New fandom, a new way

Last weekend a friend came to visit and, per my request, explained the plot of the Metal Gear games to me. With a powerpoint. For over three hours (and has patiently fielded follow-up plot questions in the days following). I have never been somebody who tends to get into fandoms without consuming the canon, or gone in fic first, so starting to poke around the fic with my only experience of the canon being an, admittedly extremely in-depth, explainer is a new experience for me. But so many people over the years have told me I would love the story of the games, but I know I am never going to play them because the gameplay is just not the type of game I am interested in/good at.

So now I am exploring the fic side of the fandom, mostly on ao3 so far, and generally having a good time. I am definitely tending towards shorter, pornier fics for now, things that might be described as "plot light" because I am worried more involved, plottier stuff will require a stronger grasp of canon than I have. I am mostly reading Solid Snake/Otacon right now because it is the ship whose dynamic is the easiest for me to grasp ("reluctantly married" seems to be the vibe), but at least on ao3 there doesn't seem to be a ship that is the overwhelming juggernaut and I am excited to see what some of the other ships hold.

If anybody is in this fandom and wants to share any beloved fics, old fic sites I should check out, has a ship they want to sell me on, wants to show me a cutscene or clip that I absolutely must see, or just wants to squee about a newbie in their fandom, feel free to comment. Or if anyone has thoughts in general about how getting into a fandom when you haven't consumed the canon is different than when you have, I have been thinking about that as well.