Rec List: rarepairs and genfics

[deepestbluesky]

sometimes i come into a rec list with a very specific idea, and the difficulty is just finding fics to fit. but other times, i am challeneged to make a rec list, and i have to think about what i have in my bookmarks that could be made into a collection! and that's what i've done. so, this is a multifandom rec list (fandoms included are Supernatural, Critical Role, DC Comics, MXTX books, and Stranger Things) highlighting fics that i think might be overlooked due to being rare pairs or being character study or gen fic that might be hard to find. i haven't written up stuff about each individual fic, but i'm always happy to ramble about them in the comments if you have specific ones you're interested in.

Hearts Like Ruined Cities
redbelles
6,461
Supernatural
Ruby/Sam Winchester

Kansas is nothing but wheat fields and open road.

Acts of Kindness
eponymous_rose
1,222
Critical Role - Campaign 1
Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III & Grog Strongjaw

In a quiet moment, Grog confronts Percy about Craven Edge.

Accepting the Mantle
Skalidra
1,605
DC Comics
Dick Grayson & Gotham City

Gotham's always needed a protector; someone to be bound to the magic at its core and be, intrinsically, the heart of the city. With Bruce dead, that falls on Dick's shoulders like everything else did. Assuming that the city will accept him, and actually grant him that power.

Tales Tall as Cliffs
doloploke
1,585
Young Justice (animated show)
Artemis Crock & Dick Grayson

A coda to "Homefront". Robin helps Artemis with her bruises.

i do not care for the winter sun
anonymous
3,183
DC Comics
Apollo/Midnighter

M disappears from Apollo’s life so quickly, he can’t help but wonder how long he’s been planning it.

Running With the 90s (Kids)
GuardianLioness
992
DC Comics
Tim Drake & Duke Thomas

A car chase at twilight provides an opportunity for a team-up, teaches Duke a bit about one of his fellow teenage vigilantes, and promises a future full of the best kind of chaos.

Pin it down
rheawrites
2,172
MDZS/CQL
Jiang Yanli/Jin Zixuan, Jin Zixuan/Nie Mingjue

“Yanli, I did not lie on our wedding night. You are the only woman I have gone to bed with. But… there was a man.”
“Oh?” Yanli blinks up at him. She does not appear horrified, or betrayed, which is surely a good sign.
Jin Zixuan swallows. “It was Sect Leader Nie,” he says quickly, as though that will make it easier.
“…Oh,” says Yanli, and her eyes are dark.
-
Jin Zixuan tells his wife a war story. Or, two thousand words of Jin Zixuan getting railed.

The Bones of Our Dreams
jirluvien
42,726
TGCF
He Xuan/Mu Qing

On the 19th day of the third month of the second year since the heavenly court was reestablished, the Upper Court receives a missive from He Xuan demanding he be wed to one of the heavenly officials, lest they all find their dirty little secrets made public for everyone to see.
As the chosen date draws closer, Mu Qing makes an impulsive and possibly monumentally stupid decision.
Six days after that, a ghost king marries a general.
Neither of them expected to eventually wind up happy about it.

some ever after no one could predict
QueenWithABeeThrone
15,343
Critical Role - Campaign 2
Leofric Ermendrud/Una Ermendrud, Una Ermendrud & Artagan, Caleb Widogast & Artagan, Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast

“My tent,” said Una, “is spoiling the landscape.”
“Yes!” said the satyr. “It’s getting in the way of the view. Look, see?” He flipped the notebook around to show her a rather well-drawn landscape, with a much taller tent than the one she actually had poking up out of the grass like a rather majestic—
She covered her mouth, turning her laugh into a cough. “That’s a very flattering view of my tent,” she said, not quite able to keep herself from smiling.
or: over thirty years ago, Una Ermendrud went into the Feywild and met a satyr named Garmelie. thirty years later, Caleb reunites with his godfather.

friends from the same hometown
kitschlet
5,468
Scum Villain
Luo Binghe & Ning Yingying

“Look, this is easier!” Shizun says, making a gesture with his fan that encompasses both Ning Yingying and Luo Binghe. “With you and I, Binghe, it’s... well...” He clears his throat again. “There’s a lot to say! But you and Yingying are just friends! Simply say that and the plant will release you and go dormant.”
We’re not friends, Ning Yingying thinks, at the same time as Luo Binghe says aloud, “We’re not friends.”
--
Ning Yingying gets caught in a wife plot.

shaped like your thirst
yukla
2,605
MDZS/CQL
Jiang Yanli/Wen Qing

Everything that I do is for the good of this family, Ma always tells her, and each word stacks up like a printed list of expenses. The extra fees that are accrued from school, the worn mementos that clutter their rooms, the humble house that shrinks around them all. All the myriad costs of raising another body from your own.
Jiang Yanli learns a little about loving herself.

got her guns out
marquis
3,777
DC Comics
Cassandra Cain & the Batfam

There’s this tendency with the Robins. They tend to treat gravity as less of a law, and more of an optional construct. Cass had been surprised by it the first few times she sparred with any of them. Even Jason, broad and dense as he is, could lift himself off the ground with so little effort that there was almost no warning. There was no telltale bent leg, barely a tense muscle.
Cass has spent plenty of time watching each of them fight in the time since those first few matches, though. She knows how to spot it.
(Cass spars with all her siblings. It's nice! Mostly. Except for the rampant cheating.)

Yesterday's Gone
treepyful (treeperson)
12,297
Stranger Things
Joyce Byers/Karen Wheeler, Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper (background)

It was a cool grey day in March when Karen showed up on Joyce’s doorstep, Holly standing morosely at her side. “I’ve left Ted,” she said shortly. Joyce stared. “Can we stay with you tonight?”
Joyce didn’t say anything as she took a step back from the door and waved them inside.

young blood
ghosttotheparty
13,643
Stranger Things
Erica Sinclair & Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson & Erica Sinclair, Erica Sinclair & Mike Wheeler, Maxine "Max" Mayfield & Erica Sinclair

“I heard you last night,” he says quietly. She closes her eyes, sighing. “What was it about?”
She holds the ends of her sweatshirt in her fists. Squeezes the fabric.
“The usual,” she says. “Monsters. Andrew Morrison.”
Lucas is quiet, and Erica is subjected to George Michaels’s exasperating voice singing about faith.

[podfic] Reuniting, Reconnecting, and Renewing Relationships
SalamanderGoo (writer), reena_jenkins (podficcer)
word count: 20,317 | duration: 2:22:26
Stranger Things
Dustin Henderson/Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler (background), Argyle/Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington (Background)

It’s been seven years since Max’s whole life was packed up and carried to New York. She’s only kept in contact with Steve, trading phone calls and letters. As she faces the end of her first four years of college, he invites her out to his new home in California to celebrate Will’s latest achievement. Face to face with her past, she’s ready to confront everything and everyone she left behind. Not everything is the same, but a lot of things haven’t changed.
One thing that has changed is her newfound attraction to Dustin Henderson of all people.
[an STRPBB 2023 project written by SalamanderGoo]

Comments

[poppyseedheart]

clicked on the link like ooh is there a reclist challenge happening? memory of a goldfish on me.

love these and love that you recced a podfic!! also this is a great theme and that critrole fic feels so familiar to me on a glance at the summary but i'm gonna reread just in case because as ever i miss vox machinaaaaa!!!!!

[deepestbluesky]

well in your defence, the challenge square is technically just a rec POST which could be for one fic, but that thought somehow never crossed my mind, i saw "rec" and went 'rec list, got it' lmao

who would i be if not reccing podfic!