Soulmate Shorts AKA The Crackship Armada

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Fanfiction
Title: Soulmate Shorts AKA The Crackship Armada
Author(s): ozhawk
Date(s): November 23, 2014 - June 21, 2015
Length: c. 182.8k
Genre(s): Soulmate AU, Romance, Fluff, Crack
Fandom(s): Marvel Cinematic Universe, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers Movieverse, Thor Movieverse, Captain America Movieverse, The Incredible Hulk (film), Guardians of the Galaxy, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, X-Men, X-Men Movieverse, Deadpool
Relationship(s):
External Links: Soulmate Shorts (AO3)
Soulmate Shorts (FFN)

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Soulmate Shorts is a collection of ficlets written by ozhawk for various Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. crossovers with other MCU and Marvel fandom pairings for the Soulmate Alternate Universe, especially rarepairs. It's a very influential piece that spread the Soulmate Marks trope; various fans continued some of the pairings, and others started following the same trend - writing various Soulmate AUs in the universe with multiple ships.

At one point, ozhawk changed the name to Soulmate Shorts AKA The Crackship Armada. A sequel was started in June 2015: The Crackship Armada Sails Again, AKA Soulmate Shorts Part 2.

Summary

Concept borrowed from amusewithaview's Soulmates AU, where the first words soulmates say to each other appear on their skin. Featuring characters from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. paired with Avengers, X-Men and more.

Author's Notes

So, I’ve become somewhat addicted to amusewithaview’s Soul Mates AU. And, because I am trying to challenge myself to get a bit less long-winded and carried away by the plot fairies every time I write, each pairing chapter (possibly the odd triad) in this fic is intended to be no more than 1,000 words (some may be a lot less).
If you don’t already know, the premise of this AU is that the first words soulmates say to each other appear somewhere on the skin of each partner, in the handwriting of the other. The younger partner is born with the words, the older receives the words the moment the younger one is born. Asgardians are a bit different (in my AU) – their soulmarks are triggered by touch.
Amusewithaview has already written an amazing chapter fic about Darcy Lewis and her possible soulmates called write love on my skin ([1]). This is intended to be my version, but mixing and matching members of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. cast with various Avengers, X-Men and other MCU characters.
I've also included entertainingly badly Photoshopped images of each pairing by me, in the hope that they might help you to visualise the characters together... hope they don't offend too much! I've also added my own cheesy hair rock (mostly) soundtrack for which I am entirely blaming Peter Quill. Each pairing has a theme song advised in the beginning notes - for maximum feels cue up the song and listen while you read!
These are the first meetings of soulmates, so sexual contact is implied in the future, but won’t be written in, although there’s a few kisses – okay, Tony Stark broke that plan, but it’s not explicit. This is still rated T. (Some of the sequels aren’t – be careful if you don’t want to read smut).
I’ve created a poll for you to vote in, for which pairings you’d like me to write first. You get up to TEN votes in the current version. They are written STRICTLY in order of most votes to least. If you want to see other pairings than those on the Poll you can ask, but bear in mind that I won’t write those that are contradicted in MCU canon – so generally it’s restricted to people who haven’t ‘met’ onscreen.

Index

Comments and Reactions

The fic has 2,726 kudos, 383 bookmarks and 3,595 comments at AO3 and on FFN has 1,534 reviews, 413 favorites and 343 following.[1]

"I first present you with the fic that kept me up until dawn on the first night of my vacation. It’s the fic that launched a thousand fics and I’m not even kidding (part of why I was up until dawn is because I kept opening up sequels to these pairings and when you’ve got twenty open tabs on your browser you know it’s No Sleep Till Brooklyn, even if you live in Brooklyn. * ahem *) Anyway…


Soulmate Shorts, AKA The Crackship Armada by ozhawk (Teen and Up, every pairing ever, complete) The concept behind this is 1,000 word or less Soulmark pairings, all pairings decided by poll as a challenge to the author. Occasionally, when there are three soulmates involved, the word limit goes up, but still, this is a tour de force. For starters, some of these pairings I would never have imagined, and even the ones I’m fully behind? Ozhawk goes about them in a completely unexpected way. You figure a couple is going to bond over a mutual love of science? Nah, they’re going to realize they’re meant for each other because of some other minor character trait. It’s a thing of beauty. And it has launched so many wonderful sequels by other authors, you don’t even know."[2]

Works Inspired By Soulmate Shorts

This list does not include any works that are mentioned above in the "Index".

References

  1. ^ As of January 15, 2016.
  2. ^ Julie Hegner. Spotlight On Fanfiction: That Ol’ Soulmark Trope. August 6, 2015. (Accessed January 28, 2016)