#lucius_complex

Gunpowder and Gunmetal by etothepii: Joker plays roulette

Innocence by Madni: maybe if he’s gentle with this little bird, Bruce will forgive him for what happened to the other one

Interrogation by etothepii: Joker and Batman are back in the same interrogation room

The Beguiling of Bruce Wayne by lucius_complex: Joker sets out to seduce Bats

I was honest, okay? I simply told her she wrote the best damn canonverse Loki in the whole wide world, because it's true. Her Loki is a person, but he's definitely not human; totally alien but totally relatable. Full-on Orange-and-Blue morality, yet trying so desperately hand to understand Tony's culture of black, grey and white. He's so utterly ruthless in everything, which makes it all that more important when he's trying to be soft, all that more moving.

I said I bet she could write an EXCELLENT fae!king!Loki. I didn't expect to get a fic out of it. 

BUT LO AND BEHOLD, LUCIUS_COMPLEX WROTE IT FOR ME. AND ITS FUCKING MAGNIFICENT. GO READ IT OMFG. IT'S CALLED DANSE MACABRE AND IT'S MADE OF MULLED WINE AND COBWEBS GLINTING WITH DEW IN THE MOONLIGHT.

Between Constellations, by lucius_complex (R, 17k)

There were two stories that I got absolutely, irrationally fired up about in 2012, and that's out of a whole wealth of really amazing fic. Between Constellations was the other. An entry in the 2012 Snape_Potter Secret Snarry Swap, it is simply one of the most exquisite Snarries I've ever read, and that is really saying something within a fandom that is distinguished by incredible writing. On the surface, the story is simple enough: a wartime AU in which the Order is under seige and the Death Eaters are slowly coming apart, it follows Harry's coming of age from callow student and would-be savior to healer and a savior of a much different - but no less critical for it - kind. The Snape of this story clings to the shadows, and Harry comes to see him for who he is with such exquisite insight and intensity that it will take your breath away. But the star of this story is the narrative involving Draco Malfoy. As others have said of this, it's a Snarry through-and-through; this is no Drarry, nor is it Drapery (or whatever other strained acronym is out there), but Draco - and what he means to Harry, to Snape, and to the wizarding world, in the end - is a figure of such utter pathos - in the most refined sense of the word - that you will need a box of tissues next to you to read this. It's beautiful for what Harry comes to realize - what lucius_complex gets so wonderfully is what drew me to the Harry Potter stories in the first place: their compassion in the face of unspeakable evil. Come for the Snarry, because it's beautiful, but stay for what the story says about...everything. You won't be sorry.

A Taste:

You realise you cannot see him as a teacher anymore: an older person out of bounds, standing across a chasm of formality. Somehow, and with his permission, this man has made you a colleague—this man who is so withdrawn and so mysterious that, without the mask of his anger, he seems almost mythological: a dark horse likely to slip away, carried by a jealous wind. It is like seeing thestrals again for the first time.  You are not only grateful, you are— You are— From someplace far away Snape frowns at you, and says, ‘Potter?’ Your eyes fly open, the world shifts and— ‘Potter? What’s the matter, boy?’ You’re doomed.  The realization settles upon you, gentle as a butterfly. One that will bring with it unforeseen storms, you know.  And then you realise you are well and truly fucked.

The Balm of Gilead, by lucius_complex (PG-13, 5k)

Jesus H. Christ, this is a gorgeous story. The kind I'm inclined to get evangelical about; the kind that made me want to open this Tumblr in the first place, the better to spread the word. It's a fairytale of a story, which is to say it has something of a fairytale quality to it. But don't think that this means it's in any way treacly - rather, this is one of those quieter, more dreamlike fairytales. Snape, left mute after surviving the war with goblin help, is given by them a new life as a baker. He's happy making his creations with his usual precision, until one day Harry Potter stumbles into his life and his kitchen. Harry doesn't recognize Snape, but Snape knows Harry and allows him to make something of a life with him. When it all goes pear-shaped, as it so often does, Snape has a choice to make, and what he chooses will bring tears - happytears! - to your eyes.

A Taste:

And because he’s a fool, he allows ‘Evans’ with the half-starved eyes and the sadness palpable around him into his life, and Potter looks at him with so much quiet gratitude that he wonders if he’s starting to channel Molly Weasley. Or Pomfrey.

It became a weird world that Severus found himself in. When he was a miserable half-starved child dreaming of Hogwarts and escape, Severus would never have thought he’d become a Death Eater. And when he was a Death Eater dreaming of death and escape, he’d never thought he’d become a baker. And now…

And now Potter shows up every week as if he has nowhere else to go, and sinks with a sigh into the kitchen chairs as if there was nowhere else he’d rather be. Potter pops up, like toast; pressing his face on the windows (grubby handprints everywhere) and grinning like he already had too much sugar for breakfast. Severus imagines that if the boy owned a tail, he’d wag it.

He tries to sneer at this, and realises with some shock that he’s forgotten how.