#gift fics

for @sallysavestheday, for the 2025 Silmarillion Secret Stockings fest.

So it came to pass, some years ere the coming of Oromë, that if any of the Elves strayed far abroad, alone or few together, they would often vanish, and never return. - The Silmarillion, “Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor”

Those who were healed could be re-born, if they desired it. - Morgoth’s Ring, “Of Re-birth and Other Dooms of Those that go to Mandos”

In the small, second-story bedroom, there was a small, hand-carved bed.  On the bed, there was a soft, down-filled pillow, a cheerful blue-and-yellow quilt, and a rag-stuffed bunny with floppy ears.

“Do you think she remembers bunnies?” asked the Elf-man.  He was very, very old.  It had been many years since he had held the hand of a child.

Don't worry! It's just the DMFA server's Secret Holiday Exchange! 🤭😊

24 fics already posted and more to come! (Not all of them are DM, though.) Author reveal on January 10th.

most of the archive is built around opt-in participation -

I choose which stories to click on, the authors to subscribe to, whether to leave a kudos or a comment,

but a gift fic reverses the direction of the interaction.

suddenly somebody else has chosen me.

and i wonder if that’s part of why surprise gifts can feel emotionally complicated sometimes, especially when they come from somebody you don’t know very well and drop without any explanation attached.

because now there is a story sitting in your inbox with your name attached to it.

and it isn’t just a fic any more.

it’s a Thing, crouching there, with all sorts of questions and potential social obligations -

why did they gift it to me?

how quickly should i respond?

what if i don’t like it?

do i need to reciprocate?

does this mean we’re friends now?

and none of these expectations may actually exist. the author may simply have thought of you and wanted to do something kind.

but i think there is something interesting about the fact that ao3 is usually a space where we choose our interactions, whereas a gift fic is one of the few instances where an interaction chooses us.

also, posting a fic is vulnerable, but it’s an act of controlled vulnerability. (you choose when to post, what to post, how much of yourself to reveal)

but a gift introduces an element you didn’t control. a gift says, “i thought of you specifically”,

and once somebody has singled us out, our brains immediately start trying to work out what that means, within the context of a fandom relationship.

which is perhaps why gift fics can sometimes feel a bit intense (to me, anyway). 

cause i’ve posted before about writers wanting to be acknowledged, but i think being acknowledged and being known are not quite the same thing.

a gift fic can sometimes feel like a tiny moment of being perceived. someone had you in mind when you weren’t there. someone connected you to a character, a ship, a trope, a story.

it feels kind of exposing. 

(and human beings are often far more prepared for rejection than they are for unexpected affection).

a rebelcaptain fic for @frostbitepandaaaaa's birthday inspired by beginnings are such delicate times

On her birthday, Jyn reminisces about her life with Cassian.

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: F/M Fandoms: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types Relationship: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso Characters: Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso

The Diogenes Club was a tomb of silence, a place where the air itself seemed to have been curated in 1890 and never breathed since. Sherlock hated it on principle—the stillness felt like a personal insult to his kinetic mind—but today, the stakes required the one man in England who saw everything and felt nothing.

Or so he claimed.

Sherlock and John stood in the wood-paneled inner sanctum. Mycroft Holmes sat behind a desk of dark oak, his umbrella leaning precisely against the corner. He didn't look up from the file he was reading for a full minute, relishing the power of the silence.

"The white queen," Mycroft said finally, his voice a dry rasp. "A trifle nostalgic, wouldn't you say, John?"

"It’s a threat, Mycroft," John replied, his hand resting casually on the back of Sherlock’s chair. "The Minister’s daughter is gone. If the Vanquished Set is being used as a calling card, then the shadows are moving again."

Mycroft finally looked up. His eyes, so similar to Sherlock’s but filled with a weary, bureaucratic weight, flickered from John’s hand to the slight, almost imperceptible way Sherlock was leaning toward the doctor.

A slow, thin smile touched Mycroft’s lips."Oh, Sherlock," Mycroft sighed, leaning back. "I see the 'chemical defect' has moved from a temporary malfunction to a permanent hardware installation. I must say, John, I expected more restraint from a man with a millitary background. But then again, you always did have a penchant for lost causes and stray dogs."

Sherlock’s jaw tightened. "Mycroft, if you’re finished with the amateur psychology, we have a kidnapping to prevent from becoming a massacre."

"Amateur? Hardly," Mycroft chuckled, his eyes dancing with a rare, sharp mirth. "It’s fascinating to watch. The Great Sherlock Holmes, once so terrified of a human touch that he’d practically vibrate out of his skin, now looks as though he’d bite the hand off anyone who tried to move him three inches away from you. Tell me, do you still hide in the lab when he flirts with you, or have you finally accepted that you’re a man of... substantial passions?"

"Mycroft," Sherlock warned, his voice low and dangerous.

"Don't mind him, Sherlock," John said, his thumb tracing a slow circle on Sherlock’s shoulder, a deliberate move to further annoy the elder Holmes. "He’s just bitter because the only thing he’s intimate with is the British tax code."

Mycroft’s smile vanished, replaced by a look of profound boredom. "Hardly. I have the security of the realm to keep me warm."

.......

----------------------------------------------------------

As they left the club and stepped into the cool London drizzle, Sherlock was still fuming. "I am going to burn that club to the ground one day."

"He was just baiting you," John said, catching Sherlock’s arm and pulling him to a stop under a stone archway. "And he wasn't entirely wrong. You are a man of substantial passions."

........

-🦚

ASKDLFHLKSHDF PEACOCK!!! (I think that's the emoji you signed off with?)

Okay firstly, I am HONOURED you have shared one of your drafts with me!!! Seriously I feel so special!!!

Secondly, I feel you SO MUCH on "a lot of drafts for years and none of them done". I have 9 of them in various fandoms currently sitting on my GDocs, LOL.

Thirdly, I and – I feel confident in speaking for others in this regard – many others would LOVE to see this fleshed out and finished!! If you ever do, please let me know!! I would love to see where this one goes!! I have reread it quite a bit!! <3

Six Sentence Sunday

so many people out today! thank you for the tags @leithillustration @orange-peony @artsyunderstudy @mooncello @facewithoutheart!

ICYMI, I have been writing gift microfics all week! TWELVE! Edited to add: FOURTEEN linked below! I have had a couple rules for myself: write whichever prompt strikes me; do not overthink it. Don't worry about whether it should be longer or more serious or funnier or more thoughtful or sadder or happier or better. Just send the words out into the world. I think I've done that.

In lieu of six sentences, under the cut I will leave you with a roundup of everything I've written so far. If you're sad I haven't hit your prompt yet, do not despair. I'm not done, just slowing down!

I wrote some silly Christmas Drarry fics for the DCC Holiday Exchange! Christmas Vibes (E, 4k, plus NSFW art) for @megreads99 Draco gets a mysterious gift on Christmas Eve. He uses it. Things don't go well.

Flour (T, 1k) for @moondraconis Harry is stuck at the Burrow baking dessert with Malfoy on Christmas Eve because his best friend is a traitorous bastard.

Hopping on the @abubblingcandle wagon to see if anyone would be interested in any gift fics. I've done it in the past for Ted Lasso and it was fun

Send me an ask with what you would like (anon is fine but I’d love to be able to fully gift it to you if you are comfortable with that) with any of the options below:

A new fic with whatever your idea would be, feel free to include as much detail as you want

A new chapter to any of my published WIPs (I'll list them after the cut)

The first chapter of any of my unpublished WIPs (I'll list them after the cut)

Any prompt from the Slow Horses Holiday bingo (and please feel free to expand beyond the prompt itself with what you want to see)