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Recs backlog
Belated, but not late! Though it does feel odd posting these when my current brain is being eaten by Good Omens, since exactly none of these fics are in that fandom. Enjoy!
Lifehack by neveralarch (The Martian, gen)
Mark enjoys finding interesting solutions to everyday problems. Even if he doesn’t really need to.A very short comedy piece that still packs in a ton of great characterization.
The Lethal Side of Man by Muccamukk (Band of Brothers, Winters/Nixon)
The day after earning his jump wings, Dick is reassigned to a mysterious project at a tiny fort in Tennessee. When he arrives, he finds that the work being done there is more sinister than he could have imagined, and that there can be no escape.Creepy & whumpy scifi/horror AU featuring lots of Dick making me clutch my heart because I love him so much. Could have used just a touch more comfort at the end, but still a fantastic read.
Hell and Bad Intentions by Muccamukk (Band of Brothers, Winters/Nixon)
There’s only one way taking a string of dark-haired lovers who absolutely aren’t Lewis Nixon can end. It’s obvious, and Dick can see it coming, so why can’t he seem to stop?Excellent telling of Dick’s Sexual Awakening and Also Lots of Pining (plus a lovely sequel). Muccamukk has always written a great Steve Rogers so it’s no surprise that she really nails how Dick’s sense of duty and his exploration of sexuality coexist, and she also includes a nice dose of historical detail.
Child’s Play by @bendingsignpost (Sherlock, gen)
“You’ve been shopping, but not for groceries. You don’t have much in the way of funds, so something cheap, but not an impulse purchase—you’re much too disciplined for that. Something-”I can’t remember why I started backreading Ben’s Sherlock fic, since I’ve been broken up with the fandom for years, but this was a wonderful early-days-friendship story with a clever premise. I dare you not to be equally charmed.
John puts down the plastic bag on the coffee table.
A palpable shift occurs in the air.
“…You bought a puzzle from a charity shop,” Sherlock states.
JUNE RECS
Starting off with a book rec!
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads.A wonderful novella that manages to be charming and eerie and thrilling and romantic by turns - and for something set on a fairly small stage, it has that epic quality you get from really magical stories, that sense of something huge on the edge of your senses. Also, one of the prettiest covers I’ve had the pleasure of seeing all year.
When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past—both the green magic of the woods, and the dark things that rest in its heart.
GOOD OMENS
I wasn’t expecting this adaptation to be the latest pan-fandom event, but I’m not complaining! It’s been great (if weird) seeing a bunch of old authors I subscribe to pop up with new work amidst the flood of new fans. (btw, if anyone’s looking for old book-fandom recs, I’ve got some here) These are all Crowley/Aziraphale, btw.
Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy by [orphaned]
“It’s only a sin in excess, my dear,” said Aziraphale. “Like gluttony.”Just perfect all around: romantic and sweet and tonally spot-on while never forgetting these are a couple of argumentative dumbasses with a bunch of adorable dumbass friends who will attend their wedding. <3 Also, this is the first fic I read with virgin!Crowley and still the best.
get religion quick (cause you’re looking divine) by brinnanza
So it was fine. Even if Crowley couldn’t love him, he clearly liked him well enough, and that was almost the same thing.This is some grade A high quality dumbass mutual pining, and resolution thereof.
It no doubt would have continued to be fine, or at least fine-adjacent, were it not for a narrowly averted apocalypse and several bottles of a really quite nice Riesling Aziraphale had found in the back room of his newly restored bookshop.
Love Hath Made Thee a Tame Snake by thehoyden
He was the bloody Serpent of Eden, and he wasn’t going to stand for this kind of flagrant trespassing.The ultimate combination of domesticity, Crowley lurking in the bookshop as a snake, angelic weirdness, and excellent porn.
Something Wanting in My Nature by Mugatu
I saw this tumblr prompt and my hand slipped.Okay, so I didn’t think I needed any non-canon AUs in this fandom, but I DEFINITELY needed *this* AU. The setup is hilarious, of course, but seeing it all from Adam’s POV (as Crowley’s gleefully shit-stirring TA) and the way that the author reworked canon and backstories into a college setting was fantastic. Also, Crowley and Aziraphale are The Most In Love, it’s great.
“Okay which one of you is going to write the Ineffable Husbands college professor AU with the extremely sweet and over-sharing professor fawning over their spouse and the standoff-ish secretive professor who reveals absolutely nothing about their private life who turned out to be married? ”
The garden in a ruined church by @rafaelafranzen
Based on the real-life London park built in the bombed ruins of St. Dunstan-in-the-East, Aziraphale builds a garden in the place he realized he loved Crowley. My feelings, omg.One does not simply miracle a church back together, especially not one blown to smithereens by demonic intervention.
AO3 BINGO
In honor of AO3 reaching 5 million fanworks! And since this bitch can’t resist any excuse to rec things, I did a blackout. :D
A fanworks challenge: Small Fandom Bang, doing good work enabling long stories in small fandoms for the last eight years
A podfic under 30 minutes: the most Melbourne bakery AU ever to exist, possibly by lunchee (Captive Prince)
Read from a cute Tumblr ficlet by @fahye, I adore the palpable delight in the podficcer’s voice.
A comment you left on a fanwork: comment on The Hellfire Club by @amarguerite (Good Omens)
A fan art based on another fanwork: Artic Light by deli for Under the Midnight Sun (SPN)
Gorgeous series of faux-scientific watercolors for this Supernatural AU where Dean works at an Alaskan tundra research station.
A fanfic over 50,000 words long: The Bingo Book by flailinginlove (Naruto), in which Iruka is mistakenly thought to be in a relationship with Kakashi, putting him in a great deal of danger and, eventually, actually in love with Kakashi.
A meta work: The Morning After by ambyr (Pinboard/Fandom anthropormofic)
As someone who still uses Pinboard heavily and will be salty about Delicious’s poor choices until I die, this always cracks me up.
A fanwork with one of your fav tropes: New Mutiny by Lenore (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries), in which Jack gets amnesia and then tries to get away with not telling anyone.
A creator with only one posted fanwork: Dolly_Bassett aka @dolly-bassett11 *waves*
A fanwork from a small fandom: Freeze Tag by Missy (The Breakfast Club), in which the Club passes notes during school.
A canon-divergent fanwork: The Winter Emperor by Island_of_Reil (The Goblin Emperor), in which the coup succeeds and Maia is sent to a monastery – until Csevet rescues him.
A photo manip: Had to go looking for one of these. Thank you, AO3 tag filters! Voltage by tabbystardust (MCU, warning for blood and bondage)
A character study fanwork: Dawn by bigsunglasses (The Goblin Emperor), a great exploration of Vedero.
FREE! Your favorite fanwork: I don’t understand why this is the free square, this one is SUPER HARD! After a great deal of dithering, I gave up choosing a true favorite as impossible and chose Aral Vorkosigan’s Dog by @philomytha because I re-read it recently and it’s still spectacular and might as well be canon.
A crossover fanwork: Mission: Dinosaur Adventures by pollyrepeat (The Losers/Jurassic Park) because who doesn’t want to read about the Losers vs an island full of dinosaurs?
A fanwork with a colour in the title: Red vs. Blue by @laylainalaska (White Collar), in which Neal Caffery plays paintball according to his own preferences. *snickers*
A podfic over 1 hour: tipsy_kitty’s excellent reading of Winter’s Children by @this-is-neery (MCU), a fic featuring a traumatized Bucky protecting a bunch of equally tramatized-by-HYDRA children cloned from Steve.
A fanwork in progress: Washed Up On Your Shores by @primarybufferpanel (Game of Thrones, Jaime/Brienne fix-it)
A fanwork for when you’re sad: Just A Face On A Train by katherynefromphilly
Based on the Spider-Man 2 scene where Peter is unmasked in front of a train car of people, one of the survivors recognizes Peter at her job and decides to help him out. Guaranteed to restore your faith in humanity, at least temporarily.
A favorite additional tag: I’m always amused by Spirit Quest For Your Rubbish Ex
A fan art comic: Afternoon Stroll (Hawkeye comics), in which Clint gets in trouble while literally out for a walk and Kate saves his ass, as usual.
A fanwork for when you’re happy: I puzzled over this one for a while because I like a lot of things when I’m happy, but I went with A Year in Toussaint by @astolat (The Witcher), because the setup of “lethally bored semi-retirees go adventuring and fall in love” always fills me with glee, and it’s plotty like I usually want when I’m energized.
A fanvid: Space Girl by charmax (multifandom women in scifi) is eternally a delight.
A 100-word drabble: I’ll Never Let Go of Your Hand by Corvidology (Person of Interest), a very succinct snapshot of Finch wreaking havoc to rescue John.
A fanmix: fanmix for In Our Line of Work (Inception) - mix by wandrinparakeet (who wins all the bonus points for their pseud), fic by enjambament. A lovely mix for a great story.
A “classic” fanwork: Phoenix Burning by Yahtzee (Buffy), in which Buffy is resurrected 350 years in the future after her fall.