straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2024-08-01 08:29 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2024-08-01 08:29 pm
Entry tags:
281 | brief Battleship 2024 thoughts + many many recs! (both art + fic)
Dropping by with a lot of recs for Battleship 2024! I had so much fun this year—I was on Team Crystal, and it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had with Battleship, which is saying something, considering that it’s been my favorite fandom event since I first joined in back in 2022!
(…I also sacrificed far more sleep to the game than I ever have before;;; The number of nights with <5 hours of sleep were… not nonzero. But each and every one of them was absolutely worth it <3)
We’re still in the anon period currently—it’s a two week anon period rather than the usual one, which I was grateful for, because with a collection of over 2000 works*, including four million words of fic, over 300 pieces of art, and nearly 200 podfics, I definitely needed that time to make my way through it!
(*More than Yuletide! Created in a barely-longer-than-two-weeks period! We truly all lost our collective minds/chill this year, and it was great <3)
I “only” read about 200K of those words, according to my reading & media tracking spreadsheet, but it still took some days to get through it all, haha. And who knows how much art I looked at…
But there truly were so many amazing gems in the collection. For the sake of making this long list somewhat comprehensible, I’m going to be splitting this up into several sections: my gifts, then my personal top three works (both fic and art) that made me absolutely lose my mind in the best way, then the rest of my fic recs, and finally the rest of my art recs, all organized alphabetically by fandom.
*
First off, my gifts! If you only read one of them, please please please let it be this one:
blood like a ribbon in the water (Original Works, OFC/Mermaid, 2.3K)
Han Ya is sixteen when she’s married to a scholar who spent more time with his paintings than his family.
She’s seventeen when a rich merchant wheels a jiaoren who can cry pearl tears into the main square of their town.
It’s so good! So thoughtful and smart! The vibes and aesthetics are so on-point, and if you love historical settings and explorations of class divides and what it means to exist as a woman within the context of those societies, and also MERMAIDS, please check it out. The main character is the daughter of a fisherman, and the way that informs her experiences with and understanding of the world (as well as her reaction to MERMAID) was just delicious.
(If you’re worried about any of the tagged warnings and want non-spoilery details on what they entail before diving in, feel free to ask!)
I also got this lovely Sakura time travel fic featuring grief/mourning, my beloved—
they say a dozen years ago (she could've passed for me) (Naruto, Sakura/Hashirama, 3.9K)
Six months after Uzumaki Mito's death, Sakura is camped out in the Iron Country Wilderness with Senju Hashirama bleeding out under her hands.
— as well as this Stardew Valley fic as a late treat:
If glowing mushrooms aren't sold at a store near you, scavenged from a sewer is fine (Stardew Valley, Krobus & Abigail + Krobus & Caroline, 2.9K)
Krobus is having a pleasant walk when a human he's never seen before accidentally falls into the sewers. Luckily Krobus knows exactly where to find the secret ingredient she's searching for.
—which features the loveliest mushroom tea-drinking scene in the world at the end, and now I need all the Caroline & Krobus friendship fics.
And I also received two Scum Villain ficlets: moshang ritual sex and 79 soulmate goose shenanigans!
*
Next up, my top favorites. This is not to say that I didn’t love and adore the other things I’m reccing below as well, but these three things truly made me lose my mind. So much (internal) screaming and (external) flailing and oh my god, I can’t believe these were created in this short period of time???
*
i'll paint you mornings of gold (Labyrinth, Jareth/Sarah, 10.7K)
It started slowly. Slowly enough to creep unnoticed until the roots are too deep to dig out, until he had seeds for marrow, sap for blood, and there was no undoing it anymore. If he was weak, it was because the Labyrinth was still recovering; if his lungs felt tight, then it was because of that bitter taste of defeat. It was only one morning, when he woke amongst the broken ruins of his castle, cradled in torn sheets of spidersilk and sunlight, that the pain was so sharp, so tight, that he turned to the side and retched - and then there was the taste of sweet nectar on his tongue. And petals, small things, innocent as any flower could be, clinging to his throat, to the roof of his mouth, to the backs of his teeth.
So he orders the ivy burnt. The roses beheaded. The lilies torn by the roots.
No flower will live in his Labyrinth, after this.
Aka, the fic where Jareth develops hanahaki post-canon. Aka, the fic that I read over breakfast Saturday morning and then proceeded to develop a fic hangover that very much got in the way of my plans to devour my way through the collection.
The worldbuilding? Utterly perfect—both with how the hanahaki is intertwined with the worldbuilding of the Labyrinth, and how the hanahaki itself is handled, with elements I’ve never seen before but work so perfectly in this context. Characterization? Also fantastic. I love being in this Jareth’s head, and their take on Sarah is so so so perfect. The writing is lush and vivid and wonderful, the progression of the relationship dynamics superbly paced, and in short, I cannot believe a fic this long and this well-polished was created within the constraints of Battleship.
*
six foot hole inside my chest (Original Works, Crown Princess/Her Bastard Half-Brother, 11.3K)
That ought to have been mine, he thinks, before he can stop himself. He cannot stop the next thought either. That would’ve been mine, if not for an accident of birth. Zhao Shang’en doesn’t deserve it.
But life in Huaxia’s court is never simple and ultimately, Lu Wenjing and Zhao Shang’en find more in common with each other than their shared blood.
Or: Lu Wenjing returns from his border post after earning military glory and ends up engaged to his younger half sister.
This was not written for me, but it feels like it could have been! Or, to steal a phrase from the comment I left on this fic, it feels like the Totally Mysterious Author went, “hm, I want to craft a sibling dynamic that straightforwardly will find super iddy and lose her mind over”, and then went and reached straight into my mind to pull out all the elements needed to succeed at that goal. They’re so vividly characterized, with histories and ambitions and motivations all their own, and the sibling dynamics are so complex and nuanced and fascinating. Similar to the Labyrinth fic, I’m in awe that a story like this was crafted within the constraints of Battleship; it’s utterly fantastic, and I’m going to be rereading this approximately 100000000000 times in the future.
*
The Pokedecks (Pokémon Main Games, Various, Art)
★ The Pokedecks: Mind, Body, Spirit
★ The Pokedecks: Past, Present, Future
★ The Pokedecks: You, Your Path, Your Potential
★ The Pokedecks: Situation, Obstacle, Advice
★ The Pokedecks: Challenges, Overcoming Obstacles, Goals
—arguably cheating by counting this as “one” work, since it was posted across multiple AO3 works, but it feels like one work in my heart, in that it’s clearly the same artist creating sets of three based on a united theme!
And what STUNNING work this is. Basically, these are Pokémon-themed tarot cards, and they are truly works of art. I love the papercraft-like style of the art itself, the compositions and imagery used feel fresh and interesting, and the way the artist draws Pokémon interacting with one another or the world around them just makes my eyes transform into hearts. They’re gorgeous and wonderful and I’m deeply in love with the result. I’d buy a whole deck of tarot cards in this style in a heartbeat. Truly, utterly fantastic.
*
Now, for the other fic recs! In alphabetical order by fandom.I originally wanted to make a short comment about each piece like I did with the art recs below, but I’ve run out of steam, so please just have a simple list instead.
*
there's no use crying about it (Disney's Descendants, Mal & Jay, 2.3K)
“I’m fine,” Mal replies, pushing herself off the wall as if to prove her fucking point. The words are so familiar that it hardly even registers as a lie to her at first. How many times has she insisted she’s fine when her blood is staining the inside of her clothes? When her heart is threatening to crack wide open and summon storms that rage forever?
How often has Jay? Or Carlos? Or Evie? Or any other kid on the Isle of the Lost? Mal isn’t special. This one—“I’m fine.”—is a lie they all tell. To each other, to themselves. So it doesn’t count as a lie; it’s just a reality that has to be rewritten for them to survive.
She tells herself that over and over again, as if it makes any difference at all.
*
October 12 (Dracula, Mina/Lucy, <1K)
Mina writes a posthumous letter to her friend, to atone for a crime against the truth
*
speck of dust (moment in time) (Greek Mythology, Helen/Cassandra, <1K)
Hector dies, Paris dies, Cassandra dies. She dreams of their funeral pyres before they burn. They have already burned.
“You will outlive all of us,” she says as Helen strokes her hair.
To Rest a Little (Greek Mythology, Hades/Persephone, <1K)
"Hades," she said. "Come run with me."
*
let the memory live again (Harry Potter, Dumbledore & Harry, 2.2K)
The selection of pensieve memories bequeathed to Harry James Potter from Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
it keeps its heat in spite of you (Harry Potter, Padma/Gabrielle, <1K)
A fun fact that Padma did not learn in DADA: any human can be turned into a vampire.
*
Internal Studies (MDZS/CQL, Madam Wen/Mermaid, 2.7K)
Qin Yaling catches a mermaid and performs very important science experiments on it.
*
both of us, fallen from grace (Original Works, Powerful Young Female Mage/Ancient Magical Male Slave She Inherited, 11.2K)
Zhan Yufei is the youngest court alchemist in fifty years. In any other time, in any other dynasty, perhaps this would've been a great honor.
But to the world weary servant in the summoning stone, she's just another jailer.
With Eyes Enormous (Original Works, Original Cat, <1K)
Priscilla the cat has something to say about the state of dinner.
*
Afterlife (Romeo & Juliet, Mercutio/Tybalt, 1.5K)
Death takes Mercutio down to the underworld, where he finds Tybalt.
*
expectations (Scum Villain, Shen Jiu & OFC, 1.5K)
"Married," Yue Qingyuan says again, and suddenly Shen Qingqiu's vicious pleasure in his idiotic lack of understanding runs out like tea through a cracked cup, bitterness and coiling, rotten hatred welling up to replace it.
"Yes," he snaps. "I'm sure you've heard the word, zhangmen-shixiong. Haven't you? You know what a wife is, I hope? I have found one. She suits me well. Perfectly."
Make Your Happy Ending, Too (Scum Villain, Original Luo Binghe/Shen Jiu, 1.8K)
In which Luo Binghe's prediction comes true.
self diagnosis by proxy (Scum Villain, Mu Qing & Shen Jiu, <1K)
While on a mission outside of the sect, Mu Qingfang swaps bodies with Shen Qingqiu.
*
tangled threads (Till the End of the Moon, Ye Qingyu/Pian Ran, <1K)
“On your knees,” she says, and Ye Qingyu buckles like the obedient soldier he is.
always in this twilight (Till the End of the Moon, Ming Ye/Sang Jiu & Tian Huan, 5.4K)
A very bad time for Ming Ye, or:
Ming Ye reflects on the one memory of not enjoying what Sang Jiu did to him, and then proceeds to reflect on nothing at all for the rest of his life.
*
冷若冰霜 | lěng ruò bīng shuāng | cold as ice and frost (TGCF, Mu Qing/Feng Xin, 2.4k)
Mu Qing swam upwards towards air, weighed down by his armour and the cold. He resurfaced with a gasp.
“There you are!” Hands grabbed him, and pulled him on to solid ground. Feng Xin looked down at him. “Don’t fucking disappear like that?! What if you got killed?”
Under the rot you do not fester (TGCF, Hua Cheng/Xie Lian, <1K)
The crowd of gods — all dressed up in their finest — thrummed along the main avenue. They were chatting, laughing, and drinking merrily as if this was a simple festival. Hua Cheng’s hand tightened around the hilt of his sword and bit down his anger.
The Honour Of Your Name (TGCF, Jun Wu/Mu Qing, 5.8K)
None of this was ever about what the real Xie Lian would have done; it was all a game of guessing what the idealised image of Xie Lian that lived in Jun Wu’s head would do, and imitating that. Judging by the things Jun Wu found pleasing in his fake Crown Prince of Xianle, Mu Qing sometimes wondered if he had ever really seen the true Xie Lian at all.
(Jun Wu wins the battle for the Heavenly Court, but he doesn't get what he's always wanted: to call Xie Lian his own.
Instead, he has to make do with a replacement.)
*
Finally, the remaining art recs, including some I was very tempted to include in the top recs section, before I decided that I would restrict that section to only three works.
This is unfortunately incomplete (and heavily weighted towards OW), in that I foolishly didn’t think to save links to the artworks I looked at when I first started making my way through the collection, and now feel rather ;;;;; at the thought of digging through my history to find them. But even with those restrictions, I found a lot to recommend!
Fly-by (OW, Forest Dragon & Frost Dragon)
An ancient forest dragon and a young frost drake meet briefly in passing.
Featuring an absolutely stunning take on a design for a forest dragon.
My Tower Is Next Door Neighbors With A Lonely Tentacle Monster Who Lives In A Volcano (OW, Mage/Tentacle Monster)
Imagine being assigned to study the fearsome monster next door for your fire mage thesis but he's so shy!
I feel the need to say that this is actually SFW! Also, I fully ship these two based on this image alone ;_; <3
Flying Leaves (OW, Heretical Cultivator & His Adopted Child)
A Wuxia comic about the heretical cultivator and the child he adopts.
Such lovely character designs and feelings <3
Caged (OW, Mermaids)
Rare specimens must be studied...or sold.
A strikingly moody, haunting atmosphere.
The Moors (OW, Kelpie)
[no summary]
Fantastic use of a mostly monochrome (green) color palette, featuring an excellent creepy murder-horse.
Be Not Afraid (OW, Biblically Accurate Angel & Human)
[no summary]
/dramatic anime theme starts playing
(…in this case, literally, as A Cruel Angel’s Thesis literally popped up on the playlist I’m listening to when I opened this link again for reccing purposes!)
But truly, this is an A+ Biblically Accurate Angel, and something about the composition really does give me those dramatic anime moment vibes in the best way. I also love how open and bright this feels in terms of color.
Fairy Rats (OW, Fairy Rats)
Fairy rats with fairy wings. Many of them. Also an automaton.
What it states on the tin. Utterly charming!
Frolicking With Baby Goat (OW, OFC & Baby Goat)
Art of some cute baby goat in a meadow
Again, what it says on the tin. The baby goat is truly adorable and filled with vibrancy and life.
ArcheoCats (OW, Catboy/Catgirl)
One likes money, one likes knowledge, and the other one is doing its best.
A cute comic about a rather darling pair of treasure hunters. I’d absolutely read more about these two!
A Date with the Stars (OW, Unicorn)
A unicorn goes stargazing.
The composition <3
Beaching (OW, Eldritch Mermaid/Dwarf)
Forbidden romance between an eldritch mermaid and a dwarf.
/chanting Eldritch Mermaids! Eldritch Mermaids! Eldritch Mermaids!
Or, a gorgeous black & white piece featuring an eldritch mermaid in an enemies to lovers romance with a dwarf.
Friendship is Magic (OW, Unicorn & Pegasus)
[no summary]
all I can say is: pretty pretty pretty!
Battle in the Flowers (OW, Butterfly Dragon & Fairy Knight & Fairy Stallion)
Art of a fairy knight battling a butterfly dragon
The composition! That gorgeous butterfly dragon design! The use of flowers to establish the sense of scale!
Fire on the Perch (OW, Phoenix)
Portrait of a phoenix.
Wonderful phoenix design, with a background that evokes all sorts of feelings and a sense of atmosphere.
Fire Race (OW, Phoenix & Pegasus)
Racing through the skies.
That pegasus design <3 And the beautiful phoenix tail!
"that's nice; is there any fish?" (OW, Demon & Cat Wandering Around Demon's Realm)
The landscape of my realm is very fascinating, you know. Completely ominous and deadly. Totally-- hey, where are you going?
Pixel art! Pixel art! I love all the details in this, and all of the implied story within.
Meow! (OW, Cat Who Is Secretly An Eldritch Being)
Four beings exist compounded into one! Only one of the four may be perceived by mortal eyes. That one's name is Mittens.
all I can say is: I love Mittens. Those enormous eyes…
Follow Your Dreams (OW, Goblin)
Bloblin the Goblin dreams of moving to the big city, where he'll have a trash palace of his own with a fancy rat butler and rat maid.
Very charming!
Four Seasons (OW, Cat & Bunny)
A cat and a bunny's friendship through the seasons.
cute cute cute! I love the deceptive simplicity of the style.
Koi Pond (OW, Koi Mermaid/Octopus)
Romance between a mermaid and an octopus.
Two pieces, each with a distinct yet complementary style. Love it <3
Flower-Vision (OW, Butterfly Dragon)
The life of a little butterfly dragon.
So charming! I love the design, the four seasons concept, and all the other animals we see.
End of the Quest (OW, Knight & Stallion)
Art of a knight arriving at the end of her quest.
Stunning atmosphere. I love this use of a monochrome palette, and the backdrop of that starry sky gives me feelings.
Gallop (OW, OFC & Horse)
Gallop, gallop to a new future
The sense of motion! Something about this feels like a moment from a fairy tale-style quest, which I’m very here for.
*
A Lucky Find (Pokémon, Chansey)
A photograph of a Chansey in the wild.
Gorgeous fanart of a wild Chansey, with a dash of nostalgia for anyone who played Pokémon Snap as a child.
Full Moon (Pokémon, Absol)
Absol's trainer is out there. It knows this.
A black & white monochrome piece with great atmosphere!
(…I also sacrificed far more sleep to the game than I ever have before;;; The number of nights with <5 hours of sleep were… not nonzero. But each and every one of them was absolutely worth it <3)
We’re still in the anon period currently—it’s a two week anon period rather than the usual one, which I was grateful for, because with a collection of over 2000 works*, including four million words of fic, over 300 pieces of art, and nearly 200 podfics, I definitely needed that time to make my way through it!
(*More than Yuletide! Created in a barely-longer-than-two-weeks period! We truly all lost our collective minds/chill this year, and it was great <3)
I “only” read about 200K of those words, according to my reading & media tracking spreadsheet, but it still took some days to get through it all, haha. And who knows how much art I looked at…
But there truly were so many amazing gems in the collection. For the sake of making this long list somewhat comprehensible, I’m going to be splitting this up into several sections: my gifts, then my personal top three works (both fic and art) that made me absolutely lose my mind in the best way, then the rest of my fic recs, and finally the rest of my art recs, all organized alphabetically by fandom.
*
First off, my gifts! If you only read one of them, please please please let it be this one:
blood like a ribbon in the water (Original Works, OFC/Mermaid, 2.3K)
Han Ya is sixteen when she’s married to a scholar who spent more time with his paintings than his family.
She’s seventeen when a rich merchant wheels a jiaoren who can cry pearl tears into the main square of their town.
It’s so good! So thoughtful and smart! The vibes and aesthetics are so on-point, and if you love historical settings and explorations of class divides and what it means to exist as a woman within the context of those societies, and also MERMAIDS, please check it out. The main character is the daughter of a fisherman, and the way that informs her experiences with and understanding of the world (as well as her reaction to MERMAID) was just delicious.
(If you’re worried about any of the tagged warnings and want non-spoilery details on what they entail before diving in, feel free to ask!)
I also got this lovely Sakura time travel fic featuring grief/mourning, my beloved—
they say a dozen years ago (she could've passed for me) (Naruto, Sakura/Hashirama, 3.9K)
Six months after Uzumaki Mito's death, Sakura is camped out in the Iron Country Wilderness with Senju Hashirama bleeding out under her hands.
— as well as this Stardew Valley fic as a late treat:
If glowing mushrooms aren't sold at a store near you, scavenged from a sewer is fine (Stardew Valley, Krobus & Abigail + Krobus & Caroline, 2.9K)
Krobus is having a pleasant walk when a human he's never seen before accidentally falls into the sewers. Luckily Krobus knows exactly where to find the secret ingredient she's searching for.
—which features the loveliest mushroom tea-drinking scene in the world at the end, and now I need all the Caroline & Krobus friendship fics.
And I also received two Scum Villain ficlets: moshang ritual sex and 79 soulmate goose shenanigans!
*
Next up, my top favorites. This is not to say that I didn’t love and adore the other things I’m reccing below as well, but these three things truly made me lose my mind. So much (internal) screaming and (external) flailing and oh my god, I can’t believe these were created in this short period of time???
*
i'll paint you mornings of gold (Labyrinth, Jareth/Sarah, 10.7K)
It started slowly. Slowly enough to creep unnoticed until the roots are too deep to dig out, until he had seeds for marrow, sap for blood, and there was no undoing it anymore. If he was weak, it was because the Labyrinth was still recovering; if his lungs felt tight, then it was because of that bitter taste of defeat. It was only one morning, when he woke amongst the broken ruins of his castle, cradled in torn sheets of spidersilk and sunlight, that the pain was so sharp, so tight, that he turned to the side and retched - and then there was the taste of sweet nectar on his tongue. And petals, small things, innocent as any flower could be, clinging to his throat, to the roof of his mouth, to the backs of his teeth.
So he orders the ivy burnt. The roses beheaded. The lilies torn by the roots.
No flower will live in his Labyrinth, after this.
Aka, the fic where Jareth develops hanahaki post-canon. Aka, the fic that I read over breakfast Saturday morning and then proceeded to develop a fic hangover that very much got in the way of my plans to devour my way through the collection.
The worldbuilding? Utterly perfect—both with how the hanahaki is intertwined with the worldbuilding of the Labyrinth, and how the hanahaki itself is handled, with elements I’ve never seen before but work so perfectly in this context. Characterization? Also fantastic. I love being in this Jareth’s head, and their take on Sarah is so so so perfect. The writing is lush and vivid and wonderful, the progression of the relationship dynamics superbly paced, and in short, I cannot believe a fic this long and this well-polished was created within the constraints of Battleship.
*
six foot hole inside my chest (Original Works, Crown Princess/Her Bastard Half-Brother, 11.3K)
That ought to have been mine, he thinks, before he can stop himself. He cannot stop the next thought either. That would’ve been mine, if not for an accident of birth. Zhao Shang’en doesn’t deserve it.
But life in Huaxia’s court is never simple and ultimately, Lu Wenjing and Zhao Shang’en find more in common with each other than their shared blood.
Or: Lu Wenjing returns from his border post after earning military glory and ends up engaged to his younger half sister.
This was not written for me, but it feels like it could have been! Or, to steal a phrase from the comment I left on this fic, it feels like the Totally Mysterious Author went, “hm, I want to craft a sibling dynamic that straightforwardly will find super iddy and lose her mind over”, and then went and reached straight into my mind to pull out all the elements needed to succeed at that goal. They’re so vividly characterized, with histories and ambitions and motivations all their own, and the sibling dynamics are so complex and nuanced and fascinating. Similar to the Labyrinth fic, I’m in awe that a story like this was crafted within the constraints of Battleship; it’s utterly fantastic, and I’m going to be rereading this approximately 100000000000 times in the future.
*
The Pokedecks (Pokémon Main Games, Various, Art)
★ The Pokedecks: Mind, Body, Spirit
★ The Pokedecks: Past, Present, Future
★ The Pokedecks: You, Your Path, Your Potential
★ The Pokedecks: Situation, Obstacle, Advice
★ The Pokedecks: Challenges, Overcoming Obstacles, Goals
—arguably cheating by counting this as “one” work, since it was posted across multiple AO3 works, but it feels like one work in my heart, in that it’s clearly the same artist creating sets of three based on a united theme!
And what STUNNING work this is. Basically, these are Pokémon-themed tarot cards, and they are truly works of art. I love the papercraft-like style of the art itself, the compositions and imagery used feel fresh and interesting, and the way the artist draws Pokémon interacting with one another or the world around them just makes my eyes transform into hearts. They’re gorgeous and wonderful and I’m deeply in love with the result. I’d buy a whole deck of tarot cards in this style in a heartbeat. Truly, utterly fantastic.
*
Now, for the other fic recs! In alphabetical order by fandom.
*
there's no use crying about it (Disney's Descendants, Mal & Jay, 2.3K)
“I’m fine,” Mal replies, pushing herself off the wall as if to prove her fucking point. The words are so familiar that it hardly even registers as a lie to her at first. How many times has she insisted she’s fine when her blood is staining the inside of her clothes? When her heart is threatening to crack wide open and summon storms that rage forever?
How often has Jay? Or Carlos? Or Evie? Or any other kid on the Isle of the Lost? Mal isn’t special. This one—“I’m fine.”—is a lie they all tell. To each other, to themselves. So it doesn’t count as a lie; it’s just a reality that has to be rewritten for them to survive.
She tells herself that over and over again, as if it makes any difference at all.
*
October 12 (Dracula, Mina/Lucy, <1K)
Mina writes a posthumous letter to her friend, to atone for a crime against the truth
*
speck of dust (moment in time) (Greek Mythology, Helen/Cassandra, <1K)
Hector dies, Paris dies, Cassandra dies. She dreams of their funeral pyres before they burn. They have already burned.
“You will outlive all of us,” she says as Helen strokes her hair.
To Rest a Little (Greek Mythology, Hades/Persephone, <1K)
"Hades," she said. "Come run with me."
*
let the memory live again (Harry Potter, Dumbledore & Harry, 2.2K)
The selection of pensieve memories bequeathed to Harry James Potter from Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
it keeps its heat in spite of you (Harry Potter, Padma/Gabrielle, <1K)
A fun fact that Padma did not learn in DADA: any human can be turned into a vampire.
*
Internal Studies (MDZS/CQL, Madam Wen/Mermaid, 2.7K)
Qin Yaling catches a mermaid and performs very important science experiments on it.
*
both of us, fallen from grace (Original Works, Powerful Young Female Mage/Ancient Magical Male Slave She Inherited, 11.2K)
Zhan Yufei is the youngest court alchemist in fifty years. In any other time, in any other dynasty, perhaps this would've been a great honor.
But to the world weary servant in the summoning stone, she's just another jailer.
With Eyes Enormous (Original Works, Original Cat, <1K)
Priscilla the cat has something to say about the state of dinner.
*
Afterlife (Romeo & Juliet, Mercutio/Tybalt, 1.5K)
Death takes Mercutio down to the underworld, where he finds Tybalt.
*
expectations (Scum Villain, Shen Jiu & OFC, 1.5K)
"Married," Yue Qingyuan says again, and suddenly Shen Qingqiu's vicious pleasure in his idiotic lack of understanding runs out like tea through a cracked cup, bitterness and coiling, rotten hatred welling up to replace it.
"Yes," he snaps. "I'm sure you've heard the word, zhangmen-shixiong. Haven't you? You know what a wife is, I hope? I have found one. She suits me well. Perfectly."
Make Your Happy Ending, Too (Scum Villain, Original Luo Binghe/Shen Jiu, 1.8K)
In which Luo Binghe's prediction comes true.
self diagnosis by proxy (Scum Villain, Mu Qing & Shen Jiu, <1K)
While on a mission outside of the sect, Mu Qingfang swaps bodies with Shen Qingqiu.
*
tangled threads (Till the End of the Moon, Ye Qingyu/Pian Ran, <1K)
“On your knees,” she says, and Ye Qingyu buckles like the obedient soldier he is.
always in this twilight (Till the End of the Moon, Ming Ye/Sang Jiu & Tian Huan, 5.4K)
A very bad time for Ming Ye, or:
Ming Ye reflects on the one memory of not enjoying what Sang Jiu did to him, and then proceeds to reflect on nothing at all for the rest of his life.
*
冷若冰霜 | lěng ruò bīng shuāng | cold as ice and frost (TGCF, Mu Qing/Feng Xin, 2.4k)
Mu Qing swam upwards towards air, weighed down by his armour and the cold. He resurfaced with a gasp.
“There you are!” Hands grabbed him, and pulled him on to solid ground. Feng Xin looked down at him. “Don’t fucking disappear like that?! What if you got killed?”
Under the rot you do not fester (TGCF, Hua Cheng/Xie Lian, <1K)
The crowd of gods — all dressed up in their finest — thrummed along the main avenue. They were chatting, laughing, and drinking merrily as if this was a simple festival. Hua Cheng’s hand tightened around the hilt of his sword and bit down his anger.
The Honour Of Your Name (TGCF, Jun Wu/Mu Qing, 5.8K)
None of this was ever about what the real Xie Lian would have done; it was all a game of guessing what the idealised image of Xie Lian that lived in Jun Wu’s head would do, and imitating that. Judging by the things Jun Wu found pleasing in his fake Crown Prince of Xianle, Mu Qing sometimes wondered if he had ever really seen the true Xie Lian at all.
(Jun Wu wins the battle for the Heavenly Court, but he doesn't get what he's always wanted: to call Xie Lian his own.
Instead, he has to make do with a replacement.)
*
Finally, the remaining art recs, including some I was very tempted to include in the top recs section, before I decided that I would restrict that section to only three works.
This is unfortunately incomplete (and heavily weighted towards OW), in that I foolishly didn’t think to save links to the artworks I looked at when I first started making my way through the collection, and now feel rather ;;;;; at the thought of digging through my history to find them. But even with those restrictions, I found a lot to recommend!
Fly-by (OW, Forest Dragon & Frost Dragon)
An ancient forest dragon and a young frost drake meet briefly in passing.
Featuring an absolutely stunning take on a design for a forest dragon.
My Tower Is Next Door Neighbors With A Lonely Tentacle Monster Who Lives In A Volcano (OW, Mage/Tentacle Monster)
Imagine being assigned to study the fearsome monster next door for your fire mage thesis but he's so shy!
I feel the need to say that this is actually SFW! Also, I fully ship these two based on this image alone ;_; <3
Flying Leaves (OW, Heretical Cultivator & His Adopted Child)
A Wuxia comic about the heretical cultivator and the child he adopts.
Such lovely character designs and feelings <3
Caged (OW, Mermaids)
Rare specimens must be studied...or sold.
A strikingly moody, haunting atmosphere.
The Moors (OW, Kelpie)
[no summary]
Fantastic use of a mostly monochrome (green) color palette, featuring an excellent creepy murder-horse.
Be Not Afraid (OW, Biblically Accurate Angel & Human)
[no summary]
/dramatic anime theme starts playing
(…in this case, literally, as A Cruel Angel’s Thesis literally popped up on the playlist I’m listening to when I opened this link again for reccing purposes!)
But truly, this is an A+ Biblically Accurate Angel, and something about the composition really does give me those dramatic anime moment vibes in the best way. I also love how open and bright this feels in terms of color.
Fairy Rats (OW, Fairy Rats)
Fairy rats with fairy wings. Many of them. Also an automaton.
What it states on the tin. Utterly charming!
Frolicking With Baby Goat (OW, OFC & Baby Goat)
Art of some cute baby goat in a meadow
Again, what it says on the tin. The baby goat is truly adorable and filled with vibrancy and life.
ArcheoCats (OW, Catboy/Catgirl)
One likes money, one likes knowledge, and the other one is doing its best.
A cute comic about a rather darling pair of treasure hunters. I’d absolutely read more about these two!
A Date with the Stars (OW, Unicorn)
A unicorn goes stargazing.
The composition <3
Beaching (OW, Eldritch Mermaid/Dwarf)
Forbidden romance between an eldritch mermaid and a dwarf.
/chanting Eldritch Mermaids! Eldritch Mermaids! Eldritch Mermaids!
Or, a gorgeous black & white piece featuring an eldritch mermaid in an enemies to lovers romance with a dwarf.
Friendship is Magic (OW, Unicorn & Pegasus)
[no summary]
all I can say is: pretty pretty pretty!
Battle in the Flowers (OW, Butterfly Dragon & Fairy Knight & Fairy Stallion)
Art of a fairy knight battling a butterfly dragon
The composition! That gorgeous butterfly dragon design! The use of flowers to establish the sense of scale!
Fire on the Perch (OW, Phoenix)
Portrait of a phoenix.
Wonderful phoenix design, with a background that evokes all sorts of feelings and a sense of atmosphere.
Fire Race (OW, Phoenix & Pegasus)
Racing through the skies.
That pegasus design <3 And the beautiful phoenix tail!
"that's nice; is there any fish?" (OW, Demon & Cat Wandering Around Demon's Realm)
The landscape of my realm is very fascinating, you know. Completely ominous and deadly. Totally-- hey, where are you going?
Pixel art! Pixel art! I love all the details in this, and all of the implied story within.
Meow! (OW, Cat Who Is Secretly An Eldritch Being)
Four beings exist compounded into one! Only one of the four may be perceived by mortal eyes. That one's name is Mittens.
all I can say is: I love Mittens. Those enormous eyes…
Follow Your Dreams (OW, Goblin)
Bloblin the Goblin dreams of moving to the big city, where he'll have a trash palace of his own with a fancy rat butler and rat maid.
Very charming!
Four Seasons (OW, Cat & Bunny)
A cat and a bunny's friendship through the seasons.
cute cute cute! I love the deceptive simplicity of the style.
Koi Pond (OW, Koi Mermaid/Octopus)
Romance between a mermaid and an octopus.
Two pieces, each with a distinct yet complementary style. Love it <3
Flower-Vision (OW, Butterfly Dragon)
The life of a little butterfly dragon.
So charming! I love the design, the four seasons concept, and all the other animals we see.
End of the Quest (OW, Knight & Stallion)
Art of a knight arriving at the end of her quest.
Stunning atmosphere. I love this use of a monochrome palette, and the backdrop of that starry sky gives me feelings.
Gallop (OW, OFC & Horse)
Gallop, gallop to a new future
The sense of motion! Something about this feels like a moment from a fairy tale-style quest, which I’m very here for.
*
A Lucky Find (Pokémon, Chansey)
A photograph of a Chansey in the wild.
Gorgeous fanart of a wild Chansey, with a dash of nostalgia for anyone who played Pokémon Snap as a child.
Full Moon (Pokémon, Absol)
Absol's trainer is out there. It knows this.
A black & white monochrome piece with great atmosphere!