Written for @carryon-reverse-bang by @leithillustration
Rating: T
Word count: 4.4k, 1/5
Summary: Simon and Baz are literally worlds apart. They have never met, but the crucible has paired them together and not even the end of english magic can stop them being drawn together in the otherworldly dreamscape of the Boundless Plains, where almost anything is possible.
Picture this:
An 11 year old Simon wakes up on a bridge sprouting from a blank wall. The bridge doesnt lead to anything, it just stops. The sky is oh so blue, and the ground below is a bright orange, but that is all there is. Simon doesn’t know how he got there, and he cannot remember anything from his time before. And Oh. He can create everything his mind desires, anything except another human being. But if he’s completely alone in this empty desert, who’s the boy that keeps appearing?
Boundless came to exist from a completely unrelated idea, after a night on Pinterest completely transformed it. It’s a result of all my craziest ideas (and my love for puffsleeves) and Leith’s willingness to bring that to life and get a proper plot stabled together and weaved shut. Their writing is liquid imagery injecting itself into your veins. I drew something, Leith wrote something based on what i drew, and with each sentence i felt inspired to draw more based on that!
So far the fic only includes these 3 artworks, but ive finished 2 more, and theres still lots of works in progress, bound together by whimsy and the world’s signature colours of cerulean blue and tangerine
I also made a playlist based on what I think boundless would sound like. Here it is
Summary: Infinity moves from a chest pocket to a teacup. Princess Lucy’s matters of the realm may change over the years, and the Salisbury-Pitch household changes with it.
Rating: T
Words: ~13,000
Chapters: 8/8; complete
My @carryon-reverse-bang with @rimeswithpurple is posted in its entirety, and I'm so proud to be able to share it with you! It's my favorite thing that I've ever written. Here's the final version of what Arianna submitted for CORB:
Her prompt was: "Simon and Baz as parents. Inspired by a post I had read about a dad that turned tea parties with his daughter into a princess/royal advisor meeting. Discussing the various goings-on of the realm and presenting his daughter with scenarios to teach problem-solving and decision-making. I envisioned Baz being this kind of dad while Simon is the let's slay monsters and go on adventures parent."
The fic we ended up with is this and so much more! It's been such an amazing experience to create this world with Arianna--to create this little family that now feels so real, and to document their lives over the course of twenty years. She described it as a "love letter to parenting" at one point, and I've tried to keep that at its heart, although I think it's meaningful even if you're not a parent. Her art is so beautiful and has so much detail, and I wanted so badly to write something that would live up to the depth and richness she had drawn. I hope I have; I love this fic very much and I'm so glad I got the chance to make with you, Arianna.
thank you also to @monbons and @facewithoutheart for beta-ing (doula-ing?) this fic; I'm still thinking about all the smart advice you gave and you made it so much better.
Read it on AO3!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
It’s taken waaay longer than I’d hoped (and about 7k more words than originally planned) but the next instalment of Snow On Ice is now up on Ao3!
Big thanks to @iamamythologicalcreature and @you-remind-me-of-the-babe for being great betas. @iamamythologicalcreature also made the artwork that inspired the fic, and I finally had time to make it into this cool banner :D
See what’s in store for this chapter, under the cut:
Snow On Ice (M, 15k, chapters 2 of 12ish)
Chapter Two Summary:
I sigh, lacing my hands in my lap, affecting an air of poise. “Hello, my name is Baz. I’m a singles figure skater. My fact is that I have known Simon Snow since we were children, and his fun fact is that he can drink three cherry slushies then do a spin with 22 rotations without being sick.”
Simon and Baz meet the rest of the people taking part in the TV show, including their skate partners. Simon eats pastries and struggles to pay attention, while an unexpected twist in the show causes Baz to panic.
Brace yourself for misunderstandings galore, yearning, frustration and Baz’s special brand of gay panic. (I wonder how many times Baz can mention Simon’s thighs in one fic?)
I really hope you enjoy it. I'm having so much fun writing this silly thing that is giving me big feelings.
And thanks to everyone who has tagged me over the last few weeks. Sorry I've not done a wip Wednesday or a six sentence Sunday in a while. It's been a weird few weeks!
Summary: Baz Pitch prides himself on being a damn good wedding planner. After all, he’s secured a huge deal with the heiress to a massive health food company, propelling him to partner at his event planning firm. The only problem? The frustratingly handsome groom needs dance lessons, and somehow Baz has been roped in to be his partner. But Baz is a professional. He can handle a little ballroom dancing, can’t he?
@rimeswithpurple and I are so excited to finally bring you our collab for @carryon-reverse-bang! I was so tickled by Arianna’s concept of Baz and Simon ballroom dancing in a Wedding Planner AU, I just had to see it come to life. Her snarky Baz and sheepish Simon are everything to me. I’m so pleased I was able to play in this world and dream up a story to go with it. JUST LOOK AT THEM:
From Arianna: I'm so excited to finally share our Carry On Reverse Bang collaboration! All of the writers are so gifted, but I secretly hoped that I'd get paired with Jess on this one. She's really brought Simon and Baz to life in this AU and it's better than I could've ever hoped for! The Wedding Planner is one of my favorite rom coms and the characters slot into this AU so well.
As our 3rd year of CORB comes to a close, we present to you a list of all of the collabs that came from this year’s event. Thank you to all of the artists and writers who participated! Give their posts and fics some love! We also have a collection on AO3 for your reading and viewing pleasure.
Rated Teen
Body Language a fic written by @melodysmash and inspired by art from @monbons
The Wedding Planner a fic written by @you-remind-me-of-the-babe and inspired by art from @rimeswithpurple
Major Rager a fic written by @messofthejess and inspired by art from @cccloudsss
Boundless a fic written by @leithillustration and inspired by art from @cattocavo
Infinity in a Teacup a fic written by @thewholelemon and inspired by art from @rimeswithpurple
Rated Mature
Baby Mine a fic written by @aristocratic-otter and inspired by art from @argumentativeantitheticalg
The Stove Comes On At Night a fic written by @aristocratic-otter and inspired by art from @ebbpettier
Snow On Ice a fic written by @leithillustration and inspired by art from @iamamythologicalcreature
Rated Explicit
On Every Wall a fic written by @orange-peony and inspired by art from @leithillustration
Bound Together in Five Dimensions a fic written by @emeryhall and inspired by art from @stardustasincocaine
We have a few more collabs that have asked for extension and will come later. We will make sure to update this post when they do.
Welcome to the second of my two Carry On Reverse Bang fics! You're in for a treat here. The art (above) that drew me in tells a story all on its own. @ebbpettier is a genius and a fantastic collaborator.
The first two chapters are now posted, and the first 8 are outlined, with fourteen (probably) total chapters. The original art will be in chapter 4.
This will be a beast of a fic, and I'm not sorry lol.
Note: Although one of our main characters in this fic is technically dead, I did not tag for main character death because this character is dead when we meet them, and they're still a main voice in the fic, so I don't really think it fits the requirements for an MCD fic. Let me know if you disagree!
It is also tentatively rated M. Squid and I are discussing ghost smut, but no decision has been made lol.
See below the break for the banner and a snippet of the fic!
The fic:
Chapter 1: Prologue: The Night Watchman
“And what makes you think you are qualified for this position?”
Mordelia Grimm-Thorpe must be at least seventy, but that doesn’t make her any less terrifying. From the top of her silver hair, caught up in some sort of elegant bun-thing, to the sole of her expensive-looking leather heels (probably from some posh designer) (I’m sure they cost a thousand quid or more, given the legendary size of the Grimm family fortune), she radiates disdain for me.
I should have known better than to come here. But Penny was so certain I had a chance…
hello kittens! It's been a minute. Thank you @youarenevertooold @monbons @artsyunderstudy @roomwithanopenfire for the tags today, and everyone else who has tagged me over the last few weeks.
Today I'm doing my snippet above the cut; below the cut, tags and a big pile of feelings from me because--well, because I wanted to, and against all odds you all make this place feel like it's safe for feelings, and I'm grateful for that. But, I rambled for a bit so I wanted to give you an option to opt out.
From our @carryon-reverse-bang, Baz POV:
Simon sees she’s distracted and turns to me with a gleam in his eye. “TREASURE!” he roars.
I groan. “No treasure! No hoarding. I’m too tired! My princess in shining armour must have been up a dozen times last night to make sure I wasn’t being eaten by my dragon. And she didn’t bother to find out whether I wanted to be eaten or not.” That last part I say quietly, just for my dragon.
He grins mischievously as he comes for me, wings flaring, while Lucy’s still working her way into her knight gear. “The dragon sees treasure. The dragon must HOARD!”
“Lucy! Save me!” I cry, standing up and putting my arms out, ready to wrap around him. “Tell daddy I’m not treasure!”
“Daddy, Papa isn’t treasure!” she cries valiantly.
Feelings stuff, because I'm practicing acknowledging my feelings:
This year has been weird for me. I'm in a weird place. Professionally, I'm in a position that looks perfect for me on paper, and it's also been slowly killing me in practice; that contradictory experience hit the fan for me internally over the past several months in particular. (If I've complained to you about this: thank you. saying the things outside my head really helped me clarify that this was not a great situation for me!)
I've let my boss know I'll be stepping down in June, and that is absolutely the right decision for me, but the messy tangle of emotions that led to that decision and that's resulted from it is...messy! and tangled! I was hoping for relief, but it feels a lot more like grief right now, which I just wasn't expecting. And on top of that it's made me realize that I really don't know how to make decisions in my own best interest and that is fucking me up, my friends, if I had to summarize it.
These are all, I think, good things to be feeling right now, or if not good, at least healthy and, I don't know, directionally correct. But they have bled over into a crisis of confidence about pretty much everything I do, and left me looking ahead to the holidays over the next few months with trepidation rather than anticipation. I'm trying to just allow those feelings to exist rather than attempting to punch them into something more positive. And relatedly, I think that means I'm probably not going to do Carry On Countdown this year, which breaks my heart a bit. It was such a fun experience for me last year--you all made it such a fun experience, and made me feel so lucky to be writing you fun things every day--but I think it's going to be gentler on myself to let it go. And I'm telling you that out loud to force myself to stop going "but maybe I should..."
That's a much easier decision to make in light of the fact that I'll get to read so many of your good things. And CORB posting is going to start soon and I'm so excited and have been so fortunate in that collab. All the negative or mixed feelings I shared above aside, being able to connect with people in the fandom (you) have really kept my sanity this year! Talking to you has been wonderful. Every fic I have gotten to beta, published or not, has been such a treat, the lightest thing on my plate. Seeing your wonderful faces throughout the year has been the absolute best. CORB, COBB, the AU fest early next year--they've been so fun & such a stress relief for me. So I'm excited to read and write and figure out how to be a person again instead of just a burned out pile of sticks with a coat thrown over it.
If you made it this far, thank you for bearing with me; if you didn't, no hard feelings and I hope all of you are figuring out how to take care of yourself:
