I need to share a series that has utterly shattered me, and makes me so happy that I wish I could read it for the first time again. I’d even live thru the week again just to read it for the first time again.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
“Shutterbug” by @goldkirk ripped my heart out in the best way possible, I am not ashamed to admit I cried a few times and came closer than I’d like to admit to crying in the middle of class reading this.
I’d like to thank them for writing this
I’d like to share this with as many people that will listen to me
I’d like to read this a million times over for the first time.
I’d like to feel my heart break and mend all over again the exact way it did when I was reading this.
Absolutely heart wrenching, earth shattering, punch in the gut fic, but it’s also a warm hug, a whispered sentence of comfort, and a warm drink on a cold day surrounded by the people you love, family or not.
Hands down, one of the best fics I’ve ever read, I’d like to share the emotions.
I’d also like to go cry in a corner for a bit.
This is a heavy series, I would very much head the warnings at the warnings of each chapter, but it’s worth it (if it’s not triggering for you)
Warnings: Mentions of decommissioning, Jango Fett being a bad parent and person, threat of decommissioning, panic attacks (two), guilt, abandonment, betrayal, part of this is a short time after Fives' death, Kaminoan Everything
Additional Tags: Bad Parent Jango Fett, CC-1010 | Fox Needs A Hug, Tissue Warning In Effect, CC-2224 | Cody's Name Is Kote, Kote is a little shit, Fulfillment of a dream, Pride, parent/child relationship tones, No Incest
Summary: Four laughs in the life of Commander Fox
@loving-fox-hours
The fic itself: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33208066
NOTE: This is the saddest, heaviest entry for the week, but it's still kept at a level that doesn't go higher than a T, in my sleep-deprived opinion. If you disagree, I'll move the rating up, just send me a message!
hey, could you please recommend some good fics that revolve around the theme of any of the mains experiencing self isolation, severe anxiety depression. i’m sorry if this is too much for you, it’s okay if you don’t have anything. it’s just that sometimes reading this kind of stuff is comforting.
hi anon! i totally get you. personally, i stay away from the heavy angst on ao3. however, sometimes it's comforting to know you're not the only one going through stuff. i don't have a lot of stories in my bookmarks that are about topics you mentioned. however, i'm going to do my best to rec as much as possible!
(NOTE: read the tags and warnings for these stories! stay away from triggering topics and look out for yourself!! ❤)
ღ make this chaos count by aetoms {T, taekook, 14,5k} [taehyung deserves the world and jungkook tries to show him exactly that]
ღ fragile by wintermin {M, yoonmin, 79,9k} [this is heartbreaking and, at times, hard to read. a heavy, honest and beautiful story. please mind the tags before you start reading, take care of yourselves please!!!]
ღ apartment 4B by orphan_account {T, taekook, 95,2k} [this is really beautiful and also really sad at times. taehyung wants to get to know jungkook, the supposedly ''rude'' boy. it's heavy and emotional. again, mind the tags and warnings!]
i hope you like these. please remember that there are people there for you if you feel alone. reach out to them. seek for help if you need it. look after yourselves, people. much love from me. (´∀｀)♡
Status: 3 Complete Works, 1 Work in Progress
Length: (As of 2/18/18) 131 Combined Chapters - 363,064 Words
Rating: Mature
Canon: Modern AU, but there is bending.
Genre: Angst, some Fluff, Eventual Romance, and more Angst
Trigger Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Violent Racism, Assault, PTSD
Author’s Blurb:
Chemistry (Part 1 of Elements)
In the first installment of the Elements Series, Korra and Asami meet at the University of the United Republic of Nations in chemistry class. Little do they know the effects chemistry will have on them.
History: Part 1 (Part 2 of Elements)
In order to write history, one must learn about the history of others. In the first part of the second installment of the Elements series, Asami Sato must help Tonraq, Senna, and Naga delve the past to discover what happened to Korra.
History: Part 2 (Part 3 of Elements)
History has the ability to affect us just as much as we affect it; it shapes who we are and who we choose to become. In the conclusion of the second installment in the Elements series, Korra isn’t the only person who struggles with these concepts as the past begins to surface from its dark depths.
The Arts: Part 1 (Part 4 of Elements)
Art: a skill acquired by experience, study, or observation over time, after building a History. In The Arts: Part I, the storms that have passed and storms to come threaten those fighting to survive, and life will depend upon the skills - The Arts that are developed and implemented through these trials. But sometimes, the heart needs more time to accept what the mind already knows.
My Take:
“Angst on angst on angst” should be the tagline for this series. I mean, if you’re looking for a fic that puts our leading ladies (and readers’ hearts) through the wringer, look no further. It takes place in basically a modernized version of the show’s world. There’s bending, the five nations, and polarbear dogs are still a thing - just add in a modern college feel, medicine, and technology.
Korra is the first person from the Southern Water Tribe to ever go to University of the United Republic of Nations so she arrives knowing no one and is pretty much alone. She happens to be assigned lab partners with Asami and they hit it off right away, becoming friends and study-buddies. Then all hell breaks loose.
Much like the world we live in today, this particular universe has extreme racism. Korra, being from one of the Water Tribes, becomes the victim of vicious verbal and physical attacks. Then you throw in the fact that she’s not a bender and has been carrying the guilt of disappointed parents on her shoulders for her entire life and I think you can probably see where this perfect shit storm is headed.
There are happy bits though. Korra and Asami come to rely on each other and their inner thoughts about each other display classic signs of uselessness. I’m still holding out for some series resolution, as the fourth fic in the series is incomplete. The good news is that it’s evidently not as abandoned as I thought it was when I first read it all back in may of 2017. The most recent update was in October of 2017, fingers crossed, eh?
Like I said though, this is a heavy fic. I had trouble getting through it, not at all because of the quality of writing, but because of the actual events in it. Thinking about it now, sheer stubbornness is probably the only reason I did finish all of it, but if you’ve been paying attention to this blog, then you know how much of a sap I am for warm, fluffy, feel-good fics. If you are all about tragedy, angst, and the torture of the slow-burn, then I would highly recommend the Elements Series by AutyRose.
For all things Korra, check out @korrahq
<Community Calendar> <Community Links> <Fic Recs> <Submit>
in case you cared about my all human AU jalice wip it’s currently nearly the 50k mark and listen..... i’ve come to terms with the fact that whumpy hurt/comfort shit is all I can write...... which means you all need to brace yourself because this shit is heavy and i am SAD!
For the mini ask night: Tavros and Aradia get some private time after Tavros' huge, long inauguration party and he's so scared that he's going to fail everyone that he breaks down?
Heslams through the door, not like he’s angry but like a hunted man, pacingaround his block in long, wobbly strides, wheeling around when he comes upshort at a wall, eyes wide.
“I can’t,” he’s saying as you come in behind him, and hisvoice is starting to break now, now the façade can come down, he’s starting toshudder into huge, breaking gasps. “I—c-can’tAradia I can’t I can’t do this I can’t—”
…And here it is, your first test. You take a deep breath and edge closer, andhe sniffs and swipes angrily at his eyes; his paint is smearing, thegolden-brown streaks around his lids streaking his perfect, wiggler-silverskin.
“Well,” you say, and find that your mouth is dryer than youthought. You may or may not be a littlebit tipsy. Your hands are shaking alittle. Pailing for the first timecould hardly be worse than this, at least there you should have biologicalinstinct helping you through. You can’tfeel anything guiding you here, you’re on your own and he keeps rubbing hiseyes like he’s about to burst into tears. “…Why—don’t you tell me why?”
“Why?” He soundsstunned that you would even ask. Wasthat the wrong question? He backs awayfrom you and falls back on the couch, raking his fronds through his hair, mouthingsilently. His ears are pinned back.
“You must have a lot of reasons, running around in yourhead!” You sit down on the other end,and then when he doesn’t immediately run you scoot in a little closer. He turns his face down and away and sniffsagain. He’s still fiddling with hisbracelet. At the very least, you wanthim relaxed enough that he’ll stop doing that. That he can sit still and talk to you. That’s the first goal. “Do youneed to yell?”
He stops, looking at you like he’s never seen youbefore. Then you see him think about it,the contemplation clear on his face. Then he shakes his head.
“Do you want—“ thewords feel strange to say, but you force them through anyway, and trust (hope)one day they’ll feel right. “Would ithelp if I touched you?”
His cheeks flush soft tan. He doesn’t nod, but he doesn’t shakehis head either—it seems like he’s afraid if he moves the moment willbreak. You move a bit closer, and then abit more—your knees are so closer you can feel the warmth through your silkyskirt.
When you tilt your knee a little and bump it against his hegasps like you stabbed him and goes frozen all over. Not the waiting stillness from earlier—a scarykind of stillness that stops his breathing and makes his wings flare out behindhim in stiff alarm. You go still too,watching, barely breathing, waiting for him to make the first move.
And then he crumples slowly forward, hugs his knees up tohis chest like a wiggler and lets out a single hoarse, wrenching sob.
You may not know him inside-out yet, you may not be theclosest in the world, but you can still understand the wretched, awful terrorin the way he sobs, huge, gasping, shouting sobs that wrack his whole body, andwhen you lean down over him and pull him over into your lap one arm snakesaround your waist and squeezes, pulling you closer. His horn presses uncomfortably into your side—you’regoing to have to find a nice, deep pile, you realize, and figure out how tohold him in ways that won’t give him a stiff neck, but for now you just shiftaround as best you can and pet his hair. The short-shaved hair on either side of his head around his hornstickles your fingertips and you scratch the nape of his neck as gently as youcan as he cries and try to think about your next move.
“Big changes arescary,” you find yourself saying after a while, when his sobs have quieteda little. He’s still crying, but he’slimp and worn out, shuddering. His wingsare slack again. His makeup must besmeared all over your skirt. “They always have been. Have you ever heard of the planet of Turyt?”
He doesn’t respond. You rub his back and try not to feel dumb.
“Their leader died,”you murmur, and despite everything that’s happening you have to try hard not tosmile. “But the people who lived on theplanet were so scared of having somebody new in charge, they stuffed the corpseand made a puppet out of it, so nobody from the other planets in theircoalition would know he was dead! But hestarted to smell bad at court proceedings, so—”
Tavros’s back hitches. For a second you think he’s sobbing again—but then he stirs and propshimself up a little on one arm, and you see that he’s smiling, a wobbly, tinylittle smile.
“That’s awful,”he says, chokey and hoarse, and his cheeks are wet with brown tears. Your heart flutters a little in your chest, astrange double-beat you’re not sure really happened—your breath does somethingstrange, catching in your thorax. Youput a hand out, and he takes a deep breath when you put it on his tear-stainedcheek, but he doesn’t pull back. “What— What happenednext?”
He looks at you with those big, dark liquid moobeast eyes, and you hunch your shoulders at how guilty that look makes you feel. When was the last time you saw his face? You can't remember. Your thinkpan has been one huge inferno of work and digging through ancient sources and interpreting and excavating and drinking pan-pounder drinks that make your insides catch fire to replace the unnecessary delay of sleep.
"You're really not fine. You're, in that state you told me not to let you get into again, after last time you got into it. You're obsessed with--"
"Do I look obsessed to you?" You take stock of yourself--your hair in a mess, your lipstick smeared and your clothes unkempt--and keep going over top of him before he can answer. He doesn't understand, this is important! "It's important and I'm so close to a breakthrough, Tavros, come and see what I've been--"
"I will come and see what you've been working on," he says firmly, "...when you have gone and slept."
You give him the barkbeast eyes--he just looks back at you, earnest and wide-eyed and immovable as the palace wall. The dampers are still on your wrists.
"I don't want to."
"I know."
"I could throw you out with my brain."
"No you couldn't."
"I hate you!"
"No you don't." He lets go of one wrist, leaving the damper where it is, and the soft click click click of his claw tracing the rippled curve of your horn makes your knees wobble. "Come on. I found a, uh, really old book I want to show you, and you're worrying Sollux too even though, since you two are so professional about everything, he's not allowed to tell you so? And Karkat, even, is worried, so..."
He takes a step back, then another, towing you gently toward the door with one hand on your wrist and one on your horn. Really, you have time to think, through the fog that seems to be slowly creeping up around the blazing shield of the energy drinks, that isn't fair.
