Homeland fic recs: 3 stories by AstronautMikeDexter
Since the Homeland finale aired on Monday 22 December, I've been pretty much obsessed with it. That's 14 days of obsessing and thinking about fictional characters and their fictional love lives ... It's been ridiculously fun. Fan fiction has helped to alleviate the woe of waiting until September/October of this year to find out what's going to happen next...
It's weird. For someone wrote scribbles so much fan fiction, I actually read very little myself. Probably because I'm quite time poor and it's always a struggle just to get my own ideas out, let alone read someone else's stories. Also, I've been burned quite badly in the past reading fic that didn't quite fit what I wanted to read. I'm cautious these days.
Anyway, this is turning out to be a long introduction to three very well-written fics.
I love it when I read a fic and I find myself thinking:
Title: Walk Away
Type: One-shot
Summary: Quinn sighed; he’d known that this would be hard to do. After almost two years of denying his feelings for Carrie, it was excruciating for him to walk away like this.
My comments: Written by the author prior to the commencement of season 4, it was written in that kind of agonising post-season 3 time when Carrie/Quinn shippers were in a state of limbo about exactly where the characters were going to go and if it was even possible for there to ever be anything between Carrie and Quinn.
I read a lot of overly romantic post-season 3 that didn't sit right with me and with my own stories, I was always trying so hard not to get them to hook up and this writer clearly felt the same because there's a killer of a line that really says everything: "Carrie… You’re still in love with a dead man." Any hook-up was only ever going to be that, a momentary coupling until Carrie's feelings for Brody were resolved and I think that this story captures that feeling beautifully.
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Title: Regret
Type: One-shot
Summary: Quinn’s list of regrets keeps growing.
My comments: This is just such a sad and a bleak fic and in keeping with the vision we see of Quinn trying to lose himself in alcohol during the start of season 4. The interesting thing is, I don't see him as being an alcoholic or ever even being in danger of alcoholism because he's so in control - but he definitel tries to use it to numb himself. This fic captures that perfectly.
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Title: Touchstone
Type: Series
Summary: A few random season 4 vignettes centered on Carrie and Quinn.
My comments: I really liked this set of vignettes. In season 3, I wrote Fragments and haven't really got around to doing anything quite the same for season 4 and now I don't have to because this writer has written a lot of the things I wanted to know about/wanted to think about. The author says: "Carrie has various kind of touchstones, and one of them is Saul, obviously, who’s a great figure of conscience and gravitas. And I think Quinn is increasingly becoming another." There are currently 9 chapters in the Touchstone series.
It's weird. For someone wrote scribbles so much fan fiction, I actually read very little myself. Probably because I'm quite time poor and it's always a struggle just to get my own ideas out, let alone read someone else's stories. Also, I've been burned quite badly in the past reading fic that didn't quite fit what I wanted to read. I'm cautious these days.
Anyway, this is turning out to be a long introduction to three very well-written fics.
I love it when I read a fic and I find myself thinking:
- Wow - I wish I had written this; or
- Wow - I wish I had thought of this.
Title: Walk Away
Type: One-shot
Summary: Quinn sighed; he’d known that this would be hard to do. After almost two years of denying his feelings for Carrie, it was excruciating for him to walk away like this.
My comments: Written by the author prior to the commencement of season 4, it was written in that kind of agonising post-season 3 time when Carrie/Quinn shippers were in a state of limbo about exactly where the characters were going to go and if it was even possible for there to ever be anything between Carrie and Quinn.
I read a lot of overly romantic post-season 3 that didn't sit right with me and with my own stories, I was always trying so hard not to get them to hook up and this writer clearly felt the same because there's a killer of a line that really says everything: "Carrie… You’re still in love with a dead man." Any hook-up was only ever going to be that, a momentary coupling until Carrie's feelings for Brody were resolved and I think that this story captures that feeling beautifully.
*
Title: Regret
Type: One-shot
Summary: Quinn’s list of regrets keeps growing.
My comments: This is just such a sad and a bleak fic and in keeping with the vision we see of Quinn trying to lose himself in alcohol during the start of season 4. The interesting thing is, I don't see him as being an alcoholic or ever even being in danger of alcoholism because he's so in control - but he definitel tries to use it to numb himself. This fic captures that perfectly.
*
Title: Touchstone
Type: Series
Summary: A few random season 4 vignettes centered on Carrie and Quinn.
My comments: I really liked this set of vignettes. In season 3, I wrote Fragments and haven't really got around to doing anything quite the same for season 4 and now I don't have to because this writer has written a lot of the things I wanted to know about/wanted to think about. The author says: "Carrie has various kind of touchstones, and one of them is Saul, obviously, who’s a great figure of conscience and gravitas. And I think Quinn is increasingly becoming another." There are currently 9 chapters in the Touchstone series.
- Flashbacks: This is one of my personal Carrie/Quinn 'kinks' that I haven't actually got around to writing myself. Nightmares - they'd both have them. How do they comfort one another? I love how this is written.
- The Pocket-Dial: It's weird, I never knew I wanted to read this story until I read it. When Carrie said: "Don't tell me you pocket-dialled me", I guess in my head I just assumed that Quinn had a habit of not locking his phone and accidentally phoning Carrie all the time. In any case, it's a neat explanation of why she joked he was bum-dialling her :)
- Lie, Manipulate, Exploit: Wonderfully insightful conversation between Fara and Quinn about Carrie. It's chilling in the sense that unlike a lot of fics, Quinn is not a blinded, love-struck fool. This fic characterises him in the way I also see him - a man who sees Carrie for exactly who she is, cares about her as she is but wishes there were some things that were different about her. Love it, although in my head, I'm still pretending that she never slept with Aayan :P
- Misdirected: Again, a conversation I didn't know I wanted to read until I read it here. Carrie might have fucked a 'child' who happened to be an 18-20 year old young man, but Quinn's the one who actually killed a child. Chilling.
- Living Room: Oh man, totally what I wanted to write but didn't know how to write it without changing canon and this one does it perfectly. It killed me that there was that beautiful moment of intimacy post-Saul betrayal and Carrie opens her heart to him about how lost she feels (and she's still recovering from the poisoning) and Quinn just up and leaves. I could have them having the!sex, I could have cuddles - but yes, this outcome makes total sense to me and it's just beautiful ...
- Drugged: A few of us have visited the post-poisoning sequence and I like this author's take on it very much. I'm glad I only read it after I wrote my own otherwise I never would have written mine :D
- Two Rabbits: I love this conversation with Astrid. I was really worried for a moment that they'd end up having sex (haha) but I do love the intimacy, the fact that these two can talk to one another. Astrid's character is one of the many 'minor' characters that season 4 gave us that was just wonderful. What a world away from the crappy characters like Dana, Chris, Mike etc :P
- Insomnia, Part II: Ah, jealousy. I love this. I'm going to pretend it took place just before my fic Voicemail.
- Happy Family: Another person who wondered how Quinn ended up holding the baby. Holding Frannie was my take on it but I like this one, too!