Happy-Making Fic/Art/Vid Recs b/c They Are Sorely Needed
Given the state of the world and events in the U.S. in particular, an emergency fluff rec list was called for today. There's a lot of soul-destroying images floating around right now and while these words and sentiments aren't new, we're all getting it thrown in our faces and need some good stuff to refuel our souls. So I've tossed together a dozen recs for fic, art, and vids that are sweet, fluffy, uplifting, and otherwise happy making. If anyone feels inspired to do something similar - whether it's a happy making collection of your own work or other folks - then this would be an excellent time to do so.
Fandoms below the cut include Avengers, Hawkeye (Matt Fraction run), Spider-Man, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Harry Potter, Yuri on Ice, Leverage, The Martian, the Tumblr phenomenon of Wacky Human Shenanigans in Space, and an short but adorable original fic.
Get Better by absternr
[Hawkeye (Matt Fraction), Gen, PG, 1:52 minutes]
Summary: I'm trying to get better because I haven't been my best.
Rec Notes: I realize Vividcon just happened, but I haven't viewed much that came out of it yet (I have tabs open...), and I wanted some vids for this list so I had to go a little further back in my bookmarks. This is from Festivids 2016 and not only is it a vid that's super well done, it's one that's super great to watch today. "We can get better," the lyrics go, "because we're not dead yet." And if there's one pair of poster children for optimism while overcoming a sense of defeat in the face of being half broken and facing mundane and/or overwhelming odds, it's Hawkeye and Hawkeye.
Just A Face on a Train by
katherynefromphilly
[Spider-Man, Gen, PG-13, 11.080 words]
Summary: As she approached the actually rather unremarkable looking young man, she felt a swell of doubt. Was he really who she’d thought he was? Spider-Man had been a giant of a man, someone she could easily imagine at the front of her train, gripping hundreds of webs with power enough to crush the train car into the shape of his body.
This boy looked barely able to carry his overstuffed backpack. With his Oxford shirt and jeans and neatly combed hair, he could have been the poster child for a 1950s science scholarship. Not someone you imagined facing down an eight-armed psychopath on a speeding train.
Half convinced she’d imagined the whole thing, Maggie crossed the diner and stepped up to his table. After a moment he noticed her, lifting his attention from an open book full of equations and cracker crumbs to look right at her.
All doubt vanished when Maggie looked into his blue eyes and round face. It was him. No question. It was Spider-Man, right here at her table, waiting to order breakfast from her.
Rec Notes: I originally bookmarked this fic in 2009 and it's been around since at least 2004 (on FF.net). I've run across it periodically but just, finally, got around to reading it within the last couple of weeks. This is based on that scene from the Sam Raimi films where Peter is unmasked amidst a train full of onlookers after having just saved their lives. They swear to keep his secret and they do. This fic picks up some time later from the perspective of someone who was on the train that day - Maggie - who's shocked to recognize one of her customers at the diner.
This is about the other people in the story, it's about grown-ups with skills organizing and the "hero" discovering (and accepting) they have back-up they didn't know about. This is about community and caring.
A lot of people have read this fic in the 15 years its been kicking around but if, like me, you've just never gotten around to it or if the new movie has just now drawn you in, then I offer you the link. Having seen the movie the scene is from isn't necessary as the text covers the essentials and it has aged very well. If you have read it before then I think it would also make for an excellent re-read.
A Summary of Hogwarts Houses by
cruvcio
[Harry Potter, Gen, PG, 4 still images]
Artist's Notes: Gryffindor - Do what is right
Ravenclaw - Do what is wise
Hufflepuff - Do what is fair
Slytherin - Do what is necessary
Rec Notes: It might be because my Harry Potter exposure has been erratic, but I've never seen the houses described this way and it's perfect. I'm not sure if that's original to cruvcio or not, but this has all been rendered beautifully regardless. The background images of space are tinted with muted versions of the house colors (Gryffindor, for example, is magenta and Hufflepuff is virtually gray) and the large text uses a font that evokes esoteric star chart markings.
Night is Young and the Music's High by
opalish
[Yuri on Ice, Yuuri/Victor, PG-13, 3.086 words]
Summary: "Best press conference ever," the Japanese Nationals silver medalist says when asked. “Ten out of ten, would medal again.”
"I would die for Katsuki-kun," Minami declares, with terrifying sincerity.
Rec Notes: This is SO FUNNY and I was just cackling. Yuuri doesn't know how he keeps ending up in these situations, all of his friends keep enabling these disasters rather than helping him avoid them, and of course there's plenty of camera footage. Sometimes (often times) from multiple angles.
I discovered I actually had two humorous YoI fics by Opalish shortlisted, so let me toss in the link to the other one as well (also very, very funny): The Unknown Unknown, a cracky superhero AU that is wonderfully ridiculous.
[Soft Color Victor and Yuuri] by
admemento
[Yuri on Ice, Yuuri/Victor, PG, 3 still images]
Summary: Three illustrations from my fan art book. :D
Rec Notes: Realistically rendered Yuuri and Victor kissing, either in a quiet moment or just oblivious to anything else around them. Isolated against a pale pink background, the color palatte is gorgeous. The first image is my favorite with them seated facing each other, legs around each others waists, and feet bare.
[The Sorcerer and the Dragon] by
the-knights-who-say-book
[Original, Gen, PG, 1.049 words]
Summary: When the sorcerer found the dragon, it was attacking a grape.
This was only possible because the dragon was not much larger than a grape itself, but she still had to do a double take to be sure the object it was fighting with such animosity was in fact inanimate.
Rec Notes: This is a short original ficlet that I had to go back and double check that I hadn't recced before because it's just so adorable surely I've shared it with the entire world by now?? But no, apparently I've been falling down on that possibility, so let me rectify some of that by telling y'all you should definitely take a few moments for this great little piece. It's just over a 1,000 words but manages to be adorable, pack in some really intriguing world-building hints, and set-up a delightful character dynamic.
Do You Even Grift? by
sixspades
[Leverage, Parker/Alec/Eliot, PG, 1 still image]
Artist's Notes: StreamWeek - Day 7, Leverage OT3 for @do-what-the-knight-tells-you <3
Rec Notes: Happy OT3! GORGEOUS with fabulous design, persepective, color, and lines.
Slip of the Tongue by
leveragehunters
[Avengers, Steve/Bucky, PG-13, 4.411 words]
Summary: When Bucky transferred to the new location he was expecting he'd have to get used to doing things differently. They were all part of the same coffee shop chain, but every store was a little bit unique. He wasn't expecting Steve, six foot plus of blue-eyed muscle who worked at the local bookstore and doctored his coffee with enough sugary syrup to feed an army of hummingbirds, or that getting used to him was going to feel so much like falling.
Rec Notes: I just discovered Leveragehunters fic this past spring (?!) and I'm so happy I did because everything I've read so far of theirs has been amazing. Mostly that's been some kind of fantasy AU, with or without a modern setting, but this one is a very sweet, low stress coffeeshop/bookstore AU. It will totally leave you smiling.
tweet meme: steve rogers edition by
livebloggingmydescentintomadness
[Avengers, Gen, PG-13, 20 still images]
Rec Notes: This marriage of tweets to various MCU Steve Rogers screencaps manges to encompass a large part of Steve Roger's personality in hilarious fashion. I mean, honestly, it's just spot on in numerous ways. For example: "I am a man with one simple mission in this life: To upgrade the fracas to a ruckus."
fumbling towards ecstasy by
interextrovert
[Avatar: the Last Airbender, Sokka/Zuko, NC-17, 9.492 words]
Summary: And, spirits help him, Zuko must be really tired, because he finds himself wanting to lean over and kiss Sokka until they’re both breathless and hot and panting.
Not again.
Rec Notes: Okay, this is a PWP as long as the W stands for "with". Or, as I put in my bookmark description, "not really a PWP, but pretty much a super sweet PWP with initial friends-to-lovers confusion followed by a couple months of foreplay". Er, I'm not doing so good at categorizing this fic, am I? Oh well. :) It really is super sweet and I believe it's a future fic (I've still only watched the first part of AtLA so I could be wrong on that!) which features some truly lovely descriptive language.
So about those space orcs... by
temporaldecay
[(see rec notes), Gen, PG, 1.103 words]
Summary: I’ve seen a lot of posts about humans pack-bonding with frankly everything, no matter how big, scary, threatening, lethal or oozy.
But you know what I haven’t seen?
Humans entrusting their young to their pack-bonded friends. Because that’s a thing we do. We entrust our children to our friends. We entrust our children to our dogs. We befriend the biggest, meanest, scariest shit, and then we dump our defenseless, hasn’t-even-got-a-fully-fused-skull-yet offspring on them. Half for shits-and-giggles, half because it’s cute, mostly because children are exhausting and we need a nanny.
Rec Notes: This isn't a proper fic, more fun imaginings with ficbit than anything, but I really love the Wacky Humans in Space mythos that's emerged from Tumblr, the one where all the alien species side-eye the humans as horrifyingly blase about the situations the aliens themselves find incredibly dangerous. This came out of the idea to flip the script: usually humans are afraid of aliens, what if it was the other way around and our resilience as a species and the wide range of environments on Earth where we've mostly mastered survival have all left us the wild and wacky cousins of the universe? Whether this came out of some of the hilarious yarn spinning regarding original Trek and Vulcan and Human interaction or they evolved alongside each other I don't actually remember, but it all makes me laugh. This one is original universe with bonus space dog. (The dog may be a xenomorph. Whatever. Totally pettable.)
Pompeii by
milly
[The Martian, Gen, PG, 2:45 minutes]
Summary: "In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option, I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this." Made for VVC 2016.
Rec Notes: I've said before optimism is Mark Watney's super power. I've fought various depths of depression my entire life and lost (and won) more times than I count. His knowledge and resilience may have technically saved him but it would have meant less that nothing without optimism. Having just re-watched it, I can say this vid still makes me cry in the best way.
Crossposted to Dreamwidth. Comment here or there. ♥ Blue :)
Fandoms below the cut include Avengers, Hawkeye (Matt Fraction run), Spider-Man, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Harry Potter, Yuri on Ice, Leverage, The Martian, the Tumblr phenomenon of Wacky Human Shenanigans in Space, and an short but adorable original fic.
Get Better by absternr
[Hawkeye (Matt Fraction), Gen, PG, 1:52 minutes]
Summary: I'm trying to get better because I haven't been my best.
Rec Notes: I realize Vividcon just happened, but I haven't viewed much that came out of it yet (I have tabs open...), and I wanted some vids for this list so I had to go a little further back in my bookmarks. This is from Festivids 2016 and not only is it a vid that's super well done, it's one that's super great to watch today. "We can get better," the lyrics go, "because we're not dead yet." And if there's one pair of poster children for optimism while overcoming a sense of defeat in the face of being half broken and facing mundane and/or overwhelming odds, it's Hawkeye and Hawkeye.
Just A Face on a Train by
katherynefromphilly
[Spider-Man, Gen, PG-13, 11.080 words]
Summary: As she approached the actually rather unremarkable looking young man, she felt a swell of doubt. Was he really who she’d thought he was? Spider-Man had been a giant of a man, someone she could easily imagine at the front of her train, gripping hundreds of webs with power enough to crush the train car into the shape of his body.
This boy looked barely able to carry his overstuffed backpack. With his Oxford shirt and jeans and neatly combed hair, he could have been the poster child for a 1950s science scholarship. Not someone you imagined facing down an eight-armed psychopath on a speeding train.
Half convinced she’d imagined the whole thing, Maggie crossed the diner and stepped up to his table. After a moment he noticed her, lifting his attention from an open book full of equations and cracker crumbs to look right at her.
All doubt vanished when Maggie looked into his blue eyes and round face. It was him. No question. It was Spider-Man, right here at her table, waiting to order breakfast from her.
Rec Notes: I originally bookmarked this fic in 2009 and it's been around since at least 2004 (on FF.net). I've run across it periodically but just, finally, got around to reading it within the last couple of weeks. This is based on that scene from the Sam Raimi films where Peter is unmasked amidst a train full of onlookers after having just saved their lives. They swear to keep his secret and they do. This fic picks up some time later from the perspective of someone who was on the train that day - Maggie - who's shocked to recognize one of her customers at the diner.
This is about the other people in the story, it's about grown-ups with skills organizing and the "hero" discovering (and accepting) they have back-up they didn't know about. This is about community and caring.
A lot of people have read this fic in the 15 years its been kicking around but if, like me, you've just never gotten around to it or if the new movie has just now drawn you in, then I offer you the link. Having seen the movie the scene is from isn't necessary as the text covers the essentials and it has aged very well. If you have read it before then I think it would also make for an excellent re-read.
A Summary of Hogwarts Houses by
cruvcio
[Harry Potter, Gen, PG, 4 still images]
Artist's Notes: Gryffindor - Do what is right
Ravenclaw - Do what is wise
Hufflepuff - Do what is fair
Slytherin - Do what is necessary
Rec Notes: It might be because my Harry Potter exposure has been erratic, but I've never seen the houses described this way and it's perfect. I'm not sure if that's original to cruvcio or not, but this has all been rendered beautifully regardless. The background images of space are tinted with muted versions of the house colors (Gryffindor, for example, is magenta and Hufflepuff is virtually gray) and the large text uses a font that evokes esoteric star chart markings.
Night is Young and the Music's High by
opalish
[Yuri on Ice, Yuuri/Victor, PG-13, 3.086 words]
Summary: "Best press conference ever," the Japanese Nationals silver medalist says when asked. “Ten out of ten, would medal again.”
"I would die for Katsuki-kun," Minami declares, with terrifying sincerity.
Rec Notes: This is SO FUNNY and I was just cackling. Yuuri doesn't know how he keeps ending up in these situations, all of his friends keep enabling these disasters rather than helping him avoid them, and of course there's plenty of camera footage. Sometimes (often times) from multiple angles.
I discovered I actually had two humorous YoI fics by Opalish shortlisted, so let me toss in the link to the other one as well (also very, very funny): The Unknown Unknown, a cracky superhero AU that is wonderfully ridiculous.
[Soft Color Victor and Yuuri] by
admemento
[Yuri on Ice, Yuuri/Victor, PG, 3 still images]
Summary: Three illustrations from my fan art book. :D
Rec Notes: Realistically rendered Yuuri and Victor kissing, either in a quiet moment or just oblivious to anything else around them. Isolated against a pale pink background, the color palatte is gorgeous. The first image is my favorite with them seated facing each other, legs around each others waists, and feet bare.
[The Sorcerer and the Dragon] by
the-knights-who-say-book
[Original, Gen, PG, 1.049 words]
Summary: When the sorcerer found the dragon, it was attacking a grape.
This was only possible because the dragon was not much larger than a grape itself, but she still had to do a double take to be sure the object it was fighting with such animosity was in fact inanimate.
Rec Notes: This is a short original ficlet that I had to go back and double check that I hadn't recced before because it's just so adorable surely I've shared it with the entire world by now?? But no, apparently I've been falling down on that possibility, so let me rectify some of that by telling y'all you should definitely take a few moments for this great little piece. It's just over a 1,000 words but manages to be adorable, pack in some really intriguing world-building hints, and set-up a delightful character dynamic.
Do You Even Grift? by
sixspades
[Leverage, Parker/Alec/Eliot, PG, 1 still image]
Artist's Notes: StreamWeek - Day 7, Leverage OT3 for @do-what-the-knight-tells-you <3
Rec Notes: Happy OT3! GORGEOUS with fabulous design, persepective, color, and lines.
Slip of the Tongue by
leveragehunters
[Avengers, Steve/Bucky, PG-13, 4.411 words]
Summary: When Bucky transferred to the new location he was expecting he'd have to get used to doing things differently. They were all part of the same coffee shop chain, but every store was a little bit unique. He wasn't expecting Steve, six foot plus of blue-eyed muscle who worked at the local bookstore and doctored his coffee with enough sugary syrup to feed an army of hummingbirds, or that getting used to him was going to feel so much like falling.
Rec Notes: I just discovered Leveragehunters fic this past spring (?!) and I'm so happy I did because everything I've read so far of theirs has been amazing. Mostly that's been some kind of fantasy AU, with or without a modern setting, but this one is a very sweet, low stress coffeeshop/bookstore AU. It will totally leave you smiling.
tweet meme: steve rogers edition by
livebloggingmydescentintomadness
[Avengers, Gen, PG-13, 20 still images]
Rec Notes: This marriage of tweets to various MCU Steve Rogers screencaps manges to encompass a large part of Steve Roger's personality in hilarious fashion. I mean, honestly, it's just spot on in numerous ways. For example: "I am a man with one simple mission in this life: To upgrade the fracas to a ruckus."
fumbling towards ecstasy by
interextrovert
[Avatar: the Last Airbender, Sokka/Zuko, NC-17, 9.492 words]
Summary: And, spirits help him, Zuko must be really tired, because he finds himself wanting to lean over and kiss Sokka until they’re both breathless and hot and panting.
Not again.
Rec Notes: Okay, this is a PWP as long as the W stands for "with". Or, as I put in my bookmark description, "not really a PWP, but pretty much a super sweet PWP with initial friends-to-lovers confusion followed by a couple months of foreplay". Er, I'm not doing so good at categorizing this fic, am I? Oh well. :) It really is super sweet and I believe it's a future fic (I've still only watched the first part of AtLA so I could be wrong on that!) which features some truly lovely descriptive language.
So about those space orcs... by
temporaldecay
[(see rec notes), Gen, PG, 1.103 words]
Summary: I’ve seen a lot of posts about humans pack-bonding with frankly everything, no matter how big, scary, threatening, lethal or oozy.
But you know what I haven’t seen?
Humans entrusting their young to their pack-bonded friends. Because that’s a thing we do. We entrust our children to our friends. We entrust our children to our dogs. We befriend the biggest, meanest, scariest shit, and then we dump our defenseless, hasn’t-even-got-a-fully-fused-skull-yet offspring on them. Half for shits-and-giggles, half because it’s cute, mostly because children are exhausting and we need a nanny.
Rec Notes: This isn't a proper fic, more fun imaginings with ficbit than anything, but I really love the Wacky Humans in Space mythos that's emerged from Tumblr, the one where all the alien species side-eye the humans as horrifyingly blase about the situations the aliens themselves find incredibly dangerous. This came out of the idea to flip the script: usually humans are afraid of aliens, what if it was the other way around and our resilience as a species and the wide range of environments on Earth where we've mostly mastered survival have all left us the wild and wacky cousins of the universe? Whether this came out of some of the hilarious yarn spinning regarding original Trek and Vulcan and Human interaction or they evolved alongside each other I don't actually remember, but it all makes me laugh. This one is original universe with bonus space dog. (The dog may be a xenomorph. Whatever. Totally pettable.)
Pompeii by
milly
[The Martian, Gen, PG, 2:45 minutes]
Summary: "In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option, I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this." Made for VVC 2016.
Rec Notes: I've said before optimism is Mark Watney's super power. I've fought various depths of depression my entire life and lost (and won) more times than I count. His knowledge and resilience may have technically saved him but it would have meant less that nothing without optimism. Having just re-watched it, I can say this vid still makes me cry in the best way.
Crossposted to Dreamwidth. Comment here or there. ♥ Blue :)