#spyfest

What is Spyfest? Spyfest is an annual fandom event for the Alex Rider fandom. Each week, one prompt is put up for anyone who wishes to write a fic centered around that prompt. At the end of each week, there is a voting period where readers can vote for their favorite fic. In the last week of July, there is also a fic exchange.

What is the Exchange? Authors can also sign up for the fic exchanges. Around June 15th I will open the Google forms for exchanges, and the form will be open until June 26th-ish. (I’ll give warnings before I close it.) Around June 30th you’ll receive a match - I don’t fully randomize the selections, but base them on people’s answers to the exchange survey. The exchange fics should be uploaded between July 23rd and July 29th. They’ll be anonymous until the last week of voting, and then all authors will be revealed.

For those not “in the know” (Don’t blame you. I had to learn this fandom too and this is a FFN thing even if the fics get cross posted to AO3) Spyfest is a weekly fic prompt for a month with voting and all the shenanigans that come with such things there’s also a fic exchange portion but we’ll get to that some other time. So many great stories have come out of it as a whole and in particular the weekly prompts, one shots, of course, but high quality high quality is apparently an Alex Rider fanfic trope based on the fics I’ve read so get used to hearing it. I would love for this fandom to pick up a monthly prompt just because one Spyfest is clearly not enough. 

I digress, today’s fic is from Spyfest 2019 Week 1. The prompt was “A SAS soldier meets the animal he was named after". That week in particular had exceptional quality and I can earnestly rec them all but the winner was Justmcshane’s “Felt My Slow Blood Warm” which explores Alex and Snake’s relationship. It’s not over fluffy or idealized just quiet and simple in the best way. Snake’s fandom blessed trait (pre-TV show) was that he was quiet and a medic. This fic picks that up and runs with it to a degree. It’s a sweet little character study and perfect for a nice lazy Sunday afternoon read or maybe a Monday morning skim between class and meetings, your call.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13327318/1/felt-my-slow-blood-warm

The Calling

Rating: Teen Relationships: Alex & Yassen Tags: Alex Rider-centric // suicidal thoughts // secrets // implied/referenced sexual assault (only briefly) // Hurt Alex Rider//Yassen Lives // Hopeful Ending

Summary: "Alex stares down from the bridge he’s standing on into the water that flows beneath him steadily. The water looks black and dangerous, yet so tempting. When he closes his eyes, squeezes them shut, and listens closely enough, he hears the whispers of the waves. The murmur of the river that seems to call his name."

Some secrets aren't meant to be kept. But Alex keeps them anyway.

Written for the third week of the Alex Rider SpyFest2021 * Alex stares down from the bridge he’s standing on into the water that flows beneath him steadily. The water looks black and dangerous, yet so tempting. When he closes his eyes, squeezes them shut, and listens closely enough, he hears the whispers of the waves. The murmur of the river that seems to call his name.

Alex stands still, unusually so. But he feels that if he moves, he’ll answer the call. So he just stands there, unmoving, staring into the darkness beneath him. But he wonders. He wonders what it would feel like to spread his arms and try to fly. How it would feel like to breach the surface and sink deeper and deeper, until only darkness is left but no single ray of light.