[DCBB 2013] Foxfire Blossom - Story masterpost
Title: Foxfire Blossom
Author: almaasi
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural AU // Fluff, Romance, Drama
Characters/Pairings: Dean/Castiel, minor Charlie/Gilda, background established Sam/Sarah and Gabriel/Kali
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 283,000
Summary: On a narrow lane, right at the edge of San Francisco city, there is a boutique flower shop with a single employee named Dean. The place is Dean’s world; it’s tiny, filled with bright colour and sensational beauty, and it’s the only sanctuary he ever finds amidst the commotion of his new life. Then, there’s Castiel. From the first time he steps into the shop, Castiel can’t help but become deeply enchanted by what’s inside. However, it’s not just the flowers that keep him coming back - with each visit he makes, he grows fonder of the bespectacled florist, learning Dean’s hands and his laughter as Dean shows him how to romance a woman. There is nothing either of them can do to keep from falling in love, despite Castiel’s path already being paved, cemented, and thoroughly set in stone: he is supposed to marry Daphne. It becomes clear that they all have their vices, addictions. Castiel has kept things from Dean... and maybe Dean has a few secrets, too. What with all the lying, cheating, and dauntless emotional vulnerability, they may as well be living in a soap opera.
Warnings: Characters in witness protection, characters with terminal illness (no major character death), off-screen death of minor characters. Mentions of substance abuse (including alcoholism, smoking, and past usage of various drugs), a small amount of violence, implied child abuse. Infidelity/adultery/polygamy (Cas is unhappily dating Daphne while falling for Dean). Other pairings include Sam/Sarah, Charlie/Gilda, Gabriel/Kali, and one brief instance of kissing between Gabriel/Kali/Gilda. Mentions of past Dean/unnamed characters and past Castiel/unnamed characters (male and female). Hand!kink, explicit sex: unsafe sex, desperation!kink/urolagnia, mild feederism, comeplay, rimming, spanking. Neither Dean nor Cas tops (frottage ahoy!), but there is a vague element of dom!Cas and sub!Dean (not always sexual). Contains spoilers for ‘Little Shop of Horrors’.
ILLUSTRATION BY UNBEARABLE-BEAR
ART MASTERPOST
✿
READ ON AO3
CHAPTER INDEX
SOUNDTRACK COMING SOON!
Oops I Tripped and Wrote a 280k Fluff Fic - a brief autobiography by almaasi
Foxfire Blossom was not supposed happen the way it did. I was writing a Dean/Cas version of Anastasia when I realised I only had six months to write a DCBB. Sounds like a long time, right? Nope. Three months vanished without me knowing where the time went, and all of a sudden those three remaining months did not seem very long at all.
Since I thought the Anastasia fic wouldn’t be done in time, I figured I’d start a new one. I had too many ideas, but eventually I decided on a flower shop AU, because I saw this post on destielfanfic, and realised there was a niche that I actually wanted someone to fill. Weeks later, I was brushing my teeth and a song popped into my head (‘The Wondersmith and His Sons’ by Astronautalis), and in the space of ten seconds, everything came together. When I began Foxfire Blossom, I thought it was going to be a "short" 80k story about flowers, kidnapping and science, entitled The Foxfire Thief. But then I realised I couldn’t be bothered writing all the plot and drama required, so I erased some of what I had, and took it down the path of "basic romance story only, no plot".
As you can see by the word count, it wasn’t quite that simple.
Time passed too quickly, I procrastinated too much, but somehow I made it to the end. How? I have no idea. (Smile and wave. Smiiiile and waaaave.)
The deadline for the DCBB came around, and I handed in 153k of Foxfire Blossom. But I’d rushed the ending, just to meet the deadline. And in my rush, I wrote one particular line, a single line, and that line became pivotal to the plot of the second half of the story. I nearly doubled the word count in the month that followed, just because that line seemed wasted if I left it there, and a missed opportunity if I took it out. (It’s actually a very minor, almost throwaway line in context. That fact still makes me jitter a little bit, in a good way.)
I ended up with a story that was the same length as what I’d already written for the Anastasia fic. Which is funny, right, because I put that one on hold because I thought I didn’t have time to finish it.
The final product is a disastrously fluffy epic filled with happy things, a smattering of more dramatic things, and... uh... Other Things. While it’s not even close to what I meant to write, I’m glad I wrote it. I’m kinda fond of the story, and I hope people who read it will be, too.
Also, all the desserts mentioned in this story are made up by me. I want to eat them but they don’t exist.
Acknowledgements
I have an army! An army of alphabetical literary minions, that is. Ali, Becky and Cheryl have been my ABCs of story-editing these past few weeks, and in that time they’ve all been exceptionally invaluable to me.
Besides them all blasting away typos and grammar faux pas as efficiently as anything, Ali kept me smiling (which is a vital task), Becky caught the nasty mistakes that the rest of us missed, and dear Cheryl got properly involved with the characters and made everything shine just that little bit brighter. With the addition of Sarah, who helped me fuss over the last few tassels and frills, as well as providing much-needed corrections for Benny’s speech and Cas’ gumbo-making ingredients, we got this story straightened out together.
Their input changed this story into something I’m really proud of having written. All four of them surrendered many full days’ worth of personal time to help me, just because I asked them to, and in my opinion that reflects on the type of people they are, and that type of person is friggin’ awesome. I still can’t think of a decent way to thank them, besides offering some heartfelt cooing noises and Cockles-style face-stroking.
The artist who was originally assigned to this story had to drop out, and by some miracle (just believe me when I say it’s a miracle okay) I nabbed the astonishingly amazing Lucy as illustrator for this story. She was buried under schoolwork but still managed to put together the masterpiece seen in her art post and embedded into the story on AO3. I encourage everyone to send her nice messages, because she definitely deserves them.
Ash and Millie never got to read this story over before I posted, but they were each sitting there holding one of my hands while I wrote it... which would have been a lot less helpful if I meant that literally. I need these hands to type, dammit. They were figuratively present, which was the important part. Ash was my go-to person for Spanish translations, too. I am thankful.
Shoutout to Claire, Hannah, and Holly, all of whom were occasional (but hugely appreciated) supports for me and my writing. My thanks and apologies to Darklands, who did not want to know the things I told her but made fun of me anyway.
Writing this story was a delightful adventure, and I made friends, which is something I always remember being the highlight of any project. I love associating with each and every one of these people, and I can’t thank them all enough. Do it again same time next year, yeah?
✿
Author: almaasi
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural AU // Fluff, Romance, Drama
Characters/Pairings: Dean/Castiel, minor Charlie/Gilda, background established Sam/Sarah and Gabriel/Kali
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 283,000
Summary: On a narrow lane, right at the edge of San Francisco city, there is a boutique flower shop with a single employee named Dean. The place is Dean’s world; it’s tiny, filled with bright colour and sensational beauty, and it’s the only sanctuary he ever finds amidst the commotion of his new life. Then, there’s Castiel. From the first time he steps into the shop, Castiel can’t help but become deeply enchanted by what’s inside. However, it’s not just the flowers that keep him coming back - with each visit he makes, he grows fonder of the bespectacled florist, learning Dean’s hands and his laughter as Dean shows him how to romance a woman. There is nothing either of them can do to keep from falling in love, despite Castiel’s path already being paved, cemented, and thoroughly set in stone: he is supposed to marry Daphne. It becomes clear that they all have their vices, addictions. Castiel has kept things from Dean... and maybe Dean has a few secrets, too. What with all the lying, cheating, and dauntless emotional vulnerability, they may as well be living in a soap opera.
Warnings: Characters in witness protection, characters with terminal illness (no major character death), off-screen death of minor characters. Mentions of substance abuse (including alcoholism, smoking, and past usage of various drugs), a small amount of violence, implied child abuse. Infidelity/adultery/polygamy (Cas is unhappily dating Daphne while falling for Dean). Other pairings include Sam/Sarah, Charlie/Gilda, Gabriel/Kali, and one brief instance of kissing between Gabriel/Kali/Gilda. Mentions of past Dean/unnamed characters and past Castiel/unnamed characters (male and female). Hand!kink, explicit sex: unsafe sex, desperation!kink/urolagnia, mild feederism, comeplay, rimming, spanking. Neither Dean nor Cas tops (frottage ahoy!), but there is a vague element of dom!Cas and sub!Dean (not always sexual). Contains spoilers for ‘Little Shop of Horrors’.
ILLUSTRATION BY UNBEARABLE-BEAR
ART MASTERPOST
✿
READ ON AO3
CHAPTER INDEX
SOUNDTRACK COMING SOON!
Oops I Tripped and Wrote a 280k Fluff Fic - a brief autobiography by almaasi
Foxfire Blossom was not supposed happen the way it did. I was writing a Dean/Cas version of Anastasia when I realised I only had six months to write a DCBB. Sounds like a long time, right? Nope. Three months vanished without me knowing where the time went, and all of a sudden those three remaining months did not seem very long at all.
Since I thought the Anastasia fic wouldn’t be done in time, I figured I’d start a new one. I had too many ideas, but eventually I decided on a flower shop AU, because I saw this post on destielfanfic, and realised there was a niche that I actually wanted someone to fill. Weeks later, I was brushing my teeth and a song popped into my head (‘The Wondersmith and His Sons’ by Astronautalis), and in the space of ten seconds, everything came together. When I began Foxfire Blossom, I thought it was going to be a "short" 80k story about flowers, kidnapping and science, entitled The Foxfire Thief. But then I realised I couldn’t be bothered writing all the plot and drama required, so I erased some of what I had, and took it down the path of "basic romance story only, no plot".
As you can see by the word count, it wasn’t quite that simple.
Time passed too quickly, I procrastinated too much, but somehow I made it to the end. How? I have no idea. (Smile and wave. Smiiiile and waaaave.)
The deadline for the DCBB came around, and I handed in 153k of Foxfire Blossom. But I’d rushed the ending, just to meet the deadline. And in my rush, I wrote one particular line, a single line, and that line became pivotal to the plot of the second half of the story. I nearly doubled the word count in the month that followed, just because that line seemed wasted if I left it there, and a missed opportunity if I took it out. (It’s actually a very minor, almost throwaway line in context. That fact still makes me jitter a little bit, in a good way.)
I ended up with a story that was the same length as what I’d already written for the Anastasia fic. Which is funny, right, because I put that one on hold because I thought I didn’t have time to finish it.
The final product is a disastrously fluffy epic filled with happy things, a smattering of more dramatic things, and... uh... Other Things. While it’s not even close to what I meant to write, I’m glad I wrote it. I’m kinda fond of the story, and I hope people who read it will be, too.
Also, all the desserts mentioned in this story are made up by me. I want to eat them but they don’t exist.
Acknowledgements
I have an army! An army of alphabetical literary minions, that is. Ali, Becky and Cheryl have been my ABCs of story-editing these past few weeks, and in that time they’ve all been exceptionally invaluable to me.
Besides them all blasting away typos and grammar faux pas as efficiently as anything, Ali kept me smiling (which is a vital task), Becky caught the nasty mistakes that the rest of us missed, and dear Cheryl got properly involved with the characters and made everything shine just that little bit brighter. With the addition of Sarah, who helped me fuss over the last few tassels and frills, as well as providing much-needed corrections for Benny’s speech and Cas’ gumbo-making ingredients, we got this story straightened out together.
Their input changed this story into something I’m really proud of having written. All four of them surrendered many full days’ worth of personal time to help me, just because I asked them to, and in my opinion that reflects on the type of people they are, and that type of person is friggin’ awesome. I still can’t think of a decent way to thank them, besides offering some heartfelt cooing noises and Cockles-style face-stroking.
The artist who was originally assigned to this story had to drop out, and by some miracle (just believe me when I say it’s a miracle okay) I nabbed the astonishingly amazing Lucy as illustrator for this story. She was buried under schoolwork but still managed to put together the masterpiece seen in her art post and embedded into the story on AO3. I encourage everyone to send her nice messages, because she definitely deserves them.
Ash and Millie never got to read this story over before I posted, but they were each sitting there holding one of my hands while I wrote it... which would have been a lot less helpful if I meant that literally. I need these hands to type, dammit. They were figuratively present, which was the important part. Ash was my go-to person for Spanish translations, too. I am thankful.
Shoutout to Claire, Hannah, and Holly, all of whom were occasional (but hugely appreciated) supports for me and my writing. My thanks and apologies to Darklands, who did not want to know the things I told her but made fun of me anyway.
Writing this story was a delightful adventure, and I made friends, which is something I always remember being the highlight of any project. I love associating with each and every one of these people, and I can’t thank them all enough. Do it again same time next year, yeah?
✿