[Meme] AO3 fics at random

[edenfalling]

Oh hey, looks like this one is going around again. :-)

I currently have 387 works archived on AO3. Pick a number from 1 (the most recent) to 387 (the first thing I posted*), and I'll tell you three things I currently like about it!

*Technically this is not true, because backdating, but it is the oldest work which is the relevant point.

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#187: "Blueprints" [Inception]

#259 and #144: "What Isn't Broken (Can Still Be Fixed)" [Naruto] and "Narutostuck: The Mother of Necessity" [Homestuck/Naruto fusion]

#227 and #27: "Bluebell" [fairy-tale retelling] and "Mycophilia" [Homestuck]

#167: "Dreams From My Mother" [Black Jewels]

#184: "Lives by Mending" [Darkangel Trilogy]

#66: "Small Favors" [Naruto, specifically the 'Apartment Manager' AU]

#221: "Everything Ends" [Doctor Who with elements from Ender's Game]

#198: "Sparkly Rainbow Blood" [Homestuck]

Comments

[jjhunter]

How about 259? And if you'd like a bonus one, 144?

[edenfalling]

259 is What Isn't Broken (Can Still Be Fixed), aka the 2010 Naruto remix that got completely and utterly out of hand. (In a good way! But still. That was a crazy two weeks.)

1. I still secretly think of this story as the one where the people of Konoha redeem Sasuke through the power of Stockholm syndrome. I am aware that this is inappropriate. It makes me laugh anyway. (Occasionally I regret not calling the story "It Takes a Village" because I cannot think of a more on-the-nose title and the cheesiness would have been terrible and glorious.) More seriously, the story is all about emotional bonds and the reconstruction thereof, and I think I pulled that aspect off very well.

2. I loved getting to play around with world-building and chakra techniques and stuff. I am still very proud of the chakra-infused ink that the Academy teachers use to make sure their students can't mess with their grade books, and how it doubles as a method to let Sasuke read his students' homework. (And then the way he uses it later on to mark where to hit the mountain in order to drop a couple tons of rock on some invaders.) I also very much enjoyed all the stuff about Sasuke's blindness-compensation jutsu, and Sakura's eye exam.

3. ...I'm only allowed three things? Eesh, this is hard! But I guess for today, I will say that my third thing is Sasuke as a teacher, which is not an idea I would ever have though of on my own, but which I loved getting to play with while remixing megyal's work. I think the incongruity was good for Sasuke -- pushing him out of his comfort zone meant he was forced to reevaluate both himself and his surroundings -- and also it ties in very nicely with both the emotional bonds and the new hope/new start aspects of the story.

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144 is Narutostuck: The Mother of Necessity, which is backstory for the 'present day' of my other Narutostuck fics. Basically it's the story of how Rose and Dave came to be born, and a window into what life was like under the old regime before the start of the revolution. (Narutostuck is a Homestuck/Naruto fusion AU, btw.)

1. I think I translated Roxy and Dirk into the Naruto setting pretty well. (Note that these versions are kind of halfway between their alpha kid and beta guardian selves, though in Dirk's case he is much closer to his kid self since he's not being balefully influenced by a possessed juju.)

2. I like that the story is absolutely about love, and equally absolutely NOT about romance.

3. I am very proud of Roxy's practicality and competence -- the way she picks this option to get Dirk out of a tight spot because she already tried the others and they only worked for a little while -- and the way she's determined to make a better world for the children she wants so badly.

[jjhunter]

I adore 'What Isn't Broken (Can Still Be Fixed)' (though 'It Takes a Village' as an alternate title made me snicker), and may now be possessed of a powerful need to go nom all your Narutostuck 'verse despite my utter lack of any but the most passing of acquaintance with Homestuck canon because a.), that sounds awesome, and b.) fusion! I love fusions even when I don't know both / all the primary canons. (I think I may have refrained before out of a vague intention of not spoiling myself, but there's very little chance I will be consuming the entirety of that particular canon in the next...heh, likely decade or so, so why wait?)

Ooo, that reminds me that I should comment & tell mothlight how much I liked the podfic they did of 'What Isn't Broken (Can Still Be Fixed)'.

[edenfalling]

I think the Narutostuck ficlets should be readable even without any knowledge of Homestuck. Just think of all the characters as OCs, and be aware that the majority of them are from a non-human species.

I also don't think the ficlets spoil Homestuck itself, since the situations are so wildly different. Obviously there are thematic similarities, and I kept as many elements of the characters' backstories as seemed plausible, but if you try to reconstruct Homestuck from Narutostuck, I don't think you'll get very far. *wry*

I am glad to hear that the podfic is good! (I have never listened to it myself, partly because I have trouble with podfics in general but mostly because listening to my own words read aloud makes me combust in embarrassment.)

[jjhunter]

There's something about listening to Sasuke's internal monologue which makes it even more hilarious. He takes himself So Very Seriously, and mothlight is wonderfully deadpan in their delivery.

(I love podfics, and I still have trouble listening to someone else's podfic of my work. luzula arranged one of my poems to music once and recorded it as song, and I discovered that it is actually possible to full-body flush with embarrassed delight, which I always thought was some purple prose figure of speech. And then I had to listen to it another twenty times in a row, because wow.

(I dunno, it's kind of like getting surprise!cake based on a recipe you made up off the top of your head and posted online? There's the reaction to omg, someone made me a cake, I am not worthy, and then you can't not have lots of opinions about the cake, because you made up the recipe, and you have to let go of the self-conscious desire to want to fiddle with the wording and just enjoy the cake as is. It's like a practice of humility that also makes you float several feet off the ground: logistically challenging, intensely rewarding.)