The 12 Days of 2010 | Day 10
It is so cold ;___; There are crazy, shrieking winds going on outside.
Granted, this means I should probably move away from the window and get feeling back into my fingers, but it snowed enough last night that there's this pretty, glossy layering of white over everything: just enough to make going down the driveway to get the newspaper a real bitch, but still nice to look at.
ALMOST DONE WITH 2010.
❄ | THE 12 DAYS OF 2010
☀ | a multi-fandom rec extravaganza
Day 10 | December 28
Note: Above picture has absolutely nothing to do today's recs, I just had to put something, and "categories" didn't exactly lend itself to any helpful ideas.
And by categories, I really mean, fics that could be grouped together under certain headings but of which I didn't have enough fics to warrant their own day, therefore they get a kind of miscellaneous pile here.
IDK IT'S KIND OF SELF-EXPLANATORY?
12. HOLIDAY
Draco, Merrily on High | byblythe
Harry Potter, Harry/Draco, Remus/Tonks, PG
Notice how holiday fics totally are a category. Christmas is the big one, but I've seen them around Halloween, and the odd Valentine's Day one, too. Usually I try to avoid them, because while I love the holidays themselves, the fic centered around them tend to come off as saccharine and forced, more pantomime than actual fic.
This one is (surprise!) Christmas!fic, and possibly my favorite Draco-centric piece. It's got just the right amount of holiday cheer: enough to warm you and make you love Christmas, but it still stays true to the characters, puts the holiday into them instead of the other way around.
But basically I am reccing this because, in it, Remus and Tonks are happy. (And drunk, but mostly happy.) And Draco directs a children's choir, out caroling on Christmas Eve. And there's ballroom dancing, randomly.
11. BODYSWAP
Umbrellas on the Inside | moonythestrals
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin/Gwen/Morgana, NC-17, 4600 words
moonythestrals strikes again with a completely unforgettably zany fic. Technically, it's Merlin/Arthur, Gwen/Morgana, but when the stars align and souls jump bodies like musical chairs, the lines become rather blurred.
It's got moonythestrals's jocular tone and Gaius offering dodgy scientific advice and everybody being really confused as to who is who.
10. AMNESIA
Under Hill | astolat Supernatural, Sam/Dean, NC-17, 10000 words
Or: more excuses to rec everything of astolat's! Amnesia!fic is a time-honored deus ex machina ploy to stir up trouble and/or get characters who otherwise would have had reasons to stay away from each other fall into bed instead. IT'S A TRADITION.
In Under Hill, Sam and Dean piss of the Seelie Court and get their memories hijacked in return. My favorite thing about this one compared to any of the others I had bookmarked is that the case with the elves continues during and around Sam and Dean trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, and by the time the shipping rears its head, it's practically as par for the course for the reader as it is for the characters.
Line: "Dean isn't a gay name," he said, over dinner.
9. H/C
untitled kinkmeme fill by svilleficrecs
White Collar, Peter/Neal, abandoned WIP
I know a lot of people that are really into hurt/comfort as a genre, and I never really got the appeal, although I've definitely read and liked a large number of fics that classified themselves as h/c. It's pretty broad, as far as categories go.
There are so many ways you can go wrong, so let me rec you one that does it right. Deals with prison-rape and its aftermath, and since noncon is such a big, flashing DNW for me, I was like, why the hell are so many people reccing this?
But from the start, this fic is snappy and quick, true to the characters, and juggles everything with an expert amount of finesse: the case, Neal being Neal about it all, Peter and Elizabeth fumbling in their different, very human ways, and basically, it's h/c at its finest.
8. SCHMOOP
The Unassuming Adventures of the Knitting Detective | sheepfairy
Pushing Daisies, Emerson, G, 1000 words
It seems ridiculous to me that this was the category I had the hardest time finding something for, because who doesn't love it when characters get the happy ending they deserve and nothing bad happens ever again? Schmoop is hazardous to the teeth in large doses, but it's still a lovely treat.
In this, Emerson Cod knits as a coping mechanism, and is somewhat startled to find that he's got friends.
7. PWP
Neon-Like | blackwayfarers
Disney RPF, Joe Jonas/Nick Jonas/Demi Lovatto/Selena Gomez/David whats-his-face, NC-17, 17000 words
You know it's a good fic when the girl who skims past the NC-17 sections of NC-17 fics doesn't even have to think twice about what she wants to rec for the PWP (Plot, What Plot, for those who haven't Urban Dictionary-ed it) category.
This is the fic in which the kids from Camp Rock and the kids from Wizards of Waverly Place PRETTY MUCH HAVE AN ORGY. Never before has Disney been this awesome and interesting!
And see, the thing I like best about it is that, from the very beginning, the sex isn't really the most important part of it, even though it's really nothing but sex for 17000 words, but rather, it's all about the knotty, interwoven way they feel about each other. It's about relationships and need.
6. DARK
Demons Made Me Spill My Guts Like a Girl by Merrin
Supernatural, Sam/Dean, R
The difference between dark!fic and angst!fic, imo, is that angst!fic sits like a heavy stone on your chest when you're reading it, and you want nothing more than to reach through the screen and hug all these suffering people, where as dark!fic does the exact opposite: it makes you want to back away and shiver and be glad nobody is actually like this.
In this fic, Dean gets possessed by a demon and starts killing everyone. And by everyone, I do mean literally every single person you've ever met in canon who survived (which is actually a rather small number, comparatively.) And not only does Sam to get to see it in visions, he's got to be the one that cleans up afterwards, buries and burns the last remaining people on the planet who know who they are.
It doesn't stop with the last death, either -- you get to see the brothers after the demon gets exorcised, get to see them when they've got no one to turn to, no ground to run to, no one at all.
5. CRACK
Not a Farcical Aquatic Ceremony | srin
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Morgana, PG-13, 2300 words
This is the good kind of crack, in which the women let Merlin and Arthur go off and slay monsters while Gwen and Morgana lead a social reform, fix Camelot's economy, burn bras, and invent crop rotation several centuries early.
Meanwhile, Arthur rescues a kitten.
4. PRE-SERIES (KIND OF)
Leave the Light On | cherryice Doctor Who, Jack, Nine, Rose, PG-13
OKAY OKAY FINE I TOTALLY MADE THIS CATEGORY UP, but no, really, mostly because I was going through the Doctor Who fics I had in my memories, and I found this one and headdesked because there is NO CONCEIVABLE REASON why I forgot to put it in with my top Doctor Who recs a couple days ago. So I made up a category just so I could rec it.
Originally I was just going to say it's the best preseries fic I've ever read, except for the fact that technically, it bounces back and forth between pre-canon and present-day (albeit, "present day" here meaning adventures in time and space with the Ninth Doctor and Rose.)
This is a very original take on Jack's past, on 51st-century life, and it's full of the kind of details you just want to hold in your hands, they're so vivid and amazing.
3. APOCALYPSE
Fading Silhouettes | indysaur
Supernatural RPF, Jared/Jensen, Katie, PG-13, 27000 words
Because who doesn't love a good zombie apocalypse!
A long-ass remix of a shorter drabble, which everyone should know by now is my favorite thing, this reads like the best original fiction, hence why I have it down as the best apocalypse fic. It's got a fabulous balance of everything: angst, end-of-the-world wit snark, zombie action, Katie being a badass, boys being unable to communicate, and a very, very interesting weave of relationships: with each other, with God, with the end of all things.
2. ANGST
The Reader | bookshop
Harry Potter, ensemble, PG-13, 11000 words
I was this close to giving you The Last Room (Dean's headspace post Sam's death in the season two finale,) but I'd already recced it once so far, and then I thought, well, how about candle_beck's Look the Other Way (an epic 55,000 word AU where Dean is a cop and Sam is his no-good, unsalvageable brother,) but I figure I should at least try to go a day without waving something of candle_beck's around, so my brain said to me, "Well, nothing made you cry harder than the end of Harry Potter, did it? Because that's HP's greatest strength, isn't it -- to make you care about the characters as if they were your own friends? Rec something Harry Potter."
And that lead me, instinctively, to the Reader. I blame bookshop for getting me into a lot of things (slash -- YES, I single-handedly blame this woman for converting me into thinking that slash is, in fact, COMPLETELY WONDERFUL -- Merlin, Merlin RPF, White Collar, etc,) so it seems natural that her own writing is what effects me more than any other's.
And indeed, when I first read it last year, the Reader -- which was written in 2003, so, before Half-Blood Prince and Deathly -- made me cry so hard my mom actually came upstairs to make sure I wasn't dying (which is quite a feat, as my mom's handicapped and it's incredibly difficult for her to climb stairs.)
The year after Harry's fifth year is quiet, awful, subdued, as everyone deals with the open return of Voldemort: the adults on the outside, fighting and dying, their children on the inside, panicking in that horrible, helpless way of those who've been told there's nothing that can be done. And, oddly enough, Draco Malfoy takes to reading poetry in the Great Hall.
Technically, it's labelled as Harry/Draco, but I've always read it as gen, friendshippy at best, because the shipping isn't the point: it's how everyone has to stick together.
1. DAEMONS
YES. YES THIS IS A CATEGORY. IT'S MY FAVORITE CATEGORY. I WILL NEVER NOT GO INSANE OVER DAEMON!FIC, I AM TELLING YOU THIS RIGHT NOW. I like a good His Dark Materials fusion better than cake.
THAN CAKE, PEOPLE.
Okay, so, in no particular order:
Another World by gnimaerd. (Merlin, Arthur/Morgana, Merlin, Gwen, G.) Usually the fic I reference first, because of the handy-dandy guide to daemons at the beginning.
Unexpected Forms by BlackEyedGirl. (Leverage, gen, PG.) The writing on this is a little bit choppy and amateurish, but Parker's daemon is so perfect I can't even.
A Study in Natural Philosophy by mad_maudlin. (Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, PG, 13000 words.) I don't know why I never got around to reccing this during Blog 365: maybe I was saving it for a rainy day, because it is so brilliant, and shows just how many different dynamics there are to the same characters: the daemons from Another World felt like the perfect fit, but so do these.
Traveling Alongside by allfireburns. (Doctor Who, gen, G, 1000 words.) Five daemons the Doctor's daemon was especially close to. Short and a little hard to follow the first time through, but I'm reccing it anyone because I love the choices for Rose and Astrid.
Theory and Practice by Anon. (BBC Sherlock, Sherlock/John, PG-13.) The first of three Sherlock/HDM fusions, this one has my favorite John, and is the only one where Sherlock has a daemon.
Astroidea by etothepii. (BBC Sherlock, Mycroft, John/Sherlock, R.) The first of two kinkmeme fills, where Sherlock isn't Mycroft's little brother, he's his daemon, but they're both too smart to be one person. An immensely clever universe.
Playing Human by snake_easing. (BBC Sherlock, Sherlock, Mycroft, John, Molly/Moriarty, etc, NC-17.) The second of the Sherlock-as-daemon fics. Link goes to the tag, so the first story is at the bottom. I may like this one more than Astroidea (SHH DON'T TELL, they're both so fabulous) because the idea of Molly being the mastermind and Moriarty being her daemon STOLE MY HEART AND MIND and may, in fact, be my Sherlock OTP.
Malleus Maleficarum by setissma. (Supernatural, Sam/Dean, NC-17, 5600 words.) Best for last, favorite forever, etc, etc, I've said it all before. The best fics are the kind that you take with you into real life when you're done, and this is the fic that made me love otters beyond all conceivable reason.
As usual, recs are welcome. daemon fic, do want! /GRABBY HANDS.
Granted, this means I should probably move away from the window and get feeling back into my fingers, but it snowed enough last night that there's this pretty, glossy layering of white over everything: just enough to make going down the driveway to get the newspaper a real bitch, but still nice to look at.
ALMOST DONE WITH 2010.
❄ | THE 12 DAYS OF 2010
☀ | a multi-fandom rec extravaganza
Day 10 | December 28
Note: Above picture has absolutely nothing to do today's recs, I just had to put something, and "categories" didn't exactly lend itself to any helpful ideas.
And by categories, I really mean, fics that could be grouped together under certain headings but of which I didn't have enough fics to warrant their own day, therefore they get a kind of miscellaneous pile here.
IDK IT'S KIND OF SELF-EXPLANATORY?
12. HOLIDAY
Draco, Merrily on High | byblythe
Harry Potter, Harry/Draco, Remus/Tonks, PG
Notice how holiday fics totally are a category. Christmas is the big one, but I've seen them around Halloween, and the odd Valentine's Day one, too. Usually I try to avoid them, because while I love the holidays themselves, the fic centered around them tend to come off as saccharine and forced, more pantomime than actual fic.
This one is (surprise!) Christmas!fic, and possibly my favorite Draco-centric piece. It's got just the right amount of holiday cheer: enough to warm you and make you love Christmas, but it still stays true to the characters, puts the holiday into them instead of the other way around.
But basically I am reccing this because, in it, Remus and Tonks are happy. (And drunk, but mostly happy.) And Draco directs a children's choir, out caroling on Christmas Eve. And there's ballroom dancing, randomly.
11. BODYSWAP
Umbrellas on the Inside | moonythestrals
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin/Gwen/Morgana, NC-17, 4600 words
moonythestrals strikes again with a completely unforgettably zany fic. Technically, it's Merlin/Arthur, Gwen/Morgana, but when the stars align and souls jump bodies like musical chairs, the lines become rather blurred.
It's got moonythestrals's jocular tone and Gaius offering dodgy scientific advice and everybody being really confused as to who is who.
10. AMNESIA
Under Hill | astolat Supernatural, Sam/Dean, NC-17, 10000 words
Or: more excuses to rec everything of astolat's! Amnesia!fic is a time-honored deus ex machina ploy to stir up trouble and/or get characters who otherwise would have had reasons to stay away from each other fall into bed instead. IT'S A TRADITION.
In Under Hill, Sam and Dean piss of the Seelie Court and get their memories hijacked in return. My favorite thing about this one compared to any of the others I had bookmarked is that the case with the elves continues during and around Sam and Dean trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, and by the time the shipping rears its head, it's practically as par for the course for the reader as it is for the characters.
Line: "Dean isn't a gay name," he said, over dinner.
9. H/C
untitled kinkmeme fill by svilleficrecs
White Collar, Peter/Neal, abandoned WIP
I know a lot of people that are really into hurt/comfort as a genre, and I never really got the appeal, although I've definitely read and liked a large number of fics that classified themselves as h/c. It's pretty broad, as far as categories go.
There are so many ways you can go wrong, so let me rec you one that does it right. Deals with prison-rape and its aftermath, and since noncon is such a big, flashing DNW for me, I was like, why the hell are so many people reccing this?
But from the start, this fic is snappy and quick, true to the characters, and juggles everything with an expert amount of finesse: the case, Neal being Neal about it all, Peter and Elizabeth fumbling in their different, very human ways, and basically, it's h/c at its finest.
8. SCHMOOP
The Unassuming Adventures of the Knitting Detective | sheepfairy
Pushing Daisies, Emerson, G, 1000 words
It seems ridiculous to me that this was the category I had the hardest time finding something for, because who doesn't love it when characters get the happy ending they deserve and nothing bad happens ever again? Schmoop is hazardous to the teeth in large doses, but it's still a lovely treat.
In this, Emerson Cod knits as a coping mechanism, and is somewhat startled to find that he's got friends.
7. PWP
Neon-Like | blackwayfarers
Disney RPF, Joe Jonas/Nick Jonas/Demi Lovatto/Selena Gomez/David whats-his-face, NC-17, 17000 words
You know it's a good fic when the girl who skims past the NC-17 sections of NC-17 fics doesn't even have to think twice about what she wants to rec for the PWP (Plot, What Plot, for those who haven't Urban Dictionary-ed it) category.
This is the fic in which the kids from Camp Rock and the kids from Wizards of Waverly Place PRETTY MUCH HAVE AN ORGY. Never before has Disney been this awesome and interesting!
And see, the thing I like best about it is that, from the very beginning, the sex isn't really the most important part of it, even though it's really nothing but sex for 17000 words, but rather, it's all about the knotty, interwoven way they feel about each other. It's about relationships and need.
6. DARK
Demons Made Me Spill My Guts Like a Girl by Merrin
Supernatural, Sam/Dean, R
The difference between dark!fic and angst!fic, imo, is that angst!fic sits like a heavy stone on your chest when you're reading it, and you want nothing more than to reach through the screen and hug all these suffering people, where as dark!fic does the exact opposite: it makes you want to back away and shiver and be glad nobody is actually like this.
In this fic, Dean gets possessed by a demon and starts killing everyone. And by everyone, I do mean literally every single person you've ever met in canon who survived (which is actually a rather small number, comparatively.) And not only does Sam to get to see it in visions, he's got to be the one that cleans up afterwards, buries and burns the last remaining people on the planet who know who they are.
It doesn't stop with the last death, either -- you get to see the brothers after the demon gets exorcised, get to see them when they've got no one to turn to, no ground to run to, no one at all.
5. CRACK
Not a Farcical Aquatic Ceremony | srin
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Morgana, PG-13, 2300 words
This is the good kind of crack, in which the women let Merlin and Arthur go off and slay monsters while Gwen and Morgana lead a social reform, fix Camelot's economy, burn bras, and invent crop rotation several centuries early.
Meanwhile, Arthur rescues a kitten.
4. PRE-SERIES (KIND OF)
Leave the Light On | cherryice Doctor Who, Jack, Nine, Rose, PG-13
OKAY OKAY FINE I TOTALLY MADE THIS CATEGORY UP, but no, really, mostly because I was going through the Doctor Who fics I had in my memories, and I found this one and headdesked because there is NO CONCEIVABLE REASON why I forgot to put it in with my top Doctor Who recs a couple days ago. So I made up a category just so I could rec it.
Originally I was just going to say it's the best preseries fic I've ever read, except for the fact that technically, it bounces back and forth between pre-canon and present-day (albeit, "present day" here meaning adventures in time and space with the Ninth Doctor and Rose.)
This is a very original take on Jack's past, on 51st-century life, and it's full of the kind of details you just want to hold in your hands, they're so vivid and amazing.
3. APOCALYPSE
Fading Silhouettes | indysaur
Supernatural RPF, Jared/Jensen, Katie, PG-13, 27000 words
Because who doesn't love a good zombie apocalypse!
A long-ass remix of a shorter drabble, which everyone should know by now is my favorite thing, this reads like the best original fiction, hence why I have it down as the best apocalypse fic. It's got a fabulous balance of everything: angst, end-of-the-world wit snark, zombie action, Katie being a badass, boys being unable to communicate, and a very, very interesting weave of relationships: with each other, with God, with the end of all things.
2. ANGST
The Reader | bookshop
Harry Potter, ensemble, PG-13, 11000 words
I was this close to giving you The Last Room (Dean's headspace post Sam's death in the season two finale,) but I'd already recced it once so far, and then I thought, well, how about candle_beck's Look the Other Way (an epic 55,000 word AU where Dean is a cop and Sam is his no-good, unsalvageable brother,) but I figure I should at least try to go a day without waving something of candle_beck's around, so my brain said to me, "Well, nothing made you cry harder than the end of Harry Potter, did it? Because that's HP's greatest strength, isn't it -- to make you care about the characters as if they were your own friends? Rec something Harry Potter."
And that lead me, instinctively, to the Reader. I blame bookshop for getting me into a lot of things (slash -- YES, I single-handedly blame this woman for converting me into thinking that slash is, in fact, COMPLETELY WONDERFUL -- Merlin, Merlin RPF, White Collar, etc,) so it seems natural that her own writing is what effects me more than any other's.
And indeed, when I first read it last year, the Reader -- which was written in 2003, so, before Half-Blood Prince and Deathly -- made me cry so hard my mom actually came upstairs to make sure I wasn't dying (which is quite a feat, as my mom's handicapped and it's incredibly difficult for her to climb stairs.)
The year after Harry's fifth year is quiet, awful, subdued, as everyone deals with the open return of Voldemort: the adults on the outside, fighting and dying, their children on the inside, panicking in that horrible, helpless way of those who've been told there's nothing that can be done. And, oddly enough, Draco Malfoy takes to reading poetry in the Great Hall.
Technically, it's labelled as Harry/Draco, but I've always read it as gen, friendshippy at best, because the shipping isn't the point: it's how everyone has to stick together.
1. DAEMONS
YES. YES THIS IS A CATEGORY. IT'S MY FAVORITE CATEGORY. I WILL NEVER NOT GO INSANE OVER DAEMON!FIC, I AM TELLING YOU THIS RIGHT NOW. I like a good His Dark Materials fusion better than cake.
THAN CAKE, PEOPLE.
Okay, so, in no particular order:
Another World by gnimaerd. (Merlin, Arthur/Morgana, Merlin, Gwen, G.) Usually the fic I reference first, because of the handy-dandy guide to daemons at the beginning.
Unexpected Forms by BlackEyedGirl. (Leverage, gen, PG.) The writing on this is a little bit choppy and amateurish, but Parker's daemon is so perfect I can't even.
A Study in Natural Philosophy by mad_maudlin. (Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, PG, 13000 words.) I don't know why I never got around to reccing this during Blog 365: maybe I was saving it for a rainy day, because it is so brilliant, and shows just how many different dynamics there are to the same characters: the daemons from Another World felt like the perfect fit, but so do these.
Traveling Alongside by allfireburns. (Doctor Who, gen, G, 1000 words.) Five daemons the Doctor's daemon was especially close to. Short and a little hard to follow the first time through, but I'm reccing it anyone because I love the choices for Rose and Astrid.
Theory and Practice by Anon. (BBC Sherlock, Sherlock/John, PG-13.) The first of three Sherlock/HDM fusions, this one has my favorite John, and is the only one where Sherlock has a daemon.
Astroidea by etothepii. (BBC Sherlock, Mycroft, John/Sherlock, R.) The first of two kinkmeme fills, where Sherlock isn't Mycroft's little brother, he's his daemon, but they're both too smart to be one person. An immensely clever universe.
Playing Human by snake_easing. (BBC Sherlock, Sherlock, Mycroft, John, Molly/Moriarty, etc, NC-17.) The second of the Sherlock-as-daemon fics. Link goes to the tag, so the first story is at the bottom. I may like this one more than Astroidea (SHH DON'T TELL, they're both so fabulous) because the idea of Molly being the mastermind and Moriarty being her daemon STOLE MY HEART AND MIND and may, in fact, be my Sherlock OTP.
Malleus Maleficarum by setissma. (Supernatural, Sam/Dean, NC-17, 5600 words.) Best for last, favorite forever, etc, etc, I've said it all before. The best fics are the kind that you take with you into real life when you're done, and this is the fic that made me love otters beyond all conceivable reason.
As usual, recs are welcome. daemon fic, do want! /GRABBY HANDS.