“right to the good parts” prompt list

tiptoe39:

So many prompts are about the meet-cute. So this list is meant to go straight to the good parts. Please use, prompt, share, add to, etc.

  1. I have you shoved against the wall but now I can’t stop looking at your mouth
  2. We were dancing but all of a sudden it’s a slow song and we’re standing here awkwardly staring at each other
  3. I just told you I liked you but now I’m shy and say “never mind, forget it” and why are you looking at me like that?
  4. We slept in the same bed for space reasons but now we’re just waking up and there’s something about your bleary eyes and mussed hair
  5. It’s time to fight the boss and if I don’t tell you now, I might not live to tell you
  6. Congratulations! One of your dreams has finally come true. Let me give you a big hug and wow, you’re warm…
  7. I’ve never seen anything like the way you handled that. I’m just so moved.
  8. Oh, my God, I thought you were going to die. Please don’t ever scare me like that again.
  9. We’re hiding from the authorities and it’s very close quarters in here, I can feel your body against mine.
  10. Wait, my hero’s secret identity is… you? To be honest, I’d always kind of hoped…
  11. You’ve said you’re going to leave, but I don’t want you to go and if I don’t say something now…
  12. We were pretending to be lovers but I’m not pretending anymore and I have to know if you feel the same way
  13.  This wasn’t meant to be a date, but we’ve had such a good time and now it’s 2 a.m. and I should really go home…

I only wish to share the truth of the universe. My Immortal was not written as a joke. It was taken seriously in the mind of its author. I know much. I have seen the lost, unpublished chapters. I know the truth about the rift that occurred between the author and her friend. I know it all. Because I know where to find the author herself.

vampireapologist:

This is what it feels like to be Agent Mulder. I want to chase you down eight flights of a parking garage, screaming at you about what your name is and how you know this, desperate to know if I can trust this information.

we could jump the state lines (we only get the one life) – notcaycepollard – Captain America (Movies) [Archive of Our Own]

notcaycepollard:

It starts in Paris.

“You can’t steal things just because you like them,” Sam tells Bucky, feeling innately that this is a losing battle, and Bucky cocks his head to the side, considers Sam very thoughtfully.

“Really,” he says. “I’m stealing you, aren’t I?”

hello, here is that long painfully slow-burning Sam-centric fic that’s been killing me for the last month. 33.5k words spanning from post-Winter Soldier to… well, to A Time. featuring art theft, meaningful conversation in hotel rooms, burning undercurrents of tension, Steve Rogers being Steve Rogers, moments of softness and breathless stillness. have fun. I’m dead.

we could jump the state lines (we only get the one life) – notcaycepollard – Captain America (Movies) [Archive of Our Own]

Harry Potter Fic Recs

deadcatwithaflamethrower:

demifishblog:

So I heard a call a while back for good
Harry Potter fic, which is…kind of murderously
difficult to find due to the sheer volume involved.  I can’t say I’ve
made any significant dent in searching for the stuff, because it’s
fucking exhausting,
but I do have some favorites that I cherish dearly.
And being an extremely picky reader, hopefully this list will be
helpful to others as well.

So.
Fic recs.  Yes.

Anything,
anything at all, by @copperbadge; he hasn’t been in the fandom for years, but his oldies are definitely goodies.  Stealing Harry is something of a fandom classic and really good for comfort reading, starting as it does on the happy ending and moving from there.  My personal favorite is Cartographer’s Craft, however, which is just full of wonderful things.

Anything, literally anything, by @lullabyknellart.  She has multiple long, chaptered fics in progress, and while it takes a while for her to update when she does it is glorious.  Personal favorites include face death in the hope (time-travel, Regulus Black, and emotional-disaster Harry), and into the arena with your head held high (Harry and genderfluid godkid Teddy time-travel from apocalyptic future to non-apocalyptic past and proceed to fuck shit up).

@deadcatwithaflamethrower, because she is the bomb, delightfully prolific, and produces moving, emotionally and intelluctually rich fic while making it look easy, what the fuck woman.  She also has a “I will take a hammer and fix the canon” approach to just about anything while managing to make it all jive with the original.  Current works in the fandom are Swung By Serafim (complete, gorgeous, with the book-length epilogue that we all deserved) and work-in-progress Of a Linear Circle, which is a beautiful romance and also chock full of interesting medieval facts and “hammer to canon” fixits.

@waspabi has two excellent fics (I have not read the third because it’s rpf, but go check it if that’s your thing) in the fandom: Hermione Granger’s Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run, which is exactly as amazing as it sounds (”
‘You’re a wizard, Harry’ is easier to hear from a half-giant when you’re
eleven, rather than from some kids on a tube platform when you’re
seventeen and late for work ”); and Stately Homes of Wiltshire, a post-canon fic where Harry is an Auror and, as anyone else could see coming, Hates His Job (but won’t admit it).  Also there are poltergeists.  Both are Drarry fics, but even if that’s not your thing I’d give it a go because @waspabi‘s Draco is unlike anyone else’s Draco, ever, and has rendered me nearly incapable of enjoying any other Draco because no one else’s can compare.

Aeturnum’s Leo Inter Serpentes series, which is just…so excellent.  Rewrite of the whole series with Harry being in Slytherin, because Draco is significantly less of a dick.  Narcissa is bomb-ass and divorces Lucius and Hermione is amazing and Snape adopts Harry and is a Good Dad, I cried okay, I cried.  Everyone is so in character and it’s so well done and just.  I inhaled the whole thing in two days, it was terrible.  Only other Drarry I will ever accept.

@ink-splotch (dirgewithoutmusic)’s boy with a scar series.  It’s a collection of stories, mostly au’s, including “Neville/Ron/Hermione are the Boy/Girl-who-lived”, Girl!Harry (once dfab, once trans), “what if Snape made up with Lily”, and many, many more.  All are absolute gems, seriously, beautiful fucking writing, will kill you with so many feels.  So. Many.  Read them all.  You will cry.  You will be happy about it.

esama is an excellent author and writes many, many things, not all of which are everyone’s cup of tea, but each fic is unique unto itself so keep that in mind when scrolling their work.  Just because you don’t like one doesn’t mean you won’t love another.  My personal favorites include D.S.S. Requirement (the Room of Requirement provides a spaceship.  No, really), Undone Wars (excellent crossover with Stargate Atlantis), and Mother May I, a Fantastic Beasts fic in which Newt recognizes Credence as an Obscurial on sight and basically adopts/kidnaps all the Barebone children immediately and forever.

And no Harry Potter fic rec from me would be complete without metisket’s side-splittingly funny There May Be Some Collateral Damage.  It’s a crossover with Bleach, but no knowledge of Bleach is required to thoroughly enjoy this ridiculous piece of perfection.  Seriously, I went into knowing that Bleach existed and what the main character looked like.  Basically, Voldemort is deemed a grim reaper’s problem, Harry Potter becomes designated bait, and chosen for his bodyguard is the most reasonable maniac you will ever meet.  Ichigo crashes through Hogwarts like a wrecking ball, everyone either hates or loves him (or in Harry’s case both), the twin’s perspective is entirely written in the plural and you will laugh every other sentence, I guarantee.  Hate prophecies? Hate Umbridge? Need cheering up?  Want to stab Voldemort with a dinner knife?  This is the fic for you.

*bunny feet*

deadcatwithaflamethrower:

leahelizabeth89:

arielsojourner:

aifsaath:

arielsojourner:

albaparthenicevelut:

lurkingcrow:

albaparthenicevelut:

aifsaath:

albaparthenicevelut:

aifsaath:

lurkingcrow:

aifsaath:

darthluminescent:

lilyrose225writes:

lurkingcrow:

resistancepilots:

okay i know Hardeen was a Terrible arc for everyone involved, but what if Obi Wan had told Anakin about faking his death? Anakin’s like no worries dude I Got This, except he really. does not,,

the only reason his “acting” is remotely believable is because almost no one has seen him like this before, so it must be due to all the grief and loss and heartbreak and anger and whatnot

he starts by sobbing over Obi Wan’s supposedly dead body for a solid two hours when Obi gets shot down. “LOOK at him, so cold and Lifeless. D: HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE WARM AND FULL OF LIFE, SNIPS. I know last week I checked his pulse because he was meditating so calmly I thought he passed away in his sleep, BUT HE’S USUALLY SO WARM AND FULL OF LIFE.”

It goes on until Anakin has finished everything on his painstakingly written Outline from last night. At least half of Coruscant hears part of this speech. Mace sends Obi the security footage later, at a time he knows Anakin will be there to sit through it with Obi, because if we had to suffer then you do too, Obi Wan. 

then at the funeral, Anakin pulls out a twenty foot scroll of real actual paper, because he would appreciate this, I think, and clears his throat loudly and messily before telling the council that he has prepared a few words for the greatest jedi this order, nay, this GALAXY has ever seen, and will ever see, no matter how long any of us live—

five hours later,, he’s still going strong. half the eulogy is Terrible and V Cringeworthy, but the other half is actually v heartfelt and moving. even Mace and Yoda have to blink away some tears. 

it becomes easier after Anakin starts going into Unnecessary Details about obi wan’s life, like how he’ll miss holding onto those heavy 327 thread count woolen robes when he’s saving obi’s ass (curvature 48.5 degrees) for the 23094th time, and how he’ll never see a more sincere expression of Compassion than he saw when reading line 83 of Obi Wan’s eighth letter to Duchess Satine last month, quoted now as follows— 

Ahsoka enlists Plo Koon’s help and they finally shuffle him over to the side, promising him they can finish his fake eulogy at the council dinner tonight. Obi Wan’s death may be fake, but MY WORDS ARE REAL, SNIPS, HOW DARE YOU. says Anakin, before he (a little gleefully) starts destroying the walls to show how Emotionally Compromised he is over this 100% real death. 

he takes the 212th drinking, after having told all of them, too. so now there are 293637 men crying about Obi Wan (relatable af, y/y), all of which have the acting talent of a wilted blade of grass. there are 283747 toasts, and every single person there cries for each and every one of them, despite everyone knowing obi is still alive

All of this has the unlikely effect of making Palpatine rethink his plans, because he was expecting rage and barely concealed hate, not this melodramatic weepiness. Oh the angry lashing out is expected, but maybe Skywalker isn’t as ready as he thought… Still, at least Kenobi is out of the picture now. 

Dooku is completely convinced. Obi-Wan faking his death and not telling Skywalker? Believable. But a performance this bad is something someone of Kenobi’s calibre would never risk – no, this is no farce and Skywalker is apparently just that infantile. 

20k+ pls and thank

20k+ just for the uncut funeral scene, the rest of Anakin’s histrionics take up at least another 25k on their own, please get to work on this soon, fandom.

BLACK VEIL AND BLACK LACE HANDKERCHIEF ARE NOT NEGOTIONABLE.

If Anakin has to mourn, he’ll go full Sicillan Widow.

Ah but we cannot forget the memento mori! The lock of hair kept close to his heart in a cameo locket depicting Obi-Wan’s profile on the cover (Anakin of course refuses to cut his own until his first year of mourning is done). Or the carved ebony frame with skull and rose motifs that hold holos of them looking dashing together. And the beautifully decorated box that holds his lightsaber so that it will be forever on display to those who miss him (there’s a lovely point in the funeral where Anakin hands the box to Satine with great ceremony and she makes a heart moving speech about how no one set of hands could encompass Obi-Wan’s great love and passes it to Ahsoka who passes it to Cody and then we get the strangest game of pass the parcel ever until it makes it back to Anakin).

When Obi-Wan asks “How was my funeral?” He is met by hysterical laughing from Yoda and the loudest groan he has ever heard from Made.

The worst thing is – when Anakin burst into sobs – he’s genuine, despite all that funeral fashionista nonsense. His elegy for Kenobi is just so good and moving and sad and longing and full of Unspoken Feelings. Not a single eye is dry. Even YODA STARTS SOBBING AND HE’S BEEN ON THE THING FOR THE WHOLE TIME.

All Obi’s holos have digitally added black ribons in the corner.

Anakin insists on having trizna (a funeral feast) in his master’s memory, a glorious affair full of wine and mead. If he weren’t so sure that burning a ship with all of his worldly possesions was pushing it a bit too far (regardless that the possessions were Obi-Wan’s who was still, technically, alive and would probably be very pissed if Anakin torched what little he has), he’d be the one with a gas can and a torch.

Mace is just glad he managed to hide the holocron on Space!Egyptian funeral practices. 

The best part is, Obi Wan comes back and Anakin refuses to go out of mourning. He does it properly too, first black, then grey and lavender. Obi Wan is like is this necessary? And Anakin is like YES OBVIOUSLY HOW CAN YOU EVEN ASK THAT MASTER???!!!

“I miss him… so much. Sometimes, I swear, I feel his presence. That familiar warmth, his cologne. There are days I can glimpse his face behind the Veil. I hear him, calling for me, whispering my name. In a way, he’s still alive in my heart.”

“Anakin, I’m standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.”

“Why can’t his spirit go on? What holds him so chained to this miserable plane of existance? Master, where art thou?”

“For fucks sake, Anakin…”

LOOOOOOOOOOL, and you know Ahsoka gets in on the fun as well. Both of them refuse to talk to Obi Wan directly except through seances. When they get called before the council they have “episodes” where the “sense the presence of an unquiet spirit.” Sometimes they have exorcisms where they attempt to “put Obi Wan’s wandering spirit to rest.” Obi Wan is so tired. Everyone else thinks it’s hilarious.

The exorcism involves the use copious use incense (a light floral fragrance), offerings to the dead (in the form of delicate cups of steaming tea and accompanying sweets), ritual chanting (aka soft singing) and forcible removal of the ghost to its final resting place (his quarters). All in all it does a rather good job of forcing the poor spirit to rest !😉

The best incident however comes during the big reveal where, on facing Dooku on Naboo Anakin loudly declares that he is not outnumbered, for his dear Master’s spirit is right beside him! And Dooku starts on a spiel about how his weak willed dependency on Kenobi has finally turned him mad, except there’s a blue lightsaber at his throat and a familiar smirk asking if the Count had missed him on his little sojourn to the underworld…

AHAHAHAHAHA putting a spirit to rest takes on a whole new meaning!!!! What if the 212th gets in on it? The first time Cody tosses a ration bar at Obi Wan’s head and starts walking around Obi Wan singing the ‘time for all spirits to lay down and rest’ song, Obi Wan knows that he’s doomed. XD

This is hilarious. 

And the best thing would be that when finally Anakin leaves mourning and Obi-Wan Returns ™, it is a galactic wide event of celebration. “The Force has returned him to us,” Anakin reports. 

When Palpatine is defeated and it comes out what really happened, Anakin’s eulogy and mourning is nominated for Best Actor in all the holo award shows (never mind that he isn’t an actor and Obi-Wan’s death wasn’t scripted), and Anakin wins. He takes the stage and give his acceptance speech which of course includes him telling the galaxy that he still misses Obi-Wan and “sometimes I can still hear his voice.” And Obi-Wan who is Anakin’s plus one for this event yells from the audience “Because I’m not dead, Anakin!”

For the rest of his life, Obi-Wan deals with people assuming he is dead and who are surprised to hear he is alive. It becomes the biggest conspiracy theory. Is Obi-Wan dead or alive? There are huge fights even amount academics about whether he is or isn’t. 

When Obi-Wan finally does pass into the Force of old age, for decades afterwards people swear he’s still alive and kicking.

OH GOD YES. The reports on ObiWan’s age vary between 5 to 458. Having a babyface doesn’t help at all. Having Yoda as great-grandmaster doesn’t help either. There are theories about corellation between Yoda’s height and Obi’s height. 

OBI-WAN’S RETURN is, of course, accompanied by Clone Army Choir providing Hopeful Latin Chanting ™ to underline the hopeful atmosphere. His face is for a few weeks the most famous in the whole galaxy.

(And Anakin throws away the lavender lace veil. His mourning is at its end!)

(”I should have never told him about the undercover mission,” Kenobi grumbles.)

It keeps getting better.

@deadcatwithaflamethrower

I think I might have just hurt something laughing

a wooden milestone

laporcupina:

According to ao3, I posted the first chapter of Freezer Burn five years ago today. It was my first MCU story and a sort-of return to comics(-ish) fic after the better part of a decade away. Which means that (a) yes, I am a fannish dinosaur and (b) I didn’t name the story after the working title of CA:tWS; they named the working title after my story. 

I started FB with only a vague idea of where I was going – and then had to abandon that vague idea once Marvel announced that Captain America 2 would be a Winter Soldier movie because at that point the story was MCU-compliant and I utterly refuse to create fanon where canon is imminent. (Or, why I wrote a POV character for almost five years in SGA without using his first name because he didn’t have one.) So I didn’t know who the bad guy was until about halfway through – about 100k words in is not a recommended point to pause and figure out what the heck you’re doing, for the record. Which is why there are enough red herrings to stock a fish counter and a few too many lovingly detailed meals before I get around to advancing the plot where it’s actually going.  

The story turned out okay, I think, and then became a series with both official sequels and unofficial connected parts as I worked out characters (or, why the master list for the series is different from the series page at ao3). I got over my canon compliancy fetish and the end result is that the story is MCU through a very thick 616/Brubaker filter. I officially closed the files sometime after Revenant, but then I kept adding to it, so it’s sort of a zombie now. But I’m not even considering trying to write Codename: Pandora until I get the albatross of a stalled wip off of my neck. 

Anyway, it’s been five years since I dipped my toe into that pond and I’m celebrating. 🙂 

In Praise of Lurkers

ivyblossom:

Dear fanfiction readers,

Thank you for reading. Please don’t stop! Click on that fanfic that looks like it might suit you right now; read what you want to. Leave kudos if you want to. Or don’t; if you don’t like what you’re reading, or you’re not ready to add your name or your thumbs up to that fic today, or ever, that’s alright. You aren’t required to. There’s no payment required for reading fanfiction. You’ve honoured us already but being willing to be become our readers in the first place. That’s more than enough, as far as I’m concerned.

Almost all writers enjoy and appreciate comments, and they always will. Comment where you’re moved to, and never imagine that your contribution won’t be welcome. But please don’t let anyone shame you into commenting on a fic where you’re uncomfortable doing so. Interaction in fandom should always be by enthusiastic choice, never through pressure, or a sense of owing the writer anything, or guilt.

As a fanfiction writer, I welcome comments and reactions from readers who feel moved to comment and react. I have learned a great deal from these interactions, and I will be forever grateful for them. But I would never want a comment or kudos on a fic to come from a place of shame, duty, or sense of obligation. If writing fics causes that kind of negative experience and harm to readers, I for one would certainly stop writing. There is nothing for me to learn from that.

The vast majority of any fandom is lurkers. Those of us who do the talking may not understand the drive to lurk, but it would be foolish of us not to acknowledge and respect this form of being fannish. Being out front isn’t for everyone, or it’s not for someone just yet. And that’s okay.

I cannot speak for everyone who writes, and I know many disagree with me. But if you are a lurker and you want to read fics and not kudos them, like them on tumblr, reblog them, or leave comments on them, you’ve got my support. Read on, lurker friend. Read on.

Fanfic Author Gothic

bibliotecaria-d:

-You always have ideas. When you open a document, they disappear.

-You have a file full of ideas. It is lost. You open all your files and find hints of ideas mixed in between the lines. None of them connect. You follow them forever, deeper into the folders, until you can’t remember what you were looking for anymore. You end up reading fanfic until 4 AM.

-You’re not a torturer by profession. It’s merely a hobby. The sadism is a natural skill.

-Your fingers and wrists hurt from typing when you’re on a roll. You swear you’re not a masochist, but it hurts so good.

-Readers accuse you of causing them pain. You say you’re sorry, but you’re not. You comfort them while not-so-subtly digging for what caused them the most harm, eager to repeat the trick.

-Your friends enable you and laugh at your yelling. When you blame them, they claim they didn’t do anything. They never do anything. You no longer remember who started it, only that you’re halfway through the fic and still writing.

-You have a WIP. You swear you’re going to finish it next. It’s always next. There’s always another fic that has to be written first.

-Anonymous messages are sent to you, asking you not to acknowledge them publically. You know if you answer they’ll disappear from your inbox. Tumblr has eaten the Ask. Was it ever there in the first place?

-Someone comments on your fic. You have no idea who they are, but their username looks familiar. Every username looks familiar. You think you know them. They know you. It’s flattering, but you can’t shake the feeling that you should be alarmed by your poor memory.

-You reblog a writing prompt meme. It’s the same meme you reblogged yesterday. There are symbols instead of numbers, and you hope people will find them more interesting and send you more prompts this time.

-Promoting your own work is okay. You tell yourself this as you reblog yesterday’s fic post, tensely waiting for a rebuke that never comes.

-People laugh at something you wrote. You can’t figure out what. When you ask, nobody responds. They never laughed in the first place. You’re not sure you wrote anything.

-The fic is 50 hours long and 7000 words long; no one cares. A 10 minute speedwrite is reblogged into eternity.

-The kudos stack up. They are a solid block of names. You can’t read who left them. When you blink and look again, only 10 Guests have left kudos.

-Your inbox is full. There’s a comment on your fic. It has been edited 17 times. Six more emails come in as you read the initial comment. The numbers in your inbox climb and climb. You can’t find what’s been changed in the comment, but you can’t stop obsessively comparing each message.

-This comment is a book report. Glee and fear fill you in equal amounts.

-Someone apologizes for leaving a comment on an old fic. You can’t find who started the absurd rumor that authors don’t like comments on old fics. You plan their murder anyway.

-You eye your old username and associated fics. You pray that no one ever finds them. You resist the urge to tell people where to look.

-The fic is finished. You are dead. You are sick of it. You’ve never been so tired in your life. You hate the world. You force yourself to post it, absolutely exhausted, and suddenly can’t sleep for refreshing your inbox.

-The words multiply. You can’t control them. They eat your brain and come out your eyes. When people try to talk to you, you speak in snatches of character dialogue and narrate unconnected events. They keep talking to you, encouraging you to say more. The words own you now.

-No one believes you when you say the story is writing itself. You stare in despair at the screen. Why won’t anyone help you?

-You’ve misspelled ‘the.’ Autocorrect is wonderful until it’s not.

-Sleep is for the weak. You dream you’re still writing.

transformativeworks:

porcupine-girl:

starrysummer-nights:

I hate when people who are new to a fandom/ship ask for fic recs and are IMMEDIATELY shut down by someone snarkily saying “Just go to AO3 and search then filter by kudos duhhhhhh 🙄”

Because that’s a fucking stupid way to find good fic.

Because sometimes, the most kudo’d fics??? Aren’t the best fics. Or even the most in character or canon-compliant. They’re just the fics that have been around the longest, that were written while the fandom was still young and the show new and these are the “fandom favorites” but they may not be all that great.

I want the fic that has half those kudos but spot on characterization that I wouldn’t find by searching for the “most kudos”. I want the fic that hasn’t gotten that much love and you’re screaming by the time you get done because holy shit!!! What an amazing fic!!! I want to hear what someone else liked and why. I want to take the path less traveled when it comes to fic because that is new and exciting and a breath of fresh air and a new take that, unfortunately, no one reads because when people look for fic, they go by kudos.

So yeah. Rant over.

Also annoying when people make rec lists that might as well just be a list of the top 10 most-kudos’d fics, and every single rec list looks exactly the same.

If you’re going to bother with a rec list, either go with a specific theme (not just a pairing, especially if that pairing has more than like 1000 fics for it) or try to rec stuff that you think deserves way more kudos/hits than it already has.

And as for just browsing in AO3, I like to pick a kudos threshold (500, 1000, whatever – type “kudos>500” or whatever in the “search within results” box) and sort by date posted. That way you see the stuff that didn’t just spend three years slowly accumulating kudos by virtue of existing, it burst onto the scene and people loved it so much it shot to the top. Either that, or I look for stuff with not many hits but a good number of kudos per hit – so, say, (for zimbits, which has a higher kudos/hit ratio than Sherlock or SPN, so you’d have to adjust for those fandoms) “hits<2000 kudos>300” to find stuff that hasn’t gotten much attention, but the people who did read it liked it.

AO3 searching tips! ❤