February recs

Have some hobbit birthday recs!

Meet Death Sitting by @bomberqueen17 (The Witcher, Geralt/Jaskier)

“No,” Jaskier sighed. “This is the thing, Geralt. I’m middle-aged and tired and I just think I’d rather meet death sitting down and facing it rather than from behind while I’m running. You know?” He contemplated that a moment, and finally added, “Especially if it’s you.”

So I first encountered this series when @walburgablack linked me to the wonderful standalone Along Came This Song, wherein Eskel (a witcher from the books/games) encounters the effects of Toss A Coin and then meets Jaskier in person, aka everything I wanted. BUT THEN the whole series was fantastic - the first, central story starts right after S1 with Jaskier running into Ciri and Geralt in trouble, and there’s tons of h/c (attn @arsenicjade, very much your speed) and great characterization and worldbuilding. I’m very fond of how she writes them at different ages over the series, especially the more mature Jaskier of MDS versus the younger disaster Jaskier of Little Fishie, and Geralt’s varying emotional damage levels. (Also there’s a story where Yennefer pegs Jaskier, @stele3, I feel somehow this is relevant to your interests *g*)

Seven Habits of Highly Effective Dragonslayers by coveredinfeels (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Bull)

Harmon knows how this goes. He’s from Nevarra, and he’s read books. Plural. If you want to fight a dragon you need to find a Kindly Mentor who can teach you all their Secret Strategies.

So all he needs to do is find this old Tal-Vashoth dragonslayer his cousin keeps going on about, get him to teach Harmon about dragons, convince everyone else to go along with his dragon-hunting plans, fight a dragon, and win.

AKA “The Old Marrieds Fight A Dragon”, per the author, which who among us could resist as a concept? I love this older retired version of Dorian and Bull, who are still super in love and also determined to protect these dumb children from themselves AND the dragon. Relentlessly charming and fun read.

World Without End by Sorted (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Bull)

Dorian always knew there was a Bad Ending coming for them. A Tevinter altus and a Ben-Hassrath agent–it was doomed, of course. He just didn’t expect the Bad Ending to be quite that Bad. Unacceptable, really.

Rewriting history? That’s the easy part.

Long, compelling fix-it for Bull’s bad ending in Trespasser. Usually I prefer my time-travel-to-the-past-to-fix-things AUs to cause big differences in the timeline, but I enjoyed how so much of the narrative tension is actually in Dorian trying to  keep things similar (because Corypheus) while still trying to save Bull. Also, there are some EXCELLENT sparring scenes and tons of great characterization-driven sex and lots of pining, and you know how I feel about those.

Untitled Goose Vid by thingswithwings & eruthros (Untitled Goose Game)

Exactly what you think it is! But with effortlessly funny editing and a perfect song choice that I will not spoil. @doitninetimes and I laughed so hard over this one.