A VERY WRICEFUL FEBUWHUMP TO US ALL!!
The challenge is complete. Thank you so much to everyone who commented, shared, drew art for???? and recommended this series, it's been so fun to try and do some daily fics and make stuff consistently. Here's to the next challenge!!
All the fics, plus starter info, in the cut below:
ibuprofen, post-post mortem (day 1: "i like you better broken")
Nice has a headache.
RATED T: Canon Compliant, pre-tournament, cracked!nice x graffiti king. Paired to "hydromorphone", day 2.
hydromorphone, post-post mortem (day 2: "old injury")
Sometimes, Nice wishes he could open up his body, search every organ for signs of imperfection, and put himself back together. Clearly, he was made wrong. Maybe, he could be made again.
RATED E: Canon Compliant, pre-tournament, cracked!nice x graffiti king, Wreck gives Nice an autopsy. Erotically. Paired to "ibuprofen", day 1.
spectre; spectacle (day 3: "ghost")
Seven years into being a Hero, Nice stands on a ledge. He wants to be free of both ghosts.
RATED T: Canon Divergence, pre-mid canon, Nice is haunted by the ghost of his best friend, who dies in a training accident, and over his hero career, it drives him to suicide.
hydrogen peroxide; acetone and alcohol (day 4: "blood stains")
To remove blood stains, pour 3% hydrogen peroxide directly onto the stain, let it bubble for 10–15 minutes, then rinse with cold water. To remove spray paint, apply acetone, nail polish remover, or rubbing alcohol to a clean cloth and rub the affected area.
RATED T: Canon Compliant, mid-canon, linked vignettes. nice, wreck, cracked!nice, graffiti king. 4 different types of blood stains.
outwit, outlast, outplay (day 5: survivor)
Moon has traveled the world. From bustling cities to remote villages, she's mapped them all. Including, a vicious deserted island, where each season, 20 players gather to outwit, outlast, and outplay one another to earn the title of Sole Survivor. Nice, apparently, is here for other reasons.
RATED T: Survivor TV AU, ambiguous ending, Wreck goes on TV to make a name for himself, Nice goes on TV to die.
taut; slack (day 6: soul bond)
Wreck holds his skull together. He groans, and it rings in his ears. He’s never drinking again. (He tells himself this every night.)
RATED T: Canon Compliant, with the addition of a soulmates aspect, referenced alcoholism, Wreck feels Nice's death through their soulbond. Nice feels it, in a way, too.
ranked and rated (day 7: forced to hurt another)
Wreck is Nice's nemesis. The two have been rivals for years, constantly clashing on the streets of X City. Nice is the Perfect Hero, and Wreck... Well, Wreck is more like a public nuisance than a public enemy. But he can do some real villany for once.
RATED G: Canon Compliant, wreck-centric, Wreck does actual crimes. Like, actual real crimes. Wreck kills a man. Paired to "comparison and flexibility" (day 11).
starving (till i tasted--?) (day 8: hunger)
hunger ( verb ) to have a strong desire or craving for. ( noun ) a feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by lack of food, coupled with the desire to eat.
RATED M: Canon Compliant, cracked!nice x wreck. The Cannibalism fic. Soft, tender cannibalism.
random access memory (day 9: false memory)
Nice returns with some digital espionage later than he's supposed to. Lucky him, Shang De's computer was left logged in, waiting for him. And if that offers the opportunity to snoop through some of TREEMAN's personnel files, who's really going to stop Nice from poking around?
RATED G: Canon-Adjacent, Nice learns that Shang De has been using Blankster to erase and rewrite Nice's memories. That his entire life is a lie. His entire life, including Wreck.
what goes up (day 10: alt prompt - lazarus)
Nice is this company's most profitable brand. We can't just let him die.
RATED G: Canon-Adjacent, mid-canon, Nice is resurrected--the day before his televised wedding. Paired to "must come down" (day 12).
comparison and flexibility (day 11: broken fingers)
Nice and Moon are the perfect couple, so they deserve a perfect vacation! Or, that’s what TREEMAN says when they send the pair off to an island resort. Nice knows when he’s sent on business, it usually means he has to tend to business.
RATED T: Canon compliant, non-graphic violence, self-harm. Nice tortures a man on Shang De's implied-orders, under implied-threat to his loved ones. Paired to "ranked and rated" (day 7).
must come down (day 12: alt prompt - live broadcast)
“You’re not ready for someone of his caliber!” Lin Ling acts his part without reading the script. And Nice is forced to watch.
RATED G: Canon-Adjacent, episode 2 parallel, Nice watches the wedding fight on TV while strapped to a hospital bed. Including the TREEMAN drone feed of Wreck's crashout. Paired to "what goes up" (day 10).
refractions in a sidewalk mirror (day 13: again)
Nice wants to live.
RATED G: Canon compliant, Nice-centric, time loop, Nice repeats the moment he steps of the ledge in episode 1 over and over.
hibiscus tea (day 14: hanahaki disease)
Nice's fatal flaw is desire. He wants, he wants; things he cannot have, things he should not have. And it will kill him.
RATED T: Hanahaki AU, Canon Adjacent, Pining, Nice develops Hanahaki when he refuses to go for the thing he wants--Wreck--for the first time in his life.My first time ever writing hanahaki, also. AND THERE'S ART FROM TUMBLR USER LICKET!!!
i think im gonna die in this (ware)house (day 15: test subject)
Shang De has a thesis, and a perfect pawn to test it on.
RATED T: Canon compliant, referenced torture. When Nice stops being an accurate test subject for Shang De's fear research, he threatens to find a new one.
museum wax, butterfly pinned (day 16: touch aversion)
Nice is a perfect gentleman. He’s the perfect boyfriend. He remembers everything, he pays attention when she speaks, he knows just what to get her. He’s a sweet young man, gentle and charming, and he would never do anything to hurt her. He’s perfect. He’s perfectly miserable.
RATED T: Canon compliant, loss of autonomy, pre-canon, Nice experiences exactly how far the public's Trust can make him do things, or stop him from doing them. No matter what he feels about it.
argumentative; abrasion (day 17: fingers in the wound)
Nice's Trust Value has been climbing. It's good-- he's getting stronger. He's getting strong enough to punch Wreck through four support pillars in their last fight, and leave some actual cuts and scrapes in him. It's only right Nice takes him home and cleans him up. It's the heroic thing to do. Isn't it?
RATED E: Canon Compliant, explicit sexual content, unhealthy relationships, improper first aid, Nice cleans up a wound on Wreck after a fight and they both get heated about it, in more ways than one.
grace; greed (day 18: time loop)
Wreck has a wonderful day. He's so thankful that this is his life. Wreck has a wonderful day. He's so grateful that this is his life. Wreck has a wonderful day. He's so glad that this is is life.
RATED T: Canon adjacent, Time loops, implied sexual content, fluff and angst, Wreck lives the same day over and over, until someone unexpected interrupts his very nice day.
hero nice declines to comment (day 19: "i didn't mean to")
Wreck and Nice face off in the streets of X City at least once a month. They fight, they destroy a few buildings; they follow the script. Nice goes a little off-script.
RATED T: Canon divergence, character death, Nice fights with Wreck and goes too far.
etiolation; dormancy; death (day 20: hunted)
Etiolation: The plant uses its remaining energy to stretch rapidly toward potential light, resulting in thin, spindly, and pale growth. The White Court is under siege. Spies, soldiers, and sour-faced dignitaries visit the palace in a dizzying dance, all aiming to knock the Queen from her throne. But Wreck isn't a spy. He is in love.
RATED T: Fantasy AU, Historical AU, referenced sexual content, Court Dancer!Nice and Prince!Wreck get caught by the guard and go on the run.
wreck, through the liquor glass (day 21: flashbacks)
Wreck doesn't have a drinking problem. He has a best-friend problem.
RATED T: Canon Compliant, Wreck-centric, alcoholism, seemingly unrequited feelings. Wreck watches the news drunk and can't help but think how familiar it all feels.
Killing Care and Grief (day 22: worse than death)
Lin Ling is finally allowed 'home'; Nice's floor in Hero Tower. He takes a moment to settle in, and investigates the ghost lingering in the clinically white walls.
RATED T: Canon compliant, Lin Ling-pov, Lin Ling learns about Nice's life through the items he left behind, including his phone.
1064.18° celsius (day 23: kintsugi)
The melting point of gold is a key indicator of its purity, with higher-karat gold requiring higher temperatures to melt, making it a crucial metric in metallurgy, jewelry-making, and gilding the cracking in your Top-10 contending Hero.
RATED M: Canon compliant, descriptions of violence and torture, Nice gets gold poured into his cracks. He's awake for it.
row b, seat 6 (day 24: head injury)
Wreck has a season pass to the X City Performing Arts Theatre, where a certain ballet company dances throughout the year. Sometimes, he waits by the stage door. Most nights, he waits by the stage door.
RATED G: No Powers Modern AU, Ballet dancer!Nice, College student!Wreck, Nice suffers an injury on-stage.
pick a direction; point and shoot (day 25: medical restraints)
While it's safe to consider "jumping off a stone spire of your own construction to your presumed death" is a solid termination notice, Wreck did not expect it to turn into a job interview. The suspension tank of nuclear goo is a new one, though.
RATED T: Canon compliant, Wreck-centric, medical torture, restraints, Wreck wakes up in a Fear tank and learns he has a few new powers.
tungsten-halogen on highway 109 (day 26: time travel)
Nice started by running. He's reduced to walking. Soon, he'll pass out on the side of Highway 109, wishing he had just coughed up the money he doesn't have to take a train. But, when a car pulls over and a handsome young man steps out, offering him a ride, how can Nice refuse? After all. He's never been allowed to say no.
RATED T: 1980S AU, No Powers AU, Implied child abuse, Nice runs away from home and hitches a ride with Wreck, a perfect stranger with trouble of his own.
stay through the sunset with me (for me) (day 27: "can you stay")
Nice calculated everything about his suicide: how high the building needed to be, where in the city would give the nicest Last Look but avoid crowds who would call an ambulance to save him. He didn't think about what to do if it didn't take. And he definitely didn't think about what to do if the one person he never wanted to see him like this found him on the sidewalk.
RATED T: Canon divergence, suicide, character death, emotional whump, Wreck finds Nice on the sidewalk immediately after his jump, in Nice's final moments.
if not today, never (day 28: breaking point)
Life is a series of small victories. Nice, however, just keeps losing.
RATED G: Canon compliant, suicide, character death, Nice-centric, Nice hits his breaking point and decides today's the day to end it.
