Basingstoke: City in the Clouds

*happysigh*

I hate it when Harper is vulnerable. I mean, it's too easy. He's the littlest,
he's slash-fodder bottom-bait, now you wanna wallow in his pain, too?
So, you know, it takes a really *good* writer to make me want to read this
sort of thing. And an even better writer to make me *like* it.

Tyr and Harper, in the aftermath, dreaming of homes that were and weren't,
and coping with what is.

Lovely.

*

Kit Mason: The Recreation of the Warrior

I can't remember who recced this story to me now, but it's been bookmarked
for me to read for *ages* now, and why not? It's Kit Mason. I've loved her
work before.

She's blisteringly intelligent, and it shows. This story... *siiiiigh*. It takes the
character of Tyr Anasazi and *runs* with it, giving us everything with style,
elegance, and grace. Hell, it gives us Nietzschean culture with detail an
archaeologist would drool over and any science fiction lover, any lover of
universe-building, would cream their jeans for.

It's gorgeous, just gorgeous, sprawling and magnificent and full of intrigue,
weaving in and out of canon before taking a sharp and satisfying left.

About the only complaint I had was that I felt Tyr was a little too soft in places,
but then I'm only a casual fan of Andromeda, so YMMV.

Excellent use of original, peripheral, and ensemble characters.

Basingstoke: you and me and rainbows

*happysigh*

So I've finally gotten to read some of these books, and yes, I'm
*exactly* as enthralled as everyone (including myself) knew I'd be.
Even moreso with Apollo and the Midnighter, who Bas writes about
in this story. And I'm sorry, but that's cooler than cool. Because it's
like fanfic of fanfic of a comic.

FEEL the meta! Touch it with your trembling fingers!

It's also a great little story, using sex to really show us who these
guys *are*, a tactic I happen to be fond of, and to admire when it's
used correctly.

Read this. Get to know the fellas.

And: The Business

*eee*

Okay, this is soooo cool. This is just... the awesomest look at the
Midnighter's mind I can think of, because he's a computer, yeah, and
he's a bastard, sure, but he's also just a guy, and there's a reason for
everything, and what it all comes down to is the search for a
certain number that isn't.

And how he's never, ever going to get it. Wah.

*

Jane St Clair: Frozen

What's that you say? I'm showing signs of having a new fandom?
Pshaw!

Okayfine. I can't help it if these guys hit my opposites-but-not kink hard,
my equals kink, my antiheroes kink, my... look, they hit a lot of kinks,
all right?

And so does Jane.

Feeling and memory and what it is to be human, and perhaps simply
to be.

I'm not sure if I buy Midnighter as quite this... soft? Human? Sane?
Non-computerish? But hey, Jane's the expert. *g*

And it's not like I didn't love this...

And *this*: Knight After Night

Dude, two words: "catch queer."

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Dammit, I need the rest of these books so I can read all the fic and
immediately begin bitching for more!

Um... yes.

In any event, this story was nicely surreal and funny, and just plain
*cool*, working in some good angst and funny bunny hey, just how
*does* a mind like that work?

Very cool.

 Sophia Jirafe: Passing of a Winter Love

This is a fabulous example of one of my favorite genres of fan
fiction -- the Consequences story, in which the threads of a
happy ending or glossed over event are pulled and teased
apart to make something gloriously (and often horribly) real
out of the fluff of fantasy.

But what I love best about this story is the fine hand with which
it approaches the nature of the unreliable narrator. Such things
need a delicate touch, and Sophia's was perfect.

Ladonna: All night the dreadless angel

Oh my GOD.

It just so happens that Ladonna and I share a fandom-specific kink
when it comes to Brimstone, and this story serves that kink *so*
well.

I won't say more, but... yeah. And hell, it's just so fucking hot, too.
*Gah*.

Stone is, perhaps, a *touch* more poetic than I hear him, but it
wasn't enough to throw me off my stride.

Also: And season him thy last and sweetest prey

This one had me clutching my throat and being all "oh my" like a horny
Victorian.

Er... yes.

I think, for this, it's the *tone* that gets me. I can *hear* the devil, his
whimsy and his pride and his *hunger*.

And. Well. I think you all know what that does to me. ;-)

*

Sarah T.: The mind is its own place

Uh... drool?

Fuck, man, one of my most powerful and enduring kinks -- and I used the
word advisedly -- is when intelligent and creative writers pull something out
of the mass of theology and tease it into an entirely new and beautiful (if
twisted) shape.

This... yeah. Go team Sarah.

shalott: Taking Care of Business

Dude. See, this is why movies based on comic books are evil. Just
when you think you can live without any more slash pairs, a movie
hits the screen that changes your mind. Again.

Because, dude, Michael Clark Duncan... yeah.

Woof. This made my bits happy.

Jane St Clair: Hard Comfort

Oh, man. It shouldn't work. It's, like, the apotheosis of Should
Not Work, but it *does*, and it's Billie and Van and Deaq and
everything they need, all their issues, and how sometimes
it's just way more important to get *something* than to get what
they want. Rowr.

*

zvi: Get Next To You

Damn. This was... hot and flashy and hot and hot and just a little
sad. Like the show itself when it hits that angst groove. I could
*see* this, and mmph. Yeah.

The voices weren't quite on for me, but there wasn't enough
dialogue in this to make it a problem.

*

Debchan: "Baby" (vid)

Yay! Fastlane! YAY!

Theirloveissuchcandy!

Um... yes.

This is a pimp vid of the purest stripe, which is to say that it's a vid more
designed to introduce new viewers to a fandom and/or 'ship (in this case?
Both.) than to tell them a particular story.

She does a fabulous job, and makes me laugh like a loon while she's doing
it.

And yes, the show really *is* that gay.

Gayer, sometimes.

Calico: Tarnish

Jiminy *Christmas* this was hot. I mean, I just read this
book, and I never would've considered this, but... damn.
This just... rowr.

All the... and with the...

Lovely language, written nearly as pretty as the original
book, and yes, fucking *hawt*.

Debchan: Glee Club

One of the things that the big recs overhaul allowed me to do is see just how many
stories I *forgot* to rec.

*wince*

Well, better late than never, eh?

God, the number of times I've read this one.

Jesus. Just...

So. Fucking. Funny.

I am Fry's collapsible spine.

Gemma Files: The Hot Country

Oh, Lord, this was satisfying. Just... hot and strange and just
dark enough. I mean... *yes*. This is exactly what Bill wants,
and needs is something beyond his ken. This is the man he
obsessed over and loved at least as much as he hated, the
symbol and life of everything he believed in, that need to
struggle and live and die for something true and beautiful.

Moreso than any god. Mmmmm. Yes.

And The Hot Country II: Negotiations

This one felt even *more* right somehow, more of Bill and
all his Issues, and damn if Purgatory Love needs to be a
genre in and of itself. Mmm. Mmmmmm.

Just... *yes*. Payment and cost and fuck this was just so
fucking *hot*.

Perfectly in character smut, mustaches and all. Rowr.

And The Hot Country III: Afterthoughts

Mmmm, thoughtful and fine, if talky in bits. Gives you a real
feel for Priest, and all his beliefs and wants and fears.

Old time religion, halleluia.

CobraGirl: Genesis 3:25-27

Another thing I'll always have a special place in my heart for is
blasphemy. Because, well, while the other little girls were creaming
their little jeans for horsies and unicorns and the like, I was happily
taking out every book on mythology I could get my hands on and
perusing the Old Testament.

Yeah, I was a freak.

And this story... man.

Sad and sweet and funny and oddly... warm, just like the source
material. A look on how it might have gone, after the Fall.

Debchan: Five Things That Aren't True, HCL edition

Oh my Lord. This is just...

You know how sometimes you get a really good meal, one so good
that you can't even stop to taste it, just hoover the whole thing up
in between gasping out "yes, yes, YES?!"

Well, okay, maybe that's just me.

But it'll be you when you read this.

Joe Dick. Billy Talent. What didn't -- but could've, very easily --
happened.

*

Debchan: "Chosen One" (vid)

How often do you see vidders choosing the subtle approach over blatancy?
I mean, I can understand the temptation. You've found the perfect song and
you can finally chop up the clips the way *you* want them to be until it looks as
though everything you always believed about a given character or characters
was just... there.

Hey, that's why vids were always called "recruitment tools" when I was wee
fan -- you can make someone believe *anything*.

But you don't *have* to drop the anvils.

That's why Laura Shapiro was always my favorite vidder -- she never did.
And that's why I love this vid so much it *hurts*.

A short, ruthless, *loving* look at Joe Dick and *through* Joe Dick; we are at
once observer and observed.

And there's no getting away from his fate, even with everything carefully
unspoken. God, this vid rules.

*

Kat Allison: Moonlight Mile

One of the most fascinating things about Joe Dick was his way of knowing
the absolute truth of any given situation and still being perfectly willing to live
the lie. Hell, of *needing* to live the lie with a kind of desperation most
people save for holding on to the scrap of driftwood that's going to keep them
from drowning.

It's the kind of state of awareness/willful blindness that would drive a lesser
man mad or a smarter man sober and it's not the sort of thing that lets you
live a long, happy life.

It's the sort of thing the rest of us can only watch, and try and understand from
a distance.

If we dare.

Kat dares. (Of course she does!)

This whole story rocks, of course, and reads like exactly what it is -- a long,
wild night drive in and out of every definition of reality you can name.

Dig it.

If you can.

*

Basingstoke: Worms and Epitaphs

Heh. Been working my way *up* to reading this one. Sometimes these
things take a while, doncha know. God, the hacks out there churning
out horror, churning out relationship drama... they fucking *wish* they
could do this.

Have a quote:

"You can pay the bill."  She heads over to the counter.  [Billy] stares
at the table top.  It's printed with old hoochie flyers, lots of cartoon
girls with stars on their nipples.  He used to know a chick band who
did stuff like that, came out in electrical tape and trash bags and
feathers and then rocked the drooling testosterone hounds hard, up until
one of them lost half the skin on her breasts to duct tape.  Then they
moved to Calgary and opened a record store.  Together.

Joe thought that story was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard.  Billy
thought it was romantic.  If he'd pulled off Joe's nipples with duct tape,
would things have been different?

Maybe.

~
God, wickedly, *cruelly* funny, bitter and sad and fuck, fuck, FUCK.
Just in case you *haven't* been spoiled, I won't quote anymore, but
that doesn't mean I don't *want* to.

Jesus, this story is fucking brilliant.

Fucking. Brilliant.

*
Viridian: Mimes

A drabble that gets in here just for the imagery. God, the imagery.

So fucked up.

So. Fucked. Up.

*pets her little punks*

*

Ahhh, Hard Core Logo. Nasty, mean, angsty slash-o-rama, complete
with spitting. Lots and lots of spitting. I can't count how many times I've
seen the movie, but I can damned sure recite large parts of it. I only
wish that I had more of a voice for it -- it deserves all *kinds* of
great fiction.

Luckily, there's Kat Allison, and her punch-to-the-gut of a story,
"Xeriscape."

In which John, always John, John, John with no name, no anchor in the
punk world gets a voice. (No, I couldn't really help myself.) Kat Allison
takes a difficult POV -- John has severe mental problems and makes it
sing with realism, humor to pathos to simple humanity.

John's one of my tribe, and I can *feel* him, and his briefest of midlife
crises, journey of discovery. I don't want to spoil too much of the story,
but, suffice it to say, we learn the world John's way, and the people we
meet, the life we live... it's different.

In the best kind of way. Do not hesitate.

*
Next up, a haunting (don't smack me) Hard Core Logo tale by
the name of "Blue Tattoo."

Miss Muskeg is rather new to the scene, but this story
will probably have quite a few of you badgering her to make
more. She takes the much-maligned conceit of outsider
narration and makes it work the way it's supposed to. A subtle
tug inside the action, too close not to hurt, too far not to want.
Viridian also uses this tactic well in her XF Bystander stories.
(And I'm having severe issues getting to her page so I can't
offer you exact urls yet, but here.)

But anyway, this history doesn't stint on the need, on the pain,
on the rage and helpless fucked-upped-ness or anything else
for that matter. My favorite kind of tale, short story as
inescapable and heartbreakingly complete microcosm.

*
Viridian5: Watch Your Back

Fuck *yeah*. HCL like it's supposed to be -- dirty, bloody, and
*wrong*. This catches Joe nicely, and through his eyes Billy is
some kind of broken down elemental -- way beyond lost and
impossibly bright. Read it, fuckers.

Wow, I haven't talked about Pares for at least 12 seconds. Am
I hot? Do I feel hot to you? In any case, she continues to be
wonderful, and I suspect I'm wearing her down on the Love-the-Te
issue. I'll keep you posted.

But anyway. The story is called "Feeling," fan fiction based on
the movie Henry Fool, which, sadly, I've never seen. Sadly because
anything that could bring something like this out of Pretty Pretty
has to be stunning.

Because this story is one of the more beautiful things I've ever
read. Asks you the question: How do you learn to live? And then
answers it in perfect pitch. Somewhere between a song and a
slice of life.

Lovely.

Katharine S.: "So Pure" (vid)

The link will take you to the Media Cannibals lj, which has ordering
information. The vid in question is on tape five.

This vid... wow. This vid just knocked my fucking socks off. The clip
choices, the editing, the song, the... *love*.

Some vidders really and truly make you feel the love they have for their
fandoms of choice, and this vid is one of them. (Deb and Laura Shapiro
have the same quality.)

Watching this vid brought Homicide back for me, in all its glory. More
than that...

Well, before Cassandra showed it to me, I was discussing vid genres
with some of my friends, and I was saying I wanted to see more *sex*
vids. i.e., vids where the primary goal was to show off the eroticism of
a given fandom/pairing/what-have-you. Laura told me this vid footed
the bill for her, and I can totally see why.

I mean, I don't understand how anyone could walk away from this vid
without thinking about Bayliss' pure and *impure* love for Pembleton.
But that's too dry. What I mean is... this vid is HAWT. I have no
critique.

and: "Crucify" by Katharine and Pam

This one is on tape four, and I'm slightly less enamored of it. Does that
mean I don't love it? No, hell, no. I just felt it didn't entirely do what it
set out to do. Or, rather, that it could've done *more* with the material.
I mean, the song choice was great, the editing was great, but I wanted
a few different clip choices.

Still and all? I've watched it repeatedly. Because... Tim Bayliss =
Super Woobie. All woobies must bow before him.

and: "Losing My Religion" by Katharine

Which is also on tape four and features the first runner up for Super
Woobiedom, Mikey Kellerman.

Oh, man. This was just... yeah. Perfect song choice, perfect set-up,
narrative coherent and clean...

Yeah, this set me up just like the show did, one heart break after
another until I was just in a state. Yeah. Like that.

Also made me think about the various partnerships on Homicide in
a way... well. I just can't describe the fannish *joy* I found in this vid. I
mean, I'd *forgotten* how the Kellerman/Lewis partnership both rivaled
and helped set the tone for the epic heartbreak that was Bayliss/Pembleton.
But it did, and it's fascinating in that way where you only wish you
could write that well.

Man, I need tapes.

Charlotte Ruocco: Sex, Lies, and Star Wars

For someone who writes the kind of things I do, I have a pretty
low tolerance for angsty fic that feels gratuitous. Sometimes I just
get the sense that writers aren't *trying* hard enough to reach the
happy ending, and that's really just... terribly annoying.

Probably because of my life experience, in which two intelligent
people who love each other tend to bust their asses in an attempt
to Make It Work, no matter how doomed it looks.

But whatever.

I turn my nose up at a lot of sad-ending fic because it just vibes wrong,
because I feel manipulated, and react my digging in my metaphorical
heels and getting bitchy.

This story? Surprisingly understated. There's never any doubt that
things are going wrong for Hobbes and Fawkes, and yet the author
feels no need to beat me over the head with their failure to be
functional.

Instead, we get a real, *honest* look at the sort of things that can two
people fall apart.

Mmm.

[Note: As of 1/13, I was unable to find a functional address for the
author.]

*
Miriam Heddy: Typology

Miriam manages to capture the tone and rhythms of this cursedly
short-lived show marvelously in this piece, all humor and action and the
glory that is The Buddy Show.

And hey, who are we to argue with the fact that buddy shows are
really romances with car chases and shootouts?

I really loved the phenomenally different looks into Hobbes and Fawkes'
heads here, and the way that, despite all the humor and banter and
*lightness*, Miriam never lets go of that touch of reality. The edge
only makes it sweeter.

Kate Bolin: Limo Ride

Oooh. This is a story I've been waiting damned near forever for. A hot,
crazy little genderfuck that fits just right in Invisibles canon. Rar.
Check out the link to The Bomb while you're at it and dress Lord Fanny. *g*

Sarah T.: Every Third Sunday

Oh, Jesus, just YES. I mean... they're practically canon, and you
*know* it would work like this, but even though it's almost too
hopeful for how I see it, it just works.

Woobie Clark. Angry Lex. Dirty sex. And they're both wearing
masks, but they just aren't wearing them very *well*.

And then there's the intensely frightening Gemma. Everybody and
their mama has informed me that her Vern Schillinger is, like, the greatest
thing since conjugals, but I've got a low Nazi tolerance. Thankfully!

She writes other stuff, too, like the grittily fabulous "Heard Through The
Walls of the Victory Motel."

As far as I'm concerned, this *is* Bud White, in all his thick-necked,
ever-rageful, smugly needy glory. White and Exley doing what *everybody*
knew they should have done in a modern golgotha.

Gotta love that liebestod.

*
Debchan: Distal

L.A. Confidential, and I'm clearly not the only one who wondered what
happened *next*. Bud in Bisbee, and you can take the boy out of the
big city, but... well. A few writers have tried this before, but none of
them really had this *subtlety*, this unforgiving quiet that feels just like
right. Just like a Bud who's trying so damned hard, but doesn't have
a fucking clue. Something Gothic in this. Beautiful.

Gwyneth: "Smooth Operator" (vid)

The link takes you to the Media Cannibals LJ. This vid is on tape five.
Dude. *Dude*. I don't think there is any better song for Michael, and this
vid worked on so many levels for me. I mean, the editing was really tight,
and the clips just...

Well, you know how you watch a vid for an unfamiliar fandom, and usually
you can only appreciate it on a technical or primitively visceral level, as
opposed to really getting into the *narrative* of it?

Well, this was different. This made me fall in love/hate with a character
on a show I've never actually *watched*.

I mean... yeah. Also?

Fucking *sexy*.

Gemma: Chemistry

Woot! She slashed the books! The BOOKS! And it's so, so,
SO good. So perfect. Hyde and the Invisible Man, stalking
each other like cats, pushing and pulling at the buttons and
switches who make them what they are.

This is the kind of relationship Gemma excels at writing.
 

This story is just too fucking cool for *school*, okay? Bleakly charming and
shiveringly sweet, like a kiss on the hand from the world's prettiest ghoul,
or a wild, wild acid trip in a crumbling cemetary.

In other words, Bas *belongs* in this fandom.

Have a quote:

"I hate Santa Carla," Sam said.

"So leave."

"I want Michael."

"So do I," David said. "And I'll have him."

"I..." He felt foggy, unclear on the basics. "I can leave?"

"The whole world is out there for you." David stood close up to him, not
grabbing, just touching, cheek to cheek and chest to chest. Neither of
them had a pulse. David's breath tickled his ear like cotton wool.

"Michael," Sam said.

"Mine."

"He's...no. He's definitely mine," Sam decided, his head clearing.

~

As always with Bas, there's humor under the grue and goth and terror...
which would make me want to propose, were I not promised to another.
;-) Go, thou, and read.

*

Jane St Clair: Slide

See. Te. Squee.

The archive has a new member! Yes! Yes! YES! And what a new
member we have...

Jane's debut to the land of underaged incest and angst is syrup slow
and oh-so-dirty in all the best ways. Her Michael and Sammy aren't quite
like the ones Audrey, Spike, and I have come up with, but they're *them*
just the same. Lost in their own dark spaces and yeah, sliding away.
Beautiful.

And fucking *hot*.

*
I can't *believe* I hadn't recced Audrey Lemon yet. I mean, she's
right *here*.

Audrey is a dear, dear friend and rather guilelessly sexy besides. And...
she feeds a need.

Lost Boys slash.

That's right. Before Joel Schumacher was putting rubber nipples on
the Batsuit, he was slashifying a stunning array of pouty-lipped young
boys. The slashiest, IMO, were the brother Michael and Sammy. Sick?

Yes.

But this series is full of need, and passion, and horror, and self-hate.
Two brothers helplessly wrapped in each other, and squeezing each
other dry.

The stories in these series are beautifully crafted, often breathtaking
in their lyrical clarity -- to steal a phrase from Spyke Raven. And, yes,
they're sexy as hell.

Buckle down and read, children.

*
The Spike: Fill

Eeeee! Eeeeeee! The Spike! Writing *Lost Boys* slash! Y'all just
wish your life was as pretty as mine.

And Lord knows you wish you could write like this. The Spike has a
gift for getting *raw*. For flaying the characters alive and letting them
bleed out all over the page for the readers' delectation. And no, I'm
*not* just talking about the hot-as-shit smut, either.

Though there's plenty of that here, too.

Sammy needs. Yeah. He sure does.

*
Audrey Lemon: Young Love

Okay, the crappy title is mine, so blame me. No, blame Audrey
because she should *know* I can't come up with titles for shit!

Er... anyway.

Yes.

Look, in case you haven't noticed? The English language is Audrey's
*bitch*. She's got a gift for the lyrical, the metaphorical, the viciously,
viscerally atmospheric. And she writes porrrrrrn.

Er. Yes.

This particular porn? It *hurts*. I mean, if you're going to write
underaged incest, you better not half-step. There are *levels* to this
relationship that *have* to be considered before anyone should write
anything, and Audrey is just ruthless enough to touch on every last
one of them.

What *is* this love, anyway?

And what does Michael deserve?

One impossible question after another, and Audrey isn't afraid to ask.
Pretty much the only issue I had with this one is that I wanted to
shave away just a *little* of the angst... but then, I tend to shy away
from anything like the direct mention of emotions. YMMV.

Spike: Disciplinary Action

All good, right-thinking people were sad to see Stanley disappear.
So it goes. Spike, however, remembers Stanley *well*, and paints him
vividly even in this short and *motherfucking HOT* little story.

Stanley and Francis and genuine feeling. A warm, triumphant story under
all the hot, hot sex. So much love it aches deep inside. Man, I've read
this story so many times and it still makes me snif at the end.

Thank Christ I finally got off my ass and archived it, hunh?