RPF (SPN): I Ain't Been Nothin But Bad by gedry (Misha Collins/Richard Speight Jr NC-17)
Title: I Ain't Been Nothin But Bad
Author: gedry
Artist: heard_the_owl
Fandom: Supernatural RPF
Pairing/Characters: Richard/Misha
Rating: NC-17
Warnings/Spoilers: Utter crack, Disney fusion with Prep and Landing, Elves.
Word Count: 15,146
Summary: Richard's been working as the Director of the Nice list for over a hundred years, he's good at his job, helping Santa and his other elves make Christmas happen on time for all the human boys and girls. But this year is different, this year he has to work with the new Director of the Naughty list, Misha Collins. Which wouldn't be a problem if he hadn't been Richard's drunken one night stand the night before he started. But they're both professionals, how hard can it be to get the job done?
Link to masterpost: http://gabriel-bigbang.livejournal.com/23434.html
Download Report: Two posts on LJ.
This was a nice piece of fluffy crack. It was charming and sweet and funny, with some good lines and a surprising amount of decent world-building. There were a couple of pretty rough spots in the narration, where The Plot kind of fell like an anvil in the middle of things. There were also some typos and shaky style moments, just enough to be noticeable but not enough to be outright annoying. Overall, though, it was well worth reading.
The premise is your basic Slash Trope #3549: Two characters have a one-night stand, then turn out to be surprise!co-workers the next day. (This happens to be a favorite of mine.) In this case, when it happens to Richard and Misha, Misha seems open to the idea of not forgetting about it, but Richard is, in a word, a dick about it. He realizes after the fact that this was a mistake, and chooses avoidance as a means of coping. This works about as well as you might expect.
One of the strengths of the story, I felt, was the way the characters interacted with each other and with the elf world. The author added a lot of Christmasy word choices to the language that I really enjoyed, and that also kept the story firmly rooted in the world she'd made. (It's not every day that I read about someone realizing that he's "figgy puddinged this whole thing without even trying.") She did a great job of taking everything just seriously enough to make it hang together, and yet cracked enough to make it *good* crack.
I also liked the characterizations. RPF characterizations are a really subjective thing, but I felt that these were pretty good. In particular, I liked that Misha was fun and free-spirited, but also very matter-of-fact and practical. The story is told from Richard's point of view, and I enjoyed his (relative) self-awareness of his own grumpiness and tendency to over-work and push people away.
[Further discussion with SPOILERS for I Ain't Been Nothin But Bad by gedry]
SPOILERS!!!!!
The story takes place over the course of a year, so there are some jumps forward in time. I didn't find the forward jumps jarring, but sometimes I felt that certain plot points were given short shrift. There is, for instance, a scene where Santa tells Richard that he can see how much he cares for Misha that's very awkward and, I felt, out of place. (In fact, after that point in the story, I felt that the editing showed a bit less polish, and I wonder if the author got pressed for time.) There are also some tell-not-show moments, but most of those are about secondary characters and plotlines, so they weren't as annoying.
There's a subplot with Jared and Jensen that's a little odd, and I'm not sure what it's doing in the story. (There's a reason J2 isn't listed as a pairing.) Their working partnership does provide a minor plot service, but their romance ends up being talked about rather than shown, and thus is more of a distraction than anything else. I can't help but think that the story might have been a bit tighter if they'd a) been a couple all along or b) not gotten together.
Those criticisms aside, I loved a lot of the world-building. It's the kind of world-building where the author has obviously given a lot of thought to how things work, but has resisted the temptation to include every idea in the story.
Bottom line: It's not a perfect story. But it's pretty darn good at what it does, and it's a fun and sweet way to spend an hour.
This review was originally posted to the spnanonhaven Fiction Discuss post
Author: gedry
Artist: heard_the_owl
Fandom: Supernatural RPF
Pairing/Characters: Richard/Misha
Rating: NC-17
Warnings/Spoilers: Utter crack, Disney fusion with Prep and Landing, Elves.
Word Count: 15,146
Summary: Richard's been working as the Director of the Nice list for over a hundred years, he's good at his job, helping Santa and his other elves make Christmas happen on time for all the human boys and girls. But this year is different, this year he has to work with the new Director of the Naughty list, Misha Collins. Which wouldn't be a problem if he hadn't been Richard's drunken one night stand the night before he started. But they're both professionals, how hard can it be to get the job done?
Link to masterpost: http://gabriel-bigbang.livejournal.com/23434.html
Download Report: Two posts on LJ.
This was a nice piece of fluffy crack. It was charming and sweet and funny, with some good lines and a surprising amount of decent world-building. There were a couple of pretty rough spots in the narration, where The Plot kind of fell like an anvil in the middle of things. There were also some typos and shaky style moments, just enough to be noticeable but not enough to be outright annoying. Overall, though, it was well worth reading.
The premise is your basic Slash Trope #3549: Two characters have a one-night stand, then turn out to be surprise!co-workers the next day. (This happens to be a favorite of mine.) In this case, when it happens to Richard and Misha, Misha seems open to the idea of not forgetting about it, but Richard is, in a word, a dick about it. He realizes after the fact that this was a mistake, and chooses avoidance as a means of coping. This works about as well as you might expect.
One of the strengths of the story, I felt, was the way the characters interacted with each other and with the elf world. The author added a lot of Christmasy word choices to the language that I really enjoyed, and that also kept the story firmly rooted in the world she'd made. (It's not every day that I read about someone realizing that he's "figgy puddinged this whole thing without even trying.") She did a great job of taking everything just seriously enough to make it hang together, and yet cracked enough to make it *good* crack.
I also liked the characterizations. RPF characterizations are a really subjective thing, but I felt that these were pretty good. In particular, I liked that Misha was fun and free-spirited, but also very matter-of-fact and practical. The story is told from Richard's point of view, and I enjoyed his (relative) self-awareness of his own grumpiness and tendency to over-work and push people away.
[Further discussion with SPOILERS for I Ain't Been Nothin But Bad by gedry]
SPOILERS!!!!!
The story takes place over the course of a year, so there are some jumps forward in time. I didn't find the forward jumps jarring, but sometimes I felt that certain plot points were given short shrift. There is, for instance, a scene where Santa tells Richard that he can see how much he cares for Misha that's very awkward and, I felt, out of place. (In fact, after that point in the story, I felt that the editing showed a bit less polish, and I wonder if the author got pressed for time.) There are also some tell-not-show moments, but most of those are about secondary characters and plotlines, so they weren't as annoying.
There's a subplot with Jared and Jensen that's a little odd, and I'm not sure what it's doing in the story. (There's a reason J2 isn't listed as a pairing.) Their working partnership does provide a minor plot service, but their romance ends up being talked about rather than shown, and thus is more of a distraction than anything else. I can't help but think that the story might have been a bit tighter if they'd a) been a couple all along or b) not gotten together.
Those criticisms aside, I loved a lot of the world-building. It's the kind of world-building where the author has obviously given a lot of thought to how things work, but has resisted the temptation to include every idea in the story.
Bottom line: It's not a perfect story. But it's pretty darn good at what it does, and it's a fun and sweet way to spend an hour.
This review was originally posted to the spnanonhaven Fiction Discuss post