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altruistic-meme · 3 years

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AFTG fic recs

Hi all! I just wanted to share some of my all-time favorite fanfics for aftg, for no real reason other than I want more people to read them and send their love to the authors :)

Under a readmore because it got. A little long. But please enjoy!

WIPs

Dangerous Habits by LovelyLittleGrim ( @lovelylittlegrim )

Andrew has run into problems while on undercover jobs before. None of those problems were anything like the troublesome runaway that is one Nathaniel Wesninski

Aka: the fic where Andrew is undercover as a hitman for hire and Neil is the guy who hires him. Things get complicated from there.

Undercover Andrew? BAMF Neil? Hitman AU?? Absolutely. I’m in love. The story is just *chef kisses*

Chapters: 8/9

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, past rape/non-con, Drake Spear (who is his own warning), Butcher Neil,

Negotiations by elesary ( @elesary )

This is what Andrew Minyard knows: his brother is dead, killed by a petty Raven prince who has never learned to keep his hands off of Andrew's things. His brother's daughters are his responsibility, a job that is made infinitely harder when their shitty grandparents want custody. Nathaniel Wesninski is a liar, but he might be the only way to avenge Aaron and protect his nieces. All Andrew has to do is watch Nathaniels - Neil's- back as he carves out his own life and identity from everyone who thinks they own him.

Andrew has always been good at upholding his end of the bargain, has he finally found someone willing to uphold theirs?

This fic has got me fucked up, honestly. I’m emotional over it. It’s fantastic.

Chapters: 11/?

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, attempted sexual assault, Butcher Neil,

the upper hand by plantelty ( @plantelty )

Shortly after losing his mother, Neil arrives in the small town of Palmetto, South Carolina, alone in the world and with an impossible plan to carry through.

At the age of eighteen, Andrew ends up helping a boy stage his own death.

Just two fucked up boys learning to trust each other during the course of a summer, but also: multiple references to songs, twinyard angst (Nicky tries his best), The Plotting of Neil Josten's Gruesome Demise, and shit hitting the fan in a variety of ugly ways!

The cliffhanger has got me on the edge of my seat, but it is 100% worth the read and the wait for the last chapter!!

Chapters: 10/11

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Canon typical violence,

The Butcher’s House by Fire_Bear ( @fire-bear )

Andrew thought something was odd with the house the Foxes had to move into after their Athletes' House had been burnt down. He just wasn't prepared for what was actually wrong with it.

For this was a house full of monsters.

Ghost story! Ghost story! Ghost story! I literally think about this fic every other day, it’s fantastic.

Chapters: 6/?

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: character death (major or minor is unclear), injuries,

Promise of an Unbroken Boy by elesary ( @elesary )

Neil is caught by the police with Mary's burning body and is sent to juvie in Oakland where he is assigned to share a cell with one Andrew Doe, who promises him Exy, if only Neil will tell him all of his secrets. With no access to tinted contacts and hair dye, he agrees, it's only a matter of time until he's killed after all. What does he have to lose?

But Andrew's found someone who knows what a promise means, and he'll be damned if he lets that go without a fight.

Ngl this is definitely in my very top favorites -- I LOVE the idea of Neil and Andrew meeting pre-series, and this fic just BLEW my expectations for that plotline out of the waters

Chapters: 14/?

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, Underage, attempted rape/non-con, canon-typical violence,

~~~~~~~~~

Complete

The Nameless Monster by kanekicure ( @kanekicure )

Nathaniel Wesninski wants nothing more than to see his father dead and buried. But when his father promises him the title of The Butcher, Nathaniel quickly realizes that his destiny of following in his father's footsteps is closer than ever before.

So of course, when he gets forced to go undercover for the Baltimore police, he starts seeing what living could truly be.

Andrew Minyard is a newly recruited police officer for the worst precinct in Baltimore, who is dedicated on hunting down the notorious Butcher and his unnamed underling. But when Neil Josten is thrown into his midst as his civilian consultant; he starts to realize some things don't quite appear as they seem.

I love the story telling -- the secret identities, the plotting, everything.

Chapters: 14/14

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, Butcher Neil, implied/referenced rape/non-con, implied/referenced child abuse, implied/referenced slef-harm (I believe there is a scene that is somewhat detailed on this subject), some characters also get drugged at one point,

that’s just something people say by nanatsuyu ( @theoctopusnods )

Neil makes the mistake of stealing the wrong car. Andrew makes the mistake of offering a ride to a liar. They both make the mistake of turning the whole affair into a road trip ‘home.’

Gonna be honest; the summary does not give a big idea as to what is in store and i am SO GLAD I gave this one a try so i’m telling you that you will be too

Chapters: 24/24

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: implied/referenced child abuse, panic attacks (somewhat grahic descriptions of)

The Story After You by kanekicure ( @kanekicure )

Andrew Minyard does not understand how Riko Moriyama landed Neil Wesninski.

How the snot-nosed, small dick, rich brat, second son of the Moriyama family who also just so happened to own the largest EXY gear and merchandiser company in the world “RAVEN” - had landed smart mouthed, quick witted, stupidly blue eyed Wesninski, was beyond him. Well, unless Wesninski was a gold digger, but Andrew doubted it.

Or; how Andrew Minyard says he doesn't get into messy situations, until he meets Neil and suddenly he is in the most messiest possible situation ever imagined in his life - oh and also, he might be becoming a homewrecker.

Ok I am behind bc I haven’t read the final chapter of this but!! I love the story, it’s very emotional and moving, and I love the characterization in it.

Chapters: 10/10

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Abusive Riko/Neil, abusive relationship, implied/referenced rape/non-con, implied/reference child abuse, implied/referenced self-harm, graphic depictions of violence, some descriptions of injuries/scarring,

This Complicated Life by 5a5b5p5 ( @andrewsbutterflyknife )

“This is exactly why I don’t want you and Andrew to meet,” Aaron says grumpily. “You two would get along far too well.”

Neil grins. “I just like pissing you off,” he says, “It’s not my fault your brother does such a good job at it.”

—

Neil doesn’t expect much from his Sophomore year of college, but when he becomes a waiter at the Palmetto Bistro, his life gets a whole lot more interesting. As it turns out, maintaining friendships new and old as well as navigating an interesting relationship with the head chef of the restaurant—who just so happens to be his best friend’s twin brother—is a lot more complicated than he’d thought it would be.

A much more light-hearted fic than most of the others! Includes a secret relationship, and also chef Andrew >>

Chapters: 10/10

Rating: Mature

Warnings:

When I Fade, Keep Me in Your Memory by demesh

Neil Josten has a secret: he can flicker out of existence.

He can vanish with the turn of a thought; click his fingers, and suddenly he’s not there anymore. Invisible and untouchable, he becomes a living ghost.

Having promised his mother never to let his ability go, Neil teeters the line between faded and real, a person and an echo. He can’t risk getting hurt.

But then, one day, someone sees him when they shouldn’t be able to.

A (flower-shop) AU about how a faded and lonely Neil finds it in him to become someone real.

Another fic that I need to catch up on ;; but anyway it’s amazing and I love Neil’s ability in it, it’s so well explained and well-written about

Chapters: 12/12

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: mentions of past abuse, panic attacks

12 Ways to Woo a Minyard by NikNak22 ( @knickknacksandallthat )

Neil is a math nerd who, by a stroke of dumb luck, falls into a group of friends that are the closest thing to family he’s ever had. So, when he tells them about his new mysterious crush, he shouldn’t be surprised how immediately they come up with a plan to help win them over. One they insist that if Neil follows it, he’ll have them falling for him in no time. But things don’t always go to plan – or do they?

Nicky wants to set him up with someone else. Matt and Jeremy are confused but supportive. Allison and Seth offer lewd suggestions, while Dan does her best to keep everyone in line. Jean and Renee know something, Aaron doesn’t really care, and Kevin just wants Neil to join the lacrosse team.

But one thing’s for certain – whether Neil’s successful or not, everyone’s got money riding on this.

The romance-trope-filled fanfic of my dreams. Sometimes you just need a fic of pure joy -- this is that fic.

Chapters: 14/14

Rating: Mature

Warnings:

finders keepers by moonix ( @annawrites )

Andrew meets Nathaniel through a scavenger hunt app. As their team takes part in a hunt that sends each of them to creepy, abandoned places alone to solve clues and gain points, Andrew and Nathaniel begin a little treasure hunt of their own. The anonymity of getting to know each other in small increments, never meeting face-to-face, allows them a level of intimacy neither are used to. Meanwhile Renee’s friend Neil is acting weird whenever Andrew shows up…

This was one of the first fics I read for aftg!! And BOY what a great start!! All of the little pieces and parts that work together, and just the scavenger hunt itself is fantastic! (I also REALLY wanna know if there is an app like this out there because I would be down to do that)

Chapters: 8/8

Rating: Mature

Warnings: (these all come from the author:) “mentions of historical abuse in a mental asylum, mentions of suicide, mentions of murder and kidnapping, morbid facts, creepy abandoned places including a haunted house at a theme park with disturbing rooms, special appearance of a creepy clown doll, fatphobia and some introspection on body image/complicated relationship with food, mention of self harm scars”

-----

Scared to Live (But I’m Scared to Die) by Major_816 ( @major816 )

Neil Josten goes to the Nest for Andrew, but he stays for a lot more.

"I'm sorry Coach," he muttered.

"For what kid?" Wymack shifted. "You've got to give me something to work with here."

Wymack watched the thin traces of sorrow as paper exchanged hands and he was looking down at a contract with the Edgar Allan Raven's.

"I signed them Coach, I'm sorry."

The one where Neil doesn't come back from Winter Break.

It is VERY dark, and is one of very few fics that I have actually been almost unable to read one of the scenes, so DEFINITELY pay attention to the warnings -- both these, and the ones provided for each individual chapter. I did go through the fic to collect as many warnings as I could find in the chapter warnings, but be sure to take care of yourself.

Chapters: 36/36

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: rape/non-con elements, implied/referenced rape/non-con, discussions of rape/non-con, canon-typical violence, graphic descritions, physical abuse, panic attacks, descriptions of injuries (often graphic), psychological warfare, dissociating, psychological torture, physical torture, use of knives, alcoholism/alcohol abuse, pain-induced delirium, rape/non-con, emotional self-separation, suicidal ideation/thoughts of suicide, emotional distress (which sums up the whole fic and also me while reading it), handcuffs/chains used as restraints, referenced/implied abuse towards animals, vomitting, begging, excessive use of painkillers, drowning, waterboarding, physical restraint, mutilation of an animal, mild hallucinations, non-con drugging, sleep deprivation, starvation, humiliation, the Butcher,

Also one of the first fics I read and 100% my absolute favorite fic!!! Which is adfjhsd a little worrying, considering, but it is what it is. Anyway. This fic absolutely wrecked me, and while it is technically complete, there is a sequel in the works! So! But I am so so excited for the sequel, and I am working on rereading this. It’s amazing. 1000/10.

#also!! btw i would love if anyone has more fic recs >> just an fyi >>#idk if demesh doesn't have a tumblr but i couldn't find one :(#also major816 for some reason i can never tag and idk why #aftg #all for the game #andreil #the foxhole court #tfc #andrew minyard #neil josten #fic rec #rec list

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tonightontv · 6 years

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She Could Fly is sure to attract attention when it launches in July.

The Dark Horse comic from AMC's Halt and Catch Fire co-creator Christopher Cantwell is a personal one, partially inspired by mental health struggles he only recently began speaking about publicly. She Could Fly follows Luna, a 15-year-old girl with mental health issues who finds solace in a mysterious flying woman who keeps appearing in the media. But when the woman dies on live television, it’s a sign that Luna’s world, as unsteady as it already was, is about to change even more.

Martin Morazzo illustrates She Could Fly, which comes from Dark Horse imprint Berger Books, a line of comics curated and edited by Karen Berger, who helped bring The Sandman to life and created DC Entertainment’s Vertigo imprint.

A month out from the series debut, Heat Vision spoke to Cantwell about its origins and how much of himself has bled into his comic book debut.

It feels like there’s at least two different stories being told here. Which came first: Luna, or the Flying Woman?

This story has a bunch of starting points, actually. The first part of this idea goes all the way back to 2001 when I had just finished my freshman year at USC Film School. I had gotten an internship at Marvel Studios for the summer, my first Hollywood gig ever, and it was my dream job.

Back then, it was just four small offices in Century City. Kevin Feige was 28, Avi Arad was still there, Chris Yost [Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok, Star Wars Rebels] was the head of the R&D "comic vault" and my boss, and we shared the space with a bunch of kite salesmen from Spectra-Star, because Marvel was still owned by ToyBiz then. [Sam] Raimi’s Spider-Man was in production, and there was a secret treatment for X-Men 2 locked in a file cabinet somewhere.

Anyway, that summer, I stayed with my girlfriend in her cheap-o apartment that had no A/C, so my parents bought me a really nice vintage rotating fan that was metal. I was kind of fascinated with it over those months, before it broke. Sophomore year, I had the comic bug from my time at Marvel and came up with an idea about a woman who was able to rig a rotating fan to her back and control it with her cerebral cortex. This ultimately ended up as a discarded idea in a file folder labeled "Human Fan." There it sat for the next 16 years, until I took little scraps of it and wove them into a completely new story that I had the good fortune of pitching to Karen in 2017.

By then, I had been a part of writing the storyline of teenage Haley Clark in the final season of Halt and Catch Fire. Doing that — plus seeing it come alive with Susanna Skaggs' brilliantly vulnerable performance — was one of the most rewarding things about our TV series’ conclusion for me, because it was so far afield from where Halt had started years previous. And in writing it, I was able to bring a lot of elements of my teenage self to Haley. But then, the story concluded, and I no longer had a teenage heroine to write for, so I decided to try to figure out a new one.

And that’s how I came upon Luna, in whom I was able to channel even more of my adolescent angst, including my more serious mental illness episodes I experienced back then, which I had never written about before, and only very recently — like 2016 — finally opened up about with mental health professionals and, even scarier, my parents.

Was there any nervousness about telling Luna’s story in the way that you’re handling it? Depictions of mental illness in pop culture media are complicated and difficult things, and there’s a boldness and honesty in the way the reader gets to see what Luna is imagining — and terrified of — that feels surprising, if not shocking. Did you do research into the subject when thinking about how best to show us what Luna’s world is like?

My short answer is: certainly! The research part for me was easy in a way, as I have suffered from this type of OCD — called Pure O or Primarily Obsessional OCD — since I was about 10 years old. I absolutely agree that mental illness depictions can be problematic if they feel slapped on. But I have an intensely personal connection to this one since I’ve suffered from it largely in private for most of my life. I only received a proper diagnosis at the age of 35 — well into my work on Halt, and when I was already married with kids — because I finally was able to overcome my shame and fear in talking about it. I actually had to, because the most recent episode was so bad that it was debilitating my life.

This was shortly after the completion of season three of Halt, and I was just a mess. Pure O is very different than other types of OCD most people are aware of — largely because of Hollywood depictions — in that it doesn’t externally manifest in very obvious ways to others around the person who has it. We all remember Monk and his delightfully charming OCD. I actually loved that show, but OCD can be incredibly torturous in any form.

With Pure O, it’s really a constant barrage of disturbing images and thoughts that just repeat in your head over and over again, while you try to keep a plastic smile on your face for those around you and you try not to melt down completely. I had my most severe episodes at 10, 11, 12 and 13, then again at 22, and then again at 35. I dealt with them all privately, except for the last one, and it was incredibly hard on me as a kid. When you’re that age, and you just imagine infinite manifestations of killing your parents over and over again and can’t stop, you really freak out.

But my diagnosis was a watershed moment in my life, and it felt like I was finally able to move forward with this condition in some way, instead of just suppressing it until it reared its ugly head again. And that’s when I finally began considering its portrayal in some way in my work. So in a way, Luna is going through exactly what I went through around that age. And I’ll admit, it’s been scary writing her story, and difficult at times. When I saw Martin’s vivid depictions of what I’d written, it made me anxious in that old and very familiar way. The important thing to keep in mind is that Luna’s thoughts are egodystonic — meaning she doesn’t derive pleasure from them and instead finds them horrifying and frightening and relentless. In terms of comic detail, this even boils down to the expressions on her face when she imagines terrible things — no smiles or joy, just wide-eyed terror at what she’s imagining doing.

Still, I’ve had moments privately where I’ve confessed to my wife that I’m scared everyone in the world will think I’m a horrible and a broken, insane human being when they read She Could Fly, and I will lose absolutely everything I hold dear. This doomsday scenario, of course, is a yet another symptom of my own OCD condition.

For decades now — Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns are seen as forerunners of this, but you can see it in 1970s Marvel and even earlier — there’s been a move to humanize superhero narratives. There’s definitely some of this in She Could Fly; what I kept going back to in the first issue was Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’ Marvels, but also the “Game of You” storyline in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman — stories that are very kind and empathetic towards their leads, and look at the impact the magical/supernatural/unusual have on regular people. Was that kind of thing in your mind when writing this?

I absolutely wanted to ground the fantastic in the real modern world and see how something outrageous would affect a regular teenager and her family. In a way, I think that type of thing is happening on a daily basis in America and abroad — an insane presidency, pictures of skeletal polar bears on little melting floats of ice, advances in private space exploration, the confounding ideas behind cryptocurrency, even that amazing guy in France who scaled the condo balconies in 20 seconds and saved that dangling 4-year-old. It’s just every day at this point that we all read or hear about something nuts.

And all of these stories are imperfect, with lots of complexities and nuance and motivations and personal baggage, and it gets fatiguing trying to wrap your head around it all. Sometimes we just feel numb and saturated with bizarre events, and we end up just having to deal with them in a practical, mundane way to move ahead in life. That is very much the world of She Could Fly, and that’s how all the characters are grappling with this latest strange phenomenon of a woman in the sky.

A big inspiration for me is Jim Starlin’s Silver Surfer, which is my all-time favorite comic book. Starlin brought a sense of the above to that spacefaring series that I just loved. The cosmos felt like this big, black, depressive weird chaos in Silver Surfer’s life. It was like, "Yeah, I’m in space, it looks awesome, what the fuck is going on? Who am I? I hate this." I loved reading that existential crisis stuff while I sat in Dillard’s department store and my mom tried on shoes in the summer of ‘91.

Grant Morrison’s New X-Men felt a little like this, too. And this may sound weird, but the bargain basement fuck-up nature of the spy work in the original Get Smart TV show definitely influenced the bumbling nature of the physicists and defense contractors behind the technology in She Could Fly.

You’ve obviously got the background in terms of reading them, but why comics as a creator? What brought you to Berger Books?

Comics are a perfect medium for portraying internal thoughts and visions, and as you pointed out, the story is very much a post-modern take on the classic comic book trope of flying through the air. As the story coalesced in my head, I was in Toronto to speak at a screenwriting conference, and afterward, I participated in the March for Science there. And I listened to all these speakers, some of whom were these incredible, radical, 21st-century teenage voices, and I thought, “Man, I really should tell this story.”

So I reached out on Twitter to G. Willow Wilson, who writes Ms. Marvel. We had been mutual fans of each other for a time online — and she had even taken me to task at one point for how much the female protagonists of Halt had cried onscreen in season two — and I just asked her advice. I said I had one idea that seemed like a comic book, and asked how I should go about it. She turned around and immediately put me in touch with Karen Berger. It was incredibly gracious and led to this wonderful opportunity, which has been a dream come true.

I was heavily into comics throughout my adolescence, and it was so great to lose myself in these worlds when I was having OCD troubles. The same was true when I came to L.A. for college, and I was a stranger in a strange land. I spent hours alone at Golden Apple and Hi De Ho in Santa Monica. Comics have helped me adjust in difficult periods. So working with Karen, Martin, [colorist] Miroslav [Mrva], [letterer] Clem [Robbins] and the folks at Dark Horse is just next-level for me.

You’ve mentioned Martin Morazzo a couple of times now, and what he brings to the book. His artwork really brings the characters to life. Where did he come from? Did Berger present him to you as, "This is the guy"?

His artwork, especially in the later issues, just takes my breath away. And he is such a positive voice in our collaboration. I was unfamiliar with most of the cutting-edge artists working now when Karen and I first started talking. She turned me on to his work in Occupy Avengers, Electric Sublime and The Great Pacific, and when I saw it, I knew he could bring something special to this story. Every email from Martin containing new pencils or inks is like opening a present on Christmas morning. By the way, everyone should read Ice Cream Man [Morazzo’s Image Comics series with writer W. Maxwell Prince]. It’s like The Twilight Zone, but even more unnerving.

The first issue hints at a deeper mythology for the series, and the mystery of the Flying Woman, but also stories outside of that altogether, touching on Luna’s world — what’s happening with her grandmother, what her therapist is feeling. It reminds me of the way that Halt and Catch Fire was filled with all these wonderful, fascinating human stories once you dove deeper into the primary narrative. Can you imagine exploring all these different stories in future series?

One hundred percent. Luna is at the fore of this story, but I love writing for an ensemble. That was tremendously rewarding work in Halt and Catch Fire. Every character in She Could Fly is meant to be explored further in some way. My grandmother came to live with us when I was Luna’s age, and she was very ill, and it really disrupted the family dynamic, so the series will explore that. And Kido has been diving deep into Zen, which I have, too, largely to combat my OCD. OCD is a very ego-centric disease, and Zen pursues an egolessness. Kido is engaged in a similar struggle. Dana, Luna’s guidance counselor, will also become a bigger part of the story, for sure — more than you’d expect.

Chris Rogers and I always tackled Halt as a story about a family of choice, bound by a common cause. In Halt’s case, it was computers and tech. In She Could Fly, all these disparate characters become tangled up with each other through the mystery of the Flying Woman. It’s another family of choice story.

So what lies ahead in the next few issues of the series? What can you tease for those curious about the book?

I will say that Luna’s mental illness won’t be the only one explored. Almost every character is a little unhinged in some way, and that will all bubble to the surface as the plot heats up. And we’ll be portraying some marvelous and bizarre surreality that one can only do in comic books. We’ll go deeper into the Flying Woman’s story — who she was and why she did what she did. And you know, things will get violent. There’s a lot at stake for some of these people when it comes to that valuable technology, and it’ll get messy.

But ultimately, I think the story — as intense as it might get — is a beautiful one, and dare I say spiritual. This is Luna’s coming of age overall. Coming of age is one of the most difficult things we do as human beings.

She Could Fly launches July 11 with a 32-page first issue, and is available for pre-order now.

Halt and Catch Fire

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