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aruanBooked my ticket to Paris today. Leaving the 24th of May, which gets me there two days before the program officially starts, over which my mother had a minor freakout because I'd be having to find lodging and take care of myself for two whole days alone in the city. Forgetting that I'll be traipsing around Europe solo for two weeks afterward. *shakes head*
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walkingshadow and I had a brief brush with communication today, but alas I was on the phone with a travel agent at the time. Mirandaaa! You are taking me out in style this weekend to celebrate your lot in the five o'clock world, right?
hammerhead22 asked a very interesting question in her LJ about what fic you'll always carry with you. If I thought long and hard and stressed and agonized, I could give you one. Instead, I choose sanity, and give you one from each of my fandoms:
The X-Files
Iolokus by MustangSally and RivkaT
It's an AU, brainy and fascinating and awful and sometimes all three at the same time. I remember being creeped out, crying, having nightmares, laughing, gasping, having to walk away and not being able to put it down for the eternity it took me to read. I was maybe fourteen or fifteen at the time and nothing had captured me like that before. It's the story that made me a fanfic junkie, convinced me beyond doubt that, short of pairing-confirmation footage, fanfic was the manna of any fandom.
Smallville
Sleep While I Drive by Jenn and Sleeper by Te
This fandom, for all the drivel on and off-screen, has spawned some of the best-characterized, darkest, most intense fic I've ever read. The first is great because it's Clark and Lex, a character piece with mystery and freedom and the whole thing happens like a fantasy. Jenn made it seem possible, however briefly, that they don't necessarily belong to their world, that they're not destined to become Superman and Luthor, archnemeses. The second because Te shows us that while that's exactly what happens, there's some perverse version of what they had in the universe of the show, in the before, still there. They hate each other for so many reasons but everything building between them now is still there, Lex still loves him and Clark still needs him and its this painful, twisted thing that tears at them both but they'll hold on because they can't not.
*Nslash
This would be as impossible a thing as I've ever been proposed, so I'll make a still-reluctant compromise of five for the five boys.
Experiment byrhyssj
I remember the nightmimesere recced me this story - it was hot in the little office in the garage of my old house without air conditioning, but that's where the computer was and I couldn't sleep and I made an idle request for fic. I opened this and got about three-quarters of the way through, my eyes hurting from strain and it was nearly three in the morning and what the fuck was going on, but then I got to a sentence, a single sentence - Rhys knows how to end a paragraph, and the magnitude and reality of this seemingly cracked-out AU world came crashing over me. I swear I gasped in shock as tears filled my eyes, and couldn't continue reading for not being able to see through my tears for ten minutes. I understood something so much bigger than what I'd known until then, and it broke me completely that this story could well've happened, if a bit differently, in our world.
Too Many People Out Of Love bycallmesandy
As hard as I lovesynchronik's So, This, I only allowed myself one hooker AU, and this is and has been it, and not just because it was my first. Sandy is Lambs to me. They're neither perfect and seemingly even less so together, but they're funny and kind and snarky and stupid together in impossibly endearing ways. I love the tone of this story, that Lance and Justin both remain themselves but skewed to their lots in life, that Lance is sometimes dense and Justin pretends he doesn't need him but in the end it's a fairy tale without knights or damsels and better for it. Honorable mentions to When I Sleep You Are Near To Me, because I can't have a conversation about Lambs without it.
the Paradox series byink_stain
I love fic that spans time, and this begins before the very beginning and deals with Briahna in a way that doesn't make me gag or roll my eyes. It breaks my heart a little with each step along the way, because it was never going to work but it should've and as little a chance as it had before, it won't ever now and they all love you anyway, Joey, even knowing you'll surely break their hearts.
Mexican Moon bybettyp
This story is Joey/Lance for me. The dialogue, their interaction, everything is just so... honest is the quality I'm looking for an adjective to embody, but that'll do. It's not easy, but it's not impossible, and it doesn't have to be to work anyway. She makes me believe in my OTP beyond idealistic fantasies and jaded write-offs.
Easy Come, Easy Go byhelenish
I read this story into the wee hours of my very first day in the fandom and have done so again and again countless times since. Besides introducing me to the AU (and as gangsters, no less), I thought the plot was ingenious and remain taken aback at how recognizable everyone is in their new universe. I love the relationships, Lance's handling business coolly one minute and his utter recklessness with JC the next, the little ways in which Chris' affection for Justin comes through. Joey the mob boss and JC as a lounge singer up on a smoky stage with nothing but a microphone and piano accompaniment are such rich and believable images I can close my eyes and see it all.
saturn92103 beat me to mentioning it, but the utterly tepid Eric Bana managed to endear himself in the span of a single 30-second impression of Orlando Bloom last night on Leno. Bwah!
I've been craving chocolate and guzzling water nonstop for the past three days. One could have far less fortunate portends.
Quote of the Day:
For some reason, Chris was taking this whole thing hardest. Like somehow two years of a junior college and a lifetime of learning to live on gut instinct should have overridden Chris’s iron desire to keep his family safe and fed by doing what he loved.
-from an untitled ficlet byhederahelix
This, for me, is the closest anyone's come to pinpointing why Chris took the lawsuit the hardest. It wasn't because he's the oldest and should've been looking out for them, it wasn't that he should've known a man he trusted to make his dream come true would screw him over on the bottom line. It was that, right there, that he had just enough of an education to think he should've known it was fishy when he read the deal and had just enough incentive to throw a lifetime of caution-conditioning to the wind when a man came along and offered to unburden him of all the things he's carried around since he was old enough to understand them. *hugs Chris tight*
walkingshadow and I had a brief brush with communication today, but alas I was on the phone with a travel agent at the time. Mirandaaa! You are taking me out in style this weekend to celebrate your lot in the five o'clock world, right?hammerhead22 asked a very interesting question in her LJ about what fic you'll always carry with you. If I thought long and hard and stressed and agonized, I could give you one. Instead, I choose sanity, and give you one from each of my fandoms:The X-Files
Iolokus by MustangSally and RivkaT
It's an AU, brainy and fascinating and awful and sometimes all three at the same time. I remember being creeped out, crying, having nightmares, laughing, gasping, having to walk away and not being able to put it down for the eternity it took me to read. I was maybe fourteen or fifteen at the time and nothing had captured me like that before. It's the story that made me a fanfic junkie, convinced me beyond doubt that, short of pairing-confirmation footage, fanfic was the manna of any fandom.
Smallville
Sleep While I Drive by Jenn and Sleeper by Te
This fandom, for all the drivel on and off-screen, has spawned some of the best-characterized, darkest, most intense fic I've ever read. The first is great because it's Clark and Lex, a character piece with mystery and freedom and the whole thing happens like a fantasy. Jenn made it seem possible, however briefly, that they don't necessarily belong to their world, that they're not destined to become Superman and Luthor, archnemeses. The second because Te shows us that while that's exactly what happens, there's some perverse version of what they had in the universe of the show, in the before, still there. They hate each other for so many reasons but everything building between them now is still there, Lex still loves him and Clark still needs him and its this painful, twisted thing that tears at them both but they'll hold on because they can't not.
*Nslash
This would be as impossible a thing as I've ever been proposed, so I'll make a still-reluctant compromise of five for the five boys.
Experiment by
rhyssjI remember the night
mimesere recced me this story - it was hot in the little office in the garage of my old house without air conditioning, but that's where the computer was and I couldn't sleep and I made an idle request for fic. I opened this and got about three-quarters of the way through, my eyes hurting from strain and it was nearly three in the morning and what the fuck was going on, but then I got to a sentence, a single sentence - Rhys knows how to end a paragraph, and the magnitude and reality of this seemingly cracked-out AU world came crashing over me. I swear I gasped in shock as tears filled my eyes, and couldn't continue reading for not being able to see through my tears for ten minutes. I understood something so much bigger than what I'd known until then, and it broke me completely that this story could well've happened, if a bit differently, in our world.Too Many People Out Of Love by
callmesandyAs hard as I love
synchronik's So, This, I only allowed myself one hooker AU, and this is and has been it, and not just because it was my first. Sandy is Lambs to me. They're neither perfect and seemingly even less so together, but they're funny and kind and snarky and stupid together in impossibly endearing ways. I love the tone of this story, that Lance and Justin both remain themselves but skewed to their lots in life, that Lance is sometimes dense and Justin pretends he doesn't need him but in the end it's a fairy tale without knights or damsels and better for it. Honorable mentions to When I Sleep You Are Near To Me, because I can't have a conversation about Lambs without it.the Paradox series by
ink_stainI love fic that spans time, and this begins before the very beginning and deals with Briahna in a way that doesn't make me gag or roll my eyes. It breaks my heart a little with each step along the way, because it was never going to work but it should've and as little a chance as it had before, it won't ever now and they all love you anyway, Joey, even knowing you'll surely break their hearts.
Mexican Moon by
bettypThis story is Joey/Lance for me. The dialogue, their interaction, everything is just so... honest is the quality I'm looking for an adjective to embody, but that'll do. It's not easy, but it's not impossible, and it doesn't have to be to work anyway. She makes me believe in my OTP beyond idealistic fantasies and jaded write-offs.
Easy Come, Easy Go by
helenishI read this story into the wee hours of my very first day in the fandom and have done so again and again countless times since. Besides introducing me to the AU (and as gangsters, no less), I thought the plot was ingenious and remain taken aback at how recognizable everyone is in their new universe. I love the relationships, Lance's handling business coolly one minute and his utter recklessness with JC the next, the little ways in which Chris' affection for Justin comes through. Joey the mob boss and JC as a lounge singer up on a smoky stage with nothing but a microphone and piano accompaniment are such rich and believable images I can close my eyes and see it all.
saturn92103 beat me to mentioning it, but the utterly tepid Eric Bana managed to endear himself in the span of a single 30-second impression of Orlando Bloom last night on Leno. Bwah!I've been craving chocolate and guzzling water nonstop for the past three days. One could have far less fortunate portends.
Quote of the Day:
For some reason, Chris was taking this whole thing hardest. Like somehow two years of a junior college and a lifetime of learning to live on gut instinct should have overridden Chris’s iron desire to keep his family safe and fed by doing what he loved.
-from an untitled ficlet by
hederahelixThis, for me, is the closest anyone's come to pinpointing why Chris took the lawsuit the hardest. It wasn't because he's the oldest and should've been looking out for them, it wasn't that he should've known a man he trusted to make his dream come true would screw him over on the bottom line. It was that, right there, that he had just enough of an education to think he should've known it was fishy when he read the deal and had just enough incentive to throw a lifetime of caution-conditioning to the wind when a man came along and offered to unburden him of all the things he's carried around since he was old enough to understand them. *hugs Chris tight*
