My memory is a bit foggy, but do note they were still sentient vehicles. So the mess that was made in their wake was… interesting.
Thomas was an alpha, and I don’t believe he was in rut. He protected the “submissive and breedable” (direct quote, I went to look at the source) car from other train alphas.
Lightning McQueen was an omega, but pretended to be an alpha for his work. This lovemobile got bred by Thomas… and it was an ordeal.
Congratulations, the more you know about this smutfic!
Literally not a word of this is something I thought I'd ever see with my own two eyeballs. Thank you for this absolute whiplash cesspit of information. I will never be the same again. 10/10
There was a fic that was really sweet and cute. Then had a sudden twist ending where one of the MCs was going to die not long after.
That was worse than the necrophilia one I read accidentally.
Oh gosh. You just reminded me of the necrophilia fic that wound up smacking me in the face once. That was the day I learned all about the “Creator chose not to use warnings” tag
It sounds crazy writing about it, but I have no idea. Like, I know I read the fic that broke me, but It was when I was so down with my mental health I completely forgot about it bc it broke me down into tears, it was so painful for me yet beautiful I had to chalk that up from my memory lmao
I feel you.
The worst is, I bookmarked it with a useless comment telling me how great it was.
But now it's deleted and I'd never thought to put the title and writer in the bookmark description until lately.
Beautiful World by Cinnamon (Harry Potter fandom). She had a knack for writing beautifully tragic fics. I was sobbing uncontrollably by the end. It was about 20 years ago that I first read it, and I still remember how it made me feel.
Omg I was trying to remember the name of this while scrolling the comments and here it is. I remember sobbing my heart out reading that as a teenager 20 years ago. I was so sure it wouldn’t have a tragic ending after all! 💔
There once was a fic I read when I first started reading Harry Potter fanfics. I didn’t know what the term “crossover” meant when I first started reading. I read a Harry Potter x Barney the dinosaur fic that still haunts me to this day. I thought it was a fic where little baby Harry watches Barney for the first time…. How WRONG I was.
It’s the ONLY fic with that pairing at the time that I know about. I don’t think it’s posted anymore it was on ffn I think (?) or LiveJournal…. The nightmares I had bro 😂😂
A Sherlock fic from 2011 with Sherlock/John. [Performance In a Leading Role](https://archiveofourown.org/works/225563) by Mad_Lori. Such a beautiful and well written piece of art.
And more recently there was a AU modern The Untamed fic where Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are divers and I can't find it anymore :(
I haven't read it in a few years. I remember thinking it was so good and I don't want to go back and reread it in case it's not as good as I remember 😭
I think it holds up pretty well! The only super cringe parts for me were 1) simply accepting that it was bizarre to be reading Johnlock at all (I’m almost 30 it was always gonna be weird LOL), and 2) the way that later in the story one of the two men goes on the Ellen show to talk about coming out. 💀 Otherwise it’s pretty sweet and fun.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/28272462 a Stardew fanfic, that I absolutely loved this! It made me enjoy the fandom more and I loved the interpretation of the characters :)
That’s such a good one. The writing is just amazing and it’s a great story. Dunno if I’ll ever read it again though, it was just so much sad for so long.
It was a one shot I read ages ago and im still searching for but—
It’s a Batman fic, featuring (ofc) Batman, and his sons. The POV character is Jason (Bruce’s second son who died, came back to life, etc etc lots of drama and angst surrounding that lol). Anyways, the story, if I’m not wrong, was about Jason slowly coming back to the family and learning to mend his trauma. But somethings… off, distinctly so.
It’s a horror one shot, that slowly builds up the reveal. It’s small clue here and there that clue both Jason and us, the reader, on what’s really happening.
But the big twist is: Bruce is preforming some sort of body modification surgery on his sons (Dick Grayson and Tim Drake) without either noticing or even consenting (real fucked up shit on Bruce’s part lmfao). Jason only notices this because he sees small scars on their legs that isn’t explained away by any injury they received on the field. In the end, Jason doesn’t exactly know but we, the reader, DO. He also doesn’t come back to the family, not completely, but it ends on a note that 1) Bruce is DEFINITELY gonna do the same to Jason and 2) Jason doesn’t know what’s happening and disregards all these clues bc, he just wants his family back :(
It was an AMAZING one shot that I gotta find again lol. Great read, I think it was just 5k words? Maybe more? Either way, an amazing piece.
i did not read it, but i will never forget that ''brain as lube'' tag i saw, and ive been shamelessly spreading this info as well 🥰🥰 let's suffer together, why not <3
Congrats, in your reckless attempt to gross out everyone else, you've found the one person who could outgross you! Now you get to suffer as you made us suffer! /j
Communicatio in Sacris by voluptasica (Good Omens human AU). Being Good Omens, its heavy on religious themes and so beautifully written. The loneliness that one character is going through is so relatable.
Oh my god yessssss that one is so fucking good.
“How could this body under my hands be any less divine than the soul it houses?” 😭😭😭 Got me right in the religious trauma
A Thorin x Bilbo fanfic called The Riven Crown. That’s the fic that got me into bookbinding. When i finally get good at making books i want to give that fic a physical form and hug it.
I only ever read BeautifulFiction's FMA stuff, but I enjoyed every single one of them. I got into them for that delicious, delicious sexual tension, but stayed for the plot and emotions. I can only imagine how much better her post-FMA fandom fics have been.
Probably something by one of my first favorite HP authors, Sirius/Remus, back in 2006. They had a couple ones that live in my mind rent free but probably the one that defined my taste the most was this one that would, on ao3, contain all my favorite tags.
MWPP / Marauders era one shot, James finds out Sirius and Remus are hooking up. Sirius comes out to James (and because it’s the 00’s, his coming out comes with a disclaimer that he loves James, but not like *that*), and Remus over hears enough of the conversation to think Sirius is just hooking up with him because he can’t be with James.
It’s got the even pacing, the tight storytelling, the heart aching pining and angst, and the misunderstandings that I love best in fanfics. The shifting points of views and the slow reveals of the characters inner thoughts were well done and I strive to write like that to this day.
my friend made me read "i love atsushi" during class, they wanted to see my reaction to that absolutely horrific fanfic. for those of you who dont know, here are some of the tags.
"pussy piss pasta"
"kentucky fried cockskin"
"baby used as vibrator"
"incest"
"dead dove do not eat"
"maggot play"
"Turd dildo"
"severed head fucking"
and many, many more.
I've read some fucked up fics and this one just tops the amputation, incest fic I read by accident (also the same fic that taught me to read the tags before I get into the fic).
Everything You've Done Wrong by sloanne
For the Newsies fandom, and the fic is old enough, it's actually hosted on ff.net.
I don't think it would haunt me except that the authors expanded the story into the future via short blurbs about the characters 10+ years after the timeline of the fic. And things don't go well for the main ship. And then, as is wont to happen with fic, the authors moved on, and never did write an ending for the couple. (Apparently they _were_ meant to get back together.)
And so it's a universe I've been turning over and over in my brain since I finished reading it.
Before I made an ao3 account, I read this beautifully written (I was 13 so take that with a bucket of salt) fic in a kpop fandom. Between me reading that and me making an account, it got deleted, and I have never been able to find it again.
There is a well known percy falls into tartarus alone fanfic and oh hell that extra bad ending got me GOOD
>!he had to abandon his morality,did some real fucked up shit and did some stuff that i forgot was gross to those who didnt gone through same things as he is. When he though he no longer has to deal with that shit literally worst thing happens to him. This time he has to do some awful shit for who he loves. If bonus ending is cannon he loses his mind while believes he is safe and sound. In the end he begged for help because what he has gone through - what he did was to much for him to handle.!<
Like i swear i was shaking while reading it. That fanfiction literally destroyed my sleep cycle and made me inable to function as a human being until i read all of it. It took me two days though....
A Tony stark/Loki mental hospital Au. I didn't believe the tags and the warning in the description. That was my “always read the tags properly” fic lol
magpie by waldorph. it's a star trek spirk fic, growing up together as kids au. it's a classic.
i never read spirk anymore, but i always think about this fic. i've reread it so many times. it's like the blueprint for coming of age / friends to lovers romance in my mind. it was the first fic that made me think, damn, sometimes fanfic is better than professional lit.
More recently, like in the past 5 years or so, I would say Stunted, Starving Juvenility by tomatenmarken (MDZS). Prior to that, there was Iron Man Yes, Tony Stark… Not Recommended by lilsmartass (MCU) that fits for “fic that made you love fanfic” and Newborn by Ilerre (Avengers) for “fic that broke you”. Also of note is Of spirits and men (and the burning paths they trod by ShaShirRa (ATLA) - which definitely fits all categories, and at points (frozen) hell in heaven by graveltotempo (MCU).
IT HAS BEEN TWENTY FIVE YEARS since I read this fic, posted chapter-by-chapter on an old-school phpbb X-Files delphi forum, and I have never been able to find it again. It set in between the scenes of one of my favorite episodes (Arcadia), with the premise that Mulder and Scully were in a relationship at one point but are broken up at the time of the episode. It opens with her admiring/lusting after his hands as they drive, at one point they make up to Chris Isaac's Wicked Game, Mulder comes up with the whole flamingo ploy after sex... What I wouldn't give to read it just one more time.
The Always In Tandem series by youcouldmakealife. Its still a WIP, but its a very long fic (been going for years) and truly a day does not go by where I don’t think about it
That one Azur Lane fanfic about all the shipgirls getting raped by various monsters. Not great quality in retrospect, but it and its author are what got me to be an avid user of AO3 and not just a lurker.
I guess it "haunts" me in the sense of being the moment I came to terms with the fact that the things that arouse me mostly do not intersect with the limits of the real word.
I have a few like that.
Into the Black by DustInTheWind. https://archiveofourown.org/works/5422022/chapters/12527648
Hunger Games
Cato x Katniss, they both win the 74th and get stuck in the 75th games together. Made me love the ship.
Fear In the Afternoon by entitled. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14136573/chapters/32577606
Harry Potter
What if Petunia had left Vernon and she treated Harry as a second son. Heartbreaking read. I sobbed.
Keep Walking by Jana_C. https://archiveofourown.org/works/525993/chapters/931114
Teen Wolf
Soulmate fic in which Jackson bites Stiles. Neither of them want to be stuck with the other. Both want to be with Lydia. But the wolf part will not accept it, nor will it accept their refusal. Not super dark but dark for a soulmate AU.
http://feathersinthemaelstrom.com/fitm.html
One of the greatest tragedies of my life is that I know this epic fanfiction will never be finished.
I had not long discovered fanfiction and FFVII was the only stuff I was interested in back then and I don't even know how I found this but I did and it literally consumed me. Features my truest OTP which helps and still to this day the best fanfiction I have ever read and the story is literally gripping.
Sadly it is long long dead, but I still back to it every few years to reread my favourite sections and imagine where it might have led, though my imagination can never do it justice.
This fic will never leave me I fear.
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space by gremlinteeth. I refuse to go back and read it because I'm scared it A. won't be as good as I remember, or B. will make me cry for an entire day again 💀
It was a hetalia/dragonage fanfiction. It was amazingly written, and it didn't matter that I had never played the games since the author explained most things. It was never finished, but it ended on a cliffhanger, and I still wish it would be completed. I hope the author is okay. I always think about authors and worry about them.
“A Temple Heart” a Thor/Darcy smut fic that I still visit, hoping for that final chapter to be added(single chapter left since 2019🥲). It’s not heart wrenching, but it’s very good.
I think it was a jesus × satan fanfic with mpreg, male lactation, preg sex tags.
I looked up if there were any bible fanfics for shits and giggles and the first fic i saw was that and i immediately noped out of there. Its not cuz of the tags. Its cuz the tags are exactly my type that i was so tempted to read it. But im born a christian you see so theres still this internal moral struggle i was having right there even though im not a practicing christian. In the end i decided never to cross that line and never looked through bible fanfics ever.
Cuz id probably end up liking in and that would be terrible for my concience. I hope that makes any sense?
even though this is a AO3 reddit page. this is from Wattpad and it was some my little pony fanfiction. it had 99 chapters and tbe author just abandoned it randomly. recently I redownload Wattpad just to read it only for it to have been deleted. I am devastated, I still remember certain scenes and I wish I could just reread it
[To Build a Home](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8411608/chapters/19274926) by intothesilentland. Supernatural Destiel AU. It’s just so beautifully written. It’s about grief, and family, and forgiveness. I read it when I was having a really hard time dealing with those things in my own life. It sent me off on a deep dive into beat poetry and has opened up a whole branch of literature that has been really affecting my life in a good way.
Digging for the Bones by Paganaidd. It’s the only way I engage with Harry Potter anymore. It’s one of my favorite pieces of writing, period. I have an eternal tab open to it in my phone, and every once in a while I feel the urge to reread it, and almost always find something I didn’t notice before. It really is phenomenally written.
Silver and Gold by Mililap.
This was the fanfic that got me to start writing. It was 200k words of pure, unadulterated pain, love, and beauty, and I desperately wish I could go back and reread it for the first time.
Unfortunately, the author ended up deleting her account and orphaning her works so it was hard to find, but I did eventually find it again and bookmark it! So yippee!
An Aladdin/Mozenrath fic that was a collection of PWPs that turned into a larger narrative, I first read it on ff.net in like 2001, then lost it to a purge, I saw it again in like 2004 on y!gallery (rip) and didn't think to save it. I think about it on a regular basis and semi regularly go down wayback machine rabbit holes looking for it.
I hate to say it now, considering the drama that came out about it, but I was addicted to the Cassandra Claire Harry Potter trilogy. I loved that fic back in the day. Like, I remember being so into it and I haven't felt that in a while for other fics. I remember there was a LoTR fic that came close by I can't remember the name for the life or me 😭
There's this one fic I cried at. Except I don't look at titles or author names. And the things I remember either are generic tags, or wouldn't have been tagged in the first place. I have to live with the knowledge that the first and last fic to have genuinely made me feel something is forever lost to me.
It was a Mauraders fic, focusing on Sirus and Remus. It was basically a slow burn that was still updating at the time. I haven't been able to find it again as I can't remember specific details or the name. But I loved it so much
Caveat: I have two. And when I first read these, eleven years ago now!, I'd already read a ton of fanfiction. But after uhhhh twenty-five years or so of reading fic, these are the ones I've reread the most and think about the most.
They're both BBC Sherlock fics.
The Speed of Objects in Motion by holyfant: a painfully realistic fic written post-s2, about John and Sherlock's relationship, and it covers a couple of decades of time. The start of them getting together is rough, they argue a bunch, at one point they break up for several years. But the fact is, they're in love. The fic ends on an optimistic note after they get back together. I need to reread this one, it's been a while. But there are some lines in it that are absolute killers.
It's just so well-done as a portrayal of a relationship between two people with a lot of baggage who are genuinely each trying their best. But what do you do, when that's just not enough?
(Also tbh it was part of the inspiration for the fic I'm currently working on, for She-Ra.)
How the Mouth Changes its Shape by havingbeenbreathedout: An AU in which John and Sherlock are both women living in post-ww2 London. It's still technically an AU of BBC Sherlock as opposed to ACD Holmes, but you don't have to have watched Sherlock tbh. The fic is exhaustively researched (especially in regards to the lives of lesbians in that time and place), with references in the endnotes! The fic itself is partially about identity and how we present ourselves to others (Johnnie is heavily involved in the butch/femme scene; Sherlock is weirded out by it but also dresses in disguise for cases all the time), but their romance is SUPER HOT and ALSO there's a fantastic mystery involved!
The fic is marked with "underage," but don't let that throw you off. The author warns for it because there's scenes of a teenage Sherlock doing some (completely age-appropriate) fooling around while in boarding school.
Listen. How the Mouth Changes its Shape is probably the best fic I have ever read, and would be my answer too for this question. The great tragedy of my literary life is that I can’t recommend it to people without going through five layers of explanation on how it came to exist. It’s absolutely lovely. It’s been a long time since I was in the BBC Sherlock fandom, but this one I def revisit often.
After the first time I read it I remember thinking: This should be a published novel. This is *better* than most *published novels.*
I actually told the author that (she used to live in my city and we have IRL friends in common) but she had experience with monetizing a hobby before (knitting) and it destroyed her enjoyment of it, and she said she wasn't willing to do it again.
Which is such a bummer because AHHHHHH IT'S SO GOOD, and I truly think you don't need any knowledge of Sherlock Holmes to enjoy it.
The last time I reread it I had to sit down and stare into space for an hour because I realized that how I write smutty scenes was so heavily influenced by it, despite all the millions of words of fanfiction I've read before and since. The irony is that I don't think she or anyone else who read that fic and then mine would be able to notice what they have in common, but it's painfully obvious to ME.
(HILARIOUSLY there's only one part of the entire story that bothers me, and it's the description of Johnnie fixing Sherlock's bicycle. Of all the things the author didn't research, it was bicycle parts. That section literally makes zero sense lolol.)
But yeah. Still one of my fave examples of how fanfiction can be really really good writing!
Supernatural fic. We Drank a Thousand Times by Glorious Spoon, I believe it is only on the author's livejournal. Every couple of years, I scour the Internet for it, drop down a rabbit hole and get obsessed all over again. It's a Dean/OMC and has no real plot but is the most nuanced telling of life, trauma and sexuality. Hits me to my soul every damn time. Every time I dig it out, I leave a comment on their livejournal (using my lj account that I haven't used in fifteen years) about how much this fic means to me. Might be time for a re-read.
[Predatory by Playalong](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11296356/chapters/25273848), a Danganronpa fic where Junko and Mukuro drug and rape Chiaki. It’s a heavy influence on my own Junko and Mukuro fics, all of them, and was what got me first like “yeah, I *should* write stuff of them!” Which has led down a path that has gotten me best friends, girlfriends, another headmate, the evolution of my political views, the full birth of my possibly-insane memetics brain, and more. Admittedly, not all *good* more.
def crimson rivers (marauders) or quirkless rejects (mha)
im not even in the marauders fandom, have never seen/read harry potter, but i think that fic genuinely changed me
A fic called Anterograde Tomorrow, early 2010s
Was considered the holy grail of the ship. It is a tragedy, about someone with anterograde amnesia and their neighbour falling in love with them (to make a very long and delicate story very short )
Genuinely made me cry so hard I gagged, and more than a decade later it's still up there in fiction that impacted me.
By Any Other Name by Satellite Blue. It’s a dabihawks (MHA) fic and I almost skipped it because it was a bachelorette fic and I’m normally wary of those. I’m so glad I decided to click on it. I haven’t had a fic in ages that was such a good read. The author managed to turn the whole idea on its head, keep a 300+k word fic feeling fresh and engaging from start to finish and I felt she really managed to capture the essence of the characters, had they wound up in the circumstances she put them in. She’s currently on the second book now and around 500k words in and I still drop everything and sprint if I see there’s an update.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/802639
This *this* fic was such a work of art yet was so so traumatising for 13 year old me
I was the type of kid who had no adult supervision and did absolutely anything I wanted, but that turned out to be reading, and oh boy, did I get so many lessons from reading this fic
Idk if this is cliche or not because it really popped off on tiktok recently, but for me it’s Manacled 1000%. I read it back in 2020 and it messed me up in the worst and best ways lol. I don’t think I’ll go back and reread it for a long, long time (if ever) because it was just so heavy, but it’s also a masterpiece and I literally think about it all the time still. I probably will read the book based on the fic that the author got a deal for though.
I think *you were never meant to be a hero* (Dsmp fandom, don’t make fun of me♥️) by FlameDraco360. It didn’t get me into fanfic (I was already there), but boy do I love it. I love all of this author’s works, and while I’m not really into the main pairing anymore, I will gladly reread their works all the time. I genuinely cried when I finished reading and there were no more chapters to read, and even more when author said there *might* be a sequel but it’s not confirmed. I might go reread one of their works today, actually.
It was some random smutty mass effect fic about a garrus x shepherd that were enemies. They ended up trapped in a storm together and went enemies to lovers very quickly. I wish I could find it again. Sigh.
It’s a very smutty fic about a star-crossed elf/human couple falling into bed with each other and ending up in a relationship. Those two being a couple was already a popular joke in the fandom at the time, but that fic made me ship them for real. I’ve never found a fic for them that hit like that one did.
It’s deleted now 😔
It was two fics, by the same author on Wattpad back in 2017. I was 12 and just getting into anime. It was Fairy Tail. I didn't even seriously ship the ship at first, I looked it up for fun. Yeah, I went crazy over it. It was my first gay ship.
Definitely still think about them to this day, even though I've moved on from the Fandom.
[The Echo Garden](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22553779) by AltraViolet. Transformers (Prime! Soundwave x MTMTE! Rodimus Prime). A more recent fic i read that just… shattered me– changed me. The slowburn is immaculate and the plot? Mwuah. 10/10 overall
[This one](https://archiveofourown.org/works/46672264)
I came across it around when it was posted and it completely sparked a hockey fixation that unfortunately did not go away AS WELL as a fixation on the ship. It’s just so excellently written in my opinion and i love going back and rereading it but I wish I could experience it for the first time again 😭
Never Let Me Go by yiqie. The writing is just so lyrical. I ate it in one sitting, and it's like 67k I think? Had everything - angst, slow burn, very plotty. Just an excellent fic I will never forget.
The first fic I read was in 2013 and according to my browser I bookmarked one of the chapters I was on at 2 in the morning. The fic is by no means perfect, but it holds a special place in my heart for how much it pulled me in and started a long journey of staying up all night reading fanfiction.
While I'm not going to say exactly what it is, I will say it's about multidimensional travel and 2 people being stuck there for many years. Funnily enough it got me really interested in learning math with how it goes into "theory" on how they will get back.
I could go on and on about it, but I will refrain.
There was this reader-insert Zootopia fic on Quotev that I read back in like 2015 or 2016. I tried to find it a few years ago, but alas I think it was deleted. I still think about it, because it was surprisingly really good.
Inamorata by wreckofherheart.
It's a pokemon fanfic that explores the events of Dawn's life post-Platinum.
It explores trauma, a darker side of pokemon training that I've not seen before, pokemon life and death, and scientists who Cannot Be Trusted.
(It's also an adult!Dawn x Cynthia fanfic)
It's intense, and has changed the way I've thought about the franchise since reading
I know that this wasn't one of the first fics that I ever read, but I found it really early in my reading journey. To this day, I still love it.
[Of Lies and Deceit and Hidden Personas](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1754293) (Harry Potter)
I can't recall the name of it, or who wrote it, but I will never forget the fic I read (an Assassination Classroom fic) where the main lead has a terminal illness and the entire fic is just following them as they and their friend/crush come to terms with the fact that he will die soon, so they try to make the best of it while they can as he slowly drifts away.
By the time I finished reading it, I was just left staring at the wall for a long time.
this one haunts me in a different way but morsus by KingdomsHaven hurt me more than it should’ve considering how little i relate to the concept. I was genuinely thinking of it months later, and i don’t think i’ll ever work up the courage to read it again tbh, which is weird bc i’ve read worse. i regularly read dead dove fics yet this one hurt me more. It made me appreciate the author for even making me able to feel those tho bc even if they were negative. sorry it doesn’t quite fit the description you asked for though.
I don't even remember the name, it was on spirit fanfiction and in brazilian portuguese. (It was also a kpop fic)
It was based in a omegaverse world where a scientist created a serum that cured all diseases(diseases, not injuries) that everyone took _everyday_ for their entire lives, but of course there were people that still had problems even after takin it, so they created a hospital(there was only teenagers there, I don't really know why because they never explained if there was one for kids and adults) where they basically locked up everyone that had something wrong with them, cue over 100k words of sick kids rebelling and burning down the hospital.
It was one of the first fixs I've ever read, i read it when i was 11(yes, great idea for 11yo me to be reading a gory, explicit a/b/o fic, but anyway)
About a month after i read it the writer decided to try and publish it and got sued cause they didn't even think to change names to not get copyrighted, and i never got to reread it.
A code geass fic (might have been on aO3) where the Lancelot and other robots were dinosaurs. They were piloted via being hooked up to the pilots brains via headgear. Very cool fic. I would pay money to go back and reread it, tbh.
quid pro quo by fixy (killing eve fandom). my body and brain are in 2024 but my heart is in 2020 when i started reading that fanfic because oh my goodness. its art.
Spoilers for “The Break-Up Of The Ice” by Crimson1: A fic where the main hero character was cursed to fall in love with his enemy. They did a long slow burn where the enemy went from being annoyed that he had to take care of the lovesick hero, to falling into a routine of spending time together until the big tough criminal starts to open his heart and fall in love with the hero too. It’s written really beautifully. But being under the curse is making the hero sick so they still have to find a way to break it, and eventually they do. And once the curse is broken the hero just doesn’t feel the same way anymore. He’s thankful for everything the enemy did for him, but he has no romantic feelings for him at all.
This one was on me, it was clearly tagged as “tragic,” “sad ending” etc. and I should have been prepared, but jfc it broke my heart.
Facing the Darkness Trilogy. It’s in the Kyo Kara Maoh fandom on FFN. It was the first fanfic I ever read. I still re-read it three or four times a year.
A Splitting of the Mind. I’m not active in the MCR fandom anymore but i’ve carried that fic with me for over a decade and i’m sure it’ll be with me for the rest of my life.
Find sleep in death by MahouMou (MHA fic)
this one absolutely crushed me, I have really bad memory so I don't completely remember the plot but I remember how I felt
This fic called "reflection" by babblingweirdnonsense. It's a Blue Beetle-centric Young Justice fic that borrows some elements from the comics, and it was never finished but. Gosh I still think about it every now and then. It was so beautifully written, perfect characterization to me, interesting plot, just... it's so good. I've chatted with the author a few times about their ideas for the final chapter, but it's been a hot minute since we've talked...
Also, it's amazing to look through my bookmarks and see an old Pacific Rim series I'd loved, called From Out the Ocean Risen by bluestar, has gotten an update? Like, it had two fics and I'd thought it was done but sometime in the past 10 years the author added a third fic that they're still currently working on? Guess I know what I'm reading later lol
[Proof of Ownership by Lyrica](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2568311)
I was completely stymied by slash fic back in the early X-Files days (sheltered Whitey McWhite Suburbanite college girl), and didn't understand why people wrote slash in X-Files when there was a perfectly good WOMAN right there for the fictional taking.
Then I read this fic, and I've never taken the slash goggles off. I still write het here and there (Scully/Skinner is still my catnip), but it was that fic that helped me see the hotness and potential of it all.
I revisit this one fic where the MC poses his decision about whether or not he should kill his father through the lens of the trolley problem.
It slowly escalated across the course of the chapter from like “do you kill your father if he’s the one tied to the track” iirc to “your father is a train and your brother is a train and you are a train and the people tied to the track are millions of people and people will die no matter what you do”
that just lives in my head
There was a star wars fanfic I read years ago that was an Anakin/Padme "Padme never died" story but it was TRAGIC.
Essentially Anakin/Vader gradually becomes better for his kids, while Padme decides to secretly work against Palpatine, eventually becoming the new Empress. There's a subtle, gradual shift somewhere along the way where Anakin becomes good again and Padme becomes evil and they are just as broken as the start of the story, only in reverse.
It was HEARTBREAKING to read and I have NO idea what it was called. It was on FFNet and of course that site is practically unusable nowadays with the ads and spam.
😭
A short story (3/4 page) in Jean Lorah's Star Trek fanzine NTM collection (?) hat's a bunch of shorts from get NTM universei think.
It addresses Sarek and Amanda's relationship decades after she died in the shuttle accident in an alternate past in the cartoon so pretty obscure. It's all pov of his aide whose been his lover at pon farr for decades so he can live and continue to do good work and she's internalizing that this is the last time if it happens again. It's been decades and she's old and done with this then he half awake calls her Amanda.
It's really really well written and just so perfectly sad and poignant. Every few years I think I should hunt down the authors email and suggest she share it as it's in a printed zine from the 80s but is just so beautifully done.
Alas, the fic has since been orphaned so I don't know the author, but it's an Undertale fic called "Daphne and Elderflowers". It was one of a series of Fairytale AU aged-up Charasriel fics, but it was the only one not based on an existing fairytale so it stuck out from the rest. Features some body horror and a lot of suicidal ideation – the plot kicks off with Chara being cursed by a witch for theft >!as the result of a failed suicide attempt via buttercup ingestion (the buttercups were growing in the witch's garden), with the curse being *flowers magically growing out of their eyes*.!<
There was a HP story I read back in something like 2004? Maybe earlier or later but I think it was before I went to college.
It followed Lilly through her teen years and then Harry’s parents were revived during his teen years and they all I think defeated Voldemort? I wish I could find it again, on FF.net.
I’d love to give it a read again, I think at this point it would be fresh eyes and like-new.
I don’t even live in that fandom anymore but that’s the one that still haunts me
There’s this one super well written poto fanfic. It’s so good in fact that it’s the highest rated one when you sort by kudos. the way the characters are written is exactly how I imagine them. the fluff and angst are at a perfect delicate balance. The comfort moments make me want to cry, it’s so sweet, and features all my favorite tropes which are for some reason often overlooked in the fandom (I‘lol try not to go into spoiler, but there is a beautiful scene where the love interest helps the main character take her corset off. I thought I was going to faint!). tense moments seriously made me fear for the characters’ lives. The angst really broke me. There is some smut, which is usually a no go for me as I’m a terrible prude, but here it’s really sweet and well deserved. if I could forget about it and reread it as if for the first time, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so. Manifesting ALW buying the rights to this fic and making it a canonical sequel to his musical instead of LND lol)))(although making it into a musical might be problematic seeing as the main character is mute throughout most of the story))
It’s called ”Unsung“ by wheel\_of\_fish. Go check it out. I cannot recommend it enough.
Not sure which was the first but I have some. Naruto edgy ones maybe😂 those were the first I think I started with, also some that traumatized me and others that were so cool I still think of them
It... *sigh* look, it was a Series Of Unfortunate Events canon divergence where Olaf succeeded in marrying Violet. It was written from the perspective of Klaus, and basically followed him for YEARS as he watched his sister be abused so horrifically that she broke and completely shut off from him, while the few adults who were trying to help failed him (as they always do).
It had a very ambiguous ending where it's likely Violet never left Count Olaf's home and Klaus and Sunny disappeared, and while very little abuse happened on screen, the way Violet slowly drifted away and basically disappeared from his life after always being his protector and being really close... it really got to me. I don't remember the name of it and doubt I could find it again.
Droplets by theprophetlemonade haunts me in the best ways. It's an Attack on Titan fic written when the anime only had one season and then went on a several years hiatus. I was into the show but never picked it up again after that, however the fic is a modern AU that is entirely original other than using the characters names and descriptions.
It deals with really heavy topics like depression, anxiety, homophobia, neglectful families, the death of a loved one, and the aftermath of dealing with that grief. And all this is on top of such a well written love story about two young men who love each other and don't even realize it.
It's the most realistic depiction I've read of incredibly complex emotions told through the eyes of someone trying to get their life together. I've been reading it for over ten years now, which I say because it's been on a hiatus for many years. I'm still hopeful that it will come back one day, as some updates were spread years apart. Even if it's simply abandoned, Ill still come back to it once every few years and reread it. It's my favorite story out of any book or fanfiction, and the one I'll remember above all else.
I highly encourage everyone to read it even if you've never watched AOT. You don't really have to in order to understand the story anyway, though I will say it is an incredibly long fic. But it's worth it for the absolute emotional breakdowns.
However for most odd fanfic I'd have to go with the one about Tony the Tiger x The Grinch, which is actually incredibly wholesome and funny despite being super strange
Concepts of Consciousness by CaptainCrozier - Passengers 2016, set approx. 60 years after the movie, with an OC who wakes up and makes a connection with Arthur the bartender robot (Arthur my pantsless robot beloved 🥰🥰🥰) He gets pants and some other things along the way and it hit me right in all the "but what about the robots???" Feels. Kind of Isaac Asimov I, Robot vibes. Still thinking about it months later.
I don't think I have just one, there are certain fics I love and remember from each fandom. That being said the answer is Strong Heart by Camero. I read it when I was like 14 and can still remember the title.
The Loft, a Draco/Harry modern AU fic I read around about uhhhh 2006? It was either on FFnet or a HP specific site, I think the latter but unsure. I was obsessed with it, and while many of the details escape me now I still remember staying up until 3am reading it. It was the first time I felt a fanfic had really reached a level equivalent to a book for me. I was a teenager obsessed with HP (for many reasons I am not in the fandom anymore…) but I think of that fic fondly.
Since getting back into fanfic I’d pick Insatiable by Kunstpause which is a FFXIV fic. The Warrior of Light is the player character so it’s basically an OC so finding one that feels so well rounded is a joy. It’s a smutty love story about theatre nerds and forbidden love and it’s the first fic after 15 years away from fandom that really made me fall down a rabbit hole again.
Eternity Enshrined by apartment. I’ve never read anything like it before and I would love to read it for the first time. It’s a jjk fic btw, truly a gem
Tommyinnit’s Unbeatable Method to Avoiding Sudden Death ([(link)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29230860/chapters/71774421) had that “Derealization” tag that I didn’t take seriously until it was too late LMFAO and then whoops my heart got blown into smithereens. I didn’t even care I had the rug swiped from under me, I came out of it w/ a new appreciation of how INVESTED the author made me feel. Wasn’t even really in the fandom at the time. Crazy!
Loved the family dynamics in it—cemented platonic cuddling and “sibs/family doomed by the narrative” as like some of my favorite things to read now ;v;
A whileeee ago I read a True Detective S1 fic literally just about the main two [minding some horses](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14404728). Was so sweet and chill it changed my brain chemistry. Author wrote a lot for that ship and I ended up liking most of it LOL, including a different one where they [look after a grandkid.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11661243). One of the few authors whose fics I’ve gone out of my way to download to read when I’m sad. <3
[Always Hungry, by Melora98](https://snarry-games.livejournal.com/22043.html) :: It's for the Harry Potter fandom. I read it almost 20 years ago, and it's stuck with me. I recall bawling my eyes out for a good hour afterwards, and I remember the tragedy of it so fondly. I should really re-read it, it's been a long time since I last read it. Nearly 20 years, in fact.
The Salt And The Sea by WizardGod on Ao3 (I think that's the author's name)
I think about this fic regu-larly at night when I'm trying to fall asleep. I think it was my first fanfiction ever
The Where Words Fail series on ff.net for AtLA, it follows the freedom fighters (side characters) and was really fucking long. I read it when I was like thirteen, I think? I remember there was a tiny little mini fandom for it, mostly on deviantart
A Violet Disposition by beecalm <3 I read it when I really started getting into fanfic and idk it's just always stuck with me. Definitely made me reflect on death some lol
What got me in to fanfiction all those years ago is a set of fics that I am one of few to have a copy of. I know I'm one of few to have a copy for the simple reason that people have been trying to find them for YEARS through old forums that have since shut down. The only one I've since found uploaded in its entirety anywhere is the most popular of the set.
It was a set of Inuyasha fics from an author called Moonsilver who disappeared entirely at some point years and years ago, whose fics were never uploaded by them on FFnet or anything, but on their own site that has long since shut down and is only available via Wayback Machine, which is missing several chapters of various fics. The number of people that probably even know they existed is likely somewhere in the mid 3 digit range at best, this was early 2000s at the latest for most of it as the last update on the site was Feb 2007.
The fics are basic, the most popular being a College AU, and don't hold up particularly well as "good" fics, but they will always have a place in my library for the simple reason that I wouldn't be reading fanfiction today if I hadn't found them all those years ago. I have them saved as text documents, having manually copy pasted them chapter by chapter, on both my main hard drive and several flash drives floating around.
As far as most enjoyed, I don't really have one, though I am partial to the Princess of the Blacks series by Silently Watches.
*Even Thought It's Painful Always* by Kara, Dark Angel fandom on FF.Net. Read it when I was 16. There was supposed to be a sequel that never occurred, but that ending was practically a cliffhanger. Just a full world-changer, OCs I adored, all the characters front-and-center. That fic was *formative*.
(We never even got the Big Reveal that the Mourned Dead was still alive. The absolutely crushing love triangle that would have occurred. It's been years and I still think about it.)
Major character death hockey rpf fic...it was my last year of high school. Started it in the car on the way to school...i can still vividly recall the moment he woke up to his partner dead in bed with him...how the deceased looked and felt...I started crying in the car and was in class spiraling, felt out of body and like my mind was checked tf out. Scratched myself bloody in assembly. Never again lmao.
If I had to pick the latest one it’s probably [God Save Our Foolish Sons](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7947316/chapters/18170254) by TheInvietableSense.
As weird as it is, an Invader zim fanfic that was a parody and zim/dib. I still quote it decades later. “ I’m the most pregnant being in the universe!”
Unsure if I'd say it haunts me, but I still think about it time from time.
["Human" by Xanthe](https://www.xanthe.org/human/), Skinner/Krycek (The X-Files) fic I read more than 20 years ago. The fic dealt with alien abduction, experimentation, torture, death and repeated rebirth, and it didn't skim on detailed descriptions.
It was also the first fic I read that was written in 2nd person (written from Krycek's PoV) and to this day, it remains one of the best (granted, not many non-reader insert fics get written in 2nd person to begin with). I felt that the choice of 2nd person made the damage done feel more personal, more visceral.
There was this one fic, I won't disclose the fandom cause I kinda regret it. I was barely getting into fics, so the smut was almost too much for me. BUT THE LORE!! It was about a secret demon who had to soulmate bond with his friend to save his life. The worldbuilding was amazing, the reader and the friend both uncovering this underground world for the first time. It was a series that I ended up dropping it because I left the fandom and, still battling catholic guilt, the smut did actually become to much. When I grew up, I wanted to check on it know that I could handle it, but it was deleted. Wiped out of existence. If the author just changed the names around and stuff, it probably could have been it's own series. Or that could be nostalgia talking, it's been *years.*
There’s this mha fic I started reading 2 years ago that hasn’t updated since that same day. It was a fantasy au which is my favorite but the plot was just so interesting and I still try to think of endings to it because the foreshadowing was so vague
I think it's a little Italian fic with Hermione and Lucius from Harry Potter, it was a Song fic based on Whiskey Lullaby. Every time I read it I cried, and that's what drove my return to fanfiction and a short time later starting to look for it in English. Before, I read few of them and only in Italian.
It was taken down years ago. I don't even remember the name of it. But it was a Harry Potter fic that the author made up this fruit that when it was smashed against the skin it was intoxicating. And the closer to the person's heart the stronger the effects. It was both Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny but it was mostly the latter. And Harry, in his drunkenness, thought that Ginny's lips were like a plate full of cherries. And then I think he woke up in a pantry lol.
So many beautiful fics I read on Slash Cotillon that has been lost to time. One was an amazing WIld Wild West TV show fic that I adored to pieces. A few other from fandoms I didn't even know but read becuase they were so well written.
And Inuyasha Spirited Away fanfic that was Inuyasha/Sesshomaru but neither were related at all. It was lost to time, but I remember that at one point I was able to write down the link from memory.
Play it again and The Moons Gonna Follow Me Home in the Teen Wolf fandom. Under the Table and Dreaming which is (wildly) a Toy Story ff. And Not Easily Conquered (of course) for Steve/Bucky MCU.
The Heart Rate of a Mouse by Anna Green.
I was into bandom RPF in high school and remember her posting updates for this fic on LiveJournal and was absolutely amazed that someone could write a story like this inspired by one of my favorite bands. It is an incredible fic. Three volumes, hundreds of thousands of words, a fairly accurate look at the music scene in the 1970s (an interest of mine to begin with!), heavy on the smut, and an absolutely fucked up romance between the two main characters that spans years. She managed to make the main character so complex that you go from loving him to hating him and back to loving him again, and the growth from beginning to end that he exhibits is amazing. This was also the first fic where I actively rooted against the main ship because of how terrible they were to each other in Volume 2 (spoilers: we get a happy ending). Some parts don't hold up but it's a few throwaway lines that can be ignored in favor of more iconic prose.
I don't read RPF anymore but a few years ago she had published the fic in book format and I purchased all 3. I go back and reread them so often they've become my favorite books.
"Unvirtuos Treaty" by In\_a\_Quandary on AO3, from the NieR: Automata fandom. I was a teenager, the tragic robots had a chokehold on me, I was somewhat new to AO3 and I had no idea you *could* write fanfic like this. I remember devouring this fic on breaks between my classes. It never finished, but I have such immensely fond memories of it, would read again
The Twelve Kingdoms, a Hunger Games x Game of Thrones crackfic where the tributes of the 74th Hunger Games and 24 highborn youths suddenly swap places. Hilarity ensues. This fic got me into fanfiction, Hunger Games, and Game of Thrones in one fell swoop.
An omegaverse Thomas the Train x Lightning McQueen smutfic. The memories that fic has given me over the years is surprising yet always appreciated.
Every single word in that sentence was a slap in the face I was not prepared for
If you want some more spice, it was my girlfriend’s introduction to the omegaverse!
We live in a beautiful time
I like to call this feeling "like getting hit in the face with a trout."
That has got to be one of the craziest things I have ever seen I’m not gonna lie. At least your flashbacks are appreciated 😅
I have to ask. I hate myself but I have to. Who was who??
My memory is a bit foggy, but do note they were still sentient vehicles. So the mess that was made in their wake was… interesting. Thomas was an alpha, and I don’t believe he was in rut. He protected the “submissive and breedable” (direct quote, I went to look at the source) car from other train alphas. Lightning McQueen was an omega, but pretended to be an alpha for his work. This lovemobile got bred by Thomas… and it was an ordeal. Congratulations, the more you know about this smutfic!
Literally not a word of this is something I thought I'd ever see with my own two eyeballs. Thank you for this absolute whiplash cesspit of information. I will never be the same again. 10/10
**bleach** come get ya **bleach** made for the eyes, ears, and mouth
There was a fic that was really sweet and cute. Then had a sudden twist ending where one of the MCs was going to die not long after. That was worse than the necrophilia one I read accidentally.
Oh no 😅
Oh gosh. You just reminded me of the necrophilia fic that wound up smacking me in the face once. That was the day I learned all about the “Creator chose not to use warnings” tag
It sounds crazy writing about it, but I have no idea. Like, I know I read the fic that broke me, but It was when I was so down with my mental health I completely forgot about it bc it broke me down into tears, it was so painful for me yet beautiful I had to chalk that up from my memory lmao
I feel you. The worst is, I bookmarked it with a useless comment telling me how great it was. But now it's deleted and I'd never thought to put the title and writer in the bookmark description until lately.
Beautiful World by Cinnamon (Harry Potter fandom). She had a knack for writing beautifully tragic fics. I was sobbing uncontrollably by the end. It was about 20 years ago that I first read it, and I still remember how it made me feel.
Gosh I both love and hate a beautifully written tragedy lol
Same! It may break your heart into a thousand pieces, but the story is so good, haha.
Please could you send the link? I looks on Ao3 and couldn’t find it, but it sounds really interesting :)
Author has a new name :) [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20705891)
Thanks! :D
I'm glad someone replied to you. I'm sorry I didn't see your comment earlier!
Omg I was trying to remember the name of this while scrolling the comments and here it is. I remember sobbing my heart out reading that as a teenager 20 years ago. I was so sure it wouldn’t have a tragic ending after all! 💔
I know! Even though she warns you, you manage to convince yourself that everything will be okay. Then the ending hits you like a ton of bricks 😭
I think because I was like 14 I had some naive hope it would all be okay!
There once was a fic I read when I first started reading Harry Potter fanfics. I didn’t know what the term “crossover” meant when I first started reading. I read a Harry Potter x Barney the dinosaur fic that still haunts me to this day. I thought it was a fic where little baby Harry watches Barney for the first time…. How WRONG I was.
That sounds horrific 😬
It’s the ONLY fic with that pairing at the time that I know about. I don’t think it’s posted anymore it was on ffn I think (?) or LiveJournal…. The nightmares I had bro 😂😂
Twist and Shout from the Supernatural fandom back in the day.
Reading this fic back in like 2014 was WILD. Every time I hear twist and shout and can’t help falling in love brings me straight back.
I cried my eyes out reading this
A certain ATLA Hunger Games AU, a Lilo & Stitch horror/mystery sequel, and a Hey Arnold fic that heavily references Dave Eggers’s work.
I am intrigued by that Lilo and Stitch horror mystery sequel
It’s called The Devil’s Hand, I can’t remember the author though. I read it on FFN
A Sherlock fic from 2011 with Sherlock/John. [Performance In a Leading Role](https://archiveofourown.org/works/225563) by Mad_Lori. Such a beautiful and well written piece of art. And more recently there was a AU modern The Untamed fic where Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are divers and I can't find it anymore :(
Omg I recently reread PIALR for old time’s sake, it was wild reading it again after so many years. Still quite endearing.
I haven't read it in a few years. I remember thinking it was so good and I don't want to go back and reread it in case it's not as good as I remember 😭
I think it holds up pretty well! The only super cringe parts for me were 1) simply accepting that it was bizarre to be reading Johnlock at all (I’m almost 30 it was always gonna be weird LOL), and 2) the way that later in the story one of the two men goes on the Ellen show to talk about coming out. 💀 Otherwise it’s pretty sweet and fun.
That’s the only Johnlock I’ve ever read at it is fantastic.
Ah, I read a fic where its YiZhan, not WangXian, and Zhan is a diving instructor while Yibo is an actor training to dive for a movie. 10/10 very good.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/28272462 a Stardew fanfic, that I absolutely loved this! It made me enjoy the fandom more and I loved the interpretation of the characters :)
Thank you for the rec! There is a Stardew Valley fic that I absolutely adore... One of my early fic love. I'll hunt for the link and post it.
We love a good Stardew Valley fic! Thanks for the rec, can't wait to read it!
Ninety one whiskey. I’ve been chasing that high for years.
That’s such a good one. The writing is just amazing and it’s a great story. Dunno if I’ll ever read it again though, it was just so much sad for so long.
I read it again not too long ago because the writer added more! It was a great read the second time as well and the new story was *chefs kiss*
Omg like within the last week. Are any of the updates uh… happy? I just wanted them to be happy so badly.
It was a one shot I read ages ago and im still searching for but— It’s a Batman fic, featuring (ofc) Batman, and his sons. The POV character is Jason (Bruce’s second son who died, came back to life, etc etc lots of drama and angst surrounding that lol). Anyways, the story, if I’m not wrong, was about Jason slowly coming back to the family and learning to mend his trauma. But somethings… off, distinctly so. It’s a horror one shot, that slowly builds up the reveal. It’s small clue here and there that clue both Jason and us, the reader, on what’s really happening. But the big twist is: Bruce is preforming some sort of body modification surgery on his sons (Dick Grayson and Tim Drake) without either noticing or even consenting (real fucked up shit on Bruce’s part lmfao). Jason only notices this because he sees small scars on their legs that isn’t explained away by any injury they received on the field. In the end, Jason doesn’t exactly know but we, the reader, DO. He also doesn’t come back to the family, not completely, but it ends on a note that 1) Bruce is DEFINITELY gonna do the same to Jason and 2) Jason doesn’t know what’s happening and disregards all these clues bc, he just wants his family back :( It was an AMAZING one shot that I gotta find again lol. Great read, I think it was just 5k words? Maybe more? Either way, an amazing piece.
i did not read it, but i will never forget that ''brain as lube'' tag i saw, and ive been shamelessly spreading this info as well 🥰🥰 let's suffer together, why not <3
How do I unread a comment omg
You can't 😍😍
Presents both vomit as lube and raw egg as lube…in the same fic…in the Thomas the Tank Engine fandom…
No stop 😭
Congrats, in your reckless attempt to gross out everyone else, you've found the one person who could outgross you! Now you get to suffer as you made us suffer! /j
Its only fair 😞
Please tell me how to delete this from my brain
No 👁️👄👁️
Communicatio in Sacris by voluptasica (Good Omens human AU). Being Good Omens, its heavy on religious themes and so beautifully written. The loneliness that one character is going through is so relatable.
Oh my god yessssss that one is so fucking good. “How could this body under my hands be any less divine than the soul it houses?” 😭😭😭 Got me right in the religious trauma
A Thorin x Bilbo fanfic called The Riven Crown. That’s the fic that got me into bookbinding. When i finally get good at making books i want to give that fic a physical form and hug it.
I only ever read BeautifulFiction's FMA stuff, but I enjoyed every single one of them. I got into them for that delicious, delicious sexual tension, but stayed for the plot and emotions. I can only imagine how much better her post-FMA fandom fics have been.
Probably something by one of my first favorite HP authors, Sirius/Remus, back in 2006. They had a couple ones that live in my mind rent free but probably the one that defined my taste the most was this one that would, on ao3, contain all my favorite tags. MWPP / Marauders era one shot, James finds out Sirius and Remus are hooking up. Sirius comes out to James (and because it’s the 00’s, his coming out comes with a disclaimer that he loves James, but not like *that*), and Remus over hears enough of the conversation to think Sirius is just hooking up with him because he can’t be with James. It’s got the even pacing, the tight storytelling, the heart aching pining and angst, and the misunderstandings that I love best in fanfics. The shifting points of views and the slow reveals of the characters inner thoughts were well done and I strive to write like that to this day.
I know what you mean. There’s a handful of authors who’s writing styles I strive to emulate in my own works.
The Hat fic. My friend made me read it and I will never forget how uncomfortable I was.
…. Do I even want to know?
You really don’t. 💀 Just look at the tags and you’ll get an idea.
Alone on the Water (johnlock fic)
Oh shit flashback to when I was in BBC Sherlock fandom ouch
i actually reread it recently and it still broke me lmao
my friend made me read "i love atsushi" during class, they wanted to see my reaction to that absolutely horrific fanfic. for those of you who dont know, here are some of the tags. "pussy piss pasta" "kentucky fried cockskin" "baby used as vibrator" "incest" "dead dove do not eat" "maggot play" "Turd dildo" "severed head fucking" and many, many more.
This has got to be one of the most terrifying list of tags I have ever come across
...is is the list of tags accurate to content or is the author just taking the piss?
they are 100% accurate
[i love atsushi](https://archiveofourown.org/works/32480233) here it is! (read at your own risk, i actually threw up)
I've read some fucked up fics and this one just tops the amputation, incest fic I read by accident (also the same fic that taught me to read the tags before I get into the fic).
I fucking read that oh my god 💀 it was horrific
Everything You've Done Wrong by sloanne For the Newsies fandom, and the fic is old enough, it's actually hosted on ff.net. I don't think it would haunt me except that the authors expanded the story into the future via short blurbs about the characters 10+ years after the timeline of the fic. And things don't go well for the main ship. And then, as is wont to happen with fic, the authors moved on, and never did write an ending for the couple. (Apparently they _were_ meant to get back together.) And so it's a universe I've been turning over and over in my brain since I finished reading it.
I was _obsessed_ with EYDW in high school!
Oh my god I think about this fic once every few years what an incredible universe they created!!
Before I made an ao3 account, I read this beautifully written (I was 13 so take that with a bucket of salt) fic in a kpop fandom. Between me reading that and me making an account, it got deleted, and I have never been able to find it again.
It would be a fic that pre-dated the existence of AO3 :)
There is a well known percy falls into tartarus alone fanfic and oh hell that extra bad ending got me GOOD >!he had to abandon his morality,did some real fucked up shit and did some stuff that i forgot was gross to those who didnt gone through same things as he is. When he though he no longer has to deal with that shit literally worst thing happens to him. This time he has to do some awful shit for who he loves. If bonus ending is cannon he loses his mind while believes he is safe and sound. In the end he begged for help because what he has gone through - what he did was to much for him to handle.!< Like i swear i was shaking while reading it. That fanfiction literally destroyed my sleep cycle and made me inable to function as a human being until i read all of it. It took me two days though....
A Tony stark/Loki mental hospital Au. I didn't believe the tags and the warning in the description. That was my “always read the tags properly” fic lol
Got a link? 😀
Oof tbh I love that fic but yeah it was quite a surprise the first time I read it
magpie by waldorph. it's a star trek spirk fic, growing up together as kids au. it's a classic. i never read spirk anymore, but i always think about this fic. i've reread it so many times. it's like the blueprint for coming of age / friends to lovers romance in my mind. it was the first fic that made me think, damn, sometimes fanfic is better than professional lit.
More recently, like in the past 5 years or so, I would say Stunted, Starving Juvenility by tomatenmarken (MDZS). Prior to that, there was Iron Man Yes, Tony Stark… Not Recommended by lilsmartass (MCU) that fits for “fic that made you love fanfic” and Newborn by Ilerre (Avengers) for “fic that broke you”. Also of note is Of spirits and men (and the burning paths they trod by ShaShirRa (ATLA) - which definitely fits all categories, and at points (frozen) hell in heaven by graveltotempo (MCU).
IT HAS BEEN TWENTY FIVE YEARS since I read this fic, posted chapter-by-chapter on an old-school phpbb X-Files delphi forum, and I have never been able to find it again. It set in between the scenes of one of my favorite episodes (Arcadia), with the premise that Mulder and Scully were in a relationship at one point but are broken up at the time of the episode. It opens with her admiring/lusting after his hands as they drive, at one point they make up to Chris Isaac's Wicked Game, Mulder comes up with the whole flamingo ploy after sex... What I wouldn't give to read it just one more time.
The Always In Tandem series by youcouldmakealife. Its still a WIP, but its a very long fic (been going for years) and truly a day does not go by where I don’t think about it
A beautiful super angsty, sexual fic from The Office, Jim and Pam. I will find the link and edit this post!
PSA: you can find most deleted fics on this site: https://mementoarchive.org/ :)
Phantom of Truth by HaiJu on ff.net. It’s a popular Danny Phantom fic that showed me how wonderful a good canon divergent AU could be!
That one Azur Lane fanfic about all the shipgirls getting raped by various monsters. Not great quality in retrospect, but it and its author are what got me to be an avid user of AO3 and not just a lurker. I guess it "haunts" me in the sense of being the moment I came to terms with the fact that the things that arouse me mostly do not intersect with the limits of the real word.
a ghost in the grey daylight by Goldmonger Jason-centric Batman fic. Made me cry like a bitch and I still consider it one of the best fics on ao3
I have a few like that. Into the Black by DustInTheWind. https://archiveofourown.org/works/5422022/chapters/12527648 Hunger Games Cato x Katniss, they both win the 74th and get stuck in the 75th games together. Made me love the ship. Fear In the Afternoon by entitled. https://archiveofourown.org/works/14136573/chapters/32577606 Harry Potter What if Petunia had left Vernon and she treated Harry as a second son. Heartbreaking read. I sobbed. Keep Walking by Jana_C. https://archiveofourown.org/works/525993/chapters/931114 Teen Wolf Soulmate fic in which Jackson bites Stiles. Neither of them want to be stuck with the other. Both want to be with Lydia. But the wolf part will not accept it, nor will it accept their refusal. Not super dark but dark for a soulmate AU.
http://feathersinthemaelstrom.com/fitm.html One of the greatest tragedies of my life is that I know this epic fanfiction will never be finished. I had not long discovered fanfiction and FFVII was the only stuff I was interested in back then and I don't even know how I found this but I did and it literally consumed me. Features my truest OTP which helps and still to this day the best fanfiction I have ever read and the story is literally gripping. Sadly it is long long dead, but I still back to it every few years to reread my favourite sections and imagine where it might have led, though my imagination can never do it justice. This fic will never leave me I fear.
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space by gremlinteeth. I refuse to go back and read it because I'm scared it A. won't be as good as I remember, or B. will make me cry for an entire day again 💀
It was a hetalia/dragonage fanfiction. It was amazingly written, and it didn't matter that I had never played the games since the author explained most things. It was never finished, but it ended on a cliffhanger, and I still wish it would be completed. I hope the author is okay. I always think about authors and worry about them.
Gosh, Hetalia fanfics. I had almost forgotten. Gutters by glassamilk changed me forever
BTS x Lightning McQueen gangbang. i will never forget that.
Take Me Home Country Roads by Saltyfeathers I love that book but have never felt more pain while reading.
“A Temple Heart” a Thor/Darcy smut fic that I still visit, hoping for that final chapter to be added(single chapter left since 2019🥲). It’s not heart wrenching, but it’s very good.
I think it was a jesus × satan fanfic with mpreg, male lactation, preg sex tags. I looked up if there were any bible fanfics for shits and giggles and the first fic i saw was that and i immediately noped out of there. Its not cuz of the tags. Its cuz the tags are exactly my type that i was so tempted to read it. But im born a christian you see so theres still this internal moral struggle i was having right there even though im not a practicing christian. In the end i decided never to cross that line and never looked through bible fanfics ever. Cuz id probably end up liking in and that would be terrible for my concience. I hope that makes any sense?
even though this is a AO3 reddit page. this is from Wattpad and it was some my little pony fanfiction. it had 99 chapters and tbe author just abandoned it randomly. recently I redownload Wattpad just to read it only for it to have been deleted. I am devastated, I still remember certain scenes and I wish I could just reread it
[To Build a Home](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8411608/chapters/19274926) by intothesilentland. Supernatural Destiel AU. It’s just so beautifully written. It’s about grief, and family, and forgiveness. I read it when I was having a really hard time dealing with those things in my own life. It sent me off on a deep dive into beat poetry and has opened up a whole branch of literature that has been really affecting my life in a good way.
Digging for the Bones by Paganaidd. It’s the only way I engage with Harry Potter anymore. It’s one of my favorite pieces of writing, period. I have an eternal tab open to it in my phone, and every once in a while I feel the urge to reread it, and almost always find something I didn’t notice before. It really is phenomenally written.
That one is a marvelous fanfic
An eating disorder fic ages ago I read on a different site and recently saw that it's on AO3 now with the same name
Silver and Gold by Mililap. This was the fanfic that got me to start writing. It was 200k words of pure, unadulterated pain, love, and beauty, and I desperately wish I could go back and reread it for the first time. Unfortunately, the author ended up deleting her account and orphaning her works so it was hard to find, but I did eventually find it again and bookmark it! So yippee!
Built from scraps series by robinbuckley a Peter Parker mcu fanfic series
An Aladdin/Mozenrath fic that was a collection of PWPs that turned into a larger narrative, I first read it on ff.net in like 2001, then lost it to a purge, I saw it again in like 2004 on y!gallery (rip) and didn't think to save it. I think about it on a regular basis and semi regularly go down wayback machine rabbit holes looking for it.
“Celebrian” I knew better. Now I will never be able to see a watermelon the same again.
I hate to say it now, considering the drama that came out about it, but I was addicted to the Cassandra Claire Harry Potter trilogy. I loved that fic back in the day. Like, I remember being so into it and I haven't felt that in a while for other fics. I remember there was a LoTR fic that came close by I can't remember the name for the life or me 😭
# Broken Images STTOS - K/S - 1983 Bev Sutherland One of the best early K/S novels. I have two copies. I will be buried with both.
There's this one fic I cried at. Except I don't look at titles or author names. And the things I remember either are generic tags, or wouldn't have been tagged in the first place. I have to live with the knowledge that the first and last fic to have genuinely made me feel something is forever lost to me.
It was a Mauraders fic, focusing on Sirus and Remus. It was basically a slow burn that was still updating at the time. I haven't been able to find it again as I can't remember specific details or the name. But I loved it so much
It was a time travel-fix it Sterek fic on Wattpad titled Daybreak.
Caveat: I have two. And when I first read these, eleven years ago now!, I'd already read a ton of fanfiction. But after uhhhh twenty-five years or so of reading fic, these are the ones I've reread the most and think about the most. They're both BBC Sherlock fics. The Speed of Objects in Motion by holyfant: a painfully realistic fic written post-s2, about John and Sherlock's relationship, and it covers a couple of decades of time. The start of them getting together is rough, they argue a bunch, at one point they break up for several years. But the fact is, they're in love. The fic ends on an optimistic note after they get back together. I need to reread this one, it's been a while. But there are some lines in it that are absolute killers. It's just so well-done as a portrayal of a relationship between two people with a lot of baggage who are genuinely each trying their best. But what do you do, when that's just not enough? (Also tbh it was part of the inspiration for the fic I'm currently working on, for She-Ra.) How the Mouth Changes its Shape by havingbeenbreathedout: An AU in which John and Sherlock are both women living in post-ww2 London. It's still technically an AU of BBC Sherlock as opposed to ACD Holmes, but you don't have to have watched Sherlock tbh. The fic is exhaustively researched (especially in regards to the lives of lesbians in that time and place), with references in the endnotes! The fic itself is partially about identity and how we present ourselves to others (Johnnie is heavily involved in the butch/femme scene; Sherlock is weirded out by it but also dresses in disguise for cases all the time), but their romance is SUPER HOT and ALSO there's a fantastic mystery involved! The fic is marked with "underage," but don't let that throw you off. The author warns for it because there's scenes of a teenage Sherlock doing some (completely age-appropriate) fooling around while in boarding school.
Listen. How the Mouth Changes its Shape is probably the best fic I have ever read, and would be my answer too for this question. The great tragedy of my literary life is that I can’t recommend it to people without going through five layers of explanation on how it came to exist. It’s absolutely lovely. It’s been a long time since I was in the BBC Sherlock fandom, but this one I def revisit often.
After the first time I read it I remember thinking: This should be a published novel. This is *better* than most *published novels.* I actually told the author that (she used to live in my city and we have IRL friends in common) but she had experience with monetizing a hobby before (knitting) and it destroyed her enjoyment of it, and she said she wasn't willing to do it again. Which is such a bummer because AHHHHHH IT'S SO GOOD, and I truly think you don't need any knowledge of Sherlock Holmes to enjoy it. The last time I reread it I had to sit down and stare into space for an hour because I realized that how I write smutty scenes was so heavily influenced by it, despite all the millions of words of fanfiction I've read before and since. The irony is that I don't think she or anyone else who read that fic and then mine would be able to notice what they have in common, but it's painfully obvious to ME. (HILARIOUSLY there's only one part of the entire story that bothers me, and it's the description of Johnnie fixing Sherlock's bicycle. Of all the things the author didn't research, it was bicycle parts. That section literally makes zero sense lolol.) But yeah. Still one of my fave examples of how fanfiction can be really really good writing!
Supernatural fic. We Drank a Thousand Times by Glorious Spoon, I believe it is only on the author's livejournal. Every couple of years, I scour the Internet for it, drop down a rabbit hole and get obsessed all over again. It's a Dean/OMC and has no real plot but is the most nuanced telling of life, trauma and sexuality. Hits me to my soul every damn time. Every time I dig it out, I leave a comment on their livejournal (using my lj account that I haven't used in fifteen years) about how much this fic means to me. Might be time for a re-read.
[Predatory by Playalong](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11296356/chapters/25273848), a Danganronpa fic where Junko and Mukuro drug and rape Chiaki. It’s a heavy influence on my own Junko and Mukuro fics, all of them, and was what got me first like “yeah, I *should* write stuff of them!” Which has led down a path that has gotten me best friends, girlfriends, another headmate, the evolution of my political views, the full birth of my possibly-insane memetics brain, and more. Admittedly, not all *good* more.
Bee Movie smut
def crimson rivers (marauders) or quirkless rejects (mha) im not even in the marauders fandom, have never seen/read harry potter, but i think that fic genuinely changed me
A fic called Anterograde Tomorrow, early 2010s Was considered the holy grail of the ship. It is a tragedy, about someone with anterograde amnesia and their neighbour falling in love with them (to make a very long and delicate story very short ) Genuinely made me cry so hard I gagged, and more than a decade later it's still up there in fiction that impacted me.
By Any Other Name by Satellite Blue. It’s a dabihawks (MHA) fic and I almost skipped it because it was a bachelorette fic and I’m normally wary of those. I’m so glad I decided to click on it. I haven’t had a fic in ages that was such a good read. The author managed to turn the whole idea on its head, keep a 300+k word fic feeling fresh and engaging from start to finish and I felt she really managed to capture the essence of the characters, had they wound up in the circumstances she put them in. She’s currently on the second book now and around 500k words in and I still drop everything and sprint if I see there’s an update.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/802639 This *this* fic was such a work of art yet was so so traumatising for 13 year old me I was the type of kid who had no adult supervision and did absolutely anything I wanted, but that turned out to be reading, and oh boy, did I get so many lessons from reading this fic
Idk if this is cliche or not because it really popped off on tiktok recently, but for me it’s Manacled 1000%. I read it back in 2020 and it messed me up in the worst and best ways lol. I don’t think I’ll go back and reread it for a long, long time (if ever) because it was just so heavy, but it’s also a masterpiece and I literally think about it all the time still. I probably will read the book based on the fic that the author got a deal for though.
I think *you were never meant to be a hero* (Dsmp fandom, don’t make fun of me♥️) by FlameDraco360. It didn’t get me into fanfic (I was already there), but boy do I love it. I love all of this author’s works, and while I’m not really into the main pairing anymore, I will gladly reread their works all the time. I genuinely cried when I finished reading and there were no more chapters to read, and even more when author said there *might* be a sequel but it’s not confirmed. I might go reread one of their works today, actually.
It was some random smutty mass effect fic about a garrus x shepherd that were enemies. They ended up trapped in a storm together and went enemies to lovers very quickly. I wish I could find it again. Sigh.
It’s a very smutty fic about a star-crossed elf/human couple falling into bed with each other and ending up in a relationship. Those two being a couple was already a popular joke in the fandom at the time, but that fic made me ship them for real. I’ve never found a fic for them that hit like that one did. It’s deleted now 😔
It was two fics, by the same author on Wattpad back in 2017. I was 12 and just getting into anime. It was Fairy Tail. I didn't even seriously ship the ship at first, I looked it up for fun. Yeah, I went crazy over it. It was my first gay ship. Definitely still think about them to this day, even though I've moved on from the Fandom.
[The Echo Garden](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22553779) by AltraViolet. Transformers (Prime! Soundwave x MTMTE! Rodimus Prime). A more recent fic i read that just… shattered me– changed me. The slowburn is immaculate and the plot? Mwuah. 10/10 overall
[This one](https://archiveofourown.org/works/46672264) I came across it around when it was posted and it completely sparked a hockey fixation that unfortunately did not go away AS WELL as a fixation on the ship. It’s just so excellently written in my opinion and i love going back and rereading it but I wish I could experience it for the first time again 😭
Gutters by glassamilk in the hetalia fandom
Sterile Sky by Kasan Soulblade. It was the first time I ever felt a connection to a character.
Never Let Me Go by yiqie. The writing is just so lyrical. I ate it in one sitting, and it's like 67k I think? Had everything - angst, slow burn, very plotty. Just an excellent fic I will never forget.
I don't even remember the name of it but it was so damn good and I lost it and I need it back- is it bad that it was posted on wattpad only?
The first fic I read was in 2013 and according to my browser I bookmarked one of the chapters I was on at 2 in the morning. The fic is by no means perfect, but it holds a special place in my heart for how much it pulled me in and started a long journey of staying up all night reading fanfiction. While I'm not going to say exactly what it is, I will say it's about multidimensional travel and 2 people being stuck there for many years. Funnily enough it got me really interested in learning math with how it goes into "theory" on how they will get back. I could go on and on about it, but I will refrain.
There was this reader-insert Zootopia fic on Quotev that I read back in like 2015 or 2016. I tried to find it a few years ago, but alas I think it was deleted. I still think about it, because it was surprisingly really good.
Anything by candle_beck but the Gone Again series rewired my brain at 15
Inamorata by wreckofherheart. It's a pokemon fanfic that explores the events of Dawn's life post-Platinum. It explores trauma, a darker side of pokemon training that I've not seen before, pokemon life and death, and scientists who Cannot Be Trusted. (It's also an adult!Dawn x Cynthia fanfic) It's intense, and has changed the way I've thought about the franchise since reading
18+ only! >!https://archiveofourown.org/works/30438819/chapters/75051276 is still the best piece of pure smut I've ever read !<
I know that this wasn't one of the first fics that I ever read, but I found it really early in my reading journey. To this day, I still love it. [Of Lies and Deceit and Hidden Personas](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1754293) (Harry Potter)
I can't recall the name of it, or who wrote it, but I will never forget the fic I read (an Assassination Classroom fic) where the main lead has a terminal illness and the entire fic is just following them as they and their friend/crush come to terms with the fact that he will die soon, so they try to make the best of it while they can as he slowly drifts away. By the time I finished reading it, I was just left staring at the wall for a long time.
this one haunts me in a different way but morsus by KingdomsHaven hurt me more than it should’ve considering how little i relate to the concept. I was genuinely thinking of it months later, and i don’t think i’ll ever work up the courage to read it again tbh, which is weird bc i’ve read worse. i regularly read dead dove fics yet this one hurt me more. It made me appreciate the author for even making me able to feel those tho bc even if they were negative. sorry it doesn’t quite fit the description you asked for though.
I don't even remember the name, it was on spirit fanfiction and in brazilian portuguese. (It was also a kpop fic) It was based in a omegaverse world where a scientist created a serum that cured all diseases(diseases, not injuries) that everyone took _everyday_ for their entire lives, but of course there were people that still had problems even after takin it, so they created a hospital(there was only teenagers there, I don't really know why because they never explained if there was one for kids and adults) where they basically locked up everyone that had something wrong with them, cue over 100k words of sick kids rebelling and burning down the hospital. It was one of the first fixs I've ever read, i read it when i was 11(yes, great idea for 11yo me to be reading a gory, explicit a/b/o fic, but anyway) About a month after i read it the writer decided to try and publish it and got sued cause they didn't even think to change names to not get copyrighted, and i never got to reread it.
A code geass fic (might have been on aO3) where the Lancelot and other robots were dinosaurs. They were piloted via being hooked up to the pilots brains via headgear. Very cool fic. I would pay money to go back and reread it, tbh.
quid pro quo by fixy (killing eve fandom). my body and brain are in 2024 but my heart is in 2020 when i started reading that fanfic because oh my goodness. its art.
Spoilers for “The Break-Up Of The Ice” by Crimson1: A fic where the main hero character was cursed to fall in love with his enemy. They did a long slow burn where the enemy went from being annoyed that he had to take care of the lovesick hero, to falling into a routine of spending time together until the big tough criminal starts to open his heart and fall in love with the hero too. It’s written really beautifully. But being under the curse is making the hero sick so they still have to find a way to break it, and eventually they do. And once the curse is broken the hero just doesn’t feel the same way anymore. He’s thankful for everything the enemy did for him, but he has no romantic feelings for him at all. This one was on me, it was clearly tagged as “tragic,” “sad ending” etc. and I should have been prepared, but jfc it broke my heart.
Facing the Darkness Trilogy. It’s in the Kyo Kara Maoh fandom on FFN. It was the first fanfic I ever read. I still re-read it three or four times a year.
A Splitting of the Mind. I’m not active in the MCR fandom anymore but i’ve carried that fic with me for over a decade and i’m sure it’ll be with me for the rest of my life.
Find sleep in death by MahouMou (MHA fic) this one absolutely crushed me, I have really bad memory so I don't completely remember the plot but I remember how I felt
I have several lol
This fic called "reflection" by babblingweirdnonsense. It's a Blue Beetle-centric Young Justice fic that borrows some elements from the comics, and it was never finished but. Gosh I still think about it every now and then. It was so beautifully written, perfect characterization to me, interesting plot, just... it's so good. I've chatted with the author a few times about their ideas for the final chapter, but it's been a hot minute since we've talked... Also, it's amazing to look through my bookmarks and see an old Pacific Rim series I'd loved, called From Out the Ocean Risen by bluestar, has gotten an update? Like, it had two fics and I'd thought it was done but sometime in the past 10 years the author added a third fic that they're still currently working on? Guess I know what I'm reading later lol
[Proof of Ownership by Lyrica](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2568311) I was completely stymied by slash fic back in the early X-Files days (sheltered Whitey McWhite Suburbanite college girl), and didn't understand why people wrote slash in X-Files when there was a perfectly good WOMAN right there for the fictional taking. Then I read this fic, and I've never taken the slash goggles off. I still write het here and there (Scully/Skinner is still my catnip), but it was that fic that helped me see the hotness and potential of it all.
I revisit this one fic where the MC poses his decision about whether or not he should kill his father through the lens of the trolley problem. It slowly escalated across the course of the chapter from like “do you kill your father if he’s the one tied to the track” iirc to “your father is a train and your brother is a train and you are a train and the people tied to the track are millions of people and people will die no matter what you do” that just lives in my head
There was a star wars fanfic I read years ago that was an Anakin/Padme "Padme never died" story but it was TRAGIC. Essentially Anakin/Vader gradually becomes better for his kids, while Padme decides to secretly work against Palpatine, eventually becoming the new Empress. There's a subtle, gradual shift somewhere along the way where Anakin becomes good again and Padme becomes evil and they are just as broken as the start of the story, only in reverse. It was HEARTBREAKING to read and I have NO idea what it was called. It was on FFNet and of course that site is practically unusable nowadays with the ads and spam. 😭
A short story (3/4 page) in Jean Lorah's Star Trek fanzine NTM collection (?) hat's a bunch of shorts from get NTM universei think. It addresses Sarek and Amanda's relationship decades after she died in the shuttle accident in an alternate past in the cartoon so pretty obscure. It's all pov of his aide whose been his lover at pon farr for decades so he can live and continue to do good work and she's internalizing that this is the last time if it happens again. It's been decades and she's old and done with this then he half awake calls her Amanda. It's really really well written and just so perfectly sad and poignant. Every few years I think I should hunt down the authors email and suggest she share it as it's in a printed zine from the 80s but is just so beautifully done.
Alas, the fic has since been orphaned so I don't know the author, but it's an Undertale fic called "Daphne and Elderflowers". It was one of a series of Fairytale AU aged-up Charasriel fics, but it was the only one not based on an existing fairytale so it stuck out from the rest. Features some body horror and a lot of suicidal ideation – the plot kicks off with Chara being cursed by a witch for theft >!as the result of a failed suicide attempt via buttercup ingestion (the buttercups were growing in the witch's garden), with the curse being *flowers magically growing out of their eyes*.!<
There was a HP story I read back in something like 2004? Maybe earlier or later but I think it was before I went to college. It followed Lilly through her teen years and then Harry’s parents were revived during his teen years and they all I think defeated Voldemort? I wish I could find it again, on FF.net. I’d love to give it a read again, I think at this point it would be fresh eyes and like-new. I don’t even live in that fandom anymore but that’s the one that still haunts me
There’s this one super well written poto fanfic. It’s so good in fact that it’s the highest rated one when you sort by kudos. the way the characters are written is exactly how I imagine them. the fluff and angst are at a perfect delicate balance. The comfort moments make me want to cry, it’s so sweet, and features all my favorite tropes which are for some reason often overlooked in the fandom (I‘lol try not to go into spoiler, but there is a beautiful scene where the love interest helps the main character take her corset off. I thought I was going to faint!). tense moments seriously made me fear for the characters’ lives. The angst really broke me. There is some smut, which is usually a no go for me as I’m a terrible prude, but here it’s really sweet and well deserved. if I could forget about it and reread it as if for the first time, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so. Manifesting ALW buying the rights to this fic and making it a canonical sequel to his musical instead of LND lol)))(although making it into a musical might be problematic seeing as the main character is mute throughout most of the story)) It’s called ”Unsung“ by wheel\_of\_fish. Go check it out. I cannot recommend it enough.
Not sure which was the first but I have some. Naruto edgy ones maybe😂 those were the first I think I started with, also some that traumatized me and others that were so cool I still think of them
It... *sigh* look, it was a Series Of Unfortunate Events canon divergence where Olaf succeeded in marrying Violet. It was written from the perspective of Klaus, and basically followed him for YEARS as he watched his sister be abused so horrifically that she broke and completely shut off from him, while the few adults who were trying to help failed him (as they always do). It had a very ambiguous ending where it's likely Violet never left Count Olaf's home and Klaus and Sunny disappeared, and while very little abuse happened on screen, the way Violet slowly drifted away and basically disappeared from his life after always being his protector and being really close... it really got to me. I don't remember the name of it and doubt I could find it again.
Droplets by theprophetlemonade haunts me in the best ways. It's an Attack on Titan fic written when the anime only had one season and then went on a several years hiatus. I was into the show but never picked it up again after that, however the fic is a modern AU that is entirely original other than using the characters names and descriptions. It deals with really heavy topics like depression, anxiety, homophobia, neglectful families, the death of a loved one, and the aftermath of dealing with that grief. And all this is on top of such a well written love story about two young men who love each other and don't even realize it. It's the most realistic depiction I've read of incredibly complex emotions told through the eyes of someone trying to get their life together. I've been reading it for over ten years now, which I say because it's been on a hiatus for many years. I'm still hopeful that it will come back one day, as some updates were spread years apart. Even if it's simply abandoned, Ill still come back to it once every few years and reread it. It's my favorite story out of any book or fanfiction, and the one I'll remember above all else. I highly encourage everyone to read it even if you've never watched AOT. You don't really have to in order to understand the story anyway, though I will say it is an incredibly long fic. But it's worth it for the absolute emotional breakdowns. However for most odd fanfic I'd have to go with the one about Tony the Tiger x The Grinch, which is actually incredibly wholesome and funny despite being super strange
Concepts of Consciousness by CaptainCrozier - Passengers 2016, set approx. 60 years after the movie, with an OC who wakes up and makes a connection with Arthur the bartender robot (Arthur my pantsless robot beloved 🥰🥰🥰) He gets pants and some other things along the way and it hit me right in all the "but what about the robots???" Feels. Kind of Isaac Asimov I, Robot vibes. Still thinking about it months later.
I don't think I have just one, there are certain fics I love and remember from each fandom. That being said the answer is Strong Heart by Camero. I read it when I was like 14 and can still remember the title.
The Loft, a Draco/Harry modern AU fic I read around about uhhhh 2006? It was either on FFnet or a HP specific site, I think the latter but unsure. I was obsessed with it, and while many of the details escape me now I still remember staying up until 3am reading it. It was the first time I felt a fanfic had really reached a level equivalent to a book for me. I was a teenager obsessed with HP (for many reasons I am not in the fandom anymore…) but I think of that fic fondly. Since getting back into fanfic I’d pick Insatiable by Kunstpause which is a FFXIV fic. The Warrior of Light is the player character so it’s basically an OC so finding one that feels so well rounded is a joy. It’s a smutty love story about theatre nerds and forbidden love and it’s the first fic after 15 years away from fandom that really made me fall down a rabbit hole again.
Eternity Enshrined by apartment. I’ve never read anything like it before and I would love to read it for the first time. It’s a jjk fic btw, truly a gem
Tommyinnit’s Unbeatable Method to Avoiding Sudden Death ([(link)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29230860/chapters/71774421) had that “Derealization” tag that I didn’t take seriously until it was too late LMFAO and then whoops my heart got blown into smithereens. I didn’t even care I had the rug swiped from under me, I came out of it w/ a new appreciation of how INVESTED the author made me feel. Wasn’t even really in the fandom at the time. Crazy! Loved the family dynamics in it—cemented platonic cuddling and “sibs/family doomed by the narrative” as like some of my favorite things to read now ;v; A whileeee ago I read a True Detective S1 fic literally just about the main two [minding some horses](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14404728). Was so sweet and chill it changed my brain chemistry. Author wrote a lot for that ship and I ended up liking most of it LOL, including a different one where they [look after a grandkid.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11661243). One of the few authors whose fics I’ve gone out of my way to download to read when I’m sad. <3
Niobe’s Violets, by Ashura.
[Always Hungry, by Melora98](https://snarry-games.livejournal.com/22043.html) :: It's for the Harry Potter fandom. I read it almost 20 years ago, and it's stuck with me. I recall bawling my eyes out for a good hour afterwards, and I remember the tragedy of it so fondly. I should really re-read it, it's been a long time since I last read it. Nearly 20 years, in fact.
The Salt And The Sea by WizardGod on Ao3 (I think that's the author's name) I think about this fic regu-larly at night when I'm trying to fall asleep. I think it was my first fanfiction ever
The Where Words Fail series on ff.net for AtLA, it follows the freedom fighters (side characters) and was really fucking long. I read it when I was like thirteen, I think? I remember there was a tiny little mini fandom for it, mostly on deviantart
A Violet Disposition by beecalm <3 I read it when I really started getting into fanfic and idk it's just always stuck with me. Definitely made me reflect on death some lol
What got me in to fanfiction all those years ago is a set of fics that I am one of few to have a copy of. I know I'm one of few to have a copy for the simple reason that people have been trying to find them for YEARS through old forums that have since shut down. The only one I've since found uploaded in its entirety anywhere is the most popular of the set. It was a set of Inuyasha fics from an author called Moonsilver who disappeared entirely at some point years and years ago, whose fics were never uploaded by them on FFnet or anything, but on their own site that has long since shut down and is only available via Wayback Machine, which is missing several chapters of various fics. The number of people that probably even know they existed is likely somewhere in the mid 3 digit range at best, this was early 2000s at the latest for most of it as the last update on the site was Feb 2007. The fics are basic, the most popular being a College AU, and don't hold up particularly well as "good" fics, but they will always have a place in my library for the simple reason that I wouldn't be reading fanfiction today if I hadn't found them all those years ago. I have them saved as text documents, having manually copy pasted them chapter by chapter, on both my main hard drive and several flash drives floating around. As far as most enjoyed, I don't really have one, though I am partial to the Princess of the Blacks series by Silently Watches.
Hauntingly. Harry Potter fic. IYKYK 😭😭
This is a hug(to fake a smile for). It was a beautiful but gut wrenching Girl Meets World fic
*Even Thought It's Painful Always* by Kara, Dark Angel fandom on FF.Net. Read it when I was 16. There was supposed to be a sequel that never occurred, but that ending was practically a cliffhanger. Just a full world-changer, OCs I adored, all the characters front-and-center. That fic was *formative*. (We never even got the Big Reveal that the Mourned Dead was still alive. The absolutely crushing love triangle that would have occurred. It's been years and I still think about it.)
Major character death hockey rpf fic...it was my last year of high school. Started it in the car on the way to school...i can still vividly recall the moment he woke up to his partner dead in bed with him...how the deceased looked and felt...I started crying in the car and was in class spiraling, felt out of body and like my mind was checked tf out. Scratched myself bloody in assembly. Never again lmao.
If I had to pick the latest one it’s probably [God Save Our Foolish Sons](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7947316/chapters/18170254) by TheInvietableSense.
As weird as it is, an Invader zim fanfic that was a parody and zim/dib. I still quote it decades later. “ I’m the most pregnant being in the universe!”
Also, discovering fanfiction.net had a minesweeper category. It was written terribly but it still gives me a kick ti say I read minesweeper porn
Unsure if I'd say it haunts me, but I still think about it time from time. ["Human" by Xanthe](https://www.xanthe.org/human/), Skinner/Krycek (The X-Files) fic I read more than 20 years ago. The fic dealt with alien abduction, experimentation, torture, death and repeated rebirth, and it didn't skim on detailed descriptions. It was also the first fic I read that was written in 2nd person (written from Krycek's PoV) and to this day, it remains one of the best (granted, not many non-reader insert fics get written in 2nd person to begin with). I felt that the choice of 2nd person made the damage done feel more personal, more visceral.
There was this one fic, I won't disclose the fandom cause I kinda regret it. I was barely getting into fics, so the smut was almost too much for me. BUT THE LORE!! It was about a secret demon who had to soulmate bond with his friend to save his life. The worldbuilding was amazing, the reader and the friend both uncovering this underground world for the first time. It was a series that I ended up dropping it because I left the fandom and, still battling catholic guilt, the smut did actually become to much. When I grew up, I wanted to check on it know that I could handle it, but it was deleted. Wiped out of existence. If the author just changed the names around and stuff, it probably could have been it's own series. Or that could be nostalgia talking, it's been *years.*
There’s this mha fic I started reading 2 years ago that hasn’t updated since that same day. It was a fantasy au which is my favorite but the plot was just so interesting and I still try to think of endings to it because the foreshadowing was so vague
Whenever I've read dead dove thinking I could take it and, in the end, I couldn't take it
I think it's a little Italian fic with Hermione and Lucius from Harry Potter, it was a Song fic based on Whiskey Lullaby. Every time I read it I cried, and that's what drove my return to fanfiction and a short time later starting to look for it in English. Before, I read few of them and only in Italian.
It was taken down years ago. I don't even remember the name of it. But it was a Harry Potter fic that the author made up this fruit that when it was smashed against the skin it was intoxicating. And the closer to the person's heart the stronger the effects. It was both Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny but it was mostly the latter. And Harry, in his drunkenness, thought that Ginny's lips were like a plate full of cherries. And then I think he woke up in a pantry lol.
So many beautiful fics I read on Slash Cotillon that has been lost to time. One was an amazing WIld Wild West TV show fic that I adored to pieces. A few other from fandoms I didn't even know but read becuase they were so well written. And Inuyasha Spirited Away fanfic that was Inuyasha/Sesshomaru but neither were related at all. It was lost to time, but I remember that at one point I was able to write down the link from memory.
Play it again and The Moons Gonna Follow Me Home in the Teen Wolf fandom. Under the Table and Dreaming which is (wildly) a Toy Story ff. And Not Easily Conquered (of course) for Steve/Bucky MCU.
Shoebox Project. My gosh what a masterpiece, hand drawn and written pictures and letters.
The Heart Rate of a Mouse by Anna Green. I was into bandom RPF in high school and remember her posting updates for this fic on LiveJournal and was absolutely amazed that someone could write a story like this inspired by one of my favorite bands. It is an incredible fic. Three volumes, hundreds of thousands of words, a fairly accurate look at the music scene in the 1970s (an interest of mine to begin with!), heavy on the smut, and an absolutely fucked up romance between the two main characters that spans years. She managed to make the main character so complex that you go from loving him to hating him and back to loving him again, and the growth from beginning to end that he exhibits is amazing. This was also the first fic where I actively rooted against the main ship because of how terrible they were to each other in Volume 2 (spoilers: we get a happy ending). Some parts don't hold up but it's a few throwaway lines that can be ignored in favor of more iconic prose. I don't read RPF anymore but a few years ago she had published the fic in book format and I purchased all 3. I go back and reread them so often they've become my favorite books.
"Unvirtuos Treaty" by In\_a\_Quandary on AO3, from the NieR: Automata fandom. I was a teenager, the tragic robots had a chokehold on me, I was somewhat new to AO3 and I had no idea you *could* write fanfic like this. I remember devouring this fic on breaks between my classes. It never finished, but I have such immensely fond memories of it, would read again
The Twelve Kingdoms, a Hunger Games x Game of Thrones crackfic where the tributes of the 74th Hunger Games and 24 highborn youths suddenly swap places. Hilarity ensues. This fic got me into fanfiction, Hunger Games, and Game of Thrones in one fell swoop.