📚 BLASEBALL FIC RECS THREAD BY MUSE 📚
to be continuously updated, and initially posted in short bursts as to hopefully not overwhelm the timeline. enjoy!

1. good grief - waveridden

27.2k, team: shadow garages?
lenny marijuana/chorby short, lenny marijuana & dominic marijuana & randy marijuana

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27650570
this has lived RENT FREE in my head for MONTHS. unquestionably my favorite blaseball fic. please read it. it’s sad and cathartic and dear to me. if you want a heavier one, pick this.

relatedly, waveridden has written two incineration studies that work well with this one as a trio, check those out as well. https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944283

2. oil and water - blacksatinpointeshoes

16.4k, team: charleston shoe thieves

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27746212
a history of the charleston shoe thieves, skillfully written and painfully grounded in reality in a way that really makes the horror pop

3. elephant joke - baliset

15.1k, team: seattle garages
mike townsend / derrick krueger

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28092198
an alternate timeline wherein necromancy is first tested on jaylen’s replacement. one who died after her. this very much earns its "blaseball is a horror game" tag

4. the price of perfection - cyndakip

40.8k series, canada moist talkers

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969006
hey so this singlehandedly made me care about the MTs. a series of polkadot patterson character studies.

5. vulnerability is not poggers - crookedsaint

4.5k, team: n/a
tillman henderson / declan suzanne

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27422923
boys with FEELINGS at a roller skating rink. havent seen each other in a long time and also one of them used to be dead. there’s pretty art to go with this one https://vrlsrezl.tumblr.com/post/637986749448175616

6. no emotion that’s worth having - cryptidgay

7.8k, team: baltimore crabs (conceptually)
tillman henderson / declan suzanne

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27699197
homesickness, denial, getting your shit together, and gimmicky paddleboats.

7. mike townsend (has disappointing taste in men) - miketownsends

3.4k, team: seattle garages
jaylen & mike mostly.
mike/tillman but tillman isnt in this one

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27431545
mike and jaylen have a beer and gossip and i love that for them

8. careful follow my instruction (and i will show you self destruction) - elliotfromseattle

11.5k, hawai’i fridays
okay listen. jaylen hotdogfingers & tillman henderson HEAR ME OUT

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28100166
a shoe heist.two fucked up zombie pitchers in a boat. trauma, left unsaid until it Very Much Is.

9. burnout - crookedsaint

6.9k
tillman / declan

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29522637
tillman comes back to life. he’s in bad shape. classic hurt/comfort but with like, tons of body horror wow points at tillman this man is so fucked up

10. i still hear you in the bass guitar of shitty songs we wrote when we were sixteen - showzen

9.9k, seattle garages
mike / tillman, mike & jaylen

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28135671
mike townsend’s stats are maximized and it plays out the whole blaseball timeline differently. i think it’s neat

11. stand tall - waveridden

10.7k, team: unlimited tacos
snackrifice pitchers & other snackrifice pitchers

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26915506
on self-sacrifice. written before the PODS descended, quite hopeful.

12. charcoal & dirt - peaksykid

5.0k, team: macchiato city
jess telephone & p4rker? whoa nice

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27757987
a little slice of the coffee cup, as told by jessica telephone

13. it sounds like drumming - blacksatinpointeshoes

2.4k, team: hades tigers
landry violence & paula turnip

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25937965
one of the first blaseball fics i read that made me realize What Can Be Made out of this weird little simulation. the incineration of landry violence.

14. sink graceless to the dirt - kosy

1.9k, baltimore crabs
sutton dreamy & nagomi mcdaniel & kennedy loser

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27809209
BLASEBALL IS A HORROR GAME. BLOODDRAIN IS SUPER FUCKED UP and also my second favorite weather event for creating narrative

15. oceanographer’s choice - kosy

19.3k, team: n/a
jaylen hotdogfingers/sutton dreamy

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27203971
LESBIANS COME GET UR JUICE
fucked up morally grey jaylen and the girl who loved her Before.

16. golden - waveridden

14k, sunbeams & garages
paula turnip/zack sanders

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29092953
ENEMIES TO LOVERS LESBIANS , WHO ARE ALSO PLANTS. romcom, very cute

17. only the good - blacksatinpointeshoes

10.4k, fridays & talkers
york, (new ao3 relationship notation to denote that you hate your stepmom) nagomi

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30139557
york silk's history with blaseball, completed and posted immediately before his incineration. nagomi is a shitty shitty stepmom and i owe blacksatinpointeshoes my life for that

18. water if god wills it - baliset

2.5k, baltimore crabs
tillman henderson & silvaire roadhouse

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26899468
from the summary: (silvaire roadhouse is a gunslinger, tillman henderson is a shitty pitcher, and ka is a wheel.)
tillman forms an unlikely friendship with the person who's gonna replace him when he dies

19. roots - marquis

39k, boston flowers
margarito nava/nic winkler, margarito nava & nagomi nava

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28960455
a character study, and a history of the boston flowers. made me feel a lot of things, a good long read.

20. what was it we wanted again? (OR; 3k feet) - tamsinb

3.0k, baltimore crabs

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27086821
the calm before the storm

21. when the party’s over - baliset

1.7k, baltimore crabs

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26730751
it goes like this: the crabs beat the tigers.
nagomi is still shelled.

22. oh also obligitory here are my fics i think they're alright https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesleepdeprived/works?fandom_id=45464878

23. future artifacts - bloodsweatspit

13.7k, canada moist talkers

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27076858
ziwa mueller wonders what went wrong with jaylen’s resurrection. tries to find out.

24. put your hand in mine - waveridden

11.4k, team: lovers, sunbeams
NaN / lone star lars

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27191660
this is a cute teen romcom and i like it. most blaseball fics are sad and sometimes i just like the nice ones

25. if there’s no normal after this (can we get normal after this?) - paopuleaf

1.4k, baltimore crabs

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27092071
the ones who were left behind in the wake of ascension. told through the POV of a weird radio which i think is Very cool

26. i dont have nice formatting for this but if you’re at all interested in really fucked up gory body horror horror i suggest you click this link and make yourself at home https://archiveofourown.org/users/Klauinax/pseuds/Klauinax

27. the downswing - waveridden

8.4k, charleston shoe thieves
cornelius games/richardson games

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29235159
did i mention blooddrain is fucking great for narrative. here’s a history of blooddrains on the thieves as told by richardson games, their siphon

28. pregame - hecleretical

5.5k series, baltimore crabs

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1968154
a set of character studies, based on the pregame rituals of some crabs. i think my favorite is nagomi’s (pregame: cursing the sun)

29. lift your head (and look out the window) - baliset

0.7k, baltimore crabs
Brock Forbes & Adalberto Tosser & Finn James

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28010148
in the season 9 championship, the crabs got reverse swept and shamed. some pitchers make breakfast

30. saboteur - tamsinb

26.6k
jaylen / goodwin morin / betsy trombone

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27747928
jaylen kinda gets out of her own head. meets some people. it’s good for her.

31. the light that shines to guide us (can blind us) - novelsinourheads

9.1k, chicago firefighters

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28019172/chapters/68636829
edric tosser is an Alternate. a character study on being in the wrong universe framed by hanukkah that i think is really nice

32. speak my name (and i’ll rise into the sky) - novelsinourheads

13.8k, firefighters
tyreek olive/landry violence

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29049180
a tyreek olive character study. the formation of the chicago firefighters and grief.

33. dashboard’s melted (but we still have the radio) - paopuleaf

9.8k, baltimore crabs
luis acevedo & tillman henderson, luis acevedo & many crabs

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27084736
incredibly, a tillman resurrection fic mostly written before that literally happened. he gets put on the crabs again in this one, and luis acevedo is shadowed

34. the ghost in me was true (but you were haunted too) - elliotfromchicago

8.4k, peanuts
peanutiel & peanut h & peanut b

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27765730
i did not expect to care about the peanut dans. now i do

35. beyond the edge of the world and back - birdlord5000
1.6k, crabs
https://archiveofourown.org/works/30332418
york's back. nagomi flies to meet him. comfortable in the way that the calm before a storm is