October recs

[spatz]

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Be safe, eat well, have fun, and read some fic during your food coma! I've got three Steve/Eddie fics for Stranger Things, and an assortment of Queen's Thief fics because Yuletide always sends me down the small fandoms rabbit hole.

STRANGER THINGS

blood between your teeth by rednights

The first time Eddie sees Steve Harrington with his face smashed in, he’s at the corner store off 6th Street choosing a frozen meal to bring home.

Really great AU where Eddie keeps running into badly-injured Steve after each season's big fight. This author writes them beautifully, in all their dorky, pining, good-hearted, accidental-hero glory.

His Majesty’s Jester by GreenQueenofClubs

The thing was, these popular types, the Royalty of High School Society? They just wanted to be entertained. They wanted something to break though the dull monotony of life at the top of the food chain, and if nothing happened to catch their interest, they made their own fun.

Good thing Eddie was unparalleled at keeping little sheeps entertained.

Exactly the kind of over-dramatic thing Eddie would do to protect his friends, and I loved how he slowly figures out that Steve is a good guy (and then falls for him, obvs).

wishbone by greatunironic

"Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be." Stories with, about, or for Stephanie Harrington, basketball star + babysitter.

The first story is a really hot PWP before the big S4 battle, and the second is a lovely Wayne outsider-POV while Eddie is in the hospital.

QUEEN'S THIEF

Fist Fights and Fan Fiction: The Complicated Legacy of Eugenides & Irene by eponymiad

Who doesn't know Shakespeare's most famous romance, Eugenides & Irene? Shakespeare pulled his story from the real Eugenides the Great and Attolia Irene, a king and queen who reigned over what is now modern-day Ephestalia. Shakespeare’s fictionalization told a grand—if deeply fraught—love story, but the real life Eugenides and Irene’s love story is hotly debated by academics and the chronically online alike.

Nowhere is this clearer than the talk page of the “Attolia (country)” Wikipedia article, where debates about whether Eugenides and Irene were ever truly in love have raged on since the site’s inception. We dug into why this long-dead couple inspired such controversial historical takes and found ourselves neck deep in academic fist fights, fanfiction, and the weirdest plot twist about my own past.

I love a good faux-academia story, and this canon is a perfect choice for that kind of outsider POV.

verisimilitude by jediseagull

A message, a fight, a question, an answer; or, a year after the war, Costis navigates court politics and the secrets that aren't.

Fantastic Costis POV as he tries to be a good friend even when his king is baffling.

There and Back Again by ama

After delivering his report to Eugenides, Costis goes home to visit his family. He wrestles with the new person he has become since he saw them last, the secrets he should reveal and the ones he can't, and his uncertain relationship with Kamet, who probably hates him. And looming over all of it is the king's mysterious suggestion about a ship he may or may not be taking to Roa.

Excellent look at Costis's side of that separation in TAT.

reaching home by sassaffrassa

"The king lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. It was not a kiss between strangers, not even a kiss between a bride and a groom. It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the hollow of the queen’s shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day."

Incredible fanart based on the above passage from KOA, and clearly inspired by that one play poster that Tumblr loves.