fffriday | FemslashREx: 5 over 5k

Here's a second quintet of FemslashEx 2019 recs, this time for stories exceeding 5k in length! Damn but people really pulled out all the stops for this.

1. spreading wide my narrow hands (6740 words) by lastwingedthing
Fandom: Jane Eyre
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Jane Eyre/Bertha Mason, past Jane Eyre/Edward Rochester
Characters: Jane Eyre, Bertha Mason, Adèle Varens
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary: Reader, I buried him.

This post-fire Jane Eyre AU, which I originally came across as a rec from

letzan, is an impeccably crafted pastiche of the source material. It manages both to give much-needed voice to Bertha Mason and paint a convincing slow burn between Jane and her.

2. Groping to Clouds for Love (11530 words) by mautadite
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Queen Who Fought in the War/Princess of Enemy Country She's Marrying to Seal the Peace Treaty
Characters: Original Female Character(s)
Additional Tags: Explicit Sexual Content, Arranged Marriage, Courtly Love
Summary: “I am going to love her,” Arjana says decisively, giving a firm nod.

"Fluffy" is not the word one typically associates with arranged royal marriages in the aftermath of war, but here we are; rich worldbuilding details and understated but omnipresent awareness of the recent war lend enough heft and texture to keep it from being insubstantially so.

3. How to Save a Princess, Overthrow an Imperial Regime, and Get a Promotion Along the Way: The Selected Memoirs of Whirling Dervish (13356 words) by aliatori
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cutthroat and Talented Necromancer/Her Reluctant Bodyguard Sworn to Her Service, Whirling Dervish/Saerina Locrux
Characters: Whirling Dervish, Saerina Locrux
Additional Tags: High Fantasy, Necromancy, Sniping and Snarking, Bodyguard Romance, Feelings Realization, Humor, POV First Person, smol and tol dynamic strikes again, necromancy is easy but emotions are hard
Summary: Whirling Dervish, an elite mercenary whose services have been retained all over the Thirteen Kingdoms, has been contracted to Aurazellian princess Saerina Locrux for nearly two years. Her task? Keep Saerina alive until she can Ascend to the Ossium and join the Tridecagon, a powerful cohort of necromancers that serve the Empress Undying. With only a month to go on her two year contract, Dervish is so close to freedom she can taste it. But when Saerina makes a discovery that changes her fate and sets her on a daring, dangerous course, Dervish must decide what matters more: loyalty to her charge, or freedom from her service.

The author's note tips the hat to Gideon the Ninth, among others, and the influence is clear both in the necromantic setting and snappy, irreverent banter (though without the stylistic anachronism). It very much stands on its own merit, however, as an action-packed adventure worth reading.

4. Heart in Danger (13560 words) by lilacsigil
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character, Adorable Monstergirl/Hunter Who Ignores Warnings Because She’s Cute
Additional Tags: Shapeshifting, Australia, University, Monster Hunters
Summary: Jenelle's mum hunts illegal shapeshifters for a living, and Jenelle has never questioned that. Once she moves to Melbourne for university, though, she meets new people (such as her girlfriend Arki) and starts to question what she's always thought to be true.

Strangely overlooked in comparison to some of the other original stories I've recced, this shapeshifter/hunter college romance is an utterly engaging page-turner (page-scroller?) with strong voice and intriguing worldbuilding. I would 100% read more of these characters and this world.

5. Burn (19901 words) by slightlykylie
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Post-apocalyptic Homesteader/Wounded Stranger, Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Characters: Post-apocalyptic Homesteader, Wounded Stranger, Gang Girls, Sad ex
Additional Tags: Semi-graphic depiction of injury and illness
Summary: Blade's a tough newly-ex-gang member fleeing fire and wreckage, wounded and looking for someone to rip off. Briana's a self-contained homesteader with everything she needs and a bundle of loneliness. What can they be to each other?

We return to the postapocalypse, this time through the eyes of an outcast gangster. Her character arc, and the slow realization of her romance, are worth every bit of the wordcount -- the novella length allows for plenty of mess and depth, and there's not a single blunted edge to be found.