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maychorian · 7 years

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Weekly Voltron Fic Recs #30

Officially no longer a youngster. Get a job and get out of your parents’ basement, “weekly” rec list, for pete’s sake. Get it together.

Rules: You can find past weekly rec lists here, and non-list recs in my general fic rec tag. This is stuff I like, and I have a huge bias toward Lance, hurt/comfort, and general fluff, in that order. Gen unless otherwise noted. Please comment on the fics if you read and enjoy them!

A Lonely Mind by Bandity Words: 11,292 (WIP 1/2) Author’s Summary: Lance struggles with depression, choosing to hide his problems, he starts down a dangerous road alone. My Comments: I think I kinda freaked the author by leaving a RIDICULOUSLY long comment on this one. Go read that for my expanded thoughts. But yeah, fave of the list. You remember that post going around not long ago about how healing pods are scary? This fic takes that concept in a FABULOUS direction, and I love it to death.

Starve the Ego, Feed the Soul by Agapostemon Words: 1,595 Author's Summary: “So you want me to spy for you,” Keith observes blandly. “Exactly!” Hunk nods, “Oh, and keep an eye out for food stashes. I wanna know where all my ingredients are going. ”Keith sighs, “Fine, whatever. I’ll spy for you. But only because he’s my brother and I care about him.” My Comments: Really sweet and heart-achey exploration of Keith and Shiro’s relationship, through the scenario of Shiro hoarding food in his room.

Pizza, Pasta and some comfort by SerenePhenix Words: 4,405 Author's Summary: I love taylor_tut’s sickfics to death but the one that really stuck with me was the one about the college AU where Lance appeared on the gang’s doorstep and they all were like “let’s take care of this sick stranger”.I really couldn’t help myself… ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Getting Lance to stop before he can collapse Shiro wonders what can be done to help the poor guy. Besides making sure that his temperature doesn't go through the roof... My Comments: Not long ago, I recced “The Pizza One” as my favorite taylor_tut fic, and here’s a nice long sequel! I love it almost as much as everyone in the fic loves Lance.

Food for Thought by WildWolf25 Words: 9,094 Author's Summary: After a very uncomfortable breakfast his first morning in the Castle of Lions, Ulaz learns that Galra and Earthlings (and Alteans) have some very prominent cultural differences, specifically relating to food. Once they get some misunderstandings cleared up, though, Lance gets a certain idea... My Comments: Crack alert! This is delightful. Gen, but technically NSFW for...reasons. Just read it, if you’re of age.

Stretch the Day by Stratagem Words: 886 Author's Summary: Lance and Hunk hang out with their siblings at a lake and have a nice day where nothing bad happens. Really! My Comments: I’m actually reccing every fic in this series, Voltron Space Family, this one just happened to come up first in my AO3 history because I read it the most recently. But yeah, you should consume everything. This author is SUPER good at child mannerisms, as well character interaction and feels. There’s a story where Shiro is rescued after the end of Season 2 by a misfit band of space pirates including one Matt Holt, and another where the Galra kidnap Lance and Hunk’s siblings, which is heart-rending. Very, very good stuff. I’ll be following this author with eager anticipation.

Distance by nawsies Words: 1,381 Author's Summary: Pidge misses her Mum so much and most of the time she refuses to think about it, Lance is in the right place at the right time and wants to help his friend (he helps). My Comments: Sweet, achey, homesick Lance and Pidge. Beautiful little fic.

Mermaid Rescue and Rehab Inc. by isabeau25 Words: 1,064 Author's Summary: Sadly, this isn’t the strangest phone call Pidge has ever gotten from Lance. The mermaid is new though. My Comments: MERBABY SHIRO RESCUED BY THE GARRISON TRIO. If that doesn’t make you want to read it I don’t know what will. Just go. It’s great.

Voltron Hug Collection by hufflepirate Words: 12,761 Author's Summary: 15 microfics, minifics, or oneshots featuring Voltron hugs. These were written based on tumblr prompts (plus 2) and to get me through finals week. Every chapter involves at least one hug, all hugs are platonic, and chapter titles will tell you the people involved and some idea of the plot or prompt, so keep an eye out for those. My Comments: I’ve been reblogging these fics in their tumblr post form, because they are all amazing, but if you missed any, here they are all handily collected for your convenience! I intend to comment on every single chapter, just haven’t gotten to it yet.

Lionhearted by Pidgeon_Online Words: 9,539 Author's Summary: It's a struggle for everyone. They're struggling to stay afloat in the sea of stress and anxiety.And Pidge accidentally tipped the boat.or Pidge gets sick and everyone helps while trying to juggle their own problems. My Comments: Sick Pidge with bonus angsty Lance and supportive everyone else. A pleasure to read. One Day at a Time by dem_hips Words: 2,818 Author's Summary: Being away from home at school is a little different from being away from home defending the universe, as it turns out. My Comments: Kind, supportive Garrison Trio. They’re all so very far away from home. Another fic where Pidge and Lance level up their friendship. I love it.

Caught in the Rain by WildWolf25 Words: 3,611 Author's Summary: “Hi, um, do you need help with your… robot car?”Pidge looked up to find a man looking down in bemusement at them. His black hair was cropped close to his head, shorter at the undercut and only slightly longer on top, save for a white-dyed tuft that fell over his forehead. “It’s a rendition of the Mars Rover, but ‘robot car’ works too.” Pidge said. “And I’m okay, I just need to dry it off. My teammates are delayed, so I just need somewhere out of the rain to wait for them. Sorry about using your awning.” (While waiting for their robotics club members, Pidge gets caught in the rain and takes refuge in the lobby of an onsen, where they meet Shiro) My Comments: This is such a warm, gentle, relaxing fic, much like I imagine an onsen visit to be. Love this modern version of Pidge and Shiro, with Lance being a disaster and Hunk being a suspicious mechanic, as it should be.

Heathens by TheCookieMonster77 Words: 8,785 Author's Summary: "You…"Keith looked completely bewildered and lost at Lance's outburst and Lance thought that that was probably the worst part of all of this. The heathen didn't even realize his error.Keith's face looked startlingly close to a kicked puppy. "What did I do?""I- You-" Lance let out a muffled shriek shout of irritation. "You," he growled, jaw clenched and teeth grinding, "just asked for pineapple. On pizza."What. An. Out. Rage.Keith blinked. "...Yes?"Hunk is an amazing angel (like always) who figured out how to make space pizza. Lance was ready to sing his praises to the universe, but then his teammates have to go ruin everything by insisting on pineapple pizza.Heathens. My Comments: Very fun and funny fic! I loved everyone’s different reactions.

A (Space) Mother's Work is Never Done by BajillionKittens Words: 2,851 (WIP 3/?) Author's Summary: A Mother's Day celebration for the team mom. Six times Coran took care of his kids and one time they returned the favor. My Comments: SO CUTE. I love the way Coran takes care of all of these children he’s suddenly stuck with. The different scenarios are all very good and fitting, and I’m looking forward to more.

Little Drops of Poison by Saereneth for BossToaster (ChaoticReactions) Words: 2,607 Author's Summary: Shiro had been trying to catch up to them, clawing his way through years of separation just to feel like he was part of them once more, but sometimes it was just too much, and he had to excuse himself for a while so he could come to grips with everything he’d missed. My Comments: @bosstoaster‘s Ten Years On AU bothers me on a very visceral level that I have trouble articulating, but this little exploration in the sandbox is lovely. I love Pidge unable to stick with her original concept and expanding into thing she finds interesting or just pretty, and the way Lance notices Shiro spiraling and subtly grounds him without being flashy is really lovely characterization. Very believable development of both of them, and Shiro is heartbreaking as always, but everyone’s going to take care of him.

Be Water, My Friend by xLoLix Words: 8,531 Author's Summary: So there are the quieter moments between missions, between exciting events, between the moments that matter. (The real secret are that those are the moments that matter the most.)Here are some moments between the paladins, starring Lance.Or; I air out some of my general grievances and de-stress from school by writing a fic about my favourite character. My Comments: Really lovely exploration of Lance and his relationships. I enjoyed it.

Finding Family by squirenonny Words: 17,214 Author's Summary: A collection of drabbles that don't fit neatly into the main Duality plotline. Most can be read independently of the main story, though each entry contains a note on where it fits in the timeline.Written based on prompts from readers. My Comments: Some mild Klance and Shatt. Every single of one of these is delightful. You should just read everything this author writes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

Previously Recced Fics That Updated:

As Color Fades Away by IcyPanther Truce by kyanve The Times They Remembered Pidge Was a Girl by MagmaWrites The Color Of Our Planet From Far Far Away by LonelyGirlInSpace Someplace Like Home by squirenonny (THE GANG IS BACK TOGETHER) Secret of the Blood by exclamation (now complete) Garrison Days by castlestormed Towards The Sun by Eastofthemoon The Machinations of Perception by HapaxLegomenon Must Surely Be Learning by BossToaster (ChaoticReactions) (now complete) The Garden of Heaven by Genesister (papirini) (now complete) Love and Other Questions by squirenonny The Size Of Our Actions by buttered_onions Scattered by avidbeader A Dream Away by BossToaster (ChaoticReactions) Stardust, Silk and Steel by CalicoTomcat Shifting Sands by Cardigan_Quincy

#voltron legendary defender #weekly voltron fic recs #fic rec #the fandom is slowing down a little on the fic output #theoretically that should give me more time to write #instead i seem to just reread my favorite fics #vldgen

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fffinnagain · 3 years

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10 Years of Sherlock (TV) AO3 stats!

Sherlock fans, new and old, click below to read a long list of graphs and comments about our communities fanworks over the last 10 years. I scraped AO3 again and demonstrate that:

More creators are writing longer works in 2020

Readers engaged more as the fandom changed after S4

Top ten new tags per year for the last 10 years

And a lot more.

PS the code to gather this data and analyse it can be found way over here.

Activity over 10 years

The last 10 years in the BBC Sherlock fandom have been tumultuous, but this community persists, with engagement from new fans and continued creative output. To commemorate over a decade of squee, I’ve done another scrape of the fandom’s imprint on the Archive of Our Own and will share some insights from the numbers in these plots. A very late update on my post S4 snapshot from 2018.

Note: This analysis is of completed public fanworks only, about 101000 of the 122000 Sherlock (TV) works available at present. This is to remove the late WIP effect, which adds a bulge to the last few months, and out of respect to creators who wish to have their material reserved for other registered AO3 users.

The works are still coming

Counting the number of works posted per day, we can see the peaks associated with each series airing (in UK and US). After that, the number of works continues fairly evenly, 20-30 per day, plus seasonal peaks. This rate is continuing on without a hint of new canon in sight. So who is posting all this work?

Creator-waves, monthly output

Years ago I started plotting creator waves, basically I group fanwork producers by the year they first posted to the fandom and then count how many of this group are active in later time intervals. This lets us get a sense of how long people are contributing and whether new fans are getting the urge to create.

This plot of the Sherlock (TV) fanworks on AO3 shows the standard shape of plump participation in the first year of any given set of creators, followed by a slowly thinning tail as they because less active over time. Turnover is natural in fandoms, with most only posting a work or two within a fairly limited amount of time, while a precious few persist for years. The surprise for me here is that the ratio of new creators is higher in 2020 than it was in 2019. Maybe the excuse of lockdown encouraged more folks to take a turn at creating content.

Another way to look at the output of fan creators on AO3 is to see the total amount of words being shared across all fanworks. The total has been pretty close to 300-400k words per month since 2018! To get a sense of what that means per work, I also plotted the median number of words per fanwork in these monthly sets. The median in higher in the last year than it had been staying for a while.

Reader behaviour: Hits & Kudos & Comments

Fan creators are only part of the story. Stats on engagement are a bit trick to interpret, I’ve got some plots here that tell us something about how works have been engaged with over time.

The obvious first to consider is Hits. Above is the total number of Hits given to works published each month. This is the current totals, not a historical snapshot, so we have a very strong bias towards early works, what we might call the Classics Effect. Works that have been around longer have had the chance to be seen by more people, and in particular those works that become must-read classics in a fandom, extending their exposure through prominence in top ranked works and recommendations.

To cut down on the advantage of the classics, we can also consider median hits per work for each month. As most works get a lot attention when they are first posted and then fade out of sight, the median number of hits reflects instead the ratio of readers to creators, basically how many eyeballs are around to look at the latest work, regardless of status. The median plot shows how the hyper-visibility of the few work available before 2012, and then a more steady curve once the fandom had gotten established on the platform after Series 2. Amazingly, the hit rate for the median work was steady through the big bumps in activity with later series, a 1000 hits for median works between 2013 and 2018, followed by a slow decline. I’d expect the 2020 works to continue gaining for a few months yet, but the median is probably 50-60% of what is was when the show was in production.

Kudos counts and medians show a similar story to hits, but there is a dip down around 2013 for kudos reflects the frenzy of productivity that saw the fandom grow during the Series 2 hiatus. Readers were getting spoiled! From the airing of Series 3 (2014) until a year following Series 4 (2018), the median work received an even 60ish kudos and 1000 hits, a niche audience that decreased to 50/750 through 2018-2019. The numbers of 2020 suggest a smaller community of readers again, though these numbers may still rise a bit in the next few months before the median works are forgotten.

The statistic that tells a different story is Comments. Looking at the total comments counts, there isn’t a drop after Series 3 (2014). Instead, the fandom compensated for changing numbers with more feedback and discussion attached to works. This is reflected in the median comment rate as well, which shows seasonal variation but doesn’t really drop off until 2020.

It’s remarkable that without fresh canon we continue to have new creators contributing to the fandom, and while that may be outpacing the readership somewhat, the standard of engagement has been very high. One could say the fandom is chugging along quite nicely!

What about Tags

So, with all that turnover and shifting population, is there a change in the kinds of works being posted? We can look at tags, all tags and freeform tags, to see if there were any meaningful trends.

First up, I did a creator-wave like analysis of works just for tags, to see how tags continue to be used after being introduced. Unlike the creators, tags clearly persist for years. After 2015, it looks like the core tag set has been established, with very few tags persisting in usage per subsequent year.

This graph reports numbers over time that are not proportional to the number of works or creators active. Instead, works on AO3 have been getting more and more tags over the years, with the average steadily growing from 5 in 2011 to 15 in 2020, with freeform tags (not characters or ships) from 2 to 8.

To get a sense of fic and tagging culture changes over time, I counted the most popular NEW tags of each year (wave). Note: this analysis is using exact matches, not the networked associations of tag meanings wrangled into AO3 today, so some things that pop up aren’t new concepts but instead newly popular TAGs for whatever they represent.

2011: 2752 (First year, so all solid stuff, tags that continue to be popular forever)

Angst 323

Fluff 232

Humor 216

Hurt/Comfort 188

Romance 168

Friendship 168

Crossover 138

Crack 121

Alternate Universe 119

First Time 106

2012: 11637 (still early, first references to Series 2)

Fluff and Angst 145

Episode: s02e03 The Reichenbach Fall 97

Kid Sherlock 54

Puppies 50

Sad 48

Episode: s02e01 A Scandal in Belgravia 47

Mathematics 42

Season 2 spoilers 38

Omega Verse 38

Feels 38

2013: 16176 (Omegaverse nomenclature is growing, Top/Bottom terminology, new challenges)

Alpha Sherlock 65

Omega John 61

30 Day OTP Challenge 59

Tumblr: letswritesherlock 56

Top John 49

Sherlock Holmes Returns after Reichenbach 44

Bottom Sherlock 40

Reichenbach Angst 30

Don't copy work to another site 29

Age Regression/De-Aging 27

2014: 19256 (Mostly Series 3 related

Episode: s03e03 His Last Vow 249

Episode: s03e02 The Sign of Three 167

Post-His Last Vow 149

His Last Vow Spoilers 142

Sherlock Series 3 Spoilers 128

2000 AU 100

The Sign of Three Spoilers 74

Fatlock 72

Post-The Sign of Three 66

Post-Season/Series 03 57

2015: 14272 (New challenges, new prominent Sherlolly tags)

Chats 47

International Fanworks Day 2015 34

Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2015 27

S3 referenced 25

Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Kissing 22

English Accent 22

Sound cloud 19

Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper 19

Protective John Watson 18

but not that kind of graphic 17

2016: 13517 (New stylistic tagging, TAB references, a lot of epilepsy?)

Slowwww burn 92

John Watson Loves Sherlock Holmes 37

Sherlock Holmes Loves John Watson 33

post-tab 30

JME 27

Post TAB 25

Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy 23

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2016 19

epileptic 19

fraternal love 17

2017: 15067 (Series 4 tags and challenges)

Episode: s04e02 The Lying Detective 133

Episode: s04e01 The Six Thatchers 93

Post TFP 73

Sherlock Series 4 Spoilers 69

Episode: s04e03 The Final Problem 60

Post-Episode: s04e02 The Lying Detective 55

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2017 50

Post S4 48

Sherstrade Month 2017 44

31 Days of Porn Challenge 2017 41

2018: 10733 (Lost of new challenges, seasonal and weekly)

Towel Day 2018 64

Mystrade Valentines Calendar 2018 25

Kinktober 2018 23

Pregnant Molly Hooper 23

Soft Smut Sunday 23

Tom Robbins 23

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2018 21

Inktober 2018 20

established universe 16

Always1895 16

2019: 7785 (More prompts, and character attitudes)

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2019 25

221B Autumn Challenge 21

A-Z Christmas Prompt 19

KatsJohnlockXmas2019 16

Whumptober 11

Poor Greg Lestrade 11

Kinktober 2019 10

Dissonance 10

John Watson is a Good Friend 9

Sleepy Sherlock Holmes 8

2020: 8074 (Not all COVID related, thank heavens)

Mystrade Monday 59

COVID-19 48

Coronavirus 46

Mystrade Monday Prompts 40

Whumptober 2020 36

warning for a covid-19 setting 33

Flufftober prompts 2020 24

Do Not Translate 24

they're all right they're just at home 23

Granada Sherlolly 21

A little note from looking across all freeform tags, not just the new ones, we see a curious pattern with regards to two actions: First Kiss and Anal Sex. They appear amongst the most common tags as of 2014, neck in neck for two years, than Anal Sex drops off the top ten in 2016. From there out, First Kiss stays in the top 5 from that point on, while anal sex appears at rank 9 from 2017-2019 and is gone again in 2020. This probably says something about the fandom, somehow.

Bravo for making it to the end and thank you for reading!

Questions/comments welcome.

#Fandom stats #Sherlock #AO3 #Graphs #python

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dietraumerei · 3 years

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Weekly Writing and Reading Update

*pulls out chair, sits on it backwards*

Okay so there’s like a dozen of you that still read my stuff, but I feel like this is worth writing down!

I am burned out. I am extremely burned out. Not of fandom, but of my job. I’m also moving in just over a month, a process which will...certainly be! I’m moving to a much smaller, quieter city, and I think that will help, as will starting to look for a new job basically as soon as the movers drive off. (I have extremely in-demand skills; I honestly don’t think it will take too long.) I’m going to schedule a month off between jobs, incidentally, because I will need one.

As part of being burned out, I’m very tired. I’m having a lot of trouble concentrating, and doing things for more than a few minutes at a time -- especially writing. I have a lot of stories I still want to tell, but my brain is not up for that right now. So I’ll write stories for Whumptober, but probably only a few of the prompts, instead of the whole month or nearly the whole month. I’ll work on other stories -- probably extant femme AU’s, because that’s easy for me to write. Ditto probably writing a lot of h/c. I’ll post when I have something to post, but it won’t be remotely regular. Because I worked through a pandemic and my company did not decrease its demands on us, and continues to increase them. I blame this fully on my job, and despite my firm work/life boundaries, I am burned out, because my CEO doesn’t understand the concept of slowing down and not breaking things, in general and while a global fucking pandemic is killing millions of people. I am extremely clear on this, and it’s part of why I’m looking for another job, instead of asking for a sabbatical or similar.

I’m really angry too, it turns out.

So basically -- I love this fandom, I love my stories, I love writing Aziraphale and Crowley, and I will go back to my slightly bonkers output again someday, but first I have to heal.

Writing

(hah -- I also had to do some computer magic this week which means I lost all my dates for my works! So this is to the best of my memory.)

Gather Ye Together: A Moiety-verse story! The middle chapter of this is currently my favorite comfort fic I’ve ever written.

chitaVisits: Castle Terra story, guess what it’s about ;) I”m in love with my lil aro-ace OC, so I hope to showcase her here.

whumptober2021: I have a few stories written! Adding as I feel moved to. I’m hoping for a few new AU’s out of this one, honestly. All of the f/f AU’s, please.

itsSummertime: a Castle Terra story I’ve abandoned; it’s really boring, tbh. A big chunk makes up the prologue to the new story, though.

Reading

I finished Erin Morganstern’s The Starless Sea, which I liked a lot more than The NIght Circus. It’s a little too pleased with itself in parts, but the story is good and the imagery gorgeous, so I”m happy I read this.

#weekly update

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singingcookie · 3 years

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2020 Fic Writing Review

I got tagged by @amynchan! I’m a little worried this is gonna be,,,a smidge disappointing, all things considered but 😅 What’re gonna do it’s what happens when you prioritize an in-progress fic

Total number of stories (completed/WIPs):

Completed: 4 😅 WIPs: 1 published and in progress, 1 shelved, 2 on pause Fandoms written in: Boku No Hero Academia

The completed fics this year are: Footing the Bill, Dance Dance...Resolution?, Separation Anxiety, The Hunger for Survival, and Drops of Jupiter (Ch.15-31 only)

Total Word Count: 133,549

Tagging: Pretty much everyone I would normally tag has already been tagged so 😅 If any mutuals or followers wanna do it feel free to and tag me so I can see please

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

Definitely less for sure...I feel like a lot may have happened in the stories I put out but actual writing-wise it’s definitely a lower word count over all. Again, happens when I’m prioritizing one story over others I suppose...

What’s your own favorite story of the year?

Gotta say The Hunger for Survival. It was a very sporadic choice to write on my part, but I just have a lot of feelings attached to it for sure.

Did you take any writing risks this year?

Hmmm nothing I feel like that was...too wild or crazy? Separation Anxiety was my first foray into Kiribaku and writing Kiri’s pov, but Idk if I’d say that’s a risk. There’s for sure risks with DoJ but there’s just too much to list lol. Going more gen than shippy, touching on the League, trying to trick my audience into thinking one thing while actually leaning the opposite way...

Do you have any fanfic goals for the new year?

I’m hoping to increase my general output this year. Since I started DoJ I don’t feel willing to try writing much else, and I think that’s been bumming me out to think about. I also want to, at least, match my chapter output of 2019 before 2021 is over!

Best story of the year?

Apparently Dance, Dance...Resolution? I’ve gotten a lot of people praising this one. Much more than I would have anticipated considering the content. It was really fun to write though and, apparently, a lot of people enjoyed it more than expected.

Most popular story of the year?

Definitely Drops of Jupiter and it’s like...not even close lmao. All the other fics I completed this year don’t even have 2k hits 😅 But it’s multichapter so that’s bound to happen.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion

Oddly enough Separation Anxiety??? I would figure it would be doing better because the Kiribaku fandom is so much bigger but it has less hits than even HfS does now lol. Out of all the stats between those two fics, SA only has a higher about of kudos. But all the other stats, HfS beats it out. Especially for bookmarks goodness.

Most fun story to write

I’m only gonna go off of one-shots here, so probably Dance, Dance...Resolution? There wasn’t really struggle on what I wanted to do with this one except for the time limit (due to izuocha week being my deadline) but other than that it was just...a massive amount of fun. Like, honestly lol

Story with the single sexiest moment

Er...none of them? Lmao. Maybe Footing the Bill if we count them sparring and pinning each other down during it 😂

Most sweet story

Hmm...I feel like that’s a tough question and I’m not sure I have an actual answer. My brain went “Oh well Footing the Bill is them as a couple and Ochako just admiring him. But DDR is Deku just wanting to get Ochako the best birthday present. But Separation Anxiety has Kiribaku as a couple and ends really sweet. But Iida and Ochako in HfS. BUT DEKU’S REALIZATION IN CHAPTER 29--”

So yeah idek

”Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you!” story

I....definitely don’t think I have one here lol

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters

I...don’t know if any of these work for that. Maybe Separation Anxiety and my view on Kiri? But I think that’s less “shifting perceptions” and more “solidifying perception”

Most unintentionally telling story

Unintentionally? Uhhh...I don’t think I have one for this either 😅 I try to make things very intentionally more often than not.

Hardest story to write

The Hunger for Survival for sure. It was tricky for me to put a lot of it to words. And really hard for me to publish because it was really personal for me. I aligned with Ochako’s circumstances a lot growing up, I feel, and I kinda just let that out.

Biggest disappointment

Probably hearing that someone felt DoJ “didn’t have enough izuocha to be izuocha” I mean idk bud it’s a full blown slow burn and I warned everyone about that from the get go idk what else to tell you.

Biggest surprise

Separation Anxiety again. It was spurred from a joking back and forth with @vixensheart in dms LOL I still can’t believe that happened.

#adventures in writing #kelly speaks #man looking at that word count makes me sad ngl #ah well

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andrea-lyn · 3 years

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I'm so sorry to hear about the hassle with your work/living/emotional situation, but I'm so impressed that you are still finding the time (and energy!) to write so much. I was wondering if you could/wanted to share how you go between writing original and fanfiction? How do you shift your mindset from one into the other?

Hey anon! Hassle is definitely a word for it (which keeps changing by the day given that my father just had emergency surgery, so I’m packing up to go stay with my parents during the immediate recuperation time given that my sister-in-law is about to go in for a c-section in two weeks and I need to quarantine to help for that too), but I have to admit, writing’s often my outlet for it!

My output lately is, admittedly, WAY lower than last year. A lot of the things I’ve been posting were completed late last year and I’ve taken a beat to slow down and write what I enjoy instead of what I think ppl expect, but in terms of the orig vs fiction, it’s pretty boring for me in that I give myself little morsels of goals, so for fanfiction, I just try and do 500 words on something if I’m working on it. Anything more? Great! Less? That’s okay! When I’m really stressed, I reduce that to 250 words and it just feels like enough to feel accomplished.

For my original work, I have two novels that I keep poking at. One requires a lot more intensive background, so working on that right now is just a lot of brainstorming and research. The other requires some in-depth character building. I think lately, I’ve had to really face my relationship with fandom and admitting that I can’t rely on the shiny hit of positive reinforcement all the time. My orig work would never get done if I did, because I’d always seek that validation, so I’ve been spending the last few months trying to love the process of writing more, and making sure my audience of one (me) is happiest. And yeah, there’s going to be some fic posted in the midst of it because I enjoyed writing it, but I can tell that I’m getting better about being okay just grinding on something without wanting the immediate reward when I finish a fic and have that moment of ‘I wrote this for me and it’s okay if I don’t post it) and be okay with that.

#writing #real life #Anonymous

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lunafeather · 4 years

Note

Post S3 and Ideas from your WIP basket!

WOO OKAY

Post S3

When season 3 ended, I had this idea for this awesome post season multi-chapter fic. It probably would have been like 12-15 chapters, and was full of UST>RST>UST and angst and fluff. A kind of fix it fic, you know? It was inspired by this idea that Beth would gradually forget about the hitman because he is ignoring her, and that the final conflict is the hitman finally showing up to do the job she paid him to do, after her and Rio had worked through their shit and were on good terms/kind of in a relationship. It spiraled into something much bigger and more complex, to the point where even that final hook was on the chopping block. I think I ended up wanting the ultimate goal of the fic to be them finally teaming up and being head of their own departments. Kind of my “how I want this show to end” thing.

There was Beth finally losing her shit on Rio and Dean! Finally kicking the latter out! Demanding equal claim to her work from the former! Rio/Annie/Ruby fun! Rival gangs! One or both of them saving/taking care of each other! Them getting into an argument and finally just talking (yelling) about everything that’s happened between them! Honesty! Pain! Vulnerability! Beth bossing up for real! Outsmarting and possibly poaching Phoebe to the dark side! Being disgustingly horny around Mick until he flees!

I researched Spa and Pool businesses for hours, y’all. I know so much about that shit now.

The WIP document is 2100 words of just planning and outlining. I think I have snippets of scenes and story hooks, but I was going all in on structuring this thing. It was a huge project.

Unfortunately, I lost a lot of steam re: writing and the fandom, so I abandoned everything. The little thing I posted last night is the first time I’ve written anything since May, when I was planning this fic. Depression/Anxiety/Pandemics are tough, you know?

But honestly lately I can’t stop thinking about Brio, and I miss reading my flavor of fics (mostly fluff with a little angst, UST, slow burns, tropes galore!) and the number of fics posted daily has slowed, so I want to contribute! And I’m writing for myself now more than ever. So maybe I’ll pick this back up at some point?

A couple snippets:

"I've been protectin' you, keepin' you from other guys' radar. Not everyone is as nice as me, Elizabeth."

She scoffs at 'nice'. "I can handle myself. When Gil tried to take advantage of me, I flipped it back in my favor. And I shot you, didn't I? Took you out of the game for a while."

His dark eyes deepen to black, long, thick eyelashes framing them in a way that makes him beautiful but absolutely dangerous. He crowds into her space, staring her down, and sneers, "Cept you didn't finish the job, huh? And you won't even touch a gun now."

Beth's mouth pulls into a sharp line. "There are other ways to protect myself."

Discussions with Rio about output numbers, she should be making more fake cash as she has the capacity for it, except the paper porcupine presses can't keep up with demand, Rio wonders why she can't bring more presses into the warehouse, they argue about Dean not knowing and thinking it's legit, how it's hindering the operation. Rio offers a guy or two, since he knows they're trustworthy --

Trustworthy to you

He just smiles

ONE BED TROPE :)

Ideas

So I have three ideas broken down in this document that I really like and was pretty dedicated to writing at some point, but that point was very nebulous haha all of them would still be fun to explore, even with the events of Season 3 unfolding! All of them would take place before the Season 2 finale though. I prefer to pretend that didn’t happen whenever I can.

So first idea is: Jane did disappear, and Dean orchestrated it in an attempt to frame Rio and his gang in order to convince Beth that Rio is evil and to remove him from her life. She goes to Rio and he helps her figure out what happened/find Jane. Honestly I just want to mess with Dean being like.... an actual psycho lol and this fic would be in that Dubby sweet spot that I love so very, very much!

2nd Idea: Dean threatens to get Rio killed, destroy Beth’s life, and take their kids away forever if she doesn’t walk away from him. Instead of folding, Beth goes to Rio and together they work out a plan to frame Dean in the FBI’s investigation. Beth pretends to be the perfect non-criming wifey while seeing Rio in secret; their relationship gets more and more serious until they are sleeping/being romantic together regularly. Just when they are about to finish their con, Dean starts cottoning on and buys a gun to confront Rio with, and stumbles on the pair in the middle of some sexy times. Accidentally fires (cause he’s scared as shit and an idiot) and Beth takes the bullet instead. Aaaaand all the aftermath of that. AGAIN that Dubby sweet spot!

3rd Idea: Te Amoooooo! Teeth rotting fluff and established relationship goodness, I don’t give a fuck if it’s a little OOC, I want to write it so I can read it. Basically, Beth doesn’t sleep naked with Rio because she’s self conscious, Rio is hurt by it because he interprets it as her not trusting him. Slowly she wears less and less until she finally doesn’t dress after sex, Rio is sated and half asleep and deliriously happy and accidentally whispers te amo into her hair (thinking she’s asleep) then freezes and gets super awkward and distant when he realizes what he said. She asks about it the next morning, if he acted funny because she slept naked and he’s like no no uhhh I said something and she’s like, oh that? What’s the big deal? You’ve said I love you before and he has to explain why it’s such a huge deal.

Te Amo is the one I want to work on the most, I need the fluff, okay??? Also the idea is a collab with @johnisntevendead (ConvolutedConcussions), so like it’s got that friend enabling thing going for it haha

Thank you for sending me this! I wasn’t expecting many of these, and I have been so pleasantly surprised!!

Send me a title from my list of WIPs that you’d like to know more about!

#ask meme answer #WIPs #Luna writes #missmaxime #ask answer

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chonideno · 5 years

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i’m a new writer on ao3 and i’ve been feeling a little discouraged. i was wondering, did it take you long to get where you are in terms of popularity and skill? and do you have any tips for new writers?

Hi! I hope you understand how hard of a question it is to answer, though I’m not blaming you at all, [grandma voice] I was the same at your age. Writing is hard, and understanding what makes good writing is hard, and understanding what makes your writing good is hard. Nothing I can tell you will sound new to you - write for yourself, be patient, have fun, popularity is overrated, yada yada yada.

This being said, there are lessons I keep having to re-learn every 3 months or so. I’ve been writing fanfiction for too many years and I still forget some lessons - not that the words disappear from my memory, but there are some things you only learn through experience and I tend to forget them every so often, until I go through yet another learning experience. Here’s a list of things I wish I was prepared to learn when I started:

don’t be afraid of being bad. I know, you don’t want to be bad, that’s why you’re asking about how to get better, and how much time it takes to be popular. But being bad is the foundation of your experience. We all started as terrible writers, and some of us are still there after years of practice - and it’s fine! You have to truly be okay with the idea that you’re going to suck, too! And no amount of experience will ever protect you from that. Being bad happens to everyone, and it’s great. Your writing is going to suck - and what about it? Your writing is going to be terrible, and? What is anyone going to do about it, if you want to shove it into their faces? Nothing, that’s what. The more you write, the less often these moments will happen (but as I said earlier, they still will happen, and they’ll still sting like hell) so keep at it. Don’t be afraid to be the worst at writing, because if you don’t get this stinky stuff out of your system you’ll never get to the good part.

grieve your Ideas. It’s not the first time I mention it I think, but try a thing: think of your Idea right now, your beautiful prefect story that is just waiting for you to write it down, and it has all of these incredible scenes and this intensity and this emotion and it’s going to be great - now let it go. Your Idea with a capital I is a mirage. No matter how hard you try, you’ll never get 100% there. You can get real close, and that’s where the satisfaction lies, the farthest you go from your outline and the closest you get to the Idea, the better your fic. But perfection is unattainable. The finished product will not be a copy of that Idea you had in your head - worse! The finished product will look nothing like your Idea to your readers, who are not in your head, and it also won’t look like what you think it looks like. Because, and that’s very important, writing is a product of 1) the person who lays its eyes on it (whether it’s the author or the reader) and 2) your writing style and what influences it, the Muse, the Spark, the Whatever people like to chase. No story will look alike to different people. So forget about your Idea - it’s never getting born. It’ll have a cousin, so get ready to love this one instead.

learn about your content creation cycle, and be patient with yourself. You will never be a perfect machine. Writing blocks will happen. Every so often I feel like that’s it, that’s the last fic I was ever going to write, and these feelings are sincere and true. I truly believe it to my core. And then writing happens again, and woops, there I go posting another fic. It’s a pattern. It happens. I answered asks about this here, here and here. Be patient. Learn about your own creation process. You’re not your own enemy.

popularity is, ultimately, meaningless. I know how this sounds, but please bear with me here. Popularity is not correlated with quality in any way. It is valid to chase popularity, but you have to do it separately from other goals. You can’t think “I’m going to write a really beautiful fic and it’ll become popular” because there’s no guarantee it will. You can’t think “I’m going to pour all of my emotions in it so it’ll be raw and people are going to love it” because that’d be wrong again. Popularity is a function of timing, marketing skills, what’s currently trendy in your fandom niche and dumb luck. Some of my fics did high numbers, but I have no idea what led them to do that. I’d even argue that between these few fics, not two got a lot of hits for the same reason. Most of the fics I have written over the years have not made a ripple, and I will, inevitably, disappear from everyone’s radar soon. And what is popularity anyway? Hits? Kudos? Kudos/hits ratio? Digging in the numbers depresses me. You want to be known, this much I understand, but I was on this pedestal for a bit and yeah, I’ll admit it’s nice, but if you don’t enjoy your writing or if you don’t like your own output, none of it will make sense, and it’ll only slow down your progress as a writer.

it’s all about you. It’s really all about you. In many ways. You must want to write what you write. You must write for yourself first, and a love letter to a character or a trope is a good way to do that. You should write what you know - not the situations you know, but the emotions you know, the sentimental truth (if it applies to what you write at least - pwp probably doesn’t need it lmao). You might look back on your previous works and think “wow, this is literally about me”. It’s okay to be self-obsessed in writing and art in general. Who else is gonna do that for you?

you don’t need to fit a mold. I know the temptation is great, especially if you’re starting and you’re trying to figure out what people like so you can make a name for yourself or something, but you truly, truly don’t have to write things you don’t like. there are different types of writers, and you might change types over time as well.This Kind Of Writing is real popular but doesn’t fit you? Then don’t write it. Don’t force yourself to write things just because you think people will like it, it will truly not help. At best you’ll end up confused about what you want out of your writing, at worst it’ll disgust you from writing for a time. I have to re-learn this lesson over and over, and every time it rings more true: write what you want. If it’s horrible poetry, do it. If it’s the next 500k sci-fi reincarnation soulmates enemies to friends to lovers au, do it. If it’s sharp one-shots, or mindless porn, or studies of family dynamics, or one-dimensional fluff, do it. You don’t have to reach imaginary standards either - remember, you have the right to suck by anyone’s standards! You can be the most stereotypical ooc coffee shop au author ever, or write chat fics, or indulge in character x reader fics, and what are people going to do about it? Break into your house and steal your keyboard? No!! They’re gonna do nothing!! No amount of joking about these kinds of writing has the power to stop you!! You want to pretend you’re the next literature Nobel and you’re going to revolutionize prose? Do it! Wherever you fall on the spectrum, take what is rightfully yours. And if you don’t know where to go yet, gosh how I wish I were you - the world is your oyster, so try! Read, and think, and scribble and plot and delete half of what you’ve written, experiment, figure out what makes you tingle, what’s your style, what’s your favorite tropes and genres. You can always let go and change. You have a universe of possibilities ahead of you, and don’t let things like popularity hold you back! I’m really excited to hear you’re starting. It’s all adventure from now on.

Sometimes it’s not that deep, but sometimes it truly is.

So I’ve been writing fanfic for 7 years even though I took 1.5 years of hiatus, dropped a fic then stopped writing for another 8 months, I’ve written 21 fics for 3 fandoms, I’ve been invisible and popular and right in the middle and I don’t know how to make popularity happen, and I don’t know how to get better as a writer - I don’t even know if my writing has improved in any way. All I know is that my experience as a writer has improved. I know what I’m doing now. I know what I want. It’ll happen to you too.

#whoosh that was long #please allow yourself to have fun that's all I'm saying #anonymous #mag answers

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franeridart · 6 years

Note

Hey! So sorry if you already answered this but what application and tablet do you use??

I use Easy Paint Tool SAI and a pretty old wacom intuos tablet! Both questions are answred in my faq, actually~

Anon said:You. You awesome person. You are my new fav artist. 💘💘💘

AW thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:I love your art and the style, it’s all so cute and it might give me a heart attack

He c k let’s hope not! Thank you so so much!!! ;^;

Anon said:hey, can ya do more tokage, pls

Sure, I mean to draw more 1B in the future anyway~

Anon said:nori is soo adorable!! I love your art and seromina so much and seeing them combined makes me mega happy!!! I gotta ask though, how are sero and mina as parents and how do they handle nori’s quirk?

They’re disasters as parents but they try their best and are always having fun - Nori adores them! In their house not a minutes goes by without someone laughing, they’re all super loud and cheerful always~ neither of them has any problem dealing with Nori’s quirk, Sero has spent a whole lifetime learning how to deal with sticky stuff and tape and glue so he knows all the tricks to save clothes and furniture from accidental quirk usage and so on, while Mina’s own quirk makes it easy to counter any glue that might end on her - the main thing actually is that the quirk itself was a surprise! Since Nori looks a lot like Mina, both she and Sero had expected her to have acid like Mina so when she started gluing herself around in places and walking along walls and stuff it was a surprise (they had expected to have to deal with the house being constantly half destroyed by acid though, so glue is nothing compared to that haha)

Anon said:Heyy I saw your twitter account and was wondering if you could link some of those “fics about them boys sharing a bed..“ I’ve been following you for a while now and absolutely love your work (: I hope you don’t mind lol. I need more kiribaku in my life gahaha ❤️ thanks !!

I didn’t really bookmark any and most were old things I had read in the past and spent time rereading lately, but the newest one I read is this one - honestly though at this point 99% of the fics set in the dorms have them sharing a bed, you just need to open ao3 and scroll down less than a page to find stuff lol

Anon said:If you’re not an Adventure Time fan this ask will make no sense to you (so skip it), but when I saw your drawing of Katsuki with a guitar, I immediately thought he was singing some edgy Marceline song, like the teasing-aggressive “I wanna bury you in the ground / I wanna bury you with my sound” (which he actually says at some point I think XD) or the romantic and melancholic “Slow Dance with You” and Eijirou M-E-L-T-S.

Not an AT fan, but the concept is adorable so I’m keeping the ask anyway

Anon said:Do you think you might draw more of your fantasy AU children while you’re playing with you’re new pencil tool? It would be neat if you did! Regardless, I’m grateful for anything you draw!

Yup! Can’t promise when it’ll happen but I love the fantasy AU and I love childhood friends AU, so the chances of me going back on it are pretty high!

Anon said:Are you going to draw Mako and Taiyou again? They are so wonderful.

YAH that’s definitely in the near future plans! Thank you for liking them!!

Anon said:I just…I love all your art. It’s so amazing you’re awesome

THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!! ;^;

Anon said:Stavo scorrendo il tuo blog e ho notato che hai risposto ad una domanda in italiano? Ho seriamente pensato fossi inglese tutto questo tempo! Amo seriamente i tuoi disegni, i tuoi oc sono meravigliosi e non vedo l'ora di scoprire più di loro.

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH grazie infinite omfg ;^; specialmente per i miei oc, è sempre incredibile per me sapere che alla gente piacciono abbastanza da volerli vedere di più ;^;

Anon said:Hewwo! I’m a huge fan of your artwork!! I was wondering if you have any time could you draw some more of those dorm room scenarios?

Anon I’m sorry but I need you to be more specific, which dorm room scenarios are you talking about? Most of my comics at this point are set in the dorms hahaha

Anon said:I just noticed that on every artwork you sign “do not repost” and I hate it.I don’t hate that you do it, but the fact you NEED to do it. Artists all over the Internet say to not repost their art but people still do it…I hope this will stop someday Sorry for my english btw

Yeah well, I guess as long as people keep on following and giving notes to reposters that’s not really gonna change is it orz

Anon said:You should draw Present Mic x Aizawa *awkward finger guns*

Hell I really should, shouldn’t I

Anon said:my god im gay for your kiribaku like they’re so good aibdjsbsknwnx and i love the interactions between the bakusquad ahh keep being awesome :)

HECK THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

Anon said:Honestly, this might be an odd question I don’t know, but would you ever consider putting your art together in a art book to sell? Cause to be honest, there’s not a piece by you that I don’t adore and I’ve seen some artist do things like that before so I didn’t know if that was something you’d consider. Maybe like all your BNHA pieces or something?

It’s not like I never considered it? It’s more like I dunno how worth all the work to figure out how to make it/where to print it and then to actually make it would be compared to the interest people would have in buying something they can have for free on my blog? It’s just doodles after all haha

Anon said:Would you be willing to draw a little lavi (dgm) doodle for me? Anything tiny, I just love him and your art!!!

I’m not doing requests right now, sorry, but soon enough the new chapter is coming out so I might draw him around then!!! I always fall in a serious dgm mood around the time of the chapter release haha

Anon said:More abuse of the ask function: 1- I love your art and have been for months. On top of that, it often feels cathartic, which is amazing to me. 2- I love how balanced you can make KiriBaku. You even manage to make me appreciate that overrated attention hogger that is Bakugou, you can handle him so much better than the author, because your character dynamics make so much more sense!! 3- I always, ALWAYS find myself reading through all your tags. They’re awesome. Thank you for everything.//Avevo finito lo spazio nell'ask precedente, so I’d only like to add that aside from cutie-smoochy (“It’s not about whether you break” and “I don’t need you” might be my favorite, and for what’s worth, I remember writing something exactly like the latter in the past), you also make mu burst into laughter. Like, the comic where Katsuki is about to out Eijirou on his red hair, I am still rolling. Kiri’s giant mouth is seriously hysterical XD

Thank you for the compliments!! I’m glad I can make you like a character and a relationship you’re not much of a fan of in the actual manga? ? ? Bakugou’s actually one of my favorite characters ever though so………. maybe……….don’t offend him and the way Horikoshi writes him while talking to me………….orz

Anon said:I am starved for Bakukamikiri stuff in this fandom……..But you got some good shit.

I’m!!! happy to be able to help there!!!! haha

Anon said:They mama Mitsuki art you drew 👏💯💖☺️💕👌 I love your art so much

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:Yessssss you have Twitter! It is boring at the beginning but then you’ll love it! I can’t wait to see you here and there! Now all my Bakushima favorite artist have one I can die of happiness!!

I’m!!!!!!!!!! Still trying to figure it out but!!!!!!!! For now it’s not that bad? Just!!! Very different from tumblr so I’ll need to get used to it first!!!!

Anon said:Omg do u shade jirous hair like its a heartbeat line? Dhdisbdisb thats so fuckibg good

THANK she actually has it in canon too, tho, so I can’t take credit for this!!!

Anon said:Im crying on how you draw kirishima’s soft hair

S O B I’m glad you like it!! ;^;

Anon said:Can I ask what your stance is on bakugo’s mom being abusive and sorry if you’ve answered this before

I love Mitsuki with my whole heart and while I don’t think she’s perfect I do think she’s loving and caring and trying her best and always looking out for what’s best for Bakugou 👍 no abuse anywhere, for me

Anon said:OMG I LOVE SEROMINA LOVE CHILD NORI

Thank you for liking her???? heck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:I wish I could use your art for my phone’s background ;^; You’re amazing! I love youuuuuuuuuu

No one’s stopping you from doing that, anon!!! Unless you don’t have a phone that allows you backgrounds, in which case ;-; thank you for liking my stuff that much tho!!

Anon said:Hey! I followed you way back when your main output was haikyuu!! comics and once you started putting out more bnha, i had to unf because i had no idea who everyone was rip. but now that ive finally had the chance to watch it i’m glad to come back and see how much you’ve improved!

HECK THANK YOU???? I’m glad you decided to come back????? oh man that’s super flattering !!!

Anon said:Yolo bakusquad bakubowl ?

I don’t really like the whole concept of [character]bowl, sorry!

Anon said:I absolutely adore your art style😍 every time I see your art it makes me happy:)

THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:Can you draw Hawks and Tokoyami together? You are rlly creative and amazing! So I believe you will produce sth. awesome!!!! (If you don’t want to draw Hawks, could you draw a Tokoyami fusion?)

I can draw that! I’m just waiting to know how tall Hawks is compared to him before doing that 👍 be patient pls relative heights are something I’m stupidly fussy about

Anon said:Burn the whole world to ashes for you? R U serius?! You always killing me dude. I ascended to the heaven of soft things. I N C R E D I B L E. Im sorry for the break down, i was without tumblr 2 months and the firts thing i do is go to your profile. Keep doing this plis im trully love it 😭💖

mAN I’m so glad you liked that one this much, drawing the boys being unreasonably soft with each other is my fav thing to do tbh !!!

Anon said:Omg I can totally imagine Nori and bakushima’s daughter being friends!!!

THEY ARE !!!!!!!

Anon said:Your seromina is amazing!!! I love that ship I feel like it is so underrated! Thank you for this blessed image!! 😭

No prob!! thank you for liking it!!!!!!! I’ve been in such a seromina mood lately, I might actually draw more soon enough!!

Anon said:Omg imagine a Tetsuwase love child. Something tells me they’d be adorable and one rather angry child, considering who their fathers are

I can see them as being quiet and grumpy………. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Anon said:Hey just wanted to tell you I love your art. It’s so soft and beautiful. My dad doesn’t ship any characters from the series, but he does like the series and he thinks your art and style are really pleasing. We were talking about how nicely you shade and that the style is well developed and lovely to look at. Thanks for making such great art that makes me smile and giving me and my dad yet another thing to bond over.

YO THAT’S SUCH A COOL THING TO HEAR!!!! Thank you to both you and your dad for liking my stuff????? h e c k !!!!!

Anon said:Thanks to you I started reading haikyuu.

I hope you’re enjoying it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#fran answers #so much chatter yo #hope I didn't miss anyone !!! <3 #anonymous

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headfullofhannibal · 5 years

Note

Thank you so much for this podcast! I recently re-discovered Hannibal and coming off the Supernatural fandom and being dissapointed of the treatment of their ship I just ate up the 3 seasons and yeears worth of fan content. I absolutely love your podcast! I'm so happy there is a current podcast and that is not a rewatch but fan focused, love your recommendations as I need more fic to read! I have hopes for season 4 and cannot wait for what comes out of RDC5. Thank you! Keep up the good work!

Thank you so much for reaching out! It must be so much fun to have all that content to dive into, and it’s not like Fannibals are slowing down at all. Our output was a little slower this past year but we’re planning on starting back up soon for 2019, so thanks for joining us!

#Anonymous

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kitsunebi-uk · 6 years

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Chapters 74-81 are now up! And that means this fic is complete, at 431,630 words, according to AO3. I loved journeying through it with Yuuri and Victor, and I hope you have too.

This instalment contains two new works of art from @min-min-minnie !

Summary and notes below the break.

Summary:

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2048: Yuuri Katsuki came to MIT looking for answers. Now an associate professor of neuroscience, his career looks promising on the surface – but it’s not bringing him any closer to what he craves: an understanding of this strange ability he possesses. Contacted psychically by people in turmoil, he does his best to help them. He calls it ESP, though most everyone else in his life who’s known about it has called it crazy.

There is one other thing Yuuri craves: to meet his idol on an even footing and show him what he’s capable of. Dr. Victor Nikiforov, world-renowned expert in neuroscience. A groundbreaker. A trendsetter. And desirable as hell. When he turns up unexpectedly in Yuuri’s office one day, offering to be his research partner, Yuuri is bewildered – and thrilled. Of course, Victor never has to find out about the ESP or the other awkward things Yuuri hides.

But Yuuri isn’t the only one with secrets. When others finally come to light, causing him to flee for his life, he is forced to question everything – and everyone – he thought he knew and trusted…

Notes:

Even though I’m releasing this story episodically, it’s complete and edited. I’m aiming to post several chapters every Friday – it’s a long one! (81 chapters in 11 parts, with illustrations.) But that’s because a lot happens, and at the same time I wanted to explore Yuuri’s and Victor’s thoughts and feelings, and their wonderful relationship, in depth. I’ve also developed a world set 30 years in the future, where things are a little different but the same in many ways too. Trends we’re seeing today, both encouraging and alarming, will be coming to fruition…

Fluff, angst, and ‘smut’ (loving sex) are all here too – though please bear in mind it’s a slow burn. This story will take you up hills, only for you to discover how high you’ve climbed and how far down you’re looking, just before it tips you over the edge – so I’d like to invite you to come along for the ride!

However dark it gets for these characters, I love them, and this is another homage to the anime – and to this amazing fandom whose creative output and enthusiasm and support seem to know no bounds. See if you can spot the references to canon, though these will appear more often at the beginning of the story.

A final note regarding the scientific content and language in this story…Yuuri and Victor discuss some issues that arise due to the ESP theme, such as the nature of consciousness, and materialism – the approach that mainstream science has taken for hundreds of years which assumes that everything that can be known is outside of ourselves and can only be understood (and is therefore only valid) through the five senses alone. While I hope some readers will find this interesting, none of it is crucial to the plot. And, after the first several chapters, big changes are afoot that take this story in a completely new direction, which has little to do with science! So if it seems daunting at first, please persevere – you may well be glad you did.

You will also see technobabble that isn’t meant to be understood, because it’s mostly nonsense that gives a sheen of credibility to Yuuri and Victor as neuroscientists. I am not a neuroscientist myself, so that was the only way I could do it! Think of things like Doctor Who and Star Trek and reversing the polarity of the neutron flow, etc., and you’ll catch my drift. The science – like the skating in the anime – while important to these characters, is a frame to hang bigger themes on. And love is the biggest and best of all.

#yoi fanfic #yoi fanfiction #yuri on ice fanfic #yuri on ice fanfiction #victuuri

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darkhymns-fic · 6 years

Text

Heal with a Smooch

Robo wants to get better at healing. If a kiss can heal, could he learn that too?

Fandom: Chrono Trigger Characters/Pairing: Lucca/Robo, Crono, Marle, Ayla, Frog Rating: G Mirror Links: AO3 Notes: Mainly @taco-night-frenzy‘s fic idea, who is also writing several other CT fics that I was inspired from so go read those thank you.

To better one’s own capabilities was a natural human instinct. And Robo, a creation of humans, possessed that same instinct. Upgrading his parameters and various tools came with the program (so to speak). Especially when one needed said skills to improve so they can more efficiently help their friends.

Fighting against a particularly nasty reptite that refused to be taken down in quick succession, Crono had taken the brunt of the creature’s attacks. Robo hadn’t had a chance to heal him during the scuffle, sensing that his usual lasers were not operating correctly. It was something he would have to discuss with Lucca later, if she had enough energy to give him the proper repairs.

The battle was over, and Crono was on one knee, his sword still clenched in his right hand, though in a limp manner. Robo felt guilty that he could not help his friend! Perhaps he truly was defective? Not even a genius like Lucca could fix what was ultimately so broken at the core.

“Crono hurt!” someone shouted – the cavewoman that had joined them not so long ago. Rushing on all fours, she appeared at Crono’s side and then, before the other could react, took the young man’s face in both her hands. “Ayla heal! Crono feel good.”

To what Robo could surmise from the interaction, it appeared that the woman was pressing her lips against Crono’s own. Robo had never seen such an action before, though he could already detect Crono’s body temperature levels had risen quite considerably. Once Ayla stepped back, Crono’s face was as red as his hair, but he was also standing on both legs, any obvious cuts and scrapes he once had now completely healed over. Robo theorized that this could not be magic, such as Marle’s healing capabilities, nor was it a product of science as for his own healing beams. Yet, it proved to be just as effective, if not more so.

Lucca was laughing nearby, while Marle had also gone red in the face. Her breath huffed in a bit of an erratic pace though she said nothing. Ayla still heard her however, instantly turning.

“Marle hurt too?” Ayla wasted no time in going over to her. “Ayla give heal! Ayla give kiss!”

“What? I’m not hurt I’m just mffhfptt!”

So this is called a kiss? It seems such a simple maneuver, yet it clearly has demonstrable healing properties, rooted in neither magic nor technology. Robo assessed this new information into his system, making sure to observe the act a second time as Ayla performed it on Marle. The princess eventually stepped back, a bit flustered while Ayla grinned wide. If I could learn such a thing, I could prove to be more useful to my friends when they need it most.

“Hey, Robo. I saw you having some trouble in the fight earlier.” Lucca was next to him, giving him a friendly smile. There was a small scrape on her cheek, not at all life-threatening or even that painful, yet he wished he could heal that away without the use of circuitry. “Let’s take a break and see what we can fix up.”

He nodded to that politely, deciding to further analyze the effects of healing kisses for another time. “Yes, Lucca. You are too kind.”

Traveling to another time period confirmed to Robo that a healing kiss was not merely restricted to the stone age.

“Lady Lucca!” spoke Frog, quickly sheathing Masamune. “You are injured! Allow me to heal you in whatever way I can.”

Lucca had been slashed at her side by a monster. The claws had not done significant damage, due to the armor she wore, but it had been enough to draw a little bit of blood. Robo was already preparing his healing lasers before Frog had interrupted.

“It’s okay. Let’s just quickly focus on beating this OH GOD!”

Frog very suddenly extended his long tongue straight to Lucca’s face. She paled quite extremely as the appendage made contact, coating her cheek in saliva. Still, with that, the blood had gone away, and Robo noted that Lucca gripped her gun with more ease.

“I apologize for such crude methods,” Frog said somberly. “But I have discovered long ago what the abilities of my form can do. You should be well now.”

Lucca remained still, chin dripping with icky slime. “Thanks… Frog…”

After their battle ended, Ayla ran over to Frog with a light in her eyes. “Frog has same heal as Ayla! Ayla and Frog heal together!”

Frog pondered this new proposal as he rubbed his chin, his eyes just as bright – though most likely due to the fact that Frog’s eyes were quite big and their shade of yellow happened to catch the light more easily. “You bring up an interesting idea, Miss Ayla. By combining our healing techniques, we can better heal others as well.”

Ayla nodded to that. “Ayla strong! Frog strong! Ayla and Frog heal strong too!”

Robo noted the creation of the healing duo and, strangely, felt a bit envious. Robots were not to feel or understand such emotions, yet the definition in his memory banks told him that this was what he was experiencing at this exact moment. He was envious that the two could heal naturally, and that they could make it even better by working together. If only he needn’t rely on his own limited capabilities…

Another fight followed shortly after. The monsters had been high in number, prompting the magic-users to unleash powerful spells that engulfed the entire field. Even so, Robo saw some of his friends sustain numerous injuries, straining his lasers to their peak. Once it was over, wounds still needed to be treated.

“Ayla and Frog heal good!” Ayla motioned to Frog, who looked to her in complete understanding. “Heal good!”

“Yes. Let us both heal away your troubles with our Slurp Kiss!”

Crono, Marle and Lucca instantly blanched. The women protested while Crono remained still in what seemed to be shock. Ah, Robo thought, the poor man must have been more injured than I realized!

Once everyone was drenched in saliva, including Robo, who was busy wiping away the substance from his optics, both Ayla and Frog stood among their friends with pride. Robo already felt much more invigorated than before! Truly, this was an amazing power!

“…I think I need a bath…” Marle said. Lucca was shaking, and Crono continued to remain standing in place, though he was less pale than before, all injuries gone.

Robo decided then that he would learn this ‘kissing,’ so that he could better help others.

“Um, Robo, what are you doing?”

The group had gone back to the present time for the moment, so that they could be in more familiar terrain for at least a majority of the group. Lucca’s parents were very accommodating, barely blinking an eye at the woman in fur clothing, or the frog with exceedingly polite speech. Lucca’s father was especially amazed at Robo, bombarding the machine with questions regarding his nature and equipment until Lucca had to shoo him away.

Currently, it looked like Lucca was about to shoo Robo away too, eyebrow raised as he carefully plunked his forehead against her helmet. “I am practicing the kissing technique. It is rather difficult, as I do not possess the necessary parts to make it more effective.” He said the last with a bit of disappointment.

“Kissing?” Lucca gawked, a slow flush building up to her cheeks. Robo was still locked in his position, forehead to forehead with Lucca. She took a step back, prompting Robo to raise his head. “Why would you want that? Your healing lasers are already effective!”

Robo tried to put his feelings into words. “But… can it not be better? Should I not upgrade my capabilities to reflect our current situation? I feel that perhaps I am simply not doing my part, not how both Ayla and Frog have been able to.”

Lucca gave her robot a friend a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “I mean, if you really wanted to kiss, I’d have to fashion a pair of lips for you and –” her body shook at that, cheeks puffed in amusement – “I don’t think it’s the right look for you.”

Robo wondered. He had analyzed the possibility of having such parts built, though perhaps Lucca knew best on what operations worked for him. Still, he wished he could do more. Perhaps there was another way…

“I can work on your healing lasers some more, if that’s what you’re worried about. You’re already doing great, I promise you that.”

Robo only half-heard, thinking of certain avenues, but he nodded to Lucca’s suggestions. “If that is no trouble.”

“It never is, Robo.”

What he had surmised from both Ayla and Frog was that their healing kisses contained a wealth of emotion in them. Ayla’s was with incredible passion (as he had been witness to when she kissed several of their friends) and Frog’s with the utmost justice, always making sure to give an apology before he initiated.

Robots were not supposed to have emotions, but he had long ago accepted that was what he possessed. Even Lucca, whom he trusted most, assured him this was so.

His deep care for his friends would be enough to heal away their injuries without any side effects. He was sure of it!

“Crono!” shouted Marle, already putting away her crossbow. “You need to be more careful!”

Crono only gave a weak nod, his body now worse for wear after withstanding numerous magical attacks. He turned to Marle expectantly. This would be about the time that Marle would do a healing spell on him, all while both Frog and Ayla were a bit distracted with defeating another monster.

However, this was when Robo saw his opportunity.

“Worry not, Crono!” he shouted from across the field, his body already in forward motion towards his friend. “I have perfected my kissing techniques and will heal you to the maximum output!”

The earth shook with Robo’s frenzied footsteps. Crono slowly turned his head to find the gigantic machine rush over to him like a fast-coming boulder. His hands raised up with a bit of a flailing motion.

Oh no! Crono was so injured that he was losing control of his motor coordination skills! He had to hurry!

With a quick motion, Robo gripped both of Crono’s shoulders, then leaned down quickly to complete the act as soon as possible. He poured all his care for his friends, his desire to save the world from the bleak future that he was from, to make Lucca proud at just what he could do. Stars filled his vision at the action. Kiss complete!

Thud!

Confused, Robo stepped back. There was a bruise on Crono’s forehead that had not been there before. Reeling backwards, Crono promptly landed on his back, sword flinging from his outstretched hand. Everyone stood around both robot and now unconscious man, mouths agape in shock. Even their enemies could only stare at the sight.

Robo beeped in embarrassment, bringing a hand to the back of his head. “Oh. Um. Pardon.”

As they camped that night, Robo watched as Marle laid an icepack on Crono’s head. He was no longer unconscious, but he had to lay down on his back to avoid any dizzying effects.

“No one’s mad at you, Robo.”

He turned, finding Lucca seated nearby. She was fiddling with an open compartment in his arm, screwdriver poking at unseen sections as she worked her genius.

“But… instead of trying to save my friends, I have only hurt them instead.” He lowered his head, feeling an unseen weight on his form, yet no, that was not logical at all. “A defective robot can only do so much, I suppose.”

“You are not defective. Now stop with that.” She made sure to slap his arm gently, compounding it with her words. “You’ve helped plenty during all this. You know that.”

Robo would not reply. He only kept going over the reasons why his kiss didn’t work. He didn’t have the necessary parts, he did not perform the action correctly, or he truly could not express any love or care into it. Perhaps, he had only fooled himself into thinking he had emotions when he really didn’t at all…

There was a motion to his left side, where Lucca was. She sat up on her knees to plant a kiss on his facial compartments. Something sparked within his circuitry – not literally, but that was the term that came forth to him immediately. He turned to Lucca, finding her nervously smiling.

“See? I can’t do it either.” She shrugged, still gripping the screwdriver in her hand. “We can both be weak kissers together.” A pause. “Wait, that… that didn’t come out right!”

Robo felt… touched. Another term that came up so suddenly. With a gentle motion, he laid his head against Lucca’s, mimicking what he had tried to do the other night. A soft plunk! concluded his action before he softly lifted away from her. He detected a quickening heart-rate coming from Lucca. Perhaps she was a bit sick? He should make sure that she did not overwork herself for at least a few hours.

“I find myself always saying this but, at the risk of sounding repetitive… thank you, Lucca.” He felt lighter, despite knowing how his parts weighed approximately 5 tons. He would have to wonder at that later. “I feel… much better.”

Lucca smiled again, more widely this time. She copied his action, plunking her helmet against his head. “It’s no trouble, Robo. Really.”

#chrono trigger #chronotrigger #lucca #robo #ayla #crono #marle #frog #fanfiction #one shot

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ladywolfmd · 6 years

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It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year for Gifts and Paybacks

A Stannis x Sansa fic gift for the best fandom mom ever @yourtommyginger and also part of the Stannis x Sansa Christmas Collection. (I never thought I’d write a Stansa fic, but it’s Christmas and you give lovely people what they like. My shot at this, only for you my dearest mom <3 Also, all credits go to her for the Joffrey revenge prompt )

Sansa couldn’t stop grinning as she put the finishing touches of her makeup. She had much to celebrate tonight, starting with her date.

Speaking of date…

She smiled wider when she heard him enter, giving a sigh as he stood behind her, knowing exactly why she was happy. Sansa giggled before leaning up and giving him a kiss on the cheek, earning her a half-smile.

Not only was she attending this year’s Governor’s Yule Ball with a date, she was going with Stannis Baratheon.

And more than that, Joffrey was there, the more devious voice in her head whispered.

Another sigh behind her.

Sansa bit her lip, stood up to face him before wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry, I’m just really happy.”

Not one to hold any annoyance long for her, Stannis placed a hand on her hip while the other he used to trace a side of her face gently that she relished. He was getting better at this, affection. “I know. But the reason for it is still vague to me,” he arched a brow.

She pouted then. “You know I’m excited because this is our big debut.”

Stannis chuckled and gave her forehead a kiss. “That…and you plan to make my nephew mad out of his mind.”

Her frown just deepened. “You said you were okay with it. And…you know it’s always been more than that,” she said pleadingly.

Stannis gave her one of his rare soft smiles and her hip a squeeze. “I know, sweetheart. I know. Now come on.” He extended his arm.

Continue reading here or on AO3.

Still not smiling, Sansa took his arm and nodded. Did he really mean that? Or does he still think I’m using him? I thought we’ve long past that.

All her worry melted as soon as Davos, Stannis’ bodyguard and personal assistant, opened the door of his limousine and there waiting for her was a large arrangement of winter roses.

She looked up at him with an indescribable expression that made him laugh softly and kiss her cheek. Stannis was never overtly affectionate, nor remotely romantic in the traditional sense. He was romantic in a way that was thoughtful and subtle. Just like how they’ve been for the past three months of under the radar dating. It wasn’t like they kept their relationship a secret, but they weren’t being obvious either. And this ball was the first major event they would attend as a couple.

But tonight, he was giving her the princess treatment and this thought made her eyes water and his own almost roll.

He coughed and helped her inside and Sansa just kept sniffling as she admired the flowers.

The third sigh of the night and Sansa saw him tap his fingers on his knee, his uncomfortable tell. “Do you like them?”

Sansa beamed at him as she dabbed the corner of her eyes. “I love them. You shouldn’t have.”

He smiled faintly then. “I wanted to be thorough.”

Sansa giggled then, shaking her head. “Of course you would be.” She gave him a look then. “Tell me the truth, it was Shireen who told you what to do.” She poked his chest, making him crack a smile. “She may have…given me pointers. But it's mostly me. Surprisingly.” Shireen was staying with Selyse for the Holidays but Sansa would make sure she’d get another gift sent to her as he admired the small touches she had a hand in with her father tonight. It warmed her heart to imagine father and daughter bonding over making this night special.

Sansa felt his thumb brushing her cheek and felt his lips on her temple. “Hush now, you wouldn’t want to be nothing short of being the most beautiful in the ball. We have a two-fold plan, after all and I expect perfection.”

Laughing, she leaned up and kissed him softly and wiping off her lipstick before settling back on her seat.

She was buzzing with excitement but now that it was really happening, she was nervous too. Stannis must’ve felt that because she felt his hand stilling over her fidgeting ones and taking one and holding it firmly.

She blushed and looked out the window, immediately relaxing. Sansa didn’t need to look to see that though he was likely looking at the road instead of her, she knew he was thinking of her.

"Relax, you look exquisite by the way."

“You can stop what you’re doing, Ms. Stark.”

Sansa kept her mouth shut as she sat rooted in one of Stannis’ office chairs.

When she didn’t answer, he sighed and went to sit back down behind his desk and leant back, drumming his fingers on the table.

Her heart was racing knowing that she’s been caught but if she was being honest, it stopped being a game to her fast in a way that she never expected.

“I know what you’re doing,” he said firmly but not reproachful, just stating a fact.

She tried anyway. “What do you mean?”

His brow quirked and Sansa knew that it was taking a lot for him to reign in his impatience or annoyance or both.

He leant forward then and steepled his fingers. “I get why you’re doing this and I even see the merit of the plan. However,” he leant back and rested his face on his palm and gestured with his other hand. “You don’t need to do this to get back at my idiot nephew.”

She flushed beet red then while her mouth gaped open. “I don’t—I mean,” she stammered, cursing herself internally in panic.

He raised his palm up in reassurance. “Calm down, Ms. Stark. I’m not going to scold you or harass you.”

He stood up then and went to fetch her a glass of water. “Here. And don’t worry, I won’t tell your father or my fool of a brother.”

Sansa took a sip of water and held the glass with both hands, unable to meet him in the eye. “I’m sorry.”

She saw him wave her off from her periphery. “I admit that despite what I said, I still have half a mind to tell Robert but I assume he already had his words with his son for hurting his closest friend’s daughter. But if there’s something you’re not telling us, I can help you in another way that won’t have you resort to this,” he sighed but there was a tinge of something in his tone, like a cross between pity and disgust that made her redden some more.

That made her look up at him and though his face was serious, there was some softness in Stannis’ Baratheon’s eyes that she saw before though rarely during these weeks of their companies working on a project together.

“This?” she said weakly.

He rapped his fingers on the table then. “You are a beautiful, young woman, Ms. Stark. And on top of that, you are sharp. You don’t need to seduce your ex’s older uncle to get back at him.”

She swallowed and looked away in shame but lifted her head not that long when she caught the undertone of his statement.

“Am I allowed to speak now?” she said clearly, trying to maintain their gaze.

He nodded at her, smirking in confidence with the point he wanted to convey but Sansa had to speak her mind first.

“It may have started that way, I won’t deny it. But quickly, as I got to know you…know the powerful yet understated man you are, it wasn’t hard, Mr. Baratheon,” emboldened when he was still not looking at her, she tentatively placed her hand on top of his that was tapping the table, making his smirk falter a bit.

“It wasn’t hard to forget that reason and find a new one to get close to you,” she said in an almost whisper, hoping her eyes would be enough to show him her sincerity, she decided she just wanted to be truthful.

Sansa admired his passion. It wasn’t overt like Robert or as flamboyant as Renly. Stannis’ was quiet, subdued, like ember that once stoked would ignite to be an all-consuming fire that inspires loyalty, and belief.

She liked how no nonsense he was, and direct which she found refreshing. But most of all, he based everything on merits. It didn’t matter who you were, what you are, where you’re from. All that mattered was what you did with the work given.

She watched as he would pick out strengths and enhance them, weed out weaknesses and improve them. He was a master strategist, and everyone knew that without needing him to say it.

And soon enough, all Sansa wanted to do was to impress him. Be better. And she’s never felt more empowered in herself than when she started working with him. And later, the admiration, grew into something more.

She wasn’t blind. She knew she affected him, even a little. But she also knew that he would never be less than a gentleman and more than that, he cared about what his daughter would think. Which is why, when she finally admitted to herself that she wanted him for him and not for revenge, she started by trying to make an effort to have a good relationship with Shireen.

Stannis was still skeptical. “Suppose I believe you. What would your father think?”

She almost grinned. At least this was progress. “My father trusts that he and my mother raised me right and trust me enough to make decisions of my own.”

“Decisions that lead you to date Joffrey in the first place,” he smirked.

She frowned then and pulled her hand back, clenching them. “I’m a slow learner, but I learn.”

He raised his hands in surrender and shook his head. “It’s not your intelligence that’s in question. It’s your heart. It’s too big and trusting.”

Sansa said nothing and just stared at him.

He took a deep breath and leant on his elbows. “Sansa, you know I’m a practical man. I don’t like wasting time, and I don’t like investing in something uncertain. Most of all, I don’t like putting assets at risk. I rather like working with your family’s institution. But you know what I invest on the most?”

“What?”

He gave a brief smile. “People.”

She swallowed trying to take in what he was saying and then suddenly she blushed. Behind all those was actually a compliment.

Sensing that she was still at a loss for words he decided to continue. “And your insight and output have been a major factor that’s benefitting both our companies. So Ms. Stark, draw me a contract. Make an offer. What is it that you want from me? If it’s just for revenge, maybe I can help you in a different way. If it’s for another motivation, be frank with me. Because once we go into an agreement, you know very well, how committed I can be.”

Never one to back down, Sansa leant forward and held his eye, smirking. “Okay, Mr. Baratheon. My offer, in plainest terms.”

He was smirking now. “Go on.”

“The pleasure of my company, for yours. No strings attached. Just you,” she nodded her head at him, “Just me,” she said softer while she leant back with a more genuine smile.

“No bullshit.”

Stannis swallowed then, uncharacteristically, but Sansa knew he was impressed and completely surprised at her callousness about this. “Very well. Seeing as ‘just you’ is a very generous offer, I’m going to throw in an interest from my side.”

Sansa’s heart skipped a beat as she nodded eagerly for him to continue.

He reached across and covered her hands with his own. “Myself, plus the added benefit of teaching my worthless nephew a lesson,” he grinned. “Would that be satisfactory, Ms. Stark?”

Sansa stood up then and stuck her hand out in excitement. “Deal.”

Stannis humored her, stood up, and shook her hand before using the same hand to pull her against him, stopping only when his lips were a breath away from hers. “Deal. Now why don’t we seal this contract?”

Sansa only complied easily as she closed the distance and wrapped her arms around his neck while they shared their first kiss.

Sansa was having the time of her life.

As expected, they were immediately flocked with reporters and the whole gamut of them, and the reception was insane, but not for the reason she expected.

Everyone wanted to know what took them so long instead of how they got to be in the first place, commenting on how they were always in sync when they worked together that they suppose they weren’t as discreet with their attraction as they thought they were.

It all went without hitch until of course, as expected, it all comes back to Joffrey.

She couldn’t help but smile devilishly then, her eyes flashing when she remembered his face when she walked inside in Stannis’ arm.

Oh his face.

He actually spewed his wine while his eye bulged before narrowing at her while Margaery Tyrell, his date, frowned at him before giving Sansa an almost envious smile.

Sansa let go of Stannis as they went about to briefly greet people. She went to Myrcella first who was ecstatic for her and then Margaery, until finally, she was met with Joffrey’s glare that despite the lividness in those puke green eyes she used to think she’d drown in, they raked across her figure-hugging backless gown the color of Stannis’ eyes.

“Joffrey,” she beamed at him. Eat it up, fuck face.

Margaery tried to break the tension by gushing over Sansa’s blue diamond pendant. “That is positively opulent!”

She couldn’t help but blush then because it was an early Christmas gift from Stannis that he presented the night before when they quietly celebrated their third month of dating. It was too much, Sansa knew, but Stannis never went half-assed with anything. The blue diamond was set as the eye of a white gold direwolf head he had made especially for her that she remembered crying over how touched she was that he really meant to have a partnership with her in everything. Unlike Joffrey who forced every family tradition of his on her while making fun of hers.

“It’s Stannis’ Christmas gift. He designed it himself,” she said proudly.

“Wow. Uncle Stannis does have great taste,” Myrcella winked at her making her giggle. “Don’t you think so, Joff?” She smirked at him.

Never one to miss a challenging look, Joffrey shifted into his winning smile. “Seeing as he took something I used to fancy yes,” he drawled before standing close to Sansa. “Well, I see you’re still trying to get with the family. What is it with you Starks, thirsty for any Baratheon cock?”

Margaery scowled at him from the side while Myrcella looked ready to slap him but Sansa continued beaming at him sweetly. “As long as it’s not yours,” she winked at him earning giggles from the other girls and ah there it is, the infamous eye twitch.

“I must say Sansa. Where did this confidence come from?”

“Nowhere near your dick, that’s for sure,” Sansa said as she arched a brow.

All charm left Joffrey then and he was turning more and more purple, his eyes glinting with that crazy temper of his that she used to be scared of. But no more.

She was a woman in charge now. But before either of them could say a word, she felt Stannis behind her, giving Myrcella’s cheek a kiss and shaking Margaery’s hand before looking at Joffrey in that deadpan look of his that was almost bored even though if Sansa would squint she could see the tiniest smile playing in the corner of his mouth.

Stannis said nothing, simply waited as he looked at Joffrey. And Sansa had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop from screaming in glee, looking at Joffrey helpless in this staredown and squirming in his designer shoes his mother probably picked out.

Stannis cocked a brow then, signaling his impatience that as if from nowhere, Cersei Baratheon appeared and gave a simpering smile, touching Joffrey’s arm. “Joffrey, love, greet your uncle,” she said through gritted teeth while her eyes tried to bore into Sansa’s.

Joffrey gave his mother a look but once he saw the purse in her mouth he reluctantly plastered a pained smile and stuck his hand out to Stannis. “Uncle Stannis.”

Stannis stared at his offered hand for a score before taking it firmly and half-smiling. “Nephew.”

He then let go of Joffrey’s hand abruptly, looking bored once more and unimpressed and just as Joffrey opened his stupid wormy mouth, Stannis turned his back on him and offered his arm once more to her. “I see your father over there. Would you like to go over?”

Sansa gave him her brightest smile as she took his arm. “I’d be delighted.” She looked at the beaming girls, at Cersei’s scowl, and Joffrey’s annoyed frown and waved a hand at them. “If you’ll excuse us.”

Stannis nodded his head at them and began to steer her away. Sansa couldn’t help but look back over her shoulder and smile at them. Oh yes, she was going to enjoy this night and it had just barely begun.

The sit down dinner was even better. The main table had both families facing each other. The Starks had time to adjust to them as Stannis survived a complete family Sunday brunch with them already. Renly kept making lewd jokes that Robert laughed loudly at until her father gave both of them a frown. But before Ned’s show of discomfort, Sansa actually welcomed the innuendos if only to see Joffrey’s cycles of annoyance and regret. Yeah lap it up buttercup.

Joffrey’s eyes were like hawks zeroed in on her every movement so she made well and full use of it, starting with small touches here and there, leaning closer, whispering, and laughing. Sansa flourished from every time Joffrey’s eyes would blaze, or his lips would curl—he was absolutely miserable. Especially when all though the night everyone praised and wished the new power couple well.

She felt bad for Margaery a bit because this was supposed to be their big societal debut but they easily overshadowed them. Though looking at Margaery who was stealing looks at Robb who was no better, Sansa figured she didn’t mind much. She’d have to find a way to make them happen. Especially with how quick Margaery helped her tonight.

Margaery, bless her, caught on and probably fed up with Joffrey’s toxic cloud, decided to help her play this with her comments.

“Sansa, I must say, you are glowing tonight, my dear. Truly glowing! You have to tell me your secret,” she grinned.

Renly, ever the ear for chaos, piped in before she could answer, “It’s pretty obvious darling. Sansa is emitting the glow of a satisfied woman,” he wagged his brows and Sansa couldn’t help but blush making Renly and Margaery’s eyes flash brighter with mischief especially when Joffrey spat out his drink and started to choke.

Myrcella patted her brother’s back while biting her lip. “Are you okay, brother dear? The wine too ripe? Or aged? I forgot your preference.”

Ned spat out his drink then while Cat simply shook her head, smiling slightly while she helped her husband. Sansa knew then that they all got their sneaky side from the Tully side of the family.

Cat was absolutely beside herself when she found out that Joffrey publicly broke up with her, humiliating her in front of thousands of people. She wanted to have him drown in the Trident and great uncle Brynden was only too happy to help.

“I don’t care if he’s your best friend’s son, Ned. Family, Honor, Duty. Give us the boy and we’ll teach him to mess with a Tully.”

Sansa loved her mother so much then but agreed with her father to settle things peacefully. Anyway, this was better.

“I’m just really happy,” Sansa said dreamily, glancing at Stannis who was in deep discussion with Great Uncle Brynden beside him.

Sansa caught Arya with that look of hers and she knew, she just knew that she wanted in on this as well.

Arya pinched Gendry’s cheek then, “Well older Baratheon boys aren’t awful.”

“I second that,” Loras piped in, earning a wink from Renly. “Dark-haired Baratheon boys to be specific,” he smirked.

Cersei who was watching this exchange pursed her lips but said nothing though her eyes were flashing with hate directed towards her, Sansa was sure but she returned each look with a bigger smile.

“I don’t know, I think my golden-haired nephew is being quite gracious tonight,” Renly lifted a glass to Joffrey whose scowl was quickly becoming permanent. “Not a single tantrum or complaint, I’m proud of you.”

A rather loud laugh came from the other end as an alcohol flushed Tyrion Lannister lifted his glass to him as well. “My handsome nephew has grown up at last! I do wonder why.”

Cersei glared at him while Jaime just looked bored. The Lannister Patriarch wasn’t amused though as he gave Tyrion a reproachful look.

Tyrion just shrugged. “What? I keep waiting for him to say, the fish is too dry, the meat is too raw,” he paused and leered as he stared at Stannis’ hand which was at the back of Sansa’s seat even if he was still busy talking with Brynden. “But I think I heard something about the wine being too aged?”

Jaime spat out his wine at the same time as Theon, Gendry, and Renly while almost every third generation attendees were trying and failing to hold their laughter.

“Don’t we have any other better things to discuss other than my grandson’s improved behavior?” Tywin bellowed.

“What do we discuss then? Sansa Stark’s Baratheon upgrade?” Tyrion boldly retorted with a flourish.

More wine spitting.

Cersei swirled her wine and simpered. “Yes, what an upgrade indeed my dear. Why date an heir when you can go for another kingdom’s king at once?”

“Cersei!” Robert was red and kept glancing between her and Ned.

Ned’s jaw was clenched but he held Catelyn back, who in turn, held Brynden back while the rest of table save for Tywin, Joffrey and Cersei were tense. But not as tense as Sansa was.

She never thought it would escalate like this. Glancing quickly at Stannis, he was now staring at Cersei with that look of his.

Cersei simply shrugged. “My Joffrey is too young to be tied down anyway. He should be free to choose another fish in the river.”

The Tullys were more than livid now.

Tywin made matters worse. “While I respect that the families would prefer to keep within the families,” he glanced at Gendry and Arya before focusing on her and Stannis, “It’s best to branch out and explore those who are showing interest as well.”

The Tyrells were offended and silently seething then.

“And how is that working for you?”

All eyes turned to Stannis who was giving Tywin a level stare.

Everyone held their breath as Stannis and Twin had a stare down with Sansa both anxious and, if she was being honest, a little excited. It wasn’t often that Stannis would speak out like this, having no interest in joining petty issues but Sansa also knew that if it was really important, he would have choice words to say without hesitation.

And now she reddened, knowing he was doing this for her.

Stannis arched a brow and Tywin scoffed as he looked away, grabbing his wine and downing it.

Sansa’s heart was racing as she watched Stannis look at Cersei next. “A wise man said to his children, yes, marry someone who would enhance or improve the family. That is true.” He smiled at Myrcella and Tommen before smirking at Joffrey, tipping his glass to him and drinking while everyone waited for him to continue.

He swirled his glass after, weighing each and everyone’s expressions before Sansa felt his hand on hers and suddenly she was meeting his eyes making her gasp.

“Yet it is rare to find someone who could do both and more,” he dropped a kiss on Sansa’s forehead before smirking at Tywin and Cersei, leaving Sansa blushing furiously at a loss for words.

“Only a fool would let such gift leave his grasp,” he added in a calm voice before taking another slow sip of his wine, his other hand squeezing hers carefully.

“A fool indeed,” Tyrion agreed merrily. He always was Joffrey’s biggest enemy. “But one can learn from mistakes, I believe. So best continue your stellar behavior dear nephew. There’s one more eligible Stark left to steal your beautiful rose,” he winked at Margaery while both she and Robb shared a look before blushing, Joffrey’s eyes widening and narrowing as he saw the exchange.

“Oh dear, maybe some fools don’t learn at all,” Tyrion and everyone save Tywin, Cersei, and Joffrey laughed. Jaime simply rolled his eyes as he tried to engage his wife Brienne who was cracking up and Sansa would bet all her money it’s because of Cersei’s face.

“Don’t worry uncle Tyrion. I’m often called our family’s only hope,” Myrcella chirped up.

“Shut up you middle child opportunist. It’s the youngest who will save the failings of the elders,” Tommen piped in earning high fives from Renly, Bran, and Rickon.

“Middle children are the silent achievers. Just look at Uncle Stannis and Uncle Ned. No offense dad,” she beamed at Robert who only laughed and clapped Ned’s back.

“Myrcella, a little more humble next time, my genius daughter,” he playfully narrowed his eyes at her.

“I just want it to be known today, that I, Myrcella Baratheon, am most certainly not the black sheep of my family, so jot that down.”

Cersei faked a laugh. “That is quite enough my dearest, you’ve made your point.”

The tension was broken then until suddenly Joffrey stood up and threw a fit, knocking his glass off the table, the sound of glass breaking made everyone look at him in shock.

He stood there breathing heavily, his cheeks flushed, his eyes blazing and no wonder he was quiet. He was drunk.

With Joffrey there were stages of his drunkenness. First was contemplative Joffrey. Next was rage Joffrey. And if she was a lucky girl, luckier than how she’s been lately, she was going to see whiny bitch Joffrey.

Cersei was quick to stand up beside him as was Margaery who tried to be polite as his date.

“Joffrey, darling, sit back down,” Cersei tried to pull him back down.

“Come on Joff, listen to your mother,” Margaery added.

He brushed both women off and glared at Sansa.

“You think I don’t know what everyone has been doing? I will not be made fun of. I will not stand by this mockery. But most of all, I will not be made a fool over this obvious fake relationship to get back at me! Yes! YES! I dumped Sansa Stark. The perfect little princess of the perfect Starks—

“Joff enough—

“No! I’ve had enough!

“Joffrey Baratheon!”

“NO! You want to know why I dumped you, Sansa? It’s because you’re too—

Joffrey couldn’t continue because Stannis stood up, walked in front of him, crossed his arms, and glared. “Go on.”

Sansa tried to rush to him but Arya and Robb held her back.

“Let him handle this,” Renly sidled up beside her too.

Joffrey was purple and trembling with anger as he looked at Stannis. “Of all the women, why did you have to have her? I know it’s fake! It’s to get back at me.”

Stannis looked at him before searching Robert’s expression which was a mix of anger and embarrassment but seeing as they’re letting him handle it, he turned back to Joffrey.

“What if it was?” Stannis said, making Sansa’s hands fly to her mouth as some gasps were heard.

Joffrey gaped at him then, unbelieving.

“What are you going to do about it?”

Joffrey didn’t look like he was breathing. Who would? Stannis was giving him his best Lord Stannis look. It wasn’t a glare but it was always enough to make you feel like one false move and you’re dead on the spot.

“I’ll-I’ll—“

Robert’s large arm went around Joffrey’s shoulder then. “That’s enough son. You’re drunker than me and your uncle Tyrion. Time to go take a break.” Cersei gave them a glare before following after them.

Tywin stood up as well and smirked at Stannis. Probably asking in silent question if he was serious or not.

Stannis sighed before arching a brow once more. “If you honestly believed I did then you disappoint me Tywin.”

Tywin’s smirk faded and he actually colored before forcing a sardonic smile and turning back to his seat.

Stannis waved a waiter who handed him a new glass of wine before turning back to face her and this was where Sansa realized that everyone but them were back to their seats and went to business as usual, giving them some privacy.

Stannis took in her expression and broke into a smile. “How was that?”

Sansa gasped and poked his chest. “You had me going through a rollercoaster old man!”

He just shrugged and smirked at her. “So it’s back to old man, is it?”

Sansa crossed her arms and sniffed once.

Stannis stroked her arm. “Come on, you got what you wanted. Don’t tell me that wasn’t the least bit satisfying.”

That softened her a little. “Well…”

“Or do you want me to go for a more public declaration. Tonight’s your night after all,” Stannis tried to give a bigger smile than he was used to.

Sansa was incredibly touched at how he was trying. Despite the warm reception, they both knew that the fact that she first dated Joffrey would always be used against them, most especially on her as the seducer. He knew how hard it was for her especially with him not being publicly affectionate at all yet here he was, touching her, standing up for her, only for her.

She smiled at him then, reaching for his hand. “So if I ask you to make out with me or grab my ass right here like a horny teenager when he comes back, just to rub it in, you’d do it?”

He gave her a challenging look. “Are you really asking me or is that an actual request?”

She shrugged playfully. “Does it matter?”

He ran a hand down his face then and mumbled something but Sansa knew there was a yes in there.

She decided to give him a break. “I’m just joking. I wouldn’t want you to lose your famous composure.”

He sighed but didn’t say anything else, his eyes telling her enough that he was serious that tonight was her night.

She bit her lip then and decided that as tempting as it was to humiliate Joffrey some more, she wanted this night to be about them more than anything as she’d always intended. Humiliating Joff was always the easy side objective anyway.

So she squeezed his hand and looked up at him sweetly. “How about you just save me one dance?”

That surprised him. “Just one dance? Shall we wait until he comes back?”

Sansa shook her head. “No. I want to show off my Baratheon upgrade. I don’t care if the reject watches. I just want everyone to know how much I appreciate and love my choice of family enhancement and improvement,” she cocked a brow.

Stannis gave an impressed but soft smile and shook his head. “Very well.” He offered his arm then.

Once Sansa was in his arms, she reached over and gave him a kiss. “Happy Holidays Mr. Baratheon. My best investment ever. Pleasure doing business with you.”

“And to you, soon to be Mrs. Baratheon,” he whispered after he spun her around and dropped to his knee, presenting her with a blue diamond engagement ring that matched the necklace he gave her.

The music stopped and everyone was paying them even more attention.

Sansa stared at him in complete shock, not from the engagement, but more on the proposal which was incredibly romantic and utterly out of character.

“I already told you, I’m a practical man and unlike my dimwit nephew, I hold on to a good thing. So what do you say, Ms. Stark to a permanent partnership?”

Sansa laughed then while not caring that her tears were probably ruining her makeup as she stuck up her hand. “Deal.”

But instead of Stannis shaking her hand, he slipped the ring on her finger and kissed it to the applause and hollering around them.

Stannis cradled her face and smiled. “I promised you thorough.”

Sansa couldn’t help but laugh then and grin at him.

“What are you thinking?” He asked.

“I’m thinking I should get Shireen another present.”

For the first time that night, Stannis laughed heartily. “So we should. Now how about we finish that dance of ours?”

“I’m going to need more than one to save me from the inquisition.”

He sighed as he twirled her around on the dance floor again.

“That makes two of us.”

Sansa laughed before resting her head on his chest. “Thank you for going out of your comfort zone tonight.”

“Thank you for acknowledging the effort. It was no easy task but it was worth it.”

She beamed at him and Stannis just smiled back smugly.

When Joffrey found out later on and that he had a part in their wedding, his eyes screamed bloody murder but his lips had to plaster a fake smile.

Sansa couldn’t help but thank the old gods and the new for her luck with Stannis.

Baratheon Upgrade indeed.

#stannis x sansa #stansa #fic gift #modern au #christmas au

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