Title: Five Times Synaesthesia Was a Problem For Tony Stark...
Fandom: Marvel
Pairing: Bruce Banner/Tony Stark
Categories/Genres: 5+1, Alternate Universe, Pre-canon, Angst, First Time, Virgin, Fluff, Established Relationship
Length: Medium (7009 words)
Warnings: Overt and internalized ableism

Author on LJ: sonora_coneja
Author Website: Sonora

Summary:

Tony struggles to deal with his synaesthesia most of his adult life. Can he ever find somebody who understands what he’s dealing with? Written for this prompt on avengerkink.

Review:

I've always been fascinated by the brain. It's something we take for granted, calling it a 'noggin' and 'grey matter' like it's little more than a chunk of tissue as opposed to a highly refined structure made of a fragile web of connections that make the finest of lace look thick and unwieldy in comparison. Its complexity laughs in the face of our attempts to understand it, and its adaptability and flexibility mock our attempts to imitate it.

By some quirk of genetics or prenatal brain development, Tony is born with synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Howard, in his bid for the Shittiest Parent Ever Award, is utterly unsympathetic and makes no effort at all to understand Tony's experience, a mentality that Tony internalizes and carries with him for decades.

Sonora, who has synesthesia, takes very deliberate care in her descriptions of Tony's various experiences of various stimuli, from pain and pleasure to music and emotion. There are also graphic descriptions of how alcohol and cocaine affect his synesthesia. Even if you don't ship Bruce/Tony, it's a stunningly good read for how well Sonora recreates the range of sensory impressions, however exaggerated they may or may not be. If you know anyone with synesthesia, or suspect that you may have it, then this is a definite must-read simply to understand what it is that this small minority of people go through, trying to reconcile their understanding of the world with how they learn they are supposed to percieve it.

Five Times Synaesthesia Was a Problem For Tony Stark...

Title: Orleans

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing: Buffy/Faith
Categories: femslash, AU (canon AU), dark
Length: medium, 6369 words
Warnings: unhappy endings, character death (file under "Wishverse")

Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website: Hth on AO3

Summary: There's a big daddy vampire out of Missouri who used to keep alligators as pets. There's a Slayer. And there's Faith.

Review: You have a crossbow strapped to your back under your jacket, you have three twenty-dollar bills and a bus ticket in your pocket, and this could be your last day on earth.

Or not. Either way, it's nobody's damn business but yours and your victims'.

Last week, I wanted to rec something with badass women and couldn't bring anything to mind that hit the note I was looking for. A few days later someone on my friends list was good enough to re-rec this story from years back with a new AO3 link... and talk about stories that stick in your mind for years...

It's the Wishverse in the dying days before Buffy's trip to Sunnydale, and Buffy and Faith in St Louis, a tale of cults and vampires, alligators and mass sacrifices, bathed in religious imagery and blood and heat, and you know it's not going to end well but the journey down is so captivating you can't look away.

This fic. The structure, the language, the weight of the metaphor and imagery, this fic is a thing of beauty. I can't think of much else I've seen told with the same intensity, and I've never seen a second person narrative work much better than in this.

Orleans

Title: Suspicious Behavior
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Naruto/Sasuke
Genres: Romance, Humour, Crack
Length: Medium (3,754 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: saucykate @ FF.net

Author's Summary:
In which Naruto trips over Sasuke, Sasuke turns various different colors, and there is a lot of arguing over the size of crushes. Now with 40 percent more insults!

Review:
Oblivious!Naruto slowly notices that Sasuke seems to be everywhere, turning up in his apartment, giving him weird looks, and acting strangely when Naruto exits the shower. This is a super-cute and funny get together fic with no canon-related angst in sight, containing a pining Sasuke who is miraculously still in character!

Suspicious Behavior

Title: but more than a feeling
Fandom: One Direction [Bandom/RPF]
Pairing: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson/Zayn Malik/Liam Payne/Niall Horan, Sophia Smith/Liam Payne, Liam Payne/Sophia Smith/Niall Horan
Categories: Romance, PWP.
Length: Medium [12756 words]
Warnings: OT5 Orgy, Het/Slash in equal parts - will explain the waring in the review, please check the author’s warnings for the individual kinks/sex acts.


Author Website: velvet_tuberose(on AO3) | velvetuberose (on Tumblr)

Summary: Liam doesn't mean to think about it over the next week. He doesn't purposefully think it over, but the thought pops into his head at the oddest of times: bunging a sausage roll into the cart at the shop, stopping Loki from peeing on someone’s shoe at the park, climbing off the treadmill after working out, there’s that random thought of I could sleep with all of them, maybe at the same time.


Review:

I had a hard time choosing what fic to rec this week, and when I went over my bookmarks I decided for this story. It is a short one, but is packed with feelings and smut, which I needed to get me out of the funk! So go read this lovely if you want something lighter.

This fic was written for a OT5 exchange, which means fics where the central relationship is of all the five boys in the band. It starts off with canonical Liam/Sophia and a surprising Niall/Sophia friendship that turns into a pre-orgy training with Sophia/Liam/Niall. I’ve been in love with fics that maintain the actual relationships the boys are and sidetrack it with side pairings.

The drama free element is the best part of the plot, simply because Liam and Sophia discuss things as a healthy couple and Liam gets consent from her to pursue this fantasy of his. The undercurrent of Sophia/Niall just makes the fic very complex and delightful, and gives a little wish of something more.

Basically, Niall and Sophia convince Liam that he could have sex with all the boys, because they all love him enough to give what he wants and Liam fumbles around until he figures he really wants that, because he doesn’t feel jealous when he sees the interaction with Niall and Sophia.

I warned for both Slash and Het, because while the fic summary suggest the central idea of the orgy between the five boys, there is sex between Sophia, Liam and Niall and just Sophia and Liam. Since I know there are people that don’t read het in this fandom or that simply don’t read Liam/Sophia or more urgently don’t read fics with sexual acts with any of the girlfriends/other real people, and are uncomfortable with the sexualization of people that don’t chose to be the in the spotlight I thought it was best to warn.

We also get a tiny bit of Harry/Louis and Zayn/Liam, which tie up a lot of feelings and discuss Liam relationship with the other boys and in between them. This is a great read if you want to have all the feelings between all boys and Liam being adorable without wanting to put anyone out for wanting to have an orgy.


but more than a feeling

Title: In Focus
Fandom: Check, Please!
Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann
Categories/Genres: First Time, Romance, Friendship, Fluff, Photography
Length: Medium (6097 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: sparklyslug

Summary:

Jack's just taking pictures whenever he sees something worth photographing, something that seems to fit what he's being told in class, about line and shape and color and beauty.

It's like the camera knew before Jack did.

Review:

When reading this fic in preparation to write a rec, I tried to think of words to describe it. Worship was one, voyeurism another. Both discarded; voyeurism was too sexual and worship too single minded. Eventually, I settled upon a word that I've never in my life had cause to use before now: exaltation.

Exaltation, noun: 1) a feeling or state of extreme happiness, (synonyms: bliss, elation, rapture), 2) the action of elevating someone in rank, power, or character, (also: the action of praising someone or something highly)

In Focus is an exploration of Jack's photography, a topic generally glossed over in canon, and what it comes to mean to him. Through the camera's lens he distills the aspects of his life at the Haus and all the people that make it truly a home. In the process, he gains a perspective that he hadn't been able to perceive with only his own two eyes, discovering truths about himself and Bitty that give him the courage to stand his ground and act in the face of his own uncertainty.

In Focus

Title: The Fire's Out But Still It Burns
Fandom: Kingsman: The Secret Service
Pairing: Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin/Harry Hart
Categories/Genres: Fix it, Angst
Length: 2115
Warnings:

Author/Artist on AO3: Vacilando

Summary:
His mum said to call the number if he's in trouble.
So he did.
Or: Eggsy keeps calling a dead man to come and get him out of trouble.

Review:
Scouring through many, many fics that are becoming increasingly out of character, this one got me right in the chest. It's pretty short, but it's fragile and beautiful in an extremely broken way. Stuck between fics where Eggsy either has to cope with Harry being alive after all or being dead and having to move on without him, this Eggsy does neither. He doesn't break down or ask for extra missions. He's a little reckless with his life but when faced with the reality that no ones there to help him, his innate reaction is to do the opposite of surrender. He knows he has to carry on and isn't over-emotional about it except through one little habit where he calls, reaches out whenever he's at his most vulnerable. And it's through that habit that you see how clearly Harry's loss is like having a piece of glass through his chest, grating on him whenever he breathes.

The Fire's Out But Still It Burns

Title: Grab and Hold
Fandom: Kingsman: The Secret Service
Pairing: Merlin/Roxy Morton, background Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin
Categories/Genres: Post-Canon, Plot What Plot
Length: Medium (5559 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: TheDamselfly

Summary:

There is a gun strapped to her leg under her dress, a grenade in her coat pocket, and even unarmed she is more dangerous than most thugs on the street. There's something that's missing, but she's certain that she's got it all figured out now.

"Kingsman doesn't expect me to stay celibate forever, yeah?" she asks, like she's just curious. Merlin stares at her like he's not quite sure what's happening to him right now.

Review:

Ask me what I think about Kingsman: The Secret Service. Then watch as I sprint to the nearest rooftop and start screaming all the things I loved about it. Because I do love the hell out of the movie. But make no mistake, while I'm up there, I'll also make a point to scream about how there wasn't nearly enough Roxy being awesome. Fortunately, I have fanfiction to remedy that shortage.

TheDamselfly's Roxy is the embodiment of confidence. She's confident in her appearance, abilities, and unabashedly possessed of her own sexuality in a way that female characters are not typically allowed to be. She knows what she wants, knows how to get it, and has no qualms about doing whatever it takes. And once she's got Merlin right where she wants him, she's utterly honest in her pleasure.

And it really is about her pleasure. TheDamselfly frames Merlin's pleasure as tangential to Roxy's, more of a means by which Roxy can scratch an itch than an end in an of itself. It's a direct subversion of common portrayals of sex in the media, where men's pleasure is paramount, while women's pleasure is very narrowly defined, if even explored at all.

Grab and Hold

Title: the postulate child
Fandom: Dishonored
Pairing: Gen
Genres: Pre-Canon, Drama
Length: Medium (14,732 words)
Warnings: Child neglect, bullying, non-suicidal self harm

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: CaliforniaStop @ AO3

Author's Summary:
Treavor and the Outsider.

Pendleton doesn't seem at all fazed by Corvo's use of black magic, and even gifts him a whalebone rune for killing Shaw; so perhaps it's not his first encounter with the Outsider...

Review:
A creepy and sad little fic about poor young Pendleton. Tormented by his horrible brothers and ignored by his parents, he decides to call on the Outsider for help after stumbling upon a bone charm. With the aim of killing his brothers, he tries to conduct his own blood rituals. His interaction with his family, his servants and the Outsider all feel nicely in character, and the tone and setting are suitably creepy for the content of the fic.

the postulate child

Title: I blinked (and there you were)
Fandom: Kingsman: The Secret Service
Pairing: Harry/Eggsy
Categories: Time Travel Fix-It Crossover
Length: 11920
Warnings: None

Summary:

The Weeping Angels, Eggsy reads on the stolen Torchwood intel. Aliens that pose as statues, and kill their victims by sending them back in time and feeding off their years not lived in the present. The politest psychopaths in the universe, a note reads, scrawled in what looks like a doctor’s chicken scratch on the edge of the page by someone who clearly had a perverse sense of humour. A one way trip, the report concludes; you get transported by the angels, and it’s the slow road back to the present for you.

Eggsy lays his head back on the wall, takes stock of his situation. He’s lost 30 years - three years more than his entire lifespan up ’til now - in the blink of an eye, and now he’s stuck here, in 1988. Three years before he’s even born. Arthur, the prick, is sure to be heading up the Kingsmen, and Merlin, if he’s even there would be…20, maybe. Fuck, so fucking young.

Shite, even Harry’d only be…

Alive, Eggsy thinks, and finds himself sitting down hard from where his knees can’t hold him. This is 1988, and Harry’s 23, and alive.

Suddenly, being stuck in 1988 doesn’t seem so bad.

Or, the one where love means changing the future.

Review:
This is an author who knows what we want and serves it to us sweeter than sugar. You have the weeping angels used in their proper form for the first time since Blink, we have a suggested version of Lancelot played by Benedict Cumberbatch and an adorable meeting with the Doctor and Rose. If you like your British fandom then this is all the highlights mixed in together.

The fic opens and explains how Eggsy has been been transported into the past by a weeping angel. And even though he is horrified at first, the fact that Harry is alive in the past settles him and gives him a new goal to work towards. But the fic isn't just filler until Eggsy meets Harry. Eggsy getting himself set up in the past is just as interesting as when Eggsy finally does meet the fresh faced 23 year old Harry.

I get the feeling Eggsy sees young Harry as a cute bambi character until he finally realises that the person he fell in love with is still in there. I love how unashamed Eggsy is at using his knowledge from the future to his advantage. He steals Merlin's lines from the movie to use in front of past!Merlin and when Merlin asks him if he can use that line in the future, he agrees! Cheeky Eggsy really is the best Eggsy.

This fic is supposedly incomplete but as of the second chapter it feels pretty complete to me. It should be updated in a couple of days and we will see if it has been made even better.

I blinked (and there you were)

Title: For An Extra Bark Or An Extra Smile
Fandom: Hockey RPF
Pairing: Roman Josi/Shea Weber
Categories: AU, Domestic, Fluff, Friendship, Romance
Length: Medium (12k)
Warnings: N/a

Author on LJ: distorteddaytime
Website: DistortedDaytime's A03

Summary: Shea's new dog walker is great. Probably.

Review: This is a cute, fluffy, romantic comedy type story that manages to somehow avoid all the tropes that trigger my second-hand embarrassment.

It is far enough AU, that you can easily read this even if you aren't familiar with the hockey fandom.

For An Extra Bark Or An Extra Smile

Title: The Sleeper Awakes

Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Gen
Categories: drama, character study
Length: medium, 10,300 words
Warnings: none

Author on LJ: snorkackcatcher
Author Website: n/a

Summary: "It's been coming on for a while," said Percy ... "But I had to find a way out and it's not so easy at the Ministry, they're imprisoning traitors all the time." (DH, ch30). This is Percy's journey to that point.

Review: "But I want to fight," said Percy. He hadn't realised it until that moment, but saying it seemed to crystallise his resolve "What else can I do?

I'm very fond of Percy Weasley for the ambiguous position he occupies in the HP universe, as a character who isn't evil but nor is in the heroes' camp, who both follows his own ambitions and tries to do what he thinks of as right, and never really got the sort of attention in canon to examine that closely. So I'm partial to fic that works to redeem him and show his perspective.

This excellent story, I'd read almost a year ago, and it evidently stuck in my mind to the extent that I've just spent two hours obsessively looking for it again when it popped up from nowhere while I was thinking about what to rec today. It focuses on the subtle, creeping helplessness of Percy's position as he watches the ministry unravel around him and realises he's surrounded by a system he once believed in, now completely infiltrated and controlled by the enemy, and that the choices he made were the wrong ones... and then how he reacts once the truth becomes clear.

I am particularly fond of the manner in which Percy finally starts to fight back from within. It's so very him, after all.

The Sleeper Awakes

Title: The Week The Sassy Pose Came To Camelot
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Genres: Humour, Crack
Length: Medium (3,500 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: magog_83
Author Website: N/A

Author's Summary:
N/A

Review:
The author bases a Merlin fic on the illustrations in one of Enid Blyton's books, and it results in glorious crack. It's like a fic version of a Kate Beaton strip. I love it.

The Week The Sassy Pose Came To Camelot

Title: Global and Eternal

Fandom: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Pairing: Eugenides/Irene
Categories: angst, political intrigue, romance, drama
Length: medium, 3264 words
Warnings: references to mutilation and torture as per the books

Author on LJ: n/a?
Author Website: tricatular on AO3

Summary (mine): The tale of a coup upon the rulership of Attolia. (I think that the summary attached by the author is actually somewhat spoilery. Jump right into the fic! Be bold!)

Review: “You have had your time,” she said, coldly. “I want you to understand: this was always coming.”

Eugenides choked. He put his head down, shaking his head to try and clear his eye like an animal in a trap. “Irene,” he said again, “no, please. Please.”

“You did not steal me,” she said. “I was never yours.” She withdrew her foot, and fastidiously tapped it against the floor as if knocking off dirt.

I do seem to be failing on the 'epic' part of my recs lately, but here's a story that certainly feels more epic than its ~3000 word wordcount.

Megan Whalen Turner's name could almost be attached to this and I wouldn't be surprised. The author manages to capture the intensity and subtlety of the romance and politicking in the books, the chasm between the public and private faces of the king and queen of Attolia, and the layers of buried intrigue that take multiple readings (or at least the odd double-take) to unravel.

The two leads of this series of novels and their unconventional love story are long favourites of mine, and particularly in this fic I love the absolute composure of the Queen who reveals nothing, holding the threads of the plots while appearing submissive, contrasted with the King whose past trauma is all painted on the surface, and who manages to be awesome in spite of his deficit of dignity.

This is probably a primarily Yuletide fandom in terms of fanfiction production but is pretty energetic in its own right, so if you've read the books but you're not familiar with its presence online I suggest checking out sounis on livejournal. (A bonus free community rec thrown in!)

Global and Eternal

Title: follow me down
Fandom: Kingsman: The Secret Service
Pairing: Harry Hart/Eggsy Unwin
Categories/Genres: Post-Canon, Fix-It, Action/Adventure, Drama, Romance, Fluff,
Length: Medium (4490 words)
Warnings: Descriptions of violence

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: DivineProjectZero

Summary:

Harry Hart has seventeen years worth of mistakes.

Of all the mistakes he made, this is the one he regrets the most.

Review:

When I first read this fic, I knew that I had to rec it. DivineProjectZero is a master of the cunningly placed detail, fostering an increasing sensation of surreality with an escalating series of details lifted right from the movie itself. It's a true joy to watch Harry slowly piece together the odd inconsistencies he stumbles over until he finally fits them together into a person-shaped gap that he knows he must strive to fill.

Another thing that gives me extreme joy is DivineProjectZero's backstory. It's unflinchingly brutal at points, never shying away from the violence and danger that come part and parcel of being a Kingsman agent. But for each of those there are also quiet moments, humorous moments, happy and sad moments that truly flesh out the life of a Kingsman in ways that the movie simply didn't have the time to touch upon.

More importantly, they offer glimpses into Harry's wholly ignored tenure as an agent that are entirely in character. In fact, the only part that didn't feel entirely true to the character's canonical representation was the romantic confession at the very end. Yet even as I say that, it feels misleading, because the emotional attachment to Eggsy that haunts Harry through the fic feels entirely natural for the character. It's only the outward admission of it that feels out of place, because the characterization otherwise mimics the original with such remarkable precision. Which feels like such a strange thing to complain about, considering that I'm unrepentant shipper trash.



follow me down

Title: Of Sterner Stuff
Fandom: Kingsman: The Secret Service
Pairing: Roxy Morton/OFC
Categories/Genres: Action/Adventure, Friendship, Humor, Romance
Length: Medium (6391 words)
Warnings: Mentioned canonical character death

Author on LJ: schweinsty
Author Website: schweinsty

Summary:

In which Roxy Morton applies for a position, makes a good friend, is a good friend, has a pleasant affair with a very nice girl, doesn't take people's shit, spoils a poodle, and saves the world.

Review:

I love Kingsman. I love it to bits. But just because I love it doesn't mean I don't wish there was more of Roxy being awesome. Of Sterner Stuff is the fic every Roxy fan needs to read. Functionally, it's a retelling of the film from Roxy's point of view, from her first introduction to Kingsman via her godfather, the agent Percival, through to the end after all the bodies have dropped and the world is piecing itself back together. schweinsty fills in the gaps of the first half of the movie with an outstanding exploration of Roxy's rather undeveloped character.

In the movie, Eggsy makes a passing reference to Roxy being the top of the class. But in schweinsty's fic, we get to see what that really means from Roxy's perspective. We see her unflinching ambition and calm calculation in the face of all the trials that the Kingsman selection process throws at her. schweinsty portrays Roxy and Eggsy's friendship as a fraternal companionship of equals, but doesn't hesitate to lampshade the usual niche female characters fit into when the overwhelming majority of characters are male.

What I most deeply admire about schweinsty's Roxy is how incredibly dedicated she is to improving herself. She strategizes, barters her skill at karate to learn parkour from Eggsy, and doesn't flinch from the cruelty of the final test. And yet she never holds herself as superior to any of the others. Not even Eggsy, when she knows he will the final test. In many ways, she is the quintessential gentleman that the Kingsman organization demands that its members be.

In fact, all that's missing is Roxy's new Kingsman suit.

Of Sterner Stuff

Title: James Bond Eat Your Heart Out
Fandom:   Merlin
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Categories/Genres: Spy, Humor
Length: 75,281
Warnings: None

Author/Artist on LJ: katie_the_sith Katie-the-sith
Author/Artist on Fanfiction: Fanfiction.net

Summary: AU, loosely based on movie Debs. Arthur is the top student at spy school and Merlin is a notorious evil genius. However rivalry isn't the only thing these two boys are feeling, can Arthur resist Merlin or will he forsake his friends and his country?

Review:
This fic will always stick in my memory as being one of the funniest. It's one of my favourite tropes when a character comes in like a hurricane, messing up a persons perfect life plan and showing them what they should really be living for. Adding to that the feeling of family and loyalty this fic has with some of the most memorable gags that make you laugh for hours this is certainly one of my most favourite Merlin fics.

Merlin is a quite sexy hacker in this. While still being his sweet self, he has the power and smarts to play with the cute blonde spy that thinks he can arrest him. Arthur is extremely frustrated with being played with but is even more annoyed with being attracted to the bad guy as well. The tention eventually has to snap.

James Bond Eat Your Heart Out

Title: Megamind and the Beta Run

Fandom: Megamind
Pairing: gen, slight Megamind/Roxanne
Categories: humour, sequel
Length: medium, 2146 words.
Warnings: none

Author on LJ: 20thcenturyvole
Author Website: 20thcenturyvole on AO3

Summary: Do-gooding is harder than it looks.

Review: “To the No Longer Evil Lair!”

Chances of going from supervillain to superhero and getting it right first time were always pretty thin. This short story acts as a direct sequel to the movie, exploring Megamind's initial attempts to make Metro City safer for its citizens, as he's... not quite getting the right idea.

"Surely you liked my automatic respectability rover?”

“You mean the machine that accosts poorly-dressed citizens, steals their clothes, shears their hair, scrubs them down, and spits them out dressed in three-piece suits?” the chief’s voice was very sharp.

Tone, characterisation, and just the right the mix of cute, absurd, twisted and funny make this a perfect follow-up to the movie.

Megamind and the Beta Run

Title: Class Of Conduct
Fandom: Kingsman: The Secret Service
Pairing: Harry Hart/Gary “Eggsy” Unwin
Categories/Genres: Post-Canon, Fix-it, Humor, Action/Adventure, Hurt/Comfort, Drama, Romance
Length: Medium (13102 words)
Warnings: Explicit Violence

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: fideliant

Summary:

Or, Six Things Eggsy Has Learned About Being A Gentleman

“Lesson number one,” Harry says. “Manners matter.”

Review:

One consequence of primarily reading romantic fanfiction is that, after a certain point, I began to feel as though I'd read almost every possible iteration of falling in love that exists in fandom. Everything seemed to be just a variation on a set number of themes. But then along comes a fic that makes it all brand new again. Class Of Conduct is one such fic.

This fic is no firestorm of passion, nor the low and steady warmth of hot coals. This fic is like the hotplate that you don't even realize is on until you're bellowing in alarm and lunging for the sink. fideliant consistently underplays the depth of their emotions for each other without letting the reader question that they are, in fact, falling quite deeply and, perhaps more significantly, quite permanently in love with each other.

There's definitely a sense of the evolution of their relationship from mentor-mentee to soppy in love. I found it quite subtle, so much so that I didn't even fully register it during my first reading, but when events in the fic conspire to force their holding pattern of sass and veiled amusement to buckle, there's a significant shift in the tone of their interactions. Their growing attachment to each other finds new forms to manifest in, which in turn allows the two of them to connect in new, previously inaccessible ways. By the time the damn finally does burst and they reveal their fully requited feelings to each other, their relationship feels so well developed and mature that you can almost hear the “And they all lived happily ever after” when the final paragraph comes to a close.

Class Of Conduct

Title: Of Sterner Stuff
Fandom: Kingsman: Secret Service
Pairing: Gen
Categories: Friendship, Pre-Canon
Length: 6.4k
Warnings: Spoilers for Movie

Author on LJ: schweinsty
Website: schweinsty Ao3

Summary: In which Roxy Morton applies for a position, makes a good friend, is a good friend, has a pleasant affair with a very nice girl, doesn't take people's shit, spoils a poodle, and saves the world.

Review: WARNING FOR SPOILERS in the story

When I went to see Kingsman in theaters, I really enjoyed it, but came out wishing that Roxy could have been the main character.

So imagine my delight when I found out that somebody had written a fic addressing this exact premise.

It's short, and won't make much sense unless you've seen the movie, but it is a great alternate POV of a kick-ass woman.


Of Sterner Stuff

Title: We're Made Out Of Blood And Rust

Fandom: Haven
Pairing: Duke Crocker/ Nathan Wuornos
Categories: angst, slash, smut
Length: medium, 3,373 words
Warnings: season 3 bitterness? threat and gloom?

Author on LJ: n/a?
Author Website: Skyline on AO3

Summary: “Look, you’ve been really, uh. Supportive. I guess. In your own way. But can you maybe stow the condescension for the night? Disdain doesn’t mix well with anything I serve here.”

Review: And even if their history wasn’t half-written in blood, Nathan is numb to hands and knives; to Duke, who is somewhere in between.

Featuring numb-but-still-willing-to-sex!Nathan, a fantastic Duke voice, and a general aura of threat and gloom...

Nathan pays Duke a very ambiguous night time visit sometime after the revelation of Duke's Trouble has come out. It's staggeringly well written. Some awesome twists of language in the descriptions.

We're treated to Duke's snarky opinion on Nathan and snarky opinion on himself, as well as hints of their shared backstory. Did I mention the bitterness? There's lots of that, albeit interspersed with the lines that still draw a laugh... Which is why I like this fic, in particular for these two, because it captures all the shades of anger and violence, snarky banter, love and concern, within the bluntness of its alcohol- and threat-fuelled smut.

In a startling show of restraint, Nathan does not pull a gun on him, which oh, goody, means death won’t come knocking today. Nor is Wuornos wearing his Serious Detective Face. No doubt that means Nathan is here in an unofficial capacity to lord his moral superiority all over Duke’s nice clean bar.

Joy. The floors will get all sticky with condescension and virtue.

We're Made Out Of Blood And Rust