(no subject)
Things have been pretty busy for me since Christmas, sorry I haven’t posted any recs, but I haven’t really been reading much. I have been reading the last couple of weeks, though, and I’ve got some stuff. I have not abandoned this journal, so don’t fear. I will be around, just maybe gone for long stretches because life has an annoying habit of getting in the way of my hobbies.
Supernatural
Each Prayer Accepted, And Each Wish Resigned by obstinatrix
Sam/Castiel // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: …Part of the auction for Queensland. She asked for hopeful, current-canon Sam/Castiel, in whatever guise I saw fit.
I really loved the writing in this. It was exceptionally well written and the characterization was great. I liked that Castiel was an angel, otherworldly and not very human for most of it. I liked the tension of it, sexual and otherwise, and the way Sam was trying so hard to remember because he felt different and that something was going on. What I didn’t like about it was the real explanation that Castiel gave him for that--that his lack of a soul revealed to him the fact that he wanted Castiel. That really didn’t make a lot of sense to me and seemed a bit contrived. I also didn’t like that Castiel was so totally knowledgeable sexually because that doesn’t fit with Castiel as he is now in canon to me. Even now, he’s curious and probably wouldn’t hyperventilate like he did when Dean tried to buy him a hooker, but he wouldn’t be quite this confident and knowing, at least I can’t see it that way. I can see Castiel as a top, though, but I just found my inability to believe him as a dominating, demanding, confident toppy-top kind of threw me off. But I’m not everyone, so I still highly recommend this one because it is very good.
Flowers Don’t Grow Here by portraitofafool
Sam/Castiel // PG-13 // Author’s Summary: Sam got five years instead of a lifetime and even he knows that was the long-shot of all optimistic outlooks. But even as the wall crumbles down around him, Castiel is still there to make the nightmares go away.
First, leeches in the throat is fucking nasty and the description of it grossed me out quite a lot. You may consider that a compliment to the author. I loved this a lot. A LOT. Sam losing his mind and knowing he’s losing his mind because he can feel it happening is so, so sad to me. I do wonder what they’re going to do with that possibility in the show and I hope to God they’re not just going to flap their hands and pretend it’s something they don’t have to address because it’s interesting, it really is. I like some of the stories I’m reading now where people are trying to play with this what if idea and this is a really great one. The writing is good, of course, but the story itself is also good right to the end. Then oh my God, Castiel and his sweet self comforting Sam and I’m an embarrassingly sappy little wad of goo because yes. I’ve read a few other things where there is that ethereal play with dreams or death and this is a similar concept. A different take on the Heaven vs. Hell thing and I loved it a lot. And it’s sad and sweet, but not lame, which is always awesome to me. It could have been longer and explored deeper, that is the only thing I didn’t 100% approve of here and that’s hardly a criticism.
This is Not an Exit by portraitofafool
Sam/Dean // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: First, there's a sucking hole inside of Sam and then there's an itch in the back of his mind. Finding a way to fill one up and scratch the other leads him down some strange roads. Funny thing is, after a while, he starts to enjoy it. A lot.
Sam as a sociopath killer is just way too believable to me, even before the whole losing his soul thing even happened, so this is a really interesting story. Creepy, I’m not even going to lie there because it totally is, and you should check out the warnings on this one before you decide to read it, but still really cool. Sam’s soulless, sociopathic characterization was really fantastic and the gory parts were graphic as hell and written with almost a kind of relish. Knowing the author as I do, I’m sure there was some relish going on there. She doesn’t pull any punches with it and that makes Sam without conscience or soul very believable, his methodical way of going about getting Dean back even more understandable and even, oddly enough, almost sympathetic. There were also times when I laughed a lot, too, though I’m sure I may be one of the few people doing that with this one. I have a bit of a sick sense of humor, though, but I really did crack up over things like the scene with the cat--which I’m not going to explain, you’ll just have to read it--and Sam’s way of thinking was amusing to me sometimes. I wasn’t crazy about the ending, but it did work for the story. The reason I didn’t like it as much as the rest of the story I think is just that I feel left hanging. I can understand that Dean would eventually become accepting and that’s what you’re told in the end, but I also think that accepting something like that would still fuck with him deeply. But I also think the only way to fully explore this is to go on with the story and I don’t know that such a thing would be an improvement on it. I suppose it ended the best way that it could end and the reader has to make up their own mind about what happened after.
Harry Potter
The World of the Living by fourth_rose
Harry/Draco // R // Author’s Summary: A traumatised war hero and a convicted criminal under the roof of an eccentric journalist make for a rather odd ensemble, but Luna has never had a problem with oddities as long as they make sense.
I don’t read a lot of Harry Potter these days and haven’t for a while, but sometimes one crosses my radar and I’ll click and if it’s good as some of the best are, I’ll go on reading it to the end. This was posted back in ‘07, so it’s new to me but it’s not new. However, I still operate under the idea that what was good then is good now. This is good. It’s told from Luna Lovegood’s POV, which I find really odd, but it’s a great concept when you consider how the story is written. It wouldn’t have made sense otherwise because then why have it take place in her house? Draco is still a snarky little shit, but he’s mellowed a lot in this and I like that because I think it fits with Draco after the war, after he’s lost everything and even after that still been spanked for his involvement. I like Harry in this because he’s all messed up in the head like he really should have been at the end of the books. He’s still got a weird resentment and prejudice for Draco Malfoy because of the whole Death Eater thing, but even he seems to know it’s weird and really childish. I liked the confrontation between Luna and Ginny a lot, but I’m going to say that’s because I never liked Ginny much and did not think the idea of Harry/Ginny would have ever worked realistically. The story is well written and the way it moves the changing relationship between the two boys from old enemies to new, almost reluctant friends, to lovers is very easy and believable. I think that if it had been told from an omnipotent perspective, we would have had more insight into it, but that’s all been done before about a thousand times and this worked.
Cost of Living by libby_drew
Snape/Harry, Harry/Draco // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: The world moves on. Snape and Harry linger.
I remember back in the day really loving this author’s ideas. She has some great ones. She is one of those writers that, when I come across something she’s written that I haven’t read, I will at least mark it to go back and read it later, even if I’m not feeling the Harry Potter love at the moment. When she writes something sad, which is what I usually found with her, she writes it and it is sad. It really is. It’s not trying to be sad and falling short of the mark, it’s not coating the sad on heavy-handed with a trowel, it’s just the right amount of sad and it works. In this, I loved the way time passes and they don’t even seem to notice how much time has passed sometimes. They stay young and everyone around them dies until no one they knew when they were mortal is left and you can really understand how weird it is, how really depressing it might be to live forever like that. It’s hard to wrap your mind around those kind of years, but she does a great job trying to explain the loss, then also explains how everything seems to start meaning nothing to them, even other people. Except they still grieve for the people they knew in their mortal lives, even if they’ve been dead for two hundred years, which I think is really touching and yes, sad. I really like things that explore this concept and ideas like it and this one did that. It was very interesting to see. The fact that Snape and Harry are essentially alone in their immortality made them drawing toward each other sexually more believable, too. With this pairing, this isn’t always the case in my opinion.
NCIS
the shorter story by anr
Gibbs/Abby // PG // Author’s Summary: He'll figure it out later.
I have found that my dislike of most of the fan fiction in this fandom comes from the lack of good characterization and development. The characters in this were absolutely spot-on, though. I especially loved how she wrote Abby, she was herself but not over the top, not a caricature of the character like I usually find her to be. Gibbs was Gibbs, too, and for some reason it amused the hell out of me that he got turned on by the smell of sawdust and gunpowder. I love the quiet tension going on in this, how you can tell there is some kind of chemistry going on between the two of them. I like Abby trying to pick the lock on Gibb’s house, then her presenting him with the chance to refuse her except he doesn’t. And Disneyland. Heh. This was great and I wish like hell I could find more Gibbs/Abby fic out there like it. It makes me want to read more of them, longer ones.
Open Doors, and Other Invitations by shrift
Gibbs/DiNozzo // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: Despite all appearances to the contrary, Tony knew how to ignore things. It used to be one of his best coping mechanisms.
Characterization and voices are so, so right on in this. I found this by accident while reading something else of this author’s and I am going to just say I envy her the way she can write a character and their voice and it is so them that you can honest to God hear them speaking those lines. I want to be able to write character voice like that when I grow up, I’m serious. Now, this particular story was wonderful because Tony is just wonderful and funny and his hero worship bordering on obsession with his beloved boss is about the cutest thing in the world. It is just like one of Gibbs’s patented smacks to the head, it’s so obvious, and in this he’s finally figuring it out. I don’t know if I quite buy Gibbs’s excuse that he was just waiting for Tony to grow up and mature because that just sounds weird and kind of creepy to me, but I guess I can sort of see it. Maybe. But regardless, the characterization in this is so amazingly true that I can buy into it here even if I don’t completely buy it. Then there’s Ducky, who is his sage and very him self, and Abby who is ♥ because she is amazing and cute and funny and the fact that she is there adds something to this that would have otherwise had the story feeling off because of the lack of other known characters. There should have been more, but I am a greedy sort, as has been established. I would have loved to see this continue and be fleshed out more, get some real plottiness going and work it in with the Gibbs/DiNozzo relationship as it develops.
Inception
Shake the Gray by nicepantsu
Arthur/Eames // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: Written for prompt: "I want some very fucked up, AU Arthur/Eames where instead of being addicted to dreaming, they become addicted to hardcore drugs."
This is AU, Arthur is an architect, but in the more simple meaning of the term, not the dreamscape sense. Eames is an artist--a painter. I like this kind of thing in stories, sue me. I know, drugs are bad, mkay? I don’t care, it makes for some really fascinating imagery in writing. There isn’t a lot of otherworldly imagery in this, which I think is a pity, but the drug use is described pretty well. The way it makes them feel, the way it can become addicting even if it starts out not being that kind of thing. In this, it starts out with them just using together because Arthur finds Eames shooting up and wants to share it with him. I think that’s sweet in a kind of twisted way. Then it gets more and more out of control until they’re doing it because they need it and not because they want to, which is very realistic and sad, and she describes and explains that pretty well. I like how even though it destroys their lives and Arthur blames Eames for it and Eames doesn’t like what Arthur becomes and blames himself, they still don’t leave each other. That is a very realistic codependence that junkies often have, especially for their partners if they use with them. It’s a big reason why in this kind of situation it’s so hard for them to quit, even if they both want to quit, because they also feed each other’s craving. I like that the author shows this without beating you in the head with it. It’s sad and that follows through all the way to the end, which is ambiguous, but also fitting.
The Breakfast Club
Commence by kaizoku
Bender/Brian // R // Author’s Summary: It's probably just a trick Bender's playing on him.
Thank you so much to portraitofafool for mentioning The Breakfast Club slash to me in passing. It set me on a quest to read some because that? HOT. Yes, I’m a dweeb who grew up in the late 80’s/early 90’s and thought John Bender was the hottest thing ever and then Anthony Michael Hall grew up fine and I have thought so ever since he was John Smith in The Dead Zone. This was the first one I read and it surprised me by being pretty good. I feel like a broken record at this point, but characterization. It is key in many things fandom. The character voices in this were really good and I can believe that John Bender is John Bender and Brian Johnson is Brian Johnson. I can even believe, because of the short little argument that takes place in this, that Claire is Claire (I really hated Claire. I wanted to be Allison). This was cute and I mostly liked it. What I didn’t really like was the back and forth between time switching format thing that the author decided to do. I think that if she had just written it so that it was a longer story instead of trying to squeeze it in under some kind of wire, it would have been better. It could have been written chronologically and yes, it would have been longer which is what I suspect the issue was here, but it would have also been better for it. I want to see how Brian got to be sitting at graduation watching Bender get his diploma with a butt plug up his ass, I don’t want you to just tell me that’s what happened. Frankly, I find that to be the least believable part of the story because she just told it to me instead of showing how that could come to pass.
A Lobotomy and Some Tights by shrift
Bender/Brian // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: Of stalking by skinny math geeks, broken ceramic elephants, and Bender's specialty bongs.
I kinda love this pairing a lot and intend to read more if I find it and have time, though it is obscure because it’s a movie from the 80’s. Still, it has endured because it is awesome. Anyway, love the author’s characterization and dialog with a flaming passion, I’m serious. I don’t really know if Brian following Bender home for assistance with his messed up lamp is realistic, but I guess it could be and it could definitely seem that way to a high school kid. Even a smart one. They do dumb shit all the time, I remember. This is really cute, and yes it’s hot, too, but that’s not even the best part, it’s incidental. The interaction between the characters is fun and funny and the little details here and there make it perfect. Like Bender’s fingerless gloves, his dad coming home and how he reacts to that, how Brian has heard rumors. I loved that, actually, the fact that there were rumors going around that would make him think maybe Bender was into boys, because in the movie, yeah, totally Mr. Macho and you wouldn’t think hey, that guy likes boys because he’s flirting/fighting with Claire through the whole thing. Those are the obvious pairings in that film and that’s great, but I hated the ending of that movie and I like to think of it actually ending more like it does in fic. I haven’t a clue as to what the author was thinking when she chose the title, though. Not a clue.
Art
He's my Brother by gikun
Supernatural // Castiel/Balthazar // G
I like the roughness of this where you can still see strokes, like painted brushstrokes. The circle halos and the wings give it a kind of ironic church ceiling look that clashes with the rest of it--Castiel’s coat and tie, the v-neck twink shirt Balthazar’s wearing (it totally is :P). Then there’s the way Balthazar is looking at Castiel with this really loving, affectionate expression and Castiel’s looking back at him like, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Lol.
the three best friends by letoist
Supernatural // Sam, Dean, Castiel, random baby // G
I haven’t seen the movie The Hangover yet, but this cracked me up anyway. I think it’s the looks on their faces. Dean and Sam look annoyed and confused and Castiel’s just standing there with this blank expression and sunglasses, holding a baby also in sunglasses in a carrier and I know he would have something very bland and probably amusing to say about the whole thing. I do kinda wonder why the back of Castiel’s coat isn’t there. Maybe it’s tucked into his pants. This idea amuses me so that’s what I’m going with. I also really ♥ the way she did the color of Sam’s eyes.
The 2011 J2-S&D Calendar Wallpaper Project : March by petite_madame
Supernatural // Sam/Dean // G
There is also a link here to look at it without downloading it, I don’t think she has one on the post. I don’t rec my own stuff on here, obviously because that would be really fucked up and lame, but I am totally allowed to rec the things other people do even if it’s for something I did. That makes sense in my head anyway and it’s absolutely logical because this is amazing and so, so beautiful. Sam looks so sick, the way his eyes are red and kind of watery and the expression on his face, it’s so hopeless. He really does look like he could be dying of cancer. Then he’s disappearing and she did it with what looks like water or waves and that fits in with the tropical paradise descriptions in the story. You can kind of tell that the waves aren’t really there, though, because the pillow shows through and there are slats of light across the bed from the window. Then Dean, wow, I love Dean in this. He’s more in the dark because the wave thing in Sam’s mind doesn’t touch him or reach him and he’s holding onto Sam, not sleeping but just laying there with his eyes half open. He looks as sad as Sam does and they look sad together and it’s an amazing, beautiful, perfect illustration with great atmosphere.
Study in Pink Birthday Cake by karadin
Sherlock // Sherlock/John // G
This is, like I said to the creator of it, crazy and amazing. I can’t even imagine the kind of time that went into making this. It’s like a cake sculpture and the little figures are perfect, they look a lot like them. The cake is also pretty funny, with the smiley face on it just like the one on the wall Sherlock was shooting at. She says there’s a little magnifying glass in Sherlock’s hand and kudos to her for being so detailed, but maybe I just can’t see it, it doesn’t really look like a magnifying glass to me, though. But yeah, crazy and amazing, absolutely.
untitled (Handprint on my Heart) by tbranch
Wicked // Elphaba, Galinda // G
I have only ever read the book, never seen the musical play based upon it, but I don’t think that’s necessary to enjoy this. I love the contrast the artist used by showing the two characters superimposed on each other, showing them like two parts of the same whole, or maybe opposites. I like the hand over the heart with the heart shining through, I think that’s beautiful and adds story to the piece. Then the detail is really lovely, like the tear you can see sliding down Elphaba/Galinda’s face and the loose threads hanging and poking from Elphaba’s clothes, but Galinda seems to be immaculate, her clothes shining. I really love the style of the picture, how it’s sort of like a poster for a play, but also a little like the art of graphic novels, which I am in love with.
I will probably have more recs very soon. As always, if you like what I rec, please tell people about this journal. Hope you enjoy ♥
Supernatural
Each Prayer Accepted, And Each Wish Resigned by obstinatrix
Sam/Castiel // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: …Part of the auction for Queensland. She asked for hopeful, current-canon Sam/Castiel, in whatever guise I saw fit.
I really loved the writing in this. It was exceptionally well written and the characterization was great. I liked that Castiel was an angel, otherworldly and not very human for most of it. I liked the tension of it, sexual and otherwise, and the way Sam was trying so hard to remember because he felt different and that something was going on. What I didn’t like about it was the real explanation that Castiel gave him for that--that his lack of a soul revealed to him the fact that he wanted Castiel. That really didn’t make a lot of sense to me and seemed a bit contrived. I also didn’t like that Castiel was so totally knowledgeable sexually because that doesn’t fit with Castiel as he is now in canon to me. Even now, he’s curious and probably wouldn’t hyperventilate like he did when Dean tried to buy him a hooker, but he wouldn’t be quite this confident and knowing, at least I can’t see it that way. I can see Castiel as a top, though, but I just found my inability to believe him as a dominating, demanding, confident toppy-top kind of threw me off. But I’m not everyone, so I still highly recommend this one because it is very good.
Flowers Don’t Grow Here by portraitofafool
Sam/Castiel // PG-13 // Author’s Summary: Sam got five years instead of a lifetime and even he knows that was the long-shot of all optimistic outlooks. But even as the wall crumbles down around him, Castiel is still there to make the nightmares go away.
First, leeches in the throat is fucking nasty and the description of it grossed me out quite a lot. You may consider that a compliment to the author. I loved this a lot. A LOT. Sam losing his mind and knowing he’s losing his mind because he can feel it happening is so, so sad to me. I do wonder what they’re going to do with that possibility in the show and I hope to God they’re not just going to flap their hands and pretend it’s something they don’t have to address because it’s interesting, it really is. I like some of the stories I’m reading now where people are trying to play with this what if idea and this is a really great one. The writing is good, of course, but the story itself is also good right to the end. Then oh my God, Castiel and his sweet self comforting Sam and I’m an embarrassingly sappy little wad of goo because yes. I’ve read a few other things where there is that ethereal play with dreams or death and this is a similar concept. A different take on the Heaven vs. Hell thing and I loved it a lot. And it’s sad and sweet, but not lame, which is always awesome to me. It could have been longer and explored deeper, that is the only thing I didn’t 100% approve of here and that’s hardly a criticism.
This is Not an Exit by portraitofafool
Sam/Dean // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: First, there's a sucking hole inside of Sam and then there's an itch in the back of his mind. Finding a way to fill one up and scratch the other leads him down some strange roads. Funny thing is, after a while, he starts to enjoy it. A lot.
Sam as a sociopath killer is just way too believable to me, even before the whole losing his soul thing even happened, so this is a really interesting story. Creepy, I’m not even going to lie there because it totally is, and you should check out the warnings on this one before you decide to read it, but still really cool. Sam’s soulless, sociopathic characterization was really fantastic and the gory parts were graphic as hell and written with almost a kind of relish. Knowing the author as I do, I’m sure there was some relish going on there. She doesn’t pull any punches with it and that makes Sam without conscience or soul very believable, his methodical way of going about getting Dean back even more understandable and even, oddly enough, almost sympathetic. There were also times when I laughed a lot, too, though I’m sure I may be one of the few people doing that with this one. I have a bit of a sick sense of humor, though, but I really did crack up over things like the scene with the cat--which I’m not going to explain, you’ll just have to read it--and Sam’s way of thinking was amusing to me sometimes. I wasn’t crazy about the ending, but it did work for the story. The reason I didn’t like it as much as the rest of the story I think is just that I feel left hanging. I can understand that Dean would eventually become accepting and that’s what you’re told in the end, but I also think that accepting something like that would still fuck with him deeply. But I also think the only way to fully explore this is to go on with the story and I don’t know that such a thing would be an improvement on it. I suppose it ended the best way that it could end and the reader has to make up their own mind about what happened after.
Harry Potter
The World of the Living by fourth_rose
Harry/Draco // R // Author’s Summary: A traumatised war hero and a convicted criminal under the roof of an eccentric journalist make for a rather odd ensemble, but Luna has never had a problem with oddities as long as they make sense.
I don’t read a lot of Harry Potter these days and haven’t for a while, but sometimes one crosses my radar and I’ll click and if it’s good as some of the best are, I’ll go on reading it to the end. This was posted back in ‘07, so it’s new to me but it’s not new. However, I still operate under the idea that what was good then is good now. This is good. It’s told from Luna Lovegood’s POV, which I find really odd, but it’s a great concept when you consider how the story is written. It wouldn’t have made sense otherwise because then why have it take place in her house? Draco is still a snarky little shit, but he’s mellowed a lot in this and I like that because I think it fits with Draco after the war, after he’s lost everything and even after that still been spanked for his involvement. I like Harry in this because he’s all messed up in the head like he really should have been at the end of the books. He’s still got a weird resentment and prejudice for Draco Malfoy because of the whole Death Eater thing, but even he seems to know it’s weird and really childish. I liked the confrontation between Luna and Ginny a lot, but I’m going to say that’s because I never liked Ginny much and did not think the idea of Harry/Ginny would have ever worked realistically. The story is well written and the way it moves the changing relationship between the two boys from old enemies to new, almost reluctant friends, to lovers is very easy and believable. I think that if it had been told from an omnipotent perspective, we would have had more insight into it, but that’s all been done before about a thousand times and this worked.
Cost of Living by libby_drew
Snape/Harry, Harry/Draco // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: The world moves on. Snape and Harry linger.
I remember back in the day really loving this author’s ideas. She has some great ones. She is one of those writers that, when I come across something she’s written that I haven’t read, I will at least mark it to go back and read it later, even if I’m not feeling the Harry Potter love at the moment. When she writes something sad, which is what I usually found with her, she writes it and it is sad. It really is. It’s not trying to be sad and falling short of the mark, it’s not coating the sad on heavy-handed with a trowel, it’s just the right amount of sad and it works. In this, I loved the way time passes and they don’t even seem to notice how much time has passed sometimes. They stay young and everyone around them dies until no one they knew when they were mortal is left and you can really understand how weird it is, how really depressing it might be to live forever like that. It’s hard to wrap your mind around those kind of years, but she does a great job trying to explain the loss, then also explains how everything seems to start meaning nothing to them, even other people. Except they still grieve for the people they knew in their mortal lives, even if they’ve been dead for two hundred years, which I think is really touching and yes, sad. I really like things that explore this concept and ideas like it and this one did that. It was very interesting to see. The fact that Snape and Harry are essentially alone in their immortality made them drawing toward each other sexually more believable, too. With this pairing, this isn’t always the case in my opinion.
NCIS
the shorter story by anr
Gibbs/Abby // PG // Author’s Summary: He'll figure it out later.
I have found that my dislike of most of the fan fiction in this fandom comes from the lack of good characterization and development. The characters in this were absolutely spot-on, though. I especially loved how she wrote Abby, she was herself but not over the top, not a caricature of the character like I usually find her to be. Gibbs was Gibbs, too, and for some reason it amused the hell out of me that he got turned on by the smell of sawdust and gunpowder. I love the quiet tension going on in this, how you can tell there is some kind of chemistry going on between the two of them. I like Abby trying to pick the lock on Gibb’s house, then her presenting him with the chance to refuse her except he doesn’t. And Disneyland. Heh. This was great and I wish like hell I could find more Gibbs/Abby fic out there like it. It makes me want to read more of them, longer ones.
Open Doors, and Other Invitations by shrift
Gibbs/DiNozzo // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: Despite all appearances to the contrary, Tony knew how to ignore things. It used to be one of his best coping mechanisms.
Characterization and voices are so, so right on in this. I found this by accident while reading something else of this author’s and I am going to just say I envy her the way she can write a character and their voice and it is so them that you can honest to God hear them speaking those lines. I want to be able to write character voice like that when I grow up, I’m serious. Now, this particular story was wonderful because Tony is just wonderful and funny and his hero worship bordering on obsession with his beloved boss is about the cutest thing in the world. It is just like one of Gibbs’s patented smacks to the head, it’s so obvious, and in this he’s finally figuring it out. I don’t know if I quite buy Gibbs’s excuse that he was just waiting for Tony to grow up and mature because that just sounds weird and kind of creepy to me, but I guess I can sort of see it. Maybe. But regardless, the characterization in this is so amazingly true that I can buy into it here even if I don’t completely buy it. Then there’s Ducky, who is his sage and very him self, and Abby who is ♥ because she is amazing and cute and funny and the fact that she is there adds something to this that would have otherwise had the story feeling off because of the lack of other known characters. There should have been more, but I am a greedy sort, as has been established. I would have loved to see this continue and be fleshed out more, get some real plottiness going and work it in with the Gibbs/DiNozzo relationship as it develops.
Inception
Shake the Gray by nicepantsu
Arthur/Eames // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: Written for prompt: "I want some very fucked up, AU Arthur/Eames where instead of being addicted to dreaming, they become addicted to hardcore drugs."
This is AU, Arthur is an architect, but in the more simple meaning of the term, not the dreamscape sense. Eames is an artist--a painter. I like this kind of thing in stories, sue me. I know, drugs are bad, mkay? I don’t care, it makes for some really fascinating imagery in writing. There isn’t a lot of otherworldly imagery in this, which I think is a pity, but the drug use is described pretty well. The way it makes them feel, the way it can become addicting even if it starts out not being that kind of thing. In this, it starts out with them just using together because Arthur finds Eames shooting up and wants to share it with him. I think that’s sweet in a kind of twisted way. Then it gets more and more out of control until they’re doing it because they need it and not because they want to, which is very realistic and sad, and she describes and explains that pretty well. I like how even though it destroys their lives and Arthur blames Eames for it and Eames doesn’t like what Arthur becomes and blames himself, they still don’t leave each other. That is a very realistic codependence that junkies often have, especially for their partners if they use with them. It’s a big reason why in this kind of situation it’s so hard for them to quit, even if they both want to quit, because they also feed each other’s craving. I like that the author shows this without beating you in the head with it. It’s sad and that follows through all the way to the end, which is ambiguous, but also fitting.
The Breakfast Club
Commence by kaizoku
Bender/Brian // R // Author’s Summary: It's probably just a trick Bender's playing on him.
Thank you so much to portraitofafool for mentioning The Breakfast Club slash to me in passing. It set me on a quest to read some because that? HOT. Yes, I’m a dweeb who grew up in the late 80’s/early 90’s and thought John Bender was the hottest thing ever and then Anthony Michael Hall grew up fine and I have thought so ever since he was John Smith in The Dead Zone. This was the first one I read and it surprised me by being pretty good. I feel like a broken record at this point, but characterization. It is key in many things fandom. The character voices in this were really good and I can believe that John Bender is John Bender and Brian Johnson is Brian Johnson. I can even believe, because of the short little argument that takes place in this, that Claire is Claire (I really hated Claire. I wanted to be Allison). This was cute and I mostly liked it. What I didn’t really like was the back and forth between time switching format thing that the author decided to do. I think that if she had just written it so that it was a longer story instead of trying to squeeze it in under some kind of wire, it would have been better. It could have been written chronologically and yes, it would have been longer which is what I suspect the issue was here, but it would have also been better for it. I want to see how Brian got to be sitting at graduation watching Bender get his diploma with a butt plug up his ass, I don’t want you to just tell me that’s what happened. Frankly, I find that to be the least believable part of the story because she just told it to me instead of showing how that could come to pass.
A Lobotomy and Some Tights by shrift
Bender/Brian // NC-17 // Author’s Summary: Of stalking by skinny math geeks, broken ceramic elephants, and Bender's specialty bongs.
I kinda love this pairing a lot and intend to read more if I find it and have time, though it is obscure because it’s a movie from the 80’s. Still, it has endured because it is awesome. Anyway, love the author’s characterization and dialog with a flaming passion, I’m serious. I don’t really know if Brian following Bender home for assistance with his messed up lamp is realistic, but I guess it could be and it could definitely seem that way to a high school kid. Even a smart one. They do dumb shit all the time, I remember. This is really cute, and yes it’s hot, too, but that’s not even the best part, it’s incidental. The interaction between the characters is fun and funny and the little details here and there make it perfect. Like Bender’s fingerless gloves, his dad coming home and how he reacts to that, how Brian has heard rumors. I loved that, actually, the fact that there were rumors going around that would make him think maybe Bender was into boys, because in the movie, yeah, totally Mr. Macho and you wouldn’t think hey, that guy likes boys because he’s flirting/fighting with Claire through the whole thing. Those are the obvious pairings in that film and that’s great, but I hated the ending of that movie and I like to think of it actually ending more like it does in fic. I haven’t a clue as to what the author was thinking when she chose the title, though. Not a clue.
Art
He's my Brother by gikun
Supernatural // Castiel/Balthazar // G
I like the roughness of this where you can still see strokes, like painted brushstrokes. The circle halos and the wings give it a kind of ironic church ceiling look that clashes with the rest of it--Castiel’s coat and tie, the v-neck twink shirt Balthazar’s wearing (it totally is :P). Then there’s the way Balthazar is looking at Castiel with this really loving, affectionate expression and Castiel’s looking back at him like, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Lol.
the three best friends by letoist
Supernatural // Sam, Dean, Castiel, random baby // G
I haven’t seen the movie The Hangover yet, but this cracked me up anyway. I think it’s the looks on their faces. Dean and Sam look annoyed and confused and Castiel’s just standing there with this blank expression and sunglasses, holding a baby also in sunglasses in a carrier and I know he would have something very bland and probably amusing to say about the whole thing. I do kinda wonder why the back of Castiel’s coat isn’t there. Maybe it’s tucked into his pants. This idea amuses me so that’s what I’m going with. I also really ♥ the way she did the color of Sam’s eyes.
The 2011 J2-S&D Calendar Wallpaper Project : March by petite_madame
Supernatural // Sam/Dean // G
There is also a link here to look at it without downloading it, I don’t think she has one on the post. I don’t rec my own stuff on here, obviously because that would be really fucked up and lame, but I am totally allowed to rec the things other people do even if it’s for something I did. That makes sense in my head anyway and it’s absolutely logical because this is amazing and so, so beautiful. Sam looks so sick, the way his eyes are red and kind of watery and the expression on his face, it’s so hopeless. He really does look like he could be dying of cancer. Then he’s disappearing and she did it with what looks like water or waves and that fits in with the tropical paradise descriptions in the story. You can kind of tell that the waves aren’t really there, though, because the pillow shows through and there are slats of light across the bed from the window. Then Dean, wow, I love Dean in this. He’s more in the dark because the wave thing in Sam’s mind doesn’t touch him or reach him and he’s holding onto Sam, not sleeping but just laying there with his eyes half open. He looks as sad as Sam does and they look sad together and it’s an amazing, beautiful, perfect illustration with great atmosphere.
Study in Pink Birthday Cake by karadin
Sherlock // Sherlock/John // G
This is, like I said to the creator of it, crazy and amazing. I can’t even imagine the kind of time that went into making this. It’s like a cake sculpture and the little figures are perfect, they look a lot like them. The cake is also pretty funny, with the smiley face on it just like the one on the wall Sherlock was shooting at. She says there’s a little magnifying glass in Sherlock’s hand and kudos to her for being so detailed, but maybe I just can’t see it, it doesn’t really look like a magnifying glass to me, though. But yeah, crazy and amazing, absolutely.
untitled (Handprint on my Heart) by tbranch
Wicked // Elphaba, Galinda // G
I have only ever read the book, never seen the musical play based upon it, but I don’t think that’s necessary to enjoy this. I love the contrast the artist used by showing the two characters superimposed on each other, showing them like two parts of the same whole, or maybe opposites. I like the hand over the heart with the heart shining through, I think that’s beautiful and adds story to the piece. Then the detail is really lovely, like the tear you can see sliding down Elphaba/Galinda’s face and the loose threads hanging and poking from Elphaba’s clothes, but Galinda seems to be immaculate, her clothes shining. I really love the style of the picture, how it’s sort of like a poster for a play, but also a little like the art of graphic novels, which I am in love with.
I will probably have more recs very soon. As always, if you like what I rec, please tell people about this journal. Hope you enjoy ♥