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Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed
Pairings/Characters: Jiang Cheng & Wei Wuxian & Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng/Nie Huaisang (background), Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji (background), Lan Xichen, Jin Zixuan, Meng Yao, Wen Zhuliu
Rating: R for Graphic Depictions of Violence and Major Character Death
Length: 133,987 words
Creator Link:

meyari
Themes: Siblings, Time Travel Fix-It, Women Being Awesome, Trauma & Recovery

Summary: As the Jianghu collapses around Jiang Cheng's ears, his borrowed core begins to fail. Wei Wuxian has one final trick up his sleeve, though the only person who can use it is the one person who has no core of his own: Jiang Cheng. Time travel may be impossible for everyone else, but Jiang Cheng has one slender, delicate chance to save the entire world. Of course he has to take it no matter what the cost might be.

Reccer's Notes: As soon as I saw this month's theme, I thought of this story. While time travel fix-its and core reveal fix-its are both common in the fandom, this story handles both tropes in ways I haven't seen any other story do. It also features amazing original characters, including several badass women of the Meishan Yu sect, and gives Jiang Yanli one of the best storylines I've ever seen. The rating is because there's still a war, and some characters still die, but it's a far different war, and they are far different deaths.

I do feel like I have to provide a caveat that this could use a serious line edit, by which I mean there is a grammatical or spelling error in nearly every sentence. It really says something that, despite this, I couldn't put the story down, and devoured all 100K+ words of it in the space of two nights.

Fanwork Links: Moments of Revelation (please note that this is archive-locked to AO3-registered users)

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fancake

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Pride and Prejudice
Pairings/Characters: Darcy/Elizabeth, Georgiana, Jane/Bingley
Rating: Teen
Length: 75k
Creator Links:

anghraine
Theme: siblings, old fandoms, book fandoms, novel length, AU, family,

Summary: Without Lady Catherine's interference, a family catastrophe throws Darcy and Elizabeth down wildly different paths.

Reccer's Notes: This series is very much Darcy/Elizabeth, but they spend a lot of it going down separate paths. And on those separate paths, their closest relationships are with their siblings--Darcy and Georgiana, Jane and Elizabeth. I love the care that is taken with all of the different relationships in this story.

Fanwork Links: The Rich Are Always Respectable

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Marvel
Pairings/Characters: Steve/Bucky
Rating: Gen
Length: 4k
Creator Links:

what_alchemy
Theme: siblings, AU, family

Summary: Bucky was the eldest of four.

Reccer's Notes: Bucky has four younger siblings, and in 2015 they are elderly, crotchety, and determined to go see Steve Rogers. Getting there is an ordeal, and what they find there is a surprise. I love the way the characters are so well-drawn and realistic, and I love the humor.

Fanwork Links: Geriatric Road Trip, 2015

Content notes: racist and homophobic language

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Vorkosigan
Pairings/Characters: Kareen Vorbarra, Alys Vorpatril, Gregor Vorbarra, Ivan Vorpatril
Rating: Gen
Length: 13k
Creator Links:

lannamichaels
Theme: siblings, family, secret identity reveal, female characters, old fandoms, book fandoms, AU, female friendship,

Summary: Kareen protects her children.

Reccer's Notes: This is such a fascinating AU about Kareen, Alys, Gregor, Ivan, and what might have happened.

Fanwork Links: The Emperor's Brother

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fancake

April will be a Flashback round where we revisit a classic theme from the early years of the comm.

Poll #34378 round 185 theme poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 86

Pick the next theme of fancake:

Arranged Marriage
41 (47.7%)

Forced Proximity
21 (24.4%)

Threesome
24 (27.9%)

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beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Vorkosigan
Pairings/Characters: Gregor Vorbarra, Ivan Vorpatril
Rating: Gen
Length: 7k
Creator Links:

callmecasandra
Theme: siblings, AU, fork in the road, family, gen, old fandoms, book fandoms

Summary: Gregor need not have worried.

Reccer's Notes: Gregor Vorbarra is Emperor of Barrayar, and he has monsters in his family tree. His father Serg was a rapist and a murderer who died when he was a small child (and Serg's own father Emperor Ezar arranged his death), and his great uncle was Mad Emperor Yuri who was paranoid and homicidal and awful. Gregor understandably has issues about his family.

But what if Ezar had seen the sort of person Serg was, and how many monsters are in the family tree, and not only made sure Serg died before inheriting the throne, but also ... made sure that Serg would not father the next emperor of Barrayar?

This is a short but compelling AU. The series is marked incomplete, but there are no dangling plot threads and it hasn't been updated in over a decade.

Fanwork Links: The Cuckoo

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Star Wars
Pairings/Characters: Leia Organa
Rating: Gen
Length: 2k
Creator Links:

Darkmagyk
Theme: siblings, gen, family,

Summary: “We were very close.” Sola says, and Leia smiles her politician's smile in response.

This woman is convinced she and her sister were the best of friends. And she’s telling the secret daughter, from a secret marriage, all about it.

Leia doesn't need the force to know it wasn't true.

Reccer's Notes: This is about Padmé and her sister Sola, but it's also about Luke and Leia, and about family, and about memory.

Fanwork Links: Lonely In Your Company

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Captain America
Characters/Pairings: Steve/Bucky
Rating: G
Length: 16,400 words
Creator Links:

odsbodkins
Theme: Outside POV, siblings, female characters, gen,

Summary: Becca Barnes is eight years old, and her big brother can do no wrong. The events of the two Captain America movies, from the perspective of one of the sisters Bucky leaves behind.

Reccer's Notes: This story has an excellent child's perspective, and a deep and abiding love between Becca and Bucky. It's lovely and it makes me cry.

Fanwork Links: My Brother, the Hero

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Jeannie Miller, Jack O'Neill
Rating: Explicit
Length: 23,191, 02:40:45
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply.

spoilery content note

Rodney and John weren't raised as brothers, but they discover they are. After having fucked. This causes some angst for a while, and Rodney's rationalisations are amusing.

Creator Links: speranza on AO3, speranza's own site

Themes: Siblings, Action/adventure, Family, AU, AU - fork in the road

Summary: "Jean isn't your sister," Rodney said, speaking to John as if he was a small child. "Jean is my sister."
John's whole face changed. "What?"

Reccer's Notes: Written as a slightly cracky Harlequin fic, this is a favourite story of mine, full of action, adventure, and family complications. John and Rodney meet at Patrick Sheppard's funeral and afterwards happen on an alien artifact at his apartment. A wild ride ensues as they try to get it to Area 51. Rodney's a physicist and John's air force, but at the start, neither of them know about the Stargate program. There's lots of excellent drama, romance, and snark as they gradually discover all the secrets their parents hid from them.

Fanwork Links: Last Will and Testament on speranza's site, and on AO3
And I podficced the story