LINKDING

summary: In the present, Wei Ying finds himself separated from his family and friends when he travels to help Lan Zhan move into a new home. In the past, Nie Huaisang brings a new friend back from summer orchestra camp. ➤ an #mdzs #wangxian modern au set during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, with flashbacks to 2003 ➤ this fic is everything to me. it's just. so beautiful & good? grounded and present to its settings, seeing its characters with open-eyed affection, funny and heartbreakingly painful-hopeful and so, so gentle ➤ I love how the fic is about many relationships at once - wwx & the wens, wwx & jiang cheng, wwx & whatever he had going on with nhs back in the day, and of course, of course, wangxian. and all of these are vital relationships in wwx's life; all of them make him who he is ➤ a "straight boy wei ying" type fic; I love how compassionately wwx is viewed as he goes through his years-long process of realisation. the fic is never mean-spirited about wwx's lack of self-knowledge. he had a lot going on & was doing his best! ➤ I've read this fic at least 3 times and it hits just right every time ➤ 25k words

summary: <blockquote>“If you died,” Huaisang started, not knowing quite where he was going with this. “I mean, you did die, da-ge, but if someone had killed you… what would you want to happen next?” / In the wake of Nie Mingjue’s death, Nie Huaisang realises how much he’s been left in ignorance. How could the artsy little brother be left to run their ancestral asteroid-mining clan? What other secrets are hidden in his san-ge’s past? And how should he get revenge? Maybe having da-ge’s personality backed up on a server was supposed to help with all this. Maybe.</blockquote> ➤ mdzs space au about nie huaisang and his years-long project in avenging his da-ge ➤ a repeated theme throughout the fic is nhs visiting and talking to back-ups that had been taken of nmj's personality before death, and the way that this makes literal how HAUNTED nhs is by his brother's absence is just sooooooo good ➤ the worldbuilding is great, the things that are changed from canon due to this different context are great, the anguish and monofocus of nhs are great ➤ I AM ALL EMOTIONS ;_; ➤ 8k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Sequel to Late Night, North Station. Lan Zhan brings Wei Ying and A-Yuan home with him. Now he just needs to figure out how to get them to stay.</blockquote> ➤ modern au where wwx reappears after many years and lwj wants to keep him in his life in whatever way he can ➤ I love! how much they care about each other, and how they try to navigate the new/old dynamics between them with the additional perspective that being older will bring ➤ though lwj still hasn't entirely figured out the framework to understand his attraction to wwx ➤ they're both trying so hard to not overstep boundaries between them but they can both agree that whatever is best for a-Yuan is worth doing ➤ watching them slide into intimacy and intertwined lives, and how lwj comes alive with wwx and a-yuan in his life! endless delight ➤ impeccable under-negotiated d/s vibes between them ➤ I love the glimpses into all the other people in their lives as well! ➤ ahhh there are so many things I could keep saying about this fic! it's so good ➤ 106k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Lucy could play pretend in the countryside with the Professor and Miss Plummer and Peter and apparently Edmund, who Lucy had said was meeting him in London where they could easily get Susan before they met up with Eustace and Jill at the junction and on to Professor Kirke's— What fun, all the Friends of Narnia in one place, and just after they all thought they'd seen a Narnian. Well, I wouldn't go again, not for the richest jewel in all Narnia, Susan decided. One goes where one's invited, and Susan was going to a party.</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>Mianmian sets her drink down on the floor with a clink. “If she’s that perfect, it’s no wonder she can put up with you two.” The room goes silent. Across the room, Wen Qing’s expression has morphed from this might be a crisis to this is absolutely a crisis and we need damage control, stat. Jiang Wanyin bristles, opens his mouth to say something mean in response. Lan Wangji is more worried about Wei Ying, who has gone very, very still beside him. He knows that Wei Ying’s relationship with his adoptive family is complicated—a web of obligations and resentment that might never be untangled; he knows that Wei Ying constantly felt like a burden, and that Jiang Yanli was the only one who offered unconditional affection. / or, lan zhan reflects on sibling relationships while wei ying scrambles to get his jiejie the perfect birthday gift</blockquote> ➤ unfinished, possibly abandoned, but the one chapter stands alone just fine

<blockquote>Outside, San Niang has long finished the quota of charity Xie Lian allotted her. She's drinking something from the bakery on the corner—probably one of their dreadful, bitter coffees. The wind is making a mess of her hair. Yearning plants a seed in Xie Lian's heart.</blockquote>

<blockquote>In which Wei Ying plans his return to the theater world (again) and a-Yuan moves in.</blockquote> ➤ I adore everyone in this fic, I love that everyone gets arcs, either relational or professional, and half the relationship arcs are platonic; and I love how much they all care about each other and support each other in their various ways! (and I love that nhs's arc is about his relationship with himself and his identity?)

<blockquote>Every morning he wakes up, and forgets.</blockquote> ➤ this is soooooo good ➤ SPOILER: the premise of the fic is: "What would Xie Lian have done in the name of atoning for his regrets, and how might that have been taken advantage of."

<blockquote>“She’s read more books than me! She’s told me that gender is a performance so many times. She knows theory words for things and she watches all those YouTube essays. Why is it a surprise to her that all of this stuff is work? None of it is natural or fun.” “None of it?” Wen Qing asks, her tone suspiciously neutral. Yanli narrows her eyes. “What are you saying?” Wen Qing’s eyes shift to the right, avoiding Yanli’s stare. “I guess I think some of it is fun.” Yanli sits back in her seat. “Huh.”</blockquote> ➤ ahhhhh t4t jyl/jzx is so good, and it's so believable the relationship jyl has with gender here!

<blockquote>Sometimes Lan Zhan doesn’t work through lunch. Sometimes he makes conversation with coworkers in the halls. Sometimes he goes home instead of spending the last hour trawling through Grindr. But mostly, that’s exactly what he does. The sameness is comforting. His life spools out in easily measured increments: capsule collections, yards of hand dyed textiles, ninety day lead times, sell through figures, cost of goods sold. Every date in manufacturing can be calculated backwards and forward from a single horizon point: the date that the goods must arrive into the country where they'll be sold. Other than that, nothing else really matters.</blockquote> ➤ well this is devastatingly good

<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>When Shen Qingqiu transmigrates, he finds himself in a world where heartbreak can make a person fall apart - literally, since those who are heartbroken crack open starting from the space over their heart, and only cultivators can survive the blood loss by using their qi to hold their blood inside their bodies where it belongs. Having a physical indicator like this that alerts Shen Qingqiu in real time of the hearts he's breaking... well, it changes things. Luo Binghe, somehow, still ends up suffering more than Shen Qingqiu ever wants him too.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Seven Necessities. Seven Tenths Full. What makes a meal, and what makes a family.</blockquote> ➤ A story told through encounters with food. Suffused with deep feelings, both the pleasure and the pain and the longing (both for what cannot be and for what, in the end, can be). It's beautiful.

<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>

Summary: <blockquote>“What’s a stone butch and why aren’t they real?” Jiang Cheng asks, too buzzed to care too much about not being up on lesbian culture. Huaisang pats Jiang Cheng on the no-man’s-land between her boobs and her shoulder. “You’re so useless, Jiang Cheng. A stone butch is a fictional hottie who doesn’t make you do any work at all, just wants to give head and fuck you stupid on her strap.” “Fictional?” Jiang Cheng echoes, having - not a moment, per se, but sort of a problem where her thoughts are going too fast for her poor drunken brain to keep up with. “Nobody actually wants to fuck a chick who’s too lazy to eat you out after,” Huaisang mumbles. / After leaving Wei Ying and Lan Zhan’s bachelorette party, Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang decide to experiment with some outdated stereotypical lesbian sex roles.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It takes Nile an embarrassingly long time to realize that her thesis advisor is, like, legitimately evil.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Experimental faster-than-light travel sends Genly ten years into his own past, onto the Gobrin Ice.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Rey never expected that Han and Chewbacca would keep coming back.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Have you ever accidentally committed fic? There are lots of Yuri-is-adopted stories on the AO3, mostly with Victor and/or Yuuri as the adoptive parents. Seeing those stories, I found myself thinking of real Russian orphanages and international adoptions from Russia. And almost before I could stop myself, this fic happened. It's rather dark, in its way, so be warned.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A chance meeting between two women in Monte Carlo.</blockquote>

AU based on the following: <blockquote>Because it was impossible, he allowed himself to imagine, just once, what it would be like to face Laurent as a man...if there had been no animosity between their countries, Laurent journeying to Akielos as part of an embassy, Damen's attention superficially caught by the blond hair. They'd attend banquets and sports together, and Laurent...he had seen Laurent with those he cultivated, charming and edged without being lethal; and he was honest enough with himself to admit that if he had encountered Laurent in that mode, all golden lashes and needling remarks, he might well have found himself in some danger.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Fantine lives after all. Not as much changes as you might think -- except for her.</blockquote> ➤wow so many feelings so much excellence, and it totally sounds like Hugo's narrative voice on top of it all

<blockquote>In which Montparnasse finds that the perils of walking in the Rue de l'Homme Arme are twofold: first, that one might begin to think; and second, that one might come across a weak old man.</blockquote>

<blockquote>After her father dies with the Ninth, Flavia is sent to Britannia to live with her uncle Aquila. There she meets a pair of British girls, and together the three of them change each other's lives in ways they could never have expected.</blockquote>

➤ short story set in the US in the world of the Small Change trilogy ➤ bleak vibes

<blockquote>Darren doesn’t find out that Geoffrey’s dead until three days after the fact.</blockquote> ➤ odd, intense, and interesting

<blockquote>After Odin falls into the Odinsleep, Frigga takes up her husband’s spear and the rule of Asgard.</blockquote>

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

<blockquote>Harvey Specter, second year law student at Harvard, was walking home one night when he found a teenaged runaway named Mike freezing to death on his doorstep.</blockquote>