#aot fic

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What are your favorite aot fanfics?

great question. i don't read as much nowadays but boy do i have some bangers for you.

for levi, born at midwinter by slingzarrowz. this fic in particular was the very first aot fic (and rivetra fic) i ever read. i had never read any fanfic like it before and it was truly the inspiration for me to get back into writing. it's one of three fics in slingz's 'book of levi' series, both leviathan rising and answered prayers are magnificent reads (with a heavy levi/petra/erwin love triangle presence) but this one out of three has a special place in my heart. it's set in the canon universe and has an insane plot! i can't recommend this one enough.

without you by @ghostst0ries. i've never read grief and yearning like this... i'm usually a multi-chap reader but this rivetra one shot blew me out of the water. if i could tattoo all the words onto my body i WOULD. it's set in a modern AU where levi deals with the grief of losing petra to a tragic accident. lena is so very talented and skilled at writing despite english being her second language, she's also written some multi-chap bangers such as burnt norton (rivetra college AU set in england) and a light that never goes out (rivetra 'the last of us' AU which can still be read if you haven't played the game!), as well as a few other rivetra one shots that's definitely worth reading!

telomeres by @safire-lupe. basically anything saf writes, you should read it. telomeres is the first in the line up of the telomeres series which, yes, is all rivetra. it's set in the aot canon universe except petra survives! it has it's own little cult following which is SO deserved because she's a fantastic writer. she's given me a hand with some particular lines in HTB that i needed to run by someone and she also makes incredible art as well!

ask the unhappiest man in the room by bby_dirtbag. it's only two chapters in so far, but the style and prose of their writing has me HOOKED. it's another rivetra fic set in a modern au where levi deals with the grief of erwin's suicide. i believe it's a re-write of their original which i hadn't read, but i bet was just as good. i'm so ready for another chapter and i hope the author is doing well!

y'all don't get no sleep cause of me by erros429. lmao this is actually a guilty pleasure of mine because it's not a traditional fic, it's a groupchat fic between the 104th kids, another college AU. i found it in the early days of joining the aot fandom and go back to it from time to time for a laugh. please read this if you love the 104th kids having nonsensical beef with each other as much as i do.

clearly, i lean more towards the rivetra side of aot fics. all of these amazing authors deserve your time if you haven't given it to them already, i'm so grateful they've shared their work with the world and given us art to laugh/cry over.

i also just want to say i'm open to any eremika and jeankasa fic recommendations if anyone has any! i'd love to find some new favorites in that area of the fandom ❤️

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hii!! I’ve been thinking a lot about HTB recently due to the fact ive been doing my yearly rewatch of aot, and in the canon, we learn that the ackermans are ‘different’ from others due to the fact that they are products of titan science, having dna changed + etc. is there an equivalent of that in HTB, since (idk if im remembering correctly) levi says to petra “before our blood does what it does and turns us all to shit.”, i may be wrong and overthinking but i kinda wanted to see if my thought process made any sense 😭😭😭😭 thanks!!

what a great question!! the answer is 100% yes, there is an equivalent. if i'm remembering right, i talked about it in either a comment on a chapter or a tumblr ask so if you're able to find it, it'll go into more depth.

as it's based in a modern world, the ackerman "curse" in HTB is actually just generational trauma. levi is a firm believer that his bloodline carries a lot of negative traits which leads to the poor decisions that they make and, in turn, causes more trauma to themselves and those around them. because of this, their bloodline is exceptionally adept at survival (physically, and mentally in the sense that they're avoidant and push away). that's why they learn/are taught to fight and why they're good at it. so unlike canon, they're not supernaturally strong or have special powers or anything, they simply do the things they do to survive.

this is why levi is so cautious and overbearing about mikasa making decisions for herself in the first half of the story, with eren, etc — he sees her as an outlier to the ackerman blood and wants to preserve that as much as possible so she doesn't turn out like his mother. that's his biggest fear. it's also why he pushed petra away so much and for so long despite the human side of him falling for her, he didn't want to "taint" her.

mikasa has a little more of a realistic understanding of it all, which is "broken people live broken lives." she doesn't necessarily believe it's literally her blood as an ackerman that curses her, but that her and the entire family aren't destined for happiness simply because they're broken, unhappy people.

i tried to find the comment where i went super in depth with it and couldn't, hopefully you can though!

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This is a very sad scenario, but what would have happened to Levi if Mikasa had committed suicide when he ran away from home? Since his mental state seems to be more fragile than it appears, I don't know how he would have gotten through that December without her :(

oof, that's a deep one anon... for more of a reason that you're yet to know.

mikasa, as we know, is levi's main driving force to keep going. he's centered his entire adult life around not only raising her, but her entire existence. he doesn't work to "get cash," he works to support mikasa. he doesn't make food to "eat," he cooks to feed mikasa. he doesn't live for himself by any means, he lives for mikasa.

what's tricky here is that canon levi moved forward in spite of all his loss and all the deaths around him. we don't get to see what life is entirely like for him after the rumbling, only that he's found a kind of quiet peace with gabi and falco as they rebuild the world around them. but in HTB, despite mikasa's turbulent teenaged plights, levi already has his quiet peace with her. he's survived the childhood he had to live in a safe home with the kid he loves the most. we already saw the panic that happened when mikasa was simply gaining independence, to have her die in the way that she would've and because of him?

i'd have to say it would be extremely touch and go for levi in that scenario. i think suicide would genuinely be on the table for him, but having erwin and hange around who already know him so well wouldn't leave him with much of a chance to action it. from the day it happened right through to december, i highly doubt they would leave him alone in the house whatsoever because they know that december won't be like the rest, and neither would the month mikasa died. petra being a new addition to his life would also help as we know she would try to be as supportive as she could, but unfortunately, i don't think a new relationship would be the best thing for levi to figure out during all of that.

with the grief levi's currently revisiting in the story, mikasa's there to keep him around and aware of his purpose. his closest friends know her existence keeps him from going off the deep end and allows him to see the light at the tunnel when this month of his life is eventually over, this is why we don't see them encourage levi to go to therapy because he eventually "resurfaces" (that, and he flat out refuses...) however, if she wasn't around and her death was another contributor to his mental instability, i firmly believe they would've forced him into therapy as hard as they could, knowing whatever they did and said wasn't going to get him through it as much as they would've wanted it to.

without going too deep into it, i think that would roughly be the trajectory of what we would see in that alternate scenario up until the point we're at in the story. thankfully, we'll never have to see this!!! like ever!!! because she didn't do it!!! but this was such an interesting question anon, thanks for asking.

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Do you have a playlist with all the htb songs? What kind of music or singers do you think Mikasa and Eren would listen to?

my lovely friend @cristalda has compiled all the songs used in HTB chapters! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5SJ4L4H2UMjWZMVKWJLwKy?si=G3xPYTuJTIOjXBLtpMB46w&utm_source=copy-link

it might even include songs previously used for chapters that were later replaced after publishing.

mikasa is a big fan of mazzy star in particular, though her tastes are usually more gothic, alt, etc. i think she'd really like the cure, deftones, evanescence to name a few. anything with a great show of emotion really calls to her. HTB is also set in 2005 so she can at least be a fan of paramore 😛

i like to think of eren's music taste as 'before mikasa' and 'after mikasa.' before mikasa, i think he'd be into divorced dad rock lmao. papa roach, nickelback, basically anything you'd speed down the highway and scream-sing to. after mikasa would have a lot more of her influence like the afore mentioned. eren likes a heavier sound, so mikasa showed him bands like system of a down, rage against the machine, and linkin park.

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An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapter 12: Your Red Hand

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Levi cutting Armin's hair is so cutee, he's his kid too. Are there any other little details like this that you weren't able to include in the story?

Like these little hc that don't affect the main plot but are interesting :3

i always try to implement them, but here's what i have that's not in the story!

- the first time sasha got a digicam, she and connie ran up to levi, took a selfie with him (flash on of course) and ran like hell before he could do anything about it.

- levi gives blankets and pillows to all the "brats" when they sleep over (i think this is alluded to in one of the earlier chapters?) and makes them breakfast the morning after.

- levi is a total boomer when it comes to technology, he doesn't know how to use a computer or cell phone and he doesn't have the patience to try lol. he could never afford a cell phone (and they weren't at all common when he was growing up in the 70s/80s) but now that he can, he avoids buying one because he ALSO doesn't want people to have the freedom to call and bother him in multiple places.

- on occasion, eren has let mikasa drive around a parking lot in either carla or grisha's car late at night. we know eren has his license and can drive (though he doesn't have his own car yet), but mikasa doesn't have her permit, so they do this for fun.

- sasha's the best at skateboarding in the group, but no one really realizes it because she just likes to sit and eat on the sidelines while eren and jean try to out-manoeuvre each other.

- kuchel has a slightly southern accent which levi naturally adopted while learning to talk as a young kid, which i think is so cute. the part of this headcanon that ISN'T cute, however, is that a very scary, strict kindergarten teacher who insisted on proper annunciation berated it out of him. :( neither levi nor mikasa have any southern drawl.

- as teenagers every summer, levi, erwin, hange, miche, and nanaba would swim in the riverbank together and wrestle while sitting on each other's shoulders.

- mikasa's mother and father used to take her to grand stohess park as a kid and would invite levi to join them on occasion (to keep him out of trouble of course!) that's why, despite the train ride, levi continued taking her there to play as she was growing up.

- not sure if i've already made it clear in the story but i'll say it anyway: petra thinks mikasa is INSANELY cool in her style and would've wanted to befriend her if they were both in high school at the same time. petra feels like she can be a little more "young and girly" around mikasa, a nice break from the all the professionalism she conducts herself with as a lawyer.

- a looot of the moms at mikasa's elementary school thought levi was attractive whenever he had to pick her up after school. he rocked up in that sleek inner city bartender uniform, wouldn't talk to any of them, and always held mikasa's hand as they walked back to the car. hence miche mentioning: "women love that dark and mysterious shit you got going on."

- all while mikasa cheered him on, levi had to quite literally climb up and fetch mr sprinkles from the tree they found him in at the park when she was a kid.

okay wow, that's all i can remember for now which is already a lot. i'd be happy to share more if people are interested!

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Do you think Levi sees Mikasa as a little sister or as a daughter? Since there's only about a 13-year age difference between them.

i think he sees her as an amalgamation of both. he had around 4 years of simply being a cousin to her, so the foundation of their relationship was already closer to siblings than parental. having to raise her would have been the start of any sort of parental feelings towards her, it pretty much just came with the job.

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In HTB is Kuchel still alive? I cant remember lol

now would be a great time to re-read the story 🫵🏻😛