wanderings

Pugnantos Malos, Nehos Pugnetis by sanguinity
The Middleman | PG | 2:38 | Gen
Music: The Mounties by Ron Sharpe
Summary: They always get their man, zombie, gorilla, puppet, tuba, and flying pike.
+ Like a beautiful marriage of camp, just fun to soak up.

Ancillary Justice by bironic
Imperial Radch | PG-13 | 1:28 | Gen
Music: Nad Dunaem by DakhaBrakha, Epic Drums by Immediate Music
Summary: Nineteen years, three months, and one week ago, I was a troop carrier.
+ I love a book trailer, and this book, and all of this patched together footage. Awe, basically.

The Last of the Real Ones by beerbad
DCU | G | 3:51 | Kara/Lena
Music:The Last of the Real Ones by Fall Out Boy
Summary: That ultra-kind of love you never walk away from...
+ This makes me feel like a 90s songvid, set to an 80s song, where you start listening to the lyrics and they're over the top, but you're like this is their love; this is their story and you end up replaying it over and over in a haze of shipping feels.

Hey Ya bironic
What We Do in the Shadows | PG-13 | 2:30 | Gen
Music: Hey Ya by Outkast
Summary: "They say that vampires' hearts are cold and dead. But I don't know. I think I still feel things inside it." -Viago
+This is just joyful, happy-making silliness.

By and by by bithesea
Pride and Prejudice | G | 2:15 | Mr. Collins
Music: Superfly by Curtis Mayfield
The vid was great fun to make, as Mr Collins grew on me with a vengeance. I am now convinced that he has been monstrously misunderstood.
+ I clearly need to re-watch this version; this Mr. Collins is a delight.

Call Me Maybe by mithborien
Marvel | G | 2:54 | Peggy/Angie
Music: Call Me Maybe by Post-Modern Jukebox
Summary: "Doesn't matter when you got legs like yours!"
+ I love them, and this is fun and jazzy with a good ending.

Shape of You by Butterfly
Multifandom | NC-17 | 3:52
Music: Shape of You by Ed Sheeran
Summary: A brief and flirtatious dip into a happier side of queer media, containing both older and newer source.
+ :D I love how this vid makes the song gay and how it all flows around that and the source material choices - everything in this that I have seen I have loved - it's so happy and not at all exhaustive and kind of perfect for that.

this is my hand by hollywoodgrrl
Multifandom | 3:27
Music: This is My Hand by My Brightest Diamond
Summary: Blood, sweat and tears. (Self-portrait of a vidder.)
+ Compelling and beautifully constructed. I have loved some of their loves, seen some of these vids and felt the hits of those earlier moments within this. Very cool.

C'mon by rhoboat
Inside Out | G | 3:43 | Gen
Music: C'mon by Panic! at the Disco with fun.
What would my head be like?
+ I haven't seen the film, but this is like a beautiful recap full of yearning and, unsurprisingly, feelings. The video pulls on and spins out from the audio in neat ways, it's a really good fit and execution.

Sway by trellkez
Persuasion | G | 3:00 | Anne/Wentworth
Music: Sway by Bic Runga
Summary: "More than seven years were gone since this little history of sorrowful interest had reached its close; and time had softened down much, perhaps nearly all of peculiar attachment to him, but she had been too dependent on time alone." -- Persuasion, ch. 4
+ This does a really good job being that delicious tension of their relationship.

Champion by beerbad
Wynonna Earp | R | 3:12 | Wynonna
Music: Champion by Fall Out Boy
Summary: “You’re wrong, Wynonna. You’re the best of us.”
An S2 Wynonna character study vid that premiered at VividCon on August 10, 2018.
+ beerbad continues to vid about this show in a way that intrigues me

Gotta Get Back In Time (Get Back, Claude) by merryofsoul
Hockey RPF | G | 7,832 words | Claude/Danny
Time travel.
It’s not like it’s completely unheard of, it’s just not really talked about. The exact cause is something that hasn't been pinpointed either, which is only made harder by the fact that no one really talks about it when it happens. It could be stress, happiness, or some odd combination. Claude doesn't know.
He doesn't even know if he's supposed to keep it a secret or not. He never thought this would be something that would happen to him, so he never paid any attention in the mandatory seminars.
That really came back to bite him in the ass.
+ Tropes and schmoop, I think, also some angst and it's retirement fic? (It's been a while since I read this.)

fight like girls for our place at the table by napricot
Marvel | NC-17 | 52,110 words | Sharon/Natasha
Summary:“Am I on Cap watch because of who my aunt is?” Sharon asks Fury point-blank the second she sits in his office.
“That’s part of the reason, yeah,” Fury says. Sharon narrows her eyes at him, and opens her mouth to object. “But not all of the reason. This isn’t a demotion.”
“It sure feels like a demotion. You’re taking me out of the field and out of intel analysis to babysit Captain America.”
How Sharon Carter gets her groove back, fucks up some Nazis, and gets the girl, with unasked for assists from a super soldier couple.
+ I liked how realistically awkward Sharon and Natasha were about wanting to date each other and how that had nothing to do with either of their sexualities. I loved Sharon's nursing home visits and the holes this filled.

Minimum Height Requirement by Drag0nst0rm
DCU | PG-13 | 66,462 words | Gen
Summary: Somewhere in the multiverse, there's a universe where letting his children dress up in capes and follow him into vigilantism seems like a good idea.
Bruce is determined that it isn't going to be this one . . . Despite his children's repeated attempts to convince him otherwise.
(Or: "When you're eighteen, you can do what you want. Until then, no capes.")
+ It's been some time since I read this but I have this feeling that I was pleased both with this concept and the follow-through.

Word on the Street by shinealightonme
Raven Cycle | PG-13 | 7,296 words | Adam/Ronan
Summary: The first time Greywaren saves Adam's life, he's grateful and a little awestruck.
By the tenth time it happens, he's mostly pissed off.
+ I haven't read Stiefvater's books but I like me a good superheroes AU and this is that.

Muscles Better and Nerves More by beethechange
Buzzfeed RPF | NC-17 | 26,301 words | Ryan/Shane
Summary: “I’m serious,” Ryan says. “Don’t go fucking up my body. I want that shit back in the same condition I left it.”
“The same condition—Ryan. I’m not spending hours in a gym every day so you don’t lose muscle mass.”
“I want you to treat my body with the respect you would a national park. Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but memories.”
A certain meddling Voodoo Queen of New Orleans thinks Ryan and Shane need some new perspective on life. After an inadvisable ritual deposits Ryan in Shane’s body, and Shane in Ryan’s, the ghoulboys pursue some soul-searching and self-discovery to put things right. Sometimes in a sexy way.
+ There's a twist that's not really a twist in here that is fantastic. A+ Also: extended bodyswap adventures with fake dating because obviously.

Find a Better Prize by sunsetmog
One Direction/Radio 1 RPF | PG-13 | 2,677 words | Harry/Nick
Summary: Boy looks at another boy standing on a rock, or: someone's sending Nick gifts.
+ Lovely and adorable, a perfectly sized morsel.

Stitch my Skin Together (Thread the Needle with Your Love) by Isagel
Person of Interest | NC-17 | 8,489 words| John/Harold
Summary: It never occurred to him that you could be branded with something that isn’t pain. With the negation of pain.
It blurs his vision, how much he wants that brand to stay.
Written for the prompt “John allows himself to get hurt on purpose so Harold will patch him up”.
+ Cool kink exploration, feelings.

Home Like Apple Pie by RabbitRunnah
Check Please! | R | 25,096 words | Jack/Eric
Summary: Eric Bittle may be newly single, but that’s not going to stop him from keeping his dinner reservation for Harvest Haus, one of the Boston area’s most exclusive new restaurants. He’s expecting a great meal and a few pictures for social media bragging rights, maybe a nice story for his blog. What he isn’t expecting is to discover the restaurant’s reclusive, anonymous chef is none other than Jack Zimmermann — his former hockey captain and unrequited crush, who hasn’t been heard from since abruptly leaving the NHL eight years ago.
A second chance au where Jack and Bitty never kissed at graduation, but maybe it’s not too late to get it right the second time around.
+ A maybe slightly depressing AU concept with friendship-rebuilding and slow domesticity.

The Time to Find a Place to Land by BlackEyedGirl
Marvel | NC-17 | 20,178 words | Clint/Coulson
Summary: By Phil’s count, this is his third attempt at bringing the Avengers together, although he will admit his participation in the second attempt was more symbolic than anything else. He hadn’t expected Stark to be the easiest sell, or Barton to be the most problematic, but things have changed since he’s been away. [Movie spoilers.]
+ Really good processing of the stuff after the first Avengers film. (Again, it has been some time since I read this.)

I am returning to my social bookmarking-less past until Maciej sorts it so that exports are functional and I can actually move to pinboard (yes, I was still with delicious, yes, I should have moved years ago) - for now, a link dump wherein I reread nothing while releasing a bunch of fandom tabs I have on my browser:

Boom Clap (The Sound of My Heart) by femmequixotic and noe
Harry Potter | Rating: NC-17 | 39, 547 words | Harry/Draco
Summary: Post-war Hogwarts has been energized by its new teaching fellows program. Where once bitter enmity divided the wizarding community, Malfoy and Potter chummily patrol hallways together whilst Granger and Zabini seek lost parts of the castle at McGonagall’s behest and Chang supervises Quidditch when not lecturing in Charms. It’s a veritable wizarding utopia and life is predictable for the first time in years. Which is, of course, when everything blows apart as the result of a drunken dare and Malfoy’s life is ruined beyond his capacity to repair it. Ever. In a million years.
One of my joys this past year has been a slight resurgence in Harry/Draco works - they weren't one of my pairings in the sort of height or golden age of that fandom and pairing, but it was a lot of fun to be discovering the dynamic through new works something like a decade later. I have zero memory of this fic scanning through it, but that means nothing - I often have to get, like, a page into a work before I can tell whether or not I've read it before.

A better man might by lowriseflare and threeguesses
Pitch | Rating: NC-17 | 9,397 words | Ginny/Mike
Summary: The day Mike realizes he’s actively looking for Baker’s ass in the dugout is the day he decides he should probably stop slapping it.
This is like, age gap, and sports culture and gender, and sex and kink, a little. (I think a lot of shit is inherently kinky - from G to NC-17 - and am not using that word as code for BDSM; I can't remember the specifics of any sex scenes in this but I do know that I really liked this fic and I think the sex is pretty integral.)

places to be by Sixthlight
Rivers of London | Rating: PG-13 | 6,314 words | Beverley/Peter, Beverley/Peter/Thomas
Summary: Tolstoy was wrong: every happy family is happy in its own way.
Accidental co-parenting and kidfic with a poly bent. Sixthlight tends to write themes that I care about and write really well; I remember this fic as a delight.

the slow pace of geologic time by westerrnredcedar
Check Please! | Rating: PG-13 | 4,258 words | Alicia, Bitty
Jack looks at her and then puts her luggage down and leans in, grabs her into a full-body hug, right there on the sidewalk, holding her so close. She can’t remember when he last hugged her this hard. “He told his parents. About being gay. About us,” he says into her shoulder. “They were awful.”
It's about that, about Jack calling his mom for help, after, and her supporting her son and his partner, being there for Bitty, physically, and her reflecting on parenthood and time, a bit. It's pretty great.

Pants on Fire by Helenish
Inception | Rating: NC-17 | 15,169 words | Arthur/Eames
"Ah," Yusuf says, lifting a reproving hand, "are we calling less than 24 hours of memory loss amnesia now?"
Excellent use of tropes - there's almost a secret identity component with the amnesia - and character and relationship exploration.

Easy Open by Helenish
Mission Impossible | Rating: R | 6,262 words | Benji/Ethan
"So you and Hunt are a package deal these days,” Bryson says.
“Uh,” Benji says, jerking his head up from his computer, ballpoint in his mouth.
I did not expect to like this and buy this pairing but this story was compelling for me.

Desperado by fightingarrival
Star Wars | 3:06 | Poe/Finn/Rey
Summary: There ain’t nothing here for me anymore, but I don’t want to be alone. (A WisCon 41 premiere)
I'm not anywhere near finished processing this vid, so I have nothing on this.

Of Hangovers and Coffee by Madlyie
Les Miserables | Rating: G | 1,514 words | Enjorlas/Grantaire
Summary: prompt: “accidentally broke into your apartment because i was drunk AU”; You would actually expect Grantaire to wake up in an unknown apartment but things don’t always happen like expected.
I don't know that I actually finished reading this, I think I got about a paragraph in and went No! This is not the BNL song AU that I need in my heart of hearts and kind of want to write now and I need to hold onto this fic because it has inspired me.

be yourself my ally by imperfectcircle
Wonder Woman | Rating: G | 15,531 words | Etta/Diana
Summary: “That’s all very flattering,” Etta says when Diana has finally run out of steam, “but surely you have more qualified candidates than me?”
“You are of the world of men.” Diana looks a little embarrassed. “But not a man.”
-- Diana and Etta go back to Themyscira.
I think there's a thing, sort of, where we are, all of us, Darcy Lewis. I think we are also all Etta Candy, and, you know, that's a pretty fantastic vicarious experience in this fic. There's a a fake relationship in this fic. There are rituals and festivities. A+ I mean, there's also some world building if you're into that kind of thing, but I am basically entirely *chinhands* about Etta and Diana dating and the tropes here. (There are kittens in this! There are, like, alien shenanigans. It is fantastic.)

Resource Sharing by rsadelle
James Bond | Rating: NC-17 | 3,476 words | Q/Alec/James, Q/Alec, Q/James
Summary: Q experiences what it means when James says he and Alec share everything.
I remember this basically as filthy porn. Tags include d/s and double penetration.

World Ain't Ready by idiopathicsmile
Les Miserables | Rating: PG-13 | 185,796 words | Enjorlas/Grantaire
Summary: Enjolras presses his lips together. He already looks pained, and Grantaire hasn't even opened his mouth yet. That's got to be a record, even for them.
"I need a favor," he says at last.
"With what?" says Grantaire. "Ooh, are you forming a cult? Can I join? I'd be awesome at cults, I just know it." He ticks off his qualifications on his fingers. "I love chanting, I look great in robes—"
(High school AU. Grantaire the disaffected stoner is pulled into a cause bigger than himself. Or: in which there are pretend boyfriends for great justice.)
Yeah. It's exactly what it sounds like. The really long high school fake dating AU with pining and miscommunication and all of the teenaged things, basically. Solid supporting cast business with other story lines.

Penetration Testing by Toft
Person of Interest | Rating: NC-17 | 8,886 words | Harold/John
Summary: The CIA wants to know what Harold Wren is building for Nathan Ingram, so they set a honey trap. They bait it with John Reese.
God, this fic is basically what I love about John Reese as a character, and makes me want to write meta about kink, and here I definitely mean with reference to d/s. He's like the murder sub? And he just wants to be taken care of and loved and challenged?

The Real Thing by sevenfists
Hockey RPF | Rating: NC-17 | 34,892 words | Evgeni/Sid
Sitting at the table was Sid: Sid as Zhenya had first known him, almost a decade before: dorky, long-haired Sid, his cheeks round with baby fat. He couldn’t have been older than twenty, and even that was generous.
“Wow,” baby Sid said. “Are you Evgeni Malkin?”
I think the thing that got me with this fic - it's a pretty typical set-up and hockeyrpf loves themselves some age-regression - was the relationships that the present day Sid and Geno have with the time traveler. There's some tension, and a very real vulnerability that the younger Sid has because of his age that's I think really present in his relationship with Geno at this time and adds another layer to their interactions, as well as the interactions that Sid has with his younger self; I think it's a really interesting exploration of the sort of vulnerability of youth in this fic, and also power dynamics in relationships to some extent, and the dynamics of relationships in general and the tensions that exist in them, even when you are on even footing.

Under Yellow Moons by skoosiepants
Teen Wolf | Rating: PG-13 | 17,127 words | Derek/Stiles
Summary: They stare at each other, half-grinning, and Derek knows it’s definitely the absolute wrong time for this, but he wants. He wants to grin at Stiles over dinner every day for the rest of his life, baffled over yams and Moon Pie Day, and, god, crap, goddamn, when the fuck did he have time to fall in love?
Or
The life and times of Deputy Stiles and Supernatural Foster Dad Derek Hale
Some day I need to talk about how much I love skoosiepants, like, coding those italics just then made me so happy, and there's a kind of bandom style to her work, which is just fun - I've been enjoying this adult human Stilinski-Hale business she's been getting up to lately.

So that's my tabs cleared out, and, like step one in catch-up - I owe a few people some things I need to finish sorting.