Okay, so, it's about a week before finals. I have several projects due, including a novella and a paint program that is kicking my ass. I hate graphics in java, so much. Hell, I hate programming the GUI always. I'm your girl for handling and manipulating data, but jeeezus, do I hate end-user stuff. Regardless, not the point. The point is that I have no time, and what do I do?
Why, I pick up two new fandoms, of course.
The following ljcuts are little odes of love and devotion, with recs.
This show has the best friendship ever. Denny and Alan are seriously more BFF together than many thirteen year old girls.
For example, in tonight's episode, Alan and one of his other friends, a man named Jerry, are having a heart to heart. Alan is helping Jerry out with a homicide case where one of Jerry's friends is the defendant. Jerry thanks him and says something to the effect, "The reason why I liked you from the start was because of your honesty."
Alan pauses, and says, "Well, Jerry, the reason I care for you -"
And then he stops. Because Denny Crane is in the doorway, watching them, with a fearsome scowl on his face. Denny turns and leaves, and Alan says, "Oh dear."
Alan follows Denny into his office and they have a heart to heart. Denny is totally jealous, though he's pacified when Alan says:
"I love you, Denny. You're my best friend. I can't imagine going through life without you as my best friend."
Alan, my god. You so want to have sex with him.
Later in the episode, after Alan and Jerry win the case that they were certain they couldn't win, Jerry hugs him enthusiastically.
Alan says, "I hope Denny doesn't walk in"
But don't worry, Alan isn't only schmoopiness in this episode. He also hits on Denise and Shirley (using the same pick-up line, though Shirley cuts him off before he can get to the meat of it), by saying:
"When I look at you, I see a Catholic school girl…"
In previous episodes, he's told Denise that she looks like the type of woman that wants to be debased. Sexual harassment, well, maybe. But holy god, does James Spader exude animal magnetism right along with his sleaze.
And, he's Daniel Jackson from the movie! Gives me yet another incentive to rewatch Stargate - god, I loved that movie when I was little. It was literally a defining moment of my childhood. I'm fairly new (less than a year) to Stargate fandom and it still gives me little thrills of nostalgia to connect the two eras of my life.
Regardless, I'm loving Boston Legal.
During Thanksgiving, I mainlined about twenty hours of the show and I've been filling in the episodes I missed sporadically since. Of course, because my heart belongs to fandom, I immediately went looking for fic.
Um.
Well.
I wish I could rec stuff for you, but I didn't find much. And the stuff I did find was stuff that I would like, because I'm strange like that, but… not because I like the show. That is to say, the vast, vast majority of the fic I've found is entirely less than satisfactory.
That, and the imagery involved by William Shatner having sex makes me giggle.
There is, however, a beautiful exception from the always talented
ladyjaida .
Manful Brad Chase really doesn't like Alan Shore. Too bad everyone else does. Brad/Alan preslash
It is not quite slash , but definitely not gen. Everyone's voices are perfect, but not in a way that suggests she's just copying what the writers have done in the past, instead, she feels like she's carrying the characters forward exactly how they would go. Alan especially feels excellently true to himself.
It is also, I must say, totally hilarious.
I succumbed! To insanity. This is not a canon that anyone thinks you can just pick up as you go along, but I'm giving it a good effort. I've seen six episodes, the first six episodes - in fact, I've never even heard Tara, Spike, Wesley, Riley or Dawn speak. I've read about them a lot, though. Listen people. I've seen six episodes out of seven seasons of Joss. Yeah.
Also, this is the fandom that I said I'd never get into. I was the person saying when Firefly came out, "Yeah, I never really liked Buffy, but this show is great! You should watch this!"
That all being said, I promptly felt in love with Xander. It took me like, three minutes of the first episode for me to declare my eternal love for him. It always happens with fairly similar characters. Alan from Boston Legal, Rodney from Stargate: Atlantis, hell, even Ash from Supernatural - ladies and gents, I have a type. Xander is that type.
He's even more my type than the other gentlemen, because he's so normal. It's something that I've enjoyed seeing explored in fic (its probably a cliché, but I'm new here, guys, humor me). He's surrounded by people with special powers - Buffy, Willow, Spike, Angel, Wes. Xander is just Xander, though, and I think he's great.
And while I refuse to call it "Spander," Spike/Xander is also totally my think. Spike is morally ambiguous/evil, British and snarky. It's like Harry/Draco, but so much better. God. I'm living the good life in this fandom, too - all the fic feels so fucking long.
Good for my soul, bad for my grades. C'est la vie, right?
That being said, here are some recs:
My favorite author so far is
eliade. Because she's awesome. Hillarious, yet serious. Angsty, yet light. WONDERFUL YET EVEN MORE WONDERFUL. Seriously, even if you don't read Buffy? Go read these:
A Week Of Wrong She doesn't have a summary, but its about one week were Xander is absolutely oppressed by falling repeatedly into bed (or against a wall, as the case might be) with Spike. Frothy and hilarious and totally worth reading, even if you only know that Spike is a vampire and Xander is a good guy. That is about where I am, to be honest.
Involuntary Bodies This story appeals to one of my absolute favorite tropes/plots/things, which is the struggles involved in "coming back from a war" and the trials of real life. Of course, Xander and Spike never left, though real life still sucks. It also deals with a few more of my favorite things, like ordinary people being forced to do extraordinary things, kids growing up too fast, and characters being forced into responsibility. In this fic, Xander suddenly has a family to take care of, with both Tara and Dawn depending on him. Highly, highly recommended.
Subtleties. Loooong. Really loooong. This was written as a series of snippets in her journal, so it is slightly disjointed, but not enough so that I actually figured out it was a series of snippets until she told me. This is the story of how Xander and Spike fall in love. It also has Spike being a rentboy, a lot of delicious emotional drama, and a vaguely Harlequin feel. Any icky-romance vibes though are totally crushed by the fact that she writes hot, funny and completely stylishly. A fantastic love story.
And now, my friends, I've babbled too long. I've got work to do.