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Yikes, even though I actually keep up with my reading list I feel like right now I'm only actually posting to say, "hey, I actually did write a fic this year," since the last time I posted was "hey, I actually did write a fic in 2021." Anyway, I actually did write a fic in 2022.

I wrapped up The Horizon Line yesterday; this is a prequel to On Yonder Hill, set six months after the Snap and dealing with the first post-Snap Avengers operation in a "Loki lives, Thor dies" Avengers: Infinity War AU. Like with most of my longer fic, I shoved a lot into this; there are characters from and direct references to at least nineteen MCU films and three television series, and a number of the main threads of the story are things I traced through multiple movies/shows, specifically the super soldier serum. That one has a FLOWCHART. A lot of this story was also about living through the apocalypse and the way you gotta just keep trucking on; 2018 is the MCU's 2020, and I tried to bring that in here. This is my first big shipfic since Star Wars, and woof, apparently I still have a fair amount of trauma from how badly Gambit was and continues to be received given how nervous I still am about it. (I'm the only fic writer I know who loses readers when writing shipfic over gen.) This is the first fic where I felt like I actually did need to tag fairly heavily (it might be my first AO3 fic that uses a archive warning tag other than "chose not to use archive warnings" even though there's nothing actually explicit on the page). I also got to do a lot of Asgardian worldbuilding, which was extremely fun.

The Horizon Line (205447 words) by bedlamsbard
Chapters: 17/17
Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov, Loki/Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov, Loki & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Avengers Team & Loki, Steve Rogers & Howard Stark, Avengers Team & Natasha Romanov, Bruce Banner/Betty Ross
Characters: Loki (Marvel), Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel), James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Thaddeus Ross, Betty Ross, Darcy Lewis, Erik Selvig, Jimmy Woo, Samuel Sterns, Pepper Potts, Yelena Belova, Madame B. (Marvel), Alexei Shostakov | Alexi Shostakov
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Background Character Death, Thor Dies (Marvel), Loki Lives (Marvel), Roleswap, Avenger Loki (Marvel), King Loki (Marvel), Canon-Typical Violence, OT3, New Asgard (Marvel), Implied/Referenced Character Death, Past Character Death, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Super Soldier Serum (Marvel), Human Experimentation, Red Room (Marvel), Torture, Medical Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Grief/Mourning
Series: Part 2 of grim from the reaping
Summary:

“Good news, bad news time,” Natasha said as Steve finally levered himself to his feet and then held his hand out to her.

“Good news,” Steve said as he hauled her upright, “the drones are all dead.”

“Bad news,” Natasha said, sliding her baton back into her harness, “got attacked by drones.”

“Good news,” Steve said, “Howard Stark’s bag of magic tricks still works. Bad news: he never fixed the problem where it fried all our kit, not just the bad guys’.”

“Good news,” Natasha said, “found out what Hammer and Sterns were after.”

“Bad news,” Steve said, “it was the Project Rebirth files.”

 

Six months after the Snap, Earth is slowly putting itself back together, or at least trying to fit its shattered pieces into a semi-functional whole. For Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rogers, and the surviving Avengers, who have spent that time cloistered in New Asgard keeping an eye on King Loki and his people, this means new and old enemies, familiar faces, and coming back to the world – or not.

A prequel to On Yonder Hill.