Title: The Rift Between Two Worlds
Author: _pinkchocolate
Pairings: Merlin/Arthur pre-slash (actually, pre-slash would be pushing it)
Rating: PG
Warnings: An unnecessarily angsty ending, a general lack of purpose, and an alarming absence of gay porn
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to BBC and anyone else who can stake a legitimate claim on Merlin (except Arthur).
Summary: The truth about Merlin comes out, and Arthur has a hard time accepting it.
Word Count: ~2,200
Beta: None.

( The Rift Between Two WorldsCollapse )

hd_holidays reveals are up, yay! :D I'm surprised that, for the most part, my suspicions about who wrote/drew what were confirmed. I guess I've been in fandom longer than I thought.

My amazing fic, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, was written by mizbean. Thank you so much for the fantastic gift! I adore it ♥ Anyone who hasn't read it yet should do so immediately.

I can now say I wrote Out From Under, aka The Fic From Hell, for the lovely bewarethesmirk. The title was indeed shamelessly stolen from the Britney Spears song, which I happened to be listening to while I was rushing to send in the fic before my deadline :p

Finally I can thank nqdonne, aki_hoshi, weasleywench, and boogabooga_xx for the betas and Laylee for the Britpick. They seriously saved my life ♥ ♥ ♥ I would've scrapped the fic early on in the writing process if not for their advice, encouragement, and hand-holding. If anyone's wondering why the ending seems a bit off, it's because I banged it out in the last five minutes and didn't have time to run it past them.

Another rec, as I start to dig deeper into the fics: For Whatever Ails You by frayach. I had meant to work my way backwards, but her name jumped out at me, and I couldn't resist. The fic makes fantastic use of the love potion cliche (oh, forced bonding fics, how I've missed you ♥) and simultaneously makes you laugh and breaks your heart. I wish it had gone on longer -- the ending came so quickly.

I need to start archiving my fest fics here :x *lazy*

Upon looking at SKOM for the first time in 3 months, I realised I had forgotten what it was about and figured, hey, what the hell, might as well finish this completely unrecognisable chapter before I actually stop to think.

So I did. And guess what? I actually had fun for once. It was great writing without self-set length restrictions. Writing for fests is always a constant stream of shit this is too wordy got to cut out this paragraph dammit 20K OF WORTHLESS CRAP FUCK IT ALL, but when I write SKOM, I can ramble as much as I want. Everyone probably knows this, considering this damn fic is already 130k and only about 2/3 finished.

Also, I have to say it: I love writing a fic without any pressure to add sex. I suck at sex, and it shows, and the whole thing is just a very stressful endeavour. I know "you don't need to write sex for fests" blah blah blah, but tbqh, the only H/D fics rated under R I've seen on multiple rec lists are classics. I just checked my bookmarks, and out of 200 H/D fics, only 7 of them are PG-13 or less. Two of them were classics. The rest are extremely short one-shots. So there you are. I'm not sure where I was heading with this paragraph. I'll shut up now. Here's the chapter.

Title: Some Kind of Miracle (22/?)
Author: Annie (_pinkchocolate)
Pairings: Harry/Draco
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Non-DH compliant, but still contains some DH spoilers; an excess of gratuitous flangst in this chapter
Disclaimer: I just take JK Rowling's world and make it slashy.
Summary: Draco is determined to live the last nine months of his life with no regrets. But when a series of unfortunate events exposes a list of his innermost wishes, ambitions, and desires to Harry Potter’s eyes, he might find that facing his imminent death is not so easy after all.
Word Count: ~2,900
Notes: Unbetaed. Let me know if there are any glaring errors. *** ETA: I just realised that this fic's two-year anniversary was four days ago. Wow. I applaud anyone who has put up with me for that long :p ***

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( “I don’t want to die alone,” Draco whispered.Collapse )

hd_inspired reveals are up! marguerite_26 wrote my favourite fic, Burn, Burn, and predictably enough, draykonis drew my favourite art piece, Pest Control. The cool thing about the fest was that I found out a lot of interesting stuff about new and old authors that really took me by surprise. The biggest disappointment was that none of my prompts ended up getting written :(

I wrote One-Winged Angels using a_queen_bee's prompt. I probably won't repost the fic here, but I will respond to the reviews eventually. Thanks to all my fantastic betas, especially avada_k, aki_hoshi, and brknhalo241. I would've scrapped the fic long ago if it weren't for avada_k -- she forced me to keep writing every time I hated the fic so much that I wanted to toss it in a fire. I still don't like it, but at least it's finished :P aki_hoshi and brknhalo241 were both absurdly helpful in rewriting the ending and improving the fic in general. If anyone wants a taste of what the ending looked like before they brought their good sense and ideas to the table, have a look.

( The last-ditch-effort crack ending of doom which I was prepared to send to the mods if worst came to worstCollapse )

Title: Some Kind of Miracle (21/?)
Author: Annie (_pinkchocolate)
Pairings: Harry/Draco
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Non-DH compliant, but still contains some DH spoilers
Disclaimer: I just take JK Rowling's world and make it slashy.
Summary: Draco is determined to live the last nine months of his life with no regrets. But when a series of unfortunate events exposes a list of his innermost wishes, ambitions, and desires to Harry Potter’s eyes, he might find that facing his imminent death is not so easy after all.
Word Count: ~2,400
Notes: Thanks to Vana for betaing.

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( A MomentCollapse )

Next

Title: With Roses in My Hand
Author: Annie (_pinkchocolate)
Pairings: Harry/Draco, implied Harry/Ginny
Rating: PG-ish
Warnings: Past infidelity, angst, established relationship of sorts
Disclaimer: I just take JK Rowling's world and make it slashy. The title, summary, and inspiration are all from the song “Dreaming with a Broken Heart” by John Mayer (yes, because of SYTYCD).
Summary: When you're dreaming with a broken heart, the giving up is the hardest part.
Word Count: 1107
Beta: None.
Notes: Just a quick something I improvised while trying to figure out what to do with one of my other fics. It started out as a Harry/Ginny songficlet to “Dreaming with a Broken Heart”, but somehow turned into more of an H/D fic as it went on.

( With Roses in My HandCollapse )

Title: Some Kind of Miracle (20/?)
Author: Annie (_pinkchocolate)
Pairings: Harry/Draco
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Non-DH compliant, but still contains some DH spoilers
Disclaimer: I just take JK Rowling's world and make it slashy.
Summary: Draco is determined to live the last nine months of his life with no regrets. But when a series of unfortunate events exposes a list of his innermost wishes, ambitions, and desires to Harry Potter’s eyes, he might find that facing his imminent death is not so easy after all.
Word Count: ~5,700
Notes: Thanks to Vana for betaing ♥ For those of you who are new to this fic, please note that I've been making minor grammar edits to the earlier chapters, so the headers of all the chapters I haven't yet edited (chapter 6 to chapter 19) are inaccurate.

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( A DiscoveryCollapse )

Next

hd_worldcup reveals were posted today, and Team Epilogue won! :D I'm so glad I got a chance to participate in this fest, even though it meant rushing to plan, organise, and write a fic in less than two weeks. There were many sleepless nights (I had four midterms and an essay due right after the pinch hit deadline) and countless rants at those friends of mine who know about my fandom life (you guys know who you are -- thanks for hearing me out when no one else would; I must have been insufferable ♥), but in the end, I had fun. Thank you to the fantastic participants (particularly my amazing Epilogue teammates), readers, and mods involved in the H/D World Cup for making my first fest so enjoyable!

I'm not gonna lie -- the story itself isn't my favourite of the fics I've written. There are several parts I'd like to explain and elaborate on, and many parts I would have changed if I'd had more time. I don't want to talk your ears off, though, so without further ado, here's the fic. I've edited the typos in the version that was originally posted (please let me know if there are any more) and changed the colour of James's eyes (thanks, sayingsorry_hh).

Title: Day of the Dead (1/2)
Author: Annie (_pinkchocolate)
Pairings: Harry/Draco
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Infidelity, excessive use of italics (not for those with sensitive eyesight)
Disclaimer: I just take JK Rowling's world and make it slashy.
Summary: On the evening of the anniversary of the war, everything changed.
Word Count: ~18k
Notes: Written for Team Epilogue in the 2008 H/D World Cup. The prompt was Death, which represents destruction of the old clearing the way for new growth. I used both figurative and literal interpretations. Many thanks to nqdonne and chiralove for their last minute betas, with an extra heap of gratitude for nqdonne, who not only suggested the title of this fic, but also did an awesome job captaining our team.

( Day of the DeadCollapse )

Part 2