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 otherās eyes out while maintaining some semblance of civility.
The piĆØce de rĆ©sistance of this tropeāthe crown jewel, the undefeated champion, the BeyoncĆ© of āRick has two women in the room and one of them is his ex-wifeā ficāis @twriter12ās 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.
Hereās the setup: Zombie Apocalypse. Alexandria. Lori is still alive (and so are some other TF membersāI wonāt spoil too much). Lori and Rick are finally DONE. Rick and Michonne are officially ALL IN.
And thenābecause this is The Walking Dead universeāshit 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 Iāll get to those in another post, possiblyā¦my summer holiday is wrapping upā¦ tries not to fall into another moment of stress paralysis), but let me disseminate why 7 Days is my NĆŗmero Uno, Top of the Heap, Master Class of its kind.
One: Rick finally grows a pair where Loriās concerned.
Let me preface: this isnāt a criticism of other ficsābut my heart can only take so many stories where Lori cuts Rick down and he justā¦ 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 Loriās machinations and basically says: āI donāt give a shit anymore.ā
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? Itās 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 eitherāmore 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-parenthoodāplaying 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 afterānow we just stare at each other across the room like exhausted raccoonsābut I digress.
Four: Father Gabriel gives Rick the talk he shouldāve gotten in Season 2.
I wonāt 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 donāt give a fā
I desire MORE. (You hear me @twriter12 ???!!! MORE!)
I crave a sequel where Rick navigates Loriās 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 yetā¦ I need wine and ice cream. Donāt knock it til youāve tried it. I recommend a sweet red or Moscato paired with HƤagen-Dazs vanilla bean or strawberry. Grape juice works in a pinch if youāre 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 gemsāIām going to highlight a few:
āRespiteāāthe one that shouldāve been canon
This story is everything we were CHEATED out of on screen. Rick and Michonne musing about whether they wouldāve crossed paths without the ZA?
Her portrayal of Rick AND Michonneānot just Richonneāitās perfection. Balanced. Nuanced. Never exaggerated. Never out of character.
The āPennyā SagaāRick, stop being clueless challenge
Penny is an OC with sights on Rick despite knowing heās 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 jealousyābut out of R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
This theme continues in āPartyā, and at this point Iām 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 āChanges.ā Rick and Abraham having a heart-to-heart in āHer.ā Sweet moments with Carl and Judith in āTalkā and āBabies.ā
I want Rick and Michonne sharing their pre-ZA interests. I want them talking about music, books, childhood memories, embarrassing stories.
Brace yourself, @twriter12āIām coming at you with a list of requests. Whether you use them or not is irrelevant. Iām still sending them.
And let me say this clearly: Her āRick learns about Andreā take is my official canon.
Feel free to see this as harassment, cos, Iām 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. Ā Every chapter had me on tenterhooks waiting for Michonne to drop the bomb Rick NEEDED to hear. And just when you think weāre 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 consumingābut never gratuitous. Itās part of the conflict. Part of the avoidance. Part of the ache.
I love the line in 7 Days where Michonne muses: āYou always hear of bad sex in a good marriage, but what about the opposite? How do you handle great sex in a bad marriage?ā
In Haunted, their sexual compatibility is sublimeābut it becomes a distraction from the elephant in the room.
And let me take a momentāa reverent pauseāto 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 passiveāaggressive comment away from snapping a neck and then alphabetizing the pantry afterward.
She is studying Michonne like sheās a threat assessment chart. She is lurking on porches. She is delivering cryptic oneāliners like sheās auditioning for the role of āSouthern Gothic Oracle #3.ā She is smiling that Stepford smile that never reaches her eyes. She is playing psychological chess while everyone else thinks theyāre playing checkers.
And the best part? Michonne sees ALL of it.
Haunted gives us the Michonne who is DONE with Carolās games. The Michonne who clocks every manipulative tilt of Carolās head. The Michonne who refuses to be played, refuses to be gaslit, refuses to be pulled into Carolās little āI know Rick better than youā fantasy. Their dynamic is tense, layered, and absolutely deliciousātwo apex predators circling each other in a suburban culādeāsac.
Itās one of the most compelling portrayals of Carol Iāve 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 unsettlingāand it works.
Honestly? I could read an entire spināoff of Michonne and Carol having polite, razorāsharp conversations while pretending theyāre not two seconds away from violence.
GAWD. @Twriter12ās storytelling is just too damn scrumptious.
Look. These are just my favorites in @Twriter12ās bibliography. The woman has RANGE. In addition to the aforementioned treasures, sheās also gifted us a couple of sharp, characterādriven profile pieces centered on Sasha and Rositaāboth of which feel like intimate psychological snapshots pulled straight out of the ZA. And if that werenāt enough, sheās got a modernāday 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, youāre not done. I refuse to accept that! I donāt care that I am more than a decade late to the Richonne fanfiction party. I have requests too, dangit!
TastefulNood42ās 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 oneāshots that delve deeper into those Richonne moments prior to Rickās accident. I want the domestic chaos. I want the emotional growth. I want Loriās face when she realizes the universe is not taking her side. Yes, I'm that petty.
More oneāshots where Rick and Michonne discuss the Big TraumaāRick 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 āwe survived all this and still found each otherā energy.
More Richonne romantic heatāthe tension, the closeness, the chemistry, the āwe canāt keep our hands off each other even when the world is endingā energy. Because listenā¦ 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 breathāstealing closeness, the āweāre finally alone and the door is lockedā vibe. Feed me! Bats my pretty lashes like a pathetic Victorian orphan asking for more.
Richonne Collection @ FF.NET
