LINKDING

summary: Life is better with the other around. ➤ ahh what a lovely sweet little ficlet about Jingrui and Yujin's friendship!! I love them ➤ 400 words exactly, two double drabbles

Summary: Laurence says, “It is wholly natural, anyway, with no women around.” ➤ delightful post-canon queer gen temeraire fic ➤ ft. Laurence & Tharkay friendship, and Laurence realising some things about himself ➤ I love how much fun Tharkay can have teasing Laurence, and how Laurence despite his excess englishness is still willing to engage with the conversation! ➤ 800 words in length

Summary: <blockquote>After the end of everything, Hark returns to his old, familiar job at Sanctuary. Life, however, does not return to normal. It begins with small things—things far too small to notice. Open windows that ought to be closed, doors that slam themselves shut, objects in the wrong places. Coincidences. It becomes something far worse.</blockquote> ➤ fic for the Frances Hardinge book "Deeplight" ➤ focusing on the friendship between Hark and Jelt ➤ absolutely perfect creepy vibes, and capturing what's compelling to Hark about his friendship with Jelt despite everything ➤ also perfect bits about Quest as mentor-figure! ➤ 4k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>When Mu Qing glanced over at Xie Lian beside him, he was startled to find him already watching him. A small smile played on his lips. “You know, Mu Qing,” he started—and if Mu Qing didn’t know any better he would say he sounded almost shy— “no one else that I fight with feels like a challenge. You’re the best of them all.” Mu Qing’s throat was tight and his face was hot, like he was going to cry. His eyes were quite dry, though. “You’re the best. You always will be.” / Mu Qing can't seem to reconcile the simple facts of his relationship to the crown prince with his more complicated feelings for Xie Lian.</blockquote> ➤ mu qing pov from the xianle trio era ➤ ft. class issues and teen relationship drama ➤ xie lian is an enormous martial arts nerd and a naive but shining prince; mu qing is pining but hyper-aware of class boundaries and how everyone sees him; feng xin is ready to judge ➤ it's so great and succeeds so well at what it's doing, I love it ➤ I love the last scene, which it ends on, about xie lian's appearance after he ascends. perfect ending to the fic ➤ 7k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Jin Ling didn't mean to commit zine fraud. Surely you get a free pass if you didn't know how taxes work?!</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>“How are you even supposed to enjoy going on a date with your boyfriend if you’re acting like ‘Olympic gold boyfriend material’ is too mediocre for him! I’m surprised you two manage to have enjoyable sex!” There is an awkward pause, and Meng Yao only realizes too late that it’s one that he let sit too long. He sets the dysfunctional hair straightener in the sink, unplugging it, but the noise of busywork comes too late to stop Wei Wuxian. “Are you not even having decent sex??” “It’s,” Meng Yao stutters, “—okay?” / Or: Meng Yao and Lan Xichen have been dating for a while, now, and everything about their relationship is perfect. Meng Yao makes sure of it, just like he makes sure that his annual performance review at Jin Corp is impeccable, that Madam Jin never catches his surreptitious, short visits to deliver gifts to Jin Ling, and that Lan Xichen gets a mind-blowing orgasm at least three times a week, even if they're too tired for sex for five days straight and Meng Yao has to chain them back-to-back until his jaw is sore. Everything is going great, until he makes the mistake of genuinely befriending Wei Wuxian.</blockquote> ➤ series consists of: Meng Yao's Guide to Sex and Love Meng Yao's Guide to Sex and Sensibility

<blockquote>Some scholars of resentment believed that strong enough resentment could bind souls together, both before and after death. Some further believed that, were this resentment to be tempered with some other powerful emotional energy, it could become magnified to the point that it could bend the laws of the natural world, even those governing space and time. Or, Jin Guangyao and Nie Huaisang find themselves thrown back in time to the end of the Sunshot Campaign, each determined to outmaneuver and destroy the other. Their schemes don't quite have the effects they anticipated.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Jonathan’s life was fine. He didn’t need other people. He studied them instead, like fire ants on the abandoned edge of the playground; carefully, with a stick and good shoes, watching their patterns and keeping his observations to himself, figuring out which ones to leave alone and which ones would make good surprises in bullies’ backpacks. Other people were tools, in the multiple definitions of the word. He used them. He didn’t like them. He didn’t need them. He was fine. All in all, it wasn’t difficult to stay a virgin until he turned thirty. A JGY-centric, Cherry Magic-inspired AU.</blockquote> ➤ (Jonathan is jgy's english name) ➤ I loved how so many of the characters in this fic have different relationships with sex (and intimacy and touch in general!) in ways that don't line up with societal expectations but are still all very different from each other ➤ series consists of: Point of Contact Cabin Pressure

<blockquote>He Xuan starts coughing so loudly and so violently that for a second Xie Lian loses track of reality, and thinks it was He Xuan who got buried under what feels like half a mountain, and not Xie Lian. It’s only as he tries to get up, alarmed, that the pain shoots through his body and reminds him why that would be a terrible idea. A grunt of pain must escape him, because He Xuan pushes him down again. This time, he leaves his hand on his shoulder, a constant reminder to “stay the fuck down, dianxia, fucking idiot.” “You sounded like you were in pain. Are you sure you weren’t hurt in the collapse?” “It really is very galling to be fretted upon by a man who is bleeding half of his intestines unto the floor.” (or: Xie Lian and He Xuan end up trapped in a cave together, and Xie Lian won't stop saying upsetting things. It's probably the concussion.)</blockquote>

<blockquote>Wen Qing rubs her cheek against Wei Ying’s shirt—in the way a cat might when pretending it's not about to bite you—and says absently, “Your tits are almost bigger than mine.” Through the haze of Grandaddy Purple, something clicks into place in the rat maze of Wei Ying’s brain and a sincere, “I wish they were,” falls out before he can stop it. / Wei Ying wants tits and has some Gender about it.</blockquote>

<blockquote>After the Blue Spirit frees the Avatar from the Pohuai Stronghold, Admiral Zhao captures Prince Zuko under suspicion of treason. Isolated from his Uncle and his crew, Zuko has only one ally: the chatty prisoner one cell over.</blockquote> ➤ Zuko & Sokka focus but the whole gaang is here

<blockquote>Shang Qinghua was really enjoying having an actual friend, and Cucumber-bro was great! It was just -- Shang Qinghua didn't actually remember him, or even any of his comments. But oh well, it'd been decades since he lived in that world. He had probably just forgotten more than he guessed... Right?</blockquote> ➤ the one where sy!sqq is also a creation of sqh's

<blockquote>It’s not one of his finer moments of inter-sect diplomacy. Lan Jingyi lunges and they both go spilling onto the thankfully padded rug. Jin Ling flails and manages to slap him across the face, but eventually Lan Jingyi gets him pinned to the floor, knees on either side of Jin Ling’s torso, each of his wrists held down by his head. “Hello, Sect Leader Jin,” Lan Jingyi pants, trying to catch his breath as Jin Ling struggles like a weak kitten. “This humble one is grateful to be welcomed to Jinlintai. Now, if you’d kindly tell me what the fuck is going on.” / When Lan Jingyi receives two cryptic messages from Jinlintai, a conversation many years in the making starts to unfold.</blockquote> ➤ BABIES

<blockquote>He never calls, he never writes -- as the years go by without word, the last Homeward Bounder's friends make their own attempts to reach him.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Meng Zhi is a good friend.</blockquote> ➤ yessss

<blockquote>A half-Vulcan and a half-Klingon walk into a dorm room. No, this isn't a xenophobic joke; Xichen is starting his first year at Starfleet Academy and his roommate turns out to be the tallest, broadest (kindest, handsomest) Klingon he's ever seen. . Three snapshots of settling into life on earth feat. culture shock and going to the gym for fun, profit, and gay pining. (No background Star Trek knowledge required!)</blockquote>

<blockquote>Murderbot is at a party. This is not a normal state of affairs for SecUnits. Neither is the comfy clothes or the sitting or the way the humans keep smiling in its general direction. The smiling, it suspects, will stop, if/when they realise their SecUnit has suffered some sort of catastrophic glitch and has no idea where it is or the specifics of its current assignment. So it's not going to let them find out.</blockquote> ➤ yessss

<blockquote>This boy who always scurries off as soon as the lecture ends in a flurry of papers is never in the dining hall, has no bed in the dorms, and no shift in the infirmary. Asking around about him only gets Mu Fang blank looks and shrugs. Whoever he is, and whatever color he may wear, he's not a Qian Cao disciple.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Look, this is easier!” Shizun says, making a gesture with his fan that encompasses both Ning Yingying and Luo Binghe. “With you and I, Binghe, it’s... well...” He clears his throat again. “There’s a lot to say! But you and Yingying are just friends! Simply say that and the plant will release you and go dormant.” We’re not friends, Ning Yingying thinks, at the same time as Luo Binghe says aloud, “We’re not friends.” -- Ning Yingying gets caught in a wife plot.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Soon, she’d arrive at Starbase Orion VI and a station officer would offer her a summary of the ninety years she had wriggled out of through this assignment. The government-mandated prep course said most pilots took it hard. But wasn’t the time slip why she did this in the first place?</blockquote>

<blockquote>Dearest Stusan, Here I am, after all that—off the Mainland at last. We got in late last night and I came to the first inn I saw (appropriate name for me, ‘the Mainlander’!), so I didn’t see much of the island. Still exhausted from the travel. There’s no hiding that I’m a Mainlander. Apparently I’m overdressed—people see the longcoat and hat (the hat you gave me on my thirty-fifth birthday—finally it’s getting some use!) and just assume that I’m stiff and withdrawn. I suppose I am, compared to them. </blockquote>

<blockquote>Head disciples Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge are caught by slavers and locked in a woodshed. It’s a rat trap meant for rat boys, and Liu Qingge isn’t one. Shen Qingqiu would’ve been pleased at his humiliation, if he wasn’t certain that this—either the trap or Liu Qingge himself—would utterly destroy him. Somehow, they make it out as friends.</blockquote>

<blockquote>In the aftermath of getting hacked, Murderbot asks ART to help it make sure it can't be hacked the same way again. As it turns out, applying and testing a security patch is a little more challenging than usual when the vulnerable system is, you know, your own brain.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Mid-Season-One Zuko is held ransom by Chief Hakoda. Ozai's replies to the Water Tribe's demands are A+ Parenting. Hakoda is… deeply concerned, for this son that isn't his, and who might be safer among enemies than with his own father.</blockquote>

<blockquote>In which Luo Binghe makes several friends by being the world’s okayest wingman, having an emotionally charged heart-to-heart, and performing a tax audit.</blockquote> ➤ Friendship! The one where lbh makes friends!!

<blockquote>Before she touched it, Leora closed her eyes and whispered a small truth to the golem: "I googled my foot pain thing, and I think I might be developing bunions?" It was a tiny truth -- nothing like enough to breathe a golem to life -- but it was still important to be respectful. She might not come from a long line of golemkraft practitioners, but some traditions were there for a reason.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Seth said sternly, “Perihelion, you need to tell us the truth. We can’t leave the home system until we find out what happened. If you’re hiding something—” Peri cut him off. I am not hiding anything. Peri might be able to lie astonishingly well to a corporate representative, even impersonate a human over the feed, but it couldn’t lie to Iris. “Yes, you are,” she said.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The lunch with Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan was a welcome reprieve, but Lan Wangji is no less eager to depart Jinlin Tower for the peace of the Cloud Recesses once it is over. Once he has discharged his duties as his brother’s head disciple, he returns to Gusu and thinks no more of the unusual repast. That is, until the first letter arrives. - Jiang Yanli decides that, since Lan Wangji is likely to become family sooner or later, she'd better get a head start on befriending him. </blockquote>

<blockquote> December 2, 1962 Dear Calvin, Congratulations on your upcoming marriage! I hope that you and <del>Michelle</del></blockquote> ➤ told through a series of unsent letters, as the title implies. Between the unsent letters you can tell that there are sent ones, and phone calls, and in-person visits, and through what is and isn't said in these unsent fragments you can piece together what's going on in between, and it's lovely.

<blockquote>The good news is that Lan Jingyi has found a mentor, friend, and constant companion through the difficulties in life. The bad news is that that’s because he’s been accidentally possessed by the Yiling Patriarch.</blockquote> ➤ I LOVE THIS FIC SO MUCH