LINKDING

Summary: The Institute of Religious Studies was housed in one of the oldest structures at the university, an ornate hipped-roof building that overlooked the campus from the foot of the northern peaks. Aside from the narrow drive that wound up the rise from the other side of campus, the only access was via a steep staircase or a switchbacked path that took twenty minutes to ascend. Most people on campus called it the Mountain. ➤ songxuexiao t4t4t modern au where they're grad students in china ➤ I had the pleasure of getting to see this fic as it came together, and the thought and care verity puts into their writing is always so evident in their beautifully written and beautifully constructed stories! ➤ from song lan's pov as he watches creepy stalker xue yang entwine herself into his bff (and object of pining) xiao xingchen's life ➤ sl DOESN'T trust xy, he DOES find it super hot to put her in her place and have sex with her, he DOES struggle to be fully vulnerable with xxc despite everything she is to him ➤ the vibes are so good, I love how real and present each character and their complex emotions about each other are, and I love the way the theme of the weather runs through the whole fic holding things together ➤ highly recommend! ➤ 12k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>When Shen Yuan dies and transmigrates into Yue Qingyuan, he's happy to improve his favorite story without the axe of human stick-hood hanging over him. It’s kind of a surprise that he can rescue the protagonist so quickly, but he isn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. And Liu Qingge’s presence, however sticky, means that he can spar in this strong body any time he wants – life at Cang Qiong really is good! Meanwhile, if Shen Qingqiu had been more willing to discuss his past with the only person who was part of it, then perhaps it would not have taken him three full years to realize that his childhood friend is gone. When the only other option is living without Qi-ge, he devotes himself to hunting down his soul. Unfortunately, this is pretty difficult when the man wearing Yue Qingyuan’s face has ordered that he not leave the mountain. (It’s not really a surprise when he begins hallucinating Qi-ge.)</blockquote> ➤ svsss au where sy transmigrates into yqy instead of sqq ➤ the fic is in two parts: first, from sy!yqy's pov as he tries to change events within the parameters the system allows him, and then the second from og!sqq's pov follows where the first part left off, with sqq trying to deal with the fact that yqy is so different now from the one he remembers. ➤ the two parts are different in tone and both excellent, both really fitting the kind of character and person the pov character is, and what it is they want the most. I loved it! ➤ 11k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Yue Qingyuan struggles to know right from wrong, desire from guilt, and impulsiveness from intent. But one night he lets his impulsiveness lead him to the bamboo house and into Shen Qingqiu’s arms, unintentionally changing destiny along the way.</blockquote> ➤ An svsss qijiu canon divergence fic, about things that might have happened while lbh was still a very young disciple to change the course of events ➤ I love how small the things are that cause these changes, and that it's a small unthinking kindness from yqy to his own disciples that in a winding way leads to his own happiness ➤ as the author says, these two are freak4freak and I love it ➤ the desperation both of them feel about each other while being unable to talk about any of it! ➤ 11k words in length ➤ the dialogue is all punctuated wrong, unfortunately, but the writing is good enough to overlook this

Summary: <blockquote>“What do you think about,” Wei Ying said aloud, before she could stop herself, before she could even think twice about the repercussions. “When you.” She finally found Lan Zhan’s eyes, molten in the low light, and swallowed in a tiny, audible gulp. “You know.” On Wei Ying, Lan Zhan’s gaze didn’t waver even a fraction. “Giving head,” she said. Wei Ying was certain she’d misheard. “Getting head?” “No,” said Lan Zhan. / After a surprise party gone awry, Wei Ying surprises herself.</blockquote> ➤ i loved the unusual detail of them being swimmers/divers, and all the water stuff worked into the prose

<blockquote>On Posthe Tuwa of the Year One in the reign of Argaven XII, Harny Sord of Gernahan gave birth to a pervert.</blockquote> ➤ I like what it does with pronouns, just no third person pronouns at all for people in somer (not in kemmer)

<blockquote>A company data analyst is assigned to find someone to blame for Murderbot going rogue. Doing so requires the company making connections between data points it had not previously made.</blockquote> ➤ yeah. YEAH.

<blockquote>Your shishu over on An Ding Peak has finally selected a successor, but the boy doesn’t have a sword yet. I want you to escort him to the sword wall and make sure it’s done.” Wei Qingwei gets to know Shang Qinghua a little better as a result.</blockquote>

<blockquote>This is Chapter Thirty or so in a whole ongoing saga that I don’t have time to get into right now. I’m jumping in at the point when my Machiavellian twin brother Charles decided to take over Mars, and I decided to help. My big failing is I never figure these things out until I’m already in the middle of them. But I’ve survived this long, haven’t I?</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Help us,” my mother begged the rishi. “Pray to Sri Lakshmi, and ask her to take away this boon.” The old woman shook her head. “That might anger the goddess. You shouldn’t appear ungrateful.” After some discussion, the rishi devised a curse, one whose words I know by heart because my mother repeated them to me every night before I slept and every morning when I awoke: “If Rampalalakshmicharan turns an object into gold for another person, they must give him whatever he demands in return. If they don’t, the golden object will turn to ash and he will lose his ability forever.” It wouldn’t guarantee my safety, especially not while I was too young to understand the consequences of my actions, but it meant that no one could abuse my gift forever.</blockquote> ➤ retelling of Rumpelstiltskin from the Rumpelstiltskin character's pov, making him a sympathetic character

<blockquote>During the unbearable years of tyranny, the political prisoners of the Anchorite Hegemony made a solemn covenant: when the time came, they would cross the last miles to freedom on their feet. For reasons of youth and idiocy, Tishrel thought he would have a choice in the matter. The doors of his cell would open, and rather than flee into the sky, he would make the journey as he had made his way through the years in captivity: with what dignity he could, one foot after another.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Shang Qinghua wasn’t a protagonist. He was barely even a side character. The sum total of his dialogue never surpassed ten lines, which puts him just above cannon fodder. His death, sudden but not unexpected, was less than a paragraph in the epic of Luo Binghe: The conspicuous absence of the man who could be considered Mobei Jun’s shadow was then explained to Luo Binghe. Just days ago, Shang Qinghua—whether by accident or a final act of loyalty—took a fatal blow meant for Mobei Jun. Scarcely did he have the time to draw a single breath before succumbing to poison potent enough to fell a great demon on the verge of becoming king. In his previous life as a reader, Mobei Jun didn’t have any reason to pay him much attention. Things are different now.</blockquote> ➤ au where mbj & sqq are the transnigrators into a novel written by sqq

<blockquote>"My aunt Valaria means to give us Nissa as a wedding present, to go with us and spy on me!" Cottia cried.</blockquote> ➤ series consists of: A Wedding Gift The Fire of Vesta Daughters The Threefold Tie

<blockquote>Arya is the only one of them to have met the Targaryen’s Young Dragon, and even then it had been a short battlefield acquaintance when the Ironborn had tried to take the Rock and a hasty alliance had been formed to push them back. Arya had come back from the south covered in blood and filth and said, he’s adequate, I suppose, which meant he probably was the greatest living swordsman.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"We should take the general on a mission," Rose said. "One that's useful and not fatal." “We have those?” Finn asked. “Probably not fatal if well-executed,” Rose amended. The surviving members of the Resistance decide the best way to help Leia is to take her on a recruiting mission to Rose's home world.</blockquote>

<blockquote>When I finally went in she had cleared the table and pulled the carpetbag out from under the bed. It was grey with dust; even before Da died Mam and I weren’t supposed to touch it, though I used to open it when no one was looking. It’s the past, Da would say when I asked him about it. From when we thought we knew better than God. We came here to get away from that. The way Mam was laying things out, I knew I wasn’t the only one who had peeked inside. She didn’t even have to look, just put out the candles and the fancy drawings, and even the vials that I liked best. In your hand the stuff inside looked black, but when you held them up to the light you saw that it was really a dark, sweet red. Beside these Mam put a knife I had never seen before, with a thick handle and two round blades folded up like a flower. “I’ll show him,” she said. “I’ll show him my god-damned claim.”</blockquote> ➤ awful and ouchy and well-written and intense

<blockquote>When Millie receives a mysterious set of postcards, the Bletchley girls must work together to solve a case that's bigger than any they've faced before.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Hey Liz, Apparently, I'm the captain of the Decathlon team. Or something. I was just wondering if you had any quizzes or guides that I could use. Thanks, MJ</blockquote>

<blockquote>“That’s all very flattering,” Etta says when Diana has finally run out of steam, “but surely you have more qualified candidates than me?” “You are of the world of men.” Diana looks a little embarrassed. “But not a man.” -- Diana and Etta go back to Themyscira.</blockquote>

<blockquote>While traveling in Faerie, Strange and Norrell encounter Henry Lascelles. He is half-conscious, ill, and murderous, and he has made a powerful enemy.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It had been the most desperate moment of Angelo Neumann’s life so far, and you were certain to live through many such moments if you lived for the opera. When he closed his eyes, he could still picture his friend of so many years and partner in so many troublesome events, wildly running away from the new opera house and crying: “Can’t get me in there again! I’m done! Hear me?! Done!” Which were the most articulate parts.</blockquote> ➤ a world where opera houses as a matter of course all need to hire exorcists

<blockquote>“Anyway, he’s staying with me for a while,” John says. “My place got firebombed,” Matt says, reflexively.</blockquote> ➤ pretending to be a couple for insurance purposes

<blockquote>Chirrut threw his head back, as though Baze had issued a challenge. "I'll leave a mark on you some day," he said. It felt like a promise. Maybe a threat. "You're not a distraction. And it's not a passing fancy." He pointed at Baze – a piece of incivility Baze felt he hardly deserved. "You watch out. I'm going to prove it. The Force is with you, Baze." This was a perfectly conventional thing for one novitiate to say to another, by way of praise or encouragement. It was typical of Chirrut that he should have made it weird.   Chirrut pursues Baze. Kids at the Temple fic, spanning a period of 20 years.</blockquote>

<blockquote>None of this has anything to do with Otabek, except that Yuri didn’t get Otabek’s number, and so he can’t bitch to him about the whole situation. He makes do with bitching to Mila, who at least agrees that Viktor is impossible to deal with right now. Otabek keeps liking Yuri’s selfies, but that’s it, that’s the complete and total sum of his communication with Yuri for an entire two weeks. Yuri is not mad about it because there’s nothing to be mad about. They are friends and this, it turns out, is what friends do. Like each other’s selfies and make out at international sporting events. He’s pretty sure Mila’s got at least three friends that fit exactly those parameters.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Not all is as it should be in a world down the Series, and Janet is not just a raw ingredient.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Stephen's letter, folded inside his jacket, pressed against his heart like a hot poker. To Captain Jno. Aubrey, R.N., HMS Surprise: I ask you to sail on as scheduled. Do not come looking for me.</blockquote> ➤ I AM NEVER OVER HOW MUCH I CARE ABOUT THEIR FRIENDSHIP

<blockquote>Horatio returns from Russia suffering the aftereffects of typhus. Caring for him may be too much for Barbara to handle alone.</blockquote> ➤ I like how the fic characterizes Barbara, and her relationships with Horatio and with Bush

<blockquote>Spiraling down. The Wraith are many and the Daedalus is just one ship. Things go very, very badly.</blockquote> ➤ Very effective use of structural choice

<blockquote>Tharkay meets the British party in Nagasaki with news, prompting them to move onward quickly. In the meantime he learns of Laurence's fate and speaks with Temeraire.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A series of vignettes, which cover a time period from a few months after ANH to just after ROTJ. It looks at Han's early perceptions of Leia as Luke's potential girlfriend -- and the ways in which his perceptions change, over time, as he ends up falling for Leia himself.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Grandma Harken lived on the edge of town, in a house with its back to the desert. Some people said that she lived out there because she liked her privacy, and some said that it was because she did black magic in secret. Some said that she just didn’t care for other people, and they were probably the closest to the truth.</blockquote>