The above examples have been provided with the authors' permission to demonstrate what these look like.
Basic rundown:
They are all 3 sentences long
Perfect grammar, capitalization, and punctuation
Like absolutely flawless English teacher-style writing with only a single exclamation mark, ever
No mentions whatsoever of character names, settings, situations, or anything that could be tied to the story
The usernames may be identical to people who exist on ao3, but the name is not clickable, and no profile is associated with it EXCEPT when you directly search for that name. What this means: the comments come from an unregistered (not logged in) reader, bots scrape the site for real usernames, attach that to the comment, and post
Please spread the word about this so authors can filter comments and report them accordingly
There has been some speculation about why this is happening at all, and the best guess is that this is a feature that AI-training story-scraping tools are implementing to try and make their browsing traffic look legitimate
💙 It’s the Best Time of the Year by chicklette
shrunkyclunks + advent calendar || 40k, E || @chicklette
Trending (AUs):
💙 The Right Time by wearing_tearing
friends to lovers + fake relationship AU || 16k, T || @hawkguyz
🖤 Get Jingle With It by mambo
friends to lovers + fake relationship AU || 41k, M || @whtaft
💙 Coming Home For Christmas by Chiyume
meet-ugly + advent calendar || 118k, E || @chiyume
🖤 The Holiday by crinklefries
meet-cute, stucky & thorki || 91k, M || @spacerenegades
💙 If Only In My Dreams by odetteandodile
meet-cute + blogger!Bucky || 28k, T
🖤 Not the Same River at my Fingertips by giselleslash
exes to lovers + roadtrip AU || 11k, E
💙 I Really Can’t Stay (Baby, It’s Cold Outside) by musette22, paperstorm
evanstan + small town AU || 38k, E || @musette22 @paper-storm
Originals (canon-adjacent):
🖤 All I Want For Christmas Has Been You for More Than Seventy Years by Kellyscams
post-CA:WS + cabin fic || 10k, E || @thebestpersonherelovesbucky
💙 One Does Not Simply Walk Into JoAnn Fabrics (And other millennial lessons from The Winter Soldier) by stevergrsno
shrinkyclinks + craft store AU || 12k, T || @stevergrsno
🖤 I got that good thing for you by canistakahari
post-CA:WS + established relationship || 6k, E
💙 The 12 Trees of Christmas by GoodbyeBlues
shrunkyclunks + meet-cute || 10k, T || @goodbyeblues-ao3
🖤 two strangers in the bright lights by Claudia_flies
post-CA:WS + fake relationship || 7k, E || @claudia-flies
💙 Paper Tree by Ellessey
pre-WWII + mutual pining || 21k, E || @ellessey-writes
🖤 Get Scrooged by alby_mangroves, leveragehunters
post-CA:WS + magical realism || 20k, T || @artgroves @leveragehunters
templates by @radwrites
Full sizes on ao3 HERE! || stuckyflix vol. 1
So I was stressing about painting the apocalyptic landscape, but then I remembered I was a lazy artist, and just Photoshopped in the one from my pose ref. TIME MANAGEMENT, I HAVE NONE.
Art for i’m ready to die holding your hand by fingerprintbruises
(Stucky | Last of Us, Zombie Apocalypse AU | 95K)
Ten years after the outbreak of the Cordyceps fungus, an infection that causes humans to attack one another, and five years after his tumultuous separation from SHIELD, Steve is coaxed into taking on the unwelcome task of delivering Bucky to SHIELD outside the military-run quarantine zone he resides in. When the delivery goes sideways and new information comes to light, Steve must again disregard his five-year-old promise to never work for SHIELD and take Bucky further than he ever desired.
This is the story of Steve and Bucky’s dangerous, yearlong journey across an apocalyptic US, fighting the infected and old enemies, all while trying to bring hope to the world.