Fandom Snowflake Challenge - Day 2

Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Because I can't just rec three fanworks, I'm reccing three creators near and dear to my heart, and then three of their works.

anarchycox / anarchycox / anarchycox

I could just rec almost everything that Anarchy has written for Kingsman (I haven't read anything she's written for other fandoms, but that doesn't mean that they aren't equally awesome). They only reason why I don't is that there are a few of her stories that push some uncomfortable buttons (mostly my deep-as-the-Marianas-Trench humiliation squick) and I haven't been able to read them. That being said, Anarchy is prolific and committed to her stories, and you really can't go wrong reading anything she's written. The hardest thing to do is to pick just three. And I'm cheating, since I've picked two series and one stand-alone.

The Idiot Squad

A Kingsman A/U, set as an A/B/O, with Merlin as the pack leader, Harry as his second in command, and the Kingsman characters taking their place in various roles. I love these stories because they are both cracky (hence the title "Idiot Squad") and yet deadly serious. Merlin and Harry have a history as deadly members of MI-6, damaged by the work they've done and finally breaking free to form a family of their own. Although Merlin and Harry are emotionally and physically close, they are the pairing in these stories – the first one is Merlin/Eggsy, the second Harry/Percival, the third Roxy/Tilde, the fourth to be finished is Michelle and an original male character. The fifth to be written/fourth in the series chronology, is about how the pack grows with the addition of children (this is an A/B/O fic, so there is mpreg). There's also a collection of timestamps (Good Families Don't) that are tragic, hysterical, sweet, sexy, and everything else that doesn't fit into the main stories.

True Love Is Found in Event Horizons and Taco Nights

This series started with a promotional picture of Mark Strong and the girl children of his (then) new television series, Deep State, and Anarchy wrote a quick fic of the idea of stoic and seemingly married-to-Kingsman Merlin having five daughters. She wasn't satisfied, and expanded it into what is now known as "Taco Nights" (I love Anarchy's talent for always having the perfect titles). These stories are unexpectedly sweet and family oriented, but not at all syrupy or out of character. The first story, The Five Wonders of Merlin's Life and How a Sixth Appeared is what it says – how Merlin ended up with five girl children, and then how a new love made his way into Merlin's life. The story is the start of a beautiful, slow-roll Merlin/Eggsy romance, but it's mostly a family/domestic story that rings true with every word. The sequel, Liking Is Easy, Dating is Hard, is still a work in progress, but of all of Anarchy's current WIPs, it's the one most frequently updated (about once a week, maybe more often). As with nearly all of her series, Anarchy has a timestamp collection for Taco Nights and the two chapters currently posted are utterly hysterical and anyone from a large family can appreciate them.

Went Down to the River and Prayed

Although there are other stories I want to rec (some of which were written for me), I have to rec the story that made me a lifelong fan of Anarchy's writing. This is one of the most unique and original pieces of fiction (fan or otherwise) that I've ever read. Merlin is an ancient kelpie, a water-horse, captured by Kingsman shortly after the foundation, and he's forced to use his magic for the benefit of the agency. This Merlin isn't particularly nice, but then, neither is Kingsman. It is Merlin/Harry, but true love doesn't run smoothly and the forces of evil do their best to destroy everything good in the world.


kyele / timeforalongstory / kyele

Kyele is simply the most brilliantly lyrical storyteller I've ever met, and there isn't anything she's written that I won't whole-heartedly rec (perhaps because we share the same deep-as-the-Marianas-Trench humiliation squick). It's really, really, really hard to pick just three, so I'm going for one series and two stand-alones (that I wish had timestamps and sequels, if just because I'm a greedy reader).

ad infinitum

The first story, Tempus Fugit, was my gateway drug into the world of Kyele. I'd started watching The Flash in Netflix – catching up with Season One and then the current eps midway through the second season, and fell deep into the Eobard/Barry ship (when most of the rest of the fandom was shipping Barry with Captain Cold). This story takes a very unique tack, that when Barry Allen returns from not saving Nora, his mother, at the end of Season One, he ends up right back at the start of the whole adventure – just waking up from the nine-month coma. He knows everything, but at the same time, he doesn't really know what's going on. There's a slow and aching reveal in a very fraught relationship between Barry and EoWells that just breaks me every time I read it.
The two additional stories, Olim and beati possidentes, are soft and warm and sexy – everything that is needed after all of the hard-edge energy of the first story in the series.

The Marriage Bargain

A Flash A/U that is a self-described modern/futuristic Regency/Harlequin Romance, with all of the perfect elements - the poor, intelligent and self-sacrificing hero(ine), the cool and distant, rich and handsome love interest, tragic backstories, excellent and fully-fleshed out secondary characters, and truly villainous antagonists. Unlike modern Regency and Harlequin romances, the plot never hangs on the failure to communicate and unresolved misinterpretations of intention. I love this story for so many reasons, including the intense pining on both sides of the story, the long and deliciously drawn out sexual tension, and the fascinating world-building. It is a story of manners, emotions and a nifty legal turn that makes everything end up just right.

A Royal Arrangement

This story is Kyele at her very best. A true Regency, but also an A/B/O, and a Kingsman Royal AU, where Harry –last fertile Alpha of the British Royal Family – is condemned to marry high-born Omegas and divorce them if they don't get pregnant within one year of marriage. Eggsy is the next Omega on the list - his father, Lee, had been an Earl, his mother, Michelle, had come from very wealthy, but very common stock (no Dean here). There's lovely emotional tension; Harry and Eggsy had met before the V-Day virus had destroyed fertility in a large swath of the population and Eggsy had fallen in love with an Alpha he'd believed would be within his reach. When Harry was made king, Eggsy thought all chance of that was gone. Harry, for his part, is resigned to a loveless marriage – how can he fall in love, fearing that the union would be dissolved exactly a year later. In typical Kyele fashion, there are complications of the romantic and legal and moral kind, but there is a lovely HEA that everyone deserves.

kanarek13 / kanarek13 / kanarek13

kanarek13 is an incredibly talented digital artist whose work has long been focused on White Collar, which is where we met – bonding over the beauty that is Matt Bomer. It's hard to pick three of her works to recommend – because she is not only wildly talented, but incredibly prolific. And because it's so difficult, I'm going to be a little shit and rec only artwork that she's done for my stories (and it's still hard because she done so much for me):

La Rivalité des Cygnes

Cover art for my still-unfinished story Orchestration, a historical AU set in Austria in the late 1700s, just before the French Revolution changed everything.

Remembering Rialto

This is a bit meta - theatregirl7299 had written a story for me based upon an event mentioned in one of the very earliest stories I'd ever written, New York, New York – It's a Helluva Town, where Neal remembers Peter chasing him through Venice, and Neal jumps off of the Rialto Bridge onto a passing water bus. For quite a while, Theatregirl had thought that this had actually happened in canon, if just because Neal had a habit of jumping out of windows and off of buildings. Also, I may have used this bit of head canon in several connected stories, so it kind of kept coming up.

Education is Key

Artwork for one of my stories in the Wonder(ful) Years 'verse, where Peter and Neal are the same age and grow up together, go to college together, join the FBI and work together in the White Collar division, and live their lives together – both in secret and then out and proud. This artwork is for the story First Time, Forever, where college age Peter and Neal have penetrative sex together for the first time. The artwork is from a scene early in the story, where Peter and Neal are reading "The Joy of Gay Sex" together. Because, as you know, education is key to success.


Please check out all of the works by all of these wonderful creators. Trust me, your time will be well spent.

Dear Chocolate Box Creator

Dear Chocolatier:

Thank you for writing for me. I know I'll love what you create.

( Here are a few guidelines about my likes and dislikes and the fandoms I've selected for this challenge. )