Show us the chest of your rich memories

[polarissruler]

Each of us has that one favorite passage. It may be a part with the most vibrant descriptions - almost lifelike. Or, it could be a single sentence that completely turns the whole thing on its head. It might even be as short as a single word and still end as the part we love the most from a fic. So, what is your favorite line/paragraph/whatever?

(The title is not from be, but from the great poet Bauldiere’s poem ‘The Journey’)

Comments

[polarissruler]

So, out of all things I have read, my personal favorite is The ink stained poet and his poem Reflecting upon the Deprived. I could quote every stanza as a favorite, but if I had to choose one, it would be the last:

The inky figures huddle around a single candle,
The hearts of the reluctantly revived.
The yellow glow illuminates the room,
Reflecting upon the souls of the deprived.

[deerna]

Ed thought about experimental design all the way home. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized what a fucking nightmare the whole thing was, with confounds and biases absolutely everywhere. This wasn't a chemical reaction that he could isolate and observe, and then control. This was romance, and romance was a scientific disaster.

A Game for Two Players by lightgetsin (fma, roy/ed)

I have many favorite passages but this always sticks out in my mind because i love the expression "romance is a scientific disaster". So much that it became my tag for romance logging for a time, and my meta tumblr account.

[polarissruler]

Oh, this is perfect! I might also start using it for romance tag - the line is amazing. (And I have too much characters it will fit.)

[moon_custafer]

Hard to pick a single example, but lately I’ve been fond of “his soul curled around an antique armchair” and “Death is treating them sweeter still than their lot” from hurry home to you: team ny drabbles by bittennails.

[polarissruler]

Oh, those quotes are indeed beautiful. Too bad I'm fandom-blind and didn't get much of the story, but still is wonderful!

[moon_custafer]

What makes them jump out at me is the slightly odd word choices and order (why curled around rather than curled up in an old armchair?) that nevertheless work.

(I'm not even that into those characters, nor did I get all that much of the story either, but I was touched by the phrasing.)

Warning: Explicit

[cuddyclothes]

I have so many favorite passages in so many fics! I skimmed my bookmarks and came upon this, from Interference (Jeeves/Wooster, E) by swordfishtrombone84. They have an exquisite command of the English language, so even the most explicit passages read like poetry.

‘I could, Jeeves,’ he says, without hesitation. ‘I could. But I’m touching myself. Are you?’

‘Yes, Sir. I am sitting on the cushioned chair in the living room, with my trousers rolled down to my ankles. If you were here, you could see my socks and my suspenders and my spread legs. You could see my open shirt. I have my hand in my lap, and my prick in my hand. It is so hard, Sir. I can barely stand it... It is wet and it is glistening and it is red and I am pulling at it with long, firm strokes. It is leaking for you. With every stroke it grows harder. I am holding myself in check by the... the thinnest of threads.’

Every word of this is the truth.

[kyuzai]

But these words people threw around—humans, monsters, heroes, villains—to Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for trying to stop them. Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab (emphasis mine)

Just... this quote gets me EVERY. TIME. Especially the line I bolded, but I felt the need to grab some of the surrounding context. It's so amazing and I stan Victoria so hard.

[kyuzai]

That's so relatable tho omg,,, romance IS a scientific disaster. I love this!!

[kyuzai]

I just realized this asked for fic quotes... whoops. Point still stands but that's my bad whoops.

[starwatcher]

.
I read "Six Days of the Condor" long before it was made into a movie (where they cut it down to 3 days). Setup: a bookish analyst is on the run from experienced operatives, manages to stay ahead of them and avoid all their traps. One baddie complains to another that their target has no experience, no training, how is he managing to avoid them? His fellow baddie answers, "He reads."

That felt like such a validation of my bookwormish childhood... and an attitude I wish we could convey to all the kids in all the schools everywhere.
.

[polarissruler]

Doesn't matter; the quote is still brilliant!

[polarissruler]

Oh, I also wish we could convey it to all schools... Remember kids, reading helps you avoid dangerous pursuers.

[stefanie_bean]

It's probably the moonlight, but Hugo seems to have gained gravitas in these last hours, as if he were a new planet drawing in satellites, a king demonstrating his importance by weighing more than his subjects, a minor god.

To Make Amends In by hedda62 (LOST)

[prettyarbitrary]

I love that book. And I love how Victor's mind works. He's a terrible person but he thinks so clearly.

[kyuzai]

Ugh same Victor is so good... well not good he's awful but I like him a lot. I love how every character has something going on like that... sure, it might not be straight up murder like Eli, or manslaughter like Vic, but everyone has something, a dark past, to hide (or not) and it's really refreshing to read tbh. Like yes good I'm sick of goody-two-shoes characters, give me that grey morality!

[nautilusdreams]

I know I'm (very) late but here's my contribution:

What is compassion but the ultimate expression of strength, of command of the Force? To see suffering and be able to say: No. Not with my knowledge. Not while I am here. Compassion is not even empathy, it is drive. Simply the bone-deep urging to do something, to help. What was Revan’s rise driven by, if not compassion set aflame? Compassion is defiance, rejection of the status quo, it is nearly a form of madness.

Divergence - mylordshesacactus

BTW how are people doing the nice indented blue backed text?

[polarissruler]

Sorry for the even later reply! That's a brilliant quote - and one that resonates with me a lot.

And you've probably found the way to do the formatting, but if you still don't know, it's the blockquote tag

[nautilusdreams]

Oh, thank you very much. Its too late for me to edit the comment now, but I will remember this for next time ^_^