RECS: August 18, 2012
Aug. 18th, 2012 03:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bethbethbeth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
beth_hI might as well have just called this my Phil/Clint update. Or my gqgqqt and Sidney Sussex update. Except...there are other things. (tony/pepper/bruce, for example) Really!
Avengers
belmanoir (belmanoir on Dreamwidth): the "Flying From the Blast" series (Avengers/Thor. Loki&Thor, Loki/Tony, Everybody. "Thor and Loki go on the run together post-Avengers, road-trip across Australia, and get family therapy. Then Loki is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Avengers assemble." Asgardians in therapy is one of my favorite [non] guilty pleasures, and this is done very well. Smart and erotic and angry and psychologically powerful in turn, and...mind the content info --> Potentially spoilery content information: A great variety of things in individual stories from the series, including: Norse myth torture, suicidal ideation, alcohol abuse, kink - neither particularly safe or sane, past abuse.)
bendingwind (bendingwind on LJ): "Dreaming" (Avengers. Clint/Phil, Natasha, fury, others. "What if the person sleeping beside you was never who you thought he was?" I read the summary and then read the - often heart-wrenching - story without knowing more and that really worked for me. If you need to know more and not just let things unfold, check out my spoilers. I will say that while I really liked this story, I felt it could have stood to have been a little longer maybe, especially in the final section. Still, this is an original and a satisfying story. Potentially spoilery content information: Phil is...not Phil, at least some of the time in this story; he's a Skrull, a Marvel!verse alien that can take on others' appearances. And since there's an established relationship between Phil and Clint - or so Clint thinks - technically, we're looking at Dubious consent.)
cruelest_month (cruelestmonth on tumblr): the "5+1 Avenger Times" series (Avengers. Clint/Phil. Technically, this series is incomplete, but the two 'five times' stories that exist as of this rec are sweet, mostly domestic, and often funny stories about how Clint and Phil are generally "awesome, accommodating, and thoughtful boyfriends" - and sometimes aren't. *g*)
dentalfloss (dentalfloss on fanfiction.net): "The Damages We Keep" (Avengers. Clint, Phil, Team. "C/C prompt meme fill: injured in battle. Looking for whumpage! Hawkeye is wounded during a fight and doesn't let on; even afterwards he's hiding it. What's the injury, how bad is it, and just how pissed off is Phil when he discovers it?" Marked as "pre-slash" by the author, this story reads far more as Gen, but with exactly as much in the way of feelings as any relationship-centric story ever could. This is a well-constructed story about something I think about often: just how difficult is it for a non-superhuman to fight as a superhero.)
foxxcubb: the "Bulletproof" series (Avengers. Steve/Tony, Clint/Phil, Others. "College/University AU" Technically incomplete, but the two current stories both reach natural resting points. The first - eponymously titled "Bulletproof" - has this summary: "At age fifteen, Steve Rogers had been in love with Tony Stark. / By age twenty, he’d (mostly) gotten over it. And then he promptly became Tony Stark's fuck buddy," and the second - called "Launch Your Assault" - has this summary: "Phil Coulson was more than halfway through his six year plan, and everything was chugging along nicely. Unfortunately, he hadn’t foreseen a cocky junior Art major waltzing into his life, or his floor." They're...enjoyable! I'm not usually a college AU kind of reader, but both stories definitely work for me.)
gqgqqt (gqgqqt on tumblr): "Disclosures" (Avengers. Phil/Clint, Loki. "Phil Coulson is miserable, distrusted by most of SHIELD, and still doesn't remember why. / It's only going to get worse before it gets better." Full disclosure: through no fault of the author, it took me a while to become fully immersed in this story, but once it had a hold on me, the mystery surrounding Phil Coulson's strained relationship with Hawkeye was incredibly engaging. Note: due to the nature of this story, the author has provided a very specific outline that includes potential triggers here on tumblr. Do check it out if you think you might have any concerns. However, it is very spoilery, so if you don't want to be spoiler, caveat lector)
gqgqqt (gqgqqt on tumblr): "Margins" (Avengers. Phil/Clint...eventually. "Phil doesn’t know what, exactly, but something is wrong. / Clint shows up two hours late to work instead of the usual half-hour, and when he walks into the briefing room, he settles silently in his chair and sits perfectly still." so...this is less a romance and more a pre-relationship story in which Phil teaches himself how to tend to Clint, who's dealing with - in the words of the author - "an acute case of the bad kind of sub-drop." A relatively simple fic, but moving.)
gqgqqt (gqgqqt on tumblr): the "No Straight Lines" series (Avengers. Clint/Phil "Clint and Phil are a happy accident; happy, in that they're comfortable and safe together, and an accident, in that everything had to go horribly wrong to get them there in the first place." Three medium length established relationship stories featuring negotiated kink, followed by a much longer "how they got there" story set within a pre-Avengers timeframe. A slow, slow build toward the relationship - and the sex scenes lean slightly more to the 'psychologically satisfying' than the 'hot' side of the fence from my pov - but that works extremely well for this kind of tale. Here's the thing: all but the final story was written pre-Avengers and honestly, it's unlikely that both Clint and Phil are 'really' quite so damaged and fucked up as they are in this series, but they could be, i.e., there's nothing in canon to completely contradict these possible and sympathtic portrayals - and nothing at all about how messed up the two men are that gets in the way of their competence and general badassery. Potentially spoilery content information: PTSD, discussions of torture, possibly triggery non-con 'scenes' - even though they're negotiated to within an inch of their lives, general violence. )
grydo2life: "As The World Turns" (Avengers. Phil & Pepper, Pepper/Tony, Phil/Clint. "“So, how’s the cellist?” Pepper asks." An unusual take on the "cellist," on what Phil and Pepper shared, and what came after. Short and...sweet, plus a perfectly believable Tony)
gwynhefar: the "Quiet of the Fall" series (Avengers. Clint/Phil. A three part series that begins with a summary that says "Waking up hadn’t been part of the plan," we're guided through the aftermath - and the 'fix' - of Phil's arc from the movie. A smart look at both Phil and Clint's povs - both of whom believe they've lost their partner - and an all-too-believable look at what might have been Nick Fury's machinations.)
Harkpad / Westgate (harkpad02 on LJ): "Recurve" (Avengers. Clint/Phil, with significant Natasha interaction, Barney Barton, others. "When the FBI comes to Clint for help finding Barney Barton, who has been an FBI agent for 10 years and has mysteriously disappeared, the past Clint has tried to escape invades his life. Phil & Natasha are there to help him through in their own ways, but when Barney's disappearance turns into something much bigger, Phil is sure Clint won't emerge unscathed." Set pre-Avengers, but the Phil/Clint relationship is an established one. Good plot and a good examination of Clint's psychological state as his past rears its ugly head. A bit of an abrupt end from my perspective, but the story still works well.)
isawet: "flying (just far enough) from the sun" (Avengers/Captain America/Iron Man. Steve/Pepper/Tony. "After the events of the film, Steve follows Tony home instead of Bruce." A bit of an AU, but the dynamics feel very canonically right. Good pacing, lovely - and believable - slow build to the relationship, and while not an easy story, it is an immensely satisfying one.)
lettered: "Or Even Rearrange You" (Iron Man. Pepper/Tony. "Tony and Pepper negotiate the beginnings of a romantic relationship. With sex." Just as it says in the summary. Good voices...and Tony is perfectly - canonically - unable to stop talking.)
often_adamanta (often_adamanta on LJ): "slipping through the years" (Captain America/Iron Man. Ghost!Steve, Tony - then Steve/Tony. "The plane crash and subsequent ice might have killed him, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still around, haunting those he cares about. And since the only person who can see him is Tony Stark, death sure isn’t going to be boring." Cleverly conceived and executed, with a really excellent Steve-as-a-ghost. Note: Ghost!Steve encounters Tony for the first time when he's just a baby, which is an issue if you have concerns about relationships that have their roots in massive age differences. It’s important to notte, though, that absolutely nothing happens between the two of them until Tony is an adult)
sabinelagrande (sabinetzin on DW): "Tell Me About Phil" (Avengers. Clint/Phil, Team. "Phil hasn't gone missing. Phil is gone. Clint is going after him." Post-movie, so spoilers for...that event. However, this isn't a simple "fix-it." Cleverly conceived and not at all what you might expect. Potentially spoilery content information: Appearances from non-Avengers Marvel characters. Drug use. Mental health issues. )
scifigrl47 (scifigrl47 on LJ) : "Phil Coulson's case Files of the Toasterverse" (Avengers. Steve/Tony and Clint/Phil, but the pairings aren’t really the focus of most of the stories. "Tony builds unfortunate AIs, Clint is a snarky little bastard, Coulson is the only person who is sane..." A less linear, but no less engaging companion series to "In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned by Nick Fury)." Same universe, same dynamics, and as with the other series, still technically incomplete, but the individual stories do stand alone perfectly well. A bit of old school ‘speechifying’ but some of the funniest moments I’ve ever read in fanfic. Like... crying with laughter funny.)
Sidney Sussex (sidneysussex on LJ): "Asenion" (Avengers. Phil, Clint...maybe Phil/Clint. For the summary, the author uses Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which...there are actually quite a lot of "Phil is a robot" stories in this fandom, but this is the first "Hawkeye is a robot" story I've encountered so far. Very AU'ish, as you’d expect, but it still feels like Phil and Clint.)
Sidney Sussex (sidneysussex on LJ): "So they could wake up in the future place" (Avengers. Phil-centric, future Phil/Clint. "In which Phil Coulson takes Extremis, and "affordable loss" is not a phrase that should ever be applied to Clint Barton." As the summary says - and very well done. For background information about 'Extremis' from the Marvel universe, click here)
Sidney Sussex (sidneysussex on LJ): "softly and suddenly vanish away" (Avengers. Phil/Clint. "There are more things they don't have words for than things they do, but they may be in need of a redefinition of some terms. Ones like dead, and alive, and okay." The story begins like this: "Operational mission failure" The words don't sound particularly frightening, but...yeah, they are - and for any other information, you can read the spoilers. although I'd suggest you let the story unfold naturally instead. Seriously. Potentially spoilery content information: You ignored my advice, eh? Okay, so...Clint and Phil are in a relationship. Phil dies during a mission. Technically. His consciousness - and some semblance of his physical self - continue on thanks to experimental nanotechnology. )
so_shhy (so_shhy on LJ): Don't Mention Demi Moore" (Avengers. Phil/Clint, Team, Others. "‘You’ll drown their roots, watering them that much,’ Phil says. / Given the circumstances, it’s not terribly surprising that Clint drops the coffee mug he’s been using to water the houseplants and jumps a foot backwards in sheer astonishment." Phil is dead...or is he. A really sweet, really nicely structured Ghost scenario)
StarTrekFanWriter: ”Blue” (Avengers/Thor. Darcy/Loki, Thor, Steve, Tony, others. “Whenever Loki shows up it means that Darcy's life is in flux. That doesn't mean she's unhappy to see him.” Starts shortly after the Avengers movie, with Darcy - from Thor - assigned to watch over a magically-depleted Loki under what is, in effect, house arrest. The story of their developing relationship - let’s call it friendship, at least at the start - spans decades, during which Darcy ages and Loki...doesn’t. And then the story develops a plot! Very insightful and smart, with a Loki who seems to be a mixture of movie and comic canons. Note: I don’t know if that’s intentional on the part of the author, but the characterization works extremely well!)
teh_helenables (teh_helenables on LJ; helena_eternal is the author's non-writing LJ): "They’re the ones that make it all worthwhile" (Avengers/Thor/Captain America. Steve/Loki, Team. "Five things Loki received out of friendship, and one thing he received out of love.. A lovely sequel to "Tell me the story of how you ended up here", recced early - and yes, you should read that story first to figure out how the heck Steve and Loki became friends. *g*)
theviolinist: "the war is over and we are beginning" (Hulk/Iron Man/Avengers. Tony/Pepper/Bruce. "I will provide for you shelter and wine / If you can prove that you are of my kind." Post-movie and concurrent with everybody's move into Stark Tower, Bruce finds himself...chosen. An interesting take on Bruce, in particular, especially as the relationship between the three of them becomes more established.)
thingswithwings (thingswithwings on DW): "you think you're the center of the universe" (Avengers/Iron Man/Hulk) Bruce/Tony/Pepper. "Tony likes to push his limits. Pepper and Bruce like to help." I'm usually not a pwp gal, but in this case, I'm making an exception. Sexy...and it made me laugh - although not at the same time *g* Very nicely done.)
torakowalski (torakowalski on LJ): "Something Quiet and Minor and Peaceful and Slow " (Avengers. Phil/Clint. "On a normal nights, it takes Phil three minutes, seventeen seconds to go from dressed to bed but tonight he’s working much slower than that, an unusual hesitance between movements." A quiet - but very much them - established relationship night together.)
webandwhiskers (webandwhiskers on tumblr): the "Proper Care and Feeding of Indefinable Things" series. This is a re-rec, now including individual stories that are crossovers with Resident Evil and Sherlock Holmes - BBC, among others, no doubt, but based on my zero knowledge of R.E., you absolutely needn't know the crossover sources to appreciate these fundamentally Avengers-centric stories. This series began primarily with Bruce/Natasha, but as it goes on, more pairings and more relationships are getting added, and the stories keep feeling right. Check the tags for pairings/threesomes, but if you're like me, all the combinations will work for you.)
Wynn (jwynn on LJ): ”The Super-Powered and Socially Useless Club” (Avengers. Steve, Team. “You are cordially invited to the Super-Powered and Socially Useless Club. Because such issues as ours must come with some benefit. In this case, alcohol. But your own, not mine. Even if I am a billionaire. Meetings the first of every month. You know where. Be there or be emotionally well-adjusted like Rogers.” Sweet, funny, touching, and even a little true.)
Harry Potter
Loten (loten on LJ, but that journal is mostly unused): "Chasing the Sun" (Snape/Hermione. "Hermione only wanted to learn Healing; she discovers that Professor Snape is a human being after all, and his actions dramatically shape the course of the war as events unfold." AU after Order of the Phoenix, and...it's so interesting how much can change - for the better - when Dumbledore isn't allowed to hold back so much information. Long and really engaging. Note: Severus and Hermione's relationship doesn't get underway until she's technically of age, but caveat lector if you're very cautious about underage issues.)
RPF - Actors
wendywatson: “You and Me and New York City” (Actor RPF. Jeremy Renner/Scarlett Johansson. “Jeremy has a list of concerns to work through before signing on to do "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Scarlett's got a list of reasons he should ignore them.” Lovely and exactly what I was in the mood to read on the day I found this story. Good voices - for certain values of ‘whatever I know of their real voices’ *g* - great sense of place, and the dynamic between Renner and Johansson is an excellent mix of banter and flirtation and sex and friendship. Note: as of this rec, there’s still a chance that Renner and Johansson might be performing together on Broadway in the spring of 2013. We’ll see. *crosses fingers*)
RPF - Hockey
staraflur (staraflur on LJ/laserpants on tumblr): "tied if we stay" (Hockey - Blackhawks. Toews/Kane. "It takes 140 characters or less and one absolute fucking moron to change Jon's entire life forever. / He should have known all along it would be Kaner. It always is." A "Bromance with benefits" that becomes public with the help of twitter. A great blend of real 'guy feelings' with real 'guy cluelessness.')
As I've noted before, I will clearly never catch up with old stories. If you have a favorite story (your own or somebody else's) that you think I might have missed and it's in a fandom that I've recced before (see my main recs page) and especially stories from one of the following fandoms: Avengers, Discworld, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Lewis, Sherlock Holmes in all varieties, or White Collar, feel free to leave a link below
Avengers
belmanoir (belmanoir on Dreamwidth): the "Flying From the Blast" series (Avengers/Thor. Loki&Thor, Loki/Tony, Everybody. "Thor and Loki go on the run together post-Avengers, road-trip across Australia, and get family therapy. Then Loki is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Avengers assemble." Asgardians in therapy is one of my favorite [non] guilty pleasures, and this is done very well. Smart and erotic and angry and psychologically powerful in turn, and...mind the content info --> Potentially spoilery content information: A great variety of things in individual stories from the series, including: Norse myth torture, suicidal ideation, alcohol abuse, kink - neither particularly safe or sane, past abuse.)
bendingwind (bendingwind on LJ): "Dreaming" (Avengers. Clint/Phil, Natasha, fury, others. "What if the person sleeping beside you was never who you thought he was?" I read the summary and then read the - often heart-wrenching - story without knowing more and that really worked for me. If you need to know more and not just let things unfold, check out my spoilers. I will say that while I really liked this story, I felt it could have stood to have been a little longer maybe, especially in the final section. Still, this is an original and a satisfying story. Potentially spoilery content information: Phil is...not Phil, at least some of the time in this story; he's a Skrull, a Marvel!verse alien that can take on others' appearances. And since there's an established relationship between Phil and Clint - or so Clint thinks - technically, we're looking at Dubious consent.)
cruelest_month (cruelestmonth on tumblr): the "5+1 Avenger Times" series (Avengers. Clint/Phil. Technically, this series is incomplete, but the two 'five times' stories that exist as of this rec are sweet, mostly domestic, and often funny stories about how Clint and Phil are generally "awesome, accommodating, and thoughtful boyfriends" - and sometimes aren't. *g*)
dentalfloss (dentalfloss on fanfiction.net): "The Damages We Keep" (Avengers. Clint, Phil, Team. "C/C prompt meme fill: injured in battle. Looking for whumpage! Hawkeye is wounded during a fight and doesn't let on; even afterwards he's hiding it. What's the injury, how bad is it, and just how pissed off is Phil when he discovers it?" Marked as "pre-slash" by the author, this story reads far more as Gen, but with exactly as much in the way of feelings as any relationship-centric story ever could. This is a well-constructed story about something I think about often: just how difficult is it for a non-superhuman to fight as a superhero.)
foxxcubb: the "Bulletproof" series (Avengers. Steve/Tony, Clint/Phil, Others. "College/University AU" Technically incomplete, but the two current stories both reach natural resting points. The first - eponymously titled "Bulletproof" - has this summary: "At age fifteen, Steve Rogers had been in love with Tony Stark. / By age twenty, he’d (mostly) gotten over it. And then he promptly became Tony Stark's fuck buddy," and the second - called "Launch Your Assault" - has this summary: "Phil Coulson was more than halfway through his six year plan, and everything was chugging along nicely. Unfortunately, he hadn’t foreseen a cocky junior Art major waltzing into his life, or his floor." They're...enjoyable! I'm not usually a college AU kind of reader, but both stories definitely work for me.)
gqgqqt (gqgqqt on tumblr): "Disclosures" (Avengers. Phil/Clint, Loki. "Phil Coulson is miserable, distrusted by most of SHIELD, and still doesn't remember why. / It's only going to get worse before it gets better." Full disclosure: through no fault of the author, it took me a while to become fully immersed in this story, but once it had a hold on me, the mystery surrounding Phil Coulson's strained relationship with Hawkeye was incredibly engaging. Note: due to the nature of this story, the author has provided a very specific outline that includes potential triggers here on tumblr. Do check it out if you think you might have any concerns. However, it is very spoilery, so if you don't want to be spoiler, caveat lector)
gqgqqt (gqgqqt on tumblr): "Margins" (Avengers. Phil/Clint...eventually. "Phil doesn’t know what, exactly, but something is wrong. / Clint shows up two hours late to work instead of the usual half-hour, and when he walks into the briefing room, he settles silently in his chair and sits perfectly still." so...this is less a romance and more a pre-relationship story in which Phil teaches himself how to tend to Clint, who's dealing with - in the words of the author - "an acute case of the bad kind of sub-drop." A relatively simple fic, but moving.)
gqgqqt (gqgqqt on tumblr): the "No Straight Lines" series (Avengers. Clint/Phil "Clint and Phil are a happy accident; happy, in that they're comfortable and safe together, and an accident, in that everything had to go horribly wrong to get them there in the first place." Three medium length established relationship stories featuring negotiated kink, followed by a much longer "how they got there" story set within a pre-Avengers timeframe. A slow, slow build toward the relationship - and the sex scenes lean slightly more to the 'psychologically satisfying' than the 'hot' side of the fence from my pov - but that works extremely well for this kind of tale. Here's the thing: all but the final story was written pre-Avengers and honestly, it's unlikely that both Clint and Phil are 'really' quite so damaged and fucked up as they are in this series, but they could be, i.e., there's nothing in canon to completely contradict these possible and sympathtic portrayals - and nothing at all about how messed up the two men are that gets in the way of their competence and general badassery. Potentially spoilery content information: PTSD, discussions of torture, possibly triggery non-con 'scenes' - even though they're negotiated to within an inch of their lives, general violence. )
grydo2life: "As The World Turns" (Avengers. Phil & Pepper, Pepper/Tony, Phil/Clint. "“So, how’s the cellist?” Pepper asks." An unusual take on the "cellist," on what Phil and Pepper shared, and what came after. Short and...sweet, plus a perfectly believable Tony)
gwynhefar: the "Quiet of the Fall" series (Avengers. Clint/Phil. A three part series that begins with a summary that says "Waking up hadn’t been part of the plan," we're guided through the aftermath - and the 'fix' - of Phil's arc from the movie. A smart look at both Phil and Clint's povs - both of whom believe they've lost their partner - and an all-too-believable look at what might have been Nick Fury's machinations.)
Harkpad / Westgate (harkpad02 on LJ): "Recurve" (Avengers. Clint/Phil, with significant Natasha interaction, Barney Barton, others. "When the FBI comes to Clint for help finding Barney Barton, who has been an FBI agent for 10 years and has mysteriously disappeared, the past Clint has tried to escape invades his life. Phil & Natasha are there to help him through in their own ways, but when Barney's disappearance turns into something much bigger, Phil is sure Clint won't emerge unscathed." Set pre-Avengers, but the Phil/Clint relationship is an established one. Good plot and a good examination of Clint's psychological state as his past rears its ugly head. A bit of an abrupt end from my perspective, but the story still works well.)
isawet: "flying (just far enough) from the sun" (Avengers/Captain America/Iron Man. Steve/Pepper/Tony. "After the events of the film, Steve follows Tony home instead of Bruce." A bit of an AU, but the dynamics feel very canonically right. Good pacing, lovely - and believable - slow build to the relationship, and while not an easy story, it is an immensely satisfying one.)
lettered: "Or Even Rearrange You" (Iron Man. Pepper/Tony. "Tony and Pepper negotiate the beginnings of a romantic relationship. With sex." Just as it says in the summary. Good voices...and Tony is perfectly - canonically - unable to stop talking.)
often_adamanta (often_adamanta on LJ): "slipping through the years" (Captain America/Iron Man. Ghost!Steve, Tony - then Steve/Tony. "The plane crash and subsequent ice might have killed him, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still around, haunting those he cares about. And since the only person who can see him is Tony Stark, death sure isn’t going to be boring." Cleverly conceived and executed, with a really excellent Steve-as-a-ghost. Note: Ghost!Steve encounters Tony for the first time when he's just a baby, which is an issue if you have concerns about relationships that have their roots in massive age differences. It’s important to notte, though, that absolutely nothing happens between the two of them until Tony is an adult)
sabinelagrande (sabinetzin on DW): "Tell Me About Phil" (Avengers. Clint/Phil, Team. "Phil hasn't gone missing. Phil is gone. Clint is going after him." Post-movie, so spoilers for...that event. However, this isn't a simple "fix-it." Cleverly conceived and not at all what you might expect. Potentially spoilery content information: Appearances from non-Avengers Marvel characters. Drug use. Mental health issues. )
scifigrl47 (scifigrl47 on LJ) : "Phil Coulson's case Files of the Toasterverse" (Avengers. Steve/Tony and Clint/Phil, but the pairings aren’t really the focus of most of the stories. "Tony builds unfortunate AIs, Clint is a snarky little bastard, Coulson is the only person who is sane..." A less linear, but no less engaging companion series to "In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned by Nick Fury)." Same universe, same dynamics, and as with the other series, still technically incomplete, but the individual stories do stand alone perfectly well. A bit of old school ‘speechifying’ but some of the funniest moments I’ve ever read in fanfic. Like... crying with laughter funny.)
Sidney Sussex (sidneysussex on LJ): "Asenion" (Avengers. Phil, Clint...maybe Phil/Clint. For the summary, the author uses Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which...there are actually quite a lot of "Phil is a robot" stories in this fandom, but this is the first "Hawkeye is a robot" story I've encountered so far. Very AU'ish, as you’d expect, but it still feels like Phil and Clint.)
Sidney Sussex (sidneysussex on LJ): "So they could wake up in the future place" (Avengers. Phil-centric, future Phil/Clint. "In which Phil Coulson takes Extremis, and "affordable loss" is not a phrase that should ever be applied to Clint Barton." As the summary says - and very well done. For background information about 'Extremis' from the Marvel universe, click here)
Sidney Sussex (sidneysussex on LJ): "softly and suddenly vanish away" (Avengers. Phil/Clint. "There are more things they don't have words for than things they do, but they may be in need of a redefinition of some terms. Ones like dead, and alive, and okay." The story begins like this: "Operational mission failure" The words don't sound particularly frightening, but...yeah, they are - and for any other information, you can read the spoilers. although I'd suggest you let the story unfold naturally instead. Seriously. Potentially spoilery content information: You ignored my advice, eh? Okay, so...Clint and Phil are in a relationship. Phil dies during a mission. Technically. His consciousness - and some semblance of his physical self - continue on thanks to experimental nanotechnology. )
so_shhy (so_shhy on LJ): Don't Mention Demi Moore" (Avengers. Phil/Clint, Team, Others. "‘You’ll drown their roots, watering them that much,’ Phil says. / Given the circumstances, it’s not terribly surprising that Clint drops the coffee mug he’s been using to water the houseplants and jumps a foot backwards in sheer astonishment." Phil is dead...or is he. A really sweet, really nicely structured Ghost scenario)
StarTrekFanWriter: ”Blue” (Avengers/Thor. Darcy/Loki, Thor, Steve, Tony, others. “Whenever Loki shows up it means that Darcy's life is in flux. That doesn't mean she's unhappy to see him.” Starts shortly after the Avengers movie, with Darcy - from Thor - assigned to watch over a magically-depleted Loki under what is, in effect, house arrest. The story of their developing relationship - let’s call it friendship, at least at the start - spans decades, during which Darcy ages and Loki...doesn’t. And then the story develops a plot! Very insightful and smart, with a Loki who seems to be a mixture of movie and comic canons. Note: I don’t know if that’s intentional on the part of the author, but the characterization works extremely well!)
teh_helenables (teh_helenables on LJ; helena_eternal is the author's non-writing LJ): "They’re the ones that make it all worthwhile" (Avengers/Thor/Captain America. Steve/Loki, Team. "Five things Loki received out of friendship, and one thing he received out of love.. A lovely sequel to "Tell me the story of how you ended up here", recced early - and yes, you should read that story first to figure out how the heck Steve and Loki became friends. *g*)
theviolinist: "the war is over and we are beginning" (Hulk/Iron Man/Avengers. Tony/Pepper/Bruce. "I will provide for you shelter and wine / If you can prove that you are of my kind." Post-movie and concurrent with everybody's move into Stark Tower, Bruce finds himself...chosen. An interesting take on Bruce, in particular, especially as the relationship between the three of them becomes more established.)
thingswithwings (thingswithwings on DW): "you think you're the center of the universe" (Avengers/Iron Man/Hulk) Bruce/Tony/Pepper. "Tony likes to push his limits. Pepper and Bruce like to help." I'm usually not a pwp gal, but in this case, I'm making an exception. Sexy...and it made me laugh - although not at the same time *g* Very nicely done.)
torakowalski (torakowalski on LJ): "Something Quiet and Minor and Peaceful and Slow " (Avengers. Phil/Clint. "On a normal nights, it takes Phil three minutes, seventeen seconds to go from dressed to bed but tonight he’s working much slower than that, an unusual hesitance between movements." A quiet - but very much them - established relationship night together.)
webandwhiskers (webandwhiskers on tumblr): the "Proper Care and Feeding of Indefinable Things" series. This is a re-rec, now including individual stories that are crossovers with Resident Evil and Sherlock Holmes - BBC, among others, no doubt, but based on my zero knowledge of R.E., you absolutely needn't know the crossover sources to appreciate these fundamentally Avengers-centric stories. This series began primarily with Bruce/Natasha, but as it goes on, more pairings and more relationships are getting added, and the stories keep feeling right. Check the tags for pairings/threesomes, but if you're like me, all the combinations will work for you.)
Wynn (jwynn on LJ): ”The Super-Powered and Socially Useless Club” (Avengers. Steve, Team. “You are cordially invited to the Super-Powered and Socially Useless Club. Because such issues as ours must come with some benefit. In this case, alcohol. But your own, not mine. Even if I am a billionaire. Meetings the first of every month. You know where. Be there or be emotionally well-adjusted like Rogers.” Sweet, funny, touching, and even a little true.)
Harry Potter
Loten (loten on LJ, but that journal is mostly unused): "Chasing the Sun" (Snape/Hermione. "Hermione only wanted to learn Healing; she discovers that Professor Snape is a human being after all, and his actions dramatically shape the course of the war as events unfold." AU after Order of the Phoenix, and...it's so interesting how much can change - for the better - when Dumbledore isn't allowed to hold back so much information. Long and really engaging. Note: Severus and Hermione's relationship doesn't get underway until she's technically of age, but caveat lector if you're very cautious about underage issues.)
RPF - Actors
wendywatson: “You and Me and New York City” (Actor RPF. Jeremy Renner/Scarlett Johansson. “Jeremy has a list of concerns to work through before signing on to do "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Scarlett's got a list of reasons he should ignore them.” Lovely and exactly what I was in the mood to read on the day I found this story. Good voices - for certain values of ‘whatever I know of their real voices’ *g* - great sense of place, and the dynamic between Renner and Johansson is an excellent mix of banter and flirtation and sex and friendship. Note: as of this rec, there’s still a chance that Renner and Johansson might be performing together on Broadway in the spring of 2013. We’ll see. *crosses fingers*)
RPF - Hockey
staraflur (staraflur on LJ/laserpants on tumblr): "tied if we stay" (Hockey - Blackhawks. Toews/Kane. "It takes 140 characters or less and one absolute fucking moron to change Jon's entire life forever. / He should have known all along it would be Kaner. It always is." A "Bromance with benefits" that becomes public with the help of twitter. A great blend of real 'guy feelings' with real 'guy cluelessness.')
As I've noted before, I will clearly never catch up with old stories. If you have a favorite story (your own or somebody else's) that you think I might have missed and it's in a fandom that I've recced before (see my main recs page) and especially stories from one of the following fandoms: Avengers, Discworld, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Lewis, Sherlock Holmes in all varieties, or White Collar, feel free to leave a link below
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-18 07:47 pm (UTC)(Thanks for the rest. I always find things to read in your recs :) )
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-18 07:53 pm (UTC)(and Blue...just had double quotation marks. *g* All fixed now.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-18 07:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-18 07:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-19 04:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-20 10:42 pm (UTC)I tried some random non-you links and the fics were utterly horrid vapid wish-fulfillment junk, so I appreciate these recs even more.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-20 10:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-23 12:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-23 01:20 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, I have no idea how I became such an adherent of that ship (and believe me, I was wary of it at first, worrying that I was just falling into some kind of no-foundation cliched pairing trap, if you know what I mean), but I really like both characters, and beyond the lack of any overt shared *face* time in the movies, there's a huge amount of utterly believable shared background time that isn't at all contradicted by canon. They work for the same organization, they work together (in more than one movie), they have a shared relationship with Natasha, and...okay, I like super-spy mission dynamics. It's why I also like Clint/Natasha, even though my recs don't seem to be reflecting that much yet.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-23 05:19 pm (UTC)And this is slightly unrelated, but in my admittedly limited reading of this pairing, I've noticed that authors seem to go easier on Nick Fury. In a lot of Avengers Mansion-type fic, Fury is often the mean parent-type who shows up to crash your party and pour your alcohol down the drain. But he doesn't get such a bad rap in Coulson fic since they work so closely together, and I really like that.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-23 05:26 pm (UTC)I really wish I could find some more Fury-centric fic that I really liked, incidentally. I found one Phil/Nick established relationship story that I recced a while back, but great Fury gen or Fury/Hill would please me (if you come across anything you really love, let me know, if you remember - preferably not pwps though)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-23 08:51 pm (UTC)Oooh, Fury/Hill--I never thought about that pairing but it sounds delicious. Speaking of which! I have on my To Write list a fic in which Fury and Steve hang out in New York together. According to Wikipedia, comics!Fury was also born some time around 1920, but has been taking the Infinity Formula to retard the aging process. I am sure they have lots to talk about. Of course, if anyone wanted to write it who was not me, they should totally do that.
Blue
Date: 2012-09-06 09:45 pm (UTC)-startrekfanwriter
Re: Blue
Date: 2012-09-07 03:53 am (UTC)