderline and a few of my shitposts. Thank you friends <3

What’s your most common category?  Gen, somehow?

What do you listen to while writing?  My increasingly complex spotify playlists. Depends on the type of writing.

Favorite work you wrote this year? I actually really liked nocturn and synchronicity.

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?  It's so hard to decide. Probably one of the mando'a jokes I made in Jason's dialogue.

Biggest surprise while writing this year?  People do still tell you to kill yourself over fanfiction online! Bizarre.

[wynnyfryd]

✨ Fic Writing Review 2023 ✨

tagged by @steddieas-shegoes thank you co-mod mommy

Words and Fics

231,078 words logged on my daily word count tracker (ty @sourw0lfs for this idea i genuinely can’t believe i managed to stick to it for the entire year)

128,429 words published on ao3 (that’s 108,958 more words than last year wtaf i love y’all)

27 works published, including 1 multi-chapter fic that i’m gonna finish if it kills me

7 art collabs

3 hyperspecific fic memes from my beloved @violetsteve

1,191 gentle forehead smooches given

Top 10 Fics by Kudos

No Son of Mine

relax (lay it back)

TITS! magazine

Monsoon Season

i don’t know, you figure it out

relax (that’s that)

is this your card?

your kiss is on my list

Satanic Ritual: DO NOT WATCH!!

a masterpiece of art, it’s true

My fandom fic events in 2023

started @steddiemicrofic in July and then fell in love with started co-modding with @steddieas-shegoes thank you for saving my adhd gremlin ass on a daily basis

attempted and spectacularly failed at @thefreakandthehair’s summer spicy six challenge lmao, but in my defense my spine exploded like an overstuffed bouncy castle. (a moment of silence for the abandoned 8-12k of “summer between s1/s2 lifeguard steve teaching eddie how to swim” romance floating around in my google docs)

Upcoming Events and Projects for 2024

finish the trailer park steve au. that’s it that’s literally all i’m committing to until it’s done.

(once i finish that i might try out some original fiction. i’ve had a love letter to 2005 stuffed in my back pocket for months, might be nice to flesh that idea out but we’ll see. maybe i’ll just steddiefy it and then file the serial numbers off later lol)

Rules & Tags below the cut!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please do eat glass, I’ve heard it’s good for your gums.

Tagging a bunch of lovelies who have likely already been tagged but whatever: @messessentialist @thisapplepielife @shiftylinguini @aidaronan @steves-strapcollection @legitcookie @steddielations @cranberrymoons @just-my-latest-hyperfixation @inklessletter and as always, you, yes you 😘

[mikatheseer]

We interrupt this multi-chapter sterek fluffsmut fanfic to bring you a Void Derek vs Void Stiles one shot AHAHA WHAT AM I DOING TO MYSELF

[briliantlymad]

Hi everyone I made a Blorbo Wrapped !!

Wait i fucked up the last post. So im reuploading!!

I was orginally making it just star wars but decided to make it a general fandom thing instead! Have fun!!

[angeart]

And 29!

--from ao3 wrapped [writers edition]

29: Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

this is a very interesting question! and also very difficult, given the amount of things i've written in combination with my bad memory. so of course i went and dug through things, overthinking this, even though, really, i know exactly what to answer. still, let me take the long route. (because i'm an idiot and there's no other way.)

so first i'll ramble about things i like.

starting with the phrase that always makes me weak, and i don't think i use it enough, but characters just dissipating into giggles—that exact wording. like. c'mon. that. whenever i get to use it, i'm so happy. it's such a lack of control and overflow of joy. the best thing ever.

but if we move into specific passages... (i go on a bit of a tangent, so the rest is under the line-) (dancing scene at the end there and a bit of a hmtb spoiler/sneakpeek/preview for you guys)

i looked over the cursed forest au fic (even with death haunting your footsteps, your flowers will bloom again), looking for pretty sentences, and the problem is, that fic is full of pretty sentences. (i honestly don't know how i did that, but it does make me happy.) something about words like the warzone of his good intentions, you know? (i had more. i'm trying to be concise.) (i promise.)

but really, there's one phrase in that fic that i do think about sometimes still. so it needs to be mentioned. here:

It still hurts, to be treated so gently, but unlike everything else, it hurts in a way he thinks he might be able to survive.

------

i also want to bring up a sentence from Elegy that lives in my head rent-free (this is from chapter 3, which i'm aware is unreleased as of now, but shh):

The grief is a guillotine, and he’s bending forward, hair falling away from his neck, baring skin and bracing for impact.

there's just something about that that refuses to let me go.

------

but! i also enjoyed writing happy things. (shocking)

especially this passage from these flowers will wither (like you and me), but they're not dead yet was very fun to write:

-

Grian grins at him, something bright and cheeky. “Do you want to try that again?”

There’s a pause when Scar attempts to recalibrate. (He fails.) (He absolutely fails.) 

He tries to grab something rational in him, tries to tell himself that Grian means dancing. But his traitorous heart supplies a wholly different answer to him. 

Scar pushes himself up and, with fingers sliding along Grian’s jaw, he presses his lips to Grian’s.

(They’re warm. They’re chapped. They’re Grian Grian Grian Grian.)

He feels the vibration of Grian’s laughter against him before he really registers the sound.

“That’s not what I meant,” Grian scolds, but there’s no bite in it; he sounds entirely too pleased and amused, even as he piles a handful of sand on top of Scar’s head in playful revenge.

------

and this honestly now brings me to hmtb. which is where we anchor.

believe it or not, there is a happy scene that i can't stop thinking about (just the sheer power of it, across all the pain and messes and saddness—scar making grian laugh like this.)

------ hmtb chapter 49:

Scar looks at him innocently and presents his question: “What is a romp, Impulse?”

Grian bursts out laughing.

A big, toothy grin spreads across Scar’s face at the sound.

Impulse’s eyes briefly flit to Mumbo and he feels his face get hot. “I— What— That’s not fair!” he whines. “That’s not a truth, that’s a, Scar, I’m not a dictionary!”

At that, Grian laughs harder, bending over. His giggles tip over proper cackling, a bit breathless around the edges, and Scar thinks it’s the most wonderful sound in the whole world.

------ and of course this moment from chapter 47:

Neither of them can help it; their lips treacherously stretch into smiles where they’re pressed against each other, before they both helplessly dissipate into giggles, feeling lightheaded and high. 

“What are we doing,” Grian huffs out through his laughter.

“Kissing,” Scar replies cheerfully and demonstratingly places three kisses along Grian’s jaw.

It’s the best thing in the world.

------

bet you didn't expect me to pull out the happy scenes out of this mess of a fic. ha.

but also! one the things i really like and enjoy is throwing anything to do with explosives, tnt, fire, etc, at scar and grian. like this:

Skin tingling and heart feeling like TNT on the verge of explosion, Scar moves to follow him, blindly, willingly, the way he’d follow him anywhere.

and this:

Watching him, Scar laughs quietly. He thinks of the sound the flint and steel makes, of the little click, of the hiss of TNT as it readies itself to cause damage. It sounds like his heart feels. He thinks of sparks that catch on leaves and grass and bark, a tree going up in flames, the catastrophic heat spreading violently to anything it touches, and he wonders if that is how Grian’s heart feels.  

------

now, since i'm already rambly. there is one bit of hmtb i keep thinking back to constantly. and it's a particular conversation from chapter 21 (the talk in the middle of a crisis). this bit in particular:

 “He wasn’t afraid then. He knew you could kill him, but he wasn’t scared. And you know what, Grian? You didn’t kill him,” he finishes softly. 

“I… didn’t kill him?” Grian repeats, dazed and wobbly. 

“He wasn’t scared, and you didn’t kill him”

(you guys should keep this in mind too. it might get a callout sometime, uhhhhh, around chapter 100 or so at this rate—)

(don't worry about that, ofc.)

and now for the real answer. (wow.)

because here's the thing. you're asking what's my favourite passage. and really, i love all those other things too, but there's one particular bit of writing that hits closer than any other.

the dancing bits.

the heartachy, complicated, painful dancing bits.

and yes, this ties to the whole fic i wrote about them dancing in the desert, but listen. the purely-hmtb bits? those? those. okay?

here we go:

------ hmtb chapter 37: call of the desert

Scar sighs a little and says: “I miss it.”

“Scar,” Grian’s voice is absolutely unsteady.

They haven’t really talked about the desert, not since it was over.

Nobody ever talks about life games, if they can avoid it.

But now Grian sits here and he has to forcefully remind himself that the skin over his knuckles isn’t torn raw and that Scar’s blood isn’t coating his hands and he has to accept that Scar misses the desert and Grian also misses it, in a way, and it’s all so dizzying, it makes him lightheaded.

“We used to dance,” Scar says thoughtfully. “Why don’t we do it anymore?”

“I forgot how,” Grian barely manages to get out. He didn’t forget. In fact, he remembers every step Scar taught him. He remembers them stumbling together into a fall, a small giggling heap on top of the warm sand, limbs tangled. He remembers the moment when Scar grinned wildly at him, joy bright in his eyes, as they completed a couple of steps without a hitch for the first time. He remembers how they laughed and danced, giddy and high on life in a world that promised nothing but death.

He doesn’t want to remember. It hurts his heart.

“I can teach you again,” Scar suggests softly.

The pain in Grian’s heart just gets worse.

Scar reaches for Grian’s hand, then. Even if they’re both sitting on Grian’s bed and they can’t dance like this, he still slides his fingers underneath Grian’s palm and brings it up, in exactly the same way he held it when they danced. With curved lips, he hums a melody.

Grian looks at him, absolutely wretched. His hand twitches in Scar’s grasp, but he doesn’t pull it away. “Scar,” he half-whispers, in a miserable tone. He meant to say stop, but he can’t bring himself to. So he just pleads, using Scar’s name itself, hoping the other man will get it.

Scar studies Grian for a second, before he lowers their hands. He huffs out a small laugh. “It’s okay. We can leave it for some other time.”

Grian purses his lips. He doesn’t say there won’t be another time. He doesn’t say he doesn’t want this. He doesn’t say that something in him desperately wants this, actually, please Scar please.

------

but, you know what. it isn't over.

this answer has been long enough. i know. i know. (i appreciate and love everyone who bothered to read this far <3 ) but. but there's more.

there is more, and it's so closely related, these scenes are entwined and live snugly side-by-side in my heart. but. here's the thing.

this next bit is 1,2k long, and it's from a chapter that, as of now, hasn't been released yet. for the curious, greedy, hungry souls (love you all to bits), here it is:

------ hmtb chapter [unspecified]

Scar blinks and recalibrates under the scrutiny. His eyes dart to the jukebox and he lets a smile spread across his lips, as he reaches out a hand to Grian. “Hey, G, you wanna dance?”

Grian’s eyes widen a fraction, thrown off by the abrupt suggestion. “I’m… not sure,” he manages to say, eyes dropping to Scar’s invitingly outstretched hand, palm-up and ready for him. 

His emotions wrangle in him—a need to be close, to give in, to accept everything Scar’s giving him, pushed violently against the sharp memories of sand and desert, something happy tiding over into blood and pain and misery.

He flexes his fingers, pulls them into a fist and then stretches them out, trying to unknot the tension and release the slight tremble that courses through them. His throat feels dry, all of a sudden.

“It’s okay,” Scar says in the softest tone that never fails to tug at Grian’s heart. “I can lead.”

The music turns mildly cacophonic, askew and sick. It buzzes and pitches and tilts, in a way music isn’t supposed to be able to. And Grian realises that he’s told Scar before that he forgot how to dance. 

Scar taught him all the steps, back in the desert. A lot of hours spent in the stifling air upon sun-warmed evening sand, stumbling and laughing and holding onto each other. Their skin was more tanned then. Their eyes were brighter, their souls wilder. They felt unstoppable.

Grian feels anything but right now.

He doesn’t know if he can take it.

But Scar’s reaching out to him and Grian finds that he cannot turn away from it, his body shackled and chained, unable to resist. And so even if everything in him screams no, he still finds himself reaching back, meeting Scar’s hands with his own trembling fingers, trepidation sinking its teeth into him.

Scar’s smile brightens and oh, maybe it’s not trepidation that Grian feels.

He feels Scar’s fingers take hold of his hand, secure and warm; they pull at him, but not in a destabilising way. It’s the opposite: they tell Grian exactly where to be. Scar’s other arm finds Grian torso and seamlessly slides across to his back, sending shivers down Grian’s spine; his wings stretch out and shudder, before they fall back, feathers lightly brushing over Scar’s skin.

Everything about this is electrifying, and it’s driving Grian haywire. 

He thinks maybe he needs to stop thinking. Maybe he needs to give in to the part of him that wants to let Scar have control of the two of them now; the part of him that wants to trust and believe that he’s safe; the part of him that craves affection with ugly, hungry desperation. 

Scar leans closer and with a rumbling baritone wrapped in velvet, he checks: “Ready?”

Running on nothing but instinct, Grian squeezes at Scar’s hand.

With a low chuckle, Scar lets go of Grian’s back and Grian almost gasps at the abrupt loss—but all Scar does is guide Grian’s free hand to his waist. “Like this,” he murmurs, his voice just a step away from purring, and then his hand slots back against Grian’s spine.

A trembling breath leaves Grian’s lips and he dips his head, leaning forwards, inching closer to Scar. He feels the response in the way Scar’s touch on his back turns firm, accepting the new closeness with reverent neediness. He can’t see Scar’s face, but he can tell Scar’s lips are curved in a smile, cheeks slightly dimpling.

He almost wishes to look, but he can’t, he can’t, it’s too much. 

He takes a deep breath though his nose. The air isn’t dry and hot. The ground doesn’t shift underneath his feet.

It hasn’t shifted underneath his feet in ages, but right now in this very moment, a part of Grian distantly thinks that it should. That if they’re going to dance, it should be atop a mountain, feet sinking into sand.

They’re standing on carpeted floor, and the music disc is one they didn’t have in the desert, the sounds of it wrapping around them in a rhythm completely discordant to the fast beating of Grian’s heart. 

With gentle and deliberate move, Scar directs them to sway. Their feet shift, steady on the solid floor, something learned and simple. Scar leads them in careful, basic steps, the ones he used at the very beginning to teach Grian. Back when even that was too much, and Grian kept stepping on his feet, and Scar kept catching him.

Scar doesn’t need to catch Grian now, because Grian knows these steps. They’re imbued in his muscle memory, something sunken and anchored, a part of his soul that’s reserved for things that feel like home.

Testingly, Scar throws in something more complex. He pulls Grian along, turning them in circles, every step confident and filled with joy. The music is the background rhythm, but they’re both locked somewhere else, in a fragment of a memory—something that used to be; something that Scar believes could be again.

With a curve to his lips, Scar hums and remarks: “You said you don’t remember.”

Grian’s breath hitches and it’s only now that he lifts his head to meet Scar’s gaze. Despite that, his feet do not stumble; he doesn’t need to watch where he steps, he knows it all by heart. His gaze anchors in green eyes and something rises within him so tidally and overwhelmingly that he feels hot wetness blur his vision all of a sudden. “How could I forget?” he manages past the lump in his throat.

Scar gently lets go of Grian’s hand and instead reaches to touch Grian’s jaw, brushing his thumb soothingly over Grian’s cheek as he takes in the raw, ravaging emotion in Grian’s eyes. 

Grian moves his suddenly free arm around Scar, fingers finding purchase in the fabric of Scar’s shirt, digging into it until he has a firm grip. His lungs spasm in his chest, his heart stutters, his wings droop then lift and spread. A loose feather drops to the floor and Scar sidesteps it expertly, as if it was somehow too precious to damage. 

“You remember,” Scar murmurs, an odd inflection to his voice. 

Grian’s skin buzzes where Scar touches it; a tingling, warm sensation spreads from Scar’s fingertips and robs Grian of breath. “Of course,” he murmurs, quiet, destabilised. 

Scar’s eyes crinkle in joy, lips spreading into a bright, toothy smile that ends in dimpled skin as he looks at Grian. He makes no attempt to call out Grian’s earlier lie; he seems content in knowing that this is the truth, warm and alive underneath his fingers, guided by his steps. “Oh, I wouldn’t mind teaching you again, but this makes me so happy!” he admits openly, fractionally heightening their tempo as he leads them in spinning circles, everything in him attuned to the music even as it becomes nothing more than a background noise.

Grian isn’t ready for those words. Nor for the way Scar looks at him.

He feels like he’s drowning, and Scar’s both his sea and his oxygen.

Scar starts humming in tune, the happy expression lingering on his face, and it’s only then that the discordant rhythm of the song disentangles and starts making sense to Grian. It’s only the reverb of Scar’s voice that puts coherency into Grian’s existence; into their steps across the carpet that doesn’t give underneath their weight; into the way the room sways around them, full of warm shadows and flickering flames and muted colours not quite matching sand.

[coefficiente]

AO3 Wrapped 2023

Transforms your ao3 bookmark data into some colourful graphs - only needs your html data uploaded. No programming knowledge required, no webscraping, no password sharing, cloud hosted & your privacy is maintained

Click here to try it out

Follow the setup instructions closely, and you should get some fun graphs!

If you do end up trying it out, please share :)

It also produces a spreadsheet of your data, for those who like to keep track of deleted works

[myreia]

It has been an age since I’ve done one of these! So I’m just making up my own thing.

This is the first year I’ve written fanfic since 2019. It’s been really nice returning to something fun and low stakes that doesn’t have the same pressures as my original fiction. Writing for myself is something I lost over the last few years and it’s been so nice getting that back. There’s something really powerful about having your own little blorbo just for yourself and pursuing the things that speak to you.

All of my fanfic this year was FFXIV related and it was so nice sinking into a new world and rummaging around. I love that I get to know Aureia better the more I write her, and her journey is very near and dear to my heart. I haven’t finished anywhere near to all the stories I want to write about her, but she is very clear in my head Aureia’s been through hell, but she’s also my favourite blorbo so I’m not going to apologize for making her suffer.

Overview

Fandoms: 1

Total Fics: 10

Fics Published: 9

Fics Unpublished: 1

Words: 103,788

Highlights

✦ Divergence of the Heart

Rating: Explicit

This is probably my favourite fic I’ve written this year, if not my favourite fic I’ve ever written. I started it in February of this year and finished it in December. It was the multipart that just kept growing. It was supposed to be two chapters, then three, then four, then five, then seven—by the time I wrapped everything up the way I wanted to, it had landed on eleven.

Aureia’s relationships with Aymeric and Thancred have eaten away at my brain for most of this year. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this, but one of Thancred’s lines in the Heavensward patches fuelled and idea and now I’m here all these months later fully invested in a love triangle that has been way too much fun to write. This fic was an opportunity to explore asexuality in a particular light, so there’s a lot of myself in here. The writing in later chapters is some of the most vulnerable I’ve allowed myself to be lately and I’m very proud of how everything has come together.

I also think “No Greater Calamity Than the WoL’s Love Life” is an excellent use of the AO3 tags and I endeavour to use it more.

✦ Bound by Faith

Rating: Explicit

I love this fic with all my heart. It’s my second favourite thing I’ve written this year and would have been my favourite if I hadn’t finished Divergence of the Heart. I am very enamoured with late game Aureia and Thancred—how much they’ve been through and how many times their relationship has been reset. I like writing them as a little older, a little more mature, a little more grounded. They’ve both been through shit and come out stronger for it, and I needed the get the moment where they are finally together out of my system.

Also writing Thancred and Urianger banter is extremely fun and one of the most enjoyable things about putting this fic together.

✦ To Ash and Ember

Rating: Mature

Listen. I had an unexplainable feral compulsion to write Aureia’s fight with Lahabrea. It wasn’t going to leave me alone until I did. I think this fic set the tone for so much of her characterization and development; this moment—both in the fic and in-game—was character defining and it’s where everything came together.

✦ A Question of Desire

Rating: Explicit

This started as a prompt and then turned into my first FFXIV smut fic. It had been a while since I had written erotica, and it was nice to visit that kind of scene with Aureia and Aymeric. Their dynamic is very soft and sweet (especially in the time period of the late Heavensward patches), and I’m very pleased with how the second part came out—especially with the hint that not everything is all right with their relationship. There are cracks, they just can’t see it yet.

✦ Bitter Frost

Rating: Teen

The transition from ARR into Heavensward is one of the most powerful moments in FFXIV for me, partially due to the attachment Aureia (and me) had to Ul’dah. This fic was a scene in my head almost immediately after playing it. I wanted to spend some time when she was at an absolute low, and develop a bit of her relationship with Alphinaud—and experiment with some ways that black mages may attempt to fend off the cold, because why not. Let a magic girl be magic.

✦ Far from Happenstance

Rating: General

I like this one! I think it was fun revisiting the very early moments of the Ul’dah questlines from Aureia’s perspective. I had a better handle on her voice here; I hadn’t entirely figured out her backstory at this point (she was keeping it a secret from me), but she started to feel like a fully-fleshed out person here.

✦ Sand and Stone

Rating: General

This was my first FFXIV fic! I wrote it shortly after finishing base ARR and I was madly rotating the final fight with Lahabrea in my head (I’ve been ruined by the Worst Ascian since that cutscene and it doesn’t even make sense!! Am I mad (affectionately) about this? YES, OF COURSE I AM. Could have chosen literally any other villain but no, this is where I had to peak.).

This fic established some repeat themes for Aureia, namely her close association with fire and the burns on her back, as well as her close friendship with Thancred and his nickname for her (Aureia was not a fleshed out character until she was Aur, nicknames really do something for me, apparently).  

✦ Untitled Post 5.3. Fic

I haven’t published this one yet since I ran out of time to finish it (trying to finish another multipart in the last two weeks of December was not something I needed to add to my plate). But I am excited to work on fics set after Aureia and Thancred get married and dig a little bit deeper into how their relationship changes through marriage. There are still difficulties to be overcome, ways that they test and support each other. I really enjoy writing established relationships, so it’s fun to poke at the evolution of everything that has come before.

A little excerpt since it's not finished yet:

“No,” he murmurs. “I know what you’re doing—and I love you for it, never think that I don’t—but no. In this case… it does not help.” She nods, swallowing the lump in her throat, and exhales a shaky breath. A dozen thoughts rest on the tip of her tongue, a dozen questions she wishes to ask, but she holds herself back. It’s not what he needs right now. “One hundred and eleven,” Thancred says. “That is how many steps it takes to climb the battlements.” She presses her lips together and turns her back on the aetheryte plaza, leaning against the parapet as she gives him her full attention. He glances at her, staring at her through the curtain of hair, and his throat bobs. “I never knew that until today,” he continues. “In all our years here, all the times I have walked these battlements, not once did it occur to me to count the bloody steps. Not once did I imagine a future where it would be a near impossibility to reach them.” His gaze flickers to the aetheryte. “Not my first time being a fool, I suppose. I took my aether for granted once too.” “It’s not an impossibility,” she says firmly. “You dragged yourself up here—” “And I can barely stand. All my efforts and I have nothing to show for it save the reminder that I am…” He trails off, tempering his frustration before he says something he regrets out of spite. “Krile will give me a tongue-lashing for this, I know it. She will say I am pushing too hard. That I am being unkind to myself.” “And maybe you are.” “How can I not? If I must be sequestered off in a dark room and sit on my hands while the others return to their regular duties I will—well. I will…” “What?” He makes a face. “I would say ‘eat Urianger’s hood’, but he’s not exceptionally fond of those anymore, now is he?”

[hekateinhell]

I've seen some ao3 wrapped templates going around but I couldn't seem to find one that wasn't focused only on stats (which lbr stats honestly don't tell me that much about the quality of a fic or why YOU are proud of it!).

Just saw this one on Twitter and I figured I'd share it here in case anyone would be interested!

written template if you don't want to fill out a graphic:

ao3 username:

most written rating:

most written category (gen, m/m, m/f, f/f, other):

most written fandom:

most written relationships:

favourite characters to write:

favourite additional tags (eg. hurt/comfort):

favourite fic you wrote (+why if u want):

favourite paragraph(s) you wrote:

favourite dialogue snippet you wrote:

wip ideas for next year:

what you learned from writing this year!!

[SOURCE]

[lynxindisguise]

5 and 18 please xo

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

I definitely wasn't expecting s&s&y to take off the way it did! bitches LOVE slytherin sirius... and my silly little end notes, apparently?? it's been a year of Realisations, one of them being that I'm funny. (this is ironically not a joke)

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

I'm tempted to say sirius... because he has never once not hijacked my plot to do whatever the fuck he wants, but it's always better than what I was planning, so I can't really complain.

the hardest character for me to write is walburga, for sure. I sidelined her a lot in the dorian gray au because she has such an intense presence she would've hijacked my plot in a not good way.

ao3 wrapped

[sapphicscholar]

✨ao3 wrapped 2023✨

Tagged by @lilolilyr - thanks for kicking it off!

Works published: 9 (much lower than in years past and a testament to how much time the job market + wrapping up the dissertation have taken)

Word Count: 57,926 - this is my first ever year since getting an ao3 account where I dropped below a 6-figure number with most other years averaging ~300k or 2 years between rounds of grad school with 600k+ words each (lmaoooo truly laughable amounts of free time compared to now)

Extra Stats:

Most popular by kudos: Two corpses. Everything's fine. (Hacks post-s2 murder mystery party)

Most popular by hits: see me in hindsight (Hacks post-s2 dream AU)

Longest: indulgence (Julia, Blanche x Judith) coming in just barely shy of 14k words

Shortest: (coming apart) at the seams (Julia, Blanche x Judith smutty missing scene one-shot) at 1,859

Most Comments: adrift with 34 comment (although it's a multi-chapter, so a bit of a leg up there, that I will get back to after i have some real work done)

Fics that made me cry: none sorry haha

Fics that made me smile: I like to think all of them did! There's a joy in creating something!

gifts:

- tangled up with you all night from the very person who tagged me! I *still* have this in my AO3 to read 😭 I think I've read maybe 3 fics all year with how much work has been kicking my ass

-and I gifted flicker to @trying-to-get-somewhere-real as our lovely champion of the Judith x Blanche fandom <3

collaborations: none this year! the handful of things I've written have been mostly unexpected time I carved out for myself (some of which perhaps I shouldn't have taken but ya know...) so I wouldn't have wanted to collaborate with anyone and subject them to the whims of this very hectic year

events: I organized the Hacks Week 2023 fandom event and added my Good, Tomorrow fic to the AO3 collection!

Consider yourself tagged if you'd like to participate! I know lots of people are traveling and with family and friends this time of year, but it's always fun to see what other people got up to during a year I feel like i've largely missed in fandom (not in a sad way, more just in a literally: I was so logged off/out that I straight up didn't know what was up haha)