Ao3 author spotlight: @tenderlumberjack!
hi hello i've escaped from the hell of my own making and i'm here with another recommendation.
i'm mad at myself for taking so long to read tenderlumberjack's stuff because the amount of thought that goes into these fics is insane. i've been holding off on posting this until i finished reading the first fic in this list but the second i did i read all of the connected oneshots even though it was 1am, which should tell you something about how much i enjoy their writing
Tangled as These Sheets [M] [Polytrix] [Complete]
Zoey had always enjoyed putting things together.
From building Lego sets with her older brother in his room. To replacing car parts with her father on a Tuesday morning in July. To lazy evenings sat at the coffee table piecing together a jigsaw puzzle with her mom. There was a certain satisfaction Zoey found in going from a thousand splintered pieces to a finished product.
Huntrix is a fractured mess in the wake of Gwi-ma’s defeat. The tenuous relationship they’d started in the back third of the world tour was straining at the edges and threatening to buckle under the weight of their individual betrayals.
On the surface everything seemed fine - they were professionals after all. From the outside not a single hair or emotion was out of place. No faults to exploit, no fears to be shown.
But they were still cowards, still liars.
And Zoey isn’t sure if she knows how to fix the broken pieces of her heart.
this was sold to me as THE Zoey fic and yknow what? it's an extremely well deserved reputation. there's so much love and attention to each character, including Celine and Bobby, and they're absolutely beautifully characterised. they're all allowed to have their flaws, and their flaws are realistic and understandable while still being treated as a problem.
i can't overstate how well written their arcs are. and the world building? holy shit. this fic addresses things i never even really considered and it's so internally consistent and clever.
if you liked it, there's also a bunch of short, connected oneshots in the Woven Threads series. i won't go into all of them 'cos there's a bunch, but they're all bitesized and so delightful, expanding even more on the incredible universe that's been created here.
Five Times Rumi Was Hit By a Bus (and one time where she is hit again, just for good measure) [M] [Polytrix] [Complete]
Rumi had learned a long time ago that her body was… more resilient than the average human. She wasn't invincible. Her body still bent and broke and popped and bled in an irritatingly human way sometimes. However she tended to heal at a supernatural rate. A broken arm healed in a matter of minutes. A gash closed over in a handful of seconds. The honmoon helped to speed up the healing of its hunters, but not to this level. Not to this extreme.
Still, the first time Rumi gets hit by a bus she is immensely grateful that 1) it is her and not one of her girls that was hit, 2) her demon healing has already started to repair her snapped spine as she careens through the air and 3) that Zoey and Mira are still in the alley way and won't have to watch this happen.
you've almost certainly heard of this fic before, but if you haven't already read it you really really should. it's the perfect example of crack taken seriously but not SO seriously that it isn't still deeply entertaining.
don't let the fact that it's crack taken seriously fool you, though. it's wonderfully written, with visceral descriptions followed hilarity followed by tooth rotting fluff. there's a reason everyone quotes this in their own fics!
Head Over Boots [E] [Rumira] [Complete]
Rumi has been turned away by not one, not two, but three cobblers so far, and her hope of finding someone – anyone – to fix her absolutely hammered pair of boots is fading quickly. In a last ditch effort, she takes the train all the way up to Seoul to a small shop called Hong & Sons, and finds a whole lot more than she expected.
these kinds of AUs are always so much fun, and this is one delightful and silly and smutty. wonderfully characterised, and Rumi is such a useless wlw throughout. i love her inner monologue.
and, as always, Mira is so unfairly hot
Mo is also a wonderful person to talk to and they give so much to the fandom so i think it's very fair that love gets returned. get loved, nerd. get cherished.
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