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.”

Look, the author had me at their note “An amnesia AU (with political intrigue)” and the story is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from that trope set (pining for someone you’re technically married to! trust issues! politics and competence porn!) but very well executed. I loved her character work for Laurent and how you can read a lot of how their marriage has been by how he keeps stumbling what isn’t there anymore. Right in the feels.

( January: Star Wars, Mad Max )
( February: Star Wars, Mad Max, POI, Hobbit )
( March: Deadpool, MCU, Captive Prince, HP, Push, fairytales )
( April: Miss Fisher, DCU, Teen Wolf, fairytales )
( May: MCU, Leverage, Marvel 616, Healer )
( June: MCU, The Eagle )
( July & August: Star Trek, Rivers of London, Goblin Emperor, MCU, Ghostbusters )
( September: Temeraire, Zootopia, Rivers of London )
( October: Queen's Thief, Devil's Cub, Kingsman, Star Wars, Mad Max, Due South )
( November: Les Mis, SGA, Night Vale, Burn Notice, Shawshank Redemption, Mad Max )
( December: Yuletide, Les Mis, Star Wars )

As deadlines loom, a fan's thoughts naturally turn to... getting distracted by other shiny challenge signups. So far I've resisted the siren call (except for Yuletide, but that's a given at this point), but if anyone else is interested:

fan_byproducts - a Welcome to Night Vale gift exchange with a name that made me LOL, because I enjoy bad jokes. Signups are open until September 8th!

Idyll Challenge - okay, technically I'm still eyeing this one because it's open-ended like Canadian Shacks. Who doesn't like stories "in which the characters are stuck in a peaceful, comfortable, well-stocked place, usually with some kind of swimming available"? Good decision, fandom.

Small Fandom Big Bang - signups are open until October 31st. (hmmm. Actually. Linds, I think MI4 is eligible. Should we?)

I have definitely *not* resisted the siren call of pofinterest_chat, which I think was a good life choice. More people should come play! *pokes everyone*

At some point soon I'm going to write up my lovely week in Chicago - junebug_waltz, Improv Shakespeare, Vividcon, lovely fannish people, and lots of good food and heavy drinking - but I'm listening to Welcome to Night Vale at the airport and just realized that the passing reference to Earl Harlan the Scoutmaster having a past relationship with Cecil is such a fantastic stealthy dig at the Boyscouts of America's homophobic policies that I can't even.

Also, I came to the realization that I wouldn't love Welcome to Night Vale as much without the fandom. Since the radio show format is so disjointed and sometimes deeply surreal, having fandom to dig into the worldbuilding and give depth to the episodic characters is satisfying a lot of narrative needs that the show isn't. Stories like How I Survived My Summer Vacation, which is both the saga of Tamika Flynn and breathtaking ode to reading, Not Even A Week, which explains what happened to the other scientists, and The Rat and the Ruby Slippers, wherein Carlos gets kidnapped by Desert Bluffs (amnesia = always my favorite!). Then there's the ones that poke at the philosophical underpinnings of the show: jus sanguini, jus soli, about Carlos and why people come to Night Vale, or a love song for schrodinger, which might be my favorite portrayal of how science and faith can coexist that I've ever read.

(Hmmm. On reviewing my links, it seems that I --like Cecil-- really really like Carlos. Understandable, right?)

Anyway, my flight is about to board, but I'm all caught up on Welcome to Night Vale now, so people should come talk to me about it!