Bandom Recs!
I guess I am making my first ever rec post? I thought there would be a million of these, but--I haven't seen any yet, so. I am taking a stab. We will see how it goes.
These are my favorite stories from the first round of Bandom Big Bang, which ended a few days ago (traumatic! I need something else to compulsively refresh now). These recs are entirely subjective, and there are definitely some fics from the fest that are high quality (and whose authors I totally fangirl! hi, awesome authors!), but do not appear on this list because they didn't jive with me in the same way some of the others did. So if anyone actually clicks on this rec list, read the fics that are here and then go visit bandombigbang and find your own favorites.
FOB:
Do Fries Come With That Shake? by likeasugarcube (ETA: locked)
Pete/Patrick, 10000 words, R
Author's Summary: Patrick gets a summer job at a diner. Pete is kind of a stalker. Joe just wants a drummer for his band.
This is totally oldschool Pete/Patrick in the best possible way. Pete sees Patrick and it is love at first sight, as it should be, and Patrick is criminally clueless and defensive, as he also should be. It's an old formula that likeasugarcube makes new and exciting again in this adorable fic that everyone should read.
(likeasugarcube is an author I first ran into at last year's big bang, to which she submitted the amazing and epic To Take What I'm Given With Grace, and who I have been quietly stalking ever since for her consistently wonderful FOB fic)
Fngs fr th Mmrs, by chaosmanor (fic tagged on dreamwidth)
Andy/Patrick, 11000 words, NC-17
Author's Summary: In which Patrick is a vampire, with a raging caffeine addiction, photophobia, and a poor grasp of the basics of vampirism.
FOB vampire fic--where Pete is not the vampire! Patrick is turned into a kind of unconventional vampire, who, yes, drinks blood, but can also be satisfied with certain other bodily fluids (! yes, it is exactly what you are thinking). Apart from the kink inherent in the premise, the characterization of basically everybody is perfect, and Patrick makes one of the least dramatic--but not least interesting--vampires ever.
(chaosmanor is basically the only author I follow for Patrick/Andy, a rarepair she pulls off often and with style. After you read this, try Heaven is Under Our Feet as Well as Over Our Heads with amazing sequel Time is but the Stream, or for a more mainstream pairing, her deservedly well-known Pete/mtf!Patrick fic Leaving Albuquerque)
Love And a Bit With A Dog, by languisity (bandfic index on dreamwidth)
Pete/Patrick, 12000 words, Adult, d/s
My summary: Pete wants to be Patrick's (...dog?). But it's not a good idea. But then it is a good idea?
I don't know, honestly, I can't really summarize this story, but that doesn't make it less amazing. Part of my difficulty, I think, is that the story and the writing leaves so much unsaid--which leaves you with a slight sense of confusion, a kind of what just happened? but in a way that is obviously intentional. languisity makes us feel the same confusion that Pete feels, and it is frustrating and delicious. Also HOT.
(I actually had never read anything by languisity before I read this fic, so I was pretty ecstatic when I clicked on her journal and found--surprise!--more fic. New favorites include Bedroom Eyes (Blurry Vision) and Speeding in a School Zone, which she wrote with 1001cranes)
The Night Leaves Me Restless, by coricomile (fic masterlist)
Pete/Patrick, 18000 words, R, mentions of attempted suicide, drugs
My summary: Patrick must go on a quest to save Pete from himself and from Brendon's scary nightmare circus.
What I like most about this fic is the dreamlike quality that coricomile manages to capture--it really feels like a nightmare (which I do not at all mean as an insult).
(coricomile's fic is sometimes hit or miss for me, but when it does hit it is pretty perfect: check out Bandom/Rugrats crossover Find Another City (Better Than This One) or the psychotically adorable kidnapping fic We Are Nowhere and It's Now)
Roomba v2.0, by piecesof_reeses (tagged fic on lj)
Pete/Patrick, Brendon/Ryan, 17000 words, R, dubcon
My summary: Mikey gives Pete a cleaning robot (Patrick) but not the robot rulebook. Pete promptly falls in love. Patrick doesn't (not promptly, anyway).
My favorite thing about this fic is that Pete and Patrick are both very flawed people (or person and robot, whatever), and their problems don't just go away. piecesof_reeses deals with the dubcon she rightly points out is "inherent" in a fic of this kind frankly and gracefully. In fact, the dubcon and the issues surounding it are a huge part of the conflict and the interest of this (rather charming and pleasantly thinky) piece.
(If you like this, or if you want to read something by the author but don't read dubcon, you might check out awesome hairdresser AU You Got a Crew? (I Got A Crew, Too))
MCR:
Cover to Cover, by silentdescant (fic index)
Frank/Gerard, Mikey/Alicia, Bob/Brian, Frank/Jepha, Gerard/Brian, 32000 words, NC-17
Author's Summary: You've Got Mail AU. Frank owns The Shop Around The Corner, which specializes in classic and rare books, and Gerard is opening up a large branch of Way Books & Café down the street. They meet online and fall in love.
You've Got Mail! Which is glee in itself, but silentdescant walks that tricky tightrope of writing a fic that stays faithful to the canon of the movie but is still different enough that it is original and in character. I particularly like the way she handles Gerard's and Frank's established relationships (with others). The only thing that makes me sad about this fic is that it does not erase the vague sense of dissatisfaction I feel at the end that is also present in the movie (I want Frank to win, damn it! Or at least for Gerard to suffer a little).
(If you would like to read more of silentdescant , one of my favorites is A Double Bed and a Stalwart Lover, which she wrote with giddy_london)
down to the water, by carleton97 and rue_quercus (joint writing journal: ondistantstars)
girl!Gerard/Frank, 10000 words, NC-17
My summary: On the INOK shoot, Gee and Frank deal with both their relationship (issues) and her newfound sobriety.
Girl!Gee can be completely awesome, and this version is more awesome than most. carleton97 and rue_quercus write a Gee who really fucked up, and knows it, and a Frank who is not at all interested in making her pay. This fic is a gentle little thing with a hint of bittersweet bite which will leave you totally in love with them both (and with Bob! who is so quietly great in this).
(Maybe you remember the smoking hot--seriously, so so hot, I'm not kidding, jesus--fic this is a sequel to: with the lights on. If you don't remember it, do yourself a favor and read it now. But maybe not with people around)
No Experience Necessary, by ladyfoxxx (fic masterlist)
Frank/Gerard, Mikey/Ray, 26000 words, R, underage
My summary: Gerard gets a job at a pizza place and falls in love with Frank.
I'm kind of completely in love with this fic. It is the best kind of cheesy--by which I mean it is like the perfect extra cheese PIZZA, and I could read it forever. Gerard is a totally adorable loser (the creeper kind--why is that hot? I don't know, but it so is) and Frank is really wonderfully recognizable as a teenager, but one who still kind of has it more together than Gerard. Desperately in need of employees!Brian is also hilarious enough to deserve a mention.
(ladyfoxxx is an author I only recently started reading--I think maybe she only started posting bandom fic relatively recently?--but now that I have, I am kind of her slave. If you somehow managed to miss her the way I did, go read something. Maybe start with the stripper fic she posted this month, Hard Candy, and then backtrack)
P!ATD:
secret lines (and bound so tight), by roadmarks (fic journal: quarterandakiss )
Brendon/Ryan, 22000 words, PG-13
My summary: Brendon and Ryan are forced into an arranged marriage in this steampunk-ish AU, and come face to face both with mysterious danger and their own problematic relationship.
Brendon and Ryan are amazing in this--the best parts, for me, are the subtle hints the author gives us of their former friendship/interaction. Without revealing what happened or simplifying the emotions involved, she creates amazing tension and conflict within their relationship, while still conveying some first class lowkey pining (my favorite!) and giving them a perfectly hopeful ending.
(I had never read anything by roadmarks before, so this fic was doubly awesome--I have a new author to stalk! Sadly, this means I cannot rec anything else of hers yet--but you can go read her stuff and then rec it to ME, okay?)
Interband:
Away with the, by cupiscent (tagged fic on lj)
Gabe/William, 17000 words, Adult
Author's Summary: Gabe has to fetch something for Pete from Chicago. This would be easier if Pete wasn't the Faery King and the something wasn't skinny, sarcastic and pretty. Who likes easy anyway?
This is the Gabe/William of my HEART. The relationship between the two grows really organically (and manages to be white-hot even though there's very little actual sex); Gabe is charming and obnoxious, William is equally charming and quick, while the author manages to hold on to that gravity that underlies the best characterizations of both of them. If that still doesn't get you, read it for the guest appearances by scary but lovable Faerie!Pete and those bloodthirsty Panic kids.
(The rest of cupiscent 's fic can be easily found through the tags and links on her lj. If you go looking, I would like to suggest another of my all-time Gabe/William favorites: They Keep Moving the Cheese)
The First Rule of Space Travel, by bareteeth , formerly emcay (writing journal: starrysmile )
Gabe/Gerard, 15000 words, NC-17.
My summary: Basically, Gabe is a space pirate who captures soap/porn star Gerard on his way to an off-planet shoot and takes him captive for an unspecified amount of time.
The fic is unapologetically silly and lighthearted, breezing past consent issues and stockholm syndrome with little more than a nod of acknowledgement. Normally this would make me back away, but somehow I...like it here? I don't know--maybe it's because Gerard never really feels powerless to me; the fic somehow keeps the power dynamics (while undeniably present) lowkey. Gabe is totally hilarious and Gabe-like as pirate captain (his shoes!). Gerard is harder to buy as a bitchy soapstar, but bareteeth makes it work anyway? Sort of the same way she makes the unlikely pairing work in general.
(As long as I am reccing this, I should mention her awesome earlier Gabe/Gerard pieces--the ones that introduced me to the 'ship: White Bird and sequel Fingers and Toes, and the epic Five Point Plan, with coda Easy Now. This is not really a rec post for non-big bang fics, so I will not go into detail, but I wish I could, because <3)
You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison, by dancinbutterfly (fic masterlist)
Bob/Ryan, Pete/Patrick, Gerard/Brian, Gabe/Ryan, Gabe/Bill, Ryan/Others, 50000 words, NC-17, Warnings at Masterpost
My summary: (Almost) everyone's in prison; prison sucks. When Italian mobster Frank Iero transfers into D-Block, delicate prison dynamics are thrown out of whack and people GET whacked. It's whack, yo.
I can't even really summarize this greatness of this fic. First, it is the first truly epic fic we have seen at Big Bang this year. Also it is EXCELLENT. It is clearly influenced by the other greats of the genre (specifically, arsenicjade's Discipline and Punish comes to mind--also, ha! I love that there's a genre at all), but is still original and compelling. Ryan is amazing and vulnerable, Frank is wonderful, and I have a special place in my heart for both this fic's Pete/Patrick (Pete is a criminal mastermind! It is hot hot hot) and its really sweet Gerard/Brian. The only issue I have with this fic is the choice to portray Gabe as the villain, but that is totally a personal preference and has nothing to do with the quality of the writing or the effectiveness of the plot (and is also something which dancinbutterfly is not alone in doing. There is an entire evil!Gabe fanon tradition, so. Yeah).
(The first fic I read by dancinbutterfly was actually in Entourage fandom, and it was great, so when I saw her start posting in bandom, I was kind of overjoyed. She is an incredible writer, and miraculously seems pretty unaffected by the slump that is hitting a lot of bandom right now. I am hoping so hard that she continues to be unaffected, you don't even know. If you WANT to know, maybe try reading her amazing Pete/Mikey Slideverse series, starting with Radioactive Icecubes and Dancing Plasma Particles, or the fic that got me into Brian/Gerard: Ace of Cakes AU The Beat That My Heart Skipped, with sequel Where the Heart Is)