stories!

Dec. 26th, 2013 12:28 am
inmyriadbits: oranges on blue (happypinkpartysombrero)
I LOVE YULETIDE.

My story has gone over well with my recipient, and the treat I wrote also went over well, so I'm happy as a clam in that regard.

I received an awesome, AWESOME gift. I'd asked for In Treatment, and hardly expected to match on it, because there were only three fics on the archive for it before this one, and one of those was a crossover, and I'd requested a character that didn't even have a tag before I asked for her. But no! I got it!

I've wanted good post-S1 Sophie-centric fic for ages, because damn if that girl wasn't fantastic, and this sticks her in college and watches her roll. It is -- as will surprise no one who watched this show -- heartbreaking and frequently very difficult to experience, but so warm with empathy for Sophie, in all her arrogant, sharp-edged, vulnerable, ballsy glory, and gives her not a happy ending but an beginning where she finds happiness but earns it. God, I love Sophie, and this author just nailed her, and I am so amazingly happy with the story:

Ten Point Oh (3885 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: In Treatment
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sophie (In Treatment)
Additional Tags: Eating Disorders, Suicidal Thoughts, Past Sexual Abuse
Summary: Sophie has her answer all prepared: it is a total smug asshole answer, full of phrases like the joy of the sport. But no-one ever asks.
(**Definitely heed the tags and warnings in the note! Especially if you share any issues with the character. Like I said -- difficult.)

I haven't read a ton of other fic, but I've definitely been enjoying all the wacky creativity that comes out of this challenge. I mean, I love that there's now piles of fic to read for Arrow and SHIELD and so on, but it just isn't Yuletide unless people are pulling off:
1. Ryan Stone from Gravity picking up hitchhikers who happen to be awesome ladies from other fandoms while coping after her ordeal in the movie;
or
2. making a high fantasy femslash story with assassins out of "Jolene" (the Dolly Parton song);
or
3. my personal favorite so far -- the medieval ballad version of how Han and Gisele get together in Fast Five. I felt obligated to read it out loud for proper effect, and it had my sister and I in delighted stitches.

YULETIDE! \o/
inmyriadbits: oranges on blue (ilikethisficalot)
I've had AUs on the brain (XMFC fandom is rife with them), so apparently the thing to do with that situation is to rec some of my favorite AUs. In alphabetical order by fandom:

1. The Art of Running & Fearless on My Breath (The Fast & The Furious, Brian/Dom)
Because what the world really needed was for someone to take a massively testosterone-infused fandom like this, and change one of the main characters into a woman. That's right, people -- this is Brian genderswap (of the always-been-a-girl variety), and it's really good. Brian is totally crazy in the exact same way, but then also crazy in some other new and fun ways, but it's all excellent. I think what I love best about this is that the author preserves their friendship and mutual respect from the movies; Dom doesn't treat Brian like a girl, he treats Brian like a person. IDK, it's genderswap fic! They drive really fast cars while being attractive! It's great! The sequel (Fearless on My Breath) then takes on the second movie, and it's kind of better this way.

2. Sixteen Days In September (Generation Kill, Brad/Nate)
This is an amazing story. Fair warning: it's a really intense war story, so there's violence of many kinds and very heavy subject matter. That said, don't be scared off! I can't imagine there's someone out there who hasn't read this yet, since it was recced to high heaven, but it's one of those stories that deserves every scrap of praise it gets. This is a point-of-departure AU: instead of joining the Marines, Nate joins the Peace Corps, and is sent to East Timor...and then a civil war starts up, and Nate, of course, does whatever he can to look out for people and do the right thing, but his pragmatic idealism takes a real beating from the war. A lot of the rest of the ensemble show up (as Marines still; actually, RL Nate went to East Timor as part of the peacekeeping force when he was a Marine), and everyone is just perfectly characterized. The Brad/Nate is a delicious slow burn that I love to pieces. Seriously, I cannot recommend this highly enough.

3. Play It Again, Jeeves (Jeeves & Wooster, gen-ish Bertie/Jeeves)
And now for a 180-degree tonal shift! The last was epic and very serious; this is short and completely ridiculous. The author did it on a request for "cracky retelling of Casablanca with Jeeves and Bertie." It's a very brief little piece (set in the last scene of the movie, so DON'T READ IT if you haven't seen the film, if you care about spoilers), but it makes me just die with laughter. Imagine recasting Rick with Bertie and Captain Renault with Jeeves, and then shifting the tone of the whole thing way into the Wodehouse range of things, and there you are. And by "there" I mean "laughing your ass off." Hee.

4. Next of Kin (The Losers, gen-ish)
This author writes the best damn Jensen in The Losers fandom, hands-down. If you like Jensen -- and who doesn't? -- you should read everything else she's ever written, basically. Anyway, this AU is also a point-change: Jensen never joins the Losers...and then Max gets his hands on his niece and sister and blackmails Jensen into working for him as his pet hacker. So Jensen is left to do an impossible task with his family's life on the line, and he has no backup. And then the Losers hear about Max's computer expert and decide a little bad guy kidnapping is in order, not realizing that Jensen's about as not-bad as you can get.... ♥ I've re-read this many many times, and it continues to delight me.

5. Apotheosis (Sherlock, gen-ish John/Sherlock)
AWESOME AU IS AWESOME. This is an inversion of "The Empty House" (the ACD short story wherein Holmes was revived after supposedly dying at Reichenbach Falls) setup -- after the confrontation with Moriarty at the pool, instead of Sherlock going after Moriarty alone for three years, John does. Long, plotty, full of pining, and lots of badass John! Truly excellent, and really creative in certain ways that I refuse to spoil for you.

Anyway, that's it. Enjoy!

(This is still not my Dear Yuletide Author letter, like it should be. Oops? /Rick Perry)
inmyriadbits: (tequilalimeotp)
So, Katie and I spent our afternoon and evening after work in a worthwhile pursuit -- by which I mean to say, we watched the first four The Fast and the Furious movies back to back, in preparation for going to see the fifth on opening weekend.

We may have consumed large numbers of Coronas in the process. (It was only appropriate. And at times, necessary.)

my thoughts, such as they are )

...what. You expected those thoughts to be deep?

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