Six recs in search of readers
A mixed bag, but evidently I'm all about Xander this week.
The Comeback: The Vanity Fair Profile by Yahtzee
Veronica Mars, PG-13. Spoilers for all of S1. Written as a Vanity Fair puff piece, it’s a cynical and painful look at how the end of Lilly’s murder investigation might play out in four years, if all the wrong things happen. Plus, the tone is purely wonderful: biting and yet missing the stuff you *know* if you’ve watched the show. Best Use of Unreliable Narrator I’ve seen yet.
Ninety Seven Bottles of Beer on the Wall by trajictale
BSG2003/Alias. PG. No specific spoilers. Summary: ”What’s her charge?” Yeah, I know, how could this work? Trust me, it does: Weiss buys Starbuck a beer. Short and snappy, with the voices carrying it all.
Daddy’s Work by miladygrey
Alias, G, S1. Pre-series. Set right after Irina “died”, Sydney has a tea party that Jack overhears, and learns more than he expected to. Sweet without being cloying, with the underlying scrape of pain for Jack that everything to do with his wife holds. Read it and then get a hug.
Abeyance by witling
BtVS, S4, PG. Xander swims, and thinks, and maybe you have to be a swim geek like me to really *get* it, but trust me, it works.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Sex Poodles by Doyle
BtVS, post-S4, R. It's a very ordinary summer. Xander doesn't mind so much. Just funny and fluffy and full of the ordinary kind of fun that Xander and Anya didn’t get to have enough of on the show. Well, if you include the sex manuals, and all.
The Song of a Ramblin’ Man by nwhepcat
BtVS, post-series, PG-13. In a city that's quick to discard its history, Xander encounters a piece of his past -- and the possibility of a future. Written for the Music of Pain ficathon, this one isn’t so much about the pain as it is about Vegas, second chances, and how growing up really does change how you look at people. I have great affection for this pairing, and I hope Hepcat writes more for these two.
The Comeback: The Vanity Fair Profile by Yahtzee
Veronica Mars, PG-13. Spoilers for all of S1. Written as a Vanity Fair puff piece, it’s a cynical and painful look at how the end of Lilly’s murder investigation might play out in four years, if all the wrong things happen. Plus, the tone is purely wonderful: biting and yet missing the stuff you *know* if you’ve watched the show. Best Use of Unreliable Narrator I’ve seen yet.
Ninety Seven Bottles of Beer on the Wall by trajictale
BSG2003/Alias. PG. No specific spoilers. Summary: ”What’s her charge?” Yeah, I know, how could this work? Trust me, it does: Weiss buys Starbuck a beer. Short and snappy, with the voices carrying it all.
Daddy’s Work by miladygrey
Alias, G, S1. Pre-series. Set right after Irina “died”, Sydney has a tea party that Jack overhears, and learns more than he expected to. Sweet without being cloying, with the underlying scrape of pain for Jack that everything to do with his wife holds. Read it and then get a hug.
Abeyance by witling
BtVS, S4, PG. Xander swims, and thinks, and maybe you have to be a swim geek like me to really *get* it, but trust me, it works.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Sex Poodles by Doyle
BtVS, post-S4, R. It's a very ordinary summer. Xander doesn't mind so much. Just funny and fluffy and full of the ordinary kind of fun that Xander and Anya didn’t get to have enough of on the show. Well, if you include the sex manuals, and all.
The Song of a Ramblin’ Man by nwhepcat
BtVS, post-series, PG-13. In a city that's quick to discard its history, Xander encounters a piece of his past -- and the possibility of a future. Written for the Music of Pain ficathon, this one isn’t so much about the pain as it is about Vegas, second chances, and how growing up really does change how you look at people. I have great affection for this pairing, and I hope Hepcat writes more for these two.