RatCreature's Journal

I read all four Kat Holloway novels, and one novella, by Jennifer Ashley over the last few days, and really enjoyed the competent heroine and the cast of side characters. I'm also mostly okay with the very slow burn of Kat's relationship with her love interest/fellow sleuth Daniel McAdam, though the drawn out yet repetitive revelations about his secretive government or government-adjacent investigator/fixer/secret agent job (whatever it'll eventually turn out to be) have been getting a bit tiresome by novel four.

Though I'm still bummed that having read the newest that just came out, I'll now have to wait quite a while for the next book. I'll have to look for another decent historical mystery series, since it looks like I've been having good luck actually finishing novels in this genre, when reading is still hit and miss right now.

Do you have any favorites? I tried the Ian Rutledge series, but felt a bit meh, after the first three. A while ago I started the first Sebastian St. Cyr mystery by C.S. Harris, but got stuck and lost interest a little bit into it. Maybe I should see whether I can stick with that now. Or I could try another of Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt books. I think I read the first three of that series after coming across a random later one some years back, and liked them okay, but didn't get completely sucked in.

This story puts the MCU characters in the LOTR universe, and it worked really well for me:
In the Shadow of Armistice (63479 words) by superheroresin
Chapters: 13/13
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes, Steve Rogers, Maria Hill, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Tony Stark, Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Peter Parker, Ultron (Marvel), Vision (Marvel), Natasha Romanov (Marvel)
Additional Tags: The Lord of the Rings References, Post-War of the Ring, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Inspired by The Lord of the Rings, Alternate Universe - Middle Earth Setting, Canon-Typical Violence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Past Mind Control, Swords & Sorcery, Mind Control, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Elf Steve Rogers, Dunedain Bucky Barnes, Dwarf Tony Stark, Elf James Rhodes, Ungoliant Natasha Romanoff, Wizard Vision, Wizard Ultron, Lord Of The Rings AU
Summary:

Sedryn Amathion is a young Ñoldor elf born of lower Himring near the end of the harrowed Second Age. Vice-Captain of the Forlindon Shieldmasters, herald of the High King Gil-Galad, and devotee of Eärendil, the Star of High Hope.

Or, as the ragtag Dúnedain troupe known as the Howling Commandos calls him, Steve.

The Commandos are to sabotage an orc signal tower deep within the Ephel Dúath mountains, clearing the way for the armies of the Last Alliance to march on Barad-dûr and rescue all of Middle-earth from the clutches of this new and terrible Dark Lord.

“Steve” has no way of knowing that love formed deep behind enemy lines would settle so completely inside his immortal heart, defying time, distance, and ultimately death itself.

Recently I talked with my niece about Harry Potter, Star Wars, the MCU and fiction in general, and apparently she's dissatisfied with the genre convention that in the end the "good guys" always win.

Now I don't get that at all, because for me one of the main draws of fiction, and genre fiction in particular, is that it is escapist and less depressing than reality, so I pretty much only like genres that for the most part abide by the convention to deliver a happy ending, i.e. I like fanfic, romance, YA, mysteries, and the kind of SF&F where heroes win, and am much less into e.g. horror or "literary" fiction or other genres where that isn't the convention. Even when I read stuff like apocafic or such, I ultimately want it to end hopeful for at least the main characters.

So I don't really have any recs for media (books, movies or tv series) that end badly for the heroes overall, because even when I encounter the situation of just some of them not making it (like in HP) I'm on the look out for fix-it fic. But I wondered whether others might have recs that I could pass on to my niece to satisfy her odd (to me) preference for some variety and a more fraught fictional experience.

Though I'm not sure whether she wants depressing stuff or more things along the line of the fanfic type revisionist AUs with perspective shifts, because she mentioned that she was kind of rooting for Loki and Tom Riddle and such, i.e. where the story just takes the bad guys' side and for them it is okay, even though the world is then in the hands of a megalomaniac. I mostly dislike that type of fanfic as well. And I don't look for that kind of "twist" in original fiction either.

It would have to be stuff that is available in German and at least somewhat suitable for an eight year old.

I've decided that if I ever want to get back to actually posting any recs instead of just sitting paralyzed in front of my giant pile of bookmarks, I need to abandon the idea of "catching up" in any systematic way and just pick a trope/theme and post a limited number of stories that I enjoyed, say five. This really pains my inner completist, because I have bookmarked three times that number of Captain America time travel stories that I enjoyed.

From Winter's Cold, by 27dragons. Slash, Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark. (64,370 words)
Tony travels back in time accidentally and tries to fix things.

Thermotemporal Equations, by Blinky the Tree Frog. Gen. (48,149 words)
Bucky from the past gets transported to the future. I read this as it was posted in chapters, and it had me so on edge.

Sleepers of Ephesus, by Domenika Marzione. Gen, WIP. (some 50,000 words so far)
This one is still a WIP, but a great action-adventure with Bucky and Peggy working together. It's also stands out because Peggy travels forward in time, but then has adventures in the present with Bucky rather than a plot about fixing the past by taking information back again or such, which is more common with this trope.

to memory now I can't recall, by Etharei. Slash, Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers. (102,600 words)
A body switching take on time travel, i.e. past and present Bucky switch places. The time travel epic everybody has read already, but still great.

The Blue-Eyed Boys of Brooklyn by die_traumerei. Slash, Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers. (7,003 words)
This is a short but neat take on the time travel fix-it.

Occasionally you get happy surprises: I just found that some of Anna S./eliade's stories are now available on the AO3. For years after her site vanished I could only link to Wayback Machine versions of the Buffy Season Noir and Sidelines.

Thus far the Buffy/Angel and Sentinel stories are on AO3, not (yet?) the X-Files and SG-1 stories. Though the former are still available on XF archives.

I usually don't listen to audiobooks, because I prefer reading to listening and sometimes find it hard to follow them.

Unfortunately I may need to undergo another eye treatment, and usually these come with cruel reading/screen time restrictions and admonitions to avoid any eye strain afterwards. So to prepare, I'm looking to get some audiobooks to make the internet withdrawal less horrible.

One of my prompts asked for an XMFC take on Erik's and Magda's backstory. The story I was gifted takes elements from the comics and merges them into XMFC. As you can guess from the subject matter, it is not a fluffy story (and you should heed the warning for graphic violence), but it ends at a somewhat hopeful point in the string of tragedies in Erik's life.

So go and read: Geheimnisträger (12476 words, Erik/Magda) by Anonymous

(and despite the German word as title, it has no gratuitous German dialog to trip over <3!)

Unrelated, I let my extra icon package on LJ expire, because I've bee using it much less often, so like with IJ you might miss some of my icons from now on if you follow my LJ-crossposts rather than the DW posts.

I got a Steampunk AU story that included so many of my favorite things: atmospheric descriptions and hints of background story and worldbuilding, both Erik and Charles using their powers, with Erik being all competent while stealing a dirigible, plus Charles/Erik sex that works for my mindcontrol kink. (And the unfortunate typo in "canon" in the header is not indicative at all of the spelling competence of story, so do not let that deter you.)

So go read: The Case of the Missing Dirigible, or a Romance of Chance Meetings

Fix-Its

The Shadow of the Moon Won't Do, by brilligspoons. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 1,200 words)
This is a straightforward alternative to the beach scene, but a lovely example of this genre.

Possible Worlds, by trailingoff. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 12,000 words)
This is a fix-it via a mutant-ex-machina do-over, or rather it takes even more than one try, and I like that they have to work to make things right.

A Family Portrait In Progress, by Xris. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 47,700 words)
This is not so much a direct fix-it as a later reconciliation, in which Charles ended up raising Lorna initially without knowing she's Erik's daughter. It's a series with two finished stories so far.

Enigma, by Yahtzee. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 11,100 words)
Erik goes back in time, but the turning point here is not Cuba but he goes back to before his mother died, becomes a WWII mutant hero, "Enigma", and changes his life as well as history of human-mutant relations.

Undone, by Yahtzee. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 6,600 words)
Another time travel scenario. Here Charles consciousness from post-X3 goes back to his younger self just after Shaw's attack on the CIA.

other AUs

your head caught in a waking dream, by addandsubstract. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 23,100 words)
One that I recced as WIP on the kink meme that has been finished now for a while, so in case you haven't read it yet I thought I'd link again: The scenario here is that Charles' parents had him committed to a mental hospital, which did not help much with his telepathy. Eventually Raven (whom he met like in canon) manages to break him out with Erik's help, and they hunt for Shaw.

Peregrine, by aeshna_uk. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 6,700 words)
This is wingfic, with a winged Erik. This has lovely detail, and I liked that Erik still has his regular powers too.

Night Fishing at the Seine, by furius. Slash, Charles/Erik. WIP
Charles and Erik meet in Paris before the events of XMFC. I'm enjoying the atmosphere of this, and so far am intrigued by the plot.

Tessellation, by nekosmuse. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 116,700 words)
In this AU both Erik and Charles are mutant rights activists. Erik is based in Genosha, and more militant than Charles, but he sort of has a crush on Charles whose writings inspired him. They meet at an event and things between them proceed from there, along with a good action-adventure plot.

MCIS: First Case, by Pookaseraph. Gen. (ca. 25,000 words)
This a modern AU, a fusion with NCIS I suppose, which I don't know, but I read it as just an government mutant agents AU. Erik is an agent, Moira his boss, and she partners Charles with him. The author says it's the first in a series that will be Charles/Erik, but this first is gen.

Taken By His Majesty, by Pookaseraph. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 27,500 words)
Erik is a Roman legionnaire taken captive in Britain by the Celtic leader, Charles.

The Weight of Water, by pprfaith. Het and slash, Charles/Raven, Charles/Raven/Erik. (ca. 51,000 words)
This isn't too far from canon in the setup, except that Charles forms telepathic bonds, and the consequences of that are really well explored here, not just as romance ploy, but also the scary implications, both of Charles being powerful and subtle effects which accumulate and change all three of them.

Limited Release, rageprufrock. Slash, Charles/Erik, Hank/Alex. (ca. 58,000 words)
Another one I've recced before, but now it's finished finished and posted on the AO3, so it's worth pointing out again. It's a loose fusion with White Collar in which Erik is a mutant in the FBI and Alex is a mutant criminal, released to help him hunt for Shaw. It doesn't try to match up with the White Collar scenario completely, but has good worldbuilding and fun plot.

Imaginary Life Journey, by renata_kedavra. Gen, with implied Erik/Raven, Charles/Erik. (ca. 9,000 words)
Two scenarios in which Erik and Raven, and Erik and Charles respectively, try to recruit Kurt Wagner. This just has a lovely atmosphere (and the bits in French and German actually add to that and work), and is a good character study contrasting Kurt and Erik.

Mr. Xavier's Neighborhood, by SharpestScalpel. Slash, Charles/Erik. WIP
This is a series of snippets is adorable. Erik is raising Pietro and Wanda and has a crush on Mr. Xavier who hosts a mutant-tolerance children's show.

New Beautiful Things Come, by singlecrow. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 17,600 words)
This is a modern AU with mutants being public in which Erik has a kosher bakery. It wasn't a setup I expected to get into, but the atmosphere and worldbuilding works, and it's a happy making story.

Linger by waldorph. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 29,700 words)
This is also a modern AU with mutants being public, in which Erik hears Charles in the apartment he rents, like a ghost haunting it. I liked the ensemble plot in this.

I've posted five Merlin fanart recs in August over at fanart_recs, and I'm going to rec X-Men this month, and have just posted the first there.

Others are reccing Black Rock Shooter, Doctor Who, due South, Harry Potter, Naruto, One Piece, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate SG-1 this month. I think close to its one year anniversary the comm is doing pretty well. Much is due to a core group of members reccing repeatedly (notably I have posted over 50), so I guess it would be more sustainable if more reccers could be attracted, but there have been well over 400 recs, so on average if you subscribed you got at least one fanart rec per day.