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quaranmine · 4 months

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10 Years of Posting Fanfic: A Retrospective

(If you only care about reading my writing from when I was 12, skip to the cut)

I've always enjoyed reading as a kid. I was the kid in class who was reading at a high school level in intermediate school, and the kid who had 8 library books on her desk at a time. Therefore it is no surprise that I quickly realized that I enjoyed writing a lot too.

This post cannot be a look into when I started writing fanfiction though, because frankly I don't remember. Instead, all I have to go off of is the publishing date on my old fanfiction.net profile: December 15, 2013. I'm a little too young for the heyday of Live Journal and other fanfic sites, so ff.net was my first introduction to fanfiction. I also used to use Wattpad now and then, but I never posted anything there. I preferred ff.net, and did not make an AO3 account until 2016.

In middle school and intermediate school, if you asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd tell you I wanted to be a novelist. Of course my actual career went a different direction--I'm now an environmental outreach specialist. But the great news about writing is that it can be done at any time!

Fanfiction.net was also my introduction into the world of fanfic, back when I stumbled onto some Jayfeather Warrior Cats fanfic from a random google search. It took me entirely by suprise to find out that I could actually read more stories about my favorite characters! It was like stumbling into a gold mine. I still remember how thrilled I was. I was instantly hooked, despite being more than a little traumatized by instantly finding a "lemon" and reading about cat sex at probably 11 or 12 years old. Somehow, that did not stop me. I continued to avoid lemons, and developed a huge taste for angst, whump, and hurt/comfort stories. In retrospect, I'm not sure my mom would have viewed reading about torture or suicidal characters as particularly better than smut, but oh well. She never knew.

Throughout middle school and early high school, I was constantly writing. In middle school I had a notebook and used to hand write fanfics and original stories inside. I had two friends who also liked writing, and together we'd spend time developing and editing each other's stories. It's during this time I posted my first stories on FF.net. In high school, my school gave every student a chromebook laptop, and I started writing fanfic in Google Docs on that. I was fearless and had no problems writing angsty anime fanfic in class, on a school-monitored device.

I stopped writing fanfic somewhere in 10th grade, though I never stopped reading it. I stopped writing it primarily because I spent a lot of time writing other things. I was taking college classes. I doing competitive essay writing (I medalled at state) and competitive literary criticism. I was doing art competitions. In 12th grade, I had a job reporting school news to my local newspaper. I wrote op-eds about the environment and dutifully recorded hours of school board meetings to summarize. Then, I was properly off to college, and despite the pandemic hitting a year later I had classes to take online and a part time job outdoors. I had 60 page mock-environmental risk assessments to write. I was too busy to write fiction.

The MCYT fandom is what brought back my desire to write. The creativity of this fandom is so astounding, and I'm grateful all the time that I get to see the things everybody creates. Back in 2021, I no longer felt like I just wanted to read. I felt restless again, so I started writing a DSMP story about clingyduo at the disc war finale. I scrapped this, but it set things into motion again. In the summer of 2021 I posted my first two fanfics in years. I received such good feedback. By kudos, NWNF is my most popular fic on the site, and The Babysitting Game is still 4th most popular. I'm super grateful for that, and I'm grateful for everybody here who reads my stories. I still can't really comprehend that I post things that people actually read now. I save so many of your comments to keep for later.

I'll stop reviewing my history of writing here. You guys know the rest. I wrote HC, Evo, ESMP, and Life series oneshots. I wrote my first long fic, and then smashed that record by writing another longer one that I'm less than two chapters away from finishing. It's been a huge amount of fun and the improvements I've made in two years of active writing is super encouraging.

If I've made this much progress in 10 years, who's to say what I could do in 10 more years? I really look forward to it.

Anyway, the sappy stuff aside, who wants to read the story I wrote when I was 12? I'll post it below the cut in its entirety, no matter how much psychic damage it dealt me. It's Doctor Who, because of course it is. It always goes back to Doctor Who with me :)

From the TARDIS Files--A One-Shot Book

by: crazykatz430 <- I used to go by this everywhere

Description: This is a book of drabbles and one shots-nothing long will be found here, and it will not be updated frequently. Chapters will often have more than one short story in it. Rated T because I'm paranoid, don't know about what I'll end up writing in future chapters. All that said, enjoy! EDIT: CANCELLED

Published: 2013-12-15

Words: 1196

Rated: Fiction T - Language: English - Genre: Humor/Adventure -

Characters: 11th Doctor, Clara O. - Reviews: 4 - Follows: 1

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

A/N: Okay, so this is a collection of four short (I mean SHORT) oneshots I wrote, most of them just drabbles. So far, this will be just a fic to update when I write more short oneshots in the freewrites on my English Class.

Disclaimer: I don't own DW but if I did… <- oh the early days back when we were all sticking disclaimers on things but not knowing why

There will be a linbreak for new oneshots, and a cat symbol (crazyKATZ430..it's in the name) for the time skips or point of view changes..

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

Without further ado, I present: Geronimo , Uploaded , The Forgotten , and Cemetery Nightmares .

Geronimo

Set: The Wedding of River Song

I don't know what to say. All my secrets, fears and enemies, they've all caught up to me. I've run too far, run for too long.

The prophecy states that silence will fall when the question is asked. The first question, the oldest and most important question. I do not know what the question is nor do I want to find out, for the silence that falls will be the silence of my death.

I do not want to do die here, at Lake Silencio, Utah, but it is a fixed point. It will always happen no matter how far or long I run from it. I don't want to die alone… don't want to make my love do it.

I have made a plan, one to hopefully save my life and the earth. Everyone will think I am dead, but it will be safer. They'll be safer from me.

Geronimo!

Now I know what to say, the same thing I've always said when adventure and danger and the unknown ensued…

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

Uploaded

Set: The wi-fi's first victim ;

"Where am I?" I whispered, scared. "Hello?"

I looked around myself, studying the surroundings. It was all strange to me, I'd n idea where I was.

I felt panic rising in my chest. "I don't know where I am!" I shrieked, becoming ever more terrified. "Somebody, please, help me! Where am I, I don't know where I am!"

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

I raced around the room looking for a way out of what appeared to be someone's bedroom. I gave a cry when I couldn't get out and I subconsciously returned to the computer. "Help me!" I screamed infrustration and fear, my heart racing as panic took over my body. "I don't know where I am!"

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

The wi-fi had taken its first victim.

The uploading had begun.

The Forgotten

Set: hmm… can't remember. Strange.

I was alone in a cold, dark room, no other living thing in sight.

I can't remember what I've forgotten. But if I can't remember what I've forgotten, then how do I know I forgot something?

But I wasn't alone.

How did I know that? There was nothing visible..yet I felt there was another creature in the room.

Sudden pure, unexplainable terror washed over me. I yanked the sleeve of my shirt down and stared at the underside of my arm. One fresh, black tally mark marred my skin.

The panic reached its heighth and I dropped into a defensive postureautomatically. I didn't know why, it felt like I was forgetting something… I was confused and terrified.

A second crisp tally mark appeared on my arm, closely followed by three more. A full set. But why?

Fifteen or more sets of five tally marks were tattooed on my arm.

Wordlessly I pulled down my right sleeve. What I saw there cause me to scream in fright and drop to the ground.

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

Doctor who?

Silence will fall when the question is asked. The first question, the oldest question…

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

Cemetery Nightmares

Set: New York City, 1950 (set in New York City; however, the

character is British)

The statue had moved. It had really, properly moved!

Eagerly, I lifted my camera to take a picture. "Moving Statues in City Cemetery"? Sounded like a story to me! My editor always thought my stories were rubbish, but I begged to differ. Maybe he's let me print something with proof.

Curiosity killed the cat. This statue could be dangerous, what did I know of it? I smiled as I recalled the second part to the phrase. But satisfaction brought it back. Making up my mind, I held up the camera and clicked a picture.

I waited for it to move again, but it did not. Was it my eyes? No, I'd had two cups of heavily caffeinated tea this morning, you don't start seeing things untill the third day without sleep, I still had a day to go.

I huffed and sighed, closing my eyes. Why must good stories always slip way like this? Or was I just being too impatient?

Either way, I got a shock from when I reopened my eyes. The same stone figure, who seemed to be an angel statue, had moved again, closer to me. I didn't know if I should be happy for more evidence or scared because the hand seemed to be seemed to be reaching out to me…

I blinked again. A small cry escaped my lips as I noted it was closer. Was it all just some sick game? I was the only one in the cemetery though so that option was out of the question. Either way, the expression on the face of the angel now was frightening me. I decided it was best to leave.

I turned to walk back to my car, but on a whim turned to look back again. The statue had moved again, probably 15 meters in a few seconds! I began to tremble. It was like straight out of a horror movie! I just wanted to get away, to get home and out of this creepy place!

Then I made the mistake, my fatal mistake. My eyes began to burn and I blinked, a simple movement. But when I reopened my eyes I stood in a place far more different from where I'd been.

I was somewhere else! It was impossible, the city, cemetery and creepy angel statue were gone too! But where was I? I set out to find someone about what had turned into a nightmare for me. A cemetery nightmare.

The image of an angel becomes an angel.

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

One bright red vintage camera lay on the ground, on button switched. The last picture it had taken displayed out from the screen. A seemly harmless picture of an angel statue, taken a minute before the camera's owner was whisked away.

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

A/N: There you go, three short oneshots with a fourth that's twice the size of the others! PLease remember to review and say if it was good or not, and have a wonderful day… now that I've given you some stories of dying people. ( Geronimo had no dying but it was pretty intense if I do say so.) And please forgive me, I'm not British so I may tend to overdo some things…

(narrarator voice: she did not, in fact, ever upload another chapter)

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, as soon as I type it up, another's on its way!

#WOOO HOOOO #idk how to tag this #quara fanfic #fanfiction #doctor who

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braxiatel · 1 year

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Tagging on AO3 - A how-to guide for new writers with a MCYT spin!

Intro

Recently, I have seen a lot of improperly tagged fics on AO3. I think it is a shame to see people posting their first fics putting so much good effort into tagging them while not knowing how to make the most of their tags. Thus I decided to write a how-to guide focusing on each of the fields on the ‘Post Work’ page on AO3, detailing what you might want to include in each of them and how certain things will likely be interpreted by your potential readers.

Disclaimer: all fandoms have slightly different tagging conventions. That means everyone, based on their own history of fandoms, will have slightly different ideas of what “proper” tagging is. I do not pretend to be an unbiased source of information, however, I have been reading and publishing fic on AO3 for the past decade, and I think I have a pretty firm grasp of tagging at this point, at least enough to help people who have no idea how to approach it get started.

Rating

[ID: A scroll down menu titled ‘ratings’ with the options ‘not rated’, ‘general audiences’, ‘teen and up audiences’, ‘mature’, and ‘explicit’. The title is marked with an asterisk to indicate this is a mandatory field.]

Rating tells readers what age groups you, the writer, consider your work to be appropriate for. It leans on cinema conventions (US American ones, specifically).

Culturally what is and is not considered appropriate for certain age groups can differ, which makes rating difficult. My best advice is to do your best and be kind when informing others you believe they’ve missed the mark. By using AO3 we are all agreeing to the risk that an author did not have the skills or the perspective to tag appropriately; Tags don’t get vetted by a panel, so risking inaccurately or inaddequately tagged fic is part of the deal. That said, here are my thoughts on how best to approach rating your fic:

I wish I could give you clear-cut lines on rating, but the truth of the matter is there are overlaps and grey areas between each category. Use your best judgement, and remember that if in doubt about rating always go for the higher of the two or the Not Rated category. Historically rating has been heavily based around depictions of sexuality and violence, so those are what I will mainly be discussing in these descriptions of the different ratings.

General audiences means everyone, children and adults alike. In general, think of what level of violence and romance you expect to see in cartoons – fics rated General Audiences can contain subtle romance, non-lethal violence, and injuries discussed but not depicted. If you think your fic might be rated for general audiences I recommend asking yourself ‘would I read this story to a 7-year-old?’ If you can think of something that may not be appropriate for that 7-year-old to read, bump up the rating.

Teen and up means 13+. As with above, imagine giving the fic to a 13-year-old. Would it be appropriate for them, or does it depict things they may not be old enough to understand yet? Works rated Teen and up can contain depictions of dating, romance, kissing, and hints towards sexual activity (think of your typical ‘they retired to the bedroom followed by a fade to black’ scene). In terms of violence things rated teen can contain fight scenes and injuries depicted with some detail (think blood stained clothes or mentions of broken limbs, but no gore or detailed descriptions). You may also expect to see consumption of alcohol (but not alcoholism or drug use) or fics focusing on ‘darker’ themes such as character death or major illness.

Mature means 18+, however I think it is worth mentioning as over the years I have seen people saying they are understanding Mature to mean anything as young as 16+. Officially AO3 lists Mature as adults only, but be aware that you will likely have people in their late teens beleiving they are part of your target audience as well. I think we all know kids can and will lie about their ages and that it is impossible to avoid them reading material not meant for them entirely, but given how typical this misconception seems to be I recommend caution with this one rating in particular. Typically you will find non-explicit sex scenes, non-graphic violence, and in general themes that require a certain level of critical thinking and mental robustness to parse in fics rated Mature. For a sex scene this may mean describing what sexual acts are being performed in what positions, without getting into details about the appearence of genitals or how specifically the acts are being performed. For violence this can mean talking about specifics of a fight and what injuries a character has sustained, talks of blood, shallow burns, loss of limbs, or how your characters plan to stich up their injuries in the field, but not detailed descriptions of injuries. You may see depictions of ‘dark’ themes such as addiction, terrorism, abuse, etc.

Explicit is also 18+. Here you will find graphic sex scenes and gore, and ‘dark’ themes pervading the work in such a way that it cannot easily be skipped. I think intent matters a great deal in determining the difference between Mature and Explicit. If you want to shock your readers with the gory kill your serial killer character just committed, if your sex scene is intended as pornographic and/or is highly descriptive, or your character is going through excruciating mental torture, that would be Explicit. The more detail you add, the closer you get to an Explicit rating. If in doubt ask a friend or beta reader, ideally one with more experience rating fics than you.

Not rated is the default rating and could mean anything between the other four ratings. There are a number of reasons you as an author might want to use this – perhaps you are uncertain how to rate your fic, or perhaps you do not want to spoil the content at all. The important thing to note is that when it comes to filtering by rating all fics in the Not Rated tag will get filtered alongside fics rated Explicit. That does not mean that the fic is necessarily Explicit, just that it could be and you must assume only readers who are old enough to read something that could potentially be Explicit will access it.

Archive warnings

[ID: A list of potential archive warnings. The warnings are ‘choose not to use archive warnings’, ‘graphic depictions of violence’, ‘major character death’, ‘no archive warnings apply’, ‘rape/non-con’, and ‘underage’. The title ‘archive warnings’ is marked with an asterisk to indicate this is a mandatory field.]

I think some of these are self-explanatory - graphic depictions of violence and major character death - whereas others do require a little more explaning.

Rape/non-con. I am singling this one out simply to explain what non-con actually means. It is an older fandom term and is short for non-consensual, i.e. an explicit lack of consent. It is simply an older fandom-specific term that is synonymouswtih rape.

Underage. Underage refers to fic in which one or more characters who have not yet turned 18 are described as having been in or depicted in sexual situations. Please note that it does not exclusively refer to fic in which one character is a minor and one is an adult – a fic depicting two characters who are both minors in a sexual situation should also be tagged as underage. According to AO3 guidelines fics that vaguely imply sexual acts involving one or more underage characters do not need to be tagged in the Underage category.

No major archive warnings apply. None of the listed warnings are true for this work.

Choose not to use archive warnings. One or more of the warnings could be true for the work, but the author is activelly choosing not to tag it. You may want to choose this one if you are unsure if a situation counts as graphic violence, if the character being killed off is a major character, if the character is actually underage, or if it is indeed non-con. It can also be used when you do not want to spoil the content of your fic for your readers.

Fandom

[ID: free text input bar titled ‘fandoms’. Underneath it says ‘if this is the first work for a fandom it may not show up in the fandoms page for a day or two’. The title is marked with an asterisk to indicate this is a mandatory field.]

This is where you tell your readers what fandom or fandoms your fanfiction is based on. You can enter multiple fandoms if your work is a crossover.

All free-form tags, including fandom tags, can be written in non-Latin characters. However, the fandom will be archived according to a Romanised transliteration.

If you are looking to tag a fandom that is not already on the archive simply type its full name into the fandom field, making sure you have spelled it correctly, and it will be added to the archive by a volunteer as soon as possible.

A note on MCYT fic specifically: given the nature of the medium it can be hard to determine where to draw the lines between which SMPs your work does and does not belong to. However, tagging every SMP a character will likely be seen as spam.

Ask yourself what canon or canons the work is leaning into. Does your Hermitcraft fic feature DSMP lore crucial to understanding the world-building or appearances by DSMP characters, or is there just a couple of throwaway lines that are only there as fun references for people who are also DSMP fans? Does a character in your Empires fic reference events from the Life series as part of a character’s backstory, or is it about one of the Empires characters ending up stuck in one of the Life games?

It is about scale and amount, and tagging every SMP a character has been in has the chance to disappoint readers looking for depictions of a character as shown in a particular SMP and will make them less likely to read your work in the future.

Categories

Categories refers exclusively to what types of relationships are depicted in your work.

If one relationship is the main focus of the fic this is the one you should tag for in the categories section. If multiple relationships share focus you should tag all of them.

The archive offers the following options for tagging categories:

[ID: A list of potential categories. They are ‘F/F’, ‘F/M’, Gen, ‘M/M’, ‘Multi’, and ‘Other’.]

F/F, F/M, and M/M. F is short for female, M is short for male. Thus, F/F is a relationship between women, F/M is a relationship between men and women, and M/M is a relationship between men. These tags include binary trans people or non-binary trans people who are depicted as aligned with one of the binary genders. Anyone who has told you that you have to misgender trans characters was either misinformed or lying.

Multi. Multi can refer to either multiple romantic/sexual pairings being the focus of the stories OR romantic/sexual relationships between 3+ characters. Both are valid interpretations of this tag, as it has different historical use in different fandoms.

Other. Other refers to a number of things including: romantic/sexual relationships where one or more characters are not male or female or aligned with either of these, relationships that do not fit into the traditional romantic/sexual - platonic binary, relationships involving 3+ characters, romantic/sexual relationships where one or more parties involved are too far removed from human standards of gender to be categorised this way, or anything else you do not believe fits in any of the other categories.

Gen. Gen is short for ‘general’ and refers exclusively to fanfictions that do not focus on romantic/sexual relationships, regardless of rating. A fic rated for general audiences that focuses on romance should not be tagged as Gen.

A fic can fit into several categories (e.g. a fic focusing on two romantic relationships, one between a man and a woman and one between two men, should be tagged as F/M, M/M, and multi).

Different fandoms have different standards for polyships - some prefer to tag ‘multi’, some ‘other’, some ‘multi’ and ‘other, and others ‘multi’ and/or ‘other’ and whatever F/F - F/M - M/M tag comes closest. It is up to the individual author to decide what is most appropriate for that particular ship/more common in their fandom. Personally, I would tag my M/M/M polyship as M/M, Multi, and Other.

Relationships

[ID: free text input bar titled ‘relationships’.]

Relationships in this instance refers to all kinds of relationships, not just romantic/sexual ones.

Romantic and sexual relationships should be tagged with a / between names, e.g. ‘[person A]/[person B]’, and platonic (familial, collegial, friendship, etc.) relationships should be tagged with a ‘&’ between names, e.g. ‘[Person A]&[Person B]’. This is an important distinction as AO3 separates the two into two different tags. You should tag what is the end goal for your fic - thus a friends to lovers fic should only be tagged with the ‘/’ version of a tag and not the ‘&’ version.

For relationships that do not fit into a neat romantic/sexual or platonic binary conventions differ from fandom to fandom. Personally, I prefer to tag both and specify in the ‘additional tags’ field that the relationship is ambiguous, queerplatonic, etc. Relationships that are written as either platonic or romantic but could theoretically be read as romantic/platonic as they do not outright state that the characters

aren’t/are

in a realtionship should only be tagged as either ‘/’ or ‘&’, whichever is appropriate.

All free-form tags, including relationship tags, can be written in non-Latin characters. However, the fandom will be archived according to a Romanised transliteration.

A note on the order of character names in relationship tags on fic containing sex scenes: historically certain fandoms have taken the order of the 2+ names of a ship to denote which character would top and which would bottom in sex scenes, with the top being written first and the bottom second. This is not widely used anymore, but be aware that some readers may interpret your tag this way.

For the most part the only tags you should be writing in this field are the relationships depicted in the fic, but there are a few common exceptions I have seen in multiple fandoms

‘No romantic relationship(s)’. No romantic relationships are depicted in this fic. It is theoritically made redundant by the existence of the Gen category, but to be honest I think enough people mistag non-Gen fic as Gen that this tag can potentially still be useful for readers trying to find fics that do not depict romance.

‘Minor or background relationship(s)’. This tag can be used to separate the tag(s) of the relationship(s) that are the focus of the fic and those that are not. e.g. ‘[Person A/Person B/Person C/Person D], Minor or background relationship(s), [Person B/Person E], [Person F & Person G].’

You may also see people list relationships as ‘background [person A]/[person B]’ or ‘[person A]/[person B]/[person C] (minor)’ or similar to denote the same. Personally, I prefer not to use this method as it can potentially create additional work for AO3’s volunteers.

A note on tagging background relationships and background characters: Some writers prefer not to tag them to avoid cluttering tags of characters or relationships that only make minor appearences. Personally, I strongly believe that relationship tags and character tags are content warnings of equal importance to anything you might find in the ‘additional tags’ section, and if a character or relationship has any bearing on the story whatsoever they should be tagged.

A note on MCYT fic specifically: Please see note in the ‘Characters’ section explaining synonymous tags to learn why you do not need to use the content creator’s names in order for your fic to show up in searches.

Characters

[ID: free text input bar titled ‘characters’.]

This is where you list the characters depicted in your story.

For the most part, the only tags you should be writing in this field are the characters in the fic, but there are a few common exceptions I have seen in multiple fandoms

‘No characters’. Used when no characters are depicted in the fic.

‘Minor character(s)’. This tag can be added between the tags for the main character(s) of the fic and any other characters depicted.

Some people may also write this is ‘background [person A]’ or ‘[person A] (minor)’ or similar. Personally, I prefer not to use this method as it can potentially create additional work for AO3’s volunteers.

All free-form tags, including character tags, can be written in non-Latin characters. However, the fandom will be archived according to a Romanised transliteration.

A note on MCYT fic specifically:

A common complaint I see is “I wish AO3 didn’t make us use the content creators’ names when talking about the characters”. I feel you, I don’t like to mention them either, but I have good news: you don’t have to!

AO3 is coded in such a way that one tag can have multiple names, and while we can’t avoid the ‘official’ name of the tag showing up in searches, you can use one of its alternate names on your own fic.

I will walk you through how to do this in such a way that your fic will still show up in the relationship and/or character tag when people search for it. I have picked an example tag to show this.

First, you want to find the tag you are planning on using and click on it.

[ID: A list of AO3 tags. A cursor is hovering over the tag ‘Oliver Brotherhood/Charles | Grian/Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar’].

It will take you to a page that looks like this.

[ID: The AO3 page for the tag ‘Oliver Brotherhood/Charles | Grian/Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar’].

At this point you want to find where it says ‘[# of works] Works in [Tag you want to use]’ at the top of the page and click on that.

[ID: The AO3 page for the tag ‘Oliver Brotherhood/Charles | Grian/Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar’. A cursor is hovering over the large font size name of the ship at the very top of the page.]

Which will take you to a page that lists all of the details about that ship, including what type of tag it is, what tags it is linked to in other tag categories, and lastly what other tags are registered as having the same meaning as this tag. It looks like this:

[ID: The details page for the tag ‘Oliver Brotherhood/Charles | Grian/Ryan | GoodTimesWithScar’. It lists its parent tags as the character and fandom tags it belongs to, as well as all of the possible synonyms for that relationship. Some examples include ‘MumboJumbo/Grian/GoodTimesWithScar’, ‘mumbo/scar/grian’, and ‘pre-Mumscarian’.]

If you manually input any of the tags listed in the ‘tags with the same meaning’ section your fic will automatically show up in searches for that ship.

Alternatively, you can manually input a tag that is not listed. This tag will not show up in searches until a volunteer has had the time to categorise your inputted tag as synonymous with the tag containing the name(s) of the content creator(s). If you do this for a relationship, try to avoid portmanteau ship names, duo names, and other ship nicknames, as the person categorising tags might not have the same familiarity with the source material or the culture of the fandom as you do. Instead write it following the ‘[person A]/[person B]’ format.

Additional Tags

[ID: free text input bar titled ‘Additional Tags’.]

Finally we have additional tags.

This is a catch-all category for any tags that do not fit into any of the other categories. The tags you find here will usually fit into one or more of the following categories:

Genre. Some examples include conventional genres such as romance, fantasy, and meta critique, but also fanfiction specific genres such as fix-it, fluff, and angst.

Tropes/Themes. Some examples include lovers-to-enemies, alternate universes, alpha/beta/omega, polyamory, canon-divergence, and found family.

Format. Some examples include ficlet, multi-chapter, drabble, POV second person, and unreliable narrator.

Common triggers. If there is anything in your fic you want to warn your readers about that is not included in the archive warnings, this is where you do it. Some examples include dub-con (dubious consent), loss of limbs, eating disorders, alcoholism, and references to past abuse.

Bear in mind that anything can be a trigger, even everyday situations or things typically commonly associated with positive emotions. It is impossible to tag every trigger, however, we can try our best to tag common ones.

Comments or additions to tags from other categories. Some examples include mentioning that a ship is written as queerplatonic, that a character is depicted as having ADHD, and that a particular character is bottoming in your sex scene(s).

This is not a comprehensive list, but should encompass most of the tags you would be looking to use in the Additional Tags category.

Try to keep your trigger warnings together as much as possible, as readers might otherwise miss tags listed separate from the rest of the triggers. If you are unsure how to do this for multi-chapter fic, consider adding the ‘tags may change’ or the ‘other additional tags to be added’ tags to your fic, and then continue to add tags as you publish new chapters. This will tell your readers to re-familiarise themselves with the tags on your fic with each new update.

One tag you may see used often is ‘dead dove - do not eat’. This tag does not necessarily imply dark themes, it is simply a convenient shorthand for ‘I have told you what to expect from this fanfiction. If you choose to read it and dislike what you find you cannot claim that you were not warned’.

A very common mistake I see is people using AO3 tags like they are tumblr tags. It isn’t bad per se, but it does make filtering harder. Volunteers called tag wranglers routinely go through uncategorised freeform fandom, character, relationship, and additional tags to sort them into the proper categories. While I cannot tell you what to do, I would urge you to bear in mind that AO3 is an organisation run entirely on voluntary work, and it is very easy for you to make their lives easier. Some examples of how to do this include using the ‘ambigious relationship’ tag instead of some variation of ‘could be read ad /p or /r’, trying to avoid typos in your tags, or keeping your notes on why you wrote this particular fic in the author’s notes.

The one exception to this, as far as I have seen, is to add additional information to the tags you include. An example would be using the established tag for a potential trigger and then adding how it appears in another tag. This way people looking to filter that trigger can still filter it, and people who are hesitant about it can read what you have to say about it. I have included a few examples of this from real life fics I found browsing AO3 just now.

[ID: The Watchers - Freeform, they’re not like the Watchers from Evo though]

Establishes that a particular faction of characters are depicted, but divorced from the original source material.

[ID: Audio series 04: Gallifrey o4 (Gallifrey), set between reborn and disassembled]

Establishes that the fic takes place during the fourth season of the source material, then specifies exactly which episodes it is set between.

[ID: Genocide, and general wartime atrocities]

Establishes a common trigger is present, and that you can also expect depictions of similar themes that might not be as easy to define.

[ID: no major character death, but death all the same]

Establishes that while the archive warning for major character death has not been used, death is still depicted in this fic.

[ID: POV first person, might switch it up though]

Establishes what type of narrator to expect, as well as the fact that this may change over the course of the multi-chapter fic.

One final note

My #1 advice for anyone, regardless of what category they may be tagging in, is this: Always bear in mind that you are tagging both for the people looking for a fanfiction like yours and for the people looking to avoid a fanfiction like yours. It is a description to attract readers only as much as it is a warning for readers looking to avoid certain tropes/themes/characters/etc.

I hope this helped. Happy writing! <3

#mcyt #fanfiction #writing #writeblr #AO3 #archive of my own #I've done my best here. If you think I missed something important or disagree with something I would be happy to discuss it #but please remember I'm just one person who is not infalliable #just trying my best to help people #I do not want to spread misinformation and have fact-checked what I could #but when it comes to social rules like these there's only so much fact checking you can do #also a big thanks to all of my friends who read through this to look for inaccuracies #love you guys <3 #have also tried very hard not to let my own opinions seep through #cause trust me there are common tags that make my blood boil #well... one in particular #but that wouldn't teach anyone anything useful #other than how to annoy me I guess akdjhaksj

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anonymous-dentist · 9 months

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if you wouldnt mind me asking why do you post all of your fic anonymously? is it apart of the brand?

sorry if youve ready answered this before but it makes finding your other work kinda hard /nm

No problem! It’s been a while since I’ve talked about this, and I’ve gotten over 700 followers since then

So hi, I’m A.D., and I’m an entirely anonymous fan creator. Only a handful of people know my main blog. Only one three people know my real (first) name. Only one knows my face.

See, I value internet safety, especially in a fandom like the one I started this blog in, the dsmp fandom. There are some crazy people there! So I decided to be anonymous, because I’m literally scared for my life sometimes because there are some real pieces of shit running around the mcyt space, and some from outside who make a hobby out of terrorizing mcyt fans. It’s for my safety and my own mental health as someone diagnosed with a couple sexy little panic disorders

I haven’t posted a regular fic on that account since early 2021, but I’ve been posting anonymously since late 2021.

All my properly published mcyt fics are under the fic series ‘Playlist A.D.’, and those are the only ones y’all need. But I also have the #a.d.‘s fics I suppose tag here on tumblr, so yeah. Sorry, but if it’s hard to find, it’s hard to find for a reason

#asks!#anon!#about a.d.#and why dentist?#because I hate them

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leolingo · 1 month

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🍓, 🛼, ❄️, 🦴

buenas tardes!! i leave these for the ask game. I am such a fan of your writing<333 I hope you have a very wonderful day, besos abrazooos 🫂

sincerly, pm-00, formerly cubitoscubeando

HELLOOOOOOOOO omg i was hoping someone would ask about the inspiration one thank you so much! also i just noticed today that you changed your url lol i clicked on the blog like wait-- OH!

🛼 answered!

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? honestly my first experience with writing fic was probably with the ranger's apprentice books and percy jackson but back then i'd just write stuff for myself bc i wasn't really aware of fandom as a sharing space. after that i'm bad at remembering things in the right order but i THINK my first time publishing anything was very inconsistent 5sos y/n stuff on wattpad LMFAO and by god did it do numbers! then i found ao3, probably, and became a haikyuu writer for a while. my BIG break into ficdom was with kpop rpf however (which, i think is somewhat common in mcyt fandom? lol?) i wrote kpop fic for yearssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss and that experience is what really made me love ficwriting i guess

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best? ohhh interesting question i actually don't think i have an answer? while i do have certain themes and plots im VERY fond of and think about consistently they're not necessarily things id like to see written, more of comfort ideas lol

🦴 ⇢ is there a piece of media that inspires your writing? YES, yes there are. a few, actually. there's 3 main pieces of media i pull inspiration from, somewhat consciously and CONSTANTLY.

(1) nora sakavic's the foxhole court trilogy. not only did this SHAPE ME AS A PERSON it also guides my writing style to this day. i read all three books in 8th grade or something and it changed me dude i carry the dialogue and the pacing with me still i KNOW the way i write things is the way it is today because of this woman

(2) richard siken's poetry <3 all of it influences me, but mostly the poems from 'crush'

>> you may know some of them from web weaves lol

(3) this is an insane thing to say but crimson rivers the 865k words the-hunger-games-au MARAUDERS fanfic . yes i am transgender it is my birthright to despise jkr as much as humanly possible but for as long as fanmade content is not profitable for that woman i will still tentatively interact with it. most of the characters on cr are barely IN the books either way its almost OC content and . it's good. it's really fucking good like i could never lie about this for a whole summer i was OBSESSIVELY reading and re-reading it!!!! the writing is actually so impressive to me and i think about it a lot more often than i probably should. most of all i take a lot of inspiration from the planning -- the foreshadowing and the attention to detail, how all 75 chapters of this thing tie in together at the end its really so fucking sick like you could not experience this through any other medium if not fanfiction

#baring my soul out here #ask game #ask #from: freedom-and-books

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m0ther-of-p3arl · 1 year

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soooo i'm thinking of writing an au

just gonna throw that out there so yall won't be surprised if i randomly throw a fic or seven in your faces <3

FOR REFERENCE: this is gonna be a long post of me talking about shit i wanna write, it's mostly for my future self to look back and so i have all my thoughts in one place (i'm unorganized ok) and im publishing it so it's easier to find, but this is really mostly for my personal benefit in the future but if you all find it interesting yay thats great :)

anyhow

if i /do/ write an au, and that's a big if as my irl friends know about this acc and the teasing i could endure would be /endless/, it would be:

empires s1, with maybe some traffic characters thrown in- i don't feel like wc meshes very well with empires (else i would add it), unless the witchcraft witches were like at gem's academy or s2 shubble's witch school (OOOH that's an idea in and of itself lol

probably flower husbands based, or maybe mean gills, as they're slowly clawing up my mcyt ship tierlist... i'll have to think a bit on that one, but scott will most likely be the main character, cuz he was my very very first exposure to the wonderful world of empires and mcyt in general (found him through lauren, watched ep 1 of empires s2 and was hooked)

only very loosely based on canon events, i'd more be wanting to play around with the characters. therefore, out of the 3 ideas i have (more on that in a bit) i'd be more inclined to pick the more modern-day ones- though there would be fantasy elements of course like babe its empires

i have 3 main ideas that i feel like i could use- i'll put em in a poll if yall wanna vote, more info on each of them underneath

so yeah the first two are awfully similar- the main difference being that in the first option, the characters would be teachers, and in the second, students. imma go through all these a lil more in-depth, as i have ideas for all of them and i wanna see which one you all would rather read and i shall weigh that in on which one i'll (possibly) (ALLEGEDLY) write

teachers: scott is a teacher/the headmaster (i'll decide which later) at empires university (PLACEHOLDER NAME i swear i will come up with a better one) (probably) and jimmy is a new teacher who's just come onto the scene. he continually messes things up and scott is fed up with him and so they have a CHAT but obviously scott is traumatized by something in his past probably xornoth related or relating to one of the death games (life series) and jimmy is just CUTE but scott doesn't realize it and scott goes on being dumb about it and there is ANGST and such

students: basically the same general plot, but scott lives with horrible parents and jimmy becomes a reprieve and they become like best friends but they both have a secret crush on eachother (like in trust au omdsfksjdlkf go read it right now stop reading this rambling post and go read trust au SO GOOD SLDKFJ its by @/thetomorrowshow) and eventually scott is living at jimmy's house full time (jimmy has a cod tank in his room bc ofc) and then stuff happens heehhehehe no spoilers but again: ANGST

the main deal with these is there's ANGST (but also fluff because the two go hand in hand)

war: this is the main different one sooo it's set in the original empires world, but the cod empire and rivendell have been at war for decades and scott and jimmy hate each other but THEN they like meet one day and neither realizes who the other is until too late because they've never seen each other in real life and it's blasphemy and they like each other and all that yadayadayada ANGST

ummmmm anyway that's my fucking long rambling post done good graciousness this is the longest post i've ever done- anyway let me know (or don't, again, for my personal benefit) which one you would rather read and if any of them sound engaging at all- personally, i'm leaning towards students or war over teachers, i was full-in students but now i have so many great ideas for the war one- god i'm so messed up

that will be all

farewell

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blocksruinedme · 1 year

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So I wrote 5k in for the 48h mcyt exchange. This number of words would have been more reasonable if didn’t also run a ttrpg session, play one, host a watch party, and deal with a fandom thing that sapped my energy for the rest of Friday. Really I mostly wrote it sat night and sun morning, with 3 hours sleep in there. Yeah, I know. Massive thanks to @that-tall-queer-bassist for suggesting most of the shop details and @toasted-cricket

What did it take me to finally publish a fic with no Jimmy or Joel? An exchange assignment! Which, magically, somehow, let me publish the first gem/oli/pearl fic. I tried to give my recipient several things they asked for, which turned into “Gem tries to let her hc/emp friends date and scatters everything, eventually she finds them at a cool laundromat/pinball arcade/coffee shop/open mic stage based on a place i liked in San Francisco”. Which is oddly specific, but I didn’t even think about Joe + pinball when I picked it. I said “I can’t write a coffeeshop AU, wait, I can write a Brainwash AU!”

Fandom: Empires and some Hermitcraft

Ships: JoeHills/Oli, Gem/Oli/Pearl

Words: 5071

Style: Gem thinking about her life with flashes of people living in the coffeeshop, no dialogue. “Introspective Character Study” aka all i ever do APPARENTLY

Characters: Gem, Oli, Pearl, Joe and one fWhip bit

And below the cut, some pics of dearly departed brainwash, at folsom and langton in san fransciso <3

[edit: omg i spent so much putting the pics into 2x2 and 3x3 sections and they're all just there, sigh.]

#empires shipping #hermitshipping #empiresblr #hermitblr #gem/oli/pearl #surprise ship #tumblr is like you sure you don't mean jimmy #me #my fic #48 mcyt extreme challenge #oli orionsound #geminitay fanfic #pearlescentmoon fanfic #empires smp #shipping #oli orionsound fanfic

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vies-lowest-lows · 2 years

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*kicks double doors open*

hello it's me. the final switch flipped in my brain and i've gone from anonymous, shameful tumblr lurking to making an account like a real man (also the fomo was making me sad. you all have so much fun here).

anyways here's some icebreakers ...

my name's vienna and i was named after the billy joel song :)

and i go by any pronouns (excluding neos - only because they don't align with my gender personally!! i love them on other people)

i'm 18 years old turning 19, and i'm a very textbook sagittarius lol

i'm a long-time wilbur soot lover (shocker i know), i'm not hugely involved with the rest of the mcyt/dsmp sphere but i do keep up with it and would be down to write for some of them sometime :)

when i graduate i'd love to go into either journalism or screenwriting/film editing

i've been writing since i was 7 years old! i started off with a lot of weird and whacky fiction then started to enjoy poetry a lot more when i was a teenager, but more recently i've decided i'd love to start refining my short story craft more so here i am i guess

i love music and i'm in a band with some of my friends! i play the bass and do some backup vocals here and there.

speaking of music, my fav artists are phoebe bridgers, (ARE THERE ANY OTHER PHARBS HERE PLEASE INTERACT HELLO!!! DO YOUR SHOES NEED SHINING) lovejoy, interpol, r.e.m, the smashing pumpkins and arctic monkeys :)

anyways, some ground rules?? writing guidelines?? i'm not sure what to call them

i will NOT write;

any nsfw or smut - some of my work may be suggestive of those themes but i'll always indicate that

anything with insane levels of gore, blood or violence - i'll dip my toes into it but do not expect any visceral imagery lol

anything with a weird power dynamic (think teacher x student)

anything non-consensual

i think that's about it! please do say hello or something, i would really love to meet people here, and my first fic or piece of writing should be published sometime this week ...

lovely to meet you all, and hope to talk to more of you soon

vie x

#wilbur soot #mcyt #wilbur soot x reader #wilbur x y/n #about this blog #about me #boundaries #how do tags work #is this acceptable #dont know #lovejoy #lvjy #see you around

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showf4lls · 2 years

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for the fanfic ask game!! 👀, 🌙, 📥

HI IVY I SAW THAT YOU ASKED THIS AND I FORGOT TO ANSWER IT I’M SO SORRY

(👀) - do you have any WIPs that you would never let see the light of day? if yes, what are they about?

okay! so you have definitely heard about this one but it’s called “things we should” and it’s a ted nivison x oc fic where all the MCYTs are hockey players and it’s super sweet and kickass and it bleeds into a whole fucking universe and i’m really in love with the idea but i also don’t plan on publishing it Ever. i’m really hyped about the idea though! and then i have another fic that’s a dream x oc au that takes place in mcc. it’s a little too self indulgent for me to want to post it, so we’ll see if i actually end up finishing it or not, but yeah!

(🌙) - what time of day do you prefer to write? why?

i prefer to write at night for a lot of reasons! first off, my brain has had all day to warm up and get ready to write and generate ideas and such. also, i’m most likely to have taken care of myself (eat, nap, shower, drink water, etc.) at night. sometimes it’s a little bit stressful because homework can get in the way every now and then, but i think writing at night is truly what’s best for me. even still, that’s usually when inspiration strikes.

(📥) - what is your fave fic to receive comments/messages on?

honestly, any of them! i just really really crave feedback and hearing what people think about my work makes me really happy. i know i’m not a very regular poster on here, but i swear to you i am Constantly writing and jumping around between projects or blogs! even constructive criticism or just a little “aw this is so cute!” really really makes my day /gen

#໑ you’ve got mail!#sender: ivy #໑ moot moot!

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duckmumbo · 3 months

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2, 5, 7

2. What was the first SMP or cubito you ever wrote for?

It was a Lizzie fic set in Afterlife SMP and i very vividly remember i wrote it entirely in bed when i was supposed to be asleep DFJHKBGHJBDFHJ

(it's here if you wanna check it out)

5. How do you translate the world of Minecraft to fit into your fanfics when you keep the original setting?

i do my best <3

in all seriousness, i try my best to like. imagine the game as real life? sort of? it's easier for fics set in the overworld, obviously, since i tend to spend most of my time playing the game in the overworld, but for Can't Go Back, i spent a few hours in the modded end from alsmp, just walking around and seeing how each biome felt, if that makes any sense? i also try writing it like real life, but with minecraft limitations. so like, they can cook on a stove and they can have a bathroom, but they can't like pull out their phone and order food online. stuff like that

7.How long does it take for you to go from an idea to the end product? (be it drabble in tumblr or fully published multichapter fic in ao3)

it really depends! for a little 500ish word drabble, i can get it out in anywhere from less than half an hour to a couple of hours, depending on how motivated or inspired i am. but with bigger several thousand word stuff, it definitely takes me longer, probably a few weeks to months? solely because i get distracted often lol

mcyt writer ask game

#roy talks #ask game #answered #doctorletmebebrave

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kristiliqua · 10 months

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ahem . Sooo . i want to update on the TAZ au real quick

so , i've changed Some stuff from the last time i've updated it , but methinks i'm just gonna keep it to myself :)) i will say that tallulah will be a character in it . so that's fun :D and has no potential for angst at all :D totally :D /s (dw about it Haha)

i also Totally didnt make an entire other doc to just map out each character's (as in the main 4 to 7) timeline and backstory . noooo , no way !!! me ??? doing That ???? psshhhh . nahhhhh , that doesnt sound like me . not at all /s

god there is a lot of shit im doing to plan for this au . like i havent even finished writing the actual first chapter yet (god fucking forbid) 😭😭 but it Will happen . someday . i can promise you that (... hopefully . i mean -- my mcyt interest has lasted for This long [like ever since dsmp started] so Surely ..... surely it can stick around long enough for me to finish this . Surely [at least for my interest in wilbur and lovejoy n whatnot . and charlie slimecicle we love that goopy guy])

i am heavily dreading the day i actually have to publish the fic on ao3 and all the Fucking Tags i'd have to add . like jesus Fuck there are So Many Characters what the hell /hj (i'll manage . hopefully)

also i posted a new fic that i am simply too lazy to link here . just look up "kristiliqua" on ao3 and you'll find it on my account lmao (spider-man , spider-man , does whatever a spider can ...)

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bonesandthebees · 2 years

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I really love your work and you’re definitely one of the writers I’ve read a lot from. I was curious if you have any advice for writing on ao3. It probably sounds weird, but I’ve been writing for five years and I know I’ve outgrown my wattpad days. I’ve never posted anything to ao3, but I have posted on other fic sites. When I started writing fanfic for mcyt stuff I went to wattpad because that account is like my child, but now I’ve realized the people who use that platform are so much younger (it makes sense because I used it when I was much younger) and they don’t seem to care for the depth and length of what I write now. In short, do you have any tips/advice for someone who is new to writing on ao3 or something you think I should know?

aw thank you so much anon! I'm so glad you enjoy my stuff!

hm, I'm gonna be honest, while I used wattpad when I was 13 I never used it for fic. I only ever used it for original fiction stuff, so the only fanfic site I've ever used is ao3. so I don't know exactly what kind of advice you're looking for as a wattpad user switching to ao3 posting, but I'll give you some general tips?

first off, look in the fandom categories that you want to post fic for and see how popular fics do their tags. knowing how to tag correctly is pretty essential for getting anywhere on ao3, bc the best part of the site is the tagging system. figure out how to tag appropriately, don't tag a side character's name if they only speak like once bc that can be unfair for people looking for fic more centered around that character, and make sure to tag all your warnings correctly. if you plan on writing anything with darker content or you just want to make sure people know "the stuff that is tagged WILL be in present in the fic" then use the dead dove: do not eat tag. that's an ao3 exclusive thing i'm pretty sure, and literally just means "if something is tagged it will be present so be warned."

also I'd recommend getting an idea for how to write summaries from emulating popular fics! I've been using the 'italicized excerpt followed by aka [one line summary]' style as my summaries for years now, and it's by no means an original way of doing summaries so feel free to use that same format. or you can just see how other popular fics write their summaries, bc a huge part of getting traction on ao3 is having good summaries that make people want to click on your fic

ok, now some extremely important ao3 exclusive advice: DO NOT POST ANY NEW FICS BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 5PM-10PM PST.

why is this? well, there's a fun little glitch on ao3 where if you post a new fic anywhere in this 5 hour time frame, your fic will go to the bottom of the recently updated page instead of the top which can be disastrous for hits. and it will be stuck like that every time you update it from that point forward if it's a multi chapter. now, if you are just updating a multi chapter fic that wasn't first published in this time frame, you're free to update within the 5 hour time period. just don't post any new works in this time frame

also someone ran a stats thing and determined the best day of the week to post is sunday, but honestly I've tested it and haven't seen a huge difference in what day of the week you post on. just something to keep in mind though

i think that's about it! best of luck with ao3 posting, anon!

#ask #anon #ao3 #advice

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thetomorrowshow · 2 years

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scarlet fever

In honor of last last life, I’ve written this fic inspired by this post of mine! No spoilers for the final session ahead.

Summary

There’s something wrong with him. Maybe it’s a backwards line of code somewhere that’s screwing him up, but something about the way the game is processing him being Red is wrong.

“Kill, kill, kill,” the voices in Lizzie’s head cry.

“Die, die, die,” the voices in Jimmy’s head hiss.

CW: death, blood, suicidal thoughts (more acceptance inevitable death, but it presents as very suicidal).

Fic below cut!

“I understand, now,” Lizzie says.

Jimmy tilts his head. Lizzie catches his eye, grins. Her teeth come to pointed ends. “What Joel meant,” she says. “He told me, once, that being Red was loud. I didn’t get it until I heard them.”

Neither of them have been Red for long. Both of them had fallen to the other’s trap, and in that strange exchange of accidental betrayal, they’ve found camaraderie. Not trust, never trust. Not now that they’re both Red.

“You can hear them, can’t you?” Lizzie whispers, and Jimmy leans closer to hear her over the cacophony of voices in his head. “The way they chant. Over and over. They want blood, Jimmy. They want me to kill.”

Oh.

Right.

Jimmy shuffles away slightly, freezing when Lizzie laughs. The sound is shrill, harsh, more manic than he’s ever heard it. “Don’t worry, Jimmy,” she giggles. “I won’t kill you. It really wants Green blood. I do need to ask Joel how he deals with it, though,” she says, sobering suddenly. “Hearing it constantly--’kill, kill, kill’--it’s a little hard to ignore, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Jimmy mutters. “Yeah, it is. I don’t think I’ll be able to ignore it much longer.” He absentmindedly scratches his arm, wincing as he reopens a sore. Was Lizzie going to stay with him, right until the end? Will she be by his side, a new ally, one who will actually care for him?

“I’d better be off, then,” Lizzie says, and his heart falls a little. She picks up her backpack--a spare of Jimmy’s, all her stuff burned--and hefts it onto her shoulders. She pauses for a moment, stood there in the front lawn of Jimmy’s exile hut. “I’m going to go see what Joel is up to. You’re welcome to join me--I’m sure everyone would love to have you.”

Because it is everyone, isn't it? Everyone he could possibly ally himself with. Joel, Mumbo, and Scar--and presumably Skizz--have all formed a team, are running in a pack together.

None of them want him, though. Sure, maybe Mumbo would want one of his old allies on their team. Maybe Joel would want someone who knew Scott as well as he did (though he would never betray Scott, especially not to Joel, especially not to a Red). That wasn’t wanting him, though. Not like Joel wanted Lizzie. Not like Mumbo wanted Grian. Not like Scar wanted everyone. That was just, “Oh, Jimmy’s also Red. Might as well let him join.”

And he would just slow them down, anyways. The voices grow louder, only returning to their normal level once he opens his mouth to speak.

“No thanks,” he says, pulling a strained grin onto his face. “I’ll be fine on my own. I like it, sort of.”

“Alone, yeah,” Lizzie says ruefully. “Alone with Scar as a neighbor and Joel just over the hill?”

“Exactly.”

Lizzie adjusts the straps of the backpack, then takes it off and opens it up, checking her few possessions. If Jimmy didn’t know any better, he’d think she was stalling.

“Well,” she says at last, pushing back her knotted hair (it had once been magically tangle-free, but on Red, it has rat nests that are impossible to pull loose). “I guess I’ll be seeing you.”

“Right. See you soon,” Jimmy says. He tries to put as much conviction as he could into his voice, but it comes out flat. Lizzie turns what is certainly meant to be a sad smile on him. It appears more hungry.

Then she’s gone, off into the dimming afternoon, the buckle on the backpack glinting in the sun. Jimmy watches her go until she’s out of sight, standing motionless in his front yard, the world silent but for the voices in his ears.

He’s heard it from Grian, from Joel, from Scar, and now from Lizzie. Reds have voices in their heads intent on blood, urging them to murder with no distinction of friend from foe. Yellow Life Jimmy hadn’t understood. Red Life Jimmy understands all too well.

“Kill, kill, kill,” the voices in Lizzie’s head cry.

“Die, die, die,” the voices in Jimmy’s head hiss.

Jimmy had been Red for a whole day before Lizzie died to his trap. Like most Reds, he was gleeful, sated for a moment. Unlike most Reds, though, the need to kill vanished, as did the itch in his spine, his hands, his eyes--the sense of relief from causing Lizzie’s death had been the Boogeyman curse dissipating, not the voices calming. The bloodthirst never returned. The voices called for his death, but without the frenzy of being the Boogeyman, they were clearer, louder, more insistent.

There’s something wrong with him. Maybe it’s a backwards line of code somewhere that’s screwing him up, but something about the way the game is processing him being Red is wrong. He would bring it up to Grian, but he hasn’t seen him. Besides, it’s not too much of an issue. The were all going to die eventually, right? What does it matter if his fate is expedited?

He doesn’t eat. He’d tried to, but food tastes like shards of glass, bitter and scraping down his throat. He can’t tolerate it. Water is nearly as bad, his hand jerking as he tries to take a sip, the voices clamoring for him to choke.

He doesn’t allow himself near weapons--the voices grow so loud every time he does, he fears he might ‘slip’ onto his own sword. He doesn’t go out at night either, afraid that he’ll trip over his heavy feet, not move out of the way when a creeper approaches.

Today he glances out the window to his one scraggly sheep in the goat pen. He really ought to go shear it. He doesn’t have the energy.

It’s been nearly a week since Lizzie left. At first he’d been okay--certainly not good, but alive. He’d been able to go on a mining trip, pen a sheep, do some household chores. Now he barely moves from the windowsill or the porch, watching the trees across the way wave in the wind or the weeds in his small flowerbed grow.

He’s dying, and he knows it. He woke up today with a low fever, one that has been inching higher the longer the day goes on. The sores on his body from exploding in Lizzie’s trap haven’t healed, have only gotten worse. His skin is grey and peeling, balance unsteady, head pounding. He isn’t going to get better.

He’s terrified--or, he would be, if he had the energy. Instead, he’s mostly calm. A little sad--he’s so frequently alone when he dies, and he knows that he and the Southlanders haven’t been on good terms for a while now, and he’s barely spoken with Scott, but at this point he just wants someone here. He would even welcome Joel, as long as it means he doesn’t die alone.

He wishes someone was here to hold his hand when he finally goes.

He ought to have been gone a long time ago, but even though his body is actively decaying, Jimmy keeps waking up. He expected to die the night Lizzie left. He’s somehow held on, despite being practically deafened by the voices screaming incessantly for his death. And so, with the little time he has left, Jimmy lives peacefully.

He ignores the Greens that sprint through his fields as if he isn’t there. He doesn’t raise a finger against the Phantoms that swoop around his house each night (despite sleeping--he sleeps all the time, and yet they surround him). Today, on what feels like the last day, he wraps himself in blankets, sits in the shoddy rocking chair (that wasn’t originally meant to rock), and watches the clouds drift by, remembering a better time in a five-towered fort, or in a valley of flowers, or anywhere when he wasn’t Red.

He rocks back and forth, the creak, the wind, the bleating of his sheep inaudible. He’s deaf except for the voices. He’s alone except for the voices. He’s forgotten by all but the voices.

When night falls, Jimmy gathers what strength he has left and pushes to his feet. The world is shockingly sharp, edges more intense than they’ve ever been, and he blames it on his climbing fever. Heat pulses from his dry skin, in time with the pounding of his head. He shivers as his blankets fall from him, pooling at his feet, but continues inside. There’s another blanket on his bed, and a fire in the furnace. If he really needs them, he’ll come back out and get them.

Jimmy wants to collapse into bed, but he doesn’t. He makes the bed, slow, painstaking, until it’s neater than it’s ever been. Then he tidies up the hut as much as he can, putting away uneaten food, sweeping up the muddy tracks, putting his long-discarded boots in the chest beside his bed. He wishes he had the ability to mop up the dried blood that stains his splintering floor.

He doesn’t want whoever finds his body to also find a mess.

He’s about to get into bed, but a glance out his window shows the sheep, standing at the gate to the pen. He can’t leave him to starve. The sun has almost set. He’ll have to move fast.

Jimmy limps out of his hut--his left leg has begun to drag--and unlatches the gate of the pen, shooing the sheep out. The sheep doesn’t move, stares at him forlornly. He hadn’t had the time to name it.

He croaks something--it might be a name, it might not be. He can’t hear himself. The sheep doesn’t move. Jimmy sighs. It’s dark. He’s tired. He’s not going to die here, in his yard, where anyone could see him. He’s going to die in his own bed, warm and alone.

He ties the gate open with fumbling fingers, in case the sheep wants to leave at any point. Then he pats the sheep on the head and staggers back into his house. He leaves the door unlocked. Once his death message appears, someone might come looking.

His Southlands sweater (Martyn and Impulse had made them for everyone, to undermine Grian’s superiority--he bragged frequently about being the warmest in the Southlands) has tears in places, singed here and there. He pulls it on anyway. It still feels warm.

Jimmy lays himself down in bed, a sense of finality filling his chest. He pulls the blanket up, his hands folded over it. The fire crackles in the furnace, a candle flickers from the table.

Jimmy’s eyes close. He wishes that whatever god is granting him clarity would stop. He’s dying, and he’s dying right now, on his own terms instead of letting someone kill him or his own stupidity get the better of him. It would hurt less if he wasn’t aware of his every action.

“I don’t wanna be alone,” he thinks he says. The voices are deafening--shouting, screaming, shrieking for his death. He’s ready. He’s ready to give in.

Peaceful, alone, Jimmy slips away.

And then he wakes up.

He’s disoriented, confused, and a little annoyed. He didn’t want to wake up. He intended to die. But there’s noise--he can hear something over the voices--a knock.

Then his front door opens.

The candle has gone out, as has the fire, but light floods the room when Mumbo steps in, eyes gleaming red and only one maroon sleeve of his sweater remaining, the rest shredded. He tosses something purple up into the air, then catches it. An End Crystal.

“Hello, Jimmy!” he says cheerfully. He doesn’t notice that Jimmy is practically dead, should be dead, grey skin hanging off in bunches and littered with sores. In the hours that he’s been asleep, Jimmy’s fever has climbed even higher, blurring his vision and burning his brain. He can’t focus on Mumbo, can barely hear his words. Even so, he strains to listen.

“I’m thinking of setting a trap for Grian. Want to come?”

Jimmy doesn’t. He shouldn’t. He’s dying, in his own bed, in his sleep. He doesn’t want anyone to see how pitifully weak he is, that he can’t survive being Red.

He also doesn’t want to be alone.

And Mumbo asked him. Mumbo wants his help. Jimmy’s never been able to say no, not to his friends.

His death will have to be postponed.

“In the Southlands?” he hopes he says. He still can’t hear his own voice. He sits up achingly, swinging his numb legs over the side of the bed and retrieving his boots from the chest. Mumbo nods, his mouth moving. Jimmy has no clue what he’s saying. The voices are swelling in his ears.

They leave, the hut empty, the sheep gone from the yard. Jimmy stumbles along behind Mumbo, so utterly exhausted and ill that he can barely move. He’s not alone anymore, and that’s what matters.

He tries not to hope that Grian will fall into the trap. He tries not to hope that maybe, with Grian as an ally, he can ask him to figure out what’s wrong, fix the coding that broke him as a Red Life. Grian’s too smart to fall into the trap. Grian would sooner kill him. At least he wouldn’t be alone. At least he would be at home.

The Southlands. Home.

Jimmy would like to die at home.

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ashtreehollow · 3 years

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Crastle Comfort

Hi I wrote a 3rd Life fic?? I had an idea and ran with it. Warning: Does contain spoilers for this week (week 6)’s session of 3rd Life!!

Pairing: Bdubds & ZombieCleo (platonic) Word Count: 1560 Summary: When Bdubs comes back to the 3rd Life server, he isn't quite sure what to expect after the chaotic session he missed. He isn't expecting Ren going full Red King, or the fallout over Pizza's death, but he's certainly not expecting a changed Cleo.

You can also read it on AO3!

When Bdubs returned to the 3rd Life server, he was fully prepared to hunker down and fortify the Crastle even more, and make good on his new status as a Red Life (he’d even pulled out his trusty red bandana for the occasion). When he spawned into the server, near his bed on the second floor, he was raring to go, a sort of something thrumming through his veins just under the surface. In the back of his brain, he paused to wonder if this was the bloodlust he and Cleo had joked about, if this hunger lay within all the other Reds. Distracted by his thoughts, Bdubs was surprised when he felt two cold arms wrap around his body, and a panicked thought crossed his mind.

Was this it? Had someone spawn-camped just to kill him, to take his final life right as he made it back to the server?

“Bdubs, you’re back!”

Oh. Of course it was Cleo, waiting to welcome him back with a hug! How sweet of her.

“Cleo, I’m back! How are y-?” The question died on his lips as he pulled away and finally got a look at his teammate. For a moment, he was worried she was on fire, and shuffled through his inventory for a water bucket before realizing no, she wasn't actually on fire - he thought?

Cleo’s hair, already naturally fiery red, seemed to be glowing now. The ends of her hair ended in flame, and crackled gently as the flames flickered; the once-green leaves in her hair now resembled embers. He finally made eye contact with her and dread filled his stomach as golden-yellow eyes stared back.

“Oh Cleo...what happened?” Bdubs asked as he pulled her in for another quick hug. Cleo pulled back, one hand coming to clutch the fabric of her blouse, right next to the now-yellow glowing heart brooch. Her eyes hardened as she looked at him.

“What happened, Bdubs, is that I died.” Came her reply, anger thinly-veiled in her voice.

“Well, yeah, I figured, but- how?” He asked, before a thought came to mind. “Was it Grian and Scar? Did they do this to you? Cleo, I swear I’ll go out there right now and-”

“No Bdubs, it wasn’t them.” Seeing his confused look, Cleo took a deep breath. “I’m technically in an alliance with them now.” Her gaze shifted to the side, away from her teammate’s crimson gaze. A wave of shame washed over her.

“What?! Cleo, how could you?? They killed me!”

He didn’t mean to raise his voice, but anger and betrayal had him near-shouting. He felt the something (the bloodlust) thrum in his veins, heart beating in his ears.

“I had no choice Bdubs!” Cleo retorted, eyes and hair blazing. “You left me, alone, with broken alliances. I was desperate!”

“What about Ren and Martyn? Aren’t we friends?” Confusion painted his voice. Would Cleo betray them like that?

“Apparently not!” Cleo shouted, throwing her hands in the air. Huffing, she turned away from him, arms coming up to hug herself as she glanced out the window.

“Cleo…” His voice was softer than she’d ever heard it. “What happened?”

Taking another breath, she sat on the chest in front of her, facing Bdubs.

“I tried to make friends, y’know? I figured it’d be good to do some damage control and apologize to Joel for sort-of killing him, even if he’s the one who jumped into the fire.” She shook her head as a small smile pulled at her lips and a chuckle left Bdubs’ mouth.

“He accepted my apology, he did. I gave him a crossbow, and I figured I’d try to talk to Ren, explain and find out where I stand with His Majesty,” her voice dripped with sarcasm. “I found out, alright.

“He’d already put us in his little Black Book, all because I’d burned Joel’s house. He and Martyn didn’t even give me a chance to explain that we had made up. Ren wouldn’t listen to reason, he-!” She locked eyes with Bdubs again, fear swimming in her gaze.

“He’s gone mad, Bdubs. He calls himself the Red King, for Void’s sake!”

Bdubs was shocked by the fear and anger in her voice, the wateriness of her eyes hinting at the beginning of tears. He approached her slowly, taking the spot next to her upon the chest and tentatively resting an arm around her shoulders. He felt her sag against him.

“I had no choice. We have the weaponry, but I can’t defend the Crastle by myself. I had to join Scar.” Bdubs’ heart broke at the waver in her voice. To see and hear Cleo cracking like this, he hated himself for leaving her in that position.

“So then,” he started. “Grian and Scar didn’t do..this to you...did they?” She dropped her gaze as she shook her head.

“It was the last battle of the session. Joel had shot at the Red Army-” Bdubs’ eyes widened at the name. “-and we were defending Bean Hill. I’d gotten hit a few times and was already on fire and low health when the last arrow knocked me off the roof.” She spat a rueful laugh. “I landed on the stupid fence and that was it.”

Bdubs swallowed thickly, the dread in his stomach morphing into a growing ire. He had a feeling he knew the answer to the question he was about to ask, but he had to know, had to hear it from her.

“Cleo,” she met his gaze, yellow amber meeting steely crimson. “Whose arrow was it?” He asked.

…

“It was Ren’s.”

It took everything in Bdubs not to explode and go out for vengeance right that second. The only thing he could hear was the blood pumping in his ears, his heart pounding so loud he was sure Cleo could hear it. A voice in the back of his mind told him to go go go get revenge kill the King he deserves it he needs to pay-

But looking at Cleo - his teammate, his friend, his bond - he knew where he needed to be. The pounding in his ears died down as he brought her into a proper hug, and he felt her hands grip his shirt as he ran a hand gently through her hair. He noticed distantly that while Cleo always ran cold, she was warmer now. Still well-below a safe body temp, it felt less like hugging an actual corpse and more like hugging someone who’d been outside without a coat.

Ironic how the zombie felt more alive the closer to death she was.

“Bdubs,” they pulled away to look at each other. “I understand if you want to split up. I know Scar and Grian killed you, and I get it if this alliance won’t work.” He stared at her in shock.

“Cleo, I don’t care if you joined the Desert alliance, I- well, okay I care a little and I’m still kinda mad at them but- THAT’S not the point!” he shook his head.

“What does matter, is you Cleo. We’re Day One gang, Team Crastle, and that matters more to me than what alliances we have.” He could feel his voice getting thick with emotion.

“Cleo, as long as Team Crastle stays together, I’ll follow you anywhere.”

“Even the Nether?” She asks, a smile finally gracing her face, laughter in her voice and her eyes.

“Okay, well, I don’t know about all that,” They both laughed. “I mean it Cleo. While I can’t promise I’ll always be there, I’ll try my best.”

“Me too Bdubs.”

They sat there a moment, just existing in the comfort of each other’s company. It was a few minutes later that Bdubs stood up, hands on his hips and walking over to another chest to check inventory.

“Alright Cleo, we got some planning to do if we wanna take Ren down a peg. What and who are we working with?” His tone was light, a grin back on his face and a mischievous look in his eyes. Cleo shot a smirk back as she stood to open the chest that had served as their seat.

“Well, the Hobbits I think are pretty solid allies right now, and we’re all with Grian and Scar. Joel is sort of with us, but he’s a wildcard and could flip at any moment.” She pulled two crossbows and a handful of hurty arrows from the chest, noticing that several were missing from the supply.

‘May have to go ask for repayment from someone.’ She thought.

“What about Impulse and Tango?” Bdubs asked with a grimace as he took an offered crossbow.

“I think we’re okay with Impulse, but he’s with the Red Army now. Scar took Tango in when he told us Etho and Impulse didn’t trust him anymore, but I caught him reporting back to them about Scar.”

“Oho, double agent! We’ll have some fun with that!” Bdubs responded as the two of them made their way downstairs, adjusting armor and stocking their bags with weapons and food, before leaving the safety of the Crastle. The two could be heard as Bdubs loudly mourned the loss of his crenellations at the hands of Etho. Cleo only laughed as the two set off to meet with their allies to plan the fall of the Red King.

#3rd Life smp #3rd Life spoilers #3rd Life fanfic #Team Crastle #mcyt fic #light angst #hurt/comfort #Platonic soulmates #It's my first time writing and publishing a fic!!#Also Bdubs refers to Cleo as his Bond and that's because I like the idea of green/red pairings having some kind of soul bond that's all #they're friends!!#also i can't believe i tagged this as mcyt #Ash blabs #Ash Writes

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itsfeckinwimdy · 3 years

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DSMP Masterlist

Welcome to my masterlist, where you can find all the links to everything I have written on this account!

All dates are written as day/month/year.

Click to go back to Navigation

Click to see what I'm currently working on

Last updated: 22/10/2022

General Fics:

Ghostbur:

Fluff Alphabet - 1.7k words

Published: 06/02/2021

Tags: fluff, romantic, pronouns: none mentioned (they/them), sfw alphabet, sfw, character.

Fluff Alphabet for Ghostbur.

Jack Manifold:

Fluff Alphabet - 2.6k words

Published: 28/07/2021

Tags: fluff, romantic, pronouns none mentioned (they/them), sfw alphabet, sfw, content creator.

Fluff Alphabet for Jack Manifold.

Quackity:

I want to - 1.5k words

Published: 26/04/2021

Tags: fluff, romantic, pronouns n/a (they/them), drabble/imagine, sfw, character.

Quackity shows y/n his wings for the first time and allows them to help him preen them. Set after the death of c!Schlatt.

Sapnap:

Fluff Alphabet - 3.0k words

Published: 20/01/2022

Tags: fluff, romantic, pronouns none mentioned (they/them), sfw alphabet, sfw, content creator.

Fluff Alphabet for Sapnap.

Tubbo:

Hot dog van talks - 300 words

Published: 04/02/2021

Tags: fluff, platonic, pronouns n/a (they/them), drabble/imagine, sfw, character.

Y/n and Tubbo sit on top of the drug van and have a friendly conversation whilst Tommy pesters Wilbur about women.

Other:

*HONK* - 5.3k words

Published: 22/10/2022

Pairing: Poly!c!Karlnapity x Reader

Tags: angst, fluff, pronouns: they/them, drabble/imagine, sfw, character

The quartet are soulmates and need help finding their way back to each other. What’s better to help them than the Soulmate Goose Of Enforcement?

Multiple Pairings (Reactions/Scenarios):

Cuddlebug

Part One - 3.5k words, Published: 18/05/2021

Part Two - 1.8k words, Published: 05/08/2021

Pairings/included: cc!Awesamdude, cc!Dreamwastaken, cc!Foolish Gamers, cc!GeorgeNotFound, cc!Jack Manifold, cc!Karl Jacobs, cc!Niki Nihachu, cc!Punz, cc!Quackity, cc!Ranboo, cc!Sapnap, cc!Tommyinnit, cc!Tubbo, cc!Wilbur Soot x Reader (Romantic) (Platonic (in part two) (Separate)

Tags: fluff, romantic, pronouns n/a (they/them), sfw, reactions/scenarios, sfw, content creator.

cc! Reacting to their s/o falling asleep on their lap/asking for cuddles on a stream. (Reader is a twitch streamer/youtuber in some.)

Mcyt's reacting to their s/o falling asleep/asking for cuddles (hugs) on stream and vice versa. (The reader is also a twitch streamer.)

Camellia

Part One - 1.0k words, Published: 16/09/2021

Pairings/Included: c!Awesamdude, c!Badboyhalo, cc!Dreamwastaken, c!DreamXD, c!Foolish Gamers, cc!GeorgeNotFound, cc!Jack Manifold, cc!Karl Jacobs, and cc!Niki Nihachu x Reader. (Romantic) (Platonic) (Separate)

Tags: fluff, romantic, platonic, pronouns n/a (they/them), reactions/scenarios, sfw, character, content creator.

How Mcyt's/dsmp characters would hold your hand.

Sunflower

Part One - 2.7k words, Published: 23/09/2021

Pairings/Included: cc!Awesamdude, cc!Dreamwastaken, cc!Foolish Gamers, cc!GeorgeNotFound, cc!Jack Manifold, cc!Karl Jacobs, and cc!Niki Nihachu x Reader (Romantic) (Platonic) (Separate)

Tags: fluff, angst, romantic, platonic, pronouns n/a (they/them), reactions/scenarios, sfw, content creator.

Mcyt's revealing they have a close relationship with you (or that you're related).

Daisy Chain

Part One - 1.4K words, Published: 07/10/2021

Pairings/Included: c!Awesamdude, c!Badboyhalo, c!Dreamwastaken, c!DreamXD c!Foolish Gamers, c!GeorgeNotFound, and c!Karl Jacobs.

Tags: fluff, angst, romantic, pronouns n/a (they/them), reactions/scenarios, sfw, character.

How Mcyt's/dsmp characters would react to you giving them a flower crown/daisy chain or vice versa.

Series:

DISCONTINUED

Just Found My Soulmate, Feeling Good

Extras for this series ⇥ Click Here

Pairings/Included: cc!Karl Jacobs x Reader/oc x cc!Sapnap; cc!Dreamwastaken x Reader/oc x cc!GeorgeNotFound; cc!Quackity x Reader/oc; cc!Jack Manifold x Reader/oc (Romantic) (Separate).

Tags: fluff, angst, romantic, pronouns: they/them, pronouns: she/her, sfw, irl, soulmate au.

A Multi-series where each story ties in with the others. Different descriptions for each pairing. (You don't have to read each story to understand what happens.)

Soulmate Shorts

Round 1 - DSMP

Started 19/08/2021, Finished 20/02/2022

Pairings: c!Alivebur, c!Awesamdude c!Badboyhalo, cc!Captian Puffy, c! & cc!Dreamwastaken, c!Eret, c!Foolish Gamers, c! & cc!Georgenotfound, c!Ghostbur, cc!Jack Manifold, c! & cc!Karl Jacobs, cc!Niki Nihachu, cc!Ranboo, c!Philza, c!Punz, c! & c!Quackity, c! & cc!Spanpa, c!Technoblade, c!Tommyinnit, c! & cc!Tubbo, c!Vilbur, and c!Wilbur Soot x reader (Romantic & Platonic) (Separate).

Tags: Fluff, angst, romantic, platonic, pronouns: they/them, soulmate au.

A collection of drabbles for different content creators or characters based on different soulmate prompts.

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