#bond/Q

[nana-71926]

Gorgeous 00Q doujin cover by RaRa. Japanese novel inside.

[trenchcoat-full-of-recs]

Favourite fics of 2023

Now that the year is over, I figured I'd cast my eye back over the previous year to see what were my favourite fics I discovered that year. Notably, they may not have been published last year--just the ones that I read during that time period.

I have absolutely no idea what they will be, so I'm curious to dive into my bookmarks...

MDZS/CQL

Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark -- oooh, apparently it was last year that I consumed this. It's a behemoth of a story at over 700k words; it's a slowly sprawling tale, and I read and reread it during the same year. And it's been one of the rare WIPs that I have been following faithfully. It's an AU in which WWX and LWJ, early on during the Gusu lectures, have the extra-canonical chapters' dreams about each other (that's to say, the ravishing in the library and the peaceful domesticity) and this triggers them realizing their feelings, which in turn changes rather a lot of things. This sounds underwhelming, but the fic really is very good and rather epic in scope! I have appreciated how it depicts WWX--intensely intelligent, precocious, but in need of guidance; and he and LWJ are darling together. I only hope it keeps being this good for the next 700k words or however much it takes!

You'll See Me Again by anon -- oh man, I loved this one. It's sadly a short-ish WIP (12k> words), but the concept is brilliant: it's NHS, who's time-travelled back and is determined to fix everything by getting WWX as his younger brother, and it's told from NMJ's baffled point of view. It's very good! I just wish it were longer.

Mourning Dove by jaemyun - a WIP featuring a dark LWJ who's very fed up with the hypocrisy of the cultivation world. Hasn't updated in a while, though...

SVSSS

This was the year I read SVSSS! Boy, did I ever love it. This naturally unlocked a new fandom for me, so here are some of my favourite fics:

A Transmigrator and a Time Traveler Walk Into the Bamboo House by VeryCharismaticDragon - this is super lovely! This is Binghe who time-travels from after SQQ's self-destruction to the start of the story. And he's determined to change things, even as he's trying to understand them. The whole thing is great.

The More You Don't Know by Neery - this is sweet and angsty in just the right way. Binghe is convinced SQQ only loves him because he doesn't realize he's a demon, and does his best to hide. (There's also a canon divergence in there.)

The Peace Between Divine Pec- ah-hm sorry - uh…Peaks by AceOfDivineChlorophyll - I need to catch up with the latest chapters of this, but I have it bookmarked as "absolutely love it, mega oblivious SQQ thinks he's LBH's advisor and not realizing that he's effectively the empress (something everyone around him sees) and of course not realizing also that he's super in love with LBH."

Particular by thehoyden - a very sweet SQQ/LBH a/b/o!

The King's Avatar

This is also the year when I consumed this canon!

Born of Fire (We Shall Not Fall) by TheDefenestrator - I loved this fic so much. So much. It's my favourite take on omegaverse I've ever seen in any fic, ever. It's got a super lovely Ye Xiu/Han Wenqing slowburn and Ye Xiu joining Tyranny, but it's also set in this universe which brings this omegaverse context into everything and makes it extra delicious. It's so well done. I just hope it updates one day.

here in search of your glory by Synoshian - I also adored this long slowburn long slowburn Ye Xiu/Han Wenqing WIP where Ye Xiu joins Tyranny.

Bond/Q

a bloodless coup by Ark - scorchingly hot, great characterisations, very well done.

There's a lot more fics that I read and enjoyed last year, but these were in my bookmarks as absolute faves, so I figure it's fair enough to end it here!

[silverdragonreads]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: James Bond (Craig Movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Pre James Bond/Q - Relationship Characters: James Bond, Alec Trevelyan, Q (Bond - Craig movies) Additional Tags: Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff Series: Part 42 of 00Q Tumblr Prompt Fills Summary:

Q gets migraines. When they come, he doesn't want to deal with anyone, let alone a 00. But 007 has his own plans for Q's pains.

[bodhrancomedy]

I think I’d be the greatest youngest Q in James Bond.

[marlports]

*cracking my knuckles* I’m going to write a one shot about this

[sibmakesart]

waiting in M's office

[vanillabean-97]

It’s so them ✨

[qcoded]

I personally hc Tails as half french, although I think he wouldn't be THAT fluent in the language. BUT, he does know a few phrases, and one of them is "I love you" = "Je t'aime"

for the longest time, he'd randomly say it to Sonic, mostly when they'd say goodbye (albeit casually). Sonic wouldn't think much of it, just another one of his brother's quirks. Until one day he decides to actually translate "Je t'aime" and everything just makes sense to him LMFAOOO (mostly finding it cute)

[hannaloony]

James Bond. In 2024

[lithiumseven]

Part II, Part I

[delessss]

[sl-newsie]

My strange coping method?

[cicerfics]

You know what? There are so many reasons I love a demiromantic/demisexual Q. So many reasons why that characterization detail works for me and resonates with me personally.

But also? I am kinda just in it for Q falling in love for the first time when he's in his 30s.

I'm kinda in it for Q having a crush on someone/being horny for someone for the FIRST TIME at the ripe old age of 32, after a lifetime BLISSFULLY free of such nonsense.

He got through his ENTIRE education, including MULTIPLE graduate degrees without even a STIRRING of attraction to anybody. He progressed rapidly in his career because he was not DISTRACTED by such things!

And now? The indignity?? The mortifying ordeal of falling in love??? The humiliation of finding himself HORNY for a fellow human being???

I just like to think about Q contently shaping his life around his work and his cats, never feeling sexual or romantic attraction or WANTING to feel it, comfortably single and content to remain so.

And then Bond enters his life like a wrecking ball.

And six months into their friendship, Q is placidly sipping his cup of tea one morning, thinking about Bond.

And suddenly he freezes and goes, Oh no.

[0xjuro]

Not just tchochkes though: like yeah, maybe he has a habit of collecting something small with character (like said keychains or magnets or whatever), because they were easy to pick up wherever and made him smile and chances were high he could take them with him.

(If he did that though then he probably has a very complicated system of changes he makes about those habits and when and how he has them for anti-tracking purposes.)

I personally would assume - under ops assumptions - that he had obnoxious ways to give normal things character, which a normie would not notice at all, and for the not-normies he does said changes from the parenthesis above: like the way things are oriented, or smudged, or broken, etc. He might have studied interior design at some point and is constantly holding himself back from passive aggressive design combat moves that the intended victim would never see and that would only give himself away.

He was probably taking the piss out of some person no one's ever heard of (M?) by the way he fluffed the pillows for a while.

So that would be a lot when he remembers every once in a while that he doesn't need to stop himself so he can't be tracked. Literally every corner of their flat would become a complex installation against _some_one that no-one except James has any hope of understanding.

But the real challenge is the stuff that he did even while working / on the move:

take plastic containers. Obviously James is a pro at judging the usefulness of containers (this is actually something he and Q have had a lot of lively discussion - both discussion and 'discussion' - about). A good container will save your life: whether it is transporting something vital without damaging or losing it, or smothering someone to death with a plastic bag. So he will identify the good stuff(tm) at a glance and take one if the opportunity presents itself.

So it's the useful/'normal' stuff where the hoarding really goes overboard.

What I'm saying is that James Bond is your Grandma where you open a random drawer and 500 plastic bags stacked for efficiency will assault you.

Q has his hands full (hah!) discreetly disposing of the ones in the back. The sanitation workers think they have some kind of household-fetish and are glad they're wearing protective gear.

WAIT just had a really fun/funny thought

okay you know how it's like, a common trope and/or fanon that Q is kind of a packrat & has a lot of trinkets & tchotchkes and whatever, meanwhile Bond is the sad empty blank slate flat guy?

What if tho. What if it's like. Bond is that. but only incidentally. Like, he is like that cuz he's on the road all the time & never around his own flat, and also the stuff he has tends to get churned & burned thru just as collateral from his lifestyle.

But what if, after he gets together with Q/moves in with Q/simply annexes space in Q's life and flat while not formally together. What if, now that he has, like, a permanent place for stuff to accumulate. He becomes like a packrat slash sad hoarder situation, but purely incidentally. Like maybe he's used to collecting stuff, but he's also used to *losing* said stuff, so it all sorts of evens out. Except now uhhhhhh oops! He has a permanent place for which the stuff to collect. The metaphoric river of his life may have previously kept the water and debris flowing, but surprise! there is now a beaver dam in place, and the stuff that would have been carried off & away before is now... accumulating....

At some point it's gonna get so bad that Q is going to have to stage an intervention lmao

[teddybarebones]

00q fic idea: Q gets kidnapped, and Bond is sent to recover him.

Bond, M, and Moneypenny are all tense, worried what the kidnappers are going to do to their quartermaster, trusting that he wouldn’t break, but fearing how badly he’ll be hurt. Bond is obviously chosen to retrieve him, and he’s ready to kill every person that gets in his way (and anyone who had anything to do with hurting Q)

What he didn’t expect at the scene was bodies upon bodies in the facility, like someone had already gunned through before him. Tense and suspicious, Bond follows the sound of gunshots on the other side of the building. Thinking the possibility of a gang war or infighting.

What he found instead, was his skinny quartermaster straddling an armed man, repeatedly beating his skull with a mallet. Undershirt covered in blood, breathing hard but evenly. Bond is frozen in place at the scene before him, distracted enough at the sight that he neglected his surroundings.

Q whips his head to face him, curls untamed and bouncing, as he grabs the gun from the beaten soldier’s grasp, and instantly fires a bullet over Bond’s shoulder.

The sound of a heavy body hitting the concrete floor behind him causes his to quickly turn around to see another armoured man, dead only a few meters from him, bullet wound directly through his left eye…

…Slowly turning to face his quartermaster once more, he watches as the not so scrawny man gracefully stands from off the body, bespectacled blue eyes not straying for a second from his own. Blood spattering high cheekbones, thin fingers tightly wrapped around the grip of the gun, hands steady and confident. He’s done this before.

“007, I take it you’re here to rescue me?”

…Bond has never been so attracted to someone in his entire life.

[marlports]

I think we all forget that Bond is the quiet one and Q is the loudmouth. Sure, Bond is so suave and cool and sexy and charismatic- that’s his whole deal- but rarely does he make small talk or chat. Because everything he does is for a goal or super-objective, so the lad really doesn’t do a lot of pointless talking.

Q on the other hand? Oh he natters. He nitpicks. He loves some good rapport. He makes awful jokes and banters and asks waiters their favorite meal. He doesn’t do it with any charisma whatsoever but he likes chatting.

This gives you two wonderful things:

1. Bond and Q grabbing coffee, Q flapping his hands around and explaining some new thing. Maybe the latest book he’s finished, maybe his new project, maybe the newest opera vinyl he’s been playing for them while he cooks spaghetti. Bond watching him with that smarmy little smile that says he’s enamored with the strange guy in front of him and proud to be sat with him. Cocking his head to listen as Q starts in on a new topic. And Q doesn’t worry that he’s talking too much because Bond is taking everything in, adding the occasional helpful observation or little question.

Q’s never felt so valued and Bond’s never felt so comfortable.

On the other hand:

2. Q’s incessant chatter and banter often head to Bond needing to find new ways to get him to stop bickering. These include a soft hand in his hair that suddenly turns to a pull, a lazy finger along the inside of his thigh at the dinner table, a hand squeezing all the way around his wrist with just enough pressure, his tie being straightened–yanked. Little habits that make Q stop in his tracks and reevaluate what he was saying or … decide that he could be doing something else instead of talking.