Trabia Garden

Last year, I posted a reflection on my favourite characters of 2024. It was a lot of fun, so I thought I'd do the same thing again!

As with 2024, I'm going to take a quick look at the preexisting favourites who've particularly occupied my mind this year, and then I'm going to comb through my 'first impressions' tag and give my favourite character from each canon I first posted about in 2025. (If no favourite character comes to mind, I'll skip the canon.) I might also cover a couple of canons I've tried out this year but haven't yet posted about.


( My favourite characters of 2025. )


Dexter is a surprising omission here! I watched a lot of that show earlier in the year, but I just don't have an answer to the 'who's your favourite character?' question. I like Deb, but not passionately enough to say with confidence that she's my favourite; I find Dexter interesting, but I can't say for certain whether I like him. I tend to be a very character-focused fan, so it's always a little surprising to me when I get into something without latching strongly on to any of the characters.

Every so often, I post an analysis of how I chose my recent fic titles! We're nearing the end of the year, which seems an appropriate time for another roundup.

In reverse chronological order, my fic titles since July:


( Rambling about why I chose fic titles. )


What's really striking me here isn't actually anything about my titling habits; it's the fact that my last twelve fics in a row have been shipfics! That's very unusual; about half of my fics tend to be gen. I'll have to come up with some gen ideas!

In twenty-five years of writing fanfiction, I think this might actually be the most obscure fandom I've ever written for. I hope there's someone in the world who's interested in reading this!

Be aware that this fic contains major spoilers for Death Trick: Double Blind, which is a mystery game and is best played unspoiled.


Title: Invisible Touch
Fandom: Death Trick: Double Blind
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Detective/Magician
Wordcount: 1,100
Summary: The Detective and the Magician get to know each other a little better.


( Invisible Touch )

After finishing the Silent Hill 2 remake, I watched all the endings. They're all excellently done! But I was particularly struck by the new 'Bliss' ending, which you get if you drug yourself before watching the videotape. I absolutely had to write fanfiction.


Title: Trouble in Paradise
Fandom: Silent Hill 2
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: James/Mary
Wordcount: 1,100
Summary: James and Mary, living in bliss.


( Trouble in Paradise )

It's time for the end-of-year fic meme! As is tradition, I'm doing this right at the start of December, because I'm impatient. Last year I ended up posting two more fics after doing the 'end-of-year' wrapup. I evidently learnt nothing from this.

I've written a lot of little ficlets throughout the year, e.g. for promptfests, but for the purposes of this meme I'm only counting fics I've posted to my main AO3 account, or I'm going to get overwhelmed by indecision.


Number of fics written in 2025: thirty. You can find them on my AO3 account: Riona. (EDIT: Trouble in Paradise and Invisible Touch bring this number up to thirty-two!)

Fandoms: Danganronpa, Danganronpa 2, Danganronpa: Despair Time, Project: Eden's Garden, Final Fantasy XVI, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, Severance, The Hundred Line, Horizon Zero Dawn, Deltarune, Star Trek DS9, Kingdom Hearts, Metaphor: ReFantazio, House MD. Ten videogame fandoms, three television fandoms, one web series. Mainly things I've written for before; only four of these are new additions. (EDIT: I can now add Silent Hill 2 and Death Trick: Double Blind, bringing this to twelve videogame fandoms and five new additions.)

One crossover: Kindred Spirits (The Hundred Line/Horizon Zero Dawn), in which Yugamu and Nil bond over their shared passion for murder.


( End-of-year fic meme, 2025. )


Here's to the next year of writing! And... possibly also the next month of writing, because this is by no means the actual end of the year.

I just tried to post this, and the Dreamwidth post editor told me 'you can't post this, it's got an unclosed italics tag'. Which is a useful feature! Unfortunately, Dreamwidth did not specify where the tag in question was, and there are ninety-four italics tags in this post, so I had a real adventure tracking it down.

More of the Silent Hill 2 remake! I'm still working my way through Brookhaven Hospital.

James, you cannot keep jumping down or climbing into or sticking your hand in or fucking every hole you come across! It's such a bad habit!

You also probably shouldn't keep injecting yourself with every syringe you find lying around Silent Hill. I'll be honest: I think these are unlikely to be sterile.

I yelped aloud when Pyramid Head said hello on the roof. I wonder if they changed that particular encounter specifically so it could still startle people who'd played the original game.

Actually, it might be a camera angle thing. In the original Silent Hill 2, hearing the door to the roof open just out of shot and not knowing what's coming is absolutely terrifying, but that's something you can only do with a fixed camera angle. In the remake, with its freely movable camera, you could swing the camera over to the door as soon as you heard it open, which immediately strips away that 'oh, God, I know something's here with me but I can't see what it is' terror.

I hadn't really contemplated it before, but going from the restricted camera of the original to the free camera of the remake is a pretty huge change in a horror game. What you can and can't see makes such a big difference to the atmosphere in horror, and it's a lot harder to limit what the player can see if they have full control of the camera.

I'd be interested to know all the ways the remake team tried to address this issue. It might be the reason some monsters, mannequins in particular, will run away from the player when spotted and hide in a different room. You've seen the monster, you know it's here, but it's removed itself from your sight; all you know is that it's somewhere nearby, waiting to attack. It's a way to create that sense of 'there's something here, but I can't see it' even when the player can quickly scan their immediate surroundings. (Of course, the radio is also good for creating that sense in both the original and the remake.)


The YouTube music algorithm recently served me a song that I might have heard in passing at some point, but had never really listened to before. Listening to the lyrics, I found myself thinking, Wow, this song is absolutely perfect for James and Mary.

Had it been any other song, the logical next step would be to contemplate naming a fic after it. Unfortunately, the song in question was 'My Immortal' by Evanescence.

It is time for me to be disproportionately bothered by a single detail in a videogame! Today, we're watching me get frustrated over the story implications of the Silent Hill 2 remake's Wood Side Apartments coin puzzle.

There are major spoilers for the entire story of Silent Hill 2 below the cut.


( Silent Hill 2 remake: the narrative problem with the coin puzzle. )


Please acknowledge receipt of my suggestion, Bloober Team. I look forward to seeing it patched in.

I'm still enjoying the remake! But this one detail is sticking in my teeth.

I've started playing the Silent Hill 2 PS5 remake! I picked it up in a used electronics shop.

Cashier: Oh, great choice.
Riona: Thank you! I went insane about the original when I was sixteen.
Cashier: Me too. But I wasn't sixteen; I was, er, eleven.
Riona: Wow, that is not the right age to go insane about Silent Hill 2.

I'm a little over an hour in! I can already tell I'm going to regret this, but in an 'I'm so bad with horror' way rather than a 'why did they remake this?' one; the remake itself seems pretty great so far. It's clear that it was made by people who love the original, which makes such a big difference.

Playing through the opening was an absolutely insane experience. I know that sequence so well, and suddenly it had been completely transformed while still feeling like the same place. Seeing that familiar car park in modern graphics! The long walk down to Silent Hill! So pretty and unsettling!

Regrettably, I thought it was cute when James was leaning on the barrier at the start of the game. There's no hope for me at all. I'm so much fonder of James Sunderland than I should be.

(Although not quite as fond as half of Tumblr, which, it turns out, is startlingly horny for remake James.)

The first thing I did, when I gained control of James, was turn around and try to leave Silent Hill. Unsurprisingly, James did not allow me to do this, but I was delighted when I got a trophy for the attempt.

I was concerned that the remake's voice acting might feel too good, but so far it's working for me! They've taken the interesting and clever approach of hiring people who can act, but directing them extremely weirdly, with a lot of strange awkward pauses. Even if the voices and the line delivery aren't the same as the original game, the dialogue has the same feel to it. The creators of the remake evidently understand how the limitations of the original, like its restricted visibility and bizarre voice acting, ultimately contributed to the atmosphere.

After James and Angela's first meeting, I spoke to Angela a couple of times to see if she had any more dialogue, but I felt very bad about it. Angela's a severely traumatised young woman with no capacity for trust, and an unknown man lingering to talk to her a little too long is probably going to make her uncomfortable!

I like how violent and frantic James's fighting feels. No finesse to it; he's just desperate and terrified. You can just keep stamping and stamping on the enemies once you've knocked them down; he doesn't know when it's safe to stop!

Every blow feels like it has a real weight to it, both the ones James lands on enemies and the ones they land on you. I very much feel in danger from even the most basic enemies, despite playing on easy mode. It's stressful!

I initially thought I'd be fine with the stresses of this game after my experience with Little Hope, the most stressful game I have ever played. In a Silent Hill game, if you get the character you're playing killed, at least you can just reload and try again; Supermassive games are considerably more stressful because character deaths can't be undone!

But I'd failed to consider the stress of Silent Hill 2's ending system. My actions during the game determine how this story ends! I'm trying to keep James in good health, because that's one of the details that impact the ending, but how can I look after him when I'm bad at the combat and I keep burning through my very limited healing items?

I'll try my best. Come on, James; we can get through this together.

House has been one of my favourite shows for a very long time; it's strange that I've never written more fanfiction for it! Here is my first attempt at House fanfiction in, er, nineteen years.

It's really struck me, on my current House rewatch, that Wilson and Cameron seem to be friends. They get along well; they have some good conversations. In the episode 'The Right Stuff', House doesn't question the idea that Cameron would call Wilson socially. I've always found the interactions between Wilson and Cameron interesting, but somehow I've only just registered that there seems to be a real friendship there; it's endearing!

Anyway, I made them sleep together.


Title: The Unseen Third
Fandom: House MD
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Wilson/Cameron, unrequited Wilson/House and Cameron/House
Wordcount: 1,900
Summary: Wilson and Cameron spend a night together. It’s no secret that they’re both thinking about House.
Warnings: Infidelity, by which I mean Wilson cheating on his wife as per usual.


( The Unseen Third )

I can't believe I already have a fic called At Arm's Length. It would be the perfect title for this!


Title: Within Reach
Fandom: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
Rating: 14
Pairing: Yugamu/Takumi
Wordcount: 3,300
Summary: As a bonding exercise, Sirei commands Takumi and Yugamu to share a room. Staying in the same room as Yugamu is, unsurprisingly, kind of a nightmare.
Warnings: Yugamu being creepy. Canon-typical mild body horror. Temporary amputation. The problem with writing about Yugamu Omokage is that you end up with bizarre warnings even when you're just trying to write a bedsharing fic.


( Within Reach )