LINKDING

excerpt: Fig. 1. Gold coin, 356 P.F. (post-foundation). Obverse: profile of Auréle, right-facing. Legend: REGENT ETERNAL. Reverse: Tree, fruiting (symbolizing prosperity). This five-sorel piece is in fine condition. The design is sophisticated, improving upon the bronze Auréles minted throughout the 340s. Trees were a common peacetime motif and recur in coinage from Auréle’s accession in 339 onwards. They cut off Auréle’s head and they put it on a pike above the city’s third best bridge. To me, that seemed a shame. I had only just got his nose right. // ➜ SFF short story telling of a year of political upheaval through the eyes of someone who works in the minting of coins ➜ and through the coins' archaeological analysis, in the far future ➜ I love this double-vision on events, what the historians can and can't know through the coins, and the struggles and lives of the people who were just trying to get through those times, the desperation and the personhood ➜ 3.6k words

Summary: “It started with the ghost,” Horatio said after a moment, clearly coming to a decision. He looked upset, finally, but in a frustrated way, not in the way you would expect from someone who had just witnessed four people die, and one of them in his arms. “I got roped into it because of the ghost.” // Why Hamlet chose to put his trust in Horatio. ➜ yuletide fic - for Hamlet ➜ taking an interpretation that Horatio and Hamlet barely knew each other before the start of the play, and running with it from Horatio's pov ➜ I love the way this interpretation shapes the story! ➜ And Horatio's pov is so good. the way he feels helplessly drawn into the mess by Hamlet's charisma, never sure what he can do or what he should do, but unable to make himself step back and leave Hamlet alone ➜ because Hamlet IS so charismatic, and so visibly struggling at the same time! and there's so much depth there that Horatio simply cannot have the context to understand, but he wants to, he wants to be there for Hamlet ➜ but in the end, of course, all he can do is tell everyone what happened. ➜ I'm so emotions!!!! ➜ 9k words

Summary: [bjornruffian] ohhhh like a friend for him???? YES omg I LOVE THIS. Wait it’s going to end badly for this robot right? OH NO IM ALREADY HEARTBROKEN HOW CAN I BE SO INVESTED ALREADY ➜ yuletide fic - for Fandom For Robots ➜ Computron and bjornruffian work on their next collab, and Computron revisits memories of his creator ➜ and hello I had SO many sad robot feels and robot friendship feels! shrieking with delight ➜ 2k words in length

summary: She'd never been anyone's favorite before he'd told her that, the lesser daughter of a prestigious family that had enough heirs and spares that she could be given away and the act called an honor. It was a scary but lovely thing to be the best, the most loved. When she'd heard those words she'd clutched them to her chest and hoped she'd never prove them false. That did not mean that she did not hate him, too. // OR: Ning Yingying loves her shizun; she loves Binghe, too. These things come into conflict, whether she wants them to or not. ➤ an svsss fic set in the original PIDW, about Ning Yingying ➤ and holy shit this fic is so good, so everything I didn't even know to hope for from a fic about pidw nyy, I am all emotions?! ➤ the complexity of nyy's relationships with sqq and lbh, the mix of love and hate, the way she doesn't feel able to do anything but to witness and to go along with how things are ➤ and seeing the awful things that happen through her eyes.....it's so powerful and bleak and believable ➤ I adore this fic, I'm just absolutely blown away by it ➤ 9k words

summary: During her decades of service to the Imperium, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan commanded a special place in the hearts of queer Barrayarans. Explore their stories today at the Vorbarr Sultana Capitol Museum. ➤ document fic about the vorkosigan saga, presented as a posthumous museum exhibit about Cordelia and her role in the queer community of Barrayar ➤ wonderfully done - I loved all the different voices we hear from, and the looks at different aspects of queer culture and history ➤ and the sense of queer joy and love and resilience throughout! ➤ 6k words in length. podfic available.

Summary: Rebecca Heminges has never liked watching Othello. She thinks she'll like the King's Men's new tragedy even less. ➤ historical rpf about 17th century theatre actors associated with shakespeare ➤ I've never heard of these characters before or the play they're putting on that's central to the themes of the fic but the the fic does a good enough job introducing it all that it works nonetheless ➤ a really interesting and thoughtful work about life vs fiction, and acting, and finding a new life, and the realities and ramifications of abusive relationships ➤ I loved it, and I see the author has written other fics about this group of characters and I want to read them too! ➤ 5k words in length

Summary: Ling Wen wakes up in Hua Cheng's bed. ➤ omg I am LIVING, someone wrote me so many words of ling wen fic wherein post-canon ling wen bodyswaps with xie lian ➤ the ling wen pov in this fic is sooooo good, her pragmatic approach to dealing with whatever happens in her life, her disinterest in attending to her emotions, her independence and unwillingness to rely on anyone who isn't her ➤ and seeing xie lian and hua cheng through ling wen's eyes is so good too!! ➤ there are so many fun character relationship dynamics, connected with a really fun premise, and I loved it all ➤ 8k words in length

no summary ➤ mdzs/cql time travel au fic where Sect Leader Yao travels back in time at the point of his death, and intends to Make Changes For The Better ➤ a funny and fun look at how things happen, with and without his intervention! ➤ 6k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>“The…Lan sect?” Meng Yao said doubtfully. “Are you sure?” “I am,” his mother said, her mouth tight. She looked upset, the way she always did these days when he referenced, intentionally or otherwise, the original plan that she had had to send him to join his father, sect leader of Lanling Jin. She’d raised Meng Yao on a steady diet of stories of what his life would be like when his father finally took him back the way he’d promised her he would, stories that had filled his days and nights for years and years and years, and then just last year she’d suddenly stopped talking about it entirely. It was as if the person who’d told those stories had nothing to do with her. Meng Yao didn’t know what had happened, but he assumed it must have been pretty bad. “It'll be a good fit,” she added.</blockquote> ➤ canon divergence fic where young Meng Yao goes to the Lan Sect to learn cultivation as a guest, instead of trying to be accepted into Jin ➤ I had a lot of fun with the route this fix-it took! ➤ and I enjoyed that it included friendship between Meng Yao and Su She <3 ➤ 5k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>He could see some of those flies as he came level with the glass-paned door. That Mask-damned cuff just left his wealth strewn about, jewelry box open, silk neck-cloths on the bed. Once, Tseges would have considered those neck-cloths alone a splendid haul... but now he wanted more. These people owed him more. First, though, he had to get inside.</blockquote> ➤ an original story that I believe to be set in the same world as Carrick's Rook & Rose trilogy, which I haven't read yet but which is on my tbr list ➤ having read this story and enjoyed it definitely increases my interest in that trilogy! ➤ this one's about a thief who gets talked into helping a legend steal information to get back at people who misuse their positions of power ➤ the importance of public infrastructure! the usefulness of recordkeeping! the will to carry out audacious crime! ➤ fun and interesting and I want to know more about this world ➤ 9k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>The sensation of being ignored by someone playing with enough magic to blow up the castle had been outright soothing to Alex, by the end of it all.</blockquote> ➤ yessss ➤ a Tortall fic set during the era when Duke Roger is dead the first time, from Alex of Tirragen's pov ➤ omg I am OBSESSED with this minor canon divergence au that takes seriously the question of what Alex's motivations are ➤ the fucked up relationships between Alex and Delia, Alex and Roger, Alex and Thom! Alex's obsession with and failure to understand Alanna! Roger continuing to be horrible from beyond the grave! ➤ HELLO I AM HERE FOR ALL OF THIS ➤ 5k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>In your head, the dead man wakes up crying. He stutters into awareness just as you manage to stanch the tears welling in your eyes, a response to the pressure of his presence on your limbic system. Your fingers brush, irritated, against the port at the back of your neck, catching at the ridges of the drive that carries his consciousness. He’s confused, lashing out to wrest temporary control of your limbs from you in quick staccato bursts before you can yank them back. “Stop that,” you snap, and then, remembering your client, soften the message with a “please.” Your right pinky twitches and you lasso it in, exerting your will over its movement. You splay your hands on your desk and watch them carefully, pay attention to your toes lest they start off on unwelcome dance routines, but in your head the dead man quiets, and you know he’s beginning to understand.</blockquote> ➤ sci-fi story about a woman with a port-drive into her brain that allowed her to be a great child actor when she was young, and gives her a career as an adult of plugging in the mental backup of a dead person to visit bereaved families who want their beloved dead back again ➤ about identity, embodiment, and not knowing how to want things ➤ also about body-sharing ➤ in second-person pov which works so well for the things this story is about and the things it's doing! the main character is someone who spends most of her time being someone else, after all ➤ it's so compellingly written! ➤ has the perfect ending, which can be so hard to pull off right ➤ 7k words in length ➤ this is the first published story by this author, and something this great is her first; I am excited to think of where she might go from here!