#fic: mcstrome

[sassthatsarcasm]

hey, don’t write yourself off yet

[19871997]

do u have any mcstrome fic recs. dylan liking that tweet has sent me into a spiral

dylan liking that tweet is so freaking . estranged ex best friend but i still think about you on your birthday and my mom makes apple pie the way your mom does and i know what you're like when youre asleep and you used to know me better than anyone else and i dont know how to tell you i think ive changed and i know you have BUT FIC WISE:

the absolute classic burn the straw house down by theundiagnosable (E, 39k) all of their fics are incredible but this one is a classic for a reason like truly just such an incredible fic quite possibly the thesis of modern/post draft/post career mcstrome like this is Them and them learning each other again and dealing with their history and what they meant to eachother and what they mean to eachother now

in a very similar vein (future fic, dealing with all their nonsense, connor being strange and bizarre) The Next Next One by yourblues (M, 71k) is also a classic also one of those like. That mcstrome fic. where theyre relearning eachother and that process is painful and thourough and detailed so well here

so collect your scars and wear them well by addandsubtract (M, 15k) is also so so good also a classic (probably one of the first mcstrome fics ever?) has the benefit of being written right around the draft/a little after such that unlike in all the future fics, they already know eachother as they are and its more like connor coming to terms w the fact that dylans love and care for him is actually quite endless (like idk if this out of place to say but this reads like a lot of modern connorleon fics read like its far more of a friends to lovers/codependant boybestfriends to codependant boybestfriends who have tenderhorny sex fic than an ex codependant best friends who had mutual crushes on eachother but didnt dare say a word about it to lovers who say many many words about it. if that makes sense)

the kids are gonna be by Sour_Idealist (T, 24k) is a very fun getting together fic featuring fated generational talent/first overall/gay yoda mentor sidney crosby truly truly wish there were more fics like this. this is a bit the fic that clocked me on to everyone's tendancy in hrpf to drop a sentance about sidcros is also gay regardless of who the hrpf is about LSDFHGLSDFLHG

and finally i watched your life in pictures by Stromesquad (E, 20k) another post retirement getting together/getting back in sync wondering what happened realising they never really stopped loving eachother etc etc like i do think the main draw of mcstrome these days is in post retirement/post career like they are the pinnacle of codependant teenage best friendship that leaves you fundementally changed especially w the trajectory of their careers rn (like dylan's old teams having to move/enter a rebuild + his current team on the brink of a rebuild vs connor being the one the oilers built around)

[msmargaretmurry]

I wish you would write a fic where Dylan made it to the 2024 All Star Game (I am SO curious)

ohhh friend i wanted this so bad and i had SUCH a vision in my head of the mcstrome i would write about it if it had happened. (which it SHOULD have!!! i kind of get why the league tapped tom to go instead but dylan was the caps' leading scorer at that point in the season!!!!!! but it's fine because the asg was barely worth going to this year, if you weren't one of the few chosen for the skills stuff you were just sitting around all weekend anyway)

anyway it would have just been like a one-shot, a few thousand words about running into the guy you used to be in love with at this event you used to dream of getting to, back before the nhl turned out to be way harder for you than you thought it would be. and he's here attached at the hip with the guy who replaced you, and he belongs here, this is his event, and you're only here due to some fluke of your team's actual superstar having a slow start to the season. he keeps looking at you like he's not sure why you're here or what to say to you. or maybe you're projecting. whatver. but it's the all star weekend, so drinks are flowing, and even after all these years you know how to find him at a party — not that it's hard, because after all these years he still mostly watches from the sidelines. you just want to tell him you're proud of him for how he turned his team's season around after such a rough start. that you're still rooting for him. but there's something about the way he meets your eyes in the low light, the way you have to lean in to talk over the music, something about the alcohol and how it doesn't feel quite real that you're here — maybe this is an okay place to make the mistakes you were both too chicken to as teenagers.

[twobites]

is this something (alt text under cut)

Image 1: Still from The Social Network of Mark leading Eduardo outside the party.

Image 2: Connor McDavid and Dylan Strome talking inside an arena.

Image 3: Transcript from The Social Network. MARK: “I’m afraid if you don’t come out here you’re going to get left behind. I want - I want - I need you out here, please don’t tell him I said that.” EDUARDO: “What did you just say?” MARK: “It’s moving faster than any of us ever even imagined and -” EDUARDO: “What do you mean get left behind?”

Image 4: Still from The Social Network of the above scene.

Image 5: 2015 headline from The Star, “Dylan Strome happy to develop in Connor McDavid’s shadow”

[boyliker55]

CHAPTER 8 IS HERE!!!

if you are unfamiliar this is my mcstrome future fic/dylan goes to edmonton fic/kidfic my labor of love and my pride and joy :D if any of those things appeal to you then give her a read thx <3

click here to read!!

[glasshouses-and-stones]

Anagram Game

My first time doing this! I got tagged by @the-golden-comet and @agirlandherquill, so I'm going to do it twice with two different works!

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The first word was DESIRE

This is from my Connor/Mitch/Dylan ongoing story, the system's breaking down.

(my ao3 is linked in the pinned post on my blog.)

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D: Dylan doesn’t even take the time to chirp him; he’s too busy yelling at Connor. 

E: Eventually, he lays a hand on Dylan's bicep.

S: "So, after he goes to work, you just...get in his bed?"

I: "I didn't know you didn't not like me," is what he gets out, and he doesn’t even think it makes sense to himself.

R: "Right now?"

E: Eventually, he questions, "Thought I said I didn't want to talk to you?"

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The second was TREACHERY.

This is from my original work, Soup of the Day.

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T: “This is Christian. He’s joining the team. Can you teach him some stuff about soccer?”

R: “Really?” Christian nodded and picked up his water to take a sip out of it. All the ice had melted. “Yep, really.”

E: Even Evan’s scowl directed at him from across the field couldn’t knock him off his pedestal.

A: Actually, he was so nervous that he felt he like he was about to shit himself, but he’d be fine. He was pretty sure, at least.

C: Christian’s laugh was swallowed by the sound of the nocturnal traffic.

H: “Huh,” Erick said. He leaned back in the booth. “Why aren’t you over there?”

E: Everyone was grouped around him arguing, and Christian thought a fight would’ve broken out if it wasn’t for the referee shoving the crowd apart. 

R: “Right,” he said gruffly.

Y: “You got this, Daddy!” Christian heard April scream from the stands.

-

This was really fun! It's your turn. Your word is REFUND.

No pressure tagging: @charlesjosephwrites, @floweryprosegarden, @zackprincebooks, @kedkd, @willowseed, @dyoniawrites, @chayscribbles, +open tag

If you see this and do it, please tag me. I love reading everyone's writing.

[readingbythestreetlights]

your ex-lover is dead by stars is SOOOO mcstrome coded

like srsly: “God, that was strange to see you again Introduced by a friend of a friend Smiled and said, "Yes, I think we've met before" In that instant, it started to pour” 

and: “It's nothing but time and a face that you'll lose I chose to feel it and you couldn't choose I'll write you a postcard, I'll send you the news From the house down the road, from real love”

[grittyreadsfic]

i love the wonder years send tweet

[primakira]

doing an f1 x hockey au and i feel like i had a life-changing epiphany when i casted matthew tkachuk as this au's ver of max verstappen

[rainbowkittensuprisestan]

the Mattdrai , Mceichel , and Mcstrome tags

Hockey RPF writers being known across fandoms as literary masters

When I first started reading MattDrai fics on AO3 I remember thinking “wait what the HELL is going on why is this the most consistently well-written fanfiction I’ve read in any fandom? Is this a thing? Do people know??” And apparently it is and they do.

[msmargaretmurry]

bestie the way i RANNNNN to your ask box when i saw the dylan ig story…….. my godddddd your reply to the other ask makes me insane . THEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anon bestie you have no idea how much joy it brings me to be known as The McStrome Girl to at least a few people here on tumblr dot com....... like sorry to be stuck in the past but i will be haunted by them until the day i die. i will be on my deathbed wondering what went on between them. like obviously drifting apart as you grow up and go separate ways is not weird but i do want a play-by-play of that emotional journey (if that's what happened) and they will never give it to me because they're real people who are extremely entitled to their privacy but nevertheless they will remain ON the gas station hot dog roller in my head until the end of time

[linskywords]

I saw your reblog about fucked up things and being the first to post on AO3 about them and laughed out loud! But I was wondering, do you have any fanfiction hard limits? Like pairings you would never write/tropes you will not read or write?? Love your works sooo much thank you for feeding all of us constantly!!! 🥰

Haha what a fun question! Hard limits...not a ton of them, honestly. There are kinks I feel like aren't for me, but I tend to be into characters being into things, so the right fic can really easily change my mind on them. Heck, I used to think mpreg was a bridge too far for me. That clearly didn't last long. 🤣

HOWEVER I really don't like unrequited love. Requited love is basically what I read and write for, and unrequited love just makes me sad. Even unrequited background relationships are tough for me, especially if they're a pairing I've read elsewhere (I remember one fic -- I think McStrome? -- had Taylor Hall being sad about not being soulmates with Jordan Eberle in the background and I was Not Okay). Absolutely loved dilangley's recent mattdrai fic barons except Trevor had a point of view and he was single and not with Jamie and I might still not be okay about it.

I also don't love huge power differentials. Like, I'll write a moderate age difference, that's not a hard limit for me, but I'll see it as something to compensate for rather than a selling point. How to make this couple feel balanced even though one is way older/more powerful/in a different life stage than the other? And if that can't be done convincingly, I'm probably going to be less interested in writing them. To take this to an extreme: parent-child incest is probably a hard limit for me. Maybe there are exceptions, but I can't imagine them.

There's also a group of tropes that just aren't quite as much for me. I don't love gangbangs; I tend to want my sex to come with emotional attachment or at least really compelling attraction. I don't hate enemies to lovers, but friends to lovers is more my jam (see also: why I still haven't written mattdrai without Connor being involved). I love romantic tension, so I'm less into pure fluff and established relationships. And I don't like coffee shop AUs. They're just boring. 😅 (No, I mean, they're not all boring. But I far prefer the tension of "we already mean a lot to each other, oh no now I have feelings.")

I don't know that there are any pairings that are hard limits for me! Some are less appealing than others, but the only thing that would be really challenging for me is breaking up a pairing I love and putting them with other people -- and even then I've done it sometimes. I tend to put most pairings I haven't written into a "waiting to be sold on it" bucket. Much like kinks. What a fun bucket. 😘

[bigbrotherlouis]

ao3 link

(cleaned up and slightly expanded)

i would love to hear more about mcstrome 🫡

realistically i'm sure it's the age-old story of two kids end up in the same place and become best friends because of proximity and then once they leave being in each others' presence and grow up into adults that friendship fades away but there's still fondness there.

however fictionally? alexa play ribs by lorde

you are fifteen years old. you are fifteen years old and you have been drafted to a new team in a new city in a new country. you are the youngest person on your team and you are probably the best person on your team and you are eight hours from home, granted special exception to be drafted a year early into the OHL and you are proving yourself against boys two, three, four years older than you, but despite it all your team finishes almost dead last. you are rookie of the year.

you are sixteen years old. you are sixteen years old, and the second best player in the draft, the draft that should've been yours but wasn't, is coming to your team. you know him. you meet him in the summer and you're already friends, fast friends, and you've been dreaming about being teammates again. he talks fast and he's fiercely loyal and he keeps up with you on the ice and he reminds you of home. he is not your best friend yet but he will be. he invites you home during the summers and asks if you want to play street hockey with him. you come and you sit on the sidelines, already conscious of the worth of your body enough that you know this is not something you should be participating in. he doesn't care, though, captain of a team, yelling at mitch marner who is an awful goalie and keeps letting in goals, and winning that summer. you go to the beach together, pale and stretched out on the sand, and now you are best friends.

you are seventeen years old. you are seventeen years old and they have just named you the captain of your team. you're wearing the letter with pride but people are talking about you like you're the second coming of hockey jesus. they've been talking about you for a while now, but this feels like more. this feels heavy. you break your hand in a fight in november because you are, after all, still a teenage boy. you sit out and watch as your best friend lights up the ice. he is the best person out there when you're on the bench and it shows in the stats and the points. he can tell you all the stats and the points because he's good at remembering those. he says he can remember every single play he's ever made and honestly? you kind of believe him. the haunting specter of the draft covers your entire year, looming in the corners of your vision, colouring every interaction. you are good, and he is good, and there is no chance of being drafted together, no matter how much you secretly hope. the calendar is a countdown clock towards your end, but you make him promise you will stay best friends because you don't really know what you will do without him.

you are eighteen years old. you are eighteen years old and edmonton has already made your jersey even though the draft hasn't happened yet. the graveyard of first overalls and rumors of a curse after gretzky left. you're the next gretzky and you're the next coming of hockey jesus and the entire city is waiting for your salvation. he goes third. phoenix, which is the literal opposite of edmonton. you hang off of him the entire weekend before, realising that this is the crescendo. you will never be otters together again. there's little chance you'll even be teammates again, so you cling tight even as you're so breathlessly excited for the moment your name get called first. you trip off the stage in a jersey that doesn't quite fit right but has your name on the back, and quietly ask if you can watch this next pick before you go backstage. you twine yourselves in a hug when he follows behind and it feels awfully like a goodbye.

now.

you are eighteen years old. you are eighteen years old and your best friend is drafted number one overall. you always knew he was better. you always knew he was made for more, so it doesn't hurt. you're happy to follow in his footsteps because you are his best friend and nothing will ever change that. besides, third is still a good number. amazing, even. they send you back to erie but you expected that. no one makes it to the show unless they are exceptional or a team is desperate, and edmonton is both. he scores his first nhl point in his third game and you are named captain of the otters. life is good. he breaks his collarbone less than a month in, shattering his rookie dreams. he comes home to you, in erie, because no one else understands him like you do. no one knows how to manage him when he's broken and angry, but you have patience and a lot of love and loyalty. you lie in your big bed and take up most of the mattress, two grown boys in the dark, and you don't kiss him. you could, but you don't.

you are nineteen years old. you are nineteen years old and he is named captain of his nhl team, also at nineteen. he is the youngest captain in history. thirteen days later, you score your first point. a month after that, arizona sends you packing back to erie. this time it hurts. you were doing your best and it wasn't bad and your best friend is captain of the oilers and you are playing with your high school team again. they make you captain for the second year in a row, but it's not the oilers and it's not the coyotes, so does it actually fucking matter? you are determined to prove everyone wrong and so you drag your team to the memorial cup. you win and it feels like a fuck you and it is maybe the best moment of your goddamn life. your phone is quiet. you haven't had any texts from edmonton for months.

you are twenty years old. you are twenty years old and this is finally your goddamn year. except-- you go pointless in two games and arizona decides that's not good enough. you've aged out of the otters so you pack your bag for tuscon instead. you spend your winter bouncing between the nhl and the ahl, sometimes so fast it makes you sick. winter in the desert feels weird, feels barren. you lie on your floor under the a/c and deliberately do not think of the time you almost kissed your ex-best friend. he's your ex-best friend because he's got a new one up there, draisaitl who also went third but the year before you. he can keep up with him, even better than you can, because he's not being bounced up and down. you wonder if draisaitl ever wants to kiss him. you wonder if draisaitl ever has.

you are twenty one years old. you are twenty one years old and you are a draft bust. they've been calling you that for years but now they're right. arizona trades you to chicago for practically nothing, which is embarrassing, but it's alright because you've got an old otter, brinksy, there on your team. you're nothing special, but you're nothing bad either. if only you hadn't touched the hem of hockey jesus as a teenager. if only you hadn't known what greatness tastes like. when you face off against edmonton, he won't meet your eye. he slides out of the centre dot and draisaitl steps in and wins the draw.

you are twenty three years old. you are twenty three years old and you have a girlfriend now, a pretty one, and it's-- good. your team makes it to the weird-ass playoffs in august, because there's a pandemic now, and you get trapped in a hotel in edmonton. your girlfriend tells you that she's pregnant right before you leave, like right before, and you can barely care about anything else. you barely care that he is two floors below you and the last message in your texts was a happy birthday! three years ago. unimaginably, you knock him out of the playoffs on his home ice. in the handshake line, he offers you his palm and his eyes skate over you like you're a stranger.

you are twenty five years old. you are twenty five years old, and on yet another new team. that's good, though, even if he will always be so much better. your fiance asks if she should send an letter to an edmonton address and you hesitate. you are no longer friends anymore. you haven't been for years and years, even if you lie when the press ask. but you loved him, once. you loved him so much that you were part of him and he was part of you, and the teenager on a shared bed in the dark will not let you forget that. you put his name down on an envelope.

so.

you are twenty five years old. you are twenty five years old and a wedding invitation arrives at your front door. you slide your fingernail under the flap and freeze when you see the faces on the front. there's a secret you will never tell anyone, not even on your deathbed, but you think of it now. it takes up so much space in your lungs that you can barely breathe. and it hurts. your girlfriend, who you love very much finds you shredding paper into a wastebasket and asks if everything is alright. you lie. you can't imagine not lying and so she doesn't catch you at it. you tell her that you've always wanted to go to manchester, england. you tell her that you should plan a trip for the summer, and you end up on a plane to a different continent while your ex-best friend is getting married back home.

you are sixteen years old. you are sixteen years old and flat on your back at the beach, listening to the water lap up on shore. beside you, he drops to the ground to stretch out too, his bare arm pressing up against your own. it dawns on you, as consuming and as present as gravity, that you are in love with him. it dawns on you that maybe you always be.

you're the only friend i need / sharing beds like little kids / we'll laugh until our ribs get tough / but that will never be enough

[eiidolon]

Thank you @eliooliver83 for the tag much love :)

Favorite color - sky blue and or sage green

Last song - DNA by Kendrick

Currently reading - idk if this counts but I’m currently working through my professor’s paper on Russian political knocking languages in prisons

Currently watching - Ted Lasso and Hannibal!

Currently craving - I would really fucking dig some sushi rn.

Coffee or tea - I’m embarrassingly into tea

Hobby to try - trying so fucking hard to learn how to cook right now it’s not working I’m ngl

Current AU - currently struggling through a mcstrome summer camp counselor fic

Tagging @zamulas @watch-the-damn-line @glasshouses-and-stones and @tradetobest IF you so wish to participate :)

[glasshouses-and-stones]

Last Line Tag

Thanks to @the-golden-comet for tagging me! I love doing these.

✨️My ao3 is in the pinned post on my blog✨️

The last line I've written so far in my wip, make a baby with you (E), a Mitch/Auston fic:

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"You okay?" Auston asks, and Mitch just nods.

Yeah, he will be. He doesn't fucking know how, but he has to.

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And the last line in my last posted story, the system's breaking down, an ongoing Dylan/Connor/Mitch fic:

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Before Dylan can get anything out, Connor's hung up the phone. The dial tone rings out in the silent room.

Dylan stays laying on his bed for the next hour, trying on what Connor said, seeing if it fits.

Damn, maybe Connor really should have majored in psychology.

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No pressure tags: @agirlandherquill, @charlesjosephwrites, @floweryprosegarden, @willowseed, @kedkd, @chayscribbles

+Open Tag! Tag me if you see this and participate. I love reading others' work.

(Let me know if you want to be added to my tag list!)

[simmyfrobby]

okay fic recs because i feel like you would also go insane about these (dont feel obligated to answer this ask)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/48218191 - one day we'll only be memories swaymark goalie magic fic ft past goalie starters

https://archiveofourown.org/works/49092343/chapters/123855424 - enough for a grave flowergeno centric sea horror fic

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50791294/chapters/128308087 - never can say goodbye mcstrome centric magic au fic where connor creates a reality where hockey doesnt exist

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46283449 - shipping out to boston bergy/marchy/tyler seguin fic where tyler gets traded back to boston

https://archiveofourown.org/works/52068586/chapters/131683960 - The Bartender’s Guide to Flirting or; Cocktails are our Love Language mattdrai restaurant au fic (part of the hamilton gastropub series)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/52434448/chapters/132647365 - The Server’s Guide For Falling in Love with A Regular or; Truffle Mushroom Pappardelle and Churros: A Love Story dumomoto restaurant au fic (part of the hamilton gastropub series)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/48402787 - closer than we've ever been before pens core fic where sid and geno finally get together and kris goes bonkers over it

https://archiveofourown.org/works/51917743 - december - christmas movies pens core + erik karlsson christmas fic

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45755656/chapters/115144468 - the loneliest job on the ice shesty centric fic where hes been stuck on the ice of the rink for his whole life (unfinished)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/49560478 - geno vs sidney crosby's childhood sidgeno fic where sid gets turned into a little kid

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50690347 - vanished mcmattdrai fic where connor messes with black magic to try and win the cup

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18396548 - parenthesis all clicking shut john tavares centric fic set in a dystopian reality where robot players exist

https://archiveofourown.org/works/47750656 - tropism flowergeno hanahaki fic

HELLO????????