Top 5 of 2018: Fanfic Edition

Ok well here we are I am gonna do a thing. My 2018 was personally uhhhhhhhh very bad. My life completely went off the rails, I barely left my apartment all summer & when I did it was to buy wine, I had to move in with my parents at THIRTY, and drop out of my MSc, and I haven't seen my cat in over a year and... yeah.

HOWEVER, this was also a great year for reading fic. Turns out when you throw aside all ur responsibilities you can read a lot of fanfic!!! So here's my faves, fics that carved themselves directly into my brainstem. The ones that I remember their titles off the top of my head; the ones I've reread and reread and reread. They're all MCU & all Stucky with one notable exception. They're even in order, yeah I said it.

These are not gonna be great literary reviews cuz that's very hard but I'll try and do a tiny summary before I just TELL U MY FEELINGS, deal?

1. Ain't No Grave (Can Keep My Body Down) - spitandvinegar
MCU; Steve/Bucky; E

The one where Bucky aka John the Revelator aka Sash(k)a adopts some Goddamn Kids & gets de-Hydra-ated. [The one with all the hilarious turns of phrase that have populated my tags ever since I read it.]

LISTEN. I don't think I can explain in words how much this goddamn fic means to me. It's probably my favourite... ever?? I've read it at least fifteen times. This year. There is nothing I don't love about it. Sometimes, even with Fandom Classics (tm), I have a hard time holding the mental image of the character in my head... they... smear, a lil? I know intellectually this vague blob-shaped critter in my head is Bucky Barnes, but I can't hear his voice and I can't see his face. This fic is the opposite of that. This fic is STEVE and BUCKY and the GODDAMN KIDS in full slap-you-in-the-face technicolor. Spitz writes fic that has its hands around yr throat (in a loving way) and you can't not pay attention.

2. Flyboys - aerialiste
MCU/SGA; Sam Wilson/John Sheppard; E (WIP)

The one where Sam Wilson contemplates his fetlife profile until he meets banged-up flyboy John Sheppard & they make crossover magic together.

Hello. *hops up on my lil soapbox* *hands out copies of this fic to everyone* Tonight we are going to begin our sharing circle with ME, and this is what I have to say. I've been reading fic for fifteen years now. Just recently I rediscovered some authors and fics that I hadn't read in fifteen years but I saw the titles and I was like yes those. Those are the people and the words that have banged around in my brain for a decade and a half. Those stories changed me. I got real emotional about it. Sometimes you read a thing and everything in it lights up yer innards and your depressed-ass brain and for a while nothing hurts. All that is to say, welcome to the hall of fame aerialiste . I'll be thinking about this fic ... forever? Yep, forever. Forever sounds good.

[[ALSO (tmi time), y'all ever read something that made you tremble violently in all ur limbs and u had to lay down on the floor for fifteen minutes to get over it?? Ohhh, I mean, me neither. *shifty eyes* I'll just be over here.]]

3. A Thingy for a Hand, a Hook Thing Where His Hand Should Be - easyforpauline
MCU; Steve/Bucky; E

I'm deeply regretting my current life choices that led me here to this moment because this one is impossible to summarize. This series exists in my brain as a tangled ball of impressions that mainly add up to: how on earth does a fic like this happen? It's impossibly good. It's deeply kinky in a way that terrifies me while also being the sweetest ode to these two dorkiest, loving-est supersoldiers.

4. Scents & Sensibility: The Working Assassin's Guide to Supersoldier Seduction - galwednesday, silentwalrus, & skellerbvvt
MCU; Steve/Bucky; E

The one where... it's the fluffiest a/b/o-type verse ever??????? They have a picnic and they shnuggle a lot and they're two big dumb bozos trying to figure each other out.

C'mon man. LIke this thing is bonkers. Absolutely unprecedented. I can only hope clownfish au's are the new popular fic trope thing to do. There's no way to read this without wanting to somehow knit it into a big snuggie for urself and your loved ones.

5.  Controlled Release - steebadore
MCU; Steve/Bucky; E

The one where Bucky can't get off until he goes to Captain Come Control, aka our favourite tiny sadistic Steve, he of the mean handjob (TM).

Well well well, this one is maybe a bit of an odd duck floating in a list full of Long Intense fics, but it's just so damn good. It's cute and sexy and I love it and it introduced me to a genre of porn that I promptly put into my private bookmarks. Ahem.

BONUS: The Collected Works of mcwho
MCU; Steve/Bucky; E

The ones where Steve Rogers is a goddamn sex machine & also Bucky is gonna make sure everyone knows about it.

It appears that mcwho has slid into our lives in the last third of the year like a smutty smutty Santa, bringing us these nicely giftwrapped short snappy lil' fics that are best described as Steve Rogers FUCKS. I am such a ho for this type of fic. Please, give it to me.


[[Reflection time. Apparently my tastes run to the sexy, particularly when there's kink and/or praise. It's not a surprise per se but seeing it all up here in written out list form is SURE SOMETHING. Also I like em long and lovey with lots of recovery of banged up boys via bdsm & cuddles. This has turned out a lot more revealing than intended.]]