Haven’t been reading a whole lot in FF this month (despite what the count implies – several of these are ones I forgot from previous months!). But I’ve read a few that were nice. And it’s good to remember the ones I stupidly forgot to write down before.

First: My Longing is Always One by Create_Serenity. Whoops! I actually finished this one in October, but it was on the day I flew to Barcelona, so I missed recording it on the blog. Honestly, I imagine I miss quite a few, especially when they are WIPs and the “finish” is just when the last chapter posts and I’ve been reading the fic for months or even years. This one is lovely to see finished because I was originally the beta for it. I beta-ed the first chapter early on, but by the time the author was ready for later beta-ing, it was very shortly after my divorce stuff started and I didn’t have time to do the work. She understood (she’s lovely, and I got to meet her in person at TIC6!) and I’ve been so happy to see someone else take up the beta and help her get it in shape and online! The author is one of my faves, and this little fic – a canon-adjacent through-the-years segment of a longer series – def has a special place in my heart. I’m sad that I forgot to review it two months ago!

Second: Stress Relief for Angels by Create_Serenity and EybeFioro. Gah! I just discovered another one I missed, this one from early August when I was heading to London. Oops! This is actually a mostly side-character story set in the GO world. It’s very NSFW with NSFW art, and I mostly loved this one for the main character, an OC angel character called Gregory who I later stole to use one of my own fics.

Third: Made in Hell: Matchmaking Agency by Hermiola. My favorite thing about this story is the way the author took one of the canon conflicts (wanting to fix the system from within vs wanting to burn down the whole system and start over) and created a parallel in how the two characters approach relationship anxiety (one who only wants casual because he’s afraid of rejection, one who wants only commitment because he’s afraid of rejection). That doesn’t sound nearly as interesting as Hermiola actually made it, but never mind. It was good!

Fourth: Hereditary Enemies by Another_Freak1258. Look. Just don’t read this, don’t even think about it, unless you’ve been part of the fanfic community (ANY fanfic community) for enough time that nothing in fiction surprises you. And by “anything,” I mean you aren’t bothered by, say, multi-species coitus. Just… this isn’t for you. For me? Sure. This was quite a cute story, very fun, delightfully humorous in all the best ways. Two years ago? I would’ve been baffled.

Fifth: Ineffable Advent Calendar by whatkeepsusalive. This was a collection of 24 fluffy mini-stories about Christmas and our ineffable duo. I had a few favorites along the way, but these were, for the most part, consistently delightful and a big change of pace from what I’ve been reading generally. (In fanfic and otherwise.)