Do you know of anything quite like anyone know this John Doe? Like with John maybe healing from the damage Halsey inflicted on him? I really love aktjd and wanna read more like it
Hrrm... sort of? There’ve been a few ‘John retires’ fics floating about, but the only one that could be considered recent was... personally I found it deeply unsettling, weirdly intensely sexual in places (I’ve always wanted a massage scene in a Chief fic but NOT LIKE THAT, it wasn’t even a ‘happy ending’ thing it was just SO WEIRD) and it was quite short, but I can link you to it if you wanna risk it.
My go-to for ages was My Neighbour Is A Spartan, which was often ooc or otherwise unsatisfactory between the glimmering moments that made me feel warm inside-- until it was rewritten later. It’s definitely much improved, though the end is a bit rushed (I don’t blame them, they were on that fic for YEARS) and though the overall story is much better most of those glimmering moments that kept me coming back are gone. Still, definitely a well-crafted fic that I still periodically come back to and more than worth a read!
Another I read through was A Spartan’s Peaceful Heartbeat which I don’t think of as fondly, but not because it’s bad. It’s a similar premise except there’s a lot more disruption from the press who manage to get Chief’s civvie ID, and that consistent invasion made me uncomfortable reading it because I empathised so much with poor John’s desire to be left alone. At one point he reflexively crushes a news camera and gets taken to court for property damage as the reporter tries to push for ‘threatening behaviour’ as well. It’s uncomfortably realistic in a frighteningly mundane way and that’s never a sentence I thought I’d type.
Honestly though, there’s not a lot. And people tend to have such wildly incorrect varying headcanons for John that it was probably a matter of time before I gave in and finally wrote something myself lmao
Of course if there’s any more, please add them on! I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed one.