Craving a little Holiday Fluff? Maybe some pining not in the form of trees? Some miscommunication and cute towns that want to make you move out of the city?
Inspired by the adorably sweet Christmas movies that grace our screens this time of year, I give you...
Make my Wish Come True
"Steve Rogers and Tony Stark haven't seen each other since they left for college. When they're reunited in the same small town where they grew up, old feelings resurface that neither expected. Can they work together without letting their feelings get in the way. Or will they be left heartbroken when they both have to leave after the holidays?
A story about going home, going for what you want, and delicious cookies."
~ Updates Tuesdays and Fridays ~
Chapter 1 is up!
Note: I have opened comments to guests on this one, so even if you don't have AO3, you can leave some love ā¤
Ukazu says, a rising tide lifts all boats, including the S.S. Check, Please! Sheās hopeful that the success of Heated Rivalry, as well as another queer romance graphic novel-turned-TV show Heartstopper, will make the dream of seeing her work onscreen into a reality: The book has been optioned for adaptation. ā Vanity Fair
Check, Please! has been optioned for a film/television adaptation. A while ago, actuallyāand thatās lovely. Nevertheless, the vast majority of options do not become television because it takes a million things going right to get projects off the ground.
That being said.
Ahem.
Speaking of getting projects off the ground...
From when Bitty first stepped out into the rink at Faber, to when he kissed the ice at graduation, we've all been part of this fun, weird, magical world of Samwell hockey. But when I left the world of Samwell hockey, I left knowing Jack and Bitty's story was done. Bitty's journey as the first openly gay NCAA Division I hockey captain was done. We baked the last pie; we shut off the lights at the kegster; the story was complete.
ā¦But as I looked around I realized, I had one more story to tell.
Which is why I'm thrilled to announce that a brand new volume of Check, Please! will be serialized in 2026. Dozens of new comics, exciting update drops, your favorite characters with brand new storylines, and characters you've yet to meet.
Hello, Internet LandāSMH is coming home.
This fifth year of Check, Please! will be filled with shenanigans, drama, hockey, pies, Haus parties, and a new message of acceptance that is near and dear to me. And it's been brewing over the last year and half! But with the latest boom in queer hockey stories, I figured, hey! ĀÆ\(ć)/ĀÆ Here's another one to look forward to. :)
Marginalized athletes still face harmful bigotry, and for this reason, queer sports stories are more important than ever. I love Samwell hockey and how each of you has embraced this roster of athletes.
There's so much more to come.
Ngozi
šš„§ā¤ļø
=
MORE NEWS? SURE:
Iāll be at Emerald City Comic Con 2026, and yes, I will be dropping exclusive details aboutĀ Check, Please! Year Fived during my spotlight panel:Ā Ngozi Ukazu - From Check, Please! to DC and Back!Ā (Be there!)
Follow me on Patreon for behind-the-scenes on the making of Check, Please!: Year Five. I'm gonna livestream...a lot.
If only there were an original mm romance that you could read right now while you wait for moreĀ Year FiveĀ updates! Good newsāJohn Rich & The Big PictureĀ is very cute and laugh-out-loud funny and you can read it now, for free.
My latest graphic novel FLIP has made the best-of lists for the New York Public Library, the A.V. Club, Kirkus Books, School & Library Journalāand more.Ā Get it here.
Looking for a place to talk about fanfiction, fanart and other fanworks related to Heated Rivalry and the greater Game Changers Series - I was too!
Welcome to our home for Game Changers Transformative Works! | 2 members
Right now it's a small, brand new community, and I'm hoping it can grow into a place to sprint words with friends, sketch boys playing hockey and kissing and kissing while playing hockey (or whatever else your heart desires), plan and get hyped for year round events, chat about the new show, and whatever else our hearts desire!
To celebrate the release of the Heated Rivalry TV series on Crave (premiering Nov 28), weāre feeding fandomās biggest Crave-ings with a fanworks event. š
AO3: Event Page
More info: FAQ
How to Participate
Submit a prompt youāve been craving to see filled.
Fellow Game Changer fans can claim it with fic, art, moodboards, or other fanworks.
Heated Rivalry focus, but any character or ship is welcome.
Schedule
Sign-ups: Open now
Sign-ups close: Thu, Nov 27, 2025
Claims Reveals: Fri, Nov 28, 2025
More Info
No minimum word count for fic fills.
You can submit and fill multiple prompts.
Tag your posts with #FulfillACraveing and #HeatedRivalry so we can reblog.
If ANY of yall EVER do this shit to me, im deleting every single fic out of spite.
If I ever catch one of yall doing this to another author and I know youre a follower of my work I will block you personally on every platform
None of yall are the fic police. I DESPISE genai. I think its an insult to art, humanity, and the planet itself. But aint not a single fucking person here qualified to pick apart a strangers fic looking for a gotcha moment to make yourselves feel superior. If you think something is ai you can ask the author (most are proud of the ai use and will just tell you straight up) if they say yes you have your answer and can warn people. If they say no and you dont believe them you block and quietly keep it between you and maybe a close group of friends. Spreading misinformation is DANGEROUS. And NONE of you doing this shit are anywhere near qualified to do it.
Posting this here from my main too bc I feel that strongly about it
You dont get to witch hunt and scour peoples work just frothing at the mouth hoping someone messes up so you can publicly humiliate and gang up on them. Fuck genai and every single poser and lover that uses it but if you are not 1000000000% certain that something is made with it you shut. the. fuck. up.
I'm about to get mean because this shit? this pisses me all the way off.
"hurr durr these very common writing practices are SUPER OBVIOUS AI TELLS!!!!!!!!!! obviously this is an AI invention and not the result of AI being trained on THOUSANDS OF REAL FUCKING STORIES!!!!!!! we're all very intelligent!!!!!!!"
I hate yall. I hate yall for fucking ruining fanfic with your goddamn motherfucking AI obsession. "ooh there's em dashes!" YEAH REAL WRITERS USE THOSE. "there's long paragraphs!" YEAH BECAUSE THATS HOW PEOPLE WRITE STORIES.
we're not "writing like AI" - AI is writing like us, because it fucking stole from us in the first fucking place.
I've never used AI in my work, not ever, but guess what, my fics are ALL written like that. long paragraphs, long sentences, em dashes and hyphens and other grammatical tools, because I fucking know HOW TO WRITE.
quite frankly, if you think these things are "genAI inventions" you're just telling the world that YOU DON'T READ ENOUGH.
Right???? Like, tell me you don't read books or know English grammar rules without telling me you don't read books or know English grammar rules and are trying to use it as a gotcha for people who do know what they're doing.
Fuck outta here.
(Also, yes, you'll see spaces around em dashes in journalism, but for fiction and academia, it is the expected norm to not have spaces. Some people add spaces out of personal preference, but the expected norm in fiction is no spaces.
Now, if you're using an en dash, those should have spaces, but em dashes and en dashes are not the same thing!)
Also, GenAI has been trained on fanfic sites and people are straight up feeding fics into GenAIāitās no wonder that AI is now using em dashes so profusely when the source material is where it ālearnedā to do that!
There is no reliable way to tell that something is AIāAI scanners are also AI, and have very low levels of reliability, and anything you see being touted as āhallmarksā of AI is only that way because the AI has been fed enough content to ālearnā to do that.
And because there is no reliable way to tell something is GenAI unless someone tags it as such on AO3, people need to not do this shitāyou are actively contributing to a toxic and hostile fandom that will pursue claims like this to attack and harass authors, and I guarantee this will become a tool used by pro-censorship people, if itās not already.
saw an elderly woman walking around with a tote bag whose design were the four AO3 fic category squares and she very excitedly asked if i was a reader or a writer bcs nobody else at the con had recognized it, and after telling her that i've been writing fic since fanfic.net, she solemnly nodded and explained that she'd been reading fic since "the days of personal websites" but that she only started writing fanfic when she was 47 and oh my god when i tell you that i genuinely teared up on the spot!!!!! like!!! HELL YEAH???? LITERALLY NEVER TOO OLD TO START WRITING. NEVER TOO OLD TO WRITE AND SHARE YOUR FIC.
her enthusiastic "i'm a very nice and bubbly person, i swear! but i love writing angst and major character death :)" nearly took me the fuck out.
icon. legend. diva. i wish her nothing but a kajillion million comments and kudos. i hope her fic updates crash AO3. i hope she knows i'm promoting her to my personal patron saint of AO3.
