#i've been reading more fics lately

[kazimo]

Just realized I forgot to post this here too :0

Anyway, fic rec time for the quanyin bingo! More under the cut!

First, “The words that take us by surprise” by tiny_sobek! This fic was inspired by one of my quanyin fanarts and has a special place in my heart ☺️ Very, very cute and sweet short fic! ❤️

If you’re in the mood for a longer read, I also recommend her series “Closer now than yesterday”, especially if you crave that happy ending and relationship development we never really got in canon 🥲

Lastly, I’d like to rec “Curl” by LinXueLian! It’s one of the first quanyin fics I read and I still love it :3 It’s a very fun read and includes one of my fav tropes for them, which is Yin Yu and Quan Yizhen being worshiped together post-canon 🤭

[molinaskies]

"I want MY Sonic, not the WORLD'S Sonic"

From I Love You - Come With Me

(AO3)

There’s no me, anymore. In a way, there’s only Sonic the Hedgehog, and that hedgehog, somehow, isn’t me.

I keep telling myself that I’m zipping around the world with Amy because she needed a break and she wanted to get away from a desk and that all of this is for her, but is that entirely true? I guess it’s a symbiotic situation—it’s not like I’m not enjoying myself—but she needed this more than me... Right? ___

What if when Sonic asks Amy to go with him on an adventure, she says yes? They’ve always been inseparable kindred spirits, but what exactly makes their bond so unique, and where do they make each other stronger?

This is my Sonamy Thesis. This is that story.

Mild Language.

45K Words.

TAGS: romance, emotional hurt/comfort, friendship, action/adventure, angst with a happy ending, learning to love, world travel, best friends, friends to lovers, singing and guitars, exploration of Sonic's psyche, trauma, and experience as a hero, exploration of Amy's trauma and experience as a hero, Sonic the Hedgehog needs a hug, emotional growth, self-actualization, every ounce of potential Sonic and Amy have as a canon relationship (queer platonic and romantic), original characters (for world building), First Person POV, Sonic's POV.

[a-most-beloved-fool]

aos fic where Jim Kirk falls in love with Spock but, since Spock is dating Uhura, masks his feelings by leaning into his reputation as a playboy, compulsively sleeping with anyone and everyone who winks at him in the worst coping mechanism known to man

bonus points if Spock either isn't dating Uhura or is instead in some kind of open/casual/FWB type thing, and is pining over Kirk and getting his heart broken a little every time Kirk finds someone new to sleep with

[varpusvaras]

Fox woke up with a dull headache and laying on the best mattress in the entire Galaxy.

He sighed. It had been a rough week. Someone could say that all of his weeks were rough, but Fox had very different parameters on what counted as rough anymore than most people. In that light, the past week had definitely been rough. It was a pleasant surprise to wake up with only a headache, and a manageable one at that, and not having to peel himself off of damp ground first thing after waking up.

Fox turned his head a bit more into the pillow. It had been a while since he had had the time to go meet Bail in the House. He had never slept the night there, but he had been into Bail's personal quarters a few times. It had always been like getting a little glimpse of what having a home with them would be like, and the times Fox had laid there on the bed, closing his eyes just for a moment, he had allowed himself to just dream of it and ignore everything that happened outside the walls of the room.

The linens smelled faintly of Bail's cologne mixed with the soft washing agent he preferred to use. It was Breha's favorite, and reminded him of home, he had told Fox, and Fox had used that knowledge to imagine how it would be to wake up next to her, in a time where he would have nothing to worry about anymore.

Fox breathed in the scent, and remembered that he was supposed to be dead.

Fox snapped properly awake instantly, every bit of his training kicking in all at once, and he jumped to sit up on the bed. That turned out to be a bad idea, since his back gave him a very intense warning not to move too fast in the form of searing pain coursing up his spine. It left him breathing rapidly for a moment, before whatever painkillers that were used to dull the pain this far started to soothe it over again.

Fox took another deep breath once he could, and with it came the rest of it. The fight, the explosion, hitting ground, and then- nothing. Nothing else between the last impact of hard ground beneath him and waking up in the Cantham House in Bail's bed.

This didn't make any sense. Or maybe it did, but not to Fox just yet. He needed to...he needed to find Bail.

Fox got all the way to pushing the blankets off of him when the door opened, and Bail stepped in.

There was a singular second, during which Bail stared at him, opened his mouth and immediately closed it again, and then he was hurrying up to the bed, crossing the entire room with only a few long strides, and then he was already wrapping his arms tightly around Fox.

Fox breathed in. It was a little shaky. Was he shaking? Bail was, just a little, Fox could feel it from how close to himself Bail was holding him. He pulled his head back in order to look him in the face. He couldn't see much, only the way how tightly set Bail's jaw was and how the corners of his mouth were turned down.

"Bail", Fox called softly. He didn't dare to speak any louder. It felt inapproriate, especially considering what he had done, how much it had probably hurt Bail and Breha and everyone else. This was too much, already, still having Bail hold him like this, and Fox didn't want to push beyond what he was given.

He both felt and heard Bail draw in a deeper breath as well, before he loosened his hold a little.

"Fox." Bail moved back, but only a couple of inches, still not letting go off Fox either. He pressed a soft kiss onto Fox's temple, and Fox had to fight his heart in order for it not to slam right into his throat. "How are you feeling, my love?"

My love. My love, my love, my love. The relief and the guilt that followed immediately after were so strong that Fox had to now fight the tears that were threatening to gather into his burning eyes. Bail was too good, way too good. Everything that Fox had done, and still he called him that.

"I'm..." His throat was dry, most likely not just from having emotions, and Fox had to swallow a couple of times before he got his voice to work. "Good. All things considered."

The explosion he remembered before everything stopped had not been just a little bang, and Fox was honestly surprised that he still had all of his limbs and his face intact. At least the armor had proven to be worth everything he had put into it.

"Good", Bail said. He finally leaned back enough that Fox could see him properly again. There was still some tightness left in his expression, but there was unmistakeably relief written all over him as well. "You gave me quite the scare there, you know?"

There was no accusation in his voice, but that didn't matter, because Fox was feeling guilty enough already all on his own.

"I'm sorry", he blurted. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"

To make you think I'm dead. To hurt you. To make you grieve someone like me when there is so much already for you to worry about constantly.

"Fox." Bail's hand came to craddle his face. "I understand. You don't have to apologise to me."

"Yes I do." Bail was too good, way too good for someone like Fox. "I didn't want to make you think I was gone when I really wasn't. I just...I just didn't know how to tell you without anyone finding out."

He had wanted to tell him and Breha immediately. Making them believe he was dead had been outright nauseating, but with how close the Senate was to Bail all the time, and with how many players there whose alliances Fox still couldn't name for sure, it had seemed impossible at the time, and with so many other pressing things coming at him constantly, he had not had the time to even begin to plan how to contact either of them safely, and had resigned himself to the fact that it was better this way, anyway. If he got killed on his way down to the core of the War, they wouldn't have to grieve him twice.

"I know", Bail said. "I'm serious. I know you. I know that you wouldn't have done it if you didn't think it was necessary or if you couldn't find a way. We've all made sacrifices during this war. This was not the first, and it will not be the last."

He ran his thumb gently across Fox's cheek, and Fox finally gave himself permission to lean into the touch. He had missed this. He had missed Bail and Breha so, so badly.

"Thank you", he said.

The corners of Bail's mouth finally turned more upwards.

"You don't need to thank me", he said. He quickly glanced down at Fox's body then. "Do you need more medication for the pain? You were pretty roughed up when we found you, I am honestly quite surprised that you are managing this good."

"I'm good." Fox looked down on himself then as well. His arms were pretty much completely covered in dressings that if he concentrated smelled faintly of bacta. The same situation was going on with what surface area Fox could see beneath his shirt, and when he looked towards his legs, he could see that his left shin was encased in a more heavy-duty brace. The medication was really putting in some work, since Fox hadn't noticed any of it until now. "We're made to be much sturdier than we look. Wouldn't be much use in combat otherwise."

Bail shook his head a little, but didn't comment on it otherwise.

"Please do tell me if you do need something", he said instead. "I'm...I was afraid for a moment that I'd lost you again, before we got there."

That reminded Fox again of all the questions he had.

"How did you find me?" He asked. "Or, more importantly, why were you even there?"

Bail perhaps lacked the level of self-preservation that Fox wished he had, but going after someone who had been at the center of major conflicts on the planet for weeks now was a decision Fox didn't understand. They did have the same enemies, of course, but that had been all the connection Bail had had to whatever Fox had been doing. Personally coming after someone like that just didn't make sense.

Bail frowned a bit.

"Padmé and I figured out what you were most likely after", he said. "And I realised that you were walking into what was essentially a trap. I had come get you."

Fox opened his mouth to ask him why when it clicked.

"You knew it was me?" He asked.

"Yes", Bail answered immediately. "I've known since the first broadcast after you leaked the files."

"How?" Fox had put so much effort into making the armor cover all recognizable features of him. He had put so much effort into learning to let go and not fight like a clone. He had put so much effort on making sure that he would succeed in his mission, ready to denounce every part of himself in the process if he had to, to make sure that none of them could be used to track him down.

Bail looked him in the eyes.

"I told you already", he said, easily, unwaveringly. "I know you."

Such a simple answer, but one that made Fox's heart hammer hard inside his chest nevertheless.

"Okay", he said, because what else was he supposed to say to that? "Can I call Breha?"

Bail smiled at him.

"Yes", he said. "She's been waiting for you."

[juustozzi]

you might've seen this in an ask already, but decided to post here too; a collection of Tenmas from Yara's fics, since I love the differences that thrown into different timelines and happenings give him!

[tentenismybitch]

i have a hot take but i will keep it to myself and instead just ask:

i need some nejiten fic recs?? what are yall's GOATED nejiten fics, like top tier, some of the best shit you've ever read???

critieria:

nejiten is the focal ship, not the side ship in a fic primarily about some other ship

ideally sasuke x sakura is NOT also in the fic. bonus points if there's no naruto x hinata in it either. i'd also prefer not to have saiino. shikatema is an acceptable and much enjoyed side pairing tho

relatedly. no kakashi x sakura pls either. not sure why that would even be a side pairing in a nejiten-centric fic but i've truly seen it all

it's well-written. i know that's subjective but like. good grammar + plotting + characterization plsss*

my preference would be for it to be within the canon world/canon divergent/they are still ninjas, but if it's going to be a modern setting i would LOVE for it to NOT be a high school au

ideally it is complete or updates regularly pls <3

to get a sense of what i like to read, here are my ao3 bookmarks lol

[estellardreams]

Some Prisoner Trio related stuff that idk where else to put.

First was actually a scrapped two parter because I literally didn't know where I was going with this. I think I was gonna go down the idea of "King Red gets so sick of TT Red resisting that he just starts flat out scarring him however he could (my first thought went to ice ocean water)" but then I just... Forgot. Oops.

Second... Post Prisoner Trio. These three are SCARRED. And this is only scratching the surface, quite literally.

If you had to base the time frame these three were under... My mind instantly went to at least two years under King Red. And YIKES did it get brutal.

Unsurprisingly Macaque got the least amount of damage. Sure the fillet became an issue from time to time but he usually did the work. Meanwhile Wukong and Red continuously resisted, and since King Red probably hates Wukong WAY MORE than his past self, especially after the monkey king killed his parents, then suffice to say he took most of his brutality out on the stone monkey.

And third... A small assortment of doodles. Including timers on the longest each has had their fillet activated.

Red once got three days, to the degree his body went numb to the pain and headache.

Wukong had the wreck of an entire WEEK to deal with. Absolutely sucked.

And Macaque only got an entire day once due to legitimately covering for Wukong so the two wouldn't get caught after purposefully sabotaging one of the King's devices. Wukong still took the fall for it, but for being the accomplice he still got a pretty extreme punishment.

And for the small doodle of TT Red trying to sleep... Well, I remembered that one ask I read on TT Red indulging in very cutesy stuff to not make himself like King Red. And while stuck in their current position he had an extremely hard time sleeping through the pain.

So... Wukong, knowing full well that the object couldn't be used to break them out but would still be quite "embarrassing" for someone like King Red to have around in his fortress, decided to grant TT Red's request of receiving something cutesy to help him sleep through the night.

That just so happened to be a Fluttershy doll (mlp looks so cutesy doesn't it? Also if Red probably had to choose his favorite would've most likely been between Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. But Fluttershy is absolutely NOT who he sees himself relating to (he actually does but doesn't know it) and chose that pony in particular. It's also the most soft looking main character there is).

[DKR and TT Red belong to @purble-turble]

[fiona-fififi]

...

[waitineedaname]

I've gotten to the point of investment in a headcanon that I keep forgetting that shen qingqiu is not canonically a trans woman

[rebornofstars]

i mean personally i find the appeal of batfam comes from the unbelievable tragic fucked up dumpster fire of interpersonal dynamics between every single character. i keep seeing the accepted fanon shove them into neat little boxes of brother and son and father and sister and like you aren't wrong but when are you going to mention the fact that this is simply how they choose to refer to each other in front of strangers to prevent themselves from having to try to explain the infinitely messy impossible gordian knot that is their relationships to each other. because you just know whatever the fuck is happening between those little weirdos aint right. big happy found family? they're stuck together against their will for life, yeah, and none of them would know how to feel a thing without the terrible ecstasy and adrenaline of what they share, and it's some kind of family, sure, but it's a monstrously complicated one, and not the kind of thing you can just explain. or leave. or understand. even when you're right in the thick of it. i like to think that they each have a wildly different take on what they mean to each other, and none of them are wrong but all of them are missing some key facet of it, and only the characters directly involved in each combination have the whole story. that's how twisted things get: nobody understands how damian and jason manage to continuously interact without hard feelings. nobody gets why steph and alfred talk when they don't even get along. nobody knows what the fuck is wrong with dick and bruce!!!!!

[singsweetmelodies]

in a daze, learning each other's shapes

When Charles Leclerc's friends bully him into joining them on a ten-day holiday to a beautiful island for New Year's, Charles is barely even expecting to enjoy it, let alone meet the love of his life there.

But then he meets Pierre, and everything changes.

my contribution to this year's Piarles Winter Fic Exchange, written for the incredible @hourcat 🩷 i love you so much, phoebe, and i hope you love this fic!

[marshmellowtea]

it was me i follow you because aro flag in icon and youre a self proclaimed freak idr how i found u tho. also PLEASE info dump i’m so deeply curious

those are very good reasons to follow me ngl alkadsjflkd :3 BUT okay sorry for the barrage of text you've unleashed i have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this series putting it under a cut so i don't obliterate people's dashes lmao

i'm assuming based on your anon that you're somewhat familiar with the series but in case not (and because i love being annoying <3) the goes wrong show is a british comedy about a drama society who. well. cannot put on a play correctly for the fucking life of them lmao. as of writing this it's free on youtube and tubi (though tubi actually has the season one episodes in order, most places it ends up on don't for some reason?? this does not matter that much cuz there's very little continuity in this series anyway but as someone's who's very autistic about this series it does bother me lmao), and the two specials that come before the show chronologically, peter pan goes wrong and a christmas carol goes wrong in that order, are also on youtube for free :D

in addition to the series and the two specials there's also a christmas audio special you can find on the internet archive (the christmas that goes wrong, not to be confused with a christmas carol goes wrong lol), and the play that goes wrong, which was the original entry in this series/the first in what could loosely be referred to as a timeline (again, there's very little continuity here lol). there isn't a proshot of the play that goes wrong with the og cast as far as i'm aware BUT the script is available online for free and there are plenty of community theater productions available on youtube (and someone on here mayyy have a bootleg of it with the og cast but i'm too intimidated to ask about it lmao). most of these are pretty easy to find but i have links for most of them if anyone needs them!

anyway all that aside. chris.......chris bean the diieeeerectoooor.......my beloved little gay hater who sucks so much aklsjfkldskfljdas.............it's actually really funny to look back on my relationship to this series because when i first watched it my favorite was actually dennis (whom i still love to death don't get me wrong <3) and i didn't give a fuck about chris but as i watched the show more the tides started to change and now he's all i think about :') i think there's a couple reasons for this shift, the main ones being that my love for my blorbos get a bit uhhh violent (i ❤️ whump!) and i'd feel bad putting dennis through all that in a way i don't with chris lmao, and also because when i first watched the series i wasn't paying full attention so i hadn't realized how fucking actually tailor made this freak (affectionate) is for me adkljfsalkdfjKLSJLKF

AND TAILOR MADE FOR ME HE IS he's got mommy issues (the first time i watched the mother's day promo video i instantly lost my mind ghlkadsjf), he's got daddy issues (putting aside the implied emotional distance casting your dad as the villain in a play who's not only a traitor for the nazis but also preys on one of his subordinates is actually insane and i think about it so so much), and anger issues (his perfectionist onstage tantrum throwing ass ough). he also kinda disassociates onstage (the way he sometimes just. watches things go wrong with a blank expression. he's so unwell actually <3), and there's an in character tweet of him that implies disordered eating ("another hungry night" you'll always be famous)........he's got a lot of issues and all of them are designed to scratch My Brain Specifically glkajdsfkl. if characters don't have these issues i Give Them To Them but he just. already has them. gah 🥲💞

outside of all that there's also the fact that the minute he gets the chance to force his castmates to do it with him he puts on a ballet where he plays a caterpillar who "needs to rest" and becomes a beautiful "lord butterfly" and. well. there's so so much to unpack with that play in general but ballet and butterflies are two of my favorite aesthetics so this really was an attack on me lmao. even if his costume was kind of ugly there <3 listen i never said he had good style lmao that's what dressing up in little outfits in my head is for. though in speaking of style he's also always wearing the gayest theater kid scarfs offstage?? he's so cute and annoying and pretentious and i hate him 🥰🥰🥰

these are only a few things that make me feral about him there's a lot more i could ramble about if i wanted to keep us here all day galskdfsjdlf..........he really was the perfect storm to latch onto my psyche lmao. also lbr writer/actor henry shields who plays him in the show is just kinda pretty i do love my skinny brunette men 💗 (see also my recent crushes on adam scott and andrew garfield lmao)

i've been. extremely feral about him on main as you can tell ahlkdgjsaf. people just keep rewarding me for being insane so thank you everyone for that lmao :') also it's my new year's resolution to be more freaky and unhinged on main so i'm on that putting chris through some of the worst things possible grindset 💪but yeah i could ramble about this guy forever rn i love him so much and think he's really fun to chew on like a squeaky toy so galdfjkldf

[telesodalite]

Random thought, but like, thinking about how the previous possible life/career style differences between Fulcrum and the rest of the Scavengers kinda makes his situation a reverse "my fair lady".

...my fair loser??

Anyways, he lived through the peak of the Decepticon empire in what could be considered a very comfortable, albeit busy, position in the greater military workforce. (Assuming the cons didn't really do a civilian kinda thing, since that seems very unlikely)

By wartime life standards, Fulcrum had to be fairly well off. Especially to achieve the position of managing a whole planet. Not super impressive by the broader Decepticon standard yeah, he's no warlord or conqueror, just the douchebag who looked at your beautiful organic planet, said "ew", and promptly started turning it into a mini-cybertron. But compared to the average soldier? He's got it made.

A master of communication skills via whatever the Decepticon equivalent of corporate speak is. A perfect kiss ass to higher ups. Just firing off e-mails, filing reports, overseeing work sites, giving presentations, just an unassuming, boring, passive, busy guy, etc etc.

And then that's all gone. Poof. That comfortable consistent life out the window in one fell swoop. And he's thrown to the dogs, the dogs being the his own surviving workforce and his commanders, and then the guards of styx, and then the other k-cons, until finally the djd and the scavs.

It's like, bear with me here, it's like someone's comfortable little show poodle having gotten kicked out of the house and left to the streets in the middle of a storm, only to eventually end up matted and bone-thin in whatever the W.A.P equivalent of a rescue home is. But despite the grime and constant trembling, its still someone's pampered little dog at heart, its just now it bites and eats garbage. And it's incredibly amusing in the form of giant robots.

He had a life some Decepticon soldiers could probably only dream of. No threat of death around every corner. A head of command who cared about the wellbeing of his contingent. Food on the table and an actual berth to sleep on every night. So on so forth.

And then he goes through what's gotta be hell to him, really to any mech. And maybe that's a bit of a wake up call that things are about to be very different.

So you've got a guy like him, amidst a group like the scavs. It's like, 'Joined the military because they couldn't afford college vs A business major.' Or something, idk. But it's fascinating.

He's just there, on clemency, looking like death on two legs, and still somehow emitting unassuming guy, with "I know what I'm doing👍" vibes that the others pick up on and rely on when Krok's unconscious.

And it's like, from there he probably falls back on his team manager mindset towards the group once the whole "nervous new guy" thing wears off.

And surely it's to the confusion, if not mildly hackles raising annoyance of Krok, ya know, the designated officer, who is a micro manager, who fought tooth and nail to get his rank and position across trenches and blood baths before life threw him the opposite curve ball, landing him with a warworld job instead of another battlefield after the worst day of his life.

But how does unassuming passive guy respond to fellow authority after some time being a loser amidst losers? With nary a care. He'll just micro manage Krok right back.

Krok's dramatics, quote, "When I want your opinion, Fulcrum, I'll kill myself", surely aren't all that different from dealing with the heads of construction crew's disagreeing with the adjustments he made to their schedules.

And if anything, Fulcrum isn't bothered or intimidated or whatever because he knows him, he knows Krok. More so than he ever knew his own crew's pre-B'lahr. And they all see through each others bullshit. So it's a casual micro management war, because who's really in charge? Nobody. But also Krok, but mostly Fulcrum, until there's the threat of getting shot, then it's Krok again.

I'm losing the point of this ramble. But like, I think the point is that they made Fulcrum worse. They made him worse and that's great. They built him a spine and he promptly bossed them around with it.

He went from vaguely model citizen, (by Decepticon standards), to wanted dead or alive in multiple sectors of the galaxy.

Like, sure he's riddled with anxiety and a fear of dying, but he's also full of some kind of audacity they somehow fueled to their own occasional detriment. And I think it's hilarious.

[benevolenterrancy]

Last line meme

rules: in a new post, show the last line you wrote (or drew) and tag as many people as there are words (or as many as you feel like).

Tagged for this by @mikkeneko -- thanks for the tag! I've been mostly picking at concepts lately; the most recent doc I had open was a fic where Xie Lian meets He Xuan before Hua Cheng and miscommunications ensue, just because I have fun playing with their dynamic

He was in the middle of a meeting when his corpse finally woke up and seemed inclined to stay awake. It had taken four days.  After the first day the man had managed to stay breathing continuously, and his heart had been beating any time He Xuan had made a demon check on it, but the man still hadn’t responded to anything beyond the occasional wild muscular impulse that consumed him, causing him to writhe in the sand or descend into coughing fits as his lungs continued to exorcise themselves of water. During the second and third days the demons had reported that he had very gradually begun to show more awareness.

People to tag... let's see... @tuttle-4077, @auxiliarydetective, @sorrel-scribbles, @morporkian-cryptid, @frau-wilhelm-klink, @rose-of-pollux and of course anyone else that wants an excuse, consider this my tag for you to talk about your writing!

[whattheskyknows]

just read all of 13 students remain in 3 days and wrote my first AO3 comment on it

just wanted to also come here and say your writing is devastating (/pos) and I can't wait to see how the fic ends

Ooough sorry I didn't see this until now!!!

But ahhhhh, thank you so much!!! I'm so glad that you've enjoyed my fic!!!

[blorb-el]

14 and 24

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write (fanfic end of year asks)

answered over here! the tl;dr is it's sure on this shining night, which is gen superfam fic focused on kara and martha recreating kryptonian recipes for the winter solstice <3

24. favorite fic you read this year

I can never pick just one... particular favorites this year were...

hoebiwan's onward, lonesome hero (carry on, carry on), a clark gets captured by lex early on au which gave me so much brainrot my wip fic of this fic is currently sitting at about 50k

nichepastiche and wisteria_lodge's Relationship Status, a very loving and intimate superbat getting together with low drama fic, with a lot of tenderness and a calm, unique and lovely flowing dialogue style even throughout the E rated scenes (so hard to pull off!!)

ionia/@supermanshield's Devotion, a lovely (very explicit) intimate superbat first time where every sentence just feels like canon, down to bruce forgetting his toothbrush

shipyrds/@burins' from the inside of the wound, a pain swap fic between bruce and clark that is somewhat like taffy in that it is rich and layered and sticks with you and i've been chewing on it for weeks/gently rotating it in my head

believe it or not i do actually occasionally read fics about non-superheroes... my favorite of which this year was ellen_fremedon's ongoing epic Les Mis fic In Which Is To Be Learned The Name of Enjolras's Fake Fiancée. I'm not convinced this author isn't a time traveler direct from 1832 the way the detail in this is so extraordinary, and the slow unfurling of characterization is unreal. It's probably readable canon-blind, if any followers of this blog happen to be into Hugolian style narration.

and my favorite superman fic of all time which I first came across in 2022 but no joke reread every three months or so, which easily makes my top 10 superman stories ever, the unreally good Shatterfall by tandrelmairon. read it and then agonize with me about how it's unfinished and hasn't been updated since 2007. then go read their OTHER stellar clois fic Getting Eaten Alive which IS complete