LINKDING

Summary: “It started with the ghost,” Horatio said after a moment, clearly coming to a decision. He looked upset, finally, but in a frustrated way, not in the way you would expect from someone who had just witnessed four people die, and one of them in his arms. “I got roped into it because of the ghost.” // Why Hamlet chose to put his trust in Horatio. ➜ yuletide fic - for Hamlet ➜ taking an interpretation that Horatio and Hamlet barely knew each other before the start of the play, and running with it from Horatio's pov ➜ I love the way this interpretation shapes the story! ➜ And Horatio's pov is so good. the way he feels helplessly drawn into the mess by Hamlet's charisma, never sure what he can do or what he should do, but unable to make himself step back and leave Hamlet alone ➜ because Hamlet IS so charismatic, and so visibly struggling at the same time! and there's so much depth there that Horatio simply cannot have the context to understand, but he wants to, he wants to be there for Hamlet ➜ but in the end, of course, all he can do is tell everyone what happened. ➜ I'm so emotions!!!! ➜ 9k words

Summary: Love us as we are See us and we're holy In this shall we shall ever be Wholly ourselves. A continuation of my Screened Out series on the history of queer representation on film, focusing on genderbending films of the mid-1990s to mid-2000s. ➤ third in a series of vids Tafadhali made about depictions of queerness in hollywood; I recced the other two last fall, about pre-code and full-code eras ➤ this one is about the 90's and early 2000's ➤ which are all movies that came out within my lifetime so watching this hits in a different way than the other two vids! I definitely got emotional watching this vid ➤ the vid is celebrating the drag queens and gnc characters, and it's so perfectly put together, what a good vid <3 ➤ 3:23 in length. audio is song only, no added sounds/dialogue. no subtitles.

Summary: <blockquote>Shen Yuan has had a push-and-pull relationship with Shen Qingqiu for years. Shen Yuan knows that Shen Qingqiu is meant to be a villain, but he knows just as well that many of the things Shen Qingqiu was accused of in Proud Immortal Demon Way were just shitty misunderstandings, and over the years Shen Yuan has become reluctantly fond of the tsundere asshole that is his Shizun. Abusing Luo Binghe was not a misunderstanding, though, and Shen Yuan will do whatever he can to correct the fact that he wasn't there to protect Luo Binghe when it happened. / “Shizun, I already said that I like beasts best - if I can’t raise Luo Binghe to be my shidi, can’t I raise him as my pet instead?”</blockquote> ➤ this is a fic that really understands the fundamental problem with original sqq, which is that the child abuse is real but so is the tragic backstory. he contains multitudes! one feels complex and conflicting things about him! ➤ ok so the fic is a canon divergence fic where shen yuan is transmigrated in early as a disciple of og!sqq, and it's a bingqiu fic but also a fic about the master-disciple relationship between sy and sqq, and also about sy's relationship with his role as head disciple on the peak ➤ and it's so good at all of that! I love what it does, I love all the sides of sy you get to see and all the things he cares about and puts his energies into (... and what he doesn't), it's all so perfectly him ➤ and aughghhhhhh I have SO MANY FEELS ➤ I am very emotion. I highly recommend. I want to talk more about some of the stuff but I don't want to post spoilers. ➤ 36k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>The far stall in the ladies room in the Land of the Dead was backed up again. The day had already started terribly, with an email that hit my phone as I walked the 387 steps from my staff cabin to the front desk, an email from Lana saying Vera, I wanted you to find out directly from me that I’ve started seeing somebody. Call if you want to talk.</blockquote> ➤ about queer intergenerational friendship and mentorship, about being a young adult trying to find your place, about death and what it means to you, about living through the death of all your peers and coming out the other side, about hope and love and making connections. ➤ holy shit this gave me so many emotions. READ IT READ IT READ IT. ➤ also I adore the title. pinsker writes great titles. ➤ 6k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>The slow purpling of the evening sky makes their robes blend into their shadows, their shadows blend into the still water stretched out before them. Home, Jiang Cheng thinks, satisfied, and A-Ling exhales softly against him, and everything is good, and none of them move to leave.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Do you know people die of tooth infections?” “Stupid way to die,” Wei Wuxian mumbles. “I agree,” Wen Qing says. “So: you’re going to the dentist.” / While on the run, Wen Qing drags Wei Wuxian to a free clinic where they are confronted with someone from their past lives, a root canal, and the devastating suggestion of how things could be different.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Lan Zhan looks so sad. He holds out his hand and says "Help." "Aish, this man," Wei Wuxian sighs. "What's wrong?" Lan Zhan holds out his hand a little further, insistent, and Wei Wuxian sighs again and takes it. A costly mistake that results in getting pulled deeper into Lan Zhan's apartment, squawking protests about how he's still wearing his shoes that Lan Zhan ignores. He leads Wei Wuxian down the hallway to the bedroom at the end. Then he shoves at Wei Wuxian's shoulder until he loses his balance and sits on the edge of the bed. Then he climbs on after him. / Thirteen years after he dies on New Year's Eve, Wei Wuxian is reunited with Lan Wangji.</blockquote> ➤ an amazingly good sense of place as well as development of the mood created by the narrative in the reader

<blockquote>Every time I wake Sheri up, I want to sit her down and distill, reduce, refine. What is important to her? What experiences would she want to wake up for?</blockquote>

<blockquote>Outside the Cloud Recesses, rumors spread with delighted fervor, and soon it became common knowledge even among the obediently gossip-free Lan disciples (who, after all, had to descend from the mountain to complete their nighthunts) that Sect Leader Lan was looking for a wife. / Recounting a life lived in absence.</blockquote> ➤ post-canon lxc finding a way to live a long and full life while never really getting over what happened in canon. As the author says, not exactly a happy ending, but a satisfying one.

<blockquote>Wei Wuxian returns to Mo Manor to burn paper money for Mo Xuanyu. He meets Nie Huaisang there. How can you honor a dead man when you walk in his skin?</blockquote> ➤ augh (complimentary)

<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>Wen in body, Wei in motion, Lan Wangji is certain he has never hated, nor loved, any being so much as he feels towards the boy in his room. After Wei Wuxian's death and his own severe punishment, Lan Wangji must decide the direction his life will take.</blockquote> ➤ lwj & a-yuan, as lwj slowly recovers from the discipline whip ➤ brief sequel also good, about sizhui's courtesy name ➤ series consists of: Velle: to will, to wish Wynn: joy

<blockquote>And whatever is at the inner gate -- a something, not a someone -- has already passed clean through the wards. Which means whatever it is, it isn’t barred from entry. It’s waiting. / When a shadow appears at Cloud Recesses, an impromptu night hunt begins to unfold. </blockquote> ➤ the one where lxc's grief is manifesting as a resentful spirit when he's sleeping & dreaming. Also it's about sizhui's relationships with all the adults in his life and also with jingyi

<blockquote>“I’m serious," Jin Ling presses. "You think Lanling Jin can survive another scandal? Another horrible sect leader? I have to be perfect! That’s what this entire conference is about!” “I thought it was about fostering inter-sect harmony,” Lan Jingyi deadpans, which, damnably, is a direct line from the invitation. / A year after the fall of Jin Guangyao, Jinlintai opens its doors to prove there is nothing to hide. Jin Ling is just trying to survive the week. </blockquote> ➤ jin ling processing his complicated feelings about his dead uncle jgy, and his place as sect leader

<blockquote>"Perhaps most tragic of all is the absence of Andy Burgess outside of Scranton history. We know that she was brave and determined based on her actions during the Scranton Flood. We know that she loved and was loved in return, that her final thoughts on the day of her death were about Nile. But who she was outside of that has been lost to the pages of history. Though many people have shown up over the years claiming to be her family, there has been no actual proven familial link to this day. In many ways, Andy Burgess exists because of Nile's letters, her words doing more to immortalize the Hero of Scranton's human existence than any biographical text to date...And perhaps, at the end of the day, this was the greatest demonstration of Nile's love for Andy Burgess: to keep her alive long after she was gone." - Smith, A. (2079). The missing link: A study of the absence of women in early twenty-first century queer studies. Queer Studies, 2(22).</blockquote> ➤ the one where andy died

<blockquote>Sometimes the effects of head-injuries are not always readily apparent.</blockquote> ➤ okay I think this one might be worse than the one where Temeraire died

<blockquote>This is an alternate chronology for The Hunger Games in which the rule about District pairs winning is introduced on the first night of the Games rather than after Rue's death.</blockquote>

<blockquote>If circumstance and choice had been different (In short: if the revolution was led by Artemis and not Apollo, if Thénardier’s daughter were more dangerous and less sane, if some had grown up with more money and some with less, if a charming young man had been a little more terrible, after all, and if a drunken Pylades had, accordingly, never been given something to believe in).</blockquote> ➤ WHOOPS so apparently Enjolras being on the other side of the revolution makes me cry??? GOOD TO KNOW

<blockquote>It'll be alright in the morning.</blockquote> ➤ needed a bit more transition between EVERYTHING IS AWFUL and EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL but still great.

<blockquote>This is a Five Things Plus One story about ways that Marcus Flavius Aquila and Esca son of Cunoval might have met, and fortunately did not--and one way they did, which went rather better. Basically a set of depressing canon-era AUs plus some happiness.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Susan Pevensie is good at adjusting to her circumstances.</blockquote> ➤ ALL FIVE of these are amazing

➤ a musician, devout christian, and graduate of an ex-gay program falls in love. ➤ Handled really thoughtfully and well.

<blockquote>“Little House on the Prairie meets Space Stations”</blockquote> ➤ in which Lizzie and her family find ways to survive and keep their waystation, even through the war

<blockquote>In Midian, Moses was a stranger in a strange land; now he is on familiar soil, but a stranger nonetheless.</blockquote>

➤ Is there even anything to say about this one? This fic is basically perfect.