LINKDING

quote: Dad says Auntie was beautiful when she was young, with a bright-eyed gaze, pure yet alluring, and a slender, curving waist. When happy, her face was like springtime. When sorrowful, she was like a thin willow bending in the wind. Sometimes I try to imagine my aunt’s youthful beauty, and I end up thinking of those fox demon women in Zhiyi novels, eyes flickering like stars. With a slight twist of the demon’s waist, your soul is hers. But Auntie was the type who’s a thousand miles removed—aloof, full of rebuffs. Every boy who saw her back then suffered pangs of desire, yet they shunned her. Before Deng Baolin met her husband, she scratched the faces of thirteen boys. She was a prickly beauty, a thorny rose. In short, she was completely unlike the person before my eyes. ➤ scifi short story translated from chinese; originally published in 2021 ➤ it's a fascinating outside-outside pov, a nephew telling the story of his aunt, whose story is that of her famous physicist-astronaut husband ➤ the multiple layers of abstraction work well for this story -- and the narrative loops around itself in how it's told too, wandering forwards and backwards in time to circle around the heart of things ➤ which is really a story about family and about place and about how you decide what to prioritise in your life ➤ it's lovely and thoughtful and wistful. I really liked it! ➤ 7k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Lan Wangji comes over and they kiss. Lan Wangji comes over and they have tea. Lan Wangji comes over and they talk. It turns out that the available study materials are contradictory and unenlightening.</blockquote> ➤ Because Of Reasons, wwx and jc are both married off to lwj after the destruction of lotus pier. wwx is blissfully happy about it; jc struggles with it on a NUMBER of fronts ➤ from jc's pov, about him figuring out how to have a successful relationship with his husband, with his place in his new sect, with his brother and co-spouse, with himself and his struggles in cultivation these days ⮞ jc's pov obviously doesn't like to think about any of these things straightforwardly, he's too busy being tsundere about everything lol ➤ I love seeing him finding his own way, figuring out how to have a life that works for him even if it isn't what he would have chosen! ➤ 17k words in length ➤ (also: fuck jkr and all, but if you also fondly remember helenish's hp fic "theft of assets, destruction of property" then this is the mdzs fic for you!)

Summary: <blockquote>It isn't even an accident, precisely—that might be the most humiliating thing about it. Lan Wangji had tasted the tea, expecting it to be precisely what it revealed itself to be; Lan Wangji had wanted to feel its effects, to gauge them, although he had expected them to be mild. He had brewed the tea himself. An entirely uncoerced and foolish act. Lan Wangji has a misadventure with an aphrodisiac. It works out for everyone.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Nie Huaisang stole happiness from Lan Xichen. He stole peace. If he could just see him, and see for himself exactly what he’s done, and know—that will be enough. Then he’ll be able to paint again, and his hands won’t shake as he does it, and he’ll remember why he ever in his life bothered to put brush to ink to paper. After all, a man should have to live with his mistakes. There is no other way to learn from them. His brother believed that.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>there is no protocol for what they have.</blockquote>

<blockquote>In the three-layered coffin in Yong'An, Xie Lian dreams.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Shen Qingqiu, after enduring his trial, is placed into Luo Binghe’s custody at Huan Hua Palace.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Luo Binghe buys groceries, eats, cries, and eats again.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Wei Ying looks back at him now, a furrow between his eyebrows. Lan Zhan reaches out and smooths it away with his thumb, then trails his hand down to rest on Wei Ying’s cheek. Lets it rest there, feeling the heat beneath his palm. Do you understand? “Yeah.” Wei Ying closes his eyes, leans into the touch. “Okay, Lan Zhan. Sorry.” Lan Zhan nudges Wei Ying’s face and shakes his head. No apologies. The whole thing is, as Wei Ying had said, weird. Lan Zhan is used to not speaking. He’s only realized now that it was nice to have the option. (Or: Lan Zhan and Wei Ying have been together for twelve days, and Lan Zhan is cursed.)</blockquote> ➤ "the Softness is the plot actually" as one of the tags says and YEAH actually!! which is really cool!

<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>Lan Zhan knows that face. It's Wei Ying. His head is thrown back, eyes closed, baring a long line of throat interrupted only by his adam's apple. He's pulling the mic stand towards him as he belts out a high note, long and piercing, the crowd screaming along with him. He cuts it off and snaps his eyes open – the camera catches it head on and for a single breath, it's almost as if he's looking straight at Lan Zhan. - The ballet dancer!LWJ and rockstar!WWX AU</blockquote>

<blockquote>“I won’t leave you alone, Lord Estraven,” Genly said. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with me. In exile or at home. On the Ice or at the hearth.”</blockquote> ➤ just the right vibe to fit the book

<blockquote>When he’s six years old, Lan Wangji loses his mother, and from that point on random objects begin to disappear around him. When he’s nineteen, he meets Wei Ying and falls in love. When he’s twenty-one, he— Wei Ying’s fingers curl, and without thought Lan Wangji curls his as well, their hands held in the middle of the table. He can already tell this will be a moment that will change the course of their lives. “If you’re interested in any anomaly—time, space, both, neither—then you should be interested in the Burial Mounds.”</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>I am a tender. I tend the St. Benedict Radioactive Materials Containment Center. I perceive the outside world through treated glass. My immediate surroundings are barren but comfortable. I can order anything I like, necessity or luxury, from the Federal Sustainability Program. The items I order are delivered by truck and placed in a transfer box that decontaminates everything that enters it, including the air. The purpose of this system is not to protect me from contamination by the outside world, but to protect the world from me. St. Benedict’s is meant to be a temporary facility, a place to hold materials destined for deep, permanent burial, but the fears of the public make it so hard to create permanent facilities that no one knows how long this place will be necessary. My job is to monitor the levels of toxicity in and around the containment vault and submit reports to the Sustainability Program. “I used to be very unhappy,” I wrote recently to the psych team, “but now I am happy because I have meaningful work.” </blockquote> ➤achy

<blockquote>Wei Wuxian braces himself for what might come next, the story of how this man died by the Yiling Patriarch's hand—at Nightless City, at the Burial Mounds, as the rest of the sects tried to bring that great villain to account. "What was his name?" Uncle Gan sits back, twiddles his thumbs as he thinks. "Well, it'd be Wei something, of course." "Wei Changze, wasn't it?" chimes in a new person, and if anyone agrees or disagrees, Wei Wuxian does not hear them. His wine bowl slips from his grip and the sudden clatter of it barely registers over the unexpected sounds of his father's name. Wei Changze, slipping so careless from a stranger's mouth here in small Taozi, here of all places under the open sky. Wei Changze. - Wei Wuxian meets his grandmother. No, not the immortal one. The other one.</blockquote>

<blockquote>He is not gone. Lan Wangji has to practice the thought sometimes. He is gone is a thought that he has worn into his being through years and years of tracing and retracing, and his mind flows easily into those hollowed lines the way water always finds its course. He has to step out of the house, out into the early morning, and think: He is not gone. Even though I cannot see him, he is not gone.</blockquote> ➤ ohhhhhh

<blockquote>One of the first things Wei Wuxian’s new co-star said to him was “this show isn’t a gay love story.” Vignettes of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian performing Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, not in order</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Are you cold?” he asks, because Shang Qinghua is usually cold. Mobei-jun does his best to keep him well supplied with furs, and warm cups of tea, and other necessities, but he still sometimes catches him blowing on the tips of his fingers in between drafts of trade agreements. “Ah, a little,” Shang Qinghua says, rubbing at his cheek with one hand, “but it’s all right, my king.” Mobei-jun says nothing, only extends a hand to tap him on the head, once, carefully. He stabilizes Shang Qinghua’s temperature with the touch, and watches as his cheeks go flushed. “There,” he says.</blockquote> ➤ from mbj's perspective. So earnest and tender! and clueless! it's great

<blockquote>Later, when he’s older, it’s this that A-Yuan will remember most: the stretch of silence, the two of them both dirty and shaking with fever, as he looked at Brother Rich, and Brother Rich looked back at him.</blockquote> ➤ does an incredible job of evoking a tone and mood, and the quiet delicate complexities of emotions

<blockquote>The Enterprise is preparing for a 2-year refit between missions. Kirk has a proposal.</blockquote> ➤ Not sure how to tag this one! It's about a committed life partnership even though Kirk is straight -- not something commonly depicted in fiction

<blockquote>Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji descend from the Cloud Recesses to investigate a case of possession. They return to take care of a rabbit.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Pi'maat - (n.) family, kin; lit. small clan. [Vulcan Language Institute] Notes: 10/29/2018 - I updated the name of this series because as it goes on, it's less and less about the war and more about a group of people trying to get by in an imperfect universe. Thus, family, to be interpreted how you like.</blockquote> ➤ marriage of convenience between two oc vulcans, with reflections on trauma (mental and physical) and relationships ➤ series consists of: Kal'i'farr heh T'naehm Let'thieri Khaf-spol t'M'aih Yel-nel-dath Masu-kastra Gol-tor Kal'uk Nash-veh Kwi'kusut Sarlah Nash-veh Dvin-tor

<blockquote>After everything, Aziraphale and Crowley, by unspoken agreement, begin sharing their lives. / Why? Aziraphale wanted to ask him, why millennia of the way things were, and now this? But while Crowley seemed to have little issue upending every unspoken rule they’d ever written for themselves, Aziraphale was not so flexible, and they had spent thousands of years never quite addressing whatever it was this had stemmed from. Words, Aziraphale had always felt, were for bickering about where to eat for lunch, or hashing out ontological debates, or other trivial nonsense; there was no need to trifle with the imprecision of language, with phrasing and the possibility of being misconstrued, when it came to important matters if the other person simply understood, without needing it said. Six thousand years ago, when Aziraphale had met Crowley on the wall of Eden, watching the first two humans set out to begin the rest of history, something deep within him, more central even than his Grace, had thought, oh, it’s you, and that had been enough for him--for both of them, he assumed--for three millennia. However much he wanted to ask, he didn’t know how. The words simply weren’t there.</blockquote> ➤ sweet

<blockquote>It's been a long week. A long fucking week. And Daniel can never remember the rules about when normal Americans are allowed to touch each other, anyway.</blockquote> ➤ This fic has such good atmosphere, this quiet charged intimacy. (pre-slash)

<blockquote>The jumper hummed to John in his sleep, a soft buzzy murmur that carried him as gently and as warmly as he would have carried a puppy. He was just awake enough to know where he was, and asleep enough to see the stars blurring past the walls. He'd been traveling a long, long time. "Your sleep cycle has ended," the jumper said, and John sighed. "I know," he said, not opening his eyes.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Esca learns the Latin word by accident, from Stephanos of all people. Soul-mate.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Logan doesn't get any votes for Most Changed at the ten-year reunion, which is bullshit when you think about it. In the past ten years, everything in his life has changed. He's joined the Navy, dated a pop star, and figured out that Dick Casablancas can occasionally behave like a real human being. Only one thing hasn't changed: he's still in love with Veronica Mars. Oh, and he's suspected of murdering his girlfriend.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Years after the events of the movie, the peace that Marcus and Esca have made for themselves may be about to be disturbed.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A few hours before, Steve was Captain America, flying a plane into the ice to save his country, save everyone. There's no United States of America on Earth anymore, but there's one on Mars.</blockquote> ➤ I am so into this