Chocolate Box Recs, Part 2
Original Fiction
Road, Wind, Cactus. There is a long highway that stretches through a desert with many names, and somewhere on it sits a coffee shop.
A story about a coffee shop that sometimes has milk and often has sand, where the baking is fresh, the soup's meat is real, the waitress is part metal and radiation storms haven't been seen for decades.
Star makes drinks. Ruger makes promises. And between them, they have a dream.
A post-apocalyptic slice of life, with real-feeling characters, excellent worldbuilding, and a humane, "life goes on" sensibility.
Interesting Strangers. Butch Space Mercenary/Butch Space Mercenary. A stranger, a bar fight, and a good time. Just another night on Phoenix Station.
Funny and sweet, set in a scruffy, livable-feeling future where the bars have servo-mechs but the space stations are still vainly trying to ban durians. Also, spanking.
Black Sails
Relentless Pursuit. John Silver/Miranda Barlow. Silver tries to get some info from Miranda, and Miranda gets some fun out of him. No on-page sex; this is all about the games and maneuvering leading up to it.
Hamilton
It Must Be Nice. Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton. Fully three-quarters of what he knows about Aaron Burr he knows because of Alexander Hamilton. The most personal things Burr himself has unstopped his mouth long enough to say to him directly have been, effectively, I have a lot of money and pull, so don't fuck with me and I have a coat that same color. Inspiring stuff.
Intense, sharply written story from Washington's perspective, with vivid imagery, a ton of great lines, and a cameo by the feral tomcat Martha Washington named after him.
Benjamin January
The Devil's in the Moon. Ben/Rose/Shaw. Shaw doesn't mean to get himself shot, or to drag himself and his hairy, fanged problem to the Januarys' doorstep. But fate has a way of taking matters into its own hands.
Really sweet h/c, with Shaw as a very plausible werewolf. Dogs don't like to be bathed.
Madoka Magica
And the Stars are Watching Me. Madoka/Homura. “What if I wished for the stars?” Madoka asked. [...] “What if I wished we could just leave here, and-and see all the rest of the planets out there, explore forever without ever seeing any witches ever again?”
Short and heartbreaking.
Crossposted to https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2184404.html. Comment here or there.
Road, Wind, Cactus. There is a long highway that stretches through a desert with many names, and somewhere on it sits a coffee shop.
A story about a coffee shop that sometimes has milk and often has sand, where the baking is fresh, the soup's meat is real, the waitress is part metal and radiation storms haven't been seen for decades.
Star makes drinks. Ruger makes promises. And between them, they have a dream.
A post-apocalyptic slice of life, with real-feeling characters, excellent worldbuilding, and a humane, "life goes on" sensibility.
Interesting Strangers. Butch Space Mercenary/Butch Space Mercenary. A stranger, a bar fight, and a good time. Just another night on Phoenix Station.
Funny and sweet, set in a scruffy, livable-feeling future where the bars have servo-mechs but the space stations are still vainly trying to ban durians. Also, spanking.
Black Sails
Relentless Pursuit. John Silver/Miranda Barlow. Silver tries to get some info from Miranda, and Miranda gets some fun out of him. No on-page sex; this is all about the games and maneuvering leading up to it.
Hamilton
It Must Be Nice. Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton. Fully three-quarters of what he knows about Aaron Burr he knows because of Alexander Hamilton. The most personal things Burr himself has unstopped his mouth long enough to say to him directly have been, effectively, I have a lot of money and pull, so don't fuck with me and I have a coat that same color. Inspiring stuff.
Intense, sharply written story from Washington's perspective, with vivid imagery, a ton of great lines, and a cameo by the feral tomcat Martha Washington named after him.
Benjamin January
The Devil's in the Moon. Ben/Rose/Shaw. Shaw doesn't mean to get himself shot, or to drag himself and his hairy, fanged problem to the Januarys' doorstep. But fate has a way of taking matters into its own hands.
Really sweet h/c, with Shaw as a very plausible werewolf. Dogs don't like to be bathed.
Madoka Magica
And the Stars are Watching Me. Madoka/Homura. “What if I wished for the stars?” Madoka asked. [...] “What if I wished we could just leave here, and-and see all the rest of the planets out there, explore forever without ever seeing any witches ever again?”
Short and heartbreaking.
Crossposted to https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2184404.html. Comment here or there.