Welcome to The Fangirl Tour
The first stop on this round of The Fangirl Tour is mine, but I've done this before, and for anyone wondering how the fangirl_tour came about, here are links to my prior Fangirl Tour recs and to the post that started it off:
The Original Fangirl Tour Day One
The Original Fangirl Tour Day Two
The Original Fangirl Tour Day Three
The Original Fangirl Tour Day Four
Now, let's get down to business, shall we? I'll place my hand over my heart and recite the unofficial Fangirl Tour disclaimer: What I've chosen to post today depends a great deal on my mood at the time each was selected, and I heartily apologize for leaving out the thousands of stories, artwork and videos that deserve to be recced here. ;)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: Foreign Country
Author: wonderfulwrites
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/sshg_exchange/173195.html
Rating: NC-17 (Snape/Hermione/Lucius Malfoy)
Status: Complete in 2 chapters
Summary: Five times Hermione Granger had a threesome with Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy, and one time she didn’t.
Why I fangirl this: This is a disturbing and unsettling story, but it's superbly written, and it's far more likely a scenario regarding HG/SS/LM threesomes than anything I've written. ;) This story slowly increases the tension until you're breathless to learn what happens next, even as it makes you vaguely uneasy.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: The Hall of Heroes
Author: Pavonis Mons
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2927876/1/The_Hall_of_Heroes
Rating: T (Gen)
Status: Complete, One Shot
Summary: In which Severus Snape finally gets his just deserts... or does he?
Why I fangirl this: As the author put it, this story contains "mistaken identity, Giants, horned helmets, mead, The Ballad of Severus the Small and His Tiny, Tiny Stick and the final fate of all good Death Eaters." ~snicker~ What's not to fangirl?
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: In Apple Blossom Time
Author: annietalbot
Link: http://annietalbot.livejournal.com/25789.html
Rating: G (Gen)
Status: Complete, One Shot
Summary: After the Final Battle, Hermione sees something that changes her life.
Why I fangirl this: In less than 400 words, annietalbot captivated me completely and then broke my heart. Brilliant.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: Incense and Engine Oil
Author: andrian1 and wiccarowan
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/_sortinghat_/2162.html
Rating: R (Sybill/OMC, Sirius/OFC)
Status: Complete in 3 chapters
Summary: Sirius rolled his eyes at Trelawney, who seemed cheerfully oblivious, as he took the parchment from the elf. "You’ll take Sybill on your bike to Daytona Beach, Florida, for what is called ‘Bike Week’, and fit in as a biker among the others. We have strong evidence that there will be an attack on the beach this week by a group which is tied to Voldemort, which will no doubt be called a terrorist attack by the Americans. Your task is to do what you can to prevent an attack and find out as much as you can about this group."
Why I fangirl this: I usually won't read stories that feature Sirius Black. I'm too much of a Snapefan to sympathize much with Black, but I do like the character of Sybill Trelawney, and so this story drew me in. It features a reticent, fearful Sybill who comes into her own in the most unusual of circumstances. By the end, I found I could even sympathize with Sirius Black, quite an accomplishment for this Snapefan and a testament to the story. ;)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: Remembering Her Name in The Infinite Abyss
Author: fillequill
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/30minutefics/356478.html
Rating: R (Gen)
Status: Complete, One Shot
Summary: She's the only one that never screams; doesn't sob like the rest of them. When they curse her, kick her, beat her, she lays quite still and stares out across the horizon. I find this most curious, I must admit.
Why I fangirl this: fillequill wrote it for mchoneygoose using the 30minutefics prompt: "Voldemort's Point of View", and it's gorgeous in a dark sort of way. Luna is perfect in this story and is perfectly chilling. This is one of those stories that lingers in the mind, and it deserved a wider audience than it received at the time.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: The Room of Lost Dreams
Author: mundungus42
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/sshg_exchange/126476.html
Rating: M (Snape/Hermione)
Status: Complete in 13 chapters
Summary: In the immediate aftermath of the final battle, Hermione seeks peace with both the dead and her conscience. Instead, she finds a hidden room and a grumpy enchanted journal. EWE
Why I fangirl this: This story just pulled me right in with a Hermione who walks a very fine line between what she should do and what she wants to do, until finally Hermione slips and falls completely. mundungus42 deftly builds the emotion of this story until you're waiting, heart in your throat, to see what happens next.
Fandom: Labyrinth
Title: Dark Labyrinth
Author: Helen Fayle
Link: http://www.sff.net/people/hsfayle/labyrinth.htm
Rating: PG-13 (Jareth/Sarah)
Status: Complete in 12 chapters (the website doesn't break the chapters out, however)
Summary: Three years after the events of the film, Sarah finds herself once again drawn back into the world of the Labyrinth, when both it and its enigmatic ruler are threatened by a powerful foe...
Why I fangirl this: This is an entirely different take on the Underground and Jareth's background, and it drew me in from the start. Helen Fayle's Underground is a place alive with conspiracies, treachery and dark games, leaving Sarah struggling to decide what is right and what is wrong, and if she's strong enough to live with the choices she makes.
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Title: Aftermath
Author: salr323
Link: http://salr323.livejournal.com/45379.html
Rating: R (Jack/Elizabeth, Will/Elizabeth)
Status: Complete in 6 chapters
Summary: From halfway down the dock he strolled toward her, an arm about the shoulders of two girls she knew well. Vivid as memory, larger than life, it seemed he had not changed at all; a roguish smile curved his lips, conniving fingers toyed with the women's lace, and there was trouble in all his looks. Captain Jack Sparrow.
Why I fangirl this: After At World's End, Disney did their damnedest to kill the Jack/Elizabeth pairing, but salr323 proves that even that scene after the credits can be circumvented and circumvented in style. Her writing is gorgeous and the story pulls you right in from the very first paragraph.
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Title: At World's End: Redux
Author: fried_flamingo and salr323
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/redux_08/1440.html (You can start here, but after chapter 6, you'll need to use this: http://community.livejournal.com/redux_08/tag/redux since all the chapters aren't linked)
Rating: R (Jack/Elizabeth - with elements of Jack/Beckett, Elizabeth/Will, Elizabeth/Norrington, and Calypso/Jones)
Status: Complete in 27 chapters
Summary: Deep in the bones of the earth, far from the turmoil of Man and Sea, an ancient prophesy is carved in stone. Blood must be spilt, it warns, and a terrible price paid if the Pirates are to remain free.... With Cutler Beckett and Davy Jones bent on their destruction, Elizabeth Swann, Will Turner, and Jack Sparrow's loyal crew sail beyond the horizon in search of their captain. But their journey has only just begun, for the Midnight Sun blazes among the stars and the Nine Pirate Lords are gathering. There is a debt must be paid, a terrifying fate forged in fire and iron. Yet destiny is naught but the road beneath their feet and each must choose whether to walk its path in the end. In these the final days of piracy, when the future hangs in the balance, all must stand and all must fight. But prophesy will not be denied, and there is one from whom destiny will demand the ultimate price for freedom....
Why I fangirl this: This is the story that Disney should have told in At World's End, but didn't. While Disney unceremoniously stuffed Pirate King Elizabeth Swann back into the box entitled "good little woman" during that after-the-credits scene, fried_flamingo and salr323 tore that box to pieces and started over. This is an Elizabeth driven by guilt and remorse, a Jack determined not to forgive, and a Will who is caught in a maelstrom of his own device. Add in a back story for Jack and Cutler Beckett that actually made me sympathetic to Beckett, a Norrington I recognize, and Captain Teague's machinations, and this becomes a tour de force.
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Title: Haven
Author: fried_flamingo
Link: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=fried_flamingo&keyword=My+POTC+Fic&filter=all
Rating: R (Jack/Elizabeth, Will/Elizabeth)
Status: Complete in 13 chapters
Summary: A tale of regrets and misjudgements and freedom denied.
Why I fangirl this: Oh, this is gorgeous. It's decidedly AU, but it presents us with a Jack and Elizabeth who gambled and lost too many times to easily gamble again. They've reluctantly come together to reclaim the Black Pearl, but first they both must deal with the consequences of bitter secrets and lies. This has a Ragetti that I adore, and since he's one of my favorite PotC characters, I was delighted with his depiction here.
Fandom: Sense and Sensibility
Title: The Wedding Night
Author: hephastus
Link: http://hephastus.livejournal.com/2005/06/
Rating: R to NC-17ish (Brandon/Marianne)
Status: Complete in 4 chapters
Summary: Col. Brandon and his new bride, Marianne, are introduced. A Sense and Sensibility tribute.
Why I fangirl this: They're both so very innocent, and their discovery of one another is brilliantly done. hephastus takes what could have been the premise for just a PWP and turns it into a lush character study. But it's still very, very hot. ;)
Note: Apparently sometime after I gathered the link to "The Wedding Night", hephastus has decided to pull the story from her LJ. I wish you could have read it, it was wonderful. :(
Fandom: Star Trek (Original Series)
Title: Uses for Love
Author: Djinn1
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3505485/1/Uses_for_Love
Rating: M (Spock/Chapel)
Status: Complete, One Shot
Summary: Because it hurts when it's never about you.
Why I fangirl this: I'm a sucker for good Spock/Chapel fic, but it's only very rarely that I believe an author gets it right. Djinn1 got it right. The problems inherent to a Vulcan/human relationship are addressed, and Christine Chapel quickly loses her illusions. However, she eventually learns that there are possibilities in reality that could never exist in illusion.
Okay, I'm sort of cheating here, since this next story won't go on sale until July 5th, but oh, how I fangirl this...
Fandom: Original
Title: Master of Crows (additional excerpt here)
Author: grace_draven
Link: http://grace-draven.livejournal.com/13109.html
Rating: M
Status: Complete, Original Novel
Summary: What would you do to win your freedom? That is the question which sets bondwoman, Martise of Asher, on a dangerous path. In exchange for her freedom, she has bargained with her masters, the mage-priests of Conclave, to spy on the renegade sorcerer, Silhara of Neith. The priests want Martise to expose the sorcerer’s treachery and turn him over to Conclave justice. A risky endeavor, but one she accepts without hesitation-until she falls in love with her intended target. Silhara of Neith, Master of Crows, is a desperate man. The god called Corruption invades his mind, seducing him with promises of limitless power if he will help it gain dominion over the world. Silhara struggles against Corruption’s influence and searches for ways to destroy the god. When Conclave sends Martise as an apprentice to help him, he knows she’s a spy. Now he fights a war on two fronts-against the god who would possess him and the apprentice who would betray him. Mage and spy search together for a ritual that will annihilate Corruption, but in doing so discover secrets about each other that may damn them both. Silhara must decide if his fate, and the fate of nations, is worth the soul of the woman he has come to love, and Martise must choose continued enslavement or freedom at the cost of a man’s life. And love.
Why I fangirl this: I was lucky enough to be one of the beta readers for Master of Crows, and from that very first chapter, I was captivated. The story is compelling and keeps you enthralled, but it's the characters that command your attention. Silhara is one of the most interesting heroes I've ever read, and Martise's quiet strength and determination is the perfect complement to such a powerful character. This is a world where treachery and magic go hand-in-hand and where temptation and hard choices are the coin of the realm. Her primary characters are brilliant, but her secondary characters are just as finely drawn, and I don't think I could fangirl this story any harder than I already do.
The Original Fangirl Tour Day One
The Original Fangirl Tour Day Two
The Original Fangirl Tour Day Three
The Original Fangirl Tour Day Four
Now, let's get down to business, shall we? I'll place my hand over my heart and recite the unofficial Fangirl Tour disclaimer: What I've chosen to post today depends a great deal on my mood at the time each was selected, and I heartily apologize for leaving out the thousands of stories, artwork and videos that deserve to be recced here. ;)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: Foreign Country
Author: wonderfulwrites
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/sshg_exchange/173195.html
Rating: NC-17 (Snape/Hermione/Lucius Malfoy)
Status: Complete in 2 chapters
Summary: Five times Hermione Granger had a threesome with Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy, and one time she didn’t.
Why I fangirl this: This is a disturbing and unsettling story, but it's superbly written, and it's far more likely a scenario regarding HG/SS/LM threesomes than anything I've written. ;) This story slowly increases the tension until you're breathless to learn what happens next, even as it makes you vaguely uneasy.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: The Hall of Heroes
Author: Pavonis Mons
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2927876/1/The_Hall_of_Heroes
Rating: T (Gen)
Status: Complete, One Shot
Summary: In which Severus Snape finally gets his just deserts... or does he?
Why I fangirl this: As the author put it, this story contains "mistaken identity, Giants, horned helmets, mead, The Ballad of Severus the Small and His Tiny, Tiny Stick and the final fate of all good Death Eaters." ~snicker~ What's not to fangirl?
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: In Apple Blossom Time
Author: annietalbot
Link: http://annietalbot.livejournal.com/25789.html
Rating: G (Gen)
Status: Complete, One Shot
Summary: After the Final Battle, Hermione sees something that changes her life.
Why I fangirl this: In less than 400 words, annietalbot captivated me completely and then broke my heart. Brilliant.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: Incense and Engine Oil
Author: andrian1 and wiccarowan
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/_sortinghat_/2162.html
Rating: R (Sybill/OMC, Sirius/OFC)
Status: Complete in 3 chapters
Summary: Sirius rolled his eyes at Trelawney, who seemed cheerfully oblivious, as he took the parchment from the elf. "You’ll take Sybill on your bike to Daytona Beach, Florida, for what is called ‘Bike Week’, and fit in as a biker among the others. We have strong evidence that there will be an attack on the beach this week by a group which is tied to Voldemort, which will no doubt be called a terrorist attack by the Americans. Your task is to do what you can to prevent an attack and find out as much as you can about this group."
Why I fangirl this: I usually won't read stories that feature Sirius Black. I'm too much of a Snapefan to sympathize much with Black, but I do like the character of Sybill Trelawney, and so this story drew me in. It features a reticent, fearful Sybill who comes into her own in the most unusual of circumstances. By the end, I found I could even sympathize with Sirius Black, quite an accomplishment for this Snapefan and a testament to the story. ;)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: Remembering Her Name in The Infinite Abyss
Author: fillequill
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/30minutefics/356478.html
Rating: R (Gen)
Status: Complete, One Shot
Summary: She's the only one that never screams; doesn't sob like the rest of them. When they curse her, kick her, beat her, she lays quite still and stares out across the horizon. I find this most curious, I must admit.
Why I fangirl this: fillequill wrote it for mchoneygoose using the 30minutefics prompt: "Voldemort's Point of View", and it's gorgeous in a dark sort of way. Luna is perfect in this story and is perfectly chilling. This is one of those stories that lingers in the mind, and it deserved a wider audience than it received at the time.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: The Room of Lost Dreams
Author: mundungus42
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/sshg_exchange/126476.html
Rating: M (Snape/Hermione)
Status: Complete in 13 chapters
Summary: In the immediate aftermath of the final battle, Hermione seeks peace with both the dead and her conscience. Instead, she finds a hidden room and a grumpy enchanted journal. EWE
Why I fangirl this: This story just pulled me right in with a Hermione who walks a very fine line between what she should do and what she wants to do, until finally Hermione slips and falls completely. mundungus42 deftly builds the emotion of this story until you're waiting, heart in your throat, to see what happens next.
Fandom: Labyrinth
Title: Dark Labyrinth
Author: Helen Fayle
Link: http://www.sff.net/people/hsfayle/labyrinth.htm
Rating: PG-13 (Jareth/Sarah)
Status: Complete in 12 chapters (the website doesn't break the chapters out, however)
Summary: Three years after the events of the film, Sarah finds herself once again drawn back into the world of the Labyrinth, when both it and its enigmatic ruler are threatened by a powerful foe...
Why I fangirl this: This is an entirely different take on the Underground and Jareth's background, and it drew me in from the start. Helen Fayle's Underground is a place alive with conspiracies, treachery and dark games, leaving Sarah struggling to decide what is right and what is wrong, and if she's strong enough to live with the choices she makes.
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Title: Aftermath
Author: salr323
Link: http://salr323.livejournal.com/45379.html
Rating: R (Jack/Elizabeth, Will/Elizabeth)
Status: Complete in 6 chapters
Summary: From halfway down the dock he strolled toward her, an arm about the shoulders of two girls she knew well. Vivid as memory, larger than life, it seemed he had not changed at all; a roguish smile curved his lips, conniving fingers toyed with the women's lace, and there was trouble in all his looks. Captain Jack Sparrow.
Why I fangirl this: After At World's End, Disney did their damnedest to kill the Jack/Elizabeth pairing, but salr323 proves that even that scene after the credits can be circumvented and circumvented in style. Her writing is gorgeous and the story pulls you right in from the very first paragraph.
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Title: At World's End: Redux
Author: fried_flamingo and salr323
Link: http://community.livejournal.com/redux_08/1440.html (You can start here, but after chapter 6, you'll need to use this: http://community.livejournal.com/redux_08/tag/redux since all the chapters aren't linked)
Rating: R (Jack/Elizabeth - with elements of Jack/Beckett, Elizabeth/Will, Elizabeth/Norrington, and Calypso/Jones)
Status: Complete in 27 chapters
Summary: Deep in the bones of the earth, far from the turmoil of Man and Sea, an ancient prophesy is carved in stone. Blood must be spilt, it warns, and a terrible price paid if the Pirates are to remain free.... With Cutler Beckett and Davy Jones bent on their destruction, Elizabeth Swann, Will Turner, and Jack Sparrow's loyal crew sail beyond the horizon in search of their captain. But their journey has only just begun, for the Midnight Sun blazes among the stars and the Nine Pirate Lords are gathering. There is a debt must be paid, a terrifying fate forged in fire and iron. Yet destiny is naught but the road beneath their feet and each must choose whether to walk its path in the end. In these the final days of piracy, when the future hangs in the balance, all must stand and all must fight. But prophesy will not be denied, and there is one from whom destiny will demand the ultimate price for freedom....
Why I fangirl this: This is the story that Disney should have told in At World's End, but didn't. While Disney unceremoniously stuffed Pirate King Elizabeth Swann back into the box entitled "good little woman" during that after-the-credits scene, fried_flamingo and salr323 tore that box to pieces and started over. This is an Elizabeth driven by guilt and remorse, a Jack determined not to forgive, and a Will who is caught in a maelstrom of his own device. Add in a back story for Jack and Cutler Beckett that actually made me sympathetic to Beckett, a Norrington I recognize, and Captain Teague's machinations, and this becomes a tour de force.
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Title: Haven
Author: fried_flamingo
Link: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=fried_flamingo&keyword=My+POTC+Fic&filter=all
Rating: R (Jack/Elizabeth, Will/Elizabeth)
Status: Complete in 13 chapters
Summary: A tale of regrets and misjudgements and freedom denied.
Why I fangirl this: Oh, this is gorgeous. It's decidedly AU, but it presents us with a Jack and Elizabeth who gambled and lost too many times to easily gamble again. They've reluctantly come together to reclaim the Black Pearl, but first they both must deal with the consequences of bitter secrets and lies. This has a Ragetti that I adore, and since he's one of my favorite PotC characters, I was delighted with his depiction here.
Fandom: Sense and Sensibility
Title: The Wedding Night
Author: hephastus
Link: http://hephastus.livejournal.com/2005/06/
Rating: R to NC-17ish (Brandon/Marianne)
Status: Complete in 4 chapters
Summary: Col. Brandon and his new bride, Marianne, are introduced. A Sense and Sensibility tribute.
Why I fangirl this: They're both so very innocent, and their discovery of one another is brilliantly done. hephastus takes what could have been the premise for just a PWP and turns it into a lush character study. But it's still very, very hot. ;)
Note: Apparently sometime after I gathered the link to "The Wedding Night", hephastus has decided to pull the story from her LJ. I wish you could have read it, it was wonderful. :(
Fandom: Star Trek (Original Series)
Title: Uses for Love
Author: Djinn1
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3505485/1/Uses_for_Love
Rating: M (Spock/Chapel)
Status: Complete, One Shot
Summary: Because it hurts when it's never about you.
Why I fangirl this: I'm a sucker for good Spock/Chapel fic, but it's only very rarely that I believe an author gets it right. Djinn1 got it right. The problems inherent to a Vulcan/human relationship are addressed, and Christine Chapel quickly loses her illusions. However, she eventually learns that there are possibilities in reality that could never exist in illusion.
Okay, I'm sort of cheating here, since this next story won't go on sale until July 5th, but oh, how I fangirl this...
Fandom: Original
Title: Master of Crows (additional excerpt here)
Author: grace_draven
Link: http://grace-draven.livejournal.com/13109.html
Rating: M
Status: Complete, Original Novel
Summary: What would you do to win your freedom? That is the question which sets bondwoman, Martise of Asher, on a dangerous path. In exchange for her freedom, she has bargained with her masters, the mage-priests of Conclave, to spy on the renegade sorcerer, Silhara of Neith. The priests want Martise to expose the sorcerer’s treachery and turn him over to Conclave justice. A risky endeavor, but one she accepts without hesitation-until she falls in love with her intended target. Silhara of Neith, Master of Crows, is a desperate man. The god called Corruption invades his mind, seducing him with promises of limitless power if he will help it gain dominion over the world. Silhara struggles against Corruption’s influence and searches for ways to destroy the god. When Conclave sends Martise as an apprentice to help him, he knows she’s a spy. Now he fights a war on two fronts-against the god who would possess him and the apprentice who would betray him. Mage and spy search together for a ritual that will annihilate Corruption, but in doing so discover secrets about each other that may damn them both. Silhara must decide if his fate, and the fate of nations, is worth the soul of the woman he has come to love, and Martise must choose continued enslavement or freedom at the cost of a man’s life. And love.
Why I fangirl this: I was lucky enough to be one of the beta readers for Master of Crows, and from that very first chapter, I was captivated. The story is compelling and keeps you enthralled, but it's the characters that command your attention. Silhara is one of the most interesting heroes I've ever read, and Martise's quiet strength and determination is the perfect complement to such a powerful character. This is a world where treachery and magic go hand-in-hand and where temptation and hard choices are the coin of the realm. Her primary characters are brilliant, but her secondary characters are just as finely drawn, and I don't think I could fangirl this story any harder than I already do.