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I've had recs pages up on my website for years, mostly so I could keep track of stuff I liked. It was always just a list of story titles, but it was out of hand, and disorganized, and frankly out of date for a lot of fandoms. One of my big projects currently is going back through, weeding out the stories that just don't seem as good as they used to, and leaving my own little notes on every one, so it's more of a proper recs page and less of a mess of links that makes no sense to anyone but me. (And sometimes not even me.) And I thought, hey, if I'm updating all of my recs on my website, why the hell don't I post them where people actually see them?
So here's my first set, started over five years ago when I first dove headfirst into Smallville. I may suffer from a certain amount of fannish drift, but if anything, re-reading through these has reminded me just how much I still love The Love of Epic Destiny.
Clark/Lex: Smallville Years
Apocrypha
--> A story in two phases, tied together by a metaphor, linked by idea of history and the perception thereof. Once upon a time in Smallville Lex is in love with Clark and knows he shouldn't be, and years later, his carefully constructed universe is starting to crack a little at the edges. I can't really explain just all the ways that this story works for me, but it's very immersed into Lex's headspace, the ways he constructs his own reality in ways that both help and hurt. It takes a sudden event, an impossible coincedence, to make him face some of the truths.
Apple
--> An interesting bit of backstory, a look at Clark's idea of sexuality, and the way that "gay" and "straight" don't necessarily apply to someone not human, with a neat dash of Clark's ideas of fate.
Boxed
--> In the aftermath of the Pilot, Clark discovers a kink, not just for bondage but for the person who let him down. The relationship with Lex wanders through the next episode, starting and stopping, until they both end up on the same page. It's an odd, disjointed kind of story, but I really love this version of Clark, who is adult and teenage all at once, and comes through the stages of learning and accepting parts of himself with a resigned sort of self-refletion that was fascinating to read.
Burn
--> This is an AU version of the Red K/running away to Metropolis/Lex stranded on an island story arc, where Clark is brought home much earlier, and has months to wait before Lex is finally found. The pairing is all UST, but I loved Clark's point of view in this, the gut-punch of the moment where you realizes he's managed to wrap his head into thinking that he's responsible for the plane crash, and the desperate, clinging guilt over his mother's miscarriage that isn't forgotten as easily as it was in the show. It's a really great character study of a Clark who's much more broken, less able to brush away the bad things, and a really fascinating read.
Curator of the Life and Death Museum
--> A short, mostly-happy story about Lex spending a day at the country fair, and Clark flirting, and then some kissing. I like the bits underneath about how Clark is considerably more than is visible on the surface, in ways that have nothing to do with his species, and Lex is the only one that can see through to the truth.
Edges of White
--> A really awesome h/c kind of story where Lex has been out of the country for months on business, and returns just in time for the holidays. It's a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I like the touches of Clark actually learning from past mistakes with Chloe and going out of his way to be there for Lex, even when they were on different continents.
Freud
--> If in dreams, flying equals sex, what happens if Clark accidentally starts flying in his sleep? Goes to the guy he wants to... fly with, obviously. Sleep!flying is one of those fandom-specific tropes that is just especially hilarious here.
Ice
--> Lex gets into a car accident in the snow, and Clark rescues him. There's some huddling for warmth. Look, sometimes the cliches work for me, okay?
Incarnadine
--> dubcon warnings. Lex gets Red K poisoning, and Lex makes the mistake of walking into his grasp. Lex doesn't say no, and it's not like Clark isn't something that he doesn't want, but it's very, very clear that no matter how much he's technically consenting, he's doing this because he thinks he has to, and because he doesn't actually have any way to make Clark stop. It's a fascinating look at Luthor psychology, at Lex's flexible ideas of consent, and at all the ways that love can go very wrong- and very, very right.
Karma Demands
--> Lex loses another car to Smallville weirdness, and in the aftermath part, the part they never show in action movies, Clark and Lex have a talk and Clark doesn't take as long to figure things out as you might think.
Kids' Game
--> A late-night game of truth-or-dare gets out of hand, and Clark's suddenly in deep water without realizing he dipped more than a toe in the waters. When he hits his turning point, though, he makes his choice of his own volition, not out of some Luthorian manipulation, and that's what makes all the difference. Also, there's a lot of really hot porn. Just sayin'.
meteOros, followed by Eos
--> The tone of this really what gets to me. I think it captures so well the oddball nature of their friendship, the way that Clark is so much younger than Lex but the way they stumble a little too easily into common ground nonetheless, and how it doesn't always have to fall into the virgin-whore complex; that sometimes Clark can be bolder and and more cynical, and Lex can be more hopeful and reticent, without losing sight of their characters at all. The sequel is all about the complications of the relationship they started, with secrets, the occasion lie, and Lex's inability to be monogamous- and Clark's surprising acceptance of the fact.
Of Sun, War, and Cicadas
--> Guh. A really sexy, sensual portrait of Clark in the summer, and I cannot tell you how much I sympathize with Lex's stunned, adoring arousal in this. For the first time Lex is seeing summer Clark, who's open and affectionate and aggressively emotional and sexual, and the whole thing is just tender and hot and fun.
Psychobabble
--> I absolutely adore this story, because it's so very teenage. Clark is mixed up and spun around and trying to figure things out, and his AP Psychology class, with its lesson on the Myths of Love, just makes everything more complicated. But he's sort of figuring out that Lex is the magnetic north for all of his feelings, and I like that he wasn't completely oblivious, just denying really really hard because he had some vague conception of just how bad the consequences could be. And I like that there were consequences; this felt like Clark's mythic True Love but never felt like a fairy tale. It's just, really good. Romance aside, this is how Clark and Lex should have been, if they'd both been willing to work a little harder for the common ground.
Skin Deep
--> Oh, hell yes, this is genderswitch done right, and it's influence almost every genderbender story I've ever written. What's fascinating is that Clark, as Kal, finds things ever so much easier with Lex. Easier to spend time, and talk, and to have an affair, because the complications aren't there, because his life as Kal isn't his real life and even when he thinks he's stuck that way permanently, he knows that. But because it's not real life and it doesn't have all the complications, Clark also knows that what he's doing with Lex can only go so far and that he'll never have what he really wants. The twist at the end is... not entirely surprising, because Lex is, you know, a genius and not as blind as Clark always thinks, but it's still fascinating to tilt your head the other way and reread it, with all the new layers underneath. Also I really adored Clark in this, Clark who's grown up a lot by his senior year and has finally learned to lie properly and accept unpleasant realities and move through things with a wit and pragamatism I can't help but admire. He's the kind of Clark I really wish he'd actually grown into on the show, girl-parts aside, and it goes without saying that I adore Lex in this, because it's rivkat and no one writes him quite so well.
Sleep While I Drive
--> Clark and Lex set off on a spontaneous road trip. The reasons why, all the underlying issues, unfold only slowly, in seperis' signature style, but it's got a long, slow build, certain amounts of hilarity and sweetness both, and a happy ending. What more do you need?
Switch: A Comedy of Terrors
--> Clark and Lex switch bodies, and learn a few things about each other in the meantime. I like that the secrets were basically the least of their problems, that adapting to each other's lives and learning more about each other as people was the most significant, and I love the defining moment of choice at the end, because it is just like Lex to wonder and worry and angst about the "right choice," and just like Clark to cut through it all like the Gordian knot with his own simplicity and faith.
The Big Black and White Game
--> Clark decides, apparently on a whim, to get the truth out to Lex as best as he feels able, and apparently the way to do this is chess. Lex's POV in this is great, because he clearly doesn't get what Clark is trying to do until way after we do, but he's gamely going along with it because he can't say no to Clark, especially when Clark is being canny and clever and playing to an endgame. I couldn't say no either, Lex.
The Continually Vibrating I
--> Woven through Helen's introductory episode, Clark deciphers the metaphor of Lex going postal on the meter maid's car, tied to Clark losing his virginity while on RedK in the backseat of Lex's borrowed Ferrari. Clark takes that as his opening to flirt with all the subtlety of an anvil, and Lex, finally, gives in to the inevitable. I love this Lex, torn up and jealous and uncertain and stupid with love, and I love the way Clark just cuts through the bullshit and gets them where they both want to be.
The First Four Years
--> It's the end of the year, time for senior prom, and Clark ends up getting dragged into Chloe's Roaring Twenties theme as her date. Lex is interwoven through the story, helping Chloe pick out the clothes, lending them a classic Ford, the watch he gave Clark as a gift- and finally, Chloe giving Clark the nudge he needs to man up and go make the first move, because Lex clearly isn't going to. They stumble around through Lex's issues for a little bit, and it's great because Clark is so patient and, resigned, kind of, just waiting out the end of the storm because he knows it's going to get good eventually. And, of course, it does. This is kind of an oddball story, but it's absolutely one of my favorites, one I come back to again and again.
The Laugh of the Stars
--> Sometimes I like something that's just uncomplicatedly happy, and this is it. Clark starts dreaming about alien constellations, which leaves him quiet and contemplative, just in the right frame of mind for revelations about his best friend. And then there is sex, the end. Makes me smile every time.
Twenty-One
--> I like this story because it's one of the few where Lex is the one going through a sexual identity crisis, and only belatedly figuring out that his whole obsession with Clark isn't really about Clark's destiny, while Clark is, for a change, a few steps ahead of him and making the first moves. Lex is also especially Lex-like in this, sharp edges and calculation and underlying that, the fact that in a lot of ways he's still a kid, still working things out. He doesn't have all the answers yet. He's... oddly vulnerable, and not in the woobie sense, but more in the way that teenagers are when they think they're on top of the world but secretly know that they're still climbing the mountain. If that makes any sense.
Uncle Einar
--> This is just hilarious. Clark drags Lex to his family reunion, his uncle assumes they're gay, they end up making out in the bathroom. Short, simple, sweet, funny. Also the punchline at the end is great.
Wilde Like
--> When Lex is staying with the Kents during Prodigal, Clark and Lex listen to each other through a very thin wall, and then Lex comes to talk to him because they "can't sleep," and then they mutually fail to sleep a lot more. Cute, sweet, hot. Thamiris. No more needs to be said.
I hope that there's at least some of you who will find some new story that you love, or maybe an old favorite that you'd forgotten. I certainly did!
Next up: Supernatural, Sam/Dean. Now that's a long list.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)
So here's my first set, started over five years ago when I first dove headfirst into Smallville. I may suffer from a certain amount of fannish drift, but if anything, re-reading through these has reminded me just how much I still love The Love of Epic Destiny.
Clark/Lex: Smallville Years
Apocrypha
--> A story in two phases, tied together by a metaphor, linked by idea of history and the perception thereof. Once upon a time in Smallville Lex is in love with Clark and knows he shouldn't be, and years later, his carefully constructed universe is starting to crack a little at the edges. I can't really explain just all the ways that this story works for me, but it's very immersed into Lex's headspace, the ways he constructs his own reality in ways that both help and hurt. It takes a sudden event, an impossible coincedence, to make him face some of the truths.
Apple
--> An interesting bit of backstory, a look at Clark's idea of sexuality, and the way that "gay" and "straight" don't necessarily apply to someone not human, with a neat dash of Clark's ideas of fate.
Boxed
--> In the aftermath of the Pilot, Clark discovers a kink, not just for bondage but for the person who let him down. The relationship with Lex wanders through the next episode, starting and stopping, until they both end up on the same page. It's an odd, disjointed kind of story, but I really love this version of Clark, who is adult and teenage all at once, and comes through the stages of learning and accepting parts of himself with a resigned sort of self-refletion that was fascinating to read.
Burn
--> This is an AU version of the Red K/running away to Metropolis/Lex stranded on an island story arc, where Clark is brought home much earlier, and has months to wait before Lex is finally found. The pairing is all UST, but I loved Clark's point of view in this, the gut-punch of the moment where you realizes he's managed to wrap his head into thinking that he's responsible for the plane crash, and the desperate, clinging guilt over his mother's miscarriage that isn't forgotten as easily as it was in the show. It's a really great character study of a Clark who's much more broken, less able to brush away the bad things, and a really fascinating read.
Curator of the Life and Death Museum
--> A short, mostly-happy story about Lex spending a day at the country fair, and Clark flirting, and then some kissing. I like the bits underneath about how Clark is considerably more than is visible on the surface, in ways that have nothing to do with his species, and Lex is the only one that can see through to the truth.
Edges of White
--> A really awesome h/c kind of story where Lex has been out of the country for months on business, and returns just in time for the holidays. It's a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I like the touches of Clark actually learning from past mistakes with Chloe and going out of his way to be there for Lex, even when they were on different continents.
Freud
--> If in dreams, flying equals sex, what happens if Clark accidentally starts flying in his sleep? Goes to the guy he wants to... fly with, obviously. Sleep!flying is one of those fandom-specific tropes that is just especially hilarious here.
Ice
--> Lex gets into a car accident in the snow, and Clark rescues him. There's some huddling for warmth. Look, sometimes the cliches work for me, okay?
Incarnadine
--> dubcon warnings. Lex gets Red K poisoning, and Lex makes the mistake of walking into his grasp. Lex doesn't say no, and it's not like Clark isn't something that he doesn't want, but it's very, very clear that no matter how much he's technically consenting, he's doing this because he thinks he has to, and because he doesn't actually have any way to make Clark stop. It's a fascinating look at Luthor psychology, at Lex's flexible ideas of consent, and at all the ways that love can go very wrong- and very, very right.
Karma Demands
--> Lex loses another car to Smallville weirdness, and in the aftermath part, the part they never show in action movies, Clark and Lex have a talk and Clark doesn't take as long to figure things out as you might think.
Kids' Game
--> A late-night game of truth-or-dare gets out of hand, and Clark's suddenly in deep water without realizing he dipped more than a toe in the waters. When he hits his turning point, though, he makes his choice of his own volition, not out of some Luthorian manipulation, and that's what makes all the difference. Also, there's a lot of really hot porn. Just sayin'.
meteOros, followed by Eos
--> The tone of this really what gets to me. I think it captures so well the oddball nature of their friendship, the way that Clark is so much younger than Lex but the way they stumble a little too easily into common ground nonetheless, and how it doesn't always have to fall into the virgin-whore complex; that sometimes Clark can be bolder and and more cynical, and Lex can be more hopeful and reticent, without losing sight of their characters at all. The sequel is all about the complications of the relationship they started, with secrets, the occasion lie, and Lex's inability to be monogamous- and Clark's surprising acceptance of the fact.
Of Sun, War, and Cicadas
--> Guh. A really sexy, sensual portrait of Clark in the summer, and I cannot tell you how much I sympathize with Lex's stunned, adoring arousal in this. For the first time Lex is seeing summer Clark, who's open and affectionate and aggressively emotional and sexual, and the whole thing is just tender and hot and fun.
Psychobabble
--> I absolutely adore this story, because it's so very teenage. Clark is mixed up and spun around and trying to figure things out, and his AP Psychology class, with its lesson on the Myths of Love, just makes everything more complicated. But he's sort of figuring out that Lex is the magnetic north for all of his feelings, and I like that he wasn't completely oblivious, just denying really really hard because he had some vague conception of just how bad the consequences could be. And I like that there were consequences; this felt like Clark's mythic True Love but never felt like a fairy tale. It's just, really good. Romance aside, this is how Clark and Lex should have been, if they'd both been willing to work a little harder for the common ground.
Skin Deep
--> Oh, hell yes, this is genderswitch done right, and it's influence almost every genderbender story I've ever written. What's fascinating is that Clark, as Kal, finds things ever so much easier with Lex. Easier to spend time, and talk, and to have an affair, because the complications aren't there, because his life as Kal isn't his real life and even when he thinks he's stuck that way permanently, he knows that. But because it's not real life and it doesn't have all the complications, Clark also knows that what he's doing with Lex can only go so far and that he'll never have what he really wants. The twist at the end is... not entirely surprising, because Lex is, you know, a genius and not as blind as Clark always thinks, but it's still fascinating to tilt your head the other way and reread it, with all the new layers underneath. Also I really adored Clark in this, Clark who's grown up a lot by his senior year and has finally learned to lie properly and accept unpleasant realities and move through things with a wit and pragamatism I can't help but admire. He's the kind of Clark I really wish he'd actually grown into on the show, girl-parts aside, and it goes without saying that I adore Lex in this, because it's rivkat and no one writes him quite so well.
Sleep While I Drive
--> Clark and Lex set off on a spontaneous road trip. The reasons why, all the underlying issues, unfold only slowly, in seperis' signature style, but it's got a long, slow build, certain amounts of hilarity and sweetness both, and a happy ending. What more do you need?
Switch: A Comedy of Terrors
--> Clark and Lex switch bodies, and learn a few things about each other in the meantime. I like that the secrets were basically the least of their problems, that adapting to each other's lives and learning more about each other as people was the most significant, and I love the defining moment of choice at the end, because it is just like Lex to wonder and worry and angst about the "right choice," and just like Clark to cut through it all like the Gordian knot with his own simplicity and faith.
The Big Black and White Game
--> Clark decides, apparently on a whim, to get the truth out to Lex as best as he feels able, and apparently the way to do this is chess. Lex's POV in this is great, because he clearly doesn't get what Clark is trying to do until way after we do, but he's gamely going along with it because he can't say no to Clark, especially when Clark is being canny and clever and playing to an endgame. I couldn't say no either, Lex.
The Continually Vibrating I
--> Woven through Helen's introductory episode, Clark deciphers the metaphor of Lex going postal on the meter maid's car, tied to Clark losing his virginity while on RedK in the backseat of Lex's borrowed Ferrari. Clark takes that as his opening to flirt with all the subtlety of an anvil, and Lex, finally, gives in to the inevitable. I love this Lex, torn up and jealous and uncertain and stupid with love, and I love the way Clark just cuts through the bullshit and gets them where they both want to be.
The First Four Years
--> It's the end of the year, time for senior prom, and Clark ends up getting dragged into Chloe's Roaring Twenties theme as her date. Lex is interwoven through the story, helping Chloe pick out the clothes, lending them a classic Ford, the watch he gave Clark as a gift- and finally, Chloe giving Clark the nudge he needs to man up and go make the first move, because Lex clearly isn't going to. They stumble around through Lex's issues for a little bit, and it's great because Clark is so patient and, resigned, kind of, just waiting out the end of the storm because he knows it's going to get good eventually. And, of course, it does. This is kind of an oddball story, but it's absolutely one of my favorites, one I come back to again and again.
The Laugh of the Stars
--> Sometimes I like something that's just uncomplicatedly happy, and this is it. Clark starts dreaming about alien constellations, which leaves him quiet and contemplative, just in the right frame of mind for revelations about his best friend. And then there is sex, the end. Makes me smile every time.
Twenty-One
--> I like this story because it's one of the few where Lex is the one going through a sexual identity crisis, and only belatedly figuring out that his whole obsession with Clark isn't really about Clark's destiny, while Clark is, for a change, a few steps ahead of him and making the first moves. Lex is also especially Lex-like in this, sharp edges and calculation and underlying that, the fact that in a lot of ways he's still a kid, still working things out. He doesn't have all the answers yet. He's... oddly vulnerable, and not in the woobie sense, but more in the way that teenagers are when they think they're on top of the world but secretly know that they're still climbing the mountain. If that makes any sense.
Uncle Einar
--> This is just hilarious. Clark drags Lex to his family reunion, his uncle assumes they're gay, they end up making out in the bathroom. Short, simple, sweet, funny. Also the punchline at the end is great.
Wilde Like
--> When Lex is staying with the Kents during Prodigal, Clark and Lex listen to each other through a very thin wall, and then Lex comes to talk to him because they "can't sleep," and then they mutually fail to sleep a lot more. Cute, sweet, hot. Thamiris. No more needs to be said.
I hope that there's at least some of you who will find some new story that you love, or maybe an old favorite that you'd forgotten. I certainly did!
Next up: Supernatural, Sam/Dean. Now that's a long list.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)