A blog for the fanfiction and graphics designed by the Patron Saint of Fan Fiction Writers and Aspiring Romance Novelists, mousedetective on Tumblr / afteriwake on AO3.
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How long have you been in fandom in general? Twenty-eight years this July, technically, but in 1994 I sent a story idea to the producers of seaQuest DSV and got a lovely rejection letter from them.
What was the first fandom you participated in as an author/artist? The Buffyverse, specifically Buffy the Vampire Slayer since Angel: the Series didn't debut until after I had started in the fandom
How many fandoms do you write for currently? OMG, so many. Generally I focus on my core three (BBC Sherlock, Star Trek AOS and the MCU) but I dabble in a ton of others, plus I write crossovers. If I got back to updating my fic series that have come out of roleplay games I've been in on Insanejournal, this will also include a bunch of fandoms I don't actively participate and am writing versions of these characters as RPed by my main enabler in those games, Lena (not to be confused by my daughter who has the same name).
Approximately how long have you been writing fanfic? How long have you been making graphics? I started writing fic in July 1998, and then started making graphics around some point in mid-2000.
How many stories have you written (your best estimate is fine)? In the ballpark of 5K to 7K?
Where do you post your work? For fanfic, I primarily post to AO3 first, then make a post to this blog with a link to the AO3 post as well as the full text of the fic in the post, putting anything over around 600 words beneath a cut (unless the work as a whole is 900 words or less, then i just post it all without putting it behind a cut). For my art, if it was created for a fic already on AO3 or for a challenge/big bang, I post it to AO3 and then post it here with a link; otherwise, I just post it straight to this blog.
What types of fanfiction do you write (het, slash/femmeslash and gen as well as angst, kidfic, smut, fluff, etc.)? I tend to write mostly het, though I do have a fair sampling of slash and femmeslash when it come to pairings, and I also write gen on occasion as well. I write a lot of fluff and all of those various subgeneres like parentfic/kidfic and the like, and I write smut as well. I tend not to write much angst these days, but when I do write it I try and be as devastating as possible. I also love writing alternate universe stuff (especially fantasy/magical AUs) and canon divergence.
What inspired you to start writing fanfiction? I was in a roleplay game eons back on YahooGroups where I had an OC named Alexandra Giles, who was Rupert Giles's niece (I think) and a Watcher in her own right who got entangled with Spike. I found there were more stories I wanted to tell than the game allowed, so I started a series that became known as The Giles Saga, and it just snowballed from there.
Do your offline friends/family know you write fanfiction? Why or why not? My mom and daughter are aware of what I write, and are usually my captive audience for going over story plots and stuff (they also get to sit there while I ramble about my current crop of RP characters, most of whom I probably won't make fic series for unless Lena asks). I have a few RP friends outside of Lena who know I'm a fic writer outside of my RP-inspired series, and a few old offline friends who were aware of it (most of whom I don't have much contact with these days). I wrote my sister a Buffyverse fic back in the day, but I don't talk to her much anymore so I'm sure she's forgotten about me and my fandom stuff.
Do you write under a pseudonym? Why or why not? Not really? I use the same name here and on AO3 to make it easier for people to find me, but pretty much since 2001 I've attached my first name to my fics (for the first few I was in the Buffyverse fandom I was known as Obsessive Compulsive Spike in that group...cringey, I know, and when I realized I didn't actually have OCD but was bipolar instead I stopped using it). I don't really care if RL people find me because I'm not working nor am I planning to reenter the workforce, so I don't need to worry about employers finding out I've written smut, and fandom (and fic writing specifically) is more accepted these days so if people have an issue with me being in fandom, fuck 'em.
What would cause you to stop posting fan creations? While I haven't stopped often in the past, mostly it was because I was feeling discouraged by both RL and fandom. I haven't written much of anything since October 2025 mostly because the spam bot problem at AO3 was getting out of control, and I finally set it so only registered users could comment in January (though guests can still read my fic and leave kudos...everything got scraped by that AI user last year that breached the locked down fics so I figured what's the point of locking them down, you know?) and I haven't gotten a spam comment since. Unfortunately in January I had an inspection of my apartment and failed, so I've spent the last two and a half months getting things sorted for my re-evaluation while dealing with chronic illness/chronic fatigue/chronic pain, which has taken its toll.
How important is feedback to you? Not gonna lie, I love comments/Tumblr replies, but it's not the end all be all for me. I get a kudos email every day even though I haven't written anything in almost five months, and I get tons of likes and a handful of reblogs here, so I'm happy.
Are you a fanfic reader as well? Why or why not? And if so, do you leave feedback to other writers? I am! Mostly I read the fic my enabler @dreaminonao3 writes (since I, in turn, enable her, so a lot of stuff is written for me), but I actually have a text file full of fics I've made a note to read just from the last three months, and most of my 3K plus AO3 bookmarks are fics I plan to read (I think maybe 1% of my bookmarks is stuff I've actually read already). I also subscribe to a ton of different AO3 authors. And I always leave at least a kudos (mostly only if I finished a fic but it wasn't my cup of tea in the end...generally I leave a comment on everything I read). I also reblog fic here on Tumblr to my main blog, as there are more people following that blog than this one.
For the last fanfic you wrote, what was the plot? LOL, I actually had to go look. It was a Swan Queen fic with a Regina POV where Regina was looking at a sleeping Emma in her bed and reflecting on their relationship. It was actually the second fic I wrote for the 2026 Femslash Gift exchange because I had signed up for it as a pinch hitter and then completely misread my prompt and written a fluffier fic, so I put both of them into a fic series I plan to update wen I get more time.
Do you write real person fanfic? Why or why not? Nope. Not because I have anything against it in theory, but mostly because it just doesn't interest me. I'm usually more interested in the characters that are being portrayed than the actors portraying them, you know?
Do you write crossover fanfiction? Why or why not? I do! I live for my crossover ships. In fact, I am pretty much the sole author of all the McMolly (Leonard McCoy from the Star Trek AOS movies & Molly Hooper from BBC Sherlock) fic on AO3, and if I didn't write it myself chances are it was written for me.
If you could explain what fanfiction is in your own words, how would you describe it? Taking characters from established media and playing with them in my own sandbox.
What would you tell people who say fanfiction is not real writing? Fuck you. All writing is real writing (unless it's AI generated writing, then fuck you, too).
30 THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER INSPIRED TEXTURES
- MF (rar) | MF (zip) | DA (zip)
Well, I’m not very sure of this but I had a lot of fun making it, so I thought it would be cool to post it. All the textures are inspired with the book The Perks of being a Wallflower. Most of them are quotes, there are some scans from the book too, and some other random textures. I really hope you like it :) Oh! And like this post if you download them, thank you!
So while I am now nearly $300 overdrawn due to overdraft fees, I should be getting my laptop back on Wednesday of this week! It's nearly a week and a half later than I was told when given my estimate, but it has been fully repaired and the third-party repair center said they were sending it out and it should arrive at my home repair center Wednesday. Any help covering the overdraft would be much appreciated if you can.
Also. I have a few things I'm planning on working on! Here's a list:
The longer fic I originally planned on doing for my Holmestice recipient (can't go into details yet but it's a BBC Sherlock fic)
A BBC Sherlock fic based on an idea from @lokijiro where Mycroft became Sherlock's legal guardian when Sherlock was fourteen (Eventual Mystrade but mostly focusing on pre-series stuff and an altered series 1 and 2...I'm also toying with Sherlock being somewhere on the aroace spectrum for this one)
More fic in my two panfandom RP based series ("Stuff Of Improbable Legends" and it's prequel series "The Start Of Improbable Legends") co-written with my RP partner from the games (so more McMolly and Kirkrose from the Lawrence, KS and New Orleans based games, plus other ships and friendships)
As a treat to my fic enabler @dreaminonao3 I'm going to do some fanmix covers based off various playlists she has created for her fic/character/ship playlists (I'm aiming to do her Crimson from Helluva Boss playlist first, but as she's still working on it I may see what she'd rather have me do instaed)
Potentially for WIPBB I will be doing my Wholock fic "When In University..." both for my own personal pleasure as well as for spite, because I was told Sherlock was OOC for not being a frigid sociopath when I was writing it around 2013/2014 so I was planning on making it an original novel but then S3 and S4 happened AND NOW LOOK AT HIM IN CANON!
I also want to specifically work on my Bridgerton S1 rewrite "Truth Be Told" since @dreaminonao3 is working on another fic in that series, the second fic in my Star Trek AOS trilogy where Spock adopts a teenager like him ("Connections & Reconnections") for @greenskyoverme as she has been wanting updates on it, both "To Throw Away The Map" and "Children Of Light, Children Of Dark" because they were BBC Sherlock commissions that should have been done long ago, and both "Playing The Game: Act II – Knights & Knowledge, Romance & Regret" (part of my massive MCU/BBC Sherlock series and second part of a trilogy) and "Every English Village Has Its Secrets" (part of what will be a series of BBC Sherlock crossing over with a ton of my favorite British crime series including Midsomer Murders, Lewis, Rosemary & Thyme, Murder In Suburbia and possibly other shows plus two singular stories I plan on doing soon: one with Pie in the Sky and another with Mr. and Mrs. Murder with a tie in to Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries in that one that will take place in Australia) because I have plans for the series those fics are in and I want to move on to other stories, especially in the case of the latter series.
Y'all really seemed to like the icons and assorted graphics I transferred over from LiveJournal so I will be making more graphics as well! If you have suggestions for what you want graphics for, let me know.
Hopefully I did not lose my list of old WIPBB art projects I planned to do, but I'm going to tackle as many as I can find in my files at least.
So yeah. Kind of where I stand with things at the moment and an idea of what to look forward to!
Everytime I see posts like this I get filled with such profound sadness
Cause you know who has the same brainrot as you? The same unhinged feelings as you after you've read the fic? The person who always wants to scream about the fic with you?
THE PERSON WHO WROTE IT
I never used to leave comments but since I got into the habit of commenting on everything i enjoy it's been incredible. Especially when the author gets back to me about it and we get to have a discussion of what other ideas they had. One writer replied to my comment with a 5 paragraph essay detailing the Floorplan of the building the characters lived in and it was incredible
Anyways this is all to say that if you find a fic that just makes you want to scream from the rooftops, leave a comment saying that to the author and maybe they will join you and you can scream incoherently together
ID/ A screenshot of a tiktok reading, “finishing a fic that was the most profound thing you’ve ever read, only to realize you have no one to talk to about it, bc no one shares the same level of brain rot about Them that you do.” The tiktok is by Berk (4x01 enthusiast). /end
Creatives want to talk about their work!!! We just also don't wanna be annoying as heck so you gotta prod us a bit! Or sometimes the satisfaction comes from someone else finding the little secrets we put in!!!
OMG this! I love all the kudos I get on AO3/likes I get here on Tumblr for my fic and art, but comments, asks and replies where you just gush (or even just leave a single emoji or a keysmash string) just energize and motivate me, and I'm all "That's it! It is hoped for that I create more, my fans love me, therefore I shall create more!"
My laptop finally died last week and I put it in for repairs on Saturday, but unfortunately I had to overdraw my account and got hit with (and am continuing to get hit with) overdraft fees, so if anyone can help cover that i will write you a 500ish word fic with fandoms or pairings I am familiar with for every $25 you send as a gift (so if you send $25 you get on fic, $50 you get two fics, etc.) and every $5 will get you a 100 word drabble as a gift (so if you send $5 you get one drabble, $10 you get two, etc.) You can also combine them (so $30 for example would get you one 500 word fic and one 100 word drabble). I'm ideally trying to raise about $350 just because I'm still getting hit with overdraft fees and this would cover it all, I think.
Just send anything you can to my PayPal.me account and then send an ask with the name or email you used to help and what you want for your fic as well as your AO3 username so I can gift the fic to you. I should hopefully get my laptop back no later than next Monday, and I'll start writing fic once I get it back.
✨️ Twinkle twinkle, little star, kill the chapter, raise the bar. ✨️
✨️ Up above the world so high, watch my favourite paragraph die. ✨️
✨️ Twinkle twinkle, little star, draft one burns, draft two is ash. ✨️
✨️ Up above the world so high, draft twelve drowns in revision trash. ✨️
✨️ Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are! ✨️
I need to see your take on merman/fisherwoman for them. :) With those eyes, Kirk would make a heck of a siren.
who’s the werewolf and who’s the hunter: Carol is the werewolf, though not your typical type of werewolf; her father is a mad scientist who did gene-splicing on his daughter without anyone's knowledge as an infant, after he told her mother she had died and he was leaving her. He then took Carol away and used her to create a new line of monster/human hybrids. Carol's mother never believed her daughter had died, but Marcus had hidden himself and his daughter well so she hired Kirk and his crew to try and find her daughter, warning Kirk that her father had been an unstable and unethical scientist. When they got a lead they went in fully prepared to fight their way out and to deliver bad news to Carol's mother, but to their surprise Carol had had enough of the abuse and killed her father a few years prior in self-defense and had preferred to be left alone for her safety and the safety of those in her care; she had eliminated the more dangerous of her father's experiments and worked on modifying the others so they were more human and less animalistic, which they were grateful for. While Carol did have a tendency to turn into a human/wolf hybrid, she kept her humanity, her intelligence and her human voice. She was surprised to find out not only that her mother was alive but that she had been actively looking for her for years, and their reunion brought Kirk and his crew to tears. Kirk offered to take Carol and those under her care onto his team to put their abilities to good use and she accepted, realizing Kirk was a good man and perhaps there could be some sort of future between them.
who’s the mermaid and who’s the fisherman: James is a siren and Carol is the only female fisherman in her village, having inherited her stepfathers boat when he passed due to seasickness so she could keep her family in food and shelter. She knew a secret to getting past the sirens that were out on the far reaches of the rocks out to the part of the sea where the good fishing was: she talked to them. It turns out that the sirens were starved for good conversation (and especially village gossip), her stepfather had told her, and when she was young he had introduced Carol to them if there was ever a reason for her to take over the business. One siren in particular, James, took an interest in Carol, an interest that was surprisingly mutual. Then for the span of a few weeks Carol didn't come to the rocks where the sirens resided, so James made a deal with the elder siren, an old sea hag who also cared for Carol, to get human legs and find out what was going on. The sea hag warned him there was no reversing it, but James didn't care. He loved Carol and wanted to find out why she'd stopped fishing in the waters where the sirens lived. He arrived in the village at the dead of night and stole some human clothing, and found out Carol's birth father had come back into her life and was forcing her to get married against her will to an asshole named John Harrison or he would have her mother, an academic woman who was more or less a recluse, put into an insane asylum. He got in touch with Carol immediately, and she recognized him as the siren she had fallen in love with, and embraced him tightly, kissing him as well. She and Jim then took her mother and all her mother's research and they boarded her ship, leaving the village hours before the sun rose. The remaining sirens use their magic to guide Carol's ship well past the rocks they resided on in the darkness, and Carol and those she loved sailed to a new village with the last of James's siren magic, far from the reach of her father. They made a home for themselves in this new village, taking care of her mother until she passed and then having children of their own who somehow possessed many of the otherworldly physical qualities of a siren and a love of the water and could swim like it was second nature to them. James told her often he never regretted his decision to become human, and she told him she was happier than she had ever been and was glad he had done so. When Carol died as an old woman nearly sixty years after their escape, James died later that same evening, not being able to bear being without the woman he loved for more than just a few hours.
who’s the witch and who’s the familiar: Kirk is a technomage with an affinity for older technology, and Carol is his ferret familiar he inherited from his father, who was murdered by a mysterious magic user the day he was born. Kirk's mother is one of the few of their universe who was never magically inclined and once she realized Kirk had powers she made him swear never to use them so whatever it was that had killed his father wouldn't kill him as well, just like she had asked his brother to do. But Carol taught him the basics in secret, and she was the one who realized he had a skill with technological magic. After his brother left home because he was tired of not using his burgeoning magical powers, Kirk got even better hiding his, even as he continued to practice in secret. Flash forward to Kirk's twenty-fifth birthday, which he was celebrating with friends who worked at the same repair shop he worked at, where he specialized in getting antique electronics and the like back to nearly new conditions. His brother sent him a magicked letter, saying he needed Kirk's help. Kirk took a leave of absence, got Carol from his apartment in case he needed magical back-up, and got on his motorcycle to go save his brother. Over the course of things he had many encounters with a variety of magical creatures, magic users both good and bad, and things that go bump in the night, but he managed to find his brother and the two of them (along with a variety of new friends and allies Kirk had made in his travels) took down the magical menace that had killed their father, which had turned out to be a corrupt organization of magic users. In the process, Carol was restored to her human form and her immortality was taken away, so Kirk suggested she spend whatever time she had left in her life with him and the people they had befriended in the course of their travels, and she accepted, as she had become quite smitten with Kirk over the last few years.
who’s the barista and who’s the coffee addict: Kirk is the barista and Carol is the coffee addict who's cramming for exams when they initially meet. Carol comes into the shop he works at every day for a week at opening and staying until closing, armed with a large satchel full of books, her laptop and Post-It notes. He's amused and makes sure the regulars don't tease her too much, and he slips her pastries and sandwiches (paid for with his own tips) that he doesn't know if she appreciates. She disappears for a week after that, then comes in without all her stuff and orders a hot tea in one of the ceramic mugs, making polite conversation while she's there while also thanking him for his kindness, and she leaves him a $100 tip and a Post-It note saying the tip is repayment for the food as well as giving him her phone number and an invitation for dinner when he has time. They begin a friendship with no illusions of it ever becoming anything more, and she makes his coffee shop her primary study spot as she finishes her undergraduate studies and starts doing her post-graduate work. Eventually one night about five years into their friendship it's her graduation day, and he's there with a bottle of champagne, flowers, and news the owner of the shop is selling the business to him. He knew she was looking at offers to go teach in London, and he thinks this is the end of their friendship being as close as it is, but she informs him that she was offered a prestigious teaching position at the university she had been attending, with a tenure track to boot, and would he like to consider their friendship becoming something more intimate? While he insists on taking her out to a celebratory dinner-slash-date that evening, it's no surprise to any of their friends that the next morning they are officially a Couple.
who’s the professor and who’s the TA: In a twist, both of them are professors in different fields at different universities that happen to be rivals (Kirk works in the English department at his while Carol works in the science department at hers). They are aware of this fact and have secretly been hooking up/sorta dating for nearly a year after they met at a wedding outside of San Francisco and started talking there, as while neither of them played into the whole rivalry thing they were aware of it but were still attracted to each other. Unfortunately, an incident between faculty of the rival universities breaks out at a sporting event and is caught on video, exploding on social media, with Kirk and Carol getting caught up in the middle of the chaos. In the aftermath the administration at their respective universities are pressuring Kirk and Carol to no longer interact, "for appearances sake," and while Kirk initially considers it when Carol's teaching position is put in peril they talk together and, with their friends input as well, they decide if the universities are going to make them choose between their personal and professional lives, they'll get married and make it a legal issue regarding discrimination and overstepping professional bounds, if need be. Neither of them had expected their situationship to go this far but surprisingly, they find domesticity and marriage suits them.
who’s the knight and who’s the prince(ss): Carol is the daughter and occasional squire of the knight in charge of James's guard detail, but in actuality she is a princess on the run from her own kingdom that was overthrown when she was a young girl. The knight she is squiring for was the head of her father's guard, and both the knight and James's father agree that it is imperative that no one know Carol is the princess, as it is believed by all that the princess was killed along with the rest of the royal family. Carol herself only has dim memories of being a princess, as she has lived with the knight since she was five and most of her memories are of the knight raising her, and she and James (who was the second son and closer to her age than his brother Samuel, who is the heir) basically growing up together. When the knight is poisoned, just barely surviving but needing to be placed in restorative sleep by the court warlock, Carol insists on going on the quest to save him as he is able to tell her the truth of who she is before the poison requires the restorative sleep. James overhears and he demands to go with Carol while his father investigates the head of his personal guard, which his father promises to do. It turns out the ruler who took over Carol's kingdom found out through magical means she had survived, so he set out to get her in his thrall and make her his queen, as her former subjects are starting to resist and him making her queen and ruling "by her side" is the perfect solution to this. As James and Carol search his kingdom for the cure to the poison they begin finding people who have run away from Carol's kingdom to the one James's father rules, who are willing to lay down their lives to put Carol on the throne as the proper heir. She's hesitant, but James says he's with her every step of the way, even into battle. When James suggests they further weaken the upstart ruler's chances of winning the populace over even more by him marrying her instead, she accepts, as she has loved James since she was a little girl and the feeling has been mutual for some time. They had a handfasting ceremony with a local priest the night before the battle and spent their first night together in a tent on the battlefield, and neither would have it any other way. Upon arrival at the palace in Carol's home kingdom, they find out that the soldiers loyal to Carol's family who had fled the kingdom had split up and gone to other countries as well and they get reinforcements from political allies to Carol and James's kingdoms; once news had been magically transmitted to these reinforcements more magic was used to transport them to the battle that was waging, turning the tide for Carol and James and ending with Carol using her adoptive father's sword to decapitate the ruler who had killed her family. Once things had settles and the knight had been healed, he tearfully gave Carol to James when they had their "official" wedding with all the heads of state there, asking him to take care of her and James promising he would.
who’s the teacher and who’s the single parent: Carol is the teacher and Kirk is the single parent. Carol and Kirk are in similar social circles, and Carol, while cordial, has a distaste for Kirk's player lifestyle. This all changes when Kirk is notified that there was a woman who once claimed he was the father of her son David, but she hadn't wanted his help in any way, shape or form because she wanted a father for her son who was there and not someone who half-assed it. The only reason he was being told was she had been in an accident and had no next of kin listed to take care of her son. None of her friends could take him in but one of them remembered her mentioning the probable father's name. Kirk had no reason to doubt things, because David looked so much like him, but he agreed to take him in on the condition a DNA test was done (not to deny he was the father but in case he wasn't then they could try and find the actual father, and Kirk was adamant that either way he would take custody until the results came in...it eventually came back that Kirk was, in fact, David's biological father). Kirk's closest friends all step in to help, and as David is just about the right age to go into kindergarten anyway, Carol recommends Kirk bring him to the K-12 private school she works at as a middle school science teacher. It is harder than Kirk expected, but surprisingly David takes to him well, even if he has issues caused by his mom's death and all the life changes that came with that, and it's suggested by more than one person that both David and Kirk get into individual therapy as well as family play therapy to help them deal with things and cope. Kirk sees Carol more than he ends up seeing anyone other than his "ride or die" friends because he's taking David to and from school and she works there, and she finds as time goes on both father and son have endeared themselves to her. Twoish years later, when David is coming up with who he want to give invitations to his eighth birthday party to, he asks Kirk if they can invite Carol because "she makes you smile and she makes you happy" and he has to admit to David she in fact does. Kirk and David then call and ask her to join them at the park that weekend for a very important occasion, which makes Carol smile when asked, and David hand delivers her invitation before going off to play with other kids. Kirk then mentions David wanted to invite her because she makes him smile, ad Carol misinterprets that before Kirk says she makes him smile and she makes him happy as well, and would she like to go out to dinner with him that evening, just the two of them? She says yes, she would love that, and what took him so long to ask, to which he replies "Life kinda got in the way, but I got there in the end."
who’s the writer and who’s the editor: Kirk is the writer and Carol is his editor. Kirk was a wunderkind writer who had his first novel published at thirteen, and it was a critical and commercial fantasy hit. This was to be expected, as his mother was a well renowned novelist who had written groundbreaking feminist novels before retiring to teach, and she had nurtured the love of writing in both her sons, though her eldest had also gone into the teaching field as opposed to publishing books. Kirk is getting kind of burnt out on the fantasy genre as he's nearing thirty and he's at a loss as to what to try next. Carol, who became his editor seven years prior and is one of his best friends, suggests a road trip together from San Francisco to New York to get inspiration. She's traveled with him before but as she's noted, he never got to do typical teenage and college age stuff, such as going on a random road trip with friends. She invites his two other best friends, Leonard and Spock, as well as Spock's girlfriend Nyota, and they get a nice RV together for the trip. A lot comes to light during the trip, including the fact Kirk has had some one-off flings here and there but never had a serious relationship before. The evening that revelation comes out, after the men have gone to sleep, Nyota and Carol have a conversation outside the RV and Nyota asks Carol why she's never told Kirk how she really feels about him. Carol admits she's petrified to jeopardize the friendship they already have, as well as their working relationship, and while Nyota calls her a coward she also says she understands. Then Nyota tells her the story of how she and Spock ended up dating, which make Carol feel better. Unbeknownst to them Kirk overheard and he gets inspired, and so he decides to make a grand romantic gesture once they get to New York City, which is about a day's drive away. They decide to check into a five star hotel suite (Kirk's treat) once they turn in the RV and switch to a rental car, and while Carol offers to give Kirk some space to relax before dinner he suggests they go get a coffee at the nearest cafe that isn't a corporate brand so they can discover a new place together. Once they find one they settle in and Kirk admits he overheard Carol and Nyota's conversation, much to Carol's embarrassment. He assures her not only is it fine, but he then pulls out one of the notepads he writes in since he generally jots down ideas as he gets them and says he started writing the beginning of his new novel. He isn't sure if it'll be just a novel or a romance novel specifically but it was inspired by her and the fact he's in love with her and would she be willing to take a chance with him because he's willing to take a chance with her? She finds herself agreeing while nodding vigorously and then they're kissing for the first time like there's no one there with them. The epilogue takes place two years later and has Carol, Winona and Sam watching from the side while Kirk is being interviewed about his breathtaking new novel, the fact it's a departure from the fantasy genre and what inspired it, and after he tells the story he mentions that he is now engaged, as Carol said yes to his proposal the night before, and he's the happiest he's ever been, with him glancing at Carol and then getting up and pulling her into the view of the camera, much to her mild embarrassment and utter delight.
i concur with @keikokasugawitch-blog. It's a mixture of multiple options that depends on what i happen to be writing at the moment and how much attention i want to pay to what I'm writing versus what I'm listening to.
Mystrade Sacrifice May Collection is now created! Please visit this COLLECTION PAGE for Info and FAQ.
Intro:
A collection of stories posted for the Mystrade Is Sacrifice event in May 2026. Originated and maintained by @paialovespie, with collaboration by @ewebie and @meansgirlwrites.
This event is intended to inspire new works in the Mystrade fandom on the theme of Sacrifice.
FAQ:
Can I post a WIP? : Yes, as long as at least one chapter is added to the collection by July 1, 2026.
What do you mean by "Sacrifice"?: This theme is up for interpretation. Your submission should include some element involving a sacrifice by one or both characters, or a plot centering around a sacrifice that affects them. Definition: sacrifice (noun): the act of giving up or losing something of value for the sake of something else.
Can my story have other relationship pairings?: Yes, but Mycroft and Greg must be the primary romantic pairing featured in the story.
Can I post crossovers with another fandom?: Yes, but all other rules must be followed.
I added my story - Why don't I see my story in the collection?: All stories added to this collection are moderated, meaning they must be confirmed by a collection moderator before they are added. Stories will be confirmed within 24 hours - please be patient :)
I finished my story early - can I add it to the collection now?: The collection will not be open for new story submissions until May 1, 2026.
Rules:
1. This should be a new work that hasn't been posted anywhere else yet. (if you want to post early, or late, just let me know - we can be flexible.) 2. The main pairing should be Mycroft Holmes and Greg Lestrade. 3. The story should feature a main theme or element of Sacrifice 4. All maturity ratings are welcome. 5. The minimum word count for acceptance is 2,000 words. 6. Collection opens May 1, 2026.
This collection was conceptualized and has been traditionally maintained by @paialovespie. This year, @meansgirlwrites and @ewebie are also pitching in, so please feel free to reach out to us with any questions.
He's already a writer, so her as his editor could be fun!
For anyone who doesn't know, as it's been a while since I've written this pairing, it's a ship between the Pride & Prejudice 2005 version of Mary Bennet and @dreaminonao3's original character Leland Arnold (all her fic with Leland and Mary is up here if you want to give it a shot). I've been allowed permission to write stuff not just for Leland and Mary but her other P&P canon/OC ships as well, so I asked for those ships for this meme to come up with more ideas!
who’s the werewolf and who’s the hunter: Mary is the werewolf, kept at Longbourn for her own safety and the safety of others after running into a werewolf and being scratched (not bitten) as a young child. Leland is a family friend of Darcy's, who helped train him to be a hunter of "things that go bump in the night" who are especially violent, but Leland also studies supernatural creatures and is working on a compendium of all the knowledge he has gathered over the years. When the Bennet sisters let slip about Mary's "condition" Leland is sure she's a werewolf and confronts Mr. Bennet about it, who concedes Mary is, in fact, afflicted with lycanthropy. Leland has her father tell him that it is very important to know whether Mary was bitten or scratched, and when Mr. Bennet confirms she was scratched, Leland (who has become smitten with Mary during his time with Darcy getting to know the Bennets) assures him that there is hope in curing her, and if he is successful he would like her hand in marriage, something Mary agrees to as she and her sisters were crouched at the door. Once Leland and Darcy hunt and kill what they think is the werewolf that infected Mary, Leland waits for the next full moon with baited breath. When Mary doesn't turn the family rejoices, and there's a triple wedding (along with Jane and Bingley) and afterward Mary takes over the compendium while Leland and Darcy continue to hunt (with Lizzie accompanying them).
who’s the mermaid and who’s the fisherman: Leland is the merman and Lizzie is the daughter of a local fisherman who has five daughters and has fallen on hard times. Mary often accompanies her father on the ship, as she is fascinated by the sea, but on one occasion the waters get rough and she falls overboard. Leland, king of the merfolk in the area, rescues her as the seas instantly calm down and returns her to her father. Once she's safe and warm back on the boat Leland joins her, growing legs and fussing over her, much to her father's amusement (though not amazement...he had the feeling there were merfolk thereabouts). As the three of them chat, Leland admits he had fallen in love with Mary from afar, much to her shock, and would she like to join him as his queen? She eagerly agrees, and in exchange Leland tells her father to say she fell overboard and drowned, and once Mr. Bennet goes out to sea again Leland will make sure the nets of his (and other fishermen, so as not to arouse suspicions) ships are always full, and every once in a while he and other fishermen who Mr. Bennet recommends will find trinkets worth a little money in their catch as well. When Mary and Leland swim off together, Mary having been turned into a mermaid by Leland's magic, he knows they will be happy and that matters more to him than anything else.
who’s the witch and who’s the familiar: Mary is a witch in a family or witches and warlocks who struggles with casting nonverbal spells. Her sister Lizzie gets her husband, who specializes in nonverbal spell casting, to help her, and her first spell brings her a sleek black cat almost unbidden. The cat says his name is Leland, and he wasn't always a cat; when Darcy and Darcy's friend Wickham were children a spell went awry and Wickham turned him into a cat. Not only that, Wickham refused to even try and turn him back, being cast away from Darcy's family into the militia after Darcy's father no longer needed to care for him. Darcy had tried to communicate with his old friend for years but no matter what they couldn't communicate. Leland promised to help Mary in her studies if she would look for the counter-spell, and she agreed. As she spent more of her time with Leland she grew quite fond of him, even thinking she had fallen in love with him. She began to spend quite a bit of time at Pemberley with Leland, Darcy, Lizzie and Darcy's sister Georgiana, and became as close to Georgiana as Lizzie was. One afternoon Georgiana confides to Mary that she thinks something is happening to her as she's sleeping. Mary uses a cloaking spell to hide herself and Leland in Georgiana's bedroom chamber that evening and she discovers Wickham has broken into Pemberley using dark magic and is casting spells on Georgiana as she sleeps to break down the protective bonds her brother put on her to keep Wickham from using her to enact revenge. Mary uses her own magic to freeze him in the process, with Leland keeping an eye on him while she gets her sister and Darcy. Darcy forces Wickham to use his powers to change Leland back into a human before taking him up on charges, and realizing he has no other choice, Wickham transforms Leland back into a human before he's taken before the magical magistrate. Afterward, Leland and Mary get married, as Leland had fallen in love with her too, and they leave to go to Leland's manor, which Darcy had kept in good shape once his father had passed, just in case the spell on Leland could be reversed.
who’s the barista and who’s the coffee addict: Mary is the owner of a small cafe in the village where Leland's country manor is located, who he swears makes the best coffee in all of England. When he's busy writing his novels he'll call her up for his usual coffee order and she'll usually toss in pastries if it's in the morning or a freshly made sandwich if it's in the afternoon, and she'll stay and chat for a bit if she can. He knows he's far older than she might be interested in when it comes to having a beau, but he's smitten with her. On one visit, he's reading a passage on the phone to his editor when she comes in (his butler had just so happened for her to overhear him because he wants Leland to be happy and he can see Mary fancies him too) and she's just standing there, mesmerized, when he finally realizes he has company. She asks if he could read her more later and they arrange to have dinner that evening at the manor with him reading the first chapter of his newest work to her afterward. It's becomes a standing date, every other evening, and it's a tradition that continues once they get married, though once they have children Leland switches to writing children's books on the side and uses his son and daughter as his test audience for those (their mum still gets the steamy romance passages to herself).
who’s the professor and who’s the TA: Leland is the assistant to the head of the Faculty of English at a university in England and Mary is a TA for the most heinous creative writing professor to ever exist. Mary is currently working on a post-graduate Master's degree in English Studies, and while both Leland and Mary's bosses are utter arseholes, when Mary and others come out against the professor she TAs for that he's sexually harassing female students, Leland is asked to take over the course until a replacement can be found. Leland is an instant hit with the students, and his former boss realizes Leland has an aptitude for teaching and, doing a rare thing that benefits someone else, releases Leland from his original job to become the new professor. While Leland is quite happy to be a teacher, there's just one slight problem: he had a drunken one night stand with Mary just before he got the position after they were commiserating about things. Fortunately, Mary assures him if they can get through the rest of the term without incident, she will gladly start a relationship with him, a task Leland finds easier said than done...
who’s the knight and who’s the prince(ss): Leland is an older knight set to lead Princess Mary's guard detail, a task he has had since she was born. He has watched her grow up, and seen her being ignored by her parents, her sisters and any potential suitors. But he also knows a life behind the scenes is a life she prefers. Her father already has daughters born ahead of her, both of whom are married and Jane is already next in line for the throne with her husband ruling beside her and their child as heir, and so when Mary is five and twenty the king realizes she is not happy and he asks her what she wants most. Mary says she wants a life where she is no longer part of the royal court. She had studied with the servants in how to run a household and she would make someone a good wife in one of the villages in the kingdom. The unspoken part, which her father is aware of, is that she would prefer her husband to be Leland. The king calls Leland and Mary into a conversation in his private chambers and informs Leland that he has been chosen to wed Princess Mary and would be given a parcel of land with a sturdy home on the property, so the king could do at least one thing that would make Princess Mary happy. Leland is shocked until Mary confesses she has loved him many years and this is what she truly wants. They have a small wedding with Mary's family and the rest of her guards there, and she gives them their pensions so they may retire, and then she sets off with Leland for the simple life she had always wanted with the man she has always loved.
who’s the teacher and who’s the single parent: Mary is the teacher and Leland is the single "parent" to his goddaughter Emily, who came into his care when she and her parents were in an accident. Emily's father died but her mother is still alive, though the accident paralyzed her from the waist down and she's trying to build her strength up and learn to navigate their new life, literally and figuratively. Emily's mother reached out for help to her friends and family and only Leland responded, moving into Emily's home and using his wealth to help make their lives easier. Mary was already Emily's teacher at her secondary school and Emily was her favourite student (even though Mary was aware she shouldn't have favourites). Once Emily was up for visitors Mary brought school work as well as home-cooked meals and little treats, both from herself and other teachers at the school. As Leland, Emily and her mother adjusted to their new lives together, Leland appreciated everything Mary was doing for them and after a few months asked Mary out for dinner, surprising (and delighting) Mary. When they eventually got married, Emily was their flower girl and Mary had Emily's mother as her maid of honour, and she moved in with Leland, Emily and her mother as if that was the most natural thing in the world until Emily's mother got into a serious relationship of her own with a man Emily adored as much as her father, and then she and Leland started life together on their own but with Emily and her mom still a part of it.
who’s the writer and who’s the editor: Leland is the writer and Mary is his editor. They work remotely at first, with Leland sequestered in his manor home as he writes and Mary at Longbourn when she edits the books. They have met a few times in person with neither aware that Mary is the editor of Kathleen Fenwick's romance novels, as Leland does not let many know his pseudonym, since a male writing romance novels is generally frowned upon. Mary's sister Lizzie is engaged to Darcy, a friend of Leland's, and they don't realize they know each other on a professional level until Leland overhears Mary telling someone a few tidbits about the book she's editing (without giving away important details, of course) at the wedding reception. Leland pulls her aside into a private room and asks her how she knows details from his newest novel before realizing he meant to say Kathleen Fenwick's newest novel, and the two of them put two and two together and share a comfortable (though slightly awkward) laugh. Mary admits that if she had known that Leland was the author she would have told him it was like he was breathing her fantasies to life, and he admits that he had been basing the heroine of his newest novel on her, as he couldn't get her out of his mind while they were dealing with various wedding related issues. Mary, being emboldened by his admission, goes up to him and kisses him on the mouth, and they take advantage of the relative privacy to recreate the passion in his books (they manage to get more or less back to looking decent, but when they both leave within the hour Lizzie and Darcy aren't too terribly surprised and privately wish the new couple well)
Can you please explain your dialogue theory of fanfiction?
In short, that dialogue, more than anything, makes or breaks a fanfic. What do posts like "He would not fucking say that" and "They would NOT have communication skills that good" have in common? Talk. Characters expressing themselves to one another. The faithful recreation of identifiable speech patterns is weighted heavily in the evaluation of a fic's quality. By "speech patterns" I do not just mean the semantic content of a given character's expression, but idiosyncrasies of style and slang, vocabulary and idiom, even gesture, musicality, and rhythm.
Of course believable dialogue is far from the only thing that makes a good fanfic Good. And there are forms of fic writing, particularly highly abbreviated ones like drabbles and ficlets, that in practice tend to de-emphasize its significance. But if we are talking about the romantic, erotic shippy stuff that is the meat and potatoes of online fandom, dialogue does the heaviest lifting short of the consummation itself. Arguably more so! It's the real keystone to the catharsis, and often the catalyst for it. Is there a confession occurring? A provocation? An evasion or ultimatum? Zoom out, big picture: What is the most potent and fundamental mechanic for developing complexity, tension, and transformation within a relationship, getting it to go from one thing to another? Making these two idiots talk to each other! Often clumsily and indirectly and maladaptively, at the worst possible time and in the worst possible situation, about anything or everything but what they should be — but talk they usually do.
What makes fanfic specifically so challenging and rewarding in this regard is that the talking is as much a feat of translation as invention, because both reader and writer are working off an existing model. Liberties taken with plot, form, and even narrative voice have wider buffer zones; you can get creative with circumventing the events of canon while still conforming to its emotional and substantive essence.
But the training wheels come off the moment you open your mouth to speak in another character's voice. And man, nothing will break a reader's immersion quite like he would not fucking say that.
To be fair, I owe you, like, a gazillion fics now and it's taking me forever to write them, so you taking a long time to read them feels sort of justified to me...
incredibly pleased that everyone is following the instructions i forgot to give and reblogging to explain their choice in the tags 🙏 more of that please i want to know about your ocs and also i love you
i know that some folks love telling creative people that “you should be doing it for fun because you love it not for the compliments” but creative people thrive on feedback whether it’s critical or just complimentary
so when i write fanfiction and don’t get any actual feedback i feel like i spent all that time and energy doing it for nothing because i’m not getting feedback from the people i wrote it for
doing something you’re proud of and then presenting it to the sound of utter silence is like the worst feeling on earth
i like to think: what if you were in a play and you spend all that time learning your lines and your cues and going to rehearsal for hours and hours and being bone tired and then getting up on stage opening night and giving it your all only to be met with silence from the audience at the final curtain call. No one would question why that upset them.
An art instructor in my childhood said something to me I’ve never forgotten - that a work of art isn’t complete until it has been experienced - seen, heard, etc. That this wasn’t just some abstract concept, but a visceral truth for the artist - that the work wasn’t DONE until the end result had been witnessed, appreciated, critiqued - whatever, it didn’t have to be positive negative knowledgable, it just had to happen as the concluding event, the final brush stroke.
Some folks who don’t get it go about thinking we make art or write fic because we crave praise or attention or fans, or even that some writers/artists thrive on negativity and drama (and to be sure, all of these things are true some times!). But that’s too narrow an understanding of why we art. I think my art teacher was telling a fundamental truth about the psychology of creativity - that art is a communal experience, that until we share our creative work and see how people respond, we do not have closure on that work.
Art is communication - and communication shouted into the void is frighteningly isolating. We need our readers our viewers our audience. We need to hear what you think. We need to converse in comments, answer your counter thoughts or thoughtful critique, we need the conversation - that’s what art is :)
Never feel bad for desiring feedback - it’s not some extra frill that exists outside of the creative process. It is a critical part of the creative process - and if you cannot find your audience in one venue, don’t give up. Keep putting your art out there until your audience finds you :)
