#more plotty less snotty

[sodomhipped]

total number of completed works? in how many fandoms?

37 fics (+4 chapter updates)

14 fandoms

16 stories (37,928 words) were for exchanges/challenges

total posted word count?

113,862 (36,313 more than last year!)

fandoms written/drawn in? and how many works in each?

trigun (10 stories + 2 chapter updates = 34,555 words)

final fantasy xiv (4 stories + 5 chapter updates = 23,651 words)

honkai: star rail (6 stories = 13,561 words)

vampyr (1 story = 10,650 words)

nu:carnival (2 stories = 8,972 words)

elden ring (1 story = 7,913 words)

sk8 the infinity (3 stories = 3,695 words)

an easy target (1 story = 3,050 words)

gungrave (1 story = 2,532 words)

sharp objects (1 story = 1,644 words)

the great gatsby (1 story = 1,110 words)

mozart l’opera rock (1 story = 1,049 words)

tokyo babylon (1 story = 1,009 words)

yes, no, or maybe? (1 story = 500 words)

were there any fandoms you didn’t expect to write/drawn in this year?

my two gacha games really surprised me this year! (and i am hoping to write more for both nu: carnival and honkai: star rail next year.)

what characters or pairings you wrote most? 

variations on knives/wolfwood/vash (but i think vashwood was the leader).

did you write more or less than you thought you would?

way more! i ended up being more productive than 2022, which was my most productive year at that time.

what’s your favorite story of the year? 

my personal favorites were

to whisper all night as the trees do (ffxiv; hythlodaeus/hades; explicit)

essence and éclairs (a creamy delight) (nu:carnival; edmond/olivine/eiden; explicit)

the half-extinguished light (trigun; knives & vash; teen)

What were your most popular stories this year (by kudos)?

suffocate the spark (trigun; wolfwood/vash; explicit)

take my halo, give your heart (trigun; wolfwood/vash; explicit)

to begin like this (trigun; vash/wolfwood/knives; explicit)

what story do you think is the most underappreciated or which disappointed?

i wrote a lot of small fandoms and pairings this year, which are always a bit quiet. that doesn't really disappoint me. the one true disappointment was expelled from rapture’s road (ffxiv; varis/carosa/regula; explicit), which was intended to be the start of a bifurcated series (one part plotty, one porny). because it is a rare pairing, i didn’t expect much attention. however, the day i posted, before there was any other interaction for the story, someone said something snotty about it—and it immediately murdered any interest i had to continue working on the series.

what story was the most fun to write?

cruelty is made of distance (elden ring; d/rogier; mature) was simmering in my brain for so long that it leapt onto the page once i started writing.

what story is the sexiest?

my personal choice is my first was in a cemetery, my first drink was in a church (trigun; vash/wolfwood; mature). even though it wasn’t explicit, there was one particular (sexy) mental image i was trying to write and i hope it came across.

what story was the hardest to write?

i really, really struggled with angels in suburbia (trigun; wolfwood/vash/knives; mature) and suffocate the spark (trigun, vash/wolfwood; explicit). for angels, it was for a reverse bang so i was extremely worried about letting down my artist and ended up starting over three times. with suffocate, i struggled for seemingly no reason at all.

what is your favorite line(s) from this year?

here are some faves (and, as a warning, there's a NSFW one in there):

“By all means, give me the menu of carnal delights,” Hades intones. The effect is undermined by the way his hips chase after Hythlodaeus’ unhelpful hand. - to whisper all night as the trees do (ffxiv; hythlodaeus/hades; explicit)

He never asks who exchanged money with whom. He assumes Tom paid Wilson and Gatsby greased the right palms in the judicial system, but he figures it's better not to know. It makes him feel sick to his stomach about the whole affair—but there’s relief, too. - a murderously simple thing (the great gatsby; gatsby/nick; mature)

Knives isn’t certain ‘brother’ is the right word to describe what they are to each other, but the word curls through him, warm and welcome. - the half-extinguished light (trigun; knives & vash; teen)

Every year, the orphanage had gotten bruised, unwanted fruits donated from a local farm, one allotted to each child. The man’s cunt reminds Wolfwood of those fruits—overripe, ready to burst open at the slightest touch. - the sword of michael (trigun; wolfwood/knives; explicit)

favorite title used this year?

the half-extinguished light (trigun; knives & vash; teen)

are there any stories you haven’t written yet but intend to?

so many! i’m still working on my ffxiv series, but for as-of-yet-unpublished stories, here’s my wishlist for next year:

some works for welt yang, including himeko/welt and caelus/welt (honkai: star rail)

kuya-centric (nu:carnival)

hotel sampo (honkai: star rail)

brand new hythlodaeus/hades (final fantasy xiv)

finishing my ex-vashwood big bang (trigun)

pregnant knives (trigun)

vashwood amnesia (trigun)

midosouji/onoda (yowamushi pedal)

finishing the many works hovering around 80% completion (trigun: livio/vash; ffxiv: sequel to the hythlodaeus/hades training series; a few sk8 stories…)

do you have any fanfic, original fic, or art goals for next year? 

i am making a major career shift in 2024, which will be pretty time consuming and will impact my writing output. even so, i would like to have at least ten new fanfiction stories published and start working on some original work in earnest.

[ad1thi]

Your Pain (is my burden to bear):  P4

hey so i hit 100 followers!!

i asked y’all what you wanted me to write for this and i got italian!tony and soulmate!au so here it is!!

(this picks up exactly where P3 ended)

--

Tony’s first reaction, understandably, is to lift the gauntlet he’d been fiddling with and repulsor the fuck out of the man standing in front of him. 

What he isn’t expecting is to feel the burn on his lower abdomen, even as the figure in front of him crumples against the force of the blast.

it takes about 2 seconds for everything to fall into place, and Tony groans as he hides between his sofa

oh per l'amor di dio, he thinks, before pushing himself off the ground and pointing the engaged repulsor at his soulmate

to his credit, his soulmate doesn’t attempt to come near Tony again, just stands there

togliti la tua attrezzatura, tony says (before inwardly cursing) and repeating,”take off your gear”

Titling his head in confusion(? Tony isn’t sure because of the whole ninja mask he’s got going on)- his soulmate lightly runs his fingers over multiple buckles and shrugs it off to reveal a metal arm and-

qualcuno lassù deve veramente odiarmi, tony mutters as he takes in the intricate workings of his arc reactor displayed across the man’s admittedly gorgeous chest

“Natalie darling,” Tony raises his voice only an inflexion, knowing that JARVIS will carry his message, “you might want to drop your SHIELD fursona and join me in the living room. My soulmate just dropped in for a visit.”

It’s all he manages to get out before he abruptly falls to the floor, palladium poisoning coursing through his veins and making him feel. 

The last thing he remembers before hitting the ground is watching his soulmate rush towards him, and the odd sensation of fingers running lightly through his hair

--

James is unclear why his soulmate wilfully hurt himself, and why he insists on switching between italian and english in some inane way; but he’s willing to play along to his soulmate’s games 

When the repulsor is aimed at him a second time, he belatedly realises that his soulmate might not know who he is

(in hindsight, the mask covering his face no longer seems like a good idea)

While a small part of him preens at the idea that his soulmate was able to knock him back, the much larger part of him is debating picking up his pint-sized soulmate and carting him off to that workshop he saw in the blueprints and insisting that he work on the thing in his chest

arc reactor, he reminds himself, like the one powering the warehouse, but smaller

James has to routinely remind himself that his soulmate didn’t have the privilege of staying in a backwater flat in Romania and studying his soulmark until he figured out who it belonged to, and that James had the distinct advantage of knowing his soulmate was Tony Stark

(while all tony stark knew about james was that he died falling off a train)

He reminds himself of this when his soulmate asks him to strip (and bites his tongue on the comment that his soulmate owes him dinner first)

He reminds himself of this when his soulmate chooses to inform someone else of his existence

but he completely forgets it when his soulmate doubles over and also hits the floor

James reacts instinctively, falling to his knees and outstretching his flesh arm to cup Tony’s head- before delicately placing his head on his shoulder and running his fingers through his hair

From this angle, James can see the criss cross effect of the poisoning mapping itself against his soulmate’s neck, and valiantly resists the urge to kiss down his neck and leave marks of his own

None of this however, distracts him from the near silent set of footsteps making it’s way over to them and steadily making him prick with uncertainty

His hand is on his gun as the footsteps grow louder, and when he hears the hushed, Yasha? he doesn’t even think- just shoots

what was his soulmate thinking, calling a black widow?

tbc

Part 3