It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #5 · 7:09pm Apr 21st, 2021
So I'm going to lead today's Recommendsday with a warning. My writing is pretty squeaky clean - I don't do mature ratings and my use of red tags is not only sparse but light even when they're present. So I figure that it's worth a heads up that the two stories on the docket today are not that. Both are M-rated and for good reason. Both are fairly explicit and focus on sex, sexuality and sexual relationships - you can't just skip those parts without losing critical parts of the narrative. Both are also quite good, but keep that warning in mind for those who are avoiding NSFW content.
To be more obvious: NSFW CONTENT AHEAD
The first - and somehow less explicit - of the stories is YCH by ROBCakeran53. Now everybody knows Rob. My Little Dashie is basically The Most Anything on the site and even nine years later remains part of the conversation. But past that one fic, a lot of Rob's work sneaks under the radar. YCH is a perfect example of that.
Conceptually, it's got an amazing hook. YCH (Your Character Here) is a staple of the art community - mostly pre-created art where a commissioner can pay to have a character (or characters) of their choice placed into the scene as the central figure. Rob leverages that beautifully.
See, central to the story are the characters Tab A ('Tabby') and Slot B ('Bee'). They're models for photographers, movie makers, sculptors and painters, acting as stand-ins and 'generic' figures. They're literally A and B in a YCH picture. And as those pictures frequently are, Tabby and Bee are in a lot of erotic (in various degrees) material with each other.
Of course, it's not quite that simple. The pair's relationship is straining under a lot of weight - passing time, their own life goals, the relationship itself - and near the end of the first chapter things hit a breaking point where the two have to start confronting those issues and figuring things out.
Despite the humorous basic hook, this is a hell of a story. Not just well written - as one would expect from a FIMFiction giant like Rob - but also packed with a realistic romance. Tabby and Bee aren't young loves in their first days: they have an established relationship and know each other well. But they wrestle with the kinds of things that never really leave a relationship and deal with them in understandable, realistic ways. That it's so wildly underappreciated for an author with such a huge following is a real shame.
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Our other piece today is The Primrose War by Noble Thought. And this one's a doozy.
I liken this story to a period drama in pony form. The timeframe is during Luna's banishment - around five hundred years before S1E1 - and focuses on the twin cities of Merrie and Damme. Split by a river, the two neighboring city-states have been at war for centuries. Currently the fighting has cooled down as Princess Celestia has threatened to intervene should more pony blood be spilled - the two cities are independent but remain within Equestrian borders. So instead of fighting with blades the two sides battle with wits, guile, politics and subtler magics.
The story focuses primarily on Rosewater, the presumptive heir of House Rosethorn and the Merrie side of the river; and with her counterpart, Prim Collar, heir of House Prim and the Damme side. They fight; they politick; they romance. Really, it's already 400k words and I can't entirely do justice to the many twists and turns of the highly complex story in this short of a space. Suffice it to say, there's a lot of characters and a lot of back and forth as the sides conflict both with each other and internally. As the story goes on, it starts to focus more on Rosewater's attempts to heal both the rift between the cities and her own shattered family, all while trying to save her own sanity and happiness.
This wildly complex tale is, as I so often say in this segment, a wonderful read that combines excellent writing with top-notch worldbuilding and characterization. There's a baffling number of moving parts in the story, giving it a ton of depth as players move in and out of things. I've been following it for months and its never disappointed.
(I will add one warning, however. Be prepared that the word 'rose' will stop sounding like a word after a little while. It gets better in Book 2 as more characters show up, but for a long while it can get pretty nutty. You can only go through so many conversations where Roseate and Roselyn are talking about how Rosewater is trying to keep Rosemary from crossing the Rosewine Bridge before your eyes cross.)
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AGH I want to read the primrose war so bad, but i'm way too backed up.