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Marvel: To The Heart by kyburg

Fandom: Marvel Comics, MCU
Pairings/Characters: Kamala Khan, Tony Stark, Sam Wilson,
Rating: Not rated
Length: 5k
Creator Links:

kyburg
Theme: food, trauma, team, characters of color

Summary:

It's a service day at the Masjid. Lentils, rice and everything nice.

What isn't nice are some the memories.

Good people make you their friend. Good friends know how to get to the heart of the matter.

Reccer's Notes: This is about the Avengers meeting Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel. But it's also about friendship, and trauma, and memory, and moving on.

Fanwork Links: To The Heart

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!challenge week

Challenge Week 6 - Day 1

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SGA: Devil's Food by trophic

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Rating: Explicit
Length: 2696
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: trophic on AO3
Themes: Food and cooking, Established relationship, Humor, Just plain fun

Summary: John wants a cupcake. Rodney wants a blowjob.

Reccer's Notes: This story focuses on UST between John and a cupcake which Rodney uses in a light dom/sub scene to wind John up. It's funny, very hot, and features a nicely pouty, turned-on John, a deviously masterful Rodney, and a delicious cupcake.

Fanwork Links: Devil's Food on AO3
and there's a podfic: Devil's Food [podfic]

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due South: Dinner and a Movie by Seascribble

Fandom: due South
Characters/Pairings: Ray Kowalski/Ray Vecchio, Ray Kowalski/Ray Vecchio/Benton Fraser
Rating: Mature
Length: 1878
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: seascribble on AO3
Themes: Food and cooking, Polyamory, Domestic, Friends to Lovers

Summary: Benton has no reason to think anything in Chicago has changed during his absence.

Reccer's Notes: There's not a lot of food in this, but the Rays do make Benton dinner - even if it turns out that Ben's the main course. Some excellent Ray/Ray banter, a sensible discussion, UST finally requited, and a very hopeful ending. Fun, hot, and heartwarming - and the food sounded tasty, too!

Fanwork Links: Dinner and a Movie

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Warm Heart #29 [Tales From the Neighborhood]

Name: Another Kind of Love
Story: Tales From the Neighborhood
Plot Thread: Michael, Robert, and Stephen
Colors: Warm Heart #29: Pleasure
Styles and Supplies: Life Drawing, Silhouette, Cartography, Stained Glass, Mural, Gesso, Sculpture, Calendar Page (National Self-Awareness Day), Tempera (Used dailytarotdraw.com and got the Seven of Pentacles: The Seven of Pentacles also reminds us of the importance of patience and persistence as we wait for the fruits of our labor to manifest. It encourages us to have faith in ourselves and remain committed to our goals, knowing that our dedication will eventually pay off. This card serves as a gentle reminder that success often requires nurturing and nurturing takes time.), Novelty Bead ("You give me fever - when you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight/Fever - in the the morning, fever all through the night." Fever, Michael Buble, given here)
Word Count: 11,976
Rating: T
Warnings: There's a lot of really strongly implied sex/hookups in here, but nothing higher-rated than T actually happens onscreen. Stephen and Jasmine say some bad words, and there's some really vague and unspecific discussion of past mpreg.
Important Onscreen Characters: Michael Wolf, Robert Bren, Stephen Bren, Victoria Ramirez, Jasmine Rai, Theo Huffington, Philip Marsh
Important Offscreen Characters: Bethany Ramirez, Oliver Bren, Archie Daniels, Simon Upsnott
Main Relationship is (the beginnings of) a Michael/Robert/Stephen QPR, and secondarily a Michael/Robert sexual relationship, but also:
Important Onscreen Relationships: Robert/Victoria, Stephen/Victoria, Stephen/Jasmine, Robert/Philip
Important Offscreen Relationships: Theo/Bethany, Oliver/Victoria, Michael/Archie, Theo/Victoria, Simon/Jasmine, ~~Frodo/Sam~~, Michael/Philip
(There are also numerous unimportant characters and relationships in here, onscreen and offscreen, but I'm not listing them all.)
Summary: Michael, Robert, and Stephen survive college. Nobody survives Victoria Ramirez.
Notes: Sorry that this wound up becoming almost twelve thousand words of relationship drama and aspec nonsense. This is Sculpture with respect to this, which comes basically immediately after the end of this piece, and this, which happens at some point between Michael meeting Victoria and Michael and Robert getting together.

( Another Kind of Love )

( Gesso Notes (363 words) )

( Sim Pictures and Notes (1275 words) )

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Hawkeye: Slice of Life by aimmyarrowshigh

Fandom: Hawkeye, MCU
Pairings/Characters: Clint Barton, Kate Bishop, Bucky Barnes
Rating: teen
Length: 5k
Creator Links:

aimmyarrowshigh
Theme: food, team,

Summary:

“I’m not saying you need to decide right now. Or any time soon. But someday, you might want to walk away. And you’re luckier than most of the… superheroes… that I’ve ever known because you know what normal looks like. You know how to be normal. You can go back to normal if it’s what you want. And I know it’s not what you want right now, and I respect that, but I’m glad that it’s an option.”

Or, Clint and Kate challenge each other to prove they're the better New Yorker because they know the best food spots. Truths about superhero life and life in general come out along the way as they eat through the five boroughs.

Reccer's Notes: I love the humor and the support, and the way Clint mentors Kate.

Fanwork Links: Slice of Life

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Batman: Scheherazade by Cerusee

Fandom: Batman
Pairings/Characters: Jason Todd, Alfred Pennyworth
Rating: Gen
Length: 12k
Creator Links:

Cerusee
Theme: food, trauma, family, angst,

Summary:

Alfred angles himself so he can stir the diced pancetta, sizzling away in the pan, and watch Jason at the same time. “You’ve never shared the particulars of your…missing years.”

"Yeah.” The rhythmic thunk thunk of the knife against the wood falters. “The missing years."

"I wish you would.”

Or, the one where Alfred drags the tale of Jason’s death and resurrection out of him piece by horrifying piece.

Reccer's Notes: There are a lot of stories about Jason reconciling with his family and them learning all the things that happened to him from his death and resurrection onwards. This has a lovely focus on Alfred, and the trauma that Jason suffered, and their relationship

Fanwork Links: Scheherazade

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DS9: Hunger Pangs, by AuroraNova

Fandom: Deep Space Nine
Pairings/Characters: Kira Nerys
Rating: Gen
Length: 871 words
Creator Links:

AuroraNova
Theme: food and cooking, worldbuilding, trauma & recovery, old fandoms, gen, female characters, backstory

Summary: Starfleet personnel mistake minor inconveniences for real suffering. Kira knows the difference all too well.

Reccer's Notes: This is short, but it packs a punch and explores the differences in perspective between Kira and the rest of the command staff in a very visceral way.

Fanwork Links: Hunger Pangs

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Azul #23; Vert #20; Warm Heart #5 [Starfall]

Name: Dazzled
Story: Starfall
Colors: Azul #23 (Let your actions speak); Warm Heart #5 (Need); Vert #20 (Reunion)
Supplies and Styles: Portrait + Thread + Silhouette + Pastels (also for

allbingo Colour fest square "Red Flag").
Word Count: 5364
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Notes: 1313, Calla Island. Viyony Eseray, Eollan Barra, Tess Hyan, Velin Ienkallis, Leion Valerno. Continues directly from Calla Island.
Summary: Viyony explores a sacred cave and gets considerably more than she bargained for.

( Dazzled )

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Sherlock: you are what you eat (and you know what that is) by coloredink

Fandom: Sherlock BBC
Pairings/Characters: Sherlock/John
Rating: Mature
Length: 3044 words
Creator Links:

coloredink
Theme: Food and cooking

Summary: He just wanted John right down to the amino acids that made up his body, and he wanted them in his own body.

Content notes: Cannibalism. Sort of.

Reccer's Notes: This fic exemplifies what I loved about Sherlock fandom: the potential to explore rather uncommon ideas and concepts of love. Like Sherlock wanting to actually consume a physical part of John because he loves John so much. Coloredink is a fantastic writer on the sentence level, and they perfectly capture the energy of the Sherlock/John dynamic while also being funny as hell.

Fanwork Links: you are what you eat (and you know what that is)

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Leverage: simple machines, by vexedquestion

Fandom: Leverage
Pairings/Characters: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Rating: M
Length: 61264 word long series (first work with 20345 words, second with 40919)
Creator Links:

vexedquestion
Theme: food & cooking, bisexual/pansexual characters, polyamory, series

Summary:
part 1: you do not have to be good.
Come hell or high water, Eliot is going to figure this out.

part 2: your place in the family of things
He's here, he's queer, he's sort of getting used to it, or, Eliot realizes that he still has some work to do on understanding himself. With bonus new!team members.

Reccer's Notes:

Bisexual/pansexual Characters

This story features an Eliot Spencer who might have, in the back of his mind, known that he wasn't fully straight, but didn't let it sink in until he got close to having a relationship with Parker and Hardison. Growing up with the background homophobia of his childhood, and then the Don't Ask, Don't Tell of the military, he didn't think about it, didn't apply labels such as "bisexual" to himself. So realizing that he indeed wants a relationship with Parker and with Hardison leads to some serious reconsidering and soul-searching as he works through that. It is very much a "coming out later in life" story. The first part focuses on coming out to himself and his partners, and the second part focuses on finding his place in the wider queer community.

Food & Cooking

These stories feature a copious amount of food metaphors in the likes of "bretzels", actually co-owning a brewpub, and Eliot working through his feelings in late-night visits to the kitchen, and showing Parker and Hardison he loves them by cooking them food. The second part of the series especially is set in the brewpub as kind of a home base and develops the location as a legit place of business. For example Eliot creates longdrinks for the pub that convey his feelings, and they each are described at the end of chapter, it's delightful.

Polyamory

I like how the story portrays it as a multidimensional three-way-relationship: Each of the duos have their own relationship, and also the three of them function together in a way that's different than their two-way-relationships. Much like in canon, actually. Eliot is the POV character, and he has important scenes with Parker along, with Hardison alone, and with them both.
The first part is about figuring out how they work as a relationship together, about Eliot figuring out his queerness in relation to Parker and Hardison. The second part is about how that interacts with the outside world, portrayed through some very nicely flashed out side characters from the brewpub as well as another group of (rather young, very queer) criminals they're recruiting. In the second part especially, the focus is on their polyamory in that outsiders learn about it, and especially Eliot learns to show his love for his people.

Fanwork Links:
simple machines series link, ao3-locked
you do not have to be good. part one, ao3-locked
your place in the family of thingspart two, ao3-locked

Friday, September 26 - Revival

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À Rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans; Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: Black Feasts, by Idlewild Designs.

Fandom: À Rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans; Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Pairings/Characters: Gen; Duc Jean des Essientes, Gray Mouser
Rating: General Audiences (although most of the beverages might be deemed Mature, depending on your country.)
Length: 542
Creator Links: Idlewild Designs (archived); I’ve not succeeded in recovering a name for the site owner.
Theme: Food & Cooking, Book Fandoms, Meta, Pre-AO3 Works, Research, Old Fandoms, Small Fandoms

Summary: The two literary passages cited serve that purpose:

Dining off black-bordered plates, the company had enjoyed turtle soup, Russian rye bread, ripe olives from Turkey, caviare, mullet botargo, black puddings from Frankfurt, game served in sauces the color of liquorice and boot-polish, truffle jellies, chocolate creams, plum-puddings, nectarines, pears in grape-juice syrup, mulberries and black heart cherries. From dark-tinted glasses they had drunk the wines of Limagne and Roussillon, of Tenedos, Valdepeñas and Oporto. And after coffee and walnut cordial, they had rounded off the evening with kvass, porter and stout.

— a black feast held to mourn the loss of the Duc des Esseintes's virility in A Rebours, by Huysman

The collation on the little ebony table beyond the coffin consisted entirely of black foods. By sight and then by nibbling and sipping the Mouser discovered their nature: thin slices of a very dark rye bread crusted with poppy seeds and dripped with black butter; slivers of charcoal-seared steak; similarly broiled tiny thin slices of calf's liver sprinkled with dark spices and liberally pricked with capers; the darkest grape jellies; truffles cut paper thin and mushrooms fried black; pickled chestnuts; and of course, ripe olives and black fish eggs—caviar. The black drink, which foamed when he poured it, turned out to be stout laced with the bubbly wine of Ilthmar.

— Fritz Leiber, "Bazaar of the Bizarre"

Reccer's Notes: With Halloween impending, this seemed an apropos topic.

Idlewild Designs was a 2000’s Geocities purveyor of Gothic, fantasy, literary, occult, rustic, Art Nouveau, and otherwise Bohemian aesthetic living tips; here they expand and elaborate upon the two literary feasts described, with potential ingredients listed by category and outlinks to recipes. (The site was still very much under construction by the time Geocities shut down; I’m assuming the business, at least in that stage, is by now as dead as Bela Lugosi and that this post doesn’t violate the OTW’s advertising ban.)

( Literary_context. )

So what items might you add to the list? Some suggestions of my own:

( Continue. )

Fanwork Links: Black Feasts, by Idlewild Designs (archived.)