LINKDING

Excerpt: After we kill our father but before we leave the island, we argue. Cal doesn’t want to go; he’s afraid of the water. Even after the rest of us outvote him two to one, he refuses to move, crouching on the ground, pressing the ruined side of his face into the earth, snarling whenever we try to touch him. In the end Ari has to sit down with him and say something in a quiet soothing susurrus, like they do, and the whole time Mir is pacing in the waves at the very edge of the water, where it barely comes up to her ankles. She is moving back and forth and back and forth, with her eyes on the horizon, and when this is happening Father’s blood is still on all of our hands but mostly on hers. ➤ that's a very evocative short story title right there and it's like. yeah. that's what the story is about! ➤ a fantasy story about three teens who have escaped their powerful and abusive father figure, who are a team in escaping, who might not always like each other but who are bound together in inextricable ways ➤ the entire story takes place in a boat as they make their way away from the island, hoping to find the mainland, but it never feels static, it's always pushing you onward, as you get more hints of the backstory, of what exactly all the context is for the murder and the escape ➤ it's so good!!! ➤ also. it's told in plural first person? which is so cool. The three teens are the "we" and "us" of the narrative voice. it's so well done! I love when stories play with pov. ➤ also. trans characters! ➤ 5k words

Summary: <blockquote>According to the ways, when the head of a household passed away, his womenfolk had to refrain from lifting their feet in dance and their voices in song until the moon cast its full light down for the third time. During that interval, which, to be clear, could be three months, the mourners remained cloistered in their home and performed ritual ablutions to cleanse themselves of death, while their family and friends slowly entombed them within walls of food containers and condolence cards. When her mom asked Oona to join her in observing this ancient duty, Oona said nah. The explosion that followed was totally understandable, but through it all Oona remained immovable and flippant.</blockquote> ➤ about the difficulties of being a teen girl whose dad just died, and who is trying to figure out her identity as an othered visible minority, with a large and close-knit multigenerational family whose older generations are more connected with traditional culture and who want her to be too ➤ the traditional culture is selkies ➤ yeah it's a GREAT premise and I love how carefully and believably the selkie culture is imagined, and what the experience of being part of a landed selkie family would be ➤ very emotionally affecting too! ➤ 8k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>“What do you think about,” Wei Ying said aloud, before she could stop herself, before she could even think twice about the repercussions. “When you.” She finally found Lan Zhan’s eyes, molten in the low light, and swallowed in a tiny, audible gulp. “You know.” On Wei Ying, Lan Zhan’s gaze didn’t waver even a fraction. “Giving head,” she said. Wei Ying was certain she’d misheard. “Getting head?” “No,” said Lan Zhan. / After a surprise party gone awry, Wei Ying surprises herself.</blockquote> ➤ i loved the unusual detail of them being swimmers/divers, and all the water stuff worked into the prose

<blockquote>When the elitist institution of Ozymandias Academy and its headmaster, Vamon Kinctuarin, can’t find a solution to the city’s worsening drought, 2 self-taught magicians, Noah and his partner Manny, take it upon themselves to find a solution to the crisis.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Geralt gets a contract to deal with the monster that killed the alderman's nephew. Jaskier decides to tag along. It goes better than Geralt would have expected.</blockquote> ➤ charming

<blockquote>In his first life, Wei Wuxian had been the second-strongest swimmer in Yunmeng Jiang; he took to water as easily as he took to cultivating the sword. Now, in Mo Xuanyu's body, he struggled with both. He was determined to re-master his old skills. And what better time to do it than on his extended honeymoon with Lan Wangji?</blockquote>

<blockquote>It started on the midnight to eight shift, sometime before three, the witching hour even by ship standards.</blockquote> ➤ the one about the boat of scientists when quynh emerges from the ocean!

<blockquote>Though previous excuses had always been deployed before the last minute, Deania did not truly believe her childhood friend Seriola would join her until she surfaced from the sea to find Seriola standing punctually on the brief sand of the beach. Finally allowing her anticipation free, she lifted one hand high in greeting. Seriola returned the gesture, abbreviated. Hardly the enthusiasm Deania hoped for, but perhaps Seriola’s baby had kept her awake the night before.</blockquote> ➤ About recognising when the people in a friendship have grown too differently to remain friends. Also, mermaids??

<blockquote>The planet of Quányuán is arid to the point of being uninhabitable. Wetness is a concept left back on Earth. That doesn’t stop one elderly woman from stepping outside the safety of the colony whenever she can for the brief opportunity to fully experience the outside world.</blockquote>

Fanfic of a folk song, Lowlands Low aka Golden Vanity

<blockquote>Four times GQ and Croc went swimming together; and one time they were in the water and found a different way to occupy themselves.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Where Genly Ai went, after Winter. [Written for Yuletide 2010.]</blockquote> ➤ oh, wow. Very effective at grounding in setting such that it evokes a strong consistent feeling throughout. Plus excellent alien anthropology

<blockquote>Fisherwoman Mika Sandrigal was lost at sea. She knew where she was in relation to the Candorrean coastline and how to navigate back to her home city, Maelstrom. She knew the time of day. She knew the season. She knew the phase of the moon and the pattern of the tide. She did not know the year.</blockquote>

<blockquote>When I was a child, my mother would tell me stories of the sea. When I couldn’t sleep, when I was restless, when I burned with some childhood fever, she would sit by my side, and conjure something wonderful and strange, something half-magic, from the ocean for me. “Mara,” she would say, smoothing the hair from my forehead as she tucked the covers around me, “did you know that to summon a selkie, you must shed seven tears into the ocean? Salt for salt.”</blockquote>

<blockquote>Anne Elliot was taken to the seaside three times.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The currents seemed to pull the empty ache out of her, as though her body were just a translucent husk. And then the sound of her heart beating inside her would remind her it was time to surface, and she would feel the slight throbbing of her body asking to live, and reluctantly, made aware again of her natural place above water, she would rise.</blockquote> ➤ about a free-diver in the mediterranean. A lovely story of grief and loss and living, well-grounded in its setting.

<blockquote>If he reaches out, he can feel each drop of rain as it falls, and the movements of the plants and animals in response, the greedy slurp of tree roots, the unthinking satiation of tiny frogs, and a million other points of life flickering beyond his normal senses.</blockquote> ➤ five vignettes on the theme of rain for five different characters

<blockquote>Chewie howls something that translates to, "Just throw her in and hope she floats," and Artoo trills in disapproval of that strategy. "She's a Jedi," Chewie replies. "She'll be fine."</blockquote> ➤ in which Rey learns to swim. I don't follow what's different enough about the third time that she can trust Poe & Finn's help, but overall still an enjoyable fic.

<blockquote>a dark fantasy about a young girl on the cusp of womanhood who yearns to leave her village and go to sea with her best friend, a boy about her own age, despite natural and supernatural dangers.</blockquote> ➤ I wouldn't call it "dark" - none of the main characters die or are injured or anything and they end the story happily

<blockquote>it isn’t until eames shoots the first mate of the fisher in the chest with a harpoon gun that he wonders how this will affect his chance at tenure.</blockquote> ➤ eames fell into being a prof (ornithology), arthur is cobb's ta, and there are illegal whalers in the bay they want to infiltrate and take down

<blockquote>It is a well-established fact in marine biology that the octopus is the drunk texter of the cephalopod family.</blockquote>

➤ On vacation on the Pursang, they act on their attraction to each other. ➤ There's a sequel (the lonely sea and the sky) but it's rather boring

<blockquote>“Well, that was fun,” said Rodney, shifting the bag of beans to his left shoulder. “Why did we leave the jumper at the gate, again?”</blockquote> ➤ for the Worst Case Scenario prompt "how to survive a tsunami"

➤ The aquarium au