To See The Bruises

Hear ye, hear ye! Ye AU-gust 2025 prompt list is here!

What is AU-gust? It stands for Alternate Universe August, and it is a creative challenge for everyone. Writers, artists, fans; anyone can join! Be sure to check out our FAQ for more answers! Join us on Twitter, AO3, Discord and under the tags #au gust and #au gust 2025.

Special thanks to @yaoyorozoops for creating our wonderful graphics!

Writing Patterns (Tag Game)

Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

Thanks to @42donotpanic for tagging me!!

“You mean you made all of us listen to Stick to the Status Quo on repeat for a month straight just for you to get cast as Chad’s understudy?” (Stick to the Status Quo)

Winter had never been Kurt’s favorite season. (Attachment Therapy)

“...can you just leave me alone?” (You See What I Want (but what do I need?))

Shouting. Footsteps. Screaming. Blood. (In The Walls)

The fog was beginning to get annoying. (I Don't Hear What You Don't See (AU-gust 2023))

Clint was really starting to wish that he had drained the coffee pot when he had the chance. (Evaluation)

The weird blast felt… weird. (In Another's Shoes)

There is nothing quite like alcohol to facilitate incoherent, inexplicable laughter. (Like an Echo)

In 16 years, Scott Summers had seen more broken bones than he would care to admit. (Things Happen)

"Yes!” Quill crowed, throwing his arms up in the air as he did. (Too Broken to Fix)

I think the biggest thing that I do with my first lines is try to establish an idea or theme that will come back later in the story. About half of these are repeated verbatim later in the story, which is especially impactful (I hope) in the multichapter ones! Even if they don't return word-for-word, I usually use whatever concept is established in the first sentence (things like the understudy role, the idea of being left alone, the coffee, laughter, etc) throughout the story to push the plot. The only one on here that doesn't really follow that is "Too Broken To Fix", which is actually really fitting because that was actually a re-post of a fic I wrote back in 2019; kind of cool to see that my writing style really has changed, even just based off of the first lines!

Tagging @honeylashofficial and anyone else who wants to do this!! <3

Fanfiction Work-In-Progress Guessing Game

Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in

✨reblog if you're accepting anonymous asks about anything✨

Aromantic Bucky Barnes presents:

An Aromantic Bucky Adventure!

Welcome to Aromantic Bucky Barnes' first event! This event is stress free, no sign ups necessary. As long as Aromantic Bucky is the focus of your creation, all kinds of works are allowed - no minimums or maximums.

This event isn’t anonymous, so please feel free to share your progress! I’d love to see your WIP Wednesdays/Seven Sentence Sundays, ect, and if you tag @aromanticbuckybarnes they'll be reblogged here.

There's a text version of the graphic under the cut, and you can find other relevant information below.

Rules and FAQ: here

AO3 Collection: AnAromanticBuckyAdventure

Creations due/posting: June 5th, 2025 (aka Aro Visibility Day).

An Aromantic Bucky Adventure

First, pick an AU/setting: 

Modern times

Fantasy AU

Ancient Egypt | Ancient Greece

Cottagecore

Wakanda

Soulmate AU

40s

Comics

Omegaverse AU

Cyberpunk | Steampunk | Futuristic

Second, pick a trope: 

Aromantic joy

Green | Nature

QPRs/non-traditional relationships

Fluff | Slice of life

Found family

Lesser known identities (eg. nebularomantic)

5 + 1 things

Lovers-to-Friends

Badass Bucky

AroAllo Bucky

BONUS / Alternates: 

Kinky aro

Old man Bucky, living his best life

Platonic affection

Trans/non-binary Bucky

AroAce Bucky

Age regression

Fake dating

FWB/fuck buddies (that doesn’t end in romance)

Realisation moment | Coming out | Self acceptance

Alpine

Due/Posting: June 5th, 2025 (aka Aromantic Visibility Day) 

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Daredevil (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Matt Murdock/Franklin “Foggy” Nelson Characters: Matt Murdock, Franklin “Foggy” Nelson Additional Tags: Post-Episode: s03e13 A New Napkin, Grief/Mourning, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Doubt, Idiots in Love, Friendship/Love, Declarations Of Love, Tags Are Hard, Depression, Podfic, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Audio Format: Download Summary:

Post S3, Foggy realises Matt doesn’t take his glasses off around him anymore and tries to get behind the reason for it.

Podfic of Every last piece by 42donotpanic. @42donotpanic organised a lovely multivoice podfic with me and @auofgoldandfantasies!! go check it out!

The 2025 Fanfic Reading Challenge

Welcome to another year of the Fanfic Reading Challenge (FRC)!

I won't bore you with the history of the challenge, this year, but I will welcome you to check out past posts that do explain some of it, as well as include a brief overview of what, exactly, this challenge is, though it does change year to year. (Essentially you read fics to complete goals and win bragging points and an artsy badge.)

This year is especially different, as I had the extreme pleasure of having @noxsoulmate as a partner in crime in keeping me hostage on track to completing this year's FRC. Another valued member of the mod team is @jandjsalmon and speaks for all of us if you need questions answered!

As for the challenge....

This is, indeed, a challenge. Of course.

First of all... you must obviously read fanfiction. As if you don't already!

You also need to download and make your own copy of the spreadsheet, which can be found here, as well as below in the important links section.

To participate in the challenge, you read fics that match the tasks in the challenge. An example of a task can be: "read a fic with a title containing the word purple in it." Should be easy! Of course, there are harder ones.

Which is why there are different modes of challenge to the FRC. These are as follows:

Participation (Complete 1 task)

Regular Mode (Complete 80 tasks)

Hard Mode (Complete 150 tasks)

Extreme Mode (Complete 220 tasks)

Complete (Complete 250 tasks)

The challenge lasts from January 1st, 2025, to December 31st, 2025.

There are badges that go with the modes completed, and even a secret 6th badge that will be fairly obvious if you look at the spreadsheet! Doesn't mean it'll be easy to complete though. *smirks* (Blame Noxy)

Most important of all: this challenge operates on the honour system. We don't check your work, or your reading logs (see below), so I mean, I guess if you want to be slippery with the rules, you do you, and that's on your conscience, but honestly it's so much fun to see how much you can get done by following the letter of the law/tasks! You can be slippery even with following the tasks fully. It's great fun. ;D

I think that's enough for an intro, really, maybe too much.

Important Links and Reading Logs/Trackers

As there is a component of the FRC that includes tracking numbers of words read, most of us use a reading log/tracker to keep count of how many fics we read, including data such as words, of course, chapters, month completed, ship, author, title, fandom, link to the fic, and such. It's a great place to mark what fics you want to read in the future as well!

This year we have FOUR trackers on offer, quite different from one another, so take a look, play around with them and check out their "intros", and choose according to what you think will work best for you!

Fic Tracking Sheets

Juulna's 2025 Reading Log

Noxy's 2025 Reading Log

2025 Jandy's Fic Tracker

Taru's Fic Tracker 2025

Discord

We have a blast on Discord. From general chatter to sharing pet pics to being there for each other during the tough times to forming lasting friendships and making friendships you’d never make in a ship- or fandom-specific Discord, to asking for help ‘rolling the dice’ (pick a number between 1-10!) to choose the next fic to read, to finding some of the really challenging task fills in fandoms people might not have ever read but are willing to try, or finding fandoms someone has never read and is very tentative about stepping out of their box, but they’re being 100% supported and know they don’t need to complete the fic for it to count for the task, stepping out of their comfort zone… we’ve formed a very odd group of, if not friends, then companions (but there are definite friendships that have formed!! Just ask the people who have started watching NHL and NFL together in our off topic channel!).

In any case, our Discord is not necessary, but it is a worthy and tactical element to completing many of the tasks of this challenge. 💙

And.... without further ado....!

The 2025 Fanfic Reading Challenge! (link)

There is an info/rules page as the first sheet on the spreadsheet that should fill in any further questions you have. It also has more contact info than just this page if you have any further questions and perhaps need a more immediate answer for your needs.

*Occasionally you will run into something that looks like an error, and it may in fact be one! Let us know if you see it. It's hard not to make a mistake on as large a spreadsheet as this.*

Please, first of all, have fun and just read fanfiction that you enjoy! I (Juulna) did that last year and didn't even come close to completing the entire challenge, and I still had a blast because I was enjoying what I was reading and rereading. Others took the challenge right to the completed end. Others forgot about it halfway through but still had fun, and some even went back and filled in the sheet for a really good showing! The challenge is what you make of it, what you want from it. So... just have fun. Read fic. Smile. Enjoy. :)

Second of all... well, we would love if you signal boost this post!!!!

Third of all, we do have our pinned post that includes a link to this page and that will include a link to our Discord and all our trackers as well, including past links for memento and informative purposes.

Thank you, and a blessed 2025 to all!

Marvel Rare Pair Bingo 2022/2023 - Masterlist

B1 : Exchanging Gifts : / / /

I1 : Meteor Shower/Shooting Stars : Family / Chapter 2: Sad Family / Morgan Stark & Nate Barton / TW: Mentioned Canon Main Character Death

N1 : "Here we belong fighting to survive in a war with the darkest powers" : / / /

G1 : X Marks the Spot : / / /

O1 : Soothing/Healing Touch : Comfort / Clint Barton & Bucky Barnes / 1551 / General Audiences

B2 : Not looking for Love but Love finds them : / / /

I2 : Hospital Stay : / / /

N2 : Found Family : I recognize myself in you  / WinterHawk (Clint Barton & Bucky Barnes) / 5018 / Mature / TW: Eating Disorder

G2 : Where we don't have to hide : / / /

O2 : Coffee Shop AU : Nelson Brews / Matt Murdock & Tony Stark / 781 / General Audiences

B3 : Sex on the Beach : The Hammock / CastleHawk (Clint Barton x Frank Castle) / 1701 / Explicit

I3 : Melted Ice Cream : / / /

N3 : FREE SPACE : Building a Relationship / Chapter 7: Waffles / HawkDevil (Clint Barton x Matt Murdock) / 1955 / Teen and Up Audiences

G3 : Blanket Fort : / / /

O3 : Cooking a Meal Together : / / /

B4 : Hoplessly Outnumbered : Building a Relationship / Chapter 10: Bullies / HawkDevil (Clint Barton x Matt Murdock) / 1381 / Teen and Up Audiences

I4 : Taking Care of Someone : Building a Relationship / Chapter 2: Classified / HawkDevil (Clint Barton x Matt Murdock) / 1394 / Teen and Up Audiences

N4 : Hedge Maze : Fall Traditions / HawkDevil (Clint Barton / Matt Murdock) / 830 / General Audiences

G4 : Someone needs a hug : Building a Relationship / Chapter 8: Jealousy / HawkDevil (Clint Barton x Matt Murdock) / 3990 / Teen and Up Audiences / TW: Alcohol

O4 : Moving in Together : Building a Relationship / Chapter 4: New Routines / HawkDevil (Clint Barton x Matt Murdock) / 983 / Teen and Up Audiences

B5 : Roaring Twenties : / / /

I5 : I need you : How you (don't) see me / Hawkdevil (Clint Barton x Matt Murdock) / 3242 / Mature

N5 : Masked Ball : / / /

G5 : Image Prompt (see below) : Sunrise / Dumpsterbros (Clint Barton & Matt Murdock) / 1465 / General Audiences

O5 : Tickling : / / /

@marvelrarepairbingo

Badges:

🍂 🍃 Hello and welcome to our third annual Flufftober 🍂 🍃

We’re so excited to be back and to once again have you here!

As always, let’s fill the month of October with as much fluff as possible 🥰 and for that to happen, we not only have 31 prompts for you, no; we also have something special this year...

Prompt Extras

Last year's Prompt Substitutes were very well-loved and a lot of you used them to replace some prompts from the original list. You're more than welcome to do this again if there's a prompt that doesn't work for you for whatever reason - no explanation needed.

Once again, we offer you last year's top five fan favorites (as voted in the end survey). In addition to that, we also offer five scenario prompts.

If you don't want to replace any prompt from the original list but still love the additional ones - or you simply want to challenge yourself - you can also mix them all together!

So in whichever way you use these Prompt Extras, have fun with them and go wild 💚

Below the cut you'll find all our rules, posting info, all the prompts in writing, as well as some explanation for prompts we feel might need clarification. If you have any more questions, please feel free to send us an ask 🥰

We hope you like these prompts, and now

Happy Creating 🥳

Standard Blog Rules & FAQ

No inc*st or p*dophilia - we can’t keep you from writing it or creating art for it but it won’t be reblogged. See further down for clarification.

No hate or ship bashing - we’re all different and we all love different things. As long as it doesn’t go against rule #1, it’s allowed.

Tag correctly! Trigger warnings (including cheating!), ships, ratings, (pure) smut, etc - it’s all fine as long as you tag it.

There’s absolutely no word count restriction, write as little or as much as you like.

In regards to art, anything goes: drawings, paintings, collages, mood boards, gifsets, videos, playlists… the sky’s the limit (though not really…)

While we can’t force you to write fluff or create fluffy art, please try to keep in mind that this is a fluff event 😉

You can start writing and/or arting as soon as you see this - but please refrain from posting before the respective day.

You can participate on as many days as you like, even if it’s just one; you can also create multiple entries for the same day.

You can replace prompts from the original list with either or all of our prompt extras; you can also mix them with the original prompts or create for them in addition to the 31 original prompts, that's completely up to you.

It’s okay to write one story/a series for all the prompts as long as it’s separated into chapters and the respective chapter/work is posted on the given day.

You do not have to stick to one ship or even one fandom - switch as often as you like to or even write for multiple ships for one day.

The ship does not have to be a romantic one! Friendship and family feels are more than welcome (but this is not a way to get around rule #1!)

This event can be combined with other events as long as the other event allows it.

Late entries are always welcome, even if it is months later.

All fandoms and ships are welcome - fanon and canon - as long as they’re of age (in case you want to add smut) and not related.

Since this has often been asked in previous years, please let us clarify the no inc*st or p*dophilia rule:

No inc*st: This rule does not apply to distant cousins and such, as you might find in the LotR fandom (or basically in all of European Monarchy). The line we draw is at direct blood relations (siblings, parents, kids) and/or legal guardianship.

No p*dophilia: This rule does not rule out fandoms that feature teenagers such as Harry Potter, Heartstoppers, Hunger Games, etc. It also doesn't mean you can't write about their time together as teenagers! It was mostly aimed at ships in which one is a minor and the other is not - but since even that got complicated over time, the rule is now this: if you keep it SFW, all is good and allowed, we don't care; if it turns NSFW, be mindful of the legalaties of the world/society/times your characters live in.

Posting

Posting to tumblr

Please use the tag #flufftober2023

Since tags are sometimes wonky, make sure to also add @flufftober in your post

We will try to catch them all, but please don't be mad if we miss a post or if it gets reblogged a bit late

If you're absolutely certain a post has slipped past us, feel free to send an ask with the link to your post

To make reblogging easier for us, make sure to add the following tags: #flufftober2023 #day [xy] #[fandom] #[ship and/or main character(s)]

If you're using a prompt extra tag it as #alt [number]

Posting to ao3

You can add your creation to the collection flufftober2023 or flufftober_2023 (yes, we've once again claimed both)

Late entries are always welcome, on tumblr as well as the ao3 collection! Neither will close - but like always, reblogs will become less regular the more months have passed...

Prompts (and explanations)

1. “I’ve got you”

2. Family, Friends, Loved Ones

3. “Wait you love me?” - “I always have”

4. Cinderella Moment (the "ugly duckling" gets their moment to shine)

5. x + 1 (can be a classic "5+1 things" [or any number you want] creation or literally a plus one for an event or really anything else you can think of)

6. Corn Maze

7. Porch Swing

8. Rainy Day

9. (...) at first sight (think "love at first sight", "enemies at first sight"...)

10. Love of my Life (even this does not have to be romantic 😉)

11. Sweet Tooth

12. Fire & Ice

13. Wrong (...) (think "wrong number", "wrong train", "wrong person"...)

14. “I hate it” - “No, you don't”

15. Emergency, Confession, Adventure

16. Singing one another to sleep

17. Encouraging someone to achieve a goal

18. “Did you plan for this to happen?”

19. Keeping someone safe

20. Pumpkin

21. Swoon

22. Picking (think "picking flowers", "picking up someone", "picking out a dress", "picking a song for the wedding"...)

23. Trinket

24. [melting emoji] (does anyone even know what this emoji stands for? No? We neither but we would love for you to get creative with it 😉 but also, think "melting in the heat", "melting from embarrassment"... also, I would've loved to add it here but tumblr doesn't have this emoji yet)

25. Nook

26. Fireplace

27. Outdoor Event (think "hiking tour", "concert", "picnic"...)

28. Soothing Touch

29. “Hey, wake up!”

30. Self-Worth / Self-Love

31. Dreams Do Come True

Prompt Extras

Last Year's Favorites

Alt 1: Hot Chocolate

Alt 2: “You’ve told your parents?”

Alt 3: Wearing Each Other’s Clothes

Alt 4: Candles, Lanterns, Fairy Lights

Alt 5: “Oh no, you’re a Morning Person!”

Scenarios

Alt 6: Reverse all the Roles

Alt 7: Create a Fairytale Retelling

Alt 8: Give your character a new occupation

Alt 9: Create a crossover of two or more fandoms

Alt 10: Have your characters share the last table at a café

it’s my birthday and i’ll post gay bucky barnes if i want to