just-an-old-blog

[just-an-old-blog]

Here is your card for Bad Things Happen Bingo. Happy writing!

[just-an-old-blog]

October Fanfic Rec Prompts (Tales Edition)

So, as it says on the can this is a weekly prompt list originally made by @piratejenna encouraging people to rec their favorite fanfic and authors.

I decided to spilt this post into two, one post for Tales recs and another for all my other fandoms but anyway, while it's a bit late Week 1 was:

“Fics you’ve read more times than you can count”

“Fics you’ve stayed up reading later than you should have.”

This is in no way a complete list and it’s only the first round of recs!

Mentioned Fandoms: Tales of Berseria, Vesperia, and Abyss. Touhou Project, Fire Emblem and Legend of Zelda.

Fanfic Recs:

Tales of Berseria:

The Crowd by vandesdelca: A flash fic that revolves around the overlooked NPC of Percival while painting an early game scene in a completely new light. I found myself repeatedly coming back to this fic because as mentioned it gave me a whole new perspective for the character of Percival as well as the impact the protagonist Velvet has on the cast around her even if she isn’t aware of it. For a fic with such a short word count it’s very thought provoking

Demons Never Sleep by XiroPaine: A Velvet/Eleanor fic that takes place after a very overlooked event in the game that tethers right before several heavy hitting plot points in the game and foreshadows what’s to come. As for the fic itself, it tackles Velvet’s insomnia as well as the disregard she has for herself while also showcasing Eleanor’s caring nature and how she can flip flop between not handling stressful situations well and having to put her foot down for Velvet’s sake. It’s a very insightful look into both characters and where they were at in the story plus it has some genuinely touching moments.

Chicken Crisis by Kyumika: Another Velvet/Eleanor fic and you know what if we’re talking about fics that I’ve come back to more times then I can count then this zany little piece about Eleanor being transformed into a literal chicken. A classic tale for the ages to come. Well it’s obviously hilarious, all the characters are written marvelously IC, especially Velvet who is pretending not to care about Eleanor’s little problem. Magilou actually being bewildered for once was a joy to see as well. Truly this was an out and out pleasure to read.

Tales of Vesperia:

Have You Met His Highness? by daphnerunning: I won’t actually get into what this fic is about because I think it ruin the experience for first time readers but this revolves around a HC for Ioder and Flynn. The slow revelation of this theory and how Flynn’s perspective is completely changed upon reading it a second time definitely makes it worth checking out. It’s a very intriguing read.

Embodiment of Elegance by melodiesofrigel: This is just a really cute fic about Rita getting anxious to see Estelle at a royal ball post-canon and Judith decides trying to dress her up might help (spoilers: she really just wants to screw with poor Rita lol). Judith and Rita played off each other so well in this fic like a pair of feuding sisters and the resolution was nothing short of adorable. Just a really nice “if you’re having a bad day fic”. Also in all seriousness because this fic is post-canon there are blatant references to endgame Vesperia spoilers.

Atop the Silent Mountain by Underwaternature: Another post-game spoiler ridden fic only this time it’s a Judith-centric character study. It paints a very melancholic atmosphere as Judith introspects on her relationship with Ba’ul, her fellow Krityans and how she feels about the events of her past in general. There’s definitely a distinct twinge of hope in it though and it’s something I come back when I want to see content that examines Judith and her complicated relationship with her own species.

Tales of Abyss:

Journey by vandesdelca (again lol): So, what stands out to me in this fic and the reason why I continue to return to it is it’s uniqueness, particularly the setting. This is a LukeTear Backrooms AU, yep, those backrooms. As mentioned the setting is quite unconventional but served to be perfect for rotating between several different situations which all bring out different aspects in the characters and emotions in the readers. Sometimes it felt a little eerie, sometimes it was quite sweet, and other times it really got into the characters’ psyches, especially Tear. I would definitely recommend this fic for fans of what I would personally consider to be psychological drama.

Stay with Me by @bibliophileemily: A fic about the relationship between Largo and his wife before uhhh…spoilers…still, it’s actually quite sweet and it was nice seeing their relationship fleshed out and the letter format added a special something to it. I definitely liked how this filled in for some missing gaps in Largo’s backstory and personally speaking it really made him feel more believable as a person to me which is why I always return to it when I want some Largo content.

Missing from You by lucifaron: This is the longest recommendation on this list with a total word count of 16.5k spread across 7 chapters. A post-canon mostly Tear-centric fic where she alongside Guy grapple with settling into a new world which is still plagued with issues and doubts about whether the Luke that stands before them is the same Luke they went on their journey with. A lot of confusing feelings and complicated relationships ensue. This fic is layered in multiple different ways from the character’s introspections on how much the events of Abyss changed them to confronting some the lingering political issues like Replica abuse. It's ultimately that complexity that has me returning to this fic time and time again as it truly offers a three-dimensional experience with every new chapter.

Crossovers:

Burn Your Doubts and Fly by Scarfinator: A Mileena Weiss x Velvet Crowe offering which is basically like putting the two biggest magnets for w/w ships in the Tales fandom together and watching them make an atomic bomb of femslash. The fic itself references several canon events and presents the idea that Mileena’s true feelings about them may have been more than meets the eye. It all culminates one night when...read for yourself. I liked the conclusion to this story and Mileena just accepting that hey, Velvet is hot and huggable and she wants a piece lol. It's a really endearing fic that I highly recommend if you are into crossover pairings.

Phew! That's a lot of fics but more recs to come soon!

[just-an-old-blog]

Writing this gave me a whole new outlook on Eizen. The man is an angst well that I'm probably going to drain in the future. I'm sorry but—

Title: A Shared Vice

Author: Uh oh, it’s Kranke

Fandom: Berseria

Ships/Characters: Eizen & Velvet but it kinda skirts the line of being Eizen/Velvet at points. Everything is through Eizen’s POV. Aifread, Edna and Seres are mentioned.

Chapters/Word count: 9968 over 3/3 chapters *wails*

Rating: T

Warnings/Content Tags: Focus on Self-Harm and multiple methods related to it plus a near death experience.

Summary: “See you later, my partner in vice.”

Commentary: Semi-Eizen Character Study where finds out both he and Velvet share a certain habit that leads him to introspect on several events in his life.

**Link:**

A Shared Vice

[just-an-old-blog]

Something short??? From a word slurger like ME?! But yeah anyway, this was initially going to be longer but after looking over it I realized the first section worked pretty well all on its own. I might rework the other parts into separate fics or new chapters someday but for now, have a tiny pre-canon Niko/Velvet sucker punch

Title: It Wasn’t a Lie

Author: Dummm dummm Kranke!

Fandom: Berseria

Ships/Characters: One-Side Niko/Velvet (or Velvet’s just dense as a brick)

Chapters/Word Count: 1386

Rating: G

Warnings/Content Tags: Unrequited Love, Pre-Canon, Jealousy, Teenage Feelings ya know?

Summary/Commentary: A traveling boy asks about Velvet, Niko hates to admit but maybe, just maybe they’re in the same boat.

**Link:**

It Wasn’t a Lie

[just-an-old-blog]

Thanks to everyone who has been reblogging my niche little fics. Means a lot especially since uh yeah. Don't have the words to express it but it's nice to know my work is appreciated,

[just-an-old-blog]

Oh boy here's the Big Fic for Berseria Week. The first chapter of this absolute beast is pretty tame actually since it's just set-up but believe me it does not stay in that bittersweet territory for long. Once you've reached chapter 2 it's Death Metal Rollercoaster Time

Title: You’re Beautiful When Broken

Author: The Terrible Kranke

Fandom: Berseria

Ships/Characters: Teresa Linares/Velvet Crowe (But it’s pretty darn unhealthy whoops)

Chapters/Word Count: 17K over 6 chapters (2000-3000 word count average for each)

Rating: Big Fat M

!!!Warnings/Content Tags!!!: Unreliable narrator, Obsession, delusional thinking and paranoia, self-destruction, asphyxiation, some very twisted fantasies, body horror plus bloody, bloody violence. Teresa’s losing it.

Summary:

“You think you can get away with this?! Think I’ll cower in fear before you? Who do you think I am?! I’ll tell you what! I’m someone who can’t be shaken by your devious schemes! If you’re as ballsy as you make yourself out to be then show yourself wench!”

She was answered by an eerie silence just barely broken by the sound of her arduous breathing. There’s a cold, electric buzz brushing the back of her neck sending goosebumps down her spine. She waited and waited as time sat still and the world remained motionless. For a moment, she wondered if her initial theorem was incorrect. She closed her eyes and took a sigh of relief.

Until she heard someone closing the door behind her.

Commentary: Teresa-centric where a night out with Velvet eventually leads her on a downward spiral that makes her question both her beliefs and her sanity.

**Link:**

You’re Beautiful When Broken

[just-an-old-blog]

Note: The following fic and accompanying summaries in this promo post contains Blatant Spoilers for Tales of Berseria.

Anyway, leave it to me to write a 6,000 word story from the perspective of an NPC with 3 lines. Still writing this missing scene kinda made me realize how messed up the Palamides’s Temple drama really was…

Title: A Mother’s Duty

Author: It’s…a me!…Kranke!

Fandom: Berseria

Ships/Characters: Mahina (Kamoana’s mom), Kamoana and Oscar, Eleanor has a minor part

Chapters/Word Count: 6, 435

Rating: M

Warnings/Content Tags: Berseria Spoilers, a lot of typical fun Berseria stuff like…Monster Transformations, Cannibalism, Harm to Children…yep, the whole Migand package.

Summary: She followed that awful sound through the seemingly endless series of somber passageways and artificial waterways until she reached the heart of her beloved temple. The ceremony room which was usually blocked off with a complex water puzzle was now open for the whole world to see the horror show happening inside.

She found her, she found her Kamoana.

Commentary: This is essentially a missing scene fic which revolves around the events that led to Kamoana being transformed into a therion right before the party arrived in Palamide’s Temple from the perspective of her mother Mahina.

**Link:**

A Mother’s Devotion

[just-an-old-blog]

Double feature today~ here’s me forcing Velvet to once again to accept she’s messed up by having her interact with a character she rarely interacts with in canon

Title: Monsters

Author: *Drum roll* KRanky

Fandom: Berseria

Ships/Characters: No ships, Velvet Crowe & Kamoana

Chapters/Word Count: 6061

Rating: T

Warnings/Content tags: Implied self-harm, memory suppression, they have a talk about cannibalism but nothing is technically shown on screen, trauma bonding?

Summary:

“B-But the last time I ate something like that…it was something bad wasn’t it? I don’t know what it was but I know I shouldn’t have eaten it! What was it Velvet?! You know don’t you?!”

“I do. Brace yourself, you’re not going to like this but you have to hear me out.”

Commentary: Exploring parallels between Velvet and Kamoana while asking questions about what it means to be a monster and an adult.

**Link:**

Monsters

[just-an-old-blog]

The Berseria Train continues this time with a piece that came from my desire to see two traumatized ladies in one of my biggest Femslash ships actually have that trauma affect their relationship.

Title: Preservation

Author: It is I, Kranke

Fandom: Berseria

Ships/Characters: Velvet/Eleanor (a bit messy though)

Chapters/Word Count: 7,704

Rating: T

Warnings/Content Tags: Angst, hurt/comfort, mental breakdowns and mental instability, forced captivity, injury recovery and aftercare, stargazing lol

Summary: There’s no hope of escape, she is utterly trapped in this musky old room doomed to collect dust with it.

There’s been times where she’s been forced to commit atrocities she didn’t necessarily want to perpetrate and there’s been times where she hadn’t done the right thing of her own accord. But rarely is there a time where she couldn’t do anything at all. This feeling of powerlessness is crushing.

Right now, she’s a bird trapped in a cage and she has to convince Velvet she can fly on her own.

Commentary: On the cusp of a breakdown, Velvet locks Eleanor in a room and refuses to let her out. Now it’s up to Eleanor to figure out what led her to this point.

**Link:**

Preservation

[just-an-old-blog]

The beginning of my Tales of Berseria fanweek spam, get ready for a severe dead dove overdose. Starting with a cocktail of lucid dreaming and anger issues!

Title: Endless Chase

Author: Only I, Kranke, could do such a thing

Fandom: Berseria of course~

Ships/Characters: Velvet-centric, Eleanor, Magilou and Eizen play a role too. A single questionable Veleanor moment

Chapters/Word count: 7709

Rating: M

Warnings/Content Tags: Dreams and Lucid Dreaming, Velvet has some major anger issues in this, graphic violence

Summary: No matter how the forest itself behaves, what goes on in it remains the same. This is the age-old tango of predator and prey.

Commentary: Velvet has a very disturbing reoccurring dream that may be linked to a deeper problem of hers.

**Link:**

Endless Chase

[just-an-old-blog]

When I first wrote this fic I had major brainworms about the head canon that Eleanor has body issues related to her scar and another theorized deformity but then afterwards I got too embarrassed to promote it…however after a while I figured since it’s done I don’t have anything to lose and Eleanor/Magilou is underrated.

Title: Don’t Look Away

Author: Ahaha…It’s me

Fandom: Berseria

Ships/Characters: Eleanor/Magilou, Magilou’s hat

Chapters/Word count: 9,235 over 3/3 chapters

Rating: T

Warnings/Content Tags: This fic revolves around the very strange idea that Eleanor has a certain…chest deformity…which leaves her with some heavy body image issues. Predictably there are some nude scenes but it’s more for describing the aforementioned deformity.

Summary/Commentary: Pretty much the above, Magilou finds out about a sensitive secret of Eleanor’s, and the exorcist blackmails herself to keep her silent…Hijinks ensue. Despite the weird subject matter this wound up being pretty fluffy.

**Link:**

Don’t Look Away

[just-an-old-blog]

I’ve written so many crossover pairings this Femslash Week I swear they’ve become an extended universe.

Title: Melody of the Moon

Author: Some hoe named Kranke (the hoe is me)

Fandom: Vesperia/Abyss but the setting is technically Rays though that isn’t important

Ships/Characters: Judith/Tear Grants, Ba’ul chilling nearby

Chapters/Word Count: 7203

Rating: G

Warnings/Content Tags: Fun little sparring scene and…Judith being herself so a little suggestive at times but other than that it’s totally safe

Summary/Commentary: Tear meets and has a wild night with a strange gal named Judith. Features Ba’ul petting and antenna head pats.

**Link:**```

Melody of the Moon

[just-an-old-blog]

This was supposed it be haha let’s give Mileena a new girlfriend and instead it winded being let’s force Sheena into therapy.

Title: Let It Out

Author: This weirdo named Kranke (mE)

Fandom: Symphonia/Rays

Ships/Characters: Mileena Weiss/Sheena Fujibayashi

Chapters/Word Count: 4/4 chapters technically but there’s actually 2 different versions of 1 chapter (read below)

Rating: T

Warnings/Content Tags: Major Symphonia spoilers for Sheena’s arc. This one is pretty interesting in that one chapter has TWO versions. Basically, there's a scene where Sheena gets pretty badly hurt and Chapter 2 is an SFW version that omits any graphic description of the injury while Chapter 3 is the Ouchie Edit where it goes into a lot more X-Ray detail. The story is the same either way so choose the one you're most comfortable with!

Summary/Commentary: Despite the above warnings this is more of a hurt/comfort piece which can be summed up in “using Isekai to force Sheena into therapy” with the added bonus of a foreign GF.

**Link:**```

Let It Out

[just-an-old-blog]

The Tales of Rarepair Exchange is totally to blame for all the Velvet/Estelle brainworms I got that lead into this beast.

Title: One Step Forward

Author: Tis I the Velvet menace and fellow Vesperia writer Magicmetslogic beta read

Fandom: Vesperia/Berseria…that technically takes places in Ray’s setting but that ain’t relevant

Ships/Characters: Velvet/Estelle, Raven, Flynn, Phi shows up for 3 minutes

Chapters/Word count: 16,764 over 6/6 chapters *banshee screech*

Rating: T

Warnings/Content Tags: Starts off pretty light but the later chapters touch up on both characters’ trauma through (brief scene) self-harm, panic attacks, nightmares, and allusions to torture. Basically heavy spoilers for Vesperia so if you know what went down in Act 2 then you’ll probably know what to expect. As for Berseria, the spoilers are more vague aside from the prologue.

Summary/Commentary: A fun little crossover ship that turned into a deep dive…Estelle is paired up with none other than the Lord of Calamity and lighthearted shenanigans end up turning into actual trauma bonding.

**Link:**

One Step Forward

[just-an-old-blog]

Apparently I write a dumb Velvet/Eleanor for every season of Femslash Week. I’ve had this idea for a while and now it’s finally here in cubic form!

Title: Damn It Magicube!

Author: Only Kranke could come up with something this stupid

Fandom: Berseria

Ships/Characters: Velvet/Eleanor, Magicube

Chapters/Word Count: 6672

Rating: G

Warnings/Content Tags: Wacky shenanigans bordering on crack, horrifying raunchy awkwardness, forcible boxing of a witch. Dorime.

Summary/Commentary: Magilou gets shoved inside a box and accidentally hooks up Velvet and Eleanor from said box. That’s all that needs to be said.

**Link:**``

Damn It Magicube!

[just-an-old-blog]

Uh oh, here’s a Berseria body horror piece from yours truly…all I can say is I’m so sorry Eleanor…get some rest okay?

Title: The Burden on Your Back

Author: Who else but I? Kranke

Fandom: Berseria

Ships/Characters: Eleanor-centric with Velvet, Rokurou, Magilou, Artorious, Melchior and Shigure on the side.

Chapters/Word Count: 7875

Rating: M

!!!Warnings/Content Tags!!!:

Two words, Body Horror. There’s a ton of it at the end…sleep deprivation, mentions of gross bodily fluids and scenes of self-mutilation. Unreliable narrator? Might be a dead dove fic

Summary/Commentary:

Something of an introspective piece looking at Eleanor’s relationships within the party and the Abbey that ends in an…interesting finale

**Link:**

The Burden on Your Back

[just-an-old-blog]

So back in 2019 I wrote my first fanfic ever for Touhou exploring the possible effects of Flandre’s imprisonment on her psyche via her diary.

Course being Old there’s probably things I would change now and my style has evolved over the years but I would say this holds up fairly well considering it was amidst my first public works.

`Title: A World Turning Without Me

Author: Little baby Kranke

Fandom: Touhou Project

Ships/Characters: Family centric with Flandre & Remilia Scarlet, Patchouli, Sakuya, Reimu and Marisa all make an appearance.

Chapters/Word Count: 8004

Rating: G

Warnings/Content Tags: Content wise there really isn’t anything too graphic but it revolves entirely around Flandre’s feelings of loneliness and depression so there’s that.

Summary/Commentary: Flandre tries to kill some time by writing in a diary and accidentally gives herself an existential crisis. Totally accurate description.

**Link:**

A World Turning Without Me