Fic Roundup 2007
This little Joe/Patrick thing I did for Jessa Suuuuuuuue
Invisible Lines. How did William Beckett/Bob McLynn end up my oddest OTP ever?
Ficlet #2: Chris Gaylor wants Nick to have the best birthday EVER. A little pre-GSF, and I kind of adore this whole thing.
Birthday Shenanigans. AAR GSF. Co-written with my Toby!
Son of a Scoundrel, Heart of Gold. Pete/Patrick. Victorian AU. Written for the Romance Novel Cliche challenge.
Zen and the Art of Kissing. Frank/Gerard. Post-Download picture. (aka, post-the reason MCR canon is better than almost all canon ever)
Part three of Lessons. Patrick/Andy. They finally effing get together! And Jori and Quinn spare my life! PHEW.
This really smutty Bob/Ray Sex Rash chat fic. Written with Sky. I really... just. God, they're hot.
A snippet of Panic circle jerk fic. For one of disarm_d's pornothons. Van era smut.
Another snippet: Frank/Patrick, Warped, blowjob. A Polaris 2 outtake.
Hopeless. Bob/Patrick. Have I mentioned how much I love miscommunication as a plot device?
Chris/Darren Small Town AU. A continuation of this AU that I write with Sky. Chris/Darren, man. They are stupidly perfect for each other.
Wordless. Frank/Brian. Scenes from a scene.
Blank Canvas. Frank/Gerard. The beginnings of what may expand into a tattoo parlor AU.
Another snippet: Frank/Bob, candy necklaces, frottage.
Last snippet: Used GSF, early days, van sex.
Also, I posted this fun universe where everyone is a sex addict at SKF (written with Nic), and Jessa Sue and I wrote some Ray/Brendon which is hot enough to melt your FACE, but she posted it and I cannot remember WHERE!! *SOB*
And in paarty, Fi and I posted dirty porn where Chris Gaylor is a triplet. Underage, NC-17 invented incest porn, anyone?
And, of course, schuyler, clumsygyrl, callsigns, marigolde and I cam up with WentzWang this year. The best bisexual porn empire AU EVARRRRRRRRR. THROW YOUR WANGS UP, SAYS TRAVIS!
AND MY MOST RECENT FIC! WHICH I JUST POSTED, JUST NOW, JUST UNDER THE WIRE!!:
Maxine. Bob/Ray. NC-17. Trucker AU. Hurt/Comfort fic liek whoa. Seriously, OUCH, and it was like pulling teeth to write it, but I really kind of like how it turned out.
And now, with thanks to adellyna for the easy c&p formatting: My Thoughts on My Fics of 2007:
My favorite story this year (of my own): Okay, already this whole thing is going to be hard. I love all my fics like children, like unique snowflakes! But if I had to pick only one to read and reread it would have to be...Hopeless I think. Its one of my favorite pairings, and the first time I got Bob Bryar voice well and truly stuck in my head, which is never a bad thing. (Close second: Wordless, which. Huh. I am going to farm out the titling of my fics to someone else in 2008, yes?)
(Unposted, my favorite fic of the year is still Merspence. It's at a massive 200 pages now, and every fucking word in it feels right and good and true. It just makes me happy, and writing with Toby is a joy and a privilege.)
My best story this year: In terms of "good fic by all conventional measure, having a beginning, middle, and end" its Invisible Lines, I think. (I have fallen out of practice in how to write fic like a NORMAL PERSON.) It's a truly solid little story, and I'm really happy the people who clicked that link like it. Also, I basically had to create an entire character (Bob) who has no fanon persona for people to draw from. That was fun! In terms of "fic that is different and slightly insane", Wordless wins. Some good turns of phrase in there, some good angsty moments, and I really got the right tone in it.
Story most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: People have been amazingly supportive of my fic, so this one is hard! And I can't go by comment numbers, because Invisible Lines doesn't have lots but HELLO BIZARRE PAIRING, and it was wonderfully received for what it is! Hrm. I wish more people would read the Small Town AU stuff, and fall in love with Darren/Chris and talk to me about it on AIM. Also, the Birthday Shenanigans AAR GSF should be read by more people. Its fucking HOT.
Adding one: Story that people loved that you thought "huh. okay?" about: Zen and Blank Canvas were both fun and cute, but not the OMG YAY inducing sort of thing the comments made me think they were.
I think, and this is really my opinion, but. I think that I just hadn't ever written real OTPs in this fandom before this year, and it was an interesting lesson to learn. My Pete/Patrick fic, my Frank/Gerard ones-- they got more comments than I had thought by a LONG SHOT. Not that I didn't like them! But it was a surprising lesson to learn, about people who will only click a link if they love the pairing, and how most of my pairings are odd, or new, or crossovers, and I probably miss a whole subset of those OTP/tinhat types with most of my stuff.
Most fun story: Birthday Shenanigans, no contest. It's Ty's birthday and they just all fuck him senseless! Full of banter and adorableness and cocks! It's AAR-- THERE IS NO NON-FUN HERE.
Most sexy story: The Sex Rash Chatfic is the sexiest thing ever. And the Used GSF has its moments... But no, the Sex Rash wins. SEX RASH!
"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: Hmmm. I stuck to pretty tame stuff this year. There is plenty of "big dude/littlier dude" fic and "older dude/jailbait dude" fic, but that is not wrong! In the least! The first sex scene in Maxine is pretty harsh, but I'm really proud of it, actually. No matter how hard it is to read.
Story with single sexiest moment: hmmmmmm. Once again, the lost Ray/Brendon is hot enough to melt you FACE, people, but it is useless as I can't FIND it.
The Sex Rash story has this gem:
me: And Ray's question dies on his lips because... holy shit. Ray knows what that is, its already red, inflammed, like Bob's been rubbing at it for a few days at least, and how the hell didn't they know?! "Shut up," Bob grits out before Ray can say anything, and then Ray's just GONE, pushing into Bob's bunk.
Sky: Ray wants to say stuff. He's always the guy who says nice stuff, like "Why didn't you tell me?" and "I could have tried to help," but not now, honestly. He pushes Bob flat, feet on the pillow, and bites at his neck hard, shoving a hand into Bob's shorts.
me: Bob makes a noise that would be mortifying under any other circumstance, but right now he can't fucking care because Ray's hand is on his cock and he thinks thank god before yanking a little too hard on Ray's hair. "Sorry, fuck, I need..." he whines (and its been weeks, actually, Ray can tell by the patches of skin where the rash has already come and gone), and Ray just strokes harder. "I know," he says, and it sounds a lot less comforting and a lot more desperate than he intended.
Sky: The thing is, Ray's been dealing with this too. He knows what works best, what's just not enough. His hand closes tighter and he nudges a finger behind Bob's balls. Bob growls and arches.
---
But Wordless has a scene that is just stuck forever in my head, and its not long, and its not porny, but it sounds sexy, to me:
“Don’t need women,” he says sagely and Brian turns his head just a fraction, just enough to plant a kiss to Frank’s temple, code for /you know what I mean, dickwad/. Frank tilts his head up and Brian kisses him again, the liquor giving the kiss a slow burn as they open their mouths and slip deeper into it.
They could stay here, Brian thinks as Frank slips a hand into his jeans. They could do this, he almost believes as Frank’s breath skates along his thigh. Who would come looking for him, he thinks, as Frank keens under him, lips bruised and wet. But when Frank comes, loud and gorgeous and pale and patterned, he thinks… Frank. They’d come looking for Frank.
Story with single sweetest moment: AHAHHAAAHAHA, oh god. The whole Romance Novel Cliche fic was hilariously over-the-top, but it did give me this, which is totally made of sweetness:
The crew was almost finished loading the cargo and Patrick turned his attention back to his few belongings. He could carry most, but needed to negotiate a few members of the crew to help with his small trunk. He barely noticed the commotion behind him-shouting and the sound of a carriage being driven at great speed-before the noise was almost on top of him.
“Patrick!” He turned and blinked up as Pete swung hurriedly out of his carriage and ran toward him. “Patrick, what are you thinking, going off like this, no word,” Pete started in, yelling, and it took Patrick a full moment to catch up. Pete’s hat was gone and under his coat he wore only basic trousers and what appeared to be a nightshirt. His tone changed abruptly. “Whatever it was I did, I am so, so sorry, don’t you see that,” he said, eyes wide, and took Patrick’s hand in his. “Please don’t leave. Please.”
“Pete,” Patrick replied, bewildered. The letter in his pocket had been so clear…
“I’ll pay more. Double. Whatever it takes.” Pete said firmly, holding tighter to Patrick’s hand. “You can’t just quit, Stump. It’s completely uncivil.”
“I didn’t quit!” Patrick pulled his hand back and thrust it into his pocket, pulling out the letter and waving it in front of Pete’s face. “This was your idea, don’t go blaming me if,” but Pete was reading the letter, closely, eyes narrowing.
“Who gave you this?” He asked viciously, and Patrick opened his mouth, then clicked it shut.
“Y-you did, or, rather, the boy you employ from the messenger service. It had your seal so I just assumed…”
“Get in the carriage, Patrick.”
“I don’t,” Patrick started, but Pete had already motioned for his footman to gather Patrick’s things. The crew on the dock bustled around them without so much as a glance.
“I don’t know who sent this to you, but it wasn’t me. I couldn’t.” Pete paused before pressing his warm hand to Patrick’s cheek. “I would never send you away. Do you understand that?”
Pete sounded almost desperate and Patrick’s heart ached as hope coursed through him. Maybe he hadn’t done irreparable damage. He nodded and Pete tucked his hand behind Patrick’s neck and tugged until they were walking side-by-side to the carriage. They didn’t speak again until they were both inside, sitting next to each other as the city flashed by through the curtains.
“Patrick,” Pete started, and his voice was a bit hoarse.
“How did you find me?” Patrick interrupted quietly. “If you didn’t send the letter, then.”
“I sent young Michael to your place with new ledgers before breakfast, and he returned with the news that you’d left, and all your belongings with you. I tore out of the house so fast I’m barely dressed. Thank God you’d told your landlady of your plans, or there might have been no way to track you down.”
Patrick swallowed. Pete had been looking for him all day, running around London in his nightclothes.
“Who would do this?” Pete asked tightly. He was looking out the window, but he cast his hand out to hold Patrick’s firmly. “What villain would want to send you away from me?”
Most unintentionally *telling* story: This is hard, because I put little bits of myself in every fic I write, so everything is a little bit telling. Bob in Hopeless is NOT a Mary Sue, but he and Patrick both react to things like I would in that situation.
Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I didn't have a Branden in my head ever until the Used van GSF just popped in there, totally unbidden, a week ago. Andy Hurley in Lessons 3 developed in a really pretty awesome, slightly slutty dude, but he was a fucking romantic, which blindsided me a little. Bob and Ray in Maxine just angsted the fuck OUT on me, and I think made me realize I love writing Bob Bryar more than I love writing most things.
Biggest disappointment: I have a lot of fic that was lost in the Great Crash of '07, but I can't blame my piddling fic output on that. I just... lose focus really easily. I am disappointed that I didn't finish Polaris 2 and post it MONTHS ago. I am disappointed in the couple of challenges I signed up for and missed deadlines for. I want to write everything, and that is overwhelming sometimes. I wish to hell I'd written more AAR fic, because they are, in all honesty, my happy place in fandom, and I want everyone to love them as much as I do. (I have AAR fic in the works! Look for it this year!)
Biggest surprise: I wrote exactly one fic with members of Panic at the Disco in it. It was very short, and pre-Jon Walker. I also ended the year with a fic streak of MCR-MCR-MCR-The USED-MCR. That... was unexpected.
Hardest story to write: Tie between Son of a Scoundrel (the language! the weird structure I imposed on it! The whole "Gabe is Patrick's evil father" conceit! Good LORD that was hard!) and Maxine. The layers in Maxine just unfold and unfold and unfold, and I am still not sure its the best it could be, or that I did the best service I could to the characters and the situation. I made Bob's wound pretty big, bigger than a bandaid and some healing sex would fix, and I hope the healing in it doesn't seem rushed or forced.
Easiest story to write: Zen and the Art of Kisisng just FLEW out of me, complete with airbrushed pillows and Tito Jackson references. Also, anything labeled "snippet" was probably written at my desk, as burst of tiny inspiration.
This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most: The theme of 90% of my fics is MISCOMMUNICATION and also PINING. Obviously Hopeless is the flagship of that, but Son of a Scoundrel is up there, and Maxine and Lessons. I told someone this year that pining!Bob is my favorite Bob, but I think that pining!Gerard, and pining!Bert and pining!Patrick and pining!ANYONE is my favorite.
Amount of fic that lurks, unposted, on your hard drive and why: AHHAHHAAA *wipes tear* This depends on whether you mean chatfic or non-chatfic. I lost most of my chatlogs but managed to scrap together bits and pieces of things, including (thank GOD) all of Merspence. Sky is posting the Old West 'verse stuff soon, I hope. I lost... a lot. I can't think about it. I just. No. No thinking.
In terms of actual fic I wrote myself in a word document, you ask? Well, we have in progress: the AAR GSF Church Camp AU; possibly one where Mike has a BABY (not in the ass baby sense, sorry); Brendon/Patrick Trucker AU; Jepha/Bob hotness; Pete/Joe future!fic; Chapter seven of Oxford (no seriously, I still have this whole NOVEL to write, omg, and I WANT to, I just need a summer to myself with no bandom distractions!!); POLARIS TWO (which is back to the drawing board after the crash, but possibly all for the best!); the Nick/Ty prequel to "Each Touch" that Toby and I have been working on for MONTHS; and one labeled "Mikey Wheeler" which is too odd to explain. I lost my matt Cortez fic, but I have an odd feeling he will be worked into the Ray/Bert porntastic fic of awesome (that exactly 3 of you will read), so he'll be fine. And then there is the other Cortez ficlet, and more Brian in EVERYTHING, and more JOE in everything, and god.
Others will come, I am sure, but I would like to at least get these fics written before my BRAIN EXPLODES.
That was my year in fic! How was yours???
x-posted at my fic journal, for posterity!