#ofmd animorphs au

[petrichorca]

I am very sad about the final-final news that OFMD may be done, at least for the foreseeable future, but I'm not done with fandom or creating within this lovely world we were given. There's so much more to explore, friendships to build, connections to make, things to learn, efforts to support - if you want that.

Earlier this week I wrote and posted a fic based on this giraffe-centaur comic as a birthday gift for my OFMD Animorphs AU collab author. It's meant to make @ghostalservice and everyone else who reads it smile. Stede (a blue, furry, four-eyed mouthless centaur-deerlike alien) contends with, and loses dramatically to, a vending machine. But don't worry, his boyfriend (his boyfriend!) Ed will sort him out.

Read the very silly fic here. And of course if it in any way intrigues you, please check out our AU 😶🌠

In any event, I am deeply sad about OFMD and hope it has a future despite the depressing news David Jenkins shared with us this week. He, Rhys, Taika, and the rest of the cast and crew have given us something deeply monumental and special. It remains ours, it will stay meaningful. I'm gonna be the epitome of that "OK grandma" meme one day talking about OFMD 🤣 and, like Ed says while folding socks, that's OK. (Pretty great actually.)

So, I continue! I enjoy writing and reading fic, hyping people, teasing out new ideas, talking about the show, playing in the sandbox, making meaning and meaningful connections. That brings me joy.

Love to everyone involved with OFMD and the fandom, however you interact with it. 🏴‍☠️🏳️‍🌈

[ghostalservice]

If you haven't taken a chance on wanna fly away, @petrichorca and my Animorphs AU, now's a great time to dive in!

A selection of endorsements from the comments:

i need a tag for “fics that wormed their way into my brain and moved right in and redecorated a bit and maybe adopted a cat or something”

Each chapter update in my email was a soothing balm to my soul. There is just so much love and detail in the writing and I'm so sad that it's finished but filled with inexplicable joy that I got to experience this beautiful fic.

This is honestly in the top 5 fic for this fandom hands down and I've read a lot of fic. Laughter. Tears. The whole range of human emotion.

The raw (perhaps even obscene) joy of being with stedeth and co. on this journey of gender and identity and belonging and intimacy is overwhelming. How am I gonna explain to people that animorphs changed me and also I have never read a single word of an animorphs book.

I’m so grateful for my autistic gender-species-fucky alien and my adhd gender-species-fucky human and my whole crew of gender-species-fucky randy queers.

The word I keep coming back to is catharsis — just how incredible to have a lifetime of not feeling comfortable in your own skin, and then to not only find the one individual who gets you more than anybody, who sees you in all your shapes and at your most vulnerable, and LOVES you.

SWEET JESUS HE FUCKED THAT BLUE ALIEN i know you promised it and i knew it was coming but i was somehow UNPREPARED for how incredibly hot it would be???

We wanted to tell a story about family and identity and gender and love. I think we did that <3

Come hang out with our blue guy and maybe save the world along the way.

[xoxoemynn]

tag your most hard working fic writing mutuals uWu

Oh, buddy, I am friends with SO many extremely talented writers who work their absolute butts off to give us incredible fic and I know I'm going to miss people, so I'm going to cheat a bit and rec some recent-ish fics written by beloved mutuals. Would 100% encourage you to check out the linked story and then their entire collection of works because they are all fab. 💕

The Detectorists AU by @monksofthescrew. Two-part metal detecting AU. It is so atmospheric, so rich and tender and nuanced with some really incredible timey wimey stuff intertwined. I'm a little biased because I beta read these, but I think of them so often. Just a master class in story telling.

Respawn by @glamaphonic. This is SUCH a fun AU where Ed and Stede are both streamers. The concept works SO well, and the flirting and banter is top-tier. I know next to nothing about video games and I've still been able to follow along easily, squeezing my cheeks and kicking my feet the entire time.

wanna fly away (I don't know where my soul is) by @ghostalservice and @petrichorca. Speaking of fics I love where I know nothing about the concept, this is an Animorphs AU where Stede is just the most precious alien whom I would 100000% die for. It's such a fun, rich, layered story and I'm eagerly awaiting to see where it goes. Also just love this description of it: Our story is about finding one’s place in the universe (actually and figuratively), plays with the transformative nature of morphing and the power to change one’s body, and explores two individuals from wildly different backgrounds falling in love.

Moonstone Mage Championship by @blakbonnet. Holy crap, the WORLD BUILDING. Meow's mind is a wonder. I truly don't know how she does it, but I am literally in awe of her work on this fic. One of the most creative and detailed stories I've ever read.

Different Names for the Same Thing by @oatmilktruther. I have been rotating this fic in my brain ever since it was posted. I don't even have proper words to describe how gorgeous it is. It's basically my soul now. Abs' gift for blending humor and tenderness and making you feel the love between Ed and Stede is unparalleled.

My Father's House by @trans-top-stede. Owen describes this as "a t4t theatre au (kind of)" because it is about theatre, but it's mostly about gender and families and the healing power of queer art" and YES. It's beautiful and tender and hot and that last line has stuck with me ever since it was posted.

Gold Rush by @abigailpents. Potentially the sweetest AU I've ever read. Just pure love and romance. Just let yourself get swept away. It is lovely.

Tree Change by @clairegregoryau. I am constantly in awe of all the work Claire puts into her fics. She is operating on a whole other stratosphere and it's incredible to watch. Tree Change is a little teaser for what promises to be an incredibly unhinged Kinktober and I am just rubbing my hands with glee for what's to come. (ba dum tss.)

Matching spark and flame by @bizarrelittlemew. My current read that I am devouring, it's so fucking good. Everything Ida creates is just pure magic, and this one is no exception. Also extremely excited for the OFMD Fic Club discussion on this one later in the month, so be sure to read and join the server so you don't miss out.

I know I'm missing a bunch, but this list is already getting long and I need to get back to some beta work. Kissing all my writer mutuals on the forehead and giving them all the good writing vibes. May your muses be ever loquacious and cooperative. 💕

[naranjapetrificada]

Time for another Fanfic Friday!

Let's get the obligatory self-promo out of the way: Monday night, just before bedtime, I finally posted Chapter 2 of my bizarre little gay pirates arranged marriage ancient-world-inspired AU From the Firmament. I get if you don't trust WIPs, or don't think it's for you, and I'll be the first to tell you it's unusual. But if you find your curiosity piqued at all, maybe you should give it a whirl? If being in the OFMD fandom has taught me anything, it's that even things that are certifiably Not Your Thing can surprise the hell out of you.

Onto the recs (including one that absolutely wasn't My Thing and a non-OFMD rec)! Here's what I've been reading lately:

1) Of the AUs that should be "definitely Not My Thing", Wanna Fly Away is probably the least My Thing I've encountered. It absolutely, positively should not be something I'd ever consider reading, no matter how much I trust @petrichorca not to lead me astray. Monsterfucking? Nope, absolutely not for me, but blessings upon all who enjoy it. And Animorphs? I mean really, Animorphs???

So anyway I'm on Chapter 9 now, although I'll admit to having skimmed the final chapter many moons ago out of curiosity. I do that sometimes because I'm generally spoiler agnostic and sometimes I need to know ahead of time if a certain story will leave me existentially devastated. Jury's still out tbh! Crucially though, even after skimming the last chapter, I didn't start reading. What actually got me to read the fic proper was this separate one-shot that looked at Stede's character before leaving his life behind. That reminded me in a lot of ways of this pre-canon fic I've long appreciated, and that sealed the deal.

2) Next, for something ENTIRELY in the canon universe, I've been following the gentle, meditative innkeepers-era fic The Waters Around You by eimeo (not sure if they're on tumblr) and it's made for really rewarding reading. There's still plenty of work our boys need to do, but for once they actually have time to do it!

3) I've also been trying to catch up on my OMG THEY'RE ✨BOYFRIENDS✨ fics and one I heartily recommend is Tenderly the Light by the one and only @darcylindbergh, which perfectly captures that effervescent feeling you know they both had during the boyfriends scene while also not forgetting that they have to go out there and escape the British while also just being so full of LIFE. Pitch perfect.

4) Next up is the recently reposted Powder Blue by @scarrletmoon. It's a modern AU which I missed the first time around because I wasn't in the fandom yet (if such a time ever existed). Heed the tags going in, but if you're like me and heard so much about it after it got taken down, you'll absolutely want to check it out now. In particular, I love how like, grounded I feel inside Ed as a character, and how the in-world power dynamics replicate for a reader how Stede's specific brand of inscrutability would have felt to Canon Ed, who doesn't have the benefit of knowing how Stede feels. There's that little bit of distance there that just makes everything a bit more...more, I guess.

5) Lastly, for those of us anxiously awaiting the latest update to @moonyinpisces's phenomenal GO fix-it How Do We Turn On The Light (brb refreshing my email again), I want to recommend Talk to Me of Things to Come by Atsuki, which visits Crowley and Aziraphale on New Years Eve, 1988. It's flirty and sweet (although I definitely would not call it "fluff") and has some S-tier Aziraphale pining if you're into that. Not even sure how I found it tbh but I must have been throwing GO fics at the void where Chapter 16 of HDWTOTL waits to melt our collective minds.

Happy Friday, and happy reading!

[petrichorca]

I hope all the porn bots are enjoying OFMD Animorphs AU as much as we are!! 😶🌮🥑 Come get your sexy Tex-Mex and alien-human flirting! @ghostalservice and I would love your feedback on these important matters.

[petrichorca]

Chapter 12 of WFA is here. We finish this week with two more chapters and a brief epilogue. This is a great time to catch up with alien Stede, Ed, and our favorite crew.

AO3 🔗 https://archiveofourown.org/works/49249921

Things reach a head for our heroes as they make a journey that will change everything.

(Thank you thank you thank you for the love you’ve given this weird and wild journey as it hits the last arc 💙👽😶🌠)

cc: my co-captain @ghostalservice

[petrichorca]

If you're looking for a harrowing adventure and f***ing alien style, then you will be pleased with chapter 9 of WFA Cc @ghostalservice

[ghostalservice]

Welcome to @petrichorca and my new Animorphs AU! Explicit, 15 chapters.

About 100k of alien Stede, former ufo conspiracy guy Ed, the whole crew learning to morph and fight an alien invasion, deliciously strange smut, meditations on gender and belonging and identity, and so much more!!

Summary:

Andalite scientist Stedeth-Esgarrouth-Bonnetil crash lands in an abandoned construction site, pursued by the vicious Visser Four, a high level leader in the Yeerk invasion of Earth. A small motley crew of humans rescues him, and in return he gives them the power to morph—to turn into animals—so that they can resist the quiet but destructive war being waged on their world.

Ed Teach’s mom went missing a long time ago. He’s worked through it, goes to therapy, owns his bar; while it wasn’t exactly what he expected, life has been pretty good. Still, he was thinking about packing it all in, until he sees a falling star and encounters a blue four-legged alien called Stede.

Their meeting will change everything.

[ghostalservice]

Feedback Fest 2024: OFMD Recs!

It's International Fanworks Day next week, and @transformativeworks is asking for fic recs! (for more information check out their post!)

Here are ten OFMD fics I have read and reread and love very, very deeply <3 This is not all my faves, of course—check out my faves tag in my bookmarks on ao3 for SO MANY MORE.

Does the Body Good (zemph147/@gaypiratebrainrot) - THEE touch-starved, pining while fucking fic in the fandom. Have reread it a troubling number of times.

Don’t Tell Mama (Fyre/@amuseoffyre) - Modern AU, burlesque/drag, SMAU elements and so much more. Had me on the EDGE OF MY SEAT FOR UPDATES.

My Father’s House (fake_geek_boy/@trans-top-stede) -  Modern AU, theatre professionals, but really about gender and history and what it means to grow into yourself.

Something Timeless Going On (@bizarrelittlemew) - Canon Era, what if they met before canon. Sweet, full of heart, super satisfying.

Blood Under the Skin (CartoonMayor/@zombee) - Medieval AU, arranged marriage, fun fantasy-esque romance.

Synchronicity (ClaireGregory/@clairegregoryau) - Olympic diving AU, super spicy, fun twisty plot.

The World Beyond (veeagainst/@veeagainsttheday) - Post-apocalyptic AU. ASTONISHINGLY GOOD WORLDBUILDING.

Throat G.O.A.T. (nomadsland) - Modern AU, superstar Ed and voice specialist Stede. The realest relationship—and coming out journey—in the fandom.

not pickles (smallestchurch) - Modern AU, neighbors. Feels like going to therapy and also getting a really good hug.

When He’s Given Something to Keep (@adhduck) - Modern AU, trans Ed, childhood friends. This feels like the end of a fic you’ve been waiting for your whole life.  

(pssst if you liked these, you might like my animorphs au or my modern au pride fic)

[petrichorca]

Hello, I am slowly figuring out how to use tumblr effectively. I thought I'd give an update on fics I've written in 2024, but keep forgetting to talk about here in a meaningful way.

As We Go Hand in Hand (explicit, gentlebeard, 7100 words) follows Ed as he processes the past few months while living on the island with Stede, massively in love but struggling with himself. I wrote it while feeling a lot of delayed grief around the (confirmed) s2 cancellation, and while it's sad at points it's also quite romantic I think. I really love this story.

Behind Closed Eyes All I See is You (explicit, gentlebeard, 5300 words) is a smutty PWP my dear friend @chaoticturtleturtle invited me to write with her. Stede lets Ed take the lead in a scene with some sensory deprivation, pwp, and aftercare.

like sugar to my heart (mature, gentlebeard, 4200 words) is a silly fic I wrote for my Animorphs OFMD AU co-writer as a birthday gift. Our blue four-legged four-eyed mouthless alien Stedeth gets foiled by a vending machine (based on the tumblr art of the giraffe centaur), and Ed consoles him.

like a bird (teen, gentlebeard, 3700 words) with @ghostalservice gives some backstory about Stedeth's life prior to the events of our 177k fic and features some very cute art of Mary and Stede's children (as Andalites, of course) by @theogem

Stede’s Cursed Red Suit as a Metaphor for Grief and Moving On (teen, stede + izzy, 1717 words) explores the squishy time of season 2, episode 5, and the dynamic between Stede and Izzy in season 2 overall. I am also obsessed with how Stede acts in the cursed suit. I find their s2 relationship really interesting so this is me looking a bit at that via a missing scene starting with Stede yelling OH FUCK OFF.

Calypso’s Dawn (explicit, gentlebeard, 1800 words) centers around how Ed made his boyfriend blush the morning after Calypso's birthday and how Ed feels about it. I love this fic. I've been trying to challenge myself to write more self-contained, shorter stories and this one turned out really well imo.

Life as a Series of Forward Rolls (teen, gentlebeard, 9900 words) features Stede running into his teenhood crush, the gold medalist in men's gymnastics from the 1996 Olympics. This fic also centers around a Barbie doll in Ed Teach's likeness, which @swashbuckling-sweethearts made an INCREDIBLE art of (embedded at the end of the story), inspired by my own 1996 Olympics Barbie. Silly and light modern AU!

Did you mean to do that? (teen, gentlebeard, 700 words) explores Stede's grief around Ed dying, even when he knows Ed is alive. I had no idea I would be so interested in writing missing scenes, but long conversations with friends have really ignited me in exploring these. (The length - I was trying to channel @brigdh, whose ability to write devastatingly brilliant drabbles inspires me, and I'm pleased with this one!)

Perfectly Ordinary Tuesday (mature, gentlebeard, 4900 words) with @ferventrabbit follows Stede and Ed deciding to get married on a perfectly ordinary Tuesday, and drag their inn guest Dave along for the ride. We split up writing the vows, and I balled my eyes out writing mine and then reading em's. This story is fluffy and fun, and it was a great way to start 2024. :)

What's next: I'm working on or noodling a lot of projects, solo and with different collaborators. Imminently, I've got a fic with @veeagainsttheday coming for AUpril on April 1st. Hoping to get something else out in April for @ofmdjanuaury's AUpril 2024 event, which I highly encourage folks to check out - it's for all sorts of creators!

@ghostalservice and I continue to think about our blue alien Stede and his human boyfriend Ed. Wanna Fly Away was such an important project to me while we were writing, and it's become even more special as folks find it. WFA now has art embedded in most of the 15 chapters, so if you haven't seen those check it out. More to come in that space.

Where was I going with this? Well, I suppose I want to say I'm still here. OFMD changed my life, and the OFMD fandom community is deeply important to me. I still hold out hope for a third season, or a follow-up that brings us more closure, but no matter what I'm still thinking about our pirates and will for a long time. If you read this far, thanks for being part of my community. <3

[petrichorca]

Chapter 5 of our OFMD Animorphs AU is up! Come read about alien!Stede morphing into a human and exploring his new body. 👀💙🍆💦 Plus some Stede/Ed mutual pining and crew banter. 🏴‍☠️🏳️‍🌈🖖👽🔞 cc @ghostalservice