#hoc fanfic

[whetstonefires]

Re: fanfic commenting, the people who comment things like 'this is really great i liked it!' or '💗' are doing great, and i appreciate them.

comment box intimidates me regularly. it's hard. thank you for taking the time and trouble to affirm writers like that. it is meaningful to do!

but i feel like a lot of these are coming from people who really want to engage with the writer and give feedback and support, but are struggling with the process and resorting to the generic without being satisfied by it, and to them i wanted to say that if you want to level up your comments to a higher power level, you do not have to learn a whole new approach or be a different person with different observations, or anything like that.

just add small elements to what you're already doing.

so 'this is really great i liked it!' becomes 'this is really great i liked [thing]!' where the thing can be 'the dialogue' or 'the angst' or 'the pony' or literally any feature of the fic.

one word, +500% impact.

and '💗' while a perfectly lovely sentiment in itself can expand to '💗🐉⚡😭' to deliver 500% validation to the writer of a story where you had emotions about the bit where there was a dragon and dramatic weather.

and you don't have to make a sentence about it.

(i'm a fic writer with over a million words on Ao3 and i have absolutely resorted to emoji string comments when my brain wasn't feeling the sentence thing. no shame.)

it's delightful to know a real actual person liked your work and bothered to say so, but better still to get that sense of connection and affirmation from a thought they had about it.

so if you're someone who feels like they're really bad at commenting but keeps making a heroic effort to do it anyway because you know what an important element of the community feedback is, consider exploiting one of these force multipliers.

[naamah-beherit]

Heart of Chaos

A series in 3 parts

Cosmic horror Hualian AU in which Hua Cheng is an eldritch god and Xie Lian is a human (but not for long). 16k words in total.

*****

Part 1: dreams in the dark

[ rated E • monsterfucking ]

Stuck on a planet he'd rather never have seen, Xie Lian dreams. Faced with a tsunami of cosmic proportions that will destroy everything he's built, Jun Wu makes a decision. Given an opening, Hua Cheng uses it and takes everything.

Or: the story in which the most terrifying being in all of creation loves a mortal man.

“San Lang, you…” Xie Lian’s head starts spinning. Is it because of Hua Cheng’s proximity, or from elation at the prospect of leaving this backwater planet for worlds he can’t even imagine? He seizes that feeling and basks in it. “Who are you?” Hua Cheng inhales, then grazes Xie Lian’s jaw with his teeth. “Yours.” Hua Cheng’s kiss tastes like lightning. His touch sets Xie Lian’s skin on fire and reaches his bones to take root there, spreading flame through his veins until he’s full of it to bursting. At some point, he grabs fistfuls of Hua Cheng’s clothes and clutches them like they’re his only tether to the world. There’s a lightness growing in him, a feeling foreign and terrifying in its enormity.

@auchrauch drew this gorgeous painting for this part <3

*****

Part 2: broken dreams

[ rated M • POV outsider ]

This is how Feng Xin's world ends: in the rain of fire and death, as the universe comes knocking on his village's doorstep and brings with it flames of war. It brings a priest, too, one who calls to his god on the notes of his blood. And unlike the god of Feng Xin's home, this one actually heeds the call.

Or: the story of the end of the world. And the beginning of a new one.

Warships arrive at dusk. Clouded in interstellar dust, they appear on the sky and immediately start raining fire. Forests burn, houses lie in ruin, the world itself groans and cowers under the onslaught a fortress couldn’t have withstood, let alone a settlement without defences. There are no evacuation ships. Not that it would change anything if there were—the army blankets the sky so densely not even a sliver of starlight makes it through. Feng Xin looks up and, without a shred of doubt, knows this is how they all die. “This is insane!” Mu Qing screams as they run between burning houses and craters some of the buildings have already turned into, and try to herd the survivors away from the bombardment. “What do they even want?!”

*****

Part 3: i've touched my dreams, but still i bleed

[ rated E • body horror • transformation ]

Nightmares are a persistent thing. Xie Lian's greatest one raises its head from the dead in the least expected moment.

Xie Lian aches. Down to the marrow of his long-dissolved bones; to the deepest forces linking particles of what makes him himself; to the darkest, faintest thoughts that have ever run through his mind—he aches. He aches when he moves, aches when he lies still, aches when he lets Hua Cheng pour power into him until he’s full to bursting, aches until it settles and then after it’s long gone; he aches, aches, aches. Pain courses through him, sets what may yet remain of his nerves on fire and unleashes thousands of unseen worms crawling under his skin. They aren’t there. Never. They don’t exist, and the crawling is merely sensations firing up in echoes of his nerve endings and synapses in the memory of his brain that fails to process so many impulses all at once—fails to have realised it’s all but gone. He runs a fingernail down his chest. The skin splits easily in a clean, smooth, deep cut. There’s no blood. No fat, no viscera, no bone peeks out from layers of tissue. There is no tissue. There’s only light: blinding, potent, pulsating golden light.

[thebahwrites]

I will tell you all the sweetest of lies Run away from the sun, to me

“I don’t know, is it such a bad thing for me to want to live a rom com one day? Just... I don’t know, I wish a guy would go stupid over me, go above and beyond thinking I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread.”

“And what about me? I could go stupid over you!”

“You’re stupid every day, Bradshaw.”

[greatlyblessed]

@tmnt-crossover-polls

More crossover propaganda for y'all!! We got a little. Enthusiastic on this one--

This is between my fic (A Mixed Bag) and @posthocpaganda's House Crossover Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Hope you enjoy!! (House is such a jerk it's so fun to bounce these various characters off of him--)

[moonlight1caladium]

I was bored last night so I wrote 3 new chapters for my fic :)

[tumblemumbler]

Don't be shy, drop some fic recs?

Ok ok, I’m always afraid to do this because I hate to forget one and then the author doesn’t get acknowledged but I will do my best. Many of these are already listed by @enigmaticxbee who has heroically compiled numerous lists of fanfic recommendations by category. Many others out here doing that work (thank you!!), so this is very much just a “some things I loved” list. Most are explicit because I love me some smut.

love you but you’re green by wtfmulder - an incredible combination of nostalgia and sex

Contact High by Penumbra - I’m new to the game here, but it’s my understanding that this is a Classic Must Read and it’s for good reason

Suncadia by SisterSpooky1013 - one of the first ones I read, a case file and a getting together story that gave me a whole range of feels and got me excited to read more x files fics

Destined Reckoning by Spark_a_Flame - an AU crossover with a Stephen King book I’ve never read, but it didn’t matter. I’m always here for some post apocalyptic Mulder and Scully

Dropped Call by Phillip_Padgett - the absolute glorious smut this human writes is unbelievable. This is one of my favorites but there are no bad choices, every story is a banger (ha. Hahaha. Sorry)

Tremors in the unshakeable ground by coppersunlight - I’m not alllll about the angst, I’m more of an occasional partaker, but this filled a deep need I didn’t know I had for some goddamn Diana Fowley accountability

Shine On by cecily_sass - every once in awhile I read something with a premise I don’t even expect to like just because I know the author is good, and this one hooked me very quickly. It’s hard to describe what is so compelling: the words, the character choices, I don’t even know, just go read it.

from this morning forward by thursdaysinspace - a charmingly realistic look at how m&s do the hard work to find their way back to each other in the revival. Sweet, sexy, and gives the characters credit for all the effort it takes to make love last.

The X Files - Slip of the Tongue by Skinfull - every week I await the new installment, like a perfect little treat the universe is giving us for being fans

Si Hoc Legere Potes, Liberaliter Educatus by Aloysia_Virgata - so many great ones from this author, but this one cracked me up and gave me some feels too. A little revival therapy

Love and Bearclaws by Edie_Rone - short, sweet, and so so cute. A perfect little vignette

Throwing Good After Bad by oohnotvery - a clever twist on a common trope of the two of them going undercover together. Twists and turns and sex, oh my!

Takeout Interruptus by lonegunga1 - you need an ao3 login for this one. Just a cute funny slice of life in early MSR

Honestly there are so many more so my sincerest apologies to the authors I have read and enjoyed and didn’t properly get into this list - the fault is in my memory not in their work. Hopefully I have left them a comment at one point so that they feel appreciated! Also, all these authors have written many good things, go down those rabbit holes it’s the best.

One bonus, which is not actually X Files at all:

The Adventure of the Lady Detective and the Writer by mldrgrl - a romance saga between Stella from The Fall and Hank Moody from Californication. I was very skeptical and now I am a complete convert, this ship is genius.

[blorb-el]

Don’t know if you made a post on this but what’s your opinion on DCAU Clark and how unapproachable(?) they made him in the later JL/JLU series without ever resolving it? Like I know the Cadmus arc hinges on him never considering himself a possible threat but it seems there was room for no much introspection outside a couple moments (that were later backtracked).

I've had like 6 half finished posts about this buried deep in the drafts for a year because I have capital B Brain Rot about this, but every time I tried to write it out I got six sentences in and wanted to rewatch the entire DCAU in order to get my facts straight. This time I'm resisting the urge, so forgive me if I forget specific episodes

Also, unfortunately for you, it’s nanowrimo, which means my brain is in Type All The Words Mode, and not Communicate Effectively and Succinctly Mode, and also I need a break from WSBF chapter 8, so. You’re getting a 3.5k essay sort of answering this question but not really. you will see

Thank you to my fellow lawyer for the defense of Rectangle Clark @januariat for helping to put this together

I do rewatch STAS and JL a fair amount, but much less JLU, so I actually don’t have much to say about the specific execution there. I’m planning on rewatching it soon. But for now…

To me it boils down to two answers. The Doylist answer, and what I think the writers really did have in mind, is that they came up with the Cadmus plot, knew it was an absolute banger of a storyline, and decided that it was worth compromising Superman's personality in order to write a good story. which is not something I can fault them for - as a fanfic writer, I make the same calculated tradeoffs every time I set out to write a fic. Characters are tools for narrative, even if these particular characters come with an additional weight of the tradition of collaborative storytelling that their most effective stories honor.

However, I do think it’s possible to, post-hoc, cobble together a Watsonian, narratively satisfying (if fucked up and sad) character arc for DCAU Clark if you also take STAS and JL into account. I think the key to understanding his character arc is his relationship with control. Throughout STAS, JL, and JLU, and then one more time in Batman Beyond for good measure, over and over again, he's manipulated and his powers and body are used as resources for other people. Obviously that’s not much of an excuse for becoming more authoritarian/overbearing/etc, Fascism Is Bad and I personally think a more IC superman would retreat more than double down (as in Kingdom Come), but looking at the totality of things that have happened to him before Cadmus, it's a little more understandable why he'd get close to snapping under the strain. Here's my personal reading of his arc, and the events that might have led to Clark behaving so irrationally in JLU.

cut for sheer length, but also mentions of manipulation, sexual assault, victim blaming, that sort of thing

One of the recurring themes in the DCAU is villains dehumanizing, depowering, and/or manipulating Clark. In STAS, Parasite, Lex via Bizarro, Talia and Ra’s al Ghul use him as a source for their own power. The Preserver and Maxima treat him like some exotic prize, disregarding his wishes. Jax-Ur and Mala use him and then betray him. But the most impactful, by far, is Darkseid.

In Apokolips Now, Darkseid defeats Clark, puts his bleeding body into public stocks, and drags him through the middle of Metropolis. Clark’s only rescued by the last minute intervention of the New Gods, and as a parting shot Darkseid murders Clark’s friend in front of everyone. Even though Clark prevents Earth from turning into Apokolips, it’s a huge emotional loss, and they don’t shy away from showing his rage and helplessness. But it’s when Darkseid returns in Legacy, the finale of STAS, that Clark’s life truly takes a turn for the worse.

Forgive me if this is all plot recap to you, anon, but I feel like a lot of people don’t know that STAS ends with Clark being mind controlled, heavily implied to be sexually assaulted, and forced to try to take over the Earth, killing god knows how many people in the process. When the military finally brings him down with a Kryptonite warhead and imprisons him, they nearly kill Supergirl in the process. Then Lex almost gives him a lethal injection, with a US general looking on, implying that the government approves of killing him. Lois breaks him out, he tries to get help for Kara from Dr. Hamilton, and then goes to Apokolips. Most fights in STAS have him shrug off blows. He ends this one bleeding from his mouth, looking almost dead. When he finally casts down Darkseid, tells the Hunger Dogs (the slaves on Apokolips) that they’re free… they turn away from Superman. They cluster around Darkseid to protect and heal him.

Those universal truths of a lot of Superman stories, that goodness and liberty and the American Way* always win? They don't in STAS. A representative of the US government (as far as he knows) has tried to kill him. He lost his temper and spoke in a harsh tone of voice once, because Kara was dying and he was hurt and desperate, and now his friend Dr. Hamilton, the man he trusted to repair the Kryptonian ship, study his body and his powers, one of the people who knew him best in STAS, is afraid of him - and, as we find out later, takes immediate, drastic, and violating action against Kara and against him. The series ends with the small town man standing on the roof of the Planet, hearing people hate and fear him, wondering how people will ever trust him again.

*I hate this phrase personally when used as a Superman Motto, but it's used here as a contrast to the fascistic imagery of Apokolips Now and Legacy (as well as Brave New World, which, hoo boy, we aren’t even getting into that one).

Six months (iirc) after the STAS finale, in Secret Origins, the US government has agreed to let a visibly older and wearier Superman help disarm the nuclear stockpile - only for this to backfire on him because it was a Plot by the White Martians. Clark’s let down the country again. He’s helped aliens invade again, and to make matters worse, he sped away in the middle of an attack to break into an official government facility to free J'onn. Clark founds the Justice League beginning from a place of personal failure, as a check on himself. Clark has power and wants to help people with it, but he’s been turned against people he cares about, and has twice now failed to protect the world. It’s worth noting that Legacy put him into the world stage; before, in STAS, I can’t think of any true worldwide threats besides maybe Jax-Ur and Mala.

Most of the rest of season 1 of JL isn’t particularly Clark-focused, although he does appear in a lot of episodes, but the themes of some of these episodes are potentially relevant to understanding his character later, so: brief bullet point summaries.

During In Blackest Night, Clark sees his respected colleague turn himself into an authority that turns out to be incompetent investigators looking for a scapegoat. Interesting. Surrendering to governmental authority/oversight didn’t turn out too well here. 

During The Enemy Below, on Clark’s advice, Aquaman tries to solve his problems peacefully with diplomacy and is immediately shot in a life threatening assassination attempt.  Peaceful diplomacy doesn't work so well for him.

During Injustice for All, Lex is dying of cancer. Clark tries to reach out and is rebuffed, with Lex going on to try to found a team to kill him and the rest of the League.

During Paradise Lost, Clark sees his respected colleague turn herself into the authorities and immediately get banished from her home for the crime of trying to save it with all the resources she had at her disposal. Interesting. Surrendering to governmental authority/oversight didn’t turn out too well here, again. 

During War World, Clark’s again captured for exploitation. This is essentially a retread of The Main Man from STAS, doubling down on how some people see him as a thing to be exploited.

During Fury, Clark’s completely ineffective at preventing an attempted genocide of half the world’s population.

Season 2 opens with Twilight, one of the most important episodes for understanding Clark’s mindset during the Cadmus arc. Imagine, if you will, the above happening to you. Darkseid shows up at your workplace. And the man you’ve worked with the longest, your friend, your ally, tells you to cry him a river, build him a bridge, and get over it. Tells you to get over being brainwashed, manipulated, and humiliated. Tells you to get over having your broken and bleeding body paraded around the streets of Metropolis, tells you to get over having your friend killed in front of you for trying to defend you, tells you to get over almost getting your cousin killed. Sure, Brainiac is a planetary-scale threat; Darkseid and Apokolips are in real trouble. Clark was wrong to write off Apokolips and its people, and the League should absolutely have intervened in the situation. But the way Bruce went about it was… one of the harshest things DCAU Bruce has ever done, and one of the only times the narrative seems to actually agree that he was an asshole about it. And even then, you really need the context of STAS to understand why Clark is so furious and hurt in this scene.

Clark relents and goes along with Bruce’s plan to trust Darkseid, only to end up betrayed again, the whole ruse just another ploy for Brainiac to gain control of Clark, torture him, and use Clark’s body to upgrade himself. Clark had spared Darkseid back on Apokolips at the end of Legacy, on Kara’s advice. But now Darkseid’s come after him, again. Used him again to put not only Earth but who knows how many other worlds at risk, now that Brainiac’s even more powerful. It’s the downfall of Krypton, over and over again. And when Clark goes to end it, I think he doesn’t care that the base is about to go, as long as Darkseid goes down with it. That isn’t a price Bruce is willing to pay, so he teleports Clark out. And he’s wrong, again. “No one could have survived that.” Well… no, Bruce. Darkseid does, and Clark knows it.

During Tabula Rasa, Lex manipulates Amazo the exact way he tried to use Bizarro. Clark once again fails to guard against a terrible, potentially world-ending threat, and in fact makes the situation worse by his very presence.

Then we come to Only a Dream, another key episode in understanding this version of Superman. Clark’s deepest fear is that his powers will keep on growing beyond his ability to control them, eventually destroying everything around him. In his nightmare He kills Lois and Jimmy, destroys the Daily Planet, and grows into a brutish, hulking, clumsy figure, first crying out for someone to help him, and then losing hope. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He goes back to the Kent farm and curls up in the spaceship in the fetal position, convinced that he’s only going to hurt anyone who tries to help. Is it any wonder, since that’s literally what’s happened to him in Legacy? Is it any wonder that he’d want to give up, to retreat? If we’re to take the World of Cardboard speech literally, he’s already having to focus on this restraint every day, in every interaction. This is my personal explanation/hc as to why in every single fight he lets himself get knocked around a bit first; he’s calibrating how hard he can hit back without doing irrevocable damage. Anyway. Deeply fucked up 2 minutes of horror. Wish they’d explored this a little bit more in later seasons.

Then, directly after this, it’s A Better World. After we’ve just seen that his worst nightmare is hurting people by being unable to control his powers, we come face to face with a world where he’s hurt people by the precise and controlled application of his powers. Justice Lord Clark uses the same Superman Robots we saw Kara use in Legacy. He’s become quite adept at his lobotomization techniques. Later on in JLU, we see ‘our’ universe’s Clark attempt to lobotomize Doomsday the exact same way Justice Lord Superman did. Again, Clark fails to protect the world from himself, and to make matters worse, the guy to save the day is Lex Luthor. I’d be a little miffed if the maniac who wants to kill me so so bad turned out to be instrumental in saving the world and now I owe him some unspecified favor in the future. Clark’s met with failure and distrust trying to fix things his way, now he tries to do things in an uncharacteristically sneaky way and… gets met with more dislike and distrust.

Eclipsed continues this trend of hurting his friends; he’s temporarily mind controlled and hurts Wally.

In The Terror Beyond, he fucks up and puts the world in danger again, all because from his point of view, he tried to prevent Solomon Grundy being manipulated and used (like he himself has been used over and over again).

In Secret Society, his frustration comes to a peak, amplified by Grodd’s telepathic manipulation. He’s been trying to do his best, but he snaps that he’s had better luck fighting armies alone (dubious plural there, but he did pretty much evaporate an army in Legacy, so at least once, ok) and that he’s had to hold back his abilities in order to be on the League. Again if we take the World of Cardboard speech at face value, this is true, and we see it in the episode when he accidentally hurts Shayera with heat vision despite shouting a warning beforehand. It’s also telling how other members of the League have the ability to constantly voice doubts about its usefulness and cohesiveness as an organization (hi Bruce) but when he expresses the same doubts everyone gasps. When he expresses his doubt and frustration, when he steps away, the organization that’s collectively saved the world several times falls apart; they’re reliant on him, and he has to be aware of the entire existence of the League as an extra burden of responsibility.

Since both this episode and the Cadmus arc as a whole are meant to show his flaws as a leader, it’s worth examining the foundations of that leadership as established in the DCAU. Clark’s the leader of the League, but narratively, Bruce is its brains and its ethics and Wally is its heart. As a result, Clark is filling the role of leader of the League without the narrative scaffolding that gives him the respect comics incarnations of the character are generally accorded. (I’m admittedly only drawing here from the JLA runs I’ve personally read, Morrison/Porter 90’s JLA and the early Fox/Sekowsky 60’s JLA). Superman might not technically be the First Superhero according to these continuities, but he is respected as though he is (and as we comic book nerds know him to be). The League in these comics treat him as something of an ethical standard bearer, a primus inter pares, as well as being the muscle. In the DCAU, Batman, having founded the DCAU with BTAS, is the First Superhero, and the entire plotline of the Justice Lords centers Wally as the emotional anchor of the team. Clark doesn’t have that pre-established stature. What really qualifies him to be the leader, besides the fact that Bruce doesn’t want to do it? His position seems precarious, relying more on Superman’s pre-established reputation than his actual onscreen characterization. Centering Bruce and Wally are legitimate creative choices I don’t even necessarily disagree with, but it means Clark-as-leader functions quite differently than more traditional JL structures.

Hereafter is something of a healing point for him. It’s a little fucked up that Superman almost bashes Vandal Savage’s head in with a rock, but you take what you can get at this point. He comes out of it fine, but everyone else is forced to reckon with what he means to them. Hereafter coming directly after Secret Society is a very good reunification for the League. Shame about what’s gonna happen in three episodes.

In Wild Cards, he’s useful to address the immediate threat but ineffective to stop the real, countrywide (worldwide?) threat. (I should note that of course I don’t expect every episode’s threat to be solved by Clark; I’m just pointing out a trend that I think his character would perceive as failures on his part. If the writers ever let him reflect.)

JL ends as it began, with another massive alien invasion that Clark helped facilitate in Starcrossed, by working with the Thanagarians during the first part of their plan. As a fellow exile, a fellow alien, he’s hurt and angry with Shayera’s betrayal… even though, in the end, in probably one of his best moments, he votes to allow her to stay in the League.

(Sidenote: almost every interaction Clark has had with other aliens have been despotic societies or individuals: Jax-Ur and Mala, Apokolips, Maxima’s planet, War World, and now Thanagar. The Guardians built robotic police/foot soldiers to enforce their will. Even New Genesis is ruled by a benevolent dictator. Martian society is nearly extinct, overrun by… more alien despots, surviving only with J'onn. Argoan society is nearly extinct, surviving only with Kara. At least Lobo isn’t a fascist? Small consolation.)

JLU begins after a short time skip. I’m not as familiar with JLU episodes since it’s been a while since I’ve watched them, so I’m not going to attempt an episode-by-episode breakdown. Also this post is already way too long. But the point of this post is to look at Clark’s overall arc until this point, and see how it informs his decisions in JLU. For a more JLU-specific informed point of view check this post by januariat!

What we have is a man who naturally wants to take responsibility on his own shoulders, a doer and a fixer who wants to get into the ring and solve problems, who wants to use his abilities to help, being confronted over and over again with a string of personal failures, manipulation, and betrayal. When he tries to set a boundary about not being willing to help the man who took over his body and forced him against his home in Twilight, he’s told to get over it by his most trusted ally. When his deepest fears are revealed in Only a Dream, we see them having been already realized in Legacy. And when he’s presented with his dream of a peaceful life farming, a family that loves him, and no responsibility to save the world, it’s ripped away from him in For The Man Who Has Everything.

Ultimately, I don’t have a good answer for exactly how he doubles down in JLU S2, because I need to rewatch all of it with this understanding of the character. But I think you can see the shape of a traditional Superman character in there, trying and trying again and again to do the right thing, putting himself on the line - only instead of learning from his experiences and letting them inform his actions, he’s carrying the weight of years of suppressed trauma while trying to hold up the entire Justice League. This long, long run of failure, manipulation, betrayal, and distrust adds up. And there’s only so much weight one person can hold on their shoulders, even if they are a Superman.

(And then as the nice little capstone to his story, in Batman Beyond's The Call, he’s kept under alien mind control for years! With the way Starro clings to his chest, he probably hasn’t been touched in years! Trapped in his own mind, forced to watch as yet another alien species uses him as a tool to hurt his own teammates and invade the Earth! And that’s the last we see of DCAU Clark! What a fun little ending to his character arc that doesn’t make me go insane whenever I think about it. Very very very normal about this.)

[the-one-that-weeps]

What kind of tropes do you like hoc? I'm curious

Awww thank you ^^. I spent so long on this I'm so sorry I just sort of spiraled and one thing led to the other and I ended up tracking all my favourite fics and books out there and... sorry Lynnie. I'm going to write a lot so sorry about that too... here are some of my favourite tropes from the top of my head:

Found Family: I think fanfic is a very important self-healing tool for the modern generation and I'm no exception. Just... The thought of fitting in and being loved is too much for me and I need it like a drug.

Cuddling and Snuggling: same as the last one. I don't know if touch is my love language or if I'm just a sap but whatever has cuddling goes directly to my tabs. Yes this includes close proximity even though I'm not particularly proud of that.

Hurt/comfort: same as the last one. Whether it's Sickfic, PTSD recovery, injuries, panic attack, just a character being sad or going through something. There's something so unbelievably beautiful about the fact that no matter how ugly it gets — how ugly you get — there will be someone reaching a hand through the darkness. It sickens me. Also yeah, touch starved is very much in here.

I also like misunderstandings because I am very very weak and very very stupid and I like characters getting hurt.

And I am also very weak for character analysis. I swear every time I find something there it's pure gold. And in that category I am especially weak to character parallels and so on.

I'm surprised we share so many faves and thanks for the ask again!!

[ram-on]

whenyourbirdisbroken asked:

Hi ram-on! Thanks for your tags on that fic rec for Carry That Weight, I've never read that fic but your tags made it sound very interesting! What are other McLennon fics you like, if you don't mind sharing?

Hello there, @whenyourbirdisbroken! Thank you for my very first Beatles related ask and sorry for the late reply!! I discovered fanfiction through the Beatles fandom, I had never read fanfic before! But I'm still too bad at bookmarking things, so I'll certainly forget some I loved. Still, here's a list of those I can remember now:

Carry That Weight and its sequence Hello Goodbye by @waveofahand It's a massive work by a massive talent and it has a very special place in my heart. @idontwanttospoiltheparty described it very well in their recent post about it, and I added a bit of my commentary in the tags. Don't worry about the length, you don't have to read the two parts to enjoy it, but also if you start from the beginning and it's your cup of tea you may soon discover you never want it to end!

 Mums, Yur Boys are Crying by waveofahand. If you love hurt/comfort, this fic includes both John and Paul suffering - John's mom dying and Paul helping him go trhough the funeral, etc, and then Paul himself getting into another situation, and John worrying about him too. The boys are young but there's kindness, maturity and wisdom in it and the typical picturesque, novel-like features of waveofhand's prose. A special bonus are the very charming scenes between Mimi and Paul which may colour your perception of the interactions between those two forever (I always expect them to act like that in other fics). It's also a delightfully finished fic, it has a beautiful ending and conclusion.

Everything by merseydreams . As you may notice, I'm mostly a fan of drama and angst, but @merseydreams are my favorite exception. They're a comedy genius, their fics are romantic, charming, witty, very vivid and enjoyable both on story-buld level and micro-sentence level. I've often told them they should write scripts for sitcoms and romantic comedies/dramedies and other good things. Also good thoughtful characterization, relationship study-ing and dialogue too (so there's seriousness in them too! They're ultimately happy but not fluffy.). I love all their fics but I guess The Birthday Party is the best by being the longest, if you somehow missed it go read it ASAP! 

i was a younger man then (now) (post hoc)  by fingersfallingupwards.  This fic is so touching, that I don't know how to describe it. It's a very poetic, imaginative and unique story about John&Paul-forever and time travel. About the connection of their souls in a fantastical but poignant sense that somehow fits them so much. Might make you cry but it's worth it. Also, completely finished fic as well, with a thrilling emotional twist towards the end. Might be the most complete fic I've read. The fic also provide very good context for the flaming pie anecdote :-)

On our way back home by Kathleenishereagain. This one is also about time travel, but in a different way, basically about old Paul getting back to being young again and how he'd do things differently. I think it's quite popular so you probably all know it. (Funny thing is I never thought I'd care about time travel, but ultimately it's just a writing vessel and aren't we always time travelling when we fantasise about the Beatles?) 

Close The Door Lightly When You Go by RosalindBeatrice. Set in 1979 when Paul comes to visit John in the Dacota, who acts like he doesn't want him there. It's awesome, one of those fics, in which they have real tension and problems which makes it all more real. It's mostly inner-thoughs and dialogue-driven but very intense nontheless, great characterisation, great attention to detail, just fantastic for lovers of post break up relationship studies and excellent writing.

The Wild Horses trilogy, from which I especially love the last part, Son of a Shining Path. It's about young Paul and John and Paul being abused by his father, and the first part might be a bit too dark for some. But I love the writing, and especially in the third part (which has no abuse but other suffering) I just love how well being worried about someone you love and being unable to show it is written in the end there. It's subtle, very realistic in its details, I love it.

I'm Looking Through You by @idontwanttospoiltheparty That's the only fic in this list which is still a work in progress, still updated. If you follow the author on Tumblr you know how smart they are, and their fic is just as thoughtful and attentive to the Beatles history, the music and the psychology of it all. The story gets more exciting and rich whith each chapter, I fell in love with the last three. It also pays attention to all four of the Beatles and their human sides and motivations in a way that rarely happens. Last chapter included the best incorporation of the Manila adventures I've read in fic. Just many emotionally packed and thrilling scenes all around (also that thing I just wrote about being worried about someone and being frozen about how to help them which I love being written realistically in fics -- is here too.) Go read it if you haven't and let's read the next update soon together!!

Widow by abromeds on LJ. This story is more than a decade old, but it's no wonder it still appears in fic recs. It's about death and grief - not John but Paul dying like John did - so it's truly dark, not like fun angsty, but truly deeply dramatic and real. So you might think why read something sad, but maybe you should, because it's so good. It's also serious writing on meaningful topic and I think the fictional element (Paul dying and not John) somehow helps it being more bearable and at the same time makes you think about the actual reality and we kinda avoid doing it, don't we? And it's just very well written, there are also very plausible-sounding flashbacks of their history and relationship through the years (the one about why John actually climbed the fence in Cavendish is my favorite!), so it's not really all about death. And my absolutely favorite thing in ''Widow'' is the very ending, the last sentence even. It's the most perfect, most poignant ending this story could have had, an ending any good fuckin literature could have. Sometimes I walk on the streets and think about that ending. 

-------------------

This fic rec is got too wordy, so I'll end this here, although there are other fics I've enjoyed just as much, but I'll add them some other time!

Always feel free to recommend me some fics too (or to share your thoughts on the already mentioned!)

[ibex-ascendant]

One thing I love about the Homestuck epilogues and Homestuck2 is that they explore how fanfic characters would actually feel about living in their absurd OOC fanfic world.

The closest I've seen to this theme in another piece of media is in Scum Villain Self Saving System, where PIDW is a "fanficy" online power fantasy novel. But even there, the absurdities of the "source" are contextualized by the narrative - as in, there was a "missing story" which made things fit together - rather than the characters making them fit together subjectively through post-hoc rationalizations.

Like, they don't perceive things as OOC. The shocking swerves that happen in the story, the impulsive and nonsensical decisions that characters make - the people living them have narratives about why they've occurred.

Just like we do in real life!

[whetstonefires]

Hello! For the reverse tropes writing prompts (if this catches your fancy) — murderbot diaries with fake amnesia and Really nice guy who hates only you

this is really not in the spirit of that second inverse trope, but for mb this was the only thing i could think of, and it was very funny.

=

"Gurathin," said Gurathin. "SecUnit, you know it's me."

"I don't think I know that," it said, pleasantly, in an okay but not excellent imitation of its creepy canned dialogue options. "Please present some identification, and we'll see."

Gurathin didn't bother sending his data over the feed again. Murderbot walked away, but left a drone eyeballing him. He resisted the urge to flip the drone off. "Come on," he told it, knowing SecUnit was paying attention. "Let me in."

He watched the SecUnit bend forward slightly to show two of Mensah's kids that it was paying attention to whatever they were saying, and then bend over further to help the toddler up onto a chair. It was just fucking with him now. On the other hand, if the prickly bastard started letting children hug it just to piss off Gurathin, who was the real loser?

It finished spoiling the children and moved over to smoothly de-escalate a brewing disagreement over the punch bowl. Gurathin tried to catch Pin-Lee's eye; she did not cooperate. Gurathin tried to walk through the open door; the hovering security drone took a potshot at him.

SecUnit got roped into conversation with Bharadwaj and her media colleagues. It said something that made everyone laugh. It wasn't scowling. It was faking looking people in the face pretty well; that was just creepy.

It went on like that; Gurathin had never seen it go this long interacting without pissing someone off. Presumably it was venting all of that impulse on him. Ratthi introduced it to his favorite cousin; zi was visibly charmed.

Gurathin goaded the drone into firing two more warning shots before the SecUnit circulated back over to him.

"SecUnit. Come on. You have known me for actual years. I helped you rob a place once."

"I don't recall."

"We met on that planetary survey mission, don't tell me you don't remember that one, it's the reason you're even here." That came out maybe a little harsh, but everyone was letting the SecUnit abuse the power of being entrusted with party security to bully him, he was allowed to be annoyed.

"Oh, were you there? That data must have been lost in a corrupted filetree," it said, with incredibly cutting blandness.

Gurathin groaned. "Okay! Okay. I'm sorry."

It technically counted as a reward when SecUnit stopped giving him the customer service face and switched to the hairy eyeball, which just showed how stupid this whole situation was. It was clearly not satisfied with just that.

"I'm sorry for using your personal name without permission. I wasn't trying to weaponize it or anything, it just slipped out, but I know that's not an excuse and it was a really inappropriate disrespect for your boundaries."

SecUnit kept looking at him. Gurathin knew two other SecUnits now, neither of whom was as supremely weird as this one; that was why he'd started mentally tagging it with its personal name, just to keep things tidy. Of course, if anyone else had done that and made the resulting mistake, SecUnit probably wouldn't have been half so mad.

Gurathin sagged.

"I'm sorry for going through your personal files and using your name against you back during the survey," he mumbled, wishing he kept drones around to control with his brain so he could watch SecUnit's extremely expressive face without having to look at it. "That was really shitty. Rim paranoia isn't a good enough excuse for refusing to see you as anything but a tool of the Company. Okay?"

SecUnit was looking as pained as though Gurathin had stripped naked in its presence. "Yes, fine, you can come to the party just stop having feelings," it said, in its normal voice.

"Great!" said Gurathin. "The spinach puffs had better not be all gone."

"I don't pay any attention to the things humans consume," it said, moving out of his way and taking its drone with it.

"I know," Gurathin acknowledged, rolling his eyes and trooping after it. Ratthi waved enthusiastically at him and Pin-Lee raised her cup in a welcoming toast. Apparently SecUnit's relenting returned him to the ranks of people who existed again. "Believe me, I remember this about you."

[maple-seed]

Happy Fanfic Writer's Appreciation Day! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ I will be fully honest. I have not read Thrown yet😭 It's been on my list because it seems right my alley but I keep waiting for a long weekend or something so I can get fully immersed. Unfortunately, that's means I don't have much to say specifically about your writing style. But your dedication to writing Thrown is incredible and I envy it! I wish I had an idea that spurred me to wrote over 100k for it! Truly that is an amazing amount of dedication and I cannot wait to jump in!

But I will say you are a delightful friend. I love how you send me every Astarion thing you see, even when you knew nothing about the character other than I liked him. Thank you for always being there to chat and or just listen. You're truly amazing, and it's ashamed we are destined to fight in the stars. Until then ❤️❤️

CAS!!! 😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️ You beautiful ball of light!

If you ever read Thrown I hope you enjoy it, but please don't feel pressured to do so. As you mentioned, it is over 100,000 words which is a lot and nobody owes me that commitment lol. Plus it's still missing its last four chapters. 😬 (I'm working on it)

Also I haven't caught up on the new installments of HoC or Charmspeaker so we're even. 😆

Thank you for accepting my Astarion tidbits that I drop on your doorstep like a dead bird. I know you've probably seen them before but you're always so gracious. 😂 I don't know how I got so caught up in a character whose media I haven't even consumed. It is definitely your fault somehow but I'm not complaining.

I will take a moment to gush about how much I love your writing. Hook or Crook is one of my favorite series ever. I'm sure I've told you before but I just love how in love those two are. Okay, maybe "obsessed" it the correct word but you make obsession feel so sweet! They're meant to be and I can feel it in every word.

Truly saddened that our friendship must end in a terrible battle but I'm enjoying every second until then.❤️❤️❤️

[fimproda]

Welcome / Fanfiction Masterlist

(This is a long post. Bear with me: I'm unable to stop the flow of words that come out of my mouth. It's why I love writing.)

Hello there!

As I plan on using this account primarily to advertise my stories, here's a "brief" rundown of my authorial profile. Please note that each and every one of my works is R-Rated, and with good reason. (I like myself some smut.)

@zoyalannister and I are co-authors on AO3, and under our names is the The Last Flowers series, in which we hold back no blows towards Cassandra Clare's truly idiotic plot and characterization in The Last Hours and attempt to write something decent. TLF is comprised of:

Hydrangea, a three-part, Grace-centered minilong which takes place between Chain of Gold and Chain of Iron;

Daisy, a six-part, Cordelia-centered minilong spanning from the Whispering Room scene in Chain of Gold to the end of Chain of Iron;

Chrysanthemum (upcoming), a nine-part fix-it of that trash fire that is Chain of Thorns;

Geranium, an AU stemming from a particular plot point in Hydrangea;

Petals, a collection of missing moments from the series.

Please note that I am zoyalannister's friend, co-author and beta reader for a reason, and any defense of Chain of Thorns will not be tolerated on this blog. (I might be joking, or I might not. Find out at your expense.)

As a solo writer, I've been active for a while in the A Court of Thorns and Roses fandom with the Under the Stars series, posting, as of today:

Constellations, a Nessian-centric minilong which takes place about a year after the events in Silver Flames;

In the shadow of a dream, a Gwynriel one-shot that sets the scene for a future Gwynriel long;

Space dust, a collection of 31 drabbles for Kinktober;

Splendor Solis, a little Elucien worldbuilding piece set in the Day Court.

If you're interested about this fandom, want to know more about my stories (current or future), want to hear me proselitizing about how SJM is a truly great writer and suffers from too much negative publicity, or simply want to chat, I'm here for this very reason.

You can also find me on Wattpad, where my "career" actually started. If there's someone between you who can read Italian and fancies themselves some mediocre The Mortal Instruments fanfiction, you can visit my Wattpad profile and be faced with these ol' things:

Remembering the Past, the first fanfic in a trilogy in which I tried to imagine what life after City of Heavenly Fire might have been like for our beloved heroes;

Living the Present, which is RtP's sequel;

Seeing the Future, which in turn is LtP's sequel and concludes the trilogy, as well as starting a new plotline with a fresh set of characters who star as protagonists in this next story I'm about to cite;

House of Cards, a Watty award-winning first story of a tetralogy I never got to write in its entirety. HoC is pretty sweet tho, if I do say so myself, and you can read it even if you know nothing about the Past, Present and Future trilogy.

The stuff on Wattpad is quite old and I'm not posting there anymore, as I now find AO3 more suitable for the kind of stories I write, and also a more "fanfiction-friendly" and "English-friendly" website. But I still respond to comments and interact with readers, since that's the bare minimum in my opinion.

And... this is all I have to say. Nice meeting you all!

[squirrelwrangler]

Now I noticed how NOBODY ELSE benefits from the Silmarils's retrival, the rest of the Noldor, the Edain, all the other elves (Eldar and Avari), nobody gets anything, the Silmarils are for Feanor and his sons only. Which...is far, its their jewel, not anyone else. Buuuuut, its so double standards, cuz they also feel entitled to other people's stuff?

Yet the Feanorians feels like...entitled to aid? What their Edain vassals even would care for the Silmaril? Why would the elf servants? The soldiers that fought and died? The normal ass people? Their families? All Noldor mind you

Most fics show the post-Lotr Noldor begin happy and united in Valinor, but honestly? I think they would all lowkey hate each other

The Silmarils are garbage. They are a garbage McGuffin and only exist to give Lúthian and Beren a quest item and Eärendil a halo. They suck. I've gone on record that either direction would have been better -mystery of the Sampo- or having them be a truly living conscious being trapped in the form of a glowing stone (Aide from the SF series Belisarius is my shining example). The Swanships have more value than the Silmarils in both practicality, beauty, community imput, community cultural history, cultural value, and the loss that their destruction caused. The only time the Silmarils are seen positively as a good object to be around is when Elwing had in the the refugee camp at the Mouth of Sirion.

The Noldor in general are characterized by their fractious individualistic competitiveness. Vanyar have unity. The Teleri are divided (in the case of the Falmari and the rest of the Sindar, deeply so) but show a willingness to come together and reconcile with ease -Denethor and the Nandor, that Avari are welcomed in, Círdan's staunch ally-vassalage, Elwing's plea, the integration of Sindar and Silvan. With them, their branching out into a variety of lifestyles and settlement patterns (shore versus forest, nomadic versus settled, housing location, etc...) suggests that an ad-hoc flexibility strengthens rather than hurts their greater group identity. But the Noldor are the ones with dynastic jockeying occurring on the page. Often violently so. And the nastiest offenders of that are the Fëanorians. Remember, Morgoth himself laughs and acknowledges that their presence and their Oath was always beneficial to him, not detrimental.

Fëanor's actions after the Darkening is some of the foulest shit. His xenophobic political riot speech is skin-crawling. Then he rushes to Alqualondë because he knows that he doesn't have the popular majority support, and his goal, stated right on the page, is to make Valinor worse, to trash it further so that he retains his tenuous political grip. Then tries to incite a coup against Olwë and commit some of the biggest acts of hypocrisy to date in demanding, stealing the Swanships, murder, and then destruction. Melkor only kills one elf when stealing the Silmarils and then stops Ungoliant from destroying them. It's a bad sign when Melkor has the comparative moral high ground.

The shittiness of the Fëanorians and why would the Silmarils matter is a thread that runs through my Bór fics, at least the ones involving Great Lady Borte and her great-granddaughter Kreka. It's rather telling that they were the first Silm fanfics I wrote and shared.

When I write post-war Valinor, it's mostly as the peaceful aftermath of the various OCs that I tortured in Tol-in-Gaurhoth and Angband. Beren's Band of the Red Hand dudes. So I'm not focusing on internal strife because this is the promised comfort of H/C. But I do see a delicate dance from Fingolfin (and Turgon and Finrod) to ensure his followers don't destabilize Finarfin's highly competent rule. (There's a minuscule echo of this in Imin's rebirth). As for the Fëanorians? Bah, they can all stay in Mandos. Maybe one of the twins can come out, but I don't see any problem with storing all of them and the most implacably morally bankrupt of their followers in there until Arda is ReMade.

[onewomancitadel]

I think it is a little weird when people take online echo chambers as representative of the average person. No, most people don't read fanfic nor do they even consider it serious literature and the average person doesn't know what it is and the average fan probably thinks it's a bit odd and pathetic; as a matter of fact, on most ends of the Internet, fanfic is a punchline to a bad joke. Tumblr and certain ends of other social media are actually highly irregular exceptions which are a consequence of fannish effort.

I don't think fanfic is responsible for people not reading as a habit. Not at all. I think justifications related to not reading ('fanfic is so much better' / 'fanfic is tagged labouriously for user ease' / 'fanfic meets my specific needs') are simply post hoc self-justification. I don't think this self-reporting is actually meaningfully accurate. They're not lying, but it's not the whole picture and they're attributing not reading books to fanfic when it's part of a whole broader cultural shift. Fanfic occupies too small a niche to be so influential.

And perhaps I'm annoyed that 'fanfic is not the same as published literature' has now become 'fanfic doesn't count as reading and fanfic is bad anyway', and it seems like there's a burgeoning shift to regurgitating the same position pretty much most people hold: that fanfic is stupid and bad anyway. Lol. It's not groundbreaking.

I say this for being well-documented as saying that fanfic is not of the same stream as published literature, for good or ill, and it is literarily nourishing to read widely. Especially if you want to become well equipped as both a reader and writer.

Fandom is more mainstream than it used to be, especially because of wider Internet usage, but by no means is transformative fandom - fanfic more specifically - something you talk about in polite company.

[ambersock]

First Lines Game

Rules: share the first lines of up to ten of your most recent fanfics and tag up to ten people. If you have written fewer than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

tagged by @yourmadnesswon <3 <3

Chrysalis

The thin, jagged crack of light hovers undulating in the air in a beckoning dance, promising sanctuary on the other side. 

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

Sam waits, kneeling, for his execution.

He watches Dean pull the scythe back for the fatal strike and closes his eyes, half out of dread, half out of mercy.

Make All of My Nightmares Come True

Kearney, Missouri is miles behind them, and a chasm still fills the space between Dean, behind the wheel, and Sam, pretending to try to sleep on the passenger side. Sam is supposed to be getting some shut-eye so he can take over driving in a few hours, but he’s still wound up and sleep won’t come despite the soft rock Dean put on.

Your own brother trying to kill you will do that.

Threshold

He’s standing at the threshold, but he can’t quite seem to make himself go any further. The double doors in front of him challenge him, judging, questioning, repudiating his worthiness. It’s difficult to find the will within himself to move forward, but going back is not an option. Not anymore.

Enemy Within

Bobby and Sam pull into the drive that leads to the burned-out shell that was once Bobby’s home. The place where Sam and Dean could once turn to when they needed to regroup and lick their wounds. The place that once was the only occasional island of stability Sam knew other than the Impala.

With ice cold hands takin’ hold of me

“I think you’ll want to see this for yourself.”

He doesn’t, as a rule, concern Himself with individuals; they are not in and of themselves important to the whole of the species. They are molecules of water compared to the tide, necessary, providing a medium to shape a pattern, but one more or less has little impact in the grander scheme.

Taking Care of Business

He’s just settled in with a glass of Craig and The Drama of the Gifted Child when the King of Hell is interrupted by the irritating sound of a throat being cleared. He shuts his eyes and pushes aside the urge to disintegrate the offender. There is a delicate balance between instilling the correct level of fear and retaining enough staff to run a functioning court.

Penny for your Thoughts

In retrospect, Garth should’ve known better. 20-20 hindsight is a harsh mistress.

He should’ve known that the automatic fight-or-flight reaction causes muscles to tense, not relax. He should’ve stepped in front of Dean again, blocked his line of fire. He should’ve made sure that the gun was pointed away from Sam before he threw the punch.

Convergence

Bright dim bright dim bright dim

We need bait that fits the demo… Chain around neck choking… I don’t think I want it back…

Filet of Soul

Sam glances across the Impala to the passenger seat to Dean, who has finally conked out, leaving Sam alone with his thoughts in the aftermath of nearly losing him to an Amazon.

“Now isn’t that ironic. And here you thought we were the unstable one.”

Almost alone.

No-pressure tags, just including some folks who I know are writers and might enjoy participating. Apologies to anyone I didn't tag because I can't keep different Tumblr/AO3 handles straight; please consider yourself tagged!

@wilsonthemoose @adirotynd @a-wondrous-thing @petrichorsam @quickreaver @themegalosaurus @trials-era-sam @tigerlilynoh