#beethechange

I’m so beyond ecstatic that you asked me this. Thrilled. I’m going to have to rein myself in massively. My Ao3 bookmarks tab is expansive and it yearns to see the sun. 

I have read almost every explicit and mature Shyan fic on Ao3, and a majority of the teen rated ones, too. Exceptions for serial killer fics (each to their own) and some non-human Shane fics, which I used to think I didn’t like but then again there are several on this very list.

Obviously, there are some big-hitters in this fandom with over 2k kudos that I recommend whole-heartedly, but I’m assuming most have read those. Also, I don’t have to tell you that there are a handful of fic authors incapable of putting out a bad fic (See: Beethechange, loveontherocks, Sequence_Fairy, Blacktofade, Quackers, Drunkkenobi etc etc etc). These are our parents, they feed us, they care for us, they never do us wrong, I love them all. Read their fics, comment and kudos.

So, here are ‘underrated’ fics that I recommend whole-heartedly. Underrated here just means way fewer kudos than I think they deserve, or under 500 kudos. I will note, however, that I think anyone who uses their valuable time to write me my feelings pornography (and also regular pornography) deserves endless praise.

American Money

by WhatWereMadeOf

M

This is a criminally underrated fic. If you love your fish-out-of-water narrative, if you like your boys struggling to communicate with each other, if you like a competent, attractive Shane running from danger, and a sexy, solitary Ryan astride a motorbike, willing to follow a cute tall boy into basically any situation? This fic right here. 

Ten Minutes Away

TimmyJayBird

E

Why is face-shaving so sexy? I don’t know why I’m into it, but I am definitely into it. 

You want pining? You want touching? You want a little horny-but-make-it-feelings? Shane thinking this is too good to be true?

This fic has everything good, and it’s blessedly well-written at that. 

A Bar in the Mojave Desert

Arostine

E

The depth of the lore in this fic is phenomenal. Witch!Ryan, is the powerful (and hot) owner of a mysterious and magical bar in the desert, and Demon!Shane is the powerful (and hot) demon fascinated with Ryan’s power and influence and desperate to consume his soul. That makes it sound super antagonistic, but despite the stakes, they’re just all over each other and into each other and it’s incredibly hot and a really amazing read, and I love it. Sometimes I just zone out because I’m thinking about pool tables… 

Is it safe to just be who we are?

Loveontherocks

E

Okay, look, I’m going to embarrass myself trying to talk about how good Yesi’s fics are. 

I struggle to even put into words what this fic does for me. It’s immensely hot, masterfully written, and somehow also riddled with tender moments and emotional vulnerability. That’s Yesi’s power. Because I’ve already gone embarrassed myself by going too hard, let’s just throw another fic by her in there: 

no one’s got me quite like you 

T

This is 15,000 words of fake dating and pining and coming to realisations and the number one best almost-kiss I’ve ever read. We don’t deserve this, it’s too good for us. 

Seeing Ghosts

Blacktofade

E

I really didn’t think I’d be able to include this in my ‘underrated’ category, but somehow it is? This is searing, red-hot, straight-up sound booth sex. (From memory there are like 4 Shyan sound booth sex fics, and this is the best one in my opinion) 

I have a huge soft spot for fics in which Shane has a filthy mouth, and he’s giving praise but he’s a little mean about it and oh boy. This fic has that, and about 10 other things that I’m way into. I need to lie down.

With the Tide

YogurtTime

Alright, there are half a dozen mind-blowing Vampire Shane fics, and each of them activates the part of my brain that all people who grew up in the 80s or 90s have, called the Anne Rice Cortex, which makes you horny for vampires, even if you never thought you were horny for vampires.

THIS Vampire Shane fic is one of my faves, because it is definitely very hot, but what I really love about it is: the absolute gut-wrenching sexual tension, the pining and dangerous codependency/possessiveness and the twisty twisty last third of this fic, which is not content to rest on its laurels as simply a sexy vamp fic, but has lashings of actual plot. 

Okay sorry, I really told myself I was going to talk about fics that people maybe hadn’t read, but I can’t do a fic rec without talking about Beethechange

Every single Bee fic is precious to me, and I’ve read most of them upwards of 5 times, But I have a really soft spot for an idea whose time has come (T) because of the way it made me ugly cry. When I finished it I had to just like, get up and walk around and stare at the wall for a bit.

It came at such an interesting time in this fandom, and Bee is, as always, capable of completely rearranging my brain with the concepts she tackles, and this is a great example of that. This one’s a life-ruiner. 

I have… I have so many more. I have dozens of all-time favourites, I have hundreds of fics that have earned repeat reads. There are countless incredible authors who write Shyan and I feel like I’ve forgotten loads of them. Also, this list is horny as fuck, I’m really sorry.

I dunno if this was a relatively offhand ask, but I've really been turning it over in my head tbh.

Because if you subscribe to the idea of a bratty sub Ryan-and I know many do-but you also consume the content Watcher puts out, it's very difficult to marry the Daddy Dom Shane characterisation of yester-year with the image of a man clinging to studied nonchalance, refusing to look his baser emotions in the eye.

More specific to your ask, anon, we see someone who deftly ducks any flirtatious teasing, any prodding innuendo. Ryan, practically sinking to his knees, is met with a light blush, and a metric shit-tonne of deflection.

"Big boy," Ryan says.

"HOO, okay, how about the weather today, huh?" Shane replies.

Some of my very favourite writers and thinkers in the Shyan fandom space have talked about or written really interesting stuff on a Shane who is deeply, painfully reticent in the face of emotional vulnerability and the risks thereof.

Here is an ask answered really insightfully by Levy on this, one of many.

Here is a fic Bee wrote that really gets into this.

And barely a week goes by that we don't drill down into Shane's character in the @skepticbeliever-bookclub, generally after another podcast ep during which Ryan displays huge depths of emotional intelligence and Shane does a marionette show of advice, dispensing generic and sensible platitudes that I'm not sure he really believes, and deflecting through strange anecdotes.

I hope this doesn't seem overly critical of him, I actually relate quite a lot to the ways he comports himself in the face of strong emotion in person, I just find it really amusing. Particularly given the amount of emotion and character just bubbling up from Ryan at all times. Maybe that's why I think of them as being so well-matched, yin to yang or whatever.

It’s fic rec time! The @skepticbeliever-bookclub loves love, and we’re out here in our feelings today, boys. Thanks to @sequencefairy for wrangling.

I have crossed so many sub-categories with this list, but my primary qualifier was the existence of a marriage, (fake, real, arranged), proposal, or a marriage-adjacent bond. 

The following fics are multi-read favourites for the hopeless romantics, and are presented in no particular order.

2:10 to Wellton Quackers T

Sub-categories:

I wanna be a cowboy, baby; romantic correspondence; historical M/M but it’s not a whole thing

God, this fic is charming. It lays such incredible descriptive groundwork. That immersion is especially useful when it comes to picturing our frontier sheriff Ryan, all holstered up and sweaty in the Arizona sun… 

As much as I relish historical AUs with M/M or F/F pairings that spend pages addressing the pitfalls and realities of those relationships, I find it so enjoyable to live in an AU where my boys can just fall in love without getting into a whole thing about it. Let me rest in this revised history for a little while. 

“What did I say about your educated references, Madej?” Shane grinned and dutifully repeated, “Take them out back and shoot them.” “Until they die screaming,” Ryan continued with a nod

Sorry I made a cowboy joke, I know this isn’t technically about cowboys :(

All shields of mighty men Apologetically Bourgeois 

E (Archive locked)

Sub categories:

“I just think they’re neat”; Good quality bants; plotty mystery - In Space!

So, I’m only a little bit into Star Trek, but I am a lot into this fic. It has tonnes of  familiarly antagonistic banter, woven through a deep space mystery/diplomatic crisis. The chemistry between the boys in this is amazing; it drops you into their relationship post-marriage of diplomacy, but their real life dynamic of affectionate sniping and sarcasm is alive and well. Don’t worry about being out-of-the-loop if you’re not up with Star Trek, there’s enough exposition to enjoy this simply as a Shyan arranged marriage space political mystery, and who wouldn’t want to experience that?

“You’ve had like five hours of sleep and you’re not due for your shift until 0800 hours,” Ryan informed him. “If you didn’t want to be my ‘grossly-needed check and balance’, you shouldn’t have written it into your vows. And yeah, I’m playing the marriage card, deal with it.”

Tie the Knott Loveontherocks E

Sub-categories:

Good Vibes; soft as butter; Capital S Smut- bring your inhaler; fics that made me cry 

You ever love your bud so much you get pretend-married at a theme park? Same. Though this fic begins and ends with realisations and confessions, the atmosphere of love and romance is so real and present that it just disintegrates me every time I read it. This fic is like slipping under fresh sheets with shaved legs. Important to note that in addition to the big fat feels, Yesi also comes in clutch with the asthma-inducing smut, as is her custom. Bookmark this now so you don’t come running to Tumblr trying to remember what it was called when you need to re-read it.

“It just made me see you. Was looking out a dirty window the whole time, so I sprang for some Windex, and I just—could see it all.” 

Stay with me, go places Beethechange E

Sub-categories: No, not that Beethechange marriage fic; There’s a drought, Shane; Ryan is a baby gay; fics that made me cry

The wedding, marriage, and fake-marriage elements are present throughout this in so many different and gratifying ways. If there’s a single person reading this post who hasn’t read the fic, I’m just so ecstatic for you to take that journey. 

This fic sneaks up on you in the best way. Bee pulls a thread of impending melancholy through the whole story, and what she does with that thread by the end is so satisfying, that I can’t talk about it explicitly for fear of spoiling that experience for a new reader. Just read it. 

“You are too romantic,” Ryan says, apropos of nothing. “You talk a big game, you pretend to be so relentlessly practical, but look at you. If you could, you’d marry a scenic vista.” 

Milk and Honey Quackers E

Sub-categories:

God help that BFU desk; fics that regrettably made popcorn sexy to me; folklore-galore.

Hi, it’s 2 Meph fics in one rec list. Oops!

This fic has a brilliant staunch skeptic dumbass Shane/exasperated Ryan relationship dynamic, which I find to be the most accurate and my most favoured. There’s an enjoyable touch of magical influenced Fuck or Die to this, and the whole thing is just such a ride. 

It’s also also home to top tier, hot, well-written smut, deserving of many re-reads. Daily, I think about the things that BFU set desk has seen in fics such as this one “Well, some fae use it to put a human in their debt,” his words were quick and forced; a warning he felt obligated to give. “Providing sustenance is a big deal.” “And?” “And that debt can be weird. Victorian body servant weird. Pretending to be furniture weird.” “Some people are into that,” Shane drawled. “What else?”

Me and You Saturnine Martial E

Sub-categories: Ryan’s lack of brain-to-mouth filter; trash-as-engagement ring trope; painfully sweet + delightfully smutty

Now, this here’s your straight-up established relationship proposal fic, complete with a makeshift engagement ring, and big feels. I really think there’s not enough of this kind of fic in the fandom. What sets this apart from the few other proposal fics is that between the fluff, it also has some good marriage talk dialogue that I consider to be pretty realistic. Also look out for some very nice fluff/smut in chapter 2.

“You’re going to make a great ghost husband someday,” Ryan says softly when they break apart, wearing a shit eating grin. “That’s—“ Shane scoffs, exasperated, though it’s playful. “Why are you so eager to have me dead?”

—

I hope you’ve reached the end of this rec list with some very specific reading material. If you have, please leave a comment for the amazing fic authors I’ve featured here. They’ve given many hours to bring you this content, and each one deserves endless praise. 

Understanding Bee Decline

This video discusses the global decline in bee populations and why this issue matters for the environment and for us. It explains how bees are responsible for pollinating a large portion of the world’s food crops, and how factors like pesticide use, habitat destruction, and climate change are causing bee populations to drop at alarming rates. The video also highlights why protecting pollinators is essential to keeping our ecosystems and food systems stable.

No way. You’ve worked your wings off this year, and the idea of more learning in summer? Yeah… no thanks.

We get it.

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🧡 Learn like a bee drinks: just enough, when it matters most.

No way. You’ve worked your wings off this year, and the idea of more learning in summer? Yeah… no thanks.

We get it.

At The Trauma Informed Academy®, our summer courses are short, online, and lighthearted—with optional training calls that don’t hijack your rest time. You can build skills and soothe your nervous system without sacrificing your summer.

🧡 Learn like a bee drinks: just enough, when it matters most.