Ship Swap Recs

I have read through the all the stories for Ship Swap (well, not all of them. The ones where I know the canon) and here are my favorites! You should read and enjoy them too.

First, of course, the story written for me: unfold the passion of my love: Twelfth Night - Shakespeare, Viola/Orsino, 1.5k. She had intended to sit the masque out. She had not counted on Orsino.
IT IS SO GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL I LOVE IT.

I wanna see you be brave: The Hunger Games, Gen (with slight hints of Prim/Rue), 26.2k. Katniss is fast, and brave, and she never ever thinks more than she has to. It's like she has a whole conversation in her head in a second and acts while Prim is still deciding what to do. On Reaping Day, Prim's brain hadn't even finished screaming no no no no before Katniss' voice overpowered her. Now, Rue's frozen in place but Katniss shoves her, sends her sprawling backwards into the long grass, and the spear drives itself into Katniss' chest. Katniss dies, and Rue wins the 74th Hunger Games. Prim will never forgive the girl who took her sister ... except maybe she will. Maybe Rue isn't the one to blame after all. The genesis of a revolution in four notes.
This is an incredibly wonderful AU, where Prim gets called a second time to the Hunger Games. It's all about grief and anger, slow-growing trust, the choices between violence and cooperation. I love the characterization of everyone here– Prim in particular, but Haymitch and Prim's mother are also just fantastic. Beautifully written, and an amazing story.

Envy of Angels: The Hunger Games, Prim/Rue, 3.4k. When Prim is eighteen, her name is called again.
Another AU with Prim in the Games, I also really love this story, even though it's a very different take on the idea from the previous. Rue and Prim are hard and angry here, but it's still so good and believable.

sing us a song to keep us warm (there's such a chill): The Hunger Games, Haymitch/Katniss, 5.5k. The truth is that, no matter what Haymitch had said to the sponsors and the other mentors, he had no fucking clue how the 74th Hunger Games would end, or what would become of his tributes. He knew that Katniss stood a better chance than anyone 12 had ever seen. What he really didn’t know, what he never could have guessed, was how the tale of the Baker’s Boy and the Poor Seam Girl on Fire would end. Haymitch and Katniss: how things might have been, and how things are.
Another really wonderful Hunger Games AU (which mixes with canon), and a fantastic portrayal of the world and the characters, all angry and desperate and self-loathing. I've only recently gotten into this pairing, but I really love it just as it is in this story.

All Along, I Believed: Tolkien, Galadriel/Gandalf, 7.8k. All of their odd bits fit together in complicated ways. Galadriel loves Lórien, and she loves Celeborn, and in every age of the world she loves the Grey Pilgrim.
An epic story, moving along from the earliest parts of The Silmarillion to post-Lord of the Rings (and doing a wonderful job of mixing book-canon and movie-canon), this is a wonderful look at Galadriel. And her relationship to Gandalf, and to Celeborn, but mostly just Galadriel. Really beautifully written, and with a lovely quiet sense of humor.

Heaven and Earth: Tolkien, Arwen/Tauriel, 1.5k. A princess, an archer and a night under the stars.
A beautiful story that does a great job of evoking Tolkien's language (even if he would never have actually written, you know, a f/f one night stand). I'd never thought of this pairing before, but this story really makes me believe in it.

Dead Wolves Still Have Teeth: Game of Thrones, Sansa Stark/Margaery Tyrell, 6.4k. Margaery Tyrell comes to Sansa Stark after her wedding day for sanctuary. Soon, she and Sansa are closer than ever, but Petyr Baelish is not pleased with this development. If Sansa is to retake Winterfell as Queen of the North, she must become a wolf again, though her direwolf died years ago. But dead wolves still have teeth.
An excellent guess at how the future might turn out, for Sansa, Margaery, Littlefinger, and Daenerys. I really like the characterization of everyone, and find this a totally believable extrapolation.

The First Cut Is the Deepest: Assassin's Creed, Kadar Al-Sayf/Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, 2.8k. When Altaïr is gravely injured, Kadar eases his recovery most effectively.
Okay, I don't know this canon at all, but I still really enjoyed this story. The writing is gorgeous, particularly in its descriptions of landscape and food, and I like the slow build of the relationship.

come unstrap your broken wings: The Benjamin January mysteries, Rose Vitrac January/Cora Chouteau, 1k. "Rose, please." The call was low and panicked, and it startled her. Her skin prickled with an eerie half-recognition. But the voice was a woman's, and Rose had sworn long ago that her door would always be open for women who needed a place to be safe.
OMG YOU GUYS IT'S BEN JANUARY FIC. ABOUT ROSE. AND CORA. And it's beautiful and tense and all about their connection and SO GOOD.

National Poetry Month

Sonnet CII by William Shakespeare

My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;

I love not less, though less the show appear:

That love is merchandized whose rich esteeming

The owner's tongue doth publish every where.

Our love was new and then but in the spring

When I was wont to greet it with my lays,

As Philomel in summer's front doth sing

And stops her pipe in growth of riper days:

Not that the summer is less pleasant now

Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night,

But that wild music burthens every bough

And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.

Therefore like her I sometime hold my tongue,

Because I would not dull you with my song.

Watching Monday

Leverage

"The Blue Line Job": This episode is making me feel guilty: I like hockey fights. HA, Sophie stole the Stanley Cup!! What are the chances that both Nate and Eliot can play hockey? I can't even stay upright on skates. Haaa, "Caribou League". I love the random turtle sidekick. I love Parker not knowing about Soylent Green! And Hardison teaching her pop-culture is SO CUTE. I feel like this episode was a little disjointed in motivations: why is Marco so desperate that he doesn't just quit? For the money? But he doesn't seem to need money all that badly. To impress his son? But if his son is hiring Leverage to get him to quit, clearly the son isn't that into the fighting. Also why is the team owner now doing money laundering? I dunno. I still love Sophie stealing the Stanley Cup!


Game of Thrones

I liked the opening scene a lot– I am VERY fond of both Missandei and Grey Worm– but I don't know why he is struggling with whatever language English represents, when he's never seemed to before. Possibly English is representing a different language in this scene? Anyway, that really distracted me even though I liked the content of the scene a lot. I also liked the greater focus given to the slaves in the overthrow of Mereen; we're getting to the subversion quickly, so it doesn't matter as much, but I still like that the show seems aware of how gross some of the slave stuff from last season was. Also, we are going to have the Dany-betrayal plotline, aren't we? I really want it! I hope they're just changing the order of things because otherwise I am sad. And confused.

JAMIE AND TYRION SCENE JAMIE AND TYRION. This was so great. "Her son?" I love the trust and love and betrayal and complications between them.

Littlefinger being creepy, as he does. I also really liked this scene and thought it did a great job exploring both characters.

Olenna! Olenna sex-capades! YES GOOD MORE. I find it interesting that the show is making it explicit (and so soon!) that Olenna is and Margaery is not involved in Joffrey's death– if I remember right, the books left all that implicit (and actually I think it's never clear how much Margaery knows). I'm not complaining, it's just a different choice, and I wonder why. Maybe it's just an issue of the books depending more on readers who are willing to reread, and the show continuing on having a less-involved audience.

All of this Jon and Bran stuff is new! I'm not opposed to that, but I don't know quite what they're planning; I totally see why Bran needed new plot to take up time, but Jon has plenty, I would have thought. Also Meera better not get raped! I so do not want that.

During this Jaime/Cersei scene, I literally forgot that he had raped her last week. It seems to have had no effect on their dynamic. On the one hand, I guess I'm glad I can just forget that it ever happened. On the other hand, it makes me think terribly of the producers. Also, Jaime has been back in King's Landing for "months"? I do not understand the passage of time on this show at all.

SPEAKING OF REFLECTING TERRIBLY ON THE PRODUCERS, OMG MARGAERY DO NOT MOLEST PREPUBESCENT CHILDREN. It's not okay just because the older one is female! I know they've aged up Tommen (I'm not sure by how much), but NOT ENOUGH FOR THIS. This scene creeped me out so badly. And it had Ser Pounce! No scenes with kittens should be as off-putting as this was.

Everything with Brienne and Jaime was wonderful (And Pod! "Ser.... My Lady."!) but again, really disconcerting compared to last week's rape scene.


The Musketeers
Man, this was nowhere near as good as the previous episode. I think it would have been highly improved if the early scene with the Captain and Richelieu had been cut; as it was, there's no suspense because the audience already knows that a) yes, the captain was involved, and b) why he was. On the other hand, Louis XIV being a petulant child will never not amuse me, and D’Artagnan teaching Constance how to shoot was pretty cute. Small things!