Recent AO3 updates: Hamon/Happy Endings (One Piece) and Darkside Tales (GW)

[maldoror_chant]

Since it seems everyone's fine with linking to AO3 - and this gives me more time to write rather than code html crap - here's what I have on AO3 at the mo. I'll drop a note here when I put up more.


Hamon (One Piece multi-chapter Zoro/Sanji)
Hamon: From Japanese, lit. 'blade pattern'. The pattern on the steel that characterizes a katana blade, acquired during the folding, forging and tempering process.

The Annoying Thing About Happy Endings (One Piece multi-chapter Zoro/Sanji, kinda/sorta a sequel to Hamon)
The annoying thing about Happy Endings is that they're generally not endings. And then life is all about finding the next crazy challenge and someone to share it with. Preferably someone not too aggravating, but Sanji has learned to make do.


Darkside Tales (Gundam Wing, 2 chapters, Wufei/Duo, oh god please read the warnings...)
A Preventer has caught a thief. How banal. Having a straight poker like Chang Wufei chain him up and hang him from the ceiling is a tiny bit on the left side of banal, but still within spitting distance, Duo judges. Nothing to see here, folks, keep walking.
But on the darkside of this tale, like a cracked photographic plate, monsters of the mind are revealed.


I'll be archiving 2-3 fics on weekends, I hope, just to chip away at the backlog. I wanted to get a short-ish fic in all 3 fandoms up right away so I have those in my tags. I went for Hunter's Moon and Hamon because they're classic pairings (I could have led with a Kakashi/Gai and watched regular Naruto readers run screaming for the woods) and good solid not-too-weird stories that are not too long.

And then I chose Darkside Tales for Gundam Wing. The best laid schemes of mice and men often garner algae. Or...something.

Comments

[moon_angelica]

It's been ages since I'd read a couple of those and I forgot how much I liked them :)

Quick suggestion...if Hamon and The Annoying Thing About Happy Endings are meant to follow each other perhaps making a series would be an idea? I find the series functionality one of the more useful things on ao3.

~ moonangelica

[maldoror_chant]

I did think of putting them together, but they don't actually follow each other entirely. Mihawk survives in Hamon, and doesn't in Happy Endings. Plus major tonal shift :P I decided to keep them separate. Glad you liked them!

Darkside Tales

[katarik]

*happy sigh* Oh, I *remember* Darkside Tales.

I see a couple places you changed things. I like the edited version better -- _Wufei watched him carefully, and continued speaking, slowly. "Once I realized what this suspect was talking about - and once he gave me all the details about this God of Death- "

Someone had just committed a spectacular suicide after murdering his own family..._

That's a much better line than the original. It stands out more, and it does a better job of highlighting both Shinigami's MO and underscoring the reveal coming up soon, of what's going on in this story with Duo and Wufei.

Small typos, because AO3 will let you edit after posting: _The few I leaned about_ should be learned here

_and sometimes they can keep me out. It they can't_ It should be If

_for over weeks_ missing a number here

Also I love love *love* what you do with identities here, the moments Duo is Duo and when it's Shinigami and then God, that all of those are both distinct from each other and not.

_And he would stop frightening young children and animals with the thoughts on his face._ I HAVE LOVED THIS LINE FOR YEARS. YEARS.

_Wufei hoped so, in the small private part of himself that the cold and solitude protected, like a freeze-dried, vacuum-packed flower._ AND THIS ONE TOO. SDJKLFDSAKJASFDK aaaaah the imagery there, this cold sere white space, mourning-stark, and a lone flower from a field, preserved and sacrosanct. The implication that this duty costs him something, and he knows it.

The Sally section hurts every time. I really like both that Wufei is explicit that revenge isn't the point, but doesn't quite seem to recognize the weight he does give Sally's death. That her killer he deliberately went after, went out of his way for. And the note that the memory of how ugly her death was doesn't affect him now, when Duo trying to comprehend him does affect him. It's a great reminder of how isolated he's made himself.

*siiiiiigh* And then that whole paragraph of Duo the firestorm, whimsically murderous, and Wufei not even consciously *deciding* how tired he is of being so cold. The last line is perfect.

Re: Darkside Tales

[maldoror_chant]

I wasn't sure anybody remembered this fit of insanity (but fun insanity!) I did fix up a lot of loose lines, but I didn't touch the good ones :) I also showed Duo's kaleidoscope personality a little more clearly.
Thanks for the typo spotting! This is another reason I like the idea of only posting on AO3, makes only one place I have to fix stuff :P