Uffish Thought

August recs

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 01:54:10 GMT

August was too hot to live and weirdly stressful, so I've only got a handful of new stories plus a whole lot of my favorite tropes (so much amnesia!) and fic from fandoms I'm technically not in.

NEW STUFF

I Got My Head Checked by @frostbitebakery (Star Wars, Cody/Obi-Wan)

Below the observation deck, the Marshal Commander of the Third Systems Army is being divested of his armor and weapons, shackles heavy on his wrists. He doesn’t struggle, only a mulish stubborn twist to his jaw showing his displeasure at the situation.
Obi-Wan opens his eyes, steps back from the observation window. “I need a week.”
OR: In which Cody wasn’t trained for a Sith sliding into a moral dilemma because of him.

So apparently I AM weak for a Sith!AU when it's an amazing enemies-to-lovers with a redemption arc? Awesome story with beautiful art by the author. It's written in an unusual vignette format that might not be for everyone, but I thought it let the author cover a wide ensemble and scope of story and tonal shifts very effectively.

To the Letter by glimmerglanger (Star Wars, Cody/Obi-Wan)

“How you feeling, sir?” he asked, eyeing his General. They’d, at least, managed to all evac back to the shuttles without losing anyone, leaving the noxious-smelling laboratory where they’d found a pack of Seppy scientists working on new biological weapons behind.
“I’ll be fine, Commander,” Obi-Wan said, without opening his eyes, his voice thick and hoarse. “But comm ahead, would you, and make sure the medics are ready for me.”
OR, the one were Obi-Wan gets dosed with an especially nasty toxin, and Cody helps him survive the following hours.

The first chapter of this story was originally a standalone that I remember thinking was incredibly hot but emotionally unresolved, but glimmerglanger just posted a second chapter where Cody gets into a mirrored situation and it really balances out the whole piece.

Hear a song this deeply by so_shhy (The Untamed, Wangxian)

Lan Zhan’s new liaison at the Caiyi Municipal Cultivation Department is an enigma – ridiculously talented, yet somehow content with mopping up spiritual pests for barely above minimum wage. Wei Ying is slapdash and irresponsible, and Lan Zhan doesn’t like him at all… but then he meets A-Yuan, who loves music and longs for a piano his father can’t afford.
Forced into cautious friendship by a four-year-old's music lessons, Lan Zhan soon realises Wei Ying is more than he seems. The single father is a man of many secrets – including, perhaps, the key to Lan Zhan's life's work. And in the meantime, the background resentment in Caiyi Town is rising to dangerous levels…

I've already recced this by reblogging the fic notice, but it's so great! Plot and romance and feels all well-balanced and creative, with adorable kid content, plus I loved Lan Zhan's research into reconstructing musical cultivation, the modern cultivation worldbuilding generally, and the Lan brothers dynamic.

More tropey recs under the cut!

( Read more... )

comments

May recs

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 03:52:30 GMT

Quite a hodgepodge this time around, since not having my computer for the first half of the month resulted in me plowing through to-read piles on my phone. Enjoy!

Standard Operating Procedures by @galateagalvanized (Star Wars, Cody/Obi-Wan)

“Sir, I need you to tell me what’s wrong,” Cody says, battlefield calm, and he can’t help his relief when Obi-Wan pulls the tattered remains of his usual dignity back over his shoulders.
“Right,” Obi-Wan says. “Of course. Commander, as far as I can tell, everyone besides you on this ship has fallen truly, madly, deeply in love with me.”

Where Cody is the exception to acting weird because of course he’s already in love with Obi-Wan. I LOVE THIS TROPE. Plays out mostly as you would expect, i.e. delightfully.

Fauna One by @avonya (Murderbot Diaries, gen)

On an otherwise tedious survey, Murderbot meets a cat.

Wonderful pre-canon fic that does that thing canon does where it’s hilarious and fun and also makes you want to scream about how fucked up its enslaved life used to be. But yes, mostly it’s about Murderbot making friends with a feral cat.

things to never give the devil by @fahye (Our Flag Means Death, Ed/Stede)

"Dark Fate?" says Stede, making sure to pronounce the capitals.
"Very effective for star-crossed lovers. And at a bargain price, if I do say so myself. A potent mixture of unspeakably rare ingredients, brewed under a new moon, which will drag you through the depths of your own soul in search of difficult truths, and leave the undeserving to drift forever in a dreamscape of torment and emotional agony!"
"What?" says Stede. "No! That sounds awful!"

Set post-S1, the path to Stede and Ed reuniting is full of obstacles. Fairytale-flavored and as delightfully bonkers/romantic as the show, with amnesia, aka my favorite trope!

The Song Remains the Same by @sholiofic (Agent Carter, Peggy/Daniel/Jack)

After a lab accident, Peggy wakes up in 1948, with no memories of anything since early 1946.

Did I mention I love amnesia? This fic is SO GOOD in that respect, and does a beautiful job with Peggy’s tendency to be kinda judgey - usually well deserved! but less good when she finds out her future self somehow ended up in a triad with Jack Thompson of all people, and starts fucking up her own life and future happiness. (don’t worry, they figure it out eventually) And all that on top of a really good casefile!

All Bets Are Off by Carmilla (Singin’ in the Rain, Don/Kathy/Cosmo)

Don will always say that he fell in love with Kathy at first sight.
It’s a good story. It doesn’t really matter that the truth is a little more complicated.

A good solid OT3 get-together, but with some good queer backstory feels for Don.

Things Floating Like the First Hundred Flakes of Snow by @beaarthurpendragon (MCU, Steve/Bucky)

In the summer of 1968, the Winter Soldier manages to break free of his HYDRA programming enough to get a message to SHIELD Deputy Director Peggy Carter that Captain America is still alive.
Or: How Bucky and Steve save one another, one more time.

Great AU with a fantastic older Peggy interacting with the Winter Soldier, and then some brutally good depiction of Bucky working through his brainwashing/trauma (guest-starring Charles Xavier) and a happy ending - or rather, a beginning.

5 Times Tim Spends the Night at Wayne Manor + 1 Time He Comes Home
by @motleyfam (DCU, gen)

Tim is good at galas.
No, scratch that—Tim is great at galas. He’s been attending them ever since the age of three, when his parents first stuffed him into his little Gymboree tuxedo and gave him a stern lecture about ‘sitting quietly’ and ‘speaking when spoken to.’ He knows all the rules: what to wear, how to stand, when to smile, what to say, what not to say. He knows how to come across as polite and intelligent and charming, and on absolutely any other day, he would be rocking this.
Or, my take on a ‘Tim Joins the Family Early’ AU, told through a series of sleepovers—most of which are unplanned.

Directly in my favorite overlap of Wayne Adoptive Family Feels, Tim thinking his life is totally normal (no parental neglect here!), and good soft h/c.

comments

April recs

Sun, 22 May 2022 17:54:59 GMT

A bit late this month since I had to send my computer off for repairs (RIP my stickers, but at least it was mostly cosmetic damage), but I made it! I'm putting the 7 Star Wars fics of various pairings above the cut, and the 5 miscellaneous fandoms (Nirvana in Fire, Life 2005, Lord Peter, The Untamed, Our Flag Means Death) underneath.

STAR WARS

Cody/Obi-Wan

Worth a Thousand Words by @glimmerglanger

“You need to show him what you have to offer,” Fives said, which sounded shockingly like relevant advice. Cody blinked over at him.
“What?” he asked, because, honestly, he’d take any advice he could get, at this point. The war had been over for nearly six months, and he’d made no progress on his own.
Fives slammed back a shot of his own and then--kind of leered over. “You need to give him a look at the goods,” he said, and then, pointedly, dipped his gaze down.
OR, the one where Cody takes some very bad advice and has to deal with the consequences.

*wheezing with laughter* AKA the one where Cody sends a dick pic. Post-war, no Order 66, very funny and sweet. Also, it didn't really hit my embarrassment squick despite being tagged for that, because it's not mean-spirited about it, and has some good perspective about how there's a huge gap between the clones' life experience and their socialization for things outside of fighting a war.

Strong Bones by missmollyetc

We must all start as we mean to go on.

Triptych of stories about Obi-Wan and Cody set post-Order 66, with absolutely GORGEOUS prose. The first two will break your heart (especially #2, how DARE), but the last one will gently patch it.

Din/Luke

Blood Ties by scheidwrites

A few things are slightly different, which means everything is different. Boba and Fennec arrive just a bit later, Din takes his jetpack back up to the temple, and so he and the child are both taken prisoner by the Empire.

Fascinating AU and a lovely h/c series that deserves a lot more hits than it currently has.

Pragmatics by Derkish

Admittedly, this is not the first time Luke has wound up at someone else’s kitchen table in someone else’s clothes. But it’s not breakfast, Luke’s not an undergrad scarfing down bacon and eggs to cure the common hangover, and Din doesn’t strike him as the kind of guy he’d meet at a house party. The baby is definitely a first.
Luke is a grad student trying to finish his linguistics PhD after an unexpected leave of absence. His neighbor, Din, is a single dad and delivery guy at Pizza Parsec. (Actually, Pizza Parsec is just a front for the bounty hunters' guild. But Luke doesn't need to know that.)

Fantastic modernish AU that hit the sweet spot for me regarding Luke being a emotional mess with disaster family issues but ALSO a very smart and competent person in his field. I also really enjoyed how the Skywalker family drama was translated into this setting.

A Warrior Dance by twoseas

Luke reacts strangely to Din’s bared face and an overheard conversation leads the Mandalorian to believe the Jedi thinks he’s ugly. Things spiral out of control from there.
Featuring Mandalorian combat without armor, Han and Leia being a little into Din, and Luke being so much into Din he accidentally makes him think he’s unattractive.

This one has been widley recced already, but I finally read it and it's just as charming as promised without the secondhand-embarrassment I feared.

Obi-Wan/Anakin

if i only knew by wanderlove

Newly knighted Obi-Wan Kenobi and his padawan, Anakin Skywalker, have been sent to Ryloth on a simple diplomatic envoy. While there, an unsettling incident causes Obi-Wan to look at Anakin in a new light and re-evaluate...everything.
The Galaxy will never be the same.
aka: "come for the obikin, stay for the tzai and deep emotional discussions that dismantle every single misunderstanding in the prequels."

Very satisfying fix-it AU on many levels, with lots of time and detailed work on building their relationship in a healthier way.

More recs below!

( Read more... )

comments