recs and links

He woke from an accident in a hospital bed without his name or any idea what had happened to him but he still knew basic things like how to tie his shoes. He could read, more than one language apparently, and write, cook a mean leftover surprise and make most cocktails which had the nurses at the hospital speculating about his previous career. / Essential, day to day things had stayed in his brain but everything else... Lovely, melancholy amnesia fic. (Wincest)

Sequel to "Loose the Hounds" (previously recced). Someone's discovered hidden triggers in some of the transgenics, causing missions to go bad just when things were starting to work out. Including some good Max/Alec angst (and the usual whumpage *sigh*).

"You would never cheat on Elizabeth," he says. / The light turns green, and Peter has to look away, but he doesn't hesitate. "There are exemption situations," he says mildly. / He doesn't elucidate, but that's okay because Neal is already repeating, "Exemption situations?" with baffled disbelief. "Exemptions?" / "Yeah," Peter agrees. / "Like, exemptions on your taxes?" / [...] Neal huffs out something that's not quite laughter. "What could 'exemption situations' even be?" Adorable look at Peter (and Elizabeth) and Neal negotiating their relationship.

Your life is the best story! Just start your blog today!

Your trauma made you a better person. → God, that is so noble. Your trauma led directly to douchebaggery. → Manpain! You come from a broken home. → That sucks, dude. You stayed in thirty-seven foster homes over the course of thirteen years. → Manpain! :: Awesome!

"Dean Winchester. As I live and breathe." / "Told you I'd see you around." / She tucked the spray can back away in her purse and slung it over her head and across her chest. "Yeah," she said. "I guess you did." Enjoyable story about a girl Dean runs into over the years. Coda of sorts for 5.09, though only vaguely spoilery for the ep itself.

The Thin Man series: Nora Charles I love Nora. I love her brains, and I love her toughness, and I love that Nick loves her for them. What would be really cool to see would be what's going on inside her -- she's obviously much, much more than snappy dialogue and an impressive tolerance for alcohol. And I keep thinking something AUish, in which she's jolted forward several decades (sort of like Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye does with Marlowe), could be potentially AMAZING, if you're feeling crazy adventurous.

Five things Gus keeps alphabetized. Gus! Adorable! *heart*

She leans forward. / His breath stops. His heart stops. / She kisses him on the forehead. / Time stops. / Penny's hair brushes his face. Her palms are on his cheeks, thumbs firmly hooked on his jawline. Her lips are soft and strong. She smells half like soap and half like skin and she kisses him right on the forehead. / "There!" Penny jumps back cheerfully. "Did it work?" / "Oh," Sheldon says softly. Sheldon realizes he's in love with Penny, but Penny is with Leonard. And there's an apocalypse. Lovely.

"Can't keep up?" she remarked, facing his scowl without expression. Alec rolled his eyes. "We're on safe ground," he replied. "We don't need to sprint." "Doesn't mean we can't," Max said, and she crouched, sprang, and cleared the top of the barbwire fence. She didn't check to see if Alec would follow, because she knew he always would. Lovely look at Max and Alec, keeping on.

None of it is really right for her, except the car, which looks both battered and sturdy, just like she feels. She traces the letters on the movie poster carefully with a single finger and decides that her car's namesake is the second best thing that she owns. It was charity too, she supposes, but given directly to her because she liked it, not discarded because some woman wanted to clean out her closet. It is also the only thing she's ever owned that did not serve some specific purpose, and this is something she can't say even for the car. She has it only because she liked it and wanted it, and it will be the first thing she hangs in her dorm room when she gets to the Academy in two weeks. Gaila, upon arriving on earth. A car, a road trip and a movie poster. Lovely. *sniffle*

When this season’s purple courgettes are woefully thin, Draco Malfoy thinks it amounts to small beans. Next thing he knows, the Department of Standards is over-run with leeks, Brussels sprouts all sorts of legislative difficulties, and somebody appears to have put a roquette under Harry Potter. Can Draco seize a marrow victory? Or will his plans for peas be squashed? Hilarious rom com filled with awful vegetable puns and a sweet, snarky Harry/Draco romance.

I can't decide if I should rec this or not. I kind of love it a lot? but I don't think I believe Logan would ever do that.

Utterly lovely and mostly plausible Neal/Peter/Elizabeth. “This isn’t exactly the first time Neal’s been in our bed, is it?” / Her lips are curved in amusement and Peter thinks back to three years worth of nights he’d stayed awake chasing Neal the first time; piles of files and photos spilling out over the bed in a frustrated mess, and Neal Caffrey’s laughing eyes staring back at him. / But there’s a vast difference between papers spread out in their bed and Neal Caffery spread out in their bed, all pale skin and angles that cut deeper than any paper could dream. / “This is different,” Peter insists, and her smile grows. / “Yes,” she says, “it is.”

From writing in the bathroom to dressing in character, top authors share their methods for getting the story on the page.

So Neville is blackmailed into marrying Draco, and they have to sort out their marriage of convenience. Slow, sweet and achy, and containing one of my favorite tropes ever (Draco learns to cook).

Dean starts eating healthy. Sam freaks out. Adorable and full of "aw, boys."

possible christmas gifts?

Brilliantly creepy Iron Man/Dollhouse crossover.

“You know it would never work out between you, right? I mean, you’re a hacker and she’s …” / “She’s a TrackerPAL Mark Three,” said Hardison with a trace of wistful longing. “I’ve never seen one of these up close. She heavy?” / Good humor fled under cover of darkness. “Like rocks in my soul.” Hee! Perfectly voiced Leverage/White Collar crossover. I would love to see the Leverage crew meet up with Neal Caffrey.

“It’s a fortress, Dad,” Shawn said. “For the zombie apocalypse,” Gus added eagerly. “Well, that’s no good,” Henry said. “Boys, a zombie fortress needs to be unbreachable. Zombies are unresting, unflagging, untiring undead machines with only one goal: to eat your brains. You think this flimsy construct is going to stop them?” Shawn and Gus stumble over some zombies. Sam and Dean show up to help. Hilarity ensues.

Lovely look at McCoy and Uhura's friendship, beginning at the academy.

Dean wakes up and there's a little girl in the Impala who wasn't there when he fell asleep. This is absolutely adorable and achy in the best way.

Somewhat to his bemusement, sharing accommodations has actually been a reasonably positive experience thus far. Jim has his irritating quirks, including a complete disregard for personal space, inability to not read over Leonard's shoulder, providing commentary while watching vids and talking with his mouth full. But on the plus side, he keeps his side of the room picked up, goes elsewhere to party, doesn't ask personal questions, has decent taste in music and is surprisingly well-read. If he HAS to have a roommate, he could have done a lot worse. Wonderful backstory for McCoy.

He had green eyes, so I wanted to sleep with him green eyes flicked with yellow, dried leaves on the surface of a pool-- You could drown in those eyes, I said. The fact of his pulse, the way he pulled his body in, out of shyness or shame or a desire not to disturb the air around him. Everyone could see the way his muscles worked, the way we look like animals, his skin barely keeping him inside. I wanted to take him home and rough him up and get my hands inside him, drive my body into his like a crash test car. I wanted to be wanted and he was very beautiful, kissed with his eyes closed, and only felt good while moving. You could drown in those eyes, I said,

she’s got the best warranty program in the world. It’s not written down on some paper, filed away where the owner can’t even remember where he put it. Her warranty contract is written in blood, sweat and tears. In her contract there is no such thing as totaled. That word doesn’t exist in the Winchesters vocabulary. *sniffle* The Impala in early s2.

You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and he won’t tell you that he loves you, but he loves you. And you feel like you’ve done something terrible, like robbed a liquor store, or swallowed pills, or shoveled yourself a grave in the dirt, and you’re tired. You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and you’re trying not to tell him that you love him, and you’re trying to choke down the feeling, and you’re trembling, but he reaches over and he touches you, like a prayer for which no words exist, and you feel your heart taking root in your body, like you’ve discovered something you didn’t even have a name for.

"This is wrong, Kate. This isn't how the story's supposed to go. I keep looking for the heroic last minute save. The storm magically averted. The team of scientists, stroppy and heroic, working tirelessly to save us all." Kate looks at her computer again and the latest meteorological update. The system is worldwide, weather patterns disrupted everywhere. The scientists, stroppy and heroic or no, are all a little busy. Castle and Beckett weather an apocalypse.