hmmmmmmmmm. presented in reverse chronological order to me having read them. also, I’ve noticed “rewired my brain” became a thing this past year and it’s really cute x3
CHECK ALL THE TAGS BEFORE YOU READ ANY OF THESE OK
Stormsinger by BalloonArcade did some fantastic, poetical things with scientific language that I really liked. I loved the world building. the places the author took us were amazing. not my favorite theme, but it’s important to read outside your favorite themes. the fic is almost done, has 1 more chapter to go.
Working Through It by Trinary lives in my head forever. what a fantastic distillation of world building, my god. I really admire Trinary’s writing and, outside of fics, their posts feel like they come from someone with a lot of experience and skill. I wish they would post writing advice/their thoughts/literally anything. I would read it
These Games We Play by peacewish: one of the chapters in this fic is the best thing I’ve ever read. it’s not my favorite thing I’ve ever read. it is the best thing I’ve ever read. this was the first TF fic I read in my own personal ‘modern era’ (I read quite a few around 2000, then drifted from the fandom for quite a while). when I got back into TF and thought I might like to try writing fic for it, I asked a friend to rec me something that was popular and well done so I could see what kind of stuff was out there, what the characterization was like, etc. I read this fic and put my head down on my desk and didn’t write for a year. this fic has VERY HEAVY themes and I’ve never reread any of it (I skipped a bit when I was reading, to be honest) except that one amazing chapter. I mean, I really don’t recommend comparing yourself to other things out there, cuz it’s just gonna stop you from doing stuff. so don’t do that. but do read this fic if you’re okay with heavy, depressing things
there are probably more but these 3 come to mind first