potentiality_26

Title: Menace
Fandom: Callan
Pairing/Characters: David Callan/Toby Meres
Summary: Sometimes there's only one bed. This is one of those times.
Rating: PG
Length: Short (1,186 words)
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Notes/Warnings: I feel like this must come before Playing with Fire chronologically, but I've made it a series while I figure it out. I have ideas for more in this 'verse.  Not Brit-picked.
Excerpt:
Callan stopped for a second too long in the doorway. Meres, having picked up their bags with exaggerated deference to Callan’s age and experience, nearly collided with his back. Evidently the section had elected not to spring for a double room on this occasion.

On AO3
   

Nabbed from thisbluespirit:

List your top fanfic on AO3 for every year, sorted by kudos.

2013
Today and Sleeping Patterns, both Artemus Gordon/James West Wild Wild West fics, are tied for #1 from this year. 

2014
Heartlines, a James Bond/Q James Bond and Sherlock crossover fic.

Not surprise there.  It's for two juggernaut fandoms (though I did write it somewhat after the original Bondlock heyday) and my second most kudo'd fic of all time.  

2015
Getting It Right, a Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin Kingsman fic.

Aaaaand this is my most kudo'd fic of all time.  Kingsman was never quite a juggernaut fandom, but boy was it enthusiastic.  The thing about "Heartlines" is that while it has regularly gotten kudos ever since I posted it, there was never a big rush (and I get that, it's a slightly odd take on the soulmate trope and not to all tastes), while "Getting It Right" had made my top three the day after I posted it, and was #1 by the end of the week.  

2016
Love Potion No. 9, another Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin Kingsman fic. 

2017
Until I Saw Your Face, also a Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin Kingsman fic.

This is a bit of a cheat, since it's a chapter fic I started posting in August 2016 and only finished right at the beginning of January in 2017.  More fairly:

Everything Changes, again a Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin Kingsman fic.

I'm... confused about this fic.  Seven of my top ten fics are for Kingsman when sorted by kudos, it's basically the fandom where I got love, but by the summer of 2017 things were petering out somewhat.  The sequel was coming in the fall and a lot of people were thinking it might reinvigorate their interest (spoiler alert: for a lot of people it. did. not), but otherwise things were getting quiet.  It surprises the heck out of me that this fic overtook so many older fics (it's #7 among my fics overall).  It got a much bigger response than I expected, both because the fandom wasn't as big as it had been, and because- while I was certainly pleased with it- I never thought it was that much better than everything else I was working on at the time.  Guess it struck a chord with everyone.   

Ah, well.  2017: the last year I wrote Kingsman fic (see above sequel remarks).  Goodnight, sweet prince. 

2018
Eighth Time's the Charm, a Lou Miller/Debbie Ocean Ocean's 8 fic. 

Not much to say about this one, except that I was proud of myself for turning it out so quickly after seeing the movie.

2019
... Electing not to do 2019.  I'd rather wait and see where I am at the end of the year.
  

Title: The Second Hand Unwinds
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe (Thor, Avengers)
Pairing/Characters: Loki/Thor
Summary: This isn't a quest. Thor isn't sure what it is, though.
Rating: NC-17
Length: Short (4077 words)
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Notes/Warnings: Endgame spoilers, canon character death, bittersweet/ambiguous ending.  Fills my 100fandoms table prompt #26 (balm). Title from "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper. Not a fix-it because I'm not sure how to fix a lot of this, but I was definitely working through some stuff. Set before Thor's final scene with the Guardians of the Galaxy characters, I guess, but the continuity's a bit wonky. Enjoy?
Excerpt:
There was a Loki out there who had escaped with the Tesseract, years ago. Thor did not know if he made these trips to find the strength to go looking for him, or the strength not to.

On AO3
  

So I've noticed that when someone I've subscribed to on AO3 posts multiple fics in close succession, I only get one email.  Does anybody know how close together the fics have to be published for that to happen?

Title: And After
Fandom: The Sisters Brothers
Pairing/Characters: John Morris/Hermann Kermit Warm
Summary: Maybe there is a better world, somewhere.
Rating: PG
Length: Very short (684 words)
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Notes/Warnings: Includes canon character death.  Fills my 100fandoms table prompt #20 (discover).  Ficlet for a movie I just saw to remind me that I can, in fact, finish a thing. 
Excerpt:
He sat on a rock that overlooked the valley and said to himself, or maybe to the Hermann he couldn’t see- he wasn’t sure when thoughts he had always kept between himself and his notebook became thoughts for Hermann, but it was long before this, whatever this was, happened- “I do not believe I wanted to be your friend.”

On AO3
  

Title: Midnight Clarity
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (Howard)
Pairing/Characters: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Summary: After John Norton's second arrest, things aren't yet back to normal.
Rating: PG-13
Length: Short (1,108 words)
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Notes/Warnings: It's Christmas, so I wrote a "The Case of the Christmas Pudding" tag. It may not even be the last because this episode is A Lot. Title is a bit of a play on "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear."
Excerpt:
Watson didn’t sound as if he was going to stop talking any time soon. I stopped listening around when he told me that sometimes he thought I needed a nurse. I stood by what I had done, but I wouldn’t deny that I was rattled now- yes, by the neat bullet holes in that dummy’s forehead, but perhaps a little more by the fear in his voice. If I had to choose between his safety and his feelings, his safety would always win- but it was a bitter calculation, all the same. Sometimes I really was afraid that I would drive him away- with my tricks, my experiments, my disguises, my violin, my recklessness. Other times, I was afraid that I wouldn’t.

On AO3
   

I was tagged over on tumblr to post a list of my top and bottom five fics by kudos.  I thought I would post it here as well.

Top Five

1. Getting It Right (Kingsman, Harry/Eggsy) Five times Eggsy gets Harry to kiss him for the wrong reasons (and one time he gets it right). 3038 kudos. 
2. Heartlines (James Bond and Sherlock, Bond/Q, Sherlock/John) Q and Bond are soulmates.  Between Q's family and Bond's... everything, it isn't as simple as it sounds. 2469 kudos. 
3. No Charm Equal (Kingsman, Harry/Eggsy) Harry is a cupid.  His latest assignment is proving to be... complicated. 1576 kudos.
4. Until I Saw Your Face (Kingsman, Harry/Eggsy) Harry just needs somewhere to lay low and patch himself up.  He isn't expecting to meet someone who fascinates him, or to run into that someone again and again. 1459 kudos. 
5. An Accidental Engagement (The Hobbit, Bilbo/Thorin, Fíli/Kíli/Tauriel) Bilbo's fake-it-'til-you-make-it interpretation of dwarven culture is working quite well for him, thank you very much- all the way up until it really, really isn't. 1396 kudos. 

Bottom Five

1. Heads or Tails (Thorne, Sarah gen) Sarah in the aftermath. 3 kudos.
2. Hollow (Sherlock, Sally/Stella) A strange case. 2 kudos.
3. Gifts (Identity, Team gen) It's John's birthday. 2 kudos.
4. Carols and Pomegranate Seeds (Identity, John/Martha) John reflects, and pays Martha a visit. 2 kudos.
5. Permutations (New Tricks, Jane/Stephen, Stephen/Robert, Robert/Sarah)  In Stephen Fisher's hospital room after 'Part of a Whole.'  2 kudos.  

And that, my friends, is an impressive spread between most to least kudos.  For the curious, my average is about 236 kudos per fic.
  

Title: Hollow
Fandom: Sherlock
Pairing/Characters: Sally Donovan/Stella Hopkins
Summary: A strange case.
Rating: PG
Length: Very Short (465 words)
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Notes/Warnings: I've been working on a fic based ACD/Granada’s Abbey Grange, and it made me think about a more modern interpretation of that case, and how it might have been handled by Sherlock’s version of Hopkins. This is the result. I don’t actually remember what case she really brought Sherlock in the show, so sorry if this ignores anything in canon.
Excerpt:
She had been watching Stella Hopkins for a while- from where she sat at the other end of the bar, and also in general. She knew Hopkins was trying to make a name for herself and figured that Sherlock Holmes could be a good way to do that; either she would come out the other side of it or she wouldn’t. Sally hoped it would be the former, obviously- but she saw hints of the latter in the speed at which Hopkins had been drinking all night.

On AO3
  

Title: On Lateness
Fandom: Kingsman
Pairing/Characters: Gazelle/Roxy Morton, Richmond Valentine
Summary: An unexpected encounter on campus.
Rating: PG
Length: Short (1,760 words)
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Notes/Warnings: An unusual pair for me but I like to branch out from time to time. This is based on an American (and also outdated) university experience and I'm afraid I don't know a whole lot about TAs (only one of my profs ever had one), so apologies in advance for any mistakes there.  Not Brit-picked.
Excerpt: Gazelle blinked at her. “You remember me?” She sounded surprised, in that I-try-very-hard-not-to-take-anything-too-seriously way Roxy remembered her having.

Of course she remembered. Gazelle always sat at the back of the classroom, the seat beside her always empty, and she would prop her legs up on it and survey the room through the curtain of her hair in a listless fashion that did little to disguise how smart she was and how much she really did care about getting an education. Her legs were bright and knife sharp, like her smile and her eyes and her tongue- when Roxy coaxed her into speaking during class, that was. Gazelle was very hard to forget indeed.

On AO3