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.
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.
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.
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