Link round-up

[galwednesday]

Some things of interest I saw this week, in the order that I remember them:

1. This short story by caffeinewitchcraft on tumblr about a woman who interprets the wind:

King Raymus grins, stroking his long, salt-and-pepper beard. "Ask, Wind-Speaker, ask if the Wind has met a kingdom more bountiful, more beautiful, more expansive than mine."

Yes, the wind whistles near the chandeliers. Several.

"No," Dyta says. "None."

God, the wind rustles around her skirts, you are such an absolute downer.

2. This thread about a WIFE OR KNIFE ballad that I'm going to keep boosting on various platforms until it's made into the BBC miniseries we the people deserve:

My new favorite thing is this ballad about a rich woman who falls in love with a guy and decides to CHALLENGE HIM TO A DUEL

— Charis M. Ellison 🥀 (@agreyeyedgirl) December 29, 2018

3. I regret to announce that I now care about DC characters, despite having tried to restrict my fixation to Marvel for the sake of not jumping into TWO massive sprawling comics franchises with a billion characters and a well of both fan- and pro-created content so deep I'll never escape it. I blame these three fic series entirely:

Anti-Social by unpretty (Batman, general Batfam):

"You could give good advice!" Jessie assured him. "We get a lot of girls who want help with their boyfriends."

"Dump him." He ate another fry.

"It's not always like that! You can't just dump a guy every time he's a little annoying."

"You can, and should."

"Maybe you could give people tips to be successful?" Danny suggested.

"Based on personal experience you should try being born a white billionaire with a Type A personality and a need for external validation that can never be satisfied because your parents are dead."

"I don't think most people can use that," Jessie said.

"I hope not."

Do Every Stupid Thing by thepartyresponsible (DCU/MCU crossover, Jason Todd/Bucky Barnes/Tony Stark):

Jason doesn’t mean for the Winter Soldier to be a present for Tony Stark. The youngest Stark isn’t supposed to be involved at all.

The plan is simple: intervene before the Winter Soldier can murder Howard and Maria, tranq the Winter Soldier until he’s sufficiently incapacitated, and then drag him off for further study and let the Starks carry on with their fraught, bourgeoisie bullshit.

Reconcilable Differences by astolat (Smallville, Lex Luthor/Clark Kent):

"You can't just barge in here," Radson said. "I'm going to call hospital security—" She stopped and turned as the door opened again.

Lex Luthor walked in.

He glanced around the room, one quick flicker of eyes that seemed to take everything in: Radson, the bed, the bare antiseptic walls, the thin pale blue quilt on the bed, the smoking TV, and then came to rest on Kon. Kon gulped. He wasn't about to yell for Clark, but he kind of felt like it. Visions of scalpels and vivisection were dancing in his head, and he really hadn't wanted to find out just how much worse things could get than this.

Luthor studied him a few moments, and then said, "Nice. I'm going to kick Clark's ass."

These three authors write very different versions of the same characters, but they're all BELIEVABLE versions and they're all FUN and now I'm INVESTED. It's too late for me, I have accepted my fate, if you have also fallen into this well and have any fic recs please send them my way.

Comments

[leveragehunters]

WIFE OR KNIFE! Amazing <3 <3

[glitteryv]

NGL, I'm tremendously surprised I've yet to get into Batfam or anything DC/DCEU related. That ain't a brag, btw, just an observation. One that's quite timely as it wasn't until 2018 that I started reading massive amounts of Harry/Draco fic, LOL.