stevie ✦ 30s ✦ she/they
"I’ve spent an entire year sleeping on a bed of swords and was not cut once. What I mean is my lonely looks a lot like insomnia when you hold it up to the light."
this is my fic resource blog (or my ficblr, as i like to call it). these days, my wip folder is a mess dominated by rwrb projects, but i've been known to read/rec fic from other fandoms i'm in. you will probably see them in my fic recs.
other handy links:
fic tag | snippets
references | prompts
permission statement
note: you do not have my permission to share my fic (in whole or in part) with the cast, crew, or authors of the original source material. this includes fanbindings, other printings, or even just mentioning details about my fanfiction in a discussion.
This isn’t anything like what Henry went through standing outside the Austin house and trying to gather his nerves; it isn’t Alex’s one and only golden opportunity to make a great first impression on Henry’s whole family, to prove right out of the gate that he’s the crème de la crème of royal suitors. He pretty much kissed that goodbye, so to speak, when he actually met them all at the pinnacle of a great big implied-sex scandal that he accidentally kickstarted, single-handedly trebucheting Henry headfirst out of the closet and directly into a colossal media shitstorm.
After something like that, it seems a little late in the game to be worrying about putting his best foot forward.
Or: the epilogue - because the best part of the happy ending is getting to live in it.
Admit it, you would be lost without me: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64206118/chapters/197148586
This skin has received a major update—please review the instructions carefully as many changes have been made! Thanks to ZerafinaCSS's refactoring of the neos skin using AO3's new variable system, we now have streamlined, cleaner code along with some added fixes and color adjustments.
When updating, be sure update all of the skins.
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They're finally here! After much ✨ pain and suffering ✨, Rosé Pine skins have finally arrived. Credits to the lovely @zerafinacss for the original neos skin, which forms the bulk of the codebase.
If you notice any issues, feel free to drop a comment on AO3 or shoot me a direct message here.
Also, be sure to check out my userscripts which pair nicely with these skins:
AO3: Advanced Blocker - Filter works by tags, authors, titles, word counts, language, completion status, update frequency, primary pairings / characters, and much more.
AO3: Skin Switcher - Change skins from anywhere on the site without losing your original place.
AO3: Site Wizard - Change fonts and font sizes from anywhere on the site; automatically fix spacing issues.
AO3: Chapter Shortcuts - Adds a shortcut button to jump straight to the most recent chapter of any work.
AO3: Reading Time & Quality Score - Adds customizable reading time and engagement score bars to every work. See how long a chapter will take and hide work metrics.
“Drop the fucking gloves, asshole!” June looks as though she’s about ready to scale the glass panelling and jump onto the ice herself, five and a half feet of pure unbridled Claremont-Diaz rage. Nora is clutching her around the waist like a seatbelt, the only thing keeping her from doing something that would absolutely get her arrested in the middle of Madison Square Garden.
The thing is, Henry can’t exactly blame her. He doesn’t consider himself a violent person, but—well, he went and fell in love with a professional hockey player, didn’t he? Apparently a bit of bloodthirstiness has rubbed off on him, because he finds himself roaring with approval as Alex’s opponent’s gloves hit the ice, his voice cracking in a way he knows will mean a lot of lemon tea tomorrow.
And then Alex dives, and Henry’s heart plummets straight into his shoes.
Or, Hockey Boyfriend Henry (Part 3 and final) is now on AO3!
paper cut stings from our paper-thin plans
for @b13-maybethistime
✨ 10.3k WORDS ✨ RATED M ✨ CANON DIVERGENCE ✨
“Whoa, wha—”
Alex goes a little cross-eyed as he watches her brush his curls back from his forehead. It reminds him of when he was a toddler, and June insisted on tucking him in at night.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Her fingers absently comb through his hair. “I need you to wake up, you little shit,” she says.
Her voice is soft and fond and something else that Alex can’t put his finger on. It could pass as the answer to his question, but Alex isn't convinced June heard him at all.
“Yeah,” he drawls, prying her hands off his face and taking a very deliberate step backward. “You’re freaking me out here, Bug.”
June's demeanor changes. Out of nowhere, her eyes go stern as stone—and there's none of that eerie softness in her voice when she speaks again. Instead, loud enough to make Alex's ears ring, she commands:
“Wake up.”
OR: Alex never makes it to Kensington because fate has other plans. Nothing like a coma to put things in perspective, huh?
Dual POV between Alex's dream and Henry's reality.
"Wait. Hold up. Is that what I was?"
The smile slips from Henry's mouth completely. "Pardon?"
"New Year's Eve. Six years ago," Alex clarifies. "Was I a battle you didn't choose?"
He watches Henry's face fall as the laughter is sucked out of him in real time; Alex instantly misses it. He wants to take it back—to stay in the version of things where he and Henry could laugh as they splashed in the water under the bridge. They can't do that now that Alex shoved Henry's head beneath the surface.
OR: Henry found a way to avoid the correspondence dinner. Alex never kissed him the Red Room. They never fell in love. Six years later, they both find themselves in New York City, living wildly different lives, and have a chance to start again.
a feel like the new generation of fanfic readers NEED to understand that clicking on a fic (interaction) does nothing. ao3 has no algorithm. your private discord discussions of fic do not reach the authors. if you do not actively engage with writers they will stop posting. this isn’t social media this is community.
"Wait. Hold up. Is that what I was?"
The smile slips from Henry's mouth completely. "Pardon?"
"New Year's Eve. Six years ago," Alex clarifies. "Was I a battle you didn't choose?"
He watches Henry's face fall as the laughter is sucked out of him in real time; Alex instantly misses it. He wants to take it back—to stay in the version of things where he and Henry could laugh as they splashed in the water under the bridge. They can't do that now that Alex shoved Henry's head beneath the surface.
OR: Henry found a way to avoid the correspondence dinner. Alex never kissed him the Red Room. They never fell in love. Six years later, they both find themselves in New York City, living wildly different lives, and have a chance to start again.
paper cut stings from our paper-thin plans
for @b13-maybethistime
✨ 10.3k WORDS ✨ RATED M ✨ CANON DIVERGENCE ✨
“Whoa, wha—”
Alex goes a little cross-eyed as he watches her brush his curls back from his forehead. It reminds him of when he was a toddler, and June insisted on tucking him in at night.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Her fingers absently comb through his hair. “I need you to wake up, you little shit,” she says. Her voice is soft and fond and something else that Alex can’t put his finger on. It could pass as the answer to his question, but Alex isn't convinced June heard him at all.
“Yeah,” he drawls, prying her hands off his face and taking a very deliberate step backward. “You’re freaking me out here, Bug.”
June's demeanor changes. Out of nowhere, her eyes go stern as stone—and there's none of that eerie softness in her voice when she speaks again. Instead, loud enough to make Alex's ears ring, she commands:
“Wake up.”
OR: Alex never makes it to Kensington because fate has other plans. Nothing like a coma to put things in perspective, huh?
your work matters, and you're not a very good judge of it.
you can have the fancy degrees and the years of experience. you can have zero idea what you're doing and nothing but a song in your heart. the way you view what you write will never be how i view what you write. which is why you gotta write whatever feels real and good and honest to ya.
i forgot this. it's really lonely to be an author. the world you slice through to carve into a page - it can't ever be fully realized. sometimes the sun is butter yellow, and i can never spread it onto toast to serve to you. i can never describe fully the feeling of a new england october, only that a place that is often too-cold is suddenly full of a strange and visceral warmth. if you're not a writer or an artist, the experience is like this: take a flower and study it. without eating it, cook me a meal that tastes like this flower.
so i didn't know how good the book is, only that i hoped beyond a hope that anyone out there might get a kick out of it. maybe someone nice will review it every few days, i thought. i just want it to help any 1 person.
i did a reading recently where far too many people were kind and thoughtful and so gentle with me that i got into my car and burst into tears. i've had a very rough year, and this experience felt like a hug. so many people telling me they love what i read from the book. and in it, listening to the laughter as i read - at jokes i have long since stopped thinking are funny - it sent a bird straight through my heart. oh shit, i thought. i've been so unnecessarily cruel to myself.
you have no idea how many people read your work and don't respond because they are too shy or busy or unsure. i have webcomics i've never commented on that i've been checking on weekly for actual years. there are artists on spotify i will never be able to see in concert. there are paintings in galleries that i couldn't afford but wanted to kiss. i love what you have made, and i have no idea how to tell you. i love you, and it hurt me and helped me and also sent me back home. i wish there was more time and more ways to shine the light back to you.
be gentle. you have no way of knowing if you're good enough, so you might as well make something that feels good to make. someone will love it. and that love is never wasted.
I'm pretty sure I've complained publicly about this obnoxious phenomenon that's been plaguing me for almost a year: I can write a fic until I've got two or three scenes left to finish, and then my brain refuses to go any further with it. I just get stuck.
And I don't know what it is... but it's so fucking annoying and I'm about to start biting people at this point.
This one particular fic is, to quote @rmd-writes, "a conversation and a kiss away from being done," but it hasn't budged more than a handful of words in like a month. I'm hoping that, if I share some it, something in my brain will come back online.
Here goes:
"Your country doesn't make Cornettos," Henry continues, "but the fellow at the supermarket recommended something called 'Drumsticks'?" He scrunches his nose. "They were not even remotely comparable, but… Then, I remembered another recommendation…"
With that, Henry pulls open the freezer and Alex immediately clocks the yellow box of paletas in the drawer.
"Dude, these were my entire fucking childhood," he says, immediately snatching the box and fishing out a coconut bar. "When did I…? I don't even remember talking about…"
Henry chuckles, politely taking the box and selecting one of the strawberry ones.
"Christmas," he explains. "You mentioned Helados when you rang me at Christmas. I was walking aimlessly down the freezer aisle when I first arrived in the city, and…"
"And you just happened to remember some random brand of ice cream I mentioned?"
Henry's answering smile seems sad.
"Alex," he says, achingly sincere. "I remember everything."
Tagging some lovelies under the cut. If you have not been tagged and you want to be, consider this your tag!
Thanks to my beloved @kiwiana-writes and @stereopticons for the tag! I've never played this one before.
RULES: post the first lines of your last 10 fics/chapters posted on AO3 (if you have less than 10 fics posted, post the first lines of all your fics) and try to draw some conclusions.
So, disclaimer... There's a huge gap in dates between my last three fics (excluding a drabble collection) and the rest.
I do, however, have some more recent WIPs that have the first line written, and I'm gonna fill in some gaps with those because I feel like they're more representative of my writing now. They're in order of when I started working on them, and then I hit my last published fics.
First Lines:
Alex didn't plan to push Henry Fox into oncoming traffic. (all we are is skin and bones)
"That’s it," Alex says, dropping to the couch in a huff. "I’m going to lose my mind." ('till the gravity's too much)
Henry drops his well-loved copy of 'The World in the Walls' onto his nightstand, the resulting thud unreasonably loud in the silence of an otherwise empty house. (WIP)
"Alejandro! Get your ass out of bed." (WIP)
"I'm telling y'all," Alex is saying, punctuating with dangerously large bites of his pancake burrito. "The dude's a dick." (WIP)
"I've got an Earl Grey—"
Like Pavlov's bell, the words pierce through Alex's hyperfocus to ring loudly in his ears, but he doesn't let himself look up until:
"—for… Henry?" (WIP)
It's only five in the morning when Alex walks into the New York field office, only to find it's already been thrown into total chaos. (WIP)
When they’d first started dating, David had hated the days he worked at the store without Patrick. (sophomore slump (or comeback of the year)
It’s certainly not the most tasteful birthday party he’s ever had. (to david, with love)
“Really? This is where you want to do this?” (please tell me I won't wash away)
Analysis:
So, obviously, I'm one of those people who likes to start with dialogue.
My favorite ones that aren't dialogue are action-oriented.
If it's not just a line of dialogue, I apparently like identifying the POV character right away.
I actually like all but one of these quite a bit.
This was fun! Tagging: @lilythesilly, @nontoxic-writes, @rmd-writes, @ninzied, @cricketnationrise,
Thank you to @kiwiana-writes and @cha-melodius for tagging me this week. Anyone following this blog knows I'm having A Hard Time, but I appreciate y'all still including me. I swear I'm still alive, lol.
With encouragement from MJ himself and @rmd-writes, I'm not sharing words this week, but actually some discussion re: The Big Secret Collab. Because reasons.
✌️✌️✌️
Tagging some lovelies under the cut. If you have not been tagged and you want to be, consider this your tag!
one of the characters insists that every group of friends needs to have a regular Karaoke night and they expect everyone to come
their friend group is physically affectionate with each other and they don't care what other people think about that
one character gets surprised with an intervention by their friends - bonus points if the problem they’re talking about is actually not that serious
the whole friend group is living together - which is a dream and a nightmare in one
one character is sick and a bit of a handful as a patient, but they need someone to take care of them, so their friends rotate as the nurse
as their friends it was their job to check out any potential partner to see if they were worth being with their friend
the friend group loses one of their members during a parade/concert/event and are trying to find them
one character comes across a mystery in the neighborhood and they make their friends come with them to solve it
the friends wanted to have a fun night out, going to the movies or the bowling alley, but for some reason everything is closed and they have to find something else to do for fun
one of the characters has an important game or audition, etc. in a different city and their friends want to surprise them and drive there to support them. What follows is a chaotic roadtrip and the question: will they make it in time?
they were not just friends; they liked to joke that they were a dysfunctional family enough to believe it was actually true
they missed the last train/bus and it’s the middle of the night and they’re still 20 km away from the place they live/stay at
two of the characters are always bickering with each other and their friends have to figure out how to handle them together
having a chaotic friend group comes hand in hand with a truly unhinged group chat
they shared everything with their friend group, relying on their different opinions to come to a conclusion to any problem
they all met on the internet and it’s finally time for their first meeting in real life
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