Happy International Women's Day! I wanted to do some recs on women and/or fem-centric fics and other media in honor of the day! Female characters and fem and/or women-focused works tend to go underappreciated in many fandom spaces, so please consider giving these titles a shot! (Edit: I posted this two days early on accident but every day is a good day to give women more love, so!)
Fic Recs:
and in my heart, we were whole by bwyn (AkaYona, G, genfic, f/m, Su-won&Yona&Hak, Yona/Hak)
A day full of surprises by @eversio (Trigun, T, f/f, Merylmilly, Trans Milly)
from the depths (of my heart) by cookie (vinkie) (AkaYona, G, f/f, Yonalili)
Rainbows & Starlight by Plumerias_of_BlueMaroon (Trigun, G, f/f, f/m, other, T4T, Alex/Rem, Trans Alex, Nonbinary Rem)
Our Debts Are Cleared by radioactivesaltghoul (MDZS, G, genfic, Queerplatonic Qingxian, Aro Wen Qing)
cooking is love made visible by @markcampbells (Trigun, T, genfic, Queerplatonic Merylmilly, Ace Meryl)
Our Kingdom Come by Queen_of_Moons67 (AkaYona, T, f/f, Yonalili)
Lily by legendofthesevenstars (Trigun, G, genfic, Tesla&Lina)
I shudder to think by Codango (AkaYona, T, f/f, Ayutora)
Larger than Life by @tripwhyer (Trigun, G, f/f, poly, Meryl/Milly/Vash, Meryl/Karen)
Some of My Fics:
Idle Conversations (AkaYona, T, genfic, Kouren&Tao, Aro Kouren)
Forged in Fire (Trigun, M, genfic, Tesla&Vash, Tesla&Knives, Nonbinary Tesla)
Our Paths Forward (AkaYona, T, f/f, Yonalili)
The Witch and Her Demon (Trigun, M, f/f, other, Merylmilly, Nonbinary Meryl, Ace Meryl)
Among the Blossoms (AkaYona, T, genfic, f/m, Happy Hungry Bunch, Yona/Hak)
Chosen (Trigun, T, f/f, Merylmilly, Ace Meryl)
Meet the Family (AkaYona, T, f/f, genfic, Yonalili, Happy Hungry Bunch)
New Waters (AkaYona, T, f/f, Yonalili)
And then finally, I've got some recs for books and manga below!
Yona of the Dawn by Mizuho Kusanagi (Manga, Fantasy, Adventure, gen, m/f; the female lead has a great character arc, plus just tons of cool female side characters)
Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama (Manga, Fantasy, Adventure, gen; the group of girls studying under their teacher have a lot of attention and focus on the four of them and their relationships, so it's super cute on top of being a fantastic manga)
The Beauty's Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu (Baihe, Cultivation/Wuxia, f/f; I like my lesbians a little bloody and murderous, and this definitely delivers. It's very different from other cnovels I've read but a fun read nonetheless)
Gundam: Witch from Mercury (Anime, Sci-Fi, Mecha, f/f; I don't know if I've screamed about this series enough to convince everyone it's good but it is indeed. It might be my favorite piece of sapphic media ever, and that's saying a lot)
Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko (Novel, Fantasy, f/m; a fantastic novel following a young Black girl as she struggles to defy her fate, and it's so, so good. The fantasy elements mixed with the cultural references and political commentary are all great, and it's truly one of my favorite reads from last year)
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (Novel, Fantasy, f/f; the second book in the Wayward Children Series, it's one of my favorites as it focuses on two sisters navigating the dangerous world they fell into in entirely different ways)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 楽しいムーミン一家 | Moomin (Anime 1990)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Lilla My | Little My
Additional Tags: Episode 97 Little My's Short Romance, Aromantic
Series: Part 75 of Ace/Aro characters
Summary:
Littly My burnt herself on some soup, so she spends a few days not talking. That leads to her friends making very annoying conclusions. She will never have romance, and she's happy about that.
Content warnings for the hanahaki disease, although the purpose of this work is to counteract the popular trope by taking the side of the person without it and focusing on how the trope can seriously harm the character(s) it’s aimed at. This takes place during the period in Trafalgar Law’s life that we don’t know much, if anything on, after Corazon’s death but before the events of the manga and anime. Law is also aromantic in this fic, although the word is never explicitly stated.
“I see land, Captain!”
Cheering erupted from the other two men on deck. In truth, there were only four people on the small ship, sailing the open seas, looking for somewhere to set up for a few days and gather supplies. Or maybe stay longer, take a break from running if they were lucky. Law had realized how lucky they’d been to make it this far without drawing attention from Doflamingo. It had been almost eight years now and the pink feathers still haunted his nightmares.
He stood up, a slight smirk on his face, looking at the beacon that called their ship to land. A tall, brick lighthouse shown out in the night sky, brighter than the stars around them. Only a small stretch of ocean separated the ship from it, waves breaking gently against the rocks.
The ship pulled up against the beach next to the rocks, hoping the cover of night would disguise their movements. They could hide the ship better in the morning when they didn’t have to risk sinking it against the rocks or a sandbar hidden by the darkness.
Law heard it first, the creaking sound of a door opening behind them, from the lighthouse. He motioned for the others to get down and stay quiet hoping to distract the lighthouse keeper and get them to look the other way.
He jumped to the ground and walked over, holding Kikoku over his shoulder hoping to intimidate the lighthouse keeper despite his scrawny frame. Law had a decent control over his powers after training on his own, but hadn’t had much practice in using them with Kikoku. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
The lighthouse keeper stopped a few feet in front of Law.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Trafalgar Law,” he answered honestly. He had no reason not to trust the man before him. Yet.
“One of those pirates huh? After the One Piece?”
“I suppose you could call me that.”
“And what brings you to our island?”
“I needed somewhere to restock and hide for a few weeks.”
Shachi and Penguin’s heads poked above the deck railing behind Law, watching the discussion and hoping to God they wouldn’t be seen.
The lightkeeper continued talking.
“The lighthouse is a little ways from town. Is there a reason you didn’t dock in the harbor?”
“I’m a pirate, is that not reason enough?”
“I suppose but don’t you need to be closer to town to get your supplies?”
Law realized he wouldn’t be getting out of this as easily as he had hoped and tried to find a way to end the conversation soon.
“I’d rather take an extra few hours to move it out here than get arrested.”
“That’s fair enough, but if you didn’t want to get arrested, why are you talking to a lighthouse keeper who reports to the government?”
Shit.
Law paused for a moment. A moment dragged on into more, and as he put a thought together, the other three members of his crew jumped over the side of the ship and got on their knees to beg.
“Please don’t report us to the government! We just need some help and we’ll leave!”
The lighthouse keeper took a step back in shock and Law stared wide-eyed at the three men before him. Or to be more precise, the two men and the talking polar bear.
“What the hell, who the hell are you!?” The man shouted, more in shock over the fact that there was a walking, talking bear in front of him than anything else. In all his 19 short years of life, he had never seen a walking, talking bear.
“We’re so sorry we promise we won’t get in the way just don’t tell the government!”
Law sighed and internally chastised himself for thinking anything could go smoothly with them around.
“Well I think I see why you don’t want to dock in town now,” the lighthouse keeper said, starting to come to terms with seeing a bear talk.
“I can put you up at my cabin for a few days I suppose, if you need somewhere to stay.”
Law thought about it but before he could make a decision, the others had made it for him.
“Thank you so much!” They said.
The four of them followed the man down the shore to his cabin, Law on alert for anything that might be a trap, but finding nothing.
When the door opened, a soft lamp light spilled onto the sand, illuminating the lighthouse keeper. He was a man of medium build with warm, brown skin and dark hair, not unlike Law himself. It was obvious the man took better care of himself, however, evidenced by the lack of dark circles under his eyes and minimal scars across the exposed skin.
“What’s your name?” Law asked.
“Derya.”
---
Days passed as Derya had let the small group of pirates into his home. They were surprisingly polite, the bear most of all. He had learned the names of the rest of the crew, interesting as they were. Shachi and Penguin were the human men, maybe a little younger than himself, and Bepo was the polar bear. Law, their captain as Derya had learned, was about his own age.
And he was hot.
Derya told himself to not get too attached and develop feelings, they would be gone in a few weeks anyway. But he wouldn’t object to letting them stay longer.
Law was grateful for a place to stay and the discretion Derya had promised them in return for help maintaining the lighthouse on shore. It was physically exhausting for his crew, who had never dealt with so many stairs at once, but Law used his powers to do it with minimal effort.
Derya stared at Law the first time he used his devil fruit powers to turn on the lighthouse. He had only heard of devil fruit powers before, and never saw one in action. It only made his feelings for the brooding captain worse.
---
Weeks turned into months and the crew continued to help Derya keep the lighthouse running, which gave him an excuse to relax with Law more and more often. His feelings had grown since their first encounter and he knew that he shouldn’t have these types of feelings for a pirate who could kill him in an instant, but he couldn’t help it.
And he knew that they were getting worse, because only a month after meeting them, he had begun coughing up flower petals.
Derya had only heard of this condition in the tales his mother told him as a child, someone fell in love with another and flowers grew in their lungs until they confessed their feelings. If they were accepted, then the flowers shriveled and died, but if they were rejected, the flowers would kill them almost instantly.
The flowers could be removed, but at the cost of the romantic feelings of the affected. To many, that was a fate worse than death, and Derya had believed it was just an old wives’ tale, until now, anyway.
Law knew that Derya had been making excuses to be around him, but he didn’t mind. Derya wasn’t bad company and Law enjoyed talking with him, but it was nothing more. And he thought that it was a mutual feeling between him and Derya.
Then one day he saw some damp flower petals in the garbage. At first he brushed it off as petals blowing in from nearby bushes and getting caught in someone’s drink. But they continued to grow in number, hidden in more places, as if in desperation.
Law thought about one of the diseases he had read about with Corazon. One that stood out was hanahaki, a disease that made one vomit flower petals in the event that they fell in love that was unrequited. A fairy tale, Corazon had told him. That’s all it was. Now he wasn’t so sure.
He tried to think of who could be suffering from the flowering disease; He knew Bepo didn’t feel romantic love towards humans, and Shachi and Penguin wouldn’t develop something like this over whatever innkeeper they were drooling over in town that morning, and it certainly wasn’t Law who was vomiting flower petals.
Shit.
He had come to a conclusion and he didn’t feel great about it. Law realized why Derya had wanted to spend more and more time with him, and thought back to how he had been coughing more and more lately, turning away, and seeing pieces of a flower sink to the ground, saying it was just allergies. That the flower petals were gifted by someone in town.
Law’s stomach knotted itself over, tightening at the thought of someone dying over him because he couldn’t reciprocate their feelings. He had never believed he needed to feel romantic love to anyone, nor did he want to. It was an extra tie he didn’t need and after watching Corazon die for him, and he was determined not to let that happen again.
And he failed.
He failed by allowing someone to get close enough to him to develop romantic attraction to him when that was everything he didn’t want. He failed in causing someone to contract a now fatal disease because he was putting off running away. He failed because he allowed himself to feel safe.
Law called for a crew meeting, wanting to deal with Derya’s disease and leave immediately to prevent it from happening again from someone else.
They all agreed it was time for them to take off again soon and began to load cargo over the next few days.
Derya knew he had to confess soon, or Law’s leaving would kill him, literally. The flowers would bloom in his lungs and kill him.
It was one of the days that Law was training on his power with Kikoku when it happened.
Derya: “I think I love you.”
Law: “I’m sorry.”
Derya: “What do you mean? I know you’re leaving soon but I just wanted you to know--”
Law: “I mean I can’t return those feelings.”
Derya stopped, eyes widening in horror as he realized what would happen.
“Room.”
In the blink of an eye, Law had created a small blue sphere around the two of them before slicing at Derya with Kikoku. The flowers in his lungs that were about to sprout were pushed out of his body harmlessly. His feelings disappeared, too.
Law’s body was shaking from the effort it took him to create the room and replace the flowers in such a quick time. He had done maneuvers like that before, removing a heart or switching two people’s souls when he needed cooperation, but he always had at least a minute to do it. If he hadn’t done it in a matter of seconds, Derya would be dead, and he knew it.
Derya looked up at Law, eyes wide and shaking with the realization about what had just happened. Law had removed the flowers, and Derya would never be able to love again.
Law turned around and placed his sword on his shoulder like they day they met.
“It was nice meeting you.”
“Wait don’t go, bastard! Why the hell did you do that? I won’t be able to love anyone ever again!”
“Is that really so bad? To be unable to love?”
“Some call it a fate worse than death.”
Law didn’t know how to respond. Of course he knew that many people considered feeling romantic love to be the epitome of human emotion, but how could he explain otherwise in a sentence while walking away for good? He couldn’t.
“I guess I’ve been dead for a long time, then.”
“You’re a surgeon of death, that’s what you are. You don’t care about others’ feelings! Why couldn’t you just let me die?”
But he did. He cared too much to watch Derya die with flowers in his chest and he cared too much about Corazon to listen to him and he cared too much about his family to run away with them and he cared too much for everyone.
And maybe he shouldn’t.
Maybe that’s how he ended up so alone in the world.
“You said it yourself. I’m a surgeon of death, and sometimes, living can be worse than death.”
@anon looking for gen/no romance Owari no Seraph fics
Here's the Gen fics that I had in my bookmarks on ao3. I haven't read ons fics in a while, so these all will all be pretty old.
Savepoint by BunnyAndRat
I definitely recommend you read this one!!! It's one of the best ons fics out there. Yuu gets turned into a kid but retains his memories and mindset, and Mika is still 16 and a vampire. They both end up in the Vampire Underground City again, and they need to find each other, stick together, and help each other survive. There's tons of adorable platonic fluff and angst.
However, I should warn you that it's unfinished.
Telos by elinoriii & Nosferatank
Canon-divergent from Season 2, with interesting vampire ocs, vampire headcanons, and platonic squad bonding. Also, trans!Mika!
(You might want to check out Nosferatank's other fics too. They write fics where Mika and Yuu have a sibling relationship. They also come up with amazing vampire headcanons!)
Shiho and Mika by ptw30
A oneshot with some Kimizuki and Mika bonding.
Familiar by Miyanoai
Although unfinished (1 out of 2 chapters) its a cute fic about Mika and the squad coming across Krul's pet bat Arukanu.
Insomnia by kyanitedragon
This fic is actually mine. It's a oneshot I wrote because I realized some similarities between Mika and Mitsuba, and really wanted them to talk and become friends.
Wedding Crashers by Silver_Fish
This one does have romance (Guren x Shinya) but it also has an aroace Mahiru. She's in an arranged marriage to Shinya, but neither of them love each other. Mahiru is aroace, and Shinya is gay and dating Guren. The three of them along with Guren's Squad and Shinoa try to figure out how to stop the two of them from being forced to wed.
Mahiru and Shinya are best friends and a lot of the fic is them joking around with each other while plotting how to stop their wedding.
————————————————————
Thank you for the links!!!
Edit: apparently when I edited this it changed it to being submitted by me which is weird because uh yeah. And I can’t remember who submitted it but anyways thanks tumblr :/
Happy Aromantic Spectrum Awareness week! In honor of the week, I wanted to make some recommendations of aro-spec themed fics, books, and other works for anyone interested in adding more aromantic works to their reading lists! (With the caveat that a lot of the works I'm familiar with are aroace flavored, though there's still some aroallo mixed in.)
For some aro flavored fics recs:
hand in hand by pasteltea (Modao Zushi, G, genfic, Queerplatonic Lan Jingyi&Lan Sizhui, Aroace Lan Sizhui)
Our Debts Are Cleared by radioactivesaltghoul (Modao Zushi, G, genfic, Queerplatonic Wei Wuxian&Wen Qing, Aro Wen Qing)
Heavy Weight by terkaterr (Trigun, T, genfic, Queerplatonic Vashwood, Aroace Vash)
And then some of my own fics that might scratch the itch:
Idle Conversations (AkaYona, T, genfic, Kouren&Tao, Aro Kouren)
Our Home (Trigun, T, genfic, brad&luida, luida&vash, Aroace Luida)
What love is. (Trigun, M, poly, genfic, queerplatonic polygun, mashwood, Aroace Milly)
And then finally, I've got some recs for books and manga below!
Is Love the Answer? by Uta Isaki (Manga, Slice of Life, gen, main character is aroace, as is a major supporting character)
The Siren, The Song, and The Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Novel, Fantasy, gen, two major characters are described as being uninterested in romance and/or sex)
Yona of the Dawn by Mizuho Kusanagi (Manga, Fantasy, Adventure, gen, m/f, major supporting character is noted to be uninterested in romance and/or sex/"doesn't feel romantic emotions")
Fandom: The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Modao Zushi)
Rating: G
Relationship(s): Wangxian (Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian), Lan Wangji&Wei Wuxian
Tags/Warnings: Aromantic Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Queer platonic relationships, Protective Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Soft Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, aspec characters in romantic relationships, Asexual Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian
Summary: Aspec Wei Ying thinks his friendship with Lan Zhan is perfect. Apparently Lan Zhan does not. (Spoiler: that's okay)
Man I love fics where an a-spec character is accommodated and cherished in a relationship (queerplatonic or otherwise), and this one is so very sweet. Lan Wangji is very patient and understanding in this, and it's a joy to read. Definitely check it out!
Please consider leaving comments on the fics you enjoy, as well!
Tags/Warnings: Major Character Death, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Time Travel AU, Found Family, Literal Sleeping Together, Platonic Affection, Spoilers, Manga Spoilers, Terminal Illnesses, Caretaking, aroace soo-won, Asexual Character, Aromantic Character, Bi4Bi Hakyona, Bittersweet Ending, the angst is strong with this one, Post-Canon, Grief/Mourning, crimson illness
Hak wakes up in the royal mausoleum, to a world where everything is wrong.
(A non-canon side story to Double Edged Blade. Welcome to AkaYona's bad ending, Hak.)
