author's favorites
Series Metadata
Listing Series
-
i found the ruins of a softer world (kindness couldn't save them) by aletterinthenameofsanity for Tsukino_Akume
Fandoms: Power Rangers R.P.M., Power Rangers, Power Rangers Jungle Fury, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, Power Rangers Samurai, Power Rangers Dino Charge, Power Rangers Megaforce, Power Rangers Ninja Steel
20 Jan 2019
Tags
Summary
When the news of the end of the world starts to hit, former Power Rangers teams take every measure they can to save as many people as possible. Some teams, like Wild Force or Mystic Force, manage to seal off entire areas like the Animarium or the Magical Realm with the use of their powers and Zords.
The teams that have lost their powers...very few make it out. Very few survive. The list of the ones who live is tiny.
Because here’s the thing: once a ranger, always a ranger. When confronted with the world falling, a Ranger knows their duty. They will fight to the end to save as many people as they can, even if that necessitates their own destruction.
-
There are some Rangers who live, however. There are some who escape their own fallen cities, who make it to Corinth. They arrive on buses, some in colors that will never be theirs and some in whatever clothing they could get together in time.
Jake Holling makes it. Sarah Thompson makes it. Mia Watanabe makes it. Tyler Navarro makes it. There are a small number of people who live in Corinth, on the edge of the world, not knowing what they might have been, and they learn to live when their ears have gotten used to the sound of the world falling.
Series
- Part 20 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 1 of author's favorites
-
it's what we call ourselves (sorta like a team) by aletterinthenameofsanity for pawn_vs_player, petroltogo, extraordinarycorn
Fandoms: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies)
24 Jun 2019
Tags
Summary
If Howard Stark was still alive, Sam would be rubbing it in his face, saying Look at this. Look at what a great man your son became despite what abuse you put him through.
(In which Sam and Tony are married, Steve receives his comeuppance, things go wildly canon-divergent after Age of Ultron, Riri and Peter get adopted into the Avengers, and way too many math metaphors and Chronicles of Narnia references are used.)
A consolidation of all of the "hold my hand" fics in one place.
Will be updated as the series progresses.Series
- Part 23 of hold my hand (i can hear the ghost calling)
- Part 2 of author's favorites
-
lend the world your light by aletterinthenameofsanity for Lionfire42
Fandoms: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
14 Jan 2019
Tags
Summary
Flying can be an escape, can give a way to get out of bad scenarios. It allows Sam to forget about his missing leg, about the way he’s nothing more than human. He has no superpowers, has no superstrength or webs or god-like powers. He has nothing save a pair of wings and some armor, a small robotic bird and his own training.
It allows him not to focus on the way a helicopter fell, the way metal screeched against metal, the way an explosion tore apart Sam’s best friend.
When Sam is flying, the world disappears. There is only him, with a leg that works, with wings that won’t let him fall.
-
With the Falcon program, Tony has helped Sam find a new way to survive, to help others and escape his own demons.
Not only does he have wings, but he has Tony himself. Being in love with Tony feels flying, the world at his feet and the sky kissing his skin. There is nothing that could stop him, nothing that could bring him back down to earth.
Series
- Part 17 of hold my hand (i can hear the ghost calling)
- Part 3 of author's favorites
-
come and rest your bones with me by aletterinthenameofsanity for ShanaStoryteller, ArrowsandStars
Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
14 Jan 2019
Tags
Summary
When Harry Potter sorts into Slytherin, Parvati hears whispers.
He should have been a Ravenclaw, she hears, He’s gotta be a smart kid, right?
She recognizes the way that people underestimate Harry Potter, the way they downplay his bravery and cunning and stubbornness in favor of focusing on his brain, his grades.
Sure, he may be the Chosen One, the Boy Who Lived, but he is expected to be a very certain kind of Chosen One. He is expected to be a smart one, a brilliant one, not a brave one or a valiant one.
She knows their expectations of Harry just as well as she knows the expectations that she and Padma and Cho and every other Asian kid get. It’s the same thing everybody expect when they see the slant of Remus Lupin’s eyes, the turban Parvati’s father wears, the sari wrapped around her mother’s body.
Series
- Part 6 of some stupid noble reason
- Part 4 of author's favorites
- Part 3 of where you'll find your real friends (Slytherin AUs)
-
he had become a dragon himself by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia (Movies)
11 Jan 2019
Tags
Summary
The only person Eustace will ever meet who will have the power to recognize him for what he is will be Lucy. Lucy, named empress of a hundred worlds, named goddess of a thousand more, will be the only one capable of looking beyond this plane and into what other realms have to give.
If she looks at Eustace just right, she'll be able to see sharp, dripping fangs and a flaming maw and claws on every limb and shining wings-
But she doesn't. Her ability to travel worlds happens months after Eustace has been UnDragoned, and she never looks closely enough, never shifts her gaze in the right way. She won't be paying attention, and his not-quite-natural appearance will skate by, and thus he won't know just how beyond he is.
Eustace will think himself human, only feeling the remnants of old magic clinging to his skin, but he will be so much more than that. His body takes a humanoid shape but human is the absolute furthest from the truth that Eustace can get.
(Eustace is UnDragoned, but he becomes something far more and far beyond human.)
Series
- Part 8 of long and happy was their reign
- Part 26 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 5 of author's favorites
-
you told me this is right where it begins (just want to feel your lips against my skin) by aletterinthenameofsanity for Duck_Life
Fandoms: Lab Rats (TV 2012)
09 Jan 2019
Tags
Summary
Adam’s feelings are really confusing.
He likes boys, and he likes girls. He's not like Bree who only likes girls, or Chase who only likes boys. He thinks that long hair and dresses are pretty, but so are abs and short hair. He likes hard lines just as much as he does curves- he has no sexual attraction to them, but he does want to kiss the faces they’re attracted to.
-
Adam meets Owen on the first day of senior year. Owen is the new kid with the fast way of speaking and an even faster way of creating.
There's something so mesmerizing about Owen’s long, talented fingers, about the way he gestures excitedly when talking and always has something passionate to say. And he always seems to be excited- there isn’t a single thing that doesn’t have the power to get Owen fired up. Whether it’s art or the school system or a school dance, Owen can never seem to slow down or be quiet.
When Adam looks at Owen, he sees a masterpiece. He sees everything that the world thinks he doesn't, understands things better when Owen is explaining them. When Owen's fingers are moving, when his lips are speaking a million miles a minute, the world makes all the sense that it didn't before.
Series
- Part 2 of my tiny ass fandom fest
- Part 7 of dares to claim the sky
- Part 6 of author's favorites
-
so long we become the flowers by aletterinthenameofsanity for tigriswolf
Fandoms: Shrek (Movies)
07 Jan 2019
Tags
Summary
Rumplestiltskin tricks the fairy godmother into signing away her powers on Fiona’s fifteenth birthday, four years before Shrek would ever find reason to leave his swamp.
The kingdom falls within minutes.
-
(Always read the fine print. Be careful what you sign, be careful what your actions can bring about.)
-
You’ve heard this story before, haven’t you? The villain curses the hero, and after a quest to find a solution everything is fixed with true love’s kiss.
What happens when the villain takes hold of the kingdom before the hero has had a chance to enter the story?
-
There is a boy in the tower that used to be a Princess’, now stripped of its finery and guarded by three sadistic witches. The dragon is dead, slayed by Fiona. Fiona has been slain by Charming. All that is left is that little blonde-haired boy and the nightmares that haunt his tired eyes.
Those who live nearby know what happens in that tower, what King Rumplestiltskin's favored General does to the boy trapped there, but they don’t talk about it. They duck their heads, seal their lips, and pray for the Usurper's death.
Series
- Part 25 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 1 of my tiny ass fandom fest
- Part 7 of author's favorites
-
think there's a flaw in my code (I’m afraid somebody else might take my place) by aletterinthenameofsanity for darkwinggirl, PinkRangerV, Estirose
Fandoms: Power Rangers R.P.M., Power Rangers
04 Jan 2019
Tags
Summary
The first time they see Ziggy again, it’s on the battlefield.
He doesn’t look drastically different. He’s still lean, still has that same messy hair, still has mostly the same face, but there are some differences that only Venjix could have done.
His body is a bit more filled out. He’s dressed in a sleek black uniform with shoulder and knee armor that far more mirrors Tenaya’s than a Ranger suit. His posture is rigid, his body moving in an ordered fashion instead of his normal frenetic, distracted sort of way. And, most telling- his eyes glow silver, their familiar warm brown irises replaced by a metallic sheen.
And then he attacks, and Summer can’t believe the change to the way Ziggy moves. He was good before- months of training had improved him from coward to fighter- but now he’s so much faster and stronger than before. Fighting him in his UnMorphed state is as bad as trying to combat Tenaya or Dillon in theirs. Perhaps even harder, because they're used to Dillon and Tenaya's strength but Ziggy is an incredibly different beast.
(In which Tenaya knocked out Ziggy instead of taking him awake to Fresno Bob's. This changes a lot.)
Series
- Part 7 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 24 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 8 of author's favorites
- Part 1 of all you have is your fire (R.P.M. Soulmate AUs)
-
my words are wrapped in barbwire (my actions speak for what I can't say) by aletterinthenameofsanity for Tsukino_Akume
Fandoms: Power Rangers Samurai, Power Rangers
29 Dec 2018
Tags
Summary
Kevin has always (even after the whole ink stain fiasco with Mike) known what he was going to do with his life. He was going to serve the Shiba family as the Blue Samurai Ranger, marry in a way that benefited his line, had an heir that could become the next Blue Samurai. That was the cycle, the Samurai Code, the way of doing things.
Swimming was a way to train, not a valid life goal. It didn't matter how much he enjoyed it- he knew what he had to do. He has always known what to do.
Then Mike came and threw a wrench into everything.
-
They shouldn’t be doing this, and Kevin knows it. Not when Soulmates hang over them, their bond left unspoken in the middle of tangled limbs and quiet laughter and heated kisses. Not when Kevin can taste his own sweat on Mike's lips, when he can feel Mike's hands against his skin.
They shouldn't be doing this- or at least, that’s what Kevin keeps telling himself when he and Mike jerk each other off before bed. He never seems to listen to himself, though.
Series
- Part 12 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 9 of author's favorites
- Part 2 of kill your heroes and fly (never let fear decide your fate)
-
lighting flamethrowers against the dark by aletterinthenameofsanity for SearchingforSerendipity
Fandoms: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Power Rangers, Twilight Series - All Media Types
24 Dec 2018
Tags
Summary
When Edward leaves, Bella doesn't collapse into nothingness. She doesn't fall apart, doesn't go silent for months.
Instead, she blisters. She festers, anger equaling the sadness in her veins.
She loves him and she hates him. He is her addiction, but her withdrawal doesn't make her collapse inward- it makes her explode.
Bella leaves Forks and heads to California, settling with Angela in that apartment in Amber Beach.
For a year she lives and learns to breathe on her own. She learns not to look over her shoulders, not to measure everything she does next to impossible standards. She learns to love the parts of herself that she used to hate, used to see as too imperfectly human to love.
She learns to live, and maybe she's fucking things up a bit along the way but that's...okay. And she constantly reminds herself to accept that.
-
Then, a year after she started living here, the monster attacks start and the Power Rangers rise.
(Bella Swan leaves Forks, becomes a Power Ranger, learns to heal, and falls in love with a woman. Not necessarily in that order.)
Series
- Part 3 of all we have is each other (one foot in front of the other)
- Part 10 of author's favorites
-
if you're gonna be the death of me (that's how I want to go) by aletterinthenameofsanity for Rivulet027
Fandoms: Power Rangers Time Force, Power Rangers
23 Dec 2018
Tags
Summary
One of the most well-known facts of Time Force is that the percentage of UnBonded officers is three times as high as their representation in the general population. It’s not that much of a surprise- it’s been well-documented that Soulmarks only exist on the skin when a person is in the same time period as their Soulmate, and for many Time Force members who desire romance but find themselves lacking Soulmarks, there is a chance that an officer could meet their Soulmate in another time.
To anyone who meets their team, one would expect that Katie or Trip are the ones waiting for their Soulmate love rather than dating other UnBondeds. They are, after all, the most optimistic, childishly romantic ones of the bunch. Any stranger would be well within their rights to make such an assumption.
But to be honest, it’s Lucas who’s waiting for Soulmate love. Katie and Trip are already married- they met in their first year of academy, started dating within a year, and married the year they both became officers- and Jen and Alex are dating. Despite all of them being UnBonded within this time sphere, only Lucas is the one chasing fairytales.
Series
- Part 2 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 11 of author's favorites
-
put my faith in something unknown by aletterinthenameofsanity for Duck_Life
Fandoms: Lab Rats (TV 2012), Lab Rats: Elite Force (TV)
18 Dec 2018
Tags
Summary
See, the thing is that Chase has always been pretty unlucky in love. From Jake to Haven to that one failed attempt with Sabrina (when he was still trying to act straight), love has had a way leaving Chase curled up on the floor, body beaten and heart battered.
He resolves to stop his crush on Kaz. He can’t let a crush get in the way of missions. They already have one relationship on the team- Alex came with them when the team split- and besides, Chase doesn’t trust Kaz, but that’s not a new thing. He doesn’t trust himself, to be honest. He hasn’t been able to, not since-
He takes a deep breath. He won’t think about heartbreak. He won't dwell.
(Chase is far too used to avalanches. He doesn't want to bury himself or the team in the consequences of one more failed crush.)
-
“Chase,” Kaz says, “Trust me on this- I like you. I like you as much as comic books, hot dogs, and Tecton’s sweet moves.”
Chase’s response is harsh. “I don’t trust you.”
Series
- Part 6 of dares to claim the sky
- Part 12 of author's favorites
-
push until you can't and then demand more (gotta turn the world into your dance floor) by aletterinthenameofsanity for PinkRangerV, prettydizzeed
Fandoms: Power Rangers R.P.M., Power Rangers, Lemonade Mouth (2011)
09 Dec 2018
Tags
Summary
At first Dillon refuses to interact much with anyone in the band. He loves music, but he doesn’t much love his bandmates.
But then there’s Ziggy, who originally refused to join, who it took Dillon’s words to convince, who is constantly wearing Dillon down.
The way Summer's fingers race down the strings, the way she sings, the way she moves- she was never meant to burn out at the altar, to sacrifice herself for the wishes of those too close-minded to know her for who she really is.
When Scott’s singing, the whole world falls to the side. He's able to forget tragedy and life circumstance, to just let the music take him away to another world. There is just him, in focus, the words pouring out and the music moving through his body.
The band ends up performing at the Halloween Bash and end up getting banned from performing at school due to the little protest they staged at the end, but that just makes Flynn more determined to keep going. They've started a revolution and Flynn isn't about ready to let it die.
(The band that begins from five bitter kids in detention will soon have the world at its feet.)
Series
- Part 13 of author's favorites
- Part 6 of all you have is your fire (R.P.M. Soulmate AUs)
-
my love is gone (an impostor wears his face- one I barely recognize) by aletterinthenameofsanity for Tsukino_Akume
Fandoms: Power Rangers S.P.D., Power Rangers
30 Nov 2018
Tags
Summary
Sky has faith in his Soulmates. They know him, and they’ll recognize that the monster in his body isn’t actually him.
(Right?)
-
Sky's voice is quiet and kind of raw when he asks: “When did you realize that he wasn’t me?”
He glances up at the other Rangers and regrets it immediately. Their expressions are ones of guilt, with the exception of Bridge who says honestly, “At about 1400 hours, this afternoon.”
And that would be about half an hour before they found him- so half a day with the fake Sky and no one had picked up on the fact that he had been acting differently.
“It’s only been two weeks,” Sky says, “And that’s not enough time to learn about a person, I know, but I thought…” His words trail off as his fingers curl around his knees. He’s not used to uncertainty, to feeling unsure in himself and his words, to all of these feelings being in this relationship have caused him. His voice is barely a whisper when he continues with: “I…I hoped…”
(Working out a relationship between four people who've known each other for fifteen years and one person who just stumbled into this isn't as easy as you'd believe.)
Series
- Part 24 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 4 of you are what you love (not who loves you)
- Part 14 of author's favorites
-
these scars on my heart I own them (we are unbreakable) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Power Rangers S.P.D., Power Rangers
26 Nov 2018
Tags
Summary
Jack and Z are fifteen years old, bitter and seeking to find acceptance, when Bridge and Syd write to say that they’re joining S.P.D. like their parents did.
Years later when they join the S.P.D. team and find out that the B Squad Pink and Green are their soulmates it's a pretty strange- but great- moment.
Things aren’t perfect. The four of them sharing Marks isn’t an end-all, be-all, everything’s sunshine and roses guarantee. After all, Syd’s a bit stuck-up, Jack has trust issues, Bridge can’t communicate very well, and Z has a tendency to put other lives above her own. All four of them have their major issues, and sometimes they find themselves fighting more than flirting.
But the Marks mean the four of them are meant to be the parts that complete each other- but only after a bit of work and faith in each other. So they do try. And it mostly works.
(But sometimes, when Jack is looking at his arm, at the familiar green and red and pink and orange ink on his skin, he sometimes wishes- and he hates admitting it- but he sometimes wishes that there was blue there as well.)
Series
- Part 21 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 3 of you are what you love (not who loves you)
- Part 15 of author's favorites
-
these words are knives that often leave scars (the fear of falling apart) by aletterinthenameofsanity for predilection, Guardian_of_Hope, starandrea
Fandoms: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Jungle Fury
25 Nov 2018
Tags
Summary
The guy from Jungle Karma Pizza jumps in front of them, and Casey's a bit confused but rather welcoming of the help.
However, Casey realizes he has very, very big problems when the guy rolls up his sleeve to display his Master's stripes and familiar red and purple ink appears alongside them.
Casey's Soulmate is a Master of Pai Zhua, and he's their Mentor. Oh, Casey's fucked.
-
Casey had entered the Pai Zhua academy and the first and only lesson Casey actually got at the Academy was that of the connection between Soulmarks and animal spirits.
“You have to earn your Soulmarks, just as someday you will earn your Master stripes,” Master Mao said, “They are a sign of one day being worthy of your Soulmate. Until then, though, you cannot truly complete your Soulmate."
Series
- Part 6 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 16 of author's favorites
-
we tried the world (good god, it wasn't for us) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Merlin (TV)
15 Nov 2018
Tags
Summary
Every child is told some kind of bedtime story. Whether they be fairytales or warnings of holy hellfire or a soft lullaby, all kids have their parents’ fears and hopes and dreams handed to them as they are tucked into bed.
Arthur’s parents told him stories in which a prince rescued a princess, a knight rescued a maiden, a wizard rescues-
Arthur learned at a young age that the boy has to be a prince, a hero, a rescuer of the innocent. He has to be strong, or the devil will drag him down. He has to be a protective father, a faithful husband, a man driven in life and work and bed.
The moral of his childhood fairytales was clear: You cannot be weak. You cannot be hurt.
Men cannot be hurt that way. Cops cannot be hurt that way.
(You cannot be that way.)
-
Arthur has known his entire life what it’s like to hurt because you’re holding a secret to your chest, clutching it so close that it burns a hole in your heart, sears scars across your soul.
Merlin makes him feel like he doesn’t have to hold the secret so close. Around Merlin and their friends, kisses don't feel like weights strapped around his neck.
Series
- Part 6 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 17 of author's favorites
- Part 1 of flowers never bend with the rainfall
-
don't you know that the kids are(n't) alright by aletterinthenameofsanity for Guardian_of_Hope
Fandoms: Power Rangers Mystic Force, Power Rangers
07 Nov 2018
Tags
Summary
Furious tears spring to Chip’s eyes and a lump rises in his throat. When he was a kid he dreamed his mother was a lost princess, who had to leave him behind because she was being hunted by monsters. Then, when he met the Bishops, he learned that the monsters had found him here just as easily as they would have with his mother.
He gave up on the idea of a fairytale ending, of having a mother and father that would return to save him from the monsters. He spent four years with the Bishops until the Roccas managed to wrangle the Soulmate laws so that he could live with them.
When Chip picked up his staff and declared his belief in magic, it was not a belief born of foolish childhood wishes and syrupy sweet fairytales. It was a faith born of necessity, of the way nightmares crush daydreams and how monsters teach little children that they have to rescue themselves because no one else will. It was a hope born of the iron in his spine, the solid weight of Soulmarks against his skin, the love of the Roccas in his heart.
“You didn’t recognize me,” Chip says, and Udonna looks at him with her brow furrowed. He raises his voice slightly as he says, “You gave me up, and you don’t even know it was me.”
Series
- Part 3 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 18 of author's favorites
-
thick skin and an elastic heart (walked through fire to save my life) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Criminal Minds
29 Aug 2019
Tags
Summary
Spencer and Derek have one of the most insane jobs in the world: profilers in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. They battle serial killers, kidnappers, rapists, and all manner of horrifying people. They battle external and internal demons, and find themselves trying not to go insane with the horror.
It only makes sense that they find themselves falling in love and leaning on each other in the process, right?Series
- Part 1 of my past has tasted bitter for years now (i'll be a better man today)
- Part 19 of author's favorites
-
to the edge of the earth (it's a brave new world from the last to the first) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
28 Oct 2018
Tags
Summary
(It all comes back to a boy and his wars. It all comes back to him sitting on a throne, staring at a crown, knowing that his world may crumble into pieces with one wrong touch. It all comes back to him refusing to accept his brother’s cowardice, his sister’s recklessness, his sister’s fallibility, only seeing their strengths rather than their flaws.)
This is the Story of the Pevensies-
Susan the Gentle, ruler of a kingdom of her own making;
Abraham Miller, teacher and lover;
Lucy the Valiant, goddess in a thousand worlds;
Edmund the Just, the Once and Future King;
Claudia Thomas, the Impossible MP;
Peter the Magnificent, High King turned teacher;
Anna-Mae Brown, doctor above all else;
Caspian the Seafarer, one of the Warrior Kings;
Eustace Clarence Scrubb, Dragon-Kin;
Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived Twice;
Dean Edmund Thomas, Professor and brother.
(In the end, it all comes back to that boy, staring at a lantern, staring at a witch, staring at a tree, and deciding to step back and turn around.
It all comes back to a single family, and the way their all-too-human want for their own happiness shapes entire worlds.)
Series
- Part 10 of long and happy was their reign
- Part 20 of author's favorites
-
the rain fell down around me and i drowned (but i will save you) by aletterinthenameofsanity for Tsukino_Akume, PunkPinkPower, IndigoMay
Fandoms: Power Rangers Samurai, Power Rangers
16 Oct 2018
Tags
Summary
It’s all Mike’s fault, really. He was stupid enough to run off on his own instead of waiting for the other Rangers when he saw a Nighlok tormenting some families in a park. He’d thought oh, it’s just one, I’ll be fine, and had charged in with little regard to his own safety. He’d been cocky, overconfident, just like always, and he’d paid the price.
(It had been a trap. Of fucking course it had been a trap. And Mike’s never been smart enough to avoid those.)
-
There’s another disc, sitting in an old cabinet. It’s a weak disc, connected to a weak Zord- the Snake Zord, abandoned generations back for being broken in a battle with Nighlok. It’s a small Zord, underrated during its time even before being broken.
And Mike wants to fix it.
Maybe Mike isn’t the Green Ranger. But maybe, with Antonio’s help building a morpher and his own effort rebuilding the Snake Zord, he can become something useful to the team again.
(Mike gets captured by the Nighlok and is held for months. By the time he escapes, all of the team save Kevin think he's dead and they've replaced him with a new Green Ranger. Mike has to spend months figuring out how to fit himself into this new world.)
Series
- Part 1 of all we have is each other (one foot in front of the other)
- Part 21 of author's favorites
-
burn my bridges down (set me on fire) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Descendants (Disney Movies)
11 Oct 2018
Tags
Summary
Carlos is having a hard time adjusting to Auradon. He'd thought he was fine after everything Ben and he went through leading up to the Coronation, but now it seems like he's not good enough for anyone. The press hates him and royalty sneers at him. He can't possibly be enough for Ben, the King of Auradon, so there's only one place to go: back to the Isle he called home for sixteen years.
Too bad Ben hasn't gotten this "not good enough" memo yet. He's not letting Carlos get hurt again, and neither will any of the other Lost kids. They chase after him the Isle, where curses abound and an old nemesis surfaces.
Can Ben and Carlos make it out with their minds intact?Series
- Part 2 of The Kids Are Alright
- Part 22 of author's favorites
-
all I need is one last chance (to prove I'm good enough for someone) by aletterinthenameofsanity for aj_books, trashedmouthtozier
Fandoms: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
24 Sep 2018
Tags
Summary
Jeremy can’t do a lot of things anymore.
He can’t masturbate, can’t slouch, can’t think of the taste of Mountain Dew without feeling phantom shocks travelling down his body.
-
Jeremy has nightmares that leave him waking up with a scream wedged between his teeth and sweat coating his body. He has nightmares of what might have happened if the SQUIP had succeeded, if Michael hadn’t shown up, if-
The ifs haunt Jeremy. He fucked up so bad, and the consequences could have been so much worse if Michael hadn’t been the best friend a guy could ask for.
Jeremy still blames himself for everything that happened and everything that could have happened. Michael and a lot of Jeremy’s friends went through hell because of Jeremy’s desire to be popular.
-
“You’re allowed to hate it,” Rich says, and Jeremy blinks at him.
“What?”
“The SQUIP. You’re allowed to hate it for what it did to you.”
“It just made me realize my flaws-”
“No, it didn’t. Dude, you’re a good guy. Whatever that SQUIP told you- it was fucking wrong."
-
(Jeremy deals with the aftermath of the SQUIP. He fucks up, falls in love, and figures things out.)
Series
- Part 7 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 23 of author's favorites
-
follow my dreams (you'd think they were nightmares the way they scream) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Rags (2012), Cinderella - All Media Types
18 Sep 2018
Tags
Summary
Lloyd recognizes Charlie at the party and he knows then that his plans to save them both will change. Charlie should win that contest. He should be the winner, not Androyd.
Lloyd just hopes that wherever Charlie’s star takes him, he’ll let Lloyd escape with him just like Lloyd planned on rescuing Charlie.
-
There’s something fucked up about the dance that Charlie and Lloyd have to move, to cover up the fact that Charlie finally has something to hope for and that Lloyd doesn’t actually hate his stepbrother.
And that’s pretty fucked up, isn’t it? That Lloyd can’t actually care about his stepbrother, that he can’t support his stepbrother when he’s earned something this big.
Because Charlie deserves to be happy, and Lloyd wants him to have that.
-
Lloyd runs like he’s never run before.
He has to find Kadee Worth. She’s the only one who may believe him, who will understand why Andrew is not, and can never be, Rags.
“Kadee,” he gasps, and the pop star looks at him with a raised eyebrow. “You have to listen to me. Andrew- he’s not-”
“Rags?” she asks quietly, and Lloyd gapes at her. “He’s not Rags,” she repeats.
-
(Lloyd does a bit more than the movie lets on.)
Series
- Part 1 of we're just reckless kids (trying to find an island in the flood)
- Part 24 of author's favorites
-
noble heart such as yours by aletterinthenameofsanity for Silent_Lex, belleslettres
Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
17 Sep 2018
Tags
Summary
Harry Potter meets Dean Thomas as a kid and they become best friends. One of Dean's mums, Susan, tells them fairytales about Narnia, about faith and power and cleverness. She warns them not to put their faith in thoughtless gods and old, "wise" men, to swear at the powerful and pray to no one but themselves.
Their world changes.Series
- Part 6 of long and happy was their reign
- Part 2 of some stupid noble reason
- Part 25 of author's favorites
- Part 2 of where you'll find your real friends (Slytherin AUs)
-
beautiful scars on critical veins by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Descendants (Disney Movies)
11 Jun 2018
Tags
Summary
If you live long enough, if you see enough pain, you start to see the same agony in people's eyes. You start to understand, intimately, the pit of starvation in another's stomach, the pain of a lash against the back, the sting of going barefoot over cobblestone and broken glass.
This can start to break the strongest of women.
Let me tell you about a Faery’s magic.
It is hungry. It seeks to right wrongs in any way it sees fit. It will search to the ends of the earth for a solution, and then- It devours, burns, seeks out an outlet and pours itself into it.
Mal is Fae. She is Dragon. She is the daughter of the Mistress of all Evil, but she is more than her mother ever could be because she knows how to work the system.
She is everything ancient and powerful, all the magic of Auradon locked away in the resentful soul of a child of the Isle.
She is their worst fucking nightmare.
Series
- Part 6 of The Kids Are Alright
- Part 8 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 26 of author's favorites
- Part 8 of "eloquent rants": or, happy endings are acts of revolution
-
invincible, I can't believe what we've done by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Lab Rats (TV 2012), Lab Rats: Elite Force (TV), Mighty Med
29 May 2018
Tags
Summary
When he tells them that they are all heroes, he doesn’t mean that they are all saviors of worlds, leaders and princes. He doesn’t mean that they have to save the day, have to be courageous and beautiful and in love.
He means that they are survivors, and that this, in itself, is a heroic act.A collection of quick character studies about all the major characters in Lab Rats/Elite Force.
Series
- Part 2 of dares to claim the sky
- Part 9 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 27 of author's favorites
-
all things live forever (though at times they sleep and are forgotten) by aletterinthenameofsanity for SearchingforSerendipity
Fandoms: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
28 May 2018
Tags
Summary
Aslan didn't bring back Peter- Lucy did.
-
Lucy has not been innocent since she was a child. She carries the Deep Magic in her veins, holds the powers of life and death in her hands. She can break the universe apart, shatter entire armies with a single whispered word.
She has become a goddess, and she understands Aslan so much more intimately than anyone else. She knows he cannot possibly be all-benevolent, cannot be selfless and righteous in all the ways she used to believe he was.
She is not, after all. No God is. Each operates according to their own wishes, their own agenda.
Let Aslan do as he wishes, as long as he does not cross her. If he does, though...There is always a hierarchy, and among gods it is based on power. Lucy knows the Deep Places. She knows Old Magic, stretching back to worlds such as Avalon and Yomi and Shambhala and all the other places that were ancient when Aslan learned his first Deep Word. She knows what made Aslan, and she knows how to unmake the magic holding him together.
The White Witch's mistake was using the Deep Magic that Aslan himself breathed into being- Lucy's power comes from a far older, far hungrier place.
Series
- Part 7 of long and happy was their reign
- Part 10 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 28 of author's favorites
-
once a king or a queen in narnia, always a king or queen in narnia by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
13 May 2018
Tags
Summary
In England, Peter falls in love with a brilliant, beautiful girl with the steadiest hands he’s ever seen. No healer on Narnian battlefields could stitch with such precision as she can, and her status as one of the first black female doctors in Britain is not an unwarranted one.
Peter eventually proposes to her, but not before telling her of Narnia, of its green glens and wild dances and grand battles. He tells her of sibling monarchs and omniscient lions, of brave warriors and river gods.
When Peter is pulled back into Narnia a few days later, his hands are near permanently stained with the ink of his doctoral dissertation. (The subject: the recurrence of messianic figures throughout cultures in world history.)
Peter is not a commander anymore. His voice is softened by years spent in a library, his command of armies dulled by quiet debates with professors and peers. He is sentimental in softer ways now- his gestures of grandeur have been minimized from countrywide spectacles to candlelit dinners in his flat.
(Peter Pevensie is told he can never return to Narnia. When he gets pulled back into Narnia for the third time, he is a far different person than the King he once was.)
Series
- Part 3 of long and happy was their reign
- Part 29 of author's favorites
-
even a traitor may mend by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
10 May 2018
Tags
Summary
Edmund remembers thirty four years worth of life and does as he always does. He weighs his options, calculates the outcomes, and comes to his decision.
Though, as always, his timing isn't necessarily the best.
-
Edmund does the unthinkable. He stops at the entrance to the tree and steps back.(Edmund stays, and becomes High King. This changes everything.)
Series
- Part 1 of long and happy was their reign
- Part 30 of author's favorites
-
shine in the dark places (where the street lamps are broken) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies)
02 May 2018
Tags
Summary
When he and James begin to become close friends, start to inch close to becoming more than friends, Rhodey is wary. If James defends Steve, it strikes James off the list. You can't betray Rhodey’s best friend and then expect for him to like you.
But he never does. James is quiet and understanding, eyes wide open in wonder and curiosity far more than his fist is ever clenched close in anger.
When Rhodey holds James in his arms after a dissociative episode, after a flashback, after a panic attack, he cannot pretend to know what horrors the man went through under HYDRA’s rule. He will never pretend to understand what it’s like to hold the memories of a monster in his head, but he can understand what it’s like to enter a war zone, to be ready to die for your country and friends.
(What he knows is this- the feeling of flying, of landing, of ordering troops and following orders, of being a soldier and a patriot and a big brother. And he knows that James Barnes knows many of these things as well.)
Not Steve Friendly.
Series
- Part 14 of hold my hand (i can hear the ghost calling)
- Part 31 of author's favorites
-
the line's in the sand (and our moment's at hand) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Video Blogging RPF, Sanders Sides (Web Series)
26 Apr 2018
Tags
Summary
He remembers parties and picnics and late-night discussions, just the five of them. He remembers Roman’s grand tales, Patton’s warm hugs, Prince Thomas's unwavering belief, and Logan’s long parchment scrolls of notes.
He remembers their family, happy, before that warlock’s roses changed Roman. Before Roman took Prince Thomas hostage at swordpoint, before those damn Rose-Fallen took over.
Now, though, all Virgil finds at the top of the stairs is Roman, a crown of thorns wrapped around his hair. His eyes are yellow, his clothing is dark, and his hair is ashen gray.
There is banging against the trap door leading up to Prince Thomas’s rooms. Virgil knows that Prince Thomas is locked up there. (Hopefully Logan and Patton are helping him escape now. If this goes wrong, if Virgil fails in his mission, then Prince Thomas has to be protected.)
“You’re nothing to me,” Roman says, and his voice is emotionless. He is paler, darker, colder than everyone else- like the soil beneath a grave, cold and hard and lifeless.
“That’s not you talking,” Virgil says.
Strong platonic LAMP feels w/ Prinxiety and background Logicality.
Series
- Part 1 of overcome in this war of hearts
- Part 32 of author's favorites
-
where the good ones go (when death strips their faces of colour) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Coco (2017)
08 Mar 2018
Tags
Summary
There is a lifetime in which Héctor gives up. There is a world in which Héctor, after Imelda turns him away the first time, feels his heart break inside of his chest, but he respects her wishes more than anything else, so he stops. He stops wishing for her, stops trying to cross the bridge, stops trying, and it’s the hardest thing he’s ever had to do.
---
In the quiet night of Dia de Muertos, 2017, a boy arrives in the Land of the Dead. He doesn’t meet a too-old, too-young skeleton, doesn’t perform for the first time at a talent show in de la Cruz Circle, doesn’t escape past the first checkpoint. Without makeup to disguise himself, without a skeleton to guide him, he can’t make it far at all.Series
- Part 8 of even if it costs my life (I won't stop loving you)
- Part 13 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 34 of author's favorites
-
to days of inspiration (making something out of nothing) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Coco (2017)
21 Feb 2018
Tags
Summary
As Héctor outlines his plan to Frida about how he plans to get the foto from Ernesto de la Cruz- deftly dodging Ceci’s pointed questions about how the celebrity got ahold of Héctor’s foto- Ceci bustles about, acquiring outfits for each of Héctor’s familia. She recognizes none of them save, maybe, the tall one- Victoria, she thinks the name was- and wonders where they have been for the past century. She’s known Héctor for thirty years and has never seen a single one of them.
Anger fills her. Where were they while Héctor was being Forgotten? Where were they when this wonderful man grieved, cried, wrote such haunting music for Frida but never penned a note for himself? Where were this so-called familia? How could they abandon this man who, though flawed, is still one of the best people Ceci has ever met?
(And then-
Oh Dios, then she finds out at the Sunset Spectacular why they never checked up on him, and she feels so sick-)
Series
- Part 6 of even if it costs my life (I won't stop loving you)
- Part 35 of author's favorites
-
honey, you're familiar (like my mirror years ago) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Coco (2017)
19 Feb 2018
Tags
Summary
“You are so strong,” Héctor says, and she doesn’t need him to say it- she knows she’s strong, she had to be in order for her family to survive- but it’s nice. By Dios, it makes something in her chest ache to hear Héctor acknowledge everything she had to do for their familia. “You always have been. When you chased me away-” He swallows. “You've always had to be strong, and for that I am sorry. If only I hadn't left-" His voice cracks, and her chest bones ache.
The thing is, Imelda has heard Héctor call her strong before, but it hasn’t meant as much as it does now, after a century of having to be too strong.
She has always been the strong one, the stubborn one, the cold one when necessary. Héctor is the heart of the family, the kindness, the compassion. He has always bent over backward to make others happy, because that is what made him happy. It is what made him feel fulfilled, useful, far more than any machismo ever could. It is what made her fall in love with him.
Imelda and Héctor are the exact opposite of what should have worked, and they never tried to change each other.
“Then we both are at fault,” she says, and it feels like a weight has been released from her chest.
Series
- Part 5 of even if it costs my life (I won't stop loving you)
- Part 36 of author's favorites
-
don't you ever tame your demons (but always keep 'em on a leash) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Coco (2017)
17 Feb 2018
Tags
Summary
Ernesto De la Cruz forgets about Héctor.
He stops thinking of Héctor, about a bitter familia in Santa Cecilia, as his thoughts become solely occupied by the adoring crowds, by movie deals and novias and commercials.
Ernesto is famous, now. What need does he have for his old life, a world he no longer lives in?
-
When people hear Ernesto's name, they don't think murderer. There is only one person who knows what he is, and that person has almost forgotten that the crime existed.
Up until his final moments, Héctor thought of Ernesto as his friend. Héctor, that fool, never would have suspected foul play.
(There was never any blood on Ernesto's hands- Héctor died with a few gasping breaths and a soft thump as his body hit the street. There was no wound, no blood-stained weapon, no descent into madness.
Ernesto's hands are clean.
After all, if no witness remembers the murder, who's to say there was one?)
Series
- Part 4 of even if it costs my life (I won't stop loving you)
- Part 15 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 37 of author's favorites
-
hoping to do some good in the world by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
16 Feb 2018
Tags
Summary
When a little muggleborn girl walks up to the Sorting Hat, a number of purebloods (and a number of muggleborns, to be honest) wonder why they can't see her hair- why her head and neck are covered by a dark blue headscarf.
In the ensuing months, they will learn the word hijab.
---
Hermione Granger is faithful and studious. She hates breaking the rules and is a perfectionist.
(She is also stupidly, irrevocably, wonderfully noble.)
In this universe, as in most others, Hermione Granger carries these traits close to her heart, in her spine and in her head. She holds faith in things that do not have a ready explanation, believes in heroes despite all evidence otherwise.
Series
- Part 5 of some stupid noble reason
- Part 38 of author's favorites
-
innocence died screaming (honey, ask me I should know) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Descendants (Disney Movies)
15 Feb 2018
Tags
Summary
You can't blame the Lost kids for what they had to do.
Oh, you say, those poor, defenseless children. You put them there, left them with the worst criminals and abusers in the world. Would you expect anything else to happen?
Good? Oh, Merlin, no. No, Good is not a concept in a world where the most powerful people once slaughtered entire armies. No, power is what is understood on this Isle.
Good is reserved for people who can imagine a world past tomorrow.
Series
- Part 1 of The Kids Are Alright
- Part 16 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 39 of author's favorites
-
at least we stole the show by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
25 Jan 2018
Tags
Summary
Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. You wish you're someone's ending, but sometimes all you are is a whole lot of middle.
Ginny and Harry break up after only dating for a few months his sixth year.
Series
- Part 4 of some stupid noble reason
- Part 40 of author's favorites
-
Tags
Summary
There is an all-powerful character in Harry Potter, and it isn’t Dumbledore. It isn’t Voldemort, and it isn’t Harry Potter.
Series
- Part 3 of some stupid noble reason
- Part 41 of author's favorites
-
Tags
Summary
Maybe survival has nothing to do with the world around you, but what you make of it. Maybe it’s not coming back from the dead, not continuing to live despite the odds, but making your blood your own.
Maybe it's something brave. Maybe it is just something necessary, something that isn’t a choice.
Maybe it’s glowing eyes and ripped jeans, dead falcons and glowing swords, dripping fangs and broken glasses. Maybe it’s whips flashing and short skirts, red hair and runes drawn from nowhere. Maybe it’s a once-worn white tuxedo and well-aimed arrows, cat eyes and burning memories.
Maybe it’s blood.
Maybe it’s fire.
Series
- Part 42 of author's favorites
- Part 9 of "eloquent rants": or, happy endings are acts of revolution
-
old enough to start reading fairytales again by aletterinthenameofsanity for dirgewithoutmusic
Fandoms: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia (Movies)
12 Jan 2018
Tags
Summary
Whenever Susan visits the Professor, she makes sure to take a trip to the room with the wardrobe.
When she enters the room, she remembers fruitless attempts by Edmund and Lucy to return after their first expulsion from their kingdom. She remembers them returning day after day, for weeks and then months.
She traces her fingertips along the wood of the outside of the wardrobe, but she never makes an attempt to open it. She isn’t even tempted to open the door. She doesn’t want to open the door, to see if Aslan has given her a glimpse into the world he never gave her siblings back when they needed it.
She has more than made her peace with this world- she has fallen in love with it. She has fallen in love with the people here, her job, and her briefcase. She has no desire to return to her old kingdom, not when she has built her own here.
-
When Susan left Narnia, left paradise, she left one breathtaking world for another. She left the beauties of Beruna, the majesty of the Lone Islands and the grandeur of Cair Paravel, for two people who love her, a never-ending line of innocent defendants, and a small house made for three.
(She cannot believe she made the wrong choice.)
Series
- Part 5 of long and happy was their reign
- Part 43 of author's favorites
-
here is the deepest secret nobody knows by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Lab Rats (TV 2012)
10 Jan 2018
Tags
Summary
Bree Davenport likes girls. She loves her brothers, and her bionics. She is nothing like the world may want her to be, but she has learned not to care.
She can wear lipstick and kiss girls’ soft lips. She can fight super villains and read gossip magazines. She can prank her brothers and dance in pretty clothes.
Her dresses are bright, her legs are steel, and her world is large.
Bree Davenport is no one’s but her own.
Series
- Part 1 of dares to claim the sky
- Part 44 of author's favorites
-
where need underweighs want by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
13 Dec 2017
Tags
Summary
When Clint was a kid, before he even ran away from home, his favorite book series was the Chronicles of Narnia. His favorite character wasn’t Peter, the hero, or Lucy, the Valiant, but rather Susan. An archer who slayed armies, who ruled lands, but was still Gentle. She’s everything he wants to be, everything he wishes he could become.
When he runs away from home, a well-worn copy of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe stays tucked in his pocket.
---
Sometimes Clint looks at himself and realizes how old he is. Sometimes he feels the aches in his bones, feels the echo of strain when he pulls back the bowstring, and realizes that he probably won’t last much longer.
As he reads his favorite book to his children, he wonders: is this how Susan felt when she was left behind in England, when she had to deal with limbs growing weak and calluses not being able to hold up against her bowstring?
(Is this how she felt when her world crumbled before her, when she was taken from Narnia, from Queendom and power, to the mundane world of England?)
Series
- Part 9 of hold my hand (i can hear the ghost calling)
- Part 45 of author's favorites
-
so naked for immortal work (his shoulders marched against the dark) by aletterinthenameofsanity for MiladyDragon
Fandoms: Torchwood
30 Nov 2017
Tags
Summary
A number of things can happen to cells when they are exposed to strange energies. A girl with supernatural powers living on a Rift can become a portal in and of herself. A man containing the power of a vortex can become immortal.
A man who has been exposed to the Void, who lived on a Rift for years and years, whose planet has been dragged through space, who has been electrocuted by a Cyberman and jolted back to life by the power of a time-soaked kiss- his cells look nothing like any others’.
His is a being beyond imagining.
Series
- Part 46 of author's favorites
- Part 1 of infinite as the universe we hold inside
-
he still shatters always (cause of every tear he'd ever weep) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: How to Get Away with Murder
24 Nov 2017
Tags
Summary
Ever since Oliver found out about the murders his boyfriend had been involved with, he’d braced himself for something like that to happen to him. He’d accepted that death clung to Connor and his friends like the stench of a skunk and had tried to prepare himself mentally for whatever disaster came along.
This is nothing like what he’d imagined. His fiance is laying on the ground, a bullet from Laurel’s gun buried in his gut, and there is blood everywhere.
Series
- Part 2 of I've lost control, please save me from myself (4.08 fix-it)
- Part 18 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 47 of author's favorites
-
there's bones in my closet (but you hang stuff anyway) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: How to Get Away with Murder
15 Nov 2017
Tags
Summary
It all comes out, and rather than being upset at Oliver, Connor gets pissed at Laurel.
Laurel Castillo, who by everything stated in Oliver’s testimony, emotionally blackmailed Oliver, Michaela, and Asher.
Coda to Nobody Roots for Goliath.
Series
- Part 1 of I've lost control, please save me from myself (4.08 fix-it)
- Part 48 of author's favorites
-
he is gone (but he used to be mine) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars - All Media Types
14 Nov 2017
Tags
Summary
At first, it doesn't seem real.
Special Agent Poe Dameron-Skywalker, demigod, disappears a year and a half after his wedding. All that can be found is blood on the sheets of the bed he and his husband share. For the next four and a half years, Finn searches for answers and only finds dead ends.
After five years, he gets a phone call.
This is the story of those five years.
Series
- Part 1 of almost like praying
- Part 49 of author's favorites
-
never mind a world with its villains or heroes by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
13 Nov 2017
Tags
Summary
If Howard Stark was still alive, Sam would be rubbing it in his face, saying Look at this. Look at what a great man your son became despite what abuse you put him through.
Series
- Part 7 of hold my hand (i can hear the ghost calling)
- Part 50 of author's favorites
-
where the lines we drew in the sand were crossed by aletterinthenameofsanity for tigriswolf
Fandoms: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
09 Nov 2017
Tags
Summary
When she was a child (if she was ever a child), Natasha happened across the case of Phineas Gage. She read about the pole that went through his skull, that destroyed his frontal cortex and removed his inhibitions to do things like swear and fight and steal.
She realized that something like that had happened to her. Killing isn't fun, brings her no pleasure, but she sees no wrong in doing it. Even at eight years old, Natasha Romanoff has no hesitation killing people.
The metal pole removed Phineas Gate’s inhibition to swear- something removed Natasha’s inhibitions to kill.
-
A black widow trails death in her wake. Is it any surprise that Natasha would do the same?
Series
- Part 6 of hold my hand (i can hear the ghost calling)
- Part 20 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 51 of author's favorites
-
and we did not walk away unscathed by aletterinthenameofsanity for dirgewithoutmusic
Fandoms: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia (Movies)
03 Nov 2017
Tags
Summary
In this world, her family does not go out with a bang. It disappears, little by little, escaping back to the kingdom she once called home.
Her world does not end. It just goes on.
-
She takes her war from the battlefield to the courtroom. She graduates law school, carefully clawing her way through every two-bit lawyer in her way. She knows how to negotiate, how to ply the response she wants out of people. She has two decades of experience over these other law students.
Susan was known as the Marksman Queen. Is sinking her sights into humans at the defense table, aiming her words at those who claim falsehood all that different?
She goes partying one night, dressed up in her best nylons with lipstick painted across her mouth. She is a force of nature, a Queen of this seedy college bar.
This is not about vanity. This is about holding onto what she has left in this world, about building a Kingdom when a god cast her out of Paradise. This is about the power a dethroned Queen can hold in an imperfect world, the power Cupid can hold after she has lost her bow.
Susan's family stays in Narnia to be better. She stays in England to make this world better.
Series
- Part 2 of long and happy was their reign
- Part 52 of author's favorites
- Part 10 of "eloquent rants": or, happy endings are acts of revolution
-
Tags
Summary
Let’s talk about Alexander Gideon Lightwood, about abuse and sacrifice and love. Let’s talk about a childhood of neglect, about pushing himself to be better than his parents ever thought he could, about having to push himself down and away in order to please them.
Let’s talk about Alec Lightwood, a friend and a brother and a parabatai. The man who would fight, who would die for his family. The man who would give up anything in order to keep his sister and his brothers safe, sacrifice happiness and comfort and even love to let them be happy.
Let’s talk about Alexander, who met a warlock and smiled. Let’s talk about a stutter that never existed before, about vulnerability and trust and a touch to the shoulder.
(I don’t think we’ve been introduced before. My name’s Magnus Bane. And you are?
A hesitant smile. Alec Lightwood.)
Let’s talk about love and heartbreak, about follow your heart and take my strength and the law is hard but it’s the law.
Let’s talk about a shadowhunter.
Series
- Part 55 of author's favorites
- Part 1 of the heaviness in my heart belongs to gravity
-
swing my heart across the line (hold me tight or don't) by aletterinthenameofsanity for darkwinggirl, PinkRangerV, fire_hazard101
Fandoms: Power Rangers, Power Rangers R.P.M.
16 Apr 2019
Tags
Summary
Ziggy knows that he shouldn’t be doing this. He shouldn’t be kissing Dillon, not when Ziggy has three confirmed Soulmates out there in the Garage, not when he has a dead Soulmate, not when there are a million unspoken promises and half-crafted thoughts about Soulmarks unspoken between them.
But Dillon doesn’t say a word about the red, yellow, and blue Marks on Ziggy’s arm when they’re making out, and thus Ziggy never asks Dillon about his own Soulmate. They don’t need to think about that, after all, not when they have their lips and hands on each others’ skin.
So they get to keep making out and dating and Ziggy gets to continue pretending as if Scott, Flynn, and Summer aren’t his, that they never rejected him, that he’s just a guy with a dead Soulmate (like half of Corinth, who exist with dead Soulbonds trailing behind them) who likes kissing the guy in front of him.
Series
- Part 8 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 56 of author's favorites
- Part 2 of all you have is your fire (R.P.M. Soulmate AUs)
-
show me joy; flower through disarray by aletterinthenameofsanity for Rivulet027, Tsukino_Akume
Fandoms: Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, Power Rangers
18 Jan 2019
Tags
Summary
You never wanted to fight. You never wanted to be a soldier, to learn how to fight monsters, but Mr. Hartford shows up and gives you superpowers and you think of Frankie, dead because of a monster in a town that wasn’t even your own, and you can’t help but take the Morpher. You can stop deaths like Frankie's, make his ghost proud of you.
And you’re not a soldier, you’re not good at dealing with the nightmares or the orders or the fighting, but you are good with your teammates. You like all of them a lot, despite their respective flaws. Sure, Will’s a bit prickly and Rose sometimes doesn’t get all of their Soulmate discussions and Ronny’s headstrong and Mack’s hella naive, but they’re your friends. You haven’t had any of those in ages, probably since before Frankie.
And most of the time, looking at Will and Ronny doesn’t hurt. When they hold hands, when they kiss, when their heads are bent together in the game room as they engage in a heated discussion, your heart can mostly handle itself.
(A character study of one of the most hated (undeservedly so) Power Rangers of all time and an examination of how to grow and heal after grief, featuring Taylor Earhardt backstory/healing as well.)
Series
- Part 5 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 57 of author's favorites
-
just a dead man walking tonight by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
11 Mar 2019
Tags
Summary
They say that isolation is one of the quickest ways to turn a person insane, and in certain ways Five relates a bit too closely to Vanya and Klaus’ childhood imprisonments. He wasn’t trapped in a single prison, a basement cell or a mausoleum, but rather the entire world was his cell. He was the only person alive in the entire world, entirely alone besides Delores.
Five sometimes wonders if he went insane, all alone in that giant prison.
(Other times, he knows he did.)
-
This body isn't right. It’s too small, too soft, the palms uncalloused and the face too smooth. That scar he got from killing Louis XVII is gone from his knee, the chunk taken out of his ear during his seventh year in the Apocalypse fully healed. He carries no marks of his years of experience.
He sometimes wonders if all the scars he’s gathered since he ended up in this young body constitute some insane attempt at recreating the scars he lost. The shrapnel, the alcohol binges, the gunshot- he knows he was more reckless than usual in his self-imposed mission.
(But some part of him wanted to reclaim some measure of experience on this body, to turn this child-like vessel into something approaching the weapon it used to be.)
Series
- Part 5 of tell my father (this is my life)
- Part 58 of author's favorites
- Part 31 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
-
the courage to be gentle by aletterinthenameofsanity for Tsukino_Akume
Fandoms: Power Rangers Mystic Force, Power Rangers
11 Feb 2019
Tags
Summary
There’s a legend that’s been circling the Enchanted Realm for the past nineteen years, a legend about fire and birth and a Prince.
Your mother has told the story so many times she’s forgotten how it began. She told this story to Clare, who told it to everyone else, who eventually told it to you.
This is Bowen, they say. This is the fire that will burn the Master down.
But see, this story was never about fire. The looks on these people's faces, the light in their eyes- this is hope. This is your power. Your smile shines like the sun and this is what people need. They need something to believe in.
-
The world set itself on fire when Bowen was born, you hear, and you don’t think of yourself. Why would you, after all? You have never been fire- you are too gentle, too kind, for that.
You don’t burn and blaze. You never have. You spent your childhood hiding scars and never fighting back because if you’re completely honest with yourself, you aren’t built for confrontation. You forgive far too easily for that.
-
(Here's the truth, never realized: the world didn't set itself on fire when you were born; your mother set the world on fire in her search for you.)
Series
- Part 4 of this could be good (love is patient, love is kind)
- Part 59 of author's favorites
-
we will put the lonesome on the shelf by aletterinthenameofsanity for tigriswolf, CaffeinatedFlumadiddle
Fandoms: Merlin (TV)
05 Feb 2019
Tags
Summary
Merlin falls in love with Arthur. That's clear from even a cursory watch of this show.
So let's talk about this story, about how Merlin falls in love with Arthur and his duty and he calls it destiny but that's not why he stays, because he's terrified by Uther but that doesn't matter.
Merlin falls in love with Arthur because he's kind, and he's brave, and he's honorable, and he may not be Good with a capital 'G' but then again, who is? Merlin falls in love with Arthur because Arthur isn't a saint but he's not a monster, because Arthur is flawed and beautiful in his mistakes.
Merlin falls in love with Camelot because Arthur loves his country and he shows Merlin how to love it too, because a boy with magic sure isn't going to fall in love with the nation that demands he repress what he is or else face death.
Merlin falls in love with the people of this city, cowering and standing and kind and brave and broken. He falls in love with the peasants who trade in the marketplace, the knights who will lay down their lives for Arthur, even the cook who bops him on the head every time he passes.
Merlin falls in love. Let's call it what it is.
Series
-
cut me open and i still bleed red by aletterinthenameofsanity for mayfriend, lorata
Fandoms: The Umbrella Academy (TV), Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
11 Mar 2019
Tags
Summary
Ben knows his fellow mentors pretty well, for how long he's spent here, behind the screens of the Games, watching as his tributes die.
Allison, from District One, has a way with the sponsors. Just a word placed here or there, stealthily dropped into conversation, and she can get her tributes the shit they need.
In his time as a Mentor, Klaus has developed a habit of drinking to get through the Games, and through the rest of his life, really- anything to avoid the truth of what's happening, the ghosts of the children he and Ben have sent to their deaths.
Very few people remember what Five’s name was before the Games. Caesar Flickerman and the Gamemakers nicknamed him that when he took out the entire Career Pack on his second day in the Arena.
Vanya’s the newest Mentor, the victor of the Seventy-Third Hunger Games.
Diego’s one of Ben’s oldest not-quite friends. A Victor from District Ten, he’d gone into the Games knowing how to kill an animal.
All the other Mentors Ben knows try never to get attached. Luther, on the other hand, doesn't forget a single name.
(A story of seven victors of the Hunger Games and the lives they live as Mentors.)
Series
- Part 1 of the odds were never in our favor
- Part 61 of author's favorites
- Part 30 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
-
just stars that have people names by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Original Work, Historical Fiction
18 Mar 2019
Tags
Summary
Granada is the last of them, the last of the Cities of Al-Andalus, the shining daughters of the caliphate of Cordóba. She is the last immortal on the peninsula still giving prayers to Allah.
She will scrape for power for as long as she can, protect her people against the Christians. Yes, she is no military power, but she carries the power of trade and old alliances in her grasp.
For now, her tongue learns these strange foreign languages, tries its hand at politics. She has to be the best on the peninsula, has to last for as long as possible.
She knows she will die someday, will be the last of her sisters to fall to the Christians, but for now she speaks the names of her sisters to the god her people believe in.
Cordóba. Toledo. Seville. Valencia.
By the name of the great and merciful Allah, please protect them.
Series
- Part 1 of seek a great perhaps
- Part 62 of author's favorites
- Part 27 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
-
idealism sits in prison (innocence died screaming) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: The Umbrella Academy (TV), Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
16 Mar 2019
Tags
Summary
Over the years after Claire's birth, Allison and Klaus pass each other at parties, each on the arm of a different Capitolite, and they lock gazes sometimes, natural brown eyes surrounded by makeup recognizing each other from across a room. They understand each other, in this wretched shared empathy. They understand this loss of innocence, this game of survival.
Occasionally, they'll have dinner together, get drunk together, talk through slurred words and the debauchery of Capitol parties. Klaus uses drugs a lot more than Allison does to deal with everything, and she doesn't blame him.
And every year, the Games arrive, and every year, they each lose two tributes, Klaus usually a lot quicker than Allison. (Allison has to wonder which is worse- the knowledge that there is no hope that Klaus lives with, or the savage dagger of hope that skewers her every year, when her tributes make it to the Final Eight, Four, and sometimes Final Two but always end up dying anyway.)
But they get used to it, just like they got used to the politics and the unwanted sex and the absence of Claire. In order to survive, to stay even a little sane, you have to learn what you cannot change.
Series
- Part 7 of the odds were never in our favor
- Part 63 of author's favorites
- Part 28 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
-
tell my father (this is my life) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
16 Apr 2019
Tags
Summary
Things aren’t good, but Ben can’t remember them ever being good. He can’t remember normal. He can only remember being turned into a weapon before he ever had a chance to be a child.
Five is an assassin and Allison’s throat will be damaged for a long time and Klaus’ boyfriend died and Diego’s not-girlfriend died and Vanya has world-destroying powers and Luther has the body of an ape and Dad is dead. Things are fucked up. They’ve always been fucked up.
But the difference, now, is that Ben has hope. Klaus is sober for the first time since he was fourteen. Vanya knows about her powers and they’re figuring out how to work through them without Dad or her shady ex-boyfriend trying to control things. Allison’s planning on taking them all to meet Claire soon, once they’ve healed a bit more. Luther and Diego are still little shits, but you know, that can’t really be helped.
(And, of course, the apocalypse has been averted by a single hug and a door opening. That’s a pretty important improvement.)
-
All the main sections of "tell my father (this is my life)," in one convenient place.
Series
- Part 13 of tell my father (this is my life)
- Part 64 of author's favorites
-
watching still living roots be consumed by the flame by aletterinthenameofsanity for felinedetached
Fandoms: Shadowhunters (TV)
01 May 2019
Tags
Summary
Raphael’s fellow vampires often describe drinking blood to be equivalent to something sexual.
Raphael’s never understood that analogy. Perhaps that’s because he lacks the grounds to make the comparison.
All he knows is that blood from an animal tastes like ash in his mouth, blood from a human tastes like a home-cooked meal, and blood from Isabelle Lightwood-
It tastes like fucking home.
-
Simon Lewis can’t say God yet. Raphael’s Catholic ‘til his dying breath, but Joshua on the third floor of the hotel still prays to Yahweh, two hundred years after his turn. He’s learned how to say his old prayers and ignore the pain of the holy words on his lips.
Nesreen on the second floor is Muslim, turned eighty years ago. She still wears her hijab. She still kneels at the five points of the day.
The prayers burn their lips on the worst days, but they don’t stop. They keep going.
(They have to. It’s been decades, sometimes centuries, since their turns, but they have to continue having faith. They have to continue believing.
Some days, it’s the only thing that makes them still feel human and not like the monsters they all know they are, deep inside.)
Series
- Part 65 of author's favorites
-
this is what the wolves taught me by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: The Order (TV 2019)
20 Apr 2019
Tags
Summary
Lilith's mother named her after the first female demon, who was born of the same clay as Adam, equal in stance to the first man to live. She named her after Adam’s first wife, the one who refused to bow to God’s will, the one who defied God and was cast down because of that.
And Lilith has never forgotten that. She has never been a girl or a woman who laid back and let others roll over her, never been someone who gives in easily.
When Lilith is turned into a werewolf, she remembers this. She enjoys being able to take down evil, to destroy bad magic, to do something good in the world.
And, of course, there's her new boyfriends.
Hamish and Randall and her- they just work. As a team, as a throuple, as lovers, if you were sentimental to call them that. They’re her boyfriends, she’s their girlfriend, and nobody really knows but that’s fine with them.
Lilith would be content to live this way for the rest of her (probably short, due to that whole werewolf thing) life. She has a purpose in the Knights and in her werewolf identity, and she has happiness in her boyfriends.
(The one where Lilith, Hamish, and Randall are in a relationship, and it doesn't really change much.)
Series
- Part 7 of my tiny ass fandom fest
- Part 1 of about queer bodies and the way we find one another
- Part 66 of author's favorites
-
you taught me the courage of stars before you left by aletterinthenameofsanity for peradi, Zoe_Dameron
Fandoms: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types
23 May 2019
Tags
Summary
Finn has dreamed of stars ever since he can remember. He's pretty sure the image of the cosmos, of tiny white pinpricks in a black blanket of night, are his very first memory.
When Finn's eyes close, he doesn't see the warm orange inside of his eyelids. Instead he sees webs of blue light scattered between everything, the life that connects everyone and everything together.
For the longest time, he believes that his dreams are just things that all treacherous Stormtroopers have, like shared nicknames and treacherous ideas.
It takes him meeting the Resistance to realize that his dreams are not Resistance-related at all, but instead are of something else.
-
This story, though, will come later. First, we must tell the story of two women, who led a Resistance when their husbands left them after tragedy struck. We are going to tell the story of two women with spines of kyber crystal, who lost sons and families to the Force and to the Empire and yet continued going.
We must tell the story of two women who lost everything and continued fighting and working, women who gave everything they had to making the universe better even after the universe did nothing but steal from them.
Series
- Part 67 of author's favorites
-
name the blood for the war between your legs (name it something holy) by aletterinthenameofsanity for mayfriend, felinedetached
Fandoms: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
27 Jun 2019
Tags
Summary
When she starts to bleed, Four actually starts to question whether she herself is dying from the inside out, rotting like all of the corpses she's seen.
Six is fucking terrified. The tentacles, the monsters- they were supposed to stay inside of her when she wasn't using them. The blood isn't supposed to stain when she's not on a mission. The blood isn't supposed to stay.
Allison wonders if she can just rumor the period away.
Lena doesn't like her period. She doesn't like the reminder that she's vulnerable, that she's weak, that she can bleed so much.
Vanya is perhaps the only Hargreeves sister to actually feel relieved when she gets her period.
Five is the last of the Hargreeves girls to get her period, and she gets hers about three months after she flashes into the Apocalypse.
Diego never bleeds between his legs. He never grows breasts, never lets his hair grow out, never grows curves or wider hips. And that's a total relief. All of that- it's not what he wants. It's not what he is.
(The story of how each of the six Hargreeves girls get their period, and how their brother doesn't.)
Series
- Part 1 of wait 'til you meet my little sister
- Part 68 of author's favorites
-
my peace has always depended (on all the ashes in my wake) by aletterinthenameofsanity for lorata, scoutshonour, chrissyeccly
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016), Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
21 Jul 2019
Tags
Summary
Some nights, Steve’s side of the bed is empty, and Nancy knows what President Brenner is making him do. So she sets an alarm to get up early and has coffee, a shower, and a blanket ready for when he gets home, because she can’t stop this from happening but she can sure as hell make it better afterwards.
In turn, he does the same for her on the nights where she has to grit her teeth and go out, because the Capitol doesn’t value piano playing half as much as they value her spreading her legs for them.
Then Jonathan shows up for his half-month visits and he’s there for both her and Steve, cooking his mother’s favorite soup recipes, and she kisses Jonathan as he stirs the pot. He takes photos of her and Steve around the apartment, capturing what he calls their “good angles.” Steve chases Jonathan around the living room and kitchen until he reaches Jonathan and tackles him with tickles.
Through all of this, Nancy’s heart will grow and grow until it feels fit to burst. She knows this can’t last, that this fragile relationship can be blown up at any moment by the Capitol, but she just sinks into it for now, letting her be as happy as she can be.
(Nancy, from the Sixty Ninth Games to the Quarter Quell.)
Series
- Part 69 of author's favorites
- Part 39 of when it feels like the world's gone mad (dark stories)
- Part 1 of if we're going down in flames (take a bow)
-
learning anything is possible now (got a feelin' that's what life's all about) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Glee
22 Aug 2019
Tags
Summary
The inevitable blowout happens the next glee period.
“You bitch!” Rachel comes in shouting, and before Kurt can react there’s a smack and Santana’s head is whipping sideways.
Kurt jumps up. “What the fuck, Rachel?”
“You stole my spot!”
Kurt raises an eyebrow. “Excuse you, Rachel, Santana earned it fair and square. And you can't slap people.”
Rachel turns on her heel and storms out of the choir room.
Santana turns to Kurt, a smirk on her face. “I'm going to New York, Hummel,” Santana says. “Fuck Lima, I'm getting away from this awful place and so are you. Why don’t you and I be roommates in NYC? Maybe find a place to room together so we don’t have to share with some diva?”
“You sure you’ll be able to put up with my morning routine and cleanliness?”
“As long as that includes no opera singing in the morning, then I’m all for it.”
“It’s a deal, then.”
They shake on it.Santana auditions for NYADA and her and Kurt get in. Life changes a lot.
Series
- Part 70 of author's favorites
-
you are the music while the music lasts by aletterinthenameofsanity for halfempty
Fandoms: Victorious (TV)
03 Sep 2019
Tags
Summary
Robbie turns to look at Jade. “Beck doesn’t deserve you, you know,” Robbie says, earnestness in his eyes. “I wasn’t joking- he’s an utter dickwad for what he did to you. Dumping you like that, for such a stupid reason. You're great. You work hard, and you have a pretty voice, and you've got a passion no one else I know has."
The words are a balm just as much as the alcohol is.
Though Robbie's scared of most things in the world- kindergarteners, non-Jewish holidays, Northridge girls, turnips, giant cupcakes, being separated from his puppet- he’s never been afraid of her. On the contrary, despite the fact that she’s constantly yelling at Robbie, he doesn’t seem to mind. He’s always been supportive, if a bit anxiety-ridden due to his general demeanor. And very few people are that. Very few people can be relied on to the extent that Robbie is, that he's so willing to help and support her that he showed up here at her house at midnight, got drunk with her, and keeps complimenting her- and Jade's not entirely sure why, on that last one.
She doesn't say thanks. She never does. But in this moment, she almost wants to, because no one's ever been this nice to her. No one's ever cared this much.
Series
- Part 11 of my tiny ass fandom fest
- Part 71 of author's favorites
- Part 1 of sketchy girls and lipstick boys
-
my life is not the prop in your sob story (the revolution will not be televised) by aletterinthenameofsanity
Fandoms: Original Work, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Magicians (TV), Torchwood, Merlin (TV), Shadowhunters (TV), Love Simon (2018), Andi Mack (TV), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Umbrella Academy (TV)
27 Apr 2019
Tags
Summary
I know I've been living in an alternate canon for years, that I have shielded myself from the effects of Endgame. But here's the thing- it's not because I don't want an ending to the story. It's not because I can't deal with death.
It's because I know what they'll do to Tony. I know that they'll give him a happy ending and then rip it away.
And to be honest, I'm tired of watching the characters I relate to most- the Tony Starks, the Quentin Coldwaters, the Spencer Reids, the Merlins, the Magnus Banes, the Raphael Santiagos, the Jughead Jones, the Ianto Joneses- the queercoded and the queer, the mentally ill and the coded as such, keep dying or keep getting their happy endings and same-sex love interests torn away from them. I'm tired of caring too much about something that shouldn't mean so much, tired of watching characters like me struggle and overcome and end up getting some part of them, whether their queerness or their minds or their actual lives, get shot point-blank and get left to die.
This isn't a ship thing. This isn't a "let's make him gay" thing.
This is about the fact that every time this happens, I see a part of myself dying on screen. I see a promise broken, a mirror shattered.
Series
- Part 72 of author's favorites
- Part 4 of "eloquent rants": or, happy endings are acts of revolution
-
all we can do is keep breathing by aletterinthenameofsanity for petitepeach, themoongirl
Fandoms: WTFock | Skam (Belgium)
24 Nov 2019
Tags
Summary
You haven’t been warm since you were eight, when your father left your mother and your mother left you with bruises and you left your house for the foster care system.
You spent so many years cold. So many years unloved.
-
You’re so scared, and so cold, and you love Robbe so much it feels like a supernova exploding in your chest, and you know-
You know you’ll break him. You know you’ll make him cold. Because how could a love like yours do anything but burn and break someone?
Robbe was left bruised and beaten and curled up on the cobblestones, just because he dared to kiss you.
You don’t want to hurt him. You don’t want to see him cry. Not Robbe. Never Robbe.
-
But in the cold night air, three nights after you were kicked out, curled up on a bench that’s become your bed, you turn 18. You’re officially an adult, now.
The clock hits 21:21- the time you were born- and your eyes fill with tears. You don’t want to freeze. You want to be warm again.
(Sander's been living with Britt since running away from his foster home, and things go up in smoke pretty quickly. Sander soon finds a new home, though.)
Series
- Part 1 of if this love is pain (then darling let's love tonight)
- Part 73 of author's favorites