Richonne Fic Recommendation: Twriter12
My personal Richonne guilty pleasure crack-fiend addiction trope (for lack of a better word) is that delicious little subgenre where Lori and Michonne are in the same space, breathing the same air, loving the same man, and trying not to claw each otherâs eyes out while maintaining some semblance of civility.
The piĂšce de rĂ©sistance of this tropeâthe crown jewel, the undefeated champion, the BeyoncĂ© of âRick has two women in the room and one of them is his ex-wifeâ ficâis @twriter12âs 7 Days a master class on Richonne emotional chaos.
Where do I even start? Oh yeah: per usual, mild spoilers and unhinged feels abound. Proceed with caution.
Hereâs the setup: Zombie Apocalypse. Alexandria. Lori is still alive (and so are some other TF membersâI wonât spoil too much). Lori and Rick are finally DONE. Rick and Michonne are officially ALL IN.
And thenâbecause this is The Walking Dead universeâshit happens.
Shit in the form of Rick forgetting he and Michonne are ALL IN and he and Lori are DONE.
And Lori? Oh, she capitalizes on the circumstances.
Now, I recognize there are SEVERAL other noteworthy fics in this category (and Iâll get to those in another post, possiblyâŠmy summer holiday is wrapping up⊠tries not to fall into another moment of stress paralysis), but let me disseminate why 7 Days is my NĂșmero Uno, Top of the Heap, Master Class of its kind.
One: Rick finally grows a pair where Loriâs concerned.
Let me preface: this isnât a criticism of other ficsâbut my heart can only take so many stories where Lori cuts Rick down and he just⊠takes it. Like a sad little Victorian orphan boy clutching his suspenders.
In 7 Days, Rick is nuanced. He is emotive. He is gentlemanly, yes, but he is also DONE.
There are scenes where Rick looks at Loriâs machinations and basically says: âI donât give a shit anymore.â
Two: Michonne is depicted as a fully nuanced woman.
Yes, we know Michonne is ALL THAT.
But she is also a human being with needs, desires, vulnerabilities, and a breaking point.
In 7 Days, she gets to be:
and gloriously, painfully HUMAN.
There are moments where you want to reach through the screen and strangle a bitch (cough Lori).
Moments where you want to Gibbs head-thwap Michonne.
Moments where you want to shake Rick like a snow globe.
But the payoff? THE PAYOFF. When everything comes to a head? When the resolution finally arrives? Itâs worth every chapter of emotional cardio.
Three: The attention to the simplicities of their day-to-day.
Look. I love Richonne smut. And 7 Days does NOT disappoint in that area eitherâmore on that later. But one of the highlights of this story (and many of her shorter pieces in the Richonne Collection) is how beautifully she writes the ordinary moments.
Rick and Michonne making breakfast.
Rick and Michonne reading the same book together.
Rick and Michonne snogging on a lazy rainy day.
Honestly? I could read thirty more chapters of them doing absolutely nothing.
Domestic Richonne is my kink. There. I said it. And what?
My husband and I were like this pre-parenthoodâplaying Boggle or Scrabble on a lazy weekend or talking smack at one another during an Xbox marathon and then engaging in giddy make-up sex afterânow we just stare at each other across the room like exhausted raccoonsâbut I digress.
Four: Father Gabriel gives Rick the talk he shouldâve gotten in Season 2.
I wonât spoil it, but Gabe drops some REAL TALK that made me want to stand up and clap like I was in church waving my MLK fan about.
7 Days is in my top 5 Richonne fics of all time. I donât give a fâ
I desire MORE. (You hear me @twriter12 ???!!! MORE!)
I crave a sequel where Rick navigates Loriâs nonsense while Michonne is pregnant with RJ.
There are NOT enough RJ pregnancy fics in the world, and I know @Twriter12 would eat that concept UP.
This is going to be my longest post yet⊠I need wine and ice cream. Donât knock it til youâve tried it. I recommend a sweet red or Moscato paired with HĂ€agen-Dazs vanilla bean or strawberry. Grape juice works in a pinch if youâre out of wine or prefer non-alcoholic.
On to The Richonne Collection.
Each one of these is a precious nugget of Richonne/Grimes 2.0 excellence and brilliant storytelling. There are 27 of these gemsâIâm going to highlight a few:
âRespiteââthe one that shouldâve been canon
This story is everything we were CHEATED out of on screen. Rick and Michonne musing about whether they wouldâve crossed paths without the ZA?
Her portrayal of Rick AND Michonneânot just Richonneâitâs perfection. Balanced. Nuanced. Never exaggerated. Never out of character.
The âPennyâ SagaâRick, stop being clueless challenge
Penny is an OC with sights on Rick despite knowing heâs with Michonne. And @Twriter12 tackles one of my biggest Richonne fic peeves: Rick being too passive or too oblivious when other women flirt.
Michonne calls him OUT. Not out of petty jealousyâbut out of R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
This theme continues in âPartyâ, and at this point Iâm a broken record, but these stories are a treasure trove.
Look. The small moments between Rick and Michonne are my personal catnip. I love being a fly on the wall. I love the everyday moments. I love the quiet intimacy.
Michonne caring for a bedridden Rick in âChanges.â Rick and Abraham having a heart-to-heart in âHer.â Sweet moments with Carl and Judith in âTalkâ and âBabies.â
I want Rick and Michonne sharing their pre-ZA interests. I want them talking about music, books, childhood memories, embarrassing stories.
Brace yourself, @twriter12âIâm coming at you with a list of requests. Whether you use them or not is irrelevant. Iâm still sending them.
And let me say this clearly: Her âRick learns about Andreâ take is my official canon.
Feel free to see this as harassment, cos, Iâm harassing. I want a Haunted update YESTERDAY!
This unfinished masterpiece is a brilliant take on Rick and Michonne having had an established relationship before the ZA, becoming estranged, and reuniting in Alexandria.
This story rivals any episode of Divorce, Tell Me You Love Me, or any whitewashed HBO couples therapy production.
Every chapter teases the seeds of their estrangement. Â Every chapter had me on tenterhooks waiting for Michonne to drop the bomb Rick NEEDED to hear. And just when you think weâre reaching a resolution? She leaves me in the lurch.
Seriously, what the fuck?
I WANT THE NEXT CHAPTER NOW. THROWS SHIT AROUND
navigating spaces previously occupied by a former spouse
sexual compatibility as both glue and poison
therapy sessions that feel REAL
Rick confronting his blind spots
Michonne confronting her self-erasure
both of them confronting the truth
I could read Rick and Michonne in couples therapy ALL DAY.
And yes, the sex is passionate and consumingâbut never gratuitous. Itâs part of the conflict. Part of the avoidance. Part of the ache.
I love the line in 7 Days where Michonne muses: âYou always hear of bad sex in a good marriage, but what about the opposite? How do you handle great sex in a bad marriage?â
In Haunted, their sexual compatibility is sublimeâbut it becomes a distraction from the elephant in the room.
And let me take a momentâa reverent pauseâto talk about Carol in Haunted, because LAWD. One of the unexpected joys of this story is how we get to see an unhinged Carol slowly unravel. Haunted gives us one hell of a close up of Carol who is one passiveâaggressive comment away from snapping a neck and then alphabetizing the pantry afterward.
She is studying Michonne like sheâs a threat assessment chart. She is lurking on porches. She is delivering cryptic oneâliners like sheâs auditioning for the role of âSouthern Gothic Oracle #3.â She is smiling that Stepford smile that never reaches her eyes. She is playing psychological chess while everyone else thinks theyâre playing checkers.
And the best part? Michonne sees ALL of it.
Haunted gives us the Michonne who is DONE with Carolâs games. The Michonne who clocks every manipulative tilt of Carolâs head. The Michonne who refuses to be played, refuses to be gaslit, refuses to be pulled into Carolâs little âI know Rick better than youâ fantasy. Their dynamic is tense, layered, and absolutely deliciousâtwo apex predators circling each other in a suburban culâdeâsac.
Itâs one of the most compelling portrayals of Carol Iâve ever seen in Richonne fic: not villainous, not heroic, but deeply unwell in a way that makes perfect sense for a woman who survived the world by becoming whatever people needed her to be. Haunted lets her be messy, manipulative, territorial, and unsettlingâand it works.
Honestly? I could read an entire spinâoff of Michonne and Carol having polite, razorâsharp conversations while pretending theyâre not two seconds away from violence.
GAWD. @Twriter12âs storytelling is just too damn scrumptious.
Look. These are just my favorites in @Twriter12âs bibliography. The woman has RANGE. In addition to the aforementioned treasures, sheâs also gifted us a couple of sharp, characterâdriven profile pieces centered on Sasha and Rositaâboth of which feel like intimate psychological snapshots pulled straight out of the ZA. And if that werenât enough, sheâs got a modernâday AU with delicious shades of Scandal and several other Richonne/Grimes 2.0 one-shots. The depth, the versatility, the emotional intelligence across her entire catalog? Ridiculous.
Show her love and shower her with ALL the flowers whilst poking a bit with the pitch fork.
@twriter12, youâre not done. I refuse to accept that! I donât care that I am more than a decade late to the Richonne fanfiction party. I have requests too, dangit!
TastefulNood42âs Requests (aka my formal petition to the Queen @Twriter12):
(PLEASE) FINISH Haunted. I am on my knees in the rain like a telenovela protagonist. I need this. My spirit needs this. My crops need this. My skin needs this. My blood pressure needs this.
Consider a sequel to 7 Days where Richonne are expecting, Lori has to suck it up/come to terms, and we get more general 7 Days-verse oneâshots that delve deeper into those Richonne moments prior to Rickâs accident. I want the domestic chaos. I want the emotional growth. I want Loriâs face when she realizes the universe is not taking her side. Yes, I'm that petty.
More oneâshots where Rick and Michonne discuss the Big TraumaâRick getting shot/waking up from the coma, and Michonne sharing her account of what happened with Mike/Andre/Terry. I want the emotional excavation. I want the honesty. I want the catharsis. I want the âwe survived all this and still found each otherâ energy.
More Richonne romantic heatâthe tension, the closeness, the chemistry, the âwe canât keep our hands off each other even when the world is endingâ energy. Because listen⊠the way you write their connection? The way you write the gravity between them? The way they orbit each other like two celestial bodies who refuse to obey physics? I need MORE of that. I want the intensity, the passion, the breathâstealing closeness, the âweâre finally alone and the door is lockedâ vibe. Feed me! Bats my pretty lashes like a pathetic Victorian orphan asking for more.
Richonne Collection @ FF.NET