2012 in fic
Fic meme! (Basically me going, whyyy am I not done with this fic yet, and whyyy did I start a new fic...Nothing all that intelligent. OTL)
January
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 16 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,589 words)
Lessons in Demeanor - Lesson Three: Empathize (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,269 words)
I started January off with two updates to my LSK WIPs, Bittersweet Sweetness and Lessons in Demeanor. This pretty much set the pace for the entire rest of the year, haha... By this point, I was having trouble wrapping up Bittersweet Sweetness. =/ (...it's still not finished yet OTL)
As for the update to Lessons in Demeanor, I was hoping to be able to finish the fic before the new round for
no_true_pair. That so did not happen. XD I posted Lesson Three only one day before the new round started.
February
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 17 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,614 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 18 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,168 words)
By Part 17, I reached the end of my notes for Bittersweet Sweetness and had to sit down and plan the next parts out. XD ...which meant tossing Adair into the fic for some reason, aklsdjf;asdjf. Okay, self-indulgence, yeah...
March
Lessons in Demeanor - Lesson Four: Practice (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,992 words)
Lessons in Demeanor - Lesson Five: Drink More Tea (end) (Legend of Sun Knight, 2,363 words)
Goodness, these two chapters grew so much on me! These Lessons were only meant to be around ~1k each, but... *looks at Lesson Five* Hahaha. These two chapters were so much fun to write. I really liked torturing making fun of Earth. Since I was determined to finish this fic, I didn't have a chance to work on other fics during the month... Since when have I turned into such a bad multi-tasker... Okay, I guess I was always bad at working on multiple fics. OTL
Lessons was always only meant to be 5 chapters. I was very happy I managed to write it as 5 chapters like I had planned. 8D;
April
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 19 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,421 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 20 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,744 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 21 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,851 words)
April was dedicated to updating Bittersweet! Starting aiming for weekly updates, hoping I could finish the fic. Aaaaand I was totally fangirling over Adair in these chapters. /o\
May
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 22 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,907 words)
Hametsu; Ruin and Salvation (Prince of Tennis, 4,480 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 23 (Legend of Sun Knight, 2,119 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 24 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,647 words)
Three more updates for Bittersweet in my attempt to update weekly, but then that stopped happening... And whoa, a oneshot for something not LSK? It only happened because I joined funpotexchange, where I was matched up with xiahwase and wrote this high fantasy AU of Prince of Tennis for her featuring Tezuka/Ryoma. Without that exchange, this fic wouldn't exist at all. I had a lot of fun creating all these different races and mapping out the history of this fantasy world. Of course, being the utterly hopeless Yu Wo fan that I am, I borrowed a concept from one of her novels. |D;;; It's what the entire premise of Hametsu is based on. Er, I believe I wrote Hametsu in April or was it actually March... Anyway, it didn't get posted until later.
Hametsu was actually meant to be longer. There was an entire plotline I didn't get around to, but I didn't feel I could write it out with my skills, so I ended it where I ended it (a sort of happily ever after for Ryoma and Tezuka). :3;; Basically in Hametsu, the demon race (the mamono) have hametsu, one person that they can't go against. Kind of a one-way soul bond. Ryoma is Tezuka's hametsu. Turns out that he is also Atobe's hametsu even though it's usually unheard of for two people to have the same hametsu. (Ryoma is just such a broken character, pffft. Main character syndrome, haha). There were going to be several other demons introduced (Yukimura and Sanada as well as others) and lots of misunderstandings over each demon's hametsu and such. It was too complicated for my skills, what with people pretending that someone's their hametsu when they're not and all that. If I hadn't been so focused on LSK, I might have tried my hand at expanding Hametsu because there was a lot more I could have explored. :3;; But well, my hands were tied with Bittersweet Sweetness...and are still tied. :'D;;
June
Invincible, that is the Legend: Prologue (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 1,102 words)
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 1 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,059 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 25 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,620 words)
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 2 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,343 words)
Lucathia, what are you doing starting another longfic. Invincible is a crossover between Half Prince and Legend of Sun Knight, and it is turning out massive. I wasn't going to start the fic until I finished Bittersweet, but I kind of couldn't resist posting it. OTL I have a lot of ideas for this verse (crossoveeers are loooove), but uh, I'm currently questioning the way I have these chapters set up, limiting myself to one POV per chapter. OTL I should have just done my usual switching POVs all over the place thing which usually advances the time (instead of how I'm going back and forth in time to cover missing POVs...). It would mean that I wouldn't have to spend so many words with each character, and the plot would move faster. ^^;; But at the moment, the story is moving really, really slowly because I'm just indulging and world building, hahahahaha... XD; The first two chapters focuse on Neo and Aldrizzt. I had such a blast writing them. I can't wait until I revisit them. ♥ (And now I can write more about them because many people have read Unbeatable too! When I posted this, Unbeatable hadn't been translated yet, haha...)
Part 25 of Bittersweet is when the fic hit 40k. At that time, I questioned myself why the fic turned out so long. It's only meant to be a retelling of the first novel... and just the ending part too. Anyway, I can't wait until I finish the fic because it would mean I'd have more time to write other fic featuring Sun. XDDD See, I've already got body-swap down. So many other possibilities... Soul-linking? De-aging? Gender-swapping? 8D;; all these things I want to put Sun through, bwahahaha
40k is probably not a lot for many, but it's a lot for me. x__x I've only ever wrote one other fanfic that's over that word count.
July
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 3 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,284 words)
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 4 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 2,990 words)
Invincible took over. /o\ Even though I didn't mean for that to happen! But you know, brand new, shiny fic. Chapter 3 was actually really hard to write though since it features Gui's POV and I am so not a genius. As for chapter 4, that one I had more fun with. I just really wanted to write Chasel because of a few of Yu Wo's plurks. (And in a recent plurk, she mentioned that Chasel likes black tea. klajsdf;af; omg, I got it right in my fic!! XDDDD Something about how it calms him?)
August
Ten minutes is all I ask for (oneshot) (Kuroko no Basket, 3,901 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 26 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,766 words)
Dead in the Knight (oneshot) (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,885 words)
Suddenly, Kuroko no Basket. XD; Ten minutes is all I ask for was written for stillskies for parallelsfic. Again, if not because of an exchange, this oneshot probably wouldn't have happened. :3;; It was fairly grueling to write but also very rewarding. I liked that I actually managed to cover quite a long period of time in this fic because I always have a difficulty with pacing (*looks at Bittersweet*). I tried to structure the fic like a basketball match but uh, somehow only got to half-time, whoops. Dialogue only happens between periods. I wonder if that was evident or not. XD I was somewhat behind on Kuroko no Basket before writing this, so when I got my assignment, I took the chance to catch up with the manga, and I took copious notes. ♥ This is yet another one of my fics where the title happened first, and then I scrambled around trying to figure out the actual story. It happens to me a lot. XD I really grew to like Riko, Hyuuga, and Kiyoshi while writing this fic.
Dead in the Knight... Where do I even start?! It was a very spontaneous fic written for
fic_promptly. It's supposed to be a short comment fic, haha... Drabbles were totally not on my mind this year. ^^;; I had a lot of fun writing this zombie!AU of LSK. AND I have a ton of ideas too, like Lesus questioning Grisia about his mission... But nooo, I'm not writing a follow-up. This is a oneshot. Yes. A oneshot. I really wish more spontaneous writing would happen for me. I've spent a lot of time writing this year but don't have much to show for it because of how long I'm taking just to put down a few words. T___T;
September
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 27 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,767 words)
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 5 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,272 words)
One update for each. :3;; HAHAHAHAHAHA Part 27 can pretty much be considered the climax of Bittersweet, and what a...climax it is. /o\ Yeaaaah, this was planned from the start, pfft, but I can't believe something like that took twenty-seven parts to get around to. /o\ I dropped hints here and there about where the trinket was located.... yeah. XD;;;
Chapter 5 of Invincible features Wicked! This really would have worked better as Chapter 4 instead so that the Gui-Wicked plotline wasn't suddenly disrupted by Chasel's POV... Oh well. XD; What can I say... I really wanted to write Chasel at the time. XDDD Invincible was actually inspired by prompts I received for a previous round of
no_true_pair where I had tossed in crossover lists featuring characters from 1/2 Prince and LSK. I really wanted Aldrizzt to meet Wicked since Aldrizzt doesn't know any other dark elves that aren't evil. I also wondered about how Wicked would fare in the LSK world considering that there is a lot of hate towards dark elves in that world. Then I got to thinking about how all the 1/2 Prince characters would fare since they're used to their own world instead of the LSK world. Wicked was supposed to be the main character, or at least a very central character, but so far it doesn't seem like this fic has a main character at all. Which is uh, kind of problematic. It wouldn't be if I could write like George R. R. Martin, but I can't, haha. What is with all these different POVs... I wonder how many different POVs I'll end up with by the time I finish the fic. (I really hope I can finish the fic). Chapter 5 was hilarious... to me at least, because Gui and Wicked end up having to work together. They're stranded (sort of alone) in a foreign world, so maybe this will help them bond a bit. XD;
October
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 6 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,424 words)
The Road to Becoming Impressive (oneshot) (Legend of Sun Knight, 2,801 words)
Let this be known as the month where Lucathia praised Adair waaaay too much. XD; Chapter 6 of Invincible does not advance the plot at all. It was entirely me exploring my head canon about Adair, borrowing the chance to write about his daily duties here instead of in some oneshot. XD;;
And then of course I also wrote a oneshot detailing Adair's awesomeness, pfffft.
no_true_pair always helps me come up with oneshots, or else I probably wouldn't have written this. XD;; For some reason, I think all of the oneshots I've written for the community so far have been focused on Adair... XD;;; (Lessons in Demeanor was not a oneshot, so that doesn't count, haha). I really do believe that Sun has a hand in Adair's awesomeness, as well as in many other people's awesomeness, but probably not as much as I imply in this fic. XDD
November
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 28 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,382 words)
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 7 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,249 words)
After much toil, part 28 of Bittersweet happened. It reads more like filler to me... but I realized while writing part 28 that I made an error in one of my calculations. OTL So yeah, I have to change some of my plans! We are so headed for an ending now though. No, I'm not just saying this like how I've been saying it since 2011. XD;; The ending is near. That, and I've also started writing the sequel, so I better finish Bittersweet already, pfft. So yeah. I wrote a bit of Dishonest Honesty (the sequel) during November, but since I haven't posted it, I haven't counted in my 2012 word count.
Chapter 7 of Invincible also happened during November. 8D; This chapter features Storm! I always have a difficult time writing Storm. I was a little surprised though, at how much headcanon I ended up being able to explore in this chapter. I'm satisfied~. ♥ Also, I got to write Adair AND Storm in the same scene again (I secretly, or well, not so secretly, ship them, hahahahaha). So that was pretty cool. XD; And then I got to bring in my favorite character from 1/2 Prince, so how can I not be jumping all over this chapter? XDDDd Actually, Cold Fox was going to be the POV character for this chapter, but I thought it would be more exciting to introduce him from someone else's POV. ;) Glad I did so, because now that I've taken so long with the next chapter, I can actually include more of Cold Fox's background while writing his POV since most readers have read the entire canon now! \o\ And know that he's part of the criminal underworld. XD; Flying daggers, whoot.
December
Behind Closed Doors Part 1 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,936 words)
Don't Assassinate the Pigeons (Oresama Teacher, 7,183 words)
I uh, didn't update any of my WIPs during December. Instead, I wrote this very, very silly fic called Behind Closed Doors. /o\ I wrote most of Part 1 through dictation. I just wanted to try out Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It was fun dictating a fic! But also very, very embarrassing considering the content of the fic. XD;; I wrote the fic for
no_true_pair yet again, and it (wait for it) features Adair. XDDD;; The second half (Part 2) doesn't feature Adair as much but rather features Sun trying to find out who cursed Adair. I'm not very good at writing investigation scenes, so I still only have the intro of part 2 written, ahahaha... I hope I can actually finish it.
I wrote Don't Assassinate the Pigeons for specialrhino for yuletide! The word count exploded on me, omg. XD;; I've always wanted to write more Oresama Teacher fic (I usually toss Oresama Teacher characters at No True Pair, but I haven't been able to write anything outside of LSK yet), so I was super happy to get this assignment! I really haven't written much fic that's not LSK in 2012 though, so it was a little difficult changing gears here. (I really should have reread the chapters more, but I kind of ran out of time, oops...so I didn't feel I had a strong enough grasp of all the characters -___-;). I was going to turn in just the first scene with Mafuyu and Takaomi in that compromising situation, but then my mind supplied the rest of the fic. XD;; And it was going to be long. I managed to wrestle what I wanted to get across into a ~7k fic, which was good. Phew. XD; I almost thought I wouldn't be able to finish! Specialrhino mentioned liking Takaomi/Mafuyu, so they were the focus of the fic. Well, they were supposed to be, but it turned out more gen than anything... Specialrhino also mentioned how Oresama Teacher seems like it would be your typical shoujo, but then it turns out that the characters are just teary-eyed over friendship and seishun. ♥ I tried to capture the tone of the original in this fic! I also tried to include bits and pieces from the other prompts included, like how Okegawa got started with carrier pigeons, and Hayasaka and Yui being close to each other. They were probably meant to be separate prompts, but they really helped me flesh out the characters in this fic that somehow turned into an ensemble fic. XD
Halfway through, Hayasaka ended up getting a lot of the focus. (Like...what? Wasn't this fic supposed to be about Mafuyu and Takaomi...) I had fun with that though, since we don't know Hayasaka's background, just that he's possibly rich since he mentioned having a maid. We also don't know his first name. Why hasn't his first name been mentioned? So... I made up one that's super out there for him, pfffft, and I thought, maybe his hair isn't dyed. Maybe it's natural. XD Maybe he's only half Japanese!
There were a lot of things... I felt needed to be followed up in this fic that I kind of just...dropped because I was pressed for time and forgot to explain those parts. (like why Okegawa allowed Mafuyu to sit next to Takaomi in the theaters by the end) OTL Well, that teaches me not to cut the deadline so close, but then I never learn. ~_~
Also, I really wanted to have Takaomi kidnapped (and then everyone else wondering who would even dare to do that), but that didn't work out for the fic. XD
I totally gave in to randomly switching POVs in this fic. Whenever I got stuck, it was like, alright, time for a POV change! /o\ Well, I hope, now that I've written something for Oresama Teacher once again, that I'll write more in the future. ♥ My other Oresama Teacher fic was called Something Strange (and written on a whim). I was so tempted to name this fic "Something Messy" but that would have totally given me away... Then the fic was going to be named "At Your Command" but in the end, I settled on "Don't Assassinate the Pigeons." Very...strange name. It came about because of the summary...which I didn't end up keeping. XDDD;
Total number of stories: 3 multi-parters, 5 oneshots (if I don't count Behind Closed Doors as longfic)
Total word count: ~75,000 in fanfic posted (less words than last year, though I wrote around the same amount of words in fanfic. The extra words from 2011 were original fiction...which I didn't write much of in 2012...). I didn't count words I didn't post. :3;; My goal was 150,000 words! I reached the uh, halfway point. OTL
Fandoms written in: Legend of Sun Knight, 1/2 Prince, Prince of Tennis, Kuroko no Basket, Oresama Teacer. It was basically all LSK except for 3 oneshots in the other fandoms. A super LSK-filled year. 0___0;;
Leitmotif(s) of the year: Errrr... probably not a fitting answer, but humor and friendship! I seem to only write humor and friendship lately. Just look for gen labeled with humor and friendship, and maybe it'd be written by me, pfft. Very influenced by Yu Wo's works... I guess this is what translating her works and pouring over the translations does to my own writing... OTL (But then, I've always enjoyed series with humor and friendship, so I guess I'm approaching what I like to read with my writing? XD;;;)
Favorite fic: Lessons in Demeanor, especially parts 4 and 5. I had so much fun writing those two parts. Sometimes I even reread this fic and laugh. /o\ do ppl actually do that with their own fic I think I might enjoy tormenting Earth a bit too much.
Best fic: Errrr, I'd say Invincible, that is the Legend because it is turning out to be an epic undertaking, and I've always wanted to write something like this (but have always been afraid to). I'm actually doing world-building, omg. That might not completely fail. Now, if only I can get around to what I have planned later on for the fic! Though of course, yet again, my pacing is questionable.
Most popular fic: Ten minutes is all I ask for because of several reasons! 1) It's written for Kuroko no Basket, and the fandom really exploded because of the anime 2) It was for Parallels, so it got more of an audience 3) I know it was recced at least once, which brought in more readers 4) It's pairing fic of a reasonably popular pairing even if there weren't a lot of fic of the pairing around yet when I wrote the fic and 5) naked confessions, pfffft.
Most underappreciated fic: Behind Closed Doors. XDDDD I thought it would get more of a reaction, hahahahaha. Ahem. But it's not like it's a super great fic or anything, so, pffft. (I was kind of just expecting more people to laugh at me. XD;;;)
Favorite first lines:
It's been three days since I last saw Ceo. ( Dead in the Knight)
I came up with this line and just knew I had to write the rest of the fic. ♥
Most fun fic: Behind Closed Doors. I was grinning and laughing my head off while writing... XD;
Sexiest fic: Uhhhh... Don't Assassinate the Pigeons!? Except not really. XD;; But I did get teased for the beginning part, pffft. I write really tame stuff, okay. No sexy fic from me.
Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Ten minutes is all I ask for. I really grew to like the characters, especially Riko. ♥ I didn't pay her as much attention before, but during my reread of Kuroko no Basket, I read the series paying special attention to her.
New pairing/genre/fandom you never predicted writing in January: Kuroko no Basket. I've written all the other series before! Because well... I mostly wrote LSK, and only one oneshot for Prince of Tennis and one oneshot for Oresama Teacher in 2012. ^^;; KnB was a surprise. I don't think I have many more ideas for it either, sadly...
Hardest fic to write: Ten minutes is all I ask for. I knew I wanted to structure the fic after a basketball match but writing it out was very hard. I took forever writing this fic even though it wasn't even all that long. (Well, it turned out around ~4k). And then I ended up cutting the fic in half. I never even finished the second half. Thankfully the first half stood well on its own. ^^;; (The second half was where the fic got into OT3 territory and was mostly about the relationship...which I was really bad at writing).
Here's an excerpt from the unfinished second half: While they're watching the video, Hyuuga's hands dart out to snatch a few slices of the apple. Teppei also chews on his own slices. After one of Kuroko's passes, he comments, "I've never seen such an extreme specialist before. You've told me about him, but seeing him in action is entirely different."
"His passes are impressive, aren't they?" Riko asks. On the screen before her, Kagami catches Kuroko's pass. She shakes her head as Kagami makes a dunk. He always goes for the dunk.
"Yeah, I'd like to try catching one," Teppei says. He looks at Hyuuga curiously. "Can you catch that?"
Hyuuga scowls. Riko's used to his bad temper, especially his bad temper around Teppei. Somehow, the things Teppei says more often than not rub Hyuuga the wrong way. It's kind of like seeing a dog and a cat trying to get along with each other and failing spectacularly. Hyuuga says, "No, I can't. Kagami's the only one who can when Kuroko does one of those passes."
"Then we just have to practice until we can all catch that," Teppei says, as if it's as easy as that.
"I hate your optimism," Hyuuga says. "And I hate it when you make sound suggestions that you'll probably follow up with some stupid remark."
"Do you think I need to cut my fingernails beforehand to catch that?" asks Teppei, right on cue.
Hyuuga sighs and plants his face in one of his hands.
Riko just laughs. She's missed this easy camaraderie. Still, she shushes them and tells them to pay more attention to the video.
I was only about 1/3 of the way done with the 2nd half. Then I gave up. OTL
Biggest disappointment: Not finishing several of my longfics. *looks at Bittersweet Sweetness yet again* Not even one update to some of my older WIPs! OMG, how did 2012 pass by just like that without even one update for those fics.... DDDDD: Especially Memories of the Future. Come on. Only 8 chapters left out of 30!!!! ~__~ I think a reread of the series is in order... Also, not being able to keep up with NaNo... OTL. I just wish I could have written more. XDDD;;
Biggest surprise: Writing so much LSK. :O writing so much Adair. Writing longfic, even though I'm...terribly slow with them.
Most telling fic: Don't Assassinate the Pigeons because I end up doing my usual POV switching. XD; It's what I usually default to when I'm pressed. Also, humor and friendship~
What's next? Tackling a whole bunch of plotbunnies. Here, have some excerpts from each...Though who knows when I'll actually finish these. But they have been in the works. ~__~
And They Lived Happily Ever After (Bakuman) "Saiko, what in the world are you doing?" asks Takagi. "You're going to be late for the wedding!"
Mashiro knows this but he can't help going through his uncle's letters one last time, rereading the words that gave him courage to chase his dreams. He wonders if his uncle ever detailed his ideal marriage, but no matter how much he pours over the letters, he doesn't find any mention of his uncle's ideal marriage. His uncle never thought that far.
After the Bakuman manga ended, I really wanted an epilogue... so I decided to write my own. I never did get very far with the fic though, but I do have a lot of bullet points. ^^;;
Behind Closed Doors Part 2 (Legend of Sun Knight) Sun quickly spread his sensing out. It wasn't like he wanted to spout all this nonsense and waste his breath either, especially since he wanted to get to the bottom of Adair's curse as quickly as possible. When he spotted that the coast was clear, he leaned in and said in a low voice, "Is there anyone holding a grudge against me? Or the Sun Knight Platoon? Adair especially?"
"Against Adair?" asked Storm, one eyebrow raised. "Most likely no one. He's well-liked among all of the holy knights. There may be a few who envy him, but I wouldn't say any of them hold a grudge against him. He always listens to other people's woes after all. A good friend."
Sun listened and couldn't help but give himself a mental pat on the back for picking out and training such a capable vice-captain who knew how to get on people's good side. After all, Sun knew all too well how many people he had sent Adair to beat up and how many people were still Adair's friend despite having been beat up by him.
Storm continued musing without Sun's prompting.
"Against the Sun Knight Platoon? Not very likely either. They get along with most people. They're usually a friendly bunch, if a little rowdy."
Then, Storm smiled a bright smile that Sun didn't particularly like.
"Against you? Too many to count."
"..."
Whoops, long excerpt, but haha. I had fun with this scene. XD; I'm just having trouble with presenting clues for the investigation. Maybe I should even do away with the investigation. OTL
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 29 (Legend of Sun Knight) Since Grisia had not proven to be much of a sparring partner, I was still eager to spar. I left in search of the person I had in mind, spotting him exactly where I needed him to be -- at the training grounds.
*coughs* Not sure if I'm going to keep this or change it... Guess who Judgment is searching for. =P I actually have two versions of Part 29... Not sure which one I'm going to go with. Though actually I feel I should skip this scene altogether and get a move on with the story already, pfft.
Beyond the Storm Comes Sunlight (Legend of Sun Knight) "Grisia, do you know you have someone following you?" asked the future Blaze Knight in a loud voice one day.
It sounded more like: Do you know you have someone "stalking" you? Chikus Blaze darted his eyes at the person who was no more than twenty paces away from them. The future Blaze Knight narrowed his eyes. The person didn't even have the decency to hide and pretend he wasn't stalking Grisia! It was the least he could do after getting noticed.
Storm is actually not involved in this fic despite the title. It's actually a fic about *coughs* Adair. Who else... This was originally titled Warmth of the Sun. ^^;; This fic has been in the works for way too long... And has gone through way too many revisions despite not even being all that long.
My Friend, the Pope (Legend of Sun Knight)
I already posted a large snippet here. Haven't really fleshed out the fic much more than that, but I believe I will be doing a lot of POV switching yet again. Whenever I get around to this fic, that is. No idea when I'll get around to this fic...
He Never Knew Part 6 (Prince of Tennis) For Rikkaidai, the team with players that had met Echizen Ryoma across the net not once, but thrice, things were at a standstill despite their victory at nationals.
“It’s too early to polish that trophy, Akaya,” said one of Kirihara Akaya’s sempai. It could have been any of them, catching him in his act of sentimentality and stubbornness, but he wasn’t going to stop.
Soooo stuck with this fic. Part 6 features Rikkai. I kind of left the fic on a cliffhanger. /o\
Invincible Chapter ?? (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight) While many of his companions had found or were with at least one familiar being from their world, Sunshine had yet to come upon anyone he knew. Or anyone at all, in fact. He did appreciate the birds though. It was too bad they couldn't answer his questions, but that didn’t stop him from chatting with them.
He tilted his head, hands splayed next to his crossed legs, fingers rubbing across the soft fibers of his flying carpet as he studied the sky around him, endless blue as far as his eye could see. He could never get tired of admiring the sky, of feeling the sun shining down on his skin, warming him to his very fingertips. Of the varying skies Sunshine had laid eyes upon since leaving the cave that had been his entire world, he loved fair skies the best; when there was not a cloud in sight, that was when the sun would shine the brightest.
He breathed in deeply, a content sigh escaping from his lips.
I kind of wanted to post this chapter already, but it fits better later on! I loved writing Sunshine. He is so adorable. <333 I can't use this as the next chapter yet because I really should wrap up the Storm-Cold Fox storyline first. Sunshine's chapter advances more of the plot... We're not in that part of the story yet. XD;
Dishonest Honesty (Legend of Sun Knight) When I regained consciousness, the first thing I saw was a very uninteresting ceiling. It was light gray, with a few bumps here and there. I actually thought it was merely my own ceiling, except the ceiling was coming into sharp focus. I don’t think I ever noticed the unevenness of my ceiling before. After years of endless paperwork, my eyesight just wasn’t as good as it used to be. Sometimes, I had to squint if I wanted to see things clearly.
Has my eyesight improved? What an uninteresting sight to see in such clarity…
Gentle fingers disturbed my musings about the uninteresting ceiling and my maybe-better-than-usual-eyesight. The fingers threaded through my hair, ghosting across my neck at where my hair ended. My head was also resting on something that was softer than any pillow I’d ever used before.
Wait…
Immediately, my hand flew up to my hair because there was no way it could be short enough to expose my neck. I would never willingly chop off my carefully maintained hair. I then encountered the hand that was playing with my hair. Dainty fingers grasped mine in a loose hold.
“Earth Knight, are you alright now?” a female voice asked in concern. The voice was soon matched with a face that was now blocking the uninteresting ceiling from my view, but I’d really rather have that view back.
This is the Earth & Storm body-swap fic that follows up on Bittersweet Sweetness. Yeaaaah, still not done with body-swapping... This is some random excerpt from Part 3. :3;;;
The Woes of a Vice-Captain (Legend of Sun Knight) As a vice-captain, you know that behind every great captain, there's a great vice-captain. In other words, you know not to be fooled by the captains -- they're not perfect or infallible, especially not without their second-in-command. Each and every one of them needs their vice-captain in some way. It’s not that you think so highly of yourself that you feel your captain can’t live without you. It’s just that you know it’s your responsibility to assist your captain in every way possible.
...including preparing blueberry sandwiches, smoothing out relationship problems, buying baking ingredients, fixing doors...
I really want to write this fic in 2nd person, but I'm not sure that's all that great an idea... XD;;
Entries in a Holy Knights Journal - Fifth Entry (Legend of Sun Knight) I didn't do it on purpose. Really, I didn't. I just reacted, like well, usual. I mean, I am the brash Blaze Knight after all. I'm not known for thinking things through. Next thing I knew, the corridor lit up with my spirit flames.
And then everyone started laughing their heads off.
This chapter features Blaze and Cloud. :3;; It hasn't come together at all.
Memories of the Future Chapter 22 (Mekakushi no Kuni) “Namiki-san, could you hand me the tape?” asked Kaichou’s younger brother. Wordlessly, Masahiro passed the tape over. The younger boy flashed Masahiro a grateful smile that reminded him a lot of the smile Kaichou gave him whenever Masahiro lent her a hand. Masahiro shook himself out of his memories and continued tackling the task of plastering the walls with flashy decorations that sported phrases like “Happy Birthday!” and “Congratulations!” in huge font.
I should really just sit down one day and write the rest of the fic.
*looks up* OTL
Why do I have so many unfinished fics. ;____;
No, really, what's next? Finishing Behind Closed Doors by the end of January. I hope to finish Bittersweet Sweetness soon too. And then tackle some of my other plotbunnies. So once again, my goal is to finish my WIPs.
...also maybe write more fics that aren't LSK... XD;; Original fiction would be nice. ♥ As well as responses to new series. I've always wanted to write shortfic right after watching a movie or reading a new series, but I always just let the plotbunnies hop away. -___-;
January
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 16 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,589 words)
Lessons in Demeanor - Lesson Three: Empathize (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,269 words)
I started January off with two updates to my LSK WIPs, Bittersweet Sweetness and Lessons in Demeanor. This pretty much set the pace for the entire rest of the year, haha... By this point, I was having trouble wrapping up Bittersweet Sweetness. =/ (...it's still not finished yet OTL)
As for the update to Lessons in Demeanor, I was hoping to be able to finish the fic before the new round for
no_true_pair. That so did not happen. XD I posted Lesson Three only one day before the new round started.
February
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 17 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,614 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 18 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,168 words)
By Part 17, I reached the end of my notes for Bittersweet Sweetness and had to sit down and plan the next parts out. XD ...which meant tossing Adair into the fic for some reason, aklsdjf;asdjf. Okay, self-indulgence, yeah...
March
Lessons in Demeanor - Lesson Four: Practice (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,992 words)
Lessons in Demeanor - Lesson Five: Drink More Tea (end) (Legend of Sun Knight, 2,363 words)
Goodness, these two chapters grew so much on me! These Lessons were only meant to be around ~1k each, but... *looks at Lesson Five* Hahaha. These two chapters were so much fun to write. I really liked torturing making fun of Earth. Since I was determined to finish this fic, I didn't have a chance to work on other fics during the month... Since when have I turned into such a bad multi-tasker... Okay, I guess I was always bad at working on multiple fics. OTL
Lessons was always only meant to be 5 chapters. I was very happy I managed to write it as 5 chapters like I had planned. 8D;
April
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 19 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,421 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 20 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,744 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 21 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,851 words)
April was dedicated to updating Bittersweet! Starting aiming for weekly updates, hoping I could finish the fic. Aaaaand I was totally fangirling over Adair in these chapters. /o\
May
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 22 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,907 words)
Hametsu; Ruin and Salvation (Prince of Tennis, 4,480 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 23 (Legend of Sun Knight, 2,119 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 24 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,647 words)
Three more updates for Bittersweet in my attempt to update weekly, but then that stopped happening... And whoa, a oneshot for something not LSK? It only happened because I joined funpotexchange, where I was matched up with xiahwase and wrote this high fantasy AU of Prince of Tennis for her featuring Tezuka/Ryoma. Without that exchange, this fic wouldn't exist at all. I had a lot of fun creating all these different races and mapping out the history of this fantasy world. Of course, being the utterly hopeless Yu Wo fan that I am, I borrowed a concept from one of her novels. |D;;; It's what the entire premise of Hametsu is based on. Er, I believe I wrote Hametsu in April or was it actually March... Anyway, it didn't get posted until later.
Hametsu was actually meant to be longer. There was an entire plotline I didn't get around to, but I didn't feel I could write it out with my skills, so I ended it where I ended it (a sort of happily ever after for Ryoma and Tezuka). :3;; Basically in Hametsu, the demon race (the mamono) have hametsu, one person that they can't go against. Kind of a one-way soul bond. Ryoma is Tezuka's hametsu. Turns out that he is also Atobe's hametsu even though it's usually unheard of for two people to have the same hametsu. (Ryoma is just such a broken character, pffft. Main character syndrome, haha). There were going to be several other demons introduced (Yukimura and Sanada as well as others) and lots of misunderstandings over each demon's hametsu and such. It was too complicated for my skills, what with people pretending that someone's their hametsu when they're not and all that. If I hadn't been so focused on LSK, I might have tried my hand at expanding Hametsu because there was a lot more I could have explored. :3;; But well, my hands were tied with Bittersweet Sweetness...and are still tied. :'D;;
June
Invincible, that is the Legend: Prologue (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 1,102 words)
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 1 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,059 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 25 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,620 words)
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 2 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,343 words)
Lucathia, what are you doing starting another longfic. Invincible is a crossover between Half Prince and Legend of Sun Knight, and it is turning out massive. I wasn't going to start the fic until I finished Bittersweet, but I kind of couldn't resist posting it. OTL I have a lot of ideas for this verse (crossoveeers are loooove), but uh, I'm currently questioning the way I have these chapters set up, limiting myself to one POV per chapter. OTL I should have just done my usual switching POVs all over the place thing which usually advances the time (instead of how I'm going back and forth in time to cover missing POVs...). It would mean that I wouldn't have to spend so many words with each character, and the plot would move faster. ^^;; But at the moment, the story is moving really, really slowly because I'm just indulging and world building, hahahahaha... XD; The first two chapters focuse on Neo and Aldrizzt. I had such a blast writing them. I can't wait until I revisit them. ♥ (And now I can write more about them because many people have read Unbeatable too! When I posted this, Unbeatable hadn't been translated yet, haha...)
Part 25 of Bittersweet is when the fic hit 40k. At that time, I questioned myself why the fic turned out so long. It's only meant to be a retelling of the first novel... and just the ending part too. Anyway, I can't wait until I finish the fic because it would mean I'd have more time to write other fic featuring Sun. XDDD See, I've already got body-swap down. So many other possibilities... Soul-linking? De-aging? Gender-swapping? 8D;; all these things I want to put Sun through, bwahahaha
40k is probably not a lot for many, but it's a lot for me. x__x I've only ever wrote one other fanfic that's over that word count.
July
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 3 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,284 words)
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 4 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 2,990 words)
Invincible took over. /o\ Even though I didn't mean for that to happen! But you know, brand new, shiny fic. Chapter 3 was actually really hard to write though since it features Gui's POV and I am so not a genius. As for chapter 4, that one I had more fun with. I just really wanted to write Chasel because of a few of Yu Wo's plurks. (And in a recent plurk, she mentioned that Chasel likes black tea. klajsdf;af; omg, I got it right in my fic!! XDDDD Something about how it calms him?)
August
Ten minutes is all I ask for (oneshot) (Kuroko no Basket, 3,901 words)
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 26 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,766 words)
Dead in the Knight (oneshot) (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,885 words)
Suddenly, Kuroko no Basket. XD; Ten minutes is all I ask for was written for stillskies for parallelsfic. Again, if not because of an exchange, this oneshot probably wouldn't have happened. :3;; It was fairly grueling to write but also very rewarding. I liked that I actually managed to cover quite a long period of time in this fic because I always have a difficulty with pacing (*looks at Bittersweet*). I tried to structure the fic like a basketball match but uh, somehow only got to half-time, whoops. Dialogue only happens between periods. I wonder if that was evident or not. XD I was somewhat behind on Kuroko no Basket before writing this, so when I got my assignment, I took the chance to catch up with the manga, and I took copious notes. ♥ This is yet another one of my fics where the title happened first, and then I scrambled around trying to figure out the actual story. It happens to me a lot. XD I really grew to like Riko, Hyuuga, and Kiyoshi while writing this fic.
Dead in the Knight... Where do I even start?! It was a very spontaneous fic written for
fic_promptly. It's supposed to be a short comment fic, haha... Drabbles were totally not on my mind this year. ^^;; I had a lot of fun writing this zombie!AU of LSK. AND I have a ton of ideas too, like Lesus questioning Grisia about his mission... But nooo, I'm not writing a follow-up. This is a oneshot. Yes. A oneshot. I really wish more spontaneous writing would happen for me. I've spent a lot of time writing this year but don't have much to show for it because of how long I'm taking just to put down a few words. T___T;
September
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 27 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,767 words)
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 5 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,272 words)
One update for each. :3;; HAHAHAHAHAHA Part 27 can pretty much be considered the climax of Bittersweet, and what a...climax it is. /o\ Yeaaaah, this was planned from the start, pfft, but I can't believe something like that took twenty-seven parts to get around to. /o\ I dropped hints here and there about where the trinket was located.... yeah. XD;;;
Chapter 5 of Invincible features Wicked! This really would have worked better as Chapter 4 instead so that the Gui-Wicked plotline wasn't suddenly disrupted by Chasel's POV... Oh well. XD; What can I say... I really wanted to write Chasel at the time. XDDD Invincible was actually inspired by prompts I received for a previous round of
no_true_pair where I had tossed in crossover lists featuring characters from 1/2 Prince and LSK. I really wanted Aldrizzt to meet Wicked since Aldrizzt doesn't know any other dark elves that aren't evil. I also wondered about how Wicked would fare in the LSK world considering that there is a lot of hate towards dark elves in that world. Then I got to thinking about how all the 1/2 Prince characters would fare since they're used to their own world instead of the LSK world. Wicked was supposed to be the main character, or at least a very central character, but so far it doesn't seem like this fic has a main character at all. Which is uh, kind of problematic. It wouldn't be if I could write like George R. R. Martin, but I can't, haha. What is with all these different POVs... I wonder how many different POVs I'll end up with by the time I finish the fic. (I really hope I can finish the fic). Chapter 5 was hilarious... to me at least, because Gui and Wicked end up having to work together. They're stranded (sort of alone) in a foreign world, so maybe this will help them bond a bit. XD;
October
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 6 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,424 words)
The Road to Becoming Impressive (oneshot) (Legend of Sun Knight, 2,801 words)
Let this be known as the month where Lucathia praised Adair waaaay too much. XD; Chapter 6 of Invincible does not advance the plot at all. It was entirely me exploring my head canon about Adair, borrowing the chance to write about his daily duties here instead of in some oneshot. XD;;
And then of course I also wrote a oneshot detailing Adair's awesomeness, pfffft.
no_true_pair always helps me come up with oneshots, or else I probably wouldn't have written this. XD;; For some reason, I think all of the oneshots I've written for the community so far have been focused on Adair... XD;;; (Lessons in Demeanor was not a oneshot, so that doesn't count, haha). I really do believe that Sun has a hand in Adair's awesomeness, as well as in many other people's awesomeness, but probably not as much as I imply in this fic. XDD
November
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 28 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,382 words)
Invincible, that is the Legend: Chapter 7 (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight, 3,249 words)
After much toil, part 28 of Bittersweet happened. It reads more like filler to me... but I realized while writing part 28 that I made an error in one of my calculations. OTL So yeah, I have to change some of my plans! We are so headed for an ending now though. No, I'm not just saying this like how I've been saying it since 2011. XD;; The ending is near. That, and I've also started writing the sequel, so I better finish Bittersweet already, pfft. So yeah. I wrote a bit of Dishonest Honesty (the sequel) during November, but since I haven't posted it, I haven't counted in my 2012 word count.
Chapter 7 of Invincible also happened during November. 8D; This chapter features Storm! I always have a difficult time writing Storm. I was a little surprised though, at how much headcanon I ended up being able to explore in this chapter. I'm satisfied~. ♥ Also, I got to write Adair AND Storm in the same scene again (I secretly, or well, not so secretly, ship them, hahahahaha). So that was pretty cool. XD; And then I got to bring in my favorite character from 1/2 Prince, so how can I not be jumping all over this chapter? XDDDd Actually, Cold Fox was going to be the POV character for this chapter, but I thought it would be more exciting to introduce him from someone else's POV. ;) Glad I did so, because now that I've taken so long with the next chapter, I can actually include more of Cold Fox's background while writing his POV since most readers have read the entire canon now! \o\ And know that he's part of the criminal underworld. XD; Flying daggers, whoot.
December
Behind Closed Doors Part 1 (Legend of Sun Knight, 1,936 words)
Don't Assassinate the Pigeons (Oresama Teacher, 7,183 words)
I uh, didn't update any of my WIPs during December. Instead, I wrote this very, very silly fic called Behind Closed Doors. /o\ I wrote most of Part 1 through dictation. I just wanted to try out Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It was fun dictating a fic! But also very, very embarrassing considering the content of the fic. XD;; I wrote the fic for
no_true_pair yet again, and it (wait for it) features Adair. XDDD;; The second half (Part 2) doesn't feature Adair as much but rather features Sun trying to find out who cursed Adair. I'm not very good at writing investigation scenes, so I still only have the intro of part 2 written, ahahaha... I hope I can actually finish it.
I wrote Don't Assassinate the Pigeons for specialrhino for yuletide! The word count exploded on me, omg. XD;; I've always wanted to write more Oresama Teacher fic (I usually toss Oresama Teacher characters at No True Pair, but I haven't been able to write anything outside of LSK yet), so I was super happy to get this assignment! I really haven't written much fic that's not LSK in 2012 though, so it was a little difficult changing gears here. (I really should have reread the chapters more, but I kind of ran out of time, oops...so I didn't feel I had a strong enough grasp of all the characters -___-;). I was going to turn in just the first scene with Mafuyu and Takaomi in that compromising situation, but then my mind supplied the rest of the fic. XD;; And it was going to be long. I managed to wrestle what I wanted to get across into a ~7k fic, which was good. Phew. XD; I almost thought I wouldn't be able to finish! Specialrhino mentioned liking Takaomi/Mafuyu, so they were the focus of the fic. Well, they were supposed to be, but it turned out more gen than anything... Specialrhino also mentioned how Oresama Teacher seems like it would be your typical shoujo, but then it turns out that the characters are just teary-eyed over friendship and seishun. ♥ I tried to capture the tone of the original in this fic! I also tried to include bits and pieces from the other prompts included, like how Okegawa got started with carrier pigeons, and Hayasaka and Yui being close to each other. They were probably meant to be separate prompts, but they really helped me flesh out the characters in this fic that somehow turned into an ensemble fic. XD
Halfway through, Hayasaka ended up getting a lot of the focus. (Like...what? Wasn't this fic supposed to be about Mafuyu and Takaomi...) I had fun with that though, since we don't know Hayasaka's background, just that he's possibly rich since he mentioned having a maid. We also don't know his first name. Why hasn't his first name been mentioned? So... I made up one that's super out there for him, pfffft, and I thought, maybe his hair isn't dyed. Maybe it's natural. XD Maybe he's only half Japanese!
There were a lot of things... I felt needed to be followed up in this fic that I kind of just...dropped because I was pressed for time and forgot to explain those parts. (like why Okegawa allowed Mafuyu to sit next to Takaomi in the theaters by the end) OTL Well, that teaches me not to cut the deadline so close, but then I never learn. ~_~
Also, I really wanted to have Takaomi kidnapped (and then everyone else wondering who would even dare to do that), but that didn't work out for the fic. XD
I totally gave in to randomly switching POVs in this fic. Whenever I got stuck, it was like, alright, time for a POV change! /o\ Well, I hope, now that I've written something for Oresama Teacher once again, that I'll write more in the future. ♥ My other Oresama Teacher fic was called Something Strange (and written on a whim). I was so tempted to name this fic "Something Messy" but that would have totally given me away... Then the fic was going to be named "At Your Command" but in the end, I settled on "Don't Assassinate the Pigeons." Very...strange name. It came about because of the summary...which I didn't end up keeping. XDDD;
Total number of stories: 3 multi-parters, 5 oneshots (if I don't count Behind Closed Doors as longfic)
Total word count: ~75,000 in fanfic posted (less words than last year, though I wrote around the same amount of words in fanfic. The extra words from 2011 were original fiction...which I didn't write much of in 2012...). I didn't count words I didn't post. :3;; My goal was 150,000 words! I reached the uh, halfway point. OTL
Fandoms written in: Legend of Sun Knight, 1/2 Prince, Prince of Tennis, Kuroko no Basket, Oresama Teacer. It was basically all LSK except for 3 oneshots in the other fandoms. A super LSK-filled year. 0___0;;
Leitmotif(s) of the year: Errrr... probably not a fitting answer, but humor and friendship! I seem to only write humor and friendship lately. Just look for gen labeled with humor and friendship, and maybe it'd be written by me, pfft. Very influenced by Yu Wo's works... I guess this is what translating her works and pouring over the translations does to my own writing... OTL (But then, I've always enjoyed series with humor and friendship, so I guess I'm approaching what I like to read with my writing? XD;;;)
Favorite fic: Lessons in Demeanor, especially parts 4 and 5. I had so much fun writing those two parts. Sometimes I even reread this fic and laugh. /o\ do ppl actually do that with their own fic I think I might enjoy tormenting Earth a bit too much.
Best fic: Errrr, I'd say Invincible, that is the Legend because it is turning out to be an epic undertaking, and I've always wanted to write something like this (but have always been afraid to). I'm actually doing world-building, omg. That might not completely fail. Now, if only I can get around to what I have planned later on for the fic! Though of course, yet again, my pacing is questionable.
Most popular fic: Ten minutes is all I ask for because of several reasons! 1) It's written for Kuroko no Basket, and the fandom really exploded because of the anime 2) It was for Parallels, so it got more of an audience 3) I know it was recced at least once, which brought in more readers 4) It's pairing fic of a reasonably popular pairing even if there weren't a lot of fic of the pairing around yet when I wrote the fic and 5) naked confessions, pfffft.
Most underappreciated fic: Behind Closed Doors. XDDDD I thought it would get more of a reaction, hahahahaha. Ahem. But it's not like it's a super great fic or anything, so, pffft. (I was kind of just expecting more people to laugh at me. XD;;;)
Favorite first lines:
It's been three days since I last saw Ceo. ( Dead in the Knight)
I came up with this line and just knew I had to write the rest of the fic. ♥
Most fun fic: Behind Closed Doors. I was grinning and laughing my head off while writing... XD;
Sexiest fic: Uhhhh... Don't Assassinate the Pigeons!? Except not really. XD;; But I did get teased for the beginning part, pffft. I write really tame stuff, okay. No sexy fic from me.
Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Ten minutes is all I ask for. I really grew to like the characters, especially Riko. ♥ I didn't pay her as much attention before, but during my reread of Kuroko no Basket, I read the series paying special attention to her.
New pairing/genre/fandom you never predicted writing in January: Kuroko no Basket. I've written all the other series before! Because well... I mostly wrote LSK, and only one oneshot for Prince of Tennis and one oneshot for Oresama Teacher in 2012. ^^;; KnB was a surprise. I don't think I have many more ideas for it either, sadly...
Hardest fic to write: Ten minutes is all I ask for. I knew I wanted to structure the fic after a basketball match but writing it out was very hard. I took forever writing this fic even though it wasn't even all that long. (Well, it turned out around ~4k). And then I ended up cutting the fic in half. I never even finished the second half. Thankfully the first half stood well on its own. ^^;; (The second half was where the fic got into OT3 territory and was mostly about the relationship...which I was really bad at writing).
Here's an excerpt from the unfinished second half: While they're watching the video, Hyuuga's hands dart out to snatch a few slices of the apple. Teppei also chews on his own slices. After one of Kuroko's passes, he comments, "I've never seen such an extreme specialist before. You've told me about him, but seeing him in action is entirely different."
"His passes are impressive, aren't they?" Riko asks. On the screen before her, Kagami catches Kuroko's pass. She shakes her head as Kagami makes a dunk. He always goes for the dunk.
"Yeah, I'd like to try catching one," Teppei says. He looks at Hyuuga curiously. "Can you catch that?"
Hyuuga scowls. Riko's used to his bad temper, especially his bad temper around Teppei. Somehow, the things Teppei says more often than not rub Hyuuga the wrong way. It's kind of like seeing a dog and a cat trying to get along with each other and failing spectacularly. Hyuuga says, "No, I can't. Kagami's the only one who can when Kuroko does one of those passes."
"Then we just have to practice until we can all catch that," Teppei says, as if it's as easy as that.
"I hate your optimism," Hyuuga says. "And I hate it when you make sound suggestions that you'll probably follow up with some stupid remark."
"Do you think I need to cut my fingernails beforehand to catch that?" asks Teppei, right on cue.
Hyuuga sighs and plants his face in one of his hands.
Riko just laughs. She's missed this easy camaraderie. Still, she shushes them and tells them to pay more attention to the video.
I was only about 1/3 of the way done with the 2nd half. Then I gave up. OTL
Biggest disappointment: Not finishing several of my longfics. *looks at Bittersweet Sweetness yet again* Not even one update to some of my older WIPs! OMG, how did 2012 pass by just like that without even one update for those fics.... DDDDD: Especially Memories of the Future. Come on. Only 8 chapters left out of 30!!!! ~__~ I think a reread of the series is in order... Also, not being able to keep up with NaNo... OTL. I just wish I could have written more. XDDD;;
Biggest surprise: Writing so much LSK. :O writing so much Adair. Writing longfic, even though I'm...terribly slow with them.
Most telling fic: Don't Assassinate the Pigeons because I end up doing my usual POV switching. XD; It's what I usually default to when I'm pressed. Also, humor and friendship~
What's next? Tackling a whole bunch of plotbunnies. Here, have some excerpts from each...Though who knows when I'll actually finish these. But they have been in the works. ~__~
And They Lived Happily Ever After (Bakuman) "Saiko, what in the world are you doing?" asks Takagi. "You're going to be late for the wedding!"
Mashiro knows this but he can't help going through his uncle's letters one last time, rereading the words that gave him courage to chase his dreams. He wonders if his uncle ever detailed his ideal marriage, but no matter how much he pours over the letters, he doesn't find any mention of his uncle's ideal marriage. His uncle never thought that far.
After the Bakuman manga ended, I really wanted an epilogue... so I decided to write my own. I never did get very far with the fic though, but I do have a lot of bullet points. ^^;;
Behind Closed Doors Part 2 (Legend of Sun Knight) Sun quickly spread his sensing out. It wasn't like he wanted to spout all this nonsense and waste his breath either, especially since he wanted to get to the bottom of Adair's curse as quickly as possible. When he spotted that the coast was clear, he leaned in and said in a low voice, "Is there anyone holding a grudge against me? Or the Sun Knight Platoon? Adair especially?"
"Against Adair?" asked Storm, one eyebrow raised. "Most likely no one. He's well-liked among all of the holy knights. There may be a few who envy him, but I wouldn't say any of them hold a grudge against him. He always listens to other people's woes after all. A good friend."
Sun listened and couldn't help but give himself a mental pat on the back for picking out and training such a capable vice-captain who knew how to get on people's good side. After all, Sun knew all too well how many people he had sent Adair to beat up and how many people were still Adair's friend despite having been beat up by him.
Storm continued musing without Sun's prompting.
"Against the Sun Knight Platoon? Not very likely either. They get along with most people. They're usually a friendly bunch, if a little rowdy."
Then, Storm smiled a bright smile that Sun didn't particularly like.
"Against you? Too many to count."
"..."
Whoops, long excerpt, but haha. I had fun with this scene. XD; I'm just having trouble with presenting clues for the investigation. Maybe I should even do away with the investigation. OTL
Bittersweet Sweetness Part 29 (Legend of Sun Knight) Since Grisia had not proven to be much of a sparring partner, I was still eager to spar. I left in search of the person I had in mind, spotting him exactly where I needed him to be -- at the training grounds.
*coughs* Not sure if I'm going to keep this or change it... Guess who Judgment is searching for. =P I actually have two versions of Part 29... Not sure which one I'm going to go with. Though actually I feel I should skip this scene altogether and get a move on with the story already, pfft.
Beyond the Storm Comes Sunlight (Legend of Sun Knight) "Grisia, do you know you have someone following you?" asked the future Blaze Knight in a loud voice one day.
It sounded more like: Do you know you have someone "stalking" you? Chikus Blaze darted his eyes at the person who was no more than twenty paces away from them. The future Blaze Knight narrowed his eyes. The person didn't even have the decency to hide and pretend he wasn't stalking Grisia! It was the least he could do after getting noticed.
Storm is actually not involved in this fic despite the title. It's actually a fic about *coughs* Adair. Who else... This was originally titled Warmth of the Sun. ^^;; This fic has been in the works for way too long... And has gone through way too many revisions despite not even being all that long.
My Friend, the Pope (Legend of Sun Knight)
I already posted a large snippet here. Haven't really fleshed out the fic much more than that, but I believe I will be doing a lot of POV switching yet again. Whenever I get around to this fic, that is. No idea when I'll get around to this fic...
He Never Knew Part 6 (Prince of Tennis) For Rikkaidai, the team with players that had met Echizen Ryoma across the net not once, but thrice, things were at a standstill despite their victory at nationals.
“It’s too early to polish that trophy, Akaya,” said one of Kirihara Akaya’s sempai. It could have been any of them, catching him in his act of sentimentality and stubbornness, but he wasn’t going to stop.
Soooo stuck with this fic. Part 6 features Rikkai. I kind of left the fic on a cliffhanger. /o\
Invincible Chapter ?? (1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight) While many of his companions had found or were with at least one familiar being from their world, Sunshine had yet to come upon anyone he knew. Or anyone at all, in fact. He did appreciate the birds though. It was too bad they couldn't answer his questions, but that didn’t stop him from chatting with them.
He tilted his head, hands splayed next to his crossed legs, fingers rubbing across the soft fibers of his flying carpet as he studied the sky around him, endless blue as far as his eye could see. He could never get tired of admiring the sky, of feeling the sun shining down on his skin, warming him to his very fingertips. Of the varying skies Sunshine had laid eyes upon since leaving the cave that had been his entire world, he loved fair skies the best; when there was not a cloud in sight, that was when the sun would shine the brightest.
He breathed in deeply, a content sigh escaping from his lips.
I kind of wanted to post this chapter already, but it fits better later on! I loved writing Sunshine. He is so adorable. <333 I can't use this as the next chapter yet because I really should wrap up the Storm-Cold Fox storyline first. Sunshine's chapter advances more of the plot... We're not in that part of the story yet. XD;
Dishonest Honesty (Legend of Sun Knight) When I regained consciousness, the first thing I saw was a very uninteresting ceiling. It was light gray, with a few bumps here and there. I actually thought it was merely my own ceiling, except the ceiling was coming into sharp focus. I don’t think I ever noticed the unevenness of my ceiling before. After years of endless paperwork, my eyesight just wasn’t as good as it used to be. Sometimes, I had to squint if I wanted to see things clearly.
Has my eyesight improved? What an uninteresting sight to see in such clarity…
Gentle fingers disturbed my musings about the uninteresting ceiling and my maybe-better-than-usual-eyesight. The fingers threaded through my hair, ghosting across my neck at where my hair ended. My head was also resting on something that was softer than any pillow I’d ever used before.
Wait…
Immediately, my hand flew up to my hair because there was no way it could be short enough to expose my neck. I would never willingly chop off my carefully maintained hair. I then encountered the hand that was playing with my hair. Dainty fingers grasped mine in a loose hold.
“Earth Knight, are you alright now?” a female voice asked in concern. The voice was soon matched with a face that was now blocking the uninteresting ceiling from my view, but I’d really rather have that view back.
This is the Earth & Storm body-swap fic that follows up on Bittersweet Sweetness. Yeaaaah, still not done with body-swapping... This is some random excerpt from Part 3. :3;;;
The Woes of a Vice-Captain (Legend of Sun Knight) As a vice-captain, you know that behind every great captain, there's a great vice-captain. In other words, you know not to be fooled by the captains -- they're not perfect or infallible, especially not without their second-in-command. Each and every one of them needs their vice-captain in some way. It’s not that you think so highly of yourself that you feel your captain can’t live without you. It’s just that you know it’s your responsibility to assist your captain in every way possible.
...including preparing blueberry sandwiches, smoothing out relationship problems, buying baking ingredients, fixing doors...
I really want to write this fic in 2nd person, but I'm not sure that's all that great an idea... XD;;
Entries in a Holy Knights Journal - Fifth Entry (Legend of Sun Knight) I didn't do it on purpose. Really, I didn't. I just reacted, like well, usual. I mean, I am the brash Blaze Knight after all. I'm not known for thinking things through. Next thing I knew, the corridor lit up with my spirit flames.
And then everyone started laughing their heads off.
This chapter features Blaze and Cloud. :3;; It hasn't come together at all.
Memories of the Future Chapter 22 (Mekakushi no Kuni) “Namiki-san, could you hand me the tape?” asked Kaichou’s younger brother. Wordlessly, Masahiro passed the tape over. The younger boy flashed Masahiro a grateful smile that reminded him a lot of the smile Kaichou gave him whenever Masahiro lent her a hand. Masahiro shook himself out of his memories and continued tackling the task of plastering the walls with flashy decorations that sported phrases like “Happy Birthday!” and “Congratulations!” in huge font.
I should really just sit down one day and write the rest of the fic.
*looks up* OTL
Why do I have so many unfinished fics. ;____;
No, really, what's next? Finishing Behind Closed Doors by the end of January. I hope to finish Bittersweet Sweetness soon too. And then tackle some of my other plotbunnies. So once again, my goal is to finish my WIPs.
...also maybe write more fics that aren't LSK... XD;; Original fiction would be nice. ♥ As well as responses to new series. I've always wanted to write shortfic right after watching a movie or reading a new series, but I always just let the plotbunnies hop away. -___-;