#sfrc

Take Your Fandom to Work AU aching to find who they are by preciousthings (11.1k, Jon Favreau/Tommy Vietor)

I’m not normally one for RPF, but when I stumbled upon this I decided to give it a go since it fit the square, and I enjoyed it! :) It’s very sweet and low-conflict, but somehow never feels boring or overly idealised? I enjoyed the gradual reveal of the world’s mechanics and the characters’ backstory and the multimedia epistolary elements!

Enemies to Friends/Lovers The Web of Life Woven by Havoka (6.2k, Symmetra+Lifeweaver)

I’m frankly in love with this author’s writing of Symmetra, and I agree completely that Lifeweaver was exactly the change-up her character needed! This fic is so delicate and thoughtful: Satya and Niran are so fundamentally different people, but their personalities and points of view are expressed with such care and sympathy. Satya provides an outsider POV of Niran’s crisis of faith with Vishkar, and it works, keeping the fic from getting too bogged into details, and allowing for a peek into Satya’s own doubts, which are buried deep even when she’s the protagonist. I’ll definitely be reading more by this author!

Whump Kintsugi by brightly_lit (4.6k, Sam+Dean)

This hurt :’) (as it should have!!) I don’t want to say too much because the exact nature of the AU is itself a spoiler, but it’s certainly something that could have happened if canon went a little differently and boy is it upsetting :’)))

FREE Only as Young as the Minute is Full of it by angelheadedhipster (2.8k, Torrence/Missy)

I happened to rewatch Bring it On recently, so of course I had to look up the fic out of curiosity, and I stumbled upon this little gem! It’s short, but it fits so perfectly into the canon that it just feels like it belongs there. As far as I’m concerned, this is how the story really went :P

Reread an Old Fave Strangetown, Here We Come! by strange-tomato (very long, various Sims 2 pairings)

I was reminded of this old fic recently and knew instantly that it would be my choice for this square <3 To this day it’s still one of my favourite poly stories ever, with a perfect slow burn build (so slow it wasn’t even initially intended!) and plenty of other fascinating sometimes-queer side stories as well! Re-reading it now and it’s just as great as I remembered it being; time will only tell if I get so attached to these characters again that I end up being really tempted to reinstall TS2 like last time!

Secret Relationship [podfic] not to listen but to hear read by Podsayers, written by Misandrywitch (47:29, 9k, Holmes/Watson)

Domestic/Curtain Fic Like Fireworks in the Night Sky by PrincelyHairdos (86k, ongoing, Yuki/Kakeru) Uaaaaghhhhhhhhh OTL I really can’t recommend this fic enough if you want to fuck yourself up!!!!!! Yes, there’s the pining, and the achingly-sweet relationship between the main two boys, but they’re both in relationships at the start of the fic, and the story explores every little beat of the pain and awkwardness and tension of that premise!! None of the characters involved are bad people, and the story is equally sympathetic to all four of them, but Yuki is very much just forcing himself in his relationship with Machi (comphet up the wazoo), and although Kakeru and Komaki sincerely love each other, he and Yuki so obviously have this long-standing unintentional and unaware emotional affair going on that just gets more and more in between them! I chose this theme because so much of the Yuki/Kakeru relationship revolves around how comfortable around one another as uni students living in the same dorms; they’re not actual roommates, but they may as well be with easily they share their space, and it’s that pre-established and on-going easy domesticity that provides all the delicious, awful tension in their actual official relationships!

Rarepair Last Hope by Yarwrit (1.4k, Aegon/Larys) Of course for this theme I had to use a ship that I never possibly would’ve considered prior to that final episode of the show :’D But this fic was exactly what I wanted: Aegon’s despair and Lary’s quiet support; Aegon’s rationally skeptical of his sincerity, but so desperately needs some sort of a real friend, and the commonality between them as two disabled men rings true. Larys might well still just be manipulating him (I mean, that’s certainly at least part of what’s going on), but his attraction, at least, is real, and meaningful <3

Space AU it’s only a canvas sky by Mayleavestars (9.2k, Dirk/Jake) I really struggled with this theme for a while because I’m not much of an AU reader and all the space AUs I could find just felt like normal fics with a hand-waved set dressing. This fic was my saviour: the vaguely Star Trek universe setting relates perfectly to the long-distance communication Dirk and Jake had in canon, allowing for a dynamic that perfectly supports their canon personalities and relationship while giving enough of a twist to the formula to justify the AU. Oh, the pining; the rituals!

Angst love story (but it's platonic) by sharksarewaterdogs (2.8k, Jughead + Archie gen) Another soulmate mark fic, and another fun twist! Jughead's angst is super believable, not just worrying about himself but how Archie would feel to know that his soulmate is an aro/ace guy. But Archie is so sweet, and once the shock wears off, their friendship really does shine through! I always love to see a-spec fics with at least a lil non-fluffiness, and this was nice and cathartic <3

Author’s Oldest Fic The Word Withheld by j_s_cavalcante (12k, Kirk/Spock) Of course for this theme I had to go with one of the chronologically oldest ships I’ve been into, and what a beautiful fic I chose for that!! I have memories of AOS fic about Spock Prime encouraging his younger self tom seize the day and make the most of the time he has with Kirk, but applying that plot to TOS gives it all the more resonance given the way things turn out in the canon timeline. The quiet intimacy between Kirk and Spock is on full display here, and perfectly reminded me why I once read so many fics about these two <3

Bittersweet/Unhappy Ending lost innocence. By ProjectFreelancer (1.4k, Aegon/Helaena) :’( These two deserved so much better… Among all the longfic in this fandom I was soooo happy to see this shorter and more melancholy missing-scenes type fic, elaborating on this relationship we haven’t gotten to see nearly enough of, with a particular focus on the actually pretty damn traumatic circumstances of their marriage!! It ends on a positive note for the whole family… but we already know how this story ends. :(

And that's all so far!!

Of the spaces left, I have a definite fic in mind for 'Enemies to Friends / Lovers' (it's just a matter of finishing it first; could've done that before making this post but I've delayed long enough already :') ), and a potential something for Take Your Fandom To Work and Secret Relationship. I didn't expect that last one to be difficult given how much I love the trope, but maybe I just need to try some other pairings... And I've always figured it wouldn't be too hard to find something for Whump once I get in the mood, heh.

So with all that, it'll just be a matter of which of the random non-recced fics I've read recently I should use for the Free Space!! n.n

(Also ahhhhh I really did expect to ask for another card before this thing ended... but that'd be kinda pointless now, huh :'D)