Yearly Fic Roundup~
Another year, another fic meme /o/ Somehow this is the only thing I post here, oops.
Monthly Updates:
January:
In the Hall of Golden Fortunes Chapter 4 - D2 RPS, 3700 words
The Bonds That Tie - Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, 1001 words
As promised, the first fiction I updated in the new year was the vamprequel :D The Shinken fic was one that had been half written for a long time and then one night I just got really mad about it not being done and just powered through the ending |Db Yayyyyy finishing things ||Dq That is what I had wanted from myself the last time I did this meme...
February:
In the Hall of Golden Fortunes Chapter 5 [Final Chapter! :D] - D2, 2788 words
Truth and Tanuki Chapter 1 - D2, 3073 words
Yayayayay I successfully finished one fiction /o/ It ended up being five chapters!!!!! :D Like I said in the author note there, this is proooooobably only about the second multichapter fiction I've ever managed to finish |D Maybe three if you don't count one that was originally supposed to have a sequel and at least one more spinoff fic, lol. But yeah!!! I did it ;u;// This gives me great hope for the future. Finish what you start, Asuka!
So then having crossed one off the list I immediately started a new multichapter fic about a long lost big-eyed alien prince and a droopy-eyed enchanted tanuki :)
March:
Perchance to Wake - D2, 9318 words
The single longest fic posted this year :D A lovely fic about a far off land of fairy children and happiness~ This one I wrote in a notebook at first, how nostalgic~~ I want to write more things in this universe ;u; aahhh I'm so fond of this fic XD
April:
Nothing |D oh nooo.
May/June:
Eyes Full of Darkness Chapter 9 - D2, 3994 words
AU Roulette - D2, 5000 words
So I guess I tried to have that assassins fic updated for April but did not quite succeed!! :( The chapter was pretty long, for that fic, but I guess that's what happens when you don't write it for a while...
The AU Roulette was a really cool bandwagon I leapt on where you tried to think of all the AUs you have and choose numbers to represent them. Then people send in a number and you write a drabble for that AU :) I guess it was really popular somehow due to a few killer AUs so I ended up doing 50 of them in the end @u@ Ah, the roulettes were mostly done in May but the last couple were in June, so /o/
July:
Truth and Tanuki Chapter 2 - D2, 3683 words
The second chapter of this fic took a while /o\ The tanuki's true form was finally revealed ;u; and his true motivations came out in the end too. Kind of an unfortunate place to leave off, though, so it's too bad I haven't gotten the next chapter finished...
August:
Nothing /o\ I moved to Japan. I didn't have any internets for most of the month ;;;
September:
Less Than Light Years - Ressha Sentai ToQger, 1838 words
Degrees of Emptiness - ToQger, 3803 words
Um. So. I can explain. I had always been really into this traintrain sentai ever since it started bc my sweet baby Shison Jun was the lead hero!!! the #1 traintrain!! And then in episode 11 a goofy Emperor of Darkness showed up and he was so sweet and gradually even though the show started wanting to make him seem eviler and eviler (and tbf he did do some pretty questionable stuff) I started shipping the two of them |DDDD CLEARLY sometime in August this reached critical mass and I started mass production of Zetrai works =u=;; The first one is quite nice although I wonder if it would have been better without squeezing the romance in at the end. The second one is not nice. It is horrible. Horrible Zetrais part one. And yet there are two more following it, with more to come in the future. orz
October:
A Pressing Engagement - ToQger, 4719 words
Darker than Light, Crueler than Darkness - ToQ, 5855 words
The first one is nice!!! Nice Zetrais!!! This comes from a nice idea many people shared about an episode where the traintrains were lured into a trap with an invitation to the Emperor of Darkness's wedding, but suspiciously enough, the name of the bride was not written on this invitation!! SUSPICIOUS. Of course, this turned out not to be the case, but I thought it would be nice if the bride turned out to be Right, the sparkliest and most lovable traintrain |Dbbbb This is a good fiction! I like this fiction.
The second one is not a good fiction. It is Horrible Zetrais part 2. I switched POVs from Right to Zett which was difficult. Content-wise I'm not sure whether this one or the last one is more disturbing on its own. Probably about the same. Pretty bad. Would not recommend.
November:
Totality and Absolution - ToQ, 6613 words
And here's Horrible Zetrais part 3! I guess for those first three months I wrote one a month |D Well, in December I had other things to focus on so maybe it'll pick up again this year. Anyway this one improved in some ways over the previous ones and it switched back to Right's POV so that's ok. It was very scary at times but he smooched the monster boyfriend in the end so that's ok too.
December:
Shadow Tag Chapter 1-3 - ToQ, 6900 words
Limited Express - ToQ, 2135 words
So! I was very very tired of all those Horrible Zetrais so I switched to some nice and fluffy Zetrais instead :D!! At least, that was the intention. Shadow Tag is intended to be a collection of loosely linked silly oneshots about Zett and Right's happily married life, sort of a sequel to A Pressing Engagement, at least in theory. That said, in the needs-to-be-edited fourth chapter, the plot ends up a little more serious, probs bc I haven't written a Horrible Zetrai in a while, and as I was writing it I saw a lot of potential for a character arc and that sort of thing in between installments of smoochy cuteness soooo. We will see where the new year takes this fic. AT ANY RATE there's a hard word limit of 1500-3k words per chapter, no less but especially no more, so it shouldn't get too out of control :[!
The second one is not Zetrai, miraculously enough ;u; That is because it was written for a fic exchange :D!! So it is a nice gen fic about Tokacchi and Kagura taking a break from trainbattles :) I ACTUALLY had a different fic for this exchange? One about traintrains battling pirate sentais /o/ but then......... it got lost................ where did you go ;A; come baaaackkkk. So this one is a little rushed and I might go back through and give it a more solid edit but I think it's still cute and gen is nice! Trains are nice! Trains that aren't Right or Emperors of Darkness are very nice |Dq
Total number of stories: Four longfic (8 chapters total, 1 fic completed!!), eight oneshots (3 in a series kinda, so maybe they actually belong in longfics :/), FIFTY drabbles. Hahaha. I added one longfic again and wrote the same number of chapters, but the number of oneshots decreased this year. And I'm still debating whether Horrible Zetrai: The Series should count as a longfic or not, bc they're VERY directly related, but published as separate fics on AO3... which I kind of regret orz
Total word count: 64,421 words posted! Again, just over 10K more than last year ♥ So that's great :D
Fandoms written in: D2, Shinkenger, ToQger. 31.5k was D2 and 31.8k was traintrains and Shinkens made up the 1k of difference |DDD
Leitmotif(s) of the year: whatever the heck is going on with Zetrais, because there's definitely something going on with Zetrais D|| I guess... possessiveness? /o\ That's a horrible thing to be a theme but it's def in Zetrais and also a bit in vamprequel and kinda fairyfic.
Favorite fic: From D2 side, fairyfic :D W-Atsus! Perchance to Wake. I always forget the title. From Zetrai traintrain side, A Pressing Engagement bc it's silly and nice and all the characters get a part even though it's just about emperors smooching #1 trains as usual GOSH.
Best fic: u m m I think my answer of Perchance to Wake stands because I think it's so good |DDDbb But from traintrains I like Less than Light Years because there's a lot of description of the scenery and stuff which I am usually bad at and also I just think it sounds right |D It's not overly angstful and gross like Horrible Zetrais but not too overly fluffy and smoochy like the other ones either /o/
Most popular fic: A Pressing Engagement and Degrees of Emptiness have a bunch of kudoses and the most hits of all my traintrain fics so those ones probably :D They are basically tied so /o/ ALSO that Shinken fic has a bizarrely high number of hits. like. Over a thousand. And the next highest on AO3 had about half as many, AND it's a multi-pairing, multi-fandom, multi-chapter collection. so. I don't know what happened orz
Most underappreciated fic: Ugh I always hate this question, who is to say my fictions are not being appreciated ;u; I think I have received lots of love for many of these fics, although I hope Limited Express receives some kudoses soon. But I already got very nice comments from the recipient of the gift and another person as well when it was originally posted SO THERE.
Favorite first lines: I guess this one from Chapter 3 of Shadow Tag.
Zett likes most of the games Right comes up with, even though he obviously prefers some of them to others (see: The Brave Train Warrior Discovers that the Only Way to Save the World and Foil the Evil Emperor's Plot is to Smooch The Heck Out Of Him).
Most fun fic: For the period of this year, Shadow Tag was the most fun XD though that appears to be changing... Oh, but actually the AU Roulette was suuuuuuuuuper fun, I wanna do it again :D!!!!
Sexiest fic: Not Horrible Zetrais, I'll tell you that. Despite the *cough* Explicit rating.............. Um let's say vamprequel!! In the House of Golden Fortunes! Harem AU in the AU Roulette was also quite romanchikku in parts~~
Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: We'll say Perchance to Wake, if only because I don't usually write about Arai-kun ;u; A bit with the Zetrais maybe too but tbh I feel like mostly my characterization only changes as a result of external forces such as new canon or other people's fic -u-;;
New pairing/genre/fandom you never predicted writing in January: HAHAHAHAHAAHAH well I knew traintrains was going to be a thing and that I would probably love it bc Junjun but never did I predict I would ship his character with the Big Bad, nor that I would even publish more traintrain nonsense than I did of D2 fic...... orz
Hardest fic to write: I mean, some suffering went into some of those Horrible Zetrais. It was tough. Truth and Tanuki is quite difficult as well ;u; Because, IkeJuns are so hard....
Biggest disappointment: WHERE IS MY TRAIN/GOKAI CROSSOVER FIC ;A; I'm also a little disappointed in not producing more vampires and assassinators or finishing the tanukific but... sadly, not as disappointed as I probably should be X(
Biggest surprise: omfg tho. That Zetrai. Horrible Zetrai the first. was originally supposed to be a cute short oneshot about cute boyfriends swapping clothes??????????? And then I started writing the intro DESIGNED TO GET US TO THE POINT OF CUTE CLOTHES SWAPPING and suddenly it was an entirely different fic, a TERRIBLE FIC, THE WORST FIC. I just don't understand how I could have gone so wrong. I went so wrong. Not only is it horrible and lack all semblance of fluff and cute clothes swapping, they aren't even wearing clothes for the entirety of the fic. wtf.
Most telling fic: Another one where I hope the answer isn't Horrible Zetrais D|| CRAP I dunno. Assassinators 9 or extremely self-indulgent chapter 2 of Shadow Tag or vamprequel bc it is clear to see that I studied Classical Japanese literature in school probs lol.
What's next? M o r e Zetrais OTL Gonna keep my cutefic going (and hopefully still cute) and conclude some horriblefic. Also I have this Hikari/Akira fic that I've been part of the way through for a few months now that I really want to finish because it's my secondary ship in the show~ And more genfic because I got really into it after that 2&5 fic just now :)) And I miss writing D2 fic ;A; I want to finish some more tanuks and write more about fairy universes and some vampires and the hidden AUs that have not yet seen the light of day, and many things \o/!! I WANT TO WRITE EVERYTHING NEXT.
No, really, what's next? Hahaha. Last year was vamprequel chapter 4. The year before that was present day vampires chapter 4. This year I need to run fluffy-ish Zetrais chapter 4 through the editing process and then it should be the first thing posted this year :)
Monthly Updates:
January:
In the Hall of Golden Fortunes Chapter 4 - D2 RPS, 3700 words
The Bonds That Tie - Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, 1001 words
As promised, the first fiction I updated in the new year was the vamprequel :D The Shinken fic was one that had been half written for a long time and then one night I just got really mad about it not being done and just powered through the ending |Db Yayyyyy finishing things ||Dq That is what I had wanted from myself the last time I did this meme...
February:
In the Hall of Golden Fortunes Chapter 5 [Final Chapter! :D] - D2, 2788 words
Truth and Tanuki Chapter 1 - D2, 3073 words
Yayayayay I successfully finished one fiction /o/ It ended up being five chapters!!!!! :D Like I said in the author note there, this is proooooobably only about the second multichapter fiction I've ever managed to finish |D Maybe three if you don't count one that was originally supposed to have a sequel and at least one more spinoff fic, lol. But yeah!!! I did it ;u;// This gives me great hope for the future. Finish what you start, Asuka!
So then having crossed one off the list I immediately started a new multichapter fic about a long lost big-eyed alien prince and a droopy-eyed enchanted tanuki :)
March:
Perchance to Wake - D2, 9318 words
The single longest fic posted this year :D A lovely fic about a far off land of fairy children and happiness~ This one I wrote in a notebook at first, how nostalgic~~ I want to write more things in this universe ;u; aahhh I'm so fond of this fic XD
April:
Nothing |D oh nooo.
May/June:
Eyes Full of Darkness Chapter 9 - D2, 3994 words
AU Roulette - D2, 5000 words
So I guess I tried to have that assassins fic updated for April but did not quite succeed!! :( The chapter was pretty long, for that fic, but I guess that's what happens when you don't write it for a while...
The AU Roulette was a really cool bandwagon I leapt on where you tried to think of all the AUs you have and choose numbers to represent them. Then people send in a number and you write a drabble for that AU :) I guess it was really popular somehow due to a few killer AUs so I ended up doing 50 of them in the end @u@ Ah, the roulettes were mostly done in May but the last couple were in June, so /o/
July:
Truth and Tanuki Chapter 2 - D2, 3683 words
The second chapter of this fic took a while /o\ The tanuki's true form was finally revealed ;u; and his true motivations came out in the end too. Kind of an unfortunate place to leave off, though, so it's too bad I haven't gotten the next chapter finished...
August:
Nothing /o\ I moved to Japan. I didn't have any internets for most of the month ;;;
September:
Less Than Light Years - Ressha Sentai ToQger, 1838 words
Degrees of Emptiness - ToQger, 3803 words
Um. So. I can explain. I had always been really into this traintrain sentai ever since it started bc my sweet baby Shison Jun was the lead hero!!! the #1 traintrain!! And then in episode 11 a goofy Emperor of Darkness showed up and he was so sweet and gradually even though the show started wanting to make him seem eviler and eviler (and tbf he did do some pretty questionable stuff) I started shipping the two of them |DDDD CLEARLY sometime in August this reached critical mass and I started mass production of Zetrai works =u=;; The first one is quite nice although I wonder if it would have been better without squeezing the romance in at the end. The second one is not nice. It is horrible. Horrible Zetrais part one. And yet there are two more following it, with more to come in the future. orz
October:
A Pressing Engagement - ToQger, 4719 words
Darker than Light, Crueler than Darkness - ToQ, 5855 words
The first one is nice!!! Nice Zetrais!!! This comes from a nice idea many people shared about an episode where the traintrains were lured into a trap with an invitation to the Emperor of Darkness's wedding, but suspiciously enough, the name of the bride was not written on this invitation!! SUSPICIOUS. Of course, this turned out not to be the case, but I thought it would be nice if the bride turned out to be Right, the sparkliest and most lovable traintrain |Dbbbb This is a good fiction! I like this fiction.
The second one is not a good fiction. It is Horrible Zetrais part 2. I switched POVs from Right to Zett which was difficult. Content-wise I'm not sure whether this one or the last one is more disturbing on its own. Probably about the same. Pretty bad. Would not recommend.
November:
Totality and Absolution - ToQ, 6613 words
And here's Horrible Zetrais part 3! I guess for those first three months I wrote one a month |D Well, in December I had other things to focus on so maybe it'll pick up again this year. Anyway this one improved in some ways over the previous ones and it switched back to Right's POV so that's ok. It was very scary at times but he smooched the monster boyfriend in the end so that's ok too.
December:
Shadow Tag Chapter 1-3 - ToQ, 6900 words
Limited Express - ToQ, 2135 words
So! I was very very tired of all those Horrible Zetrais so I switched to some nice and fluffy Zetrais instead :D!! At least, that was the intention. Shadow Tag is intended to be a collection of loosely linked silly oneshots about Zett and Right's happily married life, sort of a sequel to A Pressing Engagement, at least in theory. That said, in the needs-to-be-edited fourth chapter, the plot ends up a little more serious, probs bc I haven't written a Horrible Zetrai in a while, and as I was writing it I saw a lot of potential for a character arc and that sort of thing in between installments of smoochy cuteness soooo. We will see where the new year takes this fic. AT ANY RATE there's a hard word limit of 1500-3k words per chapter, no less but especially no more, so it shouldn't get too out of control :[!
The second one is not Zetrai, miraculously enough ;u; That is because it was written for a fic exchange :D!! So it is a nice gen fic about Tokacchi and Kagura taking a break from trainbattles :) I ACTUALLY had a different fic for this exchange? One about traintrains battling pirate sentais /o/ but then......... it got lost................ where did you go ;A; come baaaackkkk. So this one is a little rushed and I might go back through and give it a more solid edit but I think it's still cute and gen is nice! Trains are nice! Trains that aren't Right or Emperors of Darkness are very nice |Dq
Total number of stories: Four longfic (8 chapters total, 1 fic completed!!), eight oneshots (3 in a series kinda, so maybe they actually belong in longfics :/), FIFTY drabbles. Hahaha. I added one longfic again and wrote the same number of chapters, but the number of oneshots decreased this year. And I'm still debating whether Horrible Zetrai: The Series should count as a longfic or not, bc they're VERY directly related, but published as separate fics on AO3... which I kind of regret orz
Total word count: 64,421 words posted! Again, just over 10K more than last year ♥ So that's great :D
Fandoms written in: D2, Shinkenger, ToQger. 31.5k was D2 and 31.8k was traintrains and Shinkens made up the 1k of difference |DDD
Leitmotif(s) of the year: whatever the heck is going on with Zetrais, because there's definitely something going on with Zetrais D|| I guess... possessiveness? /o\ That's a horrible thing to be a theme but it's def in Zetrais and also a bit in vamprequel and kinda fairyfic.
Favorite fic: From D2 side, fairyfic :D W-Atsus! Perchance to Wake. I always forget the title. From Zetrai traintrain side, A Pressing Engagement bc it's silly and nice and all the characters get a part even though it's just about emperors smooching #1 trains as usual GOSH.
Best fic: u m m I think my answer of Perchance to Wake stands because I think it's so good |DDDbb But from traintrains I like Less than Light Years because there's a lot of description of the scenery and stuff which I am usually bad at and also I just think it sounds right |D It's not overly angstful and gross like Horrible Zetrais but not too overly fluffy and smoochy like the other ones either /o/
Most popular fic: A Pressing Engagement and Degrees of Emptiness have a bunch of kudoses and the most hits of all my traintrain fics so those ones probably :D They are basically tied so /o/ ALSO that Shinken fic has a bizarrely high number of hits. like. Over a thousand. And the next highest on AO3 had about half as many, AND it's a multi-pairing, multi-fandom, multi-chapter collection. so. I don't know what happened orz
Most underappreciated fic: Ugh I always hate this question, who is to say my fictions are not being appreciated ;u; I think I have received lots of love for many of these fics, although I hope Limited Express receives some kudoses soon. But I already got very nice comments from the recipient of the gift and another person as well when it was originally posted SO THERE.
Favorite first lines: I guess this one from Chapter 3 of Shadow Tag.
Zett likes most of the games Right comes up with, even though he obviously prefers some of them to others (see: The Brave Train Warrior Discovers that the Only Way to Save the World and Foil the Evil Emperor's Plot is to Smooch The Heck Out Of Him).
Most fun fic: For the period of this year, Shadow Tag was the most fun XD though that appears to be changing... Oh, but actually the AU Roulette was suuuuuuuuuper fun, I wanna do it again :D!!!!
Sexiest fic: Not Horrible Zetrais, I'll tell you that. Despite the *cough* Explicit rating.............. Um let's say vamprequel!! In the House of Golden Fortunes! Harem AU in the AU Roulette was also quite romanchikku in parts~~
Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: We'll say Perchance to Wake, if only because I don't usually write about Arai-kun ;u; A bit with the Zetrais maybe too but tbh I feel like mostly my characterization only changes as a result of external forces such as new canon or other people's fic -u-;;
New pairing/genre/fandom you never predicted writing in January: HAHAHAHAHAAHAH well I knew traintrains was going to be a thing and that I would probably love it bc Junjun but never did I predict I would ship his character with the Big Bad, nor that I would even publish more traintrain nonsense than I did of D2 fic...... orz
Hardest fic to write: I mean, some suffering went into some of those Horrible Zetrais. It was tough. Truth and Tanuki is quite difficult as well ;u; Because, IkeJuns are so hard....
Biggest disappointment: WHERE IS MY TRAIN/GOKAI CROSSOVER FIC ;A; I'm also a little disappointed in not producing more vampires and assassinators or finishing the tanukific but... sadly, not as disappointed as I probably should be X(
Biggest surprise: omfg tho. That Zetrai. Horrible Zetrai the first. was originally supposed to be a cute short oneshot about cute boyfriends swapping clothes??????????? And then I started writing the intro DESIGNED TO GET US TO THE POINT OF CUTE CLOTHES SWAPPING and suddenly it was an entirely different fic, a TERRIBLE FIC, THE WORST FIC. I just don't understand how I could have gone so wrong. I went so wrong. Not only is it horrible and lack all semblance of fluff and cute clothes swapping, they aren't even wearing clothes for the entirety of the fic. wtf.
Most telling fic: Another one where I hope the answer isn't Horrible Zetrais D|| CRAP I dunno. Assassinators 9 or extremely self-indulgent chapter 2 of Shadow Tag or vamprequel bc it is clear to see that I studied Classical Japanese literature in school probs lol.
What's next? M o r e Zetrais OTL Gonna keep my cutefic going (and hopefully still cute) and conclude some horriblefic. Also I have this Hikari/Akira fic that I've been part of the way through for a few months now that I really want to finish because it's my secondary ship in the show~ And more genfic because I got really into it after that 2&5 fic just now :)) And I miss writing D2 fic ;A; I want to finish some more tanuks and write more about fairy universes and some vampires and the hidden AUs that have not yet seen the light of day, and many things \o/!! I WANT TO WRITE EVERYTHING NEXT.
No, really, what's next? Hahaha. Last year was vamprequel chapter 4. The year before that was present day vampires chapter 4. This year I need to run fluffy-ish Zetrais chapter 4 through the editing process and then it should be the first thing posted this year :)