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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After Jack buries the white flag in Okinawa, he volunteers for every dangerous mission, deliberately puts himself in harm’s way, makes stupid and reckless choices that cement his reputation and raise a few eyebrows—and still, he lives; comes back to the States both breathing and physically intact. But there are plenty of other ways to self destruct.
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One day, Matt Murdock saves an old man. The old man does not completely succeed in saving Matt Murdock.
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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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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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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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daddy said shoot first by This_world_of_beautiful_monsters
Fandoms: Avatar (Cameron Movies), James Cameron's Avatar - All Media Types
27 Apr 2023
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Summary
The Sully kids all have their own opinion regarding the meaning of the word "father."
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 2,170
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 24
- Kudos:
- 181
- Bookmarks:
- 28
- Hits:
- 4,508
Bookmarked by mayfriend
27 Apr 2023
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Bookmarker's Notes
—it's knowing that no amount of ghosts and shadows and photographs and recordings and undead monsters can stop her siblings from being her siblings and her dad from being their dad—
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In Aporia by mellish
Fandoms: Thor (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
25 Nov 2017
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Summary
Genuinely asking: if you knew your brother was into snakes, and stupid besides, how could you not use that to your advantage? Loki character study, mostly post-Ragnarok.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 2,675
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 23
- Kudos:
- 599
- Bookmarks:
- 109
- Hits:
- 6,119
Bookmarked by mayfriend
09 Jun 2018
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Bookmarker's Notes
The Norse books don’t capture things correctly. How he misses his mother, how he has given up on the respect of his father, how tired he is of chasing after Thor. How unable he is to stop.
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The Battered Road to Bethlehem by antistar_e (kaikamahine)
Fandoms: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
06 Jul 2010
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Summary
At twenty-one, Sally Jackson has three things to her name: a high school diploma, one serviceable winter coat, and a three-year-old special needs son.
Bookmarked by mayfriend
13 Apr 2019
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Bookmarker's Notes
She tucks her legs up underneath her chair, saying, "stay where I can see you," to Percy at five minute intervals, and turns her driver's license over in her hands. She remembers getting it three years ago; remembers being flustered and a little ashamed because she hadn't showered that morning and her hair was greasy -- she didn't want that immortalized in her license photo. So she'd run out to her friend who was waiting in the car and borrowed her spare headscarf, tying her hair back with it. In the picture, a few wisps are escaping from underneath it, but it's too pixelated to tell the color: at first glance, it looks like Sally's head is a rainbow of oranges, reds, and yellows, and only the stodgy "BRN" beside "HAIR COLOR" gives her away. She's smiling, wide and carefree in the face of having thwarted a photo-op disaster. It'd seemed so important at the time, not having a horrible picture, when four weeks has gone by without her even realizing that she's due for a new one.
She runs her fingertips along the edges of the hard plastic, looks back at the girl with the hoop earrings and the Indian scarf smiling triumphantly out at her and thinks to her, this is September, two days after your birthday, and in three weeks and four days, your grandmother will be dead. In two months, you'll meet a stranger who smells like seabrine and treats you like a fairy tale and in eleven months, you'll give birth to a son. You, little girl, are history.
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All The Magic In His Hands by starkraving
Fandoms: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
11 Jun 2018
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Magnus Bane is mortal. Well. That will just not motherfucking do. AKA: Catarina Loss is terrifying when she's terrified. Camille tries to turn Magnus into a vampire. Raphael is just really goddamn angry. And Alec Lightwood is just trying to chase down a man that won't stay down even when his world is burning. Magnus intends to rescue himself. A story about coping with loss and the peculiarities of love, magic, and community.
Bookmarked by mayfriend
30 Apr 2024
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Bookmarker's Notes
“You’re cursed, Alec Lightwood.”
And it’s like she’s laying an invocation on him, a coldness sliding through is veins. So indifferent and brutal it shouldn’t give him any relief but it does. Magnus’ closest living friend looks him dead in the eyes and reads the history of violence in his mortal soul like you read the back off a dime-store novel. She tugs his head down and he lets her.
“There’s old black magic,” she whispers, “binding your soul. You’re a soul-bound parabatai – hardwired to choose your own kind. Every time. You’re a war machine, kid.” She shakes her head slow. “I like you too, Alec. I do. I think you love Magnus true enough to break a curse if you kissed him, but this is not a fairy tale: you’re too far gone.”
“Stop,” Alec says, turning his face aside. “I already said, I’ll do whatever it takes. You don’t have to–”
“Hold fucking still, nephilim, and listen to your elders.” Catarina jerks his chin up again. She bares her teeth. “I do not have Magnus’ endless goddamn patience to wait around until you figure out how you feel.”
“I love Magnus,” Alec says, because it’s true.
“Irrelevant,” Cat says, “because you love like a shadowhunter. Your siblings are your soldiers. Your friends are your underlings. Your lover is your weapon. It’s clear as day under the mushroom cloud, Lightwood. Magnus is your A-bomb. You love him so much it kills you, but he’s just too useful to leave on the sidelines.”
“Stop.”
“My best friend is going to die because of you.” Cat’s lip starts to tremble before she gets control of herself. “Or maybe that doesn’t matter to you because you won’t have to live to see him go. He gets one life. One, just for you, so what do you care?”
“That is not true,” Alec whispers. “I’m not gonna let it happen. Cat, I swear, I’m going to fix it. I’ll find a way—”
“You wouldn’t have to fix it,” she seethes, “if only you hadn’t asked him the first place.”
“I didn’t ask him to do this!”
“You don’t have to ask!” Cat throws her hands and five lightbulbs explode in their wall sconces, darkening the hall. “That’s a beauty of it, right?” She’s sobbing but enraged. “He’ll just offer his fucking throat. Easiest kill you ever had. Right, shadowhunter!”
And Alec means to yell, but that word gets lost from his lungs to his lips and he just… stares. Blank with horror.
“What?” Alec says, because all other words fail him.
His heart’s in his throat, dread like bile on his tongue. Cat seems… surprised. With herself or him, he cannot tell but he watches her eyes flicker with a mirroring grief, so familiar but stranger than his own. Her empty hand hovers still in front of her, her fingers soft now, touching nothing.
“I know,” she whispers, “that you didn’t ask him.” Her cheeks are wet. “And I know… he had so many other reasons for what he did, but the fact remains I don’t think you can fix it, Alec.” She buries her face in her hands. “God, I don’t know how to fix it either.”
“Catarina,” Alec says, but he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to say.
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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.