LINKDING

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>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>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>The life and times of Luo Mianmian; or, what happened after she secedes from Lanling Jin sect. As she suspected, the world is far bigger than the great cultivation sects.</blockquote>

<blockquote>When she came to the palace, the king had a wife. It's important to remember that. That when she came to the palace, the king was already wed.</blockquote> ➤ many good things about the fic but the last line was a crowning delight

<blockquote>Something had happened which Cosette did not immediately understand—but she thought, obscurely, that it must have something to do with fighting.</blockquote> ➤ a truly impressive arm joe fic integrating the stuff from the fighting game beautifully into worldbuilding in the novel

<blockquote>I never wanted to turn out like her. When I met her, I was twelve. There was no one else to take care of me. Before she showed up, she was preceded by this man in a pinstriped suit. A harbinger. He sat me down in his sterile office and he said, “Time Law is not a joking matter.” He told me all the horrible things that would happen if I broke any Time Laws. Worlds would collapse. I would turn inside out. Important people would die and important things wouldn’t happen. And that’s when I first felt that clutching sensation in my chest. Like he had his fingers inside my rib cage and he was squeezing my lungs. Do not fuck this up. “So are you the one I’m going with?” I asked. Because I was a newly coined orphan and I needed someone. The pinstriped-suit man shook his head. “No,” he said. “The system is hard on children so we’ve come up with a better option. But you can’t go live with her. She must come to you.” Because she lived in the future. </blockquote> ➤ the one where an older version of Marley comes back in time to take care of her younger orphaned self, and it does interesting things with the inevitability (or lack thereof) of the future

<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>People in our neighborhood are always saying what a pity it is that two such fine-looking people as my cousin Bluma and her husband have no children yet. I don’t see that they’re so fine-looking as all that. Still, I’ve often thought that if Bluma had a little bit more business of her own to worry about, she might have less time to waste getting into mine.</blockquote> ➤ It's the sequel to "Further Arguments in Support of Yudah Cohen’s Proposal to Bluma Zilberman"! Which has been sitting in my notes waiting for me to bookmark it for an unconscionable number of years! It's great! I lovvvvve the outside perspective on Yudah and Bluma, and Shaina's narration is a delight

➤ An illustrated/comic version of Gawain and the Green Knight. Honestly not sure whether to tag this het, gen, or dudeslash, so I'm just going with all of the above.

<blockquote>It's a grieving process, of some kind.</blockquote> ➤ Lando dealing with L3's death

<blockquote>"Lady Therese Vorkalloner," Esterhazy announces. He ushers her in and then makes a discreet retreat. Aral pushes himself up higher in the chair and looks at his ex-wife. He can't recall when he had last seen her. Their circles haven't crossed very much since her remarriage and, when they have, she's made it clear that they've already said all they've needed to each other. But she's not the first one of Aral's old enemies to come see him on his sick bed.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It is exam week, and Donny is 14 years 10 months 15 days 10 hours 16 minutes old. He is bored and hungry and his scalp itches and he hates school more than he’s ever hated anything before in his life. He hates exams in particular, and he hates his math exam most of all.</blockquote> ➤ cyborg teenager

<blockquote>After Vordarian, it takes time to rebuild, both buildings and trust.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Vivian’s late grandmother was a witch—which is just a way of saying she was a woman of unusual insight. Vivian, in contrast, had a mind like a hi-tech blender. She was sharp and purposeful, but she did not understand magic. This used to be a problem. Magic ran in the family. Even her mother’s second cousin, who was adopted, did small spells on the side. She sold these from a stall in Kota Bharu. Her main wares were various types of fruit fried in batter, but if you bought five pisang or cempedak goreng, she threw in a jampi for free. These embarrassing relatives became less of a problem after Vivian left Malaysia. In the modern Western country where she lived, the public toilets were clean, the newspapers were allowed to be as rude to the government as they liked, and nobody believed in magic except people in whom nobody believed. Even with a cooking appliance mind, Vivian understood that magic requires belief to thrive.</blockquote>

<blockquote>One man can alter the course of history. A random encounter leads Duv Galeni to change his mind and return to Komarr.</blockquote> ➤ aaaaaa this is so great!! actually challenging the unchallenged imperialism of the original books!

<blockquote>Food and love have a lot in common. Leia learns how to cook. This takes some time.</blockquote> ➤ three times Leia cooks with someone else

<blockquote>The witch nodded and drank her own coffee and motioned for Leah to drink hers (the orange peel turned out to be a long strip at the bottom of the cup). When it came to talking about her husband, how he’d been before she’d broken the curse, Leah found herself stumbling. “He was so beautiful,” she said. “Monsters are, often,” the witch agreed.</blockquote>

<blockquote>When Princess Talia was fourteen, her eldest sister was placed in a tower. Princess Adina was eighteen by then, and so of a marriageable age. She had grown quite beautiful, though she was more willful than winsome, and she did not care for the notion of the tower very much at all. Their mother did her best to persuade her on the subject. After all, the queen herself had been eighteen when her own parents had sent her to live in that very same tower, to be safely tucked away until her husband could be chosen, and then ride out to claim her. A tradition going back ages and ages.</blockquote> ➤ Princesses in towers making their own ultimate choices about their fates, actively

<blockquote>Around the time that Glinda first hears Elphaba's song sung around the palace, she starts having dreams of Elphaba.</blockquote>

<blockquote>In which flirting is hard, and even Attolia and Attolis can't always have what they want at the first attempt.</blockquote> ➤ mostly reads as gen

<blockquote>Some people say that there were two bloodbaths. There was Jurassic World itself, and then there was what came after. Claire Dearing and the art of survival.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Catherine really must stop reading horrid novels.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A series of vignettes about the Fancot twins being twins.</blockquote> ➤ zero repercussions for their shenanigans, all is lighthearted fluff

<blockquote>The twelve dancing princesses aren't going to a castle with princes. They have an entirely different destination.</blockquote> ➤ charming ➤ the bhangra au.

<blockquote>On Elephantine Island, a young Egyptian girl is sold to a Jewish officer of the military garrison.</blockquote> ➤ series consists of: From the Sun to the Shade I From the Sun to the Shade II From the Sun to the Shade III