A queue blog for recommendations for the best of HDG fics, from a variety of members in the community!
Banner art by @sheepwavehdg, used with permission
Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
Our lead, Cassandra, has problems with reality. She sees things that other people don't. Sometimes they exist; sometimes they don't. She has never shaken the feeling that there's a sinister side to the Affini Compact, a dark secret they carefully hide.
And then, one day, she finds it. And everything stops making sense.
Acekink. Conspiratorial. Canon-compliant.
Where do I even begin when talking about Red String Mind? No, seriously, I'm genuinely unsure. Do we talk about the incredible acekink that is at once perplexing, arousing, and deeply sensual? That's probably not a bad place to start, yet feels like underselling the whole affair. Do we talk about the insanity of the plot structure? Probably not; it's quite difficult to talk about the plot of a mystery story without giving away things you'll absolutely want to figure out on your own. Do we talk about all the ways this story breaks the rules? No... no... Do we talk about how this story contains the single greatest fight scene in the entire HDG canon (and it's not close)? Probably worth mentioning, at least in passing.
Dame Harmony has dropped another absolutely insane banger, folks. I just got done reading it, and I'm absolutely stunned at the intricate web of conspiracies, spycraft, and mystery woven by this unbelievably talented author. Go read this. Do not wait, do not hesitate, and don't get too hung up on what "Class-T" is supposed to be. Don't worry if things don't make sense at first. Sit with the feelings of cognitive dissonance; spend time feeling what it is like to have the hyperactive imagination of a schizotypal disorder - a feeling this story evokes with incredible effectiveness. Allow Harmony to carry you away on the wings of the story, with a reassurance from me that it will all, at some point, make sense. And let's not forget: a conclusion that belongs up there with To Seek What They Sought, Cat & Mouse, and The Fall of Abundance in the canon of truly fantastic climaxes. This story is completely incredible.
You won't want to miss this, which is a shame, because given Harmony's publishing strategy of "post everything at once in a way that doesn't even bump it to the front page of Ao3, then almost never talk about it again", I feel like quite a few people might. Are you subscribed to aem on Ao3 yet? If you like HDG, you should be.
Ace-Friendly: Ehhh? There's things resembling sex, but any sexuality to date is from the point of view of someone who does not see it as "sex"; ymmv
Notable tags: Purification, No Needles, Praise Kink
Remy Jones, Third Floret, and Shanai Jones, Fourth Bloom, are a happily newlywed human/affini couple. Shanai obsessively adores her little pet spouse to pieces and humors the illusions about their relationship that make Remy happy.
This story is told from Shanai’s perspective, as she gives her pet everything they want. Everything but control of their life.
Toxic resilience, of course, takes more than a few strokes of a pleasure graft to unlearn. For that, you might need a bit of age regression. Fortunately, Shanai meets another affini at the wedding who can help her sort things out!
This story has two versions. In one, Manchild, Remy is a cisgender man. In the other, Princess, Remy is a transgender woman. In both, they are under the misconception they are the one in charge of this relationship. (the actual wordcount is half what ao3 lists due to this doubling)
...Look, I'll stop recommending Sheepwave and SlyLittlePrincess stories when they stop consistently being incredible. Fuck you. Fight me. I've been reading the F/m version, so my review will be largely of that.
My Pet Spouse is, to put it bluntly, freakin' adorable. Like. Remy is just. A lil' guy! He's so cute! And the way Shanai's perspective so utterly demolishes so much of his toxic masculinity is just so peak. And meanwhile, she's being actually courted by another affini, and it makes for a very cute and funny comparison as this man is effectively cucked by his wife, who sees him not as a partner, but a beloved pet. I just adore the way these two write the affini POV. The things she does for this little goober, it's adorable. Highly recommend.
Nearly a decade after the fall of Terra, the average independent terran has come to terms with the fact that, hypothetically, any affini could see them on the street and decide to make a pet of them. Independent terrans who live on Affini vessels like the Archelirion are especially comfortable with this, not least because those who aren’t have already all been domesticated!
Milla Roxelana isn’t afraid of domestication. She’s friendly and open, and although she isn’t looking for an owner, she’s prepared for any relationship she has with an affini to escalate into something else. Which is why it’s so surprising when she receives notice that she’s being domesticated anonymously. Even more surprising? There appears to be a loophole.
So I haven't been reading a lot lately due to personal life circumstances, but I saw the blurb for this one, read the words "the paperwork that makes you cum", and decided, "what the heck, I've got some free time, let's see what Zinnabelle has been up to lately".
This, as it turns out, was a really good idea, because this first chapter is unbelievably strong. When was the last time a story so effortlessly and completely grabbed me from the very first chapter? Hypogeal? Dancing to Her Rhythms? Good Sensory? Yeah, no, it's that kind of first chapter. Ladies, assorted other sophonts, this is what we in the business call a hook. @magicswordszin has, within 3,000 words, managed to evoke the comedic mystery of How A Floret Finds Out, the bureaucratophilia of The Place Where We Can Stop Running, and the sheer frenetic sexual energy of Polaroid. It's like all my favorite things rolled into one, with a main character who reminds me of some of my favorite chill indies(-but-not-for-long)! Like. C'mon. Look at this.
fPL-01XX-r: Request to Not Be Domesticated (The Real One!)
I, __________________________, hereby request to not be domesticated for a period of 2/7/30/90 days because (check all that apply):
[ ] My indomitable spirit cannot be broken (attach fPL-5141-t: Certification of Indomitable Spirit).
That's hilarious. And we're just barely getting started. I, for one, will be following this story with immense interest.
Marcellus Beauvau is your average independent. He has his daily routine, and he takes good care of himself. His whole life gets flipped upside down the moment a floret bites him.
Notes:
Honestly this is just an extension of a dirtpost I made on tumblr a while back. Still fun to write~
Love Doesn't Ask For Permission by violet_moonvine
(Guest review by @slylittleprincess)
Published: May 2025
36k words; complete
A rebel sailor wakes up after her cruiser is captured, and struggles to adjust to her new life, the loss of her freedom, and the feelings toward her captor she never asked for.
A meditation on loving the person you hate (or hating the person you love).
Run, don’t walk, to read Love Doesn’t Ask For Permission if you haven’t already. Calling it good doesn’t begin to capture the experience.
Over the course of six narratively tight chapters, Aimee undergoes the iconic feral to docile pet transformation. The core simmering that is the embarrassment and humiliation of being kidnapped and turned from a person into a pet is sung with a full throat from start to finish. Evoking the original story while incorporating narrative influences from stories like All You Need, Love Doesn’t Ask For Permission elevates the foundations for HDG into a blisteringly hot, masterfully refined story.
It’s everything that makes HDG unique, polished to a golden shine. Fans of gesture feeding will adore the way that this story uses it as an incredibly hot throughline that also boldly dares to use the surrender of allowing someone else to feed you in deeply meaningful ways. The iconic bathing and toothbrushing tropes are also evoked to brilliant effect. Our lead affini, Calyx Saccharum, Ninth Bloom, likewise elevates the classic archetype of a condescending yet loving mommy figure into an absolute art form.
Wrapped up in that package is a profoundly beautiful statement on what it even means to be a sophont at all. What makes you, you? How do you reconcile the ugliness that defines you with the all powerful force that loves you without regard for your consent?
It features levels on top of levels, layers on top of layers that finally crescendo in a spectacular two part finale that still has me vibrating in my seat as I type this. I refuse to spoil or even hint at how it all concludes. It is so fun, so devious, so hot, so everything.
Hey friends. Sorry (I'm not sorry at all) to bring this back to your attention.
Please read this story.
The original Human Domestication Guide touched me, and honestly many in the community in a way that will be remembered for quite a long time I'm sure. The feeling you get as you follow the journey of the main character, the way it speaks to you, excites you, fills you with that sticky yearning that doesn't seem to go away even after you put it down. It's an indescribable experience that I hold dear to my heart.
This story let me feel that all over again.
I don't know what it is about Violet's writing that's so damn alluring to me it has this distilled almost magic to it that brings me right back to the first time I popped open the original.
Fae weaves words like a top class chef, emotions are handled with the delicate craft one might find in a romance novel and yet it's just one ingredient in the meal fae makes because, holy, fucking, shit fae does not miss.
Hdg is a wonderful community, I savor every second I am here and I am overjoyed when I find a work that truly speaks to me. But this shit? Friends?
This story does not simply speak to me.
It whispers, it purrs, it chides and gives me goosebumps.
If you got the spoons for like 40k words of literature that'll make you scream into a pillow, please give it a shot, don't wait for an invitation. After all;
Love Doesn't Ask For Permission
Ace-Friendly: According to word-of-god, "mostly" (but not entirely). There will be genital mentions, and there will be oviposition, but an effort is being made to consider ace readers as much as possible even with these inclusions.
Notable tags: Far Future, Cultural Grooming, Giant Spiders
The domestication of Terra, now over a hundred years in the past is long behind those still kicking in the year 2661. Libby, a 23 year old 5'1 little sprout still looking for her purpose couldn't care less about any of it. Something has been bothering her lately though, she's just not sure what.
Maybe her homeroom teacher Miss Vatia will have some answers?
No, you're not seeing double. Last year around this time, I recommended She Wants You, also by Lagnia, a study in setting descriptions, affini hunger, and a Terran Protectorate a century-plus into its cultural domestication.
It has a sequel now.
The first chapter of She Needs You dropped four hours ago as of writing, and reader, it's a doozy. She Needs You is a sequel the way a 201 level course is a sequel, succeeding its predecessor not just in chronology but in depth and subject matter. The ideas explored in SWY are resummarized quickly and elegantly, then recontextualized, expanded on, built upon, and laid as the foundation for a deeper and more comprehensive exploration.
It's also dizzyingly, scaldingly hot.
It would be premature to offer an analysis of the larger work so early, but I can say with total confidence, you do not want to miss this.
(And if you haven't read She Wants You and need to be sold on that, I've got you covered!)
If you're interested, @curated-hdg is a blog dedicated to recommendations and reviews that's definitely worth scrolling through!
That said, here's kind of a scattershot of solid recommendations, some long, some short:
No Gods, No Masters by Kanaĝen
Personhood by Slylittleprincess
Dog of War by Mindcrank
Thought I'd See You Again by Fluxom (Who also wrote Abscission, which Glitchy rec'd and I second)
Good Sensory by Sheepwave (I haven't gotten to it yet but I can comfortably recommend it on reputation alone)
The Making of a Pet and Strawberry and Willow by immaterial-vivi
(these are older examples of her writing that have stuck with me – I haven't caught up with a lot of the more agereg focused stuff she's written more recently, but I have zero doubt that it's good)
Independent Establishment by Lagnia
I Can't Motivate Myself to Hate You by Lagnia and Sheepwave
All You Need and Blue Stripe by ObliviaWrites
Soar Higher, Fall Farther and Independence is Easy by Sapphic Sounds
Hypogeal by Astraction (mind the content warnings)
There's A Storm Brewing by RocketMermaid
The Place Where We Can Stop Running by Dame Harmony
Five Lives, Guilty Pleasures, and Anastatias by PyxxieStyxx
and Love Doesn't Ask for Permission and A Queen for a Queen by me
Personhood, Love Doesn't Ask for Permission, and I Can't Motivate Myself to Hate You are brought up pretty frequently as good starting points on the shorter side.
Independent Establishment, Instituionalism, and The Nature of Mistakes
I am a firm believer in the nature of smut as literature. Not that smut can be literary, but that smut is inherently literary. Sexuality, sensuality, the expression of and relinquishing of control, pleasure, these are all parts of the sophont condition, and are always-already full of deep themes and politics. It is not a special category which is "just" about fuckin'; in fact this is why I don't like the word 'just' used in this way. It is dismissive of so much, a grammatical marker that the thing under discussion is not worth exploring further.
Nowhere, nowhere, is that more trivially, obviously disproven than the penultimate three chapters of Lagnia's Independent Establishment. You would have to be extremely motivated by a longstanding hatred of pornography to say otherwise.
I will offer my biases at the outset here. Lagnia is one of my closest friends. We say 'I love you' to each other. We understand how each other thinks. Fae is a deeply special sophont in my life. So I am, obviously, somewhat compromised here. I cannot give you an objective assessment of this story.
But I believe that the nature of a conflict of interest is only that it should be examined and disclosed, accounted for and compensated for, not that it should be automatic grounds for staying silent about something transcendental your bestie has done.
With that said, let us begin. This post contains some full-story spoilers for Independent Establishment, at least in terms of discussing themes that are only made explicit in the finale; I would recommend holding off for a while to experience the reveal organically, but I am not your warden. Make the decision that is right for you, even if it's not the 'correct' one.
Independent Establishment, on its surface, is a story about a woman in the Compact who is fully capable of taking care of herself. She runs her own restaurant, she has friends, she has partners. She lives a hedonistic life, the way that the Affini encourage her to have. And yet this is clearly, clearly not working for her. She is struggling with what has Newspeakly been dubbed 'comptop': A sophont who is not particularly inclined towards dominance or action, either as a general demeanour or at a particular moment, being somehow obligated to be, pigeonholed into the role of, or otherwise compulsorily being a top or dominant in that moment. This can be internalized, as it is for May.
There we find Viridia Mulberry, 19th Bloom, the captain of the Cymbidium, who appears to be struggling itself, as many classic HDG stories set up. It has the inverse issue, however: It must always hold itself back from immediately and overwhelmingly imposing care on everyone around it, regardless of species. The hunger present in the Compact itself to take care of everyone is embodied in Mulberry as its avatar, as is its promise to enact care on absolutely everyone, no matter what, including the Affini.
But the slow-burn romantic domestication narrative comes crashing down in what has been termed by the author the "bad ending". This story is not interested in consent when the joy or misery of a sophont is on the line. In fact I would argue it, and mulberry, has a deep and abiding anger towards it. Any prime directive you can name is bullshit, this story says; save those who are hurting. By any means necessary.
Early on in this story, I was talking with Lagnia about the craft of the story, which is something that I do because I deeply enjoy the mechanics of writing. I had pointed out that part of faer style includes a lot of comma splices. Here is the first one I found, in chapter 1 of Establishment:
He was a mess, his dusty brown hair had grown down to split ends that rested uncomfortably along his oily neck, he had a beard that desperately looked like it needed some variety of trim and a lot of specialized shampoos.
This is, semantically speaking, three sentences. "He was a mess"; "his dusty brown hair had grown down to split ends that rested uncomfortably along his oily neck"; "he had a beard that desperately looked like it needed some variety of trim and a lot of specialized shampoos". They're called comma splices because the use of a comma here sutures each thought into one longer sentence which has a bit too many things going on. Its cup runneth over.
Fae told me something that I think is key to this story. Watch for it as you read. This was an intentional technique on faer part to capture a connectivity between thoughts in a way that different sentences, reworded sentences, semicolons, and other techniques could not capture.
This sentence is, technically, wrong. But it is wrong in an expressive way.
The poet e.e. cummings (whose name is intentionally lowercase) was a master of this sort of expressive wrongness. Here is the poem i like my body when it is with your in its entirety:
i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh… And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly i like the thrill
of under me you so quite new
(I think this is a fitting poem for IE, for a number of reasons. But its grammatical structure is what I'm pointing out here.)
In other words, like many brilliant authors, Lagnia eschews the rules of grammar in the name of expressive joy in faer writing. If the institution of grammar does not cover a part of the human experience, both of these authors say, do something ungrammatical.
I rendered this in a similar way in my flagship story, The Place Where We Can Stop Running, by saying that the model must adjust to fit the sophont, not the other way around. The Affini bureaucracy is a vast, byzantine system, and one that does not always work for the desires of the xenosophonts within its care, but it works for their needs, reflecting this principle in two ways: Break etiquette and transgress boundaries to give someone what they require, and do not hesitate just because you aren't able to find the right paperwork to file or box to tick.
What strikes me about Establishment is the fractal, cosmic nature of this principle, and how it is reflected in every part of the story. It is reflected in Mulberry's strategy for treating May. It is reflected in the grammar of the story. It is reflected in Mulberry's general demeanour. Everywhere you go, every direction you look, the story is doing this.
And it is a humbling experience, if you allow it to be. As I was reading the story, I kept having this sense of, this is somehow off, somehow incorrect, outside the lines. And every time, this turned out to be the correct thing, whether diagetically, the correct thing for the sophonts involved, or extradiagetically, for the story.
I am wary of the use of the term 'perfect'. But Independent Establishment is flawless, because it rejects the concept of a flaw.
Its finale is one of the most dramatic leaps of faith I have ever read. Chapter 42 filled me with dread and anxiety for the characters. Chapter 43 broke me down into a sobbing, shocked mess. I watched a number of readers unable to understand what they had witnessed. Mulberry, and possibly Lagnia faerself, had clearly, clearly, gone too far. There was no way to pull back from this. We are in the abyss. We are lost. The entire story has led up to a neck-snapping twist from which there is no recovery.
…Right?
…Right?
The final puzzle piece that is necessary to understand this story is Mulberry's insistence that May Morrison retain as much of herself as possible. Every part, every part, is as sacred as every other part. There is no part of her which must be sacrificed for the greater good of her psyche. All its complexity, all its contradictions, all its humanity, must be preserved at all costs. And yet May has such a complex, and I use that word intentionally, about who she is and what she desires, that it is nearly impossible to untangle it without sacrificing something.
This is the hardest possible domestication narrative to perform well. The skeleton key versus the unpickable lock. But the Compact axiomatically guarantees happiness even for this narrative. Something very interesting happened a day or so after chapter 43 was released: Those same readers came back and said "You know what, no. I trust Mulberry." One of the scariest sophonts in the Compact, the arch-villain of HDG, the distillation of its noncon elements to such a pure refinement that one drop is enough to turn your eyes gold.
A leap of faith.
Leap, and the net will appear.
And we were right. The story did not even stick the landing, because it didn't land. It flies. It soars. It is no longer beholden to gravity; it has achieved escape velocity and has taken its rightful place among the stars.
The author Avgi Sakedopoulou, in the book Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia, makes the argument that the ego is an inherently controlling force, that which wants to understand, build models, fit things into boxes. This is not a bad thing, always; but it is inherently conservative, and must be periodically disrupted to expand and refine our understanding of the world. As such, things that are outside of those models and boxes and understanding cannot be experienced with the consent of the ego. That the artful transgression of limits is a necessary transformative force that imposes growth on the psyche, that gives us the ability to recontextualize our lives and find new meaning in that which we thought we already knew.
Mulberry is a master of the transgression of limits as a transformative force. It earns its bloom count on the page. No other Affini could have done what it did. And no other author could have demonstrated its themes in such a comprehensive way. The finale transgresses every boundary you can name. It violates the characters. It violates the reader. And in doing so, I would argue, it makes us better people.
HDG is an inherently queer genre. To queer, as a verb, is to complicate, to disrupt, to reject normalcy and the 'proper' order of things. Most narratives are heroic, about individualist triumph; HDG goes in the other direction, and not only says that it's okay to lose but that sometimes it's better to lose. Independent Establishment is an icon of queer literature for rejecting so many binaries, breaking so many rules and conventions, including that of the very genre it participates in.
HDG is an inherently cripped genre. It fiercely defends the right of all sophonts to care and joy and abundance, regardless of their ability to 'earn' it. And Independent Establishment is also an icon of disabled literature for its patent refusal to change its primary sophont, even when it was harming her, even in the midst of so much violation of her boundaries. It not only rejects her 'earning' her true ending but forces it on her without the first thought about her reflexive objections to it. It violates only that which is a mask; the true sophont underneath is ruthlessly accomodated, her boundaries defended violently and with extreme prejudice. She is a fireproof moth within the roaring flames, laughing as it plays among them.
Lagnia's magnum opus is not a foundational work of HDG. It is not early enough nor is it particularly suited for new readers; it is an extremely challenging read and one that requires a deep understanding of the genre's conventions and themes to fully understand. What it is instead is one of its glittering spires, standing tall in the skyline, built on what has come before and piercing the sky, a beacon of hope for those who have been fit into uncomfortable boxes and who yearn for the moment they can break out.
And in a way, it is a permission structure to do so, a model for how to make good trouble. It is a manual for bratting as praxis.
If anybody, anybody, tells you to make yourself smaller in order to make them more comfortable, defy them.
If any system of rules does not cover your truth, break them without a second's hesitation.
If you want something, grab it with both hands, and defend it with your very life.
May is a floret owned by the one of the most controlling Affini in the Compact.
May is simultaneously one of the freest sophonts in the universe, not despite this but because of it.
May we all find what she has become for ourselves.
So Violet Moonvine just posted a new work and hoooooooou my god you gotta read it https://archiveofourown.org/works/79617806
I am not in a good position to be reading fics at the moment (for a variety of reasons), but guess what: Violet Moonvine is consistently one of the best regular authors. So with that in mind:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/79617806
Happiness
A married couple tries to survive the invasion of their world.
So Violet Moonvine just posted a new work and hoooooooou my god you gotta read it https://archiveofourown.org/works/79617806
I am not in a good position to be reading fics at the moment (for a variety of reasons), but guess what: Violet Moonvine is consistently one of the best regular authors. So with that in mind:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/79617806
Happiness
A married couple tries to survive the invasion of their world.
If you're still looking for fics, Anastatias by PyxxieStyxx is my absolute favorite, highly recommend it.
I absolutely adore Anastatias, as well as its sequels, That Floret and Home Remedy. Basically one floret getting batted around the polycule, it's delightful. :D
So I have been very sluggish on reading HDG lately, in particular new things, and thus, very sluggish to make recommendations. I'm 100% sure there's absolute fire coming out, I just... haven't quite gotten much reading done.
If anyone would like to write an ask or two about recent stories you're feral about, I'd really appreciate it!
Ace-Friendly: I have been informed that this probably isn't ace-friendly. Those affini be fuckin', it just doesn't resemble human sex much.
Noteworthy tags:
...Hhhhhholy fuck.
Zinnea's been looking after a first bloom and trying to help her figure herself out for a few months, but when she gets an invite to a gala affair, desires that had been rooting their way through her core see an opportunity to sprout. Whether Passiflora actually wants anything coming to her doesn't really matter, in the grand scheme of things.
Or, the story in which an affini regresses, rapes, grooms, and domesticates another affini at a fancy party.
I am, as you probably have heard by now, a big fan of subfinis, flortfinis, and the like. And southofsane just dropped a goddamn bomb of a story. Mind the tags, they're no joke, but uh... holy shit.
Hey, do you want to watch a hungry affini absolutely take advantage of a youngbloom? Do you want to see her just completely lose it masturbating to the thought of taking that failplant and making her a floret? Do you want to see sawplay, pruning,and some of the most coercive affini-affini interactions I've seen since A Beast At Bay? Of course you fucking do. Go read this.
The Ribbon - A Short Saga by Slylittleprincess, with art and editing by Sheepwave
Published: January 2026
10k words, 2/4 chapters, ongoing
Ace-Friendly: Yes
Ava loves poems, and has been working on her latest one all week. She especially enjoys sharing them with Fiodoir, her online friend who definitely isn’t an Affini. When Ava makes the fateful decision to spy on her friend while on a very overstimulating visit to a different hab ring, she discovers just how bad things really were for her, and has a series of experiences that change everything.
Sly doesn't miss.
Sly. Does. Not. Miss.
I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm supposed to say in response to this other than that. The first time I read the first chapter, I had vaguely intended to liveread it, but I didn't. Instead, I just let myself be carried away by the frankly insane flow of this story. To call it "hypnotic" almost feels like selling it short; I could not put it down. Ava is immediately an engaging, well-fleshed-out character, presented with an efficiency that I can't help but laud, and Fiodoir is just... woof. God damn. She starts performing suggestibility tests on Ava within seconds of meeting her in person. It's beautifully predatory, but in a sweet kind of way that could go in a lot of different directions.
Then, after chapter one, I said to myself, "Aww, another sweet courtship story by Sly, I wonder how this one will go?" And then I read chapter 2, and realized that Fiodoir is less like a patient, seductive temptress and more like an oncoming freight train with absolutely zero brakes. Holy shit. Do you remember A Taste of Class Omega? Incredibly hot one-shot by Sheepwave, Cadence turned it into a hypno file, great fun was had by all? The second chapter of this story feels a little bit like Sly lived through that scene and decided to write about it. Except even hotter. Absolutely peak shit, do not miss it.
It is 2551, and an oblivious failplant finds themself the unwitting victim grateful beneficiary of the newly-established Terran Distribution System. These are their Ploogle searches.
13:02 - what is this? [BrowserHistory.html attached]
13:03 - terran laughing okay?
13:04 - terran won't stop laughing
13:05 - terran won't stop laughing help
...What can I say, it's really funny. Just a sweet, quick oneshot that made my list just because I can't stop giggling about it.
Ace-friendly: There's definitely sex, but the sex is extremely weird.
Noteworthy tags: Digitization, Terrible Human Being Protagonist
Angel has it all figured out. Power. Status. Digitization is the key! Sure, a haustoric implant is required, but that's a small price to pay. Besides, digipets are basically independent, right?
Things don’t exactly go according to plan.
But Angel is clever, and he knows how to get to the top of any hierarchy. Surely she won’t end up a slutty doll plaything for her connivents, a latex dronegirl and a terrifying alien spider. And certainly it would never become a free use sex object totally incapable of even the most basic autonomy.
Let me speak for a moment about authorial voice. Even in collaboration, if you write a lot, you will absolutely leave a mark on the work you make. Sheepwave certainly has a handful of very noteworthy trademarks - cranking the weirdness of the sex up to 11, unbelievably hateable protagonists... We've seen it, we love it, Sheepwave rules.
Now, Astra is relatively new in this community. In spite of that, she undeniably has a fairly distinct voice thanks to how strong the characterization of Hypogeal is (holy fuck read hypogeal), and I wasn't 100% sure what role she was going to play in this particular collab. Sheepwave's flavor is pretty distinct, so it's very fun to see how that flavor mixes with other authors. Well, by the end of chapter three, we found it, as I realized I was feeling genuine pathos for this fucking Ben Shapiro wannabe who literally just tried to nuke a town full of people for shits and giggles, then broke down into tears about what a failure she was. Oh, there you are Astra, you goddamn monster. Chocolate and peanut butter that makes you cry. Go read openAngel. Astra is amazing, Sheepwave is amazing, Astra + Sheepwave is amazing. We may be coming back to this combination before I'm done with catchups!
But yes. OpenAngel is fundamentally about a dumb jackass becoming an even dumber (but significantly less heinous to be around) bimbo fucktoy. It is extremely hot, extremely weird, and I'm excited to see how it continues. <3
