silveradept | AO3 Output: June-December 02019

Here we are again, the AO3 output from July-December 02019. Um... obviously, there's going to be a lot of Miraculous Ladybug in it, because apparently that's the current show that can accommodate just about any idea without bending itself too much, but there's plenty of other things, too. Also, Miraculous Ladybug is a huge fandom, and so I can apparently get a couple hundred kudos for things that pretty clearly aren't going to become super-mainstream popular. (Because that bar is apparently measured in the thousands.)

Anyway, onward to the list of things-writ!

Rigging Random Chance (1989 words)
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Caline Bustier, Caline Bustier's class
Additional Tags: Compliments Exercise, Messing With Probability, Mme. Bustier Knows More Than She Lets On, Creative Methods of Probability Manipulation
Series: Part 1 of Rigging Random Chance
Summary:
Everybody knows that the compliments exercise in Mme. Bustier's class is not random. Except, perhaps, Mme. Bustier.
It's not a thing anyone should take a wager on, though.

Whatever Remains, However Improbably (1939 words)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Caline Bustier, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Max Kanté, Markov (Miraculous Ladybug), Lê Chiến Kim, Alix Kubdel
Additional Tags: Creative Methods of Probability Manipulation, True Conclusions Are Not Always Accurate, Mathematician's Answers, Chloé Bourgeois Being Chloé Bourgeois, Chloé Bourgeois Deserves Those Black Eyes, Compliments Exercise
Series: Part 2 of Rigging Random Chance
Summary:
Marinette knows for a fact that random chance is not that random. And especially not when it keeps putting her and Lila together for compliments.
Caline helps Marinette draw correct conclusions, but not accurate ones.

Superposition Jockeying (2119 words)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lila Rossi [Kismesis] Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Caline Bustier [Auspistice] (Lila Rossi [Kismesis] Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug)
Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Lila Rossi, Caline Bustier, Chloé Bourgeois, Caline Bustier's class
Additional Tags: The Best Lies Are Mostly The Truth, Creative Methods of Probability Manipulation, Compliments Exercise, Lies and the Lying Lilas Who Tell Them
Series: Part 3 of Rigging Random Chance
Summary:
An episode focusing on Marinette-Lila relations and Chloe possibly saving Marinette from pulping Lila through a single well-placed compliment.
Also, Caline has her hands full on trying to get Lila to tell her anything other than fibs and lies.

Caline's Third Law (2476 words)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Caline Bustier, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Max Kanté, Markov (Miraculous Ladybug), Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Additional Tags: Creative Methods of Probability Manipulation, Close-Up Magic, Adrien Agreste Knows, Mathematical Probabilities, Breather Episode
Series: Part 4 of Rigging Random Chance
Summary:
Marinette is still trying to figure out the secret to the compliments exercise. Adrien's perspective gives new insights, but he wants to be sure. Caline doesn't give him any conscious confirmations to his speculation.

Rossi's Coincidence (2572 words)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Lila Rossi [Kismesis] Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Characters: Chloé Bourgeois, Lila Rossi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Caline Bustier, Classmates (Miraculous Ladybug)
Additional Tags: Chloé Bourgeois Enjoys Those Black Eyes, Creative Methods of Reality Manipulation
Series: Part 5 of Rigging Random Chance
Summary:
Chloé knows immediately what's happened, but she can't directly say so without risking herself.
Caline comes to all the correct conclusions, but too late to be able to do anything about them.

Kubdel's Razor (3007 words)
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Alix Kubdel, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Max Kanté, Chloé Bourgeois, Caline Bustier
Additional Tags: Compliments Exercise, Non-Binary Alix Kubdel, Creative Methods of Logic Manipulation
Series: Part 6 of Rigging Random Chance
Summary:
Alix has been putting it all together, and decides now is the time to act, before everything boils over uncontrollably.
Caline is not persuaded by their argument, but is startled by their conclusions.

So, this series spawned from a post that alexseanchai put up on Tumblr about the frequency of compliments between students in a classroom, with a suggestion at the end about how Marinette and Lila (who are normally iron oxide and aluminium) would react when paired up to give each other compliments, and the tantalizing suggestion that someone might be rigging the bowls. And it went from there, with a segment from a particular member of the class and then from the perspective of Mme. Bustier, who is semi-secretly using her abilities as a teacher (and, as the series progresses, as an accomplished stage illusionist) to rig the "random" drawing for her own ends. It's expanded pretty significantly since then.

Also notable, I suppose, for me giving someone a full flame-gout when they corrected the work with something I perceived as bad faith. The information was good, but it was delivered in between slices of shit, and I lit into them about it. And so I probably lost myself a reader and got de-recommended to all of their people. So I'll never be big in this fandom, but it might be worth it if it means not having to deal all that often with jerks.

Spa Day (3242 words)
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jean-Luc Picard/Q
Characters: Jean-Luc Picard, Q (Star Trek)
Additional Tags: Kissing, Picard Just Wants To Read His Book, Q Just Wants Picard, Sitting Those Two Clowns Down To Talk About Feelings, Your Nudity Is Appreciated
Series: Part 2 of The Dixon Hill Distractions
Summary:
Picard is ready to tackle an unofficial novel obtained with a certain amount of effort. Q wants Picard to take a real vacation, and has booked a couples day at a (nearby?) spa for them.
Despite their best efforts, Picard manages to relax and Q manages to confess.

Picard and Q is an endearing thing in the Star Trek: TNG fandom, and occasionally I offer to write it because I think there's a lot of gender-perception fuckery that can be achieved through Q presenting in completely different ways to try and get Picard to reciprocate his feelings. Instead of using a holonovel where Q gets involved, this time I had Q spirit Picard away from reading a semi-authorized Dixon Hill novel to do a couples spa day. The interactions between them are pretty good for being in character, in my opinion, and it's just fun to watch them bounce off each other's personalities.

Birth By Sleep (12857 words)
Chapters: 10/10
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug, Kingdom Hearts
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Characters: Nino Lahiffe | Carapace, Emilie Agreste | Paravani, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Alya Césaire | Rena Rouge, Queen Bee - Character, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Xion (Kingdom Hearts), Naminé (Kingdom Hearts), Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug), Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth
Additional Tags: Self-Sacrificing Bad Ideas, Chat Noir Needs Better Fanart, Chat Noir Suicidally Ideates, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Ladybug is not having it
Series: Part 2 of The Heart of the Miraculous
Summary:
Ladybug dives into Chat Noir's heart to rescue him from the last akuma. Outside, Rena, Carapace, and a potential new hero fight Lila, who has embraced the role of villain in Hawk Moth's absence.

So the idea that started with "What if Nathalie Heartless wasn't just a nickname?" had a second part to it, where Ladybug takes a dive into Chat's heart, while everyone on the outside tries to hold it together long enough for both of them to get back to consciousness. I left the door open for more possibilities, but unless The Miraculous Keyblade of Sabrina Raincomprix comes to anything, the series probably won't be picked up again. Plus, I'm kind of annoyed about how Season 3 turned out in Miraculous Ladybug, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Use As Directed (2848 words)
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Brigid/Riley
Characters: Magic Shop Clerk Tired of Dealing With People Who Don't Read The Warning Labels On Potions | Kali, Her Disappearing-Reappearing Boss | Cassandra, Sympathetic and Worldy Best Friend #1 | Meredith, Empathetic and Somewhat Innocent Best Friend #2 | Brigid, All-Around Generally Good Guy | Riley, Sleazeball of the Highest Order | Jack, Unknowingly Bisexual Customer Suffering Effects As Intended | Mrs. Dobbins
Additional Tags: Magic Potion Shop, Seriously Does Anyone Actually Read The Labels?, Doctor Bronnor Product Titles and Descriptions, terrible puns galore
Summary:
Several stories of customers (and friends, regrettably) who are customers of the potion shop Kali works at that don't follow the printed instructions on the bottles, and all the aggravation (and seat-of-pants improvisation) that results from their inability to follow directions.

I tried my hand at the Magic Shop Clerk tired of dealing with people who don't read the warnings, and apparently, it was a complete flop, even after the reveal period. Maybe I didn't have enough of the right kind of retail experience, or maybe I said or did something that was offensive, but regardless, even though I thought it was good, nobody else appears to have. Not even the recipient.

A Conversation in Andante (1818 words)
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kairi/Riku (Kingdom Hearts)
Characters: Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Riku (Kingdom Hearts)
Additional Tags: Sitting On That Clown To Talk About His Feelings, Riku Angst (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi Isn't Having It, Riku Has Issues (Kingdom Hearts)
Summary:
It takes a lot to get Riku to talk about his feelings. And when he does, he tends not to actually talk a whole lot. Kairi is persistent, though, and gets what she wants out of him.

Destiny Island Trio: Da Capo al Segno (2376 words)
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Characters: Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Tidus (Kingdom Hearts), Wakka (Kingdom Hearts), Selphie (Kingdom Hearts), Axel (Kingdom Hearts)
Additional Tags: Kairi Drive Form, Sora and Riku Are Still Competitive, kairi loves her boys, Challenges, Mentioned Wakka/Lulu, Catching Up After A Long Absence, Fluff, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Sufficiently Post-Kingdom Hearts III That Everybody's Together Again, Paopu Fruit (Kingdom Hearts)
Summary:
The Destiny Island Trio is back after their worlds-spanning adventure, and they're looking forward to down time, strengthening their relationships, and not having to go fight Heartless again.
Which gives the other Destiny Island Trio the opportunity to do what they've been meaning to for a while.

These two are a duology, even though they're not marked as a series, I envisioned them as a single story and then broke it into two pieces so that it could fulfill two different assignments. Since it was for the same person, and the two of them are separate enough stories that they don't need to be read in order, I don't think I cheated anywhere on giving good gifts.

Anyway, Kingdom Hearts came back into popularity for a bit with the release of KHIII, and I kept turning up the same person to write for whenever I offered Kingdom Hearts. Which is fine, but at a certain point, you start wondering whether you're going to have enough ideas to make something work, so I stopped offering Kingdom Hearts in various exchanges to try and avoid turning in things that didn't have the spark in them, from having written in the same series too often and for the same person.

Another Time, Another Story (1295 words)
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kairi & Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Characters: Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Sora's Friends - Character
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Alternate Universe - Sora isn't restored by Kairi during KH1, Alternate Universe - Kairi Wields A Keyblade in KH1
Summary:
Xehanort won, but Sora is willing to give himself up to give them another shot, and it starts with getting Kairi trained earlier.

It was a good idea, this one, and I picked it up as a pinch hit, since I had an idea and went with it, but there was one tiny problem with it, and that was that it didn't actually meet the requirements that were in the request. (The recipient liked it, thankfully.) One very profuse apology, a re-read of the requirements, and some seriously speedy drafting and completion later, and I had something that fit and would, in fact, qualify as a good gift.

Kairi's Keyblades (1624 words)
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Characters: Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku (Kingdom Hearts)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Kissing
Summary:
Sora, Riku, and Kairi go out to investigate a disturbance in the Twilight District and must figure out a way to stop what's responsible.

This went over a lot better, actually fit the recipient request, and I enjoyed playing a little bit in an urban fantasy sort of Kingdom Hearts. It wasn't all that hard to translate to the setting, although I'm not entirely sure that I hit all the urban fantasy bits exactly right. (It's not my usual setting, but I've read a few.) I like the idea of Sora as a Siren who can get people to feel his emotions, and Riku's Dream Eater adventure in 3D made a reasonable idea, along with his constant struggle between light and darkness. I think it was a better idea, all around.

The Borderlands Cup (4005 words)
Fandom: In Other Lands | The Turn of the Story - Sarah Rees Brennan
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Elliot Schafer/Luke Sunborn, Elliot Schafer & Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle & Luke Sunborn
Characters: Elliot Schafer, Luke Sunborn, Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle, Original Male Elf Character(s), Original Troll Character(s)
Summary:
Serene taps her two best friends from the Borderguard to help her with an impossible task: Win the men's division of the Trigon Borderlands Cup for the elves. Luke is on board. Elliot wonders why he's there at all.

I really like In Other Lands, because it's a delightful send-up of the standard high fantasy adventure and equally snarky at the boarding school adventure idea. Elliot is such a jerk to everyone around him, but eventually gets wise about his setting and what he can and can't do, which makes him even more of a terrifying force than when he was just trying to circumvent the rules because he thought they were stupid. So I put him in a setting where he was going to shine by maing him a sport coach. Since he has absolutely zero interest in Trigon as a sport, his brain immediately went to work on all of the ways that whatever was going on in front of him was less than brilliant, and he kept opening his mouth around Serene about it, which is exactly why she hired him for the job. The recipient absolutely loved it, which is what I strive for in all of my exchange fic. Even if sometimes I wish the general kudos count were higher.

Lost and Found (2158 words)
Fandom: The Tea Dragon Society (Webcomic)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Greta/Minette, Hesekiel/Erik
Characters: Greta (The Tea Dragon Society), Minette (The Tea Dragon Society), Hesekiel (The Tea Dragon Society), Erik (The Tea Dragon Society), Greta's Mama (The Tea Dragon Society)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmate Marks Written On the Wrist, Soulmates Herded By An Angry Goose
Summary:
Greta is impatient to find her soulmate and get her name written on her wrist. The people around her suggest patience. Before long, a more interesting mystery presents itself for Greta to figure out.

I also really adore The Tea Dragon Society and am thrilled to know there will be/is another Tea Dragon book to enjoy. In this case, it wa about soulmates, and I decided to mash together a couple different ways that soulmates get troped so that I could have Erik laughing about how hard it was for everyone when the geese were about, and provide a certain amount of mystery about Minette's written marks, and just talk about how soulmates would work in the gentler setting of the Tea Dragon Society.

Love (Loyalty) (2505 words)
Fandom: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Kuvira/Zhu Li Moon
Characters: Kuvira (Avatar), Zhu Li Moon, Bolin (Avatar)
Additional Tags: Unhealthy Relationships, Abusive Relationships, Kuvira Still Has A Temper, Zhu Li Works With Kuvira, Jealousy
Summary:
Zhu Li and Kuvira have disagreements about logistics, Kuvira ends the discussion before her temper fully takes off, and then Zhu Li and Kuvira have dinner together, where Bolin attends.

I liked how this one turned out, as an alternate take on Korra, where Zhu Li joined up and stayed with Kuvira rather than with Varrick, and I figured they would both be scarily competent in their own domains. I also figured that Kuvira wouldn't know how to run a campaign that wasn't based on dashing in and smashing everything up to get people to surrender and join her, which leads to a certain amount of conflict with the more tactically-minded Zhu Li. And while the recipient seemed to like it, this one also seems to have been either a flop or just unnoticed by the wider fandom. (Usually, there's a polite smattering of kudos when the anon peiod is over, but some works just never get that.)

The Royal Test (21517 words)
Chapters: 9/9
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Nathalie Sancoeur, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Le Gorille | Adrien Agreste's Bodyguard
Characters: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Alix Kubdel, Nathalie Sancoeur, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Le Gorille | Adrien Agreste's Bodyguard
Additional Tags: Songfic, The A+ Parenting of Nathalie Sancoeur, The A++ Parenting of Gabriel Agreste, Abusive Parents, Identity Reveal, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth Identity Reveal, Living Down To Your Reputation
Summary:
It only takes a spark to set off events that cannot be wound back. The unexpected loss of someone dear sends dominoes down. At the very end, only the strongest survive to begin climbing up again.

And then, for some reason, I decided to do a fic with song lyrics interspersed between them. Which meant learning about work skins and how to apply them. And then thinking about how to make them accessible to people with screen readers who wouldn't be getting the visual distinction that was easy to make. I think I bashed something together that might work, and then I had to fight an Archive bug that was stripping out the names of my classes when I previewed a work, so I had to put them back in so that things would work correctly.

As for the actual content of the fic, well, RWBY's songs have often been part of my head soundtrack, and Adrien and Weiss have a lot in common with each other, I think. And there might have been a certain amount of writing out something that I could see myself in, even if the situations are very different between what happened to me, to Adrien, and to Weiss. And two handy prompts came along suggesting that Marinette would absolutely go full-on murder against someone who would abuse Adrien, and providing the means and method for it (which is Chapter 2, essentially), and I was off to the races about grief and revenge and getting stronger through surviving what's happened to you. And it clocked in at about 20k of original words, so yay for another long project coming through to completion.

We Don't Even Have Birthdays! (1066 words)
Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Catra/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Characters: Catra (She-Ra), Scorpia (She-Ra), Entrapta (She-Ra), Rogelio (She-Ra), Kyle (She-Ra), Lonnie (She-Ra), Emily (She-Ra)
Additional Tags: One-Sided Catra/Scorpia (She-Ra), Catra is a jerk, Scorpia Loves Her Anyway
Summary:
Scorpia wants to surprise Catra with a party. Catra isn't surprised, but she appreciates it anyway.

Another relatively new fandom! Despite the problems I've had with Entrapta as a character, the rest of the She-Ra and the Princesses of Power cast have been great to watch on screen. Scorpia is fascinating, given how much she clearly cares for people, including Catra, even as Catra continues to want to do terrible things in a bid for approval. Which makes for a fun relationship to write when Scorpia is trying to be nice and Catra doesn't want to admit that she likes it when Scorpia is nice to her.

When You See Them, Don't Balk (568 words)
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Baseball gods
Additional Tags: Trick-Fic, Reveal at the end, Do Not Annoy The Sports Gods
Summary:
We are the ones sent when oaths are broken, when too much is demanded. You know who we are, and now, you'll learn our name.

This was just fun to write, once I figured out the chief concept of it: what the baseball Furies might look like and how players might experience them. It's an idea that I'm grateful for the short requirements of Trick or Treat for, because I don't think the idea itself would have lasted much more than the 500-ish words that it was.

Sign Here, Please. (1965 words)
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Emily/Ophelia
Characters: Hopeful Woman Who Answers The Door In Lingerie For The Cute Mail Carrier | Ophelia, Said Mail Carrier Who Doesn't Share The Hopeful Woman's Opinion Of How Cute She Is | Emily, Substitute Mail Carrier Who Doesn't Get The Lingerie Treatment | Mark
Additional Tags: 5+1 Things, shameless flirting, Professionalism In The Face Of The Weird
Summary:
Deliver a package to someone answering the door in lingerie, get the signature and tell them to have a nice day. Once is strange, twice is coincidence, three times is speculation. It'll take a few more times before Emily gets the hint.

Another one of those Original Works fests prompts that looked intriguing, and this one got a better reception than the last time I tried. It's also one of the times where I explicitly decided on the 5+1 format while plotting it out, so that was a nice exercise in writing several short things strung together. I also find myself piping names to descriptions of characters a lot, which seems like an extra avenue of possible hilarity, depending on what the description I need is. There may have also been a little bit of fun basing Emily on my own remarkable cluelessness when it comes to someone flirting with me, even with signs that are pesumably pretty unmistakable.

Status Updates (2668 words)
Fandom: Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cobra Bubbles & Grand Councilwoman, Cobra Bubbles & Lilo Pelekai
Characters: Cobra Bubbles, Lilo Pelekai, Nani Pelekai, Grand Councilwoman (Disney), Stitch | Experiment 626, Dr. Joomba
Additional Tags: "Retired" Agent Bubbles
Summary:
The Grand Councilwoman informs Mr. Bubbles of Earth's impending change of status. Cobra needs to find some other reason for the Earth to stay intact, and nobody is directly helping him at this.

This was such a fun thing to write, mostly because I love Cobra Bubbles, the unflappable social worker with a lot more experience dealing with aliens than anyone else would believe. And there were a few melded bits in there from Space Opera, and a few references to some classic cience fiction, and suggestions on what might work to save the world when the mosquitoes stop doing it for them, and yeah, it was just a blast to write. And, like a lot of things, it got the usual sorts of exchange kudos and comments. It really does depend on the size of the fandom to see what kind of numbers a thing racks up.

Just Like Old Times (1336 words)
Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Characters: Adora (She-Ra), Catra (She-Ra)
Additional Tags: One-Sided Catra/Scorpia (She-Ra), all a dream, except that it isn't, Love Confessions, Mentioned Kyle/Rogelio
Summary:
Adora and Catra get trapped together while others are negotiating important things. Eventually, they both try to get out, only to have things they wanted to say get out as well.

Another stab at She-Ra! It turned out fine! Catradora is a popular ship, yes? And a little bit of dream work, since that seemed like the easiest way to get two people who are antagonistic to each other in the same place, and where they could do some talking with each other. And the recipient liked it, so that's okay, right?

We Won't Be Beaten By The Past (916 words)
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chloé Bourgeois & Pollen
Characters: Chloé Bourgeois, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Pollen (Miraculous Ladybug)
Additional Tags: Episode Fix-it, Episode: s03 Mangeamour | Heart Hunter (Battle of the Miraculous Part 1), Season 3 Finale, Chloé Bourgeois' Journey Of Personal Growth
Summary:
Chloé Bourgeois is on her way to becoming Miracle Queen, but for three key facts: Hawkmoth always lies, Chloé has done some significant personal growth, and, most importantly, Queen Bee will be second to absolutely no-one.

Miracle Queen pissed me off. I thought it a remarkably poor execution of concept and it relied on a characterization of Chloé that was not appropriate for the episodes of the third season that we had seen. So I wrote a fix-it to get some of the frustration out and posted it. Not that long after, a nonnie chose to tell me how the events of the episode were inevitable and forehsadowed and the only logical conclusion was what happened in the episode. They got a "good thing we're not dealing with a show that runs on logic", which they responded to with "well, I'm still right" and that got the caustic "read the tags, kid, and practice some 'don't like, don't read' if you really just can't enjoy the work" response. At which point they flounced, still smug in the superiority of their rightness over the very real point being made that they were trolling, and probably convinced that they had carried the day with their superior intellect. Despite still not actually signing a name to themselves, which shows a lot about that vaunted intellect and how much they actually want to defend it.

So this was the year that I got into a big fandom, sure, but also that I got my first anonymous troll and my first bad-faith concrit because I was in that same big fandom. Two more things to cross off my fanworks bucket list, I guess.

And The Cartomantic Caper (4191 words)
Fandom: The Librarians (TV 2014), Warehouse 13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cassandra Cillian & Ezekiel Jones & Jacob "Jake" Stone
Characters: Cassandra Cillian, Ezekiel Jones, Jacob "Jake" Stone, Jenkins | Galahad (The Librarians), Helena "H. G." Wells, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Fortune Telling, Cartomancy, Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Deck, Crossover-ish?, More Like A Shared Universe, A Healthy Dose of References
Summary:
The Librarians head to a lecture, hoping to collect the original Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck, which has gained the power to predict the future. Had they been able to do so, they might have noticed the other team also here to collect the artifact.

This one I did for Fortune Favors, which gave me a spread of three cards from a Tarot deck and asked me to write a fic about the cards and the interpretations thereof. The idea for it being Librarians fic came fairly easily on, as did the plot outline for stealing an artifact, and you can't have artifacts and thievery without the agents from Warehouse 13 also making an appearance, right? So it trucked right along without issue and then it was done, and I had a nice work where Ezekiel got to be extremely put out that someone did what he was goinng to do first, and the rest of the Librarians In Training got to learn that some of the characters from their childhood aren't complete fiction, as the Librarians episodes often did. As with many things I do for myself, it's a lot of things that I liked, and it's nice that other people seem to have liked them, too.

Easy A(drien) (7921 words)
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Characters: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Nathalie Sancoeur, Chloé Bourgeois, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Kagami Tsurugi, Lila Rossi, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Background Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant - Freeform, One-Sided Kagami Tsurugi/Adrien Agreste, One-Sided Chloé Bourgeois/Adrien Agreste, One-Sided Lila Rossi/Adrien Agreste, Tabloids, The A+ Parenting of Gabriel Agreste
Summary:
After being seen in the tabloids with Juleka, Gabriel decides it's time for Adrien to have his image grow up a little bit. Being Gabriel, he tells Adrien he has to be seen in the tabloids with five different girls in a week. Adrien goes along with it, and sets a secret goal to get seen with Ladybug. Everything goes according to the plan, even if not in the ways that Adrien was expecting.

A story entirely inspired by a title to a movie that's an adaptation of The Scarlet Letter. I really liked Easy A as a movie, and it seemed like the work of a few moments to adapt it to Adrien Agreste's unfortunate situation of being the model that everyone wants to be seen with, and how he might do his best to get into a situation where he can be with the person he actually wants to be around. I also thought it a nice touch to have Marinette in the background of everything, because we all know she's got at least a small amount of stalker tendencies around Adrien, even though she's been doing a much better job of not being that around him as the seasons have progressed. I had fun plotting out each of the scenarios that Adrien would go through and how each of his dates would react to the situation he presented them with. Yay for writing for fun as much as for writing for exchanges.

Cirque d'Akuma: The Audition (4172 words)
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Characters: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Lê Chiến Kim, Original Characters, Classmates (Miraculous Ladybug)
Additional Tags: ML Secret Santa, Aged-Up Character(s), Adult Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adult Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Adult Miraculous Ladybug Cast, post-identity reveal, Acrobats Aerialists and Clowns Oh My
Summary:
Adrien is going to go support Marinette's tryouts for a varieté that's opening up soon. He wasn't expecting support to involve a room full of clowns, but what's a few laughs when you're doing it for love?

Taking inspiration from an image for a prompt, rather than a prompt, in this case, but I have to admit that I like putting Adrien through his paces when it comes to writing fic, mostly because the canon has him as so passive, he's ripe for the opportunity to have things happen to him, or trying to be devious right underneath Gabriel's nose. In this case, I needed to age everyone up some so they could participate as adults with experience in related fields for all of it. Mostly, though, I had a blast describing how Adrien might have to audition with the clowns unexpectedly and then turn out to be surprisingly competent at many of the things that someone needs to be a clown, while Marinette was off soaring around and being Ladybug without the costume on. The recipient enjoyed the work, so that's also a successful story, even though they're on tumblr, which I don't have (and probably won't ever get). Well done, all the same.

Bound Up In Your Eyes (1265 words)
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant
Characters: Juleka Couffaine, Rose Lavillant
Additional Tags: Light BDSM, Light Bondage, Explicit Consent, Top Rose Lavillant, Bottom Juleka Couffaine, Juleka Hits Subspace Pretty Easily
Summary:
Juleka has a minor accident that results in her being covered with ribbon. Spying an opportunity, Rose decides to toy with her girlfriend for a bit before helping her clean up the mess.

I saw a prompt and the idea stuck around enough to turn it into a work, what can I say? Other than that I also really enjoy the idea of Rose, the short, sunny, talkative blonde one being the top in the relationship between them and Juleka, the tall, gothy, mostly silent one is the bottom. Because kinky people come in all packages and orientations, folks, no matter waht someone else might say.

Over and Under, But Never Through (1290 words)
Fandom: Chess Pieces (Anthropomorphic)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Knight/Queen (Chess)
Characters: Queen Caught Between Her Kingdom and Her Love | Beatrix IV, Captain of the Queen's Castle and Beatrix's Love Interest | Corrine
Summary:
Queen Beatrix knows what is best for her kingdom, but really wants to keep Corrine nearby as a companion and protector. Captain Corrine knows she can serve her queen much more effectively away from the palace. From these conflicting ideas, a stratagem develops and is put into place.

This year's Yuletide request was in Chess, but it wasn't really meant to be much about chess, as the recipient was more interested in the relationships between pieces than in references to the board game. I think I managed to do both pretty well, and used a possibly metafictional trick to have the pieces playing some other sort of game for their universe. I'm pretty sure I envisioned it more like Go or Shogi than I did chess, but it's also vague enough that it could be whatever game the reader wants to put in place there, including chess.

Okay, well, the statistics page for AO3 says that this year, I put out...a lot of words. About 150k of them, in fact. Add on the at least 50k that is the Giving of Grief, and I'm comfortably up above 200k in words for this year. I usually also add an estimate of about 50k on top of that for words written across journal entries for the year. That's reasonable to say, right? (Perhaps it is actually conservative, given that between December Days and Fandom Snowflake-type activities, I might have the 50k in hand, and there's still a few more tens of thousands of words on top of that to cover.) So 250k of words, and probably more than that. That's a prolific year for me. Big fandom will do that to you. (It's also no coincidence that the works that crested 100 kudos this year were nearly all in Miraculous Ladybug. Megafandom is megafandom, and even if you only appeal to a small segment, that's still a lot by raw number count.) That's the sort of thing that, if I were to bend it toward trying to do things like write novels, I'd have a few, but I have yet to create something that's NaNo length, even across multiple works, as Heart of the Miraculous is only around 40k.

So, yeah. That's a lot of words for this year. A really large lot of words. Thank you, for those of you that read them, for spending time with my words, and even occasionally replying to them and eliciting more words. It's nice to know you're out there. Let's have a fantastic year together.