LINKDING

Summary: <blockquote>"Anne had thought herself quite finished with wanting, but this want, once stumbled upon, would not quietly lay itself down in the grave with the others." Eight years changes a person, but not beyond all recognition. Fred Wentworth and Anne Elliot, years after a final break, find that they are more alike, in some respects, than they thought before.</blockquote> ➤ a rewrite of Persuasion featuring butch 4 butch Anne/Frederick ➤ god it's so GOOD and I am so EMOTIONAL about it ➤ I love all the ways in which it is both the same and different, the ways their identities affect the things they do and the choices they make ➤ and I mentioned in an earlier post how meaningful it is to be able to see gender non-conforming people like me in historical fiction, living their lives, finding ways to be happy, finding their community. shaking hands with them across time. I see you and you see me. ➤ making Persuasion specifically be the story told is so perfect too because of how it's about getting to know yourself better when you've had time to grow up more ➤ also there's lots of excellently-researched historical content ➤ and lots of feels ➤ READ IT READ IT READ IT ➤ it's such a lovely ending and I nearly cried about it ➤ 47k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>“Mona, I think they’re … they’re all lesbians!” This was not precisely the conversation Pearl wanted to be a part of while standing in the sun, shooing flies from her face, waiting for a horse so they could start their scheduled trail ride. Truth be told, she hadn’t want to be part of most conversations that had transpired since the long weekend had started, not about lipstick or Richard Nixon or Elton John or the mimeograph machine their office manager kept threatening to buy. And yet, this conversation had, in only a few words, jumped right to the top of that least-wanted list. Mona turned to Tammy and rolled her eyes. “They’re just working girls,” Mona said, with the authoritative queen-bee air that had gotten them all out here in the first place. “Not every working girl is a lesbian.” “I think ‘working girl’ means something else,” Sheryl noted.</blockquote>

<blockquote>She took the coffee-hot chocolate mix, grinned at the misshapen white marshmallow lump that Doris had fabricated for her coffee, and came to a stand next to the forward window to look out upon the expanse of Venusian clouds that roiled pleasingly in front of the blimp lab, aglow with the sunset that would deepen over the next few weeks. She used to stand here with Jorn, her husband. What was it now … six … seven months ago? He’d made it all of three weeks after Earth went silent, the poor emotional, beautiful wreck of a man, weeping nonstop for days.</blockquote>

<blockquote>You’ve lived this all before. That’s the thought that keeps me going, through the acrid sting of mage-smoke in my nostrils and the terror of almost having lost you already. There’s fear on your face, too—you’re only now straightening, one trembling hand clutching at your sleeve, and—and—no. I find I cannot call this woman you. You look older than your years, your hair streaked with silver. This woman is barely thirty. She does not have your easy calm; she flinches at the sight of the Tierran assassin pinned neatly to the floor by my sword. She is not you, and will not be for years to come. So be it; she is Fallon Deere, First Minister to the Free State of Altorania, and you are you, the woman who sent me to her side.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"You left—" "I left the New Republic, lover, I never left you."</blockquote>

<blockquote>The immigrants need ceremonies, too.</blockquote> ➤ creating a new ceremony for the first immigrant to decide to join the Exodan fleet

<blockquote>Amilyn and Leia’s relationship spans years, planets, peacetime, bloodshed, lives ruined and put back together again.</blockquote> ➤ I knew how this would have to end and I cried when I got there anyway. This was really good!

<blockquote>Diana feared for a moment that it would not work—that the light of her power wasn't enough, and the ice would never melt. But then the first splintering crack reached her ears, and a moment later the wall of it before her had cracked, shattered; pieces broke off and slid away, the ice splitting deeper and deeper, still reflecting with red-gold shimmers of light. And then, all at once, a series of gasps, ragged startled half-drawn breaths—and Lois coughed.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Josie Brooke plays Horatio in a student production of Hamlet, and learns about patience, friendship, and love.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Tabitha walks, and thinks of shoes. She has been thinking about shoes for a very long time: the length of three and a half pairs, to be precise, though it’s hard to reckon in iron. Easier to reckon how many pairs are left: of the seven she set out with, three remain, strapped securely against the outside of the pack she carries, weighing it down. The seasons won’t keep still, slip past her with the landscape, so she can’t say for certain whether a year of walking wears out a sole, but it seems about right. She always means to count the steps, starting with the next pair, but it’s easy to get distracted. She thinks about shoes because she cannot move forward otherwise: each iron strap cuts, rubs, bruises, blisters, and her pain fuels their ability to cross rivers, mountains, airy breaches between cliffs. She must move forward, or the shoes will never be worn down. The shoes must be worn down.</blockquote> ➤ In which the heroines of two fairy tales help each other recognize how terribly she's been treated and run away together. Plausibly-deniable femslash, I think, though maybe the author meant it as gen

<blockquote>A long, hard road to a happy ending.</blockquote>

<blockquote>An answer to the prompt: Write a quick story of falling in love for each of Tamora Pierce's the Circle of Magic characters.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Bandits came for Lalasa’s family and burned the whole farm out, except for her, because she had been at the river washing clothes. Lalasa did not miss her father or her brothers for all the long years of her life, which should tell you something about her. She cried for them anyway, and that should tell you something too. -- Retelling of Page and Squire from Lalasa's POV.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Cosette gets drafted in the first round to the Washington Capitals. Eponine gets drafted in the fourth to the Pittsburgh Penguins and she can do this, she can totally do this.</blockquote> ➤ oh no this is so GOOD

➤ does what it says on the tin. rule 63 Anakin and Obi-Wan end up in our universe and meet Luke, Leia, and Han. ➤ incomplete thought experiment sort of thing, but what exists is GREAT ➤ (I'm really unsure whether to tag this gen or femslash so I guess I'll go with both?)

➤ Five Advents for the woman who becomes Lady Capulet (mostly gen, with a hint of f/f).

<blockquote>“It’s called the Rite of Passage. How it goes is, you pick out a guy. You get him to fall in love with you, and then . . .” Nayra paused dramatically, reflected candlelight shining in her eyes. “You break his heart.” When Silena was dating Charles Beckendorf, she spoke against the Aphrodite Cabin's Rite of Passage. Her sisters and brothers thought she'd never taken part in it, and some of them believed that she died for her disrespect for Aphrodite. But none of them knew about Silena and Clarisse, or the true story of how Silena came to betray the camp.</blockquote> ➤ it's been so long since I've read the percy jackson books that I don't even remember the character of Silena at all, much less her storyline, so I was a little lost in the places where there was assumed knowledge, but I still had a lot of feels. What a good.

<blockquote>Bujold ficathon prompt: "For a long time, Drou was the only person Kareen could trust."</blockquote>

<blockquote>From her mother, Teyla inherited a bright smile, toffee-colored skin, and very good manners. (set in the universe of "the fixation of belief")</blockquote>