Happy Valentine's Day From These Soft Boys

You mentioned the ao3 author curse in one of your asks and I’ve never heard of this before? I am now super curious if you could maybe elaborate?

Oh BOY anon! Welcome welcome, this is a fun one.

You ever see one of those posts floating around, either here or on other social media, that's just a compilation of the most unhinged AO3 author's notes you've ever seen? The ones that are like "sorry this chapter is a day later than normal! My house was flooded and my fish died and my grandfather was struck by lightning three times in a row so I had to finish editing this in the hospital overnight. Please forgive me, next week will be back to our regular schedule!"

That's the AO3 author curse. It's not an always thing. It's not even a most of the time thing. But sometimes life goes to absolute shit, and sometimes that happens when you're in the middle of posting a fic, and sometimes you end up being incredibly apologetic about schedule slippage on writing that you are doing in your spare time for free while you're having to deal with Actual Real World Stuff and explaining why the schedule slippage occurred in the author's notes that makes your life sound completely batshit.

A couple of examples:

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CRACK

sideblog for weird or unhinged ao3 screenshots and quotes >:D feel free to send/submit yr own

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Im the one who just egged your house

starting a collection

(Me: I haven't yet had anything happen while posting, but while co-writing a fic with @ships-to-sail that was literally set in the afterlife and all about grief and the impact we have on the people we leave behind I had multiple family members/family friends die, which was uhhhhhhhhh not conducive to writing that particular subject matter lmao)

Think Out Loud

1.3K • Teen And Up Audiences • Firstprince • College/University AU

If Alex had known beforehand just how hot Henry the research guy would be, he definitely wouldn’t have volunteered for this damned brainwave input method experiment.

Read on AO3.

This is a one-shot that sparked me when I was suffering from severe writer's block with another WIP. 🤣

Just so you know, the brainwave input technology described in this work is purely fictional. Please refer to research papers if you'd like to learn about the state-of-the-art development in this domain in real life.

it’s 2024, and no one knows they’re engaged 💍 ✨💕

for casey hehe

Alex books an Airbnb studio with a shared bathroom across the hall. The other studio is occupied by a man with lush pink lips and impressive personal hygiene — really, he’s super diligent about lathering and rinsing. Alex would know, seeing as the lock to the bathroom is seriously unreliable. Or: the Airbnb romp you didn’t know you needed.

2K | M | Strangers To Lovers

Read on AO3!

OMG Thank you so much for recommending my urban sketcher AU! It really made my day 😍🥰

red white and royal blue fics!

I've been reading so much rwrb fanfiction lately so these are some of my favorites.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53056363/chapters/134233072

An urban sketcher au.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53028988

Alex is an influencer and accidently comes out to the internet by thirsting over Henry in a video.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50062960/chapters/126414574

Roommates to lovers featuring latte art.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/48037288

Henry and Alex both show up at a divorced parents mixer. Neither are divorced and neither are parents.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45089686

Some misunderstandings caused by Henry's brittishness. (Or Alex's Americaness)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/51287146/chapters/129585469

Henry posts sleep stories on youtube. Alex has some complaints about it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31879084/chapters/78933682

Actor au.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27641189/chapters/67631585

Camp councilor enemies to lovers.

Henry and his ties: (part 2)

Here for part 1

Blue and white stripes (same as PR handshake)

Formal and serious, navy is the color of authority

Dark blue with red dots

Required formality, even alone he still needs to wear clothes suitable for a royal. Red can mean danger or his enclosed love

Red with light blue and white stripes

Public image, wearing red is attention-grabbing and, even if he doesn't want to get public after the emails leak, he's forced to

Royal blue and white stripes again but thinner

Power and authority, it's Henry's moment to stand up for himself and fight for his own future

Yellow roses

Hope and youth, as Henry says, it also has a link to Texas history: "Yellow Rose of Texas" is a popular song since the 1930s with a full story on it's own. (You can read here.) Henry is finally getting the happy future he deserves and can hope for a bright sunny future with the love of his life

Side addition: solid tie is the basic pattern that doesn't add anything to the tie and lets the color speak for itself; polka dot adds playfulness and/or sophistication; stripes mean classic and elegant but can differ from one another (Henry always wears the British type with stripes that run from left shoulder down to the right side)

rwrb fic: i offer you explanations of yourself

Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor

Summary: AU. Fresh off a frustrating Grindr interaction, Alex heads to Texas to do legal work at the border for three months. While he’s gone, June and Nora meet Henry and Pez and become friends, making Alex feel a little replaced. Things get worse before they get better, because when he finally meets Henry, Alex realizes it’s not the first time they’ve crossed paths. Told through texts, lists, emails sent and unsent and even a GrubHub order, this is the story of how Alex and Henry get from a bad second impression to maybe the rest of their lives.

Read on Ao3 HERE

hey next time i tell you i want to try exploring my newfound bisexuality remind me to go to a bar or a party or a midnight showing of the mummy at the sunshine but NOT GRINDR irl chaos demon i did warn you that grindr might be going into the deep end real fast, alejandro, but like spirit the stallion of the cimarron, your desire to figure out if liam’s drunk rambling was right could not be tamed irl chaos demon what happened?? i sent a picture of my face to this guy i’d been talking to for like a week, who i thought i was hitting it off with and he fucking ghosted me

rwrb fic: words, any words, your laughter

Amazing banner made by @midnightsfp

Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor

Summary: AU. Alex is a somewhat disillusioned actor who finally lands the project of his dreams: a story that matters, directed by one of his idols, Rafael Luna. The only problem is that the screenwriter is Henry Fox, who can’t seem to stand Alex, and who Alex would love to shove into a cake—neither of them expect the way working together will change both of their lives forever. Or, five times Henry Fox, screenwriter with the hottest script in town, talked about Alexander Claremont-Diaz, up-and-coming actor, and one time Alex talked about him right back.

Read on Ao3 HERE

“Up to the challenge?” Alex says, and then says it again, just in case Zahra missed it. “Up to the challenge?” “It’s a perfectly normal quote, Alex, especially since you haven’t really met Henry Fox before,” Zahra says. “Uh, we’ve met, Z,” Alex shoots back. “Or, I tried to meet him and congratulate him on his script like two years ago at that amfAR benefit and he looked at me like I was some sort of unwanted sentient mud and walked away, remember?”

E | 5K | FirstPrince Oneshot

They meet at a bar. Alex is young; fresh out of law school, sharp and charismatic and oh-so attractive. The sex is absolutely incredible, and Henry has no regrets. At least not until the morning after when he finds himself opposite Alex in a meeting — equipped with the painful knowledge that Alex’s boss thinks Alex’s only function in said meeting is to sit there and look all pretty. Somebody ought to call HR right about now. Or: when sexual relationships mix with professional ones, Alex and Henry make the most of it.

Read on AO3!