River’s Batman Blog and sometimes Marvel sneaks in

2023

***2nd Update - this post kinda confirmed things I’d already been thinking since the lore.fm debacle and … yeah. Think I’m gonna go user-lock my fics again. I always wanted to be open to lurkers and guests and people who didn’t feel able to make an account for whatever reason - but that was before fanfic was mainstream. When it’s popping up on tiktok and Goodreads, and people start wildly stealing or using it for cash grabs or clout or whatever .. I feel like it’s time to lock it down a little. Sorry to anyone who’s determined to be a guest, but - get an AO3 account.

** Update - the app got taken down, so I unlocked my fics again. Can hopefully keep them that way!!

All my AO3 works are now user-locked due to assholes like this creating apps to steal our fics for their own profit. Sad it’s come to this, I’ve tried to keep my fics guest-accessible for as long as possible, despite AI-scraping, but this is beyond even scraping. It’s very easy to get an AO3 account and perfectly fine to use it just for reading fics, not for posting fics, and I strongly suggest you do.

The beginning of 2023 was marked by massive, massive burnout. I had tried to write through the burnout in 2022 and that just made it so much worse. I literally had to step back and press pause on all writing, imagining, planning, until I found my joy again.

SO THANKFUL TO SAY IT WORKED and I can happily write again, and love doing it!!

Here’s what I published in 2023, most was previously written but not published, or mostly finished WIPs that needed a little ending, but I did manage to write a few brand new things by the end of the year once the burnout lifted.

Blow My House Down - JaySteph, post TimSteph (and uh, a little overlapping). I had this one finished and was scared to post it for so long, cuz, uh, there is implied cheating and I don’t usually write that and I didn’t want people bashing Steph or whatever. But the awesome @summerfrwrks encouraged me to post it and I’m glad I finally did!! DONT BLAME STEPH A LOT WAS GOING ON OK and she broke up with Tim as soon as she cheated, so. Yeah.

XYZ - A 100-word JayRoy drabble

A Truth Universally Unacknowledged - my first epistolary piece! I wrote this for SladeRobin Weekend for the Murder Uncle Slade prompt. Damian gets into a world of misunderstandings lol and there’s JaySlade.

Right Here Waiting - A lot of this year, especially during my burnout, was polishing off and posting half-baked fics. This one I actually first posted on anon because it was a really overly absurd Bruce-narrator voice, because it was a scribbly piece I was writing to amuse myself out of the previous year’s block. (Which didn’t really work, because this piece ended up languishing not finished for another year). Anyway I decided to own up to my lil silly fic finally. It’s BruSteph Omegaverse. (And what does it say about me that the BruSteph Omegaverse is not the aspect I was embarrassed about 🤣🤣🤣🤣)

Fate Is A Green-Eyed Monster - I managed to get at least one new chapter out on this longfic. Hopefully 2024 is my Year of Longfics. Fingers crossed. None are abandoned, in case you’re wondering. It’s just, blocks and burnout etc. But having successfully cleared out the bulk of my WIP folder in 2023, my brain feels a lot clearer and ready to focus. Anyway this is a Soulmate AU, with JayCass (not adopted Cass), TimKon, Sladick, and future BruSteph. Steph dies at the beginning from Black Mask and Jason is like NOPE and steals her body to take her to a Lazarus Pit. There’s more TimKon than I was first intending and I’m not the slightest bit mad at it.

50 Shades of Bat - So Misha @superbattrash wrote this hilarious SuperBat fic where Clark thinks Bruce Wayne is being abused, bc x-ray vision, and Bruce tries to convince him he’s into BDSM. (It was identity porn, Clark didn’t know Batman’s identity.) And someone in the comments was like what if Bruce said his Dom was Batman and like CRACK BRAIN ACTIVATED lmao.

One Flew Over the Robin’s Nest - JaySteph Omegaverse Mating Laws, my beloved. I didn’t expect it to turn out so sweet but the characters took over and gave themselves backstory and it became this whole thing. On a side note, when is someone else gonna join the Mating Laws train with me????? CHOO CHOO come on guys, it’s my favorite trope ever!!! (Well, one of them). PLEASE I AM BEGGING YOU. In the meantime, I’m just gonna keep filling that tag up all on my own 🤣

Holding Out for a Himbo - this one was for Bruce Wayne Week in 2022 and it languished in WIPland. It’s BruDinah, implied for the future. They are good friends and Bruce is who Dinah turns to when Ollie cheats on her. I am so into Himbo Bruce. I have SO MUCH MORE FIC in my head and maybe it doesn’t need to be written, cuz I finally realized the fic wanted to end here. Why do some fics insist on ending when I know so much more of the story? Idk but this was one of them.

Mating Dance - JaySteph Omegaverse. I read this article about bird mating dances and got a bunch of ideas for how it would translate to omegaverse. Oh I think I actually started this one for JaySteph Weekend 2022 for the dancing prompt and wasn’t able to finish it back then.

First Time (It Comes Unaware) - I wrote this for 2022’s JaySteph Weekend and was too cowardly to post it at first, because it’s very explicit teenagers losing their virginity when one of them doesn’t really want to. (But it’s completely consensual, the point is Steph is immature and desperate for approval and says yes but means no.) Oh, also it’s Spoiler Steph with Robin Jason, who gets her preggers in this No Man’s Land instead of Dean!

Unhappy Alone - Some scenes languishing in my WIP folder for literal years, and I finally accepted I’m never gonna expand them. It’s potential LoisLex and Superbat coming out of a Clois breakup.

Red Hood for a Day - pre-JaySteph crack treated seriously. Jason makes up a Be Red Hood For A Day contest and Steph enters for angsty reasons. This is another old, old WIP I polished off and tied up into a bow.

There’s No Place Like Home - Y’all know me and my rarepairs. This one is Marvel Crossover with Bruce Wayne/Black Widow. I love them together. Sometimes little ficlets pop into my head for them. This one I actually found in the Google doc for my other ficlets in this series and I was like oh, hey, I should tidy that up and publish it. 2023 was literally the year of dusting off WIPs for me.

Through the Clouds, I See Love Shine - This was yet another one I had started and never finished for 2022’s JaySteph Weekend. I wanted to write so much more to it; maybe someday I’ll be able to. But for now, it’s finished. The prompt was a quote “Do I wanna know?” It’s also a Soulmates AU.

Fight Song - This was some of my earliest Omegaverse scribbling when I was trying to figure out how to write it. This fic morphed into another JaySteph fic I previously published (Burning Through My Darkest Night), cuz JaySteph was easier to wrangle in a new genre for me than BruSteph. But this is the OG BruSteph Mating Laws fic I had tried to write!! And finally could!!! This was one of my most patchwork drafts where I had all these separate scenes and snippets of convo and I had to stitch them all together. Normally I write fics in the same structure they end up, so this one was a beast of a challenge to try to sew it all together. But I’m happy with how it ended up.

Suspended to Our Own Like Grappling Hooks - This is one of my favorite fics ever because it’s SMOL JaySteph, as Omegaverse pups, who are absolutely feral gremlins. Batman and Babs Batgirl try to wrangle them (and get a massive headache).

A Fail-Safe Plot to Piss You Off - enemies to lovers JaySteph!! Lots of smut. I don’t think I’ve ever done true enemies to lovers JaySteph before, because I always see them as fitting so well together. But in this one, no, they actually hate each other. At first. Until the feels sneak in hehehe

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This - FWB JaySteph, with hints of more developing. Steph calls Jason after a nightmare and he takes care of her, of course.

In Misery And In Wealth - fem!Hal Batlantern, the saddest mopiest two people on the planet ever finding love and comfort with each other, with a bonus of IDENTITY PORN YAY! And a little bit of laughs as a treat.

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful - A sexy little JaySteph ficlet where Steph decides she wants to be exclusive and not casual FWB.

Raining in My Head Like a Tragedy - Extremely self-indulgent hurt/comfort rape recovery Sladick with fem!Dick, takes place post-Tarantula

Is It Raining With You? - same premise as above, but a different fic because I really needed that hurt/comfort I guess.

World Serves Its Own Needs, Listen To Your Heart Bleed - more Mating Laws Omegaverse, CHOO CHOO! Batlantern with Omega Bruce and Alpha Hal.

Goes Without Saying - y’all, I have become so thirsty this year for WinterHawkHood. OH MY GOD 🥵🥵🥵 this is just a little ficlet I wrote for their October event. Y’all haven’t lived until you’ve read Bucky/Clint/Jason, omg. Go read the other fics in the collection and the tag because HOT DAMN Y’ALL. My tiny contribution is just a tiny raindrop of distilled goodness but THESE OTHER AUTHORS Y’ALL OMG this ship will change you 👀😏

Blind Me With Science - I cannot believe I wrote a straight-up Marvel fic with no DC crossover, but here it is. Obviously for a rarepair, lol. TonyNat. My sweet traumatized babies who find love and comfort with each other. I’m not leaving DC but damn some of these rarepair Marvel ships sing to me like siren songs … *coughs* LoganNat *coughs* look I gotta be disciplined in 2024 and make progress on these damn longfics of mine but uh.. we’ll see if I end up dabbling more in Marvel down the road.

Death By Red Hood - what what identity porn? Who, me? YES ME. JaySteph of course. And also actual porn lol. This is basically 8000 words of smut. You’re welcome I guess 😆

Keep Your Enemies Closer - a New Year’s Eve miracle! I updated my StephLex longfic. This is the one I’m planning to focus all my writing energies on now.

Hyenas Can’t Beat Slow and Steady - hm perhaps the title is the motto for me and my longfics lol. This was another lingering WIP, yet ANOTHER fic I had tried to write for JaySteph Weekend 2022 that thanks to my massive burnout block wouldn’t cooperate back then. The prompt was dancing. I’m glad I finally got it wrangled and published! 18 months later lol. Well. SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE. 🐢🎉

And that is 2023!! For 2024 - longfics, I’m looking at you! COOPERATE! Please! 🙏🙏🙏 pray for me, y’all