schneefink | Entries tagged with i wrote something

I didn't participate in Yuletide this year, but I did write a gift for a friend:

Ghost of Christmas Fork-In-The-Road for

springbeetle, Hermitcraft/Life Series
2.6k, gen, Grian&Grian, Hermitcraft s11 / Nice Life crossover
Summary: What if there were two Grians, one an admin who organizes death games and the other a prankster and builder on a mostly-vanilla server, and one of them put the other in a cage.
Notes: I had a lot of fun with this. I wish I had had space for an appearance by trivia bot (maybe could have figured something out if I had more time) but that just has to be an AU for if Hermitcraft Grian arrived a little earlier.

Life series seasons I have now written fic for:( Read more... )

battleshipex had author reveals. I wrote six works for team Grape: 4x Hermitcraft and 2x Hades II (under an extra spoiler cut jic. I can hardly wait for the full release of the game.) The Hermitcraft works are all rather short, mostly written rather quickly to target specific tags we needed right then, while the two Hades II fics are longer.

Overall I'm quite happy with what I wrote! Significantly more than last year for Battleship, too. By the end I was quite stressed and tired (it certainly didn't help that it was shortly after MCYT Battleship. Next year MCYT Battleship will be earlier, fortunately.)

Thieves' Bonds, Hermitcraft
1k, Grian & Cub (/Scar), fantasy AU heist
Summary: Grian and Cub are forced to work together to steal a dragon's hoard.
Notes: Inspired by the tags "dragons," "heist," and "soulbonds." Pre-Convexian in my head. It was more beautiful in my head but still, not bad.

Reckless Charge, Hermitcraft
0.5k, Tango/Etho, SF AU
Summary: Tango crashes his spaceship into Etho's greenhouse.
Notes: For the tags "spaceship," "genius," "meet-cute," and "battlesheep." I really like how this one came out.

pesky bird, dreaming, Hermitcraft
0.3k, Grian, inspired by this is about a stuffed bird
Summary: Some days it squeezed the toy over and over.
Pesky bird. Pesky bird. Pesky bird.
Notes: Like last year, a "birdification" tag hit featuring Grian. Short ficlet set after one of my favorite Hermitcraft fics, I think it came out well.

moving in, Hermitcraft
0.6k, Scar/Cub/Grian, sugar baby/fantasy AU
Summary: Scar and Cub share a mental connection. Grian doesn't mind.
Notes: Written very quickly to finish off "sugar baby AU," "mental link," and "moving in together." Silly fluff.

Hades II spoilers (barely any, mostly character appearances, but still)

A Concoction of a Certain Potency, Hades II
2.2k, Melinoe/Medea, pre-canon, dubcon, explicit
Summary: Melinoë is wearing a very short dress. Medea decides to teach her a lesson in self-control.
Notes: It is a very short dress! I really wanted to write Hades II for magic/sorcery/necromancy/mentor-mentee dynamic et al, and then somehow I got inspired and wrote my first smut fic in almost ten years. Obviously I'm a novice, but overall I like this, and I really like the scenario.

What Would Change This Time, Hades II
3.2k, Melinoe & al, time travel
Summary: „Well. Far be it from me to save you from making your own foolish mistakes," Hecate said finally.
After her ritual to travel back in time didn't take her far enough to prevent Chronos' conquest, Melinoë continues the fight.
Notes: I originally was inspired by some tags on the first board ("time travel," obviously, but also "katabasis", "secret identity" etc.), but I didn't finish this fic until the third one because I got a bit stuck after the first chapter. Writing time travel for an unfinished canon is tricky. But then I got the idea to have her meet

spoiler

Patroclus

and I loved that so much that I had to finish writing it.

I've decided not to do

ficinabox this year, which on the one hand is sad because the different formats etc. are very cool, but the main creation period is in the busiest time of the year for me (work and studying) and it would be very unwise.

Maybe I'll try to reach my very vague goal of writing at least one fic for every season of the Life series this year: I'm missing Last Life, Wild Life, and Past Life (and Real and Simple Life.) Definitely doable. Or some rare Hermitcraft pairings I would like to see more of. I'll see what inspires me, no pressure.

I wrote eleven fics for MCYTblr Aufest Battleship. Eleven! And I actually like all of them and am even proud of some. Go me!

A Cast of His Face for

Kaesa, Hermitcraft
1k, Bdubs/Etho, fantasy AU
Summary: Twelve days, five hours, and twenty-two minutes after Etho died, he walked into Bdubs' office.
Author's Note: The first fic I wrote for this event. I had the idea for a story combining Major Character Death + cloning + paperwork and this came out. I tried for a combination of funny and heartbreaking, and from the comments I succeeded :)

Undeath Certificate for

salemoleander, Hermitcraft
0.3k, Cub&Cleo, afterlife
Summary: There's been an error with the paperwork regarding Cleo's afterlife.
Author's Note: Another case of "I looked at a tag combination and got an idea I really liked," in this case immortality + deity AU + paperwork. Perfectly suited for ZombieCleo, of course, and manager Cub.

In the Oldest Cell for

januarymorning, Hermitcraft
1.6k, Grian/Cub/Scar, fantasy AU outsider PoV
Summary: I'd been alone in my cell for fourteen years when they finally threw someone else in with me again. An avian, with red and purple and blue feathers.
Author's Note: Same thing again. I loved coming up with stories for specific words even back in school. And writing low pressure first person outsider PoV was fun and surprisingly easy.

The Last Task in Grumbot for

Kaesa, Hermitcraft
0.9k, Grian & Mumbo & Scar, among us mech AU
Summary: Mumbo had insisted on checking on Grian's mech one last time.
Author's Note: We were getting closer to the end of the board and needed more hits on Major Character Death, among us AU, mech AU, darkfic, and a few others, so this happened. Also featuring tasty betrayal.

Who will you eat tomorrow so we can rule together for

zoewinter1, Hermitcraft
0.3k, Docm77, Among Us AU
Summary: The massive solar storm that made it necessary for all planetary bases to evacuate to the orbital station was the best thing that could have happened for Doc's cover. The dragon was a nice bonus.
Author's Note: We were close to clearing the board and needed more Among Us AU, iirc I wrote this on my way to work on public transport. Did not expect to write vore tbh ^^ and I had never written Docm before but I think it came out well.

I wrote these first five fics in four days btw. Something in the lava down in the Nether.

Soulmate Bond (Homebrew) for

ggumdrop, Hermitcraft
0.6k, Cub & Scar, D&D AU
Summary: "Cub, I need you to listen to me."
"Who are you?“"
"I'm your soulmate. That's why you can hear me even in the antimagic field."
As soon as the voice mentions being your soulmate, you recognize where it's coming from: there's a tug inside of you, an invisible string connecting you to someone else. (Don't worry about it, it's homebrew.)
Author's Note: I rested during the first boss fight but came right back for the second board, and I think the idea of using 2nd person PoV for a D&D-style narration was cool. (I wrote parts of this during my lunch break at work. Seriously what was in that lava.)

Sounds So Splendid for

zoewinter1, Life Series
0.3k, Gem & Scott & Impulse, space opera AU
Summary: “Impulse. We're a rock band on a space station. Why in the never-ending event horizon have you signed us up to be background musicians for an opera?"
“Because of the tax break, of course."
Author's Note: Iirc someone mentioned hitting space opera by having an actual opera in space somehow and I could not resist. I was also glad to get a hit on "taxes," I would have been disappointed otherwise. And I was particularly happy with the title for this one.

Teammates for Life for

Sharo, Hermitcraft/MCC
0.8k, Cub&/Scar, canon divergence
Summary: Scar is anxious to meet his MCC teammate Cubfan135 for the first time.
Author's Note: I thought "canon divergence" and "different first meeting" would go very well together, thought of Convex, and then of MCC. I had fun with this one, especially making up a history for AU Cub (yes he won Minecraft Monday together with Techno, because I said so.) I had to do research!, look up MCC records and stuff, that was fun too.

A Dangerous Prize for

Alice_not_Alice, Hermitcraft
4.2k, Etho & Cleo, fantasy AU
Summary: King Ren gives Cleo to General Etho as a war prize, not knowing that there are plans in motion.
Author's Note: Alice likes fae!Etho, fey bargains, power imbalances, situations where Character A is compelled by outside forces to hurt or bind Character B, and a bunch of other tasty things, and I was planning to write them something from the beginning. It took a while to finish because I had to figure out the ~scale, but I was happy with the roles I found for the characters. My one contribution to the grand battle against the Wither Storm.

The Upside of the Downside for

Odaigahara, Hermitcraft
2.9k, Grian/Cub/Scar, Pyre fusion
Summary: As the Nightwings' Reader, Grian has a difficult choice to make before his first Liberation Rite. Who should have the chance to be freed from their exile? Cub and Scar would make the decision easier, if he could believe them.
Fusion with Pyre (Video Game)
Author's Note: Speaking of fics that I planned early, took me a while to figure out, and where I was happy with the roles I found for the cast: this one. I saw "video game fusion," looked at my Steam library, saw "Pyre," and could not get the idea out of my head. And it seems like I succeeded in making it understandable for people without knowledge of the game, which is good. I really like how the fusion turned out and might even be thinking of writing more in this AU one day (will probably not happen but who knows.)
I was very efficient with tags on this one considering how long it is (I got 27), that also felt good.

Potato Blossom Magic for

im_always_stressed, Dream SMP
0.4k, Technoblade/Philza, sex pollen aftermath
Summary: Admittedly, out of everyone to get caught in a potato blossom cloud with, Philza wasn't the worst option.
Author's Note: We were very close to finishing the third board and sex pollen was one of the few tags still needed. I don't remember how I got the idea for this Techno/Phil snippet (which I wrote on my phone during my commute) but it was fun. It's been a while since I watched either of them so I rewatched parts of Techno's turtle stream and was reminded just how great they were together.

Aand that's it! 11 works and 13.469 words in total, over 17 days. I had such a great time. Hermitcraft is now my most-written fandom on AO3 with 20 works, followed by SGA with 17.

And I could not resist signing up for multifandom Battleship, which starts this weekend. I'm planning to take it a little slower, and I still need to add more prompts, but I also wasn't planning to do this much for MCYT Battleship so who knows.

mcytrecursive had author reveals. I wrote three fics! I have periods of feeling very insecure about my writing, so it was especially nice that I had a good time writing all three, felt very positively about them, and then got very nice comments.
The first two are probably readable without knowledge of the fic they are based on, but all of those are great and you should read them anyway.

cut your chains in shining blue for

strifetxt, Hermitcraft
Recursing: Untamed Beasts by

WhisperNorBury
1.6k, Cub & Scar gen, prequel
Summary: Five times Cub killed Scar's summoner.
AN: My assignment, and the hardest one to write. Especially to settle on the five things, for a good progression and to make each of them different and interesting. I think it turned out very well! I was almost done when I remembered that Minecraft has respawns so now most of it takes place on hardcore worlds.

Etho's Escort Service From Hell for

alice_not_alice, Hermitcraft
Recursing: MailDemon AU by

azzayofchaos
1.5k, Cleo & Etho gen, demon AU
Summary: Cleo has fallen into Hell again, and this time she might need the help of a friend to get out.
AN: I wanted to write a treat for Alice, discovered this AU in the prompts, and wrote it basically in one go. Cleo and Etho are so much fun together, and I was reliably informed that I did achieve "funny."

(watch) where fears and dreams come true for

Odaigahara, Hermitcraft/Life series
Recursing: lost in the dark (he's got a heavy heart) aka Hunger AU by

definitelynotshouting
2.2k, Grian & Scar & Cub gen, canon divergence
Summary: Scar came with Grian when he left Hermitcraft and figured out a different way to keep him fed.
Cub finds them.
AN: Tagged as "downright fluffy compared to the original (a low bar)," but it does still have some angst, it would not be Hunger AU Grian otherwise (at least not without changing the premise.) Hunger AU is very angsty which is great but also made me want fix-it fic (at least partially...) and when I remembered that it's set in season 8 and thus pre-Scarland I got the idea for this, and I think it works.

I also got a fantastic gift:
star of the west horizon by

Odaigahara, Hermitcraft
Recursing: a rare talent indeed by

these_godforsaken_halls
6.7k, Grian & Cub & Scar gen, fairy AU post-canon
Summary: “I’m leaving for a while,” Grian tells Xisuma, who goes very still indeed at the suggestion that a fairy might spend the night outside of the hollow. “Just for a few days, now that I’m healed– I won’t be going far, and I’ll be extremely careful, I swear it, you don’t even know careful until you’ve seen how careful I’ve been, and Scar’s saying I’m much better at hiding than I was, anyway, so there’s no need to worry on that account.”
“Goodness, er, well–”
“And I’ve already packed, including all the pixie dust I’ll need,” Grian says firmly, “but you can look through what I’m bringing with me, if you’d like. To be sure I haven’t taken anything I’m not supposed to.”
“I’m not sure that’s necessary,” Xisuma says, and this is good, because it means Grian successfully diverted him from the main thing he was likely to object to. Grian can fly circles around Xisuma if he’s devious enough. He used to dodge scouts all the time, before–
Before.
He used to bait hawks.
Why I love it: Gorgeous. Fantastic character voices and relationships, perfect post-canon road to recovery, beautiful backstory flashbacks, wonderful atmosphere, just, so good.

I had such a good time with this exchange, I already look forward to

mcytblraufest, which is doing a Battleship format this year and I'm excited.

Technoblade's Accidental Harem
Dream SMP, gen, 1.6k
Summary: Technoblade is off-server, and the rest of the Syndicate decides to investigate Cyberknife. When their planned cover stories fall apart, they claim they are all members of Technoblade's harem. Clearly a fool-proof plan.
A story outline.

Notes: Back in early 2023 someone replied to a comment of mine on a Techno ship fic with "that breaks Techno's boundaries!!1!", and I immediately wanted to write a spite Techno ship fic of my own. The problem is that I usually hc Techno as ace so I don't really ship him with anyone - but that doesn't mean I can't marry him off.
I'm never going to write the story but when I found the outline again I still found it entertaining, so I might as well share. I'm not entirely happy with it but if I don't post it now it's never going to happen.

First Hermitcraft fic of the year, but almost certainly not the last:

In the Reign of Queen Pearl
2.6k, gen, season 10, The Deepfrost Court
Summary: Hermitcraft has a new queen and a new royal court. They do their best. Etho wishes he could resign.

Notes: This was meant to be a secret FIAB treat for a friend - and I wished even more that I had managed to finish it on time when I found out that she'd secretly written a treat for me, too. But better late than never! The first three parts were written back in October but I struggled putting the pieces together at the end, until I somehow finished it yesterday at 2am. I had fun with this, it features many of my favorite characters hanging out.

ficinabox had author reveals. I wrote a Hermitcraft/HGCZ fic, and I wrote a Hermitcraft/Decked Out 2 game!!!

What Needs to Be Done (To Make a Difference), for

Odaigahara
2.5k, HotGuy Comics Zinethology missing scene, Pearl & Soup Group & Scar
Summary: The Soup Group is plotting against Hotguy. Pearl thinks about her friend Scar.
Canon knowledge required: Yes.
Author's notes: When I first read HGCZ and got to "What Needs To Be Done" I paused to go "wait, what??" Grian working with the Soup Group? That came out of nowhere. And Pearl plotting against Scar like that? I wanted to see how that happened. So when one of the requests mentioned the Soup Group and the sculk bug storyline it was the perfect opportunity. I think it came out well and worked for what I wanted it to do :)

A Farewell to Rusty, for

captainschaos
Twine game with multiple endings, ~9.5k, Etho & Tango
Summary: Decked Out 2 has closed - but Tango lets Etho do one last run in the dungeon, to say goodbye to his buddy Rusty.
A Choose Your Own Adventure game where you control the dungeon run.
Canon knowledge required: Recommended, but just watching the intro to Decked Out 2 is probably enough to understand it. Rusty is an imprisoned iron golem in the dungeon that gives players treasure if they bring him a repair kit that can be found in the dungeon. (I don't actually know how well it works without fandom knowledge but I'd love to know so let me know if you give it a try! That would make me very happy.)

Author's notes: I made a game!! An actual game! I'm delighted.
Interactive fiction has long been on my "would in theory be nice to try one day"-list; when I got a FIAB-assignment that asked for Etho&Tango, Decked Out 2, and said "I love anything interactive, and adore games!!" it suddenly became a lot more concrete. I started actually looking at different programs, quickly landed on Twine, did a few quick tests and decided that I would actually do this.
This is definitely one of the fanworks I made that I'm proudest of, and I'm so happy that people played and enjoyed it.

( More detailed notes, with vague spoilers )

( Map and guide, with detailed spoilers )

I'm back home from Scotland! The flight back was delayed and I arrived at 2am and had to go back to the office the same day, but at least unlike on the flight there they didn't leave my baggage behind this time.

Worldcon was fantastic, and traveling through Scotland with LB afterwards was also great. I have so much to talk about!
Sadly on the second to last day I tripped and fell while running to catch a bus, scratching my glasses (not bad fortunately) and scraping up my chin, knees, and hands, so now typing is uncomfortable and the long con & travel report will have to wait. But

battleshipex revealed while I was away and I want to finally post about the four fics I wrote for it.

Shiny Things For Your Bird (Hermitcraft)
Mumbo/Grian/Scar, 862 words, fluff
Summary: Three weaknesses Grian's boyfriends take advantage of and one they don't.
Author's Notes: Look, "buttons," "birdification" and "volcano" were all on the board, of course I had to write about Grian. Not something I would have written otherwise most likely but I think it's sweet.

Four Double Victories (Life Series – Third Life)
Grian/&Scar, 893 words, canon divergence AUs
Summary: Three universes in which Scar won Third Life, and one in which he didn't.
Author's Notes: There was a prompt for Scar/Grian, 3+1, and desert, and then I added betrayal and wrote some Third Life finale AUs, that was fun.
Also, my fic #100!

Once More, With Fewer Secrets (Life Series – Secret Life)
Etho & ZombieCleo, 1k, time travel
Summary: At the start of Secret Life, Cleo offers Etho some insight into the future.
Author's Notes: I've wanted to write Etho & Cleo Secret Life fic for a while (THEM) and I'm glad I finally did. With bonus outsider PoV on time travel, too, and I think it came out well. (Next step: fic ft. the full Roomies.)

Claw Out Your Eyes And Devour You (Hades 2)
~Scylla/Melinoe, 1.4k
Summary: The witch lady is Scylla's favorite fan.
Author's Notes: I saw "mermaids" on a board square and wondered which of my fandoms have canonical mermaids and then what kind of prompts there were, and, well. Another fic I didn't expect to write but I had a lot of fun with it and I'm happy with how it came out.

Various Ways to Victory (Life Series/Hermitcraft)
1.9k, Pearl & Scar gen, post-Secret Life
Summary:

Spoilers for Secret Life

"You let me win, didn't you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Pearl said immediately.
Pearl and Scar talk about their final fight in Secret Life and about their respective victories.

I wrote something! Quickly, too: first draft in one day, substantial edits on day two after some helpful feedback, and only minor edits in the few days after that. I really wanted this fic to exist so I had to do it myself, and I think it does what I wanted it to.

Number 99 of my fics published on AO3! I wonder what #100 will be...

Happy New Year!

Together with several friends I spent New Year's Eve at an AirBnB a few hours from Vienna, having raclette and playing board games and making tiny animal good luck charms for each other and others out of colorful modelling clay. I also brought one of those ~wire-looking head massagers, which was a big hit. It was raining lightly at midnight but we went to the lake for a toast and to watch the fireworks anyway, and then we continued playing games until 3am.

We'd booked an extra night, which was great because it meant we could have a very relaxed brunch the next day and then two people left but the rest of us had a nice stroll around the small town and more games and then raclette again because we had so many leftovers and then I wanted a reading break so D and F tried out a card game for two people and we also just sat around and chatted and cuddled, a very nice evening.

It was a wonderful way to start 2024. Today the travel home went well and now I will meet up with LB for a spontaneous dinner+movie night at his place so that is even more good things.

I wrote Yuletide fic:
Dreaming of a Rainbow (A Day of Fallen Night – Samantha Shannon)
1.2k, Kuposa pa Nikeya/Noziken pa Dumai, 5 things
Summary: Five times Nikeya dreamed of Dumai.
Canon knowledge required: Yes

Notes: I enjoyed getting more into Nikeya's head. My recipient asked for that and to see how Nikeya fell in love with Dumai and tbh I could have included more of the latter but by that point I was already attached to the five moments I'd chosen and I think it turned out fine.

The only reason why I dared to sign up for

ficinabox despite the intimidating 10k wordcount requirement was because it's possible to split those 10k up into multiple fic and even, with swap requests, multiple recipients. I ended up writing two stories.

Preparations for a Perfectly Normal Diplomatic Visit for

bloop_im_a_frog_now, Hermitcraft
2.7k, pre-ZombieCleo/GeminiTay, royalty & fantasy AU
Summary: King Cleo awaits Princess Gem's perfectly normal diplomatic visit. Nothing is going to go wrong. Definitely not. (Literally jinxed.)

Author's notes: I'm very happy with this one. I like my AU casting choices, I think I did a good job with the character voices, and I think it's funny, which isn't something I write often so I'm pleased with how this turned out.

Loop One Alliance for

jaysflight, Life Series SMP
8k, Impulse&Bdubs, Double Life time loop
Summary: Double Life plays again. And again, and again, and each time the bonds of fate are woven differently.
Impulse is the only one who remembers his marriage to Bdubs, but he can't just put it behind him.

Author's notes: I really like this idea but I found it difficult to write. Ultimately I'm satisfied with how it came out but I think it could easily have been longer to really dig into the different character relationships. (Though then that may have been too meandering, idk.) I think I did a good job with the angst for Impulse and I really enjoyed getting to play with several different soulmate pairings. I'm also happy with my solution for how they get out of the time loop.

Tbh I'm not sure I'll sign up for FIAB again, it was very stressful, but I don't regret that I did.

I told my boss today that I want to switch back to 30 hours starting in August and it's a big relief. I don't know if working full-time caused my current *vague gesturing* but the timeline shows a strong correlation.

I wrote two Hermitcraft fics recently for

hermitcraftguesstheauthorevent:

Memories Of A Life Not Lived
Hermitcraft/Life Series SMP, 1.5k, post-Limited Life Cleo&Etho ft. fake memories
Summary: Cleo hadn't asked Etho yet if he too had somehow acquired memories of an entire life they'd never lived during Grian's latest death game. She was not going to walk up to him and ask "just checking, do you remember when we got divorced? Worse, do you remember when we got married? Because I do."
Notes: I have so many feelings about the Clockers family, I couldn't get this idea out of my head so I had to write it. In my head this takes place in the same continuity as Voices From Beyond Life's Limits. Originally I ~planned to have a fic in-between detailing Cleo's changing memories but that turned out to be a lot harder to write, and I might leave it out idk.

And as a bonus:
Best Friend Summoning
drabble, season 9, Grian & Mumbo
Summary: What if Grian's summoning circle had worked?
Notes: They both canonically try to summon each other, I had to play around with a what-if for that. Writing an actual drabble is always difficult because I have quite high standards for what makes a good drabble; I'm not completely happy with this one but finally decided it was at least decent enough to post.

I wrote fic for

hurtcomfortex:

Crow Feathers for

Garecc
Fandom: DSMP
2.4k, Kristin/Phil, post-canon
Summary: This was not how Kristin had imagined spending time with her husband in the End.

Notes: This one was harder to write than expected, among other things because I found it difficult to get the tone right. Not one of my favorite works but I think it turned out okay.

The reason why I haven't managed to write detailed notes about the Limited Life finale yet is because I wrote fic instead. As far as reasons go, one of my favorites.

Voices From Beyond Life's Limits
2.2k, Clockers family during the finale
Summary: Etho's family died. Sometimes he can still hear their voices. (Most of them don't like him very much, but that's nothing new.)

Notes: This is intentionally vague on backstory/history/world mechanics because of story scope. Where are they from and why are they in a death game?, who knows. (I want all the angsty fake memory fic but I don't want to have to write it myself, woe.)
Draft title was "Clockers ghost chat." This is not very polished and I'm still learning the voices but I'm happy with what it is.

I finally wrote something again:

Infinite Amethyst Sounds
Fandom: Young Royals
1.8k, background Simon/Wille, AU - MCYT, outsider PoV
Summary: Five scenes that might have happened in the AU where Simon is a Minecraft Youtuber.

Notes: I asked DD for a prompt for Young Royals fic, she said "secret identity," I said "what if Simon was a Minecraft Youtuber" and she said "YES WRITE IT" and she kept encouraging me when I came up with more ideas until I actually wrote it, so it's clearly at least half her fault for enabling me. I wrote this in one day after several weeks of brainstorming. Originally I planned for it to be crack but then some angst snuck in. It's technically not a crossover but it feels like one (in my head Simon and Quackity definitely at least know of each other and are probably friends.)

Happy New Year!

I spent New Year's at my aunt's holiday house in a small town near mountains and it was very relaxed and very nice. (Too warm for early January, so I didn't even need to sit next to the oven.) The food was delicious. I ended the old year playing boardgames and then started the new one with a nice walk in sunshine with a great view and then a day of doing barely anything but nap, read, and go for another walk, in the dark that time.
Now I'm back home watching silly videos, trying to catch up on commenting, and working on my end-of-year summary, which somehow gets longer every year. Sadly DD still isn't home but maybe we'll watch something together later.

Fic I wrote for Yuletide:
New Sword in a New Era for

Elemental
Fandom: The Misfit of Demon King Academy
3.4k, gen, post-canon
Summary: When he was four years old, Shin remembered his name.

Notes: I watched this show because of my recipient's prompts and I was glad I did. It's fun! It reminded me quite a bit of of "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime," the fandom we actually matched on: both of them have an overpowered protagonist where "will they win the fight" is rarely even in question, both of them have devoted followers that they protect and try to take care of, both of them are genuinely kind. "Misfit" has fewer politics so far but I suspect that that's a "yet" and that there will be more in the future. (I haven't looked up what happens in the light novel yet.) It's also, contrary to my first impression, as silly: I laughed a lot when seeing the fusion xD
I wrote about a character with less than five minutes of canon screen time and gave him an OC family on top of it, but I enjoyed it and more importantly so did my recip.

I finally finished my DSMP fix-it AU!

Speaking the Other Language
15.9k, gen
Summary: "Hey, Techno, I've been thinking," Tommy said. "What would it take for you to not destroy L'Manberg?"
Pre-Doomsday AU: Tommy finds out that Technoblade wants to destroy L'Manberg. He tries to find a different solution, but breaking the cycle of revenge and violence is hard.
Additional tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Pre-Doomsday War, solving problems with communication, which requires a lot of talking, Reluctant Allies to Less Reluctant Allies, Enemies to Enemies-But-Ceasefire, accidental diplomat Tommy, nuclear standoff except Techno has withers and Tubbo does not have nukes yet

The longest fic I've written so far :) It's not perfect but I'm satisfied with it, I still like the AU idea a lot and I think I did a decent job with the character voices. The ending was hard, but better an imperfect ending than to leave it unfinished (and also I really wanted it done now because I need my head free for Yuletide.)

My parents are currently on vacation, so like last year DD and I are at their place enjoying the garden and the nearby river. We collected three bowls of plums so far and the tree still looks full.

In a display of spectacular timing I got sick. At least according to the symptoms and the quick test it seems to be not covid but it still sucks. To cheer myself up I'm posting the first chapter of the fic I've been working on: originally I wanted to wait until the first draft is done but it's about 90% done, good enough.

Speaking the Other Language
Fandom: Dream SMP
WIP, chapter ¼, 5.7k
Summary: Breaking the cycle of revenge and violence is hard.
Pre-Doomsday AU: Tommy finds out that Technoblade wants to destroy L'Manberg. He tries to find a different solution.
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Pre-Doomsday War, solving problems with communication, which requires a lot of talking, Reluctant Allies to Less Reluctant Allies, Enemies to Enemies-But-Ceasefire, accidental diplomat Tommy, nuclear standoff except Techno has withers and Tubbo does not have nukes yet

I really should get an icon for this fandom…

Exams are done! Two went okay, one less so (typical case of sitting down after handing in my exam and immediately realizing the stupid major mistake I made) but whatever. I'm tired.

As a reward I finally started the Phoenotopia Awakening Zero Trial playthrough I've been planning for a while. Definitely tricky! Stupid vultures. But doable.

I also finally finished up my second PHOA fic:

Neighbors Say We're Trouble
3k, gen, post-game
Summary: ( not sure that is even understandable as spoilers but jic )

I was going through the lyrics of "Rise Like a Phoenix" and when I saw this line I immediately knew what fic it had to be. It turned out a bit darker than I initially expected but I still like it.
Next, probably "Who Can This Person Be" or the Zero-wakes-up fic. (It started out as Zero&Bart friendship and then grew. Same with the Gail-trains fic that spawned a Gail&Bart friendship sidestory.)

I knew I wanted to write fic for Phoenotopia: Awakening before I had even finished the game, and then when I did even more so.

bethefirst was the perfect motivation to write something soon.

Go About Your Business, Act As If You're Free
2.1k, gen, post-canon
Summary: Lisa has a few questions for Bart about Gail.
Canon Knowledge Required: I don't think it makes sense without canon knowledge. I probably wrote this for an audience of one and that's okay. And this is made of spoilers so if there's any chance that I could persuade you to give the game a try definitely don't read this.

Notes: I have so many post-canon thoughts and feelings and ideas – I crammed (maybe too) many in this fic and I want to write several more. The title isn't a perfect fit, but I decided on it after realizing that the series name for all my PHOA fic should be "Rise Like a PHOENIX."

I also finally made myself an icon for the occasion. It's not great but I'll find a better one later.
ETA: Now with improved icon.