A Bell Went Off In My Head...

For anyone who hasn't seen them before, Hidden Search Operators are handy tricks you can use when you're either searching or filtering AO3.

summary: string is a generic way of explaining that you can search AO3 for a specific word that appears in a summary. You can do this from the search bar in the header, from the Any Field box at the top of the Advanced Search form, or from the Search Within Results box at the bottom of the filter menu.

Examples:

summary: Bruce

summary: "Bruce Banner"

summary: Bruce OR summary: Banner OR summary: Hulk

You need to put quotation marks around your search term if it is more than one word. The quotes make sure that the site searches for those two words together.

The other two operators listed work best in the Search Within Results box.

expected_number_of_chapters: 1 will return results where every fic has only 1 chapter currently posted.

You can use expected_number_of_chapters: -1 if you want results where every fic has more than 1 chapter currently posted.

I saw your tags @jackdaw-sprite and I figured I could offer you some help? You've got a few options to find fics that are actually about your fave who is often sidelined.

My own personal go-to is to use the Search Within Results filter. You can find the filters by clicking/tapping on any tag. If you're on a wide screen like a laptop, they'll be on the right hand side of the screen. If you're on a narrow screen like a phone, you'll need to press the Filters button at the top of the page to open up the menu.

In that menu, scroll down until you're near the bottom. That's where you can find the box labelled Search Within Results. In that box, you can type

summary: Renhardt OR summary: Rendog

When you filter for that result, you'll get 19 fics with that name mentioned in the summary, and if the name is in the summary you've got MUCH higher chances of them being central to the fic.

There's also a way to find fics with a tag in the X position. Fan coders have had this same issue, and so they've created userscripts that you can add to your web browser (like an extension). Here are a few that might be helpful for you to try:

AO3 Actually Relevant Characters - Sorts and highlights works based on how relevant the tagged character seems in the work's tags and summary.

AO3: Prioritise my Faves - Hide work if chosen tags are late in sequence, or if blacklisted tags are early

AO3 Secondary Character & Pairing Filter - Replaces works with placeholder if the tags you want aren't the first few tags, with option to show work.

Editing to add: this version of the post has a syntax error in it. To remove oneshots with a filter, use

I already know the majority of my mutuals will likely agree with everything I am about to say, but there is a serious amount of casual fans that hold true to their claims that the “old Peeta” is dead. Edits upon edits are made about this, and the amount of traction they get aggravates me greatly. Because this is NOT the case at all, and it genuinely has warped the resilient arc that Suzanne crafted for Peeta in Mockingjay.

Going from latest events in the book to earliest, these readers read about Peeta planting the primroses, saving Katniss from unaliving herself and refusing to “let her go” (not just in the physical sense or in that moment, by the way), voting most passionately against a Capitol games, very plausibly having been the one to put out the fire on Katniss from the two-tiered explosion and obtaining his burns while doing so (there is a deleted scene of Josh Hutcherson doing this), hyping up Tigris for her fashion skills with his trademark, sunny disposition, already indicating his capacity to long for Katniss to choose him again during the conversation with Gale while still battling his mind, knowing the exact right words to alleviate Katniss of the guilt she was feeling over every 451 squad member they had lost (which everybody else was trying and failing at), reiterating his promise that he would always stay with her, saving Katniss from the lizard mutts and having the most level head amongst the group in the most high-stress situation their squad experienced, knowing the exact right words to commend and cheer up Pollux for the asset he could be for their squad, giving Katniss the can of lamb stew on a whim WITHOUT needing to confirm with anybody that it was her favorite, begging to be unalived because he couldn’t bear another person dying by his hands, of course remembering Katniss’s favorite color before he could remember his own, scolding/arguing with HIMSELF about how he had just treated Katniss at that awkward group meal, decorating Finnick and Annie’s wedding cake with such intricacy, having an audio of Katniss singing be the first thing that didn’t make him enraged and receiving his first, true onslaught of memories through that, and SOMEHOW many readers come to the aforementioned conclusion. Peeta, who if they didn’t have a photo to put in the memory book, would sketch or paint that person from MEMORY. Peeta, who brought bread over out of a long-old habit the morning after his return to District 12, symbolizing the LIFE he will provide for her again. Peeta, who continued being this symbolic life-giver by building the life-sustaining incubator for Haymitch’s geese. Peeta, who is Katniss’s “dandelion in the spring” both at the beginning of the series and the end of it, symbolizing REBIRTH even after the harshest winter (the hijacking). Peeta, whose kind and good nature being especially showcased was always the precursor to the kisses that gave Katniss a hunger for him, and therefore her reporting on that hunger again must mean his very nature she loves so dearly returned as if no lapse had ever occurred. Peeta, who regained his innate instinct to take care of Katniss and love her with every fiber of himself. Peeta, who made Katniss feel safe enough to have children and brought her a brand new kind of joy in them. Peeta, who must make up ninety-percent of the list Katniss makes of any act of goodness she’s ever witnessed, which she uses just as much as his strong arms in the night to cope. This is the man they claim is so drastically different from the boy we first met.

Victor, Mentor, Mockingjay: Mutts: The rebels managed to do the impossible. They broke the arena. They got Katniss Everdeen, their Mockingjay out alive! But they left behind Peeta Mellark, and they are about to realize what a crucial mistake that might just be!

In the aftermath of the Quell our Victors are left to pick up the pieces of all they've had stolen from them. To force themselves to live and fight another day. To lean on the few remaining people they can trust in this snake den of vipers set on manipulating them, on remaking them, on turning them into pieces on the chessboard of this entirely new game they have no choice but to play. // A Mentor!Everlark Rewrite of Mockingjay

Those too stiff District 13 boots carry me up every step, down the hall, and straight to a very specific threshold. I push the door open and step inside. All breath flees my lungs because…because he's everywhere. In the faint smell of cinnamon and wood I've become so fond of. In the careful way his bed is made, just like always. In the haphazard stack of sketchbooks on his dresser. The leather case of fine pencils I gifted him for his birthday, left reverently on top. Before I know it, I'm all the way across the room. Shoving every notebook I can into my bag. I ignore the flying paws attacking my hands as I do and the ones that don't fit I force into the deep pockets of my father's jacket. I can't leave them behind. These precious bits and pieces of Peeta's heart and mind can't be condemned to this graveyard of ash and misery.

Yes he was able to escape his abusive mother, but he had no support whatsoever after having gone through the most traumatic moments of his life. He even had to readjust to having lost a leg all by himself.

katniss: i go to a place and do a thing using a skill. also everyone hates me. oh you want to know more about myself? here are four straight paragraphs just describing food instead.

haymitch: so the baker’s in love with my best friends girl and my girlfriend’s uncle is gay and secretly dating the town window-fixer and she’s actually related to lucy gray and has beef with the mayors daughter who bullied me and her social security number is—

Been rewatching THG movies with my mum🌼

If you have several connected ideas that don't quite work as a regular multichap story but also don't quite feel like a series, a 5+1 style of fic might work for you.

In general, the fic is six chapters long (although you can format it however you'd like if that doesn't work for you). It chronicles 5 times that one thing happened and 1 time that something else happened instead.

For example: 5 times A and B didn't kiss... and one time they did.

It's an easily recognizable structure for many and it's a handy way for writers to get to "the good bits" without agonizing over transitions etc. in between. Each chapter hits with the power of a oneshot, but you still get the build up and release of a multichapter fic.

You don't have to follow the numbers exactly. 5+1 is just the most common format.

In your headcanon when did Gale realize that "the brutality of the offer rattles" her, more then her words imply-did the tone of voice, facial expressions, betray Katniss's true thoughts or did Gale only find out when Katniss began the sugar in tea speech?

This reminds me of a running gag I like for Katniss and Gale

"The odds are never in your favor."

An abstract-style Hunger Games art piece, with Katniss, arrows and the iconic mockingjay wings!