#WriterSine recs fanfiction

[frigid-arnica]

List your rarepairs. List your favorite fics about them.

@michellemagly posted a list of her favorite rarepairs with some of her favorite fics. Here's a bunch of mine in no particular order. Feel free to tag and post your own list if you'd like!

1. Tahnorra from Legend of Korra: This pairing was born in a perfect storm. In Book 1 Tahno and Korra shared a lot of similarities (skilled benders who like being the best, fighting, and who pin their whole identities on their ability to bend) while having that unresolved sexual tension of being rivals who acted like they didn't take the other person seriously. At first I shipped them because it was way more interesting than watching Makorra implode into a joyless mess. Then we got that scene in the police station. We were given a glimmer of the potential that Tahno had as a character. And suddenly what had just been a rivalrymance transformed into a potentially beautiful slow-burn of two young people maturing in a rapidly changing world as they struggled with their identies and had a lot of emotionally charged hurt/comfort makeouts. Then Tahno never appeared in a meaningful way ever again. Happily, I had Korrasami to comfort me. I have two fics for this. One is called Picture Me (Under Blood Red Moon) by lightningwaltz and it's NSFW. The other is I Can Take the Heat by my wonderful friend Michelle Magly (Tahno becomes a firefighter!)

2. Zevris from Dragon Age: Both Fenris and Zevran have lived very similar lives (slavery, abuse, and division from their elvish roots). They do cope with it in different ways and, when you meet them, both think they're unlovable. Fenris because he can't escape his past and Zevran because he let someone he loved be killed. I feel like they would be able to support each other through their respective traumas while also enjoying one another's snarky senses of humor. Three Nights in Kirkwall by Brynneth hits all the right emotional notes. @wombuttress has also written an exquisite Zevris one-shot in their Rare Gems series.

3. Evfra de Tershaav x Paaran Shie from Mass Effect Andromeda: There’s something every subtle in the way these two characters talk about one another to Ryder. Just this implication of something beyond a professional relationship. They are presented as two people being both very different but also completely on equal footing. So my brain immediately went, colleagues with benefits relationship that eventually turns to lovers. Sadly, there is only one fic for this pairing on the interwebs (Michelle Magly wrote a Robin Hood AU one for me and it’s so good! But she hasn’t posted it to AO3 yet). It was written by me and it’s very NSFW, but I’m rather proud of it. It’s called Attachments.

4. Russia x America from Hetalia: This list wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t include a nod to my first big rarepair ship, RusAme. Hetalia as a fandom has kind of died away (it’s also a very different world politically now than it was eight to nine years ago) and I don’t really actively participate in it anymore, but this was my big introduction to fandom so it will always be important to me. RusAme, due to the very flat characterization from the show, was particularly fun because it’s a very versatile ship depending on how you interpret the characters and what setting you put them in. However, for me, it boils down to more of that opposites attract but we have more in common that both of us want to admit so we just have a lot of sex and pretend that we’re not emotionally invested in one another. For this pairing, go to fanfiction.net and read pretty much everything ProcrastinatingPalindrome has written, particularly Miracles and Dumb Luck, Soldier’s Heart, and The Sassy Gay Polish Friend. Oh man, I’m getting all nostalgic!

That’s about it for now. I have a few others (Scott Ryder should have been able to romance Liam!) but these are the ones I’m still majorly hung up on an probably will be for the foreseeable future.