#d20ficoff

[allthecastlesonclouds]

d20 fic-off 2025 fic recs! (part two)

with part one here, i think i should move onto the second half of some of the many fics i enjoyed from this lovely event! these ones are significantly more heartwrenching, as a warning.

both of us half-damned. by @kipperlillycopperkettle (fantasy high, 2k words, archive locked)

truly, jace is such the interesting character huh. he can’t call himself a victim so clearly they weren’t! and he’s a good guy! (<-he’s not. he just will not let himself deal) anyway i think ivy should punch him. as a treat

The Beast of the Farhaven Woods by @hectic-hex (the seven/neverafter, ylfa&the seven, 5.4k words, archive locked)

this one is the stillness in woe of this post but for some reason putting this one with these felt right. ylfa and the seven oh my goodness. giving those girls a collective younger sister was such an amazing decision and i love how each of them tackled it differently. yelle&ylfa yippee <33

The Death and Afterlife of Kipperlily Copperkettle (and its AO3 link) by @scalematey (fantasy high, twine fic, ~23k words with all routes)

listen. this twine? the coolest thing i’ve ever seen. There’s so many routes and no matter the choice you make, the story just gets deeper and deeper and it is a rabbit hole of loops and tearing yourself apart and. ohhh everyone go play this right now

how are you so loved and so lonesome? by @serenescribe (fantasy high, 10k words)

a beautiful study in the past and the faeth family (’s collective inability to process or believe in themselves). heartwrenching is truly one of the best words for it.

Truman Show Complex [Series] by @levonleviathan (2 works in series; fantasy high, 1.2k and 1k words)

oh my goddddd oh my goddd kipperlilly copperkettle girlie. girlie you are so fucked up please get therapy from a guy who’s not involved. girlie please. Anyway everyone go read this kipperlilly understanding she’s in media without understanding what media she’s in

i'd take your dreams and make em multiply by @lunarblazes (the unsleeping city, pete&kingston, 2.2k words)

this isn't heartwrenching, but it's equally not lighthearted. it’s just beautiful. seeing the world from your opposite’s shoes; feeling an uncomfort in it and an understanding and an agreement that this is not you and you need to get back to your city the way you have it, not his.

go home and save what little you have by @luvo27 (fantasy high, 3k words, archive locked)

grief and mourning and humor and augh. it toes the line so well in a way only the seacasters can, i think, and it’s amazing.

don't you know there's a coffin buried under the garden by @vivitalks (fantasy high, fig/gorgug, 19k words)

our boy gorgug is GOING THROUGH IT SO MUCH and it’s beautiful. it’s the perfect mix of dnd mechanics and fiction magic, and the descriptions are terrifying. he knows his friends too well. this does not quite help him.

storm clouds by @cookies-over-yonder (acofaf, andhera&advisor, 656 words)

the andhera & advisor fic i needed in my life, actually. the emotions in this fic are so crisp and spirally and clear, and the care is even more palpable.

royal dues come calling by @serra-says (fantasy high, 24k words)

TORTURE! THAT! BOY! WITH! THE RELATIONSHIP DEMON! Oh my god the terror and the pleading and baron’s voice. baron’s voice.

The Spring to my Autumn by @madgirlmuahaha (acofaf, gwyndolin/binx, 2k words, archive locked)

for a character we don’t actually meet, gwendolyn really is haunting the narrative. But this precanon fic. augh. binx and gwyn’s relationship is heartwrenching and binx’s loss of all their relationships and their isolation and just. aughhh

Don't you wanna see what you've been missing? by @luvo27 (fantasy high, love potion'd riz, 11k words, archive locked)

luvo. luvo. luvo. killing you dead this fic made me so viscerally uncomfortable. it’s beautiful and painful and so, so good. screaming crying throwing up etc.

a failure of a mother & the daughter the other one tried to sacrifice by @arcanearies (the seven, sam&rebecca, 3k words, archive locked)

the seven fanfic and it’s tragic both ways. god mourning someone who hurt you. mourning someone you think you should’ve saved. mourning your lack of anger. being angry.

Stuck In Your Head [series] by @mossterious (6 fics; mentopolis and various, 2.8k, 3.1k, 3.4k, 2.8k, 3.1k, 2.8k)

what better way to analyze characters to literally send some other guy into their head? seeing how each of the prefrontal pis took to the scenario, too, was SO cool, and just. the care that they have for each other. <33

[cindytoast404]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Dimension 20 (Web Series) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Fabian Aramais Seacaster/Gorgug Thistlespring, Ayda Aguefort/Figueroth Faeth, Figueroth Faeth & Fabian Aramais Seacaster Characters: Fabian Aramais Seacaster, Figueroth Faeth, Gorgug Thistlespring, Ayda Aguefort, Riz Gukgak, Kristen Applebees, Adaine Abernant Additional Tags: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Weddings, Post-Canon, Curses, Found Family Summary:

"We'll go to Leviathan with you," Gorgug pipes up, though he's been quiet the entire time. He sits on the edge of his seat, his hair tied out of his face into a short ponytail, the white streak beginning to fade slightly out of his hair. He speaks with his hands more than he used to, now — Fabian supposes they’re used to the movement from the amount of time he spends working on various gadgets and such. “I mean, I don't want to speak for everyone here, but... I think we all want to make sure you’re happy," he says, offering Fig a smile.

Fabian nods in agreement. And maybe it’s just because it’s late, or maybe it’s because he’s slowly starting to lose it as he watches Gorgug, steadily there, a comfortable presence around the table. But for a moment, his heart swims with anticipation, the same sort of feeling he gets just before a fight.

Or: A wedding is planned, Fig gets cursed, emotions aren’t processed, and the sea is unchanging.

[something-wilder]

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

The thing about living beyond the end of a Great Prophecy and a war against the Titans is that you really, really don’t expect to do it. Like, at all. ... The Bad Kids defeat Kronos, turn down godhood, and return home to Camp Half-Blood just in time for the last few days of summer. Everyone's got plans for what happens next. Kristen is spearheading the rebuilding and the new cabins for the children of minor gods, Adaine is putting up wards around the Aguefort Adventuring Academy to give demigods a safe place during the school year, Fig is patching things up with her parents, Riz is already trying to decipher the next Great Prophecy, and Gorgug is working on tech that demigods can use safely. And Fabian is...hanging out on the deck. Watching the sunset. And he's got no idea what comes next. He's got Gorgug, though. Maybe that's the most important thing.

its a pjo au and the best underwater kiss of all time for @d20ficoff

[nervestatic]

got a whole lot of options 'cause you know a bitch poppin'

Summer hits Bastion City like a ton of bricks.

Adaine is sweating, even with the temperature balancing runes she's stitched into the collar of this blouse. Everyone on the metro looks miserable in the heat, crowded together like a tin of kippers and left out to bake. There's been delays and stops all day, the arcanatech that the metro system runs on bugging out from the heat and thunderstorms that have been plaguing the city for the last week; so Adaine's trying not to jostle anyone as she digs her crystal out of her pocket.

Social media gives her pictures of Fig and Gorgug from the tour they're currently on, ninety percent of them from paparazzi or fan accounts and the other ten from Gorgug's private instagram. Adaine likes the ones from Gorgug and scrolls aimlessly until the train jerks into motion around her, the shuddering hum of arcanatech sputtering back to life as they get sent whirring down the track. 

Her crystal buzzes with a text from Riz, and Adaine thumbs over to it, her other hand reaching up to snag the handhold above her. 

continue reading on ao3

[waveridden]

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

Iga's kids are acting weird. She tries to figure out why. [2.1k, post-TUC2, written for @d20ficoff]

[allthecastlesonclouds]

d20 fic-off 2025 fic recs! (part one)

so, this is the first post of two i'll be making! was struck with the want to toss some of the many fics i enjoyed from this year out into the world, because people truly threw themselves into this event and i had such a fun time reading the fics i read (because i'd wager a guess i read the most fics of the non-mods)

welcome to part one! more lighthearted fics! and also ell. ell's here too.

Diversity Win! Aguefort Gym Is Gay! by @luvo27 (fantasy high, 5k words, archive locked)

luvo’s in world voice is amazing and when i say this fic is the exact amount of wildness that exists in like. a fantasy high liveshow. i mean it. i’m invested in these buildings’ love story, god dammit!

stillness in woe by @serenescribe (fantasy high fabian&riz, 106.5k words)

my dear, dear friend ell, i was hanging on to every single word of that fic. Being able to live react was delightful and AUGH every beat of that story hits so well. fabian’s and riz’s bond is. so so well portrayed. and the world that you’ve created, too, is beautiful.

untangled all the strings 'round my wings that were tied by @vivitalks! (a starstruck odyssey, sid/barry, 4.6k words)

sundrysyx (/sidbarry) is one of my pc/pc ships EVER. and this is delightful! the chaos of AnarchEra is amazingly captured and everyone is so them

premature quangle by @arcanearies (fh/tuc, pete&kristen, 2k words, archive locked)

the one time you will write kristen happy, my friend, and you did it beautifully! The first two beardsley pcs facing each other and pete being. truly so so lost while kristen thinks the interaction was a 10/10. amazing amazing amazing 

come over and wreck my heart by @starstruckodysseys (never stop blowing up, dripsdrops, 3k words, archive locked)

leave it to reese to expand the universe of the characters that our amazing/awesome action heroes took over, by, of course, putting them in college. feat beautiful lesbianism that i’m so sad didn’t happen in canon. dripsdrops theeee ship name ever.

They Did The Monster Mash (It Was A Graveyard Smash) by @mossterious and @starstruckodysseys (never stop blowing up, 61k words, 20/30 chapters)

this one isn’t yet complete but i am patiently waiting because. NSBU Universal Monsters AU. featuring familiars i will forever be suspicious of (i shouldn’t be) (but they’re suspicious goddammit) the formatting is so cool and the voices are amazing– which is important because the fic’s in script format!

the stars are out tonight by @scalematey (the unsleeping city/stardew valley, kingston brown&oc, 7.8k words)

a “kingston brown forced out of nyc (to go to pelican town) (to help the farmer who’s a populi)” fic that truly delights me. Make that man stand in the rain!!!! hell yeah!!!

Christmas in July by @rrat-king (fantasy high, kristen/tracker, 4.5k)

this fic is the wonderful, wonderful result of “making fig’s two birthdays canon compliant” AND has beautiful trackerbees AND has amazing bad kids and manorlings dynamics!! Bird you’ve done it again <3

A Correspondence of Natalia Cicero Connie Lee Carter Bajar Shortly Prior to Lunch On The 30th Day Of The 219th Cycle of Anarch Era by @remidyal (a starstruck odyssey, 205 words)

a letter that’s a poem that’s an ultimatum. it’s torturous. it’s beautiful.

Skating by @thepoweroffriendshipgivesumoney (fantasy high, sklonda&riz&tbk&tbp, 964 words, archive locked)

talking about what the bad kids would do on the ice was so fun, and juse’s descriptions of them are even better. sklonda’s voice is delightful, too!

Gay Gym? by Artistkitty (fantasy high, fig/ayda/gorgug, 303 words, archive locked)

fig/ayda/gorgug theee ship ever i love them smmmm! It’s so short and sweet and cute and! aa!

forget the world now, we won't let them see by @highfiveheroes (fantasy high, fabian/gorgug, 3k words, archive locked)

some soft pre-canon thistlecaster in the aftermath of a figayda wedding, and when i say soft i mean soft and cute and sweet and the fluffiest ever <3333

Good-Night, Sweet Prince by @unsleepingtales (fantasy high, 1k words, archive locked)

!!!!!!! fic written for me i thinkkk. body euphoria for zayn after death with some mentioned yolanda&zayn friendship and. alksadhflkjasd<333

AITA for giving a second chance to the guy that attacked me and my friends? by @fish-food-s (fantasy high, adaine/oisin, 2k words, archive locked)

this was a delightfully fun fic to comment on as i followed along, and i highly recommend everyone read the comments to see a bunch of people pretend to be characters in universe as Adaine Goes Through It In The Relationship World <33

[something-wilder]

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

Fabian is an exquisitely good liar. One has to be, to please an immortal parent and convince five incredibly powerful friends that he's constantly okay and maintain his Maximum Legend reputation. If he doesn't project perfect strength, perfect grace, perfect wit and humor (or what passes for it, at least) and laugh off every assumption against him, everything he's ever tried to build and be will fall apart. It comes to him as easily as breathing at this point--not the small stuff, the stupid stuff, like figuring out fake names and identities, but pretending he's okay? Simple. Effortless. Because he is okay. He has to be. Unknowingly being under a slow-acting truth spell might screw all of that up, though. ... Fabian gets hit with truth magic. Turns out his life doesn't, in fact, rule ninety-five percent of the time.

fabian vs truth serum vs hallariel. shockingly, the winner is not fabian

[something-wilder]

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

One year ago, Porter succeeded in becoming a god of war, and the believers of Ankarna and Cassandra scattered, including their Chosen Ones. Six months ago, Gorgug Thistlespring decided to bring the Resistance off of the defensive and started making preparations to attack Porter's stronghold. Several weeks ago, Kristen found out that Tracker cracked the barrier between Porter's domain and the rest of the planes. All of the plans have set in motion. The goodbyes have been said. It's time. ... The Bad Boys at three separate points during the start of their fight against Porter and his followers.

paladin au is up :) everyone say woo! @d20ficoff