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i'll watch you come undone
the vampire diaries | klaus/elena | for symbioticdeath
explicit, 28,594
When Elena discovers Klaus shares a magical empathy bond with her, she learns more about the big bad wolf than she bargained for.

The prompts were perfect to explore Elena's grief, particularly the ugly side to it. I wanted to explore her self-destructing and shoving her head so deep within the river of denial and even learning that sometimes the best way to overpower the big bad wolf is to show it empathy. I was intending for this to be a lot darker than it was because the last thing I wanted to do was romanticise Klaus/Elena and disregard the trauma he's inflicted upon her, but I really like how this turned out. I think Elena started it off as drowning and then she finally rose to the surface by the end of it.

buried in sunlight
shadow and bone | alina; darkling/alina, inej & alina & nina | for Marenke
mature, 16,731
While Alina tries to settle into her new life in Ketterdam, she finds that Aleksander isn’t willing to let her go. The stag amplifier’s connected them together in a way neither of them had ever bargained for.

I've never written Darklina before but I found the dynamic super interesting, especially in its fucked-up capacity. I wanted to explore Alina in the aftermath of season one and show her coming into her own. She deserved to have closure with how the Darkling treated her, and I think Aleksander deserved to be shown a kind hand, too. I had a lot of fun writing this one and really went in hard on the light/shadow metaphor lmao.

mr & mrs rushman
mcu | steve/natasha; yelena & natasha | for Silvereye
mature, 13,093
When Natasha’s unable to contact Yelena, she and Steve put their plans to break the team out of the Raft on hold to find her.

I love writing Steve/Nat so I couldn't help myself when I saw a request for it on the pinch hitter post. This was meant to be a small one-shot that featured one scene, but it just grew and grew into an aftermath of Black Widow. I've been wanting to explore the trauma of the Red Room and felt like I had a chance to do that, especially since Natasha just took it down. How's she going to feel after that? It turned itself into a mission fic, and I really like how it came together.

the best fit
gilmore girls | rory/paris | by svgurl410
teen, 10,279
To avoid being set up, Rory blurts out that she's dating Paris. The only problem is that she definitely isn't, and now the whole town thinks she is.

This was a lot of fun and felt like it could seamlessly fit into a later season of the show. Rory's naivety is on full display and Paris' candor and appreciation for Rory is really enjoyable. This fic shows just how Rory and Paris work well together—Paris makes the decisions Rory's too insecure to make and Rory grounds Paris in a way she desperately needs. It's a great exploration of finding yourself. The Lorelai and Rory banter is spot-on. And it was nice to see some guest appearances from the kooky residents of Stars Hollow.

like a house on fire we’re up in flames
harry potter | blaise/cho | by kitsunerei88
teen, 10,655
Blaise Zabini keeps her from simplifying, from drawing easy lines and boundaries of good and bad, right and wrong, and she doesn’t like it. And it doesn’t help that Blaise Zabini is attractive, damn him, and while Cho thinks she doesn’t like him she’s also attracted to him, and Blaise Zabini is a Problem.

This was such a great take on the war and how it impacted two characters we don't know much about. Cho gets the treatment she deserves and is fleshed out and celebrated as a Chinese woman (the author actually goes into her heritage, which is fantastic) who made mistakes as a young girl and is still paying for them. Cho grieving Cedric was a great character choice in this. (She also got to be more than "Cedric Diggory's girlfriend" which was so great!) Blaise's characterisation fit how I love seeing him presented—he defies the Slytherin and Death Eater ways but still falls prey to playing in that circle. He's a great foe for how we usually see Slytherins depicted in canon. This was a great Cho-centric piece that gives her the story and hopeful ending she deserved in canon.

children of the wild ones
mcu | alexei/melina; alexi & melina & natasha & yelena | by Heather
teen, 5,527

This was such a great exploration of Melina as a woman and a Widow and really delved into how her playing house impacted her and gave her a sense of freedom and relief from the Red Room. The budding relationship between Melina and Alexei is brilliant, and I really enjoyed Melina coming into her own as Natasha and Yelena's mother. (Melina isn't characterised by who she is in relation to any of the other three characters—her Red Room trauma is on full display and she is explored as a well-rounded character.)

Fixer Upper
original | teenage heiress/the haunted house she inherited | by schnuffleluv
gen, 5,020
Bea loved the house, even if the house didn't immediately love her back.

The summary and tags on this fic intrigued me so much and I was not disappointed when I read it. It is such a great fic that explores how love and kindness can go such a long way. The characterisation of the house turns the "haunted house" trope on its head in such a lovely way all the while not losing its hauntedness.

The Cottage
bridget jones's diary | ensemble | by Jen_814
teen, 13,849
Bridget’s diary, Friday 20th August, 6:58pm
Why do we force ourselves into experiences which we’ve a) never enjoyed, and are b) never likely to enjoy, just because society slams us into a hodge-podge of picture-perfect expectations of strong winds and ruddy cheeks, and attractively ruffled hairstyles, in manner of royal family on a walk in Balmoral? I do not like the countryside. Jude, similarly, does not like the countryside. Shazzer herself has once referred to a country walk as a ‘shit-strewn misery where it’s odds-on pissing it down’. So why, in the name of arse, are we spending our weekend here?

Sharon’s diary, Friday 20th August, 7:06pm
Why the bloody fuck are we doing this again?

--

Shazzer has a hen do at a cottage in the quiet countryside. Needless to say, shit goes down.

I am canon blind to the books of BJD. I only know the movies and from those movies I only remember Renee, Colin and Hugh. But my lack of familiarity with the book canon did not stop me from enjoying this. This is an epistolary fic written in diary entries and every single bloody diary entry is so perfectly different based on the character who is writing. I was sucked in by the pacing and character voices and found myself enjoying the representation of the friendship amongst our diarists. This was so enjoyable for someone who was canon blind that I can only imagine how enjoyable this is for someone who knows the books inside and out.

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