(no subject)
Read a scattering of a bunch of fandoms the last couple of weeks, or so it looks like. I’m not around a lot right now--personal reasons--but I read these recently so here you go. Hope you enjoy them. If you like something I rec on here, please tell the author or artist. They do wonderful things ♥
Supernatural
Words With Angels by 13chapters.
Sam/Castiel // PG-13 // Author’s Summary: Castiel gets a new phone, and Sam teaches him about how it can be used for ~games~.
I love this pairing and I love this kind of fic. I think I rec’d one that was similar to this a while back that was Dean/Castiel, but I love these kinds of things. I don’t know why, they just amuse me I guess. Castiel learning to play with his new human toys and enjoying it a little more than he thinks he’s going to. His awkward, not human-ness. It’s cute and funny. Then Sam picking up on it and playing along until he’s just like, okay, you know what? I’m done playing with you *pounces* These kinds of fics are very character-driven, though, so they depend on the writer getting the characters down to follow through and this one did it really well. It’s short but cute and sweet.
Sherlock
if you like piña coladas by introductory.
Sherlock/Lestrade // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: For prompt: Sherlock gives a spectacular blowjob and then starts lecturing the receiver on their diet.
This is short and funny. If you’ve ever read Cosmo and wanted to try forcing your significant other to drink juice just to see if they’re right, then you’ll probably laugh. I did anyway. I thought it was cute and the characters were very them the whole time. My only complaint with it is that the story itself would have been much better and would have benefited quite a lot if the author had fleshed out the backstory she only hinted at instead of “beating it off with a stick” for the sake of time. I understand that it was supposed to be written under a certain time, but the hints of this backstory (Sherlock being a prostitute from what I gather) seem completely irrelevant and a little confusing because she didn’t explain it. For something short and cute, though, it’s fun.
Criminal Minds
like vast cracked ice by likecharity.
Reid/Nathan Harris // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: It makes a strange sort of sense in Reid's mind-giving Nathan a way to express his urges in a controlled environment-but he knows it's not sensible, knows that at best he's just prolonging the inevitable and at worst, giving Nathan an even stronger appetite for something he's lusted after for years. And there's nothing to say he'll stop at this.
So, so much love for this fic. The author says this is her first time playing in this fandom, too, and I have to say, bravo, woman. Seriously good work and I hope she plays around in it again soon. I like the idea of pairings in this fandom with team members and unsubs and really, out of all of them, Reid is the most likely one to hook up with someone like that in my opinion. He’s got a lot of sympathy for some of them, more than the others sometimes, and identifies with the bad guys a lot of the time. They also tend to interact with him more than the others on an individual level, like Tobias Hankel or Owen Norris. I haven’t read a lot of these in this fandom, though I know they exist, but I liked this one particularly because of how the author treated the subject she was working with. She didn’t take Nathan Harris’s sexual sadism and turn it instantly into S&M, but dealt with it the way that it was in the show with that character, how it leaned toward murder, and sort of suggested the possibility of it eventually becoming S&M. I really got the feeling from the story that in the future Nathan’s desire to actually kill could be satisfied instead through sadomasochistic sex with Reid instead--or with other people. Since the character never actually killed anyone and in fact tried to kill himself to stop himself from murder, this seems even more believable. I watched the episode again before reading this, which may have made it better. I’m not sure. If you don’t remember the character and episode, I would suggest either reading over an episode review or watching it again to refresh your memory (Episode 2x11 “Sex, Birth, Death”). There aren’t a lot of well written fan stories out there that deal well with this sort of subject and I really felt like I had hit gold when I started to read this one. I liked the way she wrote the characters, I loved the writing, it was great.
Inception
To Emerald City by knowmydark.
Eames/Arthur // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: Twenty years on, Eames wants a second chance. Arthur believes it's already too late.
Such remarkable writing here. I loved this and the way the author built the story up in a way that was gradual but still engaging so that I wanted to keep on reading it. I felt like I was sitting there reading a book the whole time and fell right into it. She sets the scene and fills in the backstory without hitting you over the head with it and dumping it all on you at once but it doesn’t really feel like she’s keeping it to herself but like this is the way the story has to be told to make sense and work. The character voices are spot on I think, but even if this wasn’t fan fiction, it’s good writing and it wouldn’t matter. This is one of those that I don’t think you would even have to have seen the film to enjoy reading it because the story works by itself and there isn’t much of the story from the movie in it, nor does it need to be there. The emotions of the characters and their motives for what they did and do all make sense and there wasn’t really a moment through it where I felt thrown out of the story. She doesn’t give the characters a quick fix as some kind of excuse to write porn or shove them together again and I have a lot of respect for that because story is always more important than that stuff. This was a good, long-ish read and I enjoyed it a lot.
The Breakfast Club
Higher Education by Resonant.
Bender/Brian // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: John Bender gets a life.
This is probably the best story in this fandom that I’ve read. There aren’t a lot of them, but if asked, I would say this is the best. It’s long-ish, not novel length but certainly novella length, and definitely worth reading. The story is told mostly from Bender’s POV and it follows him through dropping out of school to getting a job and building a life and it does this all in a really realistic and believable way. The author takes the teenage little asshole out of him without taking away the character and making him into a character you would never recognize as John Bender. He isn’t reformed or anything, except he sort of is. Brian is also himself, though not as shy as he was in the movie, a lot more knowledgeable and confident without being out of character either. The way she’s written it, you can believe that they could possibly grow up to be these people. The other characters are also good, both the ones from the film and the original characters, and the story is well told and keeps you hooked into it to the end. There are some really funny parts, too. Lines and phrases and pieces of dialog that had me cracking up and I love it when a story can do that for me and it’s actually because it’s funny, not because it’s amusingly horrible. Very well written and a great story over all. I would seriously discourage reading the short little pornographic follow-up piece that the author wrote in the same ‘verse as this fic, though. There is a link to it at the bottom of the story but I’m serious, it’s horrible and illogical and stupid and I really don’t understand how that happened because this story is fantastic.
The Supper Club by Kaneko.
Bender/Andrew // R // No summary. Excerpt: They went out for drinks - because like Bender said, Andy had nearly killed him, and the least he could do was cough up a couple of bucks for a beer.
I really don’t see this pairing at all in the film. Like, there isn’t subtext or hints of it really except maybe the one line where Bender tells Andy that he’s kind of hot when he’s angry just to make him angry. But I could believe it in this and that is really important because I almost didn’t read it at all out of what I suppose is a pairing preference. I’m glad I did read it though because it’s well written and funny, not very long I guess, but the author managed to develop the characters well enough in that short time that I could really see how Andrew would become a juicer and fuck up his whole life and I could even see Bender becoming, of all things, a cop. It’s one of those professions that doesn’t require college that a lot of jerks tend to go into right out of high school, so I can see him doing it. I really loved the part where Andy interacts with his father because it made that character sympathetic and not just pathetic, which he had pretty much been at the start of the story. My only complaint with it is that it seemed to just end like the author ran out of things to say or was in a rush. This seems like the first chapter of what should have been a longer story.
Stand By Me
Of Sinking or Swimming by moonsbreath.
Chris/Gordie // PG // Author’s Summary: I wouldn’t let him drown. I wanted him to swim with me in this dark water.
I’ve wanted to read Stand By Me slash for ever but I’ve never even seen it until I found this. It’s the only one I’ve ever read and it‘s not even actually slash unless you squint, but it’s also really good. I don’t like that the author didn’t really format it correctly, but you can tell where the paragraphs begin and end so that’s just a preference thing. The story is written kind of in the same voice as the Stephen King story The Body from what I remember, though it’s been a while since I read that so I’m not 100% sure if it was done in first person POV or not. I think it was though. Anyway, I really liked the narrative voice in this. The details were nice, too, like Chris getting hurt and Gordie, who has no idea what he’s doing, still trying to help him because Chris has no one else. That’s sad as hell to me and the whole time I’m reading this I can’t forget the end of the movie where he says that Chris was stabbed to death and after they left that town they never saw each other again. So this took place to me somewhere between the end of the movie and that, which made it sadder. But this little story is awesome for it.
Art
What big… by cafe_de_labeill.
Supernatural // Dean/Castiel // G
I couldn’t say why, out of all the art she does that regularly blows me away, I’d rec this one except it’s both cute and amusing and so completely out there. Seriously, it’s gratuitous cute with not much in the way of redeeming qualities. But that’s okay because it is awesome. Dean’s wolfy grin and wagging tail and Castiel’s little worried smile are both just *smish* I love her artwork. Her chibi art is cute beyond belief and her serious artworks are stunning.
Kiss on Your Back by leyla_lovely.
Supernatural // Sam/Dean // R
I liked this immediately when I saw it. I think I like the feeling of it, both sensual and yet not pornographic really. I love the folds of the sheets around Dean and Sam’s hand holding it and the burn scar on Dean’s arm. Those are my favorite details. I like how the artist does light and shadow with their style, how it’s so stark. Her other artwork that I’ve seen is also really good. The only thing I don’t really like is that she tends to give Dean over feminized features in my opinion, but I’m thinking that is a preference with some people.
Kissing in the Alley by rai_daydreamer.
DC Comics: Batman/ DC Comics: Superman // Batman/Clark Kent // PG
This is really amazing. I don’t read much in comic fandoms, so I can’t really say how I came upon this, but it wowed me. I especially like the shocked look on Clark’s face and all the little details in the background. He doesn’t look like he’s fighting even if he is surprised, though. But the posters on the wall of the building behind them just give it that nice touch, a film noir environment that I’ve always thought was very much part of the atmosphere of the original comics.
Supernatural
Words With Angels by 13chapters.
Sam/Castiel // PG-13 // Author’s Summary: Castiel gets a new phone, and Sam teaches him about how it can be used for ~games~.
I love this pairing and I love this kind of fic. I think I rec’d one that was similar to this a while back that was Dean/Castiel, but I love these kinds of things. I don’t know why, they just amuse me I guess. Castiel learning to play with his new human toys and enjoying it a little more than he thinks he’s going to. His awkward, not human-ness. It’s cute and funny. Then Sam picking up on it and playing along until he’s just like, okay, you know what? I’m done playing with you *pounces* These kinds of fics are very character-driven, though, so they depend on the writer getting the characters down to follow through and this one did it really well. It’s short but cute and sweet.
Sherlock
if you like piña coladas by introductory.
Sherlock/Lestrade // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: For prompt: Sherlock gives a spectacular blowjob and then starts lecturing the receiver on their diet.
This is short and funny. If you’ve ever read Cosmo and wanted to try forcing your significant other to drink juice just to see if they’re right, then you’ll probably laugh. I did anyway. I thought it was cute and the characters were very them the whole time. My only complaint with it is that the story itself would have been much better and would have benefited quite a lot if the author had fleshed out the backstory she only hinted at instead of “beating it off with a stick” for the sake of time. I understand that it was supposed to be written under a certain time, but the hints of this backstory (Sherlock being a prostitute from what I gather) seem completely irrelevant and a little confusing because she didn’t explain it. For something short and cute, though, it’s fun.
Criminal Minds
like vast cracked ice by likecharity.
Reid/Nathan Harris // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: It makes a strange sort of sense in Reid's mind-giving Nathan a way to express his urges in a controlled environment-but he knows it's not sensible, knows that at best he's just prolonging the inevitable and at worst, giving Nathan an even stronger appetite for something he's lusted after for years. And there's nothing to say he'll stop at this.
So, so much love for this fic. The author says this is her first time playing in this fandom, too, and I have to say, bravo, woman. Seriously good work and I hope she plays around in it again soon. I like the idea of pairings in this fandom with team members and unsubs and really, out of all of them, Reid is the most likely one to hook up with someone like that in my opinion. He’s got a lot of sympathy for some of them, more than the others sometimes, and identifies with the bad guys a lot of the time. They also tend to interact with him more than the others on an individual level, like Tobias Hankel or Owen Norris. I haven’t read a lot of these in this fandom, though I know they exist, but I liked this one particularly because of how the author treated the subject she was working with. She didn’t take Nathan Harris’s sexual sadism and turn it instantly into S&M, but dealt with it the way that it was in the show with that character, how it leaned toward murder, and sort of suggested the possibility of it eventually becoming S&M. I really got the feeling from the story that in the future Nathan’s desire to actually kill could be satisfied instead through sadomasochistic sex with Reid instead--or with other people. Since the character never actually killed anyone and in fact tried to kill himself to stop himself from murder, this seems even more believable. I watched the episode again before reading this, which may have made it better. I’m not sure. If you don’t remember the character and episode, I would suggest either reading over an episode review or watching it again to refresh your memory (Episode 2x11 “Sex, Birth, Death”). There aren’t a lot of well written fan stories out there that deal well with this sort of subject and I really felt like I had hit gold when I started to read this one. I liked the way she wrote the characters, I loved the writing, it was great.
Inception
To Emerald City by knowmydark.
Eames/Arthur // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: Twenty years on, Eames wants a second chance. Arthur believes it's already too late.
Such remarkable writing here. I loved this and the way the author built the story up in a way that was gradual but still engaging so that I wanted to keep on reading it. I felt like I was sitting there reading a book the whole time and fell right into it. She sets the scene and fills in the backstory without hitting you over the head with it and dumping it all on you at once but it doesn’t really feel like she’s keeping it to herself but like this is the way the story has to be told to make sense and work. The character voices are spot on I think, but even if this wasn’t fan fiction, it’s good writing and it wouldn’t matter. This is one of those that I don’t think you would even have to have seen the film to enjoy reading it because the story works by itself and there isn’t much of the story from the movie in it, nor does it need to be there. The emotions of the characters and their motives for what they did and do all make sense and there wasn’t really a moment through it where I felt thrown out of the story. She doesn’t give the characters a quick fix as some kind of excuse to write porn or shove them together again and I have a lot of respect for that because story is always more important than that stuff. This was a good, long-ish read and I enjoyed it a lot.
The Breakfast Club
Higher Education by Resonant.
Bender/Brian // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: John Bender gets a life.
This is probably the best story in this fandom that I’ve read. There aren’t a lot of them, but if asked, I would say this is the best. It’s long-ish, not novel length but certainly novella length, and definitely worth reading. The story is told mostly from Bender’s POV and it follows him through dropping out of school to getting a job and building a life and it does this all in a really realistic and believable way. The author takes the teenage little asshole out of him without taking away the character and making him into a character you would never recognize as John Bender. He isn’t reformed or anything, except he sort of is. Brian is also himself, though not as shy as he was in the movie, a lot more knowledgeable and confident without being out of character either. The way she’s written it, you can believe that they could possibly grow up to be these people. The other characters are also good, both the ones from the film and the original characters, and the story is well told and keeps you hooked into it to the end. There are some really funny parts, too. Lines and phrases and pieces of dialog that had me cracking up and I love it when a story can do that for me and it’s actually because it’s funny, not because it’s amusingly horrible. Very well written and a great story over all. I would seriously discourage reading the short little pornographic follow-up piece that the author wrote in the same ‘verse as this fic, though. There is a link to it at the bottom of the story but I’m serious, it’s horrible and illogical and stupid and I really don’t understand how that happened because this story is fantastic.
The Supper Club by Kaneko.
Bender/Andrew // R // No summary. Excerpt: They went out for drinks - because like Bender said, Andy had nearly killed him, and the least he could do was cough up a couple of bucks for a beer.
I really don’t see this pairing at all in the film. Like, there isn’t subtext or hints of it really except maybe the one line where Bender tells Andy that he’s kind of hot when he’s angry just to make him angry. But I could believe it in this and that is really important because I almost didn’t read it at all out of what I suppose is a pairing preference. I’m glad I did read it though because it’s well written and funny, not very long I guess, but the author managed to develop the characters well enough in that short time that I could really see how Andrew would become a juicer and fuck up his whole life and I could even see Bender becoming, of all things, a cop. It’s one of those professions that doesn’t require college that a lot of jerks tend to go into right out of high school, so I can see him doing it. I really loved the part where Andy interacts with his father because it made that character sympathetic and not just pathetic, which he had pretty much been at the start of the story. My only complaint with it is that it seemed to just end like the author ran out of things to say or was in a rush. This seems like the first chapter of what should have been a longer story.
Stand By Me
Of Sinking or Swimming by moonsbreath.
Chris/Gordie // PG // Author’s Summary: I wouldn’t let him drown. I wanted him to swim with me in this dark water.
I’ve wanted to read Stand By Me slash for ever but I’ve never even seen it until I found this. It’s the only one I’ve ever read and it‘s not even actually slash unless you squint, but it’s also really good. I don’t like that the author didn’t really format it correctly, but you can tell where the paragraphs begin and end so that’s just a preference thing. The story is written kind of in the same voice as the Stephen King story The Body from what I remember, though it’s been a while since I read that so I’m not 100% sure if it was done in first person POV or not. I think it was though. Anyway, I really liked the narrative voice in this. The details were nice, too, like Chris getting hurt and Gordie, who has no idea what he’s doing, still trying to help him because Chris has no one else. That’s sad as hell to me and the whole time I’m reading this I can’t forget the end of the movie where he says that Chris was stabbed to death and after they left that town they never saw each other again. So this took place to me somewhere between the end of the movie and that, which made it sadder. But this little story is awesome for it.
Art
What big… by cafe_de_labeill.
Supernatural // Dean/Castiel // G
I couldn’t say why, out of all the art she does that regularly blows me away, I’d rec this one except it’s both cute and amusing and so completely out there. Seriously, it’s gratuitous cute with not much in the way of redeeming qualities. But that’s okay because it is awesome. Dean’s wolfy grin and wagging tail and Castiel’s little worried smile are both just *smish* I love her artwork. Her chibi art is cute beyond belief and her serious artworks are stunning.
Kiss on Your Back by leyla_lovely.
Supernatural // Sam/Dean // R
I liked this immediately when I saw it. I think I like the feeling of it, both sensual and yet not pornographic really. I love the folds of the sheets around Dean and Sam’s hand holding it and the burn scar on Dean’s arm. Those are my favorite details. I like how the artist does light and shadow with their style, how it’s so stark. Her other artwork that I’ve seen is also really good. The only thing I don’t really like is that she tends to give Dean over feminized features in my opinion, but I’m thinking that is a preference with some people.
Kissing in the Alley by rai_daydreamer.
DC Comics: Batman/ DC Comics: Superman // Batman/Clark Kent // PG
This is really amazing. I don’t read much in comic fandoms, so I can’t really say how I came upon this, but it wowed me. I especially like the shocked look on Clark’s face and all the little details in the background. He doesn’t look like he’s fighting even if he is surprised, though. But the posters on the wall of the building behind them just give it that nice touch, a film noir environment that I’ve always thought was very much part of the atmosphere of the original comics.