Life's Not Fair And Everything Sucks

Happy FFWF! Lets play a find the word game: Valentine's Day Edition! Find any of these words in your WIP, and post the part where they appear: pink / red / heart / valentine / chocolate / ribbon / love / friend / partner / boyfriend / girlfriend / husband / wife / couple / date / kiss / card / candy / dinner / flirt / snuggle / soulmate / together / always / arrow / candle / rose / beautiful / handsome / hug

I got the first and it's actually pretty much at the start to a WIP I'm working on that I have yet to post C:

“Hi,” Bucky greeted, fidgeting nervously under Clint’s assessing gaze and inadvertently trying to hide his left side from view. “Hey,” Clint offered a soft smile, pulling his long hair into a ponytail and checking that the magnets of his cochlear implants were still firmly in place almost automatically. The motion was just as much to get himself more comfortable as it was to set the other man at ease, as Clint revealed his own disability. The gesture didn’t do much, but it was enough to release some of the attention from Bucky’s shoulder and let him take a more natural stance that revealed what he had been trying to hide. “Come in, I promise I don’t bite without asking first.” Clint chuckled, waving the younger man over with a playful wink. The joke relieved some more of the awkward tension in the room and Clint’s patient gesture was enough for Bucky to move where he was still frozen in the doorway. “I... Sorry...” He muttered, the blush colouring his cheeks turning from rose to bright pink. “It’s okay,” Clint assured him gently, leading the way along the hall to a small but cosy living room. “This is a safe space, which means you get to be as shy or outgoing as you happen to be.” Bucky just nodded quietly, sitting down on the couch a little stiffly when Clint offered.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, so here at Midsummer, we’ve got another round from our Marvel Rare Pair Bingo (https://marvelrarepairbingo.tumblr.com/) to gift you like the blessings of magic summer.  Our creators have been diligent and productive with their imaginative offerings!  Round Two keeps churing out the excitement while the temps (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) keep rising.  But what’s hotter?  The sun beating down on Texas or the great fics from our bingo family?  (Hint: it’s the stories!)  If you’re looking for some steam while sitting inside with your a/c, check out this list.  If you’re interesting in joining in, check out our Bingo (you can always still sign up!) and give our Discord Server (https://discord.gg/TVTTrYzvrU) a try!

For more on this month’s great submissions check it out under the cut!

Keep reading

Writing Patterns (Tag Game)

Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

Thanks to @42donotpanic for tagging me!!

“You mean you made all of us listen to Stick to the Status Quo on repeat for a month straight just for you to get cast as Chad’s understudy?” (Stick to the Status Quo)

Winter had never been Kurt’s favorite season. (Attachment Therapy)

“...can you just leave me alone?” (You See What I Want (but what do I need?))

Shouting. Footsteps. Screaming. Blood. (In The Walls)

The fog was beginning to get annoying. (I Don't Hear What You Don't See (AU-gust 2023))

Clint was really starting to wish that he had drained the coffee pot when he had the chance. (Evaluation)

The weird blast felt… weird. (In Another's Shoes)

There is nothing quite like alcohol to facilitate incoherent, inexplicable laughter. (Like an Echo)

In 16 years, Scott Summers had seen more broken bones than he would care to admit. (Things Happen)

"Yes!” Quill crowed, throwing his arms up in the air as he did. (Too Broken to Fix)

I think the biggest thing that I do with my first lines is try to establish an idea or theme that will come back later in the story. About half of these are repeated verbatim later in the story, which is especially impactful (I hope) in the multichapter ones! Even if they don't return word-for-word, I usually use whatever concept is established in the first sentence (things like the understudy role, the idea of being left alone, the coffee, laughter, etc) throughout the story to push the plot. The only one on here that doesn't really follow that is "Too Broken To Fix", which is actually really fitting because that was actually a re-post of a fic I wrote back in 2019; kind of cool to see that my writing style really has changed, even just based off of the first lines!

Tagging @honeylashofficial and anyone else who wants to do this!! <3

First & Last Lines

Rules: post the first and last lines of the last 10 fics you posted.

Thank you for tagging me @auofgoldandfantasies !

I'm skipping Podfics for this. Also a fair warning, I did a dump of Oneshots I found, so there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to what I've posted recently and there is some smut in between. Also I am realising there are some other warnings that I added next to the title.

I - Not how this was supposed to work (WIP)

First: Foggy Nelson had never been a scaredy-cat. In general, he wasn’t afraid of a lot of things. He wasn’t scared of going to the doctor or the dentist, and he wasn’t afraid of the dark, spiders, heights, or the boogie man either.

Last: “I think it just might,” Karen answered, smiling softly. “They might not become friends, but they might make okay roommates.”

II - Ten out of Ten (MCD Warning)

First: Matt got the call from the hospital while he was in class.

Last: It was only when Foggy rested a soft, almost brotherly hand on his friend’s shoulder that he realised Matt wasn’t frozen, he was crying.

III - When the World is too much, you are my Bubble

Note: This one is a collection of ficlets for two OCs I came up with, so the first and the last line do not belong to the same story.

First: “Is it beautiful?” Jamie asked, closing her eyes as she leaned against G’s side and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on this day in early spring.

Last: “That’s cute,” Jamie hummed, then started laughing. “Buck and my Dad met when my dad was being an idiot and Buck stopped him from running in front of a car or something.” She laughed again. “Honestly, every time you ask them they give you a different story.”

IV - Of Soup, Flowers and Tattoos (WIP)

First: “Every flower has a meaning, you know?” Foggy was leaning on the counter of ‘Sweet and Spicy’, when the restaurant had a quiet moment. He was watching the guy working in the small flower shop across the street from their soup café. “Every type of flower, every colour, and even the way they are arranged can tell whole stories.”

Last: “Yes, Clint.” Matt chuckled softly. “Bucky and you own a Tattoo Studio. I would be surprised if you didn’t have Tattoos and piercings.” He traced Clint’s neck again, smiling as the other man leaned in again. “I just don’t know which ones and what they look like, so I was a little surprised when I suddenly had two pieces of metal in my mouth.” He licked his own lips, then traced his thumb over Clint’s again, pulling softly at one of the black metal rings. “I don’t mind. Actually, I quite like it.” He smirked, signing slowly with one hand still cupping Clint’s jaw. “It’s wild and interesting, just like you.”

V - Just let yourself have this (Smut Warning)

First: “Hello, handsome.” A low, rich voice, laced with an English accent approached Clint.

Last: Charles simply brushed a soft kiss into Clint’s hair, smiling softly and breathing in his scent. “Sleep tight, sweetheart.”

VI - Stop telling me you're sorry and just let me fuck you silly (unsurprisingly: Smut Warning)

First: “Tell me what you want, pretty boy.” James purred right into Clint’s ear. He was leaning on his elbow, the fingers of his other hand softly tracing Clint’s chest.

Last: “I mean...” Clint chuckled, smirking up at his partner as well, “I wouldn’t say no, if you’re offering...”

VII - Clint's Love-Hate Relationship with Food (Eating Disorder Warning)

First: "Are you really gonna eat all of those?" Tony asked with surprise and almost something like disgust in his voice.

Last: “Yeah,” Matt scoffed. “I’m definitely not gonna leave you alone with this gaggle of idiots while your brain is being stupid,” he gestured around them, vaguely indicating the other Avengers, but mostly meaning Tony. “You’re my baby hawk, you’re gonna get all the cuddles you want tonight.”

VIII - Blanket Nest

First: “Clint-Buddy, are you okay?” Foggy asked as he came back from the kitchen with a fresh mug of coffee.

Last: “You’re perfect, Clint,” Matt signed at some point, simply making Clint smile this time. “Never change who you are for anyone but yourself.”

IX - Arrow, Snowflake, Star

First: “It’s not pretty,” Bucky muttered, wrapping their arms protectively around their chest, the right one covering the weaker left. “It’s everything but pretty...”

Last: “It’s more than I need to know that you’re my little treasure,” Clint said, just like I had done earlier. “We’re always gonna take care of you, no matter what happens.”

X - Why are archers so annoying?

First: “You wanna give it a shot?” Clint asked, gesturing with his bow before going to pick up his arrows from the targets on the other end of the lane.

Last: “Both.” I decided. “Both is good.” “Then both it is.” Clint smiled nodding for me to follow him. “Come on, little Hawk, let’s get you your treats.”

Tagging: @mutuallyprime @flowerparrish @evenfallreads @stripedscribe @heretherebewolves

Aromantic Bucky Barnes presents:

An Aromantic Bucky Adventure!

Welcome to Aromantic Bucky Barnes' first event! This event is stress free, no sign ups necessary. As long as Aromantic Bucky is the focus of your creation, all kinds of works are allowed - no minimums or maximums.

This event isn’t anonymous, so please feel free to share your progress! I’d love to see your WIP Wednesdays/Seven Sentence Sundays, ect, and if you tag @aromanticbuckybarnes they'll be reblogged here.

There's a text version of the graphic under the cut, and you can find other relevant information below.

Rules and FAQ: here

AO3 Collection: AnAromanticBuckyAdventure

Creations due/posting: June 5th, 2025 (aka Aro Visibility Day).

An Aromantic Bucky Adventure

First, pick an AU/setting: 

Modern times

Fantasy AU

Ancient Egypt | Ancient Greece

Cottagecore

Wakanda

Soulmate AU

40s

Comics

Omegaverse AU

Cyberpunk | Steampunk | Futuristic

Second, pick a trope: 

Aromantic joy

Green | Nature

QPRs/non-traditional relationships

Fluff | Slice of life

Found family

Lesser known identities (eg. nebularomantic)

5 + 1 things

Lovers-to-Friends

Badass Bucky

AroAllo Bucky

BONUS / Alternates: 

Kinky aro

Old man Bucky, living his best life

Platonic affection

Trans/non-binary Bucky

AroAce Bucky

Age regression

Fake dating

FWB/fuck buddies (that doesn’t end in romance)

Realisation moment | Coming out | Self acceptance

Alpine

Due/Posting: June 5th, 2025 (aka Aromantic Visibility Day) 

Since my own Jonathan is so much OOC he is basically an OC himself, I gotta ask: Do you have any vampire/immortal OCs (or if you don't, who of your OC's would turn into one for whatever reason, be it survival, power, accident etc 👀)

I do actually!

I have a lot of Immortal OCs! Valus, Judge, Cedric, Mako, Cicero, and my Horror monster duo can live forever.

I did, once, have a vampire OC. I haven't been using him, but he exists. His name is Aramastus. He was an older man, lots of tattoos, definitely a dilf. But I stopped playing DnD so he stopped getting used. I only have 1 Pic of him and its a commission. I bought it from Aperns on Artists and Clients :)

Fanfiction Work-In-Progress Guessing Game

Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in

bring back tumblr ask culture let me. bother you with questions and statements

#ITPE 2024 MASTERLIST!

(This has also been crossposted to the Amplificathon DW community)

(If you'd like to see previous years' master lists, 2011 is here, 2012 is here, 2013 is here, 2014 is here, 2015 is here, 2016 is here, 2017 is here, 2018 is here, 2019 is here, 2020 is here, 2021 is here, 2022 is here, and 2023 is here.)

Happy 14th annual #ITPE/technically 1st Informal Tumblr Podfic Exchange!!!! Thank you for bearing with us in our switch to a new platform! We’ve had a few hiccups but now that we know where those are, future years will hopefully run much more smoothly!

Here’s some stats and highlights from this year’s #ITPE!

We had 81 participants this year, and you made 313 podfics (including some ~sekrit~ gifts not available on the masterlist) for a total run time of 140 hours, 59 minutes, and 4 seconds–that’s over FIVE DAYS of audio!

We have 4 simulpods this year! Which is less than we expected, given some of the niche fandoms and crossovers we matched y’all on, so congratulations on finding a diversity of fics to record! @sunshineprincejeremyknox | @flowerparrish and @jeremyknox | @kbirbpods were responsible for two of those simulpods, one which they gifted to each other and the other which they both gifted to the same person. @eafay70 and @tinybluebirdcloak both gifted the same fic to @read-by-silverandblue. Finally, @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove and @rhea314 both recorded the same fic for different participants!

While #ITPE encourages participants to embrace the no-minimums, low-stress vibe, some of y’all do like to Do the Most, and we like to recognize extraordinary effort when we see it!

@opalsong, usually a notorious podfic robot, has had a lot going on this year in terms of school and was worried she would not be able to hit the productivity highs of previous years. So we, as mods, thought, “Great! We know what to do! We’ll match her with someone on one very specific OT3 that this recipient has been requesting for years, in a fandom not especially known for blanket permission, and that way Opal won’t feel compelled to make a bajillion podfics because the pool will be so small! We are solving so many problems with this match!” And we thought we were so clever! Only for Opalsong to find a 90k fanfic and turn in a 12 hour podfic. Well. We tried! But clearly Opalsong is going to Opalsong. <3

By far our most prolific gifter this year was @sunshineprincejeremyknox | @flowerparrish, who not only made 6 gifts for zir recipient (including a 4 hour podfic), but also 31 treats. Not far behind was @mistbornhero who made 7 main gifts and 23 treats! @jeremyknox | @kbirbpods made 4 main gifts and 18 treats! We also had generous treaters in @wanderingjedihistorian, @reena-jenkins, @blackestglass, @pezzax, and @wilfriede! Plus, honorable mentions to @daisydiversions and @annabelle-myrtille for the 10 and 6 hour (respectively) podfics they made for their recipients!

Finally, we'd like to extend some thank you’s to:

-Data mod flowersforgraves for converting all the sign up data to airtable which makes matching so much easier. -Asymptotical and Dragonflies_and_Katydids for creating the coding we used to generate distribution day templates. -Everyone who offered to pinch hit, especially sunshineprincejeremyknox | flowerparrish and @jetainia, though thankfully we did not end up needing them to fulfill those pinch hits! -And as always, @exmanhater for ITPE’s permanent hosting

Now let’s get on to what you’re really here for…..the masterlist!! Here’s the masterlist spreadsheet for this year’s exchange!

Happy listening!!!

Reblog if you're okay with receiving asks for backstory info on any/all of your fics.

If not all, specify which ones in the tags.