Fic Retrospectives (2020)
Feb. 9th, 2022 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jajalalaOh 2020... Things happened that year... but also fun fic things happened! For one I started writing for the My Hero Academia fandom, which is still one of my current active fandoms! It was also just generally quite productive:
Miraculous Ladybug
"Pretend" Lesbians
October 2019-February 2020
This is one of my "mature" rated stories... Despite my general horniness, I generally do separate things as either full-on smut or I keep a teen-rated fic moderately clean. But this fic was basically one long shenanigans-filled introspective on compulsory heterosexuality, and I decided it made sense to talk about things like masturbation, kinks, abuse, etc, even if I never showed any actual sex scenes (As I recall, I purposefully didn't even have them kiss until the last few chapters.)
This fic started because I read a random salt fic that included Kagami/Chloé and at first I was like "That's an odd pairing!" but then... ahahaha as always happens to me I started shipping it. I'm also a HUGE sucker for fake-dating, so it was a no-brainer to put these gals in the situation. Kagami and Chloé both have parental issues, but I found it fun to explore how their particular parental situations differed. And although they both are coming at compulsory heterosexuality from different angles (Chloé being like "Sex with men is just unsatisfying for everyone including heterosexual girls like me," while Kagami is like "I've never had experience with this sort of thing but I'll probably be default right? Once I kiss a boy it'll all make sense right?"), I found they had a lot in common with familial pressures and trying to satisfy a mold they couldn't quite fill. This may sound terrible, but I loved writing Chloé's breakdown to Rose about her sexuality... I think the best writing is done when you place a piece of yourself inside the characters, and this piece was written after I came to terms with my own bisexuality, so I was sort of processing things a bit in the way I wish I'd processed them earlier. Though I love writing funny shenanigans, for this fic I deliberately got more into the nitty gritty of talking somewhat explicitly about kink, sex, and masturbation, since I feel like those aren't discussed enough in a grounded way.
This fic definitely did not have staying power fandom-wise the same way something like Chloé Noir had, and that made sense to me. It was an aged-up no-powers AU, with an odd pairing, and a "mature" rating that turns off those just looking for sex and scares away those not into intensity. Still, there were people who followed along as it updated (at least once each week), and it's one of those that I reread on occasion for my own joy.
I'll Do Anything
February 2020
As it turns out, "Pretend" Lesbians, my fic about Kagami and Chloé coming to terms with their sexuality because they realized they were horny for each other, had juice for a smutty oneshot. To be honest it didn't quite fit in the main story; there was a particular scene that I was like "Oh this could lead into SUCH a steamy sex scene!" but the two of them had barely come to terms with their own sexualities, and had barely even kissed before that scene. Since I was aiming for a grounded approach to the work, I just wrote them kissing again, getting a lil steamy, but then mostly talking about their feelings. However, I'm horny at heart, so I ended up writing this "porno-logic" alternate chapter as well, and releasing it as a oneshot I linked in the author's notes for any other horndogs who were reading "Pretend" Lesbians.
Boku no Hero Academia
A Tattoo Artist Without Tattoos
April 2020
I wrote this in the midst of also working on Mild-Mannered School Teacher/Adrenaline-Junkie Vigilante... It was one of those slightly feral moments where I just banged it out in a fugue state. I think there was some tumblr I followed that declared "It's tattoo parlor/flowershop AU day!" and suddenly I had this concept of Fuyumi as a tattoo artist and Miruko as a florist. This was a fun oneshot to write!
Mild-Mannered School Teacher/Adrenaline-Junkie
January 2020-July 2020
HOOO boy, buckle up bc this is going to be a long retrospective. At this point (me writing this in early 2022, it's my longest and most popular fic, and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on it.
I was coming off a Vigilante!Midoriya high at the time; there are soooo many fics on Vigilante!Midoriya, and although I had been consuming them vociferously for awhile I was starting to get burned out on the concept. I liked the drama of vigilantism, running from both the authorities and the villains, and the incredible willpower and ingenuity of the main character but... ugh I got so tired of always seeing Midoriya in that role! There's only so many ways you can read a teenage (or even preteen in rare cases) boy be super smart and cool and good at fighting, and also a little tortured and maybe gets adopted by Aizawa or All Might, before you start to get a little bored and frustrated. It's fun to read and all, but as an adult woman I also felt a little disconnected from the stories... Obviously you can place yourself in other people's shoes, but I also have my own priorities and struggle that a story about a teenage boy just can't capture. Still, the stories were really engaging, and I didn't see many alternatives...
Until I read One Day at the USJ. That fic wasn't even Fuyumi-centered, it was really about Shouto going through a timeloop, but there was a particular scene involving Fuyumi fighting and getting mad and having what one might call an "epic" moment... and it was like my eyes were opened. She wasn't deeply explored in canon, but she had a complex family and deep connections to some central characters with rich characterizations I could incorporate into a work. Lots of people have written her, but I'd mostly just seen her written as someone very nice and pleasant and maybe a little bit spineless... Which is fair, considering most of what we get in canon, but I'm also an elder/middle daughter who did a lot of peacemaking in a slightly-broken family. As much as I try to present a very peaceful front, I'll admit that there are times when I've struggled with anger issues, while also telling myself "No I definitely don't have anger issues, not the way that my family members do, so I'm perfectly okay!"
Anways, instead of going to therapy to deal with my repressed anger issues, I wrote this fic. As I said before, I think the best fics come from taking a piece of yourself and putting it inside the work, and this had a lot of pieces of me. It gave Fuyumi some very in-depth and unique characterization, and also had me feeling very inspired to write to explore these feelings I also often grappled with.
Of course all of this was couched in a fun and engaging set of shenanigans and plot. This is my most popular fic, and I think a big reason for that is that there's proximity to a lot of very popular things in bnha. At the core it has a big Dabi/Touya & Fuyumi center, and Dabi is one of those very big and popular characters (This fic was also started BEFORE the official Dabi=Touya reveal... When that reveal happened in canon, this fic had a fun little kudos/comments spike). So anyone interested in Dabi (or Todoroki drama in general) was willing to give this fic a chance, even if they normally wouldn't read about a "boring" character like Fuyumi. I also started off with a very distinct identity plot: Fuyumi as a vigilante bonding with Dabi, neither realizing that they're brother and sister. My love of identity shenanigans carried over from Miraculous Ladybug, it seems! And lots of the enthusiastic comments were people reacting to various near-identity reveals or other moments of irony.
I forget where I first heard the concept of Fuyumi/Miruko, but it was in my brain when I started this fic, so I incorporated it to provide a very juicy enemies-to-lovers plot (and yet another set of identity shenanigans). Obviously I can't get stats on this, but anecdotally I've heard a handful of people say they started shipping Miruko/Fuyumi after reading this fic. That's one of my goals as well! I said this in another retrospective, but I love femslash that comes with an engaging premise. Part of the reason that I write so much of it is that even when I find actual F/F fics, they tend to be oneshots or fluff pieces that like... it's cute, but nobody would have any reason to read the fic unless they already shipped the characters. I've read tons of Kiribaku fics not just because the two of them are cute, but because authors put those two through all sorts of riveting plots and shenanigans that keep me clicking "next chapter" to see what happens next. Of course many M/M ships have the advantage in that there's a lot more canon juice to squeeze out and work with, but I do my best to wring out something engaging from F/F ships who have never met in canon.
Anyways I felt sad to say goodbye to this fic, but after seven months and 136k I had to end it. As much as I loved it, I think there's value in closing up shop once you've explored most the avenues you want to, and I had to move on to new things. I do consider this a bit of my magnum opus, which on rare occasions disheartens me about my newer works... Like "I'll never be able to write anything that engaging again!" But I try to just stay proud about it rather than compare. Ultimately even if fans are flocking to this work... to be honest I flock to it too! I love rereading it, I laugh at my own comedically-long chapter titles, and I love going through and squealing at all those tropes and plot points that are perfectly written to my taste.
Hatsume's Inadvertant Seduction of a Human 3D Printer
June 2020-July 2020
This was a fun one! I wrote it as I was wrapping up Mild-Mannered School Teacher/Adrenaline-Junkie Vigilante. I remembered as I was starting to fall asleep one night, I was suddenly struck with the thought: "Hatsume would love Yaoyorozu for her ability to create rare parts." I literally wrote a note in my phone so I wouldn't forget about it! The next morning I searched up the pairing, and although it did exist on AO3 I found it was mostly harem or poly fics (generally with Izuku clearly central) and a handful of oneshots, so I started writing up this. I was coming to the end of a very long multichapter, so I decided from the start this one would be fairly short (ten chapters or less). I did a decent amount of planning before posting, and angled to create a theme around each chapter (the theme usually being some random third character either helping or inhibiting the two gals getting closer).
I decided this one would be pure fluff, but with a hilarious misunderstanding that would keep readers clicking through chapters to see how it would resolve. I didn't want to do just a oneshot, as I like building anticipation and thought this ship deserved that sort of thing. Still, ultimately it's not like there was a ton there, so overall the fic is a little under 15k words, which I think was the perfect amount for it (and for me as a writer! I needed a medium-short palette cleanser).
This got surprisingly popular for a medium-short F/F rarepair fic! I think there's a couple reasons for that though. For one it was right after my behemoth Vigilante!Fuyumi fic, so anyone who subscribed to me for that fic got notified about this one, giving it an initial boost. It also has seven chapters, so it showed up on "newest" works seven times, giving folks ample opportunities to discover it. Also, the length is very accessible: Juicy enough to dig into, but short enough that you can blitz through it and then recommend to your friends. It's also fluffy and clearly comedic, so it's something very enjoyable to read even if you didn't initially ship the couple.
I still love Hatsume/Momo as genius inventor girlfriends. I haven't posted anything more with them since this fic, but currently am working on something that may or may not get posted eventually involving the two of them... Either way, whenever I see content of them, I perk up. They're a delight!
I'd Give You Legs If I Could
July 2020-September 2020
This is another odd "mature" rated fic! Somehow I got the idea in my brain for Siren!Jirou and couldn't let it go. So I ended up spinning up this odd sort-of fantasy AU. I made Yaoyorozu an inventor because I was fresh off of Hatsume's Inadvertant Seduction of a 3D Printer which had strong vibes of Yaoyorozu being very smart and knowing how to put things together.
Since this was an AU, it had a bit more world-building than a lot of my other fics, which took some getting used to! It was a lot of fun to decide where and what various characters were doing in this AU. Also sorry Mineta stans, but it was fun to kill him off too. This fic is a rare beast where I sort-of fully outlined what I wanted to happen from the start! Lots of little bits and asides ended up growing in the middle as I wrote it, but for once I had my endgoal in mind the whole time.
Definitely one of my more peculiar fics... And sometimes I forget I wrote it! It's one of those oddities that only occasionally gets kudos, and nowadays almost never gets comments. Still, I reread it a few months ago and found myself loving it? Again, I sort of forgot I wrote it, so it was refreshing to read through and re-remember all those fun details I put in!
Turn The Tables (Or Rather: Trade The Strap-on)
September 2020
Heheheh I was just in a silly slutty mood for this one... I love a good switcheroo, and Fuyumi/Miruko is an OTP. Mild-Mannered School Teacher/Adrenaline-Junkie was a teen-rated story, so although there was occasionally a steamy build-up or a fade-to-black, I didn't really explore their sex life. For that particular story I think that was sufficient (and kept it accessible to younger and sex-repulsed audiences), but I did have some sexy thoughts about those two I wanted to let out. That's where this fic came in... Oh Porn Without Plot, my beloved.
The year of 2020 was a busy one! But also with the pandemic and all that nonsense going on, I ended up having a lot of time to write, which made me particularly productive. I graduated college and got a job, but that job was fully remote and low-stress so I had the energy and free time to keep writing. That's also the year I officially started contributing to the My Hero Academia fandom... and what a fun fandom it is!
Miraculous Ladybug
"Pretend" Lesbians
October 2019-February 2020
This is one of my "mature" rated stories... Despite my general horniness, I generally do separate things as either full-on smut or I keep a teen-rated fic moderately clean. But this fic was basically one long shenanigans-filled introspective on compulsory heterosexuality, and I decided it made sense to talk about things like masturbation, kinks, abuse, etc, even if I never showed any actual sex scenes (As I recall, I purposefully didn't even have them kiss until the last few chapters.)
This fic started because I read a random salt fic that included Kagami/Chloé and at first I was like "That's an odd pairing!" but then... ahahaha as always happens to me I started shipping it. I'm also a HUGE sucker for fake-dating, so it was a no-brainer to put these gals in the situation. Kagami and Chloé both have parental issues, but I found it fun to explore how their particular parental situations differed. And although they both are coming at compulsory heterosexuality from different angles (Chloé being like "Sex with men is just unsatisfying for everyone including heterosexual girls like me," while Kagami is like "I've never had experience with this sort of thing but I'll probably be default right? Once I kiss a boy it'll all make sense right?"), I found they had a lot in common with familial pressures and trying to satisfy a mold they couldn't quite fill. This may sound terrible, but I loved writing Chloé's breakdown to Rose about her sexuality... I think the best writing is done when you place a piece of yourself inside the characters, and this piece was written after I came to terms with my own bisexuality, so I was sort of processing things a bit in the way I wish I'd processed them earlier. Though I love writing funny shenanigans, for this fic I deliberately got more into the nitty gritty of talking somewhat explicitly about kink, sex, and masturbation, since I feel like those aren't discussed enough in a grounded way.
This fic definitely did not have staying power fandom-wise the same way something like Chloé Noir had, and that made sense to me. It was an aged-up no-powers AU, with an odd pairing, and a "mature" rating that turns off those just looking for sex and scares away those not into intensity. Still, there were people who followed along as it updated (at least once each week), and it's one of those that I reread on occasion for my own joy.
I'll Do Anything
February 2020
As it turns out, "Pretend" Lesbians, my fic about Kagami and Chloé coming to terms with their sexuality because they realized they were horny for each other, had juice for a smutty oneshot. To be honest it didn't quite fit in the main story; there was a particular scene that I was like "Oh this could lead into SUCH a steamy sex scene!" but the two of them had barely come to terms with their own sexualities, and had barely even kissed before that scene. Since I was aiming for a grounded approach to the work, I just wrote them kissing again, getting a lil steamy, but then mostly talking about their feelings. However, I'm horny at heart, so I ended up writing this "porno-logic" alternate chapter as well, and releasing it as a oneshot I linked in the author's notes for any other horndogs who were reading "Pretend" Lesbians.
Boku no Hero Academia
A Tattoo Artist Without Tattoos
April 2020
I wrote this in the midst of also working on Mild-Mannered School Teacher/Adrenaline-Junkie Vigilante... It was one of those slightly feral moments where I just banged it out in a fugue state. I think there was some tumblr I followed that declared "It's tattoo parlor/flowershop AU day!" and suddenly I had this concept of Fuyumi as a tattoo artist and Miruko as a florist. This was a fun oneshot to write!
Mild-Mannered School Teacher/Adrenaline-Junkie
January 2020-July 2020
HOOO boy, buckle up bc this is going to be a long retrospective. At this point (me writing this in early 2022, it's my longest and most popular fic, and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on it.
I was coming off a Vigilante!Midoriya high at the time; there are soooo many fics on Vigilante!Midoriya, and although I had been consuming them vociferously for awhile I was starting to get burned out on the concept. I liked the drama of vigilantism, running from both the authorities and the villains, and the incredible willpower and ingenuity of the main character but... ugh I got so tired of always seeing Midoriya in that role! There's only so many ways you can read a teenage (or even preteen in rare cases) boy be super smart and cool and good at fighting, and also a little tortured and maybe gets adopted by Aizawa or All Might, before you start to get a little bored and frustrated. It's fun to read and all, but as an adult woman I also felt a little disconnected from the stories... Obviously you can place yourself in other people's shoes, but I also have my own priorities and struggle that a story about a teenage boy just can't capture. Still, the stories were really engaging, and I didn't see many alternatives...
Until I read One Day at the USJ. That fic wasn't even Fuyumi-centered, it was really about Shouto going through a timeloop, but there was a particular scene involving Fuyumi fighting and getting mad and having what one might call an "epic" moment... and it was like my eyes were opened. She wasn't deeply explored in canon, but she had a complex family and deep connections to some central characters with rich characterizations I could incorporate into a work. Lots of people have written her, but I'd mostly just seen her written as someone very nice and pleasant and maybe a little bit spineless... Which is fair, considering most of what we get in canon, but I'm also an elder/middle daughter who did a lot of peacemaking in a slightly-broken family. As much as I try to present a very peaceful front, I'll admit that there are times when I've struggled with anger issues, while also telling myself "No I definitely don't have anger issues, not the way that my family members do, so I'm perfectly okay!"
Anways, instead of going to therapy to deal with my repressed anger issues, I wrote this fic. As I said before, I think the best fics come from taking a piece of yourself and putting it inside the work, and this had a lot of pieces of me. It gave Fuyumi some very in-depth and unique characterization, and also had me feeling very inspired to write to explore these feelings I also often grappled with.
Of course all of this was couched in a fun and engaging set of shenanigans and plot. This is my most popular fic, and I think a big reason for that is that there's proximity to a lot of very popular things in bnha. At the core it has a big Dabi/Touya & Fuyumi center, and Dabi is one of those very big and popular characters (This fic was also started BEFORE the official Dabi=Touya reveal... When that reveal happened in canon, this fic had a fun little kudos/comments spike). So anyone interested in Dabi (or Todoroki drama in general) was willing to give this fic a chance, even if they normally wouldn't read about a "boring" character like Fuyumi. I also started off with a very distinct identity plot: Fuyumi as a vigilante bonding with Dabi, neither realizing that they're brother and sister. My love of identity shenanigans carried over from Miraculous Ladybug, it seems! And lots of the enthusiastic comments were people reacting to various near-identity reveals or other moments of irony.
I forget where I first heard the concept of Fuyumi/Miruko, but it was in my brain when I started this fic, so I incorporated it to provide a very juicy enemies-to-lovers plot (and yet another set of identity shenanigans). Obviously I can't get stats on this, but anecdotally I've heard a handful of people say they started shipping Miruko/Fuyumi after reading this fic. That's one of my goals as well! I said this in another retrospective, but I love femslash that comes with an engaging premise. Part of the reason that I write so much of it is that even when I find actual F/F fics, they tend to be oneshots or fluff pieces that like... it's cute, but nobody would have any reason to read the fic unless they already shipped the characters. I've read tons of Kiribaku fics not just because the two of them are cute, but because authors put those two through all sorts of riveting plots and shenanigans that keep me clicking "next chapter" to see what happens next. Of course many M/M ships have the advantage in that there's a lot more canon juice to squeeze out and work with, but I do my best to wring out something engaging from F/F ships who have never met in canon.
Anyways I felt sad to say goodbye to this fic, but after seven months and 136k I had to end it. As much as I loved it, I think there's value in closing up shop once you've explored most the avenues you want to, and I had to move on to new things. I do consider this a bit of my magnum opus, which on rare occasions disheartens me about my newer works... Like "I'll never be able to write anything that engaging again!" But I try to just stay proud about it rather than compare. Ultimately even if fans are flocking to this work... to be honest I flock to it too! I love rereading it, I laugh at my own comedically-long chapter titles, and I love going through and squealing at all those tropes and plot points that are perfectly written to my taste.
Hatsume's Inadvertant Seduction of a Human 3D Printer
June 2020-July 2020
This was a fun one! I wrote it as I was wrapping up Mild-Mannered School Teacher/Adrenaline-Junkie Vigilante. I remembered as I was starting to fall asleep one night, I was suddenly struck with the thought: "Hatsume would love Yaoyorozu for her ability to create rare parts." I literally wrote a note in my phone so I wouldn't forget about it! The next morning I searched up the pairing, and although it did exist on AO3 I found it was mostly harem or poly fics (generally with Izuku clearly central) and a handful of oneshots, so I started writing up this. I was coming to the end of a very long multichapter, so I decided from the start this one would be fairly short (ten chapters or less). I did a decent amount of planning before posting, and angled to create a theme around each chapter (the theme usually being some random third character either helping or inhibiting the two gals getting closer).
I decided this one would be pure fluff, but with a hilarious misunderstanding that would keep readers clicking through chapters to see how it would resolve. I didn't want to do just a oneshot, as I like building anticipation and thought this ship deserved that sort of thing. Still, ultimately it's not like there was a ton there, so overall the fic is a little under 15k words, which I think was the perfect amount for it (and for me as a writer! I needed a medium-short palette cleanser).
This got surprisingly popular for a medium-short F/F rarepair fic! I think there's a couple reasons for that though. For one it was right after my behemoth Vigilante!Fuyumi fic, so anyone who subscribed to me for that fic got notified about this one, giving it an initial boost. It also has seven chapters, so it showed up on "newest" works seven times, giving folks ample opportunities to discover it. Also, the length is very accessible: Juicy enough to dig into, but short enough that you can blitz through it and then recommend to your friends. It's also fluffy and clearly comedic, so it's something very enjoyable to read even if you didn't initially ship the couple.
I still love Hatsume/Momo as genius inventor girlfriends. I haven't posted anything more with them since this fic, but currently am working on something that may or may not get posted eventually involving the two of them... Either way, whenever I see content of them, I perk up. They're a delight!
I'd Give You Legs If I Could
July 2020-September 2020
This is another odd "mature" rated fic! Somehow I got the idea in my brain for Siren!Jirou and couldn't let it go. So I ended up spinning up this odd sort-of fantasy AU. I made Yaoyorozu an inventor because I was fresh off of Hatsume's Inadvertant Seduction of a 3D Printer which had strong vibes of Yaoyorozu being very smart and knowing how to put things together.
Since this was an AU, it had a bit more world-building than a lot of my other fics, which took some getting used to! It was a lot of fun to decide where and what various characters were doing in this AU. Also sorry Mineta stans, but it was fun to kill him off too. This fic is a rare beast where I sort-of fully outlined what I wanted to happen from the start! Lots of little bits and asides ended up growing in the middle as I wrote it, but for once I had my endgoal in mind the whole time.
Definitely one of my more peculiar fics... And sometimes I forget I wrote it! It's one of those oddities that only occasionally gets kudos, and nowadays almost never gets comments. Still, I reread it a few months ago and found myself loving it? Again, I sort of forgot I wrote it, so it was refreshing to read through and re-remember all those fun details I put in!
Turn The Tables (Or Rather: Trade The Strap-on)
September 2020
Heheheh I was just in a silly slutty mood for this one... I love a good switcheroo, and Fuyumi/Miruko is an OTP. Mild-Mannered School Teacher/Adrenaline-Junkie was a teen-rated story, so although there was occasionally a steamy build-up or a fade-to-black, I didn't really explore their sex life. For that particular story I think that was sufficient (and kept it accessible to younger and sex-repulsed audiences), but I did have some sexy thoughts about those two I wanted to let out. That's where this fic came in... Oh Porn Without Plot, my beloved.
The year of 2020 was a busy one! But also with the pandemic and all that nonsense going on, I ended up having a lot of time to write, which made me particularly productive. I graduated college and got a job, but that job was fully remote and low-stress so I had the energy and free time to keep writing. That's also the year I officially started contributing to the My Hero Academia fandom... and what a fun fandom it is!
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Date: 2022-02-09 05:35 pm (UTC)Oh, that great Chloé/Kagami fic was you? I really loved that story!
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Date: 2022-02-12 04:43 pm (UTC)This entire series is lovely, thank you for it, and now I'm going fandom blind into "Pretend" Lesbians because comphet! And F/F! What more do you need in life?
It was also very interesting reading your process behind Mild-Mannered School Teacher. I still think of that work as The OneTM that got me into femslash (I was but a wee fandomling when I began reading it and had experience only in gen - because I started on FFN - and some het and slash), so I definitely fall into the 'you got me to ship this!' group xD - thank you for that, too!
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Date: 2022-02-12 07:22 pm (UTC)And yay!!! Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad to hear another anecdote that my plot to get readers into the F/F category is working!