Fandom in the time of Coronavirus

[melannen]

So, for some of us, this is looking like a good time to curl up in a blanket and read fic for a couple of weeks!

Who wants to share recs for fanfic or pairings or canons that are good for while anxious and stuck in the house?

I am enjoying rereading all the Garak/Bashir fic right now - if you don't know the pairing, it's from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, about a bright-eyed Starfleet doctor with a dark secret, and a cynical Cardassian exile with a dark past and a heart of gold, and their complicated relationship (which was queercoded on purpose in the show.) A lot of the fanfic is set post-canon, with both of them on Cardassia helping with recovery after devastation from a terrible war, and it's all very soft and hopeful but set in troubled times.

I've also had a very slow project of going through my entire AO3 history (I'm currently in the summer of 2012, the first Avengers movie just came out) and pulling out the fics that I never want to lose track of ever, and bookmarking them as permanent collection. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to get farther in that project in the next couple of weeks! Everything in that collection is works I'm happy to go back to when I need a comfort read.

And if you have any old favorite fics you've been trying to track down but can't, let's use this post to try to track them down! I have two pre-AO3 fics I've been wanting to add to that collection but can't remember enough to find:

--There was a Pirates of the Caribbean fic, probably on LJ, the summer after the first movie came out. It was set in modern day, though I think it was a reincarnation AU; there were capers at a marina, all the old gang got back together, and Jack Sparrow was an IRS agent. Does this ring any bells? There might have been two similar stories that I'm combining in memory.

--There was a very long post-canon Spike/Buffy fic where Spike had disappeared and Buffy found him living quietly in some backwater town, working as a professor at the local college and leading poetry workshops for demons in the evening. Buffy started going to the workshops for lack of a better idea, and at one point wrote a villanelle (I think?) with the refrain "I shape death with my hands".

Comments

[watersword]

Nthing the above recs for "National Service" and "Stone Gryphon".

A Guy Like You Should Wear A Warning (48788 words) by laurakaye - MCU, Clint Barton/Phil Coulson. Characters: Melinda May, Nick Fury, David Hasselhoff, Audrey Nathan, Victoria Hand, Natasha Romanoff, Basil (OC).
Tags: Phil Coulson & Nick Fury Friendship, Undercover as Married, Undercover Missions, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Cruise Ships, fine Italian menswear, Organized Crime, First Time, First Kiss, First Meetings, terrible crimes against music, Minor Phil Coulson/Audrey Nathan, Mentor Nick Fury, POV Phil Coulson, wacky spy adventures, Friendship, Families of Choice, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Reference to past Phil Coulson/Felix Blake, Pre-Canon

Summary:

The words on his arm were crisp and clear, written in a rushed-looking scrawl like someone had taken a purple marker to Phil’s skin.

So I take it that second honeymoon isn’t working out the way you’d hoped?

Phil’s legs went out from under him and he sat down with a painful thud, all brain processes diverted to the task of staring at his arm and wondering—and wondering—

Phil was waiting, was the thing. Not for sex—definitely not for that—but for romance, for a relationship. He knew that not every soulbond was sexual or romantic in nature, but most were, and he wanted that, wanted the kind of marriage his parents had, bound together in every possible way.
And he was going to meet his soulmate on his second honeymoon?

Bookmarker's Notes:

“Do you have good grades, Phil Coulson?” Agent Fury finally asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Extracurriculars? Hobbies?”

“Marching band and track, sir. And, er. Collecting comics.”

“What instrument?”

Phil blinked. “Um. Saxophone?”

“Good,” Agent Fury said. “Trumpet players are assholes.”

I love the character voices in this, and the worldbuilding is really well done.

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And Never Been Kissed (166710 words) by thehoyden, twentysomething - Hockey RPF, Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin. Characters: Sergei Gonchar, Jack Johnson, Colby Armstrong, Maxime Talbot, Marc-Andre Fleury, Mario Lemieux, Alexander Ovechkin, Shea Weber, Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Getzlaf, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Crosby Family, Lemieux Family (Hockey RPF).
Tags: Alternate History, First Time, Epistolary, Jealousy, Pining, Possessive Behavior, Voyeurism, Underage Drinking
Summary:

Sid didn’t introduce himself in the hallway, and he certainly doesn’t assume that people know who he is. So it would only be polite to thank Malkin again, this time more personally.

He could write him a letter. An email? No, a letter.

Bookmarker's Notes:

Sid actually knows who Malkin is — on the ice, anyway: physical, a strong centre, with skating that Sid would be hard pressed to forget. It’s difficult to put that together with the skinny, friendly boy who hugged him so tightly. If it’s possible, Sid actually feels more anxious now that he has a name to put to the face. He wants to get back to Rimouski and find a way to get all the tape he can on Malkin; he’s already trying to think of an excuse to do so.

It just feels — unfinished. Like getting interrupted wasn’t part of the plan, like it doesn’t make sense for that to have been it. They had a one-sided conversation for maybe all of five minutes, but Sid can’t shake the feeling that it happened for a reason.

omg this is the cutest. long slow burn romance novel full of pining and friends to lovers.