schneefink

Soo I was gonna wait until Thursday to rec this, to finally participate in Reccing Thursday, but the author usually updates very quickly and right now the story is at a good stopping point even for people who don't like to read WIPs, since the prologue (basically book 1) just finished:

Towards the Sun by MuffinLance (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
53k, gen, canon-divergence AU, WIP
Summary: Zuko botches his escape on the day of the eclipse and sits out the war in prison. What will the Gaang do with a new Fire Lord they can't trust?
Why I love it: SO MANY FEELINGS. About Zuko, mostly (among other things, he needs more hugs), but also Iroh and Azula and the Gaang and the palace servants and politics and the entire Fire Nation. Zuko is not in a good place at the start of this fic (mentally and physically) and it gets worse before it gets better – well, most of the getting better hasn't happened yet, but the author promised that it will!
In the meantime, there are several moments that felt like a punch to the gut - all spoiler-y and you really want to read this one un-spoiled but come talk to me once you've read it! To balance it out a little, there are naps on Appa. The fic also made me think about some aspects of canon I hadn't considered before, which I always appreciate.
Canon knowledge required: Yes

The author also has two other very good Avatar:TLA WIPs:
Little Zuko v the World – 70k, gen, AU where Aang wakes up immediately after Zuko is exiled at the age of 12 and there are a number of shenanigans and it's both touching and extremely hilarious, updates near-daily
Cheating at Pai Sho – 16.5k, gen, AU where Aang manages to convince Zuko that he's just a normal airbender, updates about monthly

World Ain't Ready by idiopathicsmile (Les Misérables)
Enjolras/Grantaire (background Courfeyrac/Jehan), 186k
Summary: Enjolras presses his lips together. He already looks pained, and Grantaire hasn't even opened his mouth yet. That's got to be a record, even for them.
"I need a favor," he says at last.
"With what?" says Grantaire. "Ooh, are you forming a cult? Can I join? I'd be awesome at cults, I just know it." He ticks off his qualifications on his fingers. "I love chanting, I look great in robes—"
(High school AU. Grantaire the disaffected stoner is pulled into a cause bigger than himself. Or: in which there are pretend boyfriends for great justice.)
Why I loved it: This is pretty much everything I love about the fake dating trope in one fic. I don't know the fandom, but that wasn't a problem: all the characters are very well written, and there's great character development. That's probably one reason why it worked so well for me: in addition to "pining until they find out they're in love with each other" the story also had a lot of "helping each other until they arrive at a point where they have an actual chance at a functioning relationship." The fic also didn't have one of my other major annoyances in fake dating fic, "obviously they would never want me so I will willfully ignore all the extremely obvious signs and never even consider the idea that they might also develop feelings for me" (though there is still plenty of room for misunderstandings.) In addition to the great main romance there are also well done B-plots and a great supporting cast, maybe even better for people familiar with canon.

Rein of Terror by tsukinofaerii (Teen Wolf)
Allison/Scott/Stiles,/Derek, 51k
Summary: The Hales are a werewolf pack of magical race horse ranchers who breed, raise, train and race every magical horse variety imaginable. While on one last hurrah before college, Scott, Stiles and Allison happen to be trespassing when one of the Hales' prized breeding stallions, Jeff Davis, gets out of containment and all hell breaks loose. Hell which, of course, is blamed entirely on them. As a result the threesome end up spending their summer shoveling rainbow unicorn glittershit under the gentle-yet-terrifying eyebrow of Derek Hale. As if that weren't bad enough, Jeff Davis is still on the loose, and he's on a mission: a mission of murder.
Why I loved it: Crack. Glorious, glorious crack. Jeff Davis is a murderous magical unicorn who shits glittery rainbow death threats. And is in love with Peter Hale. The murder mystery basically consists of nobody being willing to believe that a magical horse could be a serial killer – to be fair sometimes it is hard to believe Jeff Davis is that smart. (So many meta jokes!) The poly relationship is also very nice.

Something to Hold Onto by Wildgoosery (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Jet/Zuko, 123k
Summary: Since the day the walls of Ba Sing Se fell, the Freedom Fighters have struggled to protect what remains of the city and its people. Jet and his second command, a mysterious boy named Li, have spent the summer piecing together an army, hoping for a chance to take the city back for good. But Li is also Zuko, and the time for that secret is quickly running out. Soon, he'll have to decide exactly who he is, what cause he's going to fight for and where his heart lies.
Why I loved it: Eventually Jet has to find out who Zuko is, and the fallout from that is everything I want in betrayal stories: painful and drawn-out, but ultimately worth it. In this story Jet, someone who hates the Fire Nation with a passion and has sworn to fight them, develops into a commander who can see past black and white and who learns that fighting against the whole Fire Nation for revenge is not the answer. I also really like his relationship with Zuko here and how they help and support each other.

Randomness instead of the rec post(s) I keep meaning to make.

first two are on youtube:
Cosplay Fever: Raise Your Glass - cheery, geeky, fun. Wonderful.

Avatar: Do You Like Waffles? - A:tla, random, wonderful crack.

Avatar Dance Mix by sholio - all the fun of A:tla, with both hilarious & touching moments.

SGA: Men of Devotion (also youtube link) - a vid by chayiana, who makes the bestest fun vids. The best assortment of funny John & Rodney faces. Awww. Download link from her vid page here, don't forget "I wanna be a Rockstar", "The Pinky and the Brain" (thanks, saphirablue) and "The Lost Button". "Liberatio" is also great, but less cheery.

SGA: Welcome by permetaform - the vid that showed me Elizabeth Weir as the soul of Atlantis. Perfect music.

SGA: Another Sunday by jescaflowne - the city SPARKLES!

Stargate: Cartoon Heroes by mamoru22 - they really, really are.

Sometime in the last few weeks/months I have come to love vids. Vids are wonderful, and perfect for cheering up. Vids can convey so much atmosphere and feeling and sometimes even story in three minutes, it's amazing.
The same feeling of immersion I often only achieve after half an hour of reading. I think it's because vids have an advantage in using both images and music, both of which connect to our hindbrain more easily than text where we have to imagine pictures and sounds ourselves. /speculation