Kita: The Fourth Wall

Oh, JESUS.

I mean, I *knew* that if Kita ever wrote Batman she'd break my
poor little mind, but *this*...

Bruce, beyond fucked up, *beyond* fucked up and so bitter and
so *wanting* and so... gah.

It's like she took Frank Miller's Batman and shoved him into
Smallville. Or took Clark and shoved him into the Dark Knight Returns.

It was just... *whoo*. Go read.

*Guh*. This was just fabulous. Just... mm. Not the Batgirl in
my head, but the one in my heart, if that makes any sense. fry
does a brilliant job of detangling and retangling the complex
relationships of the Batverse into something beautiful and
inevitable.

Bonus: fabulous Harley Quinn cameo.

*

James: Snippet #6

Rrrrrr. I love it when writers take a closer look at Batman's psyche,
and this was a lovely little bit. Home and everything else that matters.
God, I love that big broody freak.

*

Benway: 23h35 24/12/14

Aaaagh. God, I should *know* better than to read Benway when I'm going to
want to sleep, but... damn.

It was just one of those days, you know? I'd spent hours reading a long, long,
LONG Gambit story that was good enough for government work, but did
absolutely nothing to disabuse me of the notion that a) the author was blindly
in love with the character and b) the author had no faith in her audience's
ability to suss out the deeper meanings that surrounded her fannish love, and
so had to BEAT IT INTO US.

Repeatedly.

Well.

This story? Does not do that.

This story takes a long, hard look at the things that make Gotham's (other)
finest who they are, and just what it would take to break them.

Meanwhile, have a little war to scour your palate. *Real* war. The kind that
takes no prisoners -- not really. Because now matter who actually survives
to the end of a given conflict, no one ever really *lives* through it.

Not whole. Not complete.

Ah, this was lovely. Go read.

And Freedom

Which is easily one of the most horrifying things I've ever read. Politics
and pain and devotion and by the end I was rocking back and forth and
whimpering like an animal.

My fucking GOD, Benway is good at this.

All I'm going to say is that Bruce Wayne has always been -- and will
always be -- one scary motherfucker.

AND In the Blood

The story that proves that Benway's ability to make me scream out loud
at the end of a story was not just a one time thing, and that ignorance
really IS bliss.

Sometimes.

Sort of.

Eeeeyagh.

I'm so addicted...

Dude, I've gotten to the point where I'm reading up on characters I
don't know from Adam just so I can read more of Benway's fic.

Like, for an example, Morning in America

A story Benway says illustrates his worst nightmares, and you know? I
can see why.

Jesus. How many of you remember THAT campaign, and everything
behind it?

How many of you ever wondered how a certain young man would've
turned out, given the opportunity to grow up?

Gah. Twisty and evil and wrong and bleak and just... eee. have I mentioned
how very much in love I am?

AND One Ring

Dude, a few hours ago I didn't know who Stephanie Brown WAS. Now?
I'm still not so sure, but it doesn't matter, because I love her so fucking
much and I want to cry for her and beat the world to death for making
her who she is.

And make everyone listen at Benway's feet for pearls of wisdom, because
no one gets it -- gets ALL of it -- like he does.

Damn.

*Damn*.

And what you're thinking re: the title of this story? Go with it.

Mary Borsellino: The Boy Who Gave Away His Birthday

A gently... *grey* fairy tale about family and love and what it means to be
exactly who you are...

Well, wasn't that always the coolest thing about the Endless? That, in the
end, they were no more and no less than their aspects, and could never be?

Perhaps a bit sweeter than I would have done, and there are a few typos
here and there, but still very, very cool.

*

Spyke Raven: Despair

Still another story I've been meaning to rec for months and months now. Bad
Te. *Bad*. This story... God.

Well, first you have to know... Sandman is pretty much my *other* bible. Not
so much in terms of where I go for religion, but in terms of where I go for to
learn how to *think* about religion.

And learning how to think, and, God help me, how to dream...

So yes. Very important to me.

And most Sandman fic? Sucks. Sucks *HARD*. People get hung up on the
Gothic fantasy of it all and things get pretentious and Te starts to yark and it's just
not pretty.

Spyke Raven? Avoids this trap.

And writes a Desire I can believe in.

*And* continues the story. The narrative. The *questions*:

Despair reminds him so much of their mother. If they'd ever had a mother, that
is. Dream says he might have imagined her once, but Desire knows Dream
was only saying that to make Delirium feel better and stop tearing out her hair in
bloody clumps. Dream is convinced the Endless were spawned of dreamstuff,
cheap mortal way to pass the time, just like Desire knows it was lust that had a
hand in their creation. As did Destruction, Delight and Despair, forming long
after Destiny appeared to make Death's pale hands acceptable to mortal
minds. It's a tacky kind of creation story, but it makes awful sense. And it's
ironic and also metaphorical, like Desire and Despair coupled for eternity, or
at least every couple of weeks, which seems to be the longest he can manage
without her.

~

*shiver*

Awful, gorgeous, cynical... mm. Desire. Yes. And oh God, the ending...

Read. This. Story. Now. Yes, now. Right now.