ATTN: I AM AWFUL
This post is so incredibly belated. Also. Um. To those of you I owe cards, I PROMISE THEY ARE COMING. They are, uh. Early winterish holiday cards! And it's always nice to get unexpected mail, right?
But that is not even why I'm awful. I shall make a list of the awesomeness that I have unexpectedly been showered with -- if I were a better person, I would have recced these all over the place much earlier. There is no excuse. But I can only move forward, and so:
1. Approximately ten billion years ago, 42footprints wrote me a story for my birthday. In my defense, I was struck speechless. It is absolutely pitch-perfect ghostverse!Frank POV, more lyrical than I could ever imagine. She is insanely, terrifyingly good with words. It is gorgeous and aching and sweet and funny, and you should all go read it immediately and let her know how lovely she is.
eternal torment and nightly solitude by 42footprints
He felt vaguely vampiric, not because he wanted to drink Gerard’s blood, how the hell would he even digest it, and oh god that was disgusting and thank you very much he didn’t want to think about it. But yeah, the jump of a pulse under his lips, fingers, was seductive in a visceral way that was surely unfair when he didn’t even have viscera. Living boys, man, they were going to be the death of him.
2. YAGKYAS! I got the most gorgeous story, a Nate/Ray crossover with Doctor Who. Set in Britain during the 70s, the atmosphere and language is GORGEOUS, and Nate is such a perfect Doctor, and Ray such a great, great Companion, filthy and blunt and bright.
We Don't Waste No Precious Time by salvadore_hart
"I'm the Doctor," the man finally says after an inappropriately long silence.
"Joshua Raymond Person," Ray croaks out, instinctively, and embarrassed immediately. He silently counts his blessings that his mum never managed to teach him proper manners for addressing the Queen because he is five seconds from curtsying. The man, the Doctor, takes his hand and shakes it.
3. YULETIDE! Holy crap, I made out like a bandit. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I got not one, but FOUR stories and THREE madness ficlets.
Two of the stories were Johannes Cabal - Necromancer fics, which made me kick my feet with delight and joy. One of the best, most amazing parts of Yuletide is discovering that other people love a tiny, random little fandom as much as you do, and this definitely qualifies. I absolutely adore this book -- it's dark and hilarious and morbid, and I hoped I'd get a story for it, but suspected I wouldn't. And then I got TWO. LIFE IS AWESOME.
human remains by Vnutrenni is just GORGEOUS. It's Horst-POV and it's lyrical and creepy and not-quite-human. I really, really adored how it doesn't romanticize the vampire experience at all, captures how unhappy and tired Horst is at the same time that it shows how smart and observant and noble he can be. And his relationship with Johannes is just -- fantastic. Oh, BOYS. (Also, there's a Sharktopus cameo, which obviously is the way to my heart. :DDDDDDD)
In his boyhood, he’d entertained the standard fantasies of being a spy, privy to guarded information and wonderfully destructive toys. He actually would have expected to delight in his present faculties -- even the thing where he drank blood and hid from daylight; boys were twisted, really -- but there was no getting around the fact that it just ... wasn’t fun. He heard everything, and his ears rang and his head hurt. He saw everything, and it only made him want to look away. All the finer nuances he picked up on people spoke of their pain or fear or weakness and the part of him that leaped on those things with a startling, crooked grin was a creature he had come to know very well. It was hungry and cruel and it thought quite highly of itself. Horst didn’t like it.
AND!
Better to Have Loved and Lost by misura is also Horst-POV, and it has a seriously fantastic pre-series look at the brothers, and it is teasing and tantalizing and hilarious and heart-wrenching. And it makes great use of that one throw-away line that captured my shipper's heart in the book, about the homoerotic aspect of vampiric feeding. Just, awesome.
Johannes nodded sharply, once. "I will draw up a schedule. Too many of these ... transfusions might hinder my capability to function properly, so it is simply out of the question for me to provide them to you on a nightly basis, but one out of three or four nights should not pose too much of a burden."
"I ... " Horst started, not sure how to continue the sentence.
"As you pointed out, I am in your debt." Johannes looked away, possibly outside, to the Carnival, eager to get back to work. "It is the least I can do for you."
Then I got a WIRE FIC, AHHH! And it's Ziggy and Omar, my two very favorite characters!
Practical Legends by kristin! When I first started watching the show, I had a hard time imagining fic for it, because it's so indepth and intricate and amazing a canon, but then I kept watching and wanting MORE, and Kristin aptly demonstrates how freaking amazing Wire fic can be. This is Ziggy POV, all bravado and off-kilter and him trying SO HARD, and it gives you what the show doesn't -- a moment where he runs into Omar Little. It's brilliant and perfectly characterized and the tone is amazing. I can hardly stand it.
“See, that was just what I was thinking. My cousin Nicky, see, he doesn’t want me spending my money on anything, even though I totally earned it fair and square. But the way I see it, this coat is exactly what you said, practical. So no matter what, he can’t complain. Because who doesn’t need a coat?” Ziggy stopped. “I realize I am rambling, normally someone would have cut me off by this point."
“Nah, it cool. You’re like a little fountain of words.” The dude with the scar handed him the coat. Fuck it. Ziggy was just going to call him Scarface. Hopefully he wouldn’t forget himself and say it out loud, because he looked like a tough mofo.
AND THEN, TOTALLY UNEXPECTEDLY, I got MACHETE FIC.
Road Trip by Truth. I made Truth watch this movie with me earlier in the Yuletide season, but I hadn't asked for it as a prompt, so this lovely, wonderful story came out of nowhere and completely knocked my socks off. God, I absolutely adored this movie. I mean, I love Robert Rodriguez, and I love over-the-top camp and action, and I love how much this movie says without taking itself too seriously. And the LADIES in this movie are FREAKING AMAZING, and Truth fleshes out such an amazing post-movie story that it sets me dreaming -- I want this on film so bad.
Ninety seconds later, April found herself dazed, naked and soaking wet, being forcibly held underneath a rusty showerhead as lukewarm water came sluicing down on her.
“Don’t even think it,” Mona advised her cheerfully. She had both April’s hands twisted up behind her. “Just wash - and if you behave yourself, we might get you some real clothes.”
“You’ll get her something else to wear. She’s not a very convincing nun.” Luz was leaning in the doorway, ensuring privacy in case of other late night bathers. “Besides, we can hardly drag a naked blonde around with us. People might talk.”
4. You would not be wrong to think that this is an embarrassment of riches, but then Yuletide Madness happened, and just... wow. Maybe I did something good in a past life, or maybe I made the Yulegoat especially happy this year, I don't know. But wow.
I got two Wire Madness fics, and both are EPICALLY BRILLIANT in totally different ways.
The Captain Always Loved A Good Rescue by keerawa is just, AHHHH. I love the idea of the Wire in a different universe, keeping the complexities of the characters, and this snippet provides such an incredibly cool, tantalizing example of that. A Firefly crossover with Omar Little as one of the browncoats, a thief that's going after the Alliance, and Mal and Zoe have to rescue him. So, so cool. I would read a hundred thousand words of this.
Brains by evilhippo. A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE WIRE AU. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE. This is just a GENIUS take-off on Bunk and McNulty and their particular mode of communication, and it is stellar and hilarious and WIN. Especially for the Stringer. Just, if you love the Wire and you have a passing fondness for zombies, READ IT. GOGOGO.
And then, a snippet from one of my all-time favorite books -- Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee.
at about sunset by spoke. This is just a gorgeous little post-canon slice of their lives, with Esten and the narrator and their son. Makes me want to read a sequel so very, very badly, but is gorgeous just as-is.
So, yeah. I am the luckiest. And later, I will do one of those "here's what I wrote, here was my year-in-writing, etc etc" posts, but for now, I am going to go re-read some of these amazing stories and marvel at the awesomeness of fandom. &youguys;
ETA: I FORGOT TO ANNOUNCE! In super-exciting news, Carrying Dangerous Goods was podficced by dodificus, who is one of my favorite readers! And I am about to go on a hella long cartrip, so this is VERY SERENDIPITOUS! :DDDDD
But that is not even why I'm awful. I shall make a list of the awesomeness that I have unexpectedly been showered with -- if I were a better person, I would have recced these all over the place much earlier. There is no excuse. But I can only move forward, and so:
1. Approximately ten billion years ago, 42footprints wrote me a story for my birthday. In my defense, I was struck speechless. It is absolutely pitch-perfect ghostverse!Frank POV, more lyrical than I could ever imagine. She is insanely, terrifyingly good with words. It is gorgeous and aching and sweet and funny, and you should all go read it immediately and let her know how lovely she is.
eternal torment and nightly solitude by 42footprints
He felt vaguely vampiric, not because he wanted to drink Gerard’s blood, how the hell would he even digest it, and oh god that was disgusting and thank you very much he didn’t want to think about it. But yeah, the jump of a pulse under his lips, fingers, was seductive in a visceral way that was surely unfair when he didn’t even have viscera. Living boys, man, they were going to be the death of him.
2. YAGKYAS! I got the most gorgeous story, a Nate/Ray crossover with Doctor Who. Set in Britain during the 70s, the atmosphere and language is GORGEOUS, and Nate is such a perfect Doctor, and Ray such a great, great Companion, filthy and blunt and bright.
We Don't Waste No Precious Time by salvadore_hart
"I'm the Doctor," the man finally says after an inappropriately long silence.
"Joshua Raymond Person," Ray croaks out, instinctively, and embarrassed immediately. He silently counts his blessings that his mum never managed to teach him proper manners for addressing the Queen because he is five seconds from curtsying. The man, the Doctor, takes his hand and shakes it.
3. YULETIDE! Holy crap, I made out like a bandit. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I got not one, but FOUR stories and THREE madness ficlets.
Two of the stories were Johannes Cabal - Necromancer fics, which made me kick my feet with delight and joy. One of the best, most amazing parts of Yuletide is discovering that other people love a tiny, random little fandom as much as you do, and this definitely qualifies. I absolutely adore this book -- it's dark and hilarious and morbid, and I hoped I'd get a story for it, but suspected I wouldn't. And then I got TWO. LIFE IS AWESOME.
human remains by Vnutrenni is just GORGEOUS. It's Horst-POV and it's lyrical and creepy and not-quite-human. I really, really adored how it doesn't romanticize the vampire experience at all, captures how unhappy and tired Horst is at the same time that it shows how smart and observant and noble he can be. And his relationship with Johannes is just -- fantastic. Oh, BOYS. (Also, there's a Sharktopus cameo, which obviously is the way to my heart. :DDDDDDD)
In his boyhood, he’d entertained the standard fantasies of being a spy, privy to guarded information and wonderfully destructive toys. He actually would have expected to delight in his present faculties -- even the thing where he drank blood and hid from daylight; boys were twisted, really -- but there was no getting around the fact that it just ... wasn’t fun. He heard everything, and his ears rang and his head hurt. He saw everything, and it only made him want to look away. All the finer nuances he picked up on people spoke of their pain or fear or weakness and the part of him that leaped on those things with a startling, crooked grin was a creature he had come to know very well. It was hungry and cruel and it thought quite highly of itself. Horst didn’t like it.
AND!
Better to Have Loved and Lost by misura is also Horst-POV, and it has a seriously fantastic pre-series look at the brothers, and it is teasing and tantalizing and hilarious and heart-wrenching. And it makes great use of that one throw-away line that captured my shipper's heart in the book, about the homoerotic aspect of vampiric feeding. Just, awesome.
Johannes nodded sharply, once. "I will draw up a schedule. Too many of these ... transfusions might hinder my capability to function properly, so it is simply out of the question for me to provide them to you on a nightly basis, but one out of three or four nights should not pose too much of a burden."
"I ... " Horst started, not sure how to continue the sentence.
"As you pointed out, I am in your debt." Johannes looked away, possibly outside, to the Carnival, eager to get back to work. "It is the least I can do for you."
Then I got a WIRE FIC, AHHH! And it's Ziggy and Omar, my two very favorite characters!
Practical Legends by kristin! When I first started watching the show, I had a hard time imagining fic for it, because it's so indepth and intricate and amazing a canon, but then I kept watching and wanting MORE, and Kristin aptly demonstrates how freaking amazing Wire fic can be. This is Ziggy POV, all bravado and off-kilter and him trying SO HARD, and it gives you what the show doesn't -- a moment where he runs into Omar Little. It's brilliant and perfectly characterized and the tone is amazing. I can hardly stand it.
“See, that was just what I was thinking. My cousin Nicky, see, he doesn’t want me spending my money on anything, even though I totally earned it fair and square. But the way I see it, this coat is exactly what you said, practical. So no matter what, he can’t complain. Because who doesn’t need a coat?” Ziggy stopped. “I realize I am rambling, normally someone would have cut me off by this point."
“Nah, it cool. You’re like a little fountain of words.” The dude with the scar handed him the coat. Fuck it. Ziggy was just going to call him Scarface. Hopefully he wouldn’t forget himself and say it out loud, because he looked like a tough mofo.
AND THEN, TOTALLY UNEXPECTEDLY, I got MACHETE FIC.
Road Trip by Truth. I made Truth watch this movie with me earlier in the Yuletide season, but I hadn't asked for it as a prompt, so this lovely, wonderful story came out of nowhere and completely knocked my socks off. God, I absolutely adored this movie. I mean, I love Robert Rodriguez, and I love over-the-top camp and action, and I love how much this movie says without taking itself too seriously. And the LADIES in this movie are FREAKING AMAZING, and Truth fleshes out such an amazing post-movie story that it sets me dreaming -- I want this on film so bad.
Ninety seconds later, April found herself dazed, naked and soaking wet, being forcibly held underneath a rusty showerhead as lukewarm water came sluicing down on her.
“Don’t even think it,” Mona advised her cheerfully. She had both April’s hands twisted up behind her. “Just wash - and if you behave yourself, we might get you some real clothes.”
“You’ll get her something else to wear. She’s not a very convincing nun.” Luz was leaning in the doorway, ensuring privacy in case of other late night bathers. “Besides, we can hardly drag a naked blonde around with us. People might talk.”
4. You would not be wrong to think that this is an embarrassment of riches, but then Yuletide Madness happened, and just... wow. Maybe I did something good in a past life, or maybe I made the Yulegoat especially happy this year, I don't know. But wow.
I got two Wire Madness fics, and both are EPICALLY BRILLIANT in totally different ways.
The Captain Always Loved A Good Rescue by keerawa is just, AHHHH. I love the idea of the Wire in a different universe, keeping the complexities of the characters, and this snippet provides such an incredibly cool, tantalizing example of that. A Firefly crossover with Omar Little as one of the browncoats, a thief that's going after the Alliance, and Mal and Zoe have to rescue him. So, so cool. I would read a hundred thousand words of this.
Brains by evilhippo. A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE WIRE AU. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE. This is just a GENIUS take-off on Bunk and McNulty and their particular mode of communication, and it is stellar and hilarious and WIN. Especially for the Stringer. Just, if you love the Wire and you have a passing fondness for zombies, READ IT. GOGOGO.
And then, a snippet from one of my all-time favorite books -- Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee.
at about sunset by spoke. This is just a gorgeous little post-canon slice of their lives, with Esten and the narrator and their son. Makes me want to read a sequel so very, very badly, but is gorgeous just as-is.
So, yeah. I am the luckiest. And later, I will do one of those "here's what I wrote, here was my year-in-writing, etc etc" posts, but for now, I am going to go re-read some of these amazing stories and marvel at the awesomeness of fandom. &youguys;
ETA: I FORGOT TO ANNOUNCE! In super-exciting news, Carrying Dangerous Goods was podficced by dodificus, who is one of my favorite readers! And I am about to go on a hella long cartrip, so this is VERY SERENDIPITOUS! :DDDDD