#the best fanfiction i have ever read

[kn1felady]

If you want to read QUITE POSSIBLY THE BEST WRITING I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!!!! then I highly suggest reading Dermabrasion by Pennydaniels.

It’s an incredibly popular fanfic so I’m not surprised if most have read this already but the final chapter just posted today and I legitimately cried my eyes out.

The link is at the bottom (sorry about the shitty formatting)

Here is the comment I left on the chapter:

Words cannot explain how much I loved this fanfiction. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I bawled my eyes out by the end of this chapter. No writing before this (even in published works of fiction) has ever made me feel such a wide range of emotions - the most prevalent being content. I love how it didn’t end with the “happily ever after”, but with so many threads that still can be pulled. The best way to describe this ending was bittersweet. It was just…perfect, honestly.

I loved Natsuo’s whole storyline and how he used this trip as a way to escape from heartbreak. I also found it refreshing for a relationship to just…end. Things like that happen. I wasn’t expecting dabi and Hawks to split (how could they??) and thought Haru and Fuyumi was unlikely, so I thought this choice was a great idea.

Fuyumi is one of my favourite characters in this fic because even if she doesn’t always significantly affect the “over-arching” story in the manga/anime, in this she does and it’s given justice. She’s truly the heart of the todosibs. I liked how she was given her time to shine in this chapter, dealing with all the realistic adult issues she would.

Dabi is always fantastic. His one liners always make me exhale through my nose (even chuckle at times!!!) but what I love most is his ability to get vulnerable and, inexplicably, profound. His relationship with hawks was one of my favourite parts of this story and knowing that they’re happy together, even considering marriage, just clenches my heart a tad. A truly understated part was “ Dabi muttered before he turned to Hawks and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.” I’m pretty sure (if my memory serves correctly) that this is the first instant of “romantic” physical intimacy. Seeing how Dabi went from being unable to stand casual touch and the idea of sex with another person, the fact that they’re so comfortable with eachother shows their growth. And I also love the time dedicated to Hawks’ own traumas. One of the first times I genuinely shed a tear for this chapter was when I read: “ And if he walked the Todosibs to the lift and stayed watching the numbers go down and long after for far longer than necessary or appropriate that was his own secret to keep.” Again, I’m not really sure how to explain it aside from how my heart ached for him. Like, I’m happy that this fictional character now has someone to hold and, in extension, a family of his own, but there’s also a part of me that pities him. Does that make sense? Maybe not. It feels like he’s in disbelief with how lucky he is…when he should’ve had it all in the first place.

And that moves me onto Shouto.

Shouto took a bit of a backseat (haha) in this chapter which I…actually don’t mind. This fic started with him alone but now it ended with him accompanied by the people he loves most. He has always been my favourite character for reasons I don’t really know why. The way you write him makes him so much more loveable in so many different aspects. Whilst he may not talk a lot in this chapter, I love how he’s always in the background doing something. I like knowing that he doesn’t have to force himself into discomfort and he can just be. The part that broke my heart a little was: “Sometimes this happened, he was randomly hit by happiness. It could be a little frightening in its intensity sometimes and the fact that (like all intense emotions) it never stayed.” It reminded me of one of the earlier chapters when he left Mina’s party and wanted to shout out that he could be happy. Like Hawks, it makes my heart ache but in a way that I don’t mind. I’m glad he’s happy, with my whole being.

The ending was just the cherry on top. To be perfectly honest, I was expecting a conversation between Shouto and Dabi as the final send off but…I’m not too bothered anymore. They’ve been the central focus within this story and so it doesn’t feel out of place for us to be left with the knowledge that they are just that: Dabi and Shouto. Shouto and Touya. The (I’m assuming) Naruto reference was perfect and added the bittersweet ending I think we all were expecting. It had been a while since the last Naruto reference so it really was a blast from the past!! And the cameo from class 1A was always going to be comedically perfect too!! (as well as the League…who could forget them?? I didn’t even know that I wanted them to find out who Dani’s secret boyfriend was!)

I think what I like most about this fanfiction is how contained it is. It didn’t have to be that massive fiery showdown between Dabi and Endeavor, or a melodrama between Hawks and Dabi. Instead, it’s the complicated mess of relationships and how trauma can be healed. I love the title too; “dermabrasion”. I have to be honest, I had no idea what that meant about a year and a half ago when I first started to read this. But now, especially after finishing it, I’m in awe of how aptly named this is. Dermabrasion doesn’t have to be harsh and quick, it’s the slow healing of skin.

In the thoughts of Natsuo: There in the glow of the little bonfire they made Natsuo felt like… well he felt good. And that was it. Simple.

I’m just so happy they’re all okay now.

I am one of four siblings myself - I’m in Natsuo’s position as the second youngest - and so I feel like the reason I was so emotional reading this final chapter is because I can resonate so well with the Todosibs. It’s currently the winter holidays so for the first time in around 7 months it’s been all my siblings back together again. My two older sisters were both away at university and my younger brother and I were slowly getting on each others nerves. Being together all of us again made me happy. Simple. And it’s weird because we’re finally at an age where we can just be friends now. There’s fewer petty squabbling and I can talk to them as if they /are/ just my friends. One of my sisters is going back to uni tomorrow and I’m sharing my room with the other, and I genuinely feel like I’ll miss them all the more.

Anyway, I commend you if you read all this way (yes, I know it’s really ramble-y) but I just couldn’t think of a way to otherwise express how much I loved going through this journey. I feel eternally grateful for you creating something as truly heartfelt, painstakingly perfect, and beautiful as this. If you ever decide to write something as amazing as this, I’ll be sure to follow every step of the way.

[vinelark]

hello good morning i read the fic The Long Way Home by itsnatalie this week and finished it at 1am and had to stare through the ceiling processing for another full hour having emotions over tim and jason and a sentient labyrinth and the concept of choosing kindness when it would be so much easier to choose cruelty at every turn and NOW i am stumbling back here to recommend it to everyone who might want a tim & jason (& batfam) psychological horror longfic that will knock your socks off

testimonials once i was semi-coherent (mild spoilers):

[indigovigilance]

How do I write a character that's an expert in astrophysical instrumentation?

Oh.

I guess I have to become an expert in astrophysical instrumentation.

Update: a mutual reached out and was like "here let me explain cosmic microwave background to you" and guys, we have the best fandom. Just, the best. I am crying.

[elen-tari2]

<As seen on Twitter>

[chaotic-planet]

so here's this cursed sentence my friend just created

[compacflt]

question: how do you find your research/sources? yours and dancing disasters' icemav fics are so inside baseball i love it, but how do you go about doing research?

I just read a lot & google stuff I don't know & am curious about. not that hard to start learning. and in terms of reading I've been interested in military history & milfiction my whole life. mostly related to the US army, actually--im extremely new to naval history and naval literature; all of that interest was driven by top gun. I've also been fortunate enough to visit a lot of the places I write about--ive been to Pearl Harbor a couple times & San Diego MANY times, for instance, and I've toured a few aircraft carriers and military bases. I've also finally bitten the bullet and kinda shifted my career path towards aerospace, so I've been learning a lot just by working in the aerospace & defense sector/spending a lot of time with people who do.

that's obviously not to say that I am somehow Educated in all this stuff. im pretty open on this blog about me being young & naive & wrong much of the time about how the real world works. so, you know, a lot of shit I just Make Up according to my preconceived notions of the military & the world.

here is my recommended military/navy reading list, some fiction and some nonfiction.

someone also asked recently if I had read anything good in the last 6 months--yes!! three new additions to my reading list: a) Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain. So goddamn good. If you have to read only one novel about the Iraq War, make it this one. It's more about America than it is about Iraq. b) Redeployment by Phil Klay. This one is a collection of short stories about Marines in Iraq, written by a USMC vet, talk about inside baseball. Crazy amounts of jargon in here, basically a "to-google" list. won the national book award which idk if it deserved, but it's good. c) No true glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle of Fallujah by Bing West. currently reading this one, really well done so far, talks a lot about how fucked the US strategy was in Iraq with Fallujah serving as a metonymy/case study for the war itself.

again... this is all mostly close-quarters-combat (infantry) literature, I really am not that interested in the navy/Air Force that much outside of top gun lol

though I did recently remember that in early 2022, before I was into top gun, I read "Wingmen" by Ensan Case, which is actually a gay US naval aviator romance set in WWII published in 1979! it's really authentic and kind of sad, obviously, since it was a 1940s navy gay love story published in 1979. I don't actually think Wingmen influenced how I wrote wwgattai or how I think of TG/TGM but I just remembered that I read that book in February 2022 and going "oh my god they were wingmen" so maybe you might find that book interesting.

[transmascutena]

rgu fanfiction is either the best thing you've ever read or it's that one where they made utena a cop post-canon, there's no inbetween

[treatsf]

Scout was screwed. Royally fucking screwed. Hands were shoved into drawers, frantically searching, shaking, sweat dripping down his skin as he desperately looked for his next hit. He knew he had to have some of it somewhere, he knew that because he needed it, because he couldn’t live without it, and if his past self left him empty handed again he might just strangle himself to give some sort of point because damnit he needed to be more prepared for these kinds of things. He threw whatever was in there out of the compartment; he threw books, he threw pencils, he threw stickers and pieces of paper and rolls of bandages and cords and needles and syringes until he dumped out the entire drawer and found nothing. He was beginning to panic, beginning to panic more than he already was before, because that was where he always hid his stash, that’s where it had to have been, and if it wasn’t there then it wasn’t anywhere and he couldn’t possibly be out because he was sick and he hated being sick and he needed to be normal and he needed to feel good again and he—

There. It was right there, in the next drawer down, a tiny ziplock bag containing all his hopes and dreams, everything he ever lived for etched into the powder held inside the plastic. He could tell there was none left for a second hit, and after this he was screwed, truly screwed: none of this frantic searching bullshit would be able to save him. But fuck if he cared. Fuck if he ever cared. Because in that tiny pouch contained his ticket to happiness, his ticket to success, his ticket to everything that would make him whole again. He would be normal. He needed to be normal, even if just for an inconsequential blip of time.

Snatching it like a falcon pouncing on its prey, he opened up its insides, hand fumbling for his spoon and his lighter before he grabbed a syringe and his cord and wrapped it around his arm. He had stolen the thing from the Engineer while the man was in one of his sporadic bouts of slumber, none the wiser to what was going on, and while of course he felt bad he knew he was doing it because he needed it so maybe it was okay. He had a bag of cotton balls he used when he wanted to be careful, when he wanted to inject the right way, but injecting the right way didn’t matter to him at that moment so he didn’t. Setting everything up was quick. It was easy. It was fine. He was going to be fine. He had a syringe full of euphoria, and nothing else mattered in that moment.

However, for just a moment, he had a sense of clarity. He was broke, ass broke, and after this hit he didn’t know where he’d find another one. Their paychecks came in 5 days, and he couldn’t wait it out for 5 days. He couldn’t be sick like this for 5 days, sweating through his clothes and shaking and yawning and sniffling and sobbing and aching and feeling like utter shit. He had just emptied out one of his drawers, and what if someone decided to come in and saw all of it, saw everything out in the open like that, with him in the center of it all? Were his doors locked, were his windows locked? Had he made any noise, any sounds, any smells? Shit, was he addicted?

But fuck, it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because as soon as that needle was thrusted into his arm, as soon as he pulled the plunger until blood pooled in the syringes barrel, as soon as that brown tar entered his veins, he was in heaven. A smile danced across his lips, a heavy one, a droopy one, and he fell onto the bed, ripping the instrument out from his flesh, body too numb to remember where it went. It was like he was back at home, back in his mothers arms all the way in Boston, held and coddled and wrapped and swaddled like a baby, told it was all going to be okay. He didn’t have any more money and he was out of smack so if he couldn’t find a way to get more fast he was fucked and if that happened his coworkers were bound to realize something was wrong soon enough, but none of that mattered. None of that mattered because he felt good. He felt great. He felt like nothing could ever touch him, because up was down and left was right and water was red and fire was blue and the devil was good and god was bad but fuck, he felt amazing. None of it mattered.

@gravitytrips

[quietwingsinthesky]

Drabble 84/366 - Doctor Who

This has never been a problem before, but then, the Doctor has never had a companion whose legs were so tiny.

One moment, Amelia is on his heels. The next, he looks back to see her at the end of the hallway. His screwdriver is in one hand, unlocking the door, but she won’t make it.

The Doctor careens back down the hall, screwdriver between his teeth as he scoops her up, and runs.

A bolt of energy clips his ear. He tucks Amelia’s head down.

“You need longer limbs,” he tells her, “or heelys.” Amelia, safe and sound, laughs.

[tranzombie]

guys can you recommend bandom fanfics that aren’t extremely depressing for a mentally fragile reading addict

asotm has ruined me beyond repair so now i’m skeptical of everything i read

[zel-zo]

You ever read a fanfic that makes you just....?

.- - -

A.k.a I started reading Known Associates again. Help.

[mister13eyond]

daring to be vulnerable and open about my work on tumblr on a tuesday afternoon

i have a strange relationship with april 6th where it is simultaneously the proudest achievement i have and also my white whale that i will forever be chasing

which is funny because looking back at it now, years later, i'd probably write it differently at this stage in my life? i think i've grown a lot as a writer and there are parts to me that read clunky or messy and i think i could have pushed things a lot further

but it's also like. idk, i'd never made a fic About anything before. I'd never even made a full completed piece of fiction? and then i went from "a few oneshots scattered over the course of several years and fandoms" to this fucking.... multimedia epic. this thing i updated in real time. this thing i learned to PROGRAM TWINE GAMES for. this thing i got reviews on that said it helped people deal with their own grief, that i feel like Actually spoke to people?

and that's a high fucking bar to reach! it was a very specific and precise fluke that came from a lot of things all at once- me processing my OWN feelings of loss and fear about the future after 2020. my own slow and delicate tiptoe into a new relationship where everything was uncertain and scary. my personal way of getting revenge-via-success after a year-long burnout inflicted by a really bad friendship that had a really negative impact on me creatively and killed all my confidence in my ability to finish things.

so it's like. weird having this relationship with a piece of my own work that is so Symbolic? weird having a relationship with my own creation where it is simultaneously My Testament To My Own Ability and also The Rival Whose Shadow I'm Always Chasing.

AND IT'S NOT EVEN LIKE... I don't necessarily think it's my best writing, you know? On a purely technical level, it's definitely not BAD but i've grown as a writer since then and I think I've learned new strengths and have continued to improve

but like. also.... it'll always be That Thing I Wish I Could Capture The Feeling Of Making Again. it'll always be that weird moment of lightning in a bottle where i made something really really cool and now everything i make afterwards has to take a backseat to this project i started on impulse in 2021 because i had a bunch of feelings

[kats-fic-recs]

Mountains and Badgermolehills

After the Blue Spirit frees the Avatar from the Pohuai Stronghold, Admiral Zhao captures Prince Zuko under suspicion of treason. Isolated from his Uncle and his crew, Zuko has only one ally: the chatty prisoner one cell over.

[monstercu]

You should really check out Kyn's Muting Silent Hill on ao3. You know, I'm pretty okay about it.

The way I think I might have drawn the wrong Pyramid Head...

...Or did I?

[allylikethecat]

OAF Fictional!Matty might be a brat but he is having a !!! hard time !!!

his body is turning on him! hr keeps going through heats (which i barely understand how they work)! he is confused!

he is actually a sweetie and i love him and the shark plushie and he should be protected!!!

(he might be my favorite mattie rn and i will accept no criticism)

LOL OAF Fictional!Matty has been a bitchy brat his entire life - that has nothing to do with his current heat issues / omega issues 😂 that is just his personality and he is in his thirties he will not be changing- but don't worry OAF Fictional!George loves him for it and doesn't want him to ever change! He thinks Fictional!Matty being bitchy is cute.

I will admit he does have his sweetie moments though, and he *is* having a hard time. But it will get better! Eventually! It's starting to! Maybe! Or maybe not! It's complicated! But he does have his trusted beloved shark plushie at his side regardless!

I'm happy to hear that he is your current favorite Fictional!Matty and I hope you continue to enjoy him and On a Friday! I've had a lot of fun creating his character and how different he is from some of my other Fictional!Matties, plus writing him as bitchy is super fun 😂 Thank you SO MUCH for reading and sending me this ask- I'm so honored that you like OAF Fictional!Matty enough to want to protect him 🥰 Thank you SO MUCH for the continued support! I hope your Monday is going well and that you have a wonderful week!

❤️Ally

[dustyy-angel]

Fuck it, I'm saying it

If you know where to look there is some incredible stuff on Wattpad