Self Rec Fic Authors
Rules: Reply with your favorite five fics that you’ve written, then pass on to at least five other writers.
tagged by @starsandatoms, ty for the tag!! i actually made a series for these on ao3 but best doesn't always mean favorite so this will be fun. also i'm so sorry in advance for my long as fuck summaries no one is obligated to read all of this. spoilers for the fics in question ig!!
#5: Broken Road (spn, M, destiel, 110k)
Summary: A 14.13 Lebanon rewrite. When Dean uses a wish-granting pearl to try and kill the archangel Michael before he can escape the cage in Dean's head, they instead wind up with a newly-resurrected John Winchester.
It's been more than a decade since John died, and a lot has changed: Mary is alive, Sam and Dean have what passes for a proper home in the Men of Letters Bunker, and they're living with angels. John doesn't know angels are real, he doesn't know about the fragile new relationship between Dean and Castiel, and most of all, he doesn't know that Dean said yes to Michael, or that Dean's plan to defeat Michael would send him to a fate worse than death.
Now Dean must contend with both his father asking questions he can't answer, and his loved ones learning about the darker truths of his childhood, all while constantly battling the archangel trapped inside him. But Dean coming to terms with his history may be the difference between this being the beginning of a journey—or the end.
My commentary: this is the most popular anything of mine ever got or ever will get, but it's nnnot my best work. there are massive pacing issues! a timeline error! lack of variety in setting!!! i see so many mistakes!!!!!! ...and yet, i have such fond memories of working on it and being excited with so many people about it. post nov 5 spnblr was such a special time and place, and even in the moment i knew i'd cherish it forever. so while this isn't my favorite FIC it's definitely my fav like. community experience of writing a fic. i struggle with finding Community sometimes because so often it's a matter of luck rather than skill (broken road proves this bc IT'S NOT EVEN MY BEST FIC) and it requires outputting stuff regularly which i do not/cannot usually do, but this time i did get lucky, and it remains such a treasured and special experience. ty to everyone who was part of it<3
also, this fic has maybe one of my favorite fight scenes i ever wrote. i fucking love fight scenes and the pov fuckery in the michael bit made it extra fun to do. i wrote the entire thing AND a good chunk of the ending all in one sitting. i was so fucking stoked.
#4: Gambler's Knife (star trek aos, m, 22k, minor spirk)
Summary: AOS-style take on Conscience of the King. Twelve years after Tarsus IV and three months after dying to realign the warp core and save his ship, Jim Kirk seems to have a new lease on life: he's been resurrected, started pursuing a tentative new relationship with Spock, and has an entire five-year mission ahead of him. That is, until the attempted murder of an old friend forces him to divert the Enterprise away from her intended course and towards Planet Q. After a chance encounter on the planet's surface, new secrets about Jim's time on Tarsus IV come to light—secrets that threaten to destroy everyone he fought to protect, and the new life he's finally achieved. Some things you carry with you wherever you go.
My commentary: i was sooo scared shitless to write this bc of the cannibalism lol. it's a funny story...i was reading tons of aos tarsus iv fics, and i thought, "i'll watch the tos episode for context even though old tv is boring," and then it fucking ruled and i watched the rest...one moment in particular made me go "omg i think this guy has eaten people?!" and combined with having read DOZENS of tarsus iv fics i simply had to write my own, despite cannibalism having once been my number one squick. also 2.5 years later i'm still catching up on star trek lmao
i'm really impressed with how short i kept it...my only regret is that i didn't go ahead and just ot3 it. the romance isn't the point, but i wanted spock to have an excuse to touch kirk bc touch telepathy, but it's too uneven if they aren't both w/ him, even if i do think bones IS joining that sitch soon. also, only ONE person noticed my tense switching and it was the most difficult part of the whole thing!!! rip.
#3: The Ossuary (dragon age, m, 52k, pre-rookanis)
Summary: Thought dead by his family, Lucanis Dellamorte, the infamous Demon of Vyrantium, spends over three hundred days languishing in an impenetrable Tevene prison at the bottom of the sea. But he doesn't do it alone—and like it or not, his new demonic cellmate may be his only hope of escape. Sometimes the only way to fight your demons is to make a deal instead.
My commentary: ohhh my god my baby...i love lucanis so much i named my cat after him. i was besieged by visions for this one bc i drove 40 minutes to and back from work listening to the datv ost on repeat and thinking about lucanis. i basically wrote the entire fic for the scene where he and spite "mind meld" in order for spite to stop lucanis's suicide attempt. it was the first scene that popped into my head. i remember trying to explain it to my friend and she thought it sounded nuts and then she read it and liked it so much. so, it's worth reading!!! it's just a hard sell bc...
(minor SA warning for this paragraph) ...of the noncon. i think of this fic and gambler's knife as sisters because they're both shorter than usual and they both scared the fuck out of me (but this was scarier). i truly almost chickened out bc i could not find ANY fics with a similar concept (i found exactly one and it's one of my favs of all time). idk, i've gotten so many kys anons from the DA fandom, but i felt like it was True, bc every detail we get about zara's character points to her being obsessed with lucanis, and many details about lucanis's romance could be read as him having an assault in his history. also my friends talked me into it. i'm glad they did BUT i am haunted by the fact that this fic would've done better without noncon; i posted it when the fandom was active and it still didn't do as well as my other fics! i keep wanting to assure people that it's not at all graphic and cuts to black before 95% of the distressing stuff!!! alas so it goes lol
ANYWAY, i'm still working on the sequel, if i think too hard about how long it's taking i will sink into fits of insecurity, but there's a payoff to both the spite thing and the zara thing which makes me INSANE that i can't talk about it yet. it's gonna be so good when i get there!!!!!
#2: Anchor (teen wolf, E, 55k, dergent)
Summary: Derek insists on coming along with Chris Argent and the Calaveras on the hunt for Kate, so he can see her dead for good. While following her trail back to Beacon Hills, they come to understand some hard truths about both each other and themselves, and struggle to find the reason why, after losing nearly everyone they've ever loved, they're still here.
My commentary: almost chickened out of this one too lol. actually i made a sideblog bc at the time a bunch of kids were following me for an undertale fancomic and i didn't want them to see porn with an 18y age gap...argent is 42 and derek is 24. ironically age difference is also a thing i dislike (stiles being underage is why i can't get into sterek) but dergent's been my tw rarepair since derek dropped "you're not my ally you're a HUNTER" in 2014 right in front of my salad. fun to finally get that out of my system!! it's the fastest i have ever written anything. from conception to posting took something like 54 days? i was staying awake until 10am working on it because i could. not. stop. i'd take a catnap and get right back to it and somehow never got tired. it wanted OUT of me. i originally had a bunch of sequel ideas but i only ever got around to two...it works well as-is though.
(minor SA warning for this paragraph) also loved writing my ace derek Truths...so often people say that aces are broken bc of like an assault or something (false!), but derek to me is ace and HAS canonically been assaulted, and all of that is tangled together for him. is he ace bc of the assault or was he always ace? does dislike being touched bc of kate and jennifer or bc that's just how he is? there's deliberately no clear answer; for derek, it's more important to just learn to be at peace with how he is. w/ fandom's focus being on sex/romance it was refreshing and cathartic to write someone who's 90% sex-averse and "stone" too bc often the mantra is "ace people can still have sex..." which, ofc! but often it doesn't look like how everybody else has sex. and argent struggling with that + the past assault gave me the opportunity to explain it all in a way that hopefully!!! didn't feel too heavy-handed, as ace fic sometimes can be.
AND FINALLY *drumroll*
#1: How Arthur Got His Groove Back (bbc merlin, T, 134k, pre-slash merthur)
Summary: Arthur Pendragon is at an all-time low: he's still suffering from the day he nearly dueled his father to the death, his sword arm has been wounded so grievously he may never fight again, and, worst of all, every last soul in Camelot and the kingdoms beyond have had magic forced on them overnight. Now Arthur must contend with the chaos of magic run rampant, his father's dangerous instability, Morgana's increasing distance, catching Merlin in more lies than he can count, and the magic that is now threatening to consume him—all while searching for a way to break the curse before it consumes them all.
It's not going to be easy: Arthur grapples with a destiny he's not sure he can handle, and a past he'd rather forget—and if he wants to save his people, he must be prepared to confront hard truths and harder choices. It's a trial by fire, one that risks destroying everything Arthur has left to hold dear should he fail. But with enough courage, enough understanding, and maybe just a touch of magic, there's nothing he can't face.
My commentary: man i don't think i've written anything better than this. it's paced PERFECTLY, the foreshadowing is just right, it has my all time fav fight scene i ever wrote (watchtower duel), each chapter feels perfectly episodic, i got to do those graphics, i did everything i wanted to do...for reasons idw get into in public this fic meant a lot to me on a personal level because i snuck my Issues in there #myissues. i always lowkey take myself to therapy writing fic but i REALLY did this time and you can't even tell. i reread this one often and never really find a lot i wish i'd changed. my main regrets are that i couldn't/didn't do more with gwen, and that so many people hated my favorite chapter OUT LOUD IN MY COMMENTS SECTION bc they hate morgana. i do also wish a little bit that there had been room for things that would've needed their own story (i tumblr-wrote a sequel here). oh yeah and my other regret is too many italics lol.
if fics do have sisters, this fic is broken road's sister. they're basically the same...emotionally stunted guy figures out his dad is a bad person when everyone else already knew that and has a bad time about it, and they both have huge daddy issues fight scenes too which involve stabbing of the dads wounds with ribs on the left side!! smh i was totally ripping myself off.
anyway, i am tagging @maulthots @callowyn @caiternate @itsrainingpandas @brainwyrmz @grayingtogreen @epiphany-jones @slothquisitor @maythedreadwolftakeyou @teddywesworl @defira85 @muirmarie and anyone else who wants to do it, do it & say i tagged you!! sorry if not everybody on this list has five fics lol <3
