Wow, now there's a bot going around on Ao3 telling people that the "moderators" will delete works from "deprecated" fandoms and impose bans.
Fearmongering bullshit, but it's fearmongering bullshit that seems to be taking advantage of the recent spotlight series in order to trick authors into deleting their fics.
Just. Why.
What the hell does anyone get out of making these bots.
It may take me a while to finish writing and publish the 18th instalment of Robin's Blues (I am after all, once again, in exam season) but I will make it up to you all with some snippets of another work of mine!
Alfred both loved and hated his granddaughter’s blue eyes, Thomas’ eyes.
He loved them because they reminded him of the man who once laughed through halls and who smiled like he held all the secrets of the universe.
He hated them for the same reason.
And now, they’re gone.
It should be a relief.
It is a relief.
But it’s also a wound.
Something sacred has vanished.
And Alfred is nothing but pain and reprieve held in the same trembling breath.
Because Thomas is gone.
Because Thomas will never really leave her (him).
https://archiveofourown.org/series/4163446
Me, in a creative slump (that I can't even call writer's block because I AM writing, I just don't think what I am writing really fits into my series without sounding repetitive/superabundant).
Also me, panicking because the first anniversary of "Robin's Blues" is fast approaching and I would really like to publish something in that date.
Anyways, how would you all feel if, before a confrontation of sorts between Dixie, Bruce and Talia, I talked a bit more about what happened just after Dixie's death? Specifically focusing on Bruce, Talia and Damian?
I WANT FOR AO3 TO HAVE A FILTER TO TAKE OUT ALL THE FICS I'VE ALREADY READ CUS MAN I'VE READ A LOT
Personally, I got into the habit of doing it once a year, when I'm working on my "Favorite" fic recs.
While I'm at it, here's a few tools I use that help greatly with my Ao3 experience!
Userscripts
Here's a few userscripts that I love for Ao3!
AO3: Kudosed and seen history: Highlight or hide works you kudosed/marked as seen.
This is the userscript that helps me the most when making fic recs. While browsing a tag or my history, I can see which fics I've already kudosed and I can decide to skip/hide individual fics (there's other userscripts out there if you want to permanently hide specific tags).
AO3 Review + Last Chapter Shortcut + Kudos-sortable Bookmarks: Adds shortcuts for last chapter and a floaty review box, sorts bookmarks by kudos.
AO3: Estimated Reading Time: Add an estimated reading time to a fic description in hours and minutes.
Calibre
Calibre is an ebook management software. You can download it here. I really love using Calibre to send fics I've downloaded to my kindle, but there's also a function where you can download all the fics in one Ao3 page, or multiple fics URLS, all at the same time. Just last night, I used it to download all my Buddie bookmarks. Super helpful! It also allows me to add my own covers to fics and use them on my Kindle. I love it!
A little gift/ preview for @freezer-bride-your-sweet-divine
(Thank you for your support in navigating tumblr and your endless feedback, I REALLY appreciate it)
This piece will eventually be part of my series,
https://archiveofourown.org/series/4163446
Or maybe it won't, but I felt like it was a waste to scrap it entirely!
It’s not that Bruce doesn’t love his sons.
He does.
Fiercely.
To the point of agony.
To the point of madness.
But they are sons.
They are legacy and reflection and consequence.
Dixie was origin.
Dixie was genesis.
Dixie was the very first moment he knew what it meant to live for someone outside of himself.
The moment that reshaped the architecture of his soul, rerouted the pathways of his cold, calculating heart.
Dixie didn’t make him Batman.
She made him Bruce, in the softest, most staggering ways.
He can explain why the others matter.
Jason needed saving.
Tim needed purpose.
Damian needed undoing.
But Dixie?
Dixie needed nothing from him (except, maybe, understanding, the one thing he was never able to provide her with) and yet she became his everything.
She wasn't the best of them because she was flawless.
She was the best of them because she was HIS.
His In every ugly, broken, radiant piece.
She was never built to be a soldier, even if she learned to fight before she learned to laugh.
She was not meant to carry the burdens she bore, and yet…God, she CHOSE to.
She chose to carry them.
Her brothers.
Their world.
Him.
Always him.
Even when he failed her.
Especially when he failed her.
Bruce knows all of his sons.
He can break them down, read their patterns, identify every fracture in their psyches.
But Dixie? Dixie remained unreadable, unknowable, even being the one he has known for the longest time, even being the one whose bones were shaped just like the ones he has known since before his own birth, his mother's.
She was his daughter in a way the others could never be, not just by blood, not just by name, but in understanding.
She KNEW him.
She knew him in the way a mirror knows its subject.
In the way a grave knows its dead.
None of the boys have ever looked at him the way she did, like she could see every ruin inside him and still believed something beautiful lived there.
Jason rages at him.
Tim studies him.
Damian judges him.
Dixie forgave him (Dixie raged and she studied and she judged too, but in the end she forgave him, she ALWAYS forgave him).
Again.
And again.
And again.
And that was a terrifying, holy thing.
Because forgiveness, real forgiveness, from someone like her…it CHANGES people.
The boys push him.
She grounded him.
The boys rebel.
She resisted.
She defied with love, with laughter, with hands that mended what others destroyed.
She wasn't his soldier (even if he knows she often viewed herself that way).
She was his compass.
He is not a man of poetry, but she made him one in the quiet moments.
Made him remember what lullabies sounded like.
Made him believe in softness.
Made him ache.
And he knows…it’s not that his sons are less.
It’s that Dixie was more.
More Bruce.
More memories.
More mystery.
More herself, in ways that none of them ever dared to be.
His sons always belonged to the world. She always belonged to him, not by ownership, not by right, but by that old, unshakable bond formed in the abyss between his birth and hers, between his grief and her grief, two wounded things clinging to each other like breath.
She was the child he never asked for, the one who became his first everything and the one who saved them all.
How could anyone ever compare to that?
They couldn't.
They never will.
I might have cried (multiple times already) while writing the anniversary bonus work of my series Robin's Blues.
THIS THING ISN'T FAIR
https://archiveofourown.org/series/4163446
Writing the AU of one of my own AUs, I discovered that, in my mind, Wally West enjoys the musicians of the summer of love.
Idk why, it just kinda fits, expecially because I dare you to look me in the eyes and tell me that Wally West wasn't made to belt out at the top of his lungs " With your love" by the Jefferson Starship (I know, back in the '60s they were the Jefferson Airplane, but alas) half-jokingly serenading the love of his life.
I actually wrote a fanfic centered around cabin 7, in which one of the main characters is Lee Fletcher. I already made a post about it, because the fanfic itself spawned from a tumblr prompt whose author I can't find (the post was on Pinterest and it was cropped).
The fanfic is called "Cabin seven's tango" and it is on Ao3, here is its link!
ALSO ALSO
THERE SHOULD BE MORE FANFICS ABOUT THE SILLY BACKGROUND CHARACTERS
CASTOR, POLLUX, LEE FLETCHER, MICHEAL YEW, ETC ETC!!!!
please
Im just feeling a certain way rn
https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helecthra/pseuds/Helecthra
42 posts