Fandom: Knives Out movies
Characters: Father Jud Duplenticy, Bishop Langstrom
Rating: Gen
Length: 4,625 words
Content Notes: No AO3 warnings apply. PTSD and abuse.
Creator Links: AO3 profile.
Themes: Mentors and protégés, gen, trauma and recovery, 

Summary: Following his killing of an opponent in the boxing ring, Jud Duplenticy begins suffering from nightmares. Years later, after the events at Our Lady of Fortitude, the nightmares return.

Reccer's notes: This is a short and sweet fic focusing on Jud's trauma following his ordeal at the hands of Rev. Wicks and the murder investigation, and his relationship with Bp. Langstrom. I loved Langstrom in the movie and wished he had more scenes, since I thought his and Jud's interactions hinted at a really interesting history - Jud says Langstrom's stuck his neck out to help him before, and Langstrom would certainly be aware of Jud's past and likely played a role in helping him move past it. This fic scratches that itch, and paints a lovely portrait of the men's friendship and the way Langstrom has been a trusted mentor to Jud, and the way their relationship would be affected by the events of the movie.

AO3 link.

Title: not so different, you and I
Fandom: Wiseguy
Fanmix format: Youtube playlist
Content notes: mostly 80s songs


Summary: you know how it feels to be too far, too soon


LISTEN

( song list )

Title: Sunflower Radiance Lasts
Author: harryschreine/stundenschlag
Fandom: Men's Football RPF
Pairing: Giannis Konstantelias & Konstantinos Karetsas
Rating: G
Prompt: Warmth
Tags: Fluff, Slice of Life
Author's Note: A warm welcome message from me for the Greek duo! Hoping for the speedy recovery of Delias. Also, I saw a very sun and moon chemistry between them. ;)

♥ excited ♪ Βασίλης Καζούλης - Ο Πυγμάχος Tags: c: amnesty, f: sports rpf

Title: Siesta
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Willaway, Varian.
Rating: PG
Setting: After the series.
Summary: Perhaps a nap might be a good idea after all.
Word Count: 350
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 525: Amnesty 84, using Challenge 480: Nap.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.

◊ my desk ♥ tired Tags: by: badly_knitted, c: amnesty, f: the fantastic journey

Our theme for September is mentors & protégés!

That's teachers and students, masters and apprentices, senpai and kōhai, plus coaches, trainers, tutors, novices, newbies, and neophytes in any and all combinations.

The tag for this round is: theme: mentors & proteges

If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance.

( Rules! )

Title: For a While
Fandom: Critical Role: Campaign 1
Rating: G
Length: ~1400
Content notes: drinking
Author notes: Written for the Prompt glass

Summary: Percy wonders what makes him stick with Vox Machina, and maybe it's the small things that give an answer.


( For a while )

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Svetlana Vetrova, Yuna Hollander
Rating: Explicit
Length: 6087
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply. Shane is probably unfaithful to Rose - he doesn't seem to think their relationship's over at that point in the fic.
Creator Links: tackytiger on AO3
Themes: Pining, Ambiguous relationships, (not really) Unrequited love, Unreliable narrator, Canon LGBTQ+ characters

Summary: Does it count as Shane Hollander walking Ilya like a dog if Ilya buckles the collar on himself and hands Hollander the leash?

Reccer's Notes: Tackytiger describes the fic as a small character piece looking at Ilya's feelings at various points in his life. It's not tagged for "pining" but to me, that's very much part of Ilya's feelings. There are dog metaphors throughout, with young Ilya longing for a dog (but knowing his father would never allow it), then, in the Rose era, Ilya longs for Shane and snatches any scrap of Shane he can. It ends at the Cottage with their relationship restored and acknowledged, but there's still a sense of Ilya being dependent on Shane's attention and affection, still feeling like a stray who got lucky. Poignant, and really well written.

Fanwork Links: Lick, Lick - locked to AO3.
And there's a podfic by me.

Title: Squares for a Blanket
Fandom: Original
Rating: G
Length: Collage of 6 photos
Summary: Various squares for a blanket I am very slowly knitting

Title: What Was Missing
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Varian, Willaway.
Rating: PG
Setting: After the series.
Summary: They miss their friends, but they’ve found something they hadn’t known they were missing
Word Count: 350
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 525: Amnesty 84, using Challenge 496: Missing.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.

◊ my desk ♥ tired Tags: by: badly_knitted, c: amnesty, f: the fantastic journey

Title: photography
Fandom: none
Rating: G
Content notes: None apply
Summary: icons of Chris Pine taking photos or looking at photos (with cameo by Patrick J. Adams)


( photography )

Title: Work experience
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, OCs
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 2,122 words
Content notes: Set in my Torchwood futureverse
Author notes: Written for Challenge 525 - Amnesty using Challenge 136 - Hit the wall
Summary: A family dinner night becomes a dramatic confrontation.

( Read more... )

Title: Mud And Puddles
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Willaway, Varian, Liana, Sil-El, Scott, Fred.
Rating: PG
Setting: After the series.
Summary: It’s raining in this zone, making the ground muddy and difficult to walk across.
Word Count: 505
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 525: Amnesty 84, using Challenge 524: Puddle.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.

◊ my desk ♥ tired Tags: by: badly_knitted, c: amnesty, f: the fantastic journey

Title: The Rose Garden
Fandom: Miss Marple
Rating: G
Length: 365 words
Summary: Miss Marple and Dolly Bantry are visiting a rose garden
Also written for ficlet_zone   k d lang challenge

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Rating: Explicit
Length: 2882
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: sabinelagrande on AO3
Themes: Pining, Mutual pining, Friends to lovers, First time, Humor

Summary: John goes with everything. Rodney doesn't.

Reccer's Notes: A delightful short fic in which Rodney, fed up with pining and goaded by Ronon to "go off and fuck already, just to get it out of the way", finally makes a move on John. Who turns out to have been pining as well. It's hot and funny, as Rodney's POV is amusing - impatient and uncertain and acerbic. An excellent read!

Fanwork Links: LBD

I think we are winding down the “Women in Translation” rec list! Or at least, what’s left of it is significant outnumbered by the other things now on my TBR. But last night I finished We Had to Remove This Post by Hannah Bervoets, translated from Dutch by Emma Rault. This novella was book #19 from the list, and is about a woman who works as a content reviewer for a big social media corporation.

This book rockets by; it’s only 134 small pages, so things devolve quickly. The meat of the story is about the impact of the job on the protagonist, Kayleigh, and her coworkers, as narrated by Kayleigh to an attorney in the aftermath of the job.

I think the book could have benefitted from being a big longer, giving us some more time to get to know Kayleigh and her comrades at the start, but assuming they were all relatively normal people when they began, you get a pretty grim picture of their constant exposure to the utter dregs of the internet changes them.

One guy comes in with a taser one day to threaten a manager who gave him too low a ranking on his accuracy in deciding whether posts stay up or not. He’s back at work days later. Another worker, not long out of high school, becomes a flat earth conspiracist after reviewing their videos day in and day out. Holocaust denial starts sprouting among them. They drink, they smoke, the jokes they share amongst each other become increasingly dark and echo the language they see in the posts they review.

A lot of the impact is filtered through the lens of Kayleigh’s relationship with one of her coworkers, Sigrid. Kayleigh and Sigrid’s differing views on their relationship becomes a significant point of contention as the book progresses. As Sigrid turns to increasingly ridiculous solutions to the obvious trauma the job is inflicting on them (she’s convinced powdered supplements and going to bed at 7:30 can turn things around), Kayleigh continues to cling to Sigrid as a buoy, past the point of rationality.

It opens up a necessary conversation about the impact of jobs in content moderation. We started with a group of people who were, presumably, relatively normal, and watch how their sense of logic is eroded both by constant exposure to violence and conspiracies, as well as secondary trauma.

It also toys heavily with the unreliability of our own perception: who is more right about their relationship, Kayleigh or Sigrid? Is there a “true” answer, or only each of their increasingly disparate realities? It plays into the book's overall themes on censorship and viewpoint. Who decides? Who's version of truth is true? The hairsplitting minutia that govern the rules on what the moderators should or shouldn't leave up recur again and again; late in the story, Sigrid and Kayleigh argue over their own sex tape, about whether it would be taken down for sexual coercion or not.

I would have liked a longer book with a deeper dive into the characters and their descents, but the current length keeps the book punchy, if it leaves you with questions. As more and more of life goes online, what is the best way to handle content moderation? Because this book definitely portrays the existing system as untenable.

Title: Homecoming Party
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Scott, Fred, Enid.
Rating: PG
Setting: After the series.
Summary: Scott’s parents are throwing a big homecoming party, but although Scott is happy, he’s missing his friends.
Word Count: 400
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 525: Amnesty 84, using Challenge 181: Party.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.




( Homecoming Party... )

◊ my desk ♥ tired Tags: by: badly_knitted, c: amnesty, f: the fantastic journey

Title: A Four Pipe Problem
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: G
Length: 197 words
Summary: Holmes is concentrating on a case

Fandom: due South
Characters/Pairings: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Diefenbaker, Stella Kowalski
Rating: Gen
Length: 5180
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply. Head injury with long-term disability.
Creator Links: dessert_first on AO3
Themes: Pining, Amnesia, Friends to lovers (imminent), Friendship, Hurt/comfort, (not really) unrequited love

Summary: Amnesiac Mountie with broken long-term memory storage moves in with lovesick Polish cop.

Reccer's Notes: In this story Fraser, after a head injury, develops both retrograde amnesia so that he recalls working with Ray Vecchio but not Ray Kowalski, and anterograde amnesia so that he can't lay down long-term memories and starts each day afresh. It's fanfiction amnesia of course so handwave how a relatively minor injury could cause this, and ignore the wildly unlikely notion of a hospital letting an amnesia patient occupy a bed for several weeks. In the fic, Ray K has already been pining for Fraser and he takes Fraser home to his flat to look after him, despite how it aches when every morning Fraser's forgotten him again. Or has he, entirely? It's a bit sad, yes, but there are so many great details like the techniques Fraser develops to orient himself each morning, and the muttered arguments with his father's ghost. It's all told from Ray Kowalski's inimitable perspective and Ray's support from Stella is another heartwarming aspect. The ending isn't a cure or fix-it, but it is hopeful. Beautiful writing, and a lovely, heart-tugging read.

Fanwork Links: Lost

Title: Ready to Dive In
Fandom: Women's Soccer RPF
Pairings: Hope Solo/Kelley O'Hara
Characters: Kelley O'Hara, Hope Solo
Rating: G
Length: 200 words
Author's Notes: Written for Challenges 525: Amnesty 87, 178: New, and 242: Eye at fan_flashworks. It also fills the "Tulip (Variegated) - Beautiful Eyes" square of my 2023 Valentine's Bingo Card at allbingo.
Summary: Kelley spent years watching Hope Solo through a screen. Now, they’re going to share the field—and maybe something more.

( Read more... )

Title: Crosswords
Fandom: Miss Marple
Rating: G
Length: 234 words
Summary: Miss Marple is forced to resort to a crossword puzzle

Fandom: The World Finally Went Crazy After the Discovery of Mental Illness - 煎饼要加果子
Mods please use the f: book (category) tag
Rating: T
Length: 100 words
Content notes: character thoughts about death, canon introduces eldritch plot through an initial lens of perceived/diagnosed mental illness
Author notes: The title is from A puddle, in the colloquial sense by Sanjin Sorel, translated by Kim Burton, and MARILYN MONROE by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi.
Summary: What is reality, after all?

( Read more... )

Title: The White Star
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: John Sheridan.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 200
Spoilers/Setting: Matters of Honor, Messages from Earth.
Summary: So far, the White Star has been lucky in its encounters with Shadow vessels.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 525: Amnesty 87, using Challenge 505: Star.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.

◊ my desk ♥ tired Tags: by: badly_knitted, c: amnesty, f: babylon 5

Once again managed to time things so that I finished both of my books on the same day…no idea how this keeps happening. Hours after wrapping up Sarah Gailey’s The Echo Wife, I also finished Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs, translated from Japanese by David Boyd and Sam Bett.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part, which is roughly a third of the novel, takes place over only three days. Natsuko Natsume is in her early thirties and lost for direction when her older sister arrives to spend a couple of nights with Natsuko, bringing along her twelve-year-old daughter Midoriko, who has refused to speak a word to her mother for the last six months.

The Asexual Rep

I didn’t expect for this book to be a part of this segment, because I didn’t know it could be. Natsuko and the narrative never use the word “asexual” to describe her, but when she talks about her feelings on sex, I recognized so much of my own there it was impossible not to feel that she is.

Title: A Small But Heartfelt Gift
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author: badly_knitted 
Characters: Varian, Willaway.
Rating: PG
Setting: After the series.
Summary: Varian has something for Willaway.
Word Count: 200
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 525: Amnesty 84, using Challenge 517: Flower.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.

◊ my desk ♥ tired Tags: by: badly_knitted, c: amnesty, f: the fantastic journey