#hollow knight fic rec

[resha04]

Does anyone have recommendation for Hollow Knight fic(s) that's heartwarming/just a little happier? It doesn't need to be very fluffy, just.... a little happier. Fics featuring Little Ghost, Pure Vessel, Quirrel, or the Nailmasters are preferable, but I don't mind other characters too - hard not to get attached with the characters in this game, really

Thank you in advance!

AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT, here are some fic recs of my own:

One-shot:

Forgiving What is Faultless (by bluebellbygones) - My absolute favorite. I cried. THK recovering with Hornet looking after them, while the both of them are also mourning for Ghost. THK meets PK, or what remains of him, and they get some kind of closure, and did I say I cried?

To know, if nothing else (by Machine_Finch) - PK finding out that THK is not pure before the sealing. The ending has a twist, and the atmosphere is excellent.

On the subject of idols (by Aspidiske) - Lurien, Ogrim. It’s a fancomic, not a fanfic, but such thoughtful look into the nature of the two characters’ loyalty. The author also has a tumblr by the name @/asp1diske-art and they upload their HK comics here. Their HK comics capture the melancholy of the game really well – and punch the readers’ guts really well too.

Hope Floats (by SwoodMaxProductions) - Quirrel & Ghost fluff. Ghost being a floaty and saved Quirrel. Fluffy and made of feels.

Missing Person (by FollowerofMercy) - Quirrel & Ghost. Ghost being a creepy but adorable kid who employs the help of the Mantis Lords to find their friend. Adorable, but mostly hilarious.

Confessions whispered in the dead of night (by ruthlesslistener) - Lurien/PK. Drunk Lurien, protective territorial PK. This makes me soft.

To be another (by snowmints) - The siblings. Quoted from the tags: “Featured: THK learning to enjoy things; also featured: Ghost’s persistently affectionate nature.”

Notches by the Door (by Payasita) - Post-ending, where both Ghost and THK live and they stay at Dirtmouth with Hornet. Grimmchild is there too and becomes the fourth sibling. This fic feels very bittersweet somehow, and there’s an undertone of loneliness (or sadness) even though the story is happy.

“i’d live for you” and that’s hard to do (by YunaTuna) - Quirrel & Ghost, Quirrel & THK. What goes on in Quirrel’s head in the fight with Uumuu and at the Blue Lake, and what happens after. This fic made me scream for various reasons throughout the whole reading. It is a roller coaster of emotion and it hurt and heal me simultaneously.

Talk (by Syntax) - A short, cute oneshot taking place post-game. Ghost asks THK things, including why a certain beetle wouldn’t talk to them anymore. The sibling dynamic is wonderful, excellently shown by my favorite part:

“The larger vessel brought a claw to their cracked mask, massaging the spot above their eyes as if they had come to a painful conclusion. Ghost watched them, enraptured.  So wise, their sibling.  They wondered what the Hollow Knight might say.

White-Saviour, the Hollow Knight said eventually.  They sounded more tired than usual.”

Multi-chaptered:

Mellow in Softness (by UnregisteredCookie) - On-going. PK woke up in the ancient basin, climbed his way up, met and got roasted by Herrah, then met and got affection from Ghost.

A Lost Light (by elil) - Complete. PK got captured by a God Tamer, and the series of (mostly unfortunate) events that took him back to Hallownest. The other fics in the series are also delightful.

Tales from the White Palace (by Sitasita) - On-going. Oneshots from Sitasita’s Will Terribly universe. Excellent writing, wonderful world building and characterization, and saying the stories are entertaining is an understatement.

The light without whom I cannot see (by Eloidyrm) - Complete. PK/White Lady. A fic about their first meeting up till their marriage. Very sweet, and White Lady is a real delight: wise and witty and never passed up the chance to tease PK.

Sins of the Father (by Nike (weirdpianist), Nike was never the nice one (weirdpianist), ReverseInverse) - Complete. Shade Lord Ghost took PK back in time with them, and he gets the chance to be a better father. Featuring baby vessels and Ghost being a child in an eldritch god body.

Changing Perspective (by Brackets_002) - The Pale King got attached to his children and threw the Vessel plan out the window. It’s multi-chaptered and still on-going, but there’s so much fluff in the available chapters and it’s so, so sweet how the babies respond to their parents and vice versa. Also, if you’re not sold yet, I hope Ghost being called “the bean” would do the trick.

Broken Open Revealing Hollowness and Vibrance (by JaxxCapta) - Complete. Hornet taking care of THK after the fight with Radiance while dealing with grief and trying to be everywhere and taking care of two kingdoms at once. I haven’t finished reading this, but the writing is really good and the worldbuilding(?) feels solid, and I hurt for Hornet. Baby girl needs rest, probably for the next ten years.

I am learning again to live with scars (hoping this time you’ll walk it with me) (by resha04 aka me, lol) - Canon-divergence brought about by time travel, where the Pale King stopped the Vessel Project halfway through and raised the vessels as his children. All is relatively well, as well as it can be with the infection spreading, but the formerly Pure Vessel struggled with living as a child - a person - would.

[voidsiblings]

Ordered a commission from my sister of @grollow's Grimm (aka Firefly) from Red Sky At Morning! (posted here with permission)

After having his heart severed from his body by his sister in an act of treachery, the god of Nightmares attempts to make a place for himself in the waking world and among cultures that he's never understood. Along the way, kingdoms rise and fall, and one god learns what the others of his kind have never truly understood--what it means to truly be mortal. Witness the birth of the Grimm Troupe.

[khey-s]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Hollow Knight (Video Games) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hornet/Lace (Hollow Knight) Characters: Hornet (Hollow Knight), Lace (Hollow Knight) Additional Tags: sword lesbians HELL yeah, Unresolved Romantic Tension?, somewhat. there is an Agreement, but if you're looking for a dramatic kiss i'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere Summary:

Hornet is nothing if not honorable. Lace, it seems, has had very few dealings with people like her.

[rondoel]

I still love those lil nailmaster arts you did! So adorable, the babies!! Which of those fics is your favorite?

Thanks!

That reminds me that someone once asked about my hk fics recs and i forgot to finish it so here we go now, my personal recommendations! :

First Time (Knight & others)

The Happy Couple (Sheo/Nailsmith + Knight)

Healing Hands (Oro & Tiso)

Nailmaster's Folly (Oro & Mato)

You Said You Always Had My Back (Oro & Mato)

Overgrown (Mato & Ogrim)

Keep it Quiet (Ogrim/Mato + Knight)

Repurposed (Nailmasters fam + Nailsmith & Quirrel)

These Are the Days That Bind Us (Nailmasters & vessels)

oneshots:

Visit (Mato & Knight)

Deafening  (Mato & Knight)  

peer deeper (Sheo & Knight)

Alone  (Sheo/Nailsmith + Knight)  

Awaiting His Return (Sheo/Nailsmith + Knight)

Echoes of the past  (Cloth & Tiso)

series:

Weeping Cliffsides (Knight & Mato)

Lil' Nailmasters (Nailmasters fam)

An Ode to the Masters (Nailmasters fam & Knight)

[theweeping-whistlers]

The Daily Fanfic Rec #10

Fandom : Hollow Knight

Site : Ao3

Title : Sins of the Father

Author : Nike (weirdpianist)

Summary :

The cost had been too great.

When he had sealed that door, he knew the toll it would take on his mind, body, and soul. And he deserved it. He had committed genocide against his own children, had forced a most horrible fate upon his “favored” one, and in the end it had all been for naught.

His failure was absolute. He deserved nothing but an execution for his terrible misdeeds...But when an impossible event gives him a second chance?

He knows he does not deserve it, and he doubts that he won’t squander it. But alas, he dares to dream...

alt: A depressed (but very much alive) wyrm is taken back to before the infection had started, and when the Abyss hadn't yet seen a single stillborn thrown into its depths. Can he set things right with a second chance thrown his way?

Notes :

This gives found family dumpster fire. Like you can tell the love that the time travler feels for their family, the guilt they felt for what they did, the fear that they will do it again or make it worse. It should be illegal for this emotional Rollercoaster to be this good.

[ruthlesslistener]

What do you think would happen if after the Godhome ending the Pale King is plucked out of his dream realm and tossed near the now empty black egg?

Honestly? Just lay there a bit and wait to die. Then when that doesn't happen, he'd get up and go about trying to figure out what happened to him while doing his damned best to pretend like nothing happened, all while choking back an impending mental breakdown.

Though I can't say that this idea is entirely my own, as its basically the plot point to the fic Refuge for Resolve by @ganymedesclock, which is one of my favs in the fandom because of how brilliantly it depicts PK. Def. check it out if PK getting force-ejected from his selfmade tomb is of any interest to you!

[dropout-ninja]

Fanart for this Radi fic of all time by @basilbellona, it is glorious and scrumptious and mortal, dumpster-diving, tiara stealing, absolute fiend Möth delights me

[grollow]

hey. 

hey.

hollow knight people.

read this hornet fic.

flora won’t share their works here without them basically being done and/or me screaming like a feral animal, so i’m going to just drop this in an attempt to pspsps people.

because this is really really exciting to me and has me face-smashing myself at ao3 like “i need updates to breathe” while frothing at the mouth.

(i’m normal, i swear.)

[mostlydeadallday]

Lost Kin | Writing Playlist

Here's a sample of the background music that I feel fits Lost Kin especially well. There are a lot of songs I'll be adding as I remember which ones I used and discover new songs to write to. Enjoy!

Cover art by zoestarlings.

[arcane-map]

:3cc 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. Let’s spread the self-love❤

<3 <3 <3 Thank you Rainbow! (I'm shameless and am going to ramble about all of them)

Responsible Practices in Engineering (a Vessel): Hollow Knight fluffy, (occasionally angsty) pre-canon AU where the Pale King brings home four vessels instead of one! (PK tries to continue with the Hollow Knight plan but is not at all prepared for the sheer chaos that four toddler godlings and one mischievous spider-wyrm can cause.)

Hornet Hunts a Vessel: spinoff fluffy one-shot of RPIEAV AU. Little Hornet chases Greenpath Vessel through the White Palace.

Little Vessel Background Shenanigans: Drabble collection set in RPEIAV AU. Fluffy slice-of-life shenanigans that don't fit in the main story.

Forging a God: Legend of Zelda one-shot. My first fanfic! I’m really proud of this one because it’s the first time I successfully wrote horror (at least. it's supposed to be...)

The summary is "When the Goddess Hylia fell in love with a mortal, and what she did to keep him." After all, what’s the destruction of a kingdom compared to the love of a goddess? What’s a few lifetimes of torment to someone who’s immortal? And, Link is utterly silent in this.

Thank you for the ask~

[starkeeper-the-storyteller]

currently idk% of the way through my first hollow knight playthrough. very good game lives up to the hype I'm also very bad at it

also quirrel and cornifer my beloveds

[resha04]

*insert titanic meme here* After 84 years digging through Hollow Knight ao3 to find a fic I sorely needed, I finally, finally found it.

It's on-going and i don't know if author is still planning on continuing it (bc i'm the type of person who gets nervous when i see a fic that was last updated 9 months ago), but it's so perfect for me and i hope author does plan on continuing.

It has Pale King being a not-terrible parent; someone who has done bad and wrong things but not an asshole, and who actually cares about his children. It has Ghost being a chaos gremlin and embodying the youngest sibling energy (they use Desolate Dive to wake their siblings up, gleefully; and that's just one example of their antics). It has all the bittersweet wholesome heart-healing reunion between PK and Hollow (and Hornet)--THEY GROUP-HUGGED AND IT'S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING. It has ANGST; good, delicious ANGST and PAIN that left me both clutching my heart and grinning.

In short, it ticks off almost all of the very-specific things i'm looking for in a HK fic. Now i'm trying not to devour it in one sitting bc there are only 16 chps atm and i'm already on chp 9........

[voidsiblings]

WAIT U WROTE THORNS OF STEEL??!? I REMEMBER FOLLOWING IT AS IT CAME OUT AND IT AWAKENED A NEED FOR THE KNIGHTS BEING FRIENDS WITH HOLLOW THAT HASNT BEEN SATIATED SINCE

Ty but also curse u this fic has been rotating in my brain for a year now

EHEHEHEHEH I DID. I accept both thanks and curses for that fic, it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it and it's been so satisfying to see other people catch the brainrot for Hollow & Five Knights content. (If I can recommend Drained of Light, I have some insider info that says Hollow being friends with Isma and Ogrim is coming up very shortly. I also remember enjoying some of the interactions in ...Father?... by Nym_P_Seudo, although that one is more about the Five Knights' dynamics than Hollow's.)

ANYWAY THANK YOU, I have been l o v i n g all your gijinka and au content by the way, absolutely eating it up 👀

[khey-s]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Hollow Knight (Video Games) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Hornet (Hollow Knight), The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Dragons, AU where Wyrm is interpreted as dragon, So the Pale King is a dragon, That means the Vessels are dragons, which means Hornet is half-dragon, which means Herrah fucked a dragon, We stan Herrah Summary:

Hornet stood vigilant outside the Temple of the Black Egg, lance at the ready as unease crawled up the back of her neck. The vines of infection had begun to shrivel up and die without warning. She didn’t know what it meant. Where was her sibling?

Taloned fingernails dug into the leather grip of her weapon and her tail twitched, betraying her otherwise neutral mask.

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

AKA the dragon au fic. Hopefully I can just keep this to a single drabble.

[rondoel]

GUYS Healing Hands chapter 5 just dropped!

Just a few scenes from this gold mine of Oro and Tiso interactions that is Healing Hands fanfic, and If you haven’t read it yet - I definitely recommend because It’s both incredibly in character and hysterically funny 😂 (so much that I think I’ve read it 4 times already)

And I also consider it new canon for them because yes

[alter1412]

Chapters: 3/? Fandom: Hollow Knight (Video Games) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Original Hollow Knight Character(s), The Pale King (Hollow Knight), The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel Additional Tags: The Infection (Hollow Knight), MC is an OC, Dreamcatchers - Freeform, before the black egg is sealed, objective is to save the HK, the pale king is a bad parent, The Pale King Redemption (Hollow Knight), Other Additional Tags to Be Added Summary:

A kingdom inhabited by bugs. These bugs are believers, both willing and forcibly taken. Some take the role with pride, others do not realize their role at all.

A stranger arrives, offering freedom from the dreams that stalk Hallownest. But will the grief of losing her world make it impossible to save her new one?

---

This is my personal interpretation of the premise and ideas in Hoops, String, and Other Placebos. Things like characterization, how certain canon events went, etc, will differ. Trying to update on weekends.