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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Solaria's only ambition is to live, for herself; and she's not going to let a girl that calls her Foxface stand in her way.
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Sinking the Ship of Theseus by Skierunner for Blue_Daddys_Girl
Fandoms: Avatar (Cameron Movies)
01 Jan 2023
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Summary
Miles Quaritch copes with a new body, fatherhood, and a burning hatred for philosophy.
Alt: Miles' perspective in Avatar 2: Way of Water
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come down off your throne and leave your body alone by blacksneakers
Fandoms: House of the Dragon (TV)
06 Feb 2023
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“Did Viserys ever tell you that her first word was—”
“Uncle, yes. He was very unhappy about that, I can assure you.”
“He still is, he was complaining about it when Aegon learned how to talk.”
“Ridiculous. Everything he’s had, and it’s never been enough for him.”
“Sometimes I think he’d be happiest if he could have both of you in your own separate boxes. And he’d keep you in different rooms, and he’d never take you out at the same time.”
“And what about your box?”
“I would never be important enough for a box of my own. If he could control both of you, exactly as he liked, he wouldn’t even know that I existed. I’m nothing, in the end. Or I am a box that children can come out of, and that’s all. That’s all I’ve ever been to anyone, my whole life.”
“I’m sure Rhaenyra wouldn’t agree with that.”
Alicent rolls her eyes. “Rhaenyra hates me.”
Series
- Part 1 of the dragon must have three heads
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a girl is a house of mirrors by This_world_of_beautiful_monsters
Fandoms: Avatar (Cameron Movies), James Cameron's Avatar - All Media Types
19 Mar 2023
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Every child struggles to figure out who they are. Kiri would settle for being sure of who she's not.
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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.
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Seven scandals in the life of Ilya Rozanov.
Series
- Part 8 of perfect from now on
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 17,245
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 490
- Kudos:
- 3,732
- Bookmarks:
- 838
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- 31,494
Bookmarked by mayfriend
02 Mar 2026
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Bookmarker's Notes
“You don’t want to ask me about this one?”
Shane cocked his head, glancing up, had the grace to not pretend he didn’t know what Ilya was talking about. “You don’t seem to want to talk about it.”
Ilya huffed out a laugh. “This does not normally stop you. You have no questions?”
“Not really,” Shane said. “It’s obviously not true, so.”
Ilya clenched the counter to stop himself from doing something stupid. “No smoke without fire,” he said.
“Well, it does seem like maybe something kind of fishy happened,” Shane said, sounding apologetic. “I just mean I don’t think you had anything to do with it. I’m sorry it’s getting dragged out like this. My mom says she bets way more contracts than we realize get done this way, and they’re using you to make an example.”
Ilya looked at him. Shane’s mom was his manager, and this was a big hockey story, but it still felt insane, like he’d slipped into a parallel universe, to contemplate Shane talking about him to his family. He tried to imagine bringing up Shane in conversation with his dad or his brother and wanted to laugh. Then he thought about Svetlana and his mom and the amusement faded. “What does your mom think is going to happen to me?”
“It’ll fade,” Shane said, and Ilya couldn’t tell if he was answering the question or sharing his own opinion, because it sounded very much like he believed it. “It’ll just pass. Most things do.”
Ilya nodded. If somebody had asked him all those years ago how long he thought it’d take to get Shane Hollander out of his system, six months would have been pushing it. Most things passed.
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Summary
As Lestat marinates in the dump, he eats rats, enjoys the company of a hallucinated-version of Louis, and replays memories from their relationship to pass the time and distract his fracturing psyche.
Bookmarked by mayfriend
17 Jul 2024
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"I am nothing without you. I told you that. It's true."
Louis's phantom hand strokes his face. "So keep being nothing."
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Summary
Vanya doesn’t kick his ass like he’s expecting.
Instead, she kills Dad.
And Pogo.
Again.
Well. After everything else this week, Luther’s not stupid enough to argue about any of it.
Series
- Part 1 of Attachment Theory
Bookmarked by mayfriend
13 Apr 2022
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Bookmarker's Notes
“You need to get out of here,” Diego says, steadily. “Please don’t argue with me,” he adds, just as Luther goes to ask why, confused. The response annoys him.
“I don’t think I do,” he tells Diego, frowning.
“I think you do,” his brother counters. His tone has changed, that self-sure cadence that Luther can’t stand sometimes.
“Oh. You’re an expert on me now,” Luther says, immediately regretting it, wanting to shrink away, wanting to not exist. Diego could fucking destroy him, the way he feels right now, he knows. Diego always could. He can’t stand up to it any more.
“You need to get out of this house, it is killing you,” Diego tells him, moving forward suddenly, right up in his face, and Luther stares at the look in his brother’s eyes, sets his jaw, wishes he’d worn a looser shirt today because it keeps pulling across his shoulders and he can’t not eat them away, that’s basically just his bones and he hates it.
“Luther, look. At. Me,” Diego snaps, and Luther suddenly can’t do this.
“Get out.”
“Give up.”
“Fuck you.”
“Oh,” Diego says, “good. Big boy words. Come on, come at me. You want to do this? You want to play like you’re not trying to kill yourself, Luther? Want me to play like I’m going to just let you?”
“Do you know what?” Luther says, because this is what he’s going to do, he’s going to do what Diego always does to him. He is going to just give up, and he’s going to be a straight up dick to his brother. “I don’t know what the hell your problem is,” he says. “I get that you like to go on and on about how hard you had it, how mean and nasty Dad was to everybody but me, who according to you has had the easiest life. Being Dad’s ‘favorite’ just because I’m the only one who never left. Never ran away like a little kid. Tried to do what was right instead of just bailing because I decided my life was too hard. Why the hell do you insist on telling everybody I had it so good? Do you hate me that much?”
Diego doesn’t move, doesn’t look away, and Luther’s on a roll now and it just comes spilling out of him.
“Because I hate you,” he says, “I hate you. You got to leave. I got to stay on the moon for four years, as punishment because I got given some experimental serum when I’d rather have just died. You left me,” his voice cracks, “you all left me and now you’re here for what, to gloat some more? To tell me I’m wrong for wanting to just be at home and get some fucking peace for the first time in years? In my life?”
Diego’s face is screwed up and he’s nodding, and Luther has no idea what that means. And then Diego nods some more and his hands are up on Luther’s neck which he hates, and he assumes he’s going to be hit but Diego just holds them there, looking torn up. “You stupid asshole,” Diego says, so quietly he almost misses it and Luther stares at him because he’s actually crying. Luther’s crying. Diego’s crying. What an absolute shit show of a mess they are making. “I -I -I,” Diego starts, and stutters over it a few times before he stops and breathes out through his nose. Luther wants to tell him where to shove it, and doesn’t know what to do with his hands, and then Diego tries again.
“I love you,” Diego says, and for some reason that makes Luther cry that much harder. He can’t look, so he screws up his eyes. Turns his hands into fists. “I do and you need to come with me, just come with me.”
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columbarium by amnemonia
Fandoms: 약한영웅 Class 1 | Weak Hero Class 1 (TV), Weak Hero (Webcomic)
15 Jun 2025
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Summary
Keep me at arm’s length, one gunshot away, one step from freefall, a millimeter from your fingertips and my carotid artery — just far enough that I can’t reach you, can’t touch you, can’t get even slightly closer.
I’ll be radiation in your atmosphere; invisible, but fully felt, deadly. I’ll bury my head and lie flat at the bottom, dig into the sand like a stingray waiting for a chance to sting myself. Because I can’t sting you.
Bookmarked by mayfriend
15 Jun 2025
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He wants to go back a few years. To race Baekjin to school until their legs burned, to trade cartoon character cards — Baekjin only ever cared about the stats, and he only cared whether he liked the character or not. To buy the cheapest ice cream once a week and share a single one between them, because there was never enough money for two. To laugh until the sun felt bright again, the sand clinging to their feet by the water, and to want to live, live, live — to live forever, without even knowing how to put that overwhelming feeling into words inside his own head.
More than he wanted to live, he just wanted Baekjin to live.
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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.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 1,005
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 34
- Kudos:
- 337
- Bookmarks:
- 69
- Hits:
- 2,652
Bookmarked by mayfriend
26 Oct 2018
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"I think you know me better than anyone ever has," Matt tells her, inelegantly sprawled on a crappy futon with Elektra in his arms. Ten years later it will become an ironic statement, but when he says it it's just true. Simple and honest. Elektra will always be able to access a part of him that no one else is allowed to know about, even Foggy.
He knows Elektra smiles in response because he can feel it where her face is pressed against his chest. "I hear you, Matthew," she says, slow and witchy. He knows what she means. She hears the subtext, she hears the words he means behind the words he says. She hears his heart. That's a dangerous thing.
So is Elektra.