Hell's Half Acre

 Alright, I know you said you wouldn't see me until after October 11th (if I can manage to see 14.01 after it airs - I'll be out of town and without access to a TV)... BUT, I felt kind of bad for abandoning you for so long... and also I'm bored and avoiding packing... so, you get fic rec!

Now, standard fic rec disclaimer: I don't read much SPN fic. So, these are all OTHER FANDOM fics... hopefully, there's a few of you out there in the fandom, or better yet, a few of you out there who will give it a shot even though you don't know the fandom. 

This fic works perfectly for that, because it's a complete AU, so you don't actually have to have any knowledge whatsoever of the source material - it's just a good story.

A Safety in the End by CloudAtlas - Marvel (Bucky/Clint (comics-based)/Natasha)

I'll go on about it below the cut, and the cut text will once again be my bookmark description on AO3...

( Great threesome fic. Realistic relationships. A little TOO close to home, but kind of fantastic for hitting that hard. )


Cool, so now that that's done - NOW I'll disappear until sometime after October 11th.

And now I will cease to procrastinate on packing...

I got caught up with Mark Watches tonight - he just finished S5 and has started S6.

It got me thinking about what Canon AUs are out there that have a divergent point at the end of 5x22. It was such a big break for the show, such an end point/beginning point, where they really could have gone anywhere from there in terms of plot and characters...

And it got me curious about what storylines other people came up with.... like, for instance, stories like ratherastory's Fusion'verse - where Sam claws his way out of hell and is left with psychological problems and it's essentially a hurt/comfort curtain fic from there....

But there's gotta be other ones, right? There has to be more people who wrote their own versions of what happened after 5x22....

Of course, the problem is that I don't ship things in SPN, so.. yeah, maybe there aren't any stories out there for me - since I don't want Dean/Cas or Sam/Dean....

Blah, I always forget that bit about how hard it is for me to find good fic in the SPN fandom. Especially good fic post S4, when all the Dean/Cas shipping starts. Sigh.

Anyway, if anyone has any recommendations anyway, let me know...

I'll admit my bias right off the bat with this one...

yalumesse was inspired by my timeline (specifically the post I made on Dean's birthday) to write a Dean-centric fic. Basically, it's Dean as seen through his birthdays. It's REALLY well done. They're not chronological, but it works better that way, as different birthdays mirror or contrast each other. Also, she used chronological time!

The fic is both heartbreaking and heartwarming, just like the character and the show.

So, read it: January 24th

And I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! :)

This is sort of a follow-up to my previous post about Women, Sex, and Power in relation to Sherlock (and Sherlock fandom)...in that rant, I stated the following:

           How about we stop making every single female on television the representative for all women? Is Sherlock the representative for all men? No? Why not? Oh, because he's a possible asexual sociopath and most men aren't. Well, most women aren't dominatrixes that want to blackmail the British government, so how about we stop forcing Irene to represent our ideal of the perfect woman. Why aren't we talking the same way about Mrs. Hudson? She's pretty badass...

Now, my lovely rant was written before The Reichenbach Fall aired...and, I, like Sherlock, overlooked a lovely example of a woman that was under my nose the whole time: Molly Hooper.

Okay, maybe I didn't overlook her - I did mention her in the original rant, but then erased her, because I had already seen the fandom complaining about how Molly was "a doormat" and "weak"...and I just didn't want to open that can of worms. Luckily, I don't have to, because Miss Transmission does it for me!

In The Real Woman? Why Molly Hooper is the One Who Counts, Miss Transmission does a great job of pointing out how absolutely awesome Molly is as actually representing women. How we were so distracted by "The Woman" that we forgot that other female characters were also female. 


( A bit of a rant under here )


Anyway...yeah, I guess this is kind of another crazy rant too. But, guys, I just...have a lot of feelings, okay! Plus, my landlord is being a prick (again) so I'm in ranty-mood tonight. (T-minus 13 days until I am rid of him).

It is time to clear out my bookmarks - so, let's see what I have, shall we?

Vids

Here's a J2 vid from 2009. Now, I don't actually wear a tinhat, but I DO really like friendship. Anyone who has read my opinions On Love (and Slash) will know that I actually like real friendship a lot more than imaginary sexy-times. Anyway, I think this vid is cute, just from a friendship point of view: Jared & Jensen - A Love Story by Fated Cinderella.

A similar vid (also from 2009 - obviously I was into schmoopy piano-music friendship vids in 2009) by Melissa: Happy. 

For some reason, I bookmarked this interview with Jared from the 2011 ComicCon. I don't know why. Maybe I just thought he looked pretty. 

Meta

I bookmarked missyjack's awesome "not a meta" about Camus' Sisyphus and Sam and Dean, because it is awesome. And I have always liked Sisyphus.

Fic

J2-AUs

The Quiet'verse is my favourite deaf!character fic ever (in this case, it's deaf!Jensen). For those of you helping me out on my Novel Project, you may recognize that I use a similar strategy for writing my deaf character as glassyskies does in the Quiet'verse. Unfortunately, this 'verse is a neverending WIP that is very infrequently updated (currently at 56 chapters) - that being said, it is adorably sweet and simple and very very beautiful, so I don't mind that it might never be done. I actually lost it for a while, and then rediscovered it and was pleased to find a few new entries that I hadn't read. So, maybe that's the trick - just lose WIPs for over a year, and then you get to rediscover them later.

Fics like Airborne by insane_songbird are a guilty pleasure of mine. I'm just a sucker for wing-fic (oddly enough, I still can't stand Dean/Castiel fic though). Also, a bit of a sucker for fantasy worlds. So, wing-fic in fantasy-land=pretty awesome. In this case, I like the fact that she made Jensen (with wings) a weird hybrid creature - in that he's not just a human with wings, he comes from a completely different culture and has a completely different brain chemistry. I'm not saying that the fic is perfect - as with most romances I read, I feel as though it could use a bit more emotionality - a bit more explanation as to why the two leads love each other (beyond looks)...she does a good job, I find, of telling us why Jensen loves Jared, but not the other way around. There's this awesome opportunity at the beginning of the fic to show them bonding and being domestic, and she kind of glosses over that in order to get to the action (which is crazy fun, so I don't blame her...I'm sure I have the opposite problem, where I over explain emotions and everyone gets bored.)

Fair Game | Foul Play by qblackheart. It a J2 Harry Potter Crossover/Fusion! You all know how much I love Harry Potter crossovers! Especially crossover/fusions that KEEP TO CANON! In this case, we have J2 as Hogwarts students - not during Harry Potter's years, but during Bill and Charlie Weasley's years...this way, the author can quite brilliantly give J2 a "normal" school environment, so that their own story doesn't become overshadowed by Harry Potter's story. Even when the war does catch up to them - (and of course it does) - it does so in a way where you aren't reading a plot that you already know.  This fic gets five stars from me. Also, she put Jared in Hufflepuff - and anyone who reads my Teddy and Nate stories will know that I have a strange love for Hufflepuff.

Sherlock (BBC)

Subliminal is a John/Sherlock fic by Speranza. What I love about this little fic is the style that she uses to tell the story from Sherlock's POV. She uses clever little subtext...haha...okay, that sounds weird. Just click on the link and check it out. 

The Theory of Narrative Causality by anon is an epic story told on the Sherlock BBC Kink Meme (which really isn't a kinkmeme as much a fic-meme...just, if you are going by the SPN measure of kink. It's like taking a spoon to a nuclear bomb fight). It's a Sherlock/John AU in which Sherlock is a fanartist and John is a fanfic writer in the Sherlock Holmes fandom....yes, you read that correctly. It's pretty damn awesome - especially because whoever wrote it has a very good idea of how fandom works on livejournal...so it is also a portrait of ANY fandom on LJ and how people relate (or do not relate) to each other. It's epically long, but if you go down to the bottom, people have put links to all the parts...or you can click here. 

Let's Make a Bed Out In The Rain by theimprobable1 is bookmarked for some reason, so it must be a good read. It's another John/Sherlock - with John having broken up with Mary, and Sherlock being the secretly-in-love best friend who is there for moral support. I think I liked the way Sherlock was written, even though the Sherlock in the show is actually far too bold to act like this - I kind of like shy, quietly pining, Sherlocks too. On a completely different note, I actually thought the title was Let's Make a Bed Out OF The Rain, which I actually liked better as a title.

The Seat of Reason by thesardine is a great Gen piece. It's Mycroft and Sherlock as kids, which, in my opinion, is a great thing to explore. At any age, Mycroft and Sherlock are both immensely complex and, fundamentally, heartwrenching figures. This fic is very much in keeping with "Do you ever think there's something wrong with us?"  Also, bonus points for working in Aristotle in such a poetic and meta way.

Down the Pub with the Rugby Lads by what_alchemy is a coming-out fic, but unlike most coming-out fics you see - it's actually more true to real-life, where it's awkward and people say stupid things, even though they don't really mean to say stupid things - and if they DO mean to say stupid things, it's not happily resolved at the end of the night with the stupid people learning a valuable lessen. It's just awkward and a little disappointing, but fundamentally worth it in the end. (Wow, that sentence kind of describes life in general.) It is, of course, Sherlock/John.

Performance in a Leading Role by madlorific is probably well known by anyone involved in the Sherlock fandom. It's a Sherlock/John AU in which Sherlock and John are both slightly "washed up" actors (for different reasons) who get cast as gay lovers in a film that is not a gay film. It's a nice fic, because it plays to a lot of the things people like about RPS, but it's not RPS (though there are real people mentioned in it) - and on top of that, it has a great commentary on the state of gay characters in Hollywood these days. In that the only lead gay characters are only found in films that are about being gay.

( 2 behind the cut, for S2 spoilers )


I know, I know, WAY more Sherlock fic than Supernatural - I apologize to those who don't watch Sherlock. I tend to bookmark more Sherlock for some reason. Maybe because I read more WIPs in that fandom....or maybe because I visit more rec-lists? I don't know. I tend to look for Supernatural-related fic when I actually have time to read, and then read it right away, and then that's that...whereas for some reason I tend to bookmark Sherlock fic and come back to it later to read.

Also, Sherlock is a bit like the new kitten. It's not like I want to ignore the cat I already have, but DAMN that kitten is cute. 

Ok, I usually don't rec very recently posted vids - but holy crow this one is amazing.

It's an 8 minute epic that covers S1-5, all set to to American Pie, made by BottledMichelle on youtube. It's brilliant. American Pie is such a blue-collar American song, and Supernatural (I think) is one of the only shows about blue collar Americans...and man...so well done.

Also, it sort of has the added bonus of showing how Supernatural is about the great tragedy of being not having women around...

Ok, so as many of you know I have a fascination with sexual-assault (in particular sexual-assault on males) in Supernatural. I also don't seem to take as much offense as other people do when the show mentions the word "rape" or molests some girl (I say "some girl" here, because I find that no one much complains when one of the guys is molested....and that's totally meant as a burn on the fandom, btw.)

Anyway, I've talked about it a lot on this journal - but today I clicked on the wrong bookmark in my drop down menu and ended up at amonitrate 's journal...and dudes, amonitrate  has some great meta that I only read every couple of months.

Anyway, I scrolled down instead of clicking on the correct bookmark, and I came across this piece she wrote:

Torture and Rape in Supernatural Season 6 (so far)
 

So, as most of you know, I love Joey Comeau, and he's best known for writing the words to the webcomic a softer world. 

heathyr_iltp  has done some Supernatural remixes of some of the strips, and they are great. There's been someone doing this for Sherlock BBC and I just love them too...I can't find the links to them at the moment though.

Anyway, check out heathyr-iltp's work :)

Joey Comeau is one of my favorite writers, even though I can't read his horror novels because they are too horrific. Most of you might know him from A Softer World - but I suggest you check out his book Lockpick Pornography too (you can read it online for free, or buy it for $10), as well as his short-stories.

Anyway, today on the a softer world blog space, he said this:

"I joined a chess club and I started taking Cantonese lessons! But more importantly I have been re-watching 30 Rock, and it makes me happy. Whenever people judge me for how much of my time I spend watching TV and horror movies I wonder if they've ever even been happy ever. EVER."

I have a whole file of quotes from him that I've liked over the years...

"I think boys are very handsome sometimes, and I want to hold their hands and give them kisses. Does that mean I'm gay? On my BIRTHDAY?!?! Gosh I hope Maggie doesn't find out!"
(Maggie being his girlfriend)

Or...

"I hope that you are a disaster. I'm sorry, but I do. I hope that you are thunder and lightning. I hope you are a forest fire, I hope you kill the dead wood and burn off the rotting leaves. With the canopy gone, the sun can get in. You need new growth. I hope you're terrible and broken and perfect."

Or...

"People end up where they end up, and sometimes they end up in love. What I like about love is that it doesn't last forever. What I like about love is how, because it's so intense, the ending is always a disaster. Right now it's raining hard. The internet says there's a hurricane coming tonight for sure."

And one of my all time favorites:

"Do you think it would be impolite to give someone a t-shirt that reads 'I'm the reason why rational people are hesitant to self-identify as feminists.' ?"

My point was going to be that I like watching TV too, and for some reason keeping track of Sam and Dean's wardrobe makes me happy...and so does keeping a very accurate timeline...and so does rewatching those three Sherlock episodes...but I think my point is also that I really like Joey Comeau. He always makes me feel like there's a place in the world for me, I just haven't found it yet.

The other day I asked for recs for things in the Sherlock fandom, and one of you pulled through for me! Thanks baruchan !

The Case of the Unwelcome Owl by pandarus (on DW) is a short fic (7458 words), it is also Gen.

I like it for the same reason I like my own Harry Potter crossover - it's BELIEVABLE. And what I mean by that is that the universes are blended in a very believable way - not only that, but the things about the established characters that the author has to tweak are actually tweaked in a way that is completely in keeping with the characters.

Also, it is amusing.

There's only one slight canonical mistake in it (an owl delivering a personal letter would not have to be paid - only newspaper delivering owls require payment)...so, overall, I'd say it's pretty damn good.

It also leaves things way open for delightful sequels, though, if the author doesn't proceed with caution, she could completely ruin why I like the story - but isn't that the case with everything?

So, yes, this rec is for the few of you who watch Sherlock and like crossovers. I know there's a good chunk of people who friended me based on their love of crossovers, so I doubt that bits the problem is you AREN'T clicking on the link. So, I'll add that if you haven't watched Sherlock, you totally should - because it is great and has so much goddamn potential for everything that it KILLS me. I want to turn that show into a lake and swim in it.