LINKDING

Summary: <blockquote>Don and Kathy would move in together. They would have a dog or two and then inevitably, a small parade of adorable little brats who would call him Uncle Cosmo, and they would spend less and less time with him, not on purpose but busy with the rest of their lives, and ultimately Cosmo would learn to make his peace with it because he’d have no other choice and he would have to try to move on and not live too much in his memories. He could picture it so clearly, he figured if the songwriting gig with Monumental didn’t pan out, he could always return to the backwater circuit with a new act: The Amazing Cosmo of the Cosmos—ladies and gentlemen, he sees the future, he reads the stars, he silently pines for his best married pal and all the while tap dancing! Don and Kathy inviting him along on their honeymoon, though—that part was a surprise.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>“Wow,” he says. “Well, in that case.” He leans against the counter and looks at his quiet apartment. The thing is: he was always going to say yes. He has no impulse control and he’s always good for a laugh and he’s kind of lonely. And since he knows Lan Zhan would never want to actually date him, he might as well take what he can get. “In that case,” he says a little more firmly, “I’m in.” So that’s how it starts. The worst, best thing to ever happen to Wei Ying.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“I’m not here to help you with your work,” said Lan Zhan, injecting frost into his voice to deter any further attempts at charm. “I’ll be focusing on my research.” Wei Ying cocked his head. “Research?” he said. “Mm. I’m a cultivation researcher, not a department employee. I’m reconstructing the ancient musical cultivation techniques of the Lan clan.” / Lan Zhan’s new liaison at the Caiyi Municipal Cultivation Department is an enigma – ridiculously talented, yet somehow content with mopping up spiritual pests for barely above minimum wage. Wei Ying is slapdash and irresponsible, and Lan Zhan doesn’t like him at all… but then he meets A-Yuan, who loves music and longs for a piano his father can’t afford. Forced into cautious friendship by a four-year-old's music lessons, Lan Zhan soon realises Wei Ying is more than he seems. The single father is a man of many secrets – including, perhaps, the key to Lan Zhan's life's work. And in the meantime, the background resentment in Caiyi Town is rising to dangerous levels…</blockquote> ➤ fascinating au in which lwj is trying to revive the techniques for musical cultivation which were lost long ago ➤ I loved the worldbuilding, the character work, and the plot! Good sibling content, good lwj student oc's, good a-yuan and wwx, good many things

<blockquote>Hi, Greg.</blockquote> ➤ lots of fun and very interesting, consisting entirely of posts to a message board about komarran music, but doesn't ever actually like..... have an emotional arc about Gregor. but that's fine it's still real fun to read! Love that he gets to have a hobby.

<blockquote>Duv Galeni has a radio show. Gregor Vorbarra has a radio.</blockquote> ➤ the one where Gregor listens to subversive Komarran music

<blockquote>Now I know that people have been heard to say that I am prone to a little exaggeration, but can I help it if the things that I have seen are so miraculous that a few people may be so small-minded as to not believe me?</blockquote>

<blockquote>About “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” (5 contributors, 5 notes, 7 comments) →“Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” (Roud 423, Child 313) is a traditional English folk ballad. Like many traditional songs, the lyrics are unattributed. Child transcribed twenty verses, and a twenty-first got added later (and is included here for some unknown reason—I keep writing to the Lyricsplainer mods to get someone to delete it or include it as a separate entry, but nobody responds, and all they’ve done is put brackets around it. Sometimes I hate this site.) Most modern recordings pick and choose verses and include far fewer than the full twenty. There are several variant titles, and the characters’ names shift through the various broadsides and folk and rock versions.– BonnieLass67 (11 upvotes)</blockquote> ➤ the entire story is told through a) the lyrics of a "traditional" folk song, and b) the conversation held between various people on a music website analyzing the song. There's plenty of questions left unanswered but enough is told to make some things very clear! I love it.

<blockquote>His father in white plays the song late into the night, and when A-Yuan wakes up confused and afraid, the guqin lulls him back to sleep. Lan Sizhui hears his father play the same song every night for his whole life, and never, ever get an answer.</blockquote> ➤ this is incredible, I didn't expect to love it as much as I did but I really did!

<blockquote>Rosetta knelt to look at the stump in the corner of her client’s bedroom. It had the likeness of a ten-year-old boy, four feet tall, dressed in an oversized shirt and suspenders, and its features were flawless, from the newsboy’s cap cocked on its tight curls, to its pupil-less eyes fringed with long eyelashes. The only oddity was that stump’s hands were unformed, shapeless blobs. It was easy to believe that a sculptor had chiseled a boy out of wood and had stepped away just before finishing its hands. Rosetta sucked in her breath through her cloth face mask. The SPC hadn’t told her that her first stump extermination would look like a child. </blockquote>

<blockquote>A drawn-out annexation, a hammered dulcimer, an old-fashioned entertainment titled Sovereign of Tavern Dancers and the story of how One Esk first found its voice.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A meditation about the evolution and influence of a song written in 1902 over the next 150 plus years.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The best ever death metal band out of Denton will in time both outpace and outlive you.</blockquote> ➤ troubled teens growing up and living their lives. unexpected feelings!

<blockquote>"I've always wanted to," said René. "And they already call me Count Ghembretten. Why in the world shouldn't I?" "Ah, the old what's-the-worst-they-can-do-to-me," Tatya sighed. "It's not likely to cause more scandal than Lord Vorkosigan's last dinner party, anyway."</blockquote> ➤ I have no idea who these characters are, either I haven't gotten to the book featuring them or I have but I've forgotten them, but at any rate this is still a great fic

➤does what it says on the tin

<blockquote>Exactly what it says on the tin. (With links to the songs!)</blockquote>

<blockquote>Ray cracks up a little as he pulls up outside the Canadian Consulate. He’d woken up on the 1979 side of the bed this morning and emptied a box of his old mixtapes out onto the passenger seat before coming to pick Fraser up for work. Mostly he’s laughing at himself because he’s thirty-fuckin’-six years old and he’s still listening to Too Drunk To Fuck. Plus, waiting outside the Consulate in the GTO is way too similar to waiting round the corner from Stella’s parents’ house to take her out after school. Give him another twenty years and he’ll be even more of a weirdo: ex-punk, ex-cop, still probably with experimental hair, Jesus --</blockquote> ➤ and now I'm all nostalgic for my due south days

➤ a musician, devout christian, and graduate of an ex-gay program falls in love. ➤ Handled really thoughtfully and well.

<blockquote>Aral and Cordelia explore traditional Barrayaran sex again, this time with the aid of a folksong.</blockquote>

➤ cut-paper scenes from Rodney's life

<blockquote>In which McKay's quest for the contents of Kavanagh's iPod leads him into deeper waters than he expected.</blockquote>

➤ The one where Rodney's a conductor and John a violinist

accessible via the wayback machine. ➤ the one where the aliens come to earth and just don't...do anything, don't react to anything, despite what people try. ➤ And then all of a sudden they do: take a seat at the line "all seated on the ground" from the muzak playing at a mall at christmas time, and everyone's trying to figure out WHY and WHAT CHANGED and stuff. ➤ And there's parallels with the pov character's aunt judith's judgy face, and a rather adorable developing romance between the pov character and the choir director dude. ➤ And basically it's just a great story all-round and I love it.