The Joinery by falseeeyelashes (NC-17)

[hariboo.livejournal.com]

Fandom Category: Game of Thrones
Pairing: Cersei Lannister/Ned Stark
Fic Title: The Joinery
Author: falseeeyelashes
Link: http://falseeeyelashes.livejournal.com/320721.html
Rating/Warning(s): NC-17, violence, canon incest, war
Genre: alternate universe, fantasy, drama
WIP?: nope
(2/20)

Why This Must Be Read: One of the best Game of Thones fics I've read, and the best fic for this ship which is definitely a minor and almost a crackship, but the way it's presented here is so real to the world. Centered on the premise that Ned Stark takes the Iron Thone that day in King's Landing the tale spins out from there and a world is built. But it's not a magically better world. Told from Cersei point of view we see how this new marriage with this Northerner affects her and how despite herself she grows to care for her husband and King in ways she didn't even want to. This AU is perfect. It takes all the familiar aspects of the show and books and skews them just enough that everything is familiar, but the players motivations have changed every so slightly.

No Dawn, No Day by flamingballs/quipquiquip (NC-17)

[hariboo.livejournal.com]

Fandom Category: DC Comics: Batman
Pairing: Stephanie Brown/Damian Wanye
Fic Title: No Dawn, No Day AU
Author: quipquipquip
Link: core fic: http://flamingballs.livejournal.com/2281.html#cutid1
the timeline of the au: http://quipquipquip.tumblr.com/post/7952436349/fic-no-dawn-no-day-timeline
Rating/Warning(s): NC-17 for the general verse; violence, language, death of unnamed minors, past character deaths, character deaths
Genre: alternate universe, romance, drama, and then au of an au. (you'll see what I mean.)
WIP?: nope
(3/20)

Why This Must Be Read: My comics canon is rusty but right now Daiman Wayne is a snappy, emotionally withdrawn 12 year old, was the Robin to Dick Grayson's Batman, and now is the Robin to Bruce's Batman. He's Thalia al Ghul and Bruce Wayne's son too. Stephanie Brown pre the DC reboot was the current Batgirl, now, as far as I know she's back to being The Spoiler. That's just a little background information for those who are curious about these names because you should at least know that before you tackle this AU since it is pretty big and spanning years in these two lives.

The core fic No Dawn, No Day is a dark, evocative and very intense fic centering around Daiman's Wayne's stressful and emotionally fragile time being The Batman. Oh yeah this is a future AU fic! And how the return of Stephanie Brown, his ex-Batgirl in crime during his Robin years, as Batwoman turns his life upside down. It also sets it on course again. The relationship between these two is… complicated. Age for one, as Stephanie is several years older than Damian's 18 at the time. Then ideology because Damian is not the same kind of Batman his father was. He doesn't allow himself to be. He's destroyed or broken almost every other relationship in his life but his and Stephanie's. This fic explores these two as they try to get their lives back on course, try to get Gotham back on course and build a relationship.

Spoiler alert: The end is pretty dark. Very dark, actually, but even thought the author felt it was the right end to give their fic they wanted to change it up a bit and give these two a more hopeful ending which is why in the big post I linked there's the bolded START FO THE GOOD!END and the fics found here are just delightful and also veer into some more open relationship territory, but those are individual fics about the an AU of the core fic, which is an AU itself.

"Hope Maketh Peace" by Ieyre (K)

[sugangel7.livejournal.com]

Holiday fic! And just in time for the Downton Abbey Christmas special! ;)

Fandom Category: Downton Abbey
Pairing: Mary Crawley/Matthew Crawley
Fic Title: Hope Maketh Peace
Author: Ieyre
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7537050/1/Hope_Maketh_Peace
Rating/Warning(s): K
Genre: Romance, Hurt/Comfort
WIP?: No; One-Shot
Why This Must Be Read: If you need a brilliantly characterized story about hope and redemption after the angst-fest that was the S2 finale, then this story is the one for you. The characterization of Matthew is particularly well done, the dialogue sharp and witty, and the fact that it is far from the end for the two of them made poignantly evident.

"I think the stars have all aligned more times than we've agreed on anything."

"We may be more in agreement now than we ever were before," he said, thinking of words exchanged long ago about black and white. "…I don't know. If there is redemption, it seems to me that some people must be beyond all hope of it."

"Really? You don't think that, if it exists, no one is beyond it?"

A sudden, almost violent urge to argue the point came over him. It was like stirring from a dream—waking up from whatever it was that had been hanging over his head for so long.