LINKDING

<blockquote>Eli was just about to give up on the evening when the cops arrived. A collective groan rose through the patronage as the lights in the bar snapped full up and a little joke of an air raid siren began to wail from over the bar. Eli glanced down at his watch before he remembered that he wasn’t wearing one tonight — or much of anything else, for that matter. He shifted his wig a little more securely into place, though he didn’t think it helped the illusion much, not at this hour, not after this many beers. Shit, why hadn’t he tried a little harder tonight? Maybe he could have passed as someone’s little sister, tagging along for a night on the town! Yes, Eli thought, because homosexuals brought their little sisters along with them to the bars all the time. The place was practically overrun with them. No faggots here, officers, just a bunch of little sisters out past curfew. He wondered how many palms the owners would have to grease to make the cops believe that.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Of how much Helen knows, and all the bad decisions that follow.</blockquote> ➤ Ooh I love this!

<blockquote>Alix Campbell is not particularly pleased to be on the list of staff for Earth's very first appearance at the Galactic Council.</blockquote> ➤ space bureaucracy! also, one of those stories where you can tell the author is familiar with the career in question, always a delight

<blockquote>What happens when a disembodied AI and her amorphous slime best friend get a synthesized body to experiment with? To start with....mammal bodies are weird. But also: they're kind of fun. </blockquote>

<blockquote>The Hiran capital of Ars Tagig has been sieged, its walls breached and people brought low, but for the assassin Arden, there is a more pressing concern: that she has been chosen to be the goddess Rovena's consort for the planting festival. Typically a revered position to ensure the prosperity of Hira in the next year, Arden can think of no worse fate. </blockquote>

<blockquote>She drew herself to her full height when she saw me, setting her chin at a regal angle, announcing without words what she thought about herself and where she stood — or at least, what she wanted everyone to think she thought. “Well met,” she said, drawing the back of her hand hastily across her heat-warmed cheeks, rendered pink by sunlight. She took three sharp, shallow breaths, then squared her shoulders again. “I am come for audience with the Great Queen Ereškigala, ruler of the worlds below and mistress of souls.”</blockquote>

<blockquote>A novice forest witch wracked with self-doubt is sent to an icy land where she is inadvertently soul-bonded to a fearless silent warrior.</blockquote> ➤ loved the worldbuilding and the interrelationships and the main character, did not feel like the ending did enough to resolve things (especially the romance) but still really enjoyed the story overall

<blockquote>Leah Beecham is cast as Marguerite, and that's only the first surprise that the university Operatic Society production of Faust brings with it. And Ellie Everett should probably have kept out of OpSoc altogether if she wanted to avoid Music Department drama, but it's a bit late now, because she's got the part of Siebel...</blockquote> ➤ I really liked this! I loved how the themes of the personal lives of the characters ended up fitting into the themes of their final performance, and although the characters were relatively lightly sketched I still believed in their relationships

<blockquote>Novice Theo was not supposed to hate. He was expected to feel some negativity, of course, but he was not supposed to. Purging that was part of his novitiate training, burning away everything but love for and devotion to the Great Tetratheon that blessed their land. He had been with the Brothers for ten years now, and he had entered freely, wanting nothing but the serenity and discipline that a life of godly service promised to bring him. He wanted to be pure of heart and spirit. He yearned for that inner peace, earned through deep contemplation, which he could then reflect outwardly to better the entire world. But oh, he hated Novice Clarence.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A string of murders must be solved by a would-be assassin who can't remember the last two years of his life and the magician who took those memories from him.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A wounded stranger, a snowstorm, a homesteader, and more...</blockquote> ➤ Female Wounded Stranger/Female Homesteader

<blockquote>When a neighboring queen challenges Thandiwe for her border mines, she must find a champion to fight for her.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The palace was captured by the Chen-Pa sometime in the afternoon. Jiayi couldn't have said when with any certainty. It felt as though she should have known, as if someone should have sounded the temple bell to announce it; it was strange, kneeling in the dimness of her chamber in the women's palace with maidservants huddled close around her, listening to their quiet sobbing and realizing all at once that she couldn't tell. If battle continued, it was not close enough to hear. Perhaps it was all already over.</blockquote> ➤ Relationship: Conquering Kingslayer General/Newly Widowed Queen she marries to legitimize her rule

<blockquote>Darling was in fact so tremendously remarkable by nature that Jack had resolved never to be astonished by anything he did. One had to expect remarkable sorts to be a law unto themselves, and besides half the fun of being Darling's friend lay in trying to keep a straight face. Nothing inspired Darling to greater heights of nonsense than the prospect of cracking Jack's composure. It was good fun and suited them both jolly well. This comfortable habit was thrown rather out of joint on the evening when Jack came into his rooms to find Darling perched on Jack's much-neglected desk and assiduously applying deep scarlet lipstick to his mouth with the assistance of a small silver-backed hand mirror. "Oh, I say," said Jack.</blockquote>

➤ I was not expecting this ridiculous charming original hockey-bro series to end up being about, like, an aro dude who loves his people very much and collects a houseful of poly family but I AM 5000% HERE FOR IT ➤ also like....this is like the perfect mix of charming fluff with Things Actually Happening and it's great ➤ I just love how much Luc loves people and is so chill and confident about how he does it, and I love all the people he loves ➤ Main series consists of: Superstition Deke Split the D Breakway Other People Until the Whistle ➤ Side stories ("Depth on the Bench") worth reading consist of: https://archiveofourown.org/series/625667 The Cure for Anything (Crash POV) Nikolai Budnikov calls Luc Chantal his dad, chirps his accent and his cooking: READ MORE If the light's good (Svetlana day in the life) Indivisible and Inviolable (Svetlana backstory) I've got your name written here in rose tattoo (Svetlana's brother)

<blockquote>It was the middle of an autumn downpour when Tobias first met Henry Silver. Midsummer had come and gone, and the wood was quiet.</blockquote> ➤ oh my gosh this is so gooooooooood, a story about a folklorist and a wild man of the woods, and I love how beautifully balanced it is between the main romance and everything else that's important to the pov character

<blockquote>Giuanne swirled his cup of wine idly, leaning back against one gleaming marble column, and did his best to look self-important, disdainful, and a little bit bored. It wasn't difficult. At least not until Aurelio arrived. But then it had been that way for weeks, months. Giuanne had lost all hope of mastering himself in that regard. Because Aurelio had no idea Giuanne was using him and always had been, cold and clear-eyed and deliberate; and he had no idea Giuanne was in love with him; and Giuanne could speak of neither, even as it sickened him with hot helpless guilt to hold his silence.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Hiram Kalloway joined the naval service at the late age of thirteen, his mother having insisted on him remaining home until that age in order to gain some additional polish. Over the years, Hiram gained a reputation for being an odd, bookish sort, but a fair enough captain who fought like a devil and read the sea like a lover, and kept to himself for the most part. Hiram knew he had a good reputation, as these things went, but also rather a peculiar one. He swam, because he liked it, which was considered very odd, and he did not eat jellied desserts, because he did not like them. He detested any number of naval practices that were standard on other ships, and turned a blind eye to others, and as a result he had been called an odd duck more than once. And that was all fine, until he met Isaac Upton, a ship's master with a sharp tongue and a sharper temper, a man who seemed willing to castigate any and all members of the Admiralty who were inclined to cheat his captain, regardless of their power or influence.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Damianos is being sent to the prince of Kumat, who will take him as a husband; this is among the terms of the treaty that will end the war at last. Unless, presumably, he displeases the prince and is executed, which seems to him as though it is all too likely. But perhaps they will only dislike each other a little. Perhaps the prince will find Damianos's looks to his taste, and be willing to fuck Damianos at least the necessary once. That would not be so bad. It is too improbable to be worth contemplating, that perhaps they will each please the other very much indeed, and like each other, and be happy. Far, far too improbable. And even if by some chance it were so—too many dangers would yet remain for it to have any hope of lasting.</blockquote> ➤ I love this story a lot but also I am Very Concerned about the long-term viability of their lives, their relationship, and the state of their countries, given the political situation..... I JUST WANT THEM TO BE OKAY.

<blockquote>In the growing dark, he saw the place shimmer like an oasis against the last pink-orange light of day. A series of exposed bulbs lit the tall sign by the turnoff from the main road that labeled the short, boxy building as The Golden Spoke. Bud didn’t have to look at the matchbook in his hand to confirm it; he’d looked at it plenty already, at least a dozen times a day every day since he’d had it passed to him by another sailor in another port. On the front flap was the establishment’s name and cross-street address. On the back were four words: FEMALE IMPERSONATORS OF DISTINCTION.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Infrastructure. It’s all the stuff you don’t think about, the stuff that works until it doesn’t, and then your tube of personal lubricant turns out to be full of toothpaste or you end up knee-deep in chocolate milkshake. That’s not the fun kind of surprise, and it’s not a random example either. I’d had a lively morning, and I was hoping that the afternoon was going to be more on the calm side. At least with the replicator I was working on there was no obvious mess to clean up, though I wouldn’t know for sure until the skeleton key had finished running and I could rummage around inside it and see what it had choked on.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The first time she met Julianne, Minerva was very drunk. She hadn’t meant to get shitfaced, but her roommate Aura kept buying more drinks which she didn’t have the heart to turn down, plus she wasn’t in the habit of drinking much anymore, so her tolerance had eroded a bit. Maybe more than a bit. When she caught a glance of a familiar face out of the corner of her eye as she turned to accept her fourth (fifth?) cocktail from Aura, she nearly fell off her barstool in surprise.</blockquote> ➤ Roller derby!

<blockquote>Jill took a deep breath, and set her shoulders. In three more hours, this would all be over. She could get through it. She’d be fine. The Jill in the mirror looked less confident about the prospect – but then, you kind of couldn’t blame her, once you took a good look at the whole picture.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“You think you could try to go back to sleep?” Marcus asked, pawing for his glasses. “Just give it a shot?” There was a pause, and Marcus really, truly hoped that this time, finally, his five-year-old son would shrug, turn around, and head back to his room, and that would be the end of it for the night, and he could shut his eyes and not open them again until much, much closer to his wake-up alarm.</blockquote>

<blockquote>1. It was my mother who first discovered the fuel leak. Or at least, that’s what we thought it was then. My grandmother, who was the last of us to have set foot on Earth, had died the month before. We had gathered in the laundry atrium, which was the largest open space without ongoing maintenance work, and made such tribute as we could: this is one of the first things I remember. My mother said it felt like a new era, like we were on our own. Although of course we had been out of radio contact with Earth for many years by then. And then, so soon after: the fuel numbers didn’t quite add up. The guardian angels of the old world gone, and we were on our own. But we had excess fuel against unplanned contingencies. It was the slowest of slow leaks. No big deal.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Racquel held her breath for a moment, hoping madly that it was something else — a new project, maybe, or an unrelated item, or maybe not even about Leigh at all. Then her eyes focused on the headline: At Speculative Smorgasboard panel, Leigh March reveals she’s had romantic relationships with both men and women.</blockquote> ➤ I really loved a lot of things about this story and had a lot of feelings, but I'm feeling left hanging by the ending because it never actually addresses Racquel's concerns about being out despite the changes at the end clearly making their relationship at the very least an open secret!!!

<blockquote>The revolutionary hides her face to conceal her identity. The princess silences her voice to preserve her purity. They know each other. And they don't...</blockquote>

<blockquote>Lena goes to the beach and meets someone who will change her life.</blockquote> ➤ Greenland Shark selkie

<blockquote>She relit the torch easily, but when she held it aloft, she saw a dark, grey shape down the right tunnel. Astrid took a hesitant step forward and peered into the gloom. It was a woman, with sickly grey skin and unnaturally bright eyes. Her hair was dark and stringy, and she wore only a bandeau over her breasts and a long tattered skirt. There was something almost snout-like about her face, and the intensity of her gaze made Astrid catch her breath.</blockquote> ➤ Greenland Shark selkie

<blockquote>“I want a ridiculously large soft-serve ice cream cone with sprinkles on it,” Russell said, ticking the list off on his fingers. “I want a button with an ironic pop culture reference that I’ll lose before I get home. I want meat on a stick, and I want something deep-fried.” “It’s good to have goals.” Lew ignored a glossy postcard thrust in his direction by a guy in a glittery rainbow T-shirt, and deftly dodged a clump of silver balloons bobbing at the corner of a vendor’s stall. “Ooh, and I want all the free samples.” Russell veered off the street to where a young woman in a polka dot red dress stood in front of a tea place, offering small paper cups from a tray.</blockquote>