Tonight's Theme: Procrastination
I had a bunch of recs I wanted to post, but all of them were from different fandoms, and frankly, that would have been a mess of a rec post. So, I said to myself: "Self, we need a theme." And Self agreed with Myself. So I took another look at these recs and realized they all had one teensy, tiny detail in common: I had put off reading every single one of them. Some, I put off for months, while another just a few days. But they were all stories I regretted not reading right away. (The implication there is I regretted it because they were so good. Hence the recs.)
Last Ones of Our Kind, by softlyforgotten (Brad/Nate, Generation Kill, AU)
"What if I gave you the order, then, to abandon the hunt for Lieutenant Fick, whose days with the Marine Corps are over?"
Brad drew in a breath. "Sir," he said, "then I would go hunting for Nate Fick, rather than my LT."
I actually held off on reading this for a while. Had the tab open and everything, but couldn't get myself to read it. Not because of the fandom - I'll read pretty much anything GK-related - and not because of the author - I've read a lot of softlyforgotten's work, and she is a very, very good writer. I just couldn't read it, for some reason. After having the tab open for weeks, I finally got down to it. And then ran to open a reccing page, so I guess it was a good idea to read Last Ones.
What it's about? Well. Love, I guess. Not to get all metaphysical or anything, but we can never really know if someone loves us or not. We simply have to trust in them, trust in their realness, to believe that they love us, that it is safe - as safe as it ever is - for us to love them (back).
Cleverly hidden, this fic brings up the question: "Who are you if you are in love with someone who isn't real?" for me more than anything else, though it doesn't answer that. I think, maybe, we don't want that answered.
It asks: "Who are you if you believe the person you're in love with is real and they turn out not to be?" and, "Who do you love?" "Who do they love?" "Do they even love?" And, finally, the question both asked and answered: "What is real?" Maybe the moral is that we decide for ourselves what is real and what isn't.
There are some DADT inconsistencies here, but I'm putting that down to the author being Australian, not a US citizen. I refuse to let that bother me when the rest of it is so beautiful.
____________________________
Ever The Same, by screamlet (Shatner/Nimoy, Star Trek RPF AU)
"I'm so sorry I'm late!" a voice much too chipper for the situation announced about 10 minutes later. Leonard whipped his head around and raised an eyebrow at the fat guy in a crisp suit who had just showed up and looked a little too shocked by all the guns and bodies scattered on the street. "Um. So."
"Who the hell are you?" Leonard growled at him.
"I -- I was given this address," the guy replied. "I'm the negotiator from Priceline?
Okay, I'll admit I read RPF, although occasionally the mere idea of it squicks me. This, however? This is so AU from the RPF that it doesn't even feel like it uses real people. And that, my friends, makes me very, very happy.
To celebrate Nimoy's and Shatner's birthdays: fic.
__________________________
Asunder, by rageprufrock (Dean/Castiel, Supernatural AU)
Dean's grown up fixing Sam's breakfasts and lunches and Sam's toys, and he's never going to be okay with the fact that he can't fix all the things that bother Sam now that he's grown up and out of Dean's reach. He knows this is what getting to be an adult is about, that insofar as he was Sam's parent, this is what being Sam's parent is about, but Dean's heart is still heavy and it still aches, and when he watches Sam in the warm morning sun, eating oatmeal and kissing Jo on the cheek, Dean still wishes that he knew the clockwork of his little brother, that he knew how to wind and fix the gears.
Hmm. Okay. The key to winning my love in Supernatural is to get a good sibling dynamic going. Pru does this so, well that, by the end of the story, I honestly wanted more Sam & Dean interaction and a little less Dean/Castiel. (From other people's reactions, I understand that this was somewhat atypical.)
First and foremost, this is a story about addiction. Moreover, it's a story about the aftermath of addiction. What addiction does, not only to the addict, but to the family and friends of the addict. As a family member of a couple memorable addicts, this story hit right on target for me. And, as an older sibling, Asunder described pretty perfectly how I would feel and act if my younger sibling were to involve himself in such activities. By placing Dean in the caretaker role he typically embodies on Supernatural, and Sam in the place of the addict, Pru extrapolated from the entire demon blood storyline of Sam's and placed it in a world and context which we are, sadly, familiar with.
The only way to move forward was for Dean to understand that he could only help by letting Sam pull himself together. The feeling of betrayal and reluctant - but necessary - love, and the hope that they won't hurt you again but the knowledge that, even if they do, you won't be able to stop yourself from loving and helping them is so very clear here.
__________________________
Composed of Nows, by preromantics (Rachel/Quinn, Glee)
“So, you’re having a baby.” Wherein Rachel is much more than Quinn thought or could have asked for, and home isn't always where Quinn imagined it would be.
And to round off the fics-I-postponed reading, I'm ending with a story I ran to as fast as I could.
I ship Rachel/Quinn so hard. I think they could be remarkable together; they always seem to bring out the most in each other, even if it's not always the best. Any time Quinn or Rachel is having a grown-up moment, they're having it with each other. This is definitely the Rachel/Quinn fic I keep hoping to read, and I wish it was longer, wish there were vignettes and chapters and prologues and epilogue upon epilogue. But, well, we have what we have, and what we have here is a story full of teenage pride and richocheting emotions, soft moments and touches, people letting each other down, people holding each other up, and bright yellow. And I never can resist buttery, sunshine-yellow.
Last Ones of Our Kind, by softlyforgotten (Brad/Nate, Generation Kill, AU)
"What if I gave you the order, then, to abandon the hunt for Lieutenant Fick, whose days with the Marine Corps are over?"
Brad drew in a breath. "Sir," he said, "then I would go hunting for Nate Fick, rather than my LT."
I actually held off on reading this for a while. Had the tab open and everything, but couldn't get myself to read it. Not because of the fandom - I'll read pretty much anything GK-related - and not because of the author - I've read a lot of softlyforgotten's work, and she is a very, very good writer. I just couldn't read it, for some reason. After having the tab open for weeks, I finally got down to it. And then ran to open a reccing page, so I guess it was a good idea to read Last Ones.
What it's about? Well. Love, I guess. Not to get all metaphysical or anything, but we can never really know if someone loves us or not. We simply have to trust in them, trust in their realness, to believe that they love us, that it is safe - as safe as it ever is - for us to love them (back).
Cleverly hidden, this fic brings up the question: "Who are you if you are in love with someone who isn't real?" for me more than anything else, though it doesn't answer that. I think, maybe, we don't want that answered.
It asks: "Who are you if you believe the person you're in love with is real and they turn out not to be?" and, "Who do you love?" "Who do they love?" "Do they even love?" And, finally, the question both asked and answered: "What is real?" Maybe the moral is that we decide for ourselves what is real and what isn't.
There are some DADT inconsistencies here, but I'm putting that down to the author being Australian, not a US citizen. I refuse to let that bother me when the rest of it is so beautiful.
____________________________
Ever The Same, by screamlet (Shatner/Nimoy, Star Trek RPF AU)
"I'm so sorry I'm late!" a voice much too chipper for the situation announced about 10 minutes later. Leonard whipped his head around and raised an eyebrow at the fat guy in a crisp suit who had just showed up and looked a little too shocked by all the guns and bodies scattered on the street. "Um. So."
"Who the hell are you?" Leonard growled at him.
"I -- I was given this address," the guy replied. "I'm the negotiator from Priceline?
Okay, I'll admit I read RPF, although occasionally the mere idea of it squicks me. This, however? This is so AU from the RPF that it doesn't even feel like it uses real people. And that, my friends, makes me very, very happy.
To celebrate Nimoy's and Shatner's birthdays: fic.
__________________________
Asunder, by rageprufrock (Dean/Castiel, Supernatural AU)
Dean's grown up fixing Sam's breakfasts and lunches and Sam's toys, and he's never going to be okay with the fact that he can't fix all the things that bother Sam now that he's grown up and out of Dean's reach. He knows this is what getting to be an adult is about, that insofar as he was Sam's parent, this is what being Sam's parent is about, but Dean's heart is still heavy and it still aches, and when he watches Sam in the warm morning sun, eating oatmeal and kissing Jo on the cheek, Dean still wishes that he knew the clockwork of his little brother, that he knew how to wind and fix the gears.
Hmm. Okay. The key to winning my love in Supernatural is to get a good sibling dynamic going. Pru does this so, well that, by the end of the story, I honestly wanted more Sam & Dean interaction and a little less Dean/Castiel. (From other people's reactions, I understand that this was somewhat atypical.)
First and foremost, this is a story about addiction. Moreover, it's a story about the aftermath of addiction. What addiction does, not only to the addict, but to the family and friends of the addict. As a family member of a couple memorable addicts, this story hit right on target for me. And, as an older sibling, Asunder described pretty perfectly how I would feel and act if my younger sibling were to involve himself in such activities. By placing Dean in the caretaker role he typically embodies on Supernatural, and Sam in the place of the addict, Pru extrapolated from the entire demon blood storyline of Sam's and placed it in a world and context which we are, sadly, familiar with.
The only way to move forward was for Dean to understand that he could only help by letting Sam pull himself together. The feeling of betrayal and reluctant - but necessary - love, and the hope that they won't hurt you again but the knowledge that, even if they do, you won't be able to stop yourself from loving and helping them is so very clear here.
__________________________
Composed of Nows, by preromantics (Rachel/Quinn, Glee)
“So, you’re having a baby.” Wherein Rachel is much more than Quinn thought or could have asked for, and home isn't always where Quinn imagined it would be.
And to round off the fics-I-postponed reading, I'm ending with a story I ran to as fast as I could.
I ship Rachel/Quinn so hard. I think they could be remarkable together; they always seem to bring out the most in each other, even if it's not always the best. Any time Quinn or Rachel is having a grown-up moment, they're having it with each other. This is definitely the Rachel/Quinn fic I keep hoping to read, and I wish it was longer, wish there were vignettes and chapters and prologues and epilogue upon epilogue. But, well, we have what we have, and what we have here is a story full of teenage pride and richocheting emotions, soft moments and touches, people letting each other down, people holding each other up, and bright yellow. And I never can resist buttery, sunshine-yellow.