Fanfic Recommendations Go Hawaiian

[Matrix Dragon]

Honestly, Cliff is one of the better writers for that. He tends to focus more on the character side of things, with point spending being kind of vague.

[classicdrogn]

I want to like jumpchain stories so much. The premise sounds hilarious, but they always end up repeating the worst aspects of every "Gamer" fic. I dont find wafffling about "point buys" for fictional powers that are stupidly broken particularly entertaining.
Can anyone link me a story where the story starts AFTER the protagonist picks whatever powers, and then maybe gets his short term memory beaten out of them so they can't agonize over how they spent it afterwards; and just has to bloody well get on with the actual story?

This one is doing pretty well about that, actually. Skip directly to Girl Genius Pt2, and skim over ... I think it's the second and third segments there, divided by sets of centered asterisks, and that's nearly if not actually all of it. If you're at "the trouble with trying to use metaknowlegde is..." that's the right place to stop skimming again.

[Black Aeronaut]

....Are jump-chain stories required to have Gamer elements or is this just a new fad?

(Speaking of, I REALLY need to get around to reposting Being You is Suffering.)

[Matrix Dragon]

....Are jump-chain stories required to have Gamer elements or is this just a new fad?

(Speaking of, I REALLY need to get around to reposting Being You is Suffering.)

I think it's part of the fad over on wherever it's popular at the moment.

Still, for someone taking the initial CYOA premise, then making the stats a side issue and getting on with the story, here's A Ghost Of A Chance by Cliffc999, in which it's quickly settled that the power set and some meta-knowledge was given to Taylor Hebert, and promptly moves on. Caution, currently on hiatus due to writers block. Caution Two, does not end well for the Undersiders and Coil. At all.

[VladimirTherin]

I want to like jumpchain stories so much. The premise sounds hilarious, but they always end up repeating the worst aspects of every "Gamer" fic. I dont find wafffling about "point buys" for fictional powers that are stupidly broken particularly entertaining.
Can anyone link me a story where the story starts AFTER the protagonist picks whatever powers, and then maybe gets his short term memory beaten out of them so they can't agonize over how they spent it afterwards; and just has to bloody well get on with the actual story?

This one is doing pretty well about that, actually. Skip directly to Girl Genius Pt2, and skim over ... I think it's the second and third segments there, divided by sets of centered asterisks, and that's nearly if not actually all of it. If you're at "the trouble with trying to use metaknowlegde is..." that's the right place to stop skimming again.

So I took this advice and its much better if you just skip the first chapter of setup. At least at that point its just a rather OP SI fic, which I am not too proud/picky to enjoy.

[drakensis]

Well, I can understand that.

The linked story gets past that by the second half of the second chapter. about 2,000 words.

[classicdrogn]

As noted, that's about par for the course with cliffc999 - the first part and maybe a bit of the second in any given jump is setting up the build from the jump document, but after that he actually puts the effort in to make it a story, not just the usual executive summary/after action report and then on to the next build. This one is more involved than most even then, but not to the point it's too shocking.

[classicdrogn]

Love is for Children isn't connected to Color of Angels' other Darcy/Steve MCU fics, but is also quite good and does still ship them. The story isn't about that, though, it's about her and Natasha. Not going to give any more spoilers, since it's only ~15k words. Not marked complete, but it easily could be.

ETA: Continuing with Color of Angels, the most recently updated story on their FFn profile (which is still Dec 2018 unfortunately) is Together We're Alone (But I don't Mind), which is a take on The Martian where Beth Johanssen, the mission's computer specialist, also ended up stranded on Mars with Mark Watney. This of course presents additional problems in the added strain on resources, but the extra hands and different viewpoint for error checking and problem solving proves its worth, and the "literally the only man and woman on the planet" shipping is if anything played down some.

It's around 63k words, and mid-Pathfinder Road Trip as far as canon events go, with at least two of the major setbacks I recall having been headed off or mitigated as previously mentioned. That's not that far along really, but enough that if you're familiar with the story you can see the general trend, and if not it ends on enough of a high note that it's still not too dissatisfying as is.

[Mamorien]

By pure chance, I saw something Potter-related in "Latest Works" yesterday and was moved to check it out. I give you TalaRae's Flowers by the Wayside.

After her husband is unfaithful and her cookie-cutter perfect world is turned on its head, Petunia Evans Dursley finds herself in her old hometown, full of regrets and feeling that her life has been without purpose. Before she can quietly take her own life, she is given an impossible offer by a long-dead figure from the magical world: return to the past, and rewrite her own history. Seeing it as a chance to make up for her biggest regret, Petunia accepts and finds herself in the middle of a Wizarding war she knew little about, protecting the younger sister she tried to forget by seeking help from the one person in the magical world she knows how to find.

A what-if story beginning in the latter years of the first war against Voldemort, where an unlikely alliance turns into an even more unlikely romance, and the bonds that bloom from it will change the course of Wizarding history.

For some of you, it'll be just what the Healer ordered. For others, it'll be DEAD OWL: DO NOT EAT. I took a chance on it, and I for one am glad I did. To begin, as the King of Hearts recommends, at the beginning:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/230900...s/55239727

[Jinx999]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/215003...s/51243229

The Ghost of Privet Drive. The ghost of a man who's read the books is trying to help young Harry Potter. Step 1. Fix the Dursleys.

[hazard]

...

Fixing the Dursleys is a tall order.

Or a wide and heavy one.

[Star Ranger4]

D: Not only all of the above, but so challenging that only an author avatar has a chance at it!!!! *Rimshot.mp3*

[classicdrogn]

katlou303's Time Flies Like an Arrow is not the most serious Naruto fic, or the most filled with plot and dramatic tension - it's basically "Kid Sakura solves everything with laser-guided adorabombs" - but it's not completely without such moments, and entertaining enough if you just want something mostly lighthearted to fill a few hours, or before bed, etc. There is some gore in there, future-Sakura was a medic and they're living in a world where very literal child soldiers (with the mental issues of that being one of the recurring plot threads) are the norm after all, but nothing too gut-wrenching or explicit. The basic premise is one of those "future self ended up in past self's head" numbers, but it doesn't waste time with the hows and whys, or chapter upon chapter of the returnee freaking out about being a baby and how much it sucks having to learn to walk and talk again, complaining to or about some entity responsible for the deed, and so on, just the young version getting fragments of memory and deciding to do something instead of hesitating and shying away. If only more SIs and Peggy Sues would follow suit!

Currently about 273k words; it's been running since 2017 and just updated in April, too.

[Bob Schroeck]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/215003...s/51243229

The Ghost of Privet Drive. The ghost of a man who's read the books is trying to help young Harry Potter. Step 1. Fix the Dursleys.

I am reading this right now and enjoying the hell out of it.

[ECSNorway]

The author of "Ghost of Privet Drive" (which is indeed all kinds of fun) recced this one in the latest chapter's AN, and I promptly binged it.

Well worth the time.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/237029...s/56911591

"That Universe Over There" -- Master of Death Harry Potter finds himself in another universe and promptly decides to fuck the rails of canon. He moves to adopt his young counterpart and give her a happy childhood, pre-emptively deal with as much of Moldyshorts as he can, get Sirius free, and generally get it right this time.

And so young Ivy Potter is off to Hogwarts, gets sorted into Slytherin, and promptly proceeds to be utterly adorifying.

[classicdrogn]

Star Wars: A Penumbral Path is set sometime near enough the prequels that the Jedi Council members mentioned are the same, and has a very interesting take on the nature of the Force, without whitewashing the Dark Side as many fan works tend to. It's not all that Mouse Wars compliant and only indifferently so to the old SWEU, but I count that as a positive myself. Currently around seventy thousand words and just ramping up and each part tends to be a decently complete episode in itself, though still with strong connections to each other.

[classicdrogn]

Raven Bound by LolMouse: Jinx wanted to summon a demon with one of the old headmaster's books. What she got instead threatens to destroy her life as she knows it. Teen Titans (2003 animated series,) 98k words, AO3 link.

SO. FLUFFY. Also kick-butt superpowers action, without either side overshadowing the other, and indeed with both inextricably related to the overall plot. There is no filler here.

There is also a collection of side stories, which together add a further 27k words

edit: Though not specifically looking for it as such, I'm also about 95% confident that there's nothing in there that would trip word filters to make it NSFW either as anything more than cuddles and kissing is left to implication, though of course it is on AO3 so places that watch and/or block by domain may still have a problem.

[classicdrogn]

Draupadi is a reverse-harem Rule 34 Economy CYOA/MtG:Theros setting Friend Insert fic on Questionable Questing, but don't let that scare you off because as badly as all those keywords portend in general it is in fact rather remarkably good. I'd even rate it solidly in the upper ranks of pro novels if it reaches that kind of length and at least one complete story arc - solid characterization and pacing of scenes, adequately descriptive narration without going overboard, and rock solid technical quality so there's no irritation at typos or grammar to break immersion in the moment.

It is still somewhat short at three chapters and 36k words, but the initial situation has been laid out, developed, and stabilized enough at this point that I could see easily it as a three-act first episode for an ongoing series. NSFW material with the MC's husbando posse is promised eventually and thirsted for in the text, but there's nothing in that regard so far, as the characters have barely gotten past introductions for the most part.

With the caveat that it is still only a beginning, strongly recommended.

[Bad Moon]

Draupadi is a reverse-harem Rule 34 Economy CYOA/MtG:Theros setting Friend Insert fic on Questionable Questing, but don't let that scare you off  

Too late, cuz woof man

[classicdrogn]

Too late, cuz woof man

Seriously though, it is actually good. I was surprised too.

[Matrix Dragon]

Turas (Three Houses AU)

Edelgard von Hvesrelg and her siblings are trapped in hell, victims of cruel experiments at the hands of those that stole the empire from their fathers hands, locked in the dungeons beneath their own castle. Until one day, a supposed thief, going by the name of the goddess, finds her cell, and the future of Fodlan takes a very different path...

[Shepherd]

https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-33342/Ph...Family.htm
Adventures of a Super Family (Supergirl). Kara Zor-El arrives on Earth in the same rocket as her cousin, and proceeds to raise him.

[classicdrogn]

I was pretty sure I saw the rec here to begin with, but it's not showing up on a quick look up the page, so --

Boldores & Boomsticks - RWBY/Pokemon crossover with plenty of character moments, by turns emotional, cute, and awesome. Rather than a poor attempt at a summary, I will simply share a quote from one of the middlish chapters:

Quiet fell over the assembled Pokémon as they took in the warning. Litten was the first to speak up, after a thoughtful moment. “These Grimm. Do they burn?”

Lux nodded solemnly. “They burn very well.”

Litten, bearing the odd mix of dignity, gravitas, and fuzziness that only a cat could maintain, nodded as well. “This pleases me. I’m in.”

[Cobalt Greywalker]

That's because I posted it in the Crossovers that should not be thread to show that it was, in fact, a thing.  I also included the 'Reader' fic based on it as well.

[Matrix Dragon]

And I linked it in an earlier version of the thread as well. That's okay, people need to experience the glory that is Whisper Schnee.