surprise fic recs

tototavros:

what fanfics do people recommend? idk what i like precisely other than intense emotions + people being awful and likely having to deal with the consequences of being awful, although i’m willing to try a lot.  Good writing is good writing, and hard to find 

queenlua's response: x

Someone on here also did a fic rec post so it felt auspicious to go through the Ao3 tags and pick out some memorable fics that felt apropos to what OP was asking for. "Good writing" and messiness, basically, also being what I tend to jive with.

- And Wolves Beneath Our Seams - Fallout3, eventual het ship, character study of the main character and a ghoul bodyguard companion as they work through the events of the main game (you don't need to know anything about the Fallout series reading this; I didn't the first time). the first fic I bound because losing this to digital rot would be unbearable, if that means anything.  soul-shatteringly raw, real representation of what long-term trauma does to a person (and I'm not usually one for ~ twauma fics~). gun to my head if there's one fic I'll always rec first, it'll be this one.

- Truth and Measure - Devil Wears Prada, femslash (Andy/Miranda), underground cult hit with a large chunk of femslash writers. Fun, just as engrossing as the hit film if you happened to dig the film (you will probably want to watch the film before, unlike these other fics), does a deceptively great job at threading the needle of not sawing off Miranda's fangs as it would be so easy to - Miranda def stays an asshole but you see the fantastic bits of character development that were merely hinted in the box office.

Snow White - Hellsing fairy tale AU, f/m (eventual integra/alucard) - I am not an AU person and I am absolutely not a fairy tale person but this was the second fic I bound because it was just that ... lurid, tangible, evocative, mythical, archetypical in the way I can kinda see why people dig myths so much. Hella messy and if you're a villainfucker you're in luck here. It might help to know the basics of Hellsing to anticipate some of the beats, but the fic takes the strong archetypes and fuses it in with ones already familiar in broader culture, so not necessary other than "lady knight breaks a vampire over her knee" :P 

It Takes More Than Whiskey to Make That Flower Bloom: A Drabble Collection - ok u gonna have to trust me on this one. f/f, Cars-series butch/femme femslash drabbles, and probably some of the best femslash I've read period. Just..... you might have to Start this at 2am to get over the premise but the textured rawness really is something here with two incredibly fucked up individuals.

A Cornstalk Fiddle - The Devil Went Down To Georgia, m/m - this is one of this fics that is a fic but also is "art" in the sense of "really well done literature that also makes me Feel Things". a little more abstract / less character study-ing than the other fics, but the texture and tactile quality of the world nails what imo southern gothic should be (sincerely, from somebody who's spent large chunks of life in small town georgia).

(no subject)

i was at the eyeglasses shop the other day and had the enormous thought of 'man, somebody should totally make a violet evergarden-ish anime based around a chick who works at a magical spectacles store, you could get so much fun mileage from it visually let alone the whole magical spectacles side of it ("seeing" magic, dreams etc)'

cuz i still have old weirdly fond memories of this incredibly old 1990's glasses shop where there was mood lighting! and waterfalls! and weirdly triangular surrealistic 90's decor shit!

that's it that's the post :P