sholio: silhouette of a man in a long coat against a stained glass window (Avengers-Zemo2)
I have had a lovely birthday! Thank you so much for your birthday wishes and other beautiful things, which I will respond to as soon as I can!

We had perfect weather, sunny and breezy with mixed clouds and sun, not too hot or cold. We drove to Nenana, an old riverboat town (now mostly without the riverboats) a little over an hour's drive south of here, which we've never actually explored. It turns out there's very little to explore, but the old houses are interesting to look at, and we looked at a fish wheel (from a respectful distance, as it's private property and someone's livelihood), got excellent sandwiches from a cafe and ate them sitting on the Subaru's tailgate by the river.

Then we came home, I ate birthday brownies and wrote on my romance novel and then we walked to the nearby beaver pond in the dusk and heard beavers calling to each other. I didn't even know beavers make vocalizations; this is the first time I've ever heard them. It was an adult calling to a baby, and we thought at first it might be a duck (we couldn't see clearly through the brush, and weren't sure the beaver was what was making that noise) - until we saw the baby (so tiny! so round! so SMOL) clamber over a mudbar and swim to catch up. Here is a Youtube recording of what beavers sound like. The "wah, wah!" sound is just what we heard.

And you need to read the glorious Falcon & Winter Soldier birthday gift fic that [personal profile] sovay wrote for me!

Longing, Rusted, Seventeen (Falcon & Winter Soldier, 1900 words, Bucky & Sam & Sarah + Zemo's unseen presence)
If he kept his combat face on, Bucky could make himself believe it looked like nothing much, lying on the cream-scrubbed deck of the Paul & Darlene in the salt-clean morning sun: a red book with a black star, about the size of the composition books of his school days, far too many wars ago.

It is lovely - the vivid setting, the characters, the complex relationships these people have with each other, and the book with 70 years' weight of personal history and trauma in it. I loved every bit of it.
sholio: Carol Danvers with Monica (Avengers-CM Carol Monica)
Saving this for my own interest mainly, but in case anyone else is looking ...

There are two huuuge icon posts at [community profile] easystreet and I have glommed onto a bunch from there: Post One | Post Two

Lovely icon post at [community profile] axisandallies: here.

Thank you to [personal profile] snick for pointing me to the latter one! And also for suggesting that I check out the recs tag at [community profile] mcu_cosmic - here is an all-CM recs post, though from a while back so it won't have new stuff. (I am super duper late to the party here; I have plotbunnied myself straight into a fresh wave of ~feelings~.)
sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)
Two exchanges released in July, and I loved my gifts for both of them!

For Eat Drink Make Merry:

Ice by [profile] edonohana (Torchwood, Owen/Tosh, 1200 wds)
Lovely and sweet canon divergence with Owen taking care of a hurt Tosh after the season two finale. Oh, my heart.

Down a Dark Well by [personal profile] scioscribe (Torchwood, team, 6600 wds)
An alien poison takes out the entire team except Owen; now he has to get them back. Wrenching and teamy and fantastic.

For Just Married:

To Have and To Hold by [archiveofourown.org profile] primeideal (Stranger Things, 1800 wds, Robin & Steve & ensemble)
Robin has to fake-marry Steve to get him out of the Upside Down, and everyone else is along for the ride. Sweet and funny and delightful with a perfect feeling of Hawkins weirdness.

I haven't had a chance to read much in either collection yet, but I've loved what I've read:

A Lifetime of Pomegranates by [personal profile] scioscribe (Torchwood, team, 6100 wds)
The team gets their hands on an alien device capable of feeding the dead. Thoroughly adorable teamfic with some incredibly appealing descriptions of made-up food that sounds so amazing I want to try it.

Handfasting by [archiveofourown.org profile] Leonor (A:TLA, Aang/Zuko/Katara, art)
Beautiful art, full of detail.

Steady as the Lake, Ever-Changing as the River by [archiveofourown.org profile] frozensea (Black Panther, Nakia/T'Challa, 3600 wds)
A Wakandan wedding, in which T'Challa is an adorable dork and Nakia is a workaholic who practically has to be dragged to her own wedding and they are both very much in love with each other. Funny and sweet and excellent.

The Very Best People by [personal profile] scioscribe (Stranger Things, Steve & Robin, 18K)
Steve and Robin undercover in evil suburbia. Amazing.
sholio: Jack-o-lanterns (Halloween-jack-o-lanterns)
*shamelessly abuses jack-o-lantern icon*

I participated in the latest flashfic "rainbow" round (the color this time is orange) and this time I wrote Schitt's Creek, which was fun!

Code Orange (3444 words) by Sholio
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Schitt's Creek
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alexis Rose & David Rose, Patrick Brewer/David Rose, Stevie Budd & David Rose
Characters: David Rose, Alexis Rose, Patrick Brewer, Stevie Budd, Johnny Rose, Moira Rose
Additional Tags: Halloween, Pumpkins, Festivals, Small Towns, Family Feels
Summary:

"David! Do you even remember what a Code Orange is?"

"Something to do with Mom and Dad, well, Mom mostly, planning some kind of embarrassing publicity stunt for Halloween, wasn't it?"



Other things I enjoyed from the Orange round:

My gift!!
Orange Vortex of Interdimensional Energy by [archiveofourown.org profile] K_Popsicle (Doctor Strange, gen, 4100 wds)
Undercover at a Halloween carnival, in costume. Delightful.

Orange and Round [archiveofourown.org profile] rosecake (Captain Marvel, gen, ensemble, 1600 wds)
Goose has kittens. Well, for certain values of kittens. Great character voices and all around very cute and fun.

Blackie, Goldie, and... Orangie? Oh My! by [archiveofourown.org profile] donutsweeper (MCU, gen, 900 wds)
Steve rescues animals. And is the absolute worst at naming them.

Both the Good Place fics are really enjoyable too, in very different ways.

:D

Sep. 10th, 2019 10:17 pm
sholio: Text: "Age shall not weary her, nor custom stale her infinite squee" (Infinite Squee)
I have a [personal profile] rachelmanija!

I also have amazing gifts at Alternate Universe Exchange. There are 100+ fandoms in the collection and my gifts are an absolute delight.

First Pilot (Punisher, 9200 wds, Frank + the Liebermans)
Beautifully realized space opera/hyperspace pilot AU with A+ worldbuilding, friendship, and h/c. This could actually be read with no knowledge of canon; while a little osmotic knowledge of Punisher is helpful, I think everything you need to know is in the story itself.

Even Now (Iron Fist, 4700 wds, Ward + Danny/Colleen)
Gloriously hurt/comforty and wonderfully characterized fic in which Ward goes to the afterlife to get Danny and Colleen back, at great risk to himself. This is everything I could have wanted from that premise, and more. <3

I haven't had a chance to read much yet, but I really enjoyed this Ben January AU in which Shaw is a werewolf and this Ava Starr Endgame AU.
sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)
Slipping in under the wire here with a few things I've read lately that I liked! And also, [personal profile] scioscribe wrote my glorious Just Married gift fic and it is still excellent.

Heavy is the Head by [archiveofourown.org profile] glorious_spoon (Agent Carter, 2500 words)
Season 1-era Dooley POV on the trio. Really fun.

Blue Square by [archiveofourown.org profile] primeideal (Stranger Things, 1K words, Steve & Robin)
This was written in a tag-based exchange for the tag "Two Characters Who Don't Like Each Other Grudgingly Share A Ski Lift", and it delivers gloriously on that premise, as well as nailing the show's fun weirdness.

don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo by [archiveofourown.org profile] firstaudrina (Stranger Things, 1300 wds)
Post-S3 Max & El friendship. Really sweet.

Hallway Light by [archiveofourown.org profile] snickfic (Captain Marvel, 1100 wds)
Pre-movie Carol & Yon-Rogg backstory, with a great glimpse of Hala and a perfect balance of genuine camaraderie and underlying creepiness.

I can't see any reason not to turn these posts into an open reccing thread, so tell me about anything you've found lately that's good!
sholio: A box of chocolates (Chocolates)
I meant to do this on Reccing Thursday but, uh, didn't.

So basically [community profile] justmarriedexchange happened this week, and my gift was AMAZING!

blood in blood and hand in hand (Captain Marvel, Carol/Yon-Rogg, 13K wds)
This is the weird, vaguely guilt-inducing disaster pairing that no one was supposed to come out of the movie shipping but I totally did and this fic NAILS IT. This is the slow burn redemption-arc soulbonding fic of my dreams. It's all I want from a fic about this pairing; the characterization is fantastic all around (in particular, I think the author really nails Carol's mix of soft places and hard edges, and the ensemble is well handled as well - there's a strong sense of community with the other people in the fic, which I always love), the emotions are beautifully done, there's h/c and gradual bonding and a nuanced look at the Kree that doesn't devolve into apologia for their crimes. This fic is a complete delight and I could not possibly love it more. If you're at all interested in the pairing or even willing to give it a try, it's totally worth your time.


I've been too busy to read much else in the Just Married collection, but I did really enjoy this one a lot:

if we never see daylight (Iron Fist, Danny/Ward, 3900 wds)
I don't often read this pairing, but this story totally worked for me, I think partly because it's focused mainly on how ridiculously fond they are of each other with the pairing being kind of a side effect of that. It's really sweet and adorable, and also exactly the kind of bonkers plan that Danny would come up with. I love it.


Oh, and a few weeks ago I participated in a flashfic exchange: Writing Rainbow: Blue, in which all fic had to include the color in the title (there will be more rounds in the future for other colors). Flash exchanges have kinda become a thing in the last couple of months (Escape the Iron Triangle was another), and they're fun - low pressure, low word minimum, extremely short writing period, and stripped-down matching rules (this one just matched on fandom and freeform tags, and those are all the guidance you get - no requests and no DNWs).

With exchange rules having generally become so standardized lately, I really enjoyed doing something a bit different, and I got nice things! I had requested original fiction among other things, and got two nice pieces of original fiction based on the tags I had picked out.

Scales as Blue as the Open Sky (5300 wds) - A glorious steampunk/sci-fi mash-up with dragons. I wish this was an entire TV series with a fandom. I would be SO THERE.

Orange is the New Blue (600 wds) - A fun little slice-of-convict-life fic.

And I wrote two things for it, Blue Light Special (Doctor Strange, a bit of genfic in which Strange semi-accidentally tries his hand at gardening) and Blue Skies For Miles (GotG aftermath-of-sex-pollen fic - well, technically alien mating pheromones, but the same basic effect).
sholio: Text: "Age shall not weary her, nor custom stale her infinite squee" (Infinite Squee)
Fic for me! :D

Many Happy Returns of the Day by [archiveofourown.org profile] edenfalling for a prompt I left for any Defenders or Iron Fist character having a birthday after they meet their new friends. Delightful fic with Matt + Danny + a Special Surprise Guest. (Also on DW.)

And this goes nicely with the lovely Jessica and Danny birthday fic that [personal profile] kore/[archiveofourown.org profile] actonbell wrote me in the Defenders Prompt Fest! Which is still open, by the way.


MCU Exchange is open with 81 fics! (I wrote 2 things for this fest. Happy hunting.) I got What a Lovely Way to Burn, an Agent Carter OT3 get-together with abundant Jack h/c that hit aaaaaallllll my happy buttons.


And the Escape the Iron Triangle Exchange (multifandom flashfic) had both the writing period and reveals this weekend. I also wrote two (2) things in this, and I got Clouds, a sweet Bucky de-aging fic!

I've just been reading through the Iron Triangle fics (they're all pretty short and the collection isn't that big, so easy enough to go through in an evening). My favorites so far:

Shoot from the Hip - Defenders/MCU. Claire/Valkyrie, PWP. Probably my favorite thing in the collection; it's sweet and hot with A+ characterization.

Gone Away - Captain Marvel. Maria and Monica in the aftermath of Carol's disappearance in 1989.

At the End of the Rainbow - MCU, gen. Three adventures Valkyrie didn't have, and two she did. (The tagged pairings are a bit inaccurate. Maybe the author isn't familiar with Ao3's pairing tagging system ...?)

Change is as good as a holiday - Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley. A+ character voices.

The Deserter - Original F/F. There's a wealth of worldbuilding and characterization in a really short space; feels like fanfic for a canon that doesn't exist, in the best possible way.


Oh, and signups are open 'til July 14 for [community profile] auexchange! I need to finish getting my signup together ...
sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)
There's a bunch of great stuff in Marvel Femslash Exchange! A few things I've enjoyed so far:

the night's just getting started (art, Black Panther, Okoye/Shuri, SFW)
Absolutely gorgeous! I love the colors and the clothing.

Break the Spell (Defenders, Tilda/Elektra)
This is so good! It's plotty and fascinating, and the author does a fantastic job of integrating the mythos of Elektra's more over-the-top Daredevil/Hand world with Tilda's (somewhat) more down-to-earth Luke Cage world.

one more hour (Defenders, Jessica/Trish)
Post-S2 reconciliation fic. Painful but lovely and achingly sweet, with great Jess POV.

dead come to life (Captain Marvel, Carol/Maria)
A cool and different (but perfectly canon-suited) take on soulbonds.

Heart for a Heart (Thor, Valkyrie/Hela)
I love how it fits seamlessly into canon, and doesn't soften either of them. Sharp-edged and hurty and good.

Little Sparrow Bones (GotG, Gamora/Nebula, pre-canon breathplay)
Painful and fucked up and very them.
sholio: A box of chocolates (Chocolates)
A new DW tradition along the lines of Reading Wednesday and FF Friday! Which I am going to keep trying to do because it's delightful and I like reccing things; it's also helpful for keeping track of things I've read and enjoyed lately. ♥ See also my recs for my lovely h/c exchange gifts!


pulling me out of the grave by [archiveofourown.org profile] mjolnirbreaker (Stranger Things, 3800 words, Nancy-POV gen)
Nancy isn’t great at just letting things be. Especially when those things are potentially harming one of the members of their very exclusive club of monster fighters who also happen to be Nancy’s favorite people in the world.

Lovely post-canon friendship fic with Nancy and Steve (and Jonathan) becoming friends again, and some nice h/c. There's not much gen for Nancy and Steve that isn't a prelude to OT3 ship, and while I also like the ship, I really enjoyed this. The Nancy POV is really good too.


dawn's early light by anonymous (Thor movies, 2600 wds, Thor + ensemble)
As the Statesman journeys towards Earth, the Revengers face another sort of problem Or, Thor is reckless with himself and Loki worries.

I am always up for post-Ragnarok Thor overworking himself, and this delivered nicely.


The Itsy-Bitsy Spider Climbed Up the Water Spout; Down Came the Rain (And Washed the Spider Out) by [archiveofourown.org profile] honeyandsunshine (Into the Spiderverse, 2800 wds, gen)
Peter B. goes for an impromptu swim, in January, with a concussion, and Miles and Gwen panic. (Or: Rio taught Miles CPR so that he'd know it, not because he'd have to use it.)

Nice post-movie friendship h/c, just the way I like it.
sholio: Text: "Age shall not weary her, nor custom stale her infinite squee" (Infinite Squee)
Hurt/Comfort Exchange reveals were today, and I am so delighted with my gifts; they are the BEST. ♥ I've spent most of the day happily wallowing in them, and I will be rereading every one of these a bunch.

The Mind is a Monkey (Iron Fist, 3400 wds, Danny & Ward gen)
“Okay,” Ward said. “Great. You have a telepathic fever.”

Danny develops sudden onset telepathy, because of course he does; Ward panics. A delicious many-layered hurt/comfort angstcake, beautifully characterized. ♥

Something we can rely on (Defenders, 5K, team gen)
How did you stop an enemy who knew everything about you: both your weaknesses and how to cancel out your strengths? With great difficulty, it turned out.

TEAMMMM! Danny and Matt are captured by an enemy who knows how to block their powers (in a particularly awful way for Danny); their friends go searching. All my team feels, right here. *love*

Hijacked (Alliance-Union/Hellburner, 13K, Ben & Dekker + ensemble)
They all knew something was up at this lonely nullpoint, but no one on Norway expected to find a Mazianni base.

Plotty post-canon LONG!!! novelette with loads of competence porn and h/c and prickly friendship! SO GOOD.

And there's still the rest of the archive to go through!
sholio: Danny in a hoodie (Defenders-Danny)
I posted a Iron Fist tag for Endgame: A Long, Long Time. (No movie characters, only TV characters dealing with the movie situation. Set post-IF S2.)

I also read:

- A Carol Danvers/Yon-Rogg fic (MCU) by [personal profile] snickfic that I really loved: Seasons, Changing of. (Recommended if you like sex pollen/heat scenarios, and messy emotions for these characters in which nobody is all right or all wrong. Very NC-17.)

- Pain, and other human sensations is a Thor Ragnarok fic that I am reading right now, written from a series of h/c prompts. Very iddy. No IW or Endgame content.

And finally: [personal profile] magibrain has got me watching playthroughs for Detroit: Become Human (which is only fair as I made them watch an entire season of Iron Fist). HANK AND CONNOR AND KARA AND ALICE AND FEEEELZ. (I also really enjoy Markus as a character, but I wish he had a more relevant-to-my-interests storyline. Oh, and I have just met Luther and love him already! And there is also a dog.)
sholio: sun on winter trees (Defenders-Colleen)
Free Time and Other Unicorns by [personal profile] edenfalling (Misty & Colleen, gen, 1675 wds)

I requested a fic with Colleen & Misty plus a magical animal, and this is pure delight from start to finish.

Meanwhile, over at [community profile] ssrconfidential, there is a poll on whether to keep the 2018 tagset this year or start a new one. The originally-discussed plan was to keep it and just add to it, but when I opened it up for new nominations yesterday, I discovered that it's not possible to bump up the number of nominations after the tagset already has tags in it - meaning that people who maxed out their nominations last year will have to go through me to nominate this year. I'll close the poll tomorrow and go with the majority decision.
sholio: Peggy Carter smiling (Avengers-Peggy smile)
Agent Carter Valentines and Chocolate Box both released this week and I lucked out. MY GIFTS ARE AMAZING.

If This Room Was Burning by [archiveofourown.org profile] glorious_spoon (Agent Carter, 10K, Peggy/Jack/Daniel)
Peggy, Daniel, and Jack are retrieving canisters containing another one of Howard's stolen experiments when they get trapped in a cave in, and one of the canisters is breached. Problem is, Howard was a little less than forthcoming about what exactly was in them...

Absolutely wonderful pollen P/J/D get-together fic (minus any actual sex, it's more like h/c pollen) with hurt/comforty dubcon cuddling!! This COULD NOT POSSIBLY be more relevant to my interests.

true north by anonymous (Agent Carter, 10K, Peggy/Jack/Daniel)
Jack's a suspicious soul at heart. He doesn't trust anyone, least of all himself.

Yes, I got TWO long P/D/J get-together stories, and both of them are delightful: well written and plotty and wonderfully characterized and idtastic. This one is incredibly hurt/comforty with Jack being tortured literally and emotionally, and ALSO about as relevant to my interests as it is possible to get. ♥

Look After You by anonymous (Punisher, 3500 wds, Leo & Frank gen)
Leo knows only two people who got their wisdom teeth out before her, and Mom said no way did it hurt as much as everyone tells you it will, and Dad said no, it really didn’t, but, uh, he wasn’t chewing anything harder than mashed potatoes for almost three weeks afterward.

This is SO GOOD, perfectly bittersweet and richly characterized and full of subtle, well-chosen details. Leo's narrative voice is fantastic.

Post by anonymous (Banshee, 300 wds, Carrie Hopewell + ensemble)
She has no reason to think he’ll receive any mail she sends to the PO Box scrawled across the back of the otherwise-blank postcard from Truth or Consequences, NM. No reason to expect that, even if he is living in the desert and checking his mail, he has any interest in pictures from the Banshee Elementary Penny Carnival.

I GOT A BANSHEE FIC! This was so delightful and unexpected, and it's a glorious little gem of post-canon perfection, beautifully capturing the fabric of life in Banshee and Carrie's place in it.

I loved every single one of these. I just want to cuddle them and enjoy them. Everyone else should read them too. ♥_____♥
sholio: Jack-o-lanterns (Halloween-jack-o-lanterns)
Trick or Treat Exchange opened this morning, and I absolutely LOVE all my gifts. My treat bag is overflowing!

Scythe (Stranger Things, Steve, 500 wds)
A lovely, atmospheric slice of Steve's future life with a great Halloween feel. It's perfectly nailed the show's pop-culture-homage vibe and I love how many details of the way Steve's life goes post-canon are hinted between the lines.

Nobody's Idea of a Vacation (Black Panther, Nakia & Ross & Shuri, 4K wds)
The spy/friendship casefic of my DREAMS! Excellent casefic plot, delightful banter, and heartfelt feels. This is exactly what I hoped for when I left those prompts (and I still can't believe how many of my prompts the author managed to include, from "Nakia on a spy mission" to "Shuri and Ross geeking out over her tech").

Slip and Slide (Black Panther, Nakia/T'Challa + Shuri, 900 wds)
Nakia and T'Challa learn to ice skate; Shuri brings a lawn chair and a camera. SO ADORABLE. <3
sholio: (Avatar-upbeat attitude)
[community profile] festivids (vidding exchange for rare fandoms) is still taking fandom nominations for another day or so; instructions and definition of "rare" fandoms here. I did it last year and will probably be signing up again this year.

I've been reading fic at Femslash Exchange and there's some really good stuff! A couple I liked in particular:

Our Bodies, Ourselves (Ant-Man & the Wasp, Hope/Ava, 6K words)
This is probably my favorite fic I've read for the Ant-Man movies, hands down, which is all the more impressive because I really love Hope/Scott in canon and never even considered this pairing, but this completely sells it and is also a really gorgeous portrayal of disability/trauma (as Ava struggles with the transition to having a fully corporeal body and emotions she doesn't know how to process) and a really lovely ensemble fic with the same warm everyone-is-family vibe as the movies. I just really loved it.

Citation Flirtation (Black Panther, Shuri/OC, 3K words)
Sweet and funny and well-characterized, with a great OC and strong sense of place.

And though I haven't responded to them all yet, I really appreciate the kind comments and commiseration on my previous post; thank you. ♥ ♥ ♥ (I have been soothing my broken heart by writing fanfic and watching this gif of Tom Pelphrey as Ward Meachum on repeat. THAT FLIRTY SMILE. GOD.)
sholio: heart in a cup of tea (Heart)
Fic rec: vinegar and cellophane by [archiveofourown.org profile] oh_simone - Agent Carter, 20K words, gen, post-first-season (so, spoilers). Daniel POV, focused mostly on Daniel, Peggy, and Jack, with appearances by the rest.

This is THE long post-canon plotty genfic of my dreams! It's incredibly rare to find fic that nails "my" Jack Thompson, and his relationships with the other two; it's mostly either Jack-as-unlikable-asshole, or "Jack never did anything wrong, and Peggy and Daniel are jerks for distrusting him". But this fic has a wonderful Jack, and a wonderful Daniel and Peggy, and a plotty slow build towards gradually growing trust/friendship. I loved every word, and I'm going to claim it as my personal headcanon until season two comes along and josses everything.

Meanwhile, I wrote three more fills for the kissing fest (one of which is for my own prompt, but the rules said you can!).

Peggy/Jack/Daniel, drowning
Foggy/Marci, alcohol and bad choices (TW: aftermath of an attempted, offscreen assault)
Foggy/Matt, hospital (which I am also claiming for "surgery" on my h/c bingo card, as soon as I get around to uploading it to AO3)

All three of these are set after their respective series, so spoilers can be assumed. ([personal profile] alessandriana! Don't read the Foggy/Matt one until you've seen all of the show!)

I am very amused (but obviously happy) that the first one I wrote, which is for a complete weirdo Age of Ultron pairing, is getting a whole bunch of comment-love! I think most people are just clicking on it because it's so strange, and then end up liking it. XD

ETA: Anyone want to leave more Agent Carter or Daredevil prompts at the kissing fest? :D I seem to be mostly looking for ones that I can write in an h/c-ish kind of way, and I've discovered that I really like writing Foggy's voice. And more prompts with some combination of Peggy, Jack, and Daniel would be great. :D

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