LINKDING

quote: Andrew was convinced the writer had been trans. By this point his friends were tired of hearing about it, but he had no one else to tell besides the internet, and he was too smart for that. That would be asking for it. ➤ short story about a trans man who's obsessed with the m/m novels of a dead historical novelist who he's convinced was trans ➤ and about the dreams he has where he meets her and talks with her ➤ it's a story that feels unsatisfying but like, in a satisfying way? ➤ idk how to explain! it makes me want to reread it 3 more times and think about the way one's relationship with oneself is mediated through the stories one reads and loves ➤ it's really good ➤ 6k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Qin Su is a surprise when Meng Yao brings her to Wen Qing, mid-war. Even more so when she stays.</blockquote> ➤ Wen Qing/Qin Su canon divergence fic! joining forces along with Meng Yao to spy on the Wens :))) ➤ Qin Su is a character who I always love to see being given more scope for complexities and personhood and decisions than we get to see in canon and this fic delivers ➤ also it really lets itself inhabit that period where Wen Qing is working for Wen Ruohan and everything that means ➤ the subtleties of how the relationships between Qin Su and Wen Qing and Meng Yao are portrayed in this fic are soooo good ➤ 2k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Shen Qingqiu wakes up in his plant body after Huayue City. There is only one problem: Memory loss.</blockquote> ➤ an SVSSS bingqiu fanfic wherein sqq wakes up in his plant body with amnesia and makes a home in the small village nearby, blessing its crops ➤ lbh eventually comes through looking for his shizun, and sqq helps him ➤ trying to find the right words to describe the tone or flavour of a piece of writing can be so hard but imo that's one of the things this fic does best! it's got this like....distanced, fairy-tale, dreamy vibe that really drives home how disconnected sqq is from his life and his emotions here and it's so great ➤ (happy ending, of course!) ➤ 5k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>In the wake of Shen Qingqiu's death, the Old Palace Master decides to take what he thinks is an opportunity. Luo Binghe makes him regret it.</blockquote> ➤ lbh is having a totally chill time of it having a breakdown after his shizun dies ➤ the old palace master of huan hua is ALSO having a totally separate chill breakdown about once again having a disciple under his control (....he thinks) who looks like su xiyan ➤ when their breakdowns intersect, no prizes for guessing who wins lol ➤ It's Time For Binghe Angst ➤ such a good view into what might have happened at the very beginning of the 5 year period where sqq is dead! ➤ 5k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Chu Wanning has a thin face, and gets embarrassed easily. They both know this. Mo Ran loves it, as he does every part of Chu Wanning, even if the man himself will shy away from any verbal professions of affection. To Mo Ran, it’s endearingly infuriating how Chu Wanning will allow Mo Ran to do all sorts of filthy things to him, but draws the line at being complimented with tender words. So. A compromise. / Chu Wanning takes a potion that puts his body to sleep, but leaves his mind awake, so Mo Ran (2.0) can be as tender as he wants without Chu Wanning getting too embarrassed and running away.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Elaine was what you might call an “experimental prototype,” a lovely chassis pre-loaded (courtesy of my code) with all the knowledge of Western art, history, and literature that any discerning mid-21st-century parent would expect of their child. There was no reason to make her a woman, other than some ancient Pygmalion-esque tech bro power fantasy. </blockquote>

<blockquote>Raleigh “Rally” King was Axial Conglomerate’s sweetheart. Redrender’s knight in shining armor. You’d watched him sweat in high definition all through season twenty-seven’s desert sequence, his sword gleaming in the sunlight. You’d watched him cry too—big tears rolling down his cheeks whenever someone died and he couldn’t save them. At the time, you’d rolled your eyes. Audiences love sentiment, so of course Rally would cry. The drones are always watching-cutting-streaming the tastiest morsels of Redrender for everyone at home. He’s faking it. It’s acting. You know better now, after eight seasons as a cast member on Redrender. The show gets inside your head. You can think you’re going to treat it like a game all through the psychological profiling and the camera tests. You can tell yourself it’s just reality television while signing away the rights to your DNA samples and signing the contract that agrees that termination is at the studio’s discretion. You can pretend it’s all fake until you’re shipping down to Redrender and then it’s not a game anymore. It’s your life.</blockquote> ➤ it's about an intense and important relationship of trust (platonic or not? not relevant) where they can't actually know each other in any real way because they're always having to play for the cameras! ambiguous ending but good

<blockquote>An experimental medicine of Lin Chen's makes Mei Changsu dream his way back into the past. Dream, of course, of Lin Shu.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Her name was Ursule Javert, and she lived with the police inspector who was not her father. Once, she had been called Cosette, but that was in a time she tried not to remember.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Every good villain is the hero of her own story. On trial for the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon, Lieutenant Valeris tells hers.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Poe guesses he’s a little fucked-up now, more than before. He certainly has a lot of nightmares. He tries to take it in stride. It doesn’t really surprise him. What had he expected? (Dead, he thinks. You expected to be dead.)</blockquote>

<blockquote>Once there was a little girl who tried very hard not to be born. Her father the king and her mother the king’s wife had six children already – all sons. </blockquote>

<blockquote>I’ll pretend I’m going blind if I have to: start fumbling my work, carving sloppy lines onto the dolls, squinting, tripping over nothing. Everything my mother did in her twenty-fifth year. Everything my aunt and uncle did. Now the three of them sit in the best positions by the fire; how honored they are, for giving their sight to feed us. How well-fed, while we labor carving more dolls for the pot. They’ll kill me for laziness if I don’t go blind in the next year.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Lucy looks around, wondering what makes the Professor's workshop so dangerous. At first glance, she can't see anything special: just a bunch of computers on a rack and a half-dozen monitors scattered about to no apparent plan, each surrounded by drifts of notepaper and graph paper. But then one monitor switches from its screensaver -- snow falling onto pine trees -- to a black screen with a single line of text. Lucy steps closer, curious. <Hello?> the computer says again. The cursor blinks in silent invitation.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Everyone thinks my brother is nice. He set up a rescue centre for birds, after the terraforming accident poisoned the lake. That's always the image of him, holding a bird covered in sludge. The birds are never the same after they're cleaned, but the gossips never talk about that. Cleaning birds is a safe way to make people notice you, and my brother likes safe. I jumped off a cliff once. He was all, "You'll die if you jump." I broke most of my bones, but I made it. It's worth trying for the feel of it. Not the bones part, but the rush of something new. It should have been something, falling and surviving. But the gossips only cared about how much it upset my brother.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Bucky becomes Natasha. Natasha becomes the Winter Soldier.</blockquote> ➤ I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW. THIS IS SO GOOOOOOOOOD

<blockquote>OKNO OKNO can't tell at first which radio it's coming from. That's understandable; you've got twenty-six, all arranged on various shelves around your apartment. Twenty-five before you picked up the latest one, a little box from the thrift store, runs on two double-A batteries, not as useful in a catastrophe as the ones that you crank to life, but, well, you can't be cranking every minute of the day. And anyway, it's not a catastrophe. Yet.</blockquote> ➤ odd and I don't really understand everything but it's extremely compelling and well-written and it's totally worth reading.

<blockquote>The lesson here, Susie thinks, is that tricking Death is tricky business. How do you outwit the personification of oblivion? Chess, obviously, won’t be the answer. Or: Susie plays Calvinball with Death.</blockquote> ➤ SUSIE PLAYS CALVINBALL WITH DEATH. I was so there from the summary, and the fic does not disappoint.

<blockquote>One is a beginning; two, opposition; three, instability; four, death. But five is justice, six is unexpected, and seven makes things complete again. Seven days of Kalasin's life.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Scenes from a Valdemar that never was. (Or: the one where the Companions are evil.)</blockquote>

<blockquote>"When he finally registered the presence of a tail, Montparnasse knew with a sickening finality that it was too late." Or, Montparnasse screws something up beyond repair.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The thing about being young is that it happens to most everyone.</blockquote>

<blockquote>We, the People: a thirty-year retrospective and an examination of the role of the Nation in world history, for Earth Atlantic, 7 December 2035, excerpt.</blockquote> ➤ this is one of those stories where I'm not quite sure I understand everything, but it's wonderful anyways

<blockquote>Five Alternate Universe versions of Mulan: canon AU, historical AUs, modern AU, sci-fi AU, with each highlighting a different aspect of the Mulan story.</blockquote>

<blockquote>In the final days of Earth as we knew it, Chang E won the moon lottery. For Earthlings who were neither rich nor well-connected, the lottery was the only way to get on the Lunar Habitation Programme. (This was the Earthlings' name for it. The moon people said: "those fucking immigrants".) Chang E sold everything she had: the car, the family heirloom enamel hairpin collection, her external brain. Humans were so much less intelligent than Moonites anyway. The extra brain would have made little difference.</blockquote>

➤ Sequel to "Scars". ➤ In which Vecchio as Langoustini encounters Victoria ➤ the sequel to this is Slush

available on the wayback machine <blockquote>Nell Gabrielli: They tell me I’ve saved nearly two hundred people’s lives already, and helped almost five hundred more. (Pauses.) That’s important. That’s real important. Richard Forrest, Medical Ethicist: Ms. Gabrielli is a prisoner of the medical system, plain and simple. What’s been done to her is a travesty. And the fact that she was convinced to consent to it only makes it worse.</blockquote>