eratoschild ([personal profile] eratoschild) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-06-07 05:45 pm

Trails of Cold Steel: Moon Door IV: Beyond

Fandom: Trails of Cold Steel
Pairings/Characters:
Laura S. Arseid/Duvalie, Ines/Ennea, Victor S. Arseid/McBurn
appearances by other assorted Cold Steel characters and hints of other ships Rating: M
Length: 22442 words
Creator Links: Rosie_Rues
Theme:
Grief/Mourning, Dreamsharing, Recovery, Enemies to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, changing roles in life, loss of limb
Summary: With the Great Twilight over, Duvalie follows Laura home to Legram. She's not entirely sure why she's here, or when she's going to leave, but she can't bring herself to regret her choice.

Meanwhile, Victor's dreaming of the only man in the universe still willing to offer him a challenge...

Reccer's Notes: While I have read this fic several times, the most recent was some time ago, I always remember it as being roughly half of one ship and half of another- I note this here because one of those ships is M/M. In my rereading, I see the balance is more 2/3 to 1/3, with the bulk of it being the theme-compliant Laura/Duvalie, who begins as something of a lost and reluctant guest in Laura's home in the wake of the loss of the woman who saved her. The emotional metamorphosis of Duvalie's canonical hostility towards Laura- already very much blunted as the story opens, turn to friendship and later towards attraction is an absolute treasure. There are many smaller moments of many relationships of varying sorts between her and otter female characters throughout the story, some of which absolutely beg for stories of their own.

The M/M ships is Victor/McBurn, and they are a prominent part of the story- really a story occurring in parallel, but separately- until it suddenly isn't. While I don't want to dwell on them in this post as they are not germane to the theme, it bears mentioning that they are there in case they would turn anyone off from reading. But I will say that their development is quite astounding, a sword master who has lost an arm, a god who has lost his world and any connection to it and what they become to each other.

This fic deals with grief in many forms, over many different kinds of loss, from loss of friends, comrades in arms, loss of a limb, loss of connection to oneself and an entire world. It's all very sensitively written, and even the absolutely fantastical loss of a god from another dimension with his entire world somehow becomes much less fantastical than one might expect.

There are also themes of many different changes in life that come with time passing and with dealing with these griefs. Oh, and the very cracky-sounding, but utterly sincerely dealt with coping with the shock of learning that your father is banging the demon god from another dimension. (that needs to be a tag, ok)

This is just one of my favorite ever fics, by one of my favorite authors.
Fanwork Links: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45897169
mific: (TV (old))
mific ([personal profile] mific) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-06-07 11:22 pm

Taskmaster: Team of Sue by thingswithwings

Fandom: Taskmaster (series 16)
Characters/Pairings: Sue Perkins/Susan Wokoma
Rating: Gen
Length: 00:02:06
Content Notes: no archive warnings apply, and there are no video-specific warnings.
Creator Links: thingswithwings on AO3
Themes: Female relationships, Friendship, Team, Humor

Summary: If you're lost, you can look, and you will find me.

Reccer's Notes: This is gorgeous and hilarious as the Sues stumble about carrying out the endless ridiculous tasks, laughing, triumphant, and always there for each other.

Fanwork Links: Team of Sue

snycock: (grinning)
PsychGirl ([personal profile] snycock) wrote in [community profile] ts_bluejungle2025-06-06 09:24 pm

Weekly chat reminder

Please join us for the weekly TS chat on Saturday, June 7th, at 7 pm Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)/19:00 UTC. That could be as early as 12 pm if you’re on the west coast of North America, or 3 pm if you’re on the east coast, or 8 pm in the UK, or early Sunday morning in Australia or New Zealand.

 

We’re in the usual place: http://us25.chatzy.com/81935648447483. There’s nothing to download or install, just choose a name and a color and click on “join chat.”

 

Normally we’d do an episode watch since it’s the first Saturday of the month, but I’m going to postpone it to July as I’ve got family in town. So a topic instead – let’s talk about zoning. Do you think this is something that Jim eventually learns to control, or is he always susceptible to having one of his senses get overwhelmed. Do you think he can pull himself out or does he have to have Blair? And what do you think the weirdest/grossest thing he’s ever zoned on it?

 

See you there!

 


nuh_s: Photo of the Toy Soldier looking up at a blue sky. It is pale with a drawn-on mustache and red lapels on its black jacket. (Default)
nuh_s ([personal profile] nuh_s) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-06-03 05:56 pm

King Falls AM: the gallery of our bones by ryyves

Fandom: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Pairings/Characters: Lily Wright & Pippa James, Jack Wright & Lily Wright
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 8,492
Content Notes: Alcoholism, Missing Persons, Grief/Mourning
Creator Links: ryyves' Ao3
Theme: Female Relationships, Character Study, Angst

Summary:

Spoilers for King Falls AM episode 68, set before the first King Falls Chronicles (ep 56-57).

It’s far from the last email Lily gets about King Falls. Sometimes the name is hidden in postscripts, sometimes bright as highways at midnight, and every time it catches in Lily’s heart like a frightened canary, yellow and waning.

Lily doesn’t delete them, not one. She files them away in a quiet folder of her work email, so she doesn’t have to see them in her inbox. There are things that can be said with distance, and this is one of them: that if she deleted every mention of King Falls, she would delete every rope thrown to Jack. Every hope, or something that runs even deeper.

Some fear, perhaps, that she is not where she is supposed to be.

Or: Pippa puts up with way more of Lily's shit than she should have to.


Reccer's Notes: This is such a wonderful character study that explores Lily's character and gives her and Pippa's friendship a spotlight. The writing style is beautiful as well.

Fanwork Links: the gallery of our bones
kingstoken: (Rowena with wings art)
kingstoken ([personal profile] kingstoken) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-06-03 08:08 pm

Ghosts (US): you drew stars around my scars by OpalEssence

Fandom: Ghosts (US)
Pairings/Characters: Hetty & Flower
Rating: G
Length: 708 words
Creator Links: OpalEssence 
Theme: female relationships

Summary: Following Season 2, Episode 5, when Hetty meets Molly the maid, she must attempt to come to terms with the fact that Elias' betrayal was entirely of his own will and desire. Luckily, Flower is there to help her move forward.

Reccer's Notes: The author of this fic does a great job capturing how these characters speak, especially Flower.  It is a reflective, but wholesome scene, one that I could have very much seen playing out in the show.

Fanwork Links: AO3
full_metal_ox: Escher’s “Print Gallery” as a rotating TV image. (TV)
full_metal_ox ([personal profile] full_metal_ox) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-06-03 12:00 am

“Dark Lady” (Cher song), Barbie: Dark Lady by Cher Dollmation, by Warren Wright (fanvid.)

Fandom: “Dark Lady” (Cher song), Barbie
Pairings/Characters: F/M; F vs. F; Narrator/Narrator’s Partner, Narrator & Madame Fifi (with Madame Fifi/Narrator UST?), Madame Fifi/Narrator’s Partner
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 3:24
Content Notes: Major Character Death, anti-Romani stereotyping (including the bad word), arson, (toy) Clothing Porn, corny boomer music, dominance-jockeying, infidelity, hootchy-kootch dancing, love triangle, murder, occultism, psychic malpractice, (toy) Scenery Porn, please tell us the cat survived?
Creator Tags: cher, darklady, barbiestopmotion, stopmotion, animation, megotoys, barbie

Creator Links: (YouTube): [youtube.com profile] 74renren; (Instagram): [instagram.com profile] Warrencito

Theme: Female Relationships, Fanvid, Old Fandoms, Non-AO3 Works, Unconventional Format & Style

Summary: A stop motion tribute to the Cher hit “Dark Lady” done with vintage Barbie and Cher dolls with other special guests.



Reccer's Notes: The list of Content Notes should suffice to explain why this song was embraced by a particular sort of overwrought 70’s kid (1); Wright reimagines the cartoon music video that aired on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.

(1) Me, for example. Disclaimer: the song has become a guilty pleasure in retrospect not because of its melodramatic nature, but because of the realization that Romani probably caught a lot of grief over it.)


Fanwork Links: Dark Lady by Cher Dollmation, by Warren Wright.
starwatcher: Western windmill, clouds in background, trees around base. (Default)
StarWatcher ([personal profile] starwatcher) wrote2025-06-01 11:55 pm
Entry tags:

Quantum Bang is live

 

For those who don't know, Quantum Bang is a super-sized version of Big Bang (fic productions, not the TV show). Stories are written in a variety of fandoms, and most are epic in length, with a number of art illustrations. Some will eventually appear on AO3, but some remain only on the QB site.

For the next two weeks, two (or sometimes three) stories will be posted each day. Here's a list of the titles, and what fandom is represented, that will be posted.

https://quantumbang.org/2025-posting-schedule/

Every year I tell myself to let people know, and every year I fritter away the time. This year, I'm finally taking a minute to actually make a post. And if you don't see anything that piques your interest, click on the Fiction Index to check out stories from the past six years.

Happy reading!

 
garryowen: (trek enterprise)
garryowen ([personal profile] garryowen) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-06-01 06:38 pm

Star Trek AOS: Once Upon a Time by igrockspock

Fandom: Star Trek AOS (Reboot)
Pairings/Characters: Gaila & Christine Chapel
Rating: Teen
Length: 4,185 words
Creator Links: [archiveofourown.org profile] igrockspock
Theme: Female relationships

Summary: Privacy and fairy tales are two concepts that don't translate well into Orion.

Content notes: This is about Gaila, so there are mentions of enslavement and prostitution.

Reccer's Notes: I am fascinated by stories of how people come to Starfleet and what it must be like to meet people from such disparate backgrounds. This story approaches this subject with grace as Gaila and Christine Chapel become roommates at Starfleet Academy and must figure out each other's very different values and expectations. By opening up to each other, they forge a friendship. I like how creative the author is in describing Gaila's background and culture. The cultural exchange never feels heavy-handed. It's conveyed with tiny, realistic details like borrowing things from someone else's desk.

In addition to the cultural exchange element, the story weaves in ideas of resilience and having the power to change your life.

Fanwork Links: Once Upon a Time. And the WONDERFUL podfic by nickelmountain.
full_metal_ox: A gold Chinese Metal Ox zodiac charm. (Default)
full_metal_ox ([personal profile] full_metal_ox) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-06-01 02:28 pm

Mo Dao Zu Shi; Chen Qing Ling: Advance and Retreat, by Zdenka.

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi, Chen Qing Ling
Pairings/Characters: F/F; Madam Jin/Yu Ziyuan; Madam Jin, Yu Ziyuan, Jiang Cheng
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 600
Content Notes: adultery (mentioned), angst, arranged marriage, bereavement, generational trauma, heteronormativity, marriage politics, possible (unexpressed) adult-> minor pining
Creator Tags: 5+1 Things, Drabble Sequence, Zǐdiàn (Módào Zǔshī) - Freeform, Canonical Character Death, Socially Imposed Heterosexual Marriage, Background Relationships
Creator Links: (AO3): [archiveofourown.org profile] Zdenka
Theme: Female Relationships, Arranged Marriage, 5+1, Mutual Pining, Pining

Summary:

Five times Madam Jin saw Zidian on Yu Ziyuan's hand, and one time she saw it on her son's.

Notes:

Written for femslashfete for the prompt "artifact."


Reccer's Notes: Zdenka manages to cram so much into 600 words: an exquisitely painful soromance fulfillable only through generational proxy, imposed in turn—and the reader has the added pang of knowing what’s going to become of that couple.


Fanwork Links: Advance and Retreat, by [archiveofourown.org profile] Zdenka.
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
Punk ([personal profile] runpunkrun) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-06-01 09:11 am

Round 175: Female Relationships

Photograph with added text: Female Relationships, at Fancake. Four old Nepalese women sit together on a low brick wall, their feet dangling, most of them barefoot, their shoes kicked off below them. They're dressed in loose patterned fabrics in various shades of red and the mood is relaxed.
Our theme for June is female relationships!

That's any kind of relationship—platonic, romantic, professional, familial, adversarial—between characters who identify as female.

The tag for this round is: theme: female relationships

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! )

Posting Template! )

Promote this round! )

snycock: (grinning)
PsychGirl ([personal profile] snycock) wrote in [community profile] ts_bluejungle2025-05-30 11:22 pm

Weekly chat reminder

Please join us for the weekly TS chat on Saturday, May 31st, at 7 pm Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)/19:00 UTC. That could be as early as 12 pm if you’re on the west coast of North America, or 3 pm if you’re on the east coast, or 8 pm in the UK, or early Sunday morning in Australia or New Zealand.

 

We’re in the usual place: http://us25.chatzy.com/81935648447483. There’s nothing to download or install, just choose a name and a color and click on “join chat.”

 

It’s a fifth Saturday this week, so it’s time for Pimp Your Fandom. What have you been reading or watching lately that you want to share about, and why would TS fans enjoy it?

 

See you there!

 


mific: (Shep - oh crap)
mific ([personal profile] mific) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-05-30 10:32 pm

SGA: Your Inevitable Unhappy Ending by Helenish

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Rating: Explicit
Length: 14,383
Content Notes: mild, essentially harmless exploitation of a baby by Rodney (the baby's well cared for)
Creator Links: Helenish on AO3, dodificus on AO3, dodificus on the Audiofic Archive
Themes: Angst with a happy ending, Kidfic (has a child), Pining, First time, Friends to lovers, AU: fork in the road

Summary: It was easy to imagine fucking Rodney, the way he'd groan and clutch at John's arms and be too bossy about the whole thing; it was easy to imagine the problems it could cause.

Reccer's Notes: This is a cut off from Earth AU with the focus on John Sheppard's angst, pining and denial, but the ending, contrary to the title, is not unhappy. We follow John who's unwillingly and increasingly attracted to Rodney (but initially there's no way he'd ever let Rodney know). John tries to pretend he doesn't have feelings for Rodney while being tormented by jealousy, especially when Rodney temporarily cares for a refugee baby, partly as a "chick magnet". Helenish writes pining, self-deluding John brilliantly and this is another tour de force, packed with plot, UST, frustration, humor, and finally, finally, a happy ending, even though they're squabbling and miscommunicating throughout.

Fanwork Links: Your Inevitable Unhappy Ending on AO3
And the podfic read by dodificus is here
starwatcher: Western windmill, clouds in background, trees around base. (Default)
StarWatcher ([personal profile] starwatcher) wrote2025-05-28 10:55 am
Entry tags:

Unfortunate Timing

 
So, most of you know that I visit Cindy most afternoons. (She doesn't always feel well enough for a visit.) Somewhere in the past couple of years, we switched from watching Lucifer and me reading fanfic, to me reading novels.

Cindy prefers romantic suspense, or action-adventure-romance. Other genres are okay, if there's at least a little M/F love interest. Sometimes, of course, there's more than a little.

Now, picture this: Cindy's lying in bed. I'm reading aloud, with my voice a little louder than normal, because Cindy's hearing is decreased. Her husband Carl may be shopping, or at the shooting range, but is usually doing housework or woodwork. Occasionally he comes into the bedroom for something he needs, or to tell Cindy something.

So, he's barefoot, walking down a carpeted hall; we don't know he's coming until he appears in the doorway. And, far too often, he appears -- and has heard as he approaches the doorway -- just as I'm reading a slightly (or more than slightly) salacious line.

Yesterday, it was, "Locating a skull had been difficult, Amelia reflected, but finding a codpiece had been considerably more of a challenge." He literally appeared at the doorway just as I said, "codpiece."

*facepalm*

We all had a good laugh; Cindy and Carl aren't at all stuffy, and Carl likes to tease about things like that. (He said, "Yeah, it would be!") But still, I'd rather he walked in a couple of sentences earlier, when I was reading, "It showed another extremely handsome young man dressed in the ancient Italian style."

Good grief! Who knew reading aloud could be dangerous?

(The book is Second Sight by Amanda Quick, aka Jayne Ann Krentz. Set in the late 1890's, a woman photographer is making a series of art photographs of "Men of Shakespeare." The skull was for Hamlet, the codpiece for Romeo. That's not the point of the book, but the mystery centers around photography, so her work is discussed.)
 
starwatcher: Western windmill, clouds in background, trees around base. (Default)
StarWatcher ([personal profile] starwatcher) wrote2025-05-28 10:10 am
Entry tags:

Cozy Mystery sale

 

https://fairfieldpublishing.com/cozy-mystery-sale-may-2025/

For 99 cents, a selection of Cozy mysteries, and some series. As far as I can tell, the sale ends Saturday at midnight, USA mountain time, Greenwich -7. (There's a countdown clock on my page. I have no idea if that's adjusted for different time-zones, or the same for everyone.) Happy reading.

 
mific: Sepia pic john sheppard and rodney mckay leaning heads together, serious (McShep - intense)
mific ([personal profile] mific) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-05-27 03:29 pm

SGA: How the Millers Relaxed and Learned to Love Rodney by sardonicsmiley

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Jeannie Miller, Kaleb Miller, Madison Miller
Rating: Teen
Length: 5753
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: sardonicsmiley on AO3
Themes: Angst with a happy ending, Family, Established relationship

Summary: Sooner or later, Rodney just gets under your skin.

Reccer's Notes:
The angst in this one isn't romantic, as John and Rodney's relationship (shown indirectly) is solid. No, this is about the fraught relationship Rodney has with his sister, Jeannie, who often gives him a hard time in canon and teases or belittles him. In this story we see a series of visits back to Earth where John and Rodney stay at Jeannie's, with John increasingly fed up with how Jeannie treats Rodney and finally letting her know. There's some very nice steely-eyed John here, and Rodney is both a BAMF and absolutely there for his family. The ending is happy, with Jeannie finally fully supportive in return. A great read.

Fanwork Links: How the Millers Relaxed and Learned to Love Rodney (With A Little Help from John Sheppard)