The first three years of the rebooted ongoing mission. Destiny forced them back onto the right track but everything else takes work. Things come together and fall apart and come back together, over and over until it turns into a habit. Until the road stretches far up ahead, no matter what the obstacles along the way. [Kirk/Spock by the end, past Uhura/Spock, but mostly the story of Jim, his crew, his captaincy and his ship]

Summary: In which we see the occasional triumphs, but mostly the trials, of Kirk’s first three years as captain of the Enterprise.

Review: This was somewhat episodic, with various threats and plots threading in and out of the overall story, but the emotional undercurrent that runs through it is focused and shockingly relentless, occasionally surging up to deliver terrifyingly direct punches to your heart and stomach. I sometimes talk about how much I like humor that’s continually surprising laughs out of me, and, well, this fic is the OUCH MY HEART inverse of that. But it turns out I love those kinds of surprises just as much. This astonishes no one, I’m sure. But this fic, for all its melancholy turns, is full to the brim with heart, and that makes it worth the read, pains and all.

When Blaine joined the acolytes of Aphrodite, there was respect for the art of matchmaking. Admittedly, that was a long time ago. These days, helping people recognise true love is a lot harder. (AU, set early s2. No spoilers.)

Summary: In which Blaine is a millennia-old servant of Aphrodite who’s assigned Finn and Rachel, and Kurt is himself and a beguiling complication for Blaine.

Review: So this was perfect. A wonderful idea that is wonderfully executed.

Other notes: Happy Valentine’s Day! <3

It is the year 2419. Or at least, that’s the year that Blaine Anderson had his last transmission from the space station. Now he’s floating through deep space as his suit systems slowly shut down, with only two years of oxygen left.

Summary: In which Blaine is an astronaut who gets cut off from his deep space mission chasing after an alien life form, and after over a year of floating alone, he finally meets the being he’s been looking for forever.

Review: This is a strange and beautifully compelling mixture of music, sci-fi, and mythology references all coming together to tell a really lovely story of an unlikely and soul-deep connection. I’m not sure that all of its choices worked as well as others might have (multiple counts of memory loss may be true to the genre, but I still found it grating), yet what it accomplished with those choices really, really worked for me. Without saying that it was a perfectly executed fic, I have to give it credit for accomplishing something much harder to nail down in a review: I think this is one of those stories that imprints on your imagination, the kind that truly stays with you, that makes your dreams bigger and stranger than they were before.

Sometime around mid summer, during the intervening weeks of baseball camp and recovering from baseball camp and the latest Minecraft update, Jinx hops up the plastic step stool to their bed and says, “Derek’s daemon won’t talk to me.”

Summary: In which Stiles’ daemon talks too much, Derek’s doesn’t talk at all, but they all have to work together to stop a supernatural being who kills by hurting other people’s daemons.

Review: A plotty story with a deft touch that was refreshing in its subtlety and ultimately very sweet in its payoff.

Blaine Anderson meets his best friend when he’s in Kindergarten. He doesn’t know it yet but it’s also when he meets the love of his life.

Summary: In which they meet as children, and we see them grow up together through fourteen years of Christmases.

Review: Painfully adorable, frequently hilarious, and, overall, very dangerous to both your oral and emotional health. But I can promise you will smile all the way into your early grave.

When Henry Bennet, only son and heir to an eccentric country squire, crosses paths with Catherine Darcy of Pemberley, she publicly insults him and runs interference in his sister’s romance. Naturally, proposals, matchmaking messes, an elopement, an abundance of mixed signals, and massive misunderstandings ensue.

Review: Wow, this was an absolute delight. Elizabeth as an infinitely sociable gentleman and Darcy as an indomitably calculating lady makes for just as fun a dynamic as when their genders are flipped, and an unmissable and wonderful closing tableau.

It’s a big city for one more lost soul in a mask. Superhero AU.

Summary: In which Kurt is the masked hero of New York City, the Ghost, and Blaine is a long time fan and secret fellow super who can’t quite stay out of the Ghost’s way.

Review: What a ridiculously sprawling, ridiculously emotional, ridiculously wonderful fic. Action packed and full of terrible musings on the horrible things that go on in the world, this fic is a deeply conscientious meditation on what exactly it is that superheroes take on when they take up a mask. It’s a fic that is about both crushing responsibility and infinite kindness, both the difficulties of survival and the things that make life worth that struggle. And above that, it’s about the astonishing power of love, how it connects and communicates and heals on both a micro and a macro scale. Rainjoy, who is prolific and breathtaking in general, went beyond the call of duty to deliver this behemoth to the best of her ability, and she somehow accomplished it in regular, sanity-friendly installments. For that alone, I’d say it deserves all of the attention and love and response that has been generated by its fans, but it is also an objectively fascinating verse, and such a very beautiful story.

The life and times of Leonard H. McCoy MD/PhD … If Leonard McCoy’s life could get any fucking weirder, it would be … Jesus, he didn’t even want to think what that could possibly mean, because it’s already been too fucking weird to make any kind of rational sense.

Summary: In which Leo Mccoy has had a hard life, but becoming Kirk’s Bones changes it in some beautiful, and some awful, and all irrevocable ways.

Review: Absolutely SPRAWLING Academy(-and-beyond!) fic that details Bones and Kirk’s friendship and gradual (cough) progression to something more as it takes place during and after the events of the movie. And it is such a beautiful sprawl, with so much depth and thought and feeling and actual plot measured into it, the whole thing flies by at light speed (pun not intended). The absolutely epic levels of pining taking place make you feel every one of its 200,000+ words, though. But it is a truly breathtaking brick of a fanfic, I have to say.

Other notes: The current installment is an early stages WIP that I suspect is going to be very sad and hard, but there is already a very hopeful and healing fic set after it ready to soothe any anxious feathers.

A love story concerning possessed furniture, black silk pyjamas, courtroom drama, premonitions of doom, assassination attempts, Death Eater yoga, absinthe, bare feet and a sensible werewolf.

Summary: In which Draco is a Seer and Doomed, Harry is an Auror and Determined, and there are lots of words spoken and letters written and assassination attempts diverted and prejudgments shattered, and also one very uniquely disturbing incident of voyeurism. Plus, a murderous armchair. Sort of.

Review: A classic of the Harry/Draco fandom, and a formative fic for me personally. It uses multiple mediums to pitch perfect effect, is wonderfully clever with both dialogue and one-liners, has a really dynamic relationship arc, and delves into fascinating places with its in-world speculation re: book 7/final battle outcomes (old school!) and more general magical theory. Plus, I mean, all the push-pull of the enforced closeness of a 24/7 bodyguard situation… that’s something I absolutely can’t resist ever, and I know that’s partially because this fic showed me how great it could be. The Draco contained within is a bit dated, very much the disaffected aristocrat characterization that I feel the fandom eventually outgrew, but it really is the absolute best of its place and time.

Other notes: Podfic by the incomparable FayJay, who takes an audible delight digging into Draco’s drawl.

Superhero AU. Blaine’s nearing his graduation from the Eastern University of Superheroics and needs to start getting things together for when he goes out into the world and starts working as a hero for real. Part of that? Suiting up in some crime-fighting couture from the prestigious K. Elizabeth Style & Fittings.

Summary: In which Blaine is a young graduate of Super U getting started in his hero career, and Kurt is the man who’s going to help him dress for success (among other things, ohoho).

Review: So this is pretty much the best thing ever? So good for me, you can’t even know. Clever and delightful and just AMAZING world-building and power choices and character dynamics, etc etc dreamy sigh etc.

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