November recs

Allllll various flavors of DCU this month - I went on a serious binge.

BATFAMILY/GEN

feel the love that radiates (all will be well) by Mx_Carter

A good night in Gotham, circa 4 am.

Lovely set of snapshots of the Batfamily having a good night, with brief but vivid characterization.

Liminal Space by CalamityJim

Bruce’s habit of collecting strays is not limited by dimension.

Or: When Young Justice Batman comes across an angsty, seemingly abandoned by his Batman Tim Drake, he decides to step up to the plate and parent the crap out of him.

Extremely satisfying for my love of ‘let’s make Tim sad and lonely’ and competence kink both. The summary sounds glib but the story digs in on the angst and fallout and fix-it aspects very well. (there’s a WIP sequel that I have not read and cannot vouch for, so caveat lector)

Minimum Height Requirement by Drag0nst0rm

Somewhere in the multiverse, there’s a universe where letting his children dress up in capes and follow him into vigilantism seems like a good idea. Bruce is determined that it isn’t going to be this one …  Despite his children’s repeated attempts to convince him otherwise.

(Or: “When you’re eighteen, you can do what you want. Until then, no capes.”)

I love how this story approaches the setup - because although Bruce setting sane vigilantism boundaries is warm and fuzzy and good, Gotham is still Gotham and bad shit still happens. I enjoy having both. :)

Continuing Education by @chibinightowl

Jason is studying for his GED. It’s not as easy as he thought it would be.

Oh, the Jason writing in this one is fabulous. Sweet story, good Batfamily action, and a fun OFC.

SLASH

Kings Among Runaways by @iesika and glymr (Tim/Jason)

The AU where Tim ran away from home at the tender age of mumbledyteen, and Jason got let off with a warning, the night he met Batman.

In which Tim and Jason are street kids together, eventually fall in love (so, warning for underage, but it’s handled well), and of course run into Batman again. I read most of this a million years ago on LJ, and it was great seeing it again on AO3 in its completed, linear form.

The Long Hangover by @coffiocake (Bruce/Clark)

Clark knows he should take a break: His powers are on the fritz, he feels like shit, and Batman’s treating him like a liability. But Gotham’s villains seem to have it in for Metropolis’ Big Blue Boy Scout and Clark won’t just wait around for answers. Batman might be the world’s greatest detective, but Clark Kent is one of the Daily Planet’s most tenacious reporters.

This is definitely a job for Superman.

Identity porn! Superheroing despite superpower issues! A clever plot involving kryptonite! Clark being smart and snarky and a good reporter! So many things I love!

And finally, this is cheating, but go read literally all of @fabula-unica/FabulaRasa’s Bruce/Hal Jordan fics, which I binge-read in a contented haze over like two weeks but failed to comment on due to brainweasels. She does a wonderful job of writing them as the complicated, flawed, beautiful assholes that they are, and jfc can this lady write both h/c AND smut. I was especially fond of:

• Paying the Price (and sequel): Hal goes to Bruce when someone from his past blackmails him, and things get very complicated and whumpy.
• Remembering Normal: I always like A/B/O AUs that explore what being queer would look like in that context, and this is an excellent take. Also, HOT.
• Cold Comfort (and sequels): classic hypothermia h/c tropefic, done well, but I also adore the backstory work and the fallout.
• Hal Jordan Has A Plan: a dual pairing story of Clark/Barry (who are very sweet fuckups) and Hal/Bruce (who are just fucked-up fuckups); I really liked how the two relationships played off each other structurally, even though they’re very different in tone.
• Aliens Made Us Do It: extremely enjoyable combo of ‘accidental alien marriage’ and some creative long-distance h/c and Bruce realizing he has feelings wayyyy too late to stop himself.
• Best Sex of His Life: sadly the original Tumblr smutlet that inspired this has disappeared just in the last few weeks since I bookmarked, but there’s plenty of hot sex and some pining to make up for that.

Another caveat lector - Fabula does NOT warn AT ALL on her stories, but definitely deals with heavy/triggering content in a lot of them. Even I, BOFQ that I am, slammed into a few squicks much harder than I liked. If any of ya’ll are interested but need/want some warnings, drop me a line and I’ll help out.