Cornerstone Characterisation
A collection of fics that get a character so right that I would recommend them to somebody who has never encountered the source material as a guide to understanding that character. Frequently these works have given me new headcanons simply because their characterisation is good enough that it not only follows canon, but enhances it.
(Open, Moderated)
Random works
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A Little Less Poison by LeftHandOfSnarkness
Fandoms: The Umbrella Academy (TV), The Umbrella Academy (Comics)
01 Apr 2019
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Summary
Anger was his superpower.
Just a little character sketch of Diego pre-episode 1. Mostly from the show, but includes some elements of the comics as well.
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Finnick’s Games. The ones he plays in, the ones he wins, and the ones he’s still a pawn in ever after.
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if you're the prosecution I get away with murder by firstaudrina
Fandoms: Daredevil (TV)
02 Aug 2016
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Summary
Elektra's his girl, the worst one he knows.
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Recoms were born into the world for a purpose. Ressurected to fight endlessly, to kill indiscriminately, to win Pandora for humanity by any means necessary.
They did not succeed.
This is what happens after.
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walk through fire for what's important by This_world_of_beautiful_monsters
Fandoms: Avatar (Cameron Movies), James Cameron's Avatar - All Media Types
06 Mar 2023
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She wonders if she has ever existed outside of this moment: this boy heaving for air in her grip, the knife bright like a fallen star, the bloody deck humming under her feet. Maybe everything before was just a story she's told herself; maybe this is all that really matters.
____Flames, steel, and a ship hurtling toward a watery grave. Neytiri just wants to save whatever she has left.
Random bookmarks
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fear and aversion to truth by sleepdeprivedsurgeon
Fandoms: Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022)
03 Dec 2024
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Summary
She’s laughing again. The way a mother laughs when a child says a dirty joke he doesn’t understand. “You ain’t a mastermind, Maître . You ain’t even a good director. You’re a rabbit in a cage. You crawled in there all by yourself, and you think that if you can be soft enough and pretty enough he’s gonna keep feeding you, keep you safe from the hunters and the dogs.”
Somewhere, in the tiny pocket of empty space between Armand’s ribcage and his heart, there’s a boy, eyes looking down, hands numb from being strung up on the cellar wall. He’s been louder than usual, these past few months.
[it's the last half of season two but Armand gets threatened and therapy-ed enough to actually try and save Louis]
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 23,342
- Chapters:
- 10/11
- Comments:
- 153
- Kudos:
- 661
- Bookmarks:
- 129
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Bookmarked by mayfriend
11 Jul 2024
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Bookmarker's Notes
He makes it to the bathroom between the concessions and the rack of Baby Lulu dresses. His knuckles go white against the countertop. There’s a boy looking back at him in the mirror, blood in the corners of his eyes, hair falling over his face. Less of a boy, really; more of an animal, an alley cat in a box, a bird drinking rainwater from the gutters in Delhi.
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A Little Less Poison by LeftHandOfSnarkness
Fandoms: The Umbrella Academy (TV), The Umbrella Academy (Comics)
01 Apr 2019
Tags
Summary
Anger was his superpower.
Just a little character sketch of Diego pre-episode 1. Mostly from the show, but includes some elements of the comics as well.
Series
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 1,225
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 10
- Kudos:
- 56
- Bookmarks:
- 5
- Hits:
- 491
Bookmarked by mayfriend
01 Apr 2019
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Bookmarker's Notes
Anger was his disguise. Better than the fake name he gave when he enrolled (and then got kicked out of) the police academy, better than his domino mask, or the cover of darkness. The anger he let bloom inside him covered all the things he didn't want to deal with and didn't want others to see.
It covered the fact that he was scared, even if he wasn't always sure what of. It was so much easier to rant at Klaus for being a screw up while he dragged him back to rehab (again), then it was to admit that he knew he couldn't survive losing another brother, that he wasn't always sure he had survived losing the first two. That sometimes he wondered if he wasn't really alive anymore, that maybe he was just a vengeful spirit moving around the city at night, that maybe that was the reason Klaus always seemed to find him.
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Summary
From morning to night, the routine is always the same: wake up, despair, pray, watch as another piece of yourself gets eaten by the merciless mouth of fate. Rinse and repeat.
Sometimes, however, things change. Sometimes, one of them ends up dead.
(On Arun, and survival.)
Series
- Part 1 of cerberus, three-headed beast
Bookmarked by mayfriend
20 Oct 2024
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Bookmarker's Notes
A lull settles on the brothel every day between the time when the boys wake up and when the patrons start coming in.
The brothel’s doors remain closed until the end of Vespers, when people start filling the streets, flocking into gambling parlors, ballrooms, and, of course, pleasure houses. Until then, Arun and the others are free to roam about the small confines of their prison, though there isn’t much to do besides waiting for the inevitable to begin for another night.
Arun likes to stand by the window, watching the gondolas crossing the canal, thinking of hiding inside one of them, one that would take him straight to the harbor, where he could catch a ship heading home. Or any ship, really, as long as it took him away.
He would spend the voyage above deck, this time, and when the ship braved the Yamuna and he arrived home— would it be mango season, when he would climb trees like a monkey, plucking the fruits and throwing them to his siblings that waited on the ground? Would it be Ramadan, when his family would come together to break fast, and his father would fill their ears with stories of his day at the market? Would his mother be waiting for him with a basket filled with jamun and the Qur’an open on her lap, for them to read close together, his small hand wrapped in hers? Would he be welcomed home into the open arms of his parents and pretend his days in Venice were a bad dream, a figment of his imagination, and nothing else?
Or would they know, at the first sight of him—without the need of a word, would they know, as if it were a brand on his face or a leper’s scales, the things he’d done and the things done to him?
It was best not to think of it; yet Arun did it, every day, without fault. If he did not, he would forget, as others had already forgotten about their homes. Memory was the only thing he had left of who he used to be. If he lost it, then he was gone. If he lost it, then he was no better than Lorenzo, or Tariq, or all the ones who died before him.
He prays, when the time comes. He wonders if there's a magical number to reach, after which he'll be brought back home like all this was a lesson from God, and He will say see, this is what happens to children to disobey their parents or are remiss in the studies of the Qur’an or forget to praise their God.
He prays and prays until his knees become numb; nothing ever happens. And this, he knows, is the true lesson.
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Mystery Work
Part of priv
Summary
This is part of an ongoing challenge and will be revealed soon!
Bookmarked by mayfriend
26 Jul 2024
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Bookmarker's Notes
You’re not my little girl anymore. Your brother can’t take care of them, that’ll have to be you. Do you understand?
He curled his knees to his chest and finally let himself cry. Louis de Pointe du Lac. Man of the house.
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“I always feel so safe with you,” Shane pants into the pillow as Ilya fucks into him. Shane flat on his belly on the bed, Ilya plastered on top of him like the world’s heaviest weighted blanket, their skin pressed together all the way from their knees to the nape of Shane’s neck. “So safe, so safe, I’m—oh, fuck, Ilya—“
By all measures, Ilya should be touched by this comment, if not wildly turned on. Instead, he finds he has to squeeze his eyes shut for a brief moment, hips stilling, to focus on thinking sexy thoughts so his cock doesn’t go soft.
—
Ilya has some issues with the notion of safety, especially as it applies to him.
Series
- Part 16 of my anonymous heated rivalry fic
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 3,710
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 162
- Kudos:
- 3,465
- Bookmarks:
- 532
- Hits:
- 22,532
Bookmarked by mayfriend
04 Mar 2026
Bookmarker's Collections:
Bookmarker's Notes
“You’re safe here too, you know.”