Title: All the King's Horses
Fandom: Doctor Who
Pairing: Gen, Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble
Categories: Adventure, Gen
Length: Long [26 110 words]
Warnings: none

Author/Artist/Creator on LJ: lindenharp
Author/Artist/Creator Website: Lindenharp’S AO3

Summary:A star empire is menaced by deadly creatures from the time of Rassilon. Will one lone Time Lord and a human companion be enough to defeat them?

Review:

Sometimes what I really need is a good canon-style adventure. Donna is one of my favorite companions and I was always a bit sad that we only got the one season with her and especially about how things ended up for her.

This is not a fix-it for that, but it’s a wonderful gen adventure that slots in right in between the episodes we have for her and the Doctor. The interactions and dialogue are very in character (in the beginning Donna seems a bit smart in the wrong way, but that soon levels back to canon Donna brilliance).

It’s a brilliantly crafted adventure story too, that could very well be an episode. Lindenharp does an amazing job of fleshing out the details of the Time War and Time Lord history. I found the world-building she did for the ancient alien civilization they encounter and all the traditions and costums of theirs very engaging and I love the underlying story of culture clash, especially because it’s also a story of how people from different cultures can work together and come to understand each other better.

It’s a wonderful read all around.

All the King's Horses

Title: Freeze on the Stones
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Pairing: Belle/Rumplestiltskin, Emma/?, Regina/?
Categories: Drama, AU, For Want Of A Nail, Darker and Grittier, Romance, Family, Redemption
Length:  Super-Epic (635 000 words)
Warnings: Non-con, Torture, lots of non-consensual things going on, violence, a couple of the more evil characters die

Author Website: Robin 4 on AO3 or Robin 4 on fanfiction.net


Author’s Summary:
One choice can change fate. Regina chooses love, Snow stays silent, and Cora casts the curse. Rumplestiltskin knows that trusting Cora with that much power is dangerous—but he has no choice if he wants to find his son. 28 years later, Gold and Regina awaken in Storybrooke and must work together to make the Savior believe.
Yes, this Storybrooke is far darker than the one you know.


Regarding the warnings:
A theme that comes up several times in Freeze on the Stones is the nature of consent and responsibility. Multiple characters are magically mind-controlled in various ways and encouraged or forced to harm or betray others. The different approaches and the different ways characters deal with it are interesting, but unflinching.

If you’re not comfortable with reading about people being trapped or forced into doing things, I’d definitely advise giving this fic a miss. None of the bad stuff is romanticised, but a lot of it is graphic. (Also, two men become better people because they are in love with good women. Which seems like a rather dodgy message to me.)


Review:
Freeze on the Stones assumes knowledge of canon. I would expect someone unfamiliar with canon to find the characters and circumstances hard to follow. However, the story takes the time to develop the characters it focuses on, so a basic grasp of the TV series is definitely enough to get you through.

Despite being a very long story, Freeze on the Stones is actually relatively fast-paced. It follows multiple people at any point and generally gives them one scene a chapter for the length of their story arc. Unusually for this style of writing, I only rarely found one story arc less compelling than the others. All the scenes were all well-written enough to be compelling, even when I didn’t particularly care for the main characters.

As you have probably gathered, this is a for want of a nail alternate universe, which explores what might have happened had it been Cora who cast the curse that created Storybrooke. While the result is very recognisable - the same characters in the same area in similar circumstances - there are many fascinating reversals from canon Season 1.

One of the more interesting themes it explores is Rumplestiltskin’s relationship with power. In canon, he feels extremely powerless without his magic, despite having sufficient money, reputation and blackmail to unquestionably be the most powerful person in town. In Freeze on the Stones, he is faced with a mayor who has the magical knowledge and viciousness to threaten him. It’s enjoyable to watch him deal with both that and a more equal relationship with the heroes.

Regina’s story is not about choosing between power and the people who love her, but about endlessly attempting to save the people she loves from her mother. It makes for less character development, as Regina simply ages to be more confident and caring. However, she is more active as a hero than a villain, so we still get a good look at her character and it is hard not to feel for her quiet sadness, calm compassion and desperate need to protect those she loves.

Freeze on the Stones at AO3
Freeze on the Stones at ff.net

Title: Shadows in the River Fog series
Fandom: Dishonored
Pairing: Gen
Categories/Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Family, Violence, Low Chaos
Length: Medium (13,183 words)
Warnings: Canonical character death, child abuse

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: NoHolds

Summary:

Corvo Attano continues to defy expectation.

Review:

Joining the ranks of many similar video games, Dishonored's Corvo Attano is a silent protagonist. He's a blank slate with no reactions beyond what the player chooses to assign to him. Whether he massacres his way through the game or puts every single NPC he can find into a sleeper hold is utterly up to the player's discretion, though the end is, uncommonly, influenced by the means.

What NoHolds does is generate Corvo's personality, mannerisms, and even posture all from scratch. She invents him, fills him in like a coloring page even as she makes him suit her image. It truly is a marvelous thing to see.

Each story in the series is from the perspective of a different character, and each in their turn describes Corvo through the filter of their experiences with him. Samuel, a stranger, looks on in curiosity. Daud reflects on his guilt. Emily's soft, kind memories are torn ragged by what she experiences at the hands of her kidnappers and what she is told by them about Corvo. Through each tinted lens they provide, the reader is able to glean something new about NoHold's imagining of Corvo, and the picture each glimpse paints is a marvelous portrait indeed.

Shadows in the River Fog

Title: the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world
Fandom: Iron Man Noir
Pairing: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Categories: Romance, Angst, Drama, Post-Canon
Length: Long [~25 000]
Warnings: Comic Book Violence, some mentions of medical procedures that can be uncomfortable

Author on LJ: stray_heart/thyrza
Author Website: thyrza's AO3

Summary: Tony Stark disappeared without a word at the close of World War II, and hasn't been seen or heard from since. When Commander Steve Rogers, newly retired from the mantle of Captain America, arrives in Madripoor to investigate the presence of a Hydra cell, he is reunited with his former lover. But Tony is keeping secrets of his own ... and Steve soon finds out he isn't the only person interested in Tony Stark's missing years.

Review:

This is a Steve/Tony story written for the Cap/Iron Man Big Bang a couple of years ago and and even better for one of the more obscure canon versions of Tony Stark. It’s based on the Iron Man Noir mini-series from 2010 in which Tony Stark is not only a genius inventor, but also an Indiana Jones style adventurer with his own pulp magazine that fictionalizes his exploits. He has run-in’s with Nazi’s like Baron von Strucker and Baron Zemo and it’s implied at the end that he’ll join the war effort at the end of the comic.

This Big Bang story takes that as a given and jumps ahead in time to the post-war era and is told entirely from the perspective of Steve, who we learn was indeed Captain America during World War II and is now “retired”, but still works for SHIELD - not as Captain America, but as Steve Rogers. Tony Stark has vanished right after the war and his whereabouts and reasons for leaving remain a mystery to Steve until he’s sent on a new mission.

While the main story takes place in 1947, the set-up and most of the exposition, is done very deftly through the use of flashbacks, that give us the missing background for the romance and go into some details of their time together during the war, before the real action starts.

The story is very well written and has some of the most heart-breaking angsty Tony moments imaginable. It does go some dark places, before things get better, but nothing darker than the original mini-series (which was full of pulpy violence and noir themes). The author does a good job of using the cast and little details that the mini-series’ worldbuilding provided and add re-interpretations of other Marvel universe plots and characters to build upon it. It’s a very engaging read, a very emotional adventures and some of the moments of desperation and fear driving the main characters here were probably among the best I ever read.

It’s likely helpful to know the gist of the 4 issue mini-series, but there is so much original worldbuilding going on here that it can also be read without much canon knowledge.

the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world

Title: Breaker of Horses
Fandom: Marvel comics (616, main continuity)
Pairing: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Categories: slave fic, AU, drama, romance, angst
Length: Epic [47943 words]
Warnings: interspecies romance between human and centaur

Author on LJ: sineala
Author Website: Sineala's AO3

Review:

Author’s Summary: What do you do when the Roman Empire you were raised to love consigns you to the sands of the arena? Antonius is a prince of the Dacians, captured in war and sold as a gladiator. He yearns for his freedom. Stephanos -- the last living centaur -- is his fellow slave and trainer. Centuries old, disillusioned by a Rome that has become a shadow of itself, Stephanos has all but given up on life... until he meets Antonius, and both of their lives are forever changed.

This is an amazing story that was written for this year’s Reverse Bang over at the cap_ironman community and was inspired by some amazing artwork of gladiator!Tony and centaur!Steve. I might preface this with the fact that I’m not usually good with AU’s that radically change the setting like this, but this fic totally won me over and intrigued me from the get go. It’s hard to write a setting like this convincingly and at the same time keep this characters who they are and sineala does justice to both. She puts so many awesome details about Roman culture in there and then manages to sneak in the comic references right in on top of that. I think my favorite thing how Stephanos’ story parallels Steve’s super soldier history.

It’s a wonderful adventure story with some nice action and fight scenes (and it’s obvious how much research about gladiators went into those), but even more than this it’s the story of “Antonius”, who very much still is Tony at the heart of it, from privileged childhood to the pit of the arena and his fight against having his freedom and dignity taken from him, making friends (which involves meeting "Avengers" in gladiator guise) and who doesn't give in to circumstances. The romance is a delicious and wonderful cherry on top. The emotional scenes are vibrant and hit me right where it hurt sometimes and the character arcs that unfold in the story alone are making this a worthy read. The angsty themes are running high with this one, which with the themes of slavery and fights to the death in the arena isn’t surprising. But there are also quieter scenes of friendship and blossoming, uncertain romance to balance that out.

And above all it’s just so well written.

As the author points out the fic contains no centaur/human sex, so this doesn’t need a right out bestiality warning. There is the interspecies romance and kissing, though, that not everyone might enjoy. Those who are here for the xenoromance though might be glad to know that the relationship is consummated in a NC-17 sequel fic.

Breaker of Horses

Title: An Ordinary Meeting
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes
Pairing: Gen
Categories/Genres: Slice of Life, Friendship, Humor, Action/Adventure
Length: Long ( 27,235 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: aragonite

Summary:

Lestrade meets the man mad enough to room with Sherlock Holmes.

Review:

If you like Sherlock Holmes in literally any of its incarnations, you need to read this. Period. My favorite chapter is Honey and Onions, Both because of the sheer unbelievable hilarity and also the way in which aragonite has Lestrade and Watson recount their story. It's messy and haphazard and incredibly improbable, and yet aragonite shows in The Art of Reports that it's completely true, if heavily abridged. If you need more convincing, I leave you with this delightful snippet:

"It is illegal to perform obstruction in highways, bridges or rivers!" Lestrade paused again to spit filthy water out from the middle of his diatribe. If you feel the need to perform such an activity, you must first file for a permit at your public Police-station!"

For some unfathomable reason, it worked. The steersman blanched; he hurriedly stuffed his revolver into his coat and used both hands to wrench the cabin back to align with the current...

An Ordinary Meeting

Title: Titanium
Fandom: Agent Carter
Pairing: gen
Categories: action, character study, fanvid
Length: fanvid, 3mins51
Warnings: canon level violence

Author on Livejournal: gwyn_r
Author Website: Gwyneth rhys on AO3 or http://www.gwynethr.net/

Summary: You shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am titanium.

Review: Today I bring a vid rec! Which, in all honesty, wasn't what I was searching for in this fandom, but I stumbled over it and it blew me away with its portrayal of Peggy Carter nonetheless. The vid is a character study of Peggy in all facets of action and adversity, much of which adversity is provided by the men who are supposed to be her colleagues and allies.

I've seen this song vidded before a few times (albeit not this exact version). Its use feels totally earned here, though, far too perfect a match to the message to be replaced by anything else. The cutting is pretty much spot on throughout, and some of the clips to lyrics matches are particularly poignant with the period sexism addressed in the show.

The video is streaming on Vimeo and you can also download it on the Vimeo link.

Titanium (LJ link here.)

Title: Internment Camp 317
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Pairing: gen
Categories: action/adventure(ish), hurt/comfort(ish), team, friendship
Length: medium, ~9,000 words
Warnings: none

Author on Livejournal: bjewelled
Author Website: Bjewelled

Summary: Julian Bashir spent a month in Internment Camp 317 as a prisoner of the Dominion, and he never really spoke much about it later...

Review: “You are going to help us,” Tain said, implacably. “I can understand your reluctance to reveal how you are going to help us, but you really don't have a choice. While I've been able to secure the hardware components needed for transmission, I still need to decrypt the code walls around the power system so that I can divert sufficient energy for our needs. That's where you come in.”

Julian frowned. “I'm a Doctor,” he said, “Not a mathematician.”

“Come now,” Tain said, faint annoyance audible in his voice, “You and I both know you have certain hidden talents which you seem to be rather embarrassed about.”

So this fic is a few years old but I read it for the first time the other day, following someone else's bookmarks, and it rocks my socks because it ties the genetic enhancements thread to canon. Or at least, as much so as I think it's ever possible to tie that into canon, and into Dr Bashir's characterisation, given how in 4 and a half seasons canon had never so much as tipped a sly nod towards it until it sprung that upon the viewership in what generally always seemed like a one-off episode where continuity had left the house, street, and was heading way out of the quadrant.

Martok and Tain and the rest of the prison camp inmates are nicely written and the fic hinges on its capacity to illustrate Dr Bashir's growing relationships within the little group. In fact, of Julian interacting with a diverse bunch of species with differing points of view, who aren't so much interested in the rigid point of view of the Federation on... certain very personal subjects that might be considered illegal and taboo.

It feels odd to label it 'team' fic when it's not the DS9 team in question, but nonetheless, it's about how this little group become knit together by necessity to survive and eventually escape. And how Dr Bashir gains an odd freedom, of sorts, that he's never actually had among his Federation compatriots, in the midst of all this strife.

Internment Camp 317

Title: Shelter Me Series
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: Parker/Eliot Spencer/Alec Hardison
Categories: Action Adventure, Friendship, First Time, Hurt/Comfort
Length: Long (20k)
Warnings: Off screen torture

Author on LJ: http://thingswithwings.dreamwidth.org/
Website: Ao3

Summary: Eliot's their hitter, and taking on any physical threats to the team is his job, but there's something beyond professionalism – even beyond the obvious fact that Eliot relishes the fight itself – in the way he puts his body between Parker or Alec and any potential threat. Alec has a good view of Eliot's back on a lot of jobs, and he reads something in the tight line of Eliot's shoulder, in the slow turn of his foot as he steps into a fighting stance.

Something possessive.

Review: This is an interesting take on both a post-canon fic and a fic for our favorite trio of thieves to get together.

Even though the fic is narrated from Alec's POV, it is very much centered around Eliot and his changing role in the team. I'm glad to see it after the recklessness that was shown in the Rundown Job, our only Canon evidence of how a team of just Eliot, Alec, and Parker would function.

The romance is nice and slow building, and different enough to feel right for people who see the world as differently as Parker and Eliot seem to. The first fic covers their getting together.

The second fic in the series is kink heavy so make sure you read the tags

Shelter Me Series

Title: Black Water Rising
Fandom: Agent Carter
Pairing: gen
Categories: casefic, action/adventure, hurt/comfort, huddling for warmth, team, friendship
Length: long, 29,221 words
Warnings: none

Author on Livejournal: sholio
Author Website: Sholio on AO3

Summary: An apparently abandoned Hydra facility turns into a deathtrap for Peggy and the SSR team. Set after 1x08.

Review: It really could not be more of a stereotypical villain lair if they'd taken the design straight from one of those execrable Captain America comics, Peggy thought, shining her torch above and around the empty, echoing halls. And it was entirely cleaned out. Not a stick of furniture, not even so much as a bolt. When Hydra cleared out, they really cleared out.

This is a solid gen adventure that delivers something I'd very much had the desire to see after watching the series -- our three favourite SSR agents working together and respecting each other for their strengths and understanding each other's weaknesses, all of which get showcased during the course of the story. It's a great teamfic full of banter and tropeyness (but never too much to take over the story) which makes me wish there was more of its like out there.

Thompson's *cough* still a prat, but he's their prat and still wants to do the right thing, even if he always(?) falls down with the execution, even if we're still not sure he'd come through in the crunch, but he gets the chance to be brave and tenacious here and show some real strength. Sousa gets to be quietly smart and self-sacrificing. Peggy is competent and in-charge despite the nominal ranks, but also permitted to be human, isn't invulnerable or without fear. Above all it's teamwork that enables them to survive their situation in this fic, and every member of the trio playing their part.

Black Water Rising

Title: Being Small

Fandom: due South
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Categories: casefic, adventure, slash, crack
Length: medium, 6234 words
Warnings: none

Author on Livejournal: n/a?
Author Website: arrow (esteefee) on AO3

Summary: Being small is a real education.

Review: For reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture, Ray is now tiny. The reasons do not need exploring because Ray does not want to explain to anyone why he's suddenly the size of an action figure, only minus the Kung Fu grip. But let's just say there was a shrink ray involved (there always is) and no puns, thanks, because this is Not Fun.

So this is my second shrunk!fic rec of the day. This one serves added slashiness with the crack!

I mean, to be absolutely up-front about it, this is bonkers. There are no shrinking rays (ha. ha. HA!) in due South and Fraser is keeping Ray in his belt pouch and feeding him Cheetos. But there is action!tinyRay and arming up for battle at Toys-R-Us, with gratuitous vintage action figure references, and who can resist? So freakin' adorable and so much fun.

I should probably add that the smut happens once the size issue is resolved, although who knows, some of us may be disappointed by that...

Being Small

Title: Trouble shared is Trouble halved

Fandom: Haven
Pairing: gen
Categories: casefic, adventure, crack
Length: short...ah, dammit, it's just into medium, wasted opportunity for a size gag. 2247 words
Warnings: none

Author on Livejournal: tanaquific
Author Website: Tanaqui on AO3

Summary: When Nathan finds himself in trouble as the result of a Trouble, Audrey and Duke ride to the rescue. But, of course, this is Haven and things are never that straightforward..

Review: Duke tried to look like he hadn't been thinking it would be fun to gently push Nathan around with his finger once Audrey's back was turned. Maybe even pick Nathan up by the scruff of his jacket and dangle him from a great height. He didn't intend to do him any serious harm, just have a bit of fun....

So today's recs come as a result of a conversation yesterday about how I love shrinking fics (or shrunk!fic, depending on your preferred grammar). As a trope it is adorable crack and there should be more of it out there. Feel free to point me toward more in comments.

This cute lil' fic is an abbreviated casefile wherein Duke and Nathan find themselves on the short end of a Trouble, while Audrey basks in her customary immunity. It's freakin' adorable.

It's listed gen but the trio relationship reads as pretty fond and there manage to be a few Nathan and Duke moments packed into this mini adventure.

Trouble shared is Trouble halved

Title: Regression

Fandom: Haven
Pairing: gen-ish, early seasons canon-level Audrey Parker/Nathan Wuornos
Categories: casefile!, adventure, angst, friendship, amnesia (sort of), hurt/comfort (sort of)
Length: medium, 14,717 words
Warnings: Implied past childhood abuse (heavily hinted in canon), and it's rated mature for a catalogue of dark themes but nothing heavily described.

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

Summary: In the beginning it was almost funny. Audrey figured the photo of Duke clutching the teddy bear should be worth free coffee-the good stuff-at least once a week. If only it hadn't brought up the past quite so viscerally.

Review: The crying stopped and Duke stiffened. "Uh, Nathan? Care to fill me in on why I am half naked and crying into your chest?"

It's a Haven casefic! Here's a Trouble that regresses people, psychologically, back to the worst times of their lives. From Duke's initial somewhat amusing/simultaneously embarrassing/even horrifying re-experience of childhood, to the awfulness of poor, poor Dwight under the influence, to Nathan's struggle at the climax, that's a Trouble which paves the way for some truly interesting things to be explored.

The Troubled Person is an interesting original character in his own right, with history and motives that feel human and true. The story isn't afraid to look into a few dark corners. But it's got a vein of humour and acknowledgement of the ridiculous of the Troubles and Haven in general running through it, that never lets it get *too* dark. (Plus, bonus appearance by Dr. Lucassi, who has to be one of my favourite understated minor characters of the show.)

It's labelled Audrey/Nathan plus Duke & Nathan and reads in line with a gen-ish season 2 type canon piece, and ends with a sleepover on the Cape Rouge, so really how you want to interpret the relationships in it is up for grabs.

This fic is a product of the recent Troubled Tales fic exchange, so it is currently author anonymous.

Regression

Title: Thrill as only we know how
Fandom: Mission Impossible : Ghost Protocol
Pairing: William Brant/Ethan Hunt
Categories/Genres: Bonding, Romance, Oblivious!Will, Pining!Ethan, Pining!Will
Length: 28394
Warnings: Hurt/Comfort

Author/Artist on AO3: Inmyriadbits
Author/Artist on AO3: Spatz

Summary:

After their meeting on the pier in Seattle, the team goes their separate ways. But Ghost Protocol left the IMF in turmoil, so Will, Ethan, Jane, and Benji team up to take on the Syndicate, a mysterious and widespread criminal organization. Will has to adjust to being a field agent again, and learn how to work with his team when the world isn’t on the line -- all while dealing with attack cheetahs, unexpected amnesia, train robbery, master thieves, and more.

Falling in love was not part of his scenario.


Review:
What's lovely about this fic is how carefully it is built up. It's slow and neat and you get the sense of friendship and trust before you get to any romance at all. And even though it is from Will's point of view you can read between the lines how Ethan is falling for Will way before you ever guess it's returned.

Thrill as only we know how

Title: The Book of Vices and Virtues series
Fandom: D. Gray-man
Pairing: Allen/Kanda, Kanda/Alma, Allen/OMC, Allen/OFC
Genres: AU, Romance, First-time, Adventure, Drama, Historical, Prostitution, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon
Length: Super-epic (214,460 words)
Warnings: Attempted rape, past and present child abuse, child prostitution, dub-con

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

Author's Summary:
Story 1: In which Allen travels from India to England in search of Black Order Headquarters.

Story 2: "Whenever there is hatred between two people, there is a bond of brotherhood of some kind" - Oscar Wilde, /De Profundis/

Review:
This lovely and long series contains two stories. The first is an AU version of Allen's journey from India to the Black Order headquarters in England. The second is a post-canon story about Kanda, Allen and Johnny being on the run.

The series has a pleasing circular nature. All the people that Allen meets or reunites with on his way to the Order are met again by Kanda on their way from the Order. While the first story is firmly a study of Allen, his character and his bisexuality, the second story is definitely Kanda's. As he asks around about Allen's character in an attempt to understand him better, he also gains much more knowledge of himself, both as he is now and as he was before he was reborn.

I did feel it got a little too philosophical in the middle, dragging the pace down, but I'm always impatient for the happy ending to happen. And it does, in a sweet, hot, and in character way. A great read.

The Book of Vices and Virtues series

Title: Two Plants and a Girl
Fandom: Trigun
Pairing: Meryl Stryfe/Millions Knives, Vash the Stampede/Milly Thompson
Categories/Genres: Action/Adventure, Amnesia, Angst, AU, Drama, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Kids, Post-Canon, Pregnancy, Romance
Length: Epic (74,073 words)
Warnings: Minor (OC) character death, Non-descriptive mention of child molestation, Descriptions of gore

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: Thunk

Summary:

Meryl becomes more important to Vash than he wants to admit. But Knives sees it. Knives capitalizes on it. But he finds it increasingly difficult to exploit the Insurance girl, for reasons far too old, and not buried deep enough.

Review:

I'm not entirely sure how I've gone this long without reccing this fic. Probably because it's posted on FF.net. No, don't run away! It's good, I swear!

Two Plants and a Girl is an AU fusion of the Trigun anime and the backstory that's revealed in the manga. It picks up from where the anime leaves off, with Knives slowly recovering from his fight against Vash in the anime's finale under the watchful eyes and tender mercies of Vash, Meryl, and Milly.

What I really appreciate about this fic is that Thunk knows their stuff. The bits and pieces of background and worldbuilding incorporated into the fic are sourced from the manga and thoroughly contemplated, providing a much more nuanced and believable Knives than the anime's straight-up-psycho interpretation. He's still an unrepentant asshole, but his canonical actions have weight and meaning and consequence that don't sit easy with him even a century later.

Thunk also presents a reasonable and quite logical plan to give Knives and Vash what they both want, pushing compromise rather than conflict in an anime/manga that basically centers around the conflict between the two. That's not to say that Thunk sucks all the friction out of their relationship, however.

Thunk also deals with Knives' massive damage with deft storytelling. The pacing of the story, which jumps over various stretches of time, can make it seem contrived on occasion, but the emotional depth of the events and the consequent growth of Knives' shriveled little soul signal to the reader a rocky but definitely substantial progress that is satisfying to watch.

There are some moments that are oddly OOC, mostly related to the forced early attraction between Knives and Meryl, and the very end, when Knives is so overcome with guilt and grief that he becomes a weepy parody of himself, but barring those, the interaction between the two is pretty damn great.

If you ever watched the Trigun anime and clicked away from the finale wondering, well, now what?, you absolutely read this fic. Yeah, I know it's on FF.net, but would I ever lead you astray?

Don't answer that.

Two Plants and a Girl

Title: Balance of Power

Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Pairing: gen
Categories: action/adventure, crack, caper, time travel, post-canon
Length: super epic, ~328,000 words
Warnings: Only that it's left fairly open-ended, and the sequel looks to be in a permanent state of unfinished.

Author on Livejournal: n/a?
Author Website: Crackbunny Syndrome on fanfiction.net

Summary: Time travel. Conspiracy theories. Leylines. Pop culture crack and bad movie references. Hackers, ghost hunters and detectives, oh my! When crossing the gate, be sure to look both ways. Post series.

Review: "Maul?!" Ed asked. His eyes had gone wide as he stared around at all the different stores. The place was two floors high, bigger than any market he'd ever seen, and a cacophony of lights, sounds, and enticing aromas.

This is going back a few years now, to before the manga had an ending, before Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood had been made, and when the 'ending' for the series was that of the original anime and sequel movie Conqueror of Shamballa. This ridiculously epic gen fic, with its entourage of well-written original characters plus a surprise addition back-from-the-dead, is set after the movie, as a time travel incident propels Edward and Alphonse Elric into the modern world. They are helped to survive and navigate it by the dropouts, hippies and dissidents they meet along the way.

The story is a giant collaborative effort and exceedingly well written. The original characters and their voices are distinct. It's kind of the neverending fic, but it's also a lot of fun. According to the author profile, the plot was an accidental discovery, but I couldn't really tell, though it's in no hurry to rush enjoying all the gags about Edward in the modern world and the character moments along the way. It also has the capacity to turn surprisingly dark in its serious moments -- bear in mind that Ed and Al have time travelled from 1920s Germany, unknowing of the future that was to come.

Balance of Power

Title: How Far Down

Fandom: Dredd
Pairing: gen
Categories: casefile, crime, backstory
Length: medium, 6,452 words
Warnings: author warns for 'threat of rape/non-con' but it's pretty minor

Author on Livejournal: n/a?
Author Website: Eli on AO3

Summary: 17,000 serious crimes are reported every day. How many more aren't?

Review: No matter how much confidence she has gained as a judge, where Anderson is truly comfortable is in other people's heads. She's not sure what that says about her.

This is both a small casefile following the events of the movie and a backstory fill-in for Psi Judge Cassandra Anderson. I like the extrapolation here for where Anderson goes next, with the struggle to find Judges willing to work with her, and her ending up by circumstance working alongside Dredd again anyway.

I like this fic for the opportunity to see Anderson in action again and these two partnered up once more, in a platonic sense, and it makes some good use of the psychic powers -- those scenes of Anderson busting into other people's heads were always the thing I loved best in the Anderson Psi Division comic strips.

There are also a few neat little character observations of Dredd along the way.

How Far Down

Title: Thistledown
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Genres: AU, Genderswap, Romance, Historical, Adventure, Cross-dressing, First-time
Length: Epic (90,547 words)
Warnings: None

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

Author's Summary:
South-west England, 1140. Sixteen-year old Merlin is a novice nun. One day, she finds a wounded knight, and offers to hide him from his enemies. When she falls to temptation and shares a bed with him, the consequences are more far-reaching than she could ever have imagined, changing her life forever.

Written for this KMM prompt: Arthur/Merlin historical AU. Merlin is a [nun]. Arthur is a knight who asks Merlin to hide him from his enemies. At first he is happy to sleep on the floor, then he asks to sleep in Merlin's bed, then he cuddles close to Merlin to keep warm.

Review:
This is a romance through and through. Watching Merlin and Arthur's relationship develop is a delight; they're unable to keep their hands off each other, and yet they are also still the bickering pair we know and love. Girl!Merlin, for all that she's a nun, is still completely in character. Both of them are completely clueless when it comes to sex, and the way they learn and mature together is sweet and funny, and always equal and respectful.

Most of the fic is about their pilgrimage to return a holy relic to its place of origin, and their subsequent travels through the holy lands in the period between the First and Second Crusades. Their journey is wonderfully described and just as fulfilling to read as their romance. A beautiful fic in all aspects.

Thistledown

Title: Under Wicked Sky
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairing: Sokka/Zuko
Genres: AU, Angst, Adventure, Romance
Length: Epic (60,310 words)
Warnings: Rape

Author on LJ: N/A (There is an LJ with the same username but I can't tell if they're the same person.)
Author Website: suge @ FF.net

Author's Summary:
During a raid Zhao captures Zuko and Sokka. They escape with dificulty, but surviving the uncharted earthebender territory and each other is the real challenge.

Review:
In this AU of season one a Zuko captured and raped by Zhao after their battle escapes with Sokka, who is cuffed to him. Forced to co-operate with each other, their relationship is just as rocky as you would expect, with romance blooming very gradually between the hurt and distrustful boys. Zhao is believable as the villain; you can image that the man who thought nothing of killing the moon could be as cruel as this. It's kind of like seeing a more realistic Avatar, the behind the scenes of the more kid-friendly main story. The darker places this fic goes, as well as the politics it explores, feel like different facets of the same canon.

This story isn't without its flaws. Spelling and grammar mistakes are rife, and the comma usage makes some of the sentence structure a bit jarring. Overall though, the great characterisation and plot are more than enough to make up for these little irritations.

Under Wicked Sky