Title: Burn it Back

Fandom: Haven
Pairing: Jordan McKee/Mara
Categories: femslash, villain POV, AU/canon divergence, dark (ish)
Length: medium, ~11,000 words
Warnings: for general Evil! with a glad cry

Author on Livejournal: n/a
Author Website: author unrevealed (author link will be added when the challenge is revealed).

Summary: There's nothing quite like fury to bring people together. Jordan and Mara have been burned by the world - together, they just might burn it back.

Review: “So, you’ve ruined lives, you’ve ruined people, you-” Jordan stopped, lifted her chin, and steadied her aim. “So I’m going to kill you, I’m going to do what someone should’ve done as soon as they found out what you are.”

“You don’t actually want to do that,” Mara said, unconcerned.

“I really do,” Jordan replied, teeth bared.

Haven is pretty infamous for having a lot of different, interesting female characters who get to actually do key things and who invariably come to a bad end. In this fic, Jordan McKee gets resurrected as a Fury courtesy of one of Mara's Greatest Hits from back in the old days, and the two of them form an unholy alliance to make Audrey and Nathan and co. pay and get the hell out of Haven. And it kinda feels weird to tag this as darkfic when it's based around resurrecting a character that I really, really like, but I guess that's the tag it's closest to fitting...

Then again, Mara's voice is saturated with manipulation and confidence and evil!plots! Really, considering Jordan's Trouble, there should be more fic out there shipping her with x incarnation of Audrey, and here the relationship evolves with perfect logic for a Mara who uses sex as part of her arsenal, who knows Jordan's weakness for touch through Audrey's memories, and knows how best to woo her to turn her into a weapon that Mara can best use.

It also holds that strange and perverse fascination of letting you see the heroes get kicked around while the villains take centre stage for a while. Mara and Jordan's thoughts on Nathan, Duke and Audrey aren't complimentary, but they do get some interesting moments between the lines. I think I spy some OT3 hints in there.

This fic is a product of the recent Troubled Tales fic exchange, so it is currently author anonymous. You might get a second rec this week courtesy of this exchange.

Burn it Back

Title: sense8
Fandom: Sense8
Pairing: Nomi Marks/Amanita
Categories: Romance, Fluffy, Established Relationship.
Medium: Art
Warnings: No warnings apply.

Author Website: Shani-artist (Deviantart) | theartofdoctorwho (Art Tumblr)

Summary: amanita and nomi from the tv show Sense8 [original summary}.

Review: Sense8 became a new fandom passion for me in the last month, when I saw this sketch it just made my day. It is a colored raw sketch: neither the raw nor the sketch part bother, they just make the art lovely.

It’s a waist up digital piece of Nomi and Amanita, pg and colorful. It portrays them in a very iconic moment in the series, when Amanita defends Nomi from a friend that made rude comments on her transexuality. It’s such a vulnerable moment and sweet moment for them, and the art is so light, that it fits perfectly with the canon.

I love the texture in Amanita’s hair and in Nomi’s dress, love the highlights in Nomi’s hair and how soft Amanita's expression looks. The background isn’t distracting and the whole piece is just simple in the right measure, without losing the details.

sense8

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: 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: Overheard
Fandom: Person of Interest
Pairing: Root/Sameen Shaw
Categories/Genres: Crack, Established Relationship, Romance, Humor, Outsider POV
Length: Medium (3584 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: winged_mammal

Summary:

Root and Shaw have a tendency to forget the commlink is open. John really wishes they wouldn't.

Review:

winged_mammal used Outsider POV! It was super effective!

One of the common themes I've observed in Finch/Reese fic is the earwig connection that stays open at all times. Not unprecedented, given that it's been underscored more than once in the show. But as ever when you've got more than two people using the same network, sometimes you accidentally drop a few eaves that were probably best left alone.

Namely, Root and Shaw's very active sex life and all the flirting between them that alludes to it.

Finch and Reese are such champs about the whole thing, which I'm incredibly bemused by. Never once do they complain about the rampant flirting and naked innuendo, nor do they so much as bring it up to either of the women. Rather, they cut off their own ends of the connection when things get a little too.... heated. It's not just a source of titillation and embarrassment, though. Listening in on Root and Shaw through Reese's perspective, we also get a sense of the depth of their relationship.

Overheard

Title: Fix You
Musical Artist: Coldplay
Fandom: Person of Interest
Pairing: Root/Sameen Shaw, Joss Carter/Cal Beecher, Joss Carter/John Reese, Grace Hendricks/Harold Finch
Categories/Genres: Drama, Action/Adventure, Angst, Friendship, Romance
Warnings: Canonical Character Deaths

Author on LJ: exampleusername
Author Website: Zurik 23M


Review:

So the other day, I was looking at the tvtropes page for Person of Interest, namely the Analysis page, and I was struck by how Zurik 23M's video characterizes almost all the major themes of the show. The vid showcases the cameraderie that forms between the members, witting and unwitting alike, of Team Machine. But while it demonstrates how the Machine's mission has healed and/or empowered the characters, it doesn't hesitate on the theme of loss, and how even as they've done so much good, they have all lost people important to them both in the past and along the way. Zurik 23M also captures the tone of the show with the choice of song, the lyrics hitting home without fail.

If you don't already watch Person of Interest, and you don't mind some pretty serious spoilers, I would definitely recommend this as an introduction to what the show is about and the remarkable cast of characters you'll get to know.

Fix You

Title: a bird in a gilded cage

Fandom: Haven
Pairing: Veronica (Audrey Parker)/original female character
Categories: drama, historical, pre-canon, femslash
Length: medium, 12,100 words
Warnings: None really, although I'd up the author's G rating to a PG13 for mentions of violence and minor character death. Downbeat ending.

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

Summary: "How many secrets can one town have?" The story of Veronica, Audrey's 1901 incarnation.

Review: This is an interesting one, and as far as fanfiction goes, it's probably not going to be the most-read story ever, not having any of the major characters in it as such, but I thought it was worth drawing a little attention to for being something rather different from anything else to be found in the fandom.

It's the tale of one past incarnation out of Audrey Parker's many lives fighting the Troubles: the canonically bisexual Veronica. And with the ancestor of Vicki Dutton (with the drawing Trouble), and a female Crocker heir, Veronica's time helping to fix Troubles in this story carves out a particularly female space in Haven's mythology.

It's sparsely detailed but well told, with many parallels drawn along the way to how things have clearly played out, over and over again, across the centuries, with Haven's guarded secrets and cagey townsfolk and Troubled cycle.

a bird in a gilded cage

Title: 99.607% Match Compatibility
Fandom: Person of Interest
Pairing: Root/Sameen Shaw
Categories/Genres: Soulmates, Future Fic, Alternate Universe, Romance, Established Relationship, Drama, Angst
Length: Medium (12944 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: ionizable
Author Website: ionizable

Summary:

She doesn’t wait for Root to reply, doesn’t let Root get in a word edgewise. “Because it told you that you and Hanna are supposed to end up together, but it told me that you and I are supposed to end up together. You were my so-called soulmate, okay? It spit your name out at me.”

The Machine is just casually being a matchmaker on the downlow again, but nothing ever really comes easily, does it?

(Soulmate trope meets what-if-the-Machine-has-a-virtual-baby-and-it's-OKCupid)

Review:

The grand theme of Soulmate fics is that there's something inherently indefinable about love. That two people match at every point, on every level, two halves of a whole that was broken apart by a frightened deity. They're connected, through marks or what have you, that have no scientific explanation beyond 'idk, magic?'.

99.607% Match Compatibility is a soulmate fic that is not about soulmates. ionizable implements a soulmate matching system that is not based in magic, but an “algorithm that calculates relationship compatibility,” according to Finch, compiled by The Machine and put into use by first Shaw, then Root, as their individual curiosities overpower their better judgment. The results are... complex.

I really admire ionizable for the way they tackle the age-old fandom trope of 'young love will last forever' that's so incredibly prevalent in basically any fandom where any of the main characters are under 20. I understand it, of course. Writing out a couple's entire lifetime is incredibly tedious, so there has to be an end point somewhere, with the couple in question presumably living out their 'happily ever after'. But the moment we pull our heads out of fandom, the idea that a teenage couple can live out the rest of their adult lives in romantic bliss becomes anathema. People grow, people change. So too do relationships and what partners value in each other. Young adults marry in the rosy blush of love and divorce days, months, years later for innumerably myriad reasons. That ionizable acknowledges this reality within the fic makes Root's feelings for Shaw so much richer and recognizable than two people commanded by destiny to be together because, idk, magic.

99.607% Match Compatibility

Title: Estimated Time Remaining
Fandom: Person of Interest
Pairing: Root/Sameen Shaw
Categories/Genres: Episode Tag, Fix-It, Established Relationship, Drama, Action/Adventure
Length: Medium (2885 words)
Warnings: Offstage (Villain) Character Death

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: paigemccullers

Summary:

“Shaw?”
“Asset safe.”
That’s all she ever gets.
But for now, it’s enough.

Review:

Although I hesitate to rec this, it's mostly because I can't seem to think of anything to say in its favor without wholly and utterly spoiling not only the show's 4th season up through its most recent episode, being the midseason finale, but also the best parts of the fic itself. How do I express my love of Root's enduring feelings for Shaw, even as a year passes without so much as a glimpse of her? Or Shaw's spot-on snark after entering the narrative? How can I impress upon you the importance of Finch putting aside his own fiercely guarded principles? What will make you understand the awesomeness of Root and Reese kicking ass and taking names? Is there a way for me to portray the team's single-minded devotion to their goals even as time passes and success seems ever more like a fading dream?

Oh, I know! You can read the fic and find out all about it.

Estimated Time Remaining

Title: And You Are Not Me
Fandom: Person of Interest
Pairing: Root/Sameen Shaw, Samantha Groves/Hannah Frey
Categories/Genres: Flashbacks, Established Relationship, Romance, Action/Adventure, Drama
Length: Medium (10821 words)
Warnings: Canonical Character Death

Author on LJ: kesdax
Author Website: kesdax

Summary:

She feels her humanity like a knife in her chest. It stings and bleeds and hurts and sometimes she can’t remember how to breathe.

Review:

It's always struck me as rather incongruous that the most private character on Person of Interest is the character whose past we see the most of. For every other character, we only catch the occasional glimpse, those turning points in their lives that led them to that one place at that specific time for that important purpose.

Atypically, Root's backstory does not appear in brief plot-relevant flashbacks, but as an episode all its own, the number begrudgingly given in the face of Reese's obstinate refusal to continue on his mission while Root absconds with Finch. From there, we learn about Hannah Frey and the origin of the young hacker who later became the Machine's analog interface.

And You Are Not Me is a remarkable character piece that delves more thoroughly into Root's past. kesdax takes the bits and pieces of information from that episode and fleshes them out, introducing a young Root, her sick mother, and the girl who was her first friend and first shy love. Woven into the narrative of her past are moments from the present: conversations with Shaw about God and religion, a mission from the Machine that reveals the limits of Root's obedience to its commands, the contemplative aftermath.

And You Are Not Me

Title: Symbolic Constant
Fandom: Person of Interest
Pairing: Root/Sameen Shaw, very faint Harold Finch/John Reese if you're inclined
Categories/Genres: Post-Canon, Apocalyptic, Dystopia, Alternate Universe, Future, Sci-Fi, Action/Adventure, Angst, Romance, Established Relationship, Dark, Drama, Time Travel (from the characters' perspectives)
Length: Long (18078 words)
Warnings: Previous (Temporary?) Repeated Major Character Deaths (because clones)

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: LithiumDoll

Summary:

Here's the thing about constants: their value never changes.

Review:

In celebration of Person of Interest taking that ultimate step of making their subtexty lesbians officially and irrefutably canon, I'm gonna do my damned best to rec Root/Shaw every Saturday through the end of January.

To be honest, I've never been very fond of the apocalypse and dystopia genres. But my distaste stems from childhood trauma, and probably nobody wants to hear about that, so let me just say, Symbolic Constant is the apocalypse/dystopia fic for people who can push through the painful parts of a fic to reach the happy ending. And by painful, I mean repeated major character death. But it's okay, because they come back, thanks to clones and science and all the best cheat codes that are part and parcel of any decent sci-fi fic. And by happy ending, I mean the next generation of clones wakes up in the post-post-apocalyptic future without having to deal with any of the crap that came before.

So, y'know, don't let the warning scare you off. Please.

If nothing else, read for the lesbians. Shaw and Root's relationship is, as ever, complex at the best of times, a spicy simmer that gives the narrative delicious flavor. An older iteration of Root adds another layer of complexity that the author takes advantage of to portray a version of their relationship where their sizzling sexual tension for once isn't the backbone of their interactions.

LithiumDoll's portrayal of Finch and Reese are such perfect recreations of canon that it brings a tear to my fannish eye. The understated devotion that pervades their every interaction is just as prevalent here, allowing the reader the same freedom to interpret their relationship as the show's writers have taken such pains to cultivate. My favorite scene of the fic, even though it's really, really damn sad, involves a heartbreaking display of their bond to each other, particularly Reese's to Finch.

Basically, I freaking love this fic. I'm gonna go lay down and cry tears of joy now.

Symbolic Constant

Title: peach-soft flesh
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Allison Argent/Scott McCall
Categories: AU, Family
Length: Short (1.7k)
Warnings:

Author on LJ: supernatasha
Website: Supernatasha

Summary: The woman beside you stares, waiting to see what you'll do, if you'll tell your beautiful child who points earnestly and eagerly at the pink sneakers that he can't have them, to find something in blue, wouldn't he rather have the ones that light up, these aren't in his size, why doesn't he see if there's something else in the next aisle

and you say, "okay," and you buy him the shoes.

Review: I love that this is through the eyes of Ms. McCall. She is such a supportive mother and it really shows through in this fic.

A great little pick-me-up about love and supporting each other.

peach-soft flesh

Title: For Henry
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Pairing: Emma Swan/Regina Mills
Categories: drama, family, romance
Length: Super Epic (130K)
Warnings: addiction, discussions of past noncon/abuse

Author on LJ: n/a
Author's Website: on ao3

Summary: Tired of fighting with Regina over Henry, Emma decides to make peace and help her come to terms with her past. And along the way they find out there may be more between them than just anger.

Review: Oh this story. It's beautiful and heartbreaking and everything you want to read for these two. It's a two-part series, but the two parts bleed seemlessy into one another that it's really one read.

Hawthorne writes these two women so wonderfully in character, and watching them slowly and painfully stumble through their anger is a simply glorious reading experience. It's a story of friendship and family, and how both can ancor you to the world and help you heal.

What I especially love about this story is how it focuses on both Regina and Emma as individuals and the trauma they've both experienced, and how they both have to work on themselves before they can move forward. It's a complex and nuanced exploration of the characters that is sometimes uncomfortable to read - because life is uncomfortable. Their slow burn romance is beautiful, passionate and feels very honest. The story moves between character study movements and action-packed plot that is very much what OUAT.


For Henry

(A day late (again), but not a dollar short! (Minus the dollars spent on the booze that resulted in a truly epic hangover.))

Title: With One Eye Open
Fandom: Person of Interest
Pairing: Samantha Shaw/Root
Categories/Genres: Bondage, Smut
Length: Short (1052 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author/Artist on LJ: livenudebigfoot
Author/Artist Website: livenudebigfoot

Summary:

Her name is not Veronica.

Review:

(To be honest, one of my prime reasons for reccing this fic is the fact that it's femslash. Now, don't get me wrong, I like my fair share of dicks, but I think we can all recognize the fact that epic_recs' collection is a bit of a sausage fest. So here I am, bringing the pretty ladies.

The pretty, crazy ladies.)

Root, in her long habit of assuming identities, is going by Veronica in this particular instance. But a rose by any other name would still have thorns as sharp. Good thing Shaw has a thick skin.

What fascinates me about this pairing is how sharply they contrast with their male counterparts. Root is bold and ruthless where Finch is perpetually reining himself in. Shaw is no bleeding heart like Reese. Yet still they're birds of a feather; birds of prey or “high-functioning sociopaths,” pick your poison.

This is no soft Finch/Reese romance, with the Sencha green tea and the tailoring and the washing the dog together. This is two women with power and agency and no remorse, with guns and handcuffs and cigarettes.

With One Eye Open

Title: How I Survived My Summer Vacation, by Tamika Flynn, Age 12 3/4
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Pairing: Tamika Flynn/Original Female Character
Categories: Action/Adventure, Romance, Horror, Friendship, Missing Scene
Length: Medium (5516 words)
Warnings: Violence, Off-screen deaths of minor OCs

Author on DW: thingswithwings
Author Website: thingswithwings

Author's Summary:

The first book on Tamika Flynn's Summer Reading Program Sticker Chart is Lord of the Flies.

She doesn't really like it.

Review:

Being a voracious reader and someone who works in education, I can honestly say that there are few things that are more tragic to witness than the decline of recreational reading. As such, How I Survived My Summer Vacation, by Tamika Flynn, Age 12 3/4 (henceforth referred to as How I Survived for my poor fingers' sake) is near and dear to my heart, the courageous tale of young Tamika Flynn, who, through literary analysis and cunning and a little straight-up murder, leads her fellow Summer Reading Program peers to triumph against the public library's monstrous librarians. (And finds a little love along the way.)

How I Survived is a celebration of literature and a very Night Valean bildungsroman, subtly comparing and contrasting the respective literary milestones of our world and the world of Welcome to Night Vale with the finesse of a particularly well-written expository article. It reminds us of our own experiences with the books we read during childhood, books like The Giver, Bridge to Terabithia, and even Harry Potter, and shows us those same books from the perspective of children who read them not out of enjoyment or obligation, but as a method of survival. Literature becomes a weapon in the hands of Tamika Flynn and her fellow Summer Readers in a way it no longer is for those of us in the 'real world', and when the children escape from their Program to rejoin their families, the reader is right there with them, celebrating the triumph of literacy and the miracle of literature.

How I Survived My Summer Vacation, by Tamika Flynn, Age 12 3/4

EDIT: Many thanks to mothlights for telling me about Rhea's podfic version of How I Survived. Check it out!

Title: The Shoemaker
Fandom: Merlin BBC
Pairing: Freya/Gwen (brief Arthur/Merlin)
Categories: Historical - Edwardian, reincarnation, AU with magic, romance, action/adventure, drama, cross-dressing, genderqueer, first time
Length: Long (23,645)
Warnings: temporary past character death (reincarnation)

Author on LJ: fleete
Author Website: fleete fleete

Author's summary: Historical magical AU. In turn-of-the-century Glastonbury, Freya Lake is the headmistress of an orphanage for magical children. And despite all the seers’ dire warnings, Freya is happy; her infatuation with the shoemaker’s apprentice—who may or may not be a girl underneath his shirt and trousers—is slowly coming to a head. But then a woman claiming to be Morgan Le Fay shows up on the orphanage steps, demanding to see Emrys, and Freya is forced to rearrange her priorities.

Review:
Freya is a great character here, reserved and hard working, with her orphanage to run and her heart in the right place, but without seeming too good to be true. The bright and nerve wracking highlight of her day is the enigmatic Shoemaker's apprentice, who keeps tucking little favors into the shoes Freya buys. Though the apprentice is dressed as a man, Freya knows there's a secret there.

Gwen is beautifully written too; she's very individual, knowing what she wants and how she feels, even though it doesn't fit gender preconceptions, especially in 1905, and her surprise that she can be herself and still have a chance to win the woman she loves is just right.

Fleete gives us a little village from another era: the little shops decked for Yule and the stodgy council with its arguing elders. Then there's the suspense of the growing magical danger, which begins with a visit from Morgana and has everything to do with Merlin and Arthur, who play supporting roles. The whole thing feels very unique, and it's lovely to read.
(Shout out to marguerite_26 whose journal led me to a story I probably wouldn't have found otherwise.)

The Shoemaker

Title: The Shoemaker
Fandom: Merlin BBC
Pairing: Freya/Gwen (brief Arthur/Merlin)
Categories: Historical - Edwardian, reincarnation, AU with magic, romance, action/adventure, drama, cross-dressing, genderqueer, first time
Length: Long (23,645)
Warnings: temporary past character death (reincarnation)

Author on LJ: fleete
Author Website: fleete fleete

Author's summary: Historical magical AU. In turn-of-the-century Glastonbury, Freya Lake is the headmistress of an orphanage for magical children. And despite all the seers’ dire warnings, Freya is happy; her infatuation with the shoemaker’s apprentice—who may or may not be a girl underneath his shirt and trousers—is slowly coming to a head. But then a woman claiming to be Morgan Le Fay shows up on the orphanage steps, demanding to see Emrys, and Freya is forced to rearrange her priorities.

Review:
Freya is a great character here, reserved and hard working, with her orphanage to run and her heart in the right place, but without seeming too good to be true. The bright and nerve wracking highlight of her day is the enigmatic Shoemaker's apprentice, who keeps tucking little favors into the shoes Freya buys. Though the apprentice is dressed as a man, Freya knows there's a secret there.

Gwen is beautifully written too; she's very individual, knowing what she wants and how she feels, even though it doesn't fit gender preconceptions, especially in 1905, and her surprise that she can be herself and still have a chance to win the woman she loves is just right.

Fleete gives us a little village from another era: the little shops decked for Yule and the stodgy council with its arguing elders. Then there's the suspense of the growing magical danger, which begins with a visit from Morgana and has everything to do with Merlin and Arthur, who play supporting roles. The whole thing feels very unique, and it's lovely to read.
(Shout out to marguerite_26 whose journal led me to a story I probably wouldn't have found otherwise.)

The Shoemaker

Title: love is for children, and other lies
Fandom: Avengers
Pairing: Gen (Maria Hill/Natasha Romanova)
Categories: Asexual, Domestic, Pre-canon, Prostitution
Length: Long (30,000)
Warnings:canon typical violence; prostitution of young women

Author on LJ:fahye
Website: Fahye's Ao3

Summary: War is the child's emptiness, the surrender of identity, the transformation into a simple system: purpose goes in, action comes out. (Natalia Alianovna Romanova, and everything that she became.)

Review: Natasha's voice in this is just amazing! Fahye manages to keep it solid, despite the fact that the story follows Natasha from a young age through when she joins up with S.H.I.E.L.D. and beyond.

She's paranoid but a realist. And her relationship with Clint is just so warm and fuzzy, without losing it's spy vs. spy edge.

love is for children, and other lies

Title: love is for children, and other lies
Fandom: Avengers
Pairing: Gen (Maria Hill/Natasha Romanova)
Categories: Asexual, Domestic, Pre-canon, Prostitution
Length: Long (30,000)
Warnings:canon typical violence; prostitution of young women

Author on LJ:fahye
Website: Fahye's Ao3

Summary: War is the child's emptiness, the surrender of identity, the transformation into a simple system: purpose goes in, action comes out. (Natalia Alianovna Romanova, and everything that she became.)

Review: Natasha's voice in this is just amazing! Fahye manages to keep it solid, despite the fact that the story follows Natasha from a young age through when she joins up with S.H.I.E.L.D. and beyond.

She's paranoid but a realist. And her relationship with Clint is just so warm and fuzzy, without losing it's spy vs. spy edge.

love is for children, and other lies

Title: The Bar at the End of the Fandom
Fandom: Fandom itself (AO3 tags)
Pairing: Other/Multi
Categories: Meta, anthropomorphism, humor, crack
Length: Medium (3,911 words)
Warnings: None... although "Warnings" is the bouncer

Author on LJ: firstlightofeos (no updates in last year)
Author Website: firstlightofeos, firstlightofeos

Author's Summary: PWP walks into a bar...

Review:
After a brief second person opener in which you post the first fic in a new fandom, PWP is our fun and irreverent guide to a bar full of tags, and everything is spot on, from the "drinks" served (one-shots are especially popular), to the ever increasing number of bunnies who serve them. The real highlight is PWP's take on the wickedly funny interaction between all the tags you know and love (and maybe some you avoid like the plague).

From the Hurt/Comfort twins to Coffee Shop AU to Bechdel Test Pass (which I had to stop and look up, and I'm glad I did!), everyone's here, or soon will be. It's a who's who of AO3 tags (and the genre tags here at Epic Recs). The author not only knows who'll crash the new fandom party when; ze also gets the way they'll behave once they step up to the bar, from the philosophical to the horny, and from the tags who take their roles über seriously, to those who'll do anything for a laugh.

If you like your meta light, snappy and right on the money, this one-shot's the drink for you.

The Bar at the End of the Fandom