LINKDING

summary: “Go to bed,” he says. “It’s late, and I have people I still need to speak to at the party. We’ll play more tomorrow, hm? Uncle will take you somewhere fun, out of the palace. But shh, it’s a secret. We’ll sneak out together during the morning.” That’s such an exciting promise that sleeping at all suddenly seems impossible. And Uncle always keeps his promises, too, so it’s really happening. “Okay,” he says, and makes himself climb underneath the sheets. Uncle smiles approvingly. “Good boy,” he says, smoothing the sheets for him. “Sleep tight. Tomorrow is going to be a good day.” If Uncle says it, then that must mean it’s true. / The last day of Mobei-Jun's childhood, spent with his favorite uncle. ➜ svsss fic about Mobei-Jun as a young child, and his relationship with his favourite uncle Linguang-Jun, before the betrayal ➜ wahhhhh ;_; it's so GOOD, mbj is so young and earnest and trusting, and the reader (who knows what's going to happen) can read impending tragedy into everything lgj does ➜ the way lgj's betrayal permanently altered mbj's ability to trust, to believe in someone's love and care! the loss of the person he could otherwise have grown up to be!!! ➜ 2.5k words long

excerpt: If you were to drive to my sister Violet’s house today, you would find yourself at a very different place from the one I encountered on my first trip. The road up the mountain has been paved, for one thing, to make it more accessible to the tourists who now support it. Back then if you were behind the wheel of anything other than a farm truck, you were as likely to wreck an axle or lose a tire to the ruts; not knowing, I’d driven the Jag that day. ➤ fantasy novelette about family, and two sisters trying to reconnect after many years of estrangement ➤ a quiet and contemplative sort of vibe ➤ the slow reveals were effective ➤ I'm not quite sure about the pacing/vibe of the ending, but overall still a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable story ➤ 12k words in length

summary: or: A piece of Ancient technology requires some honesty to grant access to its workings; Rodney and Jeannie find themselves telling each other a few unspoken truths. ➤ sga gen fic about Rodney and Jeannie's sibling relationship ➤ in order to access the Ancients' science thingy they need to tell each other truths....enough to make the door-opening device accept them ➤ some petty things get said but also, in the end, some pretty major acknowledgements ➤ I love this sibling pair and it's always a delight to see a fic focusing on their relationship with each other! ➤ the balance of their conversation and truth-telling and how it shifts over time is so well done ➤ 4k words in length

quote: There are seven hundred aliens hidden in Miko’s backpack, and the Galactic Security Agent currently studying her passport (hopefully) has no clue. The agent is an alien themselves, some tentacular species with assistive devices hooked into its uniform to mist its soft skin every few seconds. A puff of evaporated solution exits from one of the devices by its neck as it draws her passport closer to its pitted eyes. ➤ a scifi short story set in space, about a smuggler who left her sister behind when she left the shitty planet she grew up on ➤ but her latest mission has her returning to that planet to deliver the goods ➤ (the goods are hundreds of teeny tiny sentient bioluminescent jellyfish fleeing civil war) ➤ I enjoyed the worldbuilding, and the difficult emotions about family, and how the things that felt world-endingly true at 17 don't need to be true forever ➤ 7k words in length

A woman visiting Las Vegas for a fun weekend encounters her ne’er-do-well ex-husband, who begs her for a favor that gambles with life and death… ➤ fantasy novelette about a jewish grandmother, after the death of her daughter, facing and dealing with the ways her troubled first marriage affected her life and her daughter ➤ Schanoes is so good at character and setting and emotion! ➤ and it's always great to have a story where the hero is an older woman ➤ 12k words in length

quote: Dad says Auntie was beautiful when she was young, with a bright-eyed gaze, pure yet alluring, and a slender, curving waist. When happy, her face was like springtime. When sorrowful, she was like a thin willow bending in the wind. Sometimes I try to imagine my aunt’s youthful beauty, and I end up thinking of those fox demon women in Zhiyi novels, eyes flickering like stars. With a slight twist of the demon’s waist, your soul is hers. But Auntie was the type who’s a thousand miles removed—aloof, full of rebuffs. Every boy who saw her back then suffered pangs of desire, yet they shunned her. Before Deng Baolin met her husband, she scratched the faces of thirteen boys. She was a prickly beauty, a thorny rose. In short, she was completely unlike the person before my eyes. ➤ scifi short story translated from chinese; originally published in 2021 ➤ it's a fascinating outside-outside pov, a nephew telling the story of his aunt, whose story is that of her famous physicist-astronaut husband ➤ the multiple layers of abstraction work well for this story -- and the narrative loops around itself in how it's told too, wandering forwards and backwards in time to circle around the heart of things ➤ which is really a story about family and about place and about how you decide what to prioritise in your life ➤ it's lovely and thoughtful and wistful. I really liked it! ➤ 7k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Jiang Cheng realises that his own nephew has never tried his mother's signature dish, and takes it upon himself to rectify this. [Recipe at the end]</blockquote> ➤ post-canon, jiang cheng realises jin ling has never tasted his mother's soup ➤ cue the epic quest to learn how to recreate it, and the things he learns along the way ➤ lovely fic about family and about food ➤ 4k words in length ➤ thanks to stultiloquentia for the rec!

Summary: <blockquote>When you were young, Mama sent you away from the land of the dead and told you not to look back. You remember the grey skirts they passed out at the border. Long lines like sinew, and waiting in them. The dark cavern sky of Asphodel. Sometimes the wind brought the honeyed scent of Elysian apples. But that is where heroes go, so you had to stay in line.</blockquote> ➤ about grief and loss; losing a parent young, and losing access to that parent's culture and language; and about holding on to what things you can ➤ the story isn't specific about exactly what happened in the disaster when the main character was a young child but the hints are enough to be pretty dark ➤ beautiful, longing, sharp and bittersweet ➤ second person pov ➤ 1k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Even death is no match for a trio of elderly, stubborn, ever-sparring sisters, who refuse to rest in peace while their grudges live on…</blockquote> ➤ an original story about ghosts and toxic family dynamics and feeling trapped ➤ the three sisters who are the main characters are all difficult people in their own way, and all fully-realized characters I truly believe in ➤ I loved that it's a story where the moral isn't "family should always stick together." family can be wonderful but it can also be awful, and sometimes you're better off apart ➤ 14k words in length ➤ I think it would be stronger for being shorter but I still enjoyed it

Summary: <blockquote>"Twins are the same" is a cliché. Or, Dorachar- Clifford, the early years. char-and Jean</blockquote> ➤ Fic for the two-person roleplay game Debrief (I LOVE DEBRIEF!!!!) ➤ featuring Dora and Jean, the wives of the player characters in the game, and I love how it makes them real people with their own complex relationship with each other! ➤ I also love what it does with footnotes, it is a GENIUS way of doing pov things for this particular canon ➤ ahhhh there are so many great details in the fic too! ➤ 3k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>In which Vucub-Kamé is worried, Hun-Kamé is in denial and Casiopea Tun is perfectly happy. (post-canon)</blockquote> ➤ fic for Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Gods of Jade and Shadow ➤ such a fun pov choice to have it from Vucub-Kame's perspective! ➤ I loved the arguments between Vucub-Kame and Hun-Kame, and between Hun-Kame and Casiopeia! ➤ 2k words in length

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>Mirae sits on her bed, parting her hair with one hand and feeling for the access port on the back of her head with the other. She finds the notched edges of the cap and twists counterclockwise until it comes loose. Her eye twitches as she slides the plug into her skull. The sensation isn’t strong enough for her to say it hurts, but she doesn’t know how else to describe it. Her post-op recovery had been difficult. She had fever dreams of worms crawling into her brain through the still-healing metal port. Even after she was fully recovered and ready to be plugged in for her first update, images of the plug’s pin connectors piercing too deep and puncturing her occipital lobe made her hands shake.</blockquote> ➤ a short story about a young woman who was given a neural implant to improve her abilities and skills in school to be able to get a good job ➤ about parental expectations and abusive control ➤ trying to figure out who you are and what you care about when you've never been given the opportunity to be anything but obedient ➤ I had feelings ➤ 4k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>I tell Mateo to meet me at a wine bar. It’s a quiet, low-key spot—ideal for first dates, because it’s easy to make a speedy exit in case the red flags start flying—or worse, if the men in blue come knocking. It’s been over an hour, and we’re on our second glass of wine when I realize there are no red flags. He’s not just monologuing, he’s asking me questions too. This is actually a good first date—and when was the last time that ever happened for me? But I can’t help but worry that the puddles from this afternoon’s shower may have dried up. Any time there’s a pause in the conversation, my head swivels to the exit to check for the men in blue.</blockquote> ➤ a beautiful story about fear and trauma and being an immigrant or from an immigrant family, and queer romance and the wisdom of the people who love you, and how something that can help save you and that can bring joy and fun in your life can also be an unhealthy coping mechanism if you take it too far. I loved reading about Javier and Mateo as they developed their relationship!

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>

Summary: <blockquote>“I think the member coordinator saw our Chinese names and was like, ‘Better send all the Chinese Jews to these guys,’” Ning said. “All the better!” Wuxian said, grinning. “Double holiday for everyone!” / The Wens host Sukkot/Mid-Autumn Festival.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>Zixuan would like to be closer with his half-brother. He would like to skip all the awkward fumbly beginning bit where they don't know each other and just magically arrive at fraternal harmony, where they can joke around like the Jiangs and look out for each other like the Nies and have that spooky synchronicity like the Lans, but the truth is that he's never had a sibling, and he has no script or example for what you're meant to do when you discover one as an adult. They don't have years of in-jokes and growing pains to fall back on, they're basically just strangers who happen to share a parent. / the sickfic fixit in which JGY discovers the Mortifying Ordeal Of Being Known and Zixuan discovers the Mortifying Ordeal of Getting To Know Other People</blockquote>