Clearing out the archives
I was going through my Pocket account and found a few old fics that I'd bookmarked. I read them instead of studying and found that I really miss seeing Mike and Tom in SPNRPF! I also find it strange how characterization for RPF characters seems more all over the map than it used to be. I would've thought the opposite, because with so many cons, and twitter, it should be easier to get a handle on characterization (or at least, the characterization of the persona that an actor portrays to the public. You know what I mean). I wonder if it's the fact that there are just more AUs in general, so people don't put as much thought into the characterization of side characters? It still bothers me though >.<
What also bugs me about RPF fic nowadays though: too many duplicate names. Sometimes I don't know whether to picture Samantha Smith or Ferris, Mark Pellegrino or Mark Sheppard. Is it Mike, Tom, Jason, Steve, the RPF characters, or are those just the names of OCs that the author happened to pick?
Also, I find that the tags "first time" and "established relationship" are completely useless to me. I don't think I've ever been looking for fic and thought to myself, "I really want to read a fic where Jared and Jensen get together for the first time". It's just not on my radar at all.
That said, here's a rec for an old Sam/Dean first-time fic! NC-17, 17,000 words:
Who Here Would Choose (To Walk in Those Shoes) by
philalethia
Summary: "I want to know how my brother dies," Sam says. To the wrong person.
In addition to making me realize I have a thing for dysfunctional brother relationships, SPN has also made me realize I have a thing for death!fic. This fic doesn't involve a major character's death (although it does focus on it quite a bit), but it does involve lots of minor character death. And that's what really makes this fic for me. It's set during S3 and I love getting the look into Sam's head and seeing how he deals with all this death.
What also bugs me about RPF fic nowadays though: too many duplicate names. Sometimes I don't know whether to picture Samantha Smith or Ferris, Mark Pellegrino or Mark Sheppard. Is it Mike, Tom, Jason, Steve, the RPF characters, or are those just the names of OCs that the author happened to pick?
Also, I find that the tags "first time" and "established relationship" are completely useless to me. I don't think I've ever been looking for fic and thought to myself, "I really want to read a fic where Jared and Jensen get together for the first time". It's just not on my radar at all.
That said, here's a rec for an old Sam/Dean first-time fic! NC-17, 17,000 words:
Who Here Would Choose (To Walk in Those Shoes) by
philalethia
Summary: "I want to know how my brother dies," Sam says. To the wrong person.
In addition to making me realize I have a thing for dysfunctional brother relationships, SPN has also made me realize I have a thing for death!fic. This fic doesn't involve a major character's death (although it does focus on it quite a bit), but it does involve lots of minor character death. And that's what really makes this fic for me. It's set during S3 and I love getting the look into Sam's head and seeing how he deals with all this death.