#there's a couple of mcu oneshots that have been in there for literal years that i desperately want to finish but do NOT have motivation

[queenerdloser]

me, rereading several of my half-finished oneshots and drafts: huh i love this. damn i'm a good writer. man, i want to read more of this.

me, remembering i have to sit down to write to finish these fics: ah

[chaos-monkeyy]

20 Questions for fanfic writers

Tagged by @trainofcommand and @cordeliaperry , thank you 😁

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

351

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

969,232 !

(I had a soft goal of trying to break a million this year, but I probably won't quite make it. Ah well, next year!)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Literally anything I see or read that happens to hit squirrel-brain in the right spot: Stargate, Star Wars, Cosmere / Stormlight Archive / Sanderson's books generally, Loki series & other MCU media, OFMD, Good Omens, Dresden Files, Star Trek (and one-offs for random-ass shows like the Mentalist, 1899, tLoVM, Echoes, etc). Honorable mentions to past beloved fandoms that I'm not super likely to really get back to again include Midsomer Murders, the Witcher, Assassin's Creed, and the Expanse 💕

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Top spot is A wonderful thing (OFMD); the next four in order are all Witcher - A Tight Fit, Stolen Moments, Keep it up, and Undignified.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I love seeing people's reactions, and letting them know how much I appreciate that they took the time and energy to comment (because fuck knows, I don't always have the spoons to comment on stuff myself). And it's so nice to get that connection with people and get excited about stuff together!

(I have missed some replies here and there just because of over-stressing about what to respond, and subsequently feeling guilty that I left them unanswered so long 🙈 ahh, anxiety-brain, you sure are special)

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This is one is easy, it's definitely Zombie / what's in your head. One of only two times I've written Major Character Death, and the only time I've used the Angst and Tragedy tag.

It's fucking brutal, honestly. Damn good, but ouch. Dark. Sometimes I reread it when I just want to cry hopelessly for awhile. It's like an... emotional reset or something.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics have happy endings in the happy-sexy-sated vein, but most of my fics are also happy-sexy-oneshots so there isn't any real conflict or worry to come back from that makes the happy ending something that wasn't a given, if that makes sense. My first thought for something more involved was Inflection Point, but it's not exactly a happy ending for everyone. So I think I'll go with Curious Creatures, because even though I know how it ends and I wrote the damn thing, I still somehow get worried it will have a sad ending every time I go back and reread it, and then I'm relieved all over again at the end.

(Honorable mention to the Adventures of Admiral Prawn and Yee-Claw, because how can we not be happy that he found his lost hat with the help of a new friend 😂)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Honestly nowhere near as much as I'd kind of expect to? 😆

I had some rando dickhead giving me grief in comments on a couple Assassin's Creed fics, and I've seen people griping in fandom social media spaces about a couple of my works and the fact they (gasp) existed in the tags at all, but mostly people have been decent and kept it to themselves when they don't like me or my writing 💖

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes. All of it. All the smut.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Not really! Never published one to AO3. Closest I've got is that Witcher-Assassins Creed WIP languishing in my google docs, and a silly fun little SGA-Original SW thing on tumblr from probably a couple years ago now.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Pretty sure, yeah. Not to the point of really being able to do anything about it but it kinda sucked. Shit happens.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! A couple of them that I know of 😁

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Oh hell yeah. Many times 💕

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Cock/Hole.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Mmm I have two published WIPs that fall into that category exactly, Ill-advised encounters and The skills of Assassins. They were really fun, I'd have really liked to finish them, annnd I probably never will 😅

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm pretty damn good at pacing a story, whether it's a oneshot or a longer fic, and at getting ~feelings~ across (whether it's horny feelings, smushy soft feelings, angsty feelings, whatever). And I've been told that I'm good at like... developing a setting and characters in a way that flows or unfolds naturally with the story while you read? Or something like that? (they said it better and it made me very happy)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

That would be not getting things actually started and just keeping the ideas in my head because What If this time I can't make the words do the thing good enough. Especially whenever I have ideas for something potentially longer or more involved, I do tend to kinda shoot myself in the foot by going "eehhhhh that would be a LOT of work though.... I don't want that kind of commitment....... Maybe I'll write down the idea later............"

Also being constantly distracted by shiny new things. But that part's fun 😆

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I use italics, try to limit it to single words or short phrases, and where possible I make the meaning clear or translated somehow within the fic itself. Last resort, I'll add a little glossary to the start or end notes if it's important to the story.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Midsomer Murders 💖

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I genuinely don't have a favourite! There's a few I'm extra proud of myself for accomplishing, but I really like most of what I've ever written for one reason or another.

Or another answer would be, my current favourite changes like every week and is usually one of my recent fics 😂 Right now it's probably The Taste of My Blade; it'll be something else in a month.

No pressure tags: @dewdropreader , @mirilyawrites , @starport-seven-five , @loki-is-my-kink-awakening , @dedkake , @wantonwhale , and I won't spam tag all the same people as I did in yesterday's tag game in case you're not feeling it right now, but as always - if you see this and want to be tagged, you are! 💙

[voxofthevoid]

Sir, I am so ready for January. Would you be so kind as to share with us with your update schedule? (I hope your posting break was restful. That you have been rejuvenated, had you glass refilled, and spare time to think about all the wild scenes you could imagine)

It was! My body did decide to make the "chilling" a little too literal, but my imagination has been in overdrive, so a fuckton of JJK coming your way 😂

I'll post the properly formatted update schedule in a couple of days—plus all the usual end-of-year posts—but I'm planning a JJK-only January. Partly because I could use the serotonin boost and partly because my ever-growing backlog is making very intense eye contact with me.

So my ongoing four JJK fics will be updated (last chapter for one of them). On top of that, I intend to post the first chapter of everything burned, as promised (my post-236 time travel fic) and a goyuu PWP oneshot that briefly took over my brain earlier this month.

I'll resume the typical 4 JJK fic + 1 Bleach fic + 1 MCU fic schedule in February.

Thank you, anon 💗

And happy new year in advance!

[agentianlegend]

20 Q's for Fic Writers

Thanks for the tag, @summerssixecho! I enjoyed revisiting my work a bit for this one :)

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 

9 (17 over on FFn)

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

243,275

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Primarily Danny Phantom (it’s what got me into writing fanfiction to begin with; in fact, even as an 11-year-old I was writing my own Danny Phantom episodes when it was first coming out), but I also write for DC (either DP crossover or standalone) and Miraculous Ladybug that one time. I have been t e m p t e d to write more ML as well as dabble in a few others, like maybe Ted Lasso or Scooby Doo (couldn’t be more random, I know), but that hasn’t come to be yet. Let's also not forget the DP x The Office au that @tytach and @arken-99 and I were messing around with a while back 😂 I'm still tempted to go somewhere with that. (Tytach did.)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 

5) Intervention at 657 kudos - DP - Danny comes home after curfew one final time, and his dad is waiting for him. We give Jack Fenton credit in this house/fic.

4) Beast Within at 910 kudos - DP x DC/Young Justice - Garfield Logan has just lost his mom and is struggling to get his newly developed shapeshifting powers under control. The team calls in Danny for help.

3) Fire with Fire - 956 kudos - DP x MCU Spider-Man - After the Fentons temporarily relocate to Queens for a contract with Stark Technologies, Danny and Peter find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy bringing malicious wraiths to New York City.

2) A Vigilante, a Different Vigilante’s Sister and a Villain Walk Into a Bar - 1,811 kudos - DP x DC - Jazz Fenton and Jason Todd attempt to date amidst unpredictable rogues needing therapy and nosy family members needing gossip fodder. This getting 2nd place is a surprise since it's my newest fic...

1) Recognized - a whopping 3,561 kudos - DP x DC/YJ - After Danny accidentally gets zeta tube access using Robin’s credentials/DNA, the two boys try to find out what happened years ago while unraveling a web of past and present secrets.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Absolutely ALWAYS, and if it’s taking me a bit to reply, just know that I’m going through it irl and I’ll get to responding to everyone ASAP. I love hearing what you guys think of my work and what in particular you’re reacting to/enjoying, so whether it’s fanboying over scenes together or explaining details you might’ve missed or just don’t quite get, I always take the time to show my gratitude for you taking a moment to share your thoughts. :)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Pretty much none of them, to be honest? I always like to try to end on a hopeful note, if not an outright happy one, because I need hope for my own struggles lol. The only candidate I can think of would be The Theorists, but even that’s not an angsty finish. My older oneshot Taking The World by Thunder might count since Lance Thunder doesn't get a happy ending, but it's pretty much a crack fic so I still wouldn't call it angst lol

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Gosh, this is also a hard one because most of them are sort of open-ended and hopeful. I would probably nominate Night One because I love Wally and Connor’s bonding. It gives me the warm fuzzies. I also think Intervention qualifies since it's a wholesome reveal to the Fenton parents instead of the typical catastrophe (I mean, look at the reveal in Recognized, y'all).

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Only every once in a while, and it’s not really hate but more…closed-minded rejection of the fic’s idea. Like on Recognized I’ll occasionally get something along the lines of “this whole thing is confusing and over-complicated” (literally the point) or “this wouldn’t happen” (you’re reading a fic that literally takes place in a world of ghosts and aliens and people with superpowers). Only a couple times someone’s said “this is stupid” and I’m like, if I don’t like someone’s fic, I just move on and let them be because it’s what they wanted to write. Have these people never heard “you do you”?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

HA. I can barely even write flirting.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Often, usually for DP x DC. The craziest was probably The Theorists because it features almost entirely side characters and their “conspiracy theories” about the main cast. It also wove into the Recognized storyline in the end.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I’m aware of. Let me know if you find my work anywhere lol I only ever post on my main accounts: agentianlegend on tumblr and AO3 and hiimian over on FFn.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope but I’m open to it

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I’m not big on ships, to be honest. Though I enjoy Jason Todd x Jazz Fenton, and OH in the middle of writing this I remembered other fandoms exist lol. Marichat from ML because they’re both their most relaxed selves. Adrienette is a very close runner-up. 

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I’ve never published it or shared with anyone, but the first modern fic I wrote was a DP x Teen Titans crossover where Jack and Danny move to Jump City after tragedy takes Maddie and Jazz. Danny wants to lay low and not be a hero as he deals with the loss, but Slade has other ideas. I wrote quite a bit for it, but I don’t know if I’ll finish. It was heavily angsty when I was going through some stuff and needed catharsis. I still have it almost entirely outlined, so theoretically I could finish it. But, I don’t know. Inspired by Into the Dark by InkyIris btw (apparently a rewrite and cross-publishing is in progress on AO3!), one of the OG fics that got me involved back in the fandom.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, characterization, and action scene choreography. Or so I’ve been told lol

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing out scenes when I don’t love the scene as it is. The efficiency side of my brain doesn’t want to waste the energy when I know I’m going to pretty much throw it out and rewrite entirely later on. Also, romance.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Danny Phantom, even before I started publishing. (See the aforementioned episodes I wrote when I was 11.)

20. Favourite fic you've written?

If not Recognized, I would probably say Night One. It’s a quiet fic, and I love those intimate moments when these larger-than-life characters have some hurt/comfort and bonding moments.

-

Well I already mentioned you guys earlier but I'm tagging @tytach and @arken-99 as well as @the-outcast-ed, @tourettesdog and @dp-marvel94!

[broke-on-books]

For the fanfic writer asks: 2, 6, 17, 20, 23, 39, and 48 :)

This got kinda long so answers under the cut!

2) What fandoms do you write for and do you have a particular favourite if you write for more than one?

I basically write for anything that I'm interested in for an extended amount of time, so it normally ends up being a bunch of superheroes but I have to say, I think I had some of my best times working on mysteries, or series closer to that, like when I was in the asoue fandom or did Scooby crossovers

6) If you had to delete one of your stories and never speak of it again, which would it be and why?

THIS IS HARD BECAUSE I HAVE SOME REALLY SHITTY STUFF. But I think it would definitely have to be my first real fic, It was done for an exchange when I was like. 13 and it was a 1st person MCU character/reader and I hate it so much... I wasn't even attracted to the character I think I just really wanted to be a *fanfic writer* or whatever. But anyways the day I discovered aus was a game changer for me fic-wise

17) Post a line from a WIP that you’re working on.

Love how this implies I have WIPs uh... I haven't had a solid wip in like... a year so this is just pulled from smth in my drafts that's like 18 months old but here's a line from my asoue/SDMI fic

“Mom and Dad are gonna be so pissed that we got ourselves arrested again,” Isadora groaned.

23. Do you prefer listening to music when you write or do you need silence?

Silence silence silence!!! I've tried music once or twice and I simply cannot focus, I only end up getting a couple hundred words out max. I'm the same w/ homework too, I try to swing it but most of the time have to turn it off because I can't hear my own thoughts

39) Do you prefer first, second or third person?

Hard question! I'd have to say third person, because I think that works best for fic and it's what I've mostly been doing and practicing lately (both omniscient and limited, I'm really trying to work on my limited because I keep fucking it up and pov jumping every other page) but the first couple works I did, really early on in like. Middle school. Had a fair mix of 1st and 2nd.

48) What’s your favourite trope to write?

YES OKAY so I don't know the official "name" for it or whatever but I am the literal biggest sucker for public secrets or people bickering with each other in front of a group of people who has NO CLUE what is going on. The best example in my own work probably comes with the odd numbered chapters of Cracked China, especially once you filter in Lemony and the Atwq people into the mix. It's just such a fun scenario because you have the adults arguing about the prequel series or their crimes and secrets while their kids are standing RIGHT THERE with no clue what is happening like "?????? Did mom just admit to KILLING a man?????" Meanwhile they're rehashing drama that the reader is in on and I just LIVE for it

But anyways the takeaway from this is that my fic status is a giant ass mess and I should do some research, and plot out a mid size fic that I can actually manage, and start with an ao3 pseud that isn't a complete clusterfuck. Honestly I feel like all my works right now are either unpublished wips of massive aus, >1000 word oneshots, or like MAYBE the first fifteenth of said massive au that would end up being at least 300,000 words. Like I'm a high school student, I should just put on my big girl pants and plot out a reasonable 40-60k fic I can actually write long term (but not too long) to get me back in the game.

[destroyer-of-days4]

Thanks for the tag @que-mint-tea <3 :)

name: Day :)

fandom(s): Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, MCU, Harry Potter (Although I haven’t written HP fics in years)

where you post: Ao3; I probably still have my fanfiction.net account, but there’s nothing recent on there

most popular oneshot: It’s ‘ The Sun Rises to a New Day (And It's Red With Love) ‘

most popular multichapter fic:  ‘Tokens of Love’ is so much more popular than anything else I’ve written it’s not even funny anymore :)

favourite story you’ve written so far:  I think it’s probably still ‘Tokens of Love’, just because I had so much fun writing it.  The best cake is free is definitely a high contender though :)

fic you were nervous to post: I get nervous whenever I’m posting something new, but I was probably most nervous about posting Remonter le temps (Turn Back Time), because it was my first ever fic (And honestly why haven’t I removed it yet because it’s terrible?), and  I Saw The Bright Stars Coming Closer, since it was a crossover, which meant twice the potential for criticism and hate.

how do you choose your titles: Some are just random phrases adapted from lines in the text, but in other cases, such as  Like two feathers floating on a breeze, the title and/or the fic is inspired by poetry I’ve written, or vice versa, so I’ll take a line from that.

do you outline?: Not in such a formal way. In my multi-fics, I’ll list down bullet points that I want to include, but not ordered in any particular fashion. I usually have dozens of notes on background info and research that never make it into the fic, but work as the basis for the story or flow.

Complete works are on ao3

in progress:

0-8-4s in Hawkins, 6/?

Mixed up families are the best kinds 1/?

Our hearts beat in sync 1/?

Mommy? Are you okay now? 2/?

We have a lifetime of Love to share (one-shot fic collections which will eventually become an actual story, in theory) 5/?

Waaaaaay too many to list so I’ll pick out a couple :)

Ghost AU featuring kid Fitzsimmons and ghost baby Skye

A kind of angsty bus kids Christmas fic

coming soon/not yet started:

A fic where Phil adopted the bus kids and May finds out when she has to team up with the literal children to find Phil

A deaf Skye au (Started and restarted so many times because I’m so worried about getting something wrong/being offensive)

do you accept prompts?: I do...ish. I like them, but I tend to find myself feeling ‘forced’ to finish it if someone else has come up with the idea :)

upcoming works you’re most excited about: It changes from moment to moment, depending on which one I’ve been updating. Right at this moment, i’m back to being obsessed with the deaf Skye au and wanting to actually write it, but we’ll see if that ever happens :)

[nomadicbeard]

Hi! I saw on one of your posts you said that you used to be a stucky shipper. I actually started off as a stony shipper but then absolutely fell in love with stucky but I like both . I was just wondering what made you "jump ship" on stucky lol. Sorry if this comes across as annoying or anything im just curious!

Hey! As you can see a couple of people have asked me this over the last couple of weeks and I’m really lazy and haven’t got around to responding yet, but the people deserve an answer so here we go. Before we start a quick disclaimer: I’ll only be talking about the ships themselves, not the communities or any of the discourse surrounding them. This is not a ship-bashing of any kind and please do not take it as such, it’s just my own personal experience surrounding these characters and these relationships. 

 Buckle your seatbelts kids, this is a long one.

I first got into Marvel c. 2015. I’m European so I’d never really watched any marvel movies before that, I watched Age of Ultron on a plane and remember being vaguely aware the Steve/Tony was a thing (what is pretty interesting is that to this day I have no clue where that knowledge came from) but was mostly just excited by the superhero stuff. I then got home and watched The Winter Soldier and fell in love. I love the Winter Soldier, it’s probably still one of my favourite marvel movies (it got kicked out of its top spot by Black Panther last year unfortunately) and to me no other marvel movie could hold a torch to it at the time. So I came onto tumblr, searched up The Winter Soldier and was just inundated with Stucky stuff, as expected. I rolled with it, got invested just from constant exposure (it was also around the height of the Stucky ship) and as far as I was concerned, that was that. I was super into Stucky for almost six months and was pretty much your average shipper, I didn’t understand stevetony, loved Steve Rogers, was close to creating a Stucky sideblog wit some ridiculous pun as my username, I was gone over this ship.

Then one day, I sat down and read the man on the bridge by boopboop on ao3. You’ve almost definitely heard of it, but it was the most popular fic in the Steve/Bucky tag on ao3 at the time (for some reason I had just never got around to reading it until then, it was long and I didn’t have the stamina I have now). It was your pretty standard Stucky fic, Steve gets Bucky back, they have to deal with his trauma which results in Steve and Bucky declaring their long lost love for each other etc. etc. What was different about this fic, was that it was all told from Tony’s point of view, and since Steve and Tony were on the same team at that point, their dynamic was a huge part of the fic. And I found myself falling completely in love with Steve and Tony’s dynamic. I went back to the fic for this post (and god it is a good fic) and pulled up the first couple of chapters and instantly just found so many instances of that dynamic

(grade A stevetony arguing over each other’s safety with a side of flirting from Tony)

(Idk why but the image of Steve and Tony not going to sleep, but rather staying up and brewing coffee together was such a vivid one when I first read this fic, I still remember it to this day. )

(Tony picking Steve flowers while trying to desperately play off that he didn’t aka. Tony caring while trying desperately not to care)

(Everyone knowing that Steve would definitely come to Tony, apart from Tony himself.)

Now obviously, this is a stucky fic and I went into it knowing this, but I found when Steve and Bucky finally got together I felt honestly a bit bored, a bit cheated. I had no idea why at the time. I remember very clearly x-ing out of the fic at the end and feeling really uneasy, I came onto tumblr, went straight back into the Stucky tag and all was well.

When I next went back onto ao3, I started out with a couple of oneshots in the Stucky tag, but for some reason it wasn’t working for me anymore. I remember sitting there, a little bored, not at all invested in this relationship and just missing something. I figured I was probably missing Tony’s presence in the fic and so filtered in Tony Stark’s character tag. I read a few of those and all was well but I realised the same thing was happening as had happened in man on the bridge, the moment that Steve and Bucky got together, the fic lost something for me. Desperate at this point, and a little annoyed at myself I conducted an experiment and went into the Steve/Tony tag on Ao3 and as they say, the rest is history. If you go onto older posts on my main blog there’s a pretty drastic, almost overnight shift c. January 2016. I have to admit, I expected Civil War to be a conversion so I enjoyed stevetony without consequence for five months, while still labelling myself as a Stucky shipper because I expected to be pulled back to Stucky after civil war, the reality was that somehow I came out of civil war shipping stevetony harder than ever before. From there, I spent two years reading my way through the stevetony tag on ao3 and finally set up this blog in 2018, with a really obscure reference as my username and it’s been stevetony til I die ever since.

I just couldn’t read Stucky anymore. That’s what I mean when I say on this blog that stevetony has ruined me for every other ship, because it has. Steve and Tony’s firecracker dynamic pulled me away from what was fast on its way to becoming my favourite ship in 2015, all because they had a bit of banter on the side in a fic. It’s kind of depressing really, the sort of hold that Steve and Tony’s dynamic has over me, 

It’s strange you say you fell in love with Stucky, I fell absolutely out of love with it. I have thought a lot about how I ended up falling into stevetony and why I was so drawn to them instead of Stucky in the first place and I think it all comes down the the story itself. To me, Steve and Bucky’s relationship carries much more weight as a friendship, I still have no doubt that Bucky is one of if not the most important person in Steve’s life, but having that be a lifelong friendship is way more powerful and impactful to me, (especially since what I know I misconstrued to be Steve’s obsession with Bucky is actually Steve’s obsession over the past. I’m not saying Bucky isn’t dear to Steve and he does want to obviously rescue him, but looking back on it there’s more to Steve’s obsession with Bucky than just love, it’s a fear of change and it’s him desperately trying to hold onto a past that’s gone.)

Conversely, I feel like adding a romantic element to Steve and Tony’s relationship enriches the story being told, if you look at something like civil war (either MCU or 616 tbh) in the context of Tony being desperately in love with Steve, it makes a lot more sense, especially with things like The Confession in 616 or the stuff brought up in that strange conversation in the conference room in the MCU. There’s lines from Steve like “I’m home/you gave me a home” or even straight up “he loved you” and his tormented behaviour throughout infinity war and endgame that just really makes you wonder, not to mention lines from others like “you two still gazing into each other’s eyes/sounds like both of you got into bed with the wrong people” and they did have to share a bed at Clint’s farm after all lol. The tragedy of their story is heightened if you look at it through the context of them being absolutely in love with each other, just never having actually got around to telling it to each other’s faces. This tragedy is heavily implied in The Oath/The Confession in 616 when they confess their deepest darkest secrets to the other’s comatose/dead bodies, and apparently it’s always been that they love the other person. Actually you could easily introduce a romantic element by making relatively few changes to the MCU, but that’s a post for another time (I have a long and comprehensive list in my notes app on how little you actually need to change to make that happen, it’s literally the matter of a few lines of dialogue and one major story change at the end of IM3, an interesting thought exercise to say the least).

Finally, there’s a quote that came up on my dash the day I made that fateful venture into the ao3 stevetony tag, “your soulmate isn’t someone who comes peacefully into your life. It is someone who makes you question things, changed your reality, somebody that marks a before and after in your life. It is not the human being everyone idealized, but an ordinary person, who managed to revolutionize your world in a second” to this day, it resonates so strongly with me about stevetony. It’s everything I love about this ship just compressed into a quote. 

So yeah it was basically a bunch of happy coincidences, but thank god it happened. As a writer, stevetony has taught me so much about character and dynamic, stuff that is honestly invaluable. When you have long fics that basically detail the day by day life of Steve and Tony post-civil war in rural Italy and consists of them sleeping, crying and working through their repressed feelings (looking at you @silkspectred ), it is the characters and their unique dynamic that drive the entirety of the story. Steve and Tony, in the hands of a compelling writer, can keep me hooked over a frankly embarrassing number of words. I still have a bit of a special place for Stucky in my heart really, it did start me out in marvel after all and it was one of my first ever ships, but your first love is only so good until you meet your true love, not to get all sappy but stevetony has completely destroyed my ability to ship anything else. I might get a bit flirtatious with some other ships, like sambucky (I still love Bucky, and I love Sam!), or the riverdale ships (beronica and jarchie or bust), or even the game of thrones crack ships (daensa til the day we die), but I’ll always come back to stevetony.

So yeah this escalated into a far longer post than I intended to make but I’ve never really spelled out on this blog how or why I ended up jumping Stucky to Stony when I know it’s usually the other way around. I guess it just comes down to stevetony catching me out when I least expected it, and never having let go of me since. 

[rreader]

LOVED THE SOULMATE AU YOU DID! would you please write a oneshot where Thor discovers the Reader is his soulmate and he doesn’t know how to tell her. But he suddenly becomes even more possessive and protective of her which the reader notices and so she asks him? Thanks! 😍

Pairing: Thor x ReaderFandom: MCUWarnings: /

A/N: thaaaank you my darling! so glad you enjoyed the last soulmate AU! I have to admit, I’m slowly falling in love with the whole soulmate AU thing. there are so many great ideas out there, for this au in specific, so I hope you like what I did with it! (ps: this might get a second part)

                                                          *****

Hedidn’t know if he had been under a spell, but what he had just experiencedhad never happened before, so he just assumed, that that was the case..

“(Y/N),you’re home!” you both smiled at each other and you ran towardshim, jumping into his arms and hugging Thor like your life dependedon it.

You’vebeen on this mission for over five months. Being away from the peopleyou called your family and especially Thor? It had been hard. Butthat was over now. You were back in his arms, that was all that mattered right there, right then.

Whileyou enjoyed being in the arms of the Asgardian, something happened toThor.

Imagesflashed before his eyes. Like as if he had.. a vision.

Ofyou and him in, what looked like, your future.

Onescene of you and Thor in his bed in Asgard, naked under the sheetsand laughing, being madly in love with each other.

Anotherscene of you and him sitting on the Asgardian throne and.. you wereheavily pregnant. A content smile on your face when he reached overand grabbed your hand to kiss it.

Andthen the last scene of Loki putting his arm around your shoulder,your newborn in your arms and walking to the Bifrost, while you keptyour eyes on the burning city of Asgard.

Once that last vision vanished in front of him, heset you down on the floor and gulped.

Aconcerned look had replaced the smile, that was previously sitting on your face. He looked.. troubled.

“Thor?Are you alright?” you placed your hands on his cheeks.

Hequickly covered it up, nodded and smiled, as if everything wasperfectly fine.

Butnothing was fine. Not really.

“Ofcourse. I will be back shortly, I promise,” he placed a kiss onyour forehead, then walked away.

Thisfuture of yours that he saw.. it should make him the happiest manalive right now. After all, you’d probably become his queen and mother his firstborn. If it weren’t for that last scene.

Lokiand you.

Thatgave him a lot of distress. The look in your eyes. So much pain anddevastation.

Whatwould he do to you?

Whatwere his plans with you and your child? His child?

Hesimply couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Sothe next couple of days, he literally followed you around like apuppy and every time Loki was around, he had a protective arm aroundyour shoulder, as if he wanted to make sure, that his brother saw that you were under his protection.

Atone point, you decided to ask him about it, after he had ‘secretly’observed the conversation between Loki and you. A conversation abouta new weapon, that Stark wanted both of you to test.

“Thor?”

Helooked up from his plate and smiled at you. That smile, when his mouth was full of food. It made him look so much younger..

“Areyou finally going to tell me what’s going on with you? You’ve beenacting strangely ever since I came back.”

Hekept chewing on his noodles and suddenly stared at them, as if they were themost fascinating thing in the world.

Maybethey were, to him. But that didn’t count right now.

“Thor!”you repeated, a little louder when he didn’t answer.

“Areyou and my brother involved?”

That..wasn’t.. what?!

Youwere so confused. What kind of a question was that? Why would he eventhink that?

“What?!No! Why would we be? I don’t even really like him, you know I don’t.”

“Good.Keep it that way.”

You slowly closed your mouth again, a little annoyed at this point, but still decided to placeyour hand over his, so he’d look into your eyes. Yelling and being angry at him wouldn’t help the situation.

“Thor..I know that you worry. And you worrying, makes me worry, so please..just tell me what’s going on. Why are you asking about Loki? Has hedone or said something?”

“Notyet.. But I fear he might, at some point,” he debated whether ornot he should tell you about his visions. It probably wouldn’t be agood idea. It was bad enough that he’d worry about them for the nextweeks, months.. maybe even years. He didn’t want you to carry thatburden as well.

Youcarefully examined his features. You doubted that you’d get anyinformation out of him now.. so you decided to drop thetopic. For the time being. 

“Oh,by the way, your mother sent word that she’d like to see you again.Aaaand she’d like you to bring a plus one. And when I say plus one, Imean me. She’d like to see me again as well.”

Oh,Frigga. You’ve gotten along so well the last time, you really didmiss her. You were honored that she specifically asked for you!

Thor,on the other hand, only saw that first picture of you and him inAsgard.

Thistrip, would be the beginning of the end.

[theawkwardterrier]

Fic roundup 2016

Buffyverse All Work The Closing Distance To Question, Squirrels and Books

Gilmore Girls Heads, Hands

Harry Potter (Enough Misadventures) To Last A Lifetime The Biting Yesterdays In the Neighbourhood As Yourself

Leverage Sanctuary Space In the Gray Light

MCU The Madcap Underground Withdraw Their Shining The Job At Hand This Bright Future Homemakers Stand Together Burdens Had The Question At Hand All the Days Woman Borne With Gentleness and Time Duty Bound Like Gravity

The Newsroom A Rousing Debate

Veronica Mars Untitled celebrity/fan AU The Blown Job

1. Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?: Considering I didn’t write a damn word for nearly half the year, much much more. I was super surprised when I did a “last 20 fics” thing in October-ish, and found that they were all in 2016. And I also feel like I actually got a decent balance between longer oneshots, little snippets, and at least one decently sized (for me) chapter fic. It also helped that I got less anxious about asking for prompts, and people were nice enough to step up and give them to me.

2. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?: I never ever would have expected Steve/Peggy and the MCU to take over my life and my writing as completely as it did. I have literally no concrete memory of how it happened, but suddenly they were just there, and I’ve found them honestly delightful to both read and write.

3. What’s your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? Homemakers. Homemakers. All day, every day. It’s just the right level of fluff, sounds authentic enough, flowed nicely, has humor and sweetness and a solid relationship and a plot but also a bit of a “glimpse into the life” thing. One hundred percent. Homemakers.

4. Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Started writing Woman Borne even though The Ninety-Nine Percent had burned me out so badly. Finished writing Woman Borne even as I realized that I likely wasn’t equipped to do so. On the one hand, I’m proud of the way I handled the act of writing and posting it- I remembered to finish the whole thing ahead of time, I had it read over at an early stage to see if I should keep going and then had it read when it was complete by someone lovely and knowledgeable, I looked over each chapter before posting and made edits if they felt necessary rather than feeling that what I’d written had to dictate the way it would go- but I don’t think I would write something so heavy and controversial and out of my personal experience like that in the near future. Although the readers were overall lovely, it was stressful as heck.

5. Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year? Just, keep writing. If I could finish a few of my WIPs, that would be nice (especially the Very Large Cameron/Chase one) but I’m pretty satisfied to take things as they come. I think my experience with The Blown Job this year was actually really helpful to me- it was a fairly old WIP, one that I’d put down as a goal to finish this year, and without even pushing myself to do it, I just picked it up and chipped away at it until it was done. It just needed to rest in my folder and in my brain for a while, and when it was ready to be done, I finished it.

6. From my past year of writing, what was… Story Most Underappreciated by the Universe: I think that things mostly got noticed in proportion to how they deserved to be noticed- Woman Borne is long so it got more, Homemakers is actually pretty good so it got props even though it was shorter- but some of my smaller fics sort of sank without a ripple. Part of it is my fault because I’m terrible at self-promo, so they were posted once on tumblr, and maybe on AO3, but I feel awkward trying to be noticed, which means that they weren’t. I’m tempted to say Head, Hands, which was my first Rory/Logan story in a while; or either of my Parker/Hardison attempts, but in the end I think I have to go with Like Gravity, which was my last fic of the year and my Steggy Secret Santa story. I don’t know if it was weird tumblr stuff or if the unevenness really put people off, but I didn’t think it was a bad story and it just seemed to go gently into the fanfic ether.

Most Fun: I think The Job At Hand. Homemakers came out so smoothly and I really liked writing all the showgirls in Stand Together, but there’s just something about the hilarious frustration of trying to keep Steve Rogers under control.

Most Disappointing: Maybe In the Neighbourhood, which was my first Ron/Hermione story. I think the characterization was okay but nothing stellar, the writing wasn’t spectacular, and the situation was a little basic. Overall, it was serviceable but lacked any kind of sparkle.

Actually, I take it back. As Yourself, one of my Lily/James fics. The idea is good and even the individual elements are good. I’m really proud of the title, too: it refers both to the quote “love your neighbor as yourself” and the theme of presenting yourself honestly. But the pacing is all wrong. I rushed it, and it shows.

Most Sexy: Oh good gosh. For years I have been answering these questions and I have never succeeded in this one. I know that there’s a lot of ways to be sexy. I write fluff and angst and everything in between. But my sexy is like “do the characters make physical contact at any point?” I’d say This Bright Future, most likely.

Hardest to Write: Woman Borne is probably the easiest answer, but although it took several months to write and had a LOT of big things tangled in it, it didn’t feel that hard in the scheme of my chapter fic experiences. I struggled with getting through The Closing Distance- I’ve had trouble with Buffy/Angel stuff for several years- but I was really surprised by how hard Like Gravity was. It was the only Steve/Peggy fic I had a particularly hard time writing, which was especially strange considering it wasn’t an extraordinarily complicated AU.

Most Unintentionally Telling: Maybe the fact that I like Homemakers so much and have reread it so many times. Although is it a reveal if my love for fluff is well known and publicized? As is my frustration re: bread-making. And that part was written with full and vocal intention, so...not sure

Choice Lines:

Harry (so normal; James’s dad would have loved that) looks around, pulling on a gray t-shirt. “What’s happening?” he says eyeing the cauldron, his mother, and James eyeing him.

“Your dad had a little incident,” Lily says. She hands Harry a muffin, shrugging when he looks from it to her. “Pre-incident baking.”

“Alright,” Harry says easily. He takes a bite. “‘M going to Ron’s for Quidditch.” He sticks the rest of the muffin in his mouth and leaves the room as Lily pours some of the cooled teal potion into a glass and sets it in front of James, who doesn’t move for a moment.

“Woah. Didn’t mean to step into the morning after.”

“Well you did, and now you’ve got it all over your shoe.”

“That’s fucking bullshit.” Steve considered adding ‘with all due respect, sir,’ but he didn’t think it would have mattered at that point, and he also didn't think it would be honest.

...Peggy Carter is controlled and capable and brilliant, but the only thing that’s stone about her is the strength of her right hook.

Steve thinks of courts martial and the way Peggy's uniform fits her so easily. His chest feels splayed open. “I'd love to come with you,” he says, the words breathing out of him.

He wants to hug her, to hold her against him, calculated and risky and stunning. Instead he finds her hand where it lies in the sand between them and presses it delicately…

...Steve, eyes downcast, gifts Peggy with a drawing- simple charcoal on lovely, thick paper- of what she recognizes with some surprise as her own hands. One is in a fist, the other spread wide like a shield.

She buys a frame for it and hangs it in her office the next day.

“Shut up,” she says, fierce and polite, and swings him around and kisses him. He’s stunned still for only a moment.

He is, in fact, a frankly lovely kisser.

When she pulls away after a few moments, he stands there dazed, and then mumbles something that sounds like, “Seniority.”

“Oh good God,” Peggy says, and kisses him again. When she’s satisfied he’ll be quiet, she says, “Phillips is ancient and crotchety and hasn’t changed his textbook in twenty-five years. You, meanwhile, let them look at naked art and stand up to their parents and are bloody gorgeous. And even if you were useless, you’ll shut up and take it. I’ve earned this.”

“You really have,” he says, and kisses her this time, his hands smiling on her back. And then, long minutes later, “By the way. Who’s the HR/PR Disaster now?” His voice is glancingly smug, which cannot be allowed.

“That was four dollars worth of ingredients,” Steve says dazedly several hours later. He is coated lightly in flour as if he has forgotten to come out of the snow.

Peggy eyes the lumpy dough creature and says, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to shoot it.”

They are two highly capable, mostly rational people. They have wedding rings and work and dinner dates and outings with friends and occasional couple’s espionage. They can cook nearly anything else by this point. There is no reason to be frustrated that they cannot conquer bread.

The next batch comes out of the oven looking perfect. It tastes only and exactly of yeast.

They host Thanksgiving because Bucky’s family wanted Christmas.

There are neat pieces of sushi as appetizers, a huge bowl of excellent mashed potatoes, and three perfect kinds of bread.

The turkey is half raw.

Bucky laughs ‘til he cries.

The girls are leaving first, so Steve stays with them while they pack up, the familiar trappings of the Star Spangled Show disappearing into crates, the familiar faces blurring beneath coats and hats.

The chaperone, Miss Lindon, is staring something fierce at him. (They’d almost driven off a cliff one midnight on a twisty road in California. Everyone else was squeezing hands and praying. Miss Lindon, firm and tidy in tweed, just turned the page of her book with a careful finger.)

He knows that Peggy is ninety-two years old. He knows that she just moved into a new nursing home last week. He knows that she is standing right in front of him, no more than a few years older than when he went into the ice. Dark hair, dark lipstick, dark jumpsuit, and his shield on her back.

Later, watching this Peggy, a shade away from what he knows, he realizes that she reminds him of no one as much as himself, shielding himself from the familiar and the unfamiliar and the memories most of all.

Having someone who understands is a very difficult sort of wonderful.

Natasha is the most off-put by how well Peggy knows them. Her stories have come slowly to Steve, each one a trust-gift. Peggy has her own collection, but for Natasha they are weapons held by someone she does not know.

No one could identify with the loneliness of waking up after the ice like Peggy could, the futile anger of knowing that everyone was gone and it was only him, surviving and surviving and surviving.

The next time Steve sees Thompson, he has fading bruises on either side of his jaw, and actually avoids Steve. As if Steve would hit him if he was just minding his own business.

“-And she said I needed to cut out half my footnotes, even though so much of the good stuff is there, and who doesn’t like extra footnotes? They’re like little knowledge presents!“ Willow finished, turning off the overhead light and enjoying the sound of her slippers shuffling against the carpet. Buffy was still out; she had a midterm the next day and Giles was quizzing her. She held the phone against her shoulder and pulled the covers down.

“Did you check for antennae? She might be a footnote hating alien.” It was the first time Oz had spoken in a while and she could hear the noise of the party the other Dingoes were having, but Willow never worried that he was getting distracted when she talked. The tone he used now was equilibrious as always, but the kind that curved upward a little in her mind and meant he was smiling.

She woke one morning with Steve’s voice, warm and content and loving, full of wonder, still settled over her like a shroud.

There were things that Peggy had not even known she could miss: slicing apples, newspapers, the moon and rain, handshakes, calendars.

There was a tenement sort of grimness to his voice that spoke of gritting teeth through long winters.

He had become less formal in her presence, knees and elbows expanding outward as he sat in a way that made him look somehow smaller, or at least softer.

She gripped at her tea. The all-purpose English remedy, she and Monty used to joke. Apply liberally to anything from gunshot wounds to heartbreak. It didn’t seem to be working.

Peggy reminded herself that she had quite handily survived a world war, and that there was no reason to behave swoonily just because Steve was being very visibly attractive in front of her.

Peggy tried to forget that the world war hadn’t prevented just the same thing the first time around.

“‘‘Twas I who chopped down the cherry tree’ and all that?” It sounded accidentally Shakespearean in her accent despite her wry tone.

Steve grinned in a way that was startlingly unrestrained, making Peggy realize just how much it had all been weighing on him. She hadn’t seen that grin since early 1945, and it was shameful for it to have been hidden so long.

“Fine,” he said, the way he did when things were not fine. It wasn’t that he was lying, but that he hadn’t yet realized that something was wrong.

Steve ran the miles home. The idea of cars felt condensed and awful.

She saw Barton farther down the street, half sitting, half sunbathing on top of one of the fire trucks.

In the bleary dark: “Why have you done so much to help us?”

A pause. “Because I can’t remember a time when I wished someone would help me.”

“Well, Evans, the thing about that man you married- and I love him like a brother and would kill anyone else who said this- is that he’s not very bright and sometimes exists with his head firmly hidden up his arse.”

“Hey, man, respect the skills of others. Maybe I can’t do any of that either, but I laugh in the face of the blue screen of death.”

There’s a feeling in her chest that reminds her of seeing Michael in his uniform for the first time, a ragged beat swallowing her thoughts for just a blank moment, whispering how much it would hurt to lose him.

He tells Peggy this after they’re adjourned for the day. She does not try to build him up or placate him. “They used to bury suspected vampires with stakes in their chests and bricks in their jaws even after they’d died,” she says instead, tilting her chin up at him.

She has the feeling that he’s from the type of family where handshake lessons were given on Monday from 2:30 to 4.

This woman sounds like she could buy and sell him a couple of times over, and he’s not entirely sure if he means literally or metaphorically.

“It’s good. I like it,” and somehow that’s worth paragraphs and paragraphs. It settles around her heart.

But Angel has had a few centuries to get used to how quickly things shift. He has no more lamentations for the eyeblinks that mean a change. Killing a young girl, seeing one on sunlit school steps; these things took seconds and changed everything.

His voice is hoarse and he speaks slowly, but his Russian is perfect, as if the language is something he stored in an attic chest, one he just creaked open to find it pristine.

Because although she has more responsibility than anyone he’s ever known, the weight of lives and lives, she also has her own, and it is such a young one. He wants to be sure that she doesn’t look with regret on these months spent with him, the cliffside love with someone whose life is endlessly futureless.

She’s been missing him all these months, she hasn’t even been tempted, never in all that time, and she’s not totally hideous, so there were some people trying to tempt. But she’s been waiting, it hasn’t even been a question, and he’s apparently been questioning all over the place if he was going to break his word, the last thing he said to her.

She goes Bronzing with the gang. She spends a couple nights hanging and talking with Will, where they dissect Oz’s latest three words, and try once again to figure out Cordelia and Xander, and don’t talk at all about Angel or about how this feels worse than the entire last year because they finally got to choose and they both chose to be apart. She gets a B+ on her English quiz.

Despite herself, Veronica is disappointed. She had wanted the rush from figuring out a puzzle, from outthinking a group of criminals with rap sheets long enough to ride the big roller coasters without a parent. Now she’s facing a woman who’s pulling the criminal equivalent of faking cramps to get out of gym.