Tags

Sea Monsters

Mythical & Fantastical Creatures

Synonyms: Sea Serpents

The fic features sea monsters such as krakens and serpents.

Searches and Checks

Freeform

Synonyms: Inspection, Search

The fic gives considerable attention to searches, frisks, checks, and the like.

Search for Parents

Tropes

The fic significantly features the search for parents who went missing, abandoned the main character, or are unknown to them.

Seas / Oceans

Setting

Synonyms: Abandoned ships, Maritime fiction, Mediterranean Sea, Sailing ships, Sea adventure, Ships, Spirit of the sea

The fic's events center on seas or oceans, the maritime elements, and the lives of people connected to the sea.

Seasons

Freeform

Synonyms: Autumn, Spring, Summer, Winter

The fic devotes considerable attention to the seasons and/or the changing of seasons.

Second Chance

Tropes

Synonyms: 2nd Chance

The fic devotes significant attention to a second chance at something.

Secondhand Embarrassment

Warnings

Synonyms: Cringe, Cringe Comedy, Empathetic Embarrassment

The fic depicts characters who feel unbearable embarrassment over the actions or behavior of other characters, or the fic itself aims to evoke this feeling in the reader.

Second-Person Narration

Format

Synonyms: In the second person, Second-person POV

The fic is narrated in the second person, singular or plural.

Second Polish Republic

Historical Periods & Events

Synonyms: Interwar Poland

The fic is set in the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939), including Western Ukraine.

Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

Historical Periods & Events

The fic's events take place during the war between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan, which began before World War II and continued until its end.

Secret Admirers

Tropes

The fic focuses on characters who show signs of affection anonymously, or who themselves receive such signs.

Secretaries

Occupations

The fic's plot is centered on the life and activities of secretary characters.

Secret Facilities

Setting

Synonyms: Restricted Facilities

Secret facilities (bases, laboratories, etc.), their staff, and other individuals who end up on the restricted premises for one reason or another play a key role in the fic.

Secret Friend (Game)

Freeform

Synonyms: Secret Gifter, Secret Santa, Secret Valentine

The fic gives significant attention to a game involving receiving gifts from an anonymous giver.

Secret Friendship

Relationships

The fic focuses on the friendship between characters who keep that friendship hidden.

Secret Identity

Tropes

Synonyms: Alter Ego, Double Life, Masquerade, Multiple Identities, Undercover

The fic centers on characters concealing their identity, posing as someone else, or leading a double life.

Secretiveness

Freeform

The fic pays significant attention to secretiveness.

Secret Missions

Freeform

Synonyms: Covert Operations, Secret Assignments

Secret missions play a major role in the fic.

Secret Organizations

Occupations

Synonyms: Secret Societies, Shadow Structures

The fic's events take place within a secret organization or focus on the influence of such an organization on the plot, the world and the characters.

Secret Patron

Tropes

The fic focuses on characters in which one hero anonymously helps another: paying for their education, eliminating their enemies, advancing their career, and so on.

Secret Relationship

Relationships

Synonyms: Hidden Love, Secret Affair, Secret Marriage, Secret Meetings

The fic focuses on a relationship between characters who keep it hidden from others.

Secrets

Freeform

Synonyms: Hiding One's Abilities, Intrigue, Schemers, Streisand Effect

The fic devotes significant attention to secrets and hidden truths.

Security Guards

Occupations

Synonyms: Security Service, Transport Security

The fic's plot is centered on the life and activities of security guard characters.

Seduction / Courtship

Relationships

Synonyms: Flirtatious Advances, Half-Flirting, Subtle Flirting

The fic gives an important role to one character's attempts to gain another's attention in a romantic or sexual context.

See-Through Vision

Kinks (18+)

Synonyms: X-Ray Vision

The fic depicts sight, a camera, or another technical device penetrating through clothing, walls, or biological tissue, allowing a character to see what is located or happening behind an opaque barrier.

Segregation

Warnings

The fic's action takes place in a world and/or setting characterized by the systemic division of people into racial, ethnic, gender, or other groups in everyday life, or features characters who support this principle.

Selective Mutism

Illnesses, Disorders & Phobias

Synonyms: Situational Mutism

The fic describes characters who cannot speak in certain situations due to anxiety.

Selenophobia

Illnesses, Disorders & Phobias

Synonyms: Fear of the moon

The fic depicts characters affected by a fear of the moon.

Self-Acceptance

Freeform

The fic devotes considerable attention to the theme of self-acceptance.

Selfcest

Warnings

The fic describes characters entering into romantic relationships or sexual intimacy with another version of themselves.

Self-Criticism

Tropes

The fic devotes significant attention to, or briefly mentions, the recognition and acknowledgment of one or more characters' flaws, as well as their own mistakes.

Self-deprecation

Freeform

Synonyms: Self-deprecating humor

The fic focuses significantly on the theme of self-deprecation.

Self-Determination / Self-Discovery

Freeform

Synonyms: Issues of self-determination, Personal self-determination, Process of self-understanding, Self-discovery

The fic portrays characters during a particular period of searching for their place, role, and purpose in society, and understanding or reexamining themselves.

Self-Harm

Illnesses, Disorders & Phobias

Synonyms: Auto-Aggression, Self-Injury, Unintentional Self-Harm

The fic involves characters who resort to intentionally injuring their own bodies without suicidal intent.

Self-Hatred

Freeform

The fic devotes significant attention to the theme of self-hatred.

Self-Immolation

Warnings

The fic depicts an act in which a person dies by voluntarily setting themselves on fire, for religious, personal, or any other reasons.

Self-Insert

Tropes

Synonyms: Evil Author, Self-Insertion

The fic uses a literary device in which the author writes themselves into the story.

Self-Sacrifice

Warnings

Synonyms: Life for a Life, Taking the Hit

The fic features characters who sacrifice themselves.

Self-Suggestion

Freeform

The fic focuses significant attention on the theme of self-suggestion.

Self-Torment

Warnings

The fic depicts characters prone to a desire to harm or cause themselves suffering, due to nervous or mental disorders or under the influence of religious fanaticism.

Selkies

Mythical & Fantastical Creatures

Synonyms: Seal People

Mythical creatures from Scottish and Irish folklore play a significant role in the fic.

Selling One's Soul

Tropes

Synonyms: Deal with the Devil, Soul Contract

The fic devotes significant attention to the idea of characters selling their soul.

Sengoku Period (Japan)

Historical Periods & Events

The fic's events take place in Japan during the Sengoku period (approximately 1467–1603) or, more broadly, medieval Japan (the Kamakura, Muromachi, and Azuchi-Momoyama periods), with corresponding setting details. This is a collective name that also covers other stages of medieval Japan after the end of the Heian period and before the start of the Edo period. The story may align with real-world history or diverge from it.

Sensei

Occupations

Synonyms: Shifu

Sensei characters are mentioned or described in the fic. A teacher, mentor or respected master in a certain field, be it martial arts, medicine, art, literature or education.

Sensory Deprivation

Warnings

Synonyms: Blindfolding

The fic depicts the practice of deliberately, partially or fully, cutting off external stimulation to one or more of the senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, perception of temperature and gravity).

Sensory Overload

Illnesses, Disorders & Phobias

Synonyms: Hypersensitivity, Photophobia

The fic depicts characters suffering from sensory overload (light sensitivity, acute reactions to smells and sounds, etc.).

Sensory Play

Kinks (18+)

Synonyms: Feather Play, Sensation Play

The fic describes sexual play that deliberately uses touch, temperature, sound or texture to heighten sensation.

Sensual Intimacy

Kinks (18+)

Synonyms: Erotica, Porn with Feelings, Sensual Sex

The fic gives an important role to sex scenes that include explicit descriptions but place significant emphasis on the characters' feelings and sensations, the overall atmosphere, and aesthetics. This tag is recommended for fics rated "R" or higher.

Sentient Plants

Mythical & Fantastical Creatures

Synonyms: Living Trees, Talking Plants

Plants endowed with intelligence equal to or exceeding that of humans play a significant role in the fic.

Sentient Weapons

Superpowers

Characters who can transform into weapons, magical weapons capable of taking human form, or other sentient, self-aware weapons play a significant role in the fic.