"Weekly" Fanwork Recs #32

[myrdschaem]

Ok, September was extra shitty for me and my mental health. I'm back, trying to pick up some pieces, so six week round up it is. Some phases include remembering Attack the Block exists & crying about Moses, scrambling to find works for CCPA submissions, sudden swerve into the Mortal Kombat, which I have never played, pairing Sub-Zero/Scorpion and crying about Pride (2014 movie) for a solid few days. I am also operating under the premise that making podfic of something is enough of an endorsement to already be a rec, haha.

Star Wars

Original Trilogy

The Mating Habits of the Soft-Shelled Abrionic Echinoderm by lilyrose225 and podfic_lover. Gen, Rated T, No Warnings Apply, ~8k/1h.
A really great project made for podtogether! Biology grad student is send to Dagobah and has to deal with Yoda. A lot of fun stuff like fake academia and apex predator Yoda to start with but turns to serious themes because one institution involved is the Academy of Alderaan, which turns everything into a different light.

Prequel Trilogy

[podfic] If She Can't Have Peace, She'll Have War On Her Terms by exmanhater, FettsOnTop, GodOfLaundryBaskets, isweedan, reena_jenkins and Yubsie. Gen, Padme Amidala & Jango Fett, No Warnings, ~30 min.
Fake history podcast for an AU where Padme didn't let Palpatine just scheme his way into the Clone Wars but forged an alliance with Jango because she can. It really hits the style of podcast and I was mostly left wanting to know more about what radical move Empress Amidala made next!

starbird by imaginarykat. Obi-Wan/Anakin, Rated T, No Warnings, ~9k.
Anakin going from thinking his master is the perfect Jedi to seeing all the ways he sways from the code. Maybe some grey or sith Obi-Wan in there, but he plays nice!

Jangobi

Put the Paperwork to Rest by phoenixyfriend. Jangobi, Rated T, No Warnings Apply, ~3k.
Obi-Wan gets kicked out by his young Padawan to go out and get laid. Somehow, Jango is in the same boat. Pretty light-hearted and fun all around.

(fallout and) the damage done by flan. Rated E, No Warnings Apply, ~4.5k.
Post-Order 66, Obi-Wan and Jango have hate sex. The tension written between them is amazing.

Coerced and Free Love by kj_feybarn. Rated M, No Warnings, Unhealthy Relationship, Whump, ~5.5k.
Obi-Wan falls in love with Jango under forced circumstances and when Jango realizes this, he gives him up. A bit ruminating on power dynamics and free choice in there, just a smidge, with a hopeful ending.

Clone Wars

like silver scrapes in May by blackkat. Dogma/Tup, Rated T, No Warnings, Mermaid AU, ~1.5k.
Tup falls in love with Dogma, a human and a biology grad student on a deadline trying to count crabs that get scared whenever the apex predator mermaid rolls up the shore.

CodyWan

The price for their dream by Ellie1366. Rated E, Graphic Violence, Rape, Torture, Drugging, Imprisonment, ~15k.
Post-Prequels, Obi-Wan is tortured for information after being captured. One instrument used against him is his old commander under mind-control. Dark whump fic with a good-ish ending, but heavy on the hurt!

Gone and Returned by brigitttt. Rated E, Graphic Violence, MCD, ~4k.
Slight AU premise in which clones that die can return to life, like zombies. Some dread and horror elements and an even worse Order 66.

this does not belong to you by passeridae and thegreencarousel. Rated E, Rape, Suicide Attempt, Mind Control, Dead Dove, ~2k.
Sith Obi-Wan, in a not-well intentioned way, punished Cody for trying to flee his control. I do enjoy the philosophical parallels and implications in this, for example making detachment Jedi normally strive for a devastating punishment. Take the warnings seriously.

some things you can never erase by passeridae. Rated E, CNTW, Torture, Clone Massacre, Objectification, Dead Dove, ~1k.
More from the same verse. Obi-Wan bleeding his crystal by torturing and bleeding his Cody. Extremely horny and possessive, hnnnng. Great food if you like fucked up fics.

Drowning to Survive by kj_feybarn. Rated M, No Warnings, Whump, torture mention, dark, ~8.5k.
Obi-Wan is captured post-Order 66 and amnesia protecting him for a while. A lot of whump for Obi-Wan, who does come out on top at the end... though the galaxy loses.

the time when stars align by quigiined. Rated T, No Warnings, Abuse, Dehumanisation, ~7.5k.
Cody's/CC-2242's time as a stormtrooper. As he gets older, a small gaggle of students take care of his failing body and plot to get him out. Whump that might make you want to hug Cody with a happy ending of sort.

Mandalorian

I have acquired a child written by stingrcy, read by blackglass & a ton of others. Gen, Rated G, No Warnings, Crack, ~30 min.
Din asks space reddit childcare questions that are troubling the locals. A+ crack.

Oh. by musicmillennia. Din Djarin/Jaster Mereel, Rated G, No Warnings, ~4k.
A vampire AU on the side, but mostly about Jaster falling head over heels for a very good Mandalorian bounty hunter with a Jedi kid. It's adorable and I don't think they would be a bad match? Romance is expressed by weapon gifts, as is traditional.

Din/Boba/Luke

Love Me Like That by Purplesauris. Rated E, No Warnings, Modern AU, ~31k.
This is basically a fun poly rom-com AU. Both Boba and Din meet Luke on their own and start falling in love and don't realize they are seeing the same person their partner is. Full of fluff, smut and happy poly feelings.

Din/Boba

Reasons why Boba and Han are no Longer Allowed to Kill Each Other by Sunshine_bats. Rated T, CNTW, Crack, ~17k.
A great entry in the genre of Din and Luke make their families meet, leading to disaster. In this version, Han and Boba vent by playing some pranks on each other. Featuring Grogu, who is an excellent Mandalorian in training.

Overwatch

you're a fucking piece of art, and I need some peace, come on by passeridae. Akandriel, Rated E, No Warnings, ~5k.
Great smut by dae of a young Akande shooting his shot with Gabe and getting it, A+! Not as violent as they often are, just great kink from Akande being very charismatic, great at praise kink and Gabriel getting the ever-living fuck banged out of him.

Dishonored

[Podfic] Unlooked For written by icarus_chained, read by seleneaurora. Corvo & Daud, Rated T, No Warnings Apply, ~40 min.
Post-Low Chaos, Corvo delivers a letter from Emily to Daud. A Daud forgiveness fic, as you might guess, which I do adore as a genre.

[Podfic] Cullero Red, Karnaca Blue written by windsweptfic, read by seleneaurora. Corvo/Daud, Rated T, No Warnings, ~4.5h.
Set in a post-Dishonored 2 Emily run, the Empress of the Isle rescues Daud so he can free her father from stone. More Daud redemption! Daud is an unreliable narrator, recovering from abuse and not feeling like he deserves this, which makes the slow burn and rescue of Corvo satisfying.

Cultist Simulator

The Dream of the Card and Pin by cereus. Gen, Rated T, Graphic Violence, MCD, ~0.5k.
Lovely spooly work based on Old English Christian prayer poetry "Dream of the Rood"/"Dream of the Cross". It is dreamlike and I can't explain it, but great word choices for fake supernatural entity cults.

TMA

[podfic] Cute in a Collar written by Aryashi, read by secretsofluftnarp. John/Martin, Rated M, No Warnings Apply, ~20 min.
Artifact collar that makes people behave like cats, so accidental pet play with Jon in a collar. What more can I say, it's amazing.

Locked Tomb Trilogy

Lyctor? I Hardly Knew Her! by Nary. Gen, Rated T, No Warnings, ~1k.
Parody of some contemporary ship wars: Callout post that some candidates for Lyctorhood write Real Lyctor Fiction and the necrolord prime bottoming.

Griddlehark

ev'ry rose has its thorns by misura. Rated G, No Warnings, Harrow the Ninth spoilers, ~1k.
Fusion with the Bachelorette. Gideon is the one giving out roses and somehow Harrowhark stayed in the game until the last three.

Necromancin' Dancin' [VID] by livrelibre. Rated T, CNTW, ~4 min.
Pop punk song with excellent fanart choices! Very fun with spoilers for the first book. The solo breakdown near the end gives me solid goosebumps.

I am one of the young women who was rescued from the Locked Tomb cult, AMA. by mintpearlvoice. Rated M, No Warnings, ~1.5k.
Modern AU that is still mostly Gideon taking on the internet for fun while being very nonchalant about here abuse.

Attack the Block

borne back ceaselessly by gdgdbaby. Gen, Rated T, No Warnings, ~4k.
Focusing on the group of boys before the movie as they become friends and slice of life. It made my heart ache for these children, they are the best of the whole movie.

give me courage not to fear no one by kristin. Gen, Moses-centric, Rated G, No Warnings, ~1k.
"Four weapons Moses used, and one he didn't". This gave me more Moses feelings and hurt me in my heart, I very much recommend.

A Flag That Bears the Name by Chash. Gen, Rated G, No Warnings, ~2k.
A bit more playful, this has Moses as a (non-powered) superhero/vigilante defending the people of the Block afterwards.

Invincible by AurumCalendula. Gen, Rated G, ~3 min.
Fanvid that exudes coolness, focused on the action of the movie.

Sirens by Dogstar. Rated T, CNTW, ~2 min.
This video left me with a stone in my stomach. It's excellent for the dread and drove home to me an aspect I missed: The monsters of the movie represent the police. Not surprisign since I picked up on the whole topic of police abuse and mistreatment that is the essence of the movie message, but the alien monsters are also very blatantly the police and this vid made me make that connection too.

Stand Up by Bexless. Moses-centric, Gen, Rated G, No Warnings Apply, Police violence, ~1.5k.
I admit I gushed about it in my freetalk already, but it's still extremely good fic. Post-movie, Moses is in juvie longterm to hush up what happened. The adult jailers are written very well and make me unbelievably angry. It has a good-ish ending, in that Moses gets out thanks to pressure from his friends on the outside and because there is a need for someone to deal with the aliens. It's not fair, but mirrors reality a lot, maybe even more optimistic in some points. Harrowing.

Pride (2014) - Heads up I bawled at each of these, just so you know.

[Vid] Proud and Defiant by evewithanapple. G, No Warnings, ~2 min.
Apparently Newsies is a musical about unions in some part? Obviously this fits well.

Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light by merle_p. Gethin Jonathan, Rated T, No Warnings Apply, HIV/AIDS ~8k.
Pre-movie get together of Gethin and Jonathan. Miscommunication occurs in the sort of "does he not want me?", mostly thanks to the HIV positive status. Hopeful ending and likely to get you about queer rights. The story cites excellent sources for actual material too!

VID: This Sullen Welsh Heart by Lila Futuransky. Unrated, CNTW, ~4 min.
This one is heavy, from a queer UK-born vidder. The accompanying reflection is worth reading, they go into something that gets cut in the movie:
the miners lost. Queer rights have been getting more accepted in the mean time - though this was from 2016 and of course right now queer people face massive attacks against trans rights, especially in the UK. But overall, it seemed to them in 2016 that queer people gained, while the labour movement lost. What intersectional solidarity is "owed"? Why are there corporations at pride? No easy answers. The vid is somewhat bittersweet, knowing what was gained and lost 30 years after.
The vid that touched me the most for Pride, I think.

[Vid] Power in Union condnsdmlk. Rated G, No Warnings, ~3 min.
Bawled when the song played in the movie, bawled at this vid, obviously.

Solidarity Forever [fanvid] by Rhea. Rated G, No Warnings, ~4 min.
This one is Judy Garland singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which I didn't know was an abolitionist song before.

DC

[Podfic] Permission Slips and Misundertstandings written by sid_pinetree, read by ChipAndDealer. Justice League & Billy Batson, Rated T, No Warnings, ~10 min.
Justice League is big on hidden identities and doesn't know Billy Batson is barely a teen.

Look in these eyes by Petra. SuperBat, Rated G, No Warnings, ~1.5k.
Alledgedly "badfic", which isn't true. But it's a parody on the early 2000s "Superman/Batman" book (that was the title, including the / I swear to all that is holy), which had some extremely purple prose narrations.

Marvel 616

So Far Away From Me, by Sineala (podfic) read by cookiemom6067. Steve/Tony, Rated T, No Warnings, Past Alcoholism, ~20 min.
First off, this is some real punch in the stomach since this is post-Demon In a Bottle, they are fighting and the vulnerability of Tony is on full display as he starts calling Cap's citizens hotline. Great job just destroying emotions, Sineala, and this podfic is a wonderful version of Tony having not his best time.

Naruto

[Podfic] The Zen of Tenzō by ohayohimawari. Gen, Rated T, No Warnings, ~1h.
Introspective post-war about a shinobi who refuses to fight, what that means and mixed thoroughly with self-discovery through practice.

Pokemon Go

[Podfic] #eggfacts written by labocat, read by sisi_rambles. Gen, Rated G, No Warnings Apply, ~15 min.
A fanwork that might make you nostalgic for the summer of Pokemon Go, this casts the team leaders as post-grads finishing their doctorates and the instinct player as about to finish their own degree. The pov character it follows isn't into arena controls and so on anymore, they are too busy, but one of the younger students gets them invested enough to do something wild for one night. The themes of growing up and (not) moving away from childish things are central, while emphasizing that it's never truly gone.

Pokemon Sword and Shield Versions

all those years ago by oakenshoelace. Gen, Leon/Raihan, Rated G, No Warnings Apply, body dismorphia, ~1.5k.
Trans Leon looking back at his younger self and life getting better. There should be more of these, honestly.

like the sea by SuperStellar. Leon/Raihan, Rated G, No Warnings, ~0.5k.
Selkie AU based on Leon's cape. Mostly fluff.

Check Please!

The Elephant in the Room (podfic) read by twhirlpool, written by ToughPaperRound. Gen, Bitty/Jack, Rated G, No Warnings, Domestic Abuse mentions (by actual hockey players), ~10 min.
Could be considered a "crossover" with Hockey RPF. S. Dangle, noted tormented Leaf Fan, talking about Bitty, his prospects and his notable relationship. Feels very meta and falls under fake articles, just of the youtube variety. Thankfully the podficcer didn't completely blow out their voice for this work.

The Steve Dangle Show by DarkWaterFalls. Gen, Rated G, No Warnings, ~9k.
Several Steve "Dangle" Glynn scripts on Jack's story from the media perspective, treated with a heart. It hits the tone of the videos pretty well!

Transformers

MTMTE

YOU NEED TO GROW UP by Polyhexian. Gen, Tailgate-centric, Rated G, No Warnings, ~1.5k.
Focused on early Tailgate lying about everything to everyone around him, how much it weighs on him and alcohol consumption. A character piece that isn't happy.

Dead Con Day by fascinationex. Fulcrum/Misfire, Rated T, No Warnings, ~2k.
Aka "Decepticon Day of Remembrance" on the WAP. Extra traumatic because guess which deadly middle-managing robot read the script for the broadcasts? If you guessed Tarn, enjoy the emotional whump.

Jeeves & Wooster

[PODFIC] bertie goes to horny jail by written by trainspotted, read by Wembley and Wotwotleigh. Bertie/Jeeves, Rated E, CNTW, deliberate badfic, ~5 min.
I haven't laughed as loudly at something as much as I did at this podfic. A parody of Bertie gets caught at the gay club stories and it has a fucking slide whistle. I can't even think about this without laughing. The original fic also has a sequel.

Mortal Kombat

Hanzo Hasashi/Kuai Liang

A Cup of Tea by kamikaze43v3r. Rated G, No Warnings, ~1.5k.
Look, I don't know anything about the deep lore here, so the fics might miss some of this, but what I read is alarmingly fluffy. This one is two old men having tea as a first date while blushing a lot.

Freezer Burn by kamikaze43v3r. Rated M, No Warnings, ~9k.
Hurt/Comfort getting together fic focusing on their alliance. Hanzo helps out Kuai Liang when he loses control over his powers thanks to anxiety.

Good Boy by Summertrap. Rated E, No Warnings, ~8.5k.
Middle-aged deadly kombat master Kuai Liang discovers he has a praise kink and panics. Hilarious with some neat smut.

Your Ransom Has Been Paid With Seven Pomegranate Seeds by Summertrap. Rated M, Graphic Violence, ~10k.
Persephone and Hades AU? Why not! Hanzo is the god responsible for judging the dead in the Netherrealm and mostly on his own, until Kuai Liang just turns up in his realm and refuses to leave.

a restart by sweetexos. Rated G, CNTW, ~1.5k.
Kuai Liang talking to the alternative timeline version of Scorpion about their relationship. Bittersweet.

Original Fanworks

Major Mascot by Mangacat. Filk, Rated G, No Warnings, ~2 min.
Amazing filk riffing of Model of modern Major General about hockey mascots and/or smaug. Managcat has fun and a lovely singing voice for this. The diction is amazing and the rolled Rs? Perfection.

[PODFIC] Flourishing, and How It Is Done, by AliceInKinkLand read by Thimblerig. Femslash, Post-apocalyptic Wanderer/Lost Dimensional Traveler from better Timeline, Rated T, No Warnings, ~20 min.
Dimensional traveler hires a guide to get into a certain danger zone and on the way they fall in love, but the traveler leaves anyway, only to return later. Ending is sweet but not entirely uncomplicated for the couple!