kat_lair | Fic Round-Up 2024 (Reply)

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Fic Round-Up 2024

Well, I did not manage my

getyourwordsout goal but I did end up writing more than I did last year, just over 100k. Only 59k ended up being posted though.

Fics published in 2024 by Fandom:
(I have only linked to the AO3 post but if you prefer reading on DW, you can find everything under the my fanfiction tag)

9-1-1
Rabid Response (Buck/Eddie, G, 1166 words)

American Idol RPF
Herald (Kris/Adam, G, 936 words)

Angel: the Series
Sacrifice (Angel/Spike, T, 390 words)

ATEEZ
leave-taking (Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa, G, 425 words)

방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
foreign(er) (Kim Namjoon|RM gen, G, 816 words)
Light Wandering (Kim Namjoon|RM/Jeon Jungkook, Kim Seokjin | Jin/Min Yoongi | Suga, T, 1951 words)

Being Human (UK)
Twilight (Mitchell/George/Annie, T, 281 words)

Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher Entertainment
Brand (Ryan/Shane, E, 295 words)
if you go down in the woods today (Ryan/Shane, G, 738 words) - co-written with

pushkin666 and

dreamersdare

Call the Midwife
Bouquet (Delia/Patsy, G, 198 words)
(hear my words) that i might teach you (Monica Joan gen, G, 230 words)
What Joy Awaits (Trixie/Cynthia, G, 949 words)

Cobra Starship
Eye of the Beholder (GSF, T, 598 words)

Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album)
Sweet Treats (Fun Ghoul/Jet Star, Kobra Kid/Party Poison, Fun Ghoul/Jet Star/Kobra Kid/Party Poison, T, 666 words)

Deadpool/Spiderman
Goblinesque (Peter Parker/Wade Wilson, G, 666 words)

Discworld
Effigial Extermination (The Witches gen, T, 950 words)

Doctor Who
Deliverance (Tenth Doctor/The Master (Simm), T, 689 words)

Dreamcatcher/Deja Vu - Dreamcatcher (Music Video)
fallen/saved (Minji/Yoohyeon, T, 300 words)

due South
Community Intelligence (Fraser/RayK, G, 1122 words)

Encanto (2021)
Rejuvenation (Bruno/OMC, M, 300 words)

Enola Holmes
Myristica Fragrans (Enola/Tewkesbury, G, 837 words)

이상한 변호사 우영우 | Extraordinary Attorney Woo (TV)
Isobaric (Myeongseok/Minwoo, T, 1503 words)
Solar Couture (Geurami/Youngwoo, G, 754 words)
Splash (Junho/Youngwoo, G, 935 words)

Firefly
Asset Protection (Jayne/Malcolm, G, 760 words)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
if the world is night (shine my life like a light) (Kate/Seth, T, 974 words)

Good Omens
Purled Protection (Aziraphale/Crowley, G, 1896 words)

Grimm
Sodalis (Nick/Monroe, G, 3185 words)

Harry Potter
Conflagrant (Albus Dumbledore/Tom Riddle, T, 983 words)
Equinox (Luna/Ginny, G, 393 words)

Hawaii Five-0
Diplomatic Duties (Steve/Danny, T, 746 words) - co-writte with

pushkin666 and

dreamersdare
Sunday Kind of Love (Steve/Danny, G, 2789 words)

Howl no Ugoku Shiro | Howl's Moving Castle
New Adventures (Sophie/Howl, T, 969 words)

MCU
Reclaimed (Clint/Natasha/Coulson, G, 892 words)
that which nourishes us (Steve/Bucky, G, 3226 words)

Merlin
the long night shall fall (Morgana gen, T, 351 words)

Mission: Impossible (Movies)
Grave Outlook (team gen, T, 930 words)

My Chemical Romance
The Principle of Irregularity (Gerard/Mikey, T, 748 words) - co-written with

pushkin666 and

dreamersdare

Panic! at the Disco
cat business (Ryan/Spencer, G, 1084 words)
lesser birds on the four winds (Brendon gen, G, 267 words)

Person of Interest
Resurrection (Finch/Reese, T, 226 words)

SEVENTEEN
Temptation (Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Jihoon | Woozi, T, 1646 words)

Sherlock Holmes (Downey Films)
Clearing Out the Cobwebs (Sherlock/John, G, 1058 words)

Shetland
Early Morning (Duncan/Jimmy, G, 609 words)
Tiding of Jumpers and Joy (Duncan/Jimmy, T, 1854 words)

千と千尋の神隠し | Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away (2001)
Resonance (Haku/Chihiro, G, 654 words)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
in your head (they are lying) (Garak gen, T, 330 words)

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Quagmire (Riker, La Forge & Data gen, G, 1150 words)

Stray Kids
Anger (Mis)Management (Bang Chan/Seo Changbin, E, 9333 words) - co-written with

dreamersdare
best of the best (on first class) words) (Kim Seungmin/Yang Jeongin | I.N, E, 19420 words)
Saltation (Bang Chan/Lee Felix, E, 6092 words)
sewn shut my brightest scars (Bang Chan/Lee Felix, M, 4509 words)

The Lord of the Rings
Corrupture (Frodo/Sam, Merry/Pippin, Frodo/Merry/Pippin, M, 2118 words)

The Mummy (movies)
Mumkitty (the gang gen, G, 1263 words)

The Professionals
Chase (Bodie & Doyle, G, 298 words)
Feline Fine (Eventually) (Bodie/Doyle, T, 8196 words)

TXT
Alfresco (Choi Soobin/Cho Yeonjun, G, 415 words)

Venom
Harvest (Eddie/Venom, T, 514 words)

Wheel of Time
Ensnared (Lanfear/Moghedien, T, 300 words)
Renascent (Rand/Mat, G, 474 words)

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Meme Questions

Leitmotifs of the year:

Once a polyfandom bitch, always a polyfandom bitch (that's... over 40 fandoms this year, over 100 different ones in total 😂)
K-pop blorbos so pretty and with inbuilt power dynamics
Short fics = instant gratification
Gen? Apparently I do know her.
Also m/f and f/f visited more often that usual

Most popular story:

By AO3 hit and kudos metric = Saltation: active fandom, popular pairing, E-rated
By AO3 bookmark and comment metric = best of the best (on first class): popular rating, E-rated but a rare pairing. I wrote this in large part because I needed more fic for this pairing and decided to be part of the solution. I get the impression a lot of other people were also yearning for this.

My best/favourite story this year:
I'm aware that 'best' and 'favourite' are not necessarily the same thing but I'm actually generally pleased with all my stories for various reasons, e.g.

best of the best (on first class) (funny with some pining and suble(ish) power dynamics)
Temptation (atmosphere, pacing)
Corrupture (creepy and unsettling, the ending)
Mumkitty (humour, voices)
Light Wandering (world-building, humour)
Effigial Extermination (Granny voice!)
Harvest (pacing)...
I'll stop now. They are all my babies obviously.

Hardest story to write:
I struggled with time and energy often but not with the stories per se, but...

Tidings of Jumpers and Joy only because I was writing it with mum and TV constantly on the background.
Oh, the ending of Corrupture went through several re-writes to get the wording just right for the impact

Easiest story to write:

foreing(er) because I was projecting so very hard.
Effigial Externmination because I had so much fun.
Feline Fine (Eventually) because I kind of mostly just cared about the cat.
Temptation because Jihoon took charge.

Story most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

I mean I'm amused that I have two fics this year with not a single kudos so I guess them: eye of the beholder and Herald. They are both in older and very quiet fandoms.
Apart for those I'll go with foreign(er), which is a gen so not surprised there.

Most fun story to write:

Effigial Extermination because Pratchett's style is so fun to play with and I love the Witches.
Light Wandering allowed me to set up all kinds of world-building that I don't actually have to deliver on. Unless I choose to in the future...
I also had a lot of fun with Mumkitty and Goblinesque because of the dialogue.

Fluffiest story:
I write a lot of fluff so I could list like half of the stories here...

Both Sunday Kind of Love and that which nourishes us have the food = love vibe and are very fluffly and domestic. Actually, Myristica Fragrans also sort of qualifies (spice = food).
cat business, New Adventures, Solar Couture, Bouquet, Alfresco, Tidings of Jumpers and Joy...
Oh Purled Protection (Crowley in a woolly scarf!)

Most angsty story:

sewn shut my brightest scars (some sexual harassment but tips over from hurt to comfort very quickly)
Grave Outlook (buried alive panic but rescue is coming)
Harvest (alien invasion, no hope)
Corrupture (Frodo goes over to the dark side)
in your head (they are lying) (Garak)
the long night shall fall (Morgana)
Sacrifice (Spike)
(hear my words) that i might teach you (Sister Monica Joan)

Sexiest story:

Anger (Mis)Management written with dreamersdare is absolutely the hottest story this year. I'm not kidding, it's incandescant. To me anyways :D We fully wrote it for ourselves/each other and it deliberately pushes every single button we share.
Honourary mentions to Saltation, best of the best (on first class) and Brand.
Oh, and Isobaric I think because of the ~dynamics~.

"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:

Haha, 2024 marks the year I first wrote omegaverse in that which nourishes us so maybe that counts?
Conflagrant has some heavily implied underage and teacher/student dynamics though it is in no way explicit.
Corrupture certainly has a lot of dark implications.
Renascent and Ensnared both flirt with manipulation and dub-con.

Biggest Disappointment:

Not finishing some of my longer WIPs.
Stalling on some of the co-written fics.
Not getting a comment on one of the fandomtrees fics from last year (but the requester has gone entirely quiet so I just hope they're okay...)

Biggest Surprise:

The fact that finished Spooktober on time. 31 fics in 31 different fandoms in 31 days. Still absolutely no idea how I managed that. It is all a blur.
That no one else has written Myeongseok/Minwoo for the Extraordinary Attorney Woo fandom *gestures mutely at the power dynamics*
Getting some lovely fan art for and pod fics of some of my fics

Most ~~Unintentionally~~ Telling Story:
I've crossed over the 'unintentionally' because I don't really care about that. So like...

Every single fic with a d/s vibe, ya'know.
But also foreign(er) for the bilingual feelings which I project onto Namjoon so hard.
Community Intelligence and sewn shut my brightest scars both relate to some of my professional expertise/interest but in two very different areas.

Best summary?
I've used an excerpt as summary for almost every fic last year, so if we disqualify those what's left is...

Jeongin has a problem. The problem is Seungmin’s face. (best of the best (on first class))
In which Bodie gets a terrible cold and a terrible cat. In the same week. (Feline Fine (Eventually))
In which the cat is out of the bag. And all over Ryan. (cat business)

Best first line?

The dream demands a price. (fallen/saved)
The orphanage burns even brighter than he thought it would. (Conflagrant)
The ring whispers to him. (Corrupture)
"That went well," Will remarked after they’d finally stopped running.(Quagmire)
The fundamental mistake most people make is to assume they can recognise a monster by sight, by its appearances. (eye of the beholder)
Camelot falls twice. (the long night shall fall)
Once, John believed in God. (Resurrection)
October night creeps in like an animal, sleek and deadly, the darkness soft and inviting on first glance but put your hand too close and it will bite. (Twilight)

Best last line?
First place goes to Corrupture's last line but the impact is from the context, not the words themselves so not gonna put it here :D Honorary mentions to...

Her happiness spreads out like ripples, little waves touching Youngwoo’s toes first, then climbing higher, higher, tickling her stomach, curling her shoulders, pushing at the corners of her mouth, until her whole body is covered and Youngwoo knows that she is happy too. (Solar Couture)
Under Shane’s mouth Ryan’s pulse beats like a war drum, like a call to a battle, one they’ll win together. Or die fighting. (Brand)
"My name is Jeon Jungkook," he said, extending his hand for Namjoon to shake, grip firm and the tilt of his jaw defiant, "and I owe you my life." (Light Wandering)
And buried in a dark, cramped box, in an undisclosed location, Ethan Hunt smiles. (Grave Outlook)
Gabe doesn’t know what a collective of monsters is called. A legion? A horde? A slew, a storm, a savaging? Or perhaps it should be something that leans into their beauty. A radiance of monsters. A gleam. Or maybe just... A family. It fits. (eye of the beholder)
Jihoon holds the apple to Soonyoung’s lips, not the clean, untouched side of it but the one with the broken flesh, his own bitemark presented like a proxy of a kiss, the kind with teeth. Soonyoung’s mouth fits over it perfectly. His fingers, reaching up to cup Jihoon’s hand over the apple, tremble. Click. The pictures go viral. (Temptation)
The quiet of an empty house, where no one asks you for anything, because you are no longer needed. These are the things she fears. Not sounds. But the silence. ((hear my words) that i might teach you)
"I think," the Master says in careful, measured tones, "that I would like to tour the Royal Palace now." He’s going to pull out that parasite through the Queen’s fucking throat and bite its head off, grizzle on his teeth, offal running down his chin. And that’s just for starters. No one hurts the Doctor. Except him. (Deliverance)
Felix never learns exactly what Chan did or said to make it happen. He thinks Chan would tell him if he asked, but, honestly, he doesn’t need the details. It’s enough to know that Chan did it for him. (sewn shut my brightest scars)
"Go," Annie urges, her voice clear as a bell, clear as the moon raising above the treetops. "Go now. Bring me back something good. Something that still has fight left in it." Mitchell and George grin, fangs growing long and wet with anticipation. The night is calling. Time to hunt. (Twilight)
The world is dark. But she and Seth? Maybe they can bring a little light to it. Even if it is through bullet holes. (if the world is night (shine my life like a light))

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?
HAHA TOO MANY, so just going to indulgently showboat

All of Ensnared
All the dialogue parts in cat business
All of Brand
All of in your head (they are lying)
All of eye of the beholder
All of the long night shall fall
All of lesser birds on the four winds
All of Twilight
All of (hear my words) that i might teach you
Honestly, the Anger (Mis)Management sex scene, co-written with dreamersdare. Incandescant.

From Reclaimed:

Her gaze drifts to Clint, catching his with the ease of years of shared danger and hard-won trust. Slowly, she places a hand on her knee, turns it palm up, her fingers unfurling in invitation, one that Clint had been waiting for without even realising.

It hits him like a wave, and with a choked off sob he slides off his chair, onto his knees, without any conscious decision to do so.

From Sodalis:

The man standing on Nick’s threshold has a dusting of snow on his shoulders. He’s wearing a brown coat with a red flannel shirt peeking through, and a frankly ridiculous lambswool hat. What’s visible of his face from under it is mostly covered by a scruffy, russet beard. The expression on his face is caught somewhere between irritation and resignation.

"Uh," Nick says, intelligently.

"Wow," the man deadpans. "They sure gave me a smart one."

Nick blinks and then narrows his eyes. "And they gave me a lumberjack."

From Alfresco:

"I’m more of an opulent lounge type of person, you know,” he says. "Aesthetically speaking. Something with mood lighting, maybe some sensual jazz."

From Solar Couture:

Youngwoo looks at the dresses and at Geurami’s expression which is always easier to interpret than anyone else’s. She thinks it’s because Geurami never tries to hide what she’s feeling by putting on a mask of any kind. Whatever Geurami feels, she feels with her whole body. When she’s sad, her whole body is sad. When she’s happy, her whole body is happy, jiggling in place like it does right now or even dancing around, limbs flailing, hair flying. Youngwoo thinks that might come later, especially if she puts on one of the dresses Geurami brought for her. She hopes so.

From Isobaric:

"I don’t want to see you to get hurt, Attorney Kwon," he continues. "But I want to see you hurt other people even less. So, if it’s a choice between the two, I will not decide in your favour."

The statement leaves no room for argument, no ambiguity, and something about that, about knowing exactly where the limits are, and the certainty that Myeongseok will enforce them, helps.

From Renascent:

There were a lot of things Rand couldn’t afford anymore. Like not using every tool at his disposal, every advantage available. Every skill or quality of value that anyone had was now something Rand would take, whether freely offered or not. Everyone was weighed, every person measured, evaluated, positioned like a pawn on a board; valued, respected, perhaps even loved, but a pawn nonetheless.

From Saltation:

"Chris." Felix’s voice is gentle, the lines of his body softening, trying to reassure. "It’s okay to worry. But nothing happened. I’m fine."

"Yeah, yeah, of course." Chan nods. "Of course, you are. I can see that."

Felix tilts his head, considering. "That’s not enough right now though, is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Seeing," Felix says. "It’s not enough."

Chan sucks in a sharp breath.

From Light Wandering:

In the vast, empty space between the stars, floated Bangtan. Its hull, battle-scarred and bullet grey, rotated gently, its engines silent. Inside it, on a narrow bench attached to the side of a utility corridor, sat Captain Kim Namjoon. Inside his head, floated a start of a spectacular headache and a singular, somewhat whiny, thought.

"Why me?" Namjoon voiced it. "Why us?" It wasn’t the first time he’d asked that question, nor, he was depressingly certain, would it be the last.

From Corrupture:

While everyone is fighting, Frodo runs. It feels like a last-ditch effort. He can’t run away from the ring or from himself, but he can take himself away from the others before the snarl that lives at the back of his throat breaks free, before the slick, twisting thoughts that wind themselves around his heart like blackened tree roots become actions.

Frodo runs because he knew Boromir would be the first to cave and he watched it happen anyway. Frodo runs because he knows how easy it would be to make Aragorn fall on his sword in a worthless sacrifice, to take him out early on before he could make a difference to the course of the events. Frodo runs because he sees the seed of gold-lust in Gimli’s eyes, the poison of Durin’s blood, diluted but there, ripe for the feeding. He runs because he sees a different kind of hunger entirely in Legolas, unsated yearning to be someone’s first choice, to be wanted for who he is rather than what he is.

Frodo runs because he knows Pippin crawls into his cousin’s bedroll at night, all big eyes and questing hands, because he knows that Merry lets him, just like he has let him for years, ever since Pippin was old enough to try and too young to be allowed. Frodo runs because he sees the way they watch him, with a desperate kind of hero worship, bright and tart as winter apples, barely disguised under jokes and camaraderie in the Shire, and now... Now it peeks through as visible as bone on a butcher’s block, blood warm and inviting.

Frodo runs because he thinks he can outrun Sam.

He is wrong.

From Mumkitty:

"It doesn’t seem to be doing much," Jonathan observes from his perch. "No locusts or rain of blood." Slowly, he leans forward and extends his hand toward the mumkitty. "Pss, pss, pss?"

Rick looks like he’s about to have an aneurysm, but he looks like that at least once a week on average, so Evie ignores him in favour of watching the once-dead-but-not-currently cat cautiously sniff at her brother’s fingers. There’s still a chance that the cat will unhinge its jaw and try to swallow Jonathan’s whole hand, in which case Rick can say ‘I told you so’. Once.

No unhinging or hand swallowing happens. Instead, the mumkitty rubs its head against Jonathan’s knuckles.

"Aww," Evie coos.

From Resurrection:

His belief in God died in a desert, in a house full of dead children. His belief in truth died with Kara.

Justice was last to go. That one that died a slow, lingering death from a thousand cuts, a thousand sins left unpunished. And when it perished, John did too, in every way that mattered. His body may still have been breathing and moving but it was only taking a while to catch up, like a severed nerve sending signals into nothingness.

From Resonance:

Chihiro expects to forget it all. She doesn’t want to forget but she expects it to happen anyway because that’s how it goes in the stories: girls dropped into worlds they don’t want to experience, facing foes and fighting fights they don’t want to fight, and, if they’re lucky, growing and learning, finding courage and friends they never knew to even dream about.

And then, when it’s over, it all gets taken away, the good and the bad and everything in between, as if it never happened. As if she had never happened. It’s like someone stripping ribbons out of a party dress and turning it back into everyday clothes. Here, you thought you were so special but that was temporary, a mistake, you were plain and ordinary and replaceable all along.

From foreign(er):

The travel is a privilege. This country is not, it’s just one among many, not as great as many of its people think, not as terrible as some paint it, a mix of good and bad. Namjoon’s found that to be the case in every country he’s visited, including his own. The true common denominators of the world; complexity, mediocrity, arrogance.

He’ll have to remember that for later. Might make a good lyric.

From Feline Fine (Eventually):

Bodie regards the picnic basket with some trepidation. It’s silent for the time being, and still, but none of that fills him with confidence. Because there is no one here to see him, and because he doesn’t particularly want to be scratched to ribbons and get rabies on top of everything, Bodie snags the umbrella from its hook and uses it to ease the lid open.

Nothing happens.

Cautiously, Bodie nudges the basket with the tip of the umbrella. In response, the basket hisses at him.

From best of the best (on first class):

Then, the S-Class music video is ready for the preview, all of them excited as they gather to watch it, and suddenly, suddenly, Jeongin has a problem.

The problem is Seungmin’s face.

For sure, the rest of him too, but specifically his face and what he does with it; the exposed forehead with his hair swept back, the haughty, almost superior expression he affects for the camera, the slightly unhinged head-tilt, the barely there smirk that says ‘I could fuck you up if you wanted me to’ and the thing is, the problem is...

Jeongin wants him to.

Jeongin is so focused on Seungmin that he only catches the end of Hyunjin’s joke, and the groans that follow. It’s something about Seungmin’s bat handling skills, clearly more than a little suggestive judging by the way others are reacting, Chan trying to shush everyone, his face pink, Minho going ‘ooooooohhhhhhh!’ loudly while Jisung is outright cackling. Jeongin expects Seungmin to blush, maybe push Hyunjin violently away, but this new Seungmin, this post-S-Class Seungmin, ‘Preppy Fuckboi’ Seungmin with his slim thighs on show and his jaw tilted up, just a bit, does neither.

Instead, he arches an eyebrow, and asks, "You mean these kinds of skills?" before twirling the baseball bat one-handed; a showy move made even more impressive when he switches hands on the fly and does it again, like it’s nothing. Jeongin’s mouth goes dry. He tries not think what else Seungmin’s hands would be able to do with the same kind of surety and fails miserably.

"Oh, I’ve got ’em," Seungmin says. And then he winks, obnoxious and obnoxiously attractive. It too looks like it’s aimed at Hyunjin, who by now is pretend swooning and snorting with laughter, but Seungmin’s eyes track to the side and catch Jeongin’s and then he...

Then he twists the bat behind his neck, arms looping over the ends on both sides, posture loose and cocky, and winks again, the smirk on his face softening to a more familiar smile.

Jeongin is fucked.

From Sweet Treats:

"Nah." Kobra smirked. "Can’t buy this ass with just some jellybeans."

Poison pulled out his blaster, aiming at the front of the vending machine. A flash of light, and candy rained down. Poison swiped a bag of jellybeans from the floor, tore it open, tossed some into his mouth, picked one between his thumb and forefinger.

"Wanna bet?" He held it out.

From Sacrifice:

Hope was a side-effect of having a soul. Absolutely terrible in general, of course, but it was also probably the main reason why Spike hadn’t just gone to have a nap in a solarium already.

The other side-effect was the ability to think outside the very narrow box of self-interest and survival.

From Goblinesque:

"Who?" he repeats. "You know this freak? And before you start, I can use that word because I’m one too."

"That’s now how it works," Peter rebuts automatically. It’s not the first time they’ve had this discussion. And then he finally answer’s Wade’s question. "That’s Norman. Or could be Harry, I guess. But probably Norman."

Norman. Wow. Wade sure is so very informed now.

"Okay, let me rephrase that," he says. "What the ever-loving fuck is that?"

Peter sighs. "That is what happens when a chemist with a lot of smarts and a lot of resources self-medicates for their mental illness."

From Effigial Extermination:

Granny did not much care for gods in general and the fertility ones were the worst, full of self-importance and up to all sorts, the kind of activities that Nanny probably took inspiration from but that tended to leave behind a lot of half-divine offspring who were a damn nuisance to socialise.

From Conflagrant:

He ignores Tom, walking right past him and heading for the staff. Tom grinds his teeth, something sour, something sweet, burning in his gut. Dumbledore knows Tom hates being ignored, which means he’s doing it on purpose. And part of Tom loves that, of being the focus on Dumbledore’s purposeful actions even when, especially when, they are meant to put him in his place.

Story I haven't yet written, but intend/hope to:
From my

getyourwordsout spreadsheet project list