Possession — Tag Meaning
Puts a foreign consciousness inside a character's body — demons, ghosts, gods, symbiotes — ranging from hostile takeover to uneasy cohabitation. The horror version centers the trapped original watching their hands move; the stranger, softer version explores negotiated coexistence, and loved ones' inability to tell the difference fuels both.
What to Expect From "Possession" Fics
Two drivers, one body; the tell-tale wrongness noticed by whoever knows the host best is the genre's pivotal scene.
How to find Possession fics on AO3
On AO3, click any tag to see every work that uses it, then refine with the "Filters" sidebar — combine it with your fandom or ship, set a rating, or exclude tags you don't want. See our AO3 filtering guide for the full walkthrough.
Browse "Possession" works on AO3Popular Fics Tagged "Possession"
Real examples from AO3's most-kudosed works:
Switchblade
by Cacid
His Most Prized Possession
by Darkfire315
The Angel And The Doll
by A_Painted_Void
l'enfant sauvage
by baberahamlinkin
Haunted
by Ehtar
Cat's Cradle
by zuzeca
Related Tags
Mind Control
Subjects a character's will to someone else's — hypnosis, brainwashing, magical compulsion, parasitic influence — and reckons with the violation. Fanfic uses it for plot (the controlled teammate turned weapon) and for aftermath (recovery from having been driven like a vehicle); the Winter Soldier made the deprogramming arc one of fandom's central traditions.
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Ghosts
Features the dead lingering — haunting a place, a person, or a narrative. Within canon settings the tag covers ghost characters, hauntings investigated, and the dead returning with unfinished business; tonal range runs from horror through comedy to grief work, with fandom particularly fond of ghosts who stick around for one specific living person.
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Supernatural Elements
Flags the uncanny at any dosage: a single ghost in an otherwise mundane story, low-key psychic intuition, a house that's wrong in ways nobody discusses. Vaguer by design than species or magic tags, it tells readers the natural laws have an asterisk without committing to a full supernatural premise.
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Body Swap
Switches two characters into each other's bodies via magic, technology, or unexplained Tuesday. The comedy writes itself — impersonating each other badly, navigating each other's lives — but fanfic's real interest is the enforced empathy: living inside someone else's aches, reflexes, and reflection tends to demolish whatever misunderstanding the pairing was nursing.
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