(no subject)
Excerpt from haphazard living: today I managed to be driving home from work with both an expired inspection sticker and no license. The will of the gods saw me home with no ticket. Suffice to say, my wallet is sitting on top of my keys and I am calling my car guy tomorrow. Sometimes I make myself sad.
I know I've been kind of gone from the internet for a while, and it's because RL has kind of sucked. At some point I'll go through it, but it's all family bullshit and petty drama and fail, and I made it through without committing homicide so I think I may just call it a win and forget it ever happened. (After Friday, when the funeral is being held. Then I can forget it ever happened.)
Anyway, I pulled off a heroic feat and finally managed to catch up with my firefox tabs, so have some recs! It's kind of epic, I know, I got sidetracked halfway through and thought "but I can't post without at least finishing the Sherlock rec section!" and then managed to pokily do everything BUT the Sherlock recs. However! I have finished at last! I am down to only TWO, repeat that TWO tabs in firefox, one of which is this update window and the other of which is my gmail, which I leave open permanently so there you go. Everybody! Recs!
AI RPS
Apples Are Not the Only Fruit (Adam/Kris)
--> Awww, cute and funny AU where big-time star Adam has a breakdown during a post-breakup road trip and small-town Kris gives him a lift and lets him crash while they fix his car. There's a country fair attended and a one-night stand that could have turned into something more, but Kris has a freakout for admittedly plot-contrived reasons and doesn't respond to Adam's overtures, and then later they get a second chance when Kris starts to make it in the middle leagues. A lot of fun, with some really hilarious fruit and space metaphors.
Paying the Rent (Adam/Kris)
--> This is a sort-of hooker AU. Adam's the famous broadway star/supermodel, and Kris is the guy busking on the streets in New York that Adam takes home. And then he just sort of... doesn't leave. I like this because it's adorable, it's got that slide from casual-to-serious-without-noticing thing that I like so much in fictional relationships, and it also says a lot about how it's kind of stupid to go after the big dream when you've got all the things you actually want beside you. Also it has a very toppy Adam and a very easygoing Kris and that makes for funny. (For me anyway.)
through the storm we reach the shore (Adam/Kris, Adam/OMC, Kris/OMC)
--> Okay, so when I sat down to read this? This was not what I expected at all, let me tell you that right now. This is a futurefic, but it's unlike any other I've seen in this fandom. It's just this quiet, sneaky kind of story, about Kris falling in love with another man and dating him and dealing with all the consequences of that- but that man isn't Adam. And Adam, for his part, is there as Kris' friend, while he falls in love with someone who's almost destined to break his heart. And for a while I was genuinely checking back to the header post, going, "Am I sure I saw that Adam/Kris pairing there?" because it didn't look like it was going to work out that way. And it did, because I was in fact reading that header correctly, but it didn't go the way I expected even then. It was just quiet and clever and human, and it took me a little while to get into it but I loved every moment once I did.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Let the Buyer Beware (gen)
--> Someone tries to walk out of Iroh's tea shop without paying. Iroh and Toph convince him of the error of his ways. (And don't even have to resort to violence!) Iroh's epic guilt trip just had me in stitches, and the punchline at the end was just the best ever.
Teamwork (gen)
--> Someone tries to assassinate Zuko and Mai and Iroh work together to hunt him down. This is a shorter story, but it's very funny and clever and utterly, utterly awesome. I kind of wanted to cheer out loud at one point.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Better Luck With Girls (Buffy/Faith)
--> This is short and spare and perfect. It really gets to the heart of the history between the two of them, and I loved Faith's voice in this, both internal and out-loud.
DC Comics
Learning by Doing (Tim/Steph)
--> I do not have the words to articulate all the things that I love about this story. They're just so goddamn adorable and sexy, with all the teenage awkwardness tempered by their comfort with each other, their honesty and the way they just sort of fumble their way through things, laughing and generally having an awesome time. It felt intimate, too, not the candles-and-music romance but the way sex can be awesome when you're with someone you know really well and care about. Also, not gonna lie, Tim-the-repressed getting talked into cutting loose by Steph was pretty fucking hot. There are also a couple other stories set in the same universe, R-Point Rendezvous and Best Boyfriend Ever, which are Tim/Steph/Cass and Tim/Steph/Kon, respectively, and are all about Tim and Steph being comfortable enough with themselves to invite in good friends for good times. So much awesome.
Fringe
Can't Get Next To You (Peter/Olivia)
--> This has since been Jossed by S3, but I don't care because it's amazing and it makes me want to clutch it fiercely to my chest. Peter realizes that he has the wrong Olivia and he goes looking for the right one, but the door Walter opens takes him to the wrong alternate world. This is an old-school quest story, with all the accompanying trials and faith, but with a new-school twist. In each world Peter meets a version of olivia who sends him along to the next layer, and the challenge he faces is finding each one and convincing her to move him along to his Olivia: and the passing of each trial is when each wildly different and fascinating version of Olivia finds his love worthy of her help. I loved each and every Olivia in this, from the cyber-punk street dealer to the steampunk flying acrobat, because with all the wild differences the author managed to get to the heart of what makes each and every version of Olivia the same at the core. Most of all, though, I loved Peter, who was steadfast and never faltered- and the fact that in the end, it's not a matter of rescuing the damsel in distress, but more like returning a dragon's heart. It's fucking brilliant, but more important, it's magical in a science world.
Help Wanted (gen)
--> This is Astrid early on in the show, learning to deal with Walter and making peace with the fact that with all of her training she's essentially become a lab assistant to a madman. Astrid is awesome, on some occasions she's my absolutely favorite, and this story gets to the heart of why: her calm, intelligence, maturity, but most of all her ability to really See people.
Like the Best Ever (gen with overtones of Peter/Olivia)
--> There's something sharp and cutting about this story, and I finished it not entirely sure how I felt about it, but I could at least be sure that it was brilliant. Peter likes asking questions, and Olivia isn't all the fond of answering them- but it builds into something by the end, wandering past some of his issues and her issues into something that approaches intimacy. Also there is a Charlie cameo that's awesome, and I love me some Charlie.
Glee
Mostverse and the Mostverse side stories (gen)
--> I love this series. I love it past reason or description, and every time miggy posts a new one I read that fucker right then and there. The main part of the series centers around Rachel and Kurt after high school, because they still don't really like each other but they end up sharing an apartment in New York because of Rachel's college fees. It's a story about the difference between high school and college, the difference between home and away, between being familiar and knowing someone, between liking someone and being their friend. It's a story about Kurt and Rachel growing up and (sort of) getting over themselves and going on to be awesome together, and it sometimes hurts and sometimes just fills me with such joy. The side stories aren't to be missed, either, because I like the portraits of what the rest of glee club is doing with their lives, Quinn realizing that she doesn't have to fullfill her dreams right now to feel fullfilled, Mercedes having her own life and realizing how much she and Kurt have left each other behind, Finn enjoying college and stubbornly refusing to be anything but himself and falling in love with a really awesome girl. It's all amazing. Go read it right now.
Harry Potter
Cosine Theta (Harry/Ron/Hermione)
--> This is a quietly mature look at the three of them after the war. Hermione and Ron have too many sharp edges with each other to make it work and Hermione moves in with Harry to keep him from being alone and they grow close in all the little intimacies that accompany a romantic relationship without actually having one. Because, of course, neither of them works particularly well without their missing third. I like the thought that Hermione and Ron couldn't make it work particularly well, but that with Harry as their balance they work perfectly. That's always been an essential component for fictional threesomes: I need to feel that there's some reason that all three are in this together. This provided that perfectly.
Marvel Comics
Alternative Medicine (Steve/Tony UST)
--> Some lingering trauma from the war leaves Steve frequently unable to sleep, and things had gotten worse and worse until they realized that Steve could sleep if Tony was with him. I really love Tony in this, able to enjoy the fact that he's so important to someone he cares about while still recognizing how bad the situation could be, and I like that he recognized the problems with consent, that it would be wrong to proposition someone who depends on you for sanity. It's a hopeful end, though, and a very sweet story that I really enjoyed.
Conjugate (Steve/Tony)
--> The Avengers get hit by a power-swapping device! Peter with Logan's senses was hilarious, and Luke with the Extremis was especially interesting because most of the times I see Extremis used in fanfic it's background, by Tony who's used to having it. Spider-Cap is the best, though, hands-down. And I liked the way that the pairing crept up on me, just tiny hints of them being in each other's space more and more, comfortably touching and then backrubs, and when they finally got together I thought hey, it's all wind-down from here, but then the real plot twist kicked in. To someone more familiar with Marvel and Spiderwoman's powers this probably wouldn't have been the surprise it was for me, but it was still pretty awesome, and I like the way it was handled afterwards. All in all, this was an awesome story with just the right amount of an interesting plot to balance all the really cool character stuff they did.
Instant Karma's Gonna Get You (Steve/Tony)
--> Due to circumstances beyond his control, Tony makes Steve unhappy with him. And when Steve is unhappy, the universe is unhappy. Tony gets a string of bad luck that just keeps getting worse and worse and I just kept laughing at his misfortune. Of course it all works out in the end, but the myriad of ways it doesn't work out before then is pretty hilarious. Also, Tony's pretty dumb for a genius.
King of Infinite Space (Steve/Tony)
--> Tiberius Stone is back, someone is stirring up sentiment against capes, and Tony is worried that he's going crazy when he starts losing chunks of time. This story does one of my favorite tropes, where two characters go into a situation with their own depressing assumptions and everything seems to confirm the misunderstanding: in this case, Tony's full of guilt for almost killing Steve when under mind-control, and Steve's guilty because he never noticed something was wrong. The misunderstandings precede apace, but unlike some stories it doesn't feel forced or descend into the farcial; I could genuinely believe and sympathize with every mistaken conclusion, and I liked that they finally worked it out in the end because they just sat down and talked about it. A long, plotty story with a lot of heart, highly recommended.
Some Assembly Required (Steve/Tony)
--> So Victor von Doom, for reasons unknown, hits Iron Man with an unknown quantum ray that turns Tony Stark into a woman, right after he's been given the go-ahead to set up a proper superhero team. Meanwhile Steve, who's only been out of the ice for six months, sees Tony's "female cousin" and asks her out: and Tony accidentally agrees. And then accidentally sleeps with him. And then accidentally keeps doing it. There is so much to love here, from Doom's motives for the sex change (I laughed, like a lot) to Hulk's addition to the team to Steve being actually kind of a slut. (No, seriously!) I absolutely fell in love with Steve here, sort of halfway innocent but also really not and I totally sympathize with Tony's flailing affection and hapless tangle of lies. Just, fantastic and funny and charming.
The Roughest Day (Steve/Tony)
--> Cap's hit by a car, someone tries to shoot Peter Parker, and Tony's down with some mysterious illness- even though he's not supposed to be able to get sick. I don't know what it is about this fandom but this pairing is just CHOCK-FULL of epic misunderstanding fics, which is awesome because those fill my heart with glee. In this Steve and Tony restarted their "casual, secret" relationship along with the Avengers team-up, but this time around it's maybe not so casual, and both Steve and Tony want that- but they each think the other doesn't. There's a lot of plot, too, with a bunch of hack-job assassination attempts and then a desperate push to save the day (you know, the usual) but it all works out in the end. I smiled a lot while I was reading this. A lot.
Merlin
Advisor to the King (Merlin/Arthur, Arthur/Gwen, Merlin/Arthur/Gwen)
--> This is the story of Arthur becoming king and Merlin being awesome. It's about writing policy and changing your kingdom and building a future, not through the big battles but in the little wasys that are ultimately more important. The whole story, for me, was summed up in this one line of Merlin's: "I think people change things quietly, in little rooms. Like we are here. You and me, talking. I think this is where the world is shaped."
The Student Prince (Merlin/Arthur)
--> What can I say about this story that hasn't been said before? It's amazing. Merlin goes to college at the University of St. Andrews, theoretically in order to study physics but really to study magic, and also Arthur Pendragon, Prince of England, turns out to be his roommate. Chaos ensues, along with a lot of ridiculous pining and copious amounts of bickering. One of the fantastic things about this story is that the setting, the college and its traditions, become a character just as important as all the rest. I didn't even know this college existed before reading this story, but by the time I finished I felt like I knew it better than my own university. Really awesome.
The Weight of Words (Merlin/Arthur)
--> This is all about how Arthur is awesome, and much more clever than he looks. I enjoyed this because this is a lot closer to my idea of how growing up with court politics must have been like, learning to guard your words and make one thing sound like another and getting people to do what you want without realizing why- that's real power, and he uses it to protect Merlin. Brilliant.
Numb3rs
Calculus is Easy (Sort of Colby/Charlie)
--> In which Colby finds working with Don exhausting, working with Charlie interesting, and he learns the basics of calculus while getting a crush on a math professor. This story has absolutely everything I love about Colby in one neat package.
Sherlock BBC
A Little Competition (Sherlock/John)
--> This was a really awesome Halloween story. A storm traps Mycroft in the flat with Sherlock and John, and when the power goes out they surrender to the cliche and trade spooky stories to keep themselves entertained. I love the asides and interaction between the three of them before-after-during the stories, but my favorite were the stories that each of them told. They were incredibly spooky, all of them, in ways that had nothing whatsoever to do with the supernatural- but more importantly, each story said something about the person telling it, which is the most important part of stories like these. Really fantastic work.
Asteroidea, Highly Intelligent, Observant, and Destructive When Bored, and Feels Like Drowning (Sherlock/John, Sherloc/John/Mycroft)
--> His Dark Materials fusion. The first story is a Mycroft gen piece that sets up the premise, and that story alone was interesting and fiendishly clever, but then I read the second story, which is from John's point of view and really explores the possibilities. It really captures the sort of mystery and insanity and wonder of Sherlock, and the whole idea is just so utterly intelligent that I'm astounded. The third and final (?) story is the payoff of all the setup in the first two, and really gets to the idea of the connection between a human and his daemon, even when they fight against it. It posits the question: if your daemon meets and falls in love with a human, how could you do anything but fall in love with them too? Also John is fantastic. I can't emphasize this enough.
Breakfast at 221B (gen, Sherlock/John-ish)
--> Sherlock's observation of how much Mycroft is spending on prostitutes leads to a sharing of stories that made me really hurt for a much younger Sherlock. One of my favorite bits is near the end, when Sherlock says why he was telling this particular story to John- and John's reaction was just absolutely lovely, exactly what makes them fantastic partners. And the final punchline, at the very end, was just awesome.
Fearful Symmetry (John/Sherlock)
--> This is as much a story about John and Harry as it is about John and Sherlock, but the author manages to entwine the two relationships together into this really gorgeous narrative. It's all about the problems John has with both of them, the ways that he and they fail each other, and more importantly, the ways that he and they manage to be there for each other. It also had a really great negotiation of the idea of Sherlock and John starting a relationship, because things aren't just easy between them and they shouldn't be, but they are going to be fantastic. And I absolutely fell in love with Harry here, with all her flawed brilliance and so much love that it almost poisoned things between them, and the ending left me feeling satisfied as well as happy.
Five Things JOhn Watson Will Never Tell Anyone (Sherlock/John)
--> The first part of this reads as a gen character study of John, which is so spot-on that I immediately adopted it as my personal internal canon. The pairing part doesn't kick in till the last- but when it does, it doesn't feel like a gratuitous coda, it just feels like the natural extension of what came before.
Memorandum (John/Lestrade, with John/Sherlock and Lestrade/Sherlock UST)
--> Oh, this is just sharp enough to cut. Lestrade and John both notice each other's mutual crush on Sherlock, and their sympathy for each other's condition sort of slides into another kind of intimacy altogether, while they're strung-out on sleep deprivation in the middle of a case. The final scene, in the foyer of 221 Baker Street, seems at first to be one thing, and when you get to the very end and realize what Lestrade was really doing... well, it's fucking genius, is what it is. Just, mmm.
On Lestrade's Flawed Heart, and Other Slightly Damaged Things (John/Lestrade)
--> This is my second-favorite pairing in this fandom, and this story sells me on all of things that I love about it because it doesn't ignore Sherlock at all. Quite the contrary, this story is about what it would be like to have a relationship with someone so closely into Sherlock's orbit, especially when both of them are people that Sherlock considers his. I liked the theme of Sherlock being an impediment, something that interferes: but I liked the twist at the end even better.
Perspective (Sherlock/John)
--> John is hit by a wayward cyclist, and this leaves Sherlock thinking about things. Like the title implies, Sherlock and John don't tell each other anything new except for the one important thing: they've already figured out each other's issues when it comes to sex and relationships, and the one new thing is the knowledge that they each want it badly enough to try anyway. There's something just utterly sweet and sexy and intimate about this piece, and normally when the conversation preceding the sex is so well-written I don't think that the author can carry the tone over into the actual sex scene so well, but she did and it's brilliant. Not a very long piece, but just right.
The Art of Scheduling, or, How Mycroft Came To Realize He Was Well and Truly Fucked (Mycroft/Anthea)
--> This is a deeply non-romantic story that nonetheless made my heart sing, because that didn't mean it wasn't lacking intimacy, or even love. It's a story about Anthea being very very clever, and even kind of cleverer than Mycroft, because it may be his job to manage the world but it's her job to manage him. And Anthea really loves her job. The ending line, in particular, was just genius.
The Death and Resurrection of the English Language (Sherlock/John)
--> I didn't realize that this was part of a series including An Act of Charity and The Paradox Suite until I got halfway through this story, and when I did realize it was like putting the final piece of a puzzle in after hours of work. It fit that well, and it felt that satisfying. This is an absolutely amazing story on its own- but it's so much better with the previous stories, because each of these builds on and through each other like interlocking rings. This story is one that I'm going to go ahead and call wildly romantic, but it's basically romance for crazy people. Good thing that Sherlock and John are both stark raving mad, then! This builds on the previous story, which was all about John learning to live with a lunatic, and this is a beautiful look at the inside of Sherlock's head, his decidedly non-standard thought processes and his way of being in love- and he is in love, he's absolutely in love, he's so stupidly in love that I just read through this story feeling a bit breathless. This is amazing. I hope there's more.
There and Back Again and And What Happened After (gen)
--> The first story has Sherlock and John kissing and yet despite this? I still label it as gen. That's because these are an awesome portrait of the friendship between them, the way that John is really the one that Sherlock trusts the most and looks to the most and cares about, the only one he's close to, and for his part John essentially threw in with Sherlock on a whim and a prayer and despite everything (Moriarty, heads in the fridge) doesn't regret it for an instant. The literal, physical closeness is a theme of both stories: but it's just an expression of the emotional intimacy between them, and it's done in this spare, matter-of-fact style that's just magic.
The Shape I Found You In (Sherlock/John)
--> Sherlock's away on a case, and the story takes the form of the correspondence between them two of them in his absence. They both seem to find that it's much easier to say the important things when they're not face-to-face, and some of the details of the case Sherlock's working seem to hurt both of them, as well as spurring them to some personal revelations of their own. This is a very sweet, kind of wistful, thoughtful story, with an awesome happy ending.
Traffic Lights for the Colour Blind (Sherlock/John)
--> John is passively suicidal, and Sherlock decides that he needs him too much to allow it. This isn't necessarily a characterization of John that I can see- but the author makes it work here and then some, something about John's mild disappointment when he survives that just hit me hard when I was first reading this. And the slow process of John coming alive again and finding a place where he wants to be is really lovely.
Without Loss of Generality (Sherlock/John)
--> Sherlock is being a bit of a dick (even by his standards) and John isn't reacting well, and then Sherlock makes him tea. This is a story that seems to be about one thing on the surface, and then you get halfway through and Sherlock says something that makes you realize it's about something else altogether. I got a kind of emotional whiplash from this story, in the best way, because I was following so intently in John's emotional state: exhausted and unhappy and stunned and sympathetic and affectionate. I love it.
Sherlock Holmes: Doyle
A Measure of Honesty (Holmes/Watson)
--> Times that Holmes doesn't quite tell the truth to Watson, and one time that he really does. I loved the way that the author managed to show that even through moments of deception they were still totally connected. It did a really fantastic job of showing all the ways that they loved each other and supported each other in small ways.
Stargate: SG-1
A Study in Immobility (Jack/Daniel)
--> They're trapped in a jail cell, as happens pretty frequently to SG-1, but this time Daniel is newly descended and there's so much of him newly crammed into the miniscule space of a human body- and he's not coping as well as he thought. I loved this, because it's a way of thinking about the descension thing that never occurred to me, and because the way that Jack handled the situation left me breathless. Yeah. Two thumbs up.
Star Trek: Reboot
Decimation (Kirk/Spock)
--> Girl!Kirk. This is brilliant because it's hilariously funny, it's sort of reluctantly romantic, it's got a female character who's in charge of her own sexuality and everyone else's too, and it has a sly bit of metacommentary on female Starfleet uniforms. And it's hot. And it's hilarious. everyone needs to read this right now.
Start Again (Kirk/Gaila)
--> You know what I love about this fandom? Gaila stories. This particular story is a gorgeous look at both Kirk and Gaila, and the way each of them handles sex with friends. I like this acknowledgment that just because someone likes sex doesn't mean that they're lacking any issues with it- but just because they have a lot of sex doesn't mean they have issues with it, either. It's sweet and sexy and intimate and loving, and yet it doesn't try to present it as a grand romantic affair. It's just two friends, working things out between them and becoming closer. Lovely.
strive seek find yield (spocktoria) (Kirk/Spock)
--> Okay, so I had no idea what the hell I was reading when I started this, but I knew it was awesome. Basically, this is an AU inspired by Young Victoria, where Jim is the Prince of America, Duke of Iowa, after his brother abdicates for an academic life, and Jim is the 2IC on Number One's ship and doesn't think much of court life- until he meets Spock, the about-to-be-crowned new monarch of the Federation, who also happens to be the person who gave him chocolate in the aftermath of the Tarsus IV disaster and played chess until he fell asleep, and then things go downhill from there. This is an epic romance, and I'm not just talking about the length- everything about these two feels larger than life, bigger and more meaningful than the rest of us even as they are making terrible jokes about sex and fighting over whether Jim gets to carry a phaser during their wedding. Their story starts when Jim promises Spock that if he'll make peace with the Romulans Jim will win him a war with the Klingons and everything about their lives revolves around that, all the hard choices and politics and War. I love every single part of this story, I've read it over and over again, but my favorite parts are the supporting characters- Spock's life is run by his cabinet, composed of Nyota and T'Pring and Sybok, and the curse of Jim's life is his crew, with Bones and Gary and Gaila and Scotty and even Chekhov when Gary makes the mistake of sleeping with an underaged kid he meets in a bar. There's an excellent sense of a big, stupidly exuberant, cuttingly funny family, even when the only two actual relations are Spock and Sybok. Basically, though, everything about this is amazing. And don't finish without reading the companion story, You Are COrdially Invited, which is the story of Spock and Jim's Epic Wedding from T'Pring's point of view as it slowly drives her insane. It's glorious.
Supernatural
In Excelsis, The Mountains In Reply, and Angels We Have Heard (gen)
--> This is an awesome trio of stories about the awkward and hilarious and sad trio of Dean, Sam, and Castiel in the fifth season. The first is Dean and Castiel doing something incredibly stupid in the time when Sam's off on his own, the second is Sam and Castiel stuck together on a mountaintop for hours having extremely awkward conversation, and the third is Castiel, wandering around the world looking for God and never quite shedding his tether to the Winchester brothers. All three stories fit together like legos, one-two-three, and it's all a perfect portrait of this little trio. Dean is aggravating and explosive and loyal, and Sam is awkward and guilty and kind, and Castiel is alien and lonely and fitting imperfectly into his new family. These were the stories that made me fall in love with these three all over again.
It's Always the End of the World Somewhere (Dean/Castiel, Castiel/Crowley)
--> This is a deeply awesome high school AU, that translate the fundamentals of the characters better into teenagers than perhaps any I've ever seen. I like a good fluffy AU with the best of them, but I adore this, Castiel dizzy and alien and alienated and off into his own universe. I also like the look at Dean: it's almost an outsider's view (although as the story progresses you realize it's really NOT) where you see the harsh edges first and the underlying kindness later, and I have to admit that I sympathize with Castiel because I was totally in love with Dean too. Crowley was also an utterly awesome character, in ways that I didn't expect, and even though they weren't present I like the impact that Michael and Gabriel made on everyone's lives even after their graduation. Just fascinating, and charming, and good.
Kant's Dove (Sam/Dean)
--> This is a dystopian AU where angels rule and humans are just there to serve and populate the landscape. Sam is an Inquisitor who doesn't quite follow the rules, and Dean is the rogue human who comes along to shake up his ideas of the world. I have to admit that for part of this I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to keep reading- because I mostly don't like AU's where they aren't related, it sort of takes away everything that I enjoy about those characters, and because Sam is more than a little bit of a dick. But I stuck with it, and I'm so glad I did! The story never went anywhere I thought it was going to, and by the time I was halfway through I was on the edge of my seat, just waiting to see what happened next. The author set up the rules of her universe, gave me just enough time to get used to it, adn then busily set about destroying everything I'd just read. The characterization was great, and these may not be the guys that I know but you can still recognize them underneath everything, and the ending was perfect, perfect, perfect. Overall a really fantastic story.
Negotiating With Terrorists (and Other Post-Apocalyptic Adventures) (Dean/Castiel)
--> Okay, so this is hilarious. Let me just give you an idea of some of the contents: Castiel putting some shit in order in Heaven, ghosts of hunters setting up a rebellion that no one needs, Castiel killing Dean in order to handle said rebellion, and Sam freaking out about it. Only it's both so much crackier and so much lovelier than it sounds.
Play It All Night Long (Dean/Castiel)
--> This is just a ridiculously charming bit of AU. Dean is the host of a late-late-night call-in radio show, and Castiel, after suffering a loss and feeling utterly alone, calls in for the first time and the two of them strike up an unlikely friendship that goes unexpected places when Castiel loses his apartment and Dean lets him crash. Seriously, there was just nothing about this that didn't make me happy.
Second Map of the World (Sam/Dean)
--> First of all, candle-beck is always a must-read. Sometimes zhir stories rip your heart out and sometimes they leave you wriggling in your seat with joy, and this story manages to do a bit of both. Sam gets almost sick with his love for Dean and without thinking about it kisses his brother, ruining everything ever- and that's the start of the story. It's about starting over without being able to forget, about rebuilding, and eventually about starting something entirely new. I was so in Sam's head the entire way through reading it, his hopeless lovesickness and dependence and need and relief and awkwardness and joy. No other author can ever get me so entirely inside a character. Seriously, it's just amazing.
Stopped At the Crossroads (Sam/Dean)
--> This is a look at a world with no demons, where Mary Campbell never grew up learning to use a broadsword and John Winchester had five sons to raise in the suburbs. And yet, it's a world where Sam and Dean are still connected more deeply to each other than to any other human being on the planet. What's genius about it is that most of the story is the two of them seen through the eyes of the rest of their family, none of whom really understand, but each other them has some small piece of understanding that builds into a gorgeous whole for the reader. I especially liked the POV of the last brother, who thinks he knows the whole of it- but I couldn't help but think that knowing the nature of their relationship didn't mean he truly understood it, and the last look from Dean's view clinched that for me. You should see what you think, though. It's the kind of story that has to be experienced, not just read, and the kind that I liked to turn over in my head long after I was done.
The (Mostly Accidental) Courtship of Dean Winchester (Dean/Castiel)
--> This is sort of slightly-AU for the end of season five/start of season six, but it sort of slides into canon territory so smoothly I almost didn't notice. Basically, Castiel's brand on Dean's arm was the beginning of an angelic binding ritual: and much like the seals, there are hundreds of options and only a comparative few have to be broken. And they keep breaking them on accident. (Well, mostly.) This could have been this funny piece of crack, and one level it kind of was, but it slid into this tender, slightly sad, intimate look at Dean and Castiel, with Castiel's affection and Dean's issues. And it all ends up happily ever after. (Well, mostly.)
You ain't got a thing to lose (Sam/Dean)
--> Porn. Awesome porn, great characterization, but basically porn. Dean and Sam start having sex and it's awesome! But then Dean starts to realize that while Sam is totally willing to go with every one of Dean's kinks, but won't offer any interest of his own, and Dean decides to find one so that he can return the favor. And then he does. I was torn between the hotness and the utter hilarity of Dean's plan. Just, awesome.
You Say the Dead Need No Physician (Sam/Dean)
--> This is an old-school casefile fic that is nonetheless set very much "after everything." It's entirely hard for me to describe exactly what it is about this story that grabbed me, because there are a lot of little details that I liked but it was some gestalt that added up very much to be greater than the sum of its parts. The casefile in itself managed to be both genuinely tense and frightening and well as heartbreaking, and the building threads between Dean and Sam were just quietly sad/hopeful and made me feel like I was swallowing around my heart in my throat. There's a really awesome portrait of Southern cities that absolutely spoke to me- all of that history, a lot of it bad, feeling like it could just be caught in the air around you if you breathed the wrong way- and a look at "hunters" that are more ministers to the souls that can't lie peacefully. It's an interesting reflection of the "doctor of the dead" casefile they're working, too, because it's a look at hunting not in the sense of stalking and destroying a malicious force, but instead laying troubles to rest with the right kind of kindness. Most of all it's a story about love when it feels like the wrong kind, but love's just love: when it's real there is no wrong. It's sort of sad and wistful, but ultimately hopeful and sweet, even though I don't think I can qualify it as "happy." It's also brilliant.
Tamora Pierce: Tortall
what are you that wanting you I should be kept awake (Daine/Numair)
--> This is a short and very poignant story about Dain and Numair after the war, learning to cope with being at peace and being free from desperation. Daine is better at it than Numair, not surprisingly.
The Good Wife
Once More Into the Fray (Alicia/Will)
--> Post-season 1. What I like about this is that the romance is secondary- first and foremost it's about Alicia realizing that her relationship with Peter isn't coming back and moving on with her life. It's basically a really intense character study of Alicia, and since that's what drew me to the show in the first place I love this to pieces. It has not everything going smoothly, and it has Alicia being fiercely practical and trying to figure out what she wants after so many years of being one particular person, and Will loves her and he wants to work with what she wants. It's very... adult, if that makes any sense.
Torchwood
The Assist (Rhys/Gwen/Ianto)
--> Rhys and Gwen decide to experiment a little and broaden the horizons of their marriage, and obviously they're not going to ask Jack, so Ianto it is. I like this because it's sexy but it's also awkward and funny and sweet, and the three of them are really just happy and comfortable and awesome together. Short and utterly charming.
White Collar
Four Meals (Neal/Peter/Elizabeth)
--> This is a story about all of the ties that Neal has found himself with in his new life- from Peter in the workplace and Elizabeth out, to June's family that he's not-quite a part of but clearly belongs more than he realizes, to the bakery he bought for an escape plan and clearly loves, and finally, back to Peter and Elizabeth, who are the heart of his life in more ways than one. Food is the continuing theme, and like good food this story leaves me sort of warm and satisfied. Also it will make you hungry.
Jeffrey Nullier's "Man With a Fedora" (gen)
--> Someone's stealing works by a certain artist, and one of the pieces has Neal's fingerprints all over them. This is only the start of a longer, clever piece of writing that's all about Neal and art, and Neal and Peter and their history, and the way that art can sometimes mean something much more to the people viewing it than the person who created it. Written with copperbadge's usual spare, wry tone, this really captured a lot of things that I love about White Collar, and also highlights all of the things that I wish the show could be.
Martyrs Never Last This Long (Neal/Peter/Elizabeth)
--> Kate comes back from the dead, and she wants something from Neal. Mozzie doesn't really approve of Kate's influence at the best of times- but considering that Neal is sleeping with the Fed and the Fed's wife, he's a little less than thrilled, and decides to warn Elizabeth about the impending possible doom. Things ratchet up worse and worse with Neal's plot, and Mozzie, completely against his will, ends up getting more and more involved, and I was totally caught up in the will-he-won't-he of the whole thing. Fantastic, and really funny- Mozzie's POV was solid fucking gold.
Never Leave a Trace (background Neal/Peter/Elizabeth)
--> Mmmm, this is an absolutely lovely magical realism AU, where Neal can steal souls (sometimes) and Peter has a shade in his eyes that only Neal and El can see, and he can always find Neal, even when Neal doesn't want to be found. A lot of this story feels kind of like the way the myths build in small spaces, the idea of prison magic and the things that work inside that don't work outside, the magic of living within a barrier. The beautiful thing about magical realism, though, is that all of those myths are true. I like that a lot of things were never really entirely explained- why prison magic worked, why it worked the ways it did for different people, and more particularly Peter's two shadows and the shade in his eyes. There were implications- the authority of being the law, violence, dominance, even some binding with Neal- but it was never really confirmed one way or another, and I found myself thinking about this story days after I read it. Most of all, though, this is Neal's story, the story of who he is in prison, the people that he knows, and it's a story about how he can go back in for a case but that's not who he is anymore.
Note By Note (Peter/Elizabeth, pre-OT3)
--> Back when Peter was still chasing Neal, Neal used to pick his pocket so that he could leave notes in Peter's wallet. And Peter, instead of turning them into evidence, kept them, with Elizabeth's encouragement. This says so much about their tangled history, how they felt then and now, and how very much then informs now, especially for those two. I liked Elizabeth's thread wound through it, too, even though in some ways this is very much Peter and Neal's story. It's all done with a very light touch.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.
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I know I've been kind of gone from the internet for a while, and it's because RL has kind of sucked. At some point I'll go through it, but it's all family bullshit and petty drama and fail, and I made it through without committing homicide so I think I may just call it a win and forget it ever happened. (After Friday, when the funeral is being held. Then I can forget it ever happened.)
Anyway, I pulled off a heroic feat and finally managed to catch up with my firefox tabs, so have some recs! It's kind of epic, I know, I got sidetracked halfway through and thought "but I can't post without at least finishing the Sherlock rec section!" and then managed to pokily do everything BUT the Sherlock recs. However! I have finished at last! I am down to only TWO, repeat that TWO tabs in firefox, one of which is this update window and the other of which is my gmail, which I leave open permanently so there you go. Everybody! Recs!
AI RPS
Apples Are Not the Only Fruit (Adam/Kris)
--> Awww, cute and funny AU where big-time star Adam has a breakdown during a post-breakup road trip and small-town Kris gives him a lift and lets him crash while they fix his car. There's a country fair attended and a one-night stand that could have turned into something more, but Kris has a freakout for admittedly plot-contrived reasons and doesn't respond to Adam's overtures, and then later they get a second chance when Kris starts to make it in the middle leagues. A lot of fun, with some really hilarious fruit and space metaphors.
Paying the Rent (Adam/Kris)
--> This is a sort-of hooker AU. Adam's the famous broadway star/supermodel, and Kris is the guy busking on the streets in New York that Adam takes home. And then he just sort of... doesn't leave. I like this because it's adorable, it's got that slide from casual-to-serious-without-noticing thing that I like so much in fictional relationships, and it also says a lot about how it's kind of stupid to go after the big dream when you've got all the things you actually want beside you. Also it has a very toppy Adam and a very easygoing Kris and that makes for funny. (For me anyway.)
through the storm we reach the shore (Adam/Kris, Adam/OMC, Kris/OMC)
--> Okay, so when I sat down to read this? This was not what I expected at all, let me tell you that right now. This is a futurefic, but it's unlike any other I've seen in this fandom. It's just this quiet, sneaky kind of story, about Kris falling in love with another man and dating him and dealing with all the consequences of that- but that man isn't Adam. And Adam, for his part, is there as Kris' friend, while he falls in love with someone who's almost destined to break his heart. And for a while I was genuinely checking back to the header post, going, "Am I sure I saw that Adam/Kris pairing there?" because it didn't look like it was going to work out that way. And it did, because I was in fact reading that header correctly, but it didn't go the way I expected even then. It was just quiet and clever and human, and it took me a little while to get into it but I loved every moment once I did.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Let the Buyer Beware (gen)
--> Someone tries to walk out of Iroh's tea shop without paying. Iroh and Toph convince him of the error of his ways. (And don't even have to resort to violence!) Iroh's epic guilt trip just had me in stitches, and the punchline at the end was just the best ever.
Teamwork (gen)
--> Someone tries to assassinate Zuko and Mai and Iroh work together to hunt him down. This is a shorter story, but it's very funny and clever and utterly, utterly awesome. I kind of wanted to cheer out loud at one point.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Better Luck With Girls (Buffy/Faith)
--> This is short and spare and perfect. It really gets to the heart of the history between the two of them, and I loved Faith's voice in this, both internal and out-loud.
DC Comics
Learning by Doing (Tim/Steph)
--> I do not have the words to articulate all the things that I love about this story. They're just so goddamn adorable and sexy, with all the teenage awkwardness tempered by their comfort with each other, their honesty and the way they just sort of fumble their way through things, laughing and generally having an awesome time. It felt intimate, too, not the candles-and-music romance but the way sex can be awesome when you're with someone you know really well and care about. Also, not gonna lie, Tim-the-repressed getting talked into cutting loose by Steph was pretty fucking hot. There are also a couple other stories set in the same universe, R-Point Rendezvous and Best Boyfriend Ever, which are Tim/Steph/Cass and Tim/Steph/Kon, respectively, and are all about Tim and Steph being comfortable enough with themselves to invite in good friends for good times. So much awesome.
Fringe
Can't Get Next To You (Peter/Olivia)
--> This has since been Jossed by S3, but I don't care because it's amazing and it makes me want to clutch it fiercely to my chest. Peter realizes that he has the wrong Olivia and he goes looking for the right one, but the door Walter opens takes him to the wrong alternate world. This is an old-school quest story, with all the accompanying trials and faith, but with a new-school twist. In each world Peter meets a version of olivia who sends him along to the next layer, and the challenge he faces is finding each one and convincing her to move him along to his Olivia: and the passing of each trial is when each wildly different and fascinating version of Olivia finds his love worthy of her help. I loved each and every Olivia in this, from the cyber-punk street dealer to the steampunk flying acrobat, because with all the wild differences the author managed to get to the heart of what makes each and every version of Olivia the same at the core. Most of all, though, I loved Peter, who was steadfast and never faltered- and the fact that in the end, it's not a matter of rescuing the damsel in distress, but more like returning a dragon's heart. It's fucking brilliant, but more important, it's magical in a science world.
Help Wanted (gen)
--> This is Astrid early on in the show, learning to deal with Walter and making peace with the fact that with all of her training she's essentially become a lab assistant to a madman. Astrid is awesome, on some occasions she's my absolutely favorite, and this story gets to the heart of why: her calm, intelligence, maturity, but most of all her ability to really See people.
Like the Best Ever (gen with overtones of Peter/Olivia)
--> There's something sharp and cutting about this story, and I finished it not entirely sure how I felt about it, but I could at least be sure that it was brilliant. Peter likes asking questions, and Olivia isn't all the fond of answering them- but it builds into something by the end, wandering past some of his issues and her issues into something that approaches intimacy. Also there is a Charlie cameo that's awesome, and I love me some Charlie.
Glee
Mostverse and the Mostverse side stories (gen)
--> I love this series. I love it past reason or description, and every time miggy posts a new one I read that fucker right then and there. The main part of the series centers around Rachel and Kurt after high school, because they still don't really like each other but they end up sharing an apartment in New York because of Rachel's college fees. It's a story about the difference between high school and college, the difference between home and away, between being familiar and knowing someone, between liking someone and being their friend. It's a story about Kurt and Rachel growing up and (sort of) getting over themselves and going on to be awesome together, and it sometimes hurts and sometimes just fills me with such joy. The side stories aren't to be missed, either, because I like the portraits of what the rest of glee club is doing with their lives, Quinn realizing that she doesn't have to fullfill her dreams right now to feel fullfilled, Mercedes having her own life and realizing how much she and Kurt have left each other behind, Finn enjoying college and stubbornly refusing to be anything but himself and falling in love with a really awesome girl. It's all amazing. Go read it right now.
Harry Potter
Cosine Theta (Harry/Ron/Hermione)
--> This is a quietly mature look at the three of them after the war. Hermione and Ron have too many sharp edges with each other to make it work and Hermione moves in with Harry to keep him from being alone and they grow close in all the little intimacies that accompany a romantic relationship without actually having one. Because, of course, neither of them works particularly well without their missing third. I like the thought that Hermione and Ron couldn't make it work particularly well, but that with Harry as their balance they work perfectly. That's always been an essential component for fictional threesomes: I need to feel that there's some reason that all three are in this together. This provided that perfectly.
Marvel Comics
Alternative Medicine (Steve/Tony UST)
--> Some lingering trauma from the war leaves Steve frequently unable to sleep, and things had gotten worse and worse until they realized that Steve could sleep if Tony was with him. I really love Tony in this, able to enjoy the fact that he's so important to someone he cares about while still recognizing how bad the situation could be, and I like that he recognized the problems with consent, that it would be wrong to proposition someone who depends on you for sanity. It's a hopeful end, though, and a very sweet story that I really enjoyed.
Conjugate (Steve/Tony)
--> The Avengers get hit by a power-swapping device! Peter with Logan's senses was hilarious, and Luke with the Extremis was especially interesting because most of the times I see Extremis used in fanfic it's background, by Tony who's used to having it. Spider-Cap is the best, though, hands-down. And I liked the way that the pairing crept up on me, just tiny hints of them being in each other's space more and more, comfortably touching and then backrubs, and when they finally got together I thought hey, it's all wind-down from here, but then the real plot twist kicked in. To someone more familiar with Marvel and Spiderwoman's powers this probably wouldn't have been the surprise it was for me, but it was still pretty awesome, and I like the way it was handled afterwards. All in all, this was an awesome story with just the right amount of an interesting plot to balance all the really cool character stuff they did.
Instant Karma's Gonna Get You (Steve/Tony)
--> Due to circumstances beyond his control, Tony makes Steve unhappy with him. And when Steve is unhappy, the universe is unhappy. Tony gets a string of bad luck that just keeps getting worse and worse and I just kept laughing at his misfortune. Of course it all works out in the end, but the myriad of ways it doesn't work out before then is pretty hilarious. Also, Tony's pretty dumb for a genius.
King of Infinite Space (Steve/Tony)
--> Tiberius Stone is back, someone is stirring up sentiment against capes, and Tony is worried that he's going crazy when he starts losing chunks of time. This story does one of my favorite tropes, where two characters go into a situation with their own depressing assumptions and everything seems to confirm the misunderstanding: in this case, Tony's full of guilt for almost killing Steve when under mind-control, and Steve's guilty because he never noticed something was wrong. The misunderstandings precede apace, but unlike some stories it doesn't feel forced or descend into the farcial; I could genuinely believe and sympathize with every mistaken conclusion, and I liked that they finally worked it out in the end because they just sat down and talked about it. A long, plotty story with a lot of heart, highly recommended.
Some Assembly Required (Steve/Tony)
--> So Victor von Doom, for reasons unknown, hits Iron Man with an unknown quantum ray that turns Tony Stark into a woman, right after he's been given the go-ahead to set up a proper superhero team. Meanwhile Steve, who's only been out of the ice for six months, sees Tony's "female cousin" and asks her out: and Tony accidentally agrees. And then accidentally sleeps with him. And then accidentally keeps doing it. There is so much to love here, from Doom's motives for the sex change (I laughed, like a lot) to Hulk's addition to the team to Steve being actually kind of a slut. (No, seriously!) I absolutely fell in love with Steve here, sort of halfway innocent but also really not and I totally sympathize with Tony's flailing affection and hapless tangle of lies. Just, fantastic and funny and charming.
The Roughest Day (Steve/Tony)
--> Cap's hit by a car, someone tries to shoot Peter Parker, and Tony's down with some mysterious illness- even though he's not supposed to be able to get sick. I don't know what it is about this fandom but this pairing is just CHOCK-FULL of epic misunderstanding fics, which is awesome because those fill my heart with glee. In this Steve and Tony restarted their "casual, secret" relationship along with the Avengers team-up, but this time around it's maybe not so casual, and both Steve and Tony want that- but they each think the other doesn't. There's a lot of plot, too, with a bunch of hack-job assassination attempts and then a desperate push to save the day (you know, the usual) but it all works out in the end. I smiled a lot while I was reading this. A lot.
Merlin
Advisor to the King (Merlin/Arthur, Arthur/Gwen, Merlin/Arthur/Gwen)
--> This is the story of Arthur becoming king and Merlin being awesome. It's about writing policy and changing your kingdom and building a future, not through the big battles but in the little wasys that are ultimately more important. The whole story, for me, was summed up in this one line of Merlin's: "I think people change things quietly, in little rooms. Like we are here. You and me, talking. I think this is where the world is shaped."
The Student Prince (Merlin/Arthur)
--> What can I say about this story that hasn't been said before? It's amazing. Merlin goes to college at the University of St. Andrews, theoretically in order to study physics but really to study magic, and also Arthur Pendragon, Prince of England, turns out to be his roommate. Chaos ensues, along with a lot of ridiculous pining and copious amounts of bickering. One of the fantastic things about this story is that the setting, the college and its traditions, become a character just as important as all the rest. I didn't even know this college existed before reading this story, but by the time I finished I felt like I knew it better than my own university. Really awesome.
The Weight of Words (Merlin/Arthur)
--> This is all about how Arthur is awesome, and much more clever than he looks. I enjoyed this because this is a lot closer to my idea of how growing up with court politics must have been like, learning to guard your words and make one thing sound like another and getting people to do what you want without realizing why- that's real power, and he uses it to protect Merlin. Brilliant.
Numb3rs
Calculus is Easy (Sort of Colby/Charlie)
--> In which Colby finds working with Don exhausting, working with Charlie interesting, and he learns the basics of calculus while getting a crush on a math professor. This story has absolutely everything I love about Colby in one neat package.
Sherlock BBC
A Little Competition (Sherlock/John)
--> This was a really awesome Halloween story. A storm traps Mycroft in the flat with Sherlock and John, and when the power goes out they surrender to the cliche and trade spooky stories to keep themselves entertained. I love the asides and interaction between the three of them before-after-during the stories, but my favorite were the stories that each of them told. They were incredibly spooky, all of them, in ways that had nothing whatsoever to do with the supernatural- but more importantly, each story said something about the person telling it, which is the most important part of stories like these. Really fantastic work.
Asteroidea, Highly Intelligent, Observant, and Destructive When Bored, and Feels Like Drowning (Sherlock/John, Sherloc/John/Mycroft)
--> His Dark Materials fusion. The first story is a Mycroft gen piece that sets up the premise, and that story alone was interesting and fiendishly clever, but then I read the second story, which is from John's point of view and really explores the possibilities. It really captures the sort of mystery and insanity and wonder of Sherlock, and the whole idea is just so utterly intelligent that I'm astounded. The third and final (?) story is the payoff of all the setup in the first two, and really gets to the idea of the connection between a human and his daemon, even when they fight against it. It posits the question: if your daemon meets and falls in love with a human, how could you do anything but fall in love with them too? Also John is fantastic. I can't emphasize this enough.
Breakfast at 221B (gen, Sherlock/John-ish)
--> Sherlock's observation of how much Mycroft is spending on prostitutes leads to a sharing of stories that made me really hurt for a much younger Sherlock. One of my favorite bits is near the end, when Sherlock says why he was telling this particular story to John- and John's reaction was just absolutely lovely, exactly what makes them fantastic partners. And the final punchline, at the very end, was just awesome.
Fearful Symmetry (John/Sherlock)
--> This is as much a story about John and Harry as it is about John and Sherlock, but the author manages to entwine the two relationships together into this really gorgeous narrative. It's all about the problems John has with both of them, the ways that he and they fail each other, and more importantly, the ways that he and they manage to be there for each other. It also had a really great negotiation of the idea of Sherlock and John starting a relationship, because things aren't just easy between them and they shouldn't be, but they are going to be fantastic. And I absolutely fell in love with Harry here, with all her flawed brilliance and so much love that it almost poisoned things between them, and the ending left me feeling satisfied as well as happy.
Five Things JOhn Watson Will Never Tell Anyone (Sherlock/John)
--> The first part of this reads as a gen character study of John, which is so spot-on that I immediately adopted it as my personal internal canon. The pairing part doesn't kick in till the last- but when it does, it doesn't feel like a gratuitous coda, it just feels like the natural extension of what came before.
Memorandum (John/Lestrade, with John/Sherlock and Lestrade/Sherlock UST)
--> Oh, this is just sharp enough to cut. Lestrade and John both notice each other's mutual crush on Sherlock, and their sympathy for each other's condition sort of slides into another kind of intimacy altogether, while they're strung-out on sleep deprivation in the middle of a case. The final scene, in the foyer of 221 Baker Street, seems at first to be one thing, and when you get to the very end and realize what Lestrade was really doing... well, it's fucking genius, is what it is. Just, mmm.
On Lestrade's Flawed Heart, and Other Slightly Damaged Things (John/Lestrade)
--> This is my second-favorite pairing in this fandom, and this story sells me on all of things that I love about it because it doesn't ignore Sherlock at all. Quite the contrary, this story is about what it would be like to have a relationship with someone so closely into Sherlock's orbit, especially when both of them are people that Sherlock considers his. I liked the theme of Sherlock being an impediment, something that interferes: but I liked the twist at the end even better.
Perspective (Sherlock/John)
--> John is hit by a wayward cyclist, and this leaves Sherlock thinking about things. Like the title implies, Sherlock and John don't tell each other anything new except for the one important thing: they've already figured out each other's issues when it comes to sex and relationships, and the one new thing is the knowledge that they each want it badly enough to try anyway. There's something just utterly sweet and sexy and intimate about this piece, and normally when the conversation preceding the sex is so well-written I don't think that the author can carry the tone over into the actual sex scene so well, but she did and it's brilliant. Not a very long piece, but just right.
The Art of Scheduling, or, How Mycroft Came To Realize He Was Well and Truly Fucked (Mycroft/Anthea)
--> This is a deeply non-romantic story that nonetheless made my heart sing, because that didn't mean it wasn't lacking intimacy, or even love. It's a story about Anthea being very very clever, and even kind of cleverer than Mycroft, because it may be his job to manage the world but it's her job to manage him. And Anthea really loves her job. The ending line, in particular, was just genius.
The Death and Resurrection of the English Language (Sherlock/John)
--> I didn't realize that this was part of a series including An Act of Charity and The Paradox Suite until I got halfway through this story, and when I did realize it was like putting the final piece of a puzzle in after hours of work. It fit that well, and it felt that satisfying. This is an absolutely amazing story on its own- but it's so much better with the previous stories, because each of these builds on and through each other like interlocking rings. This story is one that I'm going to go ahead and call wildly romantic, but it's basically romance for crazy people. Good thing that Sherlock and John are both stark raving mad, then! This builds on the previous story, which was all about John learning to live with a lunatic, and this is a beautiful look at the inside of Sherlock's head, his decidedly non-standard thought processes and his way of being in love- and he is in love, he's absolutely in love, he's so stupidly in love that I just read through this story feeling a bit breathless. This is amazing. I hope there's more.
There and Back Again and And What Happened After (gen)
--> The first story has Sherlock and John kissing and yet despite this? I still label it as gen. That's because these are an awesome portrait of the friendship between them, the way that John is really the one that Sherlock trusts the most and looks to the most and cares about, the only one he's close to, and for his part John essentially threw in with Sherlock on a whim and a prayer and despite everything (Moriarty, heads in the fridge) doesn't regret it for an instant. The literal, physical closeness is a theme of both stories: but it's just an expression of the emotional intimacy between them, and it's done in this spare, matter-of-fact style that's just magic.
The Shape I Found You In (Sherlock/John)
--> Sherlock's away on a case, and the story takes the form of the correspondence between them two of them in his absence. They both seem to find that it's much easier to say the important things when they're not face-to-face, and some of the details of the case Sherlock's working seem to hurt both of them, as well as spurring them to some personal revelations of their own. This is a very sweet, kind of wistful, thoughtful story, with an awesome happy ending.
Traffic Lights for the Colour Blind (Sherlock/John)
--> John is passively suicidal, and Sherlock decides that he needs him too much to allow it. This isn't necessarily a characterization of John that I can see- but the author makes it work here and then some, something about John's mild disappointment when he survives that just hit me hard when I was first reading this. And the slow process of John coming alive again and finding a place where he wants to be is really lovely.
Without Loss of Generality (Sherlock/John)
--> Sherlock is being a bit of a dick (even by his standards) and John isn't reacting well, and then Sherlock makes him tea. This is a story that seems to be about one thing on the surface, and then you get halfway through and Sherlock says something that makes you realize it's about something else altogether. I got a kind of emotional whiplash from this story, in the best way, because I was following so intently in John's emotional state: exhausted and unhappy and stunned and sympathetic and affectionate. I love it.
Sherlock Holmes: Doyle
A Measure of Honesty (Holmes/Watson)
--> Times that Holmes doesn't quite tell the truth to Watson, and one time that he really does. I loved the way that the author managed to show that even through moments of deception they were still totally connected. It did a really fantastic job of showing all the ways that they loved each other and supported each other in small ways.
Stargate: SG-1
A Study in Immobility (Jack/Daniel)
--> They're trapped in a jail cell, as happens pretty frequently to SG-1, but this time Daniel is newly descended and there's so much of him newly crammed into the miniscule space of a human body- and he's not coping as well as he thought. I loved this, because it's a way of thinking about the descension thing that never occurred to me, and because the way that Jack handled the situation left me breathless. Yeah. Two thumbs up.
Star Trek: Reboot
Decimation (Kirk/Spock)
--> Girl!Kirk. This is brilliant because it's hilariously funny, it's sort of reluctantly romantic, it's got a female character who's in charge of her own sexuality and everyone else's too, and it has a sly bit of metacommentary on female Starfleet uniforms. And it's hot. And it's hilarious. everyone needs to read this right now.
Start Again (Kirk/Gaila)
--> You know what I love about this fandom? Gaila stories. This particular story is a gorgeous look at both Kirk and Gaila, and the way each of them handles sex with friends. I like this acknowledgment that just because someone likes sex doesn't mean that they're lacking any issues with it- but just because they have a lot of sex doesn't mean they have issues with it, either. It's sweet and sexy and intimate and loving, and yet it doesn't try to present it as a grand romantic affair. It's just two friends, working things out between them and becoming closer. Lovely.
strive seek find yield (spocktoria) (Kirk/Spock)
--> Okay, so I had no idea what the hell I was reading when I started this, but I knew it was awesome. Basically, this is an AU inspired by Young Victoria, where Jim is the Prince of America, Duke of Iowa, after his brother abdicates for an academic life, and Jim is the 2IC on Number One's ship and doesn't think much of court life- until he meets Spock, the about-to-be-crowned new monarch of the Federation, who also happens to be the person who gave him chocolate in the aftermath of the Tarsus IV disaster and played chess until he fell asleep, and then things go downhill from there. This is an epic romance, and I'm not just talking about the length- everything about these two feels larger than life, bigger and more meaningful than the rest of us even as they are making terrible jokes about sex and fighting over whether Jim gets to carry a phaser during their wedding. Their story starts when Jim promises Spock that if he'll make peace with the Romulans Jim will win him a war with the Klingons and everything about their lives revolves around that, all the hard choices and politics and War. I love every single part of this story, I've read it over and over again, but my favorite parts are the supporting characters- Spock's life is run by his cabinet, composed of Nyota and T'Pring and Sybok, and the curse of Jim's life is his crew, with Bones and Gary and Gaila and Scotty and even Chekhov when Gary makes the mistake of sleeping with an underaged kid he meets in a bar. There's an excellent sense of a big, stupidly exuberant, cuttingly funny family, even when the only two actual relations are Spock and Sybok. Basically, though, everything about this is amazing. And don't finish without reading the companion story, You Are COrdially Invited, which is the story of Spock and Jim's Epic Wedding from T'Pring's point of view as it slowly drives her insane. It's glorious.
Supernatural
In Excelsis, The Mountains In Reply, and Angels We Have Heard (gen)
--> This is an awesome trio of stories about the awkward and hilarious and sad trio of Dean, Sam, and Castiel in the fifth season. The first is Dean and Castiel doing something incredibly stupid in the time when Sam's off on his own, the second is Sam and Castiel stuck together on a mountaintop for hours having extremely awkward conversation, and the third is Castiel, wandering around the world looking for God and never quite shedding his tether to the Winchester brothers. All three stories fit together like legos, one-two-three, and it's all a perfect portrait of this little trio. Dean is aggravating and explosive and loyal, and Sam is awkward and guilty and kind, and Castiel is alien and lonely and fitting imperfectly into his new family. These were the stories that made me fall in love with these three all over again.
It's Always the End of the World Somewhere (Dean/Castiel, Castiel/Crowley)
--> This is a deeply awesome high school AU, that translate the fundamentals of the characters better into teenagers than perhaps any I've ever seen. I like a good fluffy AU with the best of them, but I adore this, Castiel dizzy and alien and alienated and off into his own universe. I also like the look at Dean: it's almost an outsider's view (although as the story progresses you realize it's really NOT) where you see the harsh edges first and the underlying kindness later, and I have to admit that I sympathize with Castiel because I was totally in love with Dean too. Crowley was also an utterly awesome character, in ways that I didn't expect, and even though they weren't present I like the impact that Michael and Gabriel made on everyone's lives even after their graduation. Just fascinating, and charming, and good.
Kant's Dove (Sam/Dean)
--> This is a dystopian AU where angels rule and humans are just there to serve and populate the landscape. Sam is an Inquisitor who doesn't quite follow the rules, and Dean is the rogue human who comes along to shake up his ideas of the world. I have to admit that for part of this I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to keep reading- because I mostly don't like AU's where they aren't related, it sort of takes away everything that I enjoy about those characters, and because Sam is more than a little bit of a dick. But I stuck with it, and I'm so glad I did! The story never went anywhere I thought it was going to, and by the time I was halfway through I was on the edge of my seat, just waiting to see what happened next. The author set up the rules of her universe, gave me just enough time to get used to it, adn then busily set about destroying everything I'd just read. The characterization was great, and these may not be the guys that I know but you can still recognize them underneath everything, and the ending was perfect, perfect, perfect. Overall a really fantastic story.
Negotiating With Terrorists (and Other Post-Apocalyptic Adventures) (Dean/Castiel)
--> Okay, so this is hilarious. Let me just give you an idea of some of the contents: Castiel putting some shit in order in Heaven, ghosts of hunters setting up a rebellion that no one needs, Castiel killing Dean in order to handle said rebellion, and Sam freaking out about it. Only it's both so much crackier and so much lovelier than it sounds.
Play It All Night Long (Dean/Castiel)
--> This is just a ridiculously charming bit of AU. Dean is the host of a late-late-night call-in radio show, and Castiel, after suffering a loss and feeling utterly alone, calls in for the first time and the two of them strike up an unlikely friendship that goes unexpected places when Castiel loses his apartment and Dean lets him crash. Seriously, there was just nothing about this that didn't make me happy.
Second Map of the World (Sam/Dean)
--> First of all, candle-beck is always a must-read. Sometimes zhir stories rip your heart out and sometimes they leave you wriggling in your seat with joy, and this story manages to do a bit of both. Sam gets almost sick with his love for Dean and without thinking about it kisses his brother, ruining everything ever- and that's the start of the story. It's about starting over without being able to forget, about rebuilding, and eventually about starting something entirely new. I was so in Sam's head the entire way through reading it, his hopeless lovesickness and dependence and need and relief and awkwardness and joy. No other author can ever get me so entirely inside a character. Seriously, it's just amazing.
Stopped At the Crossroads (Sam/Dean)
--> This is a look at a world with no demons, where Mary Campbell never grew up learning to use a broadsword and John Winchester had five sons to raise in the suburbs. And yet, it's a world where Sam and Dean are still connected more deeply to each other than to any other human being on the planet. What's genius about it is that most of the story is the two of them seen through the eyes of the rest of their family, none of whom really understand, but each other them has some small piece of understanding that builds into a gorgeous whole for the reader. I especially liked the POV of the last brother, who thinks he knows the whole of it- but I couldn't help but think that knowing the nature of their relationship didn't mean he truly understood it, and the last look from Dean's view clinched that for me. You should see what you think, though. It's the kind of story that has to be experienced, not just read, and the kind that I liked to turn over in my head long after I was done.
The (Mostly Accidental) Courtship of Dean Winchester (Dean/Castiel)
--> This is sort of slightly-AU for the end of season five/start of season six, but it sort of slides into canon territory so smoothly I almost didn't notice. Basically, Castiel's brand on Dean's arm was the beginning of an angelic binding ritual: and much like the seals, there are hundreds of options and only a comparative few have to be broken. And they keep breaking them on accident. (Well, mostly.) This could have been this funny piece of crack, and one level it kind of was, but it slid into this tender, slightly sad, intimate look at Dean and Castiel, with Castiel's affection and Dean's issues. And it all ends up happily ever after. (Well, mostly.)
You ain't got a thing to lose (Sam/Dean)
--> Porn. Awesome porn, great characterization, but basically porn. Dean and Sam start having sex and it's awesome! But then Dean starts to realize that while Sam is totally willing to go with every one of Dean's kinks, but won't offer any interest of his own, and Dean decides to find one so that he can return the favor. And then he does. I was torn between the hotness and the utter hilarity of Dean's plan. Just, awesome.
You Say the Dead Need No Physician (Sam/Dean)
--> This is an old-school casefile fic that is nonetheless set very much "after everything." It's entirely hard for me to describe exactly what it is about this story that grabbed me, because there are a lot of little details that I liked but it was some gestalt that added up very much to be greater than the sum of its parts. The casefile in itself managed to be both genuinely tense and frightening and well as heartbreaking, and the building threads between Dean and Sam were just quietly sad/hopeful and made me feel like I was swallowing around my heart in my throat. There's a really awesome portrait of Southern cities that absolutely spoke to me- all of that history, a lot of it bad, feeling like it could just be caught in the air around you if you breathed the wrong way- and a look at "hunters" that are more ministers to the souls that can't lie peacefully. It's an interesting reflection of the "doctor of the dead" casefile they're working, too, because it's a look at hunting not in the sense of stalking and destroying a malicious force, but instead laying troubles to rest with the right kind of kindness. Most of all it's a story about love when it feels like the wrong kind, but love's just love: when it's real there is no wrong. It's sort of sad and wistful, but ultimately hopeful and sweet, even though I don't think I can qualify it as "happy." It's also brilliant.
Tamora Pierce: Tortall
what are you that wanting you I should be kept awake (Daine/Numair)
--> This is a short and very poignant story about Dain and Numair after the war, learning to cope with being at peace and being free from desperation. Daine is better at it than Numair, not surprisingly.
The Good Wife
Once More Into the Fray (Alicia/Will)
--> Post-season 1. What I like about this is that the romance is secondary- first and foremost it's about Alicia realizing that her relationship with Peter isn't coming back and moving on with her life. It's basically a really intense character study of Alicia, and since that's what drew me to the show in the first place I love this to pieces. It has not everything going smoothly, and it has Alicia being fiercely practical and trying to figure out what she wants after so many years of being one particular person, and Will loves her and he wants to work with what she wants. It's very... adult, if that makes any sense.
Torchwood
The Assist (Rhys/Gwen/Ianto)
--> Rhys and Gwen decide to experiment a little and broaden the horizons of their marriage, and obviously they're not going to ask Jack, so Ianto it is. I like this because it's sexy but it's also awkward and funny and sweet, and the three of them are really just happy and comfortable and awesome together. Short and utterly charming.
White Collar
Four Meals (Neal/Peter/Elizabeth)
--> This is a story about all of the ties that Neal has found himself with in his new life- from Peter in the workplace and Elizabeth out, to June's family that he's not-quite a part of but clearly belongs more than he realizes, to the bakery he bought for an escape plan and clearly loves, and finally, back to Peter and Elizabeth, who are the heart of his life in more ways than one. Food is the continuing theme, and like good food this story leaves me sort of warm and satisfied. Also it will make you hungry.
Jeffrey Nullier's "Man With a Fedora" (gen)
--> Someone's stealing works by a certain artist, and one of the pieces has Neal's fingerprints all over them. This is only the start of a longer, clever piece of writing that's all about Neal and art, and Neal and Peter and their history, and the way that art can sometimes mean something much more to the people viewing it than the person who created it. Written with copperbadge's usual spare, wry tone, this really captured a lot of things that I love about White Collar, and also highlights all of the things that I wish the show could be.
Martyrs Never Last This Long (Neal/Peter/Elizabeth)
--> Kate comes back from the dead, and she wants something from Neal. Mozzie doesn't really approve of Kate's influence at the best of times- but considering that Neal is sleeping with the Fed and the Fed's wife, he's a little less than thrilled, and decides to warn Elizabeth about the impending possible doom. Things ratchet up worse and worse with Neal's plot, and Mozzie, completely against his will, ends up getting more and more involved, and I was totally caught up in the will-he-won't-he of the whole thing. Fantastic, and really funny- Mozzie's POV was solid fucking gold.
Never Leave a Trace (background Neal/Peter/Elizabeth)
--> Mmmm, this is an absolutely lovely magical realism AU, where Neal can steal souls (sometimes) and Peter has a shade in his eyes that only Neal and El can see, and he can always find Neal, even when Neal doesn't want to be found. A lot of this story feels kind of like the way the myths build in small spaces, the idea of prison magic and the things that work inside that don't work outside, the magic of living within a barrier. The beautiful thing about magical realism, though, is that all of those myths are true. I like that a lot of things were never really entirely explained- why prison magic worked, why it worked the ways it did for different people, and more particularly Peter's two shadows and the shade in his eyes. There were implications- the authority of being the law, violence, dominance, even some binding with Neal- but it was never really confirmed one way or another, and I found myself thinking about this story days after I read it. Most of all, though, this is Neal's story, the story of who he is in prison, the people that he knows, and it's a story about how he can go back in for a case but that's not who he is anymore.
Note By Note (Peter/Elizabeth, pre-OT3)
--> Back when Peter was still chasing Neal, Neal used to pick his pocket so that he could leave notes in Peter's wallet. And Peter, instead of turning them into evidence, kept them, with Elizabeth's encouragement. This says so much about their tangled history, how they felt then and now, and how very much then informs now, especially for those two. I liked Elizabeth's thread wound through it, too, even though in some ways this is very much Peter and Neal's story. It's all done with a very light touch.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.
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