#fic!art

[embyrinitalics]

Susie_ya/Vane_yaa (ao3/twitter) made me a bunch of fanart for the Numb/Recovery/Embrace set from Ira Deorum, and it is so lovely!! Thank you so much!! 😭😭😭😍😍😍

[main-chive]

happy birthday @thelattewriter​! I hope you had a wonderful day 

^^a companion piece to @acanvasofabillionsuns​‘ marvelous fic, watch the sunrise with me

full res stills are under the cut:

[embyrinitalics]

GUYYYYS look! The immensely talented @hauntedwastelandart did this commission for me for a scene from Branded and I can’t. stop. crying. over it. 😭 She was a joy to work with and the piece came together beautifully. Check her out if you haven’t!

You can read Branded on ao3 and ffn.

[sterekcollection]

"If I Followed You Home" by tryslora (Sterek Fic Rec)

Fan art for this fic by kenshymidzu

If I Followed You Home by tryslora

Official Summary: Stiles is living on his own in New York when he sees the unthinkable: one woman pushes another onto the tracks just before a subway comes. With Scott not moving in for several days, he is on his own with his grief and horror, and he decides to find closure by attending the dead woman’s funeral where he discovers that (1) the guy he’s been crushing on is the dead woman’s brother, and (2) her family somewhat adopts him, and (3) the woman who killed her might just want to kill him now. LIfe just got complicated. 34,604 words)

My Take: Great - a tale as fun as it was fresh

What I liked:

A fresh mix of characters. I mean, it’s all the usual Teen Wolf crew but remixed and presented differently from the standard pack story. It made this one feel fresh. Stiles is on his own in New York, meeting a smaller Hale pack (one that includes Cora); and his Beacon Hills friends don’t enter the picture at first but then play important roles.

Portrayals of Derek as emotionally constipated are hard to get right, because it’s so easy to overshoot and end up with him seeming wooden or one-dimensional, but I thought you could really feel a deep well of emotion simmering just under his surface in this story. Kudos.

The final baddies are perhaps predictable, but the way it played out was not. Again, helped make this story feel fresh.

I will comment that the coincidences that stacked up on each other in this fic strained credulity. It got to the point where they pulled me out of the story. I also would have appreciated a bit more of a bridge between emotionally-constipated!Derek (99% of the story) and emotionally-available!Derek (the last 1%), because it happened very suddenly. Derek never actually expresses what about Stiles attracts him — maybe that’s it.

For more Sterek fanfic reviews, fan art and meta, please visit our Index of Works. Thanks!

[sterekcollection]

Fan art by cutewolfboys for this fic

Winter's Edge by inkforwords

Official Summary: When Stiles' uncle passes away he inherits a cabin and 100 acres of land. What he didn't expect to get out of the deal was a mysterious wolf with five little cubs roaming around his property. He has a feeling they are definitely more than they seem to be. (40,167 words)

My Take: Superb but still a work in progress

I really, really enjoyed this — right up until it ended suddenly and unexpectedly. It turns out that Winter’s Edge is the first entry in a planned series. However (and here we hit upon the torture of never-finished WIPs) it’s been nearly a year since the completion of Winter’s Edge with no new entry. Which is not a good sign.

I loved the tone and approach. I loved Scott, Isaac, Erica, Boyd and Jackson as wolf puppies, with Derek as their adult alpha caretaker. I loved Allison instead of Scott as Stiles' BFF. I loved Lydia as Stiles' agent. I loved Stiles moving into a cabin in the wilderness, just as winter starts hitting.

In fact, I really loved the setting. It was reminiscent of a lovely original werewolf M/M romance, Winter Wolf by S.P. Wayne. The setting here is not as prominent as in Winter Wolf, in which the setting is almost a character and not just a backdrop. But I still enjoyed the atmosphere it creates in Winter’s Edge.

I loved the gentleness of the story. I loved how Stiles slowly gets to know the mysterious wolf pack living on his upstate California property (I’m not quite sure where in California he is, but still). I loved the slowly growing trust between Stiles and Derek.

And if the story had come to a satisfactory conclusion, I would have called it excellent and then some.

But alas, it didn’t: it kind of … just stopped, as described above. And it ended without any Sterek. You definitely get Sterek feels from the story, but it’s all 100% pre-sterek; in fact, I don’t think either Stiles or Derek have even thought of each other that way yet. So at this point, where we are now, I’m going to say it’s a lovely story with a unsatisfying ending.

Still, I felt this one deserved a review because I liked so much else about it. (One minor note: the text desperately needs editing, so if that kind of thing throws you, just be aware).

I’ll keep it in my track list and update as/if appropriate. But eleven months without any updates? Don’t hold your breath.

Sigh. Hell is a library full of unfinished stories that have me hooked.

[sterekcollection]

'You Come Across Brighter' by Deerie (Joanses)

(Fan Art by ordinaryink, original here plus other pieces for this story)

You Come Across Brighterby joanses/deerie

Official Summary: “Oh my God, Allison,” Stiles whispers. “I have the best idea!” “What is it?” she asks him. “We should be detectives! Like, for real detectives. We could totally do it – you with your badassness and me with my, I don’t know, investigative skills. We could even do supernatural cases, Allison, we are totally qualified for that!” (16,515 words)

My Take - Great - this was a really fun story!

I LOVE Stiles, Allison and Lydia as partners in a detective agency and feel like I've been waiting forever for such a story. The drama is a bit perfunctory, with a pretty shallow villain (a witch, I think) going for a pretty shallow goals (more power); it's really reminiscent of Jennifer/Darach but specifically trying to sacrifice Stiles in particular instead of 9 random characters; but it was still a fun, entertaining story.

The Sterek bits were light and also a tad confusing. At first, I thought Derek and Stiles were an established couple, but by the end it becomes clear they weren't, they've just been dancing around it with each other. But that led to a nice bit of hurt/comfort at the end.

-- For more Sterek fanfic reviews, fan art and meta, please visit our Index of Works. Thanks!

[sterekcollection]

'It's been like years since it's been clear' by Sirona

(Fan Art by itspuckurtbitch - images for this fic)

It’s Been Like Years Since It’s Been Clear by Sirona

Official Summary: It’s six-thirty in the morning, but there are warm lights behind the floor-to-ceiling, de-boarded windows, and the ‘For Sale’ sign on the door has disappeared along with Stiles’ memory of where he’d been headed just moments before. The coffee shop is, apparently, open for business once more. (34,360 words)

My Take: Great - a coffeeshop AU worth re-reading.

So I’m not the biggest fan of the coffeeshop theme, which usually falls flat for me, but I really liked this one. I thought Derek’s characterization and portrayal were very interesting and unexpectedly endearing. He just came across as shy and sweet to me, and I felt like his pairing with Stiles really worked well. (That said, I also thought the extent of his emotional damage was out of proportion to what actually happened with Kate in this story, which was not a fire that killed most of his family but rather a more mundane betrayal). I really enjoyed the Sterek slowbuild here. It really did feel like their relationship grew organically and slowly over time, even though they were both clearly interested early on. And I liked how the author threw another gay Hale in there to add some tension.

(More story-related gifs here)

For more Sterek fanfic reviews, fan art and meta, please visit our Index of Works. Thanks!