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beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: MCU
Pairings/Characters: Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers
Rating: Gen
Length: 15k
Creator Links:

rosepetalfall
Theme: siblings, family

Summary: Bucky’s dad always says what they do is important.

“We give people the dignity they deserved in life,” he says, seriously.

Uncle Danny laughs at that. “Jimmy-kid,” he says, “your old man has got some real trumped up notions of what it is we do. Death ain’t beautiful. We just help create the illusion that it can be.”

Reccer's Notes: This is a really interesting look at Bucky's life before the war, and his family, and all the things that shaped him. The OCs are very well drawn and I love the details and thematic resonance of the family business.

Fanwork Links: The Undertaker's Children

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Pairings/Characters: Cosette/Courfeyrac
Rating: teen
Length: 125k
Creator Links:

AMarguerite
Theme: siblings, humor, novel-length, epic works, old fandoms, book fandoms, small fandoms, AU, fork in the road, family, everybody lives, crack, female friendship, fixit, happy endings, just plain fun, politics, rare pairings,

Summary: Courfeyrac falls through the roof of no. 7 Rue de l'Homme Armé, taking down not only the ceiling, but the carefully built walls Valjean has constructed around himself and Cosette. Wacky hijinks ensue.

Reccer's Notes: This fic is madcap and fun in all the best ways. The shenanigans and hijinks are wonderful ... and at the core of those shenanigans and hijinks are Courfreyac and his siblings, as they draw Cosette into a quirky but loving family. (And also try to get everyone safely through cholera and a failed revolution.) I love all of the distinct and interesting characters, both canon and OC. I love the shenanigans. I love that Cosette gets a chance to truly blossom and form friendships. It's wonderful

Fanwork Links: Some Friendlier Sky

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: Ballet Shoes
Characters/Pairings: Posy Fossil
Rating: General
Length: 5203 words
Author Links:
Theme: siblings, family, female characters, gen, book fandoms, old fandoms, small fandoms, future fic

Summary: "There was a terrific row when Nana found out I'd only written one letter so she's sent me to write to you all properly, only I don't have anything left to say now and I do think it's silly to have to copy out the same letter twice." Posy Fossil's letters to her sisters from ballet school in Czechoslovakia, 1936-1938.

Reccer's Notes: Ballet Shoes is a delightful story about three sisters in 1930s Britain, their guardian, and their nanny. At the end of the story, one goes off to Hollywood under a studio contract, one goes to live by an aerodrome to learn to fly, and the youngest (Posy) goes to Czechoslovakia to be trained as a ballet dancer. Posy, the youngest, loves her sisters but is also self-centered and focused on her dancing. This is the first time she's ever been away from her sisters since she was a baby, and the letters trace that relationship even as they're hundreds and thousands of miles apart. But no matter how far apart they are, no matter how different their lives are, they still love one another.

deepdarkwaters captures Posy's character, and her relationship with her sisters, perfectly.

Story Links: With Love, Posy

squidgiepdx posting in

Fandom: The Pitt
Characters/Pairings: Michael "Robby" Robinavitch/Dennis Whitaker, Trinity Santos, Jack Abbot
Rating: Explicit
Length: 24,437 words
Creator Links: cold_cereal on AO3
Theme: siblings,

Summary: When Whitaker accidentally sends a dick pic to Dr. Robby, he never thought it would end like this.

Reccer's Notes: Well now...

With a summary like that you would expect nothing more than a PWP, but this is the furthest from that. We all know that Whitaker comes from Broken Bow, Nebraska and grew up on a farm with 3 brothers. But we never get any of that backstory - toxic or good - in canon.

Well that backstory shows up here, almost like there needed to be a wonderful plot to go along with the accidental dick pic share. We get to see Whitaker's parents and his brothers - and how he and one of his brothers escaped that small-town/small-mindedness. I'm not saying his one brother that "escaped" the mentality is all that great, but I know these small-town folks. Hell, I'm related to a lot of them. And I can read a compliment from what sounds like a bigot trying to do better, even if they don't have a frame of reference for that.

Basically, this is a fic about getting out of a small town, and leaving the small-mindedness behind.

Fanwork Links: Fic on AO3.

Because Becky Mahoney and I know each other, I boosted a Bluesky giveaway for her upcoming vampire novel Thrall (coming out next month!) in the spirit of friendship and then was somewhat surprised to discover that I had in fact won the giveaway -- surprised but delighted, obviously, since I've loved all of her previous books even when they weren't LUCY CENTRIC DRACULA RIFFS!! focused around a COLLEGE PIRATE RADIO STATION!!!

The central character of Thrall is Lucy Easting, who has just transferred into beautiful, isolated, mountainside Rollins University from community college, in a bid to get away from her stressed and depressed mother and live a life she's excited about for a change.

Alas! her first college party results in a couple of neck puncture marks, a marked tendency to experience severe migraines in sunlight, and a tragic susceptibility to the ominous vampire voice in her head that occasionally takes over her consciousness and directs her towards uncharacteristic action.

Fortunately! the college is full of prospective allies who are willing to take a chance on Lucy despite her regrettable thrall situation, including but not limited to the host of the local college late-night radio show, who has been a target of the vampire since her sophomore year and has been using the airwaves to try and fight back; Lucy's RA, a determined young woman with very nice arms, who came to the school to investigate after a terrible fate befell her high school ex-boyfriend Jonathan; and the very nice, normal party host who has no previous vampire experience but feels just terrible about the whole situation and is not about to relinquish responsibility for sorting the situation out! it was her party!!

It's a really charming book on a number of levels, but my favorite thing about it as a Dracula riff specifically is how much it's thematically invested in Lucy as a side character -- the narrative is consistently very clear that the vampire is not particularly interested in Lucy; he's obsessed with Athena the radio show host and everything else he's doing is part of his elaborate cat-and-mouse game with her, including incidentally overturning Lucy's life as a by-the-by -- and how Lucy makes the book her own story anyway by sheer force of determination not to be cut out of it. Lucy's energy really drives the book: she wants to live, and she wants to live a life on her own terms, and she's not about to let one horrible encounter take that away from her.

Also, I think it's not a huge spoiler ( but I guess is technically a mild one: lesbians! )

ranalore posting in

Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed
Pairings/Characters: Jiang Cheng & Wei Wuxian & Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng/Nie Huaisang (background), Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji (background), Lan Xichen, Jin Zixuan, Meng Yao, Wen Zhuliu
Rating: R for Graphic Depictions of Violence and Major Character Death
Length: 133,987 words
Creator Link:

meyari
Themes: Siblings, Time Travel Fix-It, Women Being Awesome, Trauma & Recovery

Summary: As the Jianghu collapses around Jiang Cheng's ears, his borrowed core begins to fail. Wei Wuxian has one final trick up his sleeve, though the only person who can use it is the one person who has no core of his own: Jiang Cheng. Time travel may be impossible for everyone else, but Jiang Cheng has one slender, delicate chance to save the entire world. Of course he has to take it no matter what the cost might be.

Reccer's Notes: As soon as I saw this month's theme, I thought of this story. While time travel fix-its and core reveal fix-its are both common in the fandom, this story handles both tropes in ways I haven't seen any other story do. It also features amazing original characters, including several badass women of the Meishan Yu sect, and gives Jiang Yanli one of the best storylines I've ever seen. The rating is because there's still a war, and some characters still die, but it's a far different war, and they are far different deaths.

I do feel like I have to provide a caveat that this could use a serious line edit, by which I mean there is a grammatical or spelling error in nearly every sentence. It really says something that, despite this, I couldn't put the story down, and devoured all 100K+ words of it in the space of two nights.

Fanwork Links: Moments of Revelation (please note that this is archive-locked to AO3-registered users)

runpunkrun posting in

Photograph of two adorable Vietnamese toddlers in identical denim overalls and dinosaur sweaters, text: Siblings, at Fancake.

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: Pride and Prejudice
Pairings/Characters: Darcy/Elizabeth, Georgiana, Jane/Bingley
Rating: Teen
Length: 75k
Creator Links:

anghraine
Theme: siblings, old fandoms, book fandoms, novel length, AU, family,

Summary: Without Lady Catherine's interference, a family catastrophe throws Darcy and Elizabeth down wildly different paths.

Reccer's Notes: This series is very much Darcy/Elizabeth, but they spend a lot of it going down separate paths. And on those separate paths, their closest relationships are with their siblings--Darcy and Georgiana, Jane and Elizabeth. I love the care that is taken with all of the different relationships in this story.

Fanwork Links: The Rich Are Always Respectable

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: Marvel
Pairings/Characters: Steve/Bucky
Rating: Gen
Length: 4k
Creator Links:

what_alchemy
Theme: siblings, AU, family

Summary: Bucky was the eldest of four.

Reccer's Notes: Bucky has four younger siblings, and in 2015 they are elderly, crotchety, and determined to go see Steve Rogers. Getting there is an ordeal, and what they find there is a surprise. I love the way the characters are so well-drawn and realistic, and I love the humor.

Fanwork Links: Geriatric Road Trip, 2015

Content notes: racist and homophobic language

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: Vorkosigan
Pairings/Characters: Kareen Vorbarra, Alys Vorpatril, Gregor Vorbarra, Ivan Vorpatril
Rating: Gen
Length: 13k
Creator Links:

lannamichaels
Theme: siblings, family, secret identity reveal, female characters, old fandoms, book fandoms, AU, female friendship,

Summary: Kareen protects her children.

Reccer's Notes: This is such a fascinating AU about Kareen, Alys, Gregor, Ivan, and what might have happened.

Fanwork Links: The Emperor's Brother

runpunkrun posting in

April will be a Flashback round where we revisit a classic theme from the early years of the comm.

Poll #34378 round 185 theme poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 94

Pick the next theme of fancake:

Arranged Marriage
47 (50.0%)

Forced Proximity
22 (23.4%)

Threesome
25 (26.6%)

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: Vorkosigan
Pairings/Characters: Gregor Vorbarra, Ivan Vorpatril
Rating: Gen
Length: 7k
Creator Links:

callmecasandra
Theme: siblings, AU, fork in the road, family, gen, old fandoms, book fandoms

Summary: Gregor need not have worried.

Reccer's Notes: Gregor Vorbarra is Emperor of Barrayar, and he has monsters in his family tree. His father Serg was a rapist and a murderer who died when he was a small child (and Serg's own father Emperor Ezar arranged his death), and his great uncle was Mad Emperor Yuri who was paranoid and homicidal and awful. Gregor understandably has issues about his family.

But what if Ezar had seen the sort of person Serg was, and how many monsters are in the family tree, and not only made sure Serg died before inheriting the throne, but also ... made sure that Serg would not father the next emperor of Barrayar?

This is a short but compelling AU. The series is marked incomplete, but there are no dangling plot threads and it hasn't been updated in over a decade.

Fanwork Links: The Cuckoo

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: Star Wars
Pairings/Characters: Leia Organa
Rating: Gen
Length: 2k
Creator Links:

Darkmagyk
Theme: siblings, gen, family,

Summary: “We were very close.” Sola says, and Leia smiles her politician's smile in response.

This woman is convinced she and her sister were the best of friends. And she’s telling the secret daughter, from a secret marriage, all about it.

Leia doesn't need the force to know it wasn't true.

Reccer's Notes: This is about Padmé and her sister Sola, but it's also about Luke and Leia, and about family, and about memory.

Fanwork Links: Lonely In Your Company

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: Captain America
Characters/Pairings: Steve/Bucky
Rating: G
Length: 16,400 words
Creator Links:

odsbodkins
Theme: Outside POV, siblings, female characters, gen,

Summary: Becca Barnes is eight years old, and her big brother can do no wrong. The events of the two Captain America movies, from the perspective of one of the sisters Bucky leaves behind.

Reccer's Notes: This story has an excellent child's perspective, and a deep and abiding love between Becca and Bucky. It's lovely and it makes me cry.

Fanwork Links: My Brother, the Hero

mific posting in

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Jeannie Miller, Jack O'Neill
Rating: Explicit
Length: 23,191, 02:40:45
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply.

spoilery content note

Rodney and John weren't raised as brothers, but they discover they are. After having fucked. This causes some angst for a while, and Rodney's rationalisations are amusing.

Creator Links: speranza on AO3, speranza's own site

Themes: Siblings, Action/adventure, Family, AU, AU - fork in the road

Summary: "Jean isn't your sister," Rodney said, speaking to John as if he was a small child. "Jean is my sister."
John's whole face changed. "What?"

Reccer's Notes: Written as a slightly cracky Harlequin fic, this is a favourite story of mine, full of action, adventure, and family complications. John and Rodney meet at Patrick Sheppard's funeral and afterwards happen on an alien artifact at his apartment. A wild ride ensues as they try to get it to Area 51. Rodney's a physicist and John's air force, but at the start, neither of them know about the Stargate program. There's lots of excellent drama, romance, and snark as they gradually discover all the secrets their parents hid from them.

Fanwork Links: Last Will and Testament on speranza's site, and on AO3
And I podficced the story

full_metal_ox posting in

.Fandom: Original Work
Pairings: Gen
Characters:: OCs
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 1 panel
Content Notes: Nudity, although no breasts or genitals are visible.

Creator Tags: I kind of love the reverse mermaid, mermaids, my art, mermay 2021, I am ridiculous

Creator Links: (AO3)

Rubynye; (Dreamwidth)

minoanmiss; (Tumblr)

rubynye

Theme: Siblings, Non-Fic Recs: Fanart, Mythical Creatures: Mermaids, Non-AO3 Work, Original Work, Tumblr Work, Worldbuilding, Xeno/Alien Biology

Summary: Three mermaids of vastly different conformations sunning themselves together on a rock.

Reccer's Notes: An example of

minoanmiss’s exuberant, joyous, and cartoony artwork, informed by Minoan artifacts and Afro-Caribbean art. The picture is a spur to speculation, raising the question of the exact nature of the three mermaids’ sisterhood (and, if they’re direct birth siblings, exactly how the razzlefrazz the biology played out): a worldbuilding prompt asking to happen.

Fanwork Links: Three Sisters. For Mermay., by

Current Mood: bittersweet

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: the Goblin Emperor
Pairings/Characters: Ursu Perenched, Holitho Sevraseched, Nadeian Vizhenka, Shaleän Sevraseched
Rating: Gen
Length: 9k
Creator Links:

Akallabeth
Theme: siblings, minor characters, book fandoms, small fandoms, family, gen, female characters

Summary: Short scenes from the lives of four (half-)sisters, the unacknowledged daughters of the Great Avar.

Canon-compliant, to the best of my knowledge and ability.

Reccer's Notes: We only get a sentence in canon about each of these four sisters, but the details we get are really interesting. This is one of the best fics exploring the scant details we get.

Fanwork Links: Four Sisters

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: Batman
Pairings/Characters: Jason Todd, Damian Wayne
Rating: gen
Length: 7k
Creator Links: the magpie said (hollowmen)
Theme: siblings,

Summary: Being a cat for three weeks has repercussions, it turns out.

Jason snacks his way through one of them. Damian reads books. Both of them drink a lot of tea. It's nice, mostly, which Jason finds highly suspicious.

Reccer's Notes: This is sweet and deeply in character for both of them

Fanwork Links: proper rites

(Note: other fics by this author have been recced, but under a different pseud--they used to be magpiemountains (hollowmen))

beatrice_otter posting in

Fandom: Persuasion
Pairings/Characters: Anne/Frederick
Rating: Gen
Length: 8k words
Creator Links:

rain_sleet_snow
Theme: siblings, book fandoms, old fandoms, minor characters, small fandoms, five things

Summary: Five people who were surprised by Anne and Wentworth's engagement, and one who wasn't.

Reccer's Notes: Anne's siblings (and siblings-in-law) are not the only ones reacting to news of the engagement in this story, but they are most of the people reacting. I love the way the news causes each of them to re-evaluate Anne, and what they thought they knew.

Fanwork Links: the natural sequel

stargore posting in

Fandom: due South

Pairings/Characters: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Maggie McKenzie

Rating: General Audiences

Length: 4,422 words

Creator Links:Ao3, Tumblr

Theme: Siblings, post-canon

Summary: "Maggie, moving on."

Reccer's Notes: This is a post-canon fic from the point of view of Maggie, Ben's sister. They didn't grow up together and she appears in exactly one episode of due South before disappearing back up to the Arctic Circle. In this post-canon fic they end up working together and get to know each other better. See also Sixthlight's short AU fic about Benton and Maggie from dS Ladies Fest!

Fanwork Links: Ao3

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starsandatoms

October 2013

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Page Summary

beatrice_otter in fancake - Captain America: The Undertaker's Children by rosepetalfall
beatrice_otter in fancake - Les Mis: Some Friendlier Sky by AMarguerite
beatrice_otter in fancake - Ballet Shoes: With Love, Posy by Deepdarkwaters
squidgiepdx in fancake - The Pitt: Now You Know by cold_cereal
skygiants - (no subject)
ranalore in fancake - 陈情令 | The Untamed: Moments of Revelation by Meyari
runpunkrun in fancake - Theme Reminder: Siblings
beatrice_otter in fancake - Pride and Prejudice: The Rich Are Always Respectable by Elizabeth (anghraine)
beatrice_otter in fancake - Marvel: Geriatric Road Trip, 2015 by what_alchemy
beatrice_otter in fancake - Vorkosiverse: The Emperor's Brother by Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)
runpunkrun in fancake - Round 185 Theme Poll
beatrice_otter in fancake - Vorkosiverse: The Cukoo, by callmecasandra
beatrice_otter in fancake - Star Wars: Lonely In Your Company by Darkmagyk
beatrice_otter in fancake - Captain Americs: My Brother, The Hero by Odsbodkins
mific in fancake - SGA: Last Will and Testament by speranza
full_metal_ox in fancake - Original Work: Three Sisters. For Mermay., by Rubynye.
beatrice_otter in fancake - Goblin Emperor: Four Sisters by Akallabeth
beatrice_otter in fancake - Batman: proper rites by the magpie said (hollowmen)
beatrice_otter in fancake - Persuasion: the natural sequel by rain_sleet_snow
stargore in fancake - due South: lay down your heavy load by Sixthlight

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