sunlit_stone

In your own space, post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create.

Double Time by

Sineala. Tony/Steve, Marvel Noir & 616. Cassino, Italy, December 1943. Special Agent Tony Stark, former Marvels adventurer, is sent to investigate a Cosmic Cube found by the Invaders -- and it's the perfect opportunity for him to rekindle his secret romance with Steve Rogers. But when Hydra attempts to steal the Cube, an inadvertent wish for help leads to the appearance of a Tony from the future of another world: Director Stark of SHIELD. This Tony is a man with a lot on his mind. He refuses to tell them anything about the future, but he seems to know much more than he should about Captain America. And something's happened that's clearly killing him inside, but he's not talking. When Director Stark's failed attempt to return home leads to the unexpected appearance of another visitor from his universe, all the lies come undone. Now there are two wars to fight, and the second one could ruin all of them. ~123K, explicit.

I'm not even in this fandom--I'm not much of a comics person, and I've never read a single 616 comic in my life, never mind specifically Civil War. The closest I've got is watching the MCU, and I still haven't watched all of those! Despite this, I love Sineala's fics, and I've read almost every Stony fic she's got posted to the AO3. Of these, Double Time, a post comics-Civil War fix-it fic, is among my favourites. It's got time travel and dimension travel and uses those to explore and advance existing character relationships. It's got two different developing relationships, one of which is new and mostly positive, the other of which has to deal with a long, profound, and emotionally complicated history. It hurts, but in the best possible way. And to top it all off, it has a happy ending. I've read this more than once, and I'll do so again in the future. Highly recommended.

As The Sun by

dandeliondreams. Azula, Ty Lee, Zuko, Mai; mostly gen but with background Zuko/Mai. For a hundred years, the Fire Nation has harried its enemy across lives, deaths, and nations. In the chaos, the Avatar Spirit takes a terrible risk. Being born as the Spirit of the World can't change who you are, but maybe things will work out for the Balance... ~58K, T.

An alternate universe in which Azula is born the Avatar, told in brief moments across her journey; the style is probably not everyone's cup of tea, but if it's yours, or you think it might be, absolutely check this out. It's on fanfiction.net, but don't let that stop you: it's still very, very good. I don't want to spoil too much, but it's got a really amazing emotional arc for Azula that leads her believably to overthrowing the Fire Nation and restoring the balance, and being a little more mentally and emotionally better off than in canon, without ever being less than Azula. The other characters are great too (and don't be fooled by the character tags, it includes more than just people from the Fire Nation), and I really love the Mai/Zuko relationship. Sample from the fic:
"Irritation and mistrust spark in Lin's tone. 'People aren't things.'

'I know,' she says, meeting Lin's unbreakable green eyes.

To both their surprise, her heartbeat rings with truth."

Highly recommended.

Tear the Lies Asunder by

Nyxelestia. Mainly Merlin&Arthur, with Arthur & the Knights and background Arthur/Gwen. First in a series. Starts after 'A Servant of Two Masters'. Arthur, worried about Merlin's excessive drinking and scars on his neck, starts trying to snoop around to see how he can help his manservant with whatever demons are driving him to the tavern. Instead, he stumbles across the webs of lies his friends are spinning around him. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, though Arthur had never needed to bear such weight on his own - but until he finds out what everyone is hiding from him, that is exactly what he'll do. ~23K, but the series as a whole is ~93K; G.

This has been one of my favourite Merlin fics (and series) since the first day I read it. It's platonic Merlin & Arthur that never transitions to romance, and other relationships are dealt with, but Merlin and Arthur's relationship is at the centre of the entire series; the author calls it a queerplatonic relationship, and also has Merlin/Arthur tagged. I would say the series is about becoming the king he never really got to be in the show, because as someone so thoroughly deceived about so much he never really had the chance to learn all the wisdom he should have. TtLA is the first step on this journey, when Arthur finds out that people are keeping things from him, starting with the fact that it seems like Merlin never actually spends time at the tavern and building from there, and tries to work out how to deal with this, and how he can become a good king if everyone keeps hiding things from him. Highly recommended.

--okay and one more because I only thought of it after the first three but I really want to include it:

The Undone Universe by

Teyke.

--I'm not even sure how to begin to describe this series. It's mostly MCU fic, but it diverges at the end of the Avengers and it's got a strong 616 influence. It's about 628K words. Each of the longer individual works forms a complete story in itself, nevertheless working to develop an overarching plot which ends beautifully. The beating heart of the story is the relationship between Tony and Steve; it's marked as gen but honestly the entire thing feels to me like a developing relationship which hadn't quite finished developing by the time the series ended. It's about pushing the boundaries of technology. It's about love. It's about doing what's necessary--and about working out what really is necessary, and what you might be tempted to think is necessary, in the moment. It's about compromise. It's about having a computer in your brain. It's one of my favourite things anyone's ever written, and it's great.

The first fic is called Saga, and I'll just give you the summary from the fic itself: Tony falls into the closing portal, but he doesn’t make it out the other side before it snaps shut. Trapped in a universe where time runs oddly when mortals blink, and accompanied by a Not-Quite-Dead Steve Rogers, Tony mouths off to a goddess of death, goes cross-dressing with Thor and Loki, and learns to hate Asgardian engineering. Oh, and he may have caused the end of the universe as they know it.

Highly recommended among all high recommendations.

...okay, so it turned out to be four recs, so sue me.

(I did Yuletide recs here, too, if you're interested.)