#wordsformurder

So I’m starting with completed fics and then I have a few not completed fics at the end that I’m just really liking.

Embers by Vathara

Rating: Not Rated, Word Count: 704,200 Fandom: A:TLA

Dragon’s fire is not so easily extinguished; when Zuko rediscovers a lost firebending technique, shifting flames can shift the world....

This is an Avatar: The Last Airbender rewrite. It’s Zuko centric and it splits off while Zuko and Uncle Iroh are on the run and Zuko learns of healing firebending. The world building is so good and interesting and the whole fic does a great job of reimagining the A:TLA world. You meet a lot of new characters that are super well written and fit the world nicely.

The Debt of Time by ShayaLonnie

Rating: E, Word Count: 715,940, Fandom: Harry Potter, Ship: Hermione/Sirius

When Hermione finds a way to bring Sirius back from the veil, her actions change the rest of the war. Little does she know her spell restoring him to life provokes magic she doesn’t understand and sets her on a path that ends with a Time-Turner.

This fic is so good and I’ve reread it before. I love Hermione centric fics and this is definitely one. When she goes back in time she goes through school again with the Marauders and it’s so good you guys. I think the fic does such a good job of showing her grow with these new people. The relationships in this fic are so intense and I love them.

Hook, Yarn, Sinker by pprfaith

Rating: Not Rated, Word Count: 65,675, Fandom: Teen Wolf, Ship: Stiles/Peter

Stiles is happy with his store, his hobbies, his friends. Peter’s just trying to figure out how to raise his nieces and nephews without fucking them up too badly.

Paths cross.

This is the first in a series of fics. It’s a Human AU with aged up Stiles and friends but with little kids Derek, Laura, and Cora. This fic is a good time and sweet and honestly low stakes which is so nice to have these days. I think a lot of Steter fics are more intense and I enjoy them but this is such a nice change of pace where you really get to know the characters in these fairly different circumstances. The whole series word count is 161,859.

A Sequence That You Never Learned by AnnaTaylor

Rating: E, Word Count: 64,624, Fandom: Star Trek: AOS, Ship: James T. Kirk/Spock 

“Spock,” Jim breathes out, completely overwhelmed by the gesture—not quite believing that Spock knows him so well, that he’s already started researching, that he trusts Jim with a member of his own endangered species.

When Jim gets it in his head to adopt an eight-year-old Vulcan, Spock presents a logical solution to the issue of Jim’s of humanity: marriage to a Vulcan citizen.

This was one of my first Spirk fics and I honestly love kid fics. Vulcan kids are so different from Jim, but I love the idea that Vulcans still love him anyway. This is such a great Fake Marriage fic.

If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out by mia6363

Rating: E, Word Count: 13,232, Fandom: Teen Wolf, Ship: Stiles centric but technically Stiles/Peter 

Commander Stilinski looks like he fell out of a propaganda video, his armor still smoking as he pulled off his helmet and handed it off to First Officer Argent. He had a few bruises down his neck but his smile was bright.

“Glad to see you safe and sound, Mr. Hale. I’d hate for Derek to lose a member of his family.”

“I told you,” Derek snapped at his superior, “he’s not worth this, Commander.”

This is the shortest fic on my list but I love this take. It’s got a Star Trek vibe and I LOVE how everyone is made into these different aliens. Stiles being human here is so interesting and it reminds me of those “humans are the craziest of the aliens” posts. It’s got multiple POVs and I think they’re written really well and do a great job of coming together.

Where Thou Art, That is Home by ShanaStoryteller 

Rating: Various, Word Count: 94,108, Fandom: Teen Wolf, Ship: Stiles/Derek 

Stiles is 10 when he saves the Hales from their burning home and Derek from a wolfsbane bullet, and this establishes a pattern that seems to continue indefinitely.

“Then he’s facing a burning home, and he wraps the hood of his sweatshirt around his mouth before he pushes the door open and steps inside. There’s Mr. Hale asleep - he hope asleep - on the couch, next to - Stiles thinks that’s his brother but there are so many Hales, who can keep track. He rushes over and starts shaking him, can see the rise and fall of the man’s chest so he knows he’s alive, but he’s not waking up. He shoves away his hood so he can shout, “Mr. Hale! You have to get up, there’s a fire! Mr. Hale, get up!” Nothing, he’s not even twitching, both of them taking in deep even breathes like they’re having the most peaceful of rest, and Stiles is going to cry. “Wake up, wake up, wake up!”

There’s a moment where all Stiles can here is the blood rushing in his ears and not the roar of the flames or the creak of wood, then with a violent, silent pop it’s all back and both men are gasping awake, eyes open and jumping to their feet.”

This is another series! It creates a Hales Survive AU and it’s got BAMF!Stiles. The Hales in this fic are so interesting and it’s an expanded family from what we see in canon. Magic!Stiles is written so well in this fic and things get intense but it’s so good.

Counterpart by sara_holmes

Rating: M, Word Count: 217,400, Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ship: Steve/Tony 

coun•ter•part [koun-ter-pahrt] [noun] 1. a person or thing closely resembling another, especially in function. 2. a copy; duplicate. 3. one of two parts that fit, complete, or complement one another. 

Just because Hydra used the DNA of a Captain America from another dimension to create a lab-grown, six-year-old super-soldier, it doesn't mean that said six-year old super-soldier is biologically Steve's, right? 

(Where Steve wants to ban Clint from bringing things home from alternative dimensions, until he doesn't.)

This is an amazing kid fic. Things are so messed up because of how the kids was raised up to the point they find him.I love Tony so much in this fic but also you sympathize a bit with Steve. The kid whose name I will leave out is my absolute favorite. This is also a series!

Fallout by Whisper91 kingsman

Rating: E, Word Count: 164,971, Fandom: Kingsman, Ship: Eggsy/Harry/Merlin 

As far as the rest of the world is concerned, Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin is a registered Dominant. It's on his driver's licence. It's on his National Insurance card. Hell, it's even on his bloomin' GCSE certificates. And the fact that it's all a load of bollocks is a secret Eggsy had intended to take to his grave. 

Course, he hadn't been expectin' a bloody sub-drop to sweep in and knock him on his arse in the wake of the Valentine Massacre. Turns out grief and adrenaline ain't a good combination.

I really enjoy the dynamics between the three of them. D/s fics are always so amazingly well built and I love fics like this where they’re hiding their dynamic. I think this fic does a great job of going further with the D/S world and giving it more biologically. I just reread this fic recently because I love how it’s done. 

It’s Insanity But... by rosepetals42

Rating: M, Word Count: 71,477, Fandom: Teen Wolf, Ship: Stiles/Derek 

The doorbell interrupts what had turned out to be quite the epic shoe hunt but, really, he’s grateful for the break. Or at least, he is until he heads down the stairs to grab the door, trips over a stuffed animal of some kind, bashes his head on the wall and barely manages to catch himself from falling down the entire flight of stairs. As with all things, Stiles would like to state, for the record, that this is Scott’s fault. 

Or: Scott and Stiles are raising seven children. Derek is the entertainer they hire for a birthday party (not a clown though, he’s very specific on that fact.)

This fic is such a good time! I love two bro’s raising kids together. It’s a hilarious setup and also just so good for the Stiles and Scott dynamic. Each chapter is like a slice of life. Some chapters are more about the kids and some are about Stiles and Derek. It’s just a fun fic and I love that it’s still got werewolves because I think a lot of fics that focus more on regular stuff go full on human AU. Keeping werewolves is much more fun and it’s so well handled here!

So Wise We Grow by Deastar 

Rating: M, Word Count: 81,248, Fandom: Star Trek, Ship: James T. Kirk/Spock 

”Commander Spock, we have located your son,” the Vulcan lady on the screen says, which would be great, except Jim can tell by the look on Spock’s face that he’s never heard of this kid before in his life. “If it is expedient, the child will be sent to join you on the Enterprise within the week.”

This fic is two long chapters. Again, I love kid fic and this one does such a great job. We’ve got pining and hurt/comfort and all kinds of good feels here. There’s one line about t’hy’la that is just *chefs kiss* so good and hits you hard.

Play It Again by metisket 

Rating: T, Word Count: 63,206, Fandom: Teen Wolf, Ship: Stiles/Derek 

In which Stiles goes along with one of Derek’s plans and ends up in an alternate universe as a result. He should’ve known better. He did know better, actually, and that means he has no one to blame but himself. “Laura wants to lure the kid in with food and kindness and make a pet of him, like a feral cat. Derek wants to have him arrested for stalking. They’re at an impasse. (And the rest of the family is staying emphatically out of it in a way that suggest bets have been placed.)”

This is fairly Stiles centric. It really looks into the emotions of jumping universes. The alive Hale family is so good and it’s magic!Stiles which is always interesting. What I think makes it extra good is that in a lot of universe jump or time travel fics it’s more about adjusting to how things will be now. But this fic does that while also having the new universe with its own problems. It’s just fun to see Stiles deal with all these things.

Happy Lights by LadyShadowDrake

Rating: E, Word Count: 108,237, Fandom: MCU, Ship: Mixed 

An interdimensional portal opens over New York and drops a tentacled alien in the middle of Central Park. The Avengers are called out to investigate, and hopefully return the visitor home. Steve has been brushing up on his diplomacy, but he never expected to be a liaison to an alien in such an intimate capacity, or that the alien would be so friendly, and the unusual visit turns into the world's best team-building exercise.

This is a series that is so much fun. The alien (aka the colony) is so interesting and sweet in the long run. I love seeing the team grow and as you go through the series you really get to see more of them coming together. This is just a playful fic that you can have a good time reading.

Magpie by waldorph

Rating: E, Word Count: 57,648, Fandom: Star Trek: AOS, Ship: James T. Kirk/Spock

Spock met Jim when he was 7 and Jim was 6. It has since been generally agreed that this was a mistake (or: the one where they grew up together and things are simultaneously better and worse for it).

This is such a deep dive of both Spock and Jim. It’s them growing up together and it splits off some as far as events that happen in canon. It ends before they become Starfleet. I think this fic creates such an interesting bond between Spock and Jim. I also really love where it goes as far as Spock not having grown up alone on Vulcan.

These are the unfinished fics. The first two are in progress and the last one seems to be abandoned.

Survival is a Talent by ShanaStoryteller 

Rating: T, Word Count: 353,015, Fandom: Harry Potter, Ship: Harry/Draco 

In the middle of their second year, Draco and Harry discover they're soulmates and do their best to keep it a secret from everyone. 

Their best isn't perfect. 

~ 

“Are you trying to get killed, Potter?” Malfoy drawls, stalking forward. Quick as a serpent himself, he reaches out and grabs the snake just below the head. It thrashes in his grip, but is no longer able to bite anyone. “This is a poisonous snake, and I doubt anyone brought a bezoar with them.” 

Harry glares. He opens his mouth, and feels the beginning the snake’s language pass his lips, and this isn’t what he wants, what’s the point of insulting Malfoy if he can’t understand him – 

Malfoy’s eyes widen. He slaps his hand over Harry’s mouth, “Potter, what the hell–”

This fic is in progress updated within 2020. It’s a rewrite of the Harry Potter series where Harry and Draco are soulmates. As you can imagine, that changes some things. I love this so much, I’ve read it like 3 or 4 times now. The characterization is amazing and I love the differences we see. Harry is Indian in this fic and the way it ties in is so good. You really get to see the difference in culture as well between muggleborns and blood traitor families and the purebloods.   

You great unfinished symphony (you sent for me) by ketchupcrisp

Rating: E, Word Count: 227,792, Fandom: MCU, Ship: Steve/Tony and also the whole Team 

The last thing Steve Rogers ever expected to see on a Wednesday afternoon was his (their) dead submissive tumbling out of a portal and practically into Phil’s lap, very much alive and frantic about Soul Stones and timelines and some other version of the team.

This is an AU but like literally. Tony comes from the universe we know into a D/S universe. The worldbuilding here - again like I think a lot of D/s fics excel at - is so good. It starts with everything a mess and things are intense. There’s multiple POVs which I think is really helpful in a fic like this where the relationships are so tangled. 

Born From the Earth by venusm 

Rating: E, Word Count: 277,602, Fandom: MCU, Ship: Tony Centric, Steve/Tony 

Tony Stark's born an omega in a world where that means he's supposed to follow certain social rules. He becomes Iron Man anyway: Fuck biology.

If only his biology (and the world) would quit fucking him back.

Wordsformurder is the kind of writer other writers wish they could be. When I’m reading someone like Catherynne M. Valente or Max Gladstone sometimes I have to stop and highlight a sentence or a phrase that has particularly beautiful language in it or I thing is really evocative. When I’m reviewing her stories I have to fight myself not to just quote the entire chapter back to her. Sometimes her work verges on prose poetry. She’s superlatively good at packing a tremendous amount of emotion into a small amount of text. That’s another way of saying that some of her stories start off as drabbles in the same continuity that gradual become a story.

I first came across her when I was just getting into fanfic in the mid 00s on Twisting the Hellmouth,  a site for BTVS crossover fanfic. Even back then she was already an award winning author winning Best Highlander Crossover for Absolute Freedom and Best Manip for Art of Forever  at the Crossing Over Awards in 2006. She won Best Crossover Author and Best Anita Blake Crossover for Wish in 2008. In 2010 she won Best Literature Crossover for To The Ground a BTVS/Chronicles of Narnia Crossover and Best Supernatural Crossover for Star, Cross and Dirt.

Wordsformurder has a number of really good BTVS/Anita Blake Stories. I think they may be her earliest, but she continued writing them for several years.

For her two Highlander stories I actually prefer Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow over Absolute Freedom, the one that won the Award. While they are both Immortal!Buffy stories Tomorrow was written three years after Absolute Freedom and shows a more mature writing style. It’s a lot of short chapters that give us glimpses into Buffy’s immortal existence. Her protagonists often struggle with feelings of isolation and alienation. The trials and tribulations of Immortality and the struggle to stay connected with or regain one’s humanity are a major reoccurring theme in her work.

There is the aforementioned Immortal!Buffy in her Highlander/BTVS crossovers, variations on TimeLady!Buffy in her Doctor Who and Torchword works, Vampire!Buffy in her Anita Blake fics and she has written several Immortal!Buffy/Loki stories.

The Free Will vs determinism conflict comes up again and again in her stories. This is often couched in terms of Slayer destiny but probably the finest example is in my absolute favourite Wordsformurder story which is Loki and Toni’s Excellent Adventure in World Saving. Loki is trying to break free of the cyclical nature of Asgardian existence and Toni is horrified at the lack of free will that that situation implies.

Another fine example of this is Create Detonate in which Natasha Stark and Bucky Barnes explore issues of choice and responsibility and another perennial favourite from the BTVS days: people as weapons.

One very nice thing she has done every year since 2009 are her Christmas Wishlists. These are a series of ficlets  she writes from prompts given by readers. She has written two wishlist fics for me Taste the Rainbow a Lady Loki/Toni Stark Soulmate AU because I have been gone on that pairing since Loki and Toni and I made myself when I was young, a Peggy Carter and Susan Pevensie story. I treasure both of them more than I can say.

Wordsformurder also has a long standing collaboration with @reena-jenkins an incredibly talented and prolific podficcer. So several of her stories are available in podfic form.

There are three sets of her stories I have not read but I am sure are excellent her Teenwolf stories most of her BTVS/Supernatural stories and  her BTVS/X-men movieverse time travel stories.

Wordsformurder Stories I personally Recommend:

BTVS/Anita Blake

Sky Series 

Summary:  This is the story of two children whose innocence is stolen far too early. One submits to the cold and becomes a ruthless killer and one fights it. From the age of four on Buffy Summers struggles against the empty place inside of her and her brother's slow corruption of the girl she once fancied herself to be. Watch her crusade against herself and a world that doesn't understand her, her quest for happiness and her search for the lost pieces of an innocent girl's soul.

The War Duology

Summary: Anita has a problem. Asher has a solution. And a secret. This is only the beginning.

Wish

Summary: It was Friday afternoon and she was leaning against the same wall she always lent against. Drabble-fic. Midnight musings that turned into a plot bunny, that turned into a story that was cut down to drabble size because I do have a life. This story is not betaed, nor will it ever be. It's just a Buffy-dumped-in-different-dimension exercise.

BTVS/Doctor Who and/or Torchwood

Elevation Series

Summary: She carries the key on a chain around her neck, the way she always has. She can’t remember ever having been without it, in fact.

Time and Space Series

Summary: Life and death, laughter and tears, joy and grief. It's all connected. A Buffy-in-space story.

BTVS/Harry Potter

Shrine 

Summary: After the war, things are different. Tea, coloured notes, tattoos, a laptop cord, a frying pan and Hermione Granger make an appearance.

Trinity

Summary: Their heads next to each other on the pillow look like night, blood and bleached bones, like chocolate, cinnamon and honey and they make him feel strange and free.  These ficlets will contain definite (non explicit but definitely there) Threesome Action. As in, three people being with each other, romantically. Namely: Harry, Charlie and Buffy.

BTVS/ Highlander

Absolute Freedom

Summary:  Waking up in the morgue Buffy decides that it's time for her to end it all. But shortly after building up a whole new life a past she thought lost in the ever changing sands of the desert comes back to haunt her. Post Season 7, Buffy/Methos.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow 

Summary:  When you live forever, time is the only constant there is. Drabble fic.

BTVS/MCU

I hated you the least Series 

Summary: Reena_Jenkins said: Buffy and Faith as daughters of Thanos. I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

I have seen nearly every city 

Summary: Buffy Summers and Natasha Romanov keep meeting. Eventually, they stop questioning it. 

(Not Exactly) Waking Up In Vegas Series 

Summary:  They kind of wake up married, but not in Vegas. Buffy/Loki

Ravager Family Series

Summary: In which tiny Peter is a hot mess, Yondu hates asking for help and Buffy Summers looks good in Ravager red.(I have no idea what happened here.) Buffy/Yondu

BTVS/Narnia

To The Ground

Summary: Peter is confused, Susan graceless and Aslan not there. Buffy is someone else entirely and faith is hard to come by. A slow and quiet Prince Caspian rewrite. 

I made myself when I was young 

Summary: In which neither Peggy nor Susan like the cold. Vaguepositivity asked for MCU/Narnia – Susan – The Gentle Queen as Peggy’s apprentice, possibly with badass Natasha thrown in for kicks. I hope you enjoy.

BTVS/Tru Blood

Run Series

Summary: You really should have known better than to have Giles call the Council and ask for help removing your 'aspect of the demon'.

Leverage/Highlander

Hound

Summary: Damien Moreau must die. Eliot has known that all along.(The one where Eliot was once Death's favourite hound.)

MCU

Create/Detonate 

Summary: In a world where Natasha Stark still dreams of fire and blood, the Winter Soldier wakes ahead of schedule and nothing happens the way it was meant to.(People don’t have a purpose.)

Loki and Toni’s Excellent Adventure in World Saving 

Summary: In which Loki and Toni try to save the world, Steve is obnoxious, Clint has no patience for artsy movies and there are cupcakes. And issues. 

Taste the Rainbow

Summary:  In which Toni doesn't believe in soulmates, thanks a lot. It's bullshit. For vaguepositivity who asked for Lady Loki/Toni in a verse where you identify your soulmate by taste. With added synesthesia. Good god, talk about complicated plots. But I did my best because complicated or not, that prompt was brilliant.  

  There are many names in history (and all of them are ours) 

Summary: Russia is born in the wake of a falling wall. America rises from the ashes of war. Tony and Natasha just try to make it.

We are not funeral homes

Summary: We make our own destiny.(Loki disappears into myth. Tony Stark steps from it.)

Vikings

Dismantle the sun