LINKDING

summary: <blockquote>“Tell you what,” said Yushi Huang. “I’ll make you a deal, Ling Wen Zhen Jun.” Almost no one used her title at all, even fewer with respect. She couldn’t quite read Yushi Huang’s tone. “If you can tell me exactly what this is,” she nodded to the creature curled in the corner, "and what it does, I will turn it in the moment we get back for tagging and proper categorization." Ling Wen raised an eyebrow. So the enigmatic Rain Master already knew the creature's properties. "And if I don't?" Yushi Huang smiled, infuriatingly gentle. "Admitting defeat so soon? How unlike you." Ling Wen drew herself up and inclined her head, knowing herself to be rising to bait but seeing no real reason to resist. "I accept your terms."</blockquote> ➤ tgcf space au featuring ling wen/yushi huang, HELLO ➤ yushi huang's deliberate mysteriousness, and the way she uses it to flirt and get the upper hand with ling wen! ➤ ling wen enjoying having something to research that's for FUN instead of for work! ➤ the interesting development of the setting, and ways the characters and backstories have been tweaked to fit! ➤ LOVED IT. ➤ 4k words in length

<blockquote>I’m thrown through a doorway into a room full of girls. I use this word loosely. Most are past bleeding age, some with bellies that round like rising moons. They sit at a large table in the middle of the room, dressed in matching gray smocks, identical white sashes tied around their waists. To my people, white is for funerals; the color seems fitting. They watch as I hit the ground. Like me, they wear hobbles of strong, light chain.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"I'm sorry I mocked you, yesterday," Ning Yingying says at last. "About giving the demoness a shot with you. I am forced to admit we can maybe learn something from the way you do things." "The way I do things," Liu Mingyan repeats. "You mean not having sex?" "Yeah," says Ning Yingying. Liu Mingyan is unsure how to feel about "not having sex" being one of her defining characteristics. She never set out for it to happen, although it is true that she didn't set out for it to not happen, either. All she knows is she is entirely uninterested in sex with Binghe, and that is apparently enough to make her unique.</blockquote> ➤ awww I love this!

<blockquote>Isabel said, “I think I’m being possessed.” You said, “You’re not being possessed.” You also said, “Don’t be so dramatic,” which you would later look back on and regret.</blockquote> ➤ really good and interesting, and then that last line!!!

<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>Post-BvS, pre-JL: Five conversations Diana and Lois could have had, and one time there wasn't all that much talking left to do.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Constable Kershaw has not uttered any overrides, nor issued a warrant to access her memory logs, but Celia understands nonetheless that she is expected to stay, to sit and answer his questions like a suspect. It surprises her, this treatment. Like she’s human.</blockquote>

<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>Post-BvS, Diana and Lois start to develop a habit of protecting each other. But sometimes habits become ruts, and every now and then it's a good idea to break out of them. (Or: a whole bunch of times Diana and Lois looked out for each other, plus the time Lois ended up feeling like it might be worth it to be just a little less careful.)</blockquote>

<blockquote>On the first day of Sara's appointment as Magistra Descendant to the Assembly of Terravine, Public Works decided they needed grassroots support for the plant. "I mean, I agree in principle," Sara had tried telling him, as he gestured at his hand-annotated wallcharts. "But for one thing, I'm supposed to be neutral, and for another thing, people might be eating!"</blockquote> ➤ aww yeah sentient spaceships are the best

<blockquote>There's a lot about the world that Shufti doesn't understand. But in her kitchen, things make sense.</blockquote> ➤ I'd never considered this ship before, but yeah, okay, works for me!

<blockquote>At first, the murder is universally mistaken for a run-of-the-mill political assassination.</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>Once, I dreamed that I had a son named Sheldon, and my grief tore a hole in the fabric of the world.</blockquote> ➤ In which Sarah finds connections to an alternate universe where she was born a cis woman (Sarah's a trans woman) and has a kid. Sarah is ultimately happy with the universe she's in because she has her partner Janet

<blockquote>Puberty is rough.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The old boys' network at the Agency isn't going to support Susan's move out of the basement and into the field, so she has to build her own network. Which is why she's too distracted to realize that her friendship with Nancy is changing.</blockquote>

<blockquote>If Joan had to summarize her observations of Cookie to Sherlock – and, who is she kidding, he's celebrity-obsessed and will probably wring it out of her one day – she'd say that she's a woman who strikes out first with her weaknesses and hides her strengths until they're needed. It's nearly enough to knock Joan off balance.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Mal invites Polly to stay for the winter. Polly knows there's more behind it, and more than the chance to get to know Mal closer, too.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Polly Perks has tackled princes, diplomatic envoys, half-mad vampires, the entire High Command of the Borogravian Army, and even Sergeant Jackrum himself. She should not but stumped by some strange fluttery feelings in her insides. Yet here she was.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Maria Fernandez thinks she's all about tennis. And then she meets Debbie.</blockquote>

➤ wip to chapter 3 of 4 as of bookmarking. endgame pairing is Kel/Wyldon

<blockquote>Lydia’s tried to get better at putting words to the things she’s feeling, at dropping all the adorbs and actually saying stuff sometimes, but it’s so big, what Gigi’s telling her, and Lydia doesn’t want to screw it up with, “Sorry that your mom’s dead.” It would be different, maybe, if Gigi was just Darcy’s sister or just a friend of Lizzie’s, but she’s not, not exactly. She’s Lydia’s friend too now, like really, and so Lydia rearranges the carrots into nothing and tries to think of something to say.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Four seasons in the life of the hot lesbian mercenary.</blockquote>