what if..? (2)
Nov. 20th, 2020 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fwcu okay here's a prompt for you guys, if you could ponify any fic (or just steal x, x, and x elements from x fic) and turn it into the fic of your dreams (whether it be for your most recent otp or your most longstanding one, or whatever!) what franken-mashup of a fic would you have? links and over-zealous explanation welcome.
so here's my thing, it's the time of month (or so) where i reread the three drarry fics i deeply enjoy. why these particular three? the combination of:
so, there's my list off the top of my head....and well, it doesn't quite explain what my frakenfic would be.... but i have a couple ideas:
for brevity i will end it here, and maybe instead comment on the other type of hp fic i'd like to frankenmash together in the world - but i hope this works as a example of what i'm encouraging in the comments! if this flops you HAAATEEEE me. but also like, it's open to anything! you could literally drop 6 ao3 links and be like 'the chanhee in a skirt complex queer narrative we Deserve' and.... welll, it would be funny TO ME.
the last point that i'd like to make is that i'm encouraging frankenfic-ing particular because fic inherently has meta interwoven into the narrative, and i think what makes fic good - regardless of how regurgitated and same-same it can be - is that when it's GOOD, it's often because that meta. plus like, fic is already a collaged piece of writing in itself (with how it picks and choses what it wants from it's derived media), and so adding a second layer of collaging .... to me, again, FUN!
however, with this still in mind if you just want to franken-mash like original works (whether that be wattpad stories you read in 2014) or cringe ya novels you still keep up with nowww, please feel free to do so!
so here's my thing, it's the time of month (or so) where i reread the three drarry fics i deeply enjoy. why these particular three? the combination of:
<harry is brown; hermione is black>: this is so self-explanatory, i also like it when harry at least has some experience with being brown whether that be like immediately assuming racism (ch.2 - 'stately homes of wiltshire'), or like canonifying that james potter was brown and the name 'potter' is some run-off of a more indian name (weird example, holly black book 'white cat' where mc has a one-off tangent about how his last name 'singer' was transmuted from 'singh')
<exploration into his shitty horrible character via the trauma that comes with being an unloved orphan>: so i think we ALL love trauma (i swear i don't mean it in the horrible way it sounds when i phrase it like this), that 13 year old past self who thought up the most shitty and tragic backstories for all their ocs Lives On! in every single one of us; there is quite nothing like character with 0 realization of their shitty self-esteem going like 'why are you looking at me?' and you, the reader, realizing the other person thinks they are stupidly beautiful, knobbly fingers and messy hair and all. all this, for sure, but on a more serious, and empathetic note - harry's horrible childhood is something that's kind-of more written off as the series goes on and it's something we don't get explored because the whole point of hogwarts is that it's wonderful and better and magical, and it's a place where he doesn't have to acknowledge the muggle life of his. and having an author take that seriously and be like 'he's unbearable in these ways because of this, but for that same reason he's sympathetic' is really nice. and it's the whole concept of like, knowing these characters have been written with love and care and thought, because all the fucked up aspects of their life are being looked at and thought about and resolved in a way they weren't or couldn't be in canon.
<some understanding that draco malfoy is a posh asshole, but has been previously vaguely 'redeemed' offscreen...so the fic starts off where he is at point zero>: this one is kind of a hit or miss at times, because in the process of expanding out draco and making him likeable and understandable, he sometimes ends up unrecognizable (like in 'What We Pretend We Can't See' which, it's not like I did not enjoy [the portrayal and/or character], but like ... That is Not Draco Malfoy). I think 'Hermione Granger's Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run' does this quite well though! one of the problems with a lot of recent media, is that the character arc starts from when the asshole is ignorant and stupid and privileged and bigoted, and ends so they Understand how horrible and ignorant they were...which is just stupid. if you're going to have someone sympathetic be from a position of privilege and power, they should already be kind and aware of the grace of their situation - because it's just harder to like them when they go from -5 to 0 and you have to be like 'oh! they're fine NOW' no they're not!!! this does have some nuance and depends on what you want to do with the character, but like 8/10 times, they should've started at 0. in Hogwarts Crammer though, Draco does start at zero! and while he doesn't get much of a vertical character arc, by the end of it you can see him trying to embrace the renegade life. it's preddie good. but he is still, very recognizably, a stuck up post (vaguely flamboyant) asshole. arsehole. it's good! same thing with Stately Homes which I actually think is my favourite Draco characterization of the three, where he knows he was a shithead and a bastard and is like, we don't have to focus on that or feel sorry for me, but we do know I'm Not That Dude anymore... I really liked it for that when I read it this time around, haha.
<some plot regarding exploration into hp's very vague magic system>: motherfucker if you know me you know i love LORE. and i love lore the most when it is deftly woven into the framework of the narrative.....like What We Pretend We Can't See is so good because the B-plot is about 12 Grimmauld Place and the magic that's interwoven into it - and it gives you a glimpse of how wizards live day to day with magic, and really highlights what the magic of Hogwarts and why we all wanted to be a part of it was. the way magic is just a second nature to everything in the wizarding world.....well if u know how i feel then u know.
>harry b*tt*ms - which...to me is just sexier. iyk how i feel about Jocks, among other things...
<exploration into his shitty horrible character via the trauma that comes with being an unloved orphan>: so i think we ALL love trauma (i swear i don't mean it in the horrible way it sounds when i phrase it like this), that 13 year old past self who thought up the most shitty and tragic backstories for all their ocs Lives On! in every single one of us; there is quite nothing like character with 0 realization of their shitty self-esteem going like 'why are you looking at me?' and you, the reader, realizing the other person thinks they are stupidly beautiful, knobbly fingers and messy hair and all. all this, for sure, but on a more serious, and empathetic note - harry's horrible childhood is something that's kind-of more written off as the series goes on and it's something we don't get explored because the whole point of hogwarts is that it's wonderful and better and magical, and it's a place where he doesn't have to acknowledge the muggle life of his. and having an author take that seriously and be like 'he's unbearable in these ways because of this, but for that same reason he's sympathetic' is really nice. and it's the whole concept of like, knowing these characters have been written with love and care and thought, because all the fucked up aspects of their life are being looked at and thought about and resolved in a way they weren't or couldn't be in canon.
<some understanding that draco malfoy is a posh asshole, but has been previously vaguely 'redeemed' offscreen...so the fic starts off where he is at point zero>: this one is kind of a hit or miss at times, because in the process of expanding out draco and making him likeable and understandable, he sometimes ends up unrecognizable (like in 'What We Pretend We Can't See' which, it's not like I did not enjoy [the portrayal and/or character], but like ... That is Not Draco Malfoy). I think 'Hermione Granger's Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run' does this quite well though! one of the problems with a lot of recent media, is that the character arc starts from when the asshole is ignorant and stupid and privileged and bigoted, and ends so they Understand how horrible and ignorant they were...which is just stupid. if you're going to have someone sympathetic be from a position of privilege and power, they should already be kind and aware of the grace of their situation - because it's just harder to like them when they go from -5 to 0 and you have to be like 'oh! they're fine NOW' no they're not!!! this does have some nuance and depends on what you want to do with the character, but like 8/10 times, they should've started at 0. in Hogwarts Crammer though, Draco does start at zero! and while he doesn't get much of a vertical character arc, by the end of it you can see him trying to embrace the renegade life. it's preddie good. but he is still, very recognizably, a stuck up post (vaguely flamboyant) asshole. arsehole. it's good! same thing with Stately Homes which I actually think is my favourite Draco characterization of the three, where he knows he was a shithead and a bastard and is like, we don't have to focus on that or feel sorry for me, but we do know I'm Not That Dude anymore... I really liked it for that when I read it this time around, haha.
<some plot regarding exploration into hp's very vague magic system>: motherfucker if you know me you know i love LORE. and i love lore the most when it is deftly woven into the framework of the narrative.....like What We Pretend We Can't See is so good because the B-plot is about 12 Grimmauld Place and the magic that's interwoven into it - and it gives you a glimpse of how wizards live day to day with magic, and really highlights what the magic of Hogwarts and why we all wanted to be a part of it was. the way magic is just a second nature to everything in the wizarding world.....well if u know how i feel then u know.
so, there's my list off the top of my head....and well, it doesn't quite explain what my frakenfic would be.... but i have a couple ideas:
- saw an epically sexy premise for a fic which was simply about, drarry forced/'arranged' marriage as two people who hate each other, and are not on good terms, so UMMM ... here is MY reimagining of it
>written by montparnasse (TO ME, hand of God) - i would particularly love some moments like the 'two and two' monologue from 'Like Tinder for Ghosts' in a particularly bitter moment of mutual hatred for each other; or like a Fraught and Tender Bonding Moment like the crossword bit from 'Let Nothing You Dismay' which was so cleverly done, and I am literally Nothing, Nothing, I am undone, I am worthless, I am of no meaning and no fealty and no love, if I don't name-drop and make an explicit reference to This Fic [Let Nothing You Dismay] when and if, I am talking about hp fic. this fic made me the person I am today. it did not raise me or whatever, but it is quite seriously, with extreme magnitude, My First Love.
>Harry's fraught relationship with his self-perception. I want to steal the Harry characterization, the Harry voice, the Harry International Relevance, Fame, Impact, Etc from Hogwart's Crammer. because Hogwart's Crammer is the Magnum Opus of Harry Potter (brown, but he is always brown, TO ME) characterization. it is The Holy Text. it is the basis of My Entire Understanding of Harry. etc. etc. etc. i know it's an au but it's also my favourite thing, of seeing How a character would variate given different circumstances....also you know, the horrible crass harry who knows he is unloveable because everything in his life has told him so, but he wants to make it better for him and get on, and he - as always - has the innate urge to do the Right thing/the Good thing anyways. okay i think i am making that part up but like, whatever, that's the whole driving force of why he would force marry draco anyway, because it's the Right thing to do. the sense of self-worth that is so low that anything that makes you useful is immediately what you have to prioritize and Do. it's nice, it's a good complex. also given how shittily and horribly he and draco will treat each other, the emotional torture of it consistently being Re-affirmed that harry is unloveable and does not deserve love - which of course will culminate in a moment where draco is like 'wait, what the fuck? you've have horrible emotional self-esteem issues and deeply twisted negative cognition This Whole Time?' and have to layoff on the now-well-established-insulting-back-and-forth they had, which then makes harry feel like, Weird. this will be resolved somehow.
>I also, would like to steal the Draco characterization from Stately Homes - we looove a main who Does Not want to unpack or talk about his issues/trauma/deservation/non-deservation other than in fleeting, brief glances. it's good, it's sexy, i Deeply Deeply enjoy it. i think it adds the cocky, witty ya bad guy love interest angle, without actually making Draco into the cocky, ya love interest ... because like, he's just an asshole, but he does deserve to be A Little Sexy about it. actually after writing this out maybe i DO want cocky, sexy ya bad boy love interest draco.........to me, a perfect compliment to chosen one protag, clever jock-y harry potter. anyway the whole point is that draco is a 0 at the start (not in the bottom way), and acts as he's presumes he's allowed to (not realizing harry has horrible trauma) and becomes vaguely a better person (just solely To Harry Only Maybe)... which is a bit that's stolen from What We Pretend - where draco really does not become a better person to anyone he is not close to (which by the end of the fic, has only expanded to include 1 more person, which is just obviously harry).
>also a moment I'd like to steal from What We Pretend - chapter9. where Harry is in the Mungo’s waiting room for hermione, and the whole weasley clan is ganged up there and he suddenly feels very out of place — this adjacent knowing that technically, he belongs there, that they consider him family — but all the same it’s not the same as it is with hermione, who’s married into the family and very much is family on paper as she is just, in feeling. and so here is harry, bludgeoning off into this careening sense of Not Having Anyone, Not Truly — that’s been building the whole fic — and draco shows up. and he and harry end up in their own little corner, being THEIR own people .... seriously that’s my favourite moment in the whole fic it broke my heart and rearranged my ventral chambers with how fucked up the praxis of <no longer being the same way it was> (with ronhermione) and <finally Having someone> (even though it is at this cost of Moving On) .... that was so fucked up and so deeply moving and i would do anything to have anything i read replicate that because i love this specific flavour of bittersweetness. It makes me SOOOOO madly bitter. i love it. the best way to feel the worst ever. like, maybe Word For Word i’d want this subarc replicated into my frankenfic. it’d be like <harry realizes he is Not The Same as all the married in cast-offs of the weasley family> (having broken up with ginny and all or whatever) .... <harry falls asleep on conveniently placed draco shoulder> .... i also particularly think like, the logistics of they Did Not Want Each Other ... culminating in something like they Only Have Each Other ...is like both fucked up and really good, especially if there is some element of Immense, miserably intimacy. Yea i’m stupid as fuck :) but i’m free :D
>obviously i want this to be like minimum 50k and they should have like, at least 2 instances of super heated, steamy (maybe drunk?) hatesex that culminates in extreme shame for both parties before they have like 1 instance of like, they-kind-of-like-each-other-now sex, you know. that’s somehow different from Sex where they are Together or whatever, because it's just admitting they have Attractions/Feelings/Emotions but not like, taking the braver step to Attempt to be in a Relationship (which is a deeply enjoyable hurdle of Drarry fic and one that i think accentuates their complexes and characters)
>Harry's fraught relationship with his self-perception. I want to steal the Harry characterization, the Harry voice, the Harry International Relevance, Fame, Impact, Etc from Hogwart's Crammer. because Hogwart's Crammer is the Magnum Opus of Harry Potter (brown, but he is always brown, TO ME) characterization. it is The Holy Text. it is the basis of My Entire Understanding of Harry. etc. etc. etc. i know it's an au but it's also my favourite thing, of seeing How a character would variate given different circumstances....also you know, the horrible crass harry who knows he is unloveable because everything in his life has told him so, but he wants to make it better for him and get on, and he - as always - has the innate urge to do the Right thing/the Good thing anyways. okay i think i am making that part up but like, whatever, that's the whole driving force of why he would force marry draco anyway, because it's the Right thing to do. the sense of self-worth that is so low that anything that makes you useful is immediately what you have to prioritize and Do. it's nice, it's a good complex. also given how shittily and horribly he and draco will treat each other, the emotional torture of it consistently being Re-affirmed that harry is unloveable and does not deserve love - which of course will culminate in a moment where draco is like 'wait, what the fuck? you've have horrible emotional self-esteem issues and deeply twisted negative cognition This Whole Time?' and have to layoff on the now-well-established-insulting-back-and-forth they had, which then makes harry feel like, Weird. this will be resolved somehow.
>I also, would like to steal the Draco characterization from Stately Homes - we looove a main who Does Not want to unpack or talk about his issues/trauma/deservation/non-deservation other than in fleeting, brief glances. it's good, it's sexy, i Deeply Deeply enjoy it. i think it adds the cocky, witty ya bad guy love interest angle, without actually making Draco into the cocky, ya love interest ... because like, he's just an asshole, but he does deserve to be A Little Sexy about it. actually after writing this out maybe i DO want cocky, sexy ya bad boy love interest draco.........to me, a perfect compliment to chosen one protag, clever jock-y harry potter. anyway the whole point is that draco is a 0 at the start (not in the bottom way), and acts as he's presumes he's allowed to (not realizing harry has horrible trauma) and becomes vaguely a better person (just solely To Harry Only Maybe)... which is a bit that's stolen from What We Pretend - where draco really does not become a better person to anyone he is not close to (which by the end of the fic, has only expanded to include 1 more person, which is just obviously harry).
>also a moment I'd like to steal from What We Pretend - chapter9. where Harry is in the Mungo’s waiting room for hermione, and the whole weasley clan is ganged up there and he suddenly feels very out of place — this adjacent knowing that technically, he belongs there, that they consider him family — but all the same it’s not the same as it is with hermione, who’s married into the family and very much is family on paper as she is just, in feeling. and so here is harry, bludgeoning off into this careening sense of Not Having Anyone, Not Truly — that’s been building the whole fic — and draco shows up. and he and harry end up in their own little corner, being THEIR own people .... seriously that’s my favourite moment in the whole fic it broke my heart and rearranged my ventral chambers with how fucked up the praxis of <no longer being the same way it was> (with ronhermione) and <finally Having someone> (even though it is at this cost of Moving On) .... that was so fucked up and so deeply moving and i would do anything to have anything i read replicate that because i love this specific flavour of bittersweetness. It makes me SOOOOO madly bitter. i love it. the best way to feel the worst ever. like, maybe Word For Word i’d want this subarc replicated into my frankenfic. it’d be like <harry realizes he is Not The Same as all the married in cast-offs of the weasley family> (having broken up with ginny and all or whatever) .... <harry falls asleep on conveniently placed draco shoulder> .... i also particularly think like, the logistics of they Did Not Want Each Other ... culminating in something like they Only Have Each Other ...is like both fucked up and really good, especially if there is some element of Immense, miserably intimacy. Yea i’m stupid as fuck :) but i’m free :D
>obviously i want this to be like minimum 50k and they should have like, at least 2 instances of super heated, steamy (maybe drunk?) hatesex that culminates in extreme shame for both parties before they have like 1 instance of like, they-kind-of-like-each-other-now sex, you know. that’s somehow different from Sex where they are Together or whatever, because it's just admitting they have Attractions/Feelings/Emotions but not like, taking the braver step to Attempt to be in a Relationship (which is a deeply enjoyable hurdle of Drarry fic and one that i think accentuates their complexes and characters)
for brevity i will end it here, and maybe instead comment on the other type of hp fic i'd like to frankenmash together in the world - but i hope this works as a example of what i'm encouraging in the comments! if this flops you HAAATEEEE me. but also like, it's open to anything! you could literally drop 6 ao3 links and be like 'the chanhee in a skirt complex queer narrative we Deserve' and.... welll, it would be funny TO ME.
the last point that i'd like to make is that i'm encouraging frankenfic-ing particular because fic inherently has meta interwoven into the narrative, and i think what makes fic good - regardless of how regurgitated and same-same it can be - is that when it's GOOD, it's often because that meta. plus like, fic is already a collaged piece of writing in itself (with how it picks and choses what it wants from it's derived media), and so adding a second layer of collaging .... to me, again, FUN!
however, with this still in mind if you just want to franken-mash like original works (whether that be wattpad stories you read in 2014) or cringe ya novels you still keep up with nowww, please feel free to do so!
hi this is ria geminihive
Date: 2020-11-21 07:25 pm (UTC)I feel like I very much have a Type re: the kind of fic I enjoy consuming, and throughout the years I've realized how much I enjoy it when a work involves a highly specific interest that I don't necessarily know much about. obscure careers and hobbies are SOOOO fun. it makes the characters seem human to me, like I'm reading about an actual person's life instead of just. y'know anime fic or whatever. off the top of my head, kittebasu does this very very well. Whether it's Everything Bugs and entomology in the courtship ritual of the hercules beetle or how in depth the baseballisms are in all of her daiya works or even all the sailing details in this exo rpf fic that i have no intention of reading but i'm sure is also amazing!! It really helps set the voice of the pov-character, really helps you get into their head and find out how they tick. I respect that people look to get different things out of the fic they consume, but i loooooove learning about new things, even shit I honestly have no real interest in. to me, fic is good when it also gives me the rush I get out of wikipedia page-hopping. i would read fic about fucking... morticians if it actually went in depth into the subculture surrounding it rather than just use it as a ~dressing~ for the romance. I think it's just extremely obvious when you read an AU-verse and the real passion and knowledge has gone into the writing; a hospital au written by someone who spends a lot of time in a hospital (whether as a patient or employee) is going to be much more detailed than someone who just wants characters to fuck in their white coats. so. yes. i enjoy it when people find a way to incorporate their own interests and shit they know a lot about into their writing - idc if you're projecting, the fuck!!! it's fic! it really makes the experience for me.
I'm not much of a worldbuilding person but I'm much more likely to enjoy written work if it's set up in a way that I'm able to understand the character, their values, their passions... their daily life!!!!!! I guess that's why I enjoy character study so much. If a fic makes me fall in love with the author's own spin on a character - kittebasu's oikawa and miyuki, rageprufrock's oikawa, grantaire in world ain't ready, yahaba in close to the closet who was honestly a character i NEVER gave a single thought to, neil in fear in a handful of dust, which is probably the only harry potter au i've ever enjoyed. I feel like sometimes, people think because they're writing in third-person instead of first, they can't divulge in the pov-character's thoughts as much - which is completely incorrect! witty dialogue is good and fun but what really gives me butterflies is when I find myself so engrossed in a character i can feel their pain, their longing, their excitement... I want to be invested in them! I know a lot of the time people are reading fic about characters/ships they already love, but... this isn't canonverse this is something YOU'RE writing. it's your universe! for the next 50k words these characters are yours to flesh out! fic should be treated as its own entity; don't concern yourself with the OOC-ness of it all - if it's done well, people will eat it up! ofc not all fic is that deep, but i firmly believe that a writer who amplifies the pov-character's personality and temperament and belief system independent from canon (and then sets up conflict surrounding them!) is a very good one.
those tangents were kinda unneeded but i promise they're just setting up my choices.
tbh I don't have a particular ship to apply the frankenfic onto (like I said i'll read anything if written in a way that appeals to me). so everything below is a concept more than anything else - very very abstract. but it'd have to be at least 100k words in length because if there's anything i like it's a slow burn.
Because I'm me and I feel like crossfire!Miyuki was genuinely written with me in mind. The characterization for the pov-character in this frankenfic needs to be DIRECTLY taken from crossfire by kittebasu. I read crossfire before I watched/read daiya so this miyuki is literally canon to me. thankfully I'm not alone in canonizing crossfire's characterization, because it does not get better than this. AAAAAAAA I looooooooove him, would burn down buildings for him, would give him my first born. I know not everyone has the capacity to develop a character across 500k words but wow. he's nasty and he's hurt and he's insecure and he's self-destructive but he learns to loves so deeply and all-consumingly... he was written like a real person; one with a backstory and internal and external conflict and an upbringing that very much influences his behaviour. crossfire to me is an ode to MIYUKI KAZUYA and the journey of his life as much as it's the Best Love Story of All Time. crossfire really does feel so personal, so... alive. so yes, if I had to create my ideal fic, the pov-character would be written with as much love as kittebasu clearly has for crossfire!miyuki. so, y'know, just written by kittebasu!!!
The frankenfic universe I'd borrow is from and so my heart beats wildly by lily_winterwood! ever since I first read it last year, I've been obsessed with their modernization of night hunting as an international sport and the multimedia elements really add a nice touch. i usually don't enjoy modern au that's written for media with complex and detailed universes because it often seems like an excuse to write without any context, but obviously op destroyed all qualms I had going into it. the work goes into all the mechanics and technical components.. insert the tangent i had earlier here. and personally i just think competition is sexy as hell - there's nothing better than rivalry where there are Actual stakes at hand. alsoooooo the addition of fandom/fanforums and the resulting meta is sosososo good. if ugly ass hockey players can have a fic archive as big as they do, if you're inventing an entirely new sport, you better assume the same! i know op writes/wrote a lot for yoi so it's clear that they utilized the experience and knowledge they had in regards to how skating fandoms operate. BUT YEAH. i would very much read something else set in lily_winterwood's and so my heart beats wildly universe.
as for the frankenfic ship dynamic... i won't settle for anything less than the one enjolras and grantaire have in these things take time by sonhoedesrazao. i know worshipful love isn't for everyone but god.. something in me goes crazy whenever i read good les mis fic and it's in grantaire's pov and the all-consuming obsessive love is just so fucking palpable. this excerpt here: IS THE HEIGHT OF ROMANCE TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!! it makes me want to burn in flames. I WANT IT FOR MYSELF! like... the layers to secretly being obsessed with someone but thinking they hate you for being so contrary to them and arguing with them every chance you get (spoiler alert: they do not!) which is partially a defense mechanism and partially because you enjoy seeing them so passionate about what they believe in. not to mention you're the realism to their idealism and you both help each other better yourselves... also you'd literally die for them. it's so so good. i think if i had been actively on tumblr during the les mis fandom-awakening they would be my fave ship dynamic of alllllllll time. i read the fic and i'm just like "wow this is what real love looks like. this is ideal romance".
ok I will stop there because I have shit to do, but this was great!!! pls ignore any typos and thank you for the prompt! I've read waaaay too much fic in my time so I love reminiscing the ones that have actually had an impact on me.
yes i made a dreamwidth acct just to yell here
ok i suppose the starting point for the universe i want frankenfic set in...would be evitative by vichan. i'm honestly not super into canon divergence usually because i think a big part of what makes drarry so compelling is all the Fraught History, but i really like the way that this fic doesn't shy away from contemplating what the consequences of being friends w a bunch of kids who have literal death eaters for parents. i love the Implications of slytherin!harry. just in general (i think i already said this in the notion doc but) i think it adds another delicious dimension to his angst about fate/what's really him and what's voldemort etc. also the whole concept of the "slytherin covenant" was so good -- the fact that they don't argue in public, they don't tell each others' secrets, they protect each other regardless of differences in belief is sooo on brand. the found family element is so strong and i love that shit.
the magic in this hypothetical story deserves it's own paragraph in itself bc i'm literally obsessedddddd w reading stuff where the author has really made it their own and adds some logic and consequence to magical systems/how everything is interconnected.
> evitative has some really interesting ideas re: magical affinities, BLOOD MAGIC, dark/light magic, how the cycle of the year has importance.
> i'm in awe of the depth of detail re:potions theory/academia that zeitgeistic goes into in azoth. i loved how the theory wasn't just magical, but weaved in real/muggle chemistry — it makes so much more sense for there to be a natural connection there than not, but i've never seen anyone else really try to expound on that detail in a meaningful way. they also really parse out what the full process of transforming as an animagi would look/feel like, and it's legitimately one of the coolest things i've ever read.
> MAGICAL HOUSE LORE!!! i think house proud by astolat nails this. the magic is so alive and sentient, and it really makes you feel like it fucking Matters to do things via a certain process and to back up your actions with actual intent. i read a lick and a promise by tackytiger recently and i think the way that hogwarts truly comes to life here would be even more interesting mashed up with astolat's house lore. i have excerpts [here!!] to illustrate what i'm talking about if you're interested.
> and lastly....the regional magical differences in wild by seefin would be so interesting to explore alongside everything else. i love how natural and (haha) wild the magic feels in this one. i love that using magic isn't about control, but about understanding it/working with it/having your intent match your actions.
i'm sure you can see the running theme here. i want the magic in this hypothetical to feel tangible. i want it to be beautiful and evocative, but i don't want it to be effortless, or have it fall to the wayside as merely a "given" of the world it's written into. that element of danger/consequence is the most important part of it. To Me.
as for characterisations....i'd agree with you that hogwarts crammer has probably one of the best iterations of harry of all time. i think my favourite dracos of all time have been written by faithwood and thistle_verse exclusively. the only thing i wish there was more of in evitative is Mutual Antagonising. and i think drarry works best when there are jagged edges, spikiness, where everything isn't easy. it's so much better when draco remains a dickhead lmao. i think the dynamic in strange bathfellows by bixgirl1 is kind of perfect. they really maintain draco's canon personality and it was so good. also in that same notion doc i linked above are some assorted excerpts from my bookmarks that really inform what exactly it is that keeps drawing me back to this pairing again and again.
this is way too long so i'll leave it there but...closing thoughts (edit: which still ended up being SO LONG, sorry). but i guess what i want is a story about growing up and about fate, but i don't want it to necessarily feel "fated". i want to see harry and draco have space to grow, both together and apart. i don't want the outcome to necessarily feel inevitable. i want to see them work at it and commit despite all the difficult shit. and i want the magic to be a part of that/a metaphor for it even. what would make it even better is some sort of forced bonding/proximity debacle lol. i'm just so interested in attempting to express the gravity of what it means to choose one person every day for the rest of your life, and have the freedom to make that choice even beyond a magical bond or whatever. that is Peak Romance, to ME. and i think the drarry dynamic is so perfect for exploring that.
clearly, i don't particularly care if there's a strong "plot" honestly, i don't even know HOW all these elements i want would fit together in a cohesive way. i just want a coming of age story. i want a billion word literary EPIC like astra inclinant by eleventy7. magnum opus tier. make you wanna stare at your hands in silence as you reassess all your life choices type shit. obviously the pairing is different and i wouldn't necessarily want to draw from the characterisations or anything (...unless?), but i just want the Heart of this fic to live on in my frankenfic. i want to read a Lifetime, and i want it to feel dense, genuine and lived in. i want fighting and fucking and pining and history. i don't even know if this is making sense lmfao this is all over the place my bad!! would welcome any further thoughts you have on my insane rambling :-)