karliahs

[karliahs]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

All the fics I’ve read and really enjoyed in the past week-ish. Reminder: This list features any and all ratings and themes. Please look at tags and warnings on ao3 before reading.

BNHA

something else to pretend by beeclaws

Bakugou apologies. Somehow, this makes things worse.

Retrograde by redrobin1989

Retrograde /ˈretrəˌɡrād/ adjective: directed or moving backwards noun: a degenerate person. verb: go back in position or time.

Seasoned pro heroes Midoriya Izuku and Bakugou Katsuki are mentally transported back to their younger bodies due to a quirk. All they have to do is wait for the quirk to wear off for everything to return to normal. But sometimes the journey is worse than the destination.

DC

dick move by konan_konan

Part 1 of batfam twitter shenanigans

dim trake ☑ @timdrakeceo・52min guys what if dick grayson IS batman. that’s why he thought he was getting cancelled. it all makes sense. 784K Views | 142 Retweets | 52 Quote Tweets | 63.9K Likes

tason jodd ☑ @jsntdd・49min ↳ replying to @timdrakeceo asshole last week you said i was batman 461K Views | 88 Retweets | 16 Quote Tweets | 18.3K Likes

or: a civilian overhears a conversation between batman and nightwing. twitter does what it always does: makes things worse

the rules of playing make believe by hoebiwan

“We can’t squat in some dead guy’s mansion, Damian,” Tim says. Damian, in the midst of packing all their meager belongings into grocery sacks, ignores him.

“Why not?” Jason demands. “It’s not like he’s using it. Finders keepers, losers weepers.”

Or: Homeless!Reverse Robins squat in Wayne Manor.

Nine Worlds

with a winged heart by celebros

"Cliopher. Cliopher. Cliopher." I blink. It's Conju, standing with his hands on my shoulders, and I go to answer him and realize that I am already speaking, babbling, and Franzel is behind him, wringing his hands and looking near tears. I try to focus on what I'm saying, but it's like a stream, light and splashing past me, too quick to hold, not enough to catch, somehow, somehow – A few weeks before the start of the viceroyship ceremonies, Kip finds himself the unwitting recipient of a truth serum.

Original Work

That Frightful Nest Inside the Throat by whereveryouroam

Part 1 of That Dreadful Clockwork Beats Below

Living horses were in vogue among the high and mighty of the great families, but Peter’s new owners had sent proud motorhorses, clicking over in a blur of cogs and wheels, to draw the carriage. It was a very nice carriage - plush and cushioned. He couldn’t help but think this was sinister. Masters didn’t transport slaves in finery. At least, not slaves like him.

Peter’s spent years under the cruelty of masters who want the Monster inside him to become their weapon. He is quite sure that Lord and Lady Arken will be no different.

Percy Jackson

Through rose-colored glasses (the past is perfect) by Mo13

Part 1 of Rose-colored glasses verse

Luke/Percy were in a non-consensual 'relationship' when Percy was twelve. Percy deals with the aftermath, while constantly convincing himself that his relationship with Luke was fine (IT WAS NOT). Mostly cooperates with canon up to the end of Heroes of Olympus.

The Goblin Emperor

A Complete Education by bomberqueen17

Preparing for the Emperor's wedding, everyone has some things they need to learn about.

Emperor's Best Friend by imaginary_golux

Ino and Mireän decide their cousin Maia needs a special present for his twentieth birthday.

a burning coal of kindness by egelantier for Morgan (duckwhatduck)

When Maia is kidnapped by a faction hoping to halt the construction of Wisdom Bridge, Beshelar, gravely injured, is by his side. It might just be their undoing.

The Stairs Beneath the Heart by hermitknut

Part 1 of Keystone

The reign of Varenechibal IV is over; the reign of Edrehasivar VII has begun. The transition, however, is anything but smooth, as the Alcethmeret household navigates grief and worry as well as adapting to the new emperor.

A series of missing scenes and unseen moments centering around the Alcethmeret household over the course of the first few months of Maia's reign.

#aw hey that's me at the top there! tysm for the rec!! #i got a lovely comment on that fic just now and i wonder if it was related

[karliahs]

fic: pathologised

fandom: persona 5 relationships: ren amamiya | persona 5 protagonist & ann takamaki & ryuji sakamoto & makoto niijima type: gen angst & emotional hurt/comfort - one-shot - 4.5k words summary:

After Ren's first arrest, the court assigns a psychiatrist to discover what might be causing his violent outbursts. Ren tries to move on in a world that has decided there is something wrong with him.

#additional reblog

[karliahs]

The 'write for yourself uwu' culture shift has done real damage to fic writers imo. I recently had a post on the importance of strategic commenting break containment and I'm surprised by how many strangers who rb it in agreement feel the need to reassure in the tags that they do write for themselves, but...

There is a kernel of truth in the heart of this sentiment--if you only chase stats, you are unlikely to find joy in your writing. At the same time, I think we've veered too far in the other direction.

It is only natural to want engagement and the write for yourself crowd often overlooks how communal an effort fic writing usually is. So many story ideas are born from casual discussions about h/c's and favourite scenes and what ifs and the comment box is a cornerstone of this process. Not only can the discussions in the comment box be a hub for idea generation on their own, but even when the said idea generation takes place in DMs or Discord chats, commenting is often the first/easiest way into befriending authors; it's where community building starts.

Further, the write for yourself crowd similarly overlooks that the things a writer can write for themselves are often vast and many at any given time, and relative engagement levels across fandoms/ships can play a large part in which of those ideas a writer chooses to pursue--or whether they choose to publish their finished work at all.

In sum, I don't think we need to be this apologetic as writers for wanting feedback and engagement for what we post -- writing is hard work and it's only human that we want something external out of it in turn, however rewarding the process might intrinsically be.

#yeah truly there is nuance #i think it's really easy to get into a cycle where you are relying on validation to make you feel in any way good about your work #which does not work bc that kind of doubt is a bottomless pit like. you can throw as much in there as you want #and it wont make that insecurity go away #but also comments do a lot! #comments have helped me articulate what it is that i was trying to do in a piece so many times #and also yeah when you aren't getting much engagement #it does lower the motivation significantly #like i am still motivated to write rn but my motivation to wrangle things into a postable state is dropping significantly #bc it feels like almost no one cares/is interested #so why do the most annoying stage of editing and then do the hard vulnerable thing of publishing stuff to get v little back #idk what the answer is like. i want to work on ways to recreate what comments do for me #and maybe the answer is to work less hard on stuff/have a lower threshold for what i consider postable #but both of those are hard

[karliahs]

fic: homecoming

fandom: persona 5 relationships: futaba sakura & ren amamiya | persona 5 protagonist type: gen emotional hurt/comfort - one-shot - 3k words summary:

Futaba and Ren talk about the fact that he'll be going home soon.

#additional reblog

[karliahs]

fic: pathologised

fandom: persona 5 relationships: ren amamiya | persona 5 protagonist & ann takamaki & ryuji sakamoto & makoto niijima type: gen angst & emotional hurt/comfort - one-shot - 4.5k words summary:

After Ren's first arrest, the court assigns a psychiatrist to discover what might be causing his violent outbursts. Ren tries to move on in a world that has decided there is something wrong with him.

#new! thing! #persona 5 #persona 5 fic #p5 fic #ren amamiya #akira kurusu #ryuji sakamoto #ann takamaki #makoto niijima #this one is not so secretly a vent fic about trying to move through the world #as someone who's default mode of being is considered Off and incorrect #and how much it fucking sucks when people just keep Looking at You #autism babey #anyway it's also about teens being friends if that's a better sell

[karliahs]

guys i'm playing the royal third semester for the first time and i like it SO much

i think i have been grinning for like 3 hours straight now, this is all so JUICY. like i've enjoyed my replay but idk i wasn't expecting to be this into the new (for me) content!

highlights

the absolute fucking comedy of akechi taking over doing the battle commentary. and he's just. an absolute loon. practically dripping villain energy. cannot stop screaming about bloodshed. and yoshizawa is just there like hm so? this is fine? he is just? like that? all the time? and we're all fine with it?? joker? joker tell me this is fine?

honestly post-villainy villain content is truly top tier in every iteration. tbh i started out inherently biased against akechi bc of sheer fandom oversaturation but i am eating all this up so contentedly. look at that little freak go

i just played the bad ending to see what it was like and also bc this was the first bad ending offshoot where i could genuinely see ren as i imagine him being tempted to take the deal and omggggg. everything about it is so much but i can't believe sojiro asking ren to stay at leblanc after the year ends is part of his canonical dream reality? i have so many thoughts about ren defining himself around his friends and being unable to continue on with what he thinks is right when it seems like they'll be happier if he doesn't. and akechi watching this happen when he did a whole plot based on the idea that the PTs would fall apart without joker...and it turning out that joker falls apart without the PTs...OOF

i was spoiled for the core part of the sumire/kasumi stuff but even then i still managed to get surprised bc i had assumed that like...everyone thought sumire was kasumi? like that she was fully pretending to be kasumi/pretending that sumire was the one who died and everyone believed her? so it did manage to genuinely get me when i fucking realised that EVERYONE ELSE has been calling her yoshizawa-san the whole time...fuck

#talking #under the cut for spoilers even tho everyone but me played this game already i'm p sure

[karliahs]

morning after rank 8

#persona 5

[karliahs]

hrg times like this I really wish I had a beta reader. the only way to rly mimic that is to wait a day or two so I can reread and edit with fresh eyes, so I can actually tell if something seems clunky and off because it is or because I'm sick of looking at the fucking thing

it works okay but it requires patience. and does not involve immediate gratification. ugh

#talking #ive been fucking with the end of this fic so muchhhh i just want to post it already #but it definitely needs a clear-eyed edit #at least in a few hours if not a day or more

[karliahs]

fic: homecoming

fandom: persona 5 relationships: futaba sakura & ren amamiya | persona 5 protagonist type: gen emotional hurt/comfort - one-shot - 3k words summary:

Futaba and Ren talk about the fact that he'll be going home soon.

#new! thing! #persona 5 #persona 5 fic #p5 fic #futaba sakura #ren amamiya #akira kurusu #my darling boy and his 8 names #truly why do i always put off crossposting when it takes maybe 5 minutes

[karliahs]

lets take a break

#persona 5 #waistcoat........

[karliahs]

i think........... the thing about akechi that i've gathered so far. like, the key to understanding his character. is that he's fucking lying, 95% of the time. he's a bigger fucking liar and performer and actor than joker. if he's telling the truth, then it is about something dead serious or he's doing it by accident. (thinking here of the dialogue line where he asks if joker would leave his friends to join him & it goes [his eyes are deadly serious]. as well as the denouement of him + the phantom thieves.)(thinking here of all the ways he's accidentally showed his hand up to this point, up to + including where he's like, [you've already caught up to me so quickly even in this] about the metaverse even though he's said!! he only found out about it much later than the gang) i think he's. to reuse a phrase here. deadly fucking serious when he points his gun at jokers head. like, he is! textually!!! he was thinking [joking] about this MONTHS ago back when they went to the arcade!!! i don't think he's exaggerating when he says he hates akira!!!!!! i think he does!!! i think he's going to go home & lie in bed thinking about pulling the trigger. its insane 2 me that u only advance w/ the dialogue option where akira's like yeah, if we kept going i would have killed you. i would have been okay with killing you. because that's what he's really asking, right? if we fought to the end-- do you see yourself winning? do you see yourself killing me? which in itself is........ mindblowing, really (sorry for the pun) that akira is something so special, so fucking awful and unique and infuriating and hateful that the guy who's made a career out of this veneer of pleasantry and charm can go i want to fucking fight you to the death. i want to know if we could really kill each other. i hate you so much i want to blow your brains out. to him.

and this isn't even TOUCHING on the glove throwing thing which, like, somehow the most homoerotic shonen rivals thing i've ever seen and simultaneously also this like... fascinating bit of melodrama. such a character building moment that akechi goro is a eighteen year old boy who's incandescently angry to the point of visceral, violent harm & is still elegant enough that the way he deals with this (AFTER beating the shit out of each other) is to reenact an antique chivalric tradition. love the idea of frustration so violent that you HAVE to do something physical about it. love needing to physically manifest the challenge. love the like, textual confirmation that yes, he HAS metaphorically and physically had his gloves on this entire time, and they're coming off as soon as sae's casino is over. god. GOD.

#persona 5 #being talked around to this ship one post at a time tbh #rank 8 is insaaaane

[karliahs]

i'm not laughing, you're not joking i'm not dead, i only dress that way

#persona 5

[karliahs]

when you're younger you make fun of it because it seems boring but one of the best parts of getting older and maturing is recognizing how simply lovely all that cliche shit is. sunsets really are so endlessly satisfying. the hint of lilacs in the breeze really is soft and delicate and sweet. sometimes it feels good just to successfully clean the sink, to find an affordable appliance in the color you've been wanting, to try a new recipe, to finally get through that one television series like how you've been meaning.

it seemed stupid because they tell you - it'll feel quick - but it does feel quick. when i was younger it was like time was molasses. i couldn't get out of there fast enough. all the eras of my life stretched out into taffy. but then you are 29 on a walk with a friend and you both just stop to smell the lily of the valley at your feet. you are both standing there, quiet, enjoying the simple moment of peace.

they say it gets better a lot, which used to have no meaning to me. better for me was undefined and daunting. but here is one way it got better without me trying - a few days ago i was walking my dog and stopped to stand in a sunbeam, turning my cheeks up at the shaft of golden fairylights, the dustmotes in the wood all shivering their little dancing bodies. a stranger stopped and kind of cocked her head and said basking? and i laughed nervously, already moving to get out of her way. instead, she said can i bask with you? and we stood there, full adults, a soundless hum in our chest. when the clouds came back over the sun, we made that awkward small talk - yeah i didn't expect it to be this chilly! and haha spring allergies are comin'.

and you pour yourself a cup of tea and are delighted when you measure the sugar ratio perfectly and you manage to parallel park correctly on the first time (probably because nobody was looking) and yoga really did help your lower back mobility and brown paper packages really do tug on your heartstrings and you love sweaters and furry blankets and watching your little potted plants grow one new and shining leaf and you want to find your younger self and say. yes, i am nostalgic for summers that bent like wheat and were buzzing with low energy and sleep. but darling. adulthood gets better because the time condenses into a prayerbook of your own psalms, these tender beautiful memories. it gets better because things become prettier, gentler, kinder to you - somehow. without you even noticing. you just get to the top of the hill and you realize - oh, this is the thing i've been missing.

#it really is #oh man #fave

[karliahs]

people with siblings: how do you feel about them?

#Not Good

[karliahs]

Because what I just witnessed was INSANE and I have seen no one treat it as such, can we take a fucking moment to bask in the fact that Gorgug essentially 1v1ed that purple worm without ever going down or getting swallowed like ??? Zac Oyama what kind of dice ritual did you pull before this fight

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #d20 spoilers #it was fucking insane

[karliahs]

he clean

#persona 5

[karliahs]

i'd wear that!

#persona 5 #hm. hm.