wanderings

Inch of Skin by the_ragnarok
Bandom | 8,272 words | PG-13 | Pete/Patrick
In his interviews, Pete Wentz likes to joke about the soulmark. He went on a talk show once with his right wrist bared to show a temporary Care Bear tattoo. There was kind of a media uproar about it, which is the only reason Patrick knows this—he doesn't even follow media for musicians he likes. He's not going to do it for a pop-punk teen heartthrob who sold his soul to MTV.
     + AU where high school Patrick and pop-punk sell-out Pete begin as an anonymous epistolary romance - different approach to the soulmark trope, neat.

Coming In by thingswithwings
Brooklyn Nine-Nine | 1,822 words | G | Rosa Diaz
Summary: For the prompt "someone on the team coming out to Rosa." Can also be seen as a fic version of this twitter thread I made once: https://twitter.com/twwings/status/994748328737816576
     + Everyone is queer and it's delightful. (Punk recced this on fancake.)

Meet Shoot by Grenegome
Dresden Files | 4,280 words | PG-13 | Dresden/Marcone
Summary: Harry meets Marcone before his rise to power.
     + Basically the if they'd met earlier they might have been friends thing. (It's been a bit since I've read this and if I try to write about it I'm going to ramble ship meta about power dynamics and character, probably.)

The Lightning Knives by jadelennox
Dresden Files | 3,804 words | PG-13 | Dresden/Marcone
I rested my forehead on my fingertips and closed my eyes. Last night’s dream flashed on my closed eyelids, and I opened them again to banish images of toddlers with my face and Harry's magic. "Of course I do. I just need to figure out... I need to figure things out."
     + Pregnant cis woman Marcone deciding what to do and talking to Harry.

Cross by lightgetsin
Dresden Files | 33,878 words | NC-17 | Dresden/Marcone
“Because,” Dresden said, “you’re going to bring me back.” He hesitated, looking somewhat sour. “You’re the only one who can, apparently.”
     + This is like two stories in one; I'd read this fic before and I forgot that the last third existed reading it this time around; I'd remembered it as a separate fic. It's porn and punch topping up a fun quest-type deal.

Enemy Mine by Rassaku
Dresden Files | 4,280 words | PG-13 | Dresden/Marcone
Summary: Harry gets invited on a date by everyone’s favorite mob boss, and then things get weird.
     + Plotty. When I remembered what this fic was I went ooooh - it's like a really great murder mystery with fight scenes and politics and scheming and it opens with Marcone asking Dresden out.

Blow by anoel
Gone Girl | 1:48 | R | Amy/Nick
Music: Blow by Kesha (Cirkut Remix)
Summary: "The bad guy wins? Fuck him." Or, Fuck Yeah Amy!
     + Film overview. Lots of blood and tension, sharp.

Devotion, Threefold by anticyclone
Original | 14,900 words | NC-17 | Male Fire God/New King Who Marries Him In What He Assumed To Be A Symbolic Ceremony
Summary: "You know," Aatenel said, lowering his voice, "most people who are graced with my physical form tend to say something in response."
There had been a ritual greeting he was supposed to use, Pando abruptly remembered. It was like having water dumped on his head. He had fucked this up entirely.
An unnatural fire threatened Pando's kingdom. The people of Vrae and his Expanse had never before demanded things from each other, so Pando had begged. He agreed to marry a fire god, sight unseen - only the wedding day has come, and the fire god does seem to enjoy what he's seeing now.
     + This reminds me of a paperback of collected short stories I have squirreled away from years ago that I kept because it had this one queer enemies to lovers soulbond story; I would hold onto like 20+ stories I did not care about to retain access to this thing. More. It's tropey and it has a sense of humour. (It is great.)

Take Me To Church by LithiumDoll
Person of Interest | 4:07 | G | Root/Shaw(/The Machine)
Music: Take Me To Church by Neon Jungle
Summary: Now, let's begin: Alice and Bob are stranded in the desert.
     + This is beautiful.

Black Widow by kiki_miserychic
Practical Magic | 3:34 | PG
Music: Black Widow by Iggy Azalea featuring Rita Ora
You should've known better than to mess with me, honey.
     + There's a lot in this vid - it has the Gilly and Sally relationship and all the dudes I forget the names of -ships, plus all of the women. The beginning is really interesting - I still need to unpack this whole thing.

Don't Take The Money by sisabet
Schitt's Creek | 3:35 | G | David Rose
Music: Don't Take The Money by Bleachers
Summary: Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together
     + This is such a nice build and journey. (Also I have no idea how this would read without canon familiarity.)

Slow Show by sisabet
Schitt's Creek | 4:07 | G | David/Patrick
Music: Show by The National
I want to start over, I want to be winning
Way out of sync from the beginning
     + Lovely. Builds and builds and squeezes your heart. (Also: their faces.)

A Fair Return by thingswithwings
Schitt's Creek | 237,410 words | NC-17 | David/Patrick
Summary: and there are some like us,
just walking, making our feet move ahead of us,
a little bored, a little lost, a little angry,
walking as though we were really going somewhere,
walking as if there was something to see at Adelaide or maybe on King,
something that will give a fair return for this use of shoe-leather,
something that will make us smile with a strange new
happiness, a lost but recovered joy.
- Raymond Souster, “Yonge Street Saturday Night”
     + This is queer, and full. I fell in love with this fic before I finished reading the notes, and then it took me two weeks to read it because life. It's a love letter to community and identity and carving out your place in the world, learning to be yourself, and also to that kid who hadn't or hasn't and maybe isn't or wasn't a kid. I have a lot of feelings about this fic and love it for a lot of different reasons.

Maybe One Day by Mireille
Sports Night | 2,893 words | PG-13 | Dan/Casey
Summary: Five times Dan thought about coming out.
     + Snappy dialogue and happy endings.

Don't Wait Up by Penknife
Star Wars | 1,025 words | PG-13 | L3-37 & Lando Calrissian
She wants to trust him, but she can't afford sentiment.
     + I haven't seen Solo, but ethics and androids(?) and relationship-building and the uncertainty of trust.

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.