#OBV THIS IS NOTHING AGAINST THE AUTHOR OR THE FIC I WAS JUST YOUNG AND TRAUMATISED AND COPING UNHEALTHILY

[crackinthecup]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers (except me because obvs I have done it). Spread the self-love ❤

I'm not sure if you have done this already but I'd love to see which of your fics you'd rec 🖤

Ahhh thank you so much for sending this my way <3 <3 The loveliest @cilil and @dragonofmordor tagged me in this too. Really appreciate it :D

Interlude (Angbang; 3,224 words; rated E)

This is an older fic that needed a bit of sprucing; I finished rewriting it just this evening, so here it is!

After a time, a new sensation joined the puffing and shrinking of his lungs: power, like dozens of ghostly hands on his skin, like the bite of sharpest ice. Melkor. He himself appeared on the balcony some seconds later, coming to stand in Mairon’s line of sight, and Mairon smiled to see him rather than the lord, the god, the king; just him, not wearing a shirt, his black hair crownless and sleep-mussed. * Poised on the cusp of the Dagor Dagorath, Melkor and Mairon share a private moment.

2. Wait for You (Angbang; 2,055 words; rated M)

I wrote this mostly in one go in a haze of heartache after seeing Hadestown and it still brings back all those feelings for me when I re-read it :') Also, it was my first time writing in first person so that was fun.

You were not dead, I told myself. I had no cause to grieve. It seemed faithless to grieve. What, did I not believe that you would triumph over your jailors, that you would escape the nothingness beyond the stars and come back to us (to me) like you had all those aeons ago?

3. No Other Choice (Elwing & Elrond & Elros feat. Maedhros & Maglor; 2,566 words; rated T)

Is the Elwing Defence Squad still a thing? BECAUSE I AM IN IT. With this one, I wanted to grapple with the choice Elwing had to make during the attack on the Havens—an impossible choice in an impossible situation.

“Your word means nothing,” she spits at him, baring her teeth, nearly shaking with anger as sudden as a cataclysm. The sea roars behind her, cold droplets spraying up and flecking her bare legs. “I do not barter with murderers.”

4. Old and New (Celebrimbor & Calairië, which is my name for his mum; 1,470 words; rated T)

This is an older one and I don't love how it's written anymore, but! Reunions fascinate me and this is Celebrimbor reuniting with his mother Calairië (meaning Sea Light) after his stint in the Halls, and also I adore Calairië and want to write about 10,000 more things about her.

“Not so, my darling,” Calairië says, voice quiet but vehement, and in that moment Celebrimbor feels young, and he feels loved, and he realises how much he has missed both of those things. “No one can shoulder the weight of the world on their own, though your father and your grandfather both tried in their own ways.”

5. Moments (Angbang; 9,163 words; rated E)

This fic. THIS FIC. It was meant to be short and fun and sexy, but then I started writing and Melkor had completely different ideas and this is the end result. I went on A Journey here, and it really highlighted for me how much I enjoy writing Melkor's POV, which feels raw and kaleidoscopic and just really interesting to get stuck into.

“The sortie was a triumph,” Mairon says, holding the helm upon his lap and gazing up into his face. He smiles a smile that grows and stretches, wider and wider, as though there is something within him that cannot be contained. Something vast. Something keen. “Beleriand is open to us. Those who thought we could be penned in, who thought our might the lesser, lived to regret such misapprehensions. Or,” he adds, showing his teeth, “did not live, as the case may be.” Melkor is drawn to that smile, to the something—vital, beguiling—underneath it. He reaches out. Places the leather of his gloved palm and fingers upon Mairon’s cheek. Beneath the leather, pain tingles, his burned skin protesting the contact. Mairon nuzzles against him, eyes flickering shut, a noise issuing from him that is happy and mindless, like the purr of some great pleased beast; and Melkor forgets the pain. “Congratulations are in order, I should think,” he tells him, “to the brilliant mind who engineered this victory.”

[jumpingjaxx13]

First Lines

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

No one tagged me, but I saw it and thought it would be fun! I’ll tag @boostthatgold and @immaplatypus if you want to participate! No pressure obvs!

Also, as a disclaimer, I realized that many of my first lines are rather abrupt, simple sentences, so I put in the first few lines for some. I’ll be putting a “Keep Reading” a little bit of the way down!

Finally, if you decide you want to read one of these fics, be sure to read the tags!! Many of these contain angst and/or dark themes, but not all. Please heed the tags so you can make sure it’s right for you!

1. Purpose, Kurogiri & Tomura Shigaraki

“Do you trust me?” It was a heavy question to expect a young child to answer, but there was no way to avoid asking it.

2. Tuesday Morning Flowers, Ougai Mori/Yukichi Fukuzawa

As of late, Tuesdays had become Ougai Mori's favorite day of the week. There was nothing particularly special about it-- in fact, it was an arbitrary selection that didn't harbor much significance-- but he had given it meaning of his own volition.

3. Understanding Love, Ryuunosuke Akutagawa/Atsushi Nakajima

Ryuunoske Akutagawa understood hatred.

It was something he had been saturated with as far back as he could remember. Whether he was struggling on the streets or thriving in the Port Mafia, he was more than familiar with being the object of fear and hatred. Even more so, he was accustomed to dishing it out.

4. Unstoppable Force, Ranpo Edogawa/Edgar Allan Poe

They found him on the sidewalk.

Over the course of his life, Ranpo had seen more corpses than the average person would ever wish to. They rarely perturbed him; they were little more than another element to any given case he was working on. Gruesome scenes didn’t leave him fazed in the slightest. He’d seen where a knife had sliced through someone’s throat, bullets pierced their chest, or their body had been mutilated to the point of entrails seeing the light of day.

Never before had he seen a body look this peaceful .

5. In the Language of Flowers Ch 2, Teru Hanazawa/Shigeo Kageyama

Kageyama Shigeo liked Takane Tsubomi.

Teru knew that well enough. Hell, anyone who had spent a decent amount of time around Shigeo would know that. It wasn’t something he necessarily tried to hide.

6. In the Language of Flowers Ch 1, Yuusuke Sakurai/Megumu Koyama

Love; what a concept. It was easily the strongest force in the universe while simultaneously being the most volatile. Love could be a saving grace and everything someone needed; Love could be the most destructive weapon known to mankind when wielded as such.

7. Lovely, Hatchi Kita/Robby Yarge

Betrothal. 

Hatchi had only been home for a short while before the topic was brought up again. It wasn’t new in the slightest-- he had always known that he would be paired off with some wealthy gentlewoman and that he was going to have to at least pretend to like it-- but he hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.  

8. Flawless, Katsuki Bakugou & Tsunagu Hakamata

“Ouch! Watch what you’re doing with that thing!”

“If you weren’t squirming around so much, you wouldn’t get poked as often.”

“Oh, fuck you.”

9. Where It Doesn’t Hurt, Tsunagu Hakamata/Keigo Takami

Heroism and death walked hand in hand. Any hero who insisted otherwise was either new, naive, or completely in denial. Hero society itself was born from the need to protect people against a new form of death and destruction that had razed the world upon the introduction of quirks, and it was impossible to separate the two.

10. Casual, Shouto Todoroki/Tenya Iida

Shouto was familiar with affection in theory . He knew what it was supposed to be like. When he was young, he experienced brief moments of loving kindness from his mother wherein she would kiss his forehead and run her fingers through his hair (the right side; he didn’t notice it at that age, but she always favored his right side).

11. Playing the Villain, Shuichi Iguchi & Tenko Shimura/Tomura Shigaraki

You can play with us, but you have to be the villain!

That was what the other kids said every time Shuichi approached them, costume cape tied around his neck and eager to join in with the other little ‘heroes.’ Even at only five years of age, he was more than familiar with that kind of discrimination-- that kind of unfairness -- but it never stopped him from going back to try again.

12. Running Out of Time, Hari Kurono/Kai Chisaki

Hari’s relationship with time was a unique one; that much, he could recognize without any issue.

13. Remembering Shirakumo, Kurogiri-centric, background Kurogiri/Atsuhiro Sako, background Shouta Aizawa/Hizashi Yamada

Being caught hadn’t been part of the plan.

14. Becoming Kurogiri, Kurogiri-centric, Kurogiri/Atsuhiro Sako, Kurogiri & Tomura Shigaraki 

Something was wrong. He could feel it in his bones: a deep, throbbing ache within him making his limbs heavy and distress swell up and spread to every extremity. The epicenter of his pain was positioned right above his eye, every awful feeling radiating out from that focused point. His head spun, rushing through empty thoughts faster than he could process their meaninglessness. The pain meant something; the weight meant something; this terrible, hurried static in his head meant something, but he could not place his finger on it. He was equal parts incoherent and consumed by his blank, dark surroundings and, had he possessed the bodily control to do so, he may have succumbed to nausea.

Move. Get away. You can’t stay here. You’re not safe. They’re not safe. You need to protect them. It’s too late.

15. Keepsakes Ch 3, Yogar Lyste/Kassius Konstantine

Minister Maketh Tua had died.

The news was laid upon him without ceremony or compassion, so he hardly had the bearings to comprehend it before the topic switched over. He could hardly ask for the information to be repeated-- no, he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, seeing as he shouldn’t have been eavesdropping on a report between an ISB agent and a superior officer. Nevertheless, even if he weren’t intruding in such an unprofessional manner, his voice was nowhere to be found. Blood rushed from his cheeks, forgetting his limbs and turning him into an ashen grey statue as daunting, echoing thoughts boomed in his head.

16. A Quiet Night, Kurogiri/Atsuhiro Sako

Kurogiri hadn’t known quiet in over a decade. Ever since taking young Tomura Shigaraki under his wing, peace had become a foreign concept to the warp villain. If his hair could show from behind his smoke, each grey hair would tell the story of another late night where sleep just wasn’t an option; another close call that had him stitching up open wounds; another task placed on Shigaraki’s shoulders that he was still far too inexperienced to execute properly of which he often took the brunt of the consequences.

17. Same, Daniel/David or Daniel & David

“ This is for your own good. You’ll understand later.”

18. The Dark Knights, Bruce Wayne/Jeremiah Valeska

Killing Jerome Valeska the second time around felt too easy. The man had clawed and ripped his way out of hell, gasping through waves of shed blood to feed his madness, his entire being a reflection of everything perverse and rotten in the human soul. To be felled by a proverbial “fall from grace” was insulting.

19. Different, Jerome Valeska & Jeremiah Valeska, Jerome Valeska & Paul Cicero

Jeremiah was nothing like Jerome.

Even before they could speak, the boys couldn’t have been more different. Jeremiah would take the cheap, plastic blocks and pile them; Jerome would wait for the perfect moment to strike and knock them down. He would laugh; Jeremiah would not.

20. How to Lie to Yourself, Janus “Deceit” Sanders

Start with something simple.

Look in the mirror and hold your own gaze. Don’t break eye contact-- that’s a sign of weakness, even to yourself.

So, it looks like I definitely do have a pattern when it comes to opening lines. Out of these, I have to say that my favorite is either Unstoppable Force’s or Flawless’s line(s).