13 Bookmarks by decaffeinatedsquirrel
List of Bookmarks
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walking on the dark side of the evening by Odaigahara for pastelitey
Fandoms: 3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series
27 Dec 2024
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Summary
Gem’s hands hurt, backpack over her shoulder and satellite phone probably in her pocket still, emphasis on the probably and good luck if it wasn’t, and her muscles hurt like they’d been shredded to bits by the climb. And maybe they had, honestly, because what a climb it had been.
Scrambling up the side of a slot canyon, hearing the rumbling of a whole freaking flood from upriver-- Pearl had boosted her for the last part. They’d gone up like thirty feet, using handholds they could barely fit their fingertips into, and the water had frothed below them, churning with mud and debris.
Pearl had heard it before Gem had. The canyon had garbled the sound of running water, but Pearl had frozen, knuckles going white on the straps of her hiking pack, hackles raising practically visibly.
Werewolf senses. Never failed.
Series
- Part 36 of mcyt fic my beloved
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 4,735
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 54
- Kudos:
- 187
- Bookmarks:
- 19
- Hits:
- 1,040
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
11 Jan 2025
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between the click of the light and the start of the dream by Odaigahara
Fandoms: Hermitcraft SMP
10 Aug 2024
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Summary
The lights of the whole district went out with a pop, streetlights and autocars grinding to a halt. The contrast felt like losing touch with reality, stimulation dropping to zero: no lights in the windows, no holographic advertisements crowding the sidewalks, every VR port in the city running on emergency battery power. Grian activated his wings on reflex, but there wasn’t an attack. It couldn’t have been an attack, or Pearl would have already been moving.
The only possible threat was the storm over the sea, a roiling unnatural thunderhead that the lack of advertisements made significantly more visible. It was coming in from the west. To the east the sky was clearer, and the clouds had gaps between them, and one of those gaps cradled the moon like a picture frame.
It was impossible to concentrate on anything else after seeing the moon. The heightened winds, the debris slamming into the unshielded buildings, the shantytown lights blinking off one by one as they diverted power to their defenses– none of it meant anything. None of it even registered.
“Pearl,” Grian said, almost too fascinated to be horrified, "am I dreaming, or is the moon big?”
Series
- Part 32 of mcyt fic my beloved
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 27,502
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 65
- Kudos:
- 136
- Bookmarks:
- 39
- Hits:
- 1,856
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
20 Aug 2024
Bookmarker's Notes
It’s cyberpunk! It’s unreliable narrators! It’s a great example of how to worldbuild and write characters! It’s highly recommended!
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Summary
Fisk gets put away again, and it feels like that should be the end of it, but it’s not. Of course it’s not. The FBI needs a win. Who better to take that out on than the lawyers who exposed their corruption.
I am not Daredevil, Matt says so many times in so many spaces that he almost believes it.
His ability to maintain a concept of self was difficult enough before this: this new judgment day, this thing that has fractured him beyond what he thought was possible. He feels like he’s been dropped into the ocean, all his limbs weighted with stones, unable to find which way is up and which way is down, which way is surface and which way is gone.
Later, he'll try to think about it objectively, distance himself from this new kind of violence that inhabits his body. He'll grapple with the defined edges of his constantly shifting memory, carefully delineate the before from the after, turn his conclusion over and over in his mind. As it turns out, he observes, living feels a lot like drowning.
[An exploration of trauma and memory, of what it might look like if Matt's identity as Daredevil was exposed. Prison fic. Post-S3.]
Series
- Part 1 of light as memory, light as myth
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
21 Jun 2024
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Summary
“For better or for worse,” Donna promised the Doctor, the day she met him. The day he met her. She could have chosen any number of lines to make the joke, but she’d missed her own wedding, been kidnapped by flippin’ robot Santas, and jumped out of a taxi because this Martian without a name promised he would catch her.
A leap of faith.
Donna Noble didn’t believe in faith, or destiny. At least, not for people like her. But she’d jumped anyway because, because, because –
Because there was a robot Santa driving the taxi.
(She jumped. Time held them in balance. The Doctor caught her. He always would: for better or for worse.)
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Or, a character study of Donna Noble, with the Doctor.
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Summary
“You want me to do what?” the civilian asked disbelievingly, and Scar’s body language shifted to that of an impatient trainer, one whose fuse was running short. It was a precursor to bad things, like being tased or forced onto a treadmill for hours; Mumbo flinched even knowing it was an act, and the civilian cut off with a squeak, so Mumbo knew he felt the same way.
Or possibly that was the gun. Scar having a gun seemed more likely as an explanation, now that Mumbo thought of it.
Stealing the car would be better, but they had no idea where they were going, and neither of them was familiar with road laws. What if they hit a person while driving? What if there was some sort of kill switch in the car that the owner could flip to blow it up with them inside? Anti-villain tech had to be wild, from what the Foundation had on hand– and they were villains now for sure. Not just for defying the Foundation, but for this. Heroes didn’t take the actions he and Scar were taking.
Series
- Part 13 of mcyt fic my beloved
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
23 Jul 2023
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Summary
There are things in Boatem that aren't talked about. Open secrets, if you will, some less secret than others.
Scar is part Vex. (And has stumbled into a situation with unintentional magic that's dragging him back to those roots.) Mumbo is a potato—among other things. (And he can't figure out why when the defective codes that made him that way are long gone.) Pearl is, periodically, turning into a ghost. (And she doesn't know why, even when she can't stop staring up at the ever-growing moon.) Impulse is, quite possibly, the sanest person in all of Boatem. (And that's just a terrifying thought, because no one should have that responsibility.) Grian is a Watcher. (And that's causing all sorts of other problems of late, most of which he is pointedly ignoring. Not to mention the other open secret, his wings, and how he is absolutely not coming to terms with the fact that, after Last Life, he'll never be able to fly with them again.)
And there are a few other things—how Xisuma's terrifyingly unaware of his own server and possibly possessed, how Doc never wanted to take over his position as admin, how Jimmy never came back from Last Life.
Oh.
And the moon's big.
[Sequel to Villain]
Series
- Part 9 of Still the Echoes Give Us Light
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 88,029
- Chapters:
- 23/23
- Comments:
- 1,164
- Kudos:
- 1,648
- Bookmarks:
- 114
- Hits:
- 41,235
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
25 Mar 2023
Bookmarker's Notes
*incoherent quality minecraft fanfic noises* this one's a little more mature than my traditional recs - watch out for violence, cursing, etc. - but oh my gosh. So GOOD.
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Summary
It has been suggested that after his eighth regeneration, the Doctor begins lying about his age. The official story is that he has simply lost track. This is a third possible explanation for the discrepancy between his ages in the new and old series.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 9,902
- Chapters:
- 3/3
- Collections:
- 12
- Comments:
- 307
- Kudos:
- 3,372
- Bookmarks:
- 1,355
- Hits:
- 76,286
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
23 Mar 2023
Bookmarker's Notes
uh. enchanting writing. absolutely mesmerizing and beautiful and deserves an award. a fic as twinkling as the stars it describes burning. highly recommended.
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Saving Melody by dirgewithoutmusic
Fandoms: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
22 Feb 2014
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Summary
This is a bedtime story; this is a lullaby about Amy Pond burning the universe down, searching for her stolen child.
Amy is allowed to be fierce and violent and furious in every timeline but the true one: the hardened military officer putting the eyepatch calmly back on Madam Kovarian and leaving her to die in pain; the wearied Girl Who Waited, trapped and furious and refusing to lay down and die. She is established as a woman with potential for such violence and power in every other world.
But in this one, in the timeline that stays, that matters, Amy lets the Doctor drop her and Rory off to play house while he goes and searches for Melody alone.
What?
No. Let Amy rage. Let her conquer, a loyal centurion at her side. She would be glorious.
(S6 and S7 rewritten for a world in which mysterious childhood friend Mels Zucker helps Amy and Rory fight to save their child).
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Summary
After the Blue Spirit frees the Avatar from the Pohuai Stronghold, Admiral Zhao captures Prince Zuko under suspicion of treason. Isolated from his Uncle and his crew, Zuko has only one ally: the chatty prisoner one cell over.
Series
- Part 1 of Birds of a Phoenix Feather
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 142,042
- Chapters:
- 16/16
- Collections:
- 59
- Comments:
- 4,838
- Kudos:
- 28,107
- Bookmarks:
- 9,486
- Hits:
- 562,760
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
02 May 2022
Bookmarker's Notes
My favorite Last Airbender fic. This thing is extremely written, and though it's a canon divergent fic, it reads as if it's canon compliant due to the accuracy in which the characters are portrayed. Anyway Sokka and Zuko's friendship is my new favorite thing ever, and the entire story feels like sitting down and watching an exceptionally good episode of The Last Airbender whilst wrapped in a cozy blanket.
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Summary
Or maybe, Grian considers, it's worse because it's Scar, and he cares. Scar, who's funnier than Grian would ever admit to his face, whose silly jokes and antics never fail to make him laugh. Scar, who's always a little too overjoyed at his own crazy plans, who tried to conquer a whole desert. Scar, who offered him a home on Monopoly Mountain, alongside him and Pizza.
It's Scar, it's still Scar and it's always been Scar, but he knows this now. Scar, down two lives, and Grian still down none.
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An unhappy accident leaves Grian in the service of Scar, forcing the two together as they work alongside and against friends, allies, and enemies in a dangerous world. It should have been simple, but unfortunately, Grian finds this arrangement- friendship?- anything but.
(or: against his better judgment, Grian makes a friend)
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
06 Sep 2021
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Summary
Scar grins, crooked and so, so endearing, glowing in the rays of daybreak that leak in through the barred window — and Grian’s slapped with such a strong sense of nostalgia and familiarity he nearly flinches.
“G?” Scar asks, concerned, and somehow even that nickname that Scar had only started using a day ago is sickeningly familiar. It’s not awkward or clumsy on his tongue. It’s like Scar’s said it for tens or for hundreds or for thousands of times now, in a multitude of different snapshot-moments — in a half-built wooden shell, in a towering purple city, in a room covered with grass and moss and flowers.
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They've been dead since the beginning. That is the art of a tragedy.
Grian finds a note on one of the first nights of 3rd life, and it changes everything and nothing. In a server meant to be a tragedy from the start, who can you trust? Who can you hold on to? And most importantly: how can you save everyone and yourself?
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
07 Aug 2021
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Summary
i wake up in some alley on a wholly other plane / can't remember who i am or how to get back to the base
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Or: a perfectly normal (if somewhat chilly) van ride on the way to Season 8 of Hermitcraft. Everything should be fine.- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 66,416
- Chapters:
- 29/29
- Comments:
- 1,612
- Kudos:
- 2,938
- Bookmarks:
- 748
- Hits:
- 65,524
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
07 Aug 2021
Bookmarker's Notes
Someone give a standing ovation to this fic. These authors have taken the work of a content creator who roleplays overdramatic, theatrical characters just for the pure fun of it and turned it into an intensive character study that is absolutely fascinating to look at and extremely well written. Well done.
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Spectator by LaughtersMelody
Fandoms: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
18 Dec 2016
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Summary
Over the course of twenty-four long, hard years, Haymitch Abernathy mentored forty-eight kids in the Games, and of those, only two ever made it back. Mentoring, as it turned out, was just another form of torture. A series of snapshots following Haymitch after he won the Games. Complete.
Bookmarked by decaffeinatedsquirrel
26 Apr 2021
Bookmarker's Notes
this is very good and y'all should read