Jayvik/Arcane Reading List

[got_quiet]

My Javik Reading List

This is not really a rec list! It is everything I've read that I liked enough to note. If the fic hits the id the right way, I am highly tolerant of SPAG errors and sometimes outright OOCness, but will note what I like and what I disliked so you're forewarned. I'll put a * next to fic that I really really enjoyed.

Authors Beware! I think unsolicited concrit is rude but frankly talking about fic in your own space is fine, so I may have negative things to say, though if a fic had no redeeming features I just didn't include it. If you come across this by some accident and dislike my critique please take some solace in knowing that all my fic is trash lol.

Almost all fic is cis/cis. The biggest exceptions are when Viktor has a robo dick or there is nothing explicit in the fic.

The fic is divided by categories I have pulled out of my ass. It's a perpetual WiP and I'll add as I read.

LOL Verse

Notes on Reconciliation and Relief - BringtheKaos

Divorce era LoL fic with a lot of D/s elements, Viktor being the dom and Jayce the sub. It's smut all the way down with a good helping of feelings on top. The fic is well tagged imo so if you want to know what kinks etc. are present I won't repeat them here, though I will say I enjoy me robo dick and Viktor puts his to good use.

* Lamb to the Slaughter - fenfyre

Big fan of this one. LoL Viktor shows up in S1 Jayce's life. Honestly I love how many different iterations there are of Jayvik and how they just keep fucking bouncing around in each other's universes like this. In this fic, which is very porn heavy, Jayce decides to disarm Viktor with the power of complete sincerity and just lets his wanton cries of pleasure do most of the rhetorical work. Viktor is trans in this but has crafted himself a very nice dick which Jayce spends a notable part of the fic admiring and analyzing.

Largely In-Universe

Partners in Crime - ruinthatboy

Viktor is propositioned by Councilor Salo to make a shock collar for a pet. Jayce is weirdly eager to assist. Very smutty, lots of Jayce being dommed. There's a little bit of BDSM talk but mostly appropriate to the scene like some safeword stuff during roleplay. Great choice if you want to read Viktor absolutely having his way with Jayce, bondage, and shock collars.

The Shapes We're In - kriegersan

Another S1 fic. Viktor and Jayce are a little mad sciency here, especially since they are experiencing a lot of pressure from the Council to perform as they still haven't gotten Hextech into a functional state. The stress seems to do something to their brains, and they end up in a heated situationship. Viktor shoves his fingers in Jayce's mouth in this fic. A+, with bonus points because Viktor also is dealing with difficulty getting hard, which is a situation that feels rare and precious in horny fic like this. I think the author keeps marking this fic as complete and then adding a chapter later on so IDK if it's a WIP or not.

* Tendencies on Repeat - galaxyofroses

A neat groundhog day variation where S2 Jayce visiting S1 Viktor is told from Viktor's perspective, and Viktor doesn't recall any of the prior visits. The outside perspective of Jayce's frustrations is satisfying. The ending is a little wobbly but that's my only gripe.

* start again start again start again - m122y

A fic told from Viktor's perspective where different Jayces keep appearing in the workshop. This one has humor bus also has a lot of heart and sentimentality, and Viktor's internal dialogue is a good balance of too locked in for this shit, baffled, and unable to accept that there are 100+ Jayces who love him with all their heart. Of the "S2 Jayce / S1 Viktor" genre, this is maybe my favorite.

Too Many Jayces - sn00byd00byHOO

This fic is the same premise, but takes it in a more crack direction. In particular, the Jayce appearances start overlapping at inconvenient times. This one is short, sweet, and much hornier than from the start.

Didn't Even Haggle - clockheartedcrocodile

A short PwP where they do the nasty in Jayce's boyhood room.

Canon Divergence

love is like a star - sunrise_icarus

A fic with an interesting premise, but the execution kind of fell over in the end. Mage Viktor comes to young kid Jayce and just tells him right then and there that he has to stop the apocalypse. This obviously causes some serious trauma. Viktor doesn't go to the Academy and ends up adopted by Silco instead. The last few chapters of this kind of felt like the author was busting out of the plot they had trapped themselves in via explosives. The resolution was ultra fast. "Viktor is adopted by Vander/Silco" is also a trope I seriously dislike but can look past if some other detail of the premise is interesting, and for me the interesting thing was that Jayce has to deal with everyone thinking he's crazy and is put through emotional trauma. So this is a skip if picky.

Entropy - yeowch

A dark canon divergence that was written prior to S2. Jayce is the one hit by the Jinx missile, and Viktor is the one who pulls some necromancy shit to save him. The entire fic is Viktor trying to pull the necromancy off without getting caught, including by Jayce, who doesn't understand what happened. There are two major issues with the fic that may put people off of it. One is Major for some people. If you do not like Mel getting fucked over Do Not Read. Also, the final bit of the fic is a timeskip at the end that dodges a significant point of tension and killed the suspense that had been building up so high. I'd still recommend if you want something dark and tragic.

Remember Sometimes Dead is Better by ticketytockety

And

I Tear Apart the Pages of the Story of my Life by ticketytockety

These come in a pair. "Remember's" premise is that Viktor killed himself in the same spot Jayce is planning to, and saves Jayce's life while a ghost. Jayce is a (stay with me here) psychopath who gets very intense about Viktor and basically chains Viktor to him. The alternate rune that Jayce was given has something to do with this dramatic change in Jayce's personality, but not completely. "What if Arcane but Jayce is obsessive in a very not okay way," basically.

"I tear apart" is a fic where Viktor, Jinx, Powder, and Silco end up in an inter-dimensional way station. Various characters pop in and they help them go back home, while also knowing what their fates might be via colored halos only they can see. Then a Jayce tumbles in with a black halo, which is very not normal, and things start going to shit quickly.

These fic alone are what make this list at most a rec list "with caveats." The tl;dr is, these are the sorts of long fic that go on for hundreds of thousands of words, have not been edited at all, are a little unhinged, read like some sort of soap opera where when a resolution looks like it is in sight something ridiculous has to happen to put it off for another 10k, and every once in a while I come up for air, look at the situation, and think, wait, who even are these characters? Even so, the unhinged part is a lot of fun, and the Jayce/Viktor dynamic is, erm, something where I can see where things started, but the AUness of these works take them into places where the OGs would absolutely never.

Both fic like Viktor getting whumped, like Jayces who are evil or abusive (though there are many Jayces in "I tear apart" and the main one is nice), and like Viktor in a soft found family situation with Silco and Jinx, which is my least favorite part of the whole thing hilariously enough considering some of the batshit stuff in these fic. There are cuddle piles.

The author also produces chapters at a prodigious speed. They are so prolific that they have been accused of using AI. I can't say one way or another. The writing is honestly not bland enough for me to be suspicious, it is actually too messy and rough, and has a very particular approach, especially to dialog, that makes me doubt AI is involved. The writing is the opposite of polished, but I think they're a lot of fun because the freak flag is flying high here.

The Defender's Guide to Saving Your Delusional Partner from Himself - BamuBamu

A canon divergence where after being exposed to the anomaly (IIRC) Jayce decides it's time to try the suicide thing again. Viktor is there to stop him, again, but this time he's the herald, and he essentially kidnaps Jayce and tries to Stockholm syndrome him into becoming a happy member of the commune. Viktor comes across as a little unhinged in this, but I liked how Jayce largely stays both traumatized and determined to stop the apocalypse through the whole fic (or at least through what's been written so far.)

Post Show

the line is covered in jellyfish - staroverlord

A long spit out by the arcane post show fic. This one is a slower burn and puts Jayvik in an isolated cabin in an unidentified tundra. It stands out from the other fic of this genre largely by their continued isolation. There is a lot of internal dialog in this one, and at the point I'm at I am starting to hit that slow burn wall where the fact that they haven't finally figured their shit out vis a vis their emotions is getting a little unbelievable. However, I'm still into it and some of the pining and emotional pain hits just right. The quality of the writing is also well above average.

it's the good, defining itself - TopHat69

A post arcane fic where Jayvik are spit back to the past. It's deeply Viktor-centric and largely a fix it, where Viktor goes to the Undercity and tries to basically create a good end for Zaun with his power of hindsight. An extremely popular fic for good reason, as everyone was hungry for a fix it post S2. Personally I find this sort of trope something that I only really want to read one of, but if you're going to read one of them I haven't found a better one.

* Curing of the Senses (But You're My Soul) - phantasmagorical_rilianne

Technically post-canon. Jayvik get shot out of the arcane and into our world, where the show Arcane is a thing. They then have to deal with Arcane being a thing and mostly do this by making money at a cosplay cafe. It's crack, in other words, but again, technically within the canon timeline!

AUs

Blood and Blue Diamonds - Tlon

One of those AUs where it's engaging as a story all on its own, which is good because the characterization here is OOC enough that it's basically rendered the boys unrecognizable to me. The plot is Jayvik Maltese Falcon. I ended up reading the original book to see how much was taken from it and actually not too much was, just the core scenario. The interior emotions of Jayce and Viktor do hit though, even though it's like, who are these people? This is also a fic that leans heavily on their presumed real world ethnicity, which is like, understandable for a real world AU. It just means it's another step away from the canon vibe. Lots of references to 1920s San Francisco too if you like your period pieces.

Runeterra's Finest

A superhero AU that goes what if Arcane but Jayce was Batman. I liked a good chunk of the first dozen chapters and then things got extremely weird. The story starts in an alternate Piltover where Jayce and Viktor were never partners, but instead they become vigilantes in a city that has been taken over by Ambessa. There is a lot of identity shenanigans as Jayce and Viktor fall for each other and the Defender and the Herald fall for each other, and Viktor and the Defender fall for each other... etc. I'd say the characterization is a little shaky but kind of holds through the premise about until the identity confusion gets revealed, and then the story shifts into a plot about fighting Ambessa, and then it shifts into an extremely wild plot about teleporting to magic realms and becoming demigods or something. The characterization of everyone also just spins wildly out of control at this point. I would have been more ok with things effectively going into OC territory, but the character voices also switch from something that suits Jayvik well enough to this overwrought, contraction-less purple prose, and I ended up DNFing this one at that point.