The 12 Days of 2010 | Day 8
Ugh, well, originally, we were going to have nasty weather tonight, but then they took it out of the forecast, so now my mother and I have no excuse to get out of going to dinner with my mom's best friend and her son who was stalking me earlier this year :/
Maybe he'll beg out of going on his own, but I'm pretty sure I'm on his mom's hit list because I refused to go on a pity date with him. I even changed my relationship status on Facebook to tell him to step off.
On the bright side, the last date with them that got cancelled was a movie, so dinner is marginally less awkward than a movie, but still, oh my god, I really don't want to go.
SOCIALLY AWKWARD TIMES ARE GO.
❄ | THE 12 DAYS OF 2010
☀ | a multi-fandom rec extravaganza
Day 8 | December 26
Note: In all the recs I've done thus far, I've included AUs, so I was trying to find an excuse for why I was going to have a whole day that was nothing but AUs, but then I was like, "I just wanted to rec more of them, all AUs all the time. WHATEVA WHATEVA I DO WHAT I WANT."
The thing is, the possibilities for alternate universes are endless. When I first started reading fanfiction (way back in the day /waves cane!) I balked away from them, going, what is this I can't even.
But alternate universes are a way to take the characters you love out of the setting and timeline that their authors put them in. It's a sort of way to make them yours, even if the universe or plotline you're putting them into is some idea you took from somewhere else (for example, apocalypse!AUs, reel!AUs, etc) because if you think about it, nothing is really original. Everybody gets their inspiration from somewhere else, and everybody subconsciously plagiarizes from whatever sparks their imagination, and idk, is it a bad thing?
AUs, to me, just show the kind of differences there are between originality and creativity.
tl;dr, AUs are my fucking favorite.
12.
It Feels Like Home When I'm With You by etothepii
BBC Sherlock, John/Sherlock, PG-13, 14000 words
This is the fic where John Watson dies in Afghanistan, and his ghost is still haunting his London flat when Sherlock Holmes moves in. He's never been more interesting than when he's directly violating the laws of physics.
11.
Wolfpack by tabaqui
Supernatural, Ellen, Sam/Dean, R, series
I sat for a long time and dithered over whether I was going to rec you this, or sardonicsmiley's Darker Shade of Black (the really, really, really dark serial killer!AU where everybody in canon does horrible things to each other in Super Max.)
I went with this one because the change it makes to canon is so subtle as to be nearly indistinguishable: it shows what kind of universe the Winchester brothers would have grown up in, had their father been just a little bit more scarred by Mary's death. If he'd raised his sons to be just a little more ruthless, a little less human.
The link goes to the series archive in tabaqui's memories, but technically the main rec here goes to the first piece. Read the whole series if you want to see the Wolfpack!verse take on the rest of canon: Meg, the semi, Hendrickson, as it is an incredibly gut-wrenching, chilling ride.
Wolfpack itself is told from Ellen's POV: John Winchester and his eerie children come to the Roadhouse and stir up trouble. We see the whole thing as Ellen gets steadily more and more creeped out, and her feelings become our own.
This is the AU that celebrates the immensely subtle change.
10.
Human Women | orange-crushed
Doctor Who, Ten, Rose, Master, PG-13
This, on the other hand, is not meant to be serious at all. Set sometime after the third reason, this features the Doctor, Rose, and the Master having shenanigans on the TARDIS, mostly with the Master in chains and really, really wanting everyone to die miserable deaths.
It's silly, it's funny, and at the same time, a little bit wistful, because it really would have been an interesting ending to an incredibly sad plot.
9.
Always Starts the Same, With a Boy and a Girl by lightgetsin
White Collar, Neal/El/Peter, R, 21000 words
When I first starting reading this, I didn't even realize this was an AU (it was lightgetsin! I didn't stop to read the summary before I went to read the fic, no, who does that.) This is the fic where Neal meets Elizabeth first.
ngl, people have been shipping Peter/Neal since the promos for White Collar first came out and only got stopped dead in their tracks because Elizabeth is too awesome a wife to put aside (DID THE WRITERS FIND A CURE FOR SLASHING? I THINK SO) and neither Burke is an adulterer in the least, but part of me always wanted to see how Elizabeth and Neal would fall for each other if Peter wasn't in the equation.
This gave me that. A young Neal Caffrey breaks into the gallery where single Elizabeth O'Dell is working late. Special Agent Burke now not only has to chase a criminal mastermind, he's got to chase the criminal mastermind and his beautiful wife.
Basically, criminal!Elizabeth is HBIC, you should read.
8.
MERLIN | moonythestrals
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Morgana, R, ~11,500
Best of the best of the best, not even going to lie. Merlin makes for the best AUs, because Arthurian legend is just flexible like that, and moonythestrals is best at everything she touches. She describes this as PURE CRACK, but it's actually very subtly (okay, lie, no, nothing about this fic is subtle) brilliant, clever, and insanely well-thought out.
The college!AU, where Arthur and Merlin are in the same theater class and have to write the script for a play. That's the official plot, but basically it's just Arthur being a frat boy and Merlin being funny and everybody being a little bit stupid (except for the girls, who are smarter than everyone combined.) Anyone who's gone to college will recognize themselves and everyone they ever met in this.
GENIUS.
7.
be all my sins remembered | hoosierbitch
White Collar, Neal/El/Peter, R, 13200 words
I have recced this before, but I am bringing it out again because it is so insanely creative. Shakespeare!AU, and when I say Shakespeare, I mean the real thing: Elizabethan England, Hamlet, the play's the thing, etc, etc. In which the stage is a con and Neal's a conman, and, furthermore, gets to wear a dress, as there were no female actors at the time. Wonderful application of Neal's character, amirite?
It isn't meant to be historically accurate, since it's just good ole AU fun, and it's amazing, how well the White Collar world fits into a ye olde setting.
Also, fun historical figures make their appearances, like William Shakespeare and the queen herself.
6.
Choose Life by boyfriendincoma
Veronica Mars, Veronica/Logan, NC-17, 4000 words
While going through my memories, trying to determine which Veronica Mars recs I was going to give you a couple days ago, I scrolled passed this, and my brain went, "THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT IT WAS EPIC ONCE PICK IT" and, thinking it was something else, I had it formatted down and everything before I actually looked it over and realized that it wasn't what I thought it was.
This is still a fic I love, though -- I'd just forgotten how much.
I can't tell you how it's AU without spoiling it, so trust me, it's good. Dark, heartbreaking, and very chilling.
5.
Be Resigned | frantic_allonsy
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, ensemble, NC-17, 100,000+ words
You have no idea how excited I was when I saw that this fic had been unflocked. NO IDEA.
This is the epic, epic, novel-length, military!AU, written for Take Your Fandom to Work day. Okay, never mind the fact that I grew up right next to a prominent military base (okay, everyone around here calls it prominent, but it's probably just us being Midwestern) what I know about branches of the military and military lifestyle couldn't even fill a sippy cup. This is the fic that singlehandedly got me interested in something I'd never paid any attention to whatsoever.
This was one of those fics that I snuck-read in the back of class when I shouldn't have been on my laptop, couldn't put down, couldn't stop, because Arthur and Merlin and Gwen and Morgana will suck you in, from beginning all the way to the end IT IS SO ENGROSSING.
The entire fic is littered with pictures from frantic-allonsy's own time in Kuwait and Iraq, and all those touches that couldn't have come from anywhere but personal experience.
I FEEL LIKE THIS FIC IS RELEVANT TO REAL LIFE, WITH THE RECENT REPEAL OF DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL, OKAY.
4.
For Good For Keeps Forever by candle_beck
Supernatural, Sam/Dean, R, 8800 words
I feel like I have manfully refrained from reccing candle_beck for, oh, an entire day, but nope, here we are again! :D
Set directly after the events in All Hell Breaks Loose, this is the AU where Dean never tells Sam about his deal. YOU REMEMBER BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL, YOU LEARN LITERARY TERMS LIKE DRAMATIC IRONY? This has dramatic irony all over the fucking place. This fic is like the frying pan of dramatic irony RIGHT TO THE FACE.
And it's just ... oh, god, my HEART, because Sam is so HAPPY throughout this entire fic, infectious and bone-deep joyful. The Yellow-Eyed Demon is dead, he's got his brother, he's got everything he could ever want, and he's got no idea why Dean's so on edge, but he's convinced that they have all the time in the world to fix it.
Oh my HEART. MY HEART.
3.
I Believe in America | blackwayfarers
Disney RPF, Joe/Nick, Joe/David, David/Lorenzo, Zac/Kevin, NC-17, 30000 words
I almost had to flip a join, choosing between this and Heartbreak Hotel, both of them being mini-novella Jonas mafia!AUs. Both of them are so fabulous for various reasons, and both of them fall short for various reasons.
But in the end, I went with I Believe in America because, as a story, it effected me more. Since, you know, ORGANIZED CRIME, bad shit happens and happens and happens some more, and nobody really gets a break, and then everything ends. No romanticizing (well, not a lot,) and not a whole lot of reason for the violence, the drugs, the booze, the misogyny, because when is there ever an excuse in real life for any of those things?
And the ending hits sudden and swift and horrible like a knife hand to the neck.
2.
Drastically Redefining Protocol | rageprufrock
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, Gaius, Arthur, Gwen, ensemble, NC-17, 75000 words
YES THIS FIC. YES. YES YES I KNOW WHATEVER JUDGE ME LATER.
Do you know how long I put off reading it? I mean, even back then it was insanely popular: I saw it on rec lists everywhere, and I was like, ugh, but everybody likes it: it's like the Hot New Thang of the Merlin fandom, I don't know if I want to touch it.
But I did finally on some rainy day or another, and oh my god, you guys, 1000 bookmarks on Delicious DO NOT LIE, this thing is absolutely brilliant and tongue-in-cheek hilarious, which, please, it's rageprufrock, who didn't see that coming. In which Prince Arthur of Wales meets Merlin Emyrs of Windmill Hill and all hell promptly breaks loose.
Line: By the time Dr. Binghamton concluded bollocking Merlin and been collected to return to the palace and coddle the crown prince, Merlin had gone from suicidally depressed over his year to date and chainsmoking in a linen closet to too suicidally depressed to commit suicide and huddled on Gwen's sofa, eating chips with curry sauce and watching badly-dubbed gay German soap operas.
1.
Someone You Might Have Been | fleshflutter
Supernatural RPF, Jensen/Jared, ensemble, NC-17, 350000+ words
If you would have asked me a month ago, I would have said Drastically Redefining Protocol was the best AU I'd ever read without even blinking an eye, but that was before I stayed up until five in the morning one school night to finish this: the 40-chapter J2 spy!AU.
I am perfectly willing to put my hands down and say that this fic is even better than 90% of the published literature I've ever read (the other 10% is largely monopolized by Harry Potter, and probably Fight Club if/when I ever get around to reading it.)
This is drop-and-roll fast-paced action and intrigue, gunpowder, treason, and plot. The story doesn't stop for a heartbeat, never takes a shortcut, nothing is as it seems, and everybody, everybody has the capacity for great good and terrible evil. In it, Jared's a spy recently reassigned to ISA to help them with the pesky little problem of a humanitarian organization-turned-terrorist group, and Jensen's his new handler, the voice in his ear that guides him through his missions.
Oh, the twists this story takes, the blindsided betrayals, double-handed reveals, interagency warfare and government subterfuge. (And the hot gay sex doesn't hurt, either.) But at its heart, it's a story about people, and the lengths they are willing to go to.
You don't want to know how hard this fic made me cry. The scene with Lauren, Justin, and Danneel in the cemetery? I WILL NEVER RECOVER.
And as always, if you have any kind of AU you'd like to rec to me, don't hesitate, I AM GREEDY :DD
(Also, Jeremy didn't come to dinner. YAAAAY, I was spared the awkward-turtling.)
Maybe he'll beg out of going on his own, but I'm pretty sure I'm on his mom's hit list because I refused to go on a pity date with him. I even changed my relationship status on Facebook to tell him to step off.
On the bright side, the last date with them that got cancelled was a movie, so dinner is marginally less awkward than a movie, but still, oh my god, I really don't want to go.
SOCIALLY AWKWARD TIMES ARE GO.
❄ | THE 12 DAYS OF 2010
☀ | a multi-fandom rec extravaganza
Day 8 | December 26
Note: In all the recs I've done thus far, I've included AUs, so I was trying to find an excuse for why I was going to have a whole day that was nothing but AUs, but then I was like, "I just wanted to rec more of them, all AUs all the time. WHATEVA WHATEVA I DO WHAT I WANT."
The thing is, the possibilities for alternate universes are endless. When I first started reading fanfiction (way back in the day /waves cane!) I balked away from them, going, what is this I can't even.
But alternate universes are a way to take the characters you love out of the setting and timeline that their authors put them in. It's a sort of way to make them yours, even if the universe or plotline you're putting them into is some idea you took from somewhere else (for example, apocalypse!AUs, reel!AUs, etc) because if you think about it, nothing is really original. Everybody gets their inspiration from somewhere else, and everybody subconsciously plagiarizes from whatever sparks their imagination, and idk, is it a bad thing?
AUs, to me, just show the kind of differences there are between originality and creativity.
tl;dr, AUs are my fucking favorite.
12.
It Feels Like Home When I'm With You by etothepii
BBC Sherlock, John/Sherlock, PG-13, 14000 words
This is the fic where John Watson dies in Afghanistan, and his ghost is still haunting his London flat when Sherlock Holmes moves in. He's never been more interesting than when he's directly violating the laws of physics.
11.
Wolfpack by tabaqui
Supernatural, Ellen, Sam/Dean, R, series
I sat for a long time and dithered over whether I was going to rec you this, or sardonicsmiley's Darker Shade of Black (the really, really, really dark serial killer!AU where everybody in canon does horrible things to each other in Super Max.)
I went with this one because the change it makes to canon is so subtle as to be nearly indistinguishable: it shows what kind of universe the Winchester brothers would have grown up in, had their father been just a little bit more scarred by Mary's death. If he'd raised his sons to be just a little more ruthless, a little less human.
The link goes to the series archive in tabaqui's memories, but technically the main rec here goes to the first piece. Read the whole series if you want to see the Wolfpack!verse take on the rest of canon: Meg, the semi, Hendrickson, as it is an incredibly gut-wrenching, chilling ride.
Wolfpack itself is told from Ellen's POV: John Winchester and his eerie children come to the Roadhouse and stir up trouble. We see the whole thing as Ellen gets steadily more and more creeped out, and her feelings become our own.
This is the AU that celebrates the immensely subtle change.
10.
Human Women | orange-crushed
Doctor Who, Ten, Rose, Master, PG-13
This, on the other hand, is not meant to be serious at all. Set sometime after the third reason, this features the Doctor, Rose, and the Master having shenanigans on the TARDIS, mostly with the Master in chains and really, really wanting everyone to die miserable deaths.
It's silly, it's funny, and at the same time, a little bit wistful, because it really would have been an interesting ending to an incredibly sad plot.
9.
Always Starts the Same, With a Boy and a Girl by lightgetsin
White Collar, Neal/El/Peter, R, 21000 words
When I first starting reading this, I didn't even realize this was an AU (it was lightgetsin! I didn't stop to read the summary before I went to read the fic, no, who does that.) This is the fic where Neal meets Elizabeth first.
ngl, people have been shipping Peter/Neal since the promos for White Collar first came out and only got stopped dead in their tracks because Elizabeth is too awesome a wife to put aside (DID THE WRITERS FIND A CURE FOR SLASHING? I THINK SO) and neither Burke is an adulterer in the least, but part of me always wanted to see how Elizabeth and Neal would fall for each other if Peter wasn't in the equation.
This gave me that. A young Neal Caffrey breaks into the gallery where single Elizabeth O'Dell is working late. Special Agent Burke now not only has to chase a criminal mastermind, he's got to chase the criminal mastermind and his beautiful wife.
Basically, criminal!Elizabeth is HBIC, you should read.
8.
MERLIN | moonythestrals
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Morgana, R, ~11,500
Best of the best of the best, not even going to lie. Merlin makes for the best AUs, because Arthurian legend is just flexible like that, and moonythestrals is best at everything she touches. She describes this as PURE CRACK, but it's actually very subtly (okay, lie, no, nothing about this fic is subtle) brilliant, clever, and insanely well-thought out.
The college!AU, where Arthur and Merlin are in the same theater class and have to write the script for a play. That's the official plot, but basically it's just Arthur being a frat boy and Merlin being funny and everybody being a little bit stupid (except for the girls, who are smarter than everyone combined.) Anyone who's gone to college will recognize themselves and everyone they ever met in this.
GENIUS.
7.
be all my sins remembered | hoosierbitch
White Collar, Neal/El/Peter, R, 13200 words
I have recced this before, but I am bringing it out again because it is so insanely creative. Shakespeare!AU, and when I say Shakespeare, I mean the real thing: Elizabethan England, Hamlet, the play's the thing, etc, etc. In which the stage is a con and Neal's a conman, and, furthermore, gets to wear a dress, as there were no female actors at the time. Wonderful application of Neal's character, amirite?
It isn't meant to be historically accurate, since it's just good ole AU fun, and it's amazing, how well the White Collar world fits into a ye olde setting.
Also, fun historical figures make their appearances, like William Shakespeare and the queen herself.
6.
Choose Life by boyfriendincoma
Veronica Mars, Veronica/Logan, NC-17, 4000 words
While going through my memories, trying to determine which Veronica Mars recs I was going to give you a couple days ago, I scrolled passed this, and my brain went, "THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT IT WAS EPIC ONCE PICK IT" and, thinking it was something else, I had it formatted down and everything before I actually looked it over and realized that it wasn't what I thought it was.
This is still a fic I love, though -- I'd just forgotten how much.
I can't tell you how it's AU without spoiling it, so trust me, it's good. Dark, heartbreaking, and very chilling.
5.
Be Resigned | frantic_allonsy
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, ensemble, NC-17, 100,000+ words
You have no idea how excited I was when I saw that this fic had been unflocked. NO IDEA.
This is the epic, epic, novel-length, military!AU, written for Take Your Fandom to Work day. Okay, never mind the fact that I grew up right next to a prominent military base (okay, everyone around here calls it prominent, but it's probably just us being Midwestern) what I know about branches of the military and military lifestyle couldn't even fill a sippy cup. This is the fic that singlehandedly got me interested in something I'd never paid any attention to whatsoever.
This was one of those fics that I snuck-read in the back of class when I shouldn't have been on my laptop, couldn't put down, couldn't stop, because Arthur and Merlin and Gwen and Morgana will suck you in, from beginning all the way to the end IT IS SO ENGROSSING.
The entire fic is littered with pictures from frantic-allonsy's own time in Kuwait and Iraq, and all those touches that couldn't have come from anywhere but personal experience.
I FEEL LIKE THIS FIC IS RELEVANT TO REAL LIFE, WITH THE RECENT REPEAL OF DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL, OKAY.
4.
For Good For Keeps Forever by candle_beck
Supernatural, Sam/Dean, R, 8800 words
I feel like I have manfully refrained from reccing candle_beck for, oh, an entire day, but nope, here we are again! :D
Set directly after the events in All Hell Breaks Loose, this is the AU where Dean never tells Sam about his deal. YOU REMEMBER BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL, YOU LEARN LITERARY TERMS LIKE DRAMATIC IRONY? This has dramatic irony all over the fucking place. This fic is like the frying pan of dramatic irony RIGHT TO THE FACE.
And it's just ... oh, god, my HEART, because Sam is so HAPPY throughout this entire fic, infectious and bone-deep joyful. The Yellow-Eyed Demon is dead, he's got his brother, he's got everything he could ever want, and he's got no idea why Dean's so on edge, but he's convinced that they have all the time in the world to fix it.
Oh my HEART. MY HEART.
3.
I Believe in America | blackwayfarers
Disney RPF, Joe/Nick, Joe/David, David/Lorenzo, Zac/Kevin, NC-17, 30000 words
I almost had to flip a join, choosing between this and Heartbreak Hotel, both of them being mini-novella Jonas mafia!AUs. Both of them are so fabulous for various reasons, and both of them fall short for various reasons.
But in the end, I went with I Believe in America because, as a story, it effected me more. Since, you know, ORGANIZED CRIME, bad shit happens and happens and happens some more, and nobody really gets a break, and then everything ends. No romanticizing (well, not a lot,) and not a whole lot of reason for the violence, the drugs, the booze, the misogyny, because when is there ever an excuse in real life for any of those things?
And the ending hits sudden and swift and horrible like a knife hand to the neck.
2.
Drastically Redefining Protocol | rageprufrock
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, Gaius, Arthur, Gwen, ensemble, NC-17, 75000 words
YES THIS FIC. YES. YES YES I KNOW WHATEVER JUDGE ME LATER.
Do you know how long I put off reading it? I mean, even back then it was insanely popular: I saw it on rec lists everywhere, and I was like, ugh, but everybody likes it: it's like the Hot New Thang of the Merlin fandom, I don't know if I want to touch it.
But I did finally on some rainy day or another, and oh my god, you guys, 1000 bookmarks on Delicious DO NOT LIE, this thing is absolutely brilliant and tongue-in-cheek hilarious, which, please, it's rageprufrock, who didn't see that coming. In which Prince Arthur of Wales meets Merlin Emyrs of Windmill Hill and all hell promptly breaks loose.
Line: By the time Dr. Binghamton concluded bollocking Merlin and been collected to return to the palace and coddle the crown prince, Merlin had gone from suicidally depressed over his year to date and chainsmoking in a linen closet to too suicidally depressed to commit suicide and huddled on Gwen's sofa, eating chips with curry sauce and watching badly-dubbed gay German soap operas.
1.
Someone You Might Have Been | fleshflutter
Supernatural RPF, Jensen/Jared, ensemble, NC-17, 350000+ words
If you would have asked me a month ago, I would have said Drastically Redefining Protocol was the best AU I'd ever read without even blinking an eye, but that was before I stayed up until five in the morning one school night to finish this: the 40-chapter J2 spy!AU.
I am perfectly willing to put my hands down and say that this fic is even better than 90% of the published literature I've ever read (the other 10% is largely monopolized by Harry Potter, and probably Fight Club if/when I ever get around to reading it.)
This is drop-and-roll fast-paced action and intrigue, gunpowder, treason, and plot. The story doesn't stop for a heartbeat, never takes a shortcut, nothing is as it seems, and everybody, everybody has the capacity for great good and terrible evil. In it, Jared's a spy recently reassigned to ISA to help them with the pesky little problem of a humanitarian organization-turned-terrorist group, and Jensen's his new handler, the voice in his ear that guides him through his missions.
Oh, the twists this story takes, the blindsided betrayals, double-handed reveals, interagency warfare and government subterfuge. (And the hot gay sex doesn't hurt, either.) But at its heart, it's a story about people, and the lengths they are willing to go to.
You don't want to know how hard this fic made me cry. The scene with Lauren, Justin, and Danneel in the cemetery? I WILL NEVER RECOVER.
And as always, if you have any kind of AU you'd like to rec to me, don't hesitate, I AM GREEDY :DD
(Also, Jeremy didn't come to dinner. YAAAAY, I was spared the awkward-turtling.)