Grail: Immortality

Wow. This one pretty much knocked me on my ass. Asks and answers
some very serious questions about what it means to be Superman, and
whether destiny really is inescapable.

I had a few minor problems here and there, but since discussing them
requires spoiling the story, I'll just say that I would've tweaked Lex's
characterization a little *that* way and Jonathan's a little *this* way and
leave it at that. *g*

Overall? A stunning emotional ride.

*

Elizabeth: The Smile

This is a dark chocolate shudder of a story, with a conceit both gorgeous
and gorgeously handled. I want to cry for them and I want to just... admire. A
set piece. A work of art. Distanced by time, by color, and yes, the
ambiguities of a smile.

There's music in this, dance... mm. I like it more and more with every memory.

Thank God for Livia and her challenges.

*

Livia: Summertime Blue II

And speaking of Livia... *g*

A gorgeous set of... I don't want to call them snapshots. The word doesn't
do these vignettes justice. Different summers, different shades of blue,
different kinds of love.

Growing up. These actually remind me of the best of Bradbury, when there's
simply nothing you can do to escape the mood he creates, whether you want
to or not.

God, I love these boys. You will, too.

*

Wendi: Metropolis In June

Ah, Pride. This one had me laughing my ass off. Big gay Superman! Suicidal
bubbles! Hope and Mercy on their day off!

Go ahead. Taste the rainbow. *g*
 
 

Sarah T.: And Call It Peace, Wilderness

These two stories... man. I spent a lot of time battling Sarah over them.
Not over any particular *story* points, mind you, I just wanted her to *post*
the damned things. Because they worked me over.

Sarah refers to my attachment to this series as 'unholy.'

She may have a point.

But, hell, it inspired me. In the best/worst ways. Quite possibly one of the
single most *compelling* series I've read in this fandom, even when it
was only a few lines of narrative and Sarah's thoughts about where it
might go.

Why? Well, she did a few impossible things at once.

1) A sympathetic Lionel.

2) A Lionel who is sympathetic despite doing several truly *loathsome*
things.

3) She made the loathsome... wholesome.

If you like your fan fiction to grab onto your hindbrain and cling, even if you
only read it once, even if you'd really rather forget...

Read them both, one right after the other.

And:

Night Call, Collect

Sarah's summary for this story was that some negotiations are better
conducted at long-distance. And, well... yes.

Definitely yes, when it comes to the Luthors.

Subtle and deadly. Read it twice for the full effect.

*

Pearl-O: The Next In Line

Ahhh, someone gets it right. It's incredibly difficult to write a story
that tackles the theme of an uneven love triangle without winding up
with one character not being drawn as fully as the others.

If you're lucky, the unfortunate third will just be a little vague. If you're
unlucky... well.

We've all read slash where The Other Woman exists solely to be scraped
off Our Heroes' bootheels' at the end of the tale so that they may
consummate their perfect love.

Pearl-O doesn't go there.

Pearl-O is rapidly becoming one of my new favorites... and I think she should
be one of yours, too.

*

Wendi: No Particular Night or Morning

Two men, the spectre of a third, a five year old, a tea party, and...

Well, Wendi teaches us all a little lesson about expectations. Assumptions.

Sentiment.

And love. Real, honest to God selfless *love*.

And everything we'll do for it.

This story made me make strange noises.

And:

Wendi: Alpha and Omega

SQUEEEE!

Wendi finished the series! Wendi finished the series! Wendi finished the--

*Te slaps herself around*

Oh, man. What a ride. She made me laugh myself sick. She made me fall
in love with Lois *Lane*. And she made it *work*.

God. I liked the first two better than this one, they felt more full, more
padded somehow... like a well-fed woman as opposed to a hungry one,
especially in terms of the Lois presence, but still... yeah. Yeah.

I can see this.

*snerk*

A quote:

God, he was such a smart ass that it really chafed Clark, some days.
Most days. There was still the throwing him off the building option, but
Bruce probably would just deploy the Bat Air Mattress or something and
break the fall. Rich bastard. "How do you do this?" He gestured expansively
at the city, the bottle neck drawing an arc across the sky. "How do you put
on the mask every day and be Batman, the Dark Knight and fearless
fucking avenger?"

*happysigh*

Read, read, read.

*

Shrift: Uncle Einar

How much do we love Livia's challenges? *siiiigh* In case you hadn't
guessed, the latest is to take the title of a Ray Bradbury story and write
a Smallville story based on it.

And this one.

Oh, Jebus.

I scared the dog.

Multiple times.

A couple of favorite quotes:

"Scared, Lex?" Clark had taunted.

Lex's mouth had twisted.  "Clark, I don't think you realize that Luthor family
gatherings are like playing Clue.  Grandmother Lorraine in the conservatory
with a 9mm."

and

"Might I bother you for an explanation?"

Clark followed Lex into the bathroom and decided to play dumb."Sure, Lex.
What about?"

Lex didn't look up as he dabbed at his jacket sleeve with a wash cloth.  "Oh, I
don't know, Clark.  Why don't we start with why I'm here and work our way up to
the man we were just talking to who sounds like the Swedish Chef, and why your
cousin Bobby asked me to meet him in the barn later so I could suck him
off."

Clark's fingers slipped on the buttons of his shirt and a few went flying to
clink against the mirror behind the sink.  "He *what*?  He's-he's got a mullet,
Lex."

Just read. God.

*

Hope: At Midnight, In the Month of June

A delightful exercise in Clarktorture from start to finish. And when I say
torture, I don't mean...

Well, look, you really ought to read it.

Everyone's in character, no one gets off easy, and, best of all, Hope proves
that the worst kinds of torture often involve neither blood and guts nor
hideously over the top melodrama.

Also? Germans.

And: Paper

Deliriously sensual, but not in that "whahuh?" way that some people
have when they're trying to be all creative and shit.

Just... art and the artist and inspiration. Mmm.

A bit of magical realism. Yum.

*

The Spike: Pure

In which the Spike takes the ideas and notions and desires and vague, wispy
thinguses that have been floating around my head when it comes to Martha
and her views about Lex and makes them into an actual *story*.

A sweet story. A real story. An *uncomfortable* story.

And a damned hot story, too.

Mmm.

Oh, Jocasta...

*

Victoria P.: All Summer In A Day

Another entry for the Bradbury title challenge, and I love what Victoria
does with this one. It's moody in a way you rarely see fan fiction
authors attempt, with an emphasis on the *summer* part of things.

It also managed a premise with the sort of inevitability only the best
stories can get to. Lovely stuff here, with a great last line... though I did
want a touch more Martha, a few more hints of what had happened
between then and now to give the story a greater sense of completion.

*

Nora Charles: Four Drabbles

Tart and sassy, all of them, with *just* enough sweetness. I enjoyed the
hell out of these, though the first is my favorite.

Especially since I realized the other day that when I was first discovering
the internet a friend of mine was a *toddler*.

*

Julad: Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms In Your Cellar!

I'm officially in love with Livia for issuing this challenge.

I'm officially in love with Julad for writing this story.

I'm officially in love with Pete for being so damned *PETE*. Because... he
really just is. This is funny and sweet and cute without being saccharine
in the least. We get to watch the guys grow up and it's all just so darned
perfect...

The *mood* is right. *happysigh* Yeah. I made noises. Have a quote:

When Pete was thirteen, Chloe transferred in from Metropolis and
permanently attached herself to Clark. He didn't mind, because she was
funny and made great sandwiches (which he called "daffodils" whenever
Clark was around), and she told him all the girl secrets he wanted to
know, including what Jennifer Colley said about him in the girls' bathroom.
They were friends for life, after that.

"Is it just me," she said one hot day when they were swinging on swings
in the park out of sheer mind-numbing boredom, "or is Clark kinda--"

"Not of this earth?" Pete guessed.

"Yeah," she said, chewing her gum, and leaned back until her blonde hair
trailed through the gravel with every swing.

"He's a friendly alien," Pete told her. "He's trying to learn our customs."

"And he's been on this planet for how long?" she demanded.
 

~

*snort* Just... read.

Jenn: Vix Te Agnovi I: Blow Your Mind

Really, you should read the whole series, but this one stands alone.
A gorgeous look at what friends do for each other, and it only seems
as though it's on the lighter side.

Jenn has a gift for dragging you in with tooth and claw and making
you feel every stutter-touch, making you... taste.

And did you really think I wouldn't rec A Handful of Dust?

I did everything short of sit on the poor woman to make sure she
finished it, and the only reason I didn't do that is because she doesn't
live close enough.

A gifted, twisted, punch in the gut reimagining of Hourglass, with
a Lex on the run more from his own weaknesses than he wants to
admit. I have a weakness for the corruption of religious themes.

What really killed Cassandra, hmm?

And while you're there, you really ought to read the Advanced
Masochism series. I can't think of anything else that's made me
laugh this hard. Good Lord.

Poor Lex.

*snicker*

*

Hope: Undone

Oh my dear Lord.

Read this all of a piece and eeeee. How she ever thought she'd write
a light little piece...

The danger runs through this one from the very beginning, throbbing
like a heart, and I dare you to look away. Rage and pain and MAD.

Yeah. Yeah.

This is what I love. I would've liked a bit more in the transitions, but
that's a nitpick that only hit on the third read or so.

*

Pearl-o: Imperfection

Mmm. Pornotopia. Good for you, good for me, good for he and thee,
and thee...

Clark is lovely here. Stretched out sweet and open for all to see,
wanting and wishing and, well, *sweet*... and still such a boy. *g*

Love.

*

Valentine: Arcadia

Livia's XF-title/Smallville story challenge has wrought bright wonders,
dark magics on this fandom. All hail. And this... this is the best of them
thus far, I think.

Simply one of the best stories I've *ever* read.

I just utterly failed to express to the author directly how beautiful, how
*perfect* the thing was, and now I'm going to try to do the same in
this rec. Everything was clear, from the atmosphere, to the emotions, to
the piquant details of touch and taste and vision. God. *God*.

I'm so in love.

And love... isn't something that can ever be fully described in language,
I've decided. It exists on too many planes, it means too many things to
too many people. I'm just... gah.

I cried, I winced, I smiled, I hoped, I dreamed, I gasped.

Beauty. READ, damn you.

*

qwertyuiop: Alien!Clark

ahahahaha.

AHAHAHAHAHAA.

Horrifying, hilarious, a host of possibilities and I refuse to spoil you for
*any* of them.

Read.

*

Shrift: Karma Demands

As Bas might say? A hey hey.

Shrift has the enviable quality of being eminently re-readable. I must've
read this one four times already, and it's still funny, *still* hot, *still*
sweet and raw and real and... yeah.

Rocks the house.

How happy am I that she's playing in this sandbox?

Damned happy. Pass the crackpipe to the left hand side, baby.

*

Wendi: Eros and Agape & Yin and Yang

Clark and Lex. Lois and Superman. Cameos from the entire DC universe.

See Te squee all over herself. Yea, verily, 'tis a fine, fine day in my fandom
when I can point y'all to such gems as these. The first is hilarious and
blisteringly hot.

The second is the same... and digs a little deeper at all the issues you might've
thought Miss Wendi glossed over.

Ahaha. No.

Everything hits harder in Yin and Yang... which is as it should be. Can't wait
for more.

*

Andariel: The Cat

My fucking *God*.

I screeched. I laughed my fool head off. I screeched some more. Then I spent
several minutes flailing around trying to find a way to recommend this story
without spoiling one single, solitary word.

Arrrgh.

I'm still flailing.

It would be easier if I made *one* tiny spoiler, one that will undoubtedly be
in the story's header when Andy posts this somewhere other than her journal,
but... argh. Think Memento. Think Shirley Jackson. Think Robert Block.
Think O. Henry, only, like, really, really evil.

The twist in the tail will make your eyes pop.

Thamiris: Descent

Oh, God, did I ever need this. All the Clark and Lex I could hope for,
characterization-wise. All the need and fear and pain and lust, with
the extra tinge of hope and love that makes it all bearable. Mm.

Why should a story be just one thing when it can be legion?

Tham's one of the masters of that, in my view, layer upon layer of
meaning, every story the sweetest onion, the darkest pastry, and
even when you get to the center you crave *more*.

Extra points for giving me an entirely new reading on one of my
all-time favorite movies.

*

Vera: Gloss

*moooan*

Okay, raise your hand if you didn't know how kinked I am for
genderfucks?

You, with your hand up -- where the fuck have you *been*? Jesus,
don't you actually read these pages?

Well, anyway. This is... this is. Mmph.

Subtle. Snaky. Dense and deep and dark like... like some tarn
you stepped in foolishly, believing it was only a puddle of a thing.

Clark is feeling his way, here -- lost and more than a little scared,
getting caught up in things that don't even have the decency to stay
irrelevant.

And Lex is there, right there, for all of it.

He's going to make it okay, in all the best gut-twisting, cock-hardening,
mind-blowing, underwear-ruining ways possible.

This is what a vignette should be.

*

Sarah T. Becoming Visible

*moan*

This story has a few of Te's favorite things:

1) Backstory and exploration of a fascinating minor character.

2) The Magnificent Bastard in all of his Bastardous Glory.

3) Creep.

Add it all together and you wind up with a story guaranteed to leave
you gasping for air, looking over your shoulder, and hugely
depressed.

*happysigh*

There really is no one like Sarah T. for those times when you feel like
getting your heart ripped out and run over with an ATV.

And: The Scientific Method

"But that's just crazy talk."

I... there are no words.

I read this story and laughed so hard I sprained something. Then I read
it again and laughed so hard I almost yarked. Then I took a break. Then
I read it again and laughed so hard... you get the idea.

Who knew she had it in her?

*

The Spike: What You Want

We need more words in the lexicon. Clichefic implies work that's
derivative in art and aspect, and that's just... wrong.

Sure, Deb and I poked Spike to write us a story with some of
our favorite cliches, but "What You Want" is anything *but*
derivative. It's hot, slickly funny with just enough hints of
darkness and creep to keep the readers on their toes.

Never be sure. Never assume.

Come over here and smell me.

Er... yes. *g*

See, the thing is? A story that reworks a hoary old cliche is
a double punch. Gets you because the cliche is a kink of yours,
*and* gets you because the Spike seems to be constitutionally
incapable of writing anything that doesn't reach inside and *grab*.

Shake.

Twist. Yeah.

Don't even *ask* me how many times I've read this.

Mercutio: _Something To Talk About_ (series)

Go to Quicksearch links, search under Mercutio, and...

Enjoy.

Banter is sweet. Banter is cool. Banter is a lovely, lovely tool -- in the
hands of a talented craftsperson. I've seen a lot of series that start
wonderfully, with the characters tossing the conversational ball back
and forth until they get to the most *fascinating* places. This series
has that look about it, on top of being quite funny and intelligent.

I have some reservations about the way things are going, I've told
the author that I want to see the pace picked up a bit, among other things.

Still, though? A fun read.

*

Rivier: Normal

MMmm. Rivier. Someday, she will stop doubting her ability to turn me
into a quivering puddle of goo. Until that day, I sincerely hope her
insecurity leads to more fiction just. Like. This.

Again, this is a theme that has been explored quite a bit in SV fan
fiction, but shit, man, I don't *care* how many stories you've read
about Supermope brooding over his powers, there will always be
writers like Riv around to put a new and foxy spin on things.

Sunlight and sweat and surrender. Yeah, Clark. We get you.

and

Zero +

Fairy tales, can come true, it can happen to you...

*g*

You know, I honestly believed I was sick of stories in which the
characters do nothing but brood. I'm not. At all.

What I'm sick of are stories in which the characters do nothing
but brood and never *go* anywhere with their thoughts. Blech.
Plotless Character Rambles, I believe Sarah T. calls them.

Fucking wastes of bandwidth is what *I* call them.

Obviously, this isn't that.

This is Lex, working through things post-Zero and finding himself
somewhere he didn't expect.

Bonus: One of my favorite Clark characterizations. Pay attention,
crapwriters: He's a kid, not a dumbass.

That is all.

*

Livia: Demarcation

"It makes me feel pretty."

All of you need to read this story just to reach *that* line, which,
in context, will make you sputter all over your poor monitors.

Of course, since this is a Livia tale, there are other reasons. Like
brilliant characterization, a rip-roaring plotlet, secondary characters
who live and breathe like the rest of us, and smut, dear God, people,
the SMUT.

Fuck. Me.

Heh. I will be kind, and not go into the number of times certain
lines and images from this story have sent me happily to my
Special Moment and then to sleep. Just trust me.

Read it.

*

Destina: Prophet of Eden

God, *God* do I love this story. Another run through the Hourglass
mill, another taste of the epic. Destina has said in her livejournal that
she doesn't really see futurefic as a valid genre for Smallville fan fiction --
not that the fiction itself can't be wonderful, but that so much of the
show is built on the in-the-moment-ness of all the characters that
futurefics tend to lose something.

Well, I disagree. *g*

Especially since my favorite, my absolute *favorite* part of this story
is the Future!Lex she posits. A character grown whole and terrifying
from the bones of SV canon, popping in here and there to avert a
disaster he can't quite *believe* in.

Creepy and beautiful.

The structure of the story is also quite fascinating. It demands a close,
careful read, but hell, y'all are willing to do a little work for truly good
fiction, am I right?

*

Jayne Leitch: Tactile

More than a few people have gone here -- the very specific (and
rational) fears Clark has about his powers. For the most part, the
stories have been shallow, forgettable, weirdly sterile even with
the grue.

This... is not. *g* This is Clark, struggling to make it through
a life, a *day* of desire and wretched fear. Misunderstandings and
awkwardness, a conversation of uncomfortable reality.

In the end, though? Hope.

What's a Superman story without hope?

*

Isos Arei: Rushing Headlong

God, why doesn't Isos write more *often*? Why why *why*? Stop
having lives, ye wonderful writers! Produce for *me*!

This story was just as gorgeous as all her other work, a fairy tale of
sorts, a dream of vision and emotion that transcends language. Don't
be afraid to fall. Mm.

Anything you say...

*

Andariel: Bouquet

I used to believe in a Lily Luthor of soft edges and warm tones,
an opposite number to the Lionel we know and love to hate even
as he mesmerizes and disgusts us. But... but. A Lily like that would've
had to die when Lex was very, very young to explain the Lex we have
today.

Fact is? Lex needs hugs. *g* No, seriously. This is a boy -- not a
man, a *boy* -- who has had a severe and *obvious* lack of
wholesome, Kent-style affection in his life.

If Lily didn't die soon after the meteor shower -- which we now
know she did not -- then something else has to explain it.

Now, I'm not saying Mama Luthor wasn't just as loving as loving
can be, but... she had to be pretty ruthless, too. In her own way.

A Livia, a Lilith more than any fading Lily. An empress with dreams
and ambitions as wide and vivid as Lionel's own.

And this is who I see in Andariel's story.

This is who I believe.

Oh, and it's just fucking beautifully written, too. For those of y'all
who care about stuff like that. *g*

*

Brighid: Lucifer in Starlight

*BAWL*

Okay, *how* many times have I read this one already? A lot, okay?
A *lot*.

Why? Not because it's beautiful -- Brighid's work is *always* beautiful,
she's a natural poet the way my hair is naturally nappy. It's who she
is, it's what she does. Not because it's romantic -- there's a whole lot
of romance in this fandom (thank God), but I don't take the time to rec
it.

No. This story, this gorgeous little moment in time gives me what I
*need*, what I *believe*. Clark and Lex are tied to each other
inextricably, man. Can anyone doubt that?

They'll never lose each other, no matter how much they might want to.

Brighid understands this.

And she shows us the way.

*

Justine: Sanguinarium

Ah, God, yes. Another rock the house Hourglass tale. My God. When
an episode is that good, that epic, the fiction *has* to stand up to the
challenge -- and this one does.

Blood and fate and time ticking into the future, man. Destiny and control.

Fuck this, just read.