One under-appreciated breed of fic writer are the ones who hyperfocus on logistics to the exclusion of all canon shortcuts, and thus usually strike upon an awesome way to flesh out the worldbuilding or characters.
Like, I’m not necessarily talking realism here since often it’s still pretty far from realistic, but more like, “someone has to be running spies in this fantasy kingdom, and we’ve seen the whole royal court, so which background character is it? How does that change these three major interactions?” Or “real life historical nobility did in fact have some things to do that were like jobs, how does this human disaster cope with running an estate?” Or “there’s no reason for a sci-fi robot detective to know how to whitewater kayak, where’d she learn?” Or “if this guy is serving the emperor directly he has to be way high up in the space empire servant hierarchy, why is he doing this menial task for someone else? What’s his motive? Does he perhaps have the secret space telepathy?”
Anyway I’m always DELIGHTED to find a fic or writer who asks these questions because the fics themselves are universally bangers.
person who knows how logistical things works has picked up the cannon, hefted it thoughtfully, and put a single chalk mark precisely on the problem.
narratively I am a fan of romances that don’t ever actually become romances
I don’t mean in an aromantic life partner way, I mean romantic tension that is never resolved or acted upon for whatever reason but by the end it’s clear that both characters experienced the love of their lives without ever acknowledging it as such. but they know. they know.
maybe the unbridgeable gulf between them is culture, or class, or religion, or maybe their chief commitment is to something other than each other. maybe they decide it’s more important to keep the peace than to risk the complications of a relationship. maybe they’re just weary of change and content with things the way there are because it’s simpler that way. for whatever reason nothing is ever consummated between them, emotionally or physically.
a specific detail i love in stories is when two characters who share a deep understanding of each other nevertheless only addresses each other by their title or last name, which somehow makes it even more intimate than if they were to just call each other by their first names. it’s about the veil of propriety, the false detachment and imposed distance, it’s about the restraint, the high esteem held in each other, the meeting-each-other-at-the-boundary-and-stop-before-crossing-it, making it even clearer they both KNOW where it is; all at once both full of yearning and of fond contentment
fun fact: western shirts’ buttons are snaps instead of normal buttons so cowboys can more easily tear each other’s clothes off without ruining them in the heat of the moment
let dead dogs lie - silas denver melvin // red dog - elizabeth frink // how to be a dog - andrew kane // domestication syndrome - dhole b // no origin found // for your own good - leah horlick // pleasure - beth cavener // it will come back - hozier // i am a dog. i have blood all over my teeth. - uhode // same poem as directly previous
one of the cooler parts of growing up is realizing that you were being incessantly lied to throughout highschool and that fat gay people are not only capable of being desired, but are actively and often voraciously lusted after
i guess the problem with this post possibly breaking containment is that i don’t know how to explain that ron canonically cannot grow hair on one of his legs.
My apartment building has coin-op laundry in the basement, and on the shelf where people store detergent there are also just enough quarters to start one load in the washer. This is the collective “oh shit I forgot my quarters” bank that anyone can borrow from to start laundry without having to climb all the way back up the goddamn stairs first. These quarters have been steadily used and replaced for multiple years now, and every time I see them I think about how upon such small foundations rests all of human society.
