Uffish Thought

I went on a two-week roadtrip to California and back last month, so this month's reclist is small in quantity and heavy on the modern AUs. Also I couldn't decide on a top five, so I'm doing all the recs short-style this time: eleven Untamed, one Guardian, one The Mummy, and one Band of Brothers/Books of the Raksura fusion. *jazzhands
 

CANON BASED DOMESTICITY

This One Shadow by LTLJ - great missing scene where they find an inn after Wen Ning shows up covered in mud.

Take Root, Come Home by piecrust - post-canon story where Lan Zhan notices Wei Ying isn't really unpacking any of his things at the jingshi, even though he lives there. Short but precisely emotional.

rather cruelly used and rather reserved by x_los - slight AU in which Wei Wuxian wanders around the jingshi and discovers a few more secrets than he was expecting.

PLOTTY & CASEFILES

The storm comes and goes (and I keep walking) by Naamah_Beherit - sweet but lightly unsettling AU where Wei Wuxian survives (albeit with side-effects) the Burial Mounds siege with A-Yuan, becomes a rogue cultivator, and adopts some strays.

lovers be lost (but love shall not) by la_muerta - look, apparently I have a weakness for ghost marriage as a trope/weird historical fact? 1910s Shanghai AU where Wei Ying agrees to ghost-marry the dead second Lan brother so his spirit can find peace - but to no one's surprise, he finds a mystery instead.

Keep Track of Losing Days by giraffeter  - in which Lan Zhan is a police detective in love with his antifa neighbor Wei Ying, and then gets assigned the case when Wei Ying abruptly goes missing. Great plotty casefile, lots of pining. Obviously having a cop character is a tough subject these days, so ymmv, but I was very satisfied with the parallels between how LWJ in canon struggles with the sects' corruption and how he comes around to the ACAB perspective in this one.

MODERN ROMCOM AUS

speeding up my heartbeat by plonk - in which Wei Ying and Lan Zhan both go to the same cultivation gym for different activities, and spend about half the story long-distance eye-fucking before moving on to the actual fucking. Pure lust-drenched kinky hilarity, packed with clever modern-cultivation worldbuilding in the background.

My Zhiji's on Broadway by ScarlettStorm - in which Lan Zhan gets drunk at a cultivation convention in Seattle, and Wei Ying attempts to corral him while pining. Charming, funny and hot. (I'm also loving this author's current long WIP For A Good Time Call, if you like this shorter piece you should check it out)

Let's Play Pretend and Live Our Lives by Tassos - based on an actual advice column piece, Wei Ying realizes he hasn't told anyone he adopted A-Yuan ages ago, oops, and on Nie Huaisang's advice decides to just pretend he told everyone already. Except then LWJ calls his bluff, escalates, and sets off an epic game of...domesticity chicken, I guess? I was so sure this was going to hit my embarrassment squick but I trust the author, and I was pleased to find that it was just a thoroughly charming, rollicking fun read.

baby let's take the long way home by plonk - in which Wei Ying needs a ride to get an abortion, and accidentally gets his work nemesis Lan Zhan to agree to drive him to the appointment. Reminded me of Obvious Child (both fitting in the narrow 'abortion romcom' genre), except with roadtrip shenanigans instead of standup comedy.

OTHER MODERN

Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood by sysrae - in which Wei Wuxian gets hit by cars bizarrely often, which he laughs off but Lan Zhan does not find amusing. Then he finds out a little more. The premise and opening make it SEEM like it should be in the romcom category, but it's not. Really good, though.

(The Mummy) Travelers By Night by 20thcenturyvole  - in my usual tradition of finishing reading Yuletide fic from last year when this year's noms come up, I finally read this delightful look at Jonathan after the first movie, going to visit Evie in England and then back to Egypt for a probably-cursed dig. Very sharp characterization, great story.

(Band of Brothers/Raksura fusion) From the Court of Gale and Iron by Muccamukk - this WIP finished and it was SO GREAT for me and the three other people who know both fandoms. *laughs* But maybe you're one of us, so enjoy! Wayward consort Nix gets mistaken for a rare beast, captured, and held in a zoo in Fortress Currahee, and ends up falling for Winters, a soldier trying to get through a long war. Set before the Raksura series events so no spoilers other than worldbuilding.

(Guardian) Like you and me by china_shop - Cute piece about Dr. Cheng talking to her girlfriend about Zhao Yunlan's blindness, and finding out they went to high school together. Just an excellent outsider POV, with a nice queer take on a recurring character I liked.

Men Do Not Sham Convulsion by sour_idealist (Brick, Brendan/Laura)

Sometimes these things happen, in a few hours in someone else’s bedroom when everyone’s on the edge of cracking - or maybe cracked already - and stupid impulses take over. None of it really matters.

Missing scene from the movie and viciously insightful Laura character study.

to finish the thaw by addandsubtract (Brick, Brendan/Brain preslash)

When Brain regains consciousness, his head is throbbing, and his left eye is swollen shut. His throat tastes like blood. His first thought is, I guess this is what it feels like to be Brendan, and he almost laughs.

Post-series story where Brain is in college and Brendan shows up like a stray cat, and then Brain gets in some trouble. There’s a lot left delicately unsaid in just the right way.

my crown is called contentment by @fahye (Any Old Diamonds, Jerry/Alec)

The oval-cut diamonds were obscenely large, hypnotically bright, calling up a delicious mixture of guilt and wonder and covetousness and unease that Alec kept sipping at like a man unaccustomed to strong spirits.

In which fayhe (our hero) fulfills Jerry’s promise about fucking Alec in nothing but diamonds. An Important and Necessary Coda to the book. :D

The Distant Sky by fallintosanity (Supernatural/Books of the Raksura, gen)

Moon is supposed to be avoiding Consolation, but a mishap during a visit to Opal Night puts Consolation in danger. Moon and Malachite have to navigate a city stranger than anything either of them have ever seen to rescue her.

Sam and Dean, newly reunited after Dean’s miraculous return from Purgatory, investigate reports of mysterious disapperances and cattle theft near Cleveland. But the case turns out to be far more complex than they thought when an enemy they believed dead resurfaces, and they must ally with strange and dangerous creatures to protect all of Cleveland from their common enemy.

A wonderfully old-school portal crossover! Great characterization for both the Winchesters and the Raksura, some excellent action sequences, and lots of fun watching the Raksura be largely unfazed by ending up in another universe. Many bonus points for writing a genuinely terrifying but layered Malachite.

Four Days by @mumblingsage (Mad Max, Max/Furiosa)

There are things you stop wanting after the end of the world. Wanting is vulnerability, and Max can’t afford to be vulnerable out in the Wasteland. But when he returns to the Citadel, he has a lot to revisit. Even if admitting what he wants might break him.