Glory to the Spoons!

B+! i do love the way this lends itself to contrasting little vignettes exploring different aspects of characters and relationships, and i think it's a really flexible format that allows authors to do a lot of different fun things. it's not necessarily something i seek out in and of itself, but i like it a lot!

And ⏳ for e buddie fuck or die

eddie comes out to everyone but buck, featuring a fateful early night on buck's part:

They end up at the Hook and Ladder for drinks after their twenty-four, the first time in a while the whole A-shift has been able to make it. Hen and Chim stake out a booth in the back corner, close to the pool tables, and they trade off games and drinks and easy conversation over tap beer. Buck buys the first round as an apology for skipping out last time, admitting as he does that he'll probably leave early tonight, too—Maddie has the kids for the evening, but Theo has enough trouble sleeping without adding any new changes to his routine.

buddie fuck or die aftermath:

He doesn't know how long he's been standing there when the doorbell rings and he falls back into his body like he's landing on pavement from a height—the same instinct to freeze against the impending pain. He breathes in, then out. His lungs ache. He shakes his hands out, forces his joints loose. Thinks, Jello, you're Jello, and then wishes he hadn't, because that's a good memory, not something he wants touching any of this. Eddie's warm voice, Eddie's soothing smile, Eddie laughing when Buck hassled him as they left the scene, one of a thousand precious memories that he can't look at until he can figure out how to pack this shit up and put it somewhere it can't poison anything else.

amnesia:

B+! this is a fun one as a mechanism to kind of turn one of the characters into an outsider in their own life and force a recontextualization of the life situation and all of the relationships. in some fandoms it can get a bit repetitive and tbh i kind of prefer it when it's not the standard 'omg, we're together/weirdly intimate with each other and i think we're together now!' i like it when it causes problems.

fake dating:

another B+! solid fluff trope, for the most part. this is one that i like a lot but it rarely does anything surprising, so it's always exciting when it does.

meet the family:

B-, only because it's very hit or miss - it strongly depends on the author's ability to sell an interesting dynamic not just with the main pairing but with the family. when it leans more toward the domestic fluff side of things it tends not to interest me much; when there are tensions or problems there that the lovers have to deal with (both with the family and with their relationship) it's a lot of fun.