poll's gonna run for twenty-four hours or so

So when I started writing where the firelight fades almost a year ago, I'd only seen seven episodes of Miraculous Ladybug season 3. (Ten had aired, but two of those had aired less than two hours before my draft-post-1 entry-created timestamp, in the middle of the North American night; iirc I just hadn't felt like watching the eighth yet.) If we ignore the late-S3 retcon of one minor character's name, you only get a thousand words into reading this fic before you hit something that involves canon from a later-aired episode: "Desperada", as it happens, and I'd written rather more than that first thousand words before "Desperada" aired in September.

(I remember thinking I could totally finish and start posting this story before "Reflekdoll" aired, two days before "Desperada" would. Ha ha ha ha.)

So not posting as I wrote turns out to have been the best decision I made while writing this story.

Thing is, we are now several months past the airing of the last of the S3 episodes and there's a few months still before we expect even to learn when S4 premieres, so at this point new canon is not going to alter the story. I have at least a solid rough draft of every single scene, if largely without dialogue and entirely subject to change. I don't expect to make any changes bigger than a line or two to any of the first eight chapters. I have even got the shiny-coded chapter drafts all on AO3!

And I would really like to revel in my readers' screams and sobs start posting and start seeing people's reactions.

…thing is, setting myself any sort of deadlines with this fic—and "I will post twice a week" implicitly sets a deadline for posting ch 9 of a month after posting ch 1—has repeatedly proven the worst decision I made while writing this story.

Thus, hitting the AO3 share button (turns out when the whole story is draft chapters, this registers a posted-chapter count of 1 and a word count of blank) and showing y'all that and a poll.

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where the firelight fades ([67K+] words) by AlexSeanchai
Chapters: -/14
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Paris, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth
Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Alya Césaire, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Miraculous Ladybug Ensemble
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Akumatized Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Identity Reveal, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Romantic Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Temporary Character Death, Suicidal Ideation, Fire, Lies, Truth Spells, Queer Characters, Queer Themes, Puns & Word Play, Autistic Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, ADHD Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Stressed Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Stubborn Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Autistic Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Demiboy Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Has Issues, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Nonbinary Alya Césaire | Rena Rouge, Angry Alya Césaire, Good Friend Nino Lahiffe, Badass Alix Kubdel, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Protective Kagami Tsurugi, Minor Chloé Bourgeois/Kagami Tsurugi, Minor Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Minor Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Gabriel Agreste | Hawk Moth is an Asshole, Emilie Agreste Lives, Master Fu Is Doing His Best, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Potential Future Lila Rossi Redemption, Everyday Heroes of Miraculous Paris, Miraculous History, Inspired by Fanart, Podfic Welcome, Fanart Welcome
Summary:

Some say the world will end in fire,
   Some say in ice.

—excerpted from "Fire and Ice", Robert Frost


Ladybug's smirk isn't even vicious. Wouldn't even look vicious without the nightmarish argon glow outlining a butterfly mask.

"What's wrong, Chat?"

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Poll #23906 where the firelight fades

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

View Respondents

Should Alex start posting this fic now?

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not till the final draft exists
0 (0.0%)

not till all the scenes are at least about the right length and shape
5 (71.4%)

start posting now, ch 9 isn't scheduled to go up till a month later anyway
0 (0.0%)

start posting now; what's a schedule?
1 (14.3%)

I have an opinion not accurately reflected by any of these options and I'm gonna comment about it
1 (14.3%)

The most intriguing tag in this preview is:

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This is a positive WALL of tags, Alex, you might not need this tag:

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I heard Alex wants someone to help compile the chapter-by-chapter content notes.

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I'm up for this! Send me the story!
1 (100.0%)

ticky

View Answers

ticky
4 (57.1%)

ticky?
4 (57.1%)

ticky!
4 (57.1%)

tick tick tick
6 (85.7%)

BOOM
6 (85.7%)

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ETA: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug -- listen, that boy is the physical embodiment of needing a hug, him being in the fic means he needs one —izzet_bedtime_yet (ACCURATE)