Uffish Thought

Mostly Nirvana in Fire this month, with a dash of Captive Prince (which is actually how I got sucked into watching NIF this time around - when presented with a story about court intrigue and princes rising to power, there’s a limited number of places that my mind goes).

NIRVANA IN FIRE

Arranged in roughly canon-chronological order, because why not.

Days in the Sun by circumference/@circumference-pie (gen)

Several days in the life of Prince Qi, the most perfect prince.

You know how something can be really lovely and sweet and that just makes it even more heartbreaking to know what comes next? Yeah, that’s this fic in a nutshell. A beautiful and bittersweet portrait of Jingyu and his extended friends-and-family, several years before the conspiracy case, with disaster just starting to whisper under the surface.

Come Back to Haunt Me by ZairaA (Lin Shu/Jingyan)

In the aftermath of the Chiyan massacre, Prince Jing is locked up at the Xuanjing Bureau, and no one dares to speak out against the Emperor in fear of being executed on the spot. When mysterious fires start to spring up throughout the city, rumours spread about a ghost who has come to seek vengeance, and the Ministry of Rites has to find a way to get rid of it.

Eerie and gutwrenching AU, with some great use of an obscure bit of Chinese culture that I can’t remember how I knew but was very delighted to encounter.

the mist that cloaks the river, the clouds that hide the stars by Sovin (gen)

Yan Yujin has mostly evaded the worst consequences of the Chiyan case, despite her standing betrothal to Lin Shu. So warned, she precariously balances freedom and evading attention, and stays quite far away from politics for a number of reasons. Politics don't seem quite so keen to stay away from her.

Long and subtle Yujin genderswap AU, taking off from that line from Prince Ji about how as a girl!Yujin would have been engaged to someone heavily implied to be Lin Shu. Everyone who recced this at me back on my last swing through the fandom was SO RIGHT. It’s a bit slow to start, sticking very tightly to canon until after Jingrui’s birthday, when the small changes start to spill over into major differences. Also, just chock full of amazing ladies (even MORE than the show has!) and Yan Clan feels.

If I have been untrue by @convenientalias (gen)

It's been weeks since Jingyan and Mei Changsu last talked when Jingyan shows up with two ministers in tow. Still, it's obvious that Jingyan wants to talk to Mei Changsu in private.Yes, Mei Changsu and Jingyan haven't spoken to each other since rescuing Wei Zheng. And Mei Changsu is feeling just a little nervous.

Wherein Jingyan makes a much-needed apology, and MCS would probably prefer to eat anoth Wujin pill than have to deal with any of his feelings. *sigh* A very satisfying missing scene that still retains MCS’s vast damage.

Return of the Cicada by ZairaA (Jingyan/MCS)

For thirteen years, Jingyan has locked his emotions deep in his heart and carried them with him like shards of a life broken beyond repair. But when Mei Changsu arrived in Liang, slowly but mercilessly, hope clawed its way back into his soul. Maybe Jingyan's crazy, but after the battle at Mount Jiu An is won, he's more certain than ever that his suspicions are true, and he realizes there's only one way to look behind Mei Changsu's mask: to rip it off.

Set between episodes 44 and 45.

SUCH a good Jingyan, SUCH a satisfying way to blow up MCS’s bullshit tower of lies, and SUCH a good sequel from MCS’s POV with devastating dream sequences. The author may add a third story, which I sincerely hope for, but each story so far is complete in itself.

CAPTIVE PRINCE

Sugar Cubes and Rubies by aldiara (Ancel/Berenger)

Horses are smelly and alarming and Ancel definitely doesn’t understand or like his, nor is he missing Berenger at all, what are you talking about.

In which Ancel welcomes Berenger home from a trip with some crazy hot kinky sex, and they don’t talk about their feelings but they definitely have a lot of them. Contains some D/s dynamics, symbolic gifts, and Ancel absolutely not making any romantic gestures, what are you talking about.

The Great Escape by @barbitone (Ancel/Berenger)

Everything was mostly going to plan, right up until the Regent ordered his pet to be executed and his severed head to be sent to Prince Laurent.

It happened at noon. The castle was so abuzz with the shocking news that even Berenger, who usually didn’t hear such gossip until late in the evening when Ancel helped him dress for dinner, had heard of the horrific event within the hour.

His heart sank as he thought of that poor boy, just a child-

And then his heart sank further, because he knew he and Ancel would be next.

HELL YES THIS IS SOME GOOD COMPETENCE PORN, in which Ancel and Berenger go on the run from the Regent. Mmm, loyalty and leveling power dynamics, mutual rescuing, and hurt/comfort, so many of my favorite things.

Fables of the Reconstruction by Mugatu (Walking Dead, Daryl/Jesus)

It’s more than two years after the end of the world and six months after the war with the Saviors when Daryl Dixon returns to Alexandria.

AU from juuust after I stopped watching in S6, thus avoiding Certain Bullshit. This author has an A+ Daryl POV, and uses her non-linear structure well to shift between the past slow burn character stuff and the tension of the current-time search & rescue.

Missing Pieces by flailinginlove (Naruto, Kakashi/Iruka)

Shinobi Enforcement Agency is the only bounty station (un)officially recognized by all of the Five Great Nations. It’d be the best place to bring in targets, if only there wasn’t so much paperwork involved.

When they don’t seem interested in taking out the new missing-nin in town, Kakashi wants to know why.

(Or, the one where both Kakashi and Iruka are missing-nin bounty hunters who go after the same target.)

Cheerfully fun AU heavy on the humor and competence porn.

No Reservations: Narnia by Edonohana (Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations RPF, gen)

I’m crammed into a burrow so small that my knees are up around my ears and the boom mike keeps slamming into my head, inhaling the potent scent of toffee-apple brandy and trying to drink a talking mouse under the table. But is it really the boom mike that’s making my head pound? I know for sure that my camera man doesn’t usually have two heads. I have to face facts. The mouse is winning.

I finally read this after seeing it recced approximately everywhere, and holy shit did it deserve all of those recs. If the prospect of Anthony Bourdain getting into a drinking contest with Reepicheep doesn’t immediately snag you…idk, I can’t help you. A vivid, funny love letter to both Narnia and food, accessible even without knowing Bourdain’s work.

My Love Should Be Heard and Not Seen by lurknomoar (Welcome to Night Vale, Cecil/Carlos)

Cecil Palmer is the best phone sex operator in the small company called Night Vale.  One night, a slightly tipsy and very lonely scientist dials his number, and gets far more than he bargained for - a late night conversation about advanced biochemistry, a brand new fetish for surreal horror, a surprisingly reasonable internship program, some newts, and slowly, strangely, the love of his life.

Yes, I am also amused that I read two separate awesome phone sex AUs in one month. This one is sublimely weird and funny and sweetly romantic, as is right and proper for WTNV.

Tall Grass by aeli_kindara (Supernatural, Dean/Cas)

“I think we should have a garden,” Cas says.

Dean looks up from his beer. He hasn’t had that much to drink, but Cas still has a vague look of unreality about him, a splash of living color that doesn’t fit in the bunker’s echoing stillness. Dean didn’t hear him coming. A lot of the time, Cas is so unobtrusive it feels like Dean has the bunker to himself, with Sam away.

Dean shakes his head to clear it. “A — garden?” he repeats.

Man, this was such a great read but I’m not sure how to synopsize it? There’s a lush, warm, slow burn romance, domesticity a la Winchesters, road trip casefiles featuring various awesome ladies from the show, and a haunted plant! Highly recommended.

Follow the Heartlines by fakexpearls (Captive Prince, Damen/Laurent)

“Apologies, Exalted. What I meant – ”

 “What you meant is that you don’t know why I can’t remember anything since His Majesty flayed my back and had me dressed in gold paint and slave’s garb to serve him. But he was a prince then. And a king now.”

 Laurent tried to hide his flinch at the words, at his own memories. He looked away to the marble floor.

 Damianos continued: “You say that was four years ago. In that time, I seem to have aligned myself with him in country and in marriage. And no one tried to stop me.”