the background on my desktop cycles through all the fanart people have done for me/my stories and I think it’s the happiest folder on my computer.

redwinterroses:

I need to make a list of the fics I’ve read in the past week or so that have absolutely hooked my brain.

List Of Fics I’ve Read in the Past Week Or So That Have Absolutely Hooked My Brain

Monsters Splitting Hairsby Silverskye13: a fantasy AU where Ren, Doc, and Gem all live on a farm outside of town, a mysterious Baron rules from an anonymous distance, Scar and Cub are terrifyingly Vex, and the echoes of a war no one will really tell newcomer-Ren about leave everything rather tense and everyone terrified of monsters… and Ren is one of those monsters. AMAZING fantasy setting, lots of original world exploration, Etho is a mysterious-but-friendly silent neighbor in the woods, Gem is absolutely on point and Doc has an entire herd of goats that are his pride and joy. I am in love with this fic you have no idea.

Venom In Your Blood by paranoid_pug: Grian and Xisuma head off-world for a bit to do a bit of shopping and are followed home by an unsavory character who proceeds to attack the hermits in the one place they should be safe… and threatens to make them a danger to the ones they love. Short version: vampire!Mumbo and what came of it. AMAZING concepts of server/worlds, game mechanics, and how streaming+chat would work in a Minecraft-but-real universe. Also Mumbo angst is always a soft spot for me. Highly rec.

theStill The Echoes Give Us Lightseries by doctortrekkie: what prompted this post in the first place (the other two just still had tabs open on my desktop so they got linked first lol) – a Grian-centric series with a LOT of Pearl and Mumbo content tracing Grian’s journey from Evo to the Watchers to on the run to Hermitcraft. Tons of fantastic worldbuilding that I’m just accepting as canon at this point, angst but tastefully done, characters actually feel like themselves, and it’s a LOT of content so I have been feasting. I dread the moment that I get to the end of currently updated fic and have to wait for more.

Shells in the Foam by Cedarwhisp21: if you’d told me I could get so invested in a hermit!Tommy fic I would have laughed at you. But. Somehow? I did. Partly because it’s just very well written, tbh. Set in Hermitcraft s7, Tommy flees Dream and somehow falls through the worlds and crash-lands in Hermit territories. Queue the inevitable “incredibly traumatized kid gets taken in by kind hermits” but the characters are largely written in such a developed way that it manages to steer clear of most of the cliche-ness of the trope. Reminded me a bit of The Red Sun Never Sets in how repetitively psychological-whump-y it got sometimes, but overall I really enjoyed this fic. I’m hoping the author posts the final chapter soon. Oh yeah, also MCC and Evo are canon to this and there’s some really cool stuff with avians and player code and… at this point you should realize that Red is an absolute sucker for worldbuilding stuff in fics.

Red Thread by ShadeSwift99: and with that last comment you will not be surprised that my biggest “look at the shiny!” comment for this fic is worldbuilding. Basically, what if Mumbo was a demon, and only Xisuma knew. But Grian… found out. And was a leeeeeeetle bit wrong in his assumptions, thinking that Mumbo was a demon hunter, like False. And when Grian tells False about this… False realizes that she’s somehow missed a horrific monster living right under her nose for years – and what did he do to the real Mumbo. Think Illuminae Files for the structure of this one, lots of internal memos and glimpses into server logs and redacted research papers and such interspersed with the more narrative chapters. SO GOOD and I am eagerly awaiting the next update because I Have Questions.

Y'all know I’m a big fan of the Kaleidoscope series by Exposition_Fairy, and there are two new(ish, I’m slightly behind the times) fics in that AU that are soooo good:
screaming at the sun you throw into by lunarblazes: Grian’s trying to figure out exactly how “becoming a god” works in the aftermath of the Green God’s defeat, and things are not going well. Doc (god of order) notices and misunderstands what’s happening – and he and Ren try to stop Grian. Permanently. Explains the in-universe lead-up to 100 Hours Hardcore.
stretching the truth out of shape, by BananasofThorns: the in-universe origins of Horse Head Farms, featuring my all-time-favorite interpretations of retired-sea-god xBCrafted and “immortal magician and who knows what else” Hypnotized, who don’t… technically remember how they met. It’s been a while, okay? Like. A few millennia or months at least.

autoclaveby Bunflower and wolfythewitch: what? more dsmp? in my hermitcraft blog? it’s more likely than you think. This one is Treasure Planet meets Scott Westerfield’s Leviathanwhere Tommy is a street racer, Wilbur is the governor’s (Kristin’s) son and Techno is her bodyguard, and Philza is dead because his mad scientist self got their floating city to fly and then caused an explosion that killed a bunch of people. He was exiled to the terrifying surface world for his crimes… but before he could be forced to leave, he vanished, and his shattered glider was seen smashed to kindling on the surface below. But. Of course. That’s hardly a story, is it – what is a story is Wilbur chasing a shadowy figure through the underbelly of the floating city, Techno trying to prove his friend’s innocence even after his death, and Tommy trying to hold on to the reputation of “best racer” in the city. I almost hesitate to rec this one because it’s been a month since the last upload, and I’m just REALLY hoping that it won’t get dropped, but Bunflower and wolfythewitch are both amazing writers so I’m trusting and crossing my fingers.

all my soul within me burning by Cloverponyz: this fic takes a bunch of things I love (winged!Philza, watcher!Grian, expansive worldbuilding, and AU canon) and smashes them into one – what if Phil was a watcher? What if Grian helped him escape for reasons that may or may not be altruistic? What if the Watchers were like, this massive and complex society that I’m definitely not brainrotting over because that is SO much more interesting to me than “a few lone creeps scuttling about the edges of reality”? This one currently only has one chapter, but it also just started, so now’s probably a good time to get in on it and subscribe.

Okay – that’s enough for now, I think. XD Friendly reminder to kudos and comment if you read any of these or else I’ll haunt your microwave and your food will never heat evenly again. Enjoy!

I need to make a list of the fics I’ve read in the past week or so that have absolutely hooked my brain.

this is what pain looks like

oh my gosh the Wild update comes out tomorrow

animated, fully-rigged minecraft player models are fine… right up until their mouths move. at which point they dive headlong into uncanny and creepy and yes I’m talking about Xisumavoid

block gradients. they’re so hard.

I love the headcanon of runaway-watcher Grian, I really really do. It’s awesome fodder for fics and I eat it up like a chihuahua with a plate of bacon.

But. I also am contrarian and fractious by nature so this next project of mine absolutely features a watcher!Grian who is still a watcher. He never left. He isn’t in hiding or on the run… A type of watcher that’s more a species than a job description. He’s a watcher the same way Scar is a vex, and Pearl is a shape-shifting alien,and Doc is a creeper-hybrid.

And I think it’s going to be really fun.

It suddenly hit me out of the blue what character from my childhood False has always subconsciously reminded me of.

Gadget Hackwrench. The mechanic mouse with goggles from Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers.