I'm curious! I know I have a bunch of fics that have really stayed with me - some because oh god my poor brain, some because they introduced me to new concepts that were somehow relevant to me, and some because they were just that good, and now I want to know - what are yours? Books or fanfic you stumbled upon that really made an impact, for whatever reason? Music? Art? (To be clear: it is not a requirement for these things to be the best things you've ever seen, or even good. I mean... one of mine is Harry Potter, because I grew up with it, and all the people I've connected with because of it. Another is a short smutfic. Meanwhile the Discworld books don't even make the list because as much as I love them to bits in every way, as much as reading one is an absolutely incredible experience, I didn't find those in a time of my life where they changed my world. You know?) Anything goes! Nothing is too small or too silly! ((and if it's fic or art and you have a link, I'd be delighted if you shared it. that's not a requirement either though.)) sorry if this as a thread is in the wrong place or if there already is one
Homestuck. Brainbent, which literally saved my life and sanity and that's not an exaggeration Nightwish, which made me drop german rap/hiphop like a hot potato and got me to listen to metal that's what i can name off the top of my head "_"
So I know TF2 changed how I interacted with fandom forever. That was the first fandom where I tried to contribute instead of passively consuming, the first fandom where I was on the leading edge of updates, and the first fandom I actively made friends in. And it sort of changed how I looked at gaming and connected with people. I don't think I've ever really run across art that's changed me, or books themselves? But... Hm. Designations Congruent with Things sort of shifted how I perceived fanfic for a while and that it was allowed to want weird esoteric shit in your rambling fiction, and the Fae Tale series (mind the tags and warnings) was one of those things that sort of... ignited a passion for reading in me again? Reaffirmed that I wasn't a horrible person for wanting things that weren't always up to snuff? I dunno, it's definitely one that's stuck with me though. And on the less than uh, good, scale, there's Casting Moonshadows. I printed this thing out in point 6 font back to front on over three hundred printer pages. I read it everywhere and kept it close, and it helped me a lot when I was in a really abusive situation. Fanfiction was always one of my forms of escapism, but this fic in particular was so fundamental to keeping myself afloat for a while. (Warnings for severe child abuse and alcoholism, if anyone actually wants to read it.)
*Nightwish high-five* (Though in my case, the thing that got me into the genre was when Within Temptation's "Memories" came on a Pandora station I had and I immediately had to make a new station off it. But I discovered Nightwish pretty quick from there and suddenly I had a new favorite band and genre.) Lord of the Rings. My dad is a big Tolkien fan (and this is one of the few areas where you'll see me talk about him unambiguously positively), so he read the entire thing, minus appendices but with all the songs and poetry and Tom Bombadil, aloud to me when I was ten. It was my first experience of high fantasy with a world that seemed that huge and expansive, and Dad had several basically Tolkien fanbooks (a book of maps of Middle-Earth, and a Middle-Earth bestiary), so even though my reading level wasn't really up to snuff to plow through Tolkien, I still had a bunch of stuff I could read to find out more about this world, and I was fascinated. Thief of Time- not because I think it's the best Discworld book, but because initially I tried to read the first ones and it didn't really click with me, but then I picked up that one and my mind was blown and I had to read the rest of the series. The browser game AdventureQuest was basically my gateway drug to video games and recreational computer use in general. I sunk god knows how many hours into it. My current obsession, Radiant Historia, is the first time I got really deeply involved in a broader fandom and made friends with strangers that way, as well as the first thing that got me to write- and finish- fiction of a significant length.
@PRelations I came to this thread to post about Designations Congruent with Things. I was in my last year of grad school for physics and I'm not even kidding when I say that fic got me through my defense. It also reconnected me with a friend I'd lost touch with as we yelled at each other about it in texts. <3
!!!!whimsy, you listen to Nightwish? What's your favorite song? *whispers* which singer do you prefer Anyway, The Nine Billion Names of God was what got me into short story reading and writing (as opposed to my previous view which was that novels were the only legitimate form of writing and everything else sucked)
The World Ends with You (and to a lesser extent the resident fandom "it's almost ten years old and still GOING" fic, Signal to Noise). Just. God. Nai's life philosophy, right there.
There's a huge collection of stuff that my mother read to me when I was little or worked into the curriculum when I was younger that I can't sort out and list individually, because there's too much of it, but it definitely laid the groundwork for all of the storytelling I've done: the Bible, Greek and Roman and Norse mythology, Arthurian legend, fairy tales from all over the world, classic British and American children's literature.... Diana Wynne Jones' way of writing fantasy pretty much completely changed how I write it - there's a kind of matter-of-fact, normal feeling to her stories that I hadn't seen in the mostly high-fantasy stuff I was reading. I loved it. Howl's Moving Castle was the first one of hers that I read, and The Lives of Christopher Chant is my favourite. I don't want to imitate her style of writing, exactly - just the feeling that all of this magic exists in a world where it's completely normal to the people who use it, and they don't think any more of teleporting across worlds than you would of getting in your car and driving to the grocery store. (Sudden thought: ...is teleportation anxiety a thing? I bet that could be a thing. I mean, splinching is a thing so I'm sure there's a lot more that could go wrong....) I've been reading Kagerou since I was ... fifteen, maybe? So over a decade. And I'm pretty sure that's why the majority of what I've written since has at least a little bit of horror in there somewhere. Oh, and Detective Conan! A combination of really really loving the characters and the relationships and getting frustrated with the whole mystery-of-the-week format resulted in me writing a slew of DC fanfiction in my late teens. I don't think I've ever been that productive. It gave me a lot of experience writing different things and it was good fun. And I made quite a few fandom friends during that time period, which was great.
For some reason, this reminds me of how in the Dragaera books, humans have severe nausea when they get teleported while Dragaerans (who are basically elves) are totally fine. Different Dragaerans are different levels of respectful of this. :::PPP
casually resurrects thread because it's suddenly relevant again i have two that need mentioning now, one for lighthearted reasons and then one i'll have to put under a spoiler cut because it's sort of oversharing (ironically enough, the first one's e-rated, and the second's only m. pfffft.) the first one's a detective conan fic! (yoo elaienar) it's by askerian and it's basically pwp and it's important because it was literally my first introduction to the concept of polyamory/open relationships/dating multiple people without cheating. my mind was blown and it's still one of my fave fic series. so good. (aaaaand the main character is, in canon, 16. oh no someone call the police.) Spoiler: oversharing ahead but click through it's a homestuck fic okay so the second one is Dark and Light , by makingtriangles. it's a fic about dave(sprite) and jade and john on the battleship. it's about kids talking to each other and connecting and sharing experiences and making new experiences together and some of those experiences are sexual experiences, others are just.... things you wouldn't normally talk about. bad things you've done. things you want that you think are fucked up or wrong. It was important to me because it clicked, it connected, I was a kid and they were kids and I saw myself in those baddirtywrong thoughts and realised oh, wait, i'm not alone, and from there i managed to reach out first to someone online, and then later to my best friend. that fic started some of the most intense and intimate conversations i've ever had with them, because - surprise! - they didn't hate me and they didn't think i was Wrong, the fic connected with them too and from there on there were two of us, maybe a little bit wrong in the head together, and it didn't feel as bad anymore. suddenly it wasn't my dark shameful secret, it was just... something we shared, my best friend and i. we made our own safe space, in which 'safe' meant 'no judgment', and it was so, so good. being allowed to talk about stuff like that was just... i can't even describe how important it was. i will forever be indebted to the author of that and i will forever be grateful.
Homestuck, but ironically this fic... Sburb Glitch FAQ led me to replay value which led me to some friends and to my boyfriend and just. lots of things. good read, good au. check out @Vacuum Energy 's blog which is based on this thing cuz it is also fandom content i endorse and helped change my life. http://eternity-braid.tumblr.com/
brainbent for me too! i made a post about it on tumblr but it was literally the first thing that helped de-stigmatize mental illness for me, and was an important part of my coping w/ my own brainweirds and convinced me that therapy was a thing that was okay for me to seek out. also dragon age, and more specifically dragon age 2. my dad played origins and i liked it okay, but 2 was one of the few video games i've ever managed to finish. when i tell people it's one of my favorite games they give me shit for it and i've made self-deprecating jokes about it being Dragon Age: Dating Sim but it was also hugely important to me. the fact that everyone was bi and it didn't matter, that i could romance whoever i wanted and literally never have to be straight ever was a bigger deal than i thought it would be? it was one of the few video game worlds where i actually saw myself in it, especially at that time. and i really love the story, i am such a sucker for misfits-turned-found-family and it's so rare in video games, honestly if the whole thing was "Wacky Misadventures in High Town" i would love it just as much. and also related to dragon age, the fic Coffee, Black which i have re-read no less than four separate times. this fic is my happy place, it makes me feel safe and warm and at peace. it perfectly captures that "misfits turned found family" feel, it's funny as hell, and it was also the thing that convinced me to ship fenhawke. i actually can't read any other fenhawke fic because i compare it to this one?? i go back to it whenever i'm stressed out or upset and sometimes i catch myself thinking about it at random moments. i want to carry the feeling it gave me around always. and finally, steven universe. i've talked about it elsewhere but it's the number one thing that gives me comfort when i'm feeling anxious or upset or generally bluh. it's a beautiful, special little gem of a thing (heh, pun not intended) and says a lot of important, wonderful stuff about love, redemption, family, and humans and the importance of our bonds with each other, it is peaceful and kind and comforting and safe and warm and happy. i'm so glad that this thing exists and there's an entire generation of kids growing up with it as an influence and that makes me feel good about the general state of the world, tbh.
Neuromancer. Holy shit, Neuromancer. I hadn't known you could *do* some of that shit with words. The atmosphere, the tension and energy, the intensity! I still want to be Molly Millions when I grow up. The Sisters of Mercy. First album I had of theirs was First and Last and Always, and just... the rhythms. The way the music soothed me and energized me and made me feel ready to burst with a world that had suddenly expanded. Such a pure and powerful auditory stim, even though I didn't know the word back then.
Lord of the Rings is why I am working on becoming a linguist. Tolkien's work in general has been a very key part of my life since I was a child. Tolkien has reshaped the course of my life in many ways. James Joyce's work and the works of Caitlin Kiernan meanwhile have very heavily influenced my thoughts on art and being an artist. I am a very selfish writer and I feel very little shame about it now. If my readers do not like what I do then whatever. I am not writing it for you. I am writing it for myself and for the sake of creation itself. Homestuck. Because. Homestuck. I've met so many friends through it. I've gained hobbies through it. My world views have been effected by it. .hack//SIGN meanwhile is a big part of how I realized I was trans.
Funny, that. I promote RV AU so much because it's been lifechanging for me as well. A full book seemed the only appropriate way to commemorate something that important to me.
It makes sense! I mean I drew a lot of art of RV characters because they were kind of incorporated into my life so much. It's a big deal. It's the push that made me get that homestuck tattoo tbh.
Stories... Phantom of the Opera - helped me think about love, loss, and how unfair the world is, but how you can still be kind. Helped me discover my talent in voice; helped me fall in love with drama. Mass Effect - helped me see what kind of a person I really wanted to be, gave me a sense of purpose, introduced me to hella cute turians. Harry Potter - re/kindled a sense of awe about the world. Joy and strength in friendship. Lord of the Rings - similar to HP, but on an epic, fantastic level. (also earlier than HP by at least a couple years, probably ~2000) Welcome to Night Vale - Weird. Fiction. Is. Okay. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead & Waiting for Godot - not everything is going to make sense: embrace it. oh my lord, how could I forget Halo. Halo has challenged me continually about ethics, science, diplomacy and politics - and also about the nature of love, about necessary and unnecessary cruelties, autonomy...i could keep going, but fuck, man, Halo. (a lot of that applies to Mass Effect, too, from a different angle.) music... Nightwish was also a formative influence on little Kay: dark fiction, opera, massive dramatic music... U2 is such comfort music for me. There is always a U2 song to speak to, or for, my soul. In a similar vein, Evanescence was the soundtrack to a significant part of my age 13-15 life. Amanda Palmer. Her music got me through high school and part of university, and she is a huge inspiration to me on so many levels.
let's see... i think the gorillaz really had a huge impact on my music tastes overall. they also got me through some hard times in high school. ditto for fantasia wrt taste, although that was more towards the very beginning while gorillaz was a preteen and onwards thing. watching men in black, jurassic park, and star wars when i was young on my mom's cousin's tv was one of my biggest kickoffs into the world of science fiction. considering what an impact sci fi has had on me as a person and how much it affects my life, i can honestly say i would probably be a totally different person if i hadn't seen them at such a crucial stage. spyro the dragon and army men were my first interaction with a video game for me. it was like this whole world of gaming that was suddenly for everyone, not just middle aged men who like to pretend to shoot stuff. the last thing (i can think of rn) is this one teen titans fic that i can honestly say ruined my life. it was long, and traumatizing, and i read the whole thing even though i should have stopped a few paragraphs in. it was my first interaction with fanfics ever and i've never looked back.
