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#guuHHH I HAVE A LOT OF FAVS please read them
irkenheretic · 3 years
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do u have any favorite iz writers or fanfics ?
i do!!
first fav is @reptile-ruler , their febuwhump stuff is amazing and mishaps is REALLY good, tbh mishaps has a lot of tropes i usually dont like but reptile-ruler does them so well that the stuff i dont like about those tropes isnt really.... there
(for instance i hate zim assimilating into human culture because he just kinda ignores everything about him being irken and the authors tend to treat irk as some kind of Monolithic Badplace... but in mishaps while zim has assimilated he still feels a struggle and still has irken values... the ending of the unwanted visitors (which i wont spoil) is the culmination of that and its amazing)
also the drifters au fucks hard and its one of my fav aus
very close second is @depressed-zimothy! training days is, and i am not exaggerating, exactly what ive always wanted in a fanfic. the red and zim stuff is fucking stellar and there are so many nuances about the characters if u examine the text a little more... i should leave comments on it tbh
also catalyst is amazing and u can see my two essay comments explaining why right there on the fic so i wont repeat myself here (but read the fic first obvi)
firewall is part of @reynaruina‘s ponytail dib AU and it is honestly fucking stellar. i recommend this thing to everyone i know and in my opinion it is THE computer fic. genuinely everyone should read this, even if you dont want to read the rest of the au or even zadr at all. please computer is so good in it. 
in the beginning note there’s a paragraph explaining the basics of the au so you can read with no prior knowledge of PT dib but ill do you one better: the immediate context for firewall is that there was a blackout at zim’s house, and zim and dib were finally starting to get it on with each other during it. computer fixed the lights and turned them back on, and dib saw his reflection in the (off) TV. he gets upset seeing himself and leaves, so zim is angry at computer. and that’s right where firewall starts
please read firewall. im on my knees begging. computer in firewall is fucking sublime and the perfect blend of irritated and dad. literally no other computer portrayal compares. firewall was, is, and always will be The Standard.
read it.
ersatz is another amazing one, the zim angst is sublime and hes never like, a fuckin uwu sadbaby. but you still feel so, so sorry for him and what he’s going through. the author really knows how to pack a punch without exhausting the reader and as someone who specializes in angst i can respect that. (fun facts: i love this fic so much that mirforn, an irken painkiller featured in it, is in ANX as A Loving Reference that i will absolutely credit and also shill for ersatz in the author’s notes)
300 days of zim is really good if you like self-inserts! it’s gender-neutral and in second-person so its really immersive, and zim is just so good in it, he retains all his zimmy goodness but there’s a certain softness (in a way) that makes you fall in love with him
speaking of self inserts, @majentaffy‘s tallest magenta series is a fucking stellar series! red and purple are amazing and its honestly one of the most in-character portrayals of them ive ever seen! though i like both of them, im personally more a fan of the invader red series (also a self-insert series) where red takes zim’s place on earth, basically. both series are gender-neutral and in second-person just like 300 days up there
hit me is a rapr classic. thats really all i have to say about it, most of my tallest-loving friends have read it at some point. i reread it on occasion; its an elite-era fic, and a slight au in this is where they meet. its lovely
begin is a human au i personally really like because it has a lot of hyperspecific headcanons of mine in it but it could be a personal taste thing. try it out tho!
there was also this other human au where purple was a drifter and red worked at a diner and sizz-lorr was his boss. it legit felt like an original short story and this made me go out and fucking find it again. its called hand in unlovable hand give it a try
i read canvas years ago and the ending still sticks to me today. it’s a oneshot songfic where the gist is that red’s hooked on drugs. it sounds like its gonna be bad and melodramatic but i actually really like it, it surprises you. it surprised me, too. it’s first person but it really does sound like red is talking. i’m extremely picky with first person (i never read it outside of this) but canvas does it right. please, please i implore you, give canvas a chance. you won’t regret it, i promise
why didn’t we just shoot him? is an amazing exploration on the tallests’ defectiveness and that’s all im going to say on that
all 4 works by this author are part of the same series, but they’re not in a series tag. i just call the series mudroom, after the first one i read. it’s an acquired taste and PLEASE heed the warnings, but i like it so its here
and last but certainly not least, when the time comes is unique in that when the plot changes i dont groan and go “aww, but i like the old stuff!” it goes to a lot of places but personally it feels like each event is a natural consequence of the previous one. dib’s a bit of a dick in it lmfao and zim so far is going thru a trauma conga line but i respect that it doesnt pretend to be anything its not. its a porn-with-plot with angst and sometimes thats just what you fucken need sometimes
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