#beepbeepsan

#6 Recommend a fic that does something cool with format or structure

FRIEND! This was such a great and challenging number. I had such an interesting time figuring out which fics meet the criteria technically or legitimately.  

Amber by scioscribe  (Skyfall, Mature,  8,678 words  James Bond/Q)

This is a VERY dark fic about Q and Bond responding to a biological warfare threat. The fic proceeds pretty straightforwardly through the plot, but the numbering of sections is a slow turning screw that gives everything an extra layer of tension. Absolutely knocked me on my ass the first time I read it. Heed the tags!

2. Weakened Like Achilles, with You Always At My Heels by HMSLusitania (Stranger Things, Mature,  53,969 words  Steve/Eddie, Steve & everyone)

From the author: "Steve Harrington goes home for his ten (well, eleven) year reunion with a nagging secret that's slowly ruining his life. In the ten years between, he finds the family he always wanted and, unfortunately, the person he wanted to share it with."

This fic is so good that I’ve already read it 3 times since discovering it 9 months ago.

3. tomorrow never knows by heartofwinterfell  (sequel to and it all comes down to you) (Stranger Things, Mature, 51,525 words, Steve/Eddie, Steve & everyone)

This fic is, in the writer’s own words: “the existential anguish of being the andie macdowell character in a groundhog day scenario.” And fuck, man, it SURE IS!

In part 1 Eddie gets stuck in a timeloop reliving the day he dies. In part 2 you get to see what Steve experienced in those loops. The formatting in part 1 is pretty basic but in part 2 the loops are numbered in roman numerals, and because the timeloop lasted for over 80 loops the numbering stops feeling comprehensible after a while and starts making you feel as lost and unmoored in the repetition as Steve. It’s brilliant writing and these 2 fics are, without a doubt, my favorite groundhog day fics ever written.

4. Charles’ Killer by Luchia (Xmen: First Class, Explicit, 37,642 words  Erik Lensherr/Charles Xavier)

I don’t know if this fic was as ubiquitous in the fandom as I remember it being, but I recently got an itch to reread it and it was just as satisfying 13 years later. This is a de-powered au where Erik is a serial killer and Charles is the detective assigned to catch him. Dark but ends happy.

5. ForTheRepublic.mp4 by lesbianpadme (Star Wars Prequels, Gen, 3,098 words)

Author summary: “Popular HoloTuber Spacebomberguy uploads an exposé on Chancellor Palpatine, resulting in destructive results.”

6. The Next 48 Hours by xylodemon (MASH, Mature, 7,762 words  Trapper/Hawkeye)

Author Summary: “A story about two guys just trying to make it through the next two days.” This fic feels like it could be an episode. The use of the timestamps becomes background noise to the endurance test and the comradery. I don’t usually read Trapper/Hawkeye but this fic is one of the exceptions.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

7. Time After Time by thedevilchicken (Men In Black (movies), Explicit, 4,063 words  Agent Jay/Agent Kay)

Listen. I do not think that MIB 3 should exist, but I am THRILLED that it exists SOLELY so this fic can exist. This fic takes place after MIB 3 and is basically Jay jumping back and forth through time to visit Kay in the past. It doesn’t do anything unique with it’s structure, but the author does a great job of making you feel the suddenness and randomness of the time jumps. I love this fic so much. Anytime I see MIB 3 is on tv I have to immediately go reread it.

8. ad infinitum by Nicnac (Gravity Falls, Teen, 9,819 words  Stanford Pines & Stanley Pines, Bill Cipher & The Author)

I don’t want to explain too much about this fic in case I give anything away, but the fic takes a look at Bill Cipher’s existence after the events of canon. He’s a demon, so it’s not like he’s gonna die – right? Right?

And it's probably the fic I've written the least on but I do have something of an outline for!

French war vet Booker is having a hard time adjusting to life as a civilian; dishonourably discharged, recently divorced, he'd taken to drinking and is on a downward spiral. He meets Joe, another ex-army soldier, who suggests that maybe joining the rehabilitation boxing gym "Andy" has set up might be helpful.

Andy is ex-Marines special ops, working in retrieval of captured soldiers, who set up the gym as a way to help other ex-forces individuals (and a way to help herself when her team-mate, Quynh, went missing behind enemy lines). Booker joins, it's a whole rocky thing, but eventually with Andy's help (and the help of Joe's partner Nicky - a chaplain attached to the Italian army who now works as a counsellor/therapist at the gym) he begins to recover...

Andy crashed through the doors, pushing through both of them so viciously that they bounced off the walls, her face like thunder.

“What the hell was that?!” She demanded, rounding on Booker.

Booker simply scoffed, tossing his towel onto one of the benches. “What was what?”

“Whatever display of testosterone just happened out there,” Andy countered, pointing backwards into the gym behind.

Booker simply shrugged, stoutly avoiding Andy’s gaze. “It was nothing.”

“Nothing? Really? So that juvenile dick-swinging was what, just some friendly conversation between best friends?”

Booker sighed. “Andy…”

You may! 💖 It's the most WIP-y out of that list in the sense that I have over 10k written, but I'm unhappy with the beginning and until that's been molded into a shape i'm happy with, i'm not starting to post it 😅

Here is an excerpt though!

Outside, Joe half-expects Nicolò to hail a cab to the airport, but instead, Nicolò asks to walk down the street with him. Joe, having decided to just roll with it from the moment he knocked on his office door apparently, relents.

After a moment, Nicolò leans into his side. Before he speaks, his breath is hot where it grazes Joe’s neck just above his scarf. At least it’s cold outside, or else Joe might have to explain why he shivers all of a sudden.

‘Did you know that you have a shadow?’

Joe turns around to look at their footsteps in the snow. ‘Really? I thought it might be a bit too grey for that today.’

Nicolò doesn’t respond, and it’s only when Joe looks back up at him that he registers he’s silently laughing at Joe. It has a transformative effect on his whole being, somehow lighter despite his bafflement. Joe almost shivers again.

‘No, Joe,’ Nicolò says. ‘Do you remember the young woman from the museum? She is following us.’

Joe turns around once more, but just when he thinks he may have spotted a familiar head of dark hair, Nicolò steps behind him to make him twist back, face forward.

‘You mean Nile? That’s ridiculous.’

Joe laughs, but his heart is galloping. Nicolò isn’t even touching him, but he is convinced he couldn’t stop walking or turn again even if he wanted to.

‘Why?’

‘Because she is an art student who hangs out in the museum when she has the time,’ Joe says. ‘There is no reason for her to follow us.’

He doesn’t miss the way Nicolò’s eyebrow twitches upwards, even though he doesn’t quite look at Joe.

‘So if we, say’--Nicolò stops abruptly and Joe feels compelled to do the same--’sat down for a coffee, there’s no reason why she should follow us?’

He holds open the door for the coffee shop they’re standing in front of, waiting for Joe to go inside.

‘Really?’

Happy Valentine's Day! 🥰

Beep!! You're so sweet 🥺 buon San Valentino, I hope you have the most lovely day 💘💜

I was tagged by @beepbeepsan thank youuu!

Three ships: Fitz x Simmons, Joe x Nicky, Kaz x Inej

First ever ship: Could possibly have been Chuck x Sarah from Chuck? I was watching that way too young lmao

Last song: Like Real People Do by Hozier

Last film: It might have been Black Widow?

Currently reading: Just fanfic (:

Currently watching: Rewatching Arcane and watching Black Sails

Currently craving: Nothing (:

It’s the first truly familiar thing he’s found so far in this new, unfamiliar world.

14. a fic you didn't expect to write

Most of them? "Iron & Oxygen" (Quỳnh rescuing a captured Andy) was a kinkmeme prompt I posted because I didn't want to write it, but I wrote it anyway months later. The TOG Round Robin was a late-night impulsive realization that no one else was going to make a round robin I could join, so I'd have to organize it myself. The original idea for "Guiding You Through" --my fic about Nicky getting hit with truth serum on Booker's first mission back, and Booker having some uncomfortable revelations-- was a comedy about truth-serumed Nicky being able to answer literally any question with an in-depth but unhelpful answer about Joe. I needed someone needed to bear witness, though, and then the implications of Nicky having to confess things while Booker watches helplessly on his very first mission back took it a completely different way. And then Quỳnh only came in because I wanted to post it for the Ohana-thon, so the fic is very, very far from the original idea.

19. any new fics to start next year

It depends on the definition of "new." I write fast, messy, nearly incoherent first drafts (or partial drafts) and then usually rewrite the whole thing as the first edit, which is why I said I'd be quick posting my multi-chapter fic "Scene by Scene" with its first draft completed in 2020, but it's taken nearly a year to make it through 11 of 22 chapters.

According to my WIP spreadsheet, I have 20 TOG WIPs that range from a few lines to ideas that grew out of control to three that "just" need editing. That doesn't include the Round Robin chapter 6 and the Andromaquynh secret Santa fic that I haven't started. I should probably do one of those WIP ask memes at some point, because it's ridiculous.