(no subject)
So in my Methodology course, there's this one guy, who only ever speaks up once per class, but I always have to brace myself when he does. Because every time, he always goes on this weird, rambling, philosophy-of-life speech that only relates to the actual subject matter in the vaguest of tangents. And it's always this big humanistic Christian screed, too. I don't shove my atheism in your face, why can't you have the same courtesy? Also, since at the time we were talking about various Enlightenment philosophers, Christian philosophy=ironic.
Anyway. Have some recs.
Criminal Minds
Landlocked Blues (Rossi/Reid)
--> So, this story is written by the same person who wrote my personal favorite, Upward Over the Mountain, and the phenomenal Rossi/Reid friendship from that story can be seen here developing into something different, to fantastic effect. The story goes from Rossi joining the team to Hayley's death and a little beyond, the tangled story of Rossi and Reid coming to some common ground despite the wild differences between them. And, seriously, this story is just so funny, in that way that can whiplash to serious and feel like an emotional punch, and then back to hilarious while you're still catching your breath. Brilliant.
DCU
Contingency (Bruce/Dick)
--> Alfred collapses from heart trouble, and in the ensuing panic and the later scramble to get him cared for and settled, Bruce and Dick are starting to think about other things that went wrong in their lives, and other things they can't risk leaving till it's too late.
Ties That Bind (Bruce/Dick)
--> In which Dick has a less than brilliant plan and ends up getting himself drugged up on sketchy sex pollen and sold in a sex slave auction. Luckily Bruce is there to buy him (ahahaha) and then later they end up going back undercover to dismantle the operation with... interesting results. The concept is hilarious, but it's Dick's "ah, well, fml" reaction to everything that sells it, and the banter between him and Bruce and Tim is really the best part.
Glee
Born in a Small Town (gen, background Kurt/Blaine)
--> Set in the middle of "Regionals," it's Burt figuring out pretty quick that Kurt and Blaine finally got together, and then talking about it. Well-written Hummel stories never fail to make me all gooey inside. They're so awesome.
comes and goes in a minute (Kurt/Blaine)
--> Years in the future, Kurt runs into Blaine in a grocery store on Valentine's Day. This entire thing is straight out of romantic comedy, and that is why it's awesome.
Sieze the Time (Kurt/Blaine)
--> AU in which everyone ends up working on Star Trek: The Musical, and Kurt is on the makeup team. Very sweet story about dreams left behind and dreams fullfilled, and I really liked the way Blaine "rescues" him in this version. It's really smart and funny and clever. (And all of the Star Trek references kept me in stitches.)
The Winding Paths By Moonlight (Kurt/Blaine)
--> In which Blaine captures people's dreams in bottles and then finds them to make them come true. And then one day he gets Kurt's dream, and finds him to be a very tough customer indeed. Blaine is more than a bit slow on the uptake in this one, but it's a really lovely and lyrical story getting there, and the last line was just awesome.
What to Do (Kurt/Blaine)
--> When Blaine drops off the face of the Dalton map, Kurt gets worried and goes looking for him, only to find that Blaine's suffered a death in the family. Luckily for him, Kurt is there with all the little, practical help that really matters in a crisis. This is so sweet.
Hawaii Five-0
How to Keep Your Mouth Shut (Steve/Danny)
--> In which Danny does guys, sometimes, and that comes back to bite him on the ass during a case, and then they all move on. Well, mostly. Everyone is note-perfect in this, and the sheer levels of emotional deficiency will keep you in stitches.
Inception
At Home in the Sea (Athur/Eames)
--> A wandering history of Arthur and Eames, from a very unusual take on their first meeting, up through Inception and beyond. This was an oddly unsentimental view of them, and yet still somehow soft around the edges, fondness maybe. Really, really good.
Breaking and Entering (Arthur/Eames)
--> Really clever, sharp-edged look at the consequences of the verging-on-sociopathy mentality of your average talented con man. Or, Eames finds out Arthur is in love with him, and they both know Eames isn't capable of loving Arthur back. That doesn't make him stop wanting to, however. And Eames is very good at pretending.
Merely Players (Arthur/Eames)
--> This story is brilliant. It is intelligent, and clever, and heartfelt, and has note-perfect character voices, and is brutally unsentimental in a way that is necessary to really sell a proper romance. It wanders through the history of Eames, and how he was a forger long before he discovered dreamsharing, able to find out what someone wanted and slip into that skin without a second thought. I was particularly fascinated by the girl he fell in love with in college, and her resemblance to Arthur, and how utterly fucked it became when Eames couldn't hold up his forge forever. And eventually, the story wanders into Arthur, who despises forgers, and that's when it really starts to get interesting. It's technically two stories, but they're more like two halves, not just because of the somewhat cliffhanger ending of the first, but because the second makes for such a brilliant mirror of the first. Because eventually, see, Eames is going to find something he can't lie his way into getting. It all works out in the end, of course, but it's sort of brutal and funny and heartbroken all the way through. Really genius.
These fragments I have shored against my ruins (Arthur/Eames)
--> This story made me sigh "Oh, Arthur" a lot. Like, a lot. Set during the Inception job, it's Arthur trying to hold everything together, overtired and under way too much stress and responsibility and worn down to the bone and just trying to see everything through. He's in love with Eames, he can't leave Cobb to destroy himself, he has to teach a new architect on the biggest job of his career, he has to be family to Cobb's children. And he gets through it somehow, and at the end, maybe, he might even begin to understand why Eames is still coming around.
Iron Man
common pleasure (Tony/Pepper)
--> Tony comes back all bruised and messed-up from saving someone in some third-world country, and Pepper sort of takes care of him. Except what starts as a hurt/comfort setup turns sad and edged and just a bit kinked, and then mellowed and tender and wistful. A story more about the progression of emotion than the progression of narrative, if that makes any sense at all, but it's a really lovely first time story.
Drive (Tony/Pepper)
--> Post-IM2, Pepper proposes a friends-with-benefits relationship instead, and Tony goes along with it. Not surprisingly, this doesn't turn out well for either of them. This seemed almost startlingly unsentimental at parts, but there was a delightful build under the surface, and it worked out really well.
Lost Girl
Heavy In Your Arms (Dyson/Bo)
--> Angst and porn, two great tastes that taste great together. It's a great character study of Dyson trying and failing at having a casual relationship. I like the bit about him wanting to give her what she needed because it was easier than trying to figure out what he wanted. Short but sweet.
Marvel Comics
A Window In the Sky (Steve/Tony)
--> An AU based on Marvel Noir, where Captain America and Tony keep having run-ins throughout the course of the war. The structure was really unusual and worked surprisingly well, with each scene being from Bucky's point of view followed by a related tag from Tony's. But Steve is more Cap-ish than ever in this, and that makes it pretty fantastic. Plus, Marvels-correspondent-Pepper is the greatest thing, especially when she starts bickering with Tony.
Engaging the Enemy (Steve/Tony)
--> AU where Iron Man is a not-so-villainous villain with a predilection for kidnapping Captain America. Seriously, this is just about the most adorable thing, and I laughed out loud a dozen times, everything from Thor's pirated anime addiction to Steve being used as bait. So awesome.
Extinction (Steve/Tony)
--> Someone does a spell that brings a bunch of exhibits to life in a museum Iron Man is supposed to be guarding, and then Cap shows up riding a dinosaur. Because, seriously, if you had the chance, wouldn't you? Madcap and charming, and I saw the twist coming from a mile away but it still hit hard nonetheless. So good.
falling on a grenade (Steve/Tony)
--> In which Tony accidentally reveals his feelings for Steve in a moment of weakness, and Steve can't return them. Sad and edgy, really well done.
Horn and Ivory (Steve/Tony)
--> Fusion with Inception, in which Cap got his original war training courtesy of a PASIV and can't believe that it isn't a dream when he wakes up in the future, no matter what his totem tells him. It's the stuff down in Tony's subconscious that makes it really interesting, though. And I liked the ending a lot.
Hypotenuse (Steve/Tony)
--> Kind of messed-up story where Steve breaks up with Tony because he'd rather be with Iron Man instead. Identity fuckery, as might be expected from Tony's interesting self-esteem issues, ensues. Happy ending, though.
Look Here, Look Back, Look Ahead (Steve/Tony)
--> Marvel Noir, where Tony gets shot down over the Carpathian Mountains, rescued by Captain America, and ends up going on a joint mission to attack a Nazi stronghold in a magical castle. Except Captain America reminds Tony way too much of a skinny art student he knew...
Secrets of a Sucessful Marriage (Steve/Tony)
--> Adorable AU in which Tony is a supervillain and he and Steve are married, and then one day Red Skull unmasks Captain America in front of him and it all changes. Madcap and fun, Pepper as Rampage is one of my favorite things ever, though the argument over the fish (you'll know) is definitely the shining moment of awesome.
Sense and Sensibility
untitled wedding night fic (Colonel Brandon/Marianne Dashwood)
--> In which Marianne, in her own virginal, Victorian sort of way, tops the shit out of her new husband on their wedding night. Yeah.
Sherlock
All That I Have (John/Sherlock)
--> After the Pool, Sherlock can't stand the idea that John might be gone from him someday, and becomes rather alarmingly clingy. John deals with this with his usual grace, and things go rather charmingly from there.
Down the Pub with the Rugby Lads (John/Sherlock)
--> An everyday, normal sort of story, in which John gets together with some old friends and has to explain Sherlock's presence in his life. This was everything I wanted it to be and more.
The Love Song of Two Idiots (Sherlock/John)
--> Ahahaha, oh my god, this story. Sherlock proposes to John eight times, amidst much drama and bickering, and John never takes him seriously, and it all comes to a head in a fight in the middle of Tesco's and it's so. damn. funny. They are both such morons. Good thing they get it right eventually.
Star Trek Reboot
Hand Over Fist (girl!Kirk/Uhura)
--> Gaila is gone for a semester and Uhura gets Jane Kirk as a temporary roommate. Who drives her crazy. And, as she eventually realizes, maybe not even for the reasons that she thinks.
Supernatural
All Come Back Around (Dean/Castiel, Sam/Gabriel)
--> Sam gets into a fight with Gabriel when his personality becomes a little bit too much to bear, and says a few things that hit a little too close to home. And then it's a case of "careful what you wish for," because Gabriel tries to be the perfect angel while Sam (and everyone else) is slowly being driven crazy by the pod-Gabriel.
Temeraire
Two, Side By Side (gen)
--> GENIUS. The story of how woman became the major aviatrixes in Chinese culture, a retelling of the Mulan story. So cool.
Thor
Chaos War (Thor/Loki)
--> This story manages to be both hilarious and clever, the way astolat's stories always manage to be. There's a war going on in Asgard, invaders from elsewhere, and Odin, in his wisdom, decides to hand the throne over to Loki as the new war leader. And the thing is, under Loki they start to win. I loved the progression of this story, especially when it finally came clear how Loki was winning, and what it cost him, and I very much enjoyed the dawning understanding through Thor's eyes. Really, really good story.
Uru (Thor/Jane)
--> A really interesting version of the go-between trope, done in a spare, thoughtful style.
White Collar
The Hired Man (Neal/Peter/Elizabeth)
--> AU where Peter is ex-FBI, and Neal ends up hiring him as a bodyguard. And then things get... out of hand. Not that Neal notices immediately. It takes Elizabeth added to the mix before they all manage to figure things out.
X-Men First Class
All the Worlds In Between (Charles/Erik)
--> AU where Erik is the idealistic nation-builder, and Charles is the bitter cynic with his own agenda. Or in this case, the CIA's agenda. He and Raven went into their care when young, and it didn't do much good to their moral maps. I liked how the author managed to keep a lot of the important parts of Charles and Erik the same despite the switch-around, and I liked Charles and Raven's codependent relationship, and the troubles that Charles has with his own power in a world where he doesn't use it the same. I didn't like the overuse of the slang "cat" in the beginning, but it tapers off quickly. And the ending was brilliant.
Any Measure of Peace (Charles/Erik)
--> EPIC fix-it fic, where no one was dumb enough to fire any missiles, and Charles and Erik go about trying to build their school and their new lives. Only Erik holds back from a greater intimacy, because he's got so much ~darkness~ in him and stuff, and there's all sorts of other stuff going on caught between Stryker and Fury. And one of the themes is about war vs. peace, but much more subtle and complicated than it was done in the movie. And maybe there's a place for both of their views. Very, very nice story.
Acquired Tastes (Charles/Erik)
--> In which Charles and Erik enjoy food, and other simple pleasures. I don't know exactly what about this that worked so well for me, it's so matter-of-fact and ordinary and everyday. But it does have a number of really lovely lines. One of my favorites: Surely even Charles cannot guess just how deep the well of him goes: it's a lie he's willing to tell himself.
center of balance (gen)
--> five mutants Charles never met at age 12, from the lovely to the terrifying, and somewhere in between. (Charles and Emma, I thought, was particularly brilliant.) And then an absolutely adorable coda of him and Raven.
Cotton Walls (Charles/Erik)
--> In large cities, Charles has trouble controlling his telepathy; while on their recruiting trip, Charles has to try to do it anyway. Things go... not well. This has a certain amount of sharp-edged hurt/comfort: Charles needs Erik to anchor him, but some of the things slipping through are pretty horrifying. Slightly dubcon, in the sense that both of them want the other but the circumstances are less than ideal. Really good, though, and I liked the idea of an equally terrible downside for such an incredible power.
Five Minds Charles Never Read (And One He Did) (Charles/Erik)
--> Does exactly what it says on the tin, and yet somehow manages to express something beyond the brief sketch of scenes. It also made for a really powerful build to the last scene with Erik, which stuck with me more than I thought it would.
Hurts to Think About (Charles/Erik)
--> Erik likes a little pain with his pleasure, but can't cope with recieving it from a partner. Except Charles, thanks to his telepathy, has a rather clever way around the restrictions. Interesting, sexy, with some even more interesting telepathy-related negotiation. I really liked this.
i guess i should say thanks or some shit (Charles/Erik)
--> This is... an AU where Charles drops out of school to waste his trust fund in Amsterdam and Erik is there doing... something. And they drink a lot and do realy stupid things together. This is... okay, not gonna lie, this is basically a story about how they're both douches. But it works, oddly, this is a world mostly without the drama and opression and despair, and so the sweeping ideals just... aren't needed. All that's left is their oddball lives and half-assed notions of everyday morality. They're not bad people, but they're not really good either. Whatever, it's really funny (hot girl dancing! the bikes! pretty much every bit of internal monologue Charles has ever!) and surprisingly thoughtful.
I Would Wish This Scar (Charles/Erik)
--> This is hurt/comfort of the very finest vintage, not normally a theme I enjoy much but this is so well-done it's become a favorite. Erik has learned to hide his scars as a matter of course, but Charles, as it turns out, wants quite a lot to be allowed to see them. And it's not fetishizing exactly, it's rather sweetly wrapped up in the whole of who he knows Erik to be. And while Charles' scars aren't written on his skin, it doesn't mean he doesn't have any. Just, really good.
Not So Much the Teacup (Charles/Erik)
--> AU where Erik is Shaw's architect and Charles is planning Shaw's wedding to Emma. He's like the BRIDE WHISPERER. It's like he can READ THEIR MINDS. Seriously, I have no idea how this story manages to be so utterly charming, but it's a miracle.
Office Hours (Charles/Erik, genish)
--> This is sort of bitterly funny. But mostly just hilarious. Charles is having a really bad day and Erik breaks in while he's trying to sleep to ask a rather unusual favor. I laughed at this. Like, a lot.
Surface Tension (Charles/Erik)
--> Oh my, this story. In which Erik doesn't leave Charles on the beach, and Charles doesn't magically get over the most traumatic experience of his life. But they work it out anyway, slowly but surely, they piece themselves back together. Not what they had before, but something new. Thoguhtful, a little sad, very sweet.
Time to Grow (Charles/Erik)
--> Very slight AU where Erik makes sure that Charles gets from the beach to a hospital in time, and they start up a correspondence that's mostly a battle over their ideological views, and maybe, if Charles figures things out, a whole lot more. A really interesting philosophical discourse as well as a well-done romance.
Wages (Charles/Erik)
--> Hell yes, Regency AU. With a whole bucketload of beautiful repressed kink. Kind of dubcon in its setup, but- well, everything is not as it seems, naturally, and Charles pretty clearly wants/instigates everything that happens in his own fumbling virginal way. But still, I love the contrast of the two sex scenes, one when everything is still confused and one where they work things out, where all the edges and breathless tension are transmuted to something warmer and sweeter. I've read this like ten times already, it's that great.
Where There Is Darkness (Charles/Erik)
--> Oh man, this. I love how fandom sometimes manages to do really astoundingly clever things. Many, many years in the future, a woman interviews Charles and Erik for a newspaper article about the towering giants of mutant history. I love how this author managed to take the background changes of First Class and really run with them, to create an entirely different world.
You Know My Name (Charles/Erik)
--> Spy AU! Erik is James Bond, and Charles is his Bond girl, how is this not genius? I was expecting it to be all kinds of wacky and hilarious, and it kind of was- Charles and his array of phallic names, for example- but it was also something else altogether.
your position on the bridge (as it burns) (Charles/Erik)
--> Post-movie, they work their way back into some kind of truce, with telepathic chess games and Erik helping to build Cerebro. And for a while, you're reading it and you think that maybe they'll get a happy ending... but the title warns you otherwise. It feels sort of inevitable.
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Anyway. Have some recs.
Criminal Minds
Landlocked Blues (Rossi/Reid)
--> So, this story is written by the same person who wrote my personal favorite, Upward Over the Mountain, and the phenomenal Rossi/Reid friendship from that story can be seen here developing into something different, to fantastic effect. The story goes from Rossi joining the team to Hayley's death and a little beyond, the tangled story of Rossi and Reid coming to some common ground despite the wild differences between them. And, seriously, this story is just so funny, in that way that can whiplash to serious and feel like an emotional punch, and then back to hilarious while you're still catching your breath. Brilliant.
DCU
Contingency (Bruce/Dick)
--> Alfred collapses from heart trouble, and in the ensuing panic and the later scramble to get him cared for and settled, Bruce and Dick are starting to think about other things that went wrong in their lives, and other things they can't risk leaving till it's too late.
Ties That Bind (Bruce/Dick)
--> In which Dick has a less than brilliant plan and ends up getting himself drugged up on sketchy sex pollen and sold in a sex slave auction. Luckily Bruce is there to buy him (ahahaha) and then later they end up going back undercover to dismantle the operation with... interesting results. The concept is hilarious, but it's Dick's "ah, well, fml" reaction to everything that sells it, and the banter between him and Bruce and Tim is really the best part.
Glee
Born in a Small Town (gen, background Kurt/Blaine)
--> Set in the middle of "Regionals," it's Burt figuring out pretty quick that Kurt and Blaine finally got together, and then talking about it. Well-written Hummel stories never fail to make me all gooey inside. They're so awesome.
comes and goes in a minute (Kurt/Blaine)
--> Years in the future, Kurt runs into Blaine in a grocery store on Valentine's Day. This entire thing is straight out of romantic comedy, and that is why it's awesome.
Sieze the Time (Kurt/Blaine)
--> AU in which everyone ends up working on Star Trek: The Musical, and Kurt is on the makeup team. Very sweet story about dreams left behind and dreams fullfilled, and I really liked the way Blaine "rescues" him in this version. It's really smart and funny and clever. (And all of the Star Trek references kept me in stitches.)
The Winding Paths By Moonlight (Kurt/Blaine)
--> In which Blaine captures people's dreams in bottles and then finds them to make them come true. And then one day he gets Kurt's dream, and finds him to be a very tough customer indeed. Blaine is more than a bit slow on the uptake in this one, but it's a really lovely and lyrical story getting there, and the last line was just awesome.
What to Do (Kurt/Blaine)
--> When Blaine drops off the face of the Dalton map, Kurt gets worried and goes looking for him, only to find that Blaine's suffered a death in the family. Luckily for him, Kurt is there with all the little, practical help that really matters in a crisis. This is so sweet.
Hawaii Five-0
How to Keep Your Mouth Shut (Steve/Danny)
--> In which Danny does guys, sometimes, and that comes back to bite him on the ass during a case, and then they all move on. Well, mostly. Everyone is note-perfect in this, and the sheer levels of emotional deficiency will keep you in stitches.
Inception
At Home in the Sea (Athur/Eames)
--> A wandering history of Arthur and Eames, from a very unusual take on their first meeting, up through Inception and beyond. This was an oddly unsentimental view of them, and yet still somehow soft around the edges, fondness maybe. Really, really good.
Breaking and Entering (Arthur/Eames)
--> Really clever, sharp-edged look at the consequences of the verging-on-sociopathy mentality of your average talented con man. Or, Eames finds out Arthur is in love with him, and they both know Eames isn't capable of loving Arthur back. That doesn't make him stop wanting to, however. And Eames is very good at pretending.
Merely Players (Arthur/Eames)
--> This story is brilliant. It is intelligent, and clever, and heartfelt, and has note-perfect character voices, and is brutally unsentimental in a way that is necessary to really sell a proper romance. It wanders through the history of Eames, and how he was a forger long before he discovered dreamsharing, able to find out what someone wanted and slip into that skin without a second thought. I was particularly fascinated by the girl he fell in love with in college, and her resemblance to Arthur, and how utterly fucked it became when Eames couldn't hold up his forge forever. And eventually, the story wanders into Arthur, who despises forgers, and that's when it really starts to get interesting. It's technically two stories, but they're more like two halves, not just because of the somewhat cliffhanger ending of the first, but because the second makes for such a brilliant mirror of the first. Because eventually, see, Eames is going to find something he can't lie his way into getting. It all works out in the end, of course, but it's sort of brutal and funny and heartbroken all the way through. Really genius.
These fragments I have shored against my ruins (Arthur/Eames)
--> This story made me sigh "Oh, Arthur" a lot. Like, a lot. Set during the Inception job, it's Arthur trying to hold everything together, overtired and under way too much stress and responsibility and worn down to the bone and just trying to see everything through. He's in love with Eames, he can't leave Cobb to destroy himself, he has to teach a new architect on the biggest job of his career, he has to be family to Cobb's children. And he gets through it somehow, and at the end, maybe, he might even begin to understand why Eames is still coming around.
Iron Man
common pleasure (Tony/Pepper)
--> Tony comes back all bruised and messed-up from saving someone in some third-world country, and Pepper sort of takes care of him. Except what starts as a hurt/comfort setup turns sad and edged and just a bit kinked, and then mellowed and tender and wistful. A story more about the progression of emotion than the progression of narrative, if that makes any sense at all, but it's a really lovely first time story.
Drive (Tony/Pepper)
--> Post-IM2, Pepper proposes a friends-with-benefits relationship instead, and Tony goes along with it. Not surprisingly, this doesn't turn out well for either of them. This seemed almost startlingly unsentimental at parts, but there was a delightful build under the surface, and it worked out really well.
Lost Girl
Heavy In Your Arms (Dyson/Bo)
--> Angst and porn, two great tastes that taste great together. It's a great character study of Dyson trying and failing at having a casual relationship. I like the bit about him wanting to give her what she needed because it was easier than trying to figure out what he wanted. Short but sweet.
Marvel Comics
A Window In the Sky (Steve/Tony)
--> An AU based on Marvel Noir, where Captain America and Tony keep having run-ins throughout the course of the war. The structure was really unusual and worked surprisingly well, with each scene being from Bucky's point of view followed by a related tag from Tony's. But Steve is more Cap-ish than ever in this, and that makes it pretty fantastic. Plus, Marvels-correspondent-Pepper is the greatest thing, especially when she starts bickering with Tony.
Engaging the Enemy (Steve/Tony)
--> AU where Iron Man is a not-so-villainous villain with a predilection for kidnapping Captain America. Seriously, this is just about the most adorable thing, and I laughed out loud a dozen times, everything from Thor's pirated anime addiction to Steve being used as bait. So awesome.
Extinction (Steve/Tony)
--> Someone does a spell that brings a bunch of exhibits to life in a museum Iron Man is supposed to be guarding, and then Cap shows up riding a dinosaur. Because, seriously, if you had the chance, wouldn't you? Madcap and charming, and I saw the twist coming from a mile away but it still hit hard nonetheless. So good.
falling on a grenade (Steve/Tony)
--> In which Tony accidentally reveals his feelings for Steve in a moment of weakness, and Steve can't return them. Sad and edgy, really well done.
Horn and Ivory (Steve/Tony)
--> Fusion with Inception, in which Cap got his original war training courtesy of a PASIV and can't believe that it isn't a dream when he wakes up in the future, no matter what his totem tells him. It's the stuff down in Tony's subconscious that makes it really interesting, though. And I liked the ending a lot.
Hypotenuse (Steve/Tony)
--> Kind of messed-up story where Steve breaks up with Tony because he'd rather be with Iron Man instead. Identity fuckery, as might be expected from Tony's interesting self-esteem issues, ensues. Happy ending, though.
Look Here, Look Back, Look Ahead (Steve/Tony)
--> Marvel Noir, where Tony gets shot down over the Carpathian Mountains, rescued by Captain America, and ends up going on a joint mission to attack a Nazi stronghold in a magical castle. Except Captain America reminds Tony way too much of a skinny art student he knew...
Secrets of a Sucessful Marriage (Steve/Tony)
--> Adorable AU in which Tony is a supervillain and he and Steve are married, and then one day Red Skull unmasks Captain America in front of him and it all changes. Madcap and fun, Pepper as Rampage is one of my favorite things ever, though the argument over the fish (you'll know) is definitely the shining moment of awesome.
Sense and Sensibility
untitled wedding night fic (Colonel Brandon/Marianne Dashwood)
--> In which Marianne, in her own virginal, Victorian sort of way, tops the shit out of her new husband on their wedding night. Yeah.
Sherlock
All That I Have (John/Sherlock)
--> After the Pool, Sherlock can't stand the idea that John might be gone from him someday, and becomes rather alarmingly clingy. John deals with this with his usual grace, and things go rather charmingly from there.
Down the Pub with the Rugby Lads (John/Sherlock)
--> An everyday, normal sort of story, in which John gets together with some old friends and has to explain Sherlock's presence in his life. This was everything I wanted it to be and more.
The Love Song of Two Idiots (Sherlock/John)
--> Ahahaha, oh my god, this story. Sherlock proposes to John eight times, amidst much drama and bickering, and John never takes him seriously, and it all comes to a head in a fight in the middle of Tesco's and it's so. damn. funny. They are both such morons. Good thing they get it right eventually.
Star Trek Reboot
Hand Over Fist (girl!Kirk/Uhura)
--> Gaila is gone for a semester and Uhura gets Jane Kirk as a temporary roommate. Who drives her crazy. And, as she eventually realizes, maybe not even for the reasons that she thinks.
Supernatural
All Come Back Around (Dean/Castiel, Sam/Gabriel)
--> Sam gets into a fight with Gabriel when his personality becomes a little bit too much to bear, and says a few things that hit a little too close to home. And then it's a case of "careful what you wish for," because Gabriel tries to be the perfect angel while Sam (and everyone else) is slowly being driven crazy by the pod-Gabriel.
Temeraire
Two, Side By Side (gen)
--> GENIUS. The story of how woman became the major aviatrixes in Chinese culture, a retelling of the Mulan story. So cool.
Thor
Chaos War (Thor/Loki)
--> This story manages to be both hilarious and clever, the way astolat's stories always manage to be. There's a war going on in Asgard, invaders from elsewhere, and Odin, in his wisdom, decides to hand the throne over to Loki as the new war leader. And the thing is, under Loki they start to win. I loved the progression of this story, especially when it finally came clear how Loki was winning, and what it cost him, and I very much enjoyed the dawning understanding through Thor's eyes. Really, really good story.
Uru (Thor/Jane)
--> A really interesting version of the go-between trope, done in a spare, thoughtful style.
White Collar
The Hired Man (Neal/Peter/Elizabeth)
--> AU where Peter is ex-FBI, and Neal ends up hiring him as a bodyguard. And then things get... out of hand. Not that Neal notices immediately. It takes Elizabeth added to the mix before they all manage to figure things out.
X-Men First Class
All the Worlds In Between (Charles/Erik)
--> AU where Erik is the idealistic nation-builder, and Charles is the bitter cynic with his own agenda. Or in this case, the CIA's agenda. He and Raven went into their care when young, and it didn't do much good to their moral maps. I liked how the author managed to keep a lot of the important parts of Charles and Erik the same despite the switch-around, and I liked Charles and Raven's codependent relationship, and the troubles that Charles has with his own power in a world where he doesn't use it the same. I didn't like the overuse of the slang "cat" in the beginning, but it tapers off quickly. And the ending was brilliant.
Any Measure of Peace (Charles/Erik)
--> EPIC fix-it fic, where no one was dumb enough to fire any missiles, and Charles and Erik go about trying to build their school and their new lives. Only Erik holds back from a greater intimacy, because he's got so much ~darkness~ in him and stuff, and there's all sorts of other stuff going on caught between Stryker and Fury. And one of the themes is about war vs. peace, but much more subtle and complicated than it was done in the movie. And maybe there's a place for both of their views. Very, very nice story.
Acquired Tastes (Charles/Erik)
--> In which Charles and Erik enjoy food, and other simple pleasures. I don't know exactly what about this that worked so well for me, it's so matter-of-fact and ordinary and everyday. But it does have a number of really lovely lines. One of my favorites: Surely even Charles cannot guess just how deep the well of him goes: it's a lie he's willing to tell himself.
center of balance (gen)
--> five mutants Charles never met at age 12, from the lovely to the terrifying, and somewhere in between. (Charles and Emma, I thought, was particularly brilliant.) And then an absolutely adorable coda of him and Raven.
Cotton Walls (Charles/Erik)
--> In large cities, Charles has trouble controlling his telepathy; while on their recruiting trip, Charles has to try to do it anyway. Things go... not well. This has a certain amount of sharp-edged hurt/comfort: Charles needs Erik to anchor him, but some of the things slipping through are pretty horrifying. Slightly dubcon, in the sense that both of them want the other but the circumstances are less than ideal. Really good, though, and I liked the idea of an equally terrible downside for such an incredible power.
Five Minds Charles Never Read (And One He Did) (Charles/Erik)
--> Does exactly what it says on the tin, and yet somehow manages to express something beyond the brief sketch of scenes. It also made for a really powerful build to the last scene with Erik, which stuck with me more than I thought it would.
Hurts to Think About (Charles/Erik)
--> Erik likes a little pain with his pleasure, but can't cope with recieving it from a partner. Except Charles, thanks to his telepathy, has a rather clever way around the restrictions. Interesting, sexy, with some even more interesting telepathy-related negotiation. I really liked this.
i guess i should say thanks or some shit (Charles/Erik)
--> This is... an AU where Charles drops out of school to waste his trust fund in Amsterdam and Erik is there doing... something. And they drink a lot and do realy stupid things together. This is... okay, not gonna lie, this is basically a story about how they're both douches. But it works, oddly, this is a world mostly without the drama and opression and despair, and so the sweeping ideals just... aren't needed. All that's left is their oddball lives and half-assed notions of everyday morality. They're not bad people, but they're not really good either. Whatever, it's really funny (hot girl dancing! the bikes! pretty much every bit of internal monologue Charles has ever!) and surprisingly thoughtful.
I Would Wish This Scar (Charles/Erik)
--> This is hurt/comfort of the very finest vintage, not normally a theme I enjoy much but this is so well-done it's become a favorite. Erik has learned to hide his scars as a matter of course, but Charles, as it turns out, wants quite a lot to be allowed to see them. And it's not fetishizing exactly, it's rather sweetly wrapped up in the whole of who he knows Erik to be. And while Charles' scars aren't written on his skin, it doesn't mean he doesn't have any. Just, really good.
Not So Much the Teacup (Charles/Erik)
--> AU where Erik is Shaw's architect and Charles is planning Shaw's wedding to Emma. He's like the BRIDE WHISPERER. It's like he can READ THEIR MINDS. Seriously, I have no idea how this story manages to be so utterly charming, but it's a miracle.
Office Hours (Charles/Erik, genish)
--> This is sort of bitterly funny. But mostly just hilarious. Charles is having a really bad day and Erik breaks in while he's trying to sleep to ask a rather unusual favor. I laughed at this. Like, a lot.
Surface Tension (Charles/Erik)
--> Oh my, this story. In which Erik doesn't leave Charles on the beach, and Charles doesn't magically get over the most traumatic experience of his life. But they work it out anyway, slowly but surely, they piece themselves back together. Not what they had before, but something new. Thoguhtful, a little sad, very sweet.
Time to Grow (Charles/Erik)
--> Very slight AU where Erik makes sure that Charles gets from the beach to a hospital in time, and they start up a correspondence that's mostly a battle over their ideological views, and maybe, if Charles figures things out, a whole lot more. A really interesting philosophical discourse as well as a well-done romance.
Wages (Charles/Erik)
--> Hell yes, Regency AU. With a whole bucketload of beautiful repressed kink. Kind of dubcon in its setup, but- well, everything is not as it seems, naturally, and Charles pretty clearly wants/instigates everything that happens in his own fumbling virginal way. But still, I love the contrast of the two sex scenes, one when everything is still confused and one where they work things out, where all the edges and breathless tension are transmuted to something warmer and sweeter. I've read this like ten times already, it's that great.
Where There Is Darkness (Charles/Erik)
--> Oh man, this. I love how fandom sometimes manages to do really astoundingly clever things. Many, many years in the future, a woman interviews Charles and Erik for a newspaper article about the towering giants of mutant history. I love how this author managed to take the background changes of First Class and really run with them, to create an entirely different world.
You Know My Name (Charles/Erik)
--> Spy AU! Erik is James Bond, and Charles is his Bond girl, how is this not genius? I was expecting it to be all kinds of wacky and hilarious, and it kind of was- Charles and his array of phallic names, for example- but it was also something else altogether.
your position on the bridge (as it burns) (Charles/Erik)
--> Post-movie, they work their way back into some kind of truce, with telepathic chess games and Erik helping to build Cerebro. And for a while, you're reading it and you think that maybe they'll get a happy ending... but the title warns you otherwise. It feels sort of inevitable.
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