Michelle 🏴 (she/her) ✨ Primarily a Malec/SH vault 🍸 Also a scrapbook of other interests📔 Those with A GSOH need only say Hi!🃏 Occasionally NSFW 🔞 #FicRec is a care-worn tag here! 🫶 I string sentences together on AO3!📝
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Shadowhunters (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Characters: Magnus Bane, Alec Lightwood
Additional Tags: Enemies to Friends, First Meetings, Alternate Universe - Witches, Undercover Missions, magic fights, even when they're on opposite sides they can't help but like each other
Summary:
Magnus is a witch. Alec is the witch-hunter tasked with bringing him in.
(Two of these things are true, one is only half-true)
@lynne-monstr This was a blast to read, such cool details! Thanks for sharing, my dear! 💚
Alec x Magnus. T. Canon-typical violence. Heavily implied character death.
Shadowhunters don’t die in their beds. Neither do many warlocks.
Alec and Magnus go on one last mission.
*
When Alec falls, Magnus doesn’t sense it.
His hands are full of the demon they’ve cornered in Prospect Park. Its many bending arms have bruised his ribs and the fangs of its multiple mouths raked his arm. Worse, it’s a magic-eater: it’s consumed eight Seelies and four warlocks in the last week, and this is why he and Alec volunteered to join the hunt tonight. Almost makes me feel young again, Alec joked as he got off the phone with Izzy.
Magnus ran his hands through the spreading gray and wayward black of his hair, and said, Take it easy, Mr. Lightwood. Don’t forget your knees.
My knees are fine, Alec said, and then Magnus had to push him out the door to stop the practical demonstration of just how well his knees still fared.
He should not have. He should have let Alec keep him there, safe inside their door, wrapped up in each other.
Shadowhunters. Alec x Magnus. E. Chapter 14/14. 7,800 words.
Summary:
It's definitely them. It's a very involved kiss, possibly the French kind. The video keeps looping. Alec stabs it into a pause with an unsteady thumb.
Fellow students and friends, Alec and Magnus have a well-established housemate arrangement. It's thrown for a loop when a kiss gone public threatens Alec's ability to stay—so Magnus suggests a foolproof solution. What's a little marriage of convenience between friends, after all?
i.e. a university AU with 1) fake marriage 2) mutual pining 3) slice-of-life 4) smutty romantic drama
In this part: It's a new day, ready for the seizing.
@poemsfromthealley Forgive my belated reblog and comments, but believe me, this will be read again and again! Love your writing, and this is no exception! I'll miss this AU! 🩷
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Additional Tags: Background Clary Fray/Isabelle Lightwood, BBC Merlin inspired, Yuletide, First Meetings, Royal Alec Lightwood, Warlock Magnus Bane, Canon-Typical Violence
Series: Part 7 of All I Want For Christmas Is You
Summary:
When a routine hunt goes wrong, Crown Prince Alexander of Idris finds himself at the mercy of his kingdom’s greatest enemy: a warlock. Except this one doesn’t seem intent on carving out his heart or turning him into a frog. Rather, he seems more preoccupied with helping him.
Or: in which Alec is the heir to the throne, Magnus is an all-powerful warlock, and they keep saving each other’s lives when they’re supposed to be mortal enemies.
(BBC Merlin inspired AU)
@notcrypticbutcoy Hope you don’t mind my third and final fic rec love bomb of the day! Just glad to be caught up on the well-deserved comments! Thanks for sharing, my dear! 💚
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 21/25
Fandom: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Clary Fray/Isabelle Lightwood, Ragnor Fell/Raphael Santiago
Characters: Alec Lightwood, Magnus Bane, Clary Fray, Maia Roberts, Isabelle Lightwood, Jace Wayland, Asmodeus, Simon Lewis, Ragnor Fell, Camille Belcourt, Jordan Kyle, Raphael Santiago, Dorothea "Dot" Rollins, Max Lightwood
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, Tattoo Artist Magnus Bane, Writer Alec Lightwood, Tattoos, Happy Ending, Secrets, Confident Alec Lightwood, Thirsty Magnus Bane, Thirsty Alec Lightwood, Mutual Pining, Mutual Pining (low angst edition), Misunderstandings, Texting, Light Angst, Frottage, Blow Jobs
Summary:
Clary walked back to Magnus’ space, knocked on the doorway, and waited for him to look up from his current project. “Hey, I know you don’t usually take walk-ins and it’s your day off, but you’re the only one available at the moment, and something tells me you’re gonna want to take this one.”
Or...
Alec Lightwood is an author with a little secret.
Magnus Bane is a tattoo artist with a much bigger secret.
Their worlds collide when Alec comes into Magnus' shop to get his first tattoo.
** POSTING HIATUS FOR FORESEEABLE FUTURE. (But I still think about it EVERY day and the best/most satisfying way to finish it. Why are endings so hard? And why is real life and work getting in the way so much??)**
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Magnus Bane & Ragnor Fell
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Small Town, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Mentions of Cancer, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Family Dynamics
Summary:
Being recognised is the last thing Magnus wants when he returns to his small, beachy hometown, hoping to make peace with the past he's tried so hard to forget. The universe is clearly playing some kind of cosmic joke, he thinks, when he runs into an old flame working behind the same counter he did at age eighteen.
As Magnus tries to move on from his past, there's something that keeps tugging his gaze over his shoulder. What is Alec Lightwood doing stuck in the sluggish pace of small town life?
Or: in which Magnus despises small towns, everyone has a tragic backstory, and Magnus and Alec learn that choosing themselves brings good things.
@notcrypticbutcoy Belated congrats, once again, sweetheart! 🩷
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 5/?
Fandom: Shadowhunters (TV)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Characters: Magnus Bane, Alec Lightwood, Isabelle Lightwood, Jace Wayland, Clary Fray, Simon Lewis, Maia Roberts
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Enemies to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Mutual Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Banter, Hate to Love, Idiots in Love, only true love can make you act this dumb, Falling In Love, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Summary:
Alec and Magnus have a reputation for ruining holidays amongst their friend group. From the mistletoe incident to the infamous Halloween massacre (no one even came close to dying, despite what Simon claims). But this Christmas is special as it might be the last one they all spend together in their hometown before everyone moves away and Magnus is determined to make it the best ever. Starting with a promise to the others that he and Alec can get along and not ruin Christmas. Again. But they wouldn’t be them if there wasn’t a healthy dose of friendly competition, right? Anyone who says you can’t win at Christmas isn’t trying hard enough.
Also known as: that moment you stop believing in the magic of Christmas but true love helps convince you it was real all along.
@imawriteriwrite Thanks for sharing this fic, it’s a blast so far! 💚
Relationships: Alec Lightwood x Magnus Bane, Isabelle Lightwood x Clary Fray
Words: 3,979/?
Chapters: 1 of 7
Summary: In a life so long ago that Alec sometimes wonders if it was even real, he was stabbed in the chest with a cursed sword, and the shard of it lodged inside his heart has turned him immortal.
For hundreds of years, Alec has watched all his loved ones die over and over again, unable to resist seeking out their reincarnations in every life. He longs for the peace and release of death, but learns that only a descendant of the enemy king who stabbed him can remove the sword fragment from his heart.
Alec has been looking for the person who is fated to finally kill him for a long time — but he hadn’t been counting on meeting Magnus Bane.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 15/15
Fandom: Shadowhunters (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Characters: Magnus Bane, Alec Lightwood, Jace Herondale, Isabelle Lightwood, Maryse Lightwood, Robert Lightwood, Luke Garroway, Simon Lewis, Clary Fray, Jocelyn Fray, Original Male Character(s), Original Female Character(s), Camille Belcourt, Raj (Shadowhunter Chronicles)
Additional Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Minor Character Death, Homophobia, Mutual Pining, Friends to Lovers, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Malec, mentions of domestic abuse, Eventual Smut, Slow Burn, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Temporary Magnus/others, Temporary Alec/others
Summary:
When Magnus Bane walks into Alec’s third grade classroom, a scowl printed on his face and a permanent chip on his shoulder, Alec has no idea that, one day, this scrawny smart-ass will mean the world to him.
He has even less idea that he’ll mean just as much to Magnus.
In which Magnus and Alec are destined for each other, everyone around them can see it, and sometimes, love is found in the most unexpected places.
(Childhood best friends to lovers AU, set over fifteen years.)
@notcrypticbutcoy Thanks for sharing, and Bravo! 💚
Chapters: 9/9
Fandom: Shadowhunters (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Characters: Magnus Bane, Alec Lightwood
Additional Tags: Stuff
Summary:
“Darling,” Magnus began, wincing painfully, “I don’t think anything is supposed to be that shade of green.” He rubbed Alec’s tense shoulders as he heard a defeated sigh. “How did green end up on the ceiling, my lovely?” he asked, squinting up at the bright green splatter.
“Some bad things may have happened,” Alec allowed, sounding precipitously close to peevish.
@unrestrainedlyexcessive Thanks for sharing this, and Bravo! 🩷
🍍 write any AU in no more than 5,000 words
🍍 it's an AU if you say it is!
🍍 all fandoms, all ships + ofic welcome
🍍 post any time in August
🍍 open to writers 14 & up. discord not required
Tumblr! They’re here. Communities are finally here.
Communities are a new and easy way to connect with the people on Tumblr who get it. You can invite mutuals who share your obsessions to a private Community or start a public Community for the things you love and watch all the new friends pile in. Like a clown car, Communities can fit (almost) as many people in ‘em as you want.
Today, we’re hatching Communities out of their beta shell and launching them at your collective Tumblr experience—for you to enjoy and tinker with as we continue to build them out. We’re talking globally, on web, iOS, and Android. Buckle up, baby. We’re going to be so normal about this.
You can make a Community for just about anything. Art. Gravity Falls. Knitting. Your current D&D campaign. Photography. Obscure ships. The gay people in your phone. Music. Science. Fashion. Design. Baldur’s Gate 3. You’re the wielder of your own destiny. And, thanks to our delightful early testing users, there are already so many for you to join. Hazbin Hotel? Check. Arcane? Check. The Phandom? Check, check, check.
How do you get started?
You can browse Communities over here.
Find specific Communities by tapping the Communities tab at the top of the search results page.
Want to create your very own Community? Right this way, maestro.
Here’s a help doc for any questions you might have.
We’re excited to see what you do with this. Go forth, hang out, have fun.
A Simple Guide to Not Being Afraid to Write Comments to Fic You Read
I've seen a lot of posts about the current state of fanfiction comments. Writers, especially writers who have been in fandom for a decade or more, are frustrated by the lack of comments, and have noticed a definite decline in comments (and all other forms of reader interaction) in the past ten years or so. Many readers feel daunted by the expectation of leaving comments, afraid they'll do something wrong. As a fandom old maid, the latter confused me for a while, until I realized that most of the people who feel that way probably have not been taught this form of communication.
But your loving fandom elders are here for you. Come along as your auntie tumblr user icemankazansky makes this shit easy.
The easiest way to think of fanfiction comment etiquette is to compare it to something you likely already know: Gift Receiving Etiquette.
Fanfiction began as largely a gift economy. And a lot of it still is! You'll see authors participate in exchanges like Yuletide and Id Pro Quo; those are ficswaps in which authors write for a specific person to specific prompts. And even outside that, fanfiction is not written for money; authors write and post it simply for the joy of creation and community with fellow fans. Fic is posted free for anyone to enjoy. Is that not a gift?
So. When you as a reader finish the chapter or story you're reading and you are faced with the comment box, try to follow the same etiquette you would when receiving a gift. (And even if you didn't love this gift and it's not your favorite gift ever, we already know that it's more useful than the products from your cousin's MLM that they're passing off as gifts, because you read the story. At the very least, it entertained you for the time you took to read it.)
The big rule of gift receiving etiquette is not to insult the person who gave you the gift, either directly or indirectly. That's it. Full stop.
I've been seeing a lot of comments lately that are just along the lines of, "Thank you for writing this story and sharing it with us." A+, top of the class, full marks, you're doing amazing. If you don't feel comfortable commenting on the story itself, that is perfect feedback. And that's the most basic way you respond to a gift, yes? Thank you for the gift. Thank you for thinking of me. Thank you for sharing.
Does this rule mean that you cannot say anything at all that might be negative about anything? No, absolutely not. What you want to avoid is saying something that is, at its core, a negative evaluation of the author or their work. Let's do some examples.
Character A's obliviousness about Character B's MASSIVE crush on them made me so frustrated! I was tearing my hair out internally screaming, "JUST LET HIM LOVE YOU."
✔️ Excellent comment! You're allowed to have all sorts of feelings about things that happen in the story, and in fact authors LOVE to hear about any emotions they made you feel. Yes, frustration is not a positive emotion, but the thing you are expressing frustration about is not the author themselves or their shortcomings.
Contrast that to:
I was really frustrated that it took you so long to post this chapter. The cliffhanger at the end of the previous chapter had me tearing my hair out, and then you just left us hanging FOREVER!
❌ Nope! Here what you are expressing is frustration with the author and how fast they come out with new chapters. Imagine your sister buys you a gift for your birthday, but she isn't able to give it to you until the next week, and you respond with: "What took you so long?" I think Emily Post would frown on that.
Reframing
The way you say something and the point of view from which you give feedback can have a HUGE impact on the message you're sending. Let's take the last comment (the one about wanting an update) and see what happens when we reframe the same sentiment as a positive:
I was SO EXCITED to see that you updated this story! I have really been looking forward to seeing what happened after the cliffhanger in the last chapter.
✔️ Now it's not an insult. The author will be happy to know that you are happy to see new work from them.
This idea extends beyond the story itself: to the fandom, the characters, the pairing, the tropes, etc. Let's do some examples.
I looooove reading about these sexy boys SO IN LOVE even though the movie you're writing about is SOOOOO problematic.
❌ Nope! Assume that the author enjoys the canon, characters, pairing, etc. in the stories they write. This comment is insulting to the author because it basically says, "That thing you love is not great, and you should probably feel bad for liking it." Imagine your aunt gifts you a sweater from a popular retailer, and you respond with, "This is so cute, I love it! It's a shame that it was made in a sweatshop." Do you have a valid point about the canon or the retailer's business practices? You very well might. Is this the proper time and place to talk about it? Absolutely not.
Let's do a reframing exercise. You should be very careful about how you approach commenting negatively on anything in the story that appears in the tags list, but you can make it a compliment and good feedback if you have the right perspective. See the difference with these two approaches:
I kind of think frottage is disgusting, but I liked it in this story.
❌ Nope! You just told the author you think their kink is disgusting. That's like telling your poor aunt who is just trying to keep you warm this winter that she has awful taste in knitwear. Try again.
Frottage normally isn't my kink, but I love your other stories with this pairing, so I decided to give it a try, and I'm SOOOOO GLAD that I did! This story was 🔥🔥🔥
✔️ "This normally isn't my thing, but you made me expand my horizons!" Authors love to hear that. That's like telling your aunt, "I never thought this color looked good on me, but I look so cute in this sweater! I'm so glad you helped me step outside my comfort zone, because I'm the better for it."
thank u, next
The last thing I want to address is this new trend I've seen in commenting lately: placing an order. If your mom surprises you with new headphones, you don't respond with, "I wanted the white ones 🙁," or, "You should get me a new phone, too." It's easy to see why that isn't appropriate in a gifting situation, and it's also not appropriate when commenting on fanfiction.
Let's do some examples:
This fic was soooo cute, but it would have been a million times better if Character A had been with Character C instead of Character B.
❌ There are a few things going on here. Number one, you're telling your mom you wanted the white headphones, not the ones she actually bought you. You're also disparaging the A/B pairing that the author chose to write about, and as we discussed, we can assume that the author wrote the pairing because they liked it. Even if it's not their favorite and/or they also write A/C, they made a choice for this story to be A/B, and the comments section of a fic is not the place to question choices the author made in their own work.
You should write a story where Character Z who is not even in this story does [thing that is vaguely referenced in the B plot].
❌ "You should get me a new phone, too."
I want a sequel. 😞
❌ "Thank you, next!"
You can reframe this kind of sentiment if you are careful about it, and it's not all you say.
I really loved this story. I would be so interested to see these ideas explored further if you ever decide to write more in this universe.
✔️ Not "gimme." Not "more." This is, "If you build it, I will come." It is a HUGE difference.
You already know how to do this. You know how to graciously accept a gift; just use that same etiquette, and boom! Now you know how to fearlessly write a comment to fic you read. You're doing amazing. Go forth and comment.
see i think it is 100% normal and fine and whatever to be annoyed by other people's terrible takes on your favourite lil guys like god knows i'm a hater when it comes to people being wrong having different opinions than me, but at the end of the day you do gotta remember that this is not a moral issue and simply not that deep. like yeah yeah the horrors but also this is all made up and not real and literally fine and people smashing dolls in a way you personally don't like is nothing to start throwing sand about. in fact starting to throw sand is how you lose
Okay, you know what? After reading this post, I jokingly said we should all just make a pact to reblog it five times a day forever. So I'm gonna do this louder for the people in the back:
AO3 WAS CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS
AO3 IS RUN BY FANS (VOLUNTEERS, NO LESS)
AO3 IS PART OF THE NON-PROFIT, ORGANIZATION FOR TRANSFORMATIVE WORKS
AO3 IS NOT OWNED BY ANY COMPANIES AND DOES NOT EARN REVENUE
Ao3 is like the one space left where I don’t feel like I’m drowning in capitalism. There’s no membership fee to access, I’m not assaulted by clickbait ads covering every inch of my screen. Writers are generously gifting their stories. They aren’t beholden to anyone’s schedule but their own, there’s no algorithm to feed or jump through hoops for. They write about the fandoms that inspire them, expanding on worlds or deep diving into character studies. They experiment with tropes and language and style and genre, no matter how “marketable” it is.
In a world where everything is increasingly commodified and regulated and restricted I cherish this little corner of the internet more fiercely.
