fic rec: Vivian Darkbloom [Xena]
This fucking brilliant frame narrative: "A Lexicon for the Sunday Morning Sleeper" by Vivian Darkbloom (Xena; Uber; second story in the "Variations on a Theme of Codependency Series"). I don't think you need knowledge of Xena or the other parts to enjoy this story.
Reading Darkbloom usually leaves me with a sense of awe and insane jealousy, as with the hilarious (and surprisingly non-angsty) "The Fangs of Academe" (Xena; Mel/Janice; footnotes of genius and hilarity). Darkbloom can give me the type of reading experience that leaves me just going "Man, my brain doesn't even have the capacity to come up with this!"* when I stumble over a metaphor or a writing device or a characterization that just blows my mind.
What's so brilliant about "Lexicon" is that it's a story that can be read linearly from beginning to end . . . even though it's an actual lexicon format arranged according to entries written in alphabetical order and those entries cross-reference each other to add depth to the individual entries.
I JUST CANNOT WITH HOW AWESOME THAT IS.
*Another, completely unrelated, example of an awesome metaphor I could never come up with:
Her words and actions conveyed that Bo wanted more than trauma care and therapeutic sex. If that held true, if Bo would help her stitch together the parts and pieces of a relationship, then Lauren would do her best to channel lightning into the beast, to make it live and breathe and stomp around tall. The villagers would not approve, yet Lauren didn't particularly care.
Not the most romantic imagery, she realized, and quickly forgave herself. Whatever. My life is more Mary Shelley than Jane Austen, anyway.
- Kanundrum, "Even From Me," Chapter 14
Why is this so perfect? Why is this fic dead?
Why so many fic writers who you wish wrote more but haven't/don't? :(
And apparently "Lost Girl" is becoming my "let me show you my kinks" fandom because if Bo doesn't canonically tie up Lauren at some point, I'm going to be disappoint. I'm thinking like Uta tying up Alice goodness.
I also went looking through my tags because I am convinced I have talked about "Fangs of the Academe" before. Instead I was reminded I made this once upon a time:
NEVER NOT AWESOME.
Reading Darkbloom usually leaves me with a sense of awe and insane jealousy, as with the hilarious (and surprisingly non-angsty) "The Fangs of Academe" (Xena; Mel/Janice; footnotes of genius and hilarity). Darkbloom can give me the type of reading experience that leaves me just going "Man, my brain doesn't even have the capacity to come up with this!"* when I stumble over a metaphor or a writing device or a characterization that just blows my mind.
What's so brilliant about "Lexicon" is that it's a story that can be read linearly from beginning to end . . . even though it's an actual lexicon format arranged according to entries written in alphabetical order and those entries cross-reference each other to add depth to the individual entries.
I JUST CANNOT WITH HOW AWESOME THAT IS.
*Another, completely unrelated, example of an awesome metaphor I could never come up with:
Her words and actions conveyed that Bo wanted more than trauma care and therapeutic sex. If that held true, if Bo would help her stitch together the parts and pieces of a relationship, then Lauren would do her best to channel lightning into the beast, to make it live and breathe and stomp around tall. The villagers would not approve, yet Lauren didn't particularly care.
Not the most romantic imagery, she realized, and quickly forgave herself. Whatever. My life is more Mary Shelley than Jane Austen, anyway.
- Kanundrum, "Even From Me," Chapter 14
Why is this so perfect? Why is this fic dead?
Why so many fic writers who you wish wrote more but haven't/don't? :(
And apparently "Lost Girl" is becoming my "let me show you my kinks" fandom because if Bo doesn't canonically tie up Lauren at some point, I'm going to be disappoint. I'm thinking like Uta tying up Alice goodness.
I also went looking through my tags because I am convinced I have talked about "Fangs of the Academe" before. Instead I was reminded I made this once upon a time:
NEVER NOT AWESOME.