[Meme] AO3 works

[edenfalling]

As seen in many places:

I currently have 66 works archived at the AO3. Pick a number from 1 (the most recently posted) to 66 (the first thing I posted there), and I’ll tell you three things I currently like about it.

Comments

[branchandroot]

33, just to be symmetrical.

[edenfalling]

#33 - Wherein Two Moirails Make the Best of a Stolen Afternoon. This is a Homestuck fic about Karkat and Gamzee, with the conceit of Karkat being somewhat touch-starved. (It's retroactively non-canon, since we now know that Gamzee was hiding from Karkat as well as from everyone else, but I still like it as a look at what a more functional moirallegiance between them could be.)

1. I really like the opening paragraphs about the troll truism that people take after their lusii in personality, and Karkat's changing attitude toward that idea.

2. The way Gamzee never stops being creepy if you pay attention to the background details instead of the pale fluff. I am particularly fond of the little throwaway scene-setting mention that he's "decanted the decaying corpses of your friends into giant cylinders of greenish fluid, and he's leaning against Nepeta's tube". And also the way his clothes are "stained with his own blood and other, less mentionable things."

3. The touch-starved stuff, and the way Karkat just comes undone when Gamzee rubs his back. If ever there was a character who NEEDED a massage, it would have to be Karkat.

[cherokee1.livejournal.com]

Numbah fitty. 50.
C

[edenfalling]

#50 - Postcards from Naxos (You Don't Have To Go Home, but You Can't Stay Here). This is an Inception fic. It is also a remix, for Remix Madness 2011 -- the original fic is With Thanks to Apollo, by Sour_Idealist.

1. Sour_Idealist's story is about Ariadne's little sister getting a glimpse of Ariadne's new criminal life and associates via photos on her smartphone. I managed to work ever single mentioned photo (and a few that were more implied than outright named) into my remix, using them as timestamps to build scenes around. That's a fun structural gimmick that I am still fond of.

2. It's a happy and mostly fluffy gen story about friends and teammates and finding a job you love. There are never enough stories of that type, particularly for female characters. (It's also a story about a female character who has a family whom she loves dearly and doesn't conveniently forget, but she chooses her career instead of putting their desires first, which is another story type I see all too rarely.)

3. For a story written under a ridiculous timecrunch -- I made an outline at work and then went home and wrote 5,000 words in about five hours -- it caries a fairly respectable veneer of realism, though this is due more to me throwing in stuff I already knew than to any real-time research.

[cherokee1.livejournal.com]

And it passes the bechdal test?
C

[edenfalling]

I had to think about that for a moment, but yes, it does. Ariadne has two conversations with her roommate Nina, and while I glossed over the conversation with her sister very quickly (since I didn't want to completely recapitulate Sour_Idealist's story), that does techincally also count. :-)

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

55

[edenfalling]

#55 - More Sins Than Condemnation, written in 2010. This is a Naruto fic, and one of two sidefics for What Isn't Broken (Can Still Be Fixed), which itself is a remix of megyal's Put a little fixing on it. In particular, this is the Iruka-centric fic that explains how and why he was assigned as Sasuke's parole officer, and also a little bit about why Sasuke wasn't executed out of hand -- yay politics?

1. Hinata is serving as her father's representative in the council meeting. Go Hinata! She also gets to speak up and provide relevant information.

2. Kakashi doesn't entirely get his own way. Anko and others remind him that nobody gets infinite second chances, no matter how much Kakashi likes Sasuke or feels personally responsible/guilty for his fate. I think it's more interesting for there to be multiple valid points of view and for people to compromise than for one side to be Always Right and curbstomp the other. (It's also more realistic, but given that we're talking about magical ninja, I'm not sure how much realism counts relative to other concerns.)

3. Iruka agreeing to take the job because he understands the real reason Kakashi assigned it to him: not because he has any particular rapport with Sasuke, or any training in psychological manipulation, but because he's the only one Kakashi can trust to try, honestly and without setting Sasuke up to fail. (And also without cutting Sasuke too much slack -- that goes unspoken, but if you follow Iruka's thoughts it's clear that he agrees with Anko that infinite second chances cannot and should not be on offer.) Because Iruka is a good person and I love that about him.

~~~~~

Random bonus things I like about fic #58 - What Isn't Broken (Can Still Be Fixed), because I am still slightly tipsy and got a little confused while hunting down links and started writing three things for that story instead, whoops:

1. The fight scene. I just really, really like the fight scene at the end of the story, okay? Partly because it's one of those "dramatic emotional realization in the middle of a crisis" scenes (and said dramatic realization is NOT about romance -- the romantic confrontation happened earlier), but mostly because I think it's just a good fight scene and I think I did a pretty good job of making Sasuke's use of Kirin seem perfectly reasonable and not a complete and utter deus ex machina. (Which is kind of is, if you want to get technical, but pffft, who cares, it's an awesome jutsu and I invoke Rule of Cool.)

2. Sakura! Because I love her and Team 7 has THREE members, not just two boys, so aside from the fact that she's awesome and always deserves larger story roles, I am not happy bringing Sasuke home unless his bonds with BOTH his former teammates are fixed. I don't care that the NaruSasu bond ended up being romantic-ish in this story (as required by megyal's original fic); platonic SakuSasu friendship is just as important in my book. *nods firmly*

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Second try at random number generation: 30

(because the first try gave me 50, which Cherokee had already chosen). :)

[edenfalling]

#30 - Last Call. This is a Naruto fic, the first in my Summer Camp & Politics AU, wherein Sakura and Naruto talk about their plans for the future during their last stint as counselors at Leaf Shadow Summer Camp.

1. The background world-building. Which is not what I was trying to write in the slightest. The prompt was for camp counselors at a lake, but while that IS the setting, the story could really be set anywhere; the conversation is the main point. I had a lot of fun translating bits of Naruto canon into a modern-ish setting while also making it clear that this modern-ish world is NOT our world. I used canon country names for that purpose, and tossed in some mentions of deities who are apparently verifiably active in that world for added flavor. (This had the added side benefit of setting up a joke at Sasuke's expense. *grin*)

2. The friendship between Sakura and Naruto. He flirts with her a bit and they're comfortable with fairly intimate physical contact, but (Word of God, here) they are not romantically involved. I also like the way Naruto clearly respects the hell out of Sakura and thinks she can do anything she sets her mind to, and the way Sakura believes in him right back. (I also like the way Sasuke, while not actually present, is still very much in their thoughts. They are a three-person best friend unit, even if one of those three people is currently pretending otherwise.)

3. The bit where Naruto talks about his parents' deaths and tells Sakura that his dad wasn't actually popular until after he was assassinated. Partly because I am cynical and think it's more realistic, partly because it shows that Naruto may be idealistic but is not blindly so. And also because I had to get rid of Naruto's parents somehow in a world where "magic" is a bit less blatant than in Naruto canon with its super-powered ninjas. *wry*

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed that very much! I really liked the relationships sketched out, and did like Naruto's analysis of the politics of the assassination/investigation. Thanks.

[explodingfrogs.livejournal.com]

The inevitable Hitchhiker's reference: Forty-two.

[edenfalling]

#42 - Self Made. This is a tiny Lucifer ficlet, written for nextian in Yuletide Madness 2011.

Things I like about it:

1. Mazikeen! How much do I love Mazikeen? THIS MUCH. No, wait. MORE THAN THAT! She is freaking awesome and badass and terrifying and I got to write a ficlet showcasing that.

2. That she chooses her face because she wants to, because it is useful and reflects aspects of her self and who she wants to be, not just because Lucifer liked it. In fact, she deliberately wears different faces for a while before settling on the final one.

3. That she skins and butchers half her face and skull by hand, with a knife, rather than the easy way with shape-shifting magic. Like I said, Mazikeen is BADASS.

...

I still love that ficlet; thank you for reminding me of it! *valiantly restrains herself from rereading the entire run of Lucifer for the zillionth time*