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Presented without commentary because I wanted to get them done in a reasonable amount of time. Most of the fic posted to the ao3 during the season 1 timeframe was short, so these are quick reads.

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I don't have a fandom that I'm in a passionate affair with right now, so this is a collection of things that I've bookmarked that I've enjoyed. I seem to have a long backlog of things I bookmarked that I haven't read yet. Oops.

The Way You Drink Your Coffee (38830 words) by sabrina_il
Chapters: 9/9
Fandom: Hockey RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews
Characters: Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Adam Burish
Additional Tags: Cock & Ball Torture, BDSM, Alternate Universe - BDSM, Painplay, Kink Negotiation, Crying, Tears, Praise Kink, Sadism, Masochism, Prostate Massage, Sex Toys, Restraints, Erotic Electrostimulation, Nipple Play, Nipple Clamps, Blindfolds
Summary:

Patrick Kane is a professional dominant, Jonathan Toews is his client.

Fenestration and the Art of Self Defense (13646 words) by Airawyn
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Darcy Lewis
Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes, Darcy Lewis, Tony Stark, Jane Foster (Marvel), Sam Wilson (Marvel), Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, Steve Rogers
Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Windows - Freeform, Tasers, Pizza, Humor, an unnecessary number of knives, Arms, aggressive self-defense, Dog Cops
Summary:

In which Darcy Lewis catsits for Captain America and Bucky Barnes doesn't use the front door.

The Love Song of the North American Douchebag (25213 words) by gyzym
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto
Summary:

♪ Doobie doobie do. ♪

Iron Man: Director of S.W.O.R.D. (74873 words) by Pookaseraph
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Marvel (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov
Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes, Natasha Romanov, Maria Hill, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Clint Barton, Bruce Banner
Additional Tags: Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Spoilers, Like Seriously Spoils The Whole Movie, Friends to Lovers, Bromance, Terrorism, Politics, Lots of plot, Don't Read It for Sex, Commander Rogers, Director Stark
Summary:

In the wake of the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Avengers need to pick up the pieces, and figure out where to go from here. Tony had a plan, at least he thought he had a plan, but Steve Rogers seems to have blown most of those out of the water.

Spoilers for CA:TWS, lots of them.

Summary is a little vague to avoid spoiling, but it's a plotty, post CA:TWS 'what do we do now' fic.

Life of Crime (35399 words) by neveralarch
Chapters: 8/8
Fandom: Marvel 616, Hawkeye (Comics)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton, Clint Barton/Carol Danvers, Clint Barton & Kate Bishop, Kate Bishop/America Chavez, Barney Barton & Clint Barton
Characters: Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes, Carol Danvers, Kate Bishop, Barney Barton, Maya Lopez, Steve Rogers, Tracksuit Mafia, Lester | Bullseye
Additional Tags: Deaf Clint Barton, Edgeplay, Consensual Kink, Polyamory, Supervillain AU, also lots of other characters and implied pairings but these tags were starting to get out of hand
Summary:

As a ~~supervillain~~ ~~supercriminal~~ contract worker with a morality deficit, Clint Barton leads a glamorous life. You know, stolen cars, dangerous women, a really confusing relationship with a meddling do-gooder, the works. It's pretty awesome. Except for, uh, medical bills, the mob, and being on the run all the time. That part isn't all that awesome.

(A supervillain AU where Clint shoots arrows at people and gets beat up a lot. So, not really that much of an AU.)

Five People Who Flinched From Phil and the One Person Who Never Did (6867 words) by infiniteeight
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Avengers (2012)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Clint Barton/Phil Coulson
Characters: Clint Barton, Phil Coulson, Nick Fury
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, possibly disturbing themes related to experimentation on primates, Telepathy
Summary:

Just because everyone is telepathic doesn't mean they want to hear you. Just because you can't hear them, doesn't mean you can't make a connection.

(I'm sure I read this before, but I read it again and still liked it)
Any Road Will Take You There (63045 words) by shoreleave
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek (2009)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Leonard McCoy
Characters: James T. Kirk, Leonard McCoy, Christopher Pike, Finnegan (Star Trek), Gary Mitchell
Additional Tags: Non-Graphic Violence, Mild Language, Male Friendship, Academy Era, Starfleet Academy, Tarsus IV, Medical Procedures, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Develo
Series: Part 1 of Any Road
Summary:

Slow-developing K/M, beginning right after the shuttle ride and showing what happens the first year at the Academy. Told from McCoy's POV.

Never Have I Ever (11051 words) by thingswithwings
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson, Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov
Characters: Bruce Banner, Pepper Potts, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Maria Hill, Natasha Romanov, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Clint Barton, Thor (Marvel)
Additional Tags: Never Have I Ever, Prostitution, Drinking Games, Pepper is Poly Because Avengers, Bruce Feels, Steve Feels, Natasha Feels, idk it's a fic about how all the Avengers were kind of prostitutes, not an au
Summary:

"Well okay," Sam says, eyebrows raised. "No one told me I was signing up to join an elite team of prostitute superheroes."

(I wasn't sure how to indicate this with the tags, but none of the tagged pairings are background pairings - they all have equal screentime.)

Nimona by gingerhaze. If you haven't heard of gingerhaze, I don't know what rock you've been living under. This comic combines her cute art with a story about a supervillain who's not so villainous, really, and his shapeshifting sidekick Nimona.

Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag. Allison is a super-strong nineteen year old college student who quit her superhero team when she started having doubts about whether punching people solves anything. Like most of the good modern superhero narratives, this is a story that questions the concept of costumed vigilantes.

FreakAngels by Warren Ellis, illustrated by Paul Duffield. You may have heard of these guys. Warren Ellis is the writer of a number of published comics, including Transmetropolitan. FreakAngels is a complete, 144-episode story about a group of superpowered young adults in post-apocalyptic London. Rather than being a story about superheroes per se, this one is more about superpowers, especially their telepathy and mind control powers, and how the group self-organizes and tries and fails to police themselves. The story has a large cast of characters who are all well-drawn. And the art is gorgeous, especially the large landscapes and scenery of drowned Whitechapel.

Some people on Twitter have been asking for recs to longfic that they can download before potentially losing Internet connection to the hurricane. And I am so not on top of that, but here is a miscellaneous collection of stories I've bookmarked that are long, good, and available for download into ebook formats.

( Over a million words of fic you could read )

Ok, this process is making me realize that I have so many untagged bookmarks and several amazing fics that I never commented on because they were too good and I had to make up a worthy comment and I never did so they are still untagged and marked "to read" because I am not allowed to tag a bookmark until I comment on the fic. I'm sorry, authors, you blew my mind too hard.

Crossposts: http://krytella.livejournal.com/54593.html

Compiled this entire thing on my phone so sorry for any typos.

Canon-verse stories:

Amazing Grace by airgiodslv

This is the story that got into the fandom. One of the classic "Mal was right" stories, a heist fic where the heist is trying to incept Dom Cobb into waking up. This is Arthur/Eames, but the focus is on the plot and the ship is PG-rated.

Crime and Medicine by eleveninches

This is kind of a Mal-was-right story, where everyone is pretending to be someone else. Eleveninches' humor is unique and cracky yet touching.

The Wind on the Mountain by starlingthefool
A gorgeous story about Ariadne after the movie. Beautiful use of dreamshare. Contains (hot) Arthur/Eames and Ariadne/Arthur/Eames.

It's Automatic by weatherfront and podfic by Penny
This short Arthur/Eames fic is a fandom classic.

Breaking and Entering and podfic by anatsuno
There are plenty of stories kind of like this, but Breaking and Entering is one of my favorites. A perfect shorter fic focusing on Arthur/Eames and their romantic stupidity.

In our line of work by linckia-blue and podfic by Cath and Crinklysolution
Another classic Mal-was-right. Arthur/Eames.

We Can Replace You by recrudescence
Dreamshare can be used for torture. Arthur/Eames, read warnings!

Parlor Tricks by CynanideBreathmint
If you like action/thriller stories, this is for you. Mostly gen with Arthur/Eames overtones. Also recommended are the sequels The French drop and The Bullet Catch, which also include Ariadne. Warning: the latter is a WIP, but the first two fics are completed.

AU

Patience, A Steady Hand by Helenish
AU where Arthur is a Viking and Eames is a monk he captures in a raid and keeps as a slave. Yes, this has almost nothing to do with Inception. It is amazing. I have recced this to people who don't normally read fanfic or slash and they liked it. Also incredibly educational about historical Vikings.

The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized by the_ragnarok
To me, this story is to alpha/omega-verse as Helenish's "Take Clothes Off As Directed" is to BDSM AUs. It's set in a completely alternate world, nothing to do with Dreamshare, and the world building and use of characters are spot on. The_ragnarok uses alpha/beta/omega tropes both for kink and as an allegory for sexism. Appeals to both those who love alpha/omega porn and those who have issues with it as a world.

Steinway!verse by toomuchplor, podfics by Penny and Xenakis
Arthur is a pianist and Eames is a classical singer. This is a gorgeous series by an author who deeply knows and lives her world. Made me want to play music again. (Arthur/Eames, 150k words, some parts have been podficced)

Take a good swing at all my dreams by apiphile
AU where Ariadne is an amateur boxer and the rest of the team are her support staff. Ariadne/Eames, past Arthur/Eames. Apiphile is wonderful at writing characters with lots of faults, and sex that's hot and compelling and realistically a little gross.

Crossposts: http://krytella.livejournal.com/53194.html

These are stories that were recced in the Inception rewatch chat. I prompted for "most underrated Inception fic" but we quickly strayed from that. I haven't read all of these myself yet. It wasn't exactly a public space that we were in – technically public, but no chat logs, so we could assume we were only talking to the people in the room at the time – so I didn't write down who gave these recs. Own up as you choose.

Caviar and Cigarettes by my_0wn_madness
Rating: NC-17
Length: 27k words
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Eames
Content Notes: Jailbait!Arthur (Arthur's 16-17 to Eames' 27), toys (vibrator), slight and very brief breath play
Summary: When the landlord — Eames, a man of British heritage, a sculpted body and approximately 30 years of age — answers the door, Arthur knows his search for an apartment is over.

Love Notes on Their Headstones by my_0wn_madness
Rating: NC-17
Length: 23k words
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Eames
Content Notes: violence, torture and, of course, sex
Summary: Filled for this prompt over at the inception_kink meme: Eames is a very dangerous man. Sure, he's charming and handsome, seems playful, even. But if you seriously cross him, Eames can and will destroy your life and your sanity. When the men behind Cobol decide that Cobb is too risky to attack, being under Saito's protection, they go after Arthur. Eames is there for the first attempt on Arthur's life, and after watching him take the assassin apart Arthur isn't sure whether to be turned on, pissed off, or afraid. Then Eames goes after Cobol, and Arthur is all three.

Natural Dreams by

k8andrewz
Rating: NC-17
Length: 17k words
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Eames
Content Notes: None given by author
Summary: Arthur almost gets kidnapped.

Even Though My Work Is Unparalleled by beanarie
Rating: Teen
Length: 5k words
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Eames
Content Notes: Angst, no AO3 warnings apply
Summary: "But we're not really dealing with Eames any more, are we? No longer a whole, so much as the sum of numerous, ever-changing parts."

Sea Legs by beanarie
Rating: Mature
Length: 9k words
Characters/Pairings: Eames/Mal
Content Notes: Rape (between canon character and OC)
Summary: A few seconds later, she realizes that she implied a claim on him. But he hasn't said anything, and her mouth is too busy to take back some thoughtless little tease.

Maryam by anon
Rating: Teen?
Length: 6 LJ comments
Characters/Pairings: Yusuf, Eames (gen)
Content Notes: None
Summary: Prompt: also Yusef backstory. how did he end up in Mombasa? How did he become a chemist? How did he meet Eames and end up running a dreamshare place?

Untitled (first fill) by anon
Rating:
Length: One LJ comment
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Eames
Content Notes: Crackfic?
Summary: Reccer's comment: "Arthur gives Eames a BDSM checklist and his safeword is Edith Piaf."

the end of mr eames (series) by apiphile
Rating: Up to explicit
Length: 48k words
Characters/Pairings: Ariadne/Eames
Content Notes: Character death in the last story.
Summary: "I bought that [sofa] because it reminded me of you," she says, apparently out of nowhere [...] "It's belonged to a lot of people already, [...] It doesn't go with anything I have, it's uncomfortable [...] I want to keep it anyway."
Reccer's Comments: This is my rec for vastly underappreciated series. And now I am going to make you not want to read it either: if you're an Arthur/Eames OTP'er this fic may make you unhappy. But if you like your Eames as fucked up as possible, please read this. It hit buttons in me that I didn't know I had (anymore) or that could be simultaneously hit in the same story.

Crossposts: http://krytella.livejournal.com/51550.html

Eames/Saito fic rec roundup! This is a list of actual recs this time, and does not include all the Eames/Saito fic I could find. All of these are short (< 5000 words). I chose not to include fics with a bunch of other pairings – these are ones that focus primarily on this ship rather than in a context where one of them is paired with most of the rest of the cast.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://krytella.livejournal.com/51400.html

( A list and some links )

Crossposts: http://krytella.livejournal.com/49004.html

For those of you who like audio stories, I wanted to recommend some of my favorite Escape Pod episodes. Escape Pod is a free podcast of short science fiction. Most of the stories have also been published in pro magazines and they podcast the Hugo nominees every year. I'm behind on my listening but I here are some favorites that have stuck in my mind long after listening:

The Secret Protocols of the Elders of Zion by Lavie Tidhar
This is a story about growing up, utopian communities, and marijuana. One of the little delights is getting to the end and realizing the title is a literal description of the story -- just not the way you were thinking! Also the only story on this list that didn't make me sad, FWIW.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang
There is nothing of Ted Chiang's that I've read or listened to and not loved unreservedly. His stories are often based on building alien worlds, but he explores the worlds through the emotional reality of his characters. I saw him once at a con, on a panel, and was too nervous to try to talk to him. He's a geeky looking, not particularly verbally articulate guy (as opposed to, say, China Mieville, who is hunky and fucking brilliant to listen to), but I'm such a dork I would have just flailed at him and embarrassed myself.

Tideline by Elizabeth Bear
A child and a war machine on the beach. Art, death, and artificial intelligence.

Freedom With a Small f by Jeffrey R. DeRego
This is part of the Union Dues universe, a series of connected short stories all podcast on Escape Pod. It's your standard "what superheroes might be like in the real world" re-imagining, where those with powers are pressured into joining the Union, which markets their characters and tries to mediate between the heroes and government authorities. All the stories are enjoyable, but I loved this one for its bleak depiction of a character with superpowers attempting to live on their own after spending all their adult life in the X-Men-like Union. Warning: drug use, sex work, unhappy ending.

Edward Bear and the Very Long Walk by Ken Scholes
I really can't describe this story in a way that does it justice. Let me try: an entire colony ship is incapacitated after landing and a high-tech toy based on Winnie the Pooh sets off alone on a quest to save them. Also, I cried.

Friction by Will McIntosh
Entropy, wisdom, death, friendship

The 43 Antarean Dynasties by Mike Resnick
Science fiction that involves anyone settling an occupied planet deals with colonialism implicitly (often badly). This is a story that deals explicitly, and while it's a thinly veiled metaphor for modern Earth it's well-executed.

I Look Forward To Remembering You by Mur Lafferty
Time travel and relationships.