The Asher books by Barbara Hambly, and the James/Lydia/Simon OT3, are one of the tiny fandoms that is deepest in my heart, and I don't know how to do them justice?

Dr. James Asher is, to all appearances, a nondescript Oxford don whose only interesting attribute is his pretty young wife. But in fact he has spent more than a decade traveling the world spying for the British Empire in some of the world's most dangerous places, under the cover of his language and folklore research. He quit the spy part after he killed one too many innocents for reasons he couldn't believe in anymore, and came back to Oxford to marry Lydia.

Dr. Lydia Asher is a beautiful, fashionable socialite. She married James against the wishes of her family, who wanted to see her with any of her many richer, more dashing suitors. Also against the wishes of her family, she trained as a research pathologist, and is just as comfortable elbow-deep in corpses as in society tea-rooms. She has a tendency to worry about Science first and prudence and morality second if she isn't careful with herself. She and James are madly in love and impossibly well-suited.

Don Simon Ysidro is a vampire. He came to Britain on a diplomatic mission in the reign of Mary Tudor, was turned, and never went home. He is very good at being vampire - so good he tends to disconcert other vampires, if only by his utter refusal to take part in any of their petty power games. He may or may not be the second oldest vampire in Europe. When something monstrous starts to stalk and kill the vampires of London, a day-walker they can't hunt themselves, he uses a threat to Lydia's life to blackmail James into tracking down and destroying the killer, and his neutral position to force the other vampires to cooperate as well.

He has deeply underestimated both of the Ashers, however - and himself - and in the course of what becomes a much more balanced team-up than he planned, the three of them end up in an inextricable tangle of loyalty, debt, trust, honor, and, eventually, helplessly, love.

This series ruined me for all other versions of vampires because her vampires are, at core, people who were given the choice to kill, and live; or not kill, and die. And the ones who stay alive a long time are the ones who keep making the choice to live, and who know what they are for doing that, and make it anyway, because their powers, psychic or physical, are balanced by such terrible weaknesses that the only way they can live is to watch for their safety every minute, and kill for it every night. But the core plot of every book is the Ashers having to team up with vampires to fight humans who - in the context of the leadup to WWI - are trying to use vampires as tools to do things more horrible than any vampire ever dreamed of or wished for or could possibly imagine - and every time the Ashers, or the reader, wants to condemn all the vampires wholesale, they are reminded that the evil the vampires do because they must, the humans around them do because they can. And yet there are the Ashers, both of them blood on their hands, fighting to stop it, to hold the fragile balance between humans and the dark. And Simon, fighting beside them, and then quietly going off alone to drink the death of an innocent where they won't have to watch and remember.

Anyway it's a very good series, and the vampires are very good, and the taking turns with h/c and rescuing from peril are epic, and the enemyship OT3 is extremely good and only about two millimeters away from canon (James and Lydia are in love, in canon; Lydia and Simon are in love in canon, and James knows, and accepts it; Simon and James have perhaps not said it in so many words - but only because it's pretty clear James can't let himself admit it, and Simon loves him too much to make him.)

• Shades of Twilight (4804 words) by Sheila_Snow
  Fandom: Those Who Hunt the Night - Barbara Hambly, James Asher Vampire Series - Barbara Hambly
  Rating: General Audiences
  Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
  Characters: James Asher, Simon Ysidro
  Additional Tags: Alternate Universe
  Series: Part 1 of Shades of Twilight
  
  AU after the first book, Simon and James get a chance to talk.



• Love's Weight In Knowing (2352 words) by icarus_chained
  Fandom: James Asher Vampire Series - Barbara Hambly
  Rating: Mature
  Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
  Relationships: James Asher/Lydia Asher, James Asher/Lydia Asher/Simon Ysidro
  Additional Tags: Coda, Love, Responsibility, Soul Bond, Murderers, Vampires, Polyamory, Psychic Violence
  
  After the second book, Lydia and James get a chance to talk.



• Unfortunate Son (22557 words) by Truth
  Fandom: James Asher Vampire Series - Barbara Hambly
  Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
  Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
  Relationships: James Asher/Lydia Asher/Simon Ysidro
  Additional Tags: Vampires, Influenza, Prisoner of War, Fake Character Death, Transatlantic Voyages, Lots of Random Death, It is 1918 After All, Emotional Relationships, Aunt Louise is the Worst, Lionel Grippen isn't Much Better, Kidnapping, Assisted Suicide
  
  After the last book, they come home.

I spent basically all of my day off yesterday either sleeping or waking up from sleeping because of headache and sore throat, so that was great, my immune system continues to time things so I'm only sick on days I already don't work. :P (I was considering calling in today, if only so I don't wind up in a paroxysm of anxiety over calling in on the day when I'm really really sick, but I'm somewhat better today and also work has air conditioning unlike home, so I guess I'm going in.)

Anyway, happy Second Half of Year, everyone! July 2nd isn't too early to be planning for Yuletide, right? Here are my current plans for yuletide requests (somebody come talk about these in comments with me....)

Fandom: Young Avengers (2013) (If it makes yuletide quals....)
Characters: America Chavez, Kid!Loki
Requests: I would like a story where America punches Loki in the face a lot and they both enjoy it, please. Sex optional (if sex, f/f America/Loki greatly appreciated), punchings required (kicking also okay.)

Fandom: Number Munchers (the original continuity, I never got into the remakes.)
Characters: Muncher, Troggles
Requests: Something about the Munchers being UTTER SMUG gits to the Troggles, please. Take your inspiration from the great moments in history, only make it personal. And with more maths. (Human AU where they are all genius mathematicians competing to solve an important problem and they all hate muncher dude is also a-ok.)

Fandom: The Asher Novels - Barbara Hambly
Characters: Any
Requests: I would like the story where James and Lydia finally realize that their thing with Simon isn't Simon and Lydia being in love and James being weirdly okay with it, it's Simon being in love with James and Lydia and vice versa, and Simon being "about time you two noticed". (There was even a bit in the Book of the Kindred of Darkness about how when vampires get involved with couples they usually go for both sides of the triangle, idk how Lydia didn't make the connection!)

Alternatively I would like something set during the Great War where James has been called back into intelligence work and is thrown among not just the human war but all the vampires of Europe fighting to survive a war unlike any they have seen before.

Also I would like a story about Simon and Grippen, at any point in their long history together, hunting together in the way vampires hunt together. Alternatively really anything that explores Grippen's feelings about Simon!

Also I would like a story about Lydia's aunts and stepmother finally getting what is coming to them. Say, a story about Grippen deciding to target Lydia's stepmom would be kind of wonderful, wouldn't it?

Basically these stories only have 13 fics on AO3 and that is a crime and a travesty they should have ALL the fanworks.

( Let me tell you about Barbara Hambly's vampire novels. (very minor spoilers.) )