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Tomorrow I am going to start the daunting task of coding the links I've collected for Sherlock because I spent most of my Labor Day fucking around on the internet, but for tonight, I think I'm going to clean out my file in anticipation.
Avatar: the Last Airbender
Game On (Mai/Zuko)
--> Zuko is still terrible at pai sho, but as it turns out, Mai, not so much. Short and sweet and a delightful bit of clever fun.
Marvel Moviverse
for today or the rest of my life (Tony/Pepper, Pepper/OMC)
--> I read this story a while ago, lost it, and was utterly delighted to rediscover it because it's just brilliant. It's Pepper dating and getting a little serious about some guy who has nothing whatsoever to do with Tony Stark, and Tony just does not cope, because he is just the teeniest bit possessive- and because it's Pepper. And maybe the guy isn't going to last the way that Tony does, but it's not because she loves Tony so much: exactly the opposite. The way that it all plays out is just such an awesome insight into Pepper, eternally doomed to be viewed as Tony's long-suffering nanny but always so very, very much more. I love this because I love Pepper and this is a story that reminds me of all the reasons why Pepper probably loves herself just as much.
Pride and Prejudice
Five Sons Mr. and Mrs. Bennet Never Had (some gen, some John Bennet/Caroline Bingley, some Edward Bennet/Darcy)
--> This is brilliant, just brilliant. A series of self-contained AU's looking at each of the Bennet daughters as if they were the only son, and each one is such a fascinating portrait of what a difference gender can make: and what a difference it very much doesn't. Lucas, for example, in his harebrained friendship with Wickham, is just the same. John's kindness, Matthew's priggishness, all the same. I think my favorite was Edward and Darcy, but that's because I'm a romantic at heart.
Robin McKinely: Sunshine
Gyre (gen)
--> This is note-perfect, every single word. Sunshine realizes that someone has put a bug in her brain, and eventually realizes that it was the Goddess of Pain, and with Con's help she manages to take it out but has to consider her response. The way she eventually resolves the situation made me laugh and cheer for her a little out loud, because it got the heart of what made her such an awesome character: not the craziness of the supernatural aspect or her weird-ass powers or even the way she could take all of this with a minimum of mental breakdowns, but the normal part of her, the part that had a family that built her a bakery so she could make amazing things.
Sports Night
Golf (Dan/Casey)
--> Dan decides to give up golf: this despite the fact that he does not play golf currently. But in this, as in all things Sports Night, Dan isn't just talking about golf, and when your realize what he's really saying it's a little sad and melancholy. Casey does figure it out eventually, though. If only because Natalie pretty much beats it into him.
Smallville
Repent at Leisure (Clark/Lex, futurefic)
--> This is... it's sort of shotgun-wedding meets marriage-of-convenience, but in a very clever, cutting sort of way. Lois is poisoned and Clark agrees to go through the Ritual of Rao with Lex, because he'll get the antidote and Lex with get the appearance of Superman's endorsement as he's gearing up to run for President. Nothing is ever that simple, though, because the bracelets that they wear have an interesting side-effect of forced obedience: which makes the whole thing a (very sexy) battle of wits and wills as their dramas are played out in the bedroom and splashed across the media. This is also a story that doesn't shy away from the problems of dubious consent, and the idea that dubious consent isn't just about some alien artifact compelling obedience; that there are a million worse ways to keep someone from saying no. Ultimately it's a story about how Clark and Lex were bound together by destiny without their say-so but when finally given the choice, they choose each other and their own destiny. It's pretty awesome. And it allows Clark to be pretty awesomely clever in his own right, which is only just for a Pulitzer-winning journalist and international superhero, so I was pretty happy all around. Awesome story that manages to be funny and light-hearted and serious and intelligent all at once.
Supernatural
Boy Falling Out of the Sky and the sequel, All the Dreaded Cards Fortell
--> These are both brilliant. The first story is Sam starting over at yet another high school, and sticking up for a pair of bullied young teens because he's been them far too many times. The pair of them are a little more than meets the eye, though, and Sam finds himself trying to figure out what to do with a ghost, having discussions with Dean about his sexuality, and being in love with his brother. Things do not exactly go according to his plan. The sequel is about them after the honeymoon has basically worn off, living their life in secret and working out the logistics and basically being happy for a change, until a cursed carnival starts fucking things up for everyone. I personally find the ending pretty bittersweet, the same way I do with all non-AU pre-series stuff, because they might be happy but we know that the things that made them unhappy are just going to come back with a vengeance. They're both utterly fantastic stories, though.
Dating for Dummies (Sam/Dean)
--> This is just cute. Sam was prepared for a lot of things after they slept together, up to and including massive freakouts and stony denial, but he wasn't expecting Dean to.... date him. And hilariously, Dean just can't seem to help it.
Dust in the Wind (gen, fusion with American Gods)
--> This is one of the better crossovers I've ever seen. Sam and Dean, like so many of the new gods, fill a need that people don't even realize they have, and without realizing it, they grow into the gods of Americana, small towns and open roads and hunting and diner food and classic cars and classic rock. It's a story with essentially no beginning and no ending, just a lot of middle, but it's slow and sneaky and brilliant, with some awesome cameos from American Gods. You don't have to know the book to get this story, though. It's all written out for you and the concept is universal enough to make room.
Erase the Dream (Rewrite the Scene) (Sam/Dean)
--> The much-awaited companion piece to the fantastic I Already Know (On With the Show). I absolutely loved Dean's perspective, the way he can't help but see Sam in Prior despite all the magic in place to prevent it, and how just as Sam thinks Dean is going to be the one to kill him, Dean feels like he's walking dead. I don't think the two stories matched up exactly in their versions of events, but I didn't care, because emotionally they're a perfect complement to each other.
Full Service Firm (RPF, Jared/Jensen)
--> Okay, so it's a total cliche-prompt. Jared mistakes Jensen for a hooker, Jensen really wants to get laid so he goes along with it, and then it snowballs epically out of control. The thing is that it not only filled the id-button-mashing nature of the prompt but took it above and beyond anything I expected; Jensen's resigned and slightly defiant sense of being a workaholic is well-matched by Jared's enthusiasm and cleverness. This is basically and awesome story about two people who fit really well and because of the circumstances are trying very hard not to feel that; when the obstacles are cleared away they're free to dive in headfirst. Awesome and utterly happy-making.
Hating the Weather (Dean/Sam)
--> This is the story of Dee Winchester, who gets turned into a man and has to learn to live that way. I never left a comment on the actual story, and I feel really bad about that, but it was because I just wandered around for weeks after reading about it, turning the story over in my head, trying to figure out what to say and coming up empty. It took me that hard.
On one level, it's an incredibly well-constructed AU, just utterly clever in every little detail. The differences of Sam-and-Ruby here, for one thing, are particularly brilliant, especially looking back and knowing that Ruby's endgoal was always to get him to overload on demon blood and jack up his powers; what she did to get him there was essentially irrelevant to her, and Sam will always be a little insane about his elder sibling. It didn't feel like Sam in canon, desperate to finally have power of his own, because Sam with an elder sister is a man who's always been looked on as the one with power and he's spent his whole life trying to hand it off to his sister. It's just smart.
On another level, the meta of gender politics and privilege is breathtaking and managed not to feel at all preachy; some of the questions posed left me thinking for days, weeks afterward. Is it right to choose a position of privilege if given the option, especially if you've lived your life fighting off the consequences of not having that privilege? Dee knows that it's a big risk for her to hunt alone, Dee knows that the attention is always on her more than it should be, people might fondly remember a handsome FBI agent/cop/CDC guy/reporter/whatever, but they might treat a woman in that same position with a lot more suspicion and hostility. And hunting isn't always a woman-friendly environment, as the show couldn't help but demonstrate, and I can only imagine things were so much worse for Dee because she was still a child when they were first in the life. She wasn't a woman who was a hunter, she was literally a girl tagging along at Daddy's heels.
And finally the story just about killed me because I fell in love with it, head over heels and just stupid about it, I loved Dee and her quiet sense of adapting to life's lemons if it killed her, her gentle and terrifying awareness and even acceptance of how much the world sucks, the way she tried to protect Sam by not letting him know the worst of it, the way that she chose to become Dean not just because she had to, but because she maybe, in the end, kind of wanted to. And Sam, so protective and trying so hard not to be because he doesn't want his sister to be someone who needs protection, all the ways he finally comes to understand what life was really like for her and the way he just hurts over it, and just how far he can talk himself in the worst things in the world and how he can talk himself back out because he loves his sister. And ultimately I loved Sam and Dean, because they're incredible and I just know that someday, after the story ends, they're going to go on and kick the ass of all the angels and save the world no matter the cost. They're our Sam-n-Dean, but a little closer, a little more worn, and a little wiser. I love them.
I'm home again on my old narrow bed (gen)
--> This is a long, slow-motion punch in the gut. It's exactly what the writers were trying to write around in seasons 4 and 5, Dean's long breakdown after all the years of torture and loss and grief. This story is going to be shiveringly familiar to anyone who knows or knows about soldiers returning home from the war. It's also a little painful to read, but it's so good at what it's saying, and if you like hurt/comfort with the brothers desperately needing to take care of each other, this is the story for you.
Lines (gen)
--> Post-Swan Song story of Dean trying to find his way in normal life and being with Ben, and maybe he's not really prepared for it, but he's realizing that there's surprisingly a lot that carries over from his old life to his new.
Odysseus, American (Sam/Dean)
--> This is Dean, in the years that Sam's at Stanford, travelling around the country by himself and not really able to find his way home, because Sam's it and Sam doesn't want him. Of course, things are a lot more complicated than that, and the reader is left guessing at what's going through Sam's head during all of this, but I really felt for Dean, here. He's left adrift to manage on his own, and mostly he does, but he's not a man meant to be alone, and it shows. He and Sam reach out to each other, sometimes, and they come so close to something new and strange and huge: but in the end, Sam veers away to normalcy and Jess, and we know how the rest of that story goes.
Primary Care (gen)
--> This is hurt/comfort for people who like to laugh at someone else's pain. Not Dean (being laid up with the flu) or Cas (who's feeling Dean's flu) but rather Sam, who's stuck taking care of what have to be the two worst patients in the history of time. The exasperated affection comes through clearly, though, despite all of drama and complaining and long-suffering whining. Dean (and sometimes Cas) may drive absolutely crazy, but Sam loves him anyway.
Suspended in my Silver Cage (implied Sam/Dean)
--> Oh, this just hurts, sharp as a needle and twice the point. There's a scandal playing out in their high school, but it's not Sam and Dean: it's a girl and her brother, and not surprisingly, it all goes wrong. The mirror's-edge echo of this is brilliant, and the last line is so clever and cutting I kept coming back to this story even when I wasn't sure I liked it.
Stargate Atlantis
The Tragic, Doomed, and Epic Life and Loves of Elizabeth Jean McKay, Plus Other Interesting stuff (background Sheppard/McKay)
--> This is the story of Sheppard and McKay's accidental daughter, and her search for the perfect (tragic) romantic story at the advanced age of twelve. I loved the look at her life on Atlantis, the hilarious "it takes a village" nature of the staff of the Atlantis base all pitching in, and the way her (tragic) romance really worked out isn't a surprise, but it's worth it anyway. And the underlying story of her secret project to make an anniversary present for her parents did NOT go where I thought it was going, and it was awesome. Really great, funny story.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Functional (O'Brien/Bashir)
--> Have a little angst for breakfast! I like this story because it really works the underlying metaphor in a really clever way without overplaying its hand, and because it doesn't downplay how utterly, incredibly intelligent Bashir really is. The kind of intelligence that allows you to do anything you choose to do, the kind of intelligence that's frankly terrifying when you think about it. It showcases why people have good reason to feel uneasy about Augments, and at the same time showing how much Bashir really is a good man, and how desperately he tries to be better.
Orfeo (gen, though the sequel stories are Jake/OMC)
--> Oh, but this story made me clutch at my heart and sigh in spellbound rapture, because much like DS9 itself, it just said so many important things. Another teenage boy arrives at the station that Jake manages to befriend: but the difference is that this boy is not only alien biologically, but is a castrati singer, which means that he's very much alien culturally, as well. It's a story about making the hard choices, about choosing to befriend someone even when everyone thinks that they're strange and you know they're going to judge you by association, about doing the right thing even when it sucks because the rewards are worth it. I really loved Jake as he grew up in canon, and this is exactly the story to remind me just why he was awesome.
Star Trek Reboot
Are You Gonna Be My Girl? (Or Three Birthdays to Remember) and the super happy bonus ending (Kirk/Gaila/Uhura, Kirk/Uhura)
--> This story is a little sad, and a lot sexy, and very sweet. Uhura hooked up with the two of them once before, back at the Academy, and after Gaila is gone, she manages to redefine her connection to Jim, through their shared grief and simply because they love each other when they don't want to beat each other stupider. Features alien sex toys, drunk sex, and aliens made them do it. For the most part, not all at the same time.
Fighting Gravity (Kirk/Spock)
--> This is a really awesome AU that grew out of a really cracktastic concept. I really love the idea of a Spock who hated being "destined" so much that when told by Spock Prime what his life would contain, he went out of his way to do the EXACT OPPOSITE. Except of course things didn't work out so well for him on Vulcan THIS time around, either, so it's five years later and Kirk finds him under some... unusual circumstances, and over the course of his leave Jim slowly not only befriends his wayward would-be first officer, but also works to put destiny back on its proper course.
The Losers
Partial Harmonics (Cougar/Jensen, Cougar/Jensen/Aisha)
--> This is a really fantastic series. The main story is about Cougar getting taken and Jensen losing his shit to get him back, and Aisha along for the ride and figuring a few things out as she goes. It's Aisha realizing that this is pretty much her team now, and more than just her having a place, she has a place with these two, specifically. There's also a lot of awesome family stuff in the background, about Jensen's sister and his niece, which fully fleshes out two barely-there characters into something real and awesome, and the closeness of the three of them is just beautiful to read.
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Avatar: the Last Airbender
Game On (Mai/Zuko)
--> Zuko is still terrible at pai sho, but as it turns out, Mai, not so much. Short and sweet and a delightful bit of clever fun.
Marvel Moviverse
for today or the rest of my life (Tony/Pepper, Pepper/OMC)
--> I read this story a while ago, lost it, and was utterly delighted to rediscover it because it's just brilliant. It's Pepper dating and getting a little serious about some guy who has nothing whatsoever to do with Tony Stark, and Tony just does not cope, because he is just the teeniest bit possessive- and because it's Pepper. And maybe the guy isn't going to last the way that Tony does, but it's not because she loves Tony so much: exactly the opposite. The way that it all plays out is just such an awesome insight into Pepper, eternally doomed to be viewed as Tony's long-suffering nanny but always so very, very much more. I love this because I love Pepper and this is a story that reminds me of all the reasons why Pepper probably loves herself just as much.
Pride and Prejudice
Five Sons Mr. and Mrs. Bennet Never Had (some gen, some John Bennet/Caroline Bingley, some Edward Bennet/Darcy)
--> This is brilliant, just brilliant. A series of self-contained AU's looking at each of the Bennet daughters as if they were the only son, and each one is such a fascinating portrait of what a difference gender can make: and what a difference it very much doesn't. Lucas, for example, in his harebrained friendship with Wickham, is just the same. John's kindness, Matthew's priggishness, all the same. I think my favorite was Edward and Darcy, but that's because I'm a romantic at heart.
Robin McKinely: Sunshine
Gyre (gen)
--> This is note-perfect, every single word. Sunshine realizes that someone has put a bug in her brain, and eventually realizes that it was the Goddess of Pain, and with Con's help she manages to take it out but has to consider her response. The way she eventually resolves the situation made me laugh and cheer for her a little out loud, because it got the heart of what made her such an awesome character: not the craziness of the supernatural aspect or her weird-ass powers or even the way she could take all of this with a minimum of mental breakdowns, but the normal part of her, the part that had a family that built her a bakery so she could make amazing things.
Sports Night
Golf (Dan/Casey)
--> Dan decides to give up golf: this despite the fact that he does not play golf currently. But in this, as in all things Sports Night, Dan isn't just talking about golf, and when your realize what he's really saying it's a little sad and melancholy. Casey does figure it out eventually, though. If only because Natalie pretty much beats it into him.
Smallville
Repent at Leisure (Clark/Lex, futurefic)
--> This is... it's sort of shotgun-wedding meets marriage-of-convenience, but in a very clever, cutting sort of way. Lois is poisoned and Clark agrees to go through the Ritual of Rao with Lex, because he'll get the antidote and Lex with get the appearance of Superman's endorsement as he's gearing up to run for President. Nothing is ever that simple, though, because the bracelets that they wear have an interesting side-effect of forced obedience: which makes the whole thing a (very sexy) battle of wits and wills as their dramas are played out in the bedroom and splashed across the media. This is also a story that doesn't shy away from the problems of dubious consent, and the idea that dubious consent isn't just about some alien artifact compelling obedience; that there are a million worse ways to keep someone from saying no. Ultimately it's a story about how Clark and Lex were bound together by destiny without their say-so but when finally given the choice, they choose each other and their own destiny. It's pretty awesome. And it allows Clark to be pretty awesomely clever in his own right, which is only just for a Pulitzer-winning journalist and international superhero, so I was pretty happy all around. Awesome story that manages to be funny and light-hearted and serious and intelligent all at once.
Supernatural
Boy Falling Out of the Sky and the sequel, All the Dreaded Cards Fortell
--> These are both brilliant. The first story is Sam starting over at yet another high school, and sticking up for a pair of bullied young teens because he's been them far too many times. The pair of them are a little more than meets the eye, though, and Sam finds himself trying to figure out what to do with a ghost, having discussions with Dean about his sexuality, and being in love with his brother. Things do not exactly go according to his plan. The sequel is about them after the honeymoon has basically worn off, living their life in secret and working out the logistics and basically being happy for a change, until a cursed carnival starts fucking things up for everyone. I personally find the ending pretty bittersweet, the same way I do with all non-AU pre-series stuff, because they might be happy but we know that the things that made them unhappy are just going to come back with a vengeance. They're both utterly fantastic stories, though.
Dating for Dummies (Sam/Dean)
--> This is just cute. Sam was prepared for a lot of things after they slept together, up to and including massive freakouts and stony denial, but he wasn't expecting Dean to.... date him. And hilariously, Dean just can't seem to help it.
Dust in the Wind (gen, fusion with American Gods)
--> This is one of the better crossovers I've ever seen. Sam and Dean, like so many of the new gods, fill a need that people don't even realize they have, and without realizing it, they grow into the gods of Americana, small towns and open roads and hunting and diner food and classic cars and classic rock. It's a story with essentially no beginning and no ending, just a lot of middle, but it's slow and sneaky and brilliant, with some awesome cameos from American Gods. You don't have to know the book to get this story, though. It's all written out for you and the concept is universal enough to make room.
Erase the Dream (Rewrite the Scene) (Sam/Dean)
--> The much-awaited companion piece to the fantastic I Already Know (On With the Show). I absolutely loved Dean's perspective, the way he can't help but see Sam in Prior despite all the magic in place to prevent it, and how just as Sam thinks Dean is going to be the one to kill him, Dean feels like he's walking dead. I don't think the two stories matched up exactly in their versions of events, but I didn't care, because emotionally they're a perfect complement to each other.
Full Service Firm (RPF, Jared/Jensen)
--> Okay, so it's a total cliche-prompt. Jared mistakes Jensen for a hooker, Jensen really wants to get laid so he goes along with it, and then it snowballs epically out of control. The thing is that it not only filled the id-button-mashing nature of the prompt but took it above and beyond anything I expected; Jensen's resigned and slightly defiant sense of being a workaholic is well-matched by Jared's enthusiasm and cleverness. This is basically and awesome story about two people who fit really well and because of the circumstances are trying very hard not to feel that; when the obstacles are cleared away they're free to dive in headfirst. Awesome and utterly happy-making.
Hating the Weather (Dean/Sam)
--> This is the story of Dee Winchester, who gets turned into a man and has to learn to live that way. I never left a comment on the actual story, and I feel really bad about that, but it was because I just wandered around for weeks after reading about it, turning the story over in my head, trying to figure out what to say and coming up empty. It took me that hard.
On one level, it's an incredibly well-constructed AU, just utterly clever in every little detail. The differences of Sam-and-Ruby here, for one thing, are particularly brilliant, especially looking back and knowing that Ruby's endgoal was always to get him to overload on demon blood and jack up his powers; what she did to get him there was essentially irrelevant to her, and Sam will always be a little insane about his elder sibling. It didn't feel like Sam in canon, desperate to finally have power of his own, because Sam with an elder sister is a man who's always been looked on as the one with power and he's spent his whole life trying to hand it off to his sister. It's just smart.
On another level, the meta of gender politics and privilege is breathtaking and managed not to feel at all preachy; some of the questions posed left me thinking for days, weeks afterward. Is it right to choose a position of privilege if given the option, especially if you've lived your life fighting off the consequences of not having that privilege? Dee knows that it's a big risk for her to hunt alone, Dee knows that the attention is always on her more than it should be, people might fondly remember a handsome FBI agent/cop/CDC guy/reporter/whatever, but they might treat a woman in that same position with a lot more suspicion and hostility. And hunting isn't always a woman-friendly environment, as the show couldn't help but demonstrate, and I can only imagine things were so much worse for Dee because she was still a child when they were first in the life. She wasn't a woman who was a hunter, she was literally a girl tagging along at Daddy's heels.
And finally the story just about killed me because I fell in love with it, head over heels and just stupid about it, I loved Dee and her quiet sense of adapting to life's lemons if it killed her, her gentle and terrifying awareness and even acceptance of how much the world sucks, the way she tried to protect Sam by not letting him know the worst of it, the way that she chose to become Dean not just because she had to, but because she maybe, in the end, kind of wanted to. And Sam, so protective and trying so hard not to be because he doesn't want his sister to be someone who needs protection, all the ways he finally comes to understand what life was really like for her and the way he just hurts over it, and just how far he can talk himself in the worst things in the world and how he can talk himself back out because he loves his sister. And ultimately I loved Sam and Dean, because they're incredible and I just know that someday, after the story ends, they're going to go on and kick the ass of all the angels and save the world no matter the cost. They're our Sam-n-Dean, but a little closer, a little more worn, and a little wiser. I love them.
I'm home again on my old narrow bed (gen)
--> This is a long, slow-motion punch in the gut. It's exactly what the writers were trying to write around in seasons 4 and 5, Dean's long breakdown after all the years of torture and loss and grief. This story is going to be shiveringly familiar to anyone who knows or knows about soldiers returning home from the war. It's also a little painful to read, but it's so good at what it's saying, and if you like hurt/comfort with the brothers desperately needing to take care of each other, this is the story for you.
Lines (gen)
--> Post-Swan Song story of Dean trying to find his way in normal life and being with Ben, and maybe he's not really prepared for it, but he's realizing that there's surprisingly a lot that carries over from his old life to his new.
Odysseus, American (Sam/Dean)
--> This is Dean, in the years that Sam's at Stanford, travelling around the country by himself and not really able to find his way home, because Sam's it and Sam doesn't want him. Of course, things are a lot more complicated than that, and the reader is left guessing at what's going through Sam's head during all of this, but I really felt for Dean, here. He's left adrift to manage on his own, and mostly he does, but he's not a man meant to be alone, and it shows. He and Sam reach out to each other, sometimes, and they come so close to something new and strange and huge: but in the end, Sam veers away to normalcy and Jess, and we know how the rest of that story goes.
Primary Care (gen)
--> This is hurt/comfort for people who like to laugh at someone else's pain. Not Dean (being laid up with the flu) or Cas (who's feeling Dean's flu) but rather Sam, who's stuck taking care of what have to be the two worst patients in the history of time. The exasperated affection comes through clearly, though, despite all of drama and complaining and long-suffering whining. Dean (and sometimes Cas) may drive absolutely crazy, but Sam loves him anyway.
Suspended in my Silver Cage (implied Sam/Dean)
--> Oh, this just hurts, sharp as a needle and twice the point. There's a scandal playing out in their high school, but it's not Sam and Dean: it's a girl and her brother, and not surprisingly, it all goes wrong. The mirror's-edge echo of this is brilliant, and the last line is so clever and cutting I kept coming back to this story even when I wasn't sure I liked it.
Stargate Atlantis
The Tragic, Doomed, and Epic Life and Loves of Elizabeth Jean McKay, Plus Other Interesting stuff (background Sheppard/McKay)
--> This is the story of Sheppard and McKay's accidental daughter, and her search for the perfect (tragic) romantic story at the advanced age of twelve. I loved the look at her life on Atlantis, the hilarious "it takes a village" nature of the staff of the Atlantis base all pitching in, and the way her (tragic) romance really worked out isn't a surprise, but it's worth it anyway. And the underlying story of her secret project to make an anniversary present for her parents did NOT go where I thought it was going, and it was awesome. Really great, funny story.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Functional (O'Brien/Bashir)
--> Have a little angst for breakfast! I like this story because it really works the underlying metaphor in a really clever way without overplaying its hand, and because it doesn't downplay how utterly, incredibly intelligent Bashir really is. The kind of intelligence that allows you to do anything you choose to do, the kind of intelligence that's frankly terrifying when you think about it. It showcases why people have good reason to feel uneasy about Augments, and at the same time showing how much Bashir really is a good man, and how desperately he tries to be better.
Orfeo (gen, though the sequel stories are Jake/OMC)
--> Oh, but this story made me clutch at my heart and sigh in spellbound rapture, because much like DS9 itself, it just said so many important things. Another teenage boy arrives at the station that Jake manages to befriend: but the difference is that this boy is not only alien biologically, but is a castrati singer, which means that he's very much alien culturally, as well. It's a story about making the hard choices, about choosing to befriend someone even when everyone thinks that they're strange and you know they're going to judge you by association, about doing the right thing even when it sucks because the rewards are worth it. I really loved Jake as he grew up in canon, and this is exactly the story to remind me just why he was awesome.
Star Trek Reboot
Are You Gonna Be My Girl? (Or Three Birthdays to Remember) and the super happy bonus ending (Kirk/Gaila/Uhura, Kirk/Uhura)
--> This story is a little sad, and a lot sexy, and very sweet. Uhura hooked up with the two of them once before, back at the Academy, and after Gaila is gone, she manages to redefine her connection to Jim, through their shared grief and simply because they love each other when they don't want to beat each other stupider. Features alien sex toys, drunk sex, and aliens made them do it. For the most part, not all at the same time.
Fighting Gravity (Kirk/Spock)
--> This is a really awesome AU that grew out of a really cracktastic concept. I really love the idea of a Spock who hated being "destined" so much that when told by Spock Prime what his life would contain, he went out of his way to do the EXACT OPPOSITE. Except of course things didn't work out so well for him on Vulcan THIS time around, either, so it's five years later and Kirk finds him under some... unusual circumstances, and over the course of his leave Jim slowly not only befriends his wayward would-be first officer, but also works to put destiny back on its proper course.
The Losers
Partial Harmonics (Cougar/Jensen, Cougar/Jensen/Aisha)
--> This is a really fantastic series. The main story is about Cougar getting taken and Jensen losing his shit to get him back, and Aisha along for the ride and figuring a few things out as she goes. It's Aisha realizing that this is pretty much her team now, and more than just her having a place, she has a place with these two, specifically. There's also a lot of awesome family stuff in the background, about Jensen's sister and his niece, which fully fleshes out two barely-there characters into something real and awesome, and the closeness of the three of them is just beautiful to read.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)