schneefink

Three recs for longfic I read and enjoyed recently, with some more ramblings attached than usual:

the thing that remains by tciddaemina, One Piece
224k, Law/Luffy
Summary: He'd had a plan. Destroy the SAD manufacture plant, destroy the SMILE factory... A kidnapping here, a bit of extortion there. Simple, at least by Law's standards. The Straw Hats had been a surprise, but a manageable one. Doflamingo would submit to their demands, sealing his own fate, or they'd destroy the factory and Kaidou would finish the job for them. He'd had a plan.
Now Law doesn't know what's going on, but its definitely not the plan.
Why I love it: I stopped reading One Piece at some point on Cake Island, and I stopped regularly following it during Dressrosa. Originally I meant to catch up one day, but it's probably not going to happen. But I still semi-regularly read summaries of what's going on in the story, and I still have a massive soft spot for it. (…maybe I could just start reading it again without catching up on everything in between. Recent chapters did sound exciting, even though I don't know half the characters. Hmm.) And Law was one of my favorite characters.
I don't even remember how I found this fic: maybe through someone else's bookmarks, idk. It's a fantastic look at Law during canon events, up until Wano (with a now-AU ending.) I love his relationship with his crew and with Luffy (and I'm speaking as someone who until then was extremely skeptical about reading fic with Luffy in a romantic relationship with anyone.) There's excellent h/c and loyalty and battle scenes and, of course, post-battle parties, and the weirdest and yet perfectly fitting romantic gesture I've read maybe ever. (Have I mentioned how cool Law's abilities are? It's related. Guess.)

Silk and Steel by Tavina, Naruto
219k, merchant!OFC/Uchiha Izuna, ongoing series (two completed main stories + extras)
Series summary: Basically my entirely self indulgent Cdrama Fusion with Warring Clans Era Naruto from the POV of a civilian woman protagonist fic series.
This was inspired by: too many cups of tea, more than one food dream, Li Ziqi videos, the Story of Minglan, too many music artists to list here, and my long history of watching cdrama.
Summary of "A Bolt of Silk": “I’m a shinobi,” he tells her, matter of fact in all ways. “Bleeding is what we do.”
In which, Kawaguchi Hisa hires a shinobi, and nothing goes to plan.
Why I love it: Even though I've watched very little of canon, I've read a lot of Naruto fic. It's a very prolific fandom with many fix-it AUs, which I enjoy. Naruto, like Harry Potter, is one of those fictional worlds that you can't critically think about in too much detail because if you do too much makes no sense. Most fics ignore that, and some attempt to fix or at least examine one specific aspect of it, which can go wrong when it reveals too many glaring issues but sometimes works very well.
This fic is an example of the latter. Like all Founders-era Naruto fic (of which I've read a bunch, I should probably do a separate rec post for those) it has many OCs pretty much by necessity, but unlike most others this one focuses on its original characters and their problems and only later even starts to involve shinobi.
Kawaguchi Hisa is the daughter and heir to a family of silk merchants and I love her. She's reserved, pragmatic, extremely loyal to her family and friends, and she has very good social awareness. Through Hisa this fic explores not only the role of women in this society and the relationship between civilians and shinobi, but most importantly class issues. Hisa is from a rich merchant family, but they're not nobles, they're not a clan, and that matters a lot. It means many doors are closed to them – but it doesn't mean they're powerless, either. I absolutely love the way she approaches the problem of the Senju specifically. Her romance with Izuna is very slow-burn, especially since it's complicated by the fact that Hisa feels like she can't marry out of her family.
The current stories work very well on their own, but the author is planning another main installment of this series.

A Single Change by Cygnus_the_Harper, My Hero Academia
301k, gen, ongoing series (one completed main story, one main story WIP + extras)
Summary: This fic explores what might have happened if Winged Hero Hawks had flown by Izuku in the first two episodes, after All Might left him on the rooftop following the first fight with the sludge villain. Hawks spots this kid standing at the edge of the roof, swoops down to investigate, and finds potential in Izuku's ramblings about his observations of the hero industry. Preferring to keep those analytical skills on his side, Hawks decides to offer Izuku his help in gaining a spot in the UA Support Course. (Which at the same time would give Hawks a friend inside UA, hopefully willing to chat about all the doings he sees within.)
However, All Might watches Izuku rush in to try to save Bakugou from the sludge villain and has his own change of heart. Izuku finds himself with not one but two heroes offering him their support, but only one can offer him a quirk of his own. His mother meanwhile can't figure out why this is happening, and half expects Endeavor to also come crashing into her kitchen at any moment.
All Might needs an heir, and he would rather the commission not know about this. Izuku wants a chance. And Hawks would like to be taken seriously as an adult pro hero.
Why I love it: I think I started reading BnHA fic because of PitViperOfDoom? I heard enough about it and then watched one episode of the anime which confirmed that canon is not for me, but I do enjoy the fic. It's another fandom with a thin canon world that likes its fix-it AUs, although in general more plot-&character- than worldbuilding-focused.
This series does a little of both – at least I suspect that's where it'll continue to go. It's canon-divergent in a way that's probably best appreciated if you know canon, but I've read so many fics by now that I can keep up (I think.) I love the slow development of the relationships between Izuku and All Might and Hawks, and later also Izuku's classmates and various other pro heroes. It also looks in more details at All Might as a teacher (…) and Hawks as a commission-backed hero (who is young and stressed and out of his depth but trying very hard.)
One main story is finished, the second one is currently in progress and updated recently.