#mi6-cafe

First weekend of Fest brings the first Daniel Craig movie, Casino Royale.

8am Pacific time, Sunday, July 6, 2025.

As always, we'll be in the Discord channel. Message me for an invite if you need one. All Bond fans welcome, join us! (Drop me a note if you want to be tagged.)

The month of July will be devoted to Daniel Craig's Bond movies as we celebrate 007 Fest.

The road is longest when the need is the most.

Bond knew this from experience. Chasing Vesper in Venice still brought a strange sense of suspended panic, like when trying to run in a dream. Nothing ever moves fast enough, but if they don’t…

Cursing under his breath, Bond pressed harder on the gas pedal, trying to urge the car forward. He knew of a safe house nearby, and he was sure he’d lost any possible tails. They were alone now, surrounded on either side of the road by snow-covered trees. In the fading daylight, their definition seemed to fail, blurring into a single mass of color that seemed to vary too little for them to be making enough progress. Feeling his frustration rise, Bond tamped down on it. There would be time later to feel it. For now, he had to focus.

He needed a place to tend to Q.

Q’s eyes were open, but they weren’t focused. He seemed to be trying to hold himself completely still, Bond’s jacket tightly around him, which between that and the seat heater should be helping him stay warm, but Q was too quiet. The younger man’s normally pale face was wan, and the circles under his eyes looked like they had been punched into place.

Bond had been fast enough to prevent Q being kidnapped, but not fast enough to prevent the scuffle that followed. He’d been distracted with three of the men, while Q tried to wrestle the gun from the fourth. It had gone off, and Bond’s heart had almost stopped. But Q was still standing, slightly shaking, blood flecks splattered across his coat and cheek.

What work of yours challenged you when you were creating it? Well, I’m new to the fandom & only have one thing I’ve finished and posted in the fandom so far, lol. The first was pretty easy. So, I guess the 5+1 that I’m currently working on. The first four sections of the first draft came pretty easily, but I’ve been stumbling a bit on the fifth.

What is a fanwork you’ve seen which gave you a new headcanon about a character? Hmm... OH. I read a fic where Q loses a bet to Eve and has his nails painted gold, and was a bit obsessed with that visual. I don’t know if it’s exactly a hc, but I think he deserves gold painted fingernails and it would be utterly distracting and tantalizing. I encourage everyone to give him painted nails, as a treat :p

Is there a fanwork that you really want to make, but you haven’t started yet? So the 5+1 is something like 5 times Q unintentionally hurt James by reminding him of Vesper, and one time it was a comfort, but it ended up being from Q’s POV. So, because I’m a little angst gremlin, even though I haven’t finished writing it, I’m already thinking about writing a companion piece that’s from Bond’s POV for 300% more angst lol.

What fanwork of yours surprised you, and how? The first 4 parts of the 5+1 did in how easily they flowed onto the page, and I’m really happy with Q’s voice in it.

What themes/styles/subjects are common across many of your fanworks? Alternatively, what themes/styles/subjects are you most interested in creating? I think if you go all the way back through my fanworks the results are a bit skewed, because I did a lot of prompt writing. But I guess I tend to write pining, getting together, fluff, h/c & angst. I always have happy endings and I do not accept MCD lol. I throw MCD in the trashbin. The things that are born from my brain rather than prompts tend to always centre around angst / h/c. I am generally starving for angst, I really love a good angsty fic with a heap of comfort. I thought you were dying and confessed my love kinda flavour. I thought I lost you/almost lost you and will now never let you go 👌🏻👌🏻

What other fandoms do you create for, if any? I started in Good Omens and still write for it occasionally, I was most prolific in The Witcher and still have a ton of WIP for it that I may or may not ever finish, and I wrote one for Our Flag Means Death, which I have notes for a follow up for, again, if I ever actually write it... I have notes for a LOTR fic that will probably never see the light of day 😅 I also have some original projects, current WIP is MLM with a vampire. I also write poetry.

Is there an artist that you like to listen to while you create? Or one whose work always inspires you? No, I need music without lyrics when I write, or I get too distracted. ADHD, baby! I usually listen to lo-fi music while writing, occasionally something like “peaceful piano.”

Share a fanwork that you’ve found yourself thinking about weeks after reading/seeing it. Ok, again, I’m suuuuper new to the fandom. I read my first 00Q fic maybe a couple weeks ago. Mlle_Heloise’s general universe lives rent-free in my head. I adore their OC Stella. I read most of their fics in a bit of a fugue state, and literally read them back to back over the course of a couple days, so they’re a bit mushed together in my head. So I’ll just go ahead and say all of their works, lol. Then living on the faultline by @thestalwartheart was one of the tastiest angsty fics I’ve read in quite a while!

Finally, share where you post your works! I post all of my fics to both @stinawrites here and on AO3 under stinastar.

Tagging @aprettyspy @boffin1710 @slimysuckers I realize y’all might have done this ages back, but I’m new here, so... apologies, haha.

(Thank you so much for tagging me, @silverbrume!)

We’d love for people to keep getting to know each other after this year’s 007 Fest, so we’re starting this tag game!

Rules: Answer the questions, then tag 3 new people to complete this. Also, tag the person who tagged you and @mi6-cafe so we can reblog your response.

Note that when we say ‘fanwork’ in the questions below, that could mean a fanfic, gif, fanart, headcanon, cosplay, crocheted work—any kind of fancreation counts!

1. What work of yours challenged you when you were creating it?  

Can I count my ongoing 00Q WIP-epic Off the Books? Yeah, I’m gonna say this is my biggest challenge. I’ve never posted a WIP before, and it’s a much bigger challenge than I anticipated, controlling the pacing, the evolving relationship dynamics, and the gradual reveal of exposition. It doesn’t help that it’s already my longest work to date, and it’s only 1/3 done at 54k. I’ve got reams of notes for this fic and a heavily detailed outline to follow, but I still agonize over nailing all my set-ups and pay-offs. Very challenging project, but my most-rewarding by far.

2. What is a fanwork you’ve seen which gave you a new headcanon about a character?    

Queen of Spades by Astolat. One of the first 007 fics I ever read, it took the M & Craig butting-heads dynamic from Casino Royale and amplified their antagonism and manipulations and competition into the stratosphere. I fell in love with Astolat’s headcanons of a Bond who resents orders and leadership but craves M’s approval, and an M who effortlessly manipulates Bond into becoming the agent she wants him to be, and even as Bond sees those manipulations happening, he can only rise to her challenges instead of turning his back on them.

3. Is there a fanwork that you really want to make, but you haven’t started yet?

Yes! I’ve got a pre-slash 00Q fic all planned and researched, wherein Bond’s punishment for a botched mission is bodyguard-duty for Q at a conference in Salzburg. In this AU, Q & Bond don’t know each other well and have an adversarial relationship. En route, Bond mercilessly taunts Q about his blatant fear of flying…until Bond realizes just after takeoff that Q has dosed himself with an anxiolytic/hypnotic to get through the short flight. Now Bond has a heavily drugged quartermaster at his mercy, and he must choose whether to be cruel or kind for the next seven hours. (Spoiler: Bond chooses kindness, and they forge a mutual respect and tentative friendship by the story’s end.) Tentative title “Bases to Guard or Beleaguer.” Just gotta finish writing a couple other fics before I can start banging this one out.

4. What fanwork of yours surprised you, and how? 

I was surprised how effortlessly Touch It, Stroke It, and Undress It came together for 007 Fest 2022. In summer of 2021, I came up with a series of vignettes for aromantic!Q sleeping with all the agents, amusingly thwarting Bond’s seduction attempts. This year I decided to flesh the ideas out into a series of standalone smut scenes with an overarching “lovers to friends-with-benefits” arc for Fest, and I somehow cranked out 21k of smut in under a month! Biggest surprises of the resulting fic: A) I haven’t been that prolific in a decade; B) the multiple POVs were an engaging challenge to figure out; and C) once I stopped being self-conscious about sharing all my kinks, the smut became downright fun to write.

5. What themes/styles/subjects are common across many of your fanworks? 

I’m all about hurt/comfort (though if I injure a character too seriously, they can’t have the celebratory ‘we survived’ sex, so I tend to go minor-to-moderate on the physical trauma). And I’m currently fascinated with all the possible variations on a drugging storyline, so expect to see that crop up in my next few fics.

6. What other fandoms do you create for, if any?

None right now, but last year I did fics for The Mandalorian and The Man from UNCLE.

7. Is there an artist that you like to listen to while you create? Or one whose work always inspires you?

I can’t listen to English lyrics when I’m writing, so I listen to a lot of instrumental or foreign-language albums. I spent the month of July looping the Argentinian singer-songwriter Federico Aubele’s second album, Panamericana (produced by Eighteenth Street Lounge Music (shoutout Washington DC!!!) so it’s got sexy-chill electro-lounge vibes), featuring Fede’s genius guitar work and hauntingly gorgeous guest vocals over Latin dance rhythms. And now for August, I’m hooked on a YouTube playlist called Tropical Night Bossa Nova that’s all dreamy/beachy guitar instrumentals.

8. Share a fanwork that you’ve found yourself thinking about weeks after reading/seeing it.

In 2016, @beaubete wrote a 300-word piece for Last Drabble Writer Standing called “Property,” wherein Q poses as a buyer to rescue Bond from a slavery ring. I read that fic on June 1, 2021, and it completely rewired my brain. Within four days I’d planned out the entirety of Off the Books, a 150k sequel for a goddamn drabble I’m still writing a year later, and I joined a new fandom, and now I’m a part of the MI6-Cafe. If it hadn’t been for that genius, shocking cliffhanger of a drabble, I might not have started writing in this fandom and meeting everyone in the Cafe, so I’m still so, so grateful that Beaubete’s fanwork exists.

9. Finally, share where you post your works! 

My AO3 page

Tagging: @prismatic-bell & @kmk1701d & @a-forger-and-a-point-man

I'm going to be cheeky and rec a couple of my February 00Q fics as an answer to the @mi6-cafe 'Missing' theme for March (so apologies if you've read them already!)

Maybe I'm stretching at the boundaries of the theme a bit, but both these fics expand on what goes unsaid in the films about Q's job. Obviously the films are focused on Bond, but I LOVE delving into what things are like for Q professionally and personally, particularly during and after SPECTRE.

the guardian of progress (9k)

This one takes a look at a HUGE plot hole I thought existed in SPECTRE, which is that of the Smart Blood. Especially after seeing NTTD, I wish they'd had more of a focus on the ethical/moral arguments around the nanotech. Also, like everyone in this fandom, I think the biggest missed opportunity of that film was ditching the Q being kidnapped scene, so I've included my take on that as well 👀

the places you leave in the dust (17k)

Intro Post for 007 Fest 2022

Favourite Mission: 

Naturally it’s classified. Which is a shame because I’d love to tell you all those fireworks. But I guess you just had to be there.

Last Gadget Stolen From Q-Branch: 

Hallucinogenic lipstick, stylish and always good for a laugh. But I’m pretty sure Q got the idea from an episode of Doctor Who. He’s really not as clever as he thinks he is. 

Favourite Way of Eating Eggs:

The beauty of an egg lays in its simplicity. Scrambled eggs with a crack of pepper on a well-buttered slice of sourdough toast is one of life’s simple pleasures.