EXCHANGE INTERFACE

Pacific Rim Secret Santa Gift!

title: living in a fallen home
summary: Their instant connection pushed Raleigh into focusing on all the things he and Mako share, all the places where they align. It's only with a little time, and distance, and a lack of wires fused into both their brains, that he learns where they deviate from one another.
why: This was a pinch-hit for me when my author couldn't get her assignment in due to Life Issues (and let me know ahead of time as well as promising me a fic in Jan). So it's short but sweet, a few little slices of life and dealing as they work out how they're going to relate in a post-kaiju world.

In contrast, my Captain Hill Secret Santa gift is intense:

title: this of all nights
summary: In the weeks after Ultron, Steve and Maria find comfort in each other, only to find themselves on opposite sides of the Sokovia Protocols.
why: No quarter given in this fic; the harsh and bitter truth of love and war. It's not an easy fic to read, but it's an powerful one, and the ending is as much interlude as it is completion. The characterisation is amazing - particularly the harder side of Steve and the sharper side of Maria. We don't always write those in Captain Hill fic because it's not easy to write them in a relationship like that - it takes a fair bit of emotional maturity to both conceive it and accept it, but this has been done brilliantly, with their emotional need balanced against the things they believe are right and the choices they have to make in the situation.

Story Title: Anchor And Anchorage
Fandom: Pacific Rim
Link(s): http://archiveofourown.org/works/986038
Summary: The Drift is compatibility, not happily-ever-after. Or the story of how Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket deal with their demons.
Warnings: No archive warnings
Characters: Mako Mori, Raleigh Becket, Herc Hansen, Tendo Choi, Vanessa Gottlieb, Sergio D'Onofrio
Pairings: Mako Mori/Raleigh Becket
When I Started: September 2013ish
How I Lost My Shit: I went on holiday to the USA and Italy, and then I had to get back and into the swing of things, and then end-of-year fictide was upon me, and I was organising a Pacific Rim fic swap and five people never responded to my emails and I had to scramble for pinch-hitters and then they posted anyway, and I had no time and no brain and no plot and no words and aaaaaaauuuughhh...
How I Finished My Shit: Painfully. Really really painfully. Questioning myself all the way. Wishing that it was better, more tightly plotted, had more concrete resolution, and that I could manage cute (angsty was it; I'm sorry, prepare to be socked in the face with the angstoramas).

But EET EES FEENEESHED!

And it has art by endeni/endeni, which is here and awesome.

I'm going to try to make this a thing - it won't always be Pacific Rim (there's not enough fic for starters) - but it will probably be things that I read and enjoyed, and think others would also like.

TITLE: you steal me away with your eyes
AUTHOR: millsandcrane
DETAILS: Mako/Raleigh, angst, smut,
SUMMARY: Set a year after the events of 'Pacific Rim'. Mako reminisces about who she's lost on the day of her parents' anniversary. Raleigh's there to distract her from her thoughts. Sex ensues.

WHY: Because it avoids the 'I love you' trap that is so prevalent in fic. And it's quite clear that Mako isn't fully over her loss of Pentecost, and that Raleigh loves her, but doesn't want to burden her. (Stoic males! WHEEEE!) Basically, they're two broken people holding each other together, and this is a teeny tiny smut interlude that quite sweetly shows their care for each other.

TITLE: Knock Knock | Cookies And Cream
AUTHOR: carpelucem
DETAILS: Bakery AU, Mako/Raleigh friendship tending to more, Mako & Chuck, Chuck is a dick, Hot Dads
SUMMARY: Neighbors, bakeries, and a big happy ending - and something about finding the family you were always meant to have.

WHY: because the interactions between Mako and Raleigh are charming and sweet and put me in mind of the Stargate AU "The House That Jack Built" and it's a series that will (hopefully) have a whole lot more to it, and I like to give such authors encouragement. In addition to which, I like dickhead!Chuck stories and this one has him right on the money. (The interaction between Raleigh and Chuck in the second story is precious - the confrontation, the jealousy, the angst, the relenting!) The Hot Dads make an appearance in Part 1, and although I don't really agree with the depiction of Stacker as the father who thinks his daughter has failed him, I believe I comprehend the narrative choices that drive it.

TITLE: what falls away is always
AUTHOR: likeoatmeal
DETAILS: Mako/Raleigh, post-movie, relationship,
SUMMARY: Most nights, Mako comes home — different cities and different doorways but always home the moment the door closes behind her—and Raleigh calls out her name before she
s even put her keys away. "Mako." It's never a question.

WHY: Because it's beautiful and lyrical and the kind of story that I really really wish I could write - that just drifts along while dragging you in so powerfully. It's in the style of the BIG Mako/Raleigh fics of the earliest days of Pacific Rim (the ones that have, oh, 800 kudos to them) - lots of love-and-the-Drift dynamics post-movie.

FANDOM: Pacific Rim
TITLE: The Naming Of Foxes
SUMMARY: The Drift is compatibility, not destiny. Or the story of how Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket fall in love.
TAGS: Romance, Friendship, the Drift, Ghost Drifting, Drift Hangover, Developing Relationship, Post-Canon, Parallels, Loss, Desire, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Love, Friendship/Love, Falling in Love
CHARACTERS/PAIRING: Raleigh Becket/Mako Mori, Raleigh Becket & Yancy Becket, Raleigh Becket & Mako Mori, Mako Mori & Vanessa Gottlieb.
WORD COUNT: ~7000
WARNINGS: None
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, making no money, etc.
NOTES: This is pretty much my "Pacific Rim Universe: Let Me Show You All My Feels" story. It sort of started with 'what the Drift has wrought let no man tear asunder' and ended up not quite where I intended that fic to go. There was actually a third part to this which I didn't end up writing, but while I thought about making Mako's section even longer, I think some of the ideas from there will just end up in a separate story.

On the first day of the rest of their lives, Raleigh wakes with Mako’s back pressed up against his front, his face in her hair, her legs long against him. He’s doing the pressing, too – his hand over hers, into her stomach, keeping her flush against him.

Can I just say how lovely it is to be a fan of a character that lots of other people also primarily fan?

This hasn't really happened to me since Sam Carter of SG1, and that was twelve years ago. (Mind you, I got some hella awesome friends out of it, many of whom are still around.)

And a female character, and a character of colour!

Twelve. Fucking. Years.

And, um, I seem to have committed Pacific Rim fic:

TITLE: what the Drift has wrought let no man tear asunder
AUTHOR: tielan
SUMMARY: Mako knows it's the Drift hangover – the physical component balancing out the mental and psychological compatibility – grounding pilots in the here and now, breaking the Drifting cycle of there and then. But she can't let go. She can't let go. If she lets go, she'll fall into herself (anyone can fall) and never come out.
WORD COUNT: ~750
TAGS: Mako Mori, Raleigh Becket, Herc Hansen, Mako/Raleigh, Mako & Raleigh, Mako & Herc, the Drift
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, making no money, etc.
NOTES: I thought this was the first chapter of a longer story, but I suspect the 'longer story' is going to be separate, and with a slightly different focus and more broken.

Also, in slightly different news...MORE MARIA HILL PROMOS FROM 'AGENTS OF SHIELD'.

It's like ALL THE CHRISTMAS NOW!