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.

Ladies Night by counteragent
Multifandom | PG | 3:06
Summary: Professional competence is sexy.
Music: Ladies Night by Kool and the Gang
+ This vid is fun, and it feels like a moment in time, captured. I feel like multifandom vids date themselves just in the way that they're historical documents, like, at this time, these were the moments for this vid, for this vidder. It's nice. I also feel like there's, like, narrative and themes around gender in here that - totally cool! fun! but - I don't think would happen in a vid today. but yes I liked this vid and had Sports Night feelings watching it (I watched Sports Night this month. I know what Sports Night is now. I have unexpected feelings about Joshua Malina.) Groove and bounce and ladies.

sneeze disease by silentwalrus
Marvel | NC-17 | 5,540 words | Steve/Bucky
Bucky starts to believe in a vengeful god on May the twelfth, year of our Lord two thousand and fucking eighteen, because that’s the day he makes fun of Clint Barton for carrying around a dainty little packetful of tissues in his pocket and honking into them like a congested donkey every fifteen minutes. “Fucking polleb,” Clint swears, wiping at his watering eyes. “Fucking claritin. Fucking zyrtec. Fucking bastards, all of dem.”
“What’s happened to your pokeymen now?” Bucky asks distractedly, not looking away from where Natasha is very slowly setting the last Joker on her vast, exquisitely balanced house of cards.
“Dat’s not - dey’re not pokémon,” Clint says, aggrieved. “Dey’re drugs. And dey don’t work for me.”
+ This is what I like - grumpy sexual shenanigans with demoralising medical appointments and comedy.

Flirtational Theory by shrift
Sports Night | PG-13 | 5,908 words | Dan/Casey
Summary: Wherein Casey doesn't want to talk, Danny blows smoke, aspersions are cast on the Starland Vocal Band oeuvre, and the anti-Keanu stubbornly refuses to put in an appearance.
+ Snappy dialogue and Casey being slow but figuring it out, eventually. Close to show.

Negative Press by kristophine
Sports Night | NC-17 | 15,307 words | Dan/Casey
Dana took a deep breath and pressed her fingers to her temples. “Who started it?”
“Nobody,” said Casey, at the same time as Dan said, “He did.”
Casey shot Dan a sidelong glare and muttered, “Way to throw me under the bus, there, buddy.”
“Maybe if you hadn’t started it,” Dan hissed back.
+ The closet, sports media, and therapy. Feelings.

I’m Gonna Keep You in Love with Me (for a While) by beethechange
Buzzfeed RPF | NC-17 | 21,847 words | Ryan/Shane
Shane is pacing around the hotel room. It’s not a huge room and Shane’s legs are long enough that he doesn’t have much real estate to pace before he has to swing back around for another loop.
“Can you stop?” Ryan asks. “You’re making me dizzy.”
“Okay,” Shane says finally. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re just going to—we’re going to be married. The only way out is through.”
“Um,” Ryan says, because this plan strikes him as counterproductive to their shared goal of not being married.
+ I'm pretty sure this is the one where I was clutching at my heart on public transit, mouthing the words of a tropey, tropey sex scene. This whole thing is a perfectly executed tropey delight. (Accidental Marriage.)

Junk Novels by Punk and Sab
Sports Night | PG-13 | 3,971 words | Dan/Casey
Summary: Dan has pretzels, Casey leads a small revolution, and Juan's at camp.
+ Dialogue! Terrible romance epics! Plane rides! Huge things in mundane spaces and the kind of ordinariness of life. This is great.

Like Sailing and Home Runs by out_there
Sports Night | NC-17 | 62,061 words | Dan/Casey
"Let's see." Dan ran a hand through his hair. "One guy freaks about his father dying, seduces his -- let's not forget, straight -- best friend, and then freaks out during sex. It's not exactly the plot to The Best Romance Novel of All Time."
+ I love Abby in this. She feels right. I also love Dan's whole emotional saga and the whole thing. This. This. This.

You Could Turn It On Like A Light by nightcamedown
Sports Night | G | 11,980 words | Dan/Casey
Summary: In which Dan and Casey are not fraught. Or so they say.
+ They might be fraught. Matches the show. :)

Slow Motion by pollyrepeat
Star Trek | PG-13 | 2:55 | Michael, Paul, Ash
Summary: Discovery! Discover your grief, your lines in the sand, or even perhaps an entire alternate alien self hiding inside your body. Wow! So many things to discover in space.
Music: Slow Motion by Saint Motel
+ I'm not watching this show so I don't know what's going on but this vid made me fall in love with the ship - there are some great clip beats in this.

Bound by silver by AirgiodSLV
Bandom | NC-17 | 26,457 words | Jon/Spencer
“You’ve brought…” Ryan begins, mouth too dry to articulate the word pounding in his skull. Werewolf.
+ Because sometimes what you really need is someone to take a spoon to your chest. Domestic fantasy AU, werewolves, angst.

Thunder by aria
Marvel | PG-13 | 3:05 | Thor
Summary: Because that's what heroes do.
Music: Thunder by Imagine Dragons
+ This made me, like, not at all resentful about this being Markham's goal song. (Markham is the enemy hockey team, maybe. - It is their song, right, O?) I keep pulling this up to groove to. Beats. Thor. ♥ Such a good, fun vid, with, like, narrative trajectory.

Peacemaker by astolat
Transformers | NC-17 | 26,921 words | Optimus Prime/Megatron
Megatron just stared at him through the cell door with a strange expression and didn't say anything. "Well?" Optimus said, half furious and desperate. "Will you promise not to hurt any Autobots escaping if I let you out?"
+ I don't know this fandom but I love this and how epic it feels.

The Greatest by bironic
Multifandom | PG-13 | 4:27
Summary: "Don't give up." A celebration of some badass characters of color in recent science fiction, fantasy and horror TV and movies. Made for resolute as part of the Fandom Trumps Hate 2017-2018 charity auction.
Music: Sia feat. Kendrick Lamar (edited)
+ This vid is like genre media's fight with racism, or maybe more accurately the genre viewer's fight with genre media's racism though its POC characters

Straightening Up the House by eruthros
Marvel | G | 4:00
Summary: Commemorating more than ten years of queer characters (not) appearing in Marvel films.
Song: Straightening Up the House by Romanovsky and Phillips
+ Nails the ending sequence. Shots fired. I'm always super-impressed with mixed media vids. This one has quotes, interviews, comics, and film. (I think we've gotten the most onscreen representation with the girlfriends in Deadpool 2 and that's fucking depressing.) Sassy and pointed.

Stand By You by thingswithwings
Multifandom | PG-13 | 4:01
Summary: Male privilege is a shield; you can choose what you use that shield for.
Song: Stand by You by Rachel Platten
+ This vid keeps making me cry. (It's really positive?)

Just Dance by anoel
Queer as Folk | PG | 2:54
Summary: "So the "thumpa thumpa" continues. It always will. No matter what happens. No matter who's president. As our lady of Disco, the divine Miss Gloria Gaynor has always sung to us: We will survive."
Song: Just Dance by Lady Gaga
+ It's still Pride Month for, like, 2 hours here. Dance.

I should probably mention that I'm on pillowfort now, and I think they're in their last beta-wave before membership goes with funding, so you might want to sign up for the closed beta now rather than later. I haven't really done anything with it yet but my first impression is basically that it's like tumblr but with journal-style communities.

I did indeed watch Sports Night for the first time this month, after falling into Dan/Casey fic and needing to know why there was a C6D-type crossover. (I was contemplating a The West Wing re-watch, so something else Sorkin seemed like a good, less time-intensive compromise. It was. I like Sorkin's yearning/striving towards a collective dream/ideal.) I didn't know that Joshua Malina was in it and that was super interesting because of the character similarities with The West Wing and also he sparkles in this and kind of steals the show, a bit. It's a sitcom and there are these gender roles and romance things that happen which were sort of bewildering and a little bit dated, I think, which is sort of a nicer reality to be living in, really. Tim DeKay and Clark Gregg both have guest-type roles, and I mourned the loss of the show for the loss of the latter's character, a bit - they were going somewhere with him.