Hello, everyone! I spent the last leg of 2014 as a crusty swamp monster covered in scales, aka sick, but now I am beginning to evolve back into human form. I was debating doing a 2014 wrap-up post but...I don't know, does anyone care? I'm pretty tired. I'm probably not going to do it. Here's my 2014 scrapbook post if you want a sense of what I was up to. Honestly the biggest fandom-y thing that happened to me this year was becoming a comics nerd. Truly didn't see that one coming. Anyway, let's talk fic!
If you want a quick way to peruse my fic for the year, or any of my fic really, there's the masterposts but also the monthy recap posts.
S T A T S :
fics: 34. Slightly up from last year's 29. 2012 was truly my best year, haven't topped it since.
gossip girl: 22. lulz.
vampire chronicles: 3
marvel: 3
misc. (jennifer's body, thg, btvs/tvd, the royal tenenbaums, faking it): 5
ships: 15
hetero: 9
slash: 2
femslash: 5
gen: 6
female POV: 16
male POV: 16
most written character: I didn't count but we all know it's Dan, right? I mean it's gotta be.
most written ship: Dan/Blair still wins, with around 9, give or take.
O V E R A L L :
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I thought I'd written a lot more! I was surprised, actually. I felt like I was writing CONSTANTLY this year.
Did you take any writing risks this year?
I don't think so.
Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?
Hm, not particularly. I have more original writing goals, tbh. Though I would like to write more Marvel fic and explore that universe a bit more. Also in general I'd like to expand my writing and improve upon my style. I need to level up. I think I'm in a rut.
Did you meet your goals from last year?
I did! I'm quite happy about it, actually. I wanted to write more femslash and finish off my WIPs, both of which I did (or nearly did. My only current WIP is 'the age of dissonance' and that's only got a few chapters left).
B E S T A N D W O R S T :
My best story of this year:
I'm not really sure! god help the girl was really fun for me. professional disaster human was short but I was really happy with it, and it was a right-place-right-time kind of thing – like, inspiration struck and I was able to actually accomplish what I set out to do. I was also very happy with and sometimes she loved me too.
My most popular story of this year:
Probably either and sometimes she loved me too or god help the girl– the fluffy DB stuff tends to get the most reaction, lol. Though I feel like the recent GG superhero au was also popular. And professional disaster human did well over on ao3, which made me really happy. My Yuletide fic seems to be doing pretty well too.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
without a key! I busted my butt finishing that fic this year and I was so proud of it but it seems like everyone lost interest in it.
Most fun story to write:
Tbh this might be a story I haven't posted yet. There's a bit of it in the teaser section. It's a Dan/Carter fic I started for the lols, intending it to be quite quick, and now it's like 12k and I don't know how or why. It's been a lot of fun though. It's a very light fic. Lately I've been enjoying writing more comedic, less emotionally wrought stuff.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I think lesbian much, my Jennifer's Body fic. I was dead proud of how that one turned out. I think on it fondly as one of my best porn fics.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Probably judy is a punk, which I enjoyed writing very much. I have really liked exploring The Royal Tenenbaums in fic; I feel like it opens up so much more of the film to me.
Hardest story to write:
Maaaybe kill your darlings, kill them dead, which is a crazy Peggy/Natasha AU I did for an exchange. In it, Natasha is a rogue vampire slayer and Peggy is her watcher. There was a minimal amount of plotting and action, which are SUPER hard for me, like. I am so bad at plot, guys. Can someone please teach me to be good at it? I'm so jealous of people who can do plotty stuff, because I am not one of them.
Biggest disappointment:
I don't know if I would call it the BIGGEST disappointment, but I felt I could've done a lot more with the DB theatre AU. I think because it came at the end of the month, I was feeling both a little rushed and a little drained. I don't think it was bad or anything, I just feel I could've done more.
Biggest surprise:
I genuinely don't know. Maybe the elusive Dan/Carter fic again.
Most unintentionally telling story:
Ummmmmmm
W I P T E A S E R S :
the best you ever had. stupidly long dan/carter porn fic.
Two weeks later, in the middle of the night, Dan's buzzer goes.
"It's a tall, dark stranger," comes the low rumble of Carter's voice. "Who wants to stick it in you."
"You're a regular Casanova," Dan says, and buzzes him up.
tell me something true. blair/dan. a s1-set, my fair lady/selfie au.
That set off a chain reaction: because Blair found herself in the middle of her junior year suddenly friendless, she did pathetic things like lurk
in the library during lunch hour. And because she was lurking in the library during lunch hour, she met Dan Humphrey, who had spent every
lunch hour of the last three years lurking in the library because he hadn't had any friends to start with.
Also while I was poking around in my old stuff I found notes for a fic I never started (the notes are from, like, 2012) and I'm a bit disappointed, it seems quite cute. It's a Harry Potter nextgen fic centered around the kids starting a band, from Lily Jr.'s PoV. I'm debating turning some of my attention to it. I've been in an HP mood lately. Anyway, here's one of the bits I found cute:
Lily makes a kissy face at the boys, holding her fingers in an L shape against her forehead, the silly little sign they used to do to each other in
the hall as firsties. Love, it means, and loser and Lily and Lorcan and Lysander.
R E C L I S T :
I was going to try to keep this list to fic written in 2014, but w/e, if I read it for the first time in 2014, that shit counts.
make one dream come true (you only live twice). beardsley. 2012. captain america, steve/bucky.
Steve finishes his last lap around the pool. He was hoping a swim would help with the tension in his shoulders, or the ominous feeling in his gut,
but no dice. It's ridiculous, but he can't help thinking his head might be in the sights of a sniper rifle right this second, and the hair at the back of
his neck stands on end. He walks out of the water, brushes his hair out of his eyes.
There's a moment of intent staring from the Avengers; Tony is pointing his phone in Steve's direction. Bruce slowly puts down the journal.
'What?' Steve demands, confused. 'What did I do?'
'Nothing,' says Tony, 'now stop talking, I'm making YouTube history.'
Lol this is my favorite Cap fic. I just love it. James Bond shenanigans! Tuxes! Steve emerging from a pool! Winter Soldier amnesia sex! That's probably something Steve would not do, morally, but it's okay because Bucky is holding a gun to his head. It's all great.
no heart to recall. KiaraSayre. 2014. captain america, steve/bucky.
"I'll have you know that my War Cake won the blue ribbon at the Fourth of July block party three years in a row," Rogers says. "And with my
mother's recipe, no less."
Barnes thinks it absently, like an argument so well-worn it's more of a comfort than a disagreement: My mother's recipe. And he remembers that
Steve had first had it at his house and liked it so much that he'd gotten the recipe for his mother, and then forgotten that it hadn't been hers in the first place.
But that's all he remembers - it doesn't even feel like a memory but like something he'd heard someone say one time that had happened to stay with
him, or something he'd learned in school, a fact devoid of context or color, but it's his mother. He knows she had a cake recipe but he doesn't know her
name, her face, anything else about her -
This is one of my favorite post-CA:TWS fics. I thnk it does such a perfect job of capturing Bucky's character and transitioning him from Winter Soldier!Bucky into someone on the road to healing. Plus I'm a sucker for Bucky defending and protecting Steve without really remembering why he has such a need to do so.
figure drawing. thingswithwings. 2013. marvel, steve/bruce.
The treadmills are pointed toward a giant television screen that hangs from the ceiling, but Steve has never seen Bruce turn it on.
Biting his lip, not sure exactly what he's doing, Steve picks up Bruce's usual treadmill and turns it about sixty degrees, until it's facing the area
with the heavy bag where Steve usually works out. Then he goes to wrap his hands and get started.
Bruce comes in about ten minutes later, and takes all of two seconds to notice the new orientation of the treadmill. This time when he looks up at
Steve, Steve looks back, still punching the bag. He forces himself to keep looking, even though Bruce's gaze is intense and frankly evaluative;
a moment later Bruce's expression breaks into a small smile and he gives Steve a quick nod before stepping up onto the treadmill. Steve nods back,
then faces the canvas again, not letting himself look at Bruce, letting Bruce look at him.
I reeeeally love this fic. I went through a Ruffalo/Bruce phase this year and found myself surprisingly enjoying this pairing. This author also has another great fic that's Steve/Bruce but also involves Natasha as Bruce's non-sexual dom; I really like that one too. I enjoy Bruce and Natasha's friendship a lot. But this one, figure drawing, is particularly great in how it draws all these comparisons of experience between Bruce and Steve that I had never noticed – how their bodies are so changed, what science has done to them, and how Bruce is really the only one of the Avengers who can understand just what the serum has done to Steve. Also the porn is good.
kissing the lipless. stainofmylove. 2014. gossip girl, blair/dan.
“It’s just not what I imagined, that’s all. Am I not allowed to mourn the death of print?”
When he grins warmly in response, she can’t be blamed for reaching out to hug him tightly. It’s a celebratory moment and he’s the only one there,
one hand coming to rest lightly on her back and the other at the nape of her neck.
It’s a strange sensation. Wanting to be close to Dan. Wanting—
“Okay,” she jerks back, “Moment over. Imagine if Serena walked in!”
I looooveee thiiss ficcc. It really gave me that FEELING again, you know, that jolt of shippiness and emotion that I hadn't felt in quite that way since the show ended (if that makes sense). I truly love DB where they are mostly friends, but with tension they refuse to address, and this did that beautifully. The sexy hug that will live in infamy!!
chemistry, biology (as long as he's on top of me). sing_song_sung. gossip girl, dan/serena.
He gets out of the car and tries to call up his big-brother protective instincts, and he scoops Serena in her short, glittery black dress up
off the ground and deposits her in the backseat before collecting her shoes and purse. He gets into the driver's seat and turns around to look at her.
"Did anyone hurt you?" he asks.
Her makeup is smudged all over her face, black around her eyes, red around her lips. She looks confused by the question and finally says, "I can do it myself."
This fic was perfectly timed, because I had been really craving basically this exact thing when it fell into my lap. It's funny (I was straight-up cackling at Dan throughout) and sexy and also quite sad. I love singsongsung's Serena, but especially as she's presented here: falling apart but refusing to admit it, very young but pretending she's not. I love pre-series Serena a lot in general and she's perfect here. And of course beautiful idiot Dan, being so vastly inappropriate but just pretending like if he doesn't address it it's not happening.
the pure and simple truth. lettered. harry potter, harry/draco but essentially gen. also: hermione, ron, pansy, blaise, ginny, luna, erryone.
Harry decided, then and there, that he was going to try and see if he could make Pansy Parkinson form a third expression. “I had a terrible
childhood,” said Harry. “My aunt and uncle locked me in a cupboard.”
“You were a very Victorian orphan, then,” Parkinson said. “Draco was raised very Victorian also. I suppose we all were.”
“Malfoy stands up when girls come to the table,” Harry said.
“That’s what you’re supposed to do.” Malfoy glowered. “And anyway, it’s not like I’d do it for Pansy.” He put his nose in the air. “She’s not a lady.”
“I hope not.” Parkinson turned back to Harry. “I had a terrible childhood too. I suppose I could tell you my story, about how I was lonely and
spoiled and rich, but you would never understand, having been raised in a cupboard. It’s just like every other spoiled rich girl’s story. I suppose
Draco has already told you his.”
Harry shook his head. “Malfoy almost never talks about being a spoiled rich girl.”
This really reignited my HP feelings. I kind of gave up on HP fic not only because I'd moved on from being actively in the fandom but also because I was having a lot of trouble finding fic that made me feel how the books did, that wasn't total fanon characterization. But this was so great! I'm trying to sum it up in a way that doesn't sound lame, but it's mostly about friendship and ~learning about other people~ and it just feels very real and fresh and fun. It bridges the gap between certain characters in a great way. And it does redemptive!Draco in a nice way too, presenting him as changed without forgetting who he is as a character. It's quite smart and interesting. I'm also always down for Draco and Hermione becoming friends. Plus it is fantastically long and a delight throughout, so please hunker down and treat yourself.
family portrait, c. 1840, oil on canvas. littlerhymes. 2014. interview with the vampire. lestat, louis, claudia.
The portrait shows Louis seated with Claudia standing beside him, while Lestat rests his hand on the back of Louis' chair. The painter has captured
their likenesses well, and the colours almost burst out of the frame: her golden curls, his green eyes, and Lestat's too-wide white-toothed smile. The
brushstrokes emulate the smoothness of silks and satins, and their eyes shine with the bright lustre of jewels. It is, by any standard, an accomplishment.
[...]
He looks at the portrait again, trying to see it through Louis' eyes. Does it seem like a memorial to all he's lost rather than gained, the lives he's taken rather
than the one he's living? Or perhaps it's too close to parody, this portrait of cosy familial bliss, three in a row all smiling through their pointed teeth.
Despite having ventured into writing for this fandom this year, I didn't read much of it, but I checked out the available Yuletide fics and was so happy to stumble upon this one! It's really perfect. It captures the dynamic of their undead little family so well, and Lestat is also so on point – mean and playful and horrible and great. IwtV!Lestat is hands-down my favorite Lestat.
beautiful. breathedout. heathers, heather/heather/heather.
Usually bringing up her passion for puke puts a damper on Heather's good spirits. Not this time, though. She just sidles up in her undies and stands in front
of me with a little smirk. I smirk back, and take out my scrunchy. She takes my glass and drains it in one, and Heather McNamara across the room does a stupid
little whoop. At this point I'm wondering if she's gonna chant us on to victory. Heather Duke with her face between my legs, and Heather McNamara doing the splits
on her mom's beige wall-to-wall Berber, cheering Let's! Get! Physical! And Beat That Other Team, Go! Westerburg! I'm almost laughing, thinking about it. Then I
meet Heather Duke's eyes and I do laugh, and so does she, and she makes this little face behind Heather's back like Heather McNamara sometimes makes when
she's not expecting something, and I wasn't expecting that, so I laugh even harder, and Heather Duke's big grey-blue eyes go all narrow and tickled fucking pink.
Whatever, then I pull off my pajama top. It was a nice little Hallmark moment, okay? Christ on a stick.
Arghhh this fic is so perfecttttt. I never even knew I wanted Heatherx3 porn until it arrived in my life and was perfect. Not only does this author somehow make first person PoV their bitch, but the tone and language is absolutely perfect. I love Heather Chandler. I'm so happy this exists.
So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed the post and take much advantage of the fic recs.