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allbingoHere's the summary of what I accomplished during August:
Turtles in a Bottle uses the Bottle Episode BINGO Board and is set up for a Turtle fill. It has been planned out but so far only two chapters have been posted. I hope to finish it during September (though I am historically bad at predicting my creative output). 2764 words so far.
Plot: While investigating a suspected HYDRA base, Clint Barton gets captured. Due to the aftermath of SHIELDRA and Civil War, SHIELD is low on resources, and the only hero available to rescue him is Bucky Barnes. Bucky takes out all the HYDRA agents easily (in like two throwaway paragraphs, because they're not the focus), but due to the stuff HYDRA was doing to Clint, they end up stuck there for a few weeks, waiting out quarantine. Which gives them plenty of time to get to know each other.
Style/Tone: I usually try to research enough to be quasi-realistic in my tales, but this piece throws that all out the window and goes full Hollywood: Air duct shenanigans, unspecified drugs, safe & easy knockouts, unrealistic tasers, whatever's fun to write. Just playing up the drama, as usual.
Extras: As Clint and Bucky will find that they share Auditory Processing Disorder, I believe this qualifies for Pushing the Limits and Order of Fries. Also Gensplosion, though that's gonna be true of most stuff written for this event.
MCU: Dust and Ashes and Dreams (591 words)
Pairing: Tony Stark & Nebula
Vulnerability: Nebula wakes Tony from a nightmare, and he curls up with his head in her lap as she rubs his back.
This ended up being an accidental AU as I'd forgotten that Morgan was born after the Snap.
Octodad: My Quirky Neighbor's Daddy-Daughter Moments (651 words)
Pairing: Octodad & Stacy (his daughter)
This fic is from the POV of a neighbor who's oblivious to Octodad being an octopus.
Disney's Recess: Five Wistful Memories (1360 words)
Pairing: Menlo & TJ
As shown in the episode Some Friend, Menlo & TJ used to be best friends, but have since grown apart. This fic is Menlo's perspective on that time of his life.
Extra: I believe this qualifies for Size Acceptance, on account of Menlo being distinctly smaller than other kids his age. (I'd also add in a category for disabilities, since he does wear glasses, but that doesn't factor into the tale even slightly.) It's also a small fandom (around 100 entries on AO3) and a small pairing (not counting crossovers, there's only 13 with Menlo tagged as a character, and fewer that feature his friendship with TJ), hence: Rare Delights
Person of Interest: Feeding on Fealty (1000 words -- double-drabble chapters)
Content Warning: Dark content, not for kids
Pairing: John Reese & Daisy
Maculategiraffe started this AU where John Reese and Harold Finch were hostages to a dark government agency, then got bought by a Fae-like being who calls herself Daisy. Beings like Daisy feed on fealty, which is the best word she can use to describe the loyalty that allows one person to go through ordeals in order to spare the other person suffering.
My piece, therefore, is a Dark Inversion FMI, showing five types of intense forced intimacy that John must go through in order to please Daisy:
ElfQuest: Touched by the Wolf Chief (847 words)
Physical Intimacy: Rayek recalls the moments that he and Cutter have touched. Aside from the moment where Cutter saved his life, they're not positive, and even that one is in a negative context. But Rayek also decides to use his powers to save Cutter's life, and that's another form of touch between them.
Extra: Rayek's a PoC, as is Leetah, so Rainbow Tribe.
I posted two pieces of original fiction this month:
Socks and Snowmaids (315 words)
Pairing: Two socks. They're sisters. No, really. (It's lightly implied that all sock pairings are same-gender siblings.)
This fic has been called various synonyms for "cute." Someone also expressed envy over my ability to pack a lot of emotion into a very short tale (especially with such a weird premise).
Cleaning Mode (1268 words)
Content Warning: Child neglect. This is set in the 80's, when latchkey kids were far more common and accepted, but the children depicted are young enough that they shouldn't be left alone overnight even given that era's culture. And there are other markers of neglect.
The parental neglect is strong, to the point where getting social services involved would be warranted, but that possibility is never brought up. (It did get brought up in one of my drafts, when I thought I'd be writing all five types of intimacy as five chapters, but it didn't make it to the final version.)
Anyway, this piece is a little side-story backstory to a piece I've been working on (off and on) for over twenty years; it's the first piece I've put forward publicly for feedback. I would very much appreciate any feedback on how the characters are coming across.
Pairing: Mama Stella & her two neighbor kids (Kjell and Miranda) -- POV Kjell
Physical Intimacy: Mama Stella checks them for lice, then gives them a lice treatment and combs out their hair. Near the end, she cradles their cheeks in her hands.
Extras: Qualifies for Penny Candy as Kjell's family is clearly low-income, and for Rainbow Tribe although that may not be clear from the text since I deliberately did not describe anyone's skin tone or race; I described Miranda's hair a couple times and for anyone used to depictions of PoC/biracial hair it should be obvious that she's not white. (Neither is Fletcher, but Fletcher doesn't get any physical description at all.)
I started these fics, but did not complete them during the month.
MCU: A Stray Parrot in Queens (1648 words)
Pairing: Peter Parker & Loki
Physical Intimacy: While Loki's in parrot form, Peter holds him; later, Loki grabs Peter by his wrists and heals his burnt hands
Been planning this FMI for a while, and this event gave me the push to get it started. I love friendship fics between Peter & Loki.
Recettear: Five Moments of Friendship (443 words)
Pairing: Recette & five of the Adventurers
Physical Intimacy: Recette & Tielle make a box fort and then braid each other's hair; Recette puts her head in Tielle's lap.
I've partially written the next chapter, which is a tea ceremony with Nagi (Experiential Intimacy).
Stardew Valley: Five Friendships in the Valley (1010 words -- double-drabble sections with a two-word title per section)
Pairing: Reader/Player & five of the villagers (all non-bachelors and not in other relationships)
I've written Second Person POV before, but it was specific to three characters; there was no question that the "you" of each section was a specific canonical character from Person of Interest. It's an achievement I'm quite proud of.
However, I think this fic here is the first time I've written the reader as "you" -- and only because it's following the perspective of the game, where the main character is defined only by the player. There is still personality here, stepping into the shoes of a character who is not the reader but is still a stand-in for the reader, and I find that interesting.
The intention of this piece is to contrast initial meetings with much stronger connections later on, but I haven't yet gotten to the point of writing the second half. Still, these moments do qualify for all five intimacies:
These didn't make it to the AO3 Collection because they were started before this event; however, the event pushed me to update them and, in one case, to finally finish it. All four of these are MCU pieces; summaries will include the parts created prior to this event.
Unforeseen Friendship and Solace on Sakaar
Content Warning: Solace on Sakaar is Mature Content and should not be read by children.
These are part of the Trilogy Five Moments of Loki, which starts with Loki & Valkyrie, moves into Loki & the Hulk, then shows Loki & The Avengers. I finally completed the middle one (which was the first one posted), and updated Solace on Sakaar.
In Solace on Sakaar:
Physical Intimacy: The Valkyrie shares nude touch with Loki while they sleep, in order to counteract a drug that makes him seek skin contact.
Acceptance and Secret-Sharing: This is a mixed chapter, as the fourth one will be; here, the focus is on Loki accepting the Valkyrie despite her vices (heavy drinking and being a slave trader), and Loki telling the Valkyrie a lot of secrets about himself, including finally showing her his Jotun form. It's a bit of an interplay among the categories (Loki is certainly feeling vulnerable here), but the primary focus is on the secrets, and there will be a much stronger vulnerability for Loki later in the fic.
In Unforeseen Friendship:
Extra: I believe that Unforeseen Friendship qualifies for Pushing the Limits, as Loki is disabled throughout the fic (it's the very reason he develops a friendship with the Hulk), but it doesn't qualify for Fries because Loki gets healed at the end... and possibly also because a good deal of the fic is Loki thinking of how much he can't do now, so it's very focused on his disability and how it affects him, not focused on a character who happens to be disabled and is doing things anyway.
Growing Memories
Content Warning: Deals with grief, loss, and other difficult subjects. Not for young kids.
Dealing with baby/toddler Morgan makes Tony reflect on losing Peter. Then, after Tony's death, Peter's encounters with child/teenage Morgan make Peter reflect on losing Tony. There's a third chapter to come, from Morgan's perspective, and I have yet to decide how I want to play that.
First Chapter: Intimacy Compare/Contrast
Second Chapter: Intimacy Rejected
Incidentally, I'm still annoyed that the MCU creators didn't think to spend any time connecting Peter with Morgan in any capacity whatsoever -- including at the funeral, where they could at least have been shown in the same shot. You can't set up a character with two kids he deeply cares about and leave those kids completely separate and think we won't notice the lack.
Glad to See You're Not Dead, Then (Now What?)
My fic about Loki winning the invasion (To the Victor, by Consent of the Spoils: Mature Content, not for young readers) shows Loki taking the Avengers captive, one by one, over the years of the war. This fic is a side story of Coulson's experience after waking up in captivity. It highlights Coulson's connection to five characters, including ones he thought had been killed. The rating for the side-story is much lighter than the rating for the main fic, but it still deals with some deep feels.
The first chapter was the setup, so only one type of intimacy has been shown so far.
Experiential Intimacy: Coulson and Fury have both been behind enemy lines before, and they know how to keep from giving away crucial intel.
Person of Interest: Back Rub by April_Valentine
Content Warning: Although the fic is nonsexual, it's highly sensual and possibly not suitable for younger listeners/readers. Also, John pushes Harold to accept touch that Harold tells John he doesn't want, which is Dubious Consent even though Harold enjoys most of it.
Physical Intimacy: Massage (and a focus on a Touch-Starved character)
I've recorded the whole thing (barring possible need for retakes), and spliced a lot of it together, but it's not yet done. So I posted the first section, and hope to get the rest put together sometime during September. I'm glad to have had the push to work on this piece, since I started it a couple years ago but ended up with a cough that wouldn't quit and so had to shelve it for a while. It's a compelling scenario.
I will note that since I'm not a Shipper, almost all of my fics are nonsexual and nonromantic. But these are fics I posted during August that don't have a direct connection to this event.
My birthday theme this year was Gender-Bender (or Gender Play) -- anything that plays around with gender norms in any fashion (ideally nonsexual, though I'd still enjoy sexual fics). I ended up posting three fics on this theme, since one of them didn't come together fast enough to post as the prompt itself and I wrote another one to fill the gap.
Person of Interest: Borrowed Accents (2900 words)
This is the second piece in my Miss Kittiwake series, which showcases a female version of Harold Finch. Where before I had simply shown (through Secret Sharing) one facet of Harriet Finch here, this piece delved into the details and fleshed her out, distinguishing her both from the canon Finch and from the Harriet Finch of An Unstoppable Force, the character who inspired me to write my version in the first place.
Basically, I played up Finch's chameleon nature and created a woman who shifts into different characters with ease, switching accents along with other aspects of her personality. It sent me down a research rabbit hole of American accents, but it was a lot of fun to pull it all together and showcase how that plays out in the life of the female Finch.
MCU: Somehow I Miss Box Socials (1372 words)
For a charity auction, the Avengers dress up as women. Not all of them are comfortable with the idea (or the specifics of how the idea gets implemented), but they all did agree to do it. If you have any suggestions for who bids on them and why, feel free to mention it in the comments; I have a couple laid out already, but I'm open to new ideas, including people who get outbid by my chosen pairings.
(Note: I'm sure that a lot of fic writers would use this kind of setup for sexy and/or romantic shenanigans, or perhaps to jump-start a Ship; I am one of those who play most scenarios without reference to sex or romance, so any pairings established in the bidding will not be for that purpose.)
MCU: Subverting the Dominance (1978 words)
Dom/sub Verse: As the Avengers try to figure out where to stash Loki until they can send him back to Asgard (because there's no quick and easy Tesseract trip like in the film), there's a culture clash between the strict gender roles of Thor's upbringing and the more nuanced gender roles of modern Earth.
While I haven't yet finished the next chapter, the intent is for each of the Earth-based Avengers to be a mix of genders in some fashion:
I'm looking forward to developing this worldbuild. Worldbuilds that play with the basic concept of gender (Dom/sub Verse, Omegaverse, and some others) are intensely interesting to me, now that I've gotten over my initial "What the hell is going on here and why does this even exist?" reaction.
I also updated The Journey of Anton O'Mara with The Rumor Mill (1568 words). This is a Person of Interest series in which Anton, that cocky punk kid from the first episode, is shown in a more sympathetic light, and gets pulled into Team Machine's activities in various ways until finally he gets woven into their mission. We're not quite there yet -- he's still seeing John's activities from the outside, which only serves to make John seem like a serial killer or worse -- but it's coming along.
So, that's my output for August. Now that I've actually laid it out... man, while I was in the midst of Panic Posting Mode, I did not realize how much I actually accomplished.
Not counting the updates of previously established fics, that's two pieces of nearly 3000 words each, one nearly 2000 words, four around 1500 apiece, a 1300 and two 1000's, plus five under a thousand words.
Collectively, unless I miss my math, that's 19,715 words -- again, not counting the updates (because they were partially drafted before the event).
That's 40% of a NaNoWriMo, or half of Numb Too Long or two-thirds of Obedience Is Bliss (Don't Fight It) (those being my Fic Exchange entries from a couple years ago). Time to celebrate accomplishment!
BINGO Project
Turtles in a Bottle uses the Bottle Episode BINGO Board and is set up for a Turtle fill. It has been planned out but so far only two chapters have been posted. I hope to finish it during September (though I am historically bad at predicting my creative output). 2764 words so far.
Plot: While investigating a suspected HYDRA base, Clint Barton gets captured. Due to the aftermath of SHIELDRA and Civil War, SHIELD is low on resources, and the only hero available to rescue him is Bucky Barnes. Bucky takes out all the HYDRA agents easily (in like two throwaway paragraphs, because they're not the focus), but due to the stuff HYDRA was doing to Clint, they end up stuck there for a few weeks, waiting out quarantine. Which gives them plenty of time to get to know each other.
Style/Tone: I usually try to research enough to be quasi-realistic in my tales, but this piece throws that all out the window and goes full Hollywood: Air duct shenanigans, unspecified drugs, safe & easy knockouts, unrealistic tasers, whatever's fun to write. Just playing up the drama, as usual.
Extras: As Clint and Bucky will find that they share Auditory Processing Disorder, I believe this qualifies for Pushing the Limits and Order of Fries. Also Gensplosion, though that's gonna be true of most stuff written for this event.
More General Nonsexual Intimacy
These aren't working from BINGO boards, just whatever I could throw together to fit the theme.One-Shots
MCU: Dust and Ashes and Dreams (591 words)
Pairing: Tony Stark & Nebula
Vulnerability: Nebula wakes Tony from a nightmare, and he curls up with his head in her lap as she rubs his back.
This ended up being an accidental AU as I'd forgotten that Morgan was born after the Snap.
Octodad: My Quirky Neighbor's Daddy-Daughter Moments (651 words)
Pairing: Octodad & Stacy (his daughter)
This fic is from the POV of a neighbor who's oblivious to Octodad being an octopus.
- Phys: Stacy hugs her dad and he lifts her up to put her on the bus.
- Emo: Stacy comforts him over a scary movie (Finding Dory).
- Exp: Dressed up together for Halloween, handing out candy. My thought while writing that part is that Octodad is always dressed up (as a human), so Stacy dressing up as her dad is a point of experiential connection.
- Secret: Stacy shows him a secret location and they play there.
- Vul: Stacy leaps off a roof and he catches her.
Disney's Recess: Five Wistful Memories (1360 words)
Pairing: Menlo & TJ
As shown in the episode Some Friend, Menlo & TJ used to be best friends, but have since grown apart. This fic is Menlo's perspective on that time of his life.
- Phys: Menlo recalls riding on TJ's back
- Emo: TJ comforting Menlo while Menlo was sick, via puppet shows outside his window
- Exp: They were in Little League together; TJ quit because Menlo wasn't able to keep up with the bigger (not older) kids
- Secret: TJ teaching Menlo a racy joke that the kids don't tell around grownups
- Vul: TJ protecting him from a bully and then helping him on the monkey bars
Extra: I believe this qualifies for Size Acceptance, on account of Menlo being distinctly smaller than other kids his age. (I'd also add in a category for disabilities, since he does wear glasses, but that doesn't factor into the tale even slightly.) It's also a small fandom (around 100 entries on AO3) and a small pairing (not counting crossovers, there's only 13 with Menlo tagged as a character, and fewer that feature his friendship with TJ), hence: Rare Delights
Person of Interest: Feeding on Fealty (1000 words -- double-drabble chapters)
Content Warning: Dark content, not for kids
Pairing: John Reese & Daisy
Maculategiraffe started this AU where John Reese and Harold Finch were hostages to a dark government agency, then got bought by a Fae-like being who calls herself Daisy. Beings like Daisy feed on fealty, which is the best word she can use to describe the loyalty that allows one person to go through ordeals in order to spare the other person suffering.
My piece, therefore, is a Dark Inversion FMI, showing five types of intense forced intimacy that John must go through in order to please Daisy:
- Phys: Disturbing but not graphic: John must hold his breath and not struggle while Daisy explores the inside of his body
- Emo: John is pushed to the edge of what he can bear emotionally, and Daisy comforts him afterwards
- Exp: John is forced to punish Harold, thus giving him a point of experiential intimacy with Daisy
- Secret: John is forced to reveal a painful secret to Harold
- Vul: Deprived of sight, John must follow Daisy across a narrow platform, trusting that she will not let him fall to his death
ElfQuest: Touched by the Wolf Chief (847 words)
Physical Intimacy: Rayek recalls the moments that he and Cutter have touched. Aside from the moment where Cutter saved his life, they're not positive, and even that one is in a negative context. But Rayek also decides to use his powers to save Cutter's life, and that's another form of touch between them.
Extra: Rayek's a PoC, as is Leetah, so Rainbow Tribe.
One-Shot Original Work
I posted two pieces of original fiction this month:
Socks and Snowmaids (315 words)
Pairing: Two socks. They're sisters. No, really. (It's lightly implied that all sock pairings are same-gender siblings.)
- Phys: When they're bundled together, they squeeze/hug each other
- Emo: One reassures the other over fears of being replaced by newer, prettier socks
- Exp: They're used as mittens to make a snowmaid
- Secret: Did you know there's a pile of missing socks under the bed?
- Vul: Scared to lose each other again, as they go into the wash
This fic has been called various synonyms for "cute." Someone also expressed envy over my ability to pack a lot of emotion into a very short tale (especially with such a weird premise).
Cleaning Mode (1268 words)
Content Warning: Child neglect. This is set in the 80's, when latchkey kids were far more common and accepted, but the children depicted are young enough that they shouldn't be left alone overnight even given that era's culture. And there are other markers of neglect.
The parental neglect is strong, to the point where getting social services involved would be warranted, but that possibility is never brought up. (It did get brought up in one of my drafts, when I thought I'd be writing all five types of intimacy as five chapters, but it didn't make it to the final version.)
Anyway, this piece is a little side-story backstory to a piece I've been working on (off and on) for over twenty years; it's the first piece I've put forward publicly for feedback. I would very much appreciate any feedback on how the characters are coming across.
Pairing: Mama Stella & her two neighbor kids (Kjell and Miranda) -- POV Kjell
Physical Intimacy: Mama Stella checks them for lice, then gives them a lice treatment and combs out their hair. Near the end, she cradles their cheeks in her hands.
Extras: Qualifies for Penny Candy as Kjell's family is clearly low-income, and for Rainbow Tribe although that may not be clear from the text since I deliberately did not describe anyone's skin tone or race; I described Miranda's hair a couple times and for anyone used to depictions of PoC/biracial hair it should be obvious that she's not white. (Neither is Fletcher, but Fletcher doesn't get any physical description at all.)
Chapterfics
I started these fics, but did not complete them during the month.
MCU: A Stray Parrot in Queens (1648 words)
Pairing: Peter Parker & Loki
Physical Intimacy: While Loki's in parrot form, Peter holds him; later, Loki grabs Peter by his wrists and heals his burnt hands
Been planning this FMI for a while, and this event gave me the push to get it started. I love friendship fics between Peter & Loki.
Recettear: Five Moments of Friendship (443 words)
Pairing: Recette & five of the Adventurers
Physical Intimacy: Recette & Tielle make a box fort and then braid each other's hair; Recette puts her head in Tielle's lap.
I've partially written the next chapter, which is a tea ceremony with Nagi (Experiential Intimacy).
Stardew Valley: Five Friendships in the Valley (1010 words -- double-drabble sections with a two-word title per section)
Pairing: Reader/Player & five of the villagers (all non-bachelors and not in other relationships)
I've written Second Person POV before, but it was specific to three characters; there was no question that the "you" of each section was a specific canonical character from Person of Interest. It's an achievement I'm quite proud of.
However, I think this fic here is the first time I've written the reader as "you" -- and only because it's following the perspective of the game, where the main character is defined only by the player. There is still personality here, stepping into the shoes of a character who is not the reader but is still a stand-in for the reader, and I find that interesting.
The intention of this piece is to contrast initial meetings with much stronger connections later on, but I haven't yet gotten to the point of writing the second half. Still, these moments do qualify for all five intimacies:
- Phys: Linus helps you after you nearly pass out from overexertion
- Emo: Willy and you share a moment of pleasure over being out in nature, enjoying the fresh air
- Exp: Clint reveals that he feels trapped in a job he can't stand -- a feeling you know all too well
- Secret: Pam lets on a tidbit about how she got to be a single mother
- Vul: When you push your last few dollars across the counter to buy a meal, Gus pushes it back and says to invest it in the farm instead; he gives you a meal for free
Updated Chapterfics
These didn't make it to the AO3 Collection because they were started before this event; however, the event pushed me to update them and, in one case, to finally finish it. All four of these are MCU pieces; summaries will include the parts created prior to this event.
Unforeseen Friendship and Solace on Sakaar
Content Warning: Solace on Sakaar is Mature Content and should not be read by children.
These are part of the Trilogy Five Moments of Loki, which starts with Loki & Valkyrie, moves into Loki & the Hulk, then shows Loki & The Avengers. I finally completed the middle one (which was the first one posted), and updated Solace on Sakaar.
In Solace on Sakaar:
Physical Intimacy: The Valkyrie shares nude touch with Loki while they sleep, in order to counteract a drug that makes him seek skin contact.
Acceptance and Secret-Sharing: This is a mixed chapter, as the fourth one will be; here, the focus is on Loki accepting the Valkyrie despite her vices (heavy drinking and being a slave trader), and Loki telling the Valkyrie a lot of secrets about himself, including finally showing her his Jotun form. It's a bit of an interplay among the categories (Loki is certainly feeling vulnerable here), but the primary focus is on the secrets, and there will be a much stronger vulnerability for Loki later in the fic.
In Unforeseen Friendship:
- Phys: The Hulk spars with Loki
- Emo: During a panic attack, Loki finds comfort in the way that the Hulk doesn't pity him
- Exp: Both Loki and the Hulk are used to others using them as tools, without taking their choices into account
- Secret: Loki shares a lot of details about his history, things he's never even told Thor
- Vul: The surgery to repair Loki's damaged neck requires Loki to be knocked unconscious, and he accepts that only if the Hulk is there to watch over him
Extra: I believe that Unforeseen Friendship qualifies for Pushing the Limits, as Loki is disabled throughout the fic (it's the very reason he develops a friendship with the Hulk), but it doesn't qualify for Fries because Loki gets healed at the end... and possibly also because a good deal of the fic is Loki thinking of how much he can't do now, so it's very focused on his disability and how it affects him, not focused on a character who happens to be disabled and is doing things anyway.
Growing Memories
Content Warning: Deals with grief, loss, and other difficult subjects. Not for young kids.
Dealing with baby/toddler Morgan makes Tony reflect on losing Peter. Then, after Tony's death, Peter's encounters with child/teenage Morgan make Peter reflect on losing Tony. There's a third chapter to come, from Morgan's perspective, and I have yet to decide how I want to play that.
First Chapter: Intimacy Compare/Contrast
- Phys: Morgan hugs Tony; Tony recalls Peter falling to dust in his arms
- Emo: Morgan gets sick, and Tony tries to comfort her but the details are far too close to how he lost Peter
- Exp: Morgan trying to enter the lab to "be like Daddy" makes Tony recall how he'd hoped to see Peter make use of a good lab for once, and now he'll never get that chance
- Secret: Tony reflects how Peter tried to keep his alias separate from his real-life identity, and how Tony was so used to the public eye that he barely thought twice about how it might affect his future family
- Vul: Bringing baby Morgan home from the hospital is almost too much for Tony, given how he failed the last kid he tried to help
Second Chapter: Intimacy Rejected
- Phys: Morgan refuses to let Peter help her, even during a crisis situation
- Emo: Morgan is too young to understand the grief of losing Tony
- Exp: Morgan doesn't share the superhero adrenaline experience with Peter
- Secret: Morgan doesn't connect with Peter enough to share a discussion of Stark Industries' new tech and what all Peter would like to do with it
- Vul: Morgan refuses to let Peter know how much she misses her dad, how much that affects her
Incidentally, I'm still annoyed that the MCU creators didn't think to spend any time connecting Peter with Morgan in any capacity whatsoever -- including at the funeral, where they could at least have been shown in the same shot. You can't set up a character with two kids he deeply cares about and leave those kids completely separate and think we won't notice the lack.
Glad to See You're Not Dead, Then (Now What?)
My fic about Loki winning the invasion (To the Victor, by Consent of the Spoils: Mature Content, not for young readers) shows Loki taking the Avengers captive, one by one, over the years of the war. This fic is a side story of Coulson's experience after waking up in captivity. It highlights Coulson's connection to five characters, including ones he thought had been killed. The rating for the side-story is much lighter than the rating for the main fic, but it still deals with some deep feels.
The first chapter was the setup, so only one type of intimacy has been shown so far.
Experiential Intimacy: Coulson and Fury have both been behind enemy lines before, and they know how to keep from giving away crucial intel.
Podfic
Person of Interest: Back Rub by April_Valentine
Content Warning: Although the fic is nonsexual, it's highly sensual and possibly not suitable for younger listeners/readers. Also, John pushes Harold to accept touch that Harold tells John he doesn't want, which is Dubious Consent even though Harold enjoys most of it.
Physical Intimacy: Massage (and a focus on a Touch-Starved character)
I've recorded the whole thing (barring possible need for retakes), and spliced a lot of it together, but it's not yet done. So I posted the first section, and hope to get the rest put together sometime during September. I'm glad to have had the push to work on this piece, since I started it a couple years ago but ended up with a cough that wouldn't quit and so had to shelve it for a while. It's a compelling scenario.
Non-FMI Fics
I will note that since I'm not a Shipper, almost all of my fics are nonsexual and nonromantic. But these are fics I posted during August that don't have a direct connection to this event.
Birthday Prompts
My birthday theme this year was Gender-Bender (or Gender Play) -- anything that plays around with gender norms in any fashion (ideally nonsexual, though I'd still enjoy sexual fics). I ended up posting three fics on this theme, since one of them didn't come together fast enough to post as the prompt itself and I wrote another one to fill the gap.
Person of Interest: Borrowed Accents (2900 words)
This is the second piece in my Miss Kittiwake series, which showcases a female version of Harold Finch. Where before I had simply shown (through Secret Sharing) one facet of Harriet Finch here, this piece delved into the details and fleshed her out, distinguishing her both from the canon Finch and from the Harriet Finch of An Unstoppable Force, the character who inspired me to write my version in the first place.
Basically, I played up Finch's chameleon nature and created a woman who shifts into different characters with ease, switching accents along with other aspects of her personality. It sent me down a research rabbit hole of American accents, but it was a lot of fun to pull it all together and showcase how that plays out in the life of the female Finch.
MCU: Somehow I Miss Box Socials (1372 words)
For a charity auction, the Avengers dress up as women. Not all of them are comfortable with the idea (or the specifics of how the idea gets implemented), but they all did agree to do it. If you have any suggestions for who bids on them and why, feel free to mention it in the comments; I have a couple laid out already, but I'm open to new ideas, including people who get outbid by my chosen pairings.
(Note: I'm sure that a lot of fic writers would use this kind of setup for sexy and/or romantic shenanigans, or perhaps to jump-start a Ship; I am one of those who play most scenarios without reference to sex or romance, so any pairings established in the bidding will not be for that purpose.)
MCU: Subverting the Dominance (1978 words)
Dom/sub Verse: As the Avengers try to figure out where to stash Loki until they can send him back to Asgard (because there's no quick and easy Tesseract trip like in the film), there's a culture clash between the strict gender roles of Thor's upbringing and the more nuanced gender roles of modern Earth.
While I haven't yet finished the next chapter, the intent is for each of the Earth-based Avengers to be a mix of genders in some fashion:
- Steve was born a Submissive, but the super serum turned him externally Dominant and capable of easily resisting Domforce (he's still a sub inside)
- Bruce is a sub, but the Hulk reacts to Domforce by becoming the embodiment of the old-school savage Dom (so Bruce cannot be controlled, even if he wanted to be)
- Natasha was rounded up with other female Doms to undergo a program where they learned how to pretend to be subs and thus to infiltrate and spy on certain cultures with stronger gender biases
- Tony is a sub, but when he was born the laws were still quite gender-biased, so Howard raised him as a Dom and showed him how to fake it, and he maintains Stark Industries by never letting on his true nature
- Clint is a Dom, but the Scepter made him experience what it's like to be a sub, to sink into that pleasure of obeying another's orders, and he has very mixed feelings about it (including a desire to experience it again)
I'm looking forward to developing this worldbuild. Worldbuilds that play with the basic concept of gender (Dom/sub Verse, Omegaverse, and some others) are intensely interesting to me, now that I've gotten over my initial "What the hell is going on here and why does this even exist?" reaction.
Other
I also updated The Journey of Anton O'Mara with The Rumor Mill (1568 words). This is a Person of Interest series in which Anton, that cocky punk kid from the first episode, is shown in a more sympathetic light, and gets pulled into Team Machine's activities in various ways until finally he gets woven into their mission. We're not quite there yet -- he's still seeing John's activities from the outside, which only serves to make John seem like a serial killer or worse -- but it's coming along.
So, that's my output for August. Now that I've actually laid it out... man, while I was in the midst of Panic Posting Mode, I did not realize how much I actually accomplished.
Not counting the updates of previously established fics, that's two pieces of nearly 3000 words each, one nearly 2000 words, four around 1500 apiece, a 1300 and two 1000's, plus five under a thousand words.
Collectively, unless I miss my math, that's 19,715 words -- again, not counting the updates (because they were partially drafted before the event).
That's 40% of a NaNoWriMo, or half of Numb Too Long or two-thirds of Obedience Is Bliss (Don't Fight It) (those being my Fic Exchange entries from a couple years ago). Time to celebrate accomplishment!
Wow!
Date: 2020-09-01 09:14 am (UTC)