#really it's about time I've rec'd this

[chucapybara]

sometimes i think of that one quote. a quote, was it? i'm certain it was a post, really, perhaps here or elsewhere—but it was something about how we are a medley of all the people we have ever met, and how we come to carry a little piece of everyone that comes in and out of our life, whether to stay or merely in passing. we bear a mirror shard of memory from each person we have ever loved, hated, called a friend, so on.

and i remembered something.

when i was younger (i'm not so old so as to be saying that, but it's true that i was younger then), and i was all over roleplaying with people online and meeting new names—in what were probably not the best spaces, i found out later on—i had a thing i would ask. nothing much, really, a harmless question yet one that for one reason or another i would find myself bringing up under the pretense of getting to know someone a little better, but still a question.

it was about their favourite song, i think. that, or maybe a song they perceive to be about themselves, but maybe it was more of the former.

either way, i'd gotten a plethora of answers, the songs of which i could not remember the titles of but could still remember in vague recollections, and in the off and rare chance i still come across the artists who performed those songs i still think of those now-nameless people i had once called friend.

hey. i still carry a piece of you. to one: i hope you're doing well; to another, i hope that you finished college. the other shapeless—i hope you found a promotion at work. another: i hope love worked out well for you.

i'd left a lot of people walking forward, or perhaps inevitably it was them whose paths divulged from mine, but hey, i still think of you. i know you liked this thing, and i know you were really fond of this one anime. and i don't really think i have the heart to think negative in any sense of these ghosts from years passed, but i still remember.

i hope you're taking care. i hope you're well. i still remember.

[cr0ftisprocrastinating]

Do you have any all time favorite fics? Any that specifically inspired your own? I absolutely love some recommendations for feel good, sexy, engaging romance (enemies to friends to lovers or just friends to lovers) fics. Thank you so much!!

Hello! And YES, I absolutely do. Some of these are the classic ones that everyone recs, but I've also included some WIPs that I am really loving atm that make me happy. SO:

Classics I re-read all the time:

DMATMOBIL - @isthisselfcare. This singlehandedly got me back into the fandom. I'm sure you've read it, but if you haven't, you absolutely must!

I love everything that @scullymurphy writes (plus they have great taste in music, and wine). Start with Universal Truths, but the recently completed Teach Me How To Forget is also delicious.

Similar for @thebemoon, I just love their stuff. The Darkwood Wand and The Gloriana Set are just so fun and enjoyable. I smile the whole way through.

Love and Other Historical Accidents by @pacific-rimbaud is frequently rec'd for a very good reason. Beautiful.

Also I have to shout out The Nature of Purity by @starsoforionwrites for some really interesting takes on wizarding society (and electricity!!!) which I am still thinking about.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by @olivieblake is the closest fic I've found to a Caput Mortuum-esque unhinged Hermione, and is really great fun.

Now we get to the WIPs that I'm loving, which again probably don't count as inspirations but are very much in the genre of things I love to read (and therefore, write!)

You Do It For Me by @zeebee3 is just delicious. Talk about fics you smile the whole way through.

I am ADORING Scary Partner Privilege by @nightbloom7reads. It deserves SO MUCH hype, because it's just excellent.

Erotic Friend Fiction by @whiskeygreen hasn't been updated in a while, but it is hilarious and you have 47 delicious chapters to get through!

Things Without Remedy by @onebedtorulethemall is also brilliant and deserves more hype. Very sexy big brain, hyper competent Hermione, and very sexy laboratory descriptions too. Anyone who writes anything about time travel I instantly am in awe, because I just don't think my brain could ever work that way.

Finally, If These Walls Could Talk by @incognitotoro is absolutely delightful. Bloody love cursebreaking, bloody love the medieval period, bloody love when they both exist in a fic.

these are all I can think of off the top of my head, but yes, I hope there are a few that you haven't come across yet! xxx

[txttletale]

Dang this is like the first time I've heard anyone say anything bad about heaven's vault. Lotta people rec'd me that one after being disappointed by tunic's linguistic overpuzzle

i really want to like heaven's vault too! i like what the game is actually meant to be about, the talking and translating, but it feels like i'm fighting the game at every turn to get to do any of that

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

✍️ Fic authors self rec!

When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to other writers you know. Let's spread some self-love! 💛

hi val!!! hope your week's going well :3

uhhh five of my favorite fics??? i'm pretty sure i've rec'd some of these already during like a new year's celebration event BUT I SHALL DO IT AGAIN 💕

➼ Don't Leave Me

Canonverse angst piece where Levi breaks up with you with the intention of getting back together after the war is over. Unfortunately, you don't live that long for him to fulfill that wish.

➼ "Get Me a Damned Matcha"

I couldn't possibly do one of these without recommending my BABY 😭 This was the first fic I've fully published because I usually suck at writing things chronologically sdkfjsdkfj, but anyway here's my college x roommates x coffee shop!au fluff fic. There is smut so I'm shooing minors away

➼ Loss

I PROMISE I'M STILL INTENDING ON CONTINUING THIS DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT'S BEEN LIKE 9 MONTHS SKDFJSLDFJ But anyway, this was from a request I got back in April that I really liked and I decided to turn it into a short multi-chap. Premise is that the reader consumed some of the wine in season 4 and gets turned into a Titan and Levi has to figure out what the hell he's going to do about it.

➼ Your Safe Space

I struggle a lot with my emotions getting easily overwhelming out of nowhere, so here's a hurt/comfort piece of Levi helping you through it 💕

➼ Your Worth

I've recommended this one a million times and I fr go to reread it whenever I'm struggling with this because I struggle with it a LOT. Anyway here's a hurt/comfort piece where Levi reminds you of your worth 💕

[vinelark]

hey hey! i love bbts so much, it makes me so happy whenever i reread it✌️one of the (many) things i love about it is the core four friendship! so i was wondering, do you have any recs for fics with fun yj dynamics?! no pressure ofc, either way i hope you have a lovely day ☺️✨

hello! so sorry this took forever! also so glad bbts makes you happy on the reread 🥰

first, some of my absolute fav core four content: coralreefskim's comics and cryptocism's comics. great art, great dialogue, great codependent friendship nightmare polycule genuinely endearing "would kill for you would live for you would save the world with you but more importantly would never let you live down that typo you made in the groupchat that one time" vibes all around.

and a few fics:

Into the Brighter Night by shoalsea

when a past enemy comes back for tim, the batfam learn a lot about tim and his young justice adventures in the fallout. this one's long and plotty and has that super compelling trope of the POV character watching an interaction where the reader is in on the jokes but the POV character isn't--basically a great sort-of-outsider POV on the core four, plus, from what i could tell, almost every other yj character at some point.

a study by bernard dowd by cv_angels

a short, hilarious fic with timber and implied future timberkon, in which tim (sort of) reveals his identity and that leads to kon and bart and cassie meeting bernard.

Lipstick on the glass by kerosceene

i'm a broken record with this one, but it's just. 🤌🤌 it starts out focused on timkon but part 2 has college-age core four halloween shenanigans. cassie has a civilian gf. bart dresses up as a meme that doesn't exist yet. kon is in the dragriculture club. tim loves his friends (and boyfriend) so much. it's just so heartwarming and good.

The Mystery of the Superboy Shirts by Aviatricks

silly oneshot with tim going full obsessive detective mode about everything but his own feelings, good yj squad dynamics, bart being a passable liar, and some timkon.

Detours by miyaji_08

i've also rec'd this one before (twice, even) but once again it fits the bill, because the core four scenes in this are so good. it's a reverse robins au where tim becomes roommates with kon and bart and cassie, who are superboy, impulse, and wonder girl but have no idea (yet) that tim has his own secret identity, too. so there's identity shenanigans with all four of them, classic reverse robins tim angst, some enemies-to-lovers and oh-my-god-they-were-roommates timkon, and a really fun final action sequence. it's part 2 of a series and i highly recommend reading part 1 first, but if you want to dive right into the core four aspects you can probably piece together the context as you go.

[messifangirl]

are you still here :( you’re my fav messi blog and writer! have you got any recs or something new up your sleeve to look forward to? 💗

I'm still reading fic lately but not so much writing... I'm having trouble getting back into it but I'm really trying. In the meantime, I'm so happy that there are so many authors really flourishing and keeping the fandom alive. Here are my top ten favorite fics from the last few months.

Detachment by gabyteller

You're gonna wanna read the tags and warnings on this one because it is an angst-filled epic that jumps around in time through the years of Leo's career. Breathtaking at times and still a work in progress (but updated pretty regularly), I've read it more than once and it's currently my favorite fic in fandom.

Rating: M, pairings: multi, words: 103k, status: WIP

Taking Chances by loebala

Top and a bit of a dom Leo, but it's not just that it's the whole feel of this fic--Leo around La Scaloneta and the friendships and vibe is just fantastic. It's all told from Dibu's pov and it's everything I never knew I wanted lol. So smut but a whole lot of other stuff too :)

Rating: E, pairings: Leo/Emiliano Martínez, words: 48K, status: complete (now with a sequel as well)

Mistakes I Made and Won't Bend by BermudaRhombus

This fic starts with Pep leaving Barca and deals with his friendship/relationship with Leo in the years afterward, up until the present. I think what I love about it is even though we've all seen how Pep talks about Leo in the press and what not, he still hasn't quite figured Leo out after all these years.

Rating: G, pairings: Leo/Pep, words: 11k, status: complete

Hope It Gives You Hell by Fanficburner

If you're in the mood for a little smutty abo, this is the one for you. And if you've been following me long enough, you know I like my abo consensual, so this one was right on the money for me. Leo's a little bit of a cocky shit which doesn't always do it for me, but here it does. Plus, Ramos? yes'm sign me up.

Rating: E, pairings: Leo/Sergio Ramos, words: 6k, status: complete

I Can Feel It In The Air, Ooh Miami by ReflectionChamber

This one was a fun ride--but then again threesomes always are and even more so when everything doesn't always click into place. It starts after Leo's left PSG and has arrived in Miami, and explores how the three of them move from friendship into something more. Neymar doesn't know what the hell he wants, and Kylian is just struggling to hold onto Neymar. And then you've got Leo who's older and wiser but nonetheless invested in trying to keep his loved ones happy. I'm not a huge Kylian fan but this worked and it's well worth the read.

Rating: E, pairings Leo/Neymar, Leo/Kylian, Neymar/Kylian, Leo/Ney/Kylian, words: 114k, status: complete

It is in your self-interest to find a way to be very tender by gabyteller

Here's another by gabyteller but I'm not sorry. This is a totally gen fic, which sometimes I dig and I think you will too. It's about Leo's troubles at PSG, dealing with shitty fans and shitty teammates and it's told from Ramos' pov as he struggles to figure out what Leo's deal is. Bonus fatherly Pep lol.

Rating: G, pairings: gen, words: 10k, status: complete

No Regrets by LeoDios

I've never been disappointed by a LeoDios fic and though a lot of times they're emotional as shit, they're always worth it. This explores Leo being back in Paris with Neymar after winning the WC. Leo's teammates are also great in this, special mentions of Kylian, Veratti and Ramos.

Rating: E, pairings: Leo/Neymar, words: 8k, status: complete

Tu misterioso alguien by inkofsouls

Fairly sure I rec'd this already but if not, shame on me. Post WC, dealing once again with Leo and Ney at PSG. All from Ney's pov which is a huge fucking mess but he's got a lot to deal with so we can't really blame him lol. Really enjoyed this one, maybe because we know how frustrating Leo can be and we get to experience that along with Neymar haha.

Rating: E, pairings Leo/Neymar, multi, words: 45k, status: complete

not everything feels like something else by goodcostume

If you haven't read goodcostume before, you're in for a treat. I love their writing style and somehow everything is hilarious. This fic is Kun in Qatar at the WC--true to life he's had his heart condition so this is him on the side watching it all, or being dragged into Leo's bubble the way he should be.

Rating: M, pairings: Leo/Kun, words: 4k, status: complete

don't ever stop if you wanna be on top by goodcostume

Yes another by goodcostume so sue me. This one is the perfect smutty MSN fic that I've been aching for since 2015 lol. If it was ever gonna happen it was prob exactly like this ;)

Rating: E, pairings: Leo/Neymar/Luis Suárez, 2k, status: complete

[evilwickedme]

You seemed sad that nobody's asked for jayroy fic recs. I want jayroy fics! I am a simple creecher with simple needs.

God what a mood tho. ngl I'm obsessed with these two

I've already recommended some of my favs in previous posts! here and here for your enjoyment

anyway here we go

ace-spectrum!Jason

one of my favorite hc and with a lot of support from the text imho; I have more of these these are just my favs

Kiss Me, Kill Me, Take Me Home - 5+1 times somebody kissed Jason, ace!Jason

Jane Austen Never Said Anything About Speed Dating - this one's pretty long. an au where Jason never died and is dealing with trauma from an abusive ex. again, outright ace!Jason and his ex absolutely raped him, so dark subject matter but it's still so good. Jason's brothers try to get him back in the game after the breakup and he ends up running into Roy at speed dating; they decide to fake date to get both their families off their backs. some nice Lian stuff here too.

Between These Pages (Is a Wonderful Place To Be) - ace!Jason gets extremely injured and Roy reads to him, cute little oneshot

(can you feel) the fire burning through your veins - nothing wrong with a little bit of self promo, right? this is demi!gay!Jason figuring his identity out and navigating his changing relationship with Roy. it takes place in a slightly alternate timeline where he's been to therapy for a couple of years and he never slept with Talia so it's his first time with pretty much everything. there actually is smut but it's Jason's first time :D

there is sex in this

I’ve Got the Feeling You’re the Right Thing After All - more poisonivory??? yes please!!! Roy's has had feelings for Dick since their teen titans days, but still ends up in a fwb with Jason when he's asked to help Jason run the iceberg lounge... somewhat plotty, smut in basically every chapter, so fucking good

Let me shipwreck in your thighs - we all have a thing for Jason's thighs, lbr

Arrows and Bullets - a two fic series. injured Jason falls into Roy's apartment and stays there until he heals. once again, some quality Lian stuff here. the sequel fic has some minor Jason-comes-back-home and surrounds christmas.

Boys Don't Cry - trans!Jason. I think this does have a minor plot?? I can't remember it's basically just fifty thousand words of marathon sex over the course of like at least a week

there's a middle ground between ace and outright smut actually

Some Kind of Disaster - this is actually one of my favorites and I've reread the whole thing more than once even though it's a mildly long series (although tbf I've reread longer). instead of outright dying at sanctuary Roy is just grievously injured and Jason runs to his side the moment he hears and refuses to leave. there's a lot of angst. one of the fics is smutty; halfway through the series Roy discovers Lian exists and that's where the plot really kicks in. so good

The Midnight Snow - Robin!Jason is in a time loop and Roy gets trapped in there with him

Flowers Are My Love Language - Jason keeps trying to get Roy to date him using flowers, and Roy simply refuses to get the message

Around Red Hood's Barn - Neighbors au where Roy and Jason are still partners as vigilantes, Roy just doesn't know Red Hood's identity, and Roy CANNOT STAND his new neighbor Jason. I love me some good identity shenanigans in a superhero fic

Magnet Tar Pit Trap - I already linked one cowboy au in the first fic rec (linked above), why not one more

other

remember how canonically Roy died in Heroes in Crisis? ow. I actually already rec'd my favorite one of these in the first Jason fic rec (linked! above!) so check that one out too

It is only, and all about Roy - I actually really regretted not putting this in the original fic rec (again, linked above). Jason shows up in Star City and ends up collaborating with Oliver. JayRoy is only implied but either way Jason is clearly deeply grieving Roy's death and so is Ollie

Please, come back - JayRoy were together before sanctuary and Jason grieves his death deeply. happy ending tho!

anyway yeah that's some good fics believe me when I say I could've rec'd twice as many honestly. unfortunately I had to stop somewhere so that's it for now

[transdimensional-void]

If I ask nicely will you yap about the plantagenets? Maybe some rec'd reading? :D

red! yes, yes i will yap about the plantagenets with only minimal prodding!

i'll start off with the disclaimer that i'm no historian and have not read a ton of books about this topic. a lot of what i've learned has been through documentaries rather than books, but i'll give my few recs at the end.

OKAY, so i think the plantagenet dynasty was the main family grrm had in mind when he created the targaryens. the dynasty's founding had its origins in a period of english history known as the anarchy, which was the inspiration for the dance of the dragons, and the dynasty ended with the end of the wars of the roses, which was a major inspiration for the events of asoiaf.

the dynasty ruled england for over 300 years (from 1154 to 1485), and there was like sooooo much war, both internally and externally during that time period. the plantagenets obviously had a massive influence on the political, economic, and cultural development of england, considering how long they ruled.

so here's some of my favorite plantagenets to yap about:

henry ii - he was the first ruler of the dynasty, and nowadays is best known for maybe possibly ordering the murder of his best friend/archbishop of canterbury, thomas becket. the guys murdered him literally INSIDE the cathedral while he was performing mass. so then the king had to be like "oopsie. i'll just do a quick penance, shall i?" and thomas becket was made a saint as like an apology.

edward ii - was he a disaster bi or were those guys really just his good friends? we don't know! but we DO know that he liked his really good friends so much that he did not care about anything else and was such a terrible king that everyone attempted to depose him from his nobles to his own cousin to, eventually, his own wife and son! in which they succeeded! and then his wife had him discreetly murdered in prison and served as regent for their son until he came of age.

isabella of france, the she-wolf of france - the aforementioned wife! she was forced to marry this guy when she was 12, made the best of a bad situation and even had uneasy alliances with her husband's "good friends" until the second one purged her household and kidnapped her children to reduce her power. and THEN she recruited her brother (the king of france) her husband's exiled number 1 enemy (who became her lover), her 12-year-old son (the heir to her husband's throne), and a mere 700 mercenaries to depose her husband. and succeeded! what a woman.

edward iii - aforementioned 12-year-old son, who went on to be remembered as one of england's most effective kings. he made peace with scotland for a while (after killing a lot of scottish people and trying to put his own puppet monarch on their throne), made peace with france for a while (um while also kicking off the 100 years war lol), handled the black plague (then fixed laborers' wages to pre-plague levels lol), had one of the most harmonious and loving marriages the english monarchy has ever seen, and fought a shit-ton of battles. oh, he also made english the official language of government, since it had been french before!

john of gaunt - edward's third son (to survive to adulthood) who eventually became the wealthiest and most influential noble in all of england, the duke of lancaster, through his marriage to his beloved first wife, blanche of lancaster. he was patron to geoffrey chaucer (he of the "canterbury tales," which were about a bunch of pilgrims on their way to the shrine of saint thomas, that guy maybe killed by henry ii!), who eventually became his brother-in-law! after blanche's death, john began a decades-long love affair with his daughters' nanny, katherine swynford, who gave birth to four illegitimate children for him, who took the surname beaufort. eventually, he married katherine as his third wife and had the pope legitimize their children. AND IT WAS THROUGH THOSE CHILDREN THAT THE TUDORS GOT THEIR CLAIM TO THE THRONE A CENTURY LATER!!

henry iv - john of gaunt's eldest son and heir to the title of duke of lancaster. as a child, henry was friend to his cousin, richard, who was second in line to the throne. then richard's father and grandfather both died, and richard became king at only 10 years old. he ended up being a pretty terrible king (and might have had some sort of personality disorder), which led henry to eventually oppose him along with a bunch of other nobles, including one of their uncles. so richard banished him, and when john of gaunt died, richard refused to let henry inherit. but the thing was, pretty much everybody hated richard, and lots of people liked henry. so henry waited until richard had popped over to conquer ireland and quietly sailed to england and was like, "ha ha, i'm only here to claim my inheritance uwu," and then he gathered an army and took the throne with pretty much zero resistance. and when richard returned, he arrested him, forced him to publicly accept henry as king, imprisoned him in a castle being overseen by his stepbrother (katherine swynford's son!), and then richard ~mysteriously died~ in prison. oops. but the funniest thing was that HENRY WASN'T EVEN NEXT IN LINE TO THE THRONE SINCE HIS DAD WAS ONLY THE THIRD SON!! i smell a succession dispute brewing... (there was. this is what sowed the seeds for the wars of the roses that raged throughout the 15th century.) oh, also, henry's legitimized bastard siblings, the beauforts, helped him gain the throne, but then henry was like, "hmm actually i'm going to unilaterally decree you all excluded from the line of succession. who needs parliament's approval to change the succession? not me!" so lots of people claim that the beaufort line was ineligible to inherit the throne, but it's not really clear that henry even had the authority to exclude them since he did it without parliament's approval. oh, also he was the first king of england who spoke english as his primary language! (edit: should have said the first english king *post-norman invasion to speak english as his primary language. and he definitely was the first to speak MIDDLE english as his primary language).

joan beaufort - okay, so joan was one of the beaufort children of john of gaunt and katherine swynford, and her second marriage was to ralph de neville. at the time she married him, ralph already had EIGHT children from his first marriage, and then she gave birth to at least an additional NINE children for him. NINE. guess which family in asoiaf these two inspired? if you guessed the freys, you were right! joan was the half-sister of the KING, so you can imagine she had some serious connections and influence. and she used them to get REALLY REALLY advantageous marriages for her children. they all married heirs and heiresses who were wards of the crown. and then oopsie daisy her husband's older children from his first marriage got overlooked as his heirs and her son became the heir over his elder brother. this kicked off what became known as the neville-neville dispute, which, due to joan's children all being married into major noble houses, drew a ton of other families into the conflict... which eventually widened into the wars of the roses. well done, joan!

margaret beaufort - margaret was descended from both joan and joan's older brother, john beaufort. toward the end of the wars of the roses, pretty much all of the male claimants from the beauforts' side of the conflict (the lancastrian side) had been killed off. thus, margaret's descent from john of gaunt made her important to the lancastrian side. so, she was married off several times, starting at the age of 1 year old! dear god! the marriage that became her most important, though, was to edmund tudor. she was married to him at the age of 12 and gave birth to his son, her only ever child, at only 13, after which her husband promptly died in battle. that son was henry tudor, who inherited his mother's claim to the throne and thus became the final heir around whom the lancastrian side rallied in the final battle of the wars of the roses... which he won, largely thanks to his mother's tireless efforts to make her son king. which, honestly, if i'd been married off at the age of 1, forced to give birth at 13 almost killing me and permanently damaging my body, i'd want something to show for it too! well done, margaret!

oh no, i just scrolled up and realized just how much i yapped. feel free to ignore all of this if it's too much for you XD.

anyway, i've enjoyed the documentaries on this channel a lot: https://www.youtube.com/@PeopleProfiles

also, dan jones' four-part series called "britain's bloodiest dynasty," also available on youtube.

my main platagenet blorbo is katherine swynford, so a lot of what i know is from biographies i've read of her, including:

"mistress of the monarchy" by alison weir

"katherine swynford: the history of a medieval mistress" by jeannette lucraft

i also have a book on the wars of the roses that i read years ago, but it's in storage right now, and i don't remember the author's name. the title was just "the wars of the roses."

(sorry again for yapping so much XD. maybe you'll find something interesting or enjoyable here. i hope. thanks for the ask!!)

[13eyond13]

I know you write little reviews for the manga you have finished, but can you explain a bit what bothered you about the manga you won’t continue as well, pls?

Haha, sure. I don't do that normally just because I feel it might be a bit of a buzzkill thing to do, particularly to the people who rec'd some of the series to me. I sincerely don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, and please know that I'm always grateful to hear about and to check out new series, even if they don't end up being for me or are simply not my personal taste.

I think my reason for DNFing a manga usually boils down to either (1) the premise/characters just weren't hooking me enough to invest the time in finishing it, or (2) I felt too old for it in some way... I'll quickly run down the ones I've crossed out so far + why I DNF'd them, though :

The Heart of Thomas: it was just a bit too melodramatic and depressing to me to want to read the whole thing, I believe

Dear Brother: I have a bit of a squick/hair trigger cringe reflex when it comes to flirtatious and romantic vibes between siblings and other family members in fiction, and this manga seemed to be based almost entirely around that, so I just didn't want to finish the whole thing haha

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: I read quite a bit of this one before DNFing it, actually. There are lots of things to love and appreciate about it and I definitely see why it's iconic. but it's just SO LONG, and a bit too heavily based purely on silly fighting to interest me very deeply

Yu-Gi-Oh!: I just wasn't super interested in the premise, and it felt a bit too little kiddish for me to be getting into it freshly right now (I never watched it growing up)

Revolutionary Girl Utena: Love the aesthetic and the idea of it, but the execution just left a lot to be desired story-wise for me for some reason? I didn't really fall in love with any of the characters that much, and my squick about romantic dynamics between family members was coming into play a bit too much as well

Haru wo Daiteita: the translation I was reading wasn't great and the premise itself was just a bit uncomfortable for me, I think? Like dub con type stuff was going on that just wasn't enjoyable for me to read

Fruits Basket: I found the main character a bit overly perfect in a boring way, I also felt a bit too old to be getting freshly into it now, and the premise with the Zodiac animals and such just didn't really grab my imagination in any big way

Ouran High School Host Club: Another one I felt too old to be getting freshly into now, and the premise was just not one that captivated me

Tokyo Ghoul: I thought the way the main character became a half-ghoul was really lazily written in the first volume, which made me lose interest in continuing with it

Assassination Classroom: It wasn't bad or anything, it was actually pretty funny, but I simply found it too young for me and a bit too completely goofy to feel like reading the entire thing

Moriarty the Patriot: I found the Victorian setting a bit too fake and unbelievable, thought it felt a bit too young for me as well, and just wasn't hugely into the vibes of the whole thing

Vampeerz: The art was really cute and the premise was something relevant to my interests, but I found the writing and tone a bit too inconsistent and the characters a bit too young for me to really want to continue reading that far in

[wannab-urs]

The Spreadsheet Digest - Vol 19

Hi friends!

Thanks for being patient with me -- I had one hell of a day yesterday and didn't get the Digest out when I usually do. It's short this week: only 10 fics (still not bad, considering, lmao). I read a 40 chapter fic this week that was about 400k words (rec'd below) and I was hooked (am hooked, I have like 5 chapters left). Apologies to all my moots whose fics I have ignored in favor of having my face buried in AO3 for a week, I'm catching up now!

As always you can find the Spreadsheet here and all of my previous fic recs here. Tag me in your fics if you want to be included in a future Digest :)

Recs below the Pedro in a v nice suit:

you can't trust anyone these days - a Joel/Tess one shot by @walkintotheriveranddisappear

TW Noncon - read the warnings - I really thought this was such an interesting take on Raider!Joel. I don't usually see Tess there with him and I also liked the power dynamics/trust thing going on. The plot twist? That was everything!

All over you - a Javi G drabble by @theywhowriteandknowthings

This is super fucking hot ah!! I love needy men who can't wait to get their hands on you. You're at a fancy party with Javi G and you look so hot he has to drag you into a closet. So good

Take My Hand - a Pero Tovar one shot by @pedrito-friskito

Okay so the prompt ended up being Pero Tovar, “is this real? are…are you real?” for fluff and “take off your clothes before I rip them off your body” for smut. And it's perfect. It's got this touch of angst, but it's so fluffy and sweet and then the smut is so hot. I am in love

John Wayne - a Joel one shot by @ramblers-lets-get-ramblin

SOOOO fuckin sweet, man. Like it's heartbreaking obvi. You show up in Jackson and Maria is all "this is my husband Tommy" and you're like that's the brother of the love of my life (pre-outbreak). And I won't spoil what happens but I love it so fucking much

Cherub - a Joel series by @cherubispunk

TW Dubcon - read the warnings - Mean old trailer park drug dealer Joel? The mouth on that man... Yeah this is filthy in the best way.

Stay - a Javi P one shot by @millerscoffee

Motherfuckin daddy kink with Javi P???? Hell yes. Yes on every level. This is so fucking hot ugh. The mouth on that man is criminal.

Religious Corruption - a Dave York two shot by @absurdthirst

Just reading the fuckin warnings/content summary on this fic got me screaming. Reader is an innocent virgin beginning her freshman year at a very religious school and she gets a crush on her professor, Dave York. This is not your average loss of innocence fic, not your average Dave York fic, not your average professor fic.... This is unlike pretty much anything else I've ever read and I loved it. It's sweeter than you might expect, but it's got penty of angst and the smut is insane.

I Will Always Find You a Din series by @lahooozaherr

Bodyguard!Din is one of my favorite things ever, seriously. I have only read the first chapter of this, but I'm so excited to read more. The way the whole first part of this fic is a flashback and you know eventually you get kidnapped???? It gives you this feeling of doom the whole time you're reading lmao (good thing, I promise) but like... our Mandalorian is gonna save us, yeah?

Be-All and Endor - a Din series by @djarins-cyare

Listen... this is the most well researched Din fic I have ever read. The amount of thought that went into this fic is insane. The linguistics are fascinating -- I think she absolutely nails the voice of everyone in this fic, especially Din. The knowledge of Mando'a and Ewokese on display here is incredible and if you ever wanted to hear Din Djarin growl strings of (actually coherent) Mando'a (with thorough translations) right into your ear... This fic is for you. The characterization and the way that every single decision made by Reader and Din make sense and build to such a gorgeous character arc? UGH. And while you have to wait... a long time... for smut -- it is so worth it. GODS this fic is gorgeous. I love it so fuckin much. (This is the one I was talking about in the intro)

Breaking in the new house - a Din one shot by @beskarandblasters

AHHHH this is so fucking hot. It's literally husband (so helmetless)!Din fucking you on like every surface of your house on Nevarro. There is not a refractory period in sight in this fic and I love it with all my heart. He is so hot, I want to die. <3

--------------- my fics --------------

I finally made a masterlist for A Ghost of You and updated all the headers which I'm very excited about. I also added a new fic to that series called Faulty System. The series is a mostly angsty, sometimes smutty Dieter Bravo x f!reader fic.

---------- Oldies but Goodies ----------

Here's some fics from before I did the digest or made commentary!

Jack Daniels x tattoo parlour AU - a Jack one shot by @fuckyeahdindjarin

Early Morning Moments - a Dieter one shot by Jazzelsaur on AO3

Over and Done With - a Javi P one shot @loquaciousferret

Every fic by @frannyzooey (I have too many of her fics on my spreadsheet to rec separately lmao)

In an Instant - a Joel one shot by @mishasminion360

A fool for you - a Joel one shot by @supernaturalgirl20

It would be - a Din Series by @fuckyeahdindjarin

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

Happy Reading!

[punch-love]

😂😊🤔(family)

😂 A fic that made you laugh out loud

I know I've rec'd this one before but it really is the funniest thing I've read recently.

Two Men And An Intake Bot by My_Good_Omens_Hackverse

It really feels like a lost filler episode of the show (to me). The dialogue and underlying dynamic are fantastic and the shenanigans are so stupid and fun. I love that there's a lot of utilization of the side cast in this one too, it's just very very funny (to me). I think I've read it like three times now just because i know it'll make me laugh.

😊 A fic that made you smile on a bad day

Scorpion Grass by Avonne

I was not expecting to enjoy this beach AU where Loki is vacationing and Mobius is the lifeguard that's only a few years older than him. It really got to me, though. I was having a bad day when I read it, and it's truly such a novel in its own right that it just sucked me right into the world and the romance. It's a bittersweet story (which is probably why it hit so perfectly on a bad day) but genuinely very beautiful. I think about it sometimes in quiet moments. I also just loved the ending because it really did feel like the closing out of a novel and you the reader got to imagine what happened to them. I'm saving a re-read of it for another rainy day.

🤔 The first fic you think of when I say [insert word here]

I actaully avoid family/kid fic whenever possible so I wasn't sure how to answer this one until I remembered my stockpile of Leverage fic.

like a map of a place you've never been bydaybreak

It's a fake dating heist where one half of the couple has to pretend to date the loner part of their undefined and unofficial throuple. (while the other part of the couple enthusiastically watches from afar) It's a really fun premise, but the standout flavor of this one is just how alienated Eliot feels from being part of "them" even though they consider him family and a necessary part of their relationship. The whole work is just them just coaxing him slowly into the realization that they love him and want him to belong to and with them. The thing I like about Leverage is that it combines found family with a slow burn, entangled throuple that can be read as romantic or familial depending on what you want from it and this fic really combines that idea well.

[wrongcaitlyn]

Do you have any fame aus or anything else that inspired you for the dear reader series?

no fame au's, unfortunately :( i am a BIG fan of fame au's, however, so i do have some recs! but the inspiration for dear reader was largely just me listening to my music and forming an au around it - one playlist turned into two, which turned into seven, which turned into 16, etc - and then i had a full au plot in my head😭

but for recs!! i bookmark pretty much every fame au i read just because i love them so much. they're definitely my niche i just cannot stop putting these people on red carpets - and it's always been this waySDKJF

you'd be paranoid too (if everyone was out to get you) by harrowhark is a catradora fame au (popstar!catra) and it was one of the first fics i ever read on ao3 and literally changed my brain chemistry. now this was like 3-4 years ago, so it's been a while since i've read it, even though when i was in my shera hyperfixation i re-read it like six times i think - if you ARE a shera fan, i would 100% recommend this one, i still remember how incredible it was! did it inspire the dear reader-verse specifically? no, they're very different in terms of plot/characters, but i feel like if i'm talking about fics that inspired me this one's essential😭

everyone wake up new jinx album just dropped by Drindrak is similar to the first one in that it is a fame au that just made me love the trope so much, even though it is much more crack than angst, unlike you'd be paranoid😭it's an arcane fic where jinx... becomes a popstar? except it's like, set in runeterra and vi is still in jail and all of that. like. I DONT KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN HOW MUCH I FUCKING LOVE ITSKDF i swear i just love a good crack fic every now and then, and this did it WITH fame?? i love. and so yeah, looking back on it, i actually do think it inspired dear reader a bit in the way that jinx was absolutely chaotic (will i ever stop on the jinx nico parallels? i wrote a goddamn solangelo timebomb au already but i'm still going to be pointing it out)

he was seen on occasion (pacing the rocks, staring out at the midnight sea) by stargirltv is a solangelo fame au!! and i know that i already rec'd it. but like. you have to know how much i LOVE this fic and though, once again, the plots are pretty different - but also similar in the sense of the character dynamics! so yeah tbh i'd say i probably did, unintentionally, take a lot of inspo from this, just because i do love it so much, and it was one of the only fame au's for solangelo that i had read (i've read much more now, ofc, seeing as i stalk the fame and social media tags like a hawk)

and then the last thing i feel like i have to mention when talking about the inspiration for this fic is the book, red white and royal blue. i think i mentioned in the first chapter of talk your talk's end note that this entire au?? started off as a rwrb crossover in my head. nico's age was calculated with alex's in mind. will going to college at nyu was because i originally planned for alex and him to idk meet at a class or smth. cecil was originally a law student (another ironic thing for a child of hermes, and yet i ended up making him work towards cyber security lmfao) just so he could somehow become friends with alex. i was fully emerged in this universe where somehow these friend groups collided, and i fully orchestrated nico as a popstar just so that they'd have double the fandoms to go crazy about it. so does it really have to do anything with rwrb in terms of plot?? no, but alex and henry are entirely to thank for this!!!😭

i know that i kind of took a bit of a strange route for a popstar au in talk your talk so it doesn't really match the usual trope? like person is already famous -> meets someone, either famous or not -> fight to get together bc of the press -> some sort of leaked photo of them -> they choose each other in the end. and dont get me wrong, i will eat up that trope any day, but i do really like what i did with talk your talk! i love any form of fame au, and so it's always just fun to see different spins on the common tropes :)

thank you for the ask!!

[urdreamgirls-dreamgirl]

top three all time favorite stranger things fics?? ones that you read over and over and they still hit you hard every time

Top three???? Ok

I would say is your light on? by Adure (AO3)/@toburnup (E, WIP, 12/16). I love everything by vio but iylo is painful in, like, the best possible way ever. I finally read the latest update and 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

And actually guess what? I'm also gonna say throw me one by Adure (E, Complete, 5/5). Eddie and Steve end up as FWB with an Eddie-instated rule of no kissing on the mouth. I've previously established that I'm weak af for FWB where they get hurt before they figure their shit out and it's executed perfectly here. Whatever, I'm founding a fan club or something.

Intricate Rituals (E, Complete, 11/11) currently has me in a chokehold and I've rec'd it like five times already but I'll include it here again.

And here's hot (sticky, sweet) by ToEdenandBackAgain (T, Complete, 1/1). Scoops Ahoy era Steve and Eddie and the boys are flirting. This is the first in a three part series, I think. Very cute, very fun.

Full disclosure, I very rarely read things more than once so I had to really think about what I really love reading and always want to read again when I'm out of new stuff/can't commit to reading something brand new. Hope you find something you like here. Also check out this ask for recs, I didn't want to repeat too much, but these are really some of my favorites!

[diazisms]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

tagged by @jdeanmorgan like....a good few days ago lol getting to it now <33

How many works do you have on ao3?

40. little known bia lore is that it used to be 41 but i archived a larry one shot i wrote sophomore year of high school before i started posting for shameless LMAO

What's your total ao3 word count?

338,716

What fandoms do you write for?

911 mainly!!! but i've also written for shameless (gallavich), IT (reddie), wednesday (wenclair), and a league of their own (jesslupe)

Top five fics by kudos:

#LAFDads (silliest thing ever so ofc it's my most popular), whenever you call me, i'll be there, call me by your name, i got all my sisters with me (which has actually gained so many kudos lately bc it keeps getting rec'd on twt lol), baby don't you know (you're my golden hour)

i did not know these were my top five lol

Do you respond to comments?

not as much as i'd like :( there really are only so many ways you can say thank you, but i do try!! especially when the fic is first posted. i just get so many that it gets overwhelming to keep up, but i appreciate all of it soooooo soso much i mean that i really do.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

probably some spec? i'm a "happy ending or bust" kinda guy tho idk if i have anything

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

well! all of them! but maybe i think i wanna merry you since it was them getting engaged at a christmas party. doesn't get fluffier than that ngl.

Do you get hate on fics?

i did on the first bucktommy fic i posted lol (after episode THREE btw because i have always seen the vision /lh)

Do you write smut?

yes!!

Craziest crossover:

never written one

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

i also don't think so

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

not really

All time favorite ship?

buddie and sterek!

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i mourn parent trap fic daily but also this rivals to lovers choir director au i got about 40k into and never finished. rip durufle requiem one day i will love on you again.

What are your writing strengths?

my lit professor says i write good metaphors? which i'll agree with, i like the way i describe inner monologues.

What are your writing weaknesses?

smut in many ways but especially in the sense of "oh my god can the english language please pretty please come up with a new synonym for cock i can't do this."

also, i have a hard time writing dialogue that feels organic to me? i think the end result works out fine but it doesn't come immediately

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

i'm fluently bilingual and do switch between english and portuguese in conversation, so it does feel realistic for a character to do that, but it's down to personal taste when i like it or not

First fandom you wrote in?

well. phan.

Favorite fic you've written?

STRAIGHT EDDIE FWB YOU ARE SO LOVED BY ME!!!!!! wishing to be the friction it's my magnum opus. i almost called it my prima donna because those words are the same in my mind.

tagging @bucktommys @bibuddie @honestlydarkprincess @sibylsleaves i'm sure y'all have alrdy gotten tagged and done this or gotten tagged and ignore it but i have no memory of anything at all ever!!!!!!!!!

[beefrobeefcal]

Beefyyyyyyy happy Frankie Friday!! in his honor:

4. If you could put Frankie in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put him in?

AND

23. What’s your favorite picture of him? 😉

[in reference to this post]

Thank you for playing along with the ask game, @hellfire-state-of-mind!

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Does my bed count as other media? I kid, I kid. I guess I'd love to see him in another film, on the big screen this time, or even a series on Netflix or HBO. No idea what the series would be about, but @morallyinept has a great idea for a TF sequel (Frankie's Way - yes, I've rec'd this before, but I will do this at any chance I have bc... WELL JUST READ IT! There are currently 2 parts).

23. Favorite picture of this character?

Please don't make me pick...

but there is also this one which really happened and is totally real and I will not be taking any questions on...

Yours in sin,

Beefro👌🥩💜

[malinaa]

TOP 9 BOOKS

tagged : @hmsharmony ty jennifer this was SOOO hard oh my god like. genuinely agonized me for days to think about what to choose but it was SOOO fun tho <3 tagging : @rosesau | @evcndiaz | @pendrgcn | @gayarthur | @the-tenth-arcanum | @oretsev | @wherepoetsdie | @bellamyblakru | @ryekat & anyone else who wants to do it !!! rules : list your top 9 books obviously. i cheated a little and put series as as one option because that's just who i am as a person. most of these i chose at random from my 5 star reads from the past few years btw

1. percy jackson and the olympians (series) by rick riordan

i was never a big reader in elementary school—or at least not to the extent that my classmates had been. my sixth grade english class required us to bring a personal book from home for silent reading and i stole my brother's spine-cracked copies of pjo and brought them to class. i finished the whole series in less than a school week (i had to scramble to the library to pick up another series because the single novel should have lasted me at least three weeks). pjo literally kickstarted my love for reading as a hobby and i truly don't know how to state the importance it had on my little ten-year-old brain fr

2. on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong

i have never read a book more beautiful in prose and so uncommonly human than this. there's just something so incredibly heartbreaking knowing this whole book is the narrator's letter to his mother who can't read! like what the fuck

3. alone with you in the ether by olivie blake

this came as a surprise to Me when i first read it. i meandered through the first quarter, loving the writing style but feeling disconnected from the characters until the Church Hand Scene™ and it was hook, line, and sinker at that point (i have since come to love the disconnectedness in subsequent rereads, knowing that the feeling was the Point). i have read this book four (4) times since i read it first last year. LAST YEAR!!! olivie has like... fundamentally altered my brain chemistry or something because i feel like everything i have written since having read this book has been somewhat influenced by it.

4. much ado about nothing by william shakespeare

what can i say! this is theeeeeee romcom ever. i have watched so many adaptations of this play, read it countless of times and can recite some iconic lines, and still the banter between benedick and beatrice is sooo elite. cannot be topped!!

5. a place for us by fatima farheen mirza

fun fact: seed rec'd this book to me and has been reccing it to anybody who would listen. the prose is so lush and melancholic. it's one of those books where nothing Really happens, but you feel Every Emotion Under The Sun and you're just like. altered by reading it

6. the song of achilles by madeline miller

obviously.... OBVIOUSLYYYYYYY this had to go here. if i had two nickels for every greek myth retelling i read during school that fundamentally changed me etc etc u get it. i read this as a junior in high school when we, yet again, had to bring a personal book to read durin class. i think at that point of my life, i've never read something that tragic yet so beautiful at the same time and now i am always looking at the beautiful and tragic in media. so! there u go! brain cells rewired and whatnot!

7. the grisha trilogy by leigh bardugo

this is funny because i . technically did not rate any of these books 5 stars i'm sobbing. but like, considering the fact that my url is what it is and the way i always have them in the back of my mind, it's no wonder that i put them here. i have such an odd attachment to these books and these characters. i had copies of these books since their release but didn't touch them until ... before the sab tv release which is so fucking funny. like i don't know what i would be like if i read this as a t(w)een. i would've been so fucking insufferable ngl

8. when my brother was an aztec by natalie diaz

i actually read this for an assignment and had to write a report on it and i had SO much fun doing it. diaz plays a lot with hunger and her imagery is literally unmatched. i think about the way she contructs sentences and am filled with such envy. my beginning sentence for my paper was a nod to her style (though i failed miserably). it was: "in a paradoxical sleight of hand, hunger feeds in natalie diaz's debut." she is just. so fucking good at words i need to CHOMP on it

9. sharp objects by gillian flynn

you know the thing where you see a really popular author for a really long time and they have their work adapted to the screen and it's so good but you still haven't read their actual writing? yeah, that was me with gillian flynn (specifically about gone girl). i read gone girl, i read sharp objects, i read her short story the grownup, i'm currently reading the last novel of hers that i haven't read, dark places, and flynn is just so... incredibly good at constructing harrowing stories. it's no wonder why all three of her novels got adapted to the screen! her prose is so grounded. vivid. there's this ease to her writing that, whenever i concurrently read another novel, i always find the other piece to be lacking. i slink back to flynn's prose and immerse myself in her awful, human worlds.