rainbowstevie's Xanga

Glee has taken over my life, or at least my brain

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:45:33 GMT

Edit: Damn it! I forgot about the rule not to copy-paste from Word to the Rich Text Editor. Sorry. Try to ignore the jargon/font color changes; I'm having trouble figuring out how to fix it without destroying all my paragraph breaks in the process.
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I don't know quite how it happened, but one night I sat down and five different ideas for Glee poured out of me. At first they were just straight transcriptions of daydream plays I've had in my head - silly, self-indulgent nonsense pieces that let me play with my favorite pairings; I only write them down so I won't forget them after I stop actively thinking about them, and they will never see the light of day. But then a few of them began to take shape.

They get better as they go on.

1. Will/Terri, a bit of introspection on the latter's part, tucking herself away in the corner of the craft room in teary reminiscence over a high school yearbook, when they were young and couldn't see anything past each other. "She hadn’t looked at them since 2000. New century, new phase of life, no looking back. Now she traced her fingers over the old ink, cheesy words of love and hope in her loopy handwriting, and wondered how she'd ever thought she had it all figured out."

Or, you know, less terrible than that. And somehow transitioning into something that'll give Will an excuse to see her crying and go sympathize. That's my end game, really. I am apparently the only person in the fandom who loves both Terri and this marriage; SIGH. Oh, and I had some significance to her looking at Will's copy rather than her own; in addition to the photos I was going to pull out a few autograph messages as well. Or maybe compare his to hers. Now that I think about it, their yearbook autographs could be a well of information on their own. I'll have to wait for more backstory, because I'm bad at imagining younger versions of characters, but it could be interesting down the line.

2. Will/Emma, in an attempt to force myself to have emotional feelings feelings about them, which so far has proven impossible. I started writing it just before 1x06 aired, in attempt to come up a response to him finding out about Ken's proposal that might please me. It was not at all meant to be realistic, but now I'm thinking maybe I could spin it into a missing scene of how she hopes he'll react. Which I haven't done yet, so here's a snippet from the original version.

“And you’re willing to settle for that.”

“I’m willing to not spend every night alone in a cold bed, crying into my pillow over cheesy love songs.” There, that image affects him; she can see it in his eyes. She tries to leave him with that, but he grabs her wrist and spins her back. Her sharp inhale is entirely involuntary, and embarrassingly audible.

“There’s something between us,” he finally says, and even as her heart explodes with hope under his acknowledgment, she smothers it under the realization that knowing hasn’t changed his actions in the weeks beforehand. She needs more than that.
"There always has been," she answers, letting her gaze rest pointedly on his left hand, as her mental fantasy shreds itself to confetti.
This time he lets her go without an argument.

Possibly my own personal bias influenced Emma's response there. :P That's why it's only a vague working draft.

3. Now, the ones above are very vague. But third time's the charm, and what started as something equally silly rapidly developed into 1000+ words of a very interesting idea. It began like so, merging from author's notes to the beginnings of fiction over the course of a paragraph.
I like to imagine that Puck and Rachel sort of get together. And it’s sort of a more-or-less consensual thing, except it goes farther than Rachel would like, although she doesn’t really protest, and end result she spends the next week and a half unconsciously flinching, or repressed shudders, whenever he dances too near her in rehearsal.

Finn notices, frowning and not quite able to put his finger on why, but Quinn always finds a way to distract him before he can really tell what's going on. He even asks Puck point-blank about it, but Puck just waggles his eyebrows, and Finn could never tell when he was telling the truth about his conquests or exaggerating for bragging rights (half the moms in this town? Please).

Now, I have a certain bias towards Puck, using such choice words as "douchebag," "dick," "jackass," and "gross; he skeeves me out" to describe my feelings toward the character in general. I freely admit that the idea of him getting anywhere near my beloved Pretty Rachel makes me want to vomit down someone's back. I'm also not especially interested in Finn/Rachel as a pairing.

But I promise I'm not going to drag Puck's name through the mud as a rapist; that would be irresponsible character bashing. Nope, he's going to be fault-free here, though ideally I'd like to paint the situation with as many shades of gray as possible, and make it a muddled and complicated picture first. Because you know how rumors spread...particularly if Finn suspects things, and has a tendency to confide in Mr. Schu. And possibly let his feelings out in a very public fistfight, spilling his suspicions for the whole glee club to hear (to Rachel's tight-lipped mortification). So now it's a question of what actually happened and whether it's something serious, which naturally has everyone concerned.

Now I just have to figure out how I can have this storyline play out without Sue using it as a platform to further destroy the club, or Figgins hearing something that compels him to start an official/legal investigation, and what Emma's take on it would be. Ultimately, it's nothing more than sex Rachel isn't emotionally ready for (oh, crap, I forgot I have to deal with virginity too), but I am...not quite sure how I'm going to wrap that up/conclude it. Which means the story doesn't really have a plot. Well, it has a plot, but not a climax and therefore no real point yet.

*is not deterred from continuing to shape it and write additional scenes* This is only day 2 of working on it, after all.

Oh here, have an actual snippet:

Rachel is blunt and snippy to mask her discomfort, chin lifted high and books clutched against her chest as a defense mechanism. “I hardly think the complications of teenage relationships are any of your business.”
“They are if I think you’re being hurt,” her teacher answers patiently, inclining his head to meet her eyes, which she studiously avoids. “Miss Pillsbury says you’ve refused appointments with her. If there’s--”
“So you talk about me?” she interrupts, challenging. He suppresses a sigh.
“I just want to help.”
“I don’t need help,” she answers tightly. “I am not the damsel in distress you all seem to think I am. My personal life is not up for discussion. So unless you can prove something is actually affecting my ability to perform in glee - which I happen to know it has not - Mr. Schuester, I’d really appreciate it if you would respect my right to privacy.” With that, she pushes forward so forcefully that he has no choice but to lift his arm and let her through the doorway, staring after her with a distinct feeling of defeat. It's become depressingly par for the course.

*trots off* I'm having entirely too much fun with this world.

The Sarah Fic. IT'S HAPPENING.

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:17:09 GMT

I'm tired of looking at it! I want it gone! I want it out! I'm tired of tussling with it, of trying to figure out why everything sounds good except for the last line, which should be simultaneously snappy and well-roundedly conclusive but just WOULD NOT BEHAVE and so instead is just something lame and sorta-placeholding. I AM DONE WITH IT. I'm moving on. I have other...tiny snippets of fic I want to work with more.

http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"> name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10">A/k/a, the RS Fic Vault has been opened and a story that burst into Word in May 2007 is now officially complete and ready for posting. It doubled in length after season 14, in which Sarah briefly became a Stupid Teenage Statistic and I needed to explain how she got there. I feel like that part of the story is less authentic, since I clearly have no experience with such things, but…the story didn’t feel quite right when I tried to cut it back down, either, since there’s a very important passage lifted ver batim from my original episode review that really gives it its punch.

Anyway! Here. Now it is posted.
Title: Someone Else's Dream
Rating: PG-13, for subject matter mostly
Word Count: 2250
Summary: Set after season 13, missing scene for how Sarah copes - or doesn't - with her grandparents taking custody.

Oh yeah, the title! It was quite exciting, giving it a title, since it had gone at least 25 months without even a vague idea of one. I went through my entire music library, seeking first a lyric from "Hallelujah", then all the songs in my library that related to "Home" in some way, or traveling, and all kinds of things...and finally Mono's "Life in Mono" popped into my head: The stranger sang a theme / from someone else's dream

It works on two levels - the first one being that a summer with horses, as the story suggests, would be a dream for some people (just not for her). The second is the idea that when she plays the part of the bad girl -- that's not her; it's like she's in a dream, but a dream even she wouldn't produce. I actually had this cool idea of tying the ending line into that; my brainstorm was
"The faster she goes, the closer she gets to her real life, breaking free of the cobwebbed spiral, memories of the last months slipping and shedding like the remnant’s of someone else’s dream."

but then it didn't really, you know, conclude the story. It almost does, but no, once you look carefully, it would still need another sentence to really tie things up. Which is a shame, because there are some cool things in that admittedly too convoluted sentence, but I was really determined to end on a single line.

Anyway. Am glad it's done!

Harper's Island

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:05:05 GMT

I was very fond of it. Right now I am also very emotionally destroyed by it. So, Muse? I am pretty sure that Cal/Chloe fic needs to happen. NOW. In any capacity, although word art for this episode might be fun. I just, I have no ideas re: tone or style or content, literally none, AND YET. I NEED FIC OF THEM TO EXIST.

OMG, what is a new post doing here?

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:18:49 GMT

And on that sobering note, I leave you until some point in the future, which will HOPEFULLY BE BEFORE MARCH. -- June is before March, right?

Fic Recs IX
I thought it was bad when I was going six months in between batches. But, oh-ho-ho, I have broken my own record and now gone nine months between such posts. I blame this on being highly discouraged by the fact that after starting to write this post in late November, I forgot to save my Favorite Places folder from my network account when school ended, and I forever lost a great big batch of URLs.

But! Now it is summer and I lack a fast-paced TV season to keep me occupied during my spare time, so it is time to do some massive and belated spring cleaning. Before today I had forgotten some of these stories even existed, so it was almost like seeing them for the very first time. This also means that some of these might be very old. Fair warning!

Fair warning #2: every time I do one of these posts, I always end up with one fandom drastically more represented than the others, to the point where it's more like "[Insert Fandom Here] Fic Recs, Plus Random Additions."  This time, it is The Office, with a largely (though not exclusively) Jim/Pam bend. Because duh. ~~How obvious is it that a spend a lot of time at MTT?~~

Total Stories: Um. 48.
Fandoms Represented: Pushing Daisies, The Office, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, ER, The Mentalist, Dollhouse, Lost, Numb3rs, Without a Trace (kinda), Glee, The Class, How I Met Your Mother, Without a Trace, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Doctor Who.

Fair warning #3: Unless they are in bold, each of those fandoms has 3 or fewer stories. Probably 1.

Fair warning #4: apparently I no longer warn for things that are rated R/rated M. BECAUSE I'M ALL CORRUPTED-LIKE. Or actually not; you can just presume that most of them aren't and for the few that are, I won't link to anything that is too terribly naughty, on account of my delicate sensibilities. Probably. If I do, I'll plaster it full of extra warnings and disclaimers.

Fair warning #5 (God, it's like prison rules in here): I am not courteous about old spoilers at all, unless it's something that only aired a few weeks ago. Anything that aired prior to about March is fair game.

OKAY, NOW YOU CAN GET TO THE STORIES:

1. [Pushing Daisies] Curses and Reverses - Europanya
Summary: Some curses are better left untouched.

Remember when I originally thought Pushing Daisies both looked like and would work better as a movie than a TV series? Well, if you clipped a few scenes from season 1 onto the beginning of this story, that's what you'd get, and it would be perfect. Alternatively, this could still kind of go ahead and be the series-wrapup movie. A gorgeous in-depth look at Ned & Chuck finally being able to touch - but not without a price. It's wonderfully long, perfectly in character (although I could take or leave the pet names), and satisfies my difficult-to-please demands for plausible touching scenes. And though the ending leaves me with a sort of bittersweet tinge in spite of everything...that's how this show rolls, so it fits.

2. [Pushing Daisies] Five Ways Digby Didn't Die (Again), And One Way He Did - thucyken
“I can’t just kill him.” Ned. What were they talking about? Digby strained for words he knew, like “walk” or “park”. He’d like to go for a walk, except for his legs. But Ned would fix it. Ned was magic.
Or, "five ways to break the reader's heart, and one way to fix it (bittersweetly)." All six vignettes are astounding. Bonus: starring Digby.

3. [Pushing Daisies] Camp - BluWacky
Summary: Tent pegs, meteors and comedy vegetables collide as Ned, Chuck and Olive investigate a travelling talent show.
It's almost like they sneaked in a 21st episode somehow, with all the fast-paced and witty dialogue you'd expect, including Emerson snark before he gets written out of the case. But then you find yourself not minding so much, because the remaining three investigators are fantastic. There is even a by-proxy group hug for good measure, not to mention some surprisingly spot-on probes into Ned & Chuck's psyches.

4. [The Office] Confessionals (and the secrets that make us tick) - Bebitched
I always adore her stark snippets of word art, and this is a surprisingly clear take on what various characters might have to say on something like PostSecret. Andy's especially; it's so great that it's now my personal canon.

5. [The Office] Draw - book_rapport
Summary: When Dwight brings a lightsaber to work, Jim can't help himself.
A short little season 1 gem, featuring everything you'd expect from such days, including Dwight's slavish devotion to Michael and Jim and Pam working in tandem to mess with Dwight.

6. [The Office] One If By Land, Two If By Sea - jengrrrl
Summary: Everyone needs a little vacation time.
I have no idea where I found this; must have followed a link from somewhere - ooh, Yuletide, maybe? Nevertheless, it's a series of snapshots set in season 3 (how's that for alliteration?), characters planning vacations and time off. Quite a lot of humor in there, too. Dwight in a tricorner hat and carrying a flintlock musket, for example. I am not making that up.

7. [The Office] Patience - NeverEnoughJam
Summary: Pam struggles with doubt and suspicion when Jim's behavior over the summer doesn't make sense.

(or, 'this would have greatly helped soothe my hurt feelings over the summer [FROM A YEAR AGO]') A nice take on the post-Goodbye-Toby doldrums we were all envisioning (well, I was envisioning). Best thing about this story, though? Keeping in mind that this was published in September, it may shock and awe you how much it has in common with a plotline on the show itself. Except even nicer, and sometimes I find myself wishing this was the canon version.

8. [The Office] Just Say When - andtheivy
“What?” Alex-the-douchebag asked. Jim had only recently determined him as a douchebag.
Speaking of things that soothe my hurt feelings -- this post-Customer Survey, pre-Business Trip alternate ending of exactly what Pam said to Lame Mad Men Dude (hint: it is the best verbal smackdown ever, without feeling author-indulgent at the expense of characterization), before unexpectedly arriving home.

9. [The Office] Live Each Season as it Passes - Blanca
"Well, it was quite a night. Thanks for letting me crash here, by the way."
"Did we... uh...?"
"Play checkers?" he asks playfully. She narrows her eyes, but it only encourages him. "Bake cookies? Crank call Dwight?"
-I didn't want to like this fic. In fact, I'm pretty sure I still dislike the idea of Jim & Pam's first post-The Job date involving copious amounts of alcohol. So it's not the version of the canon-compliant first date I'm looking for, but it makes for a worthwhile alternative because there are some truly excellent bits of dialogue that I do think sound like canon, and there's a very nice next-morning scene that pretty much slays me with cuteness and forces me to recommend this fic.

10. [The Office] Car Crash Underwear - shootingstars
“Because,” he sighs, suddenly seeming embarrassed. “You not worrying about whether your underwear matches means this - us - is ... normal, you know?"
Awwwww, it's a piece of terribly sweet and fluffy/cuddly early-relationship fic! Bonus points for managing to combine snappy Jim/Pam banter with cuddling in bed.

11. [The Office] The Romance of Afterwards -
I'll bring you the sad stuff in a second; right now I want to continue focusing on the fluffy and the giddy. Christmastime giddy! This story is everything that is good and wonderful about winter evenings 'round Yuletide. Plus so much banter I cannot stop beaming.

***
NOTE: The following section is the result of what happened when I set the filters at MTT to search for "future/married Jim/Pam" + "angst." I maintain that they are nevertheless some of my favorite things ever, and together they form my little Treasure Trove of Tragedy.

12. A Little Consolation - unfold
Summary: When her mom gets sick, at first it seems like it will be all right.
Now, I normally fire backwards at top speed from first-person POV in fanfic, since people only get it right about 5% of the time, if that. But honestly, this one works so well in Jim's voice that I tend to forget which perspective it's told in. Heartbreaking account of helplessly watching Pam's mother succcumb to cancer, with the natural transition to his fear of losing Pam the same way. Makes me choke up and cry every time I read it.

13. The Part Where You Let Go - PamPongChamp
Summary: Grief can turn you into someone you don't recognize. Jim struggles silently through what should be one of the happiest moments of his life.
In all the fun of babyfic, sometimes I forget that there can be a darker aspect. This features Jim and Pam dealing with the loss of their first child to SIDS, and all the stress and division and struggle to start over that come with it. I apologetically don't know if it's the best writing in the world, but the emotional impact is stunning, to the point where I can retell the whole story with my eyes closed because I cannot stop thinking about it even months later. Extremely effective.

14. A Broken Hallelujah - oobadnama
She thinks maybe she knew.
Hey, speaking of that darker aspect...here's another one, this time with the baby dying in-utero. All of the above statements apply to this one as well, but I particularly thought there was a grain of truth in the idea that Jim would be more excited about the whole thing then Pam was, at first, before the idea really sank in. There are a lot of striking little lines that I keep forgetting aren't actually on film anywhere, come to think of it.

15. All The Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands - sillyrabbit519
Sometimes, still, he would wake up in the middle of the night just to make sure that she was okay, that there was no blood. And only when he had made sure of it, made sure that it was just her, clean and peaceful, did he close his eyes and fall back asleep.

-I've got a million of them, folks! ~~Or 3.~~ This time it's a miscarriage. I have to get over my inherent grumpiness that it's the pair of them in a post-series New York apartment, but that's easy because it's such class-act writing. A little more removed from the tragedy itself (which is told in flashback scenes intercut with the present day), but without lacking descriptive or emotional detail in the crisp, clear prose.

16. Circle - Ruby Terrace
A/N I find amusing: "I really tried my hand at post-premiere fluff. Um. Then this happened. Please do not throw garbage at me."
She doesn't want to think about cancer or death or last days, so she puts her hand on his shoulder and closes the space between them.

-I've included all of the above info as an avoidance tactic for writing this paragraph, because I'm a little busy crying my eyes out. I've lost count of how many times I've read it, and the damn thing still brings the tears. It's just such a painfully beautiful, poetic look at the end, far in the future; a last moment of quiet happiness brought about by the accidental running-out-of-gas at the same place he proposed.

17. Tuesday - bebitched
And God she wishes that her tears would leave a stain as proof that she had ever been there.
On the off chance you are not a broken, weepy mess by this point, let me offer one more chance to break your heart. It's very short and the initial abstraction is part of what makes the story work, so I don't want to spoil it. Just read it.

END FUTURE ANGST SECTION.
***
18. [The Office] Nights When the Northern Lights Perform - Colette
Summary: They didn't get there by immaculate conception. Whoever said pregnancy was chaste - or simple?
THIS. THIS THIS THIS. Is one of my favorite stories ever, and I firmly choose to believe that this is exactly how Pam's reaction to pregnancy would go. Which may or may not explain why I have read it 900 or so times; it's hard to say.

19. [The Office] Idiosyncracy - Callisto
Summary: He thought he knew everything about her.
"You're messy, you're a klutz - you spill everything - and you leave the volume on the TV way too loud." And here is the fic that illustrates how Jim discovered all these things, with a bonus chapter for Pam to discover Jim's quirks in kind. All of which are now my personal canon.

20. [The Office] A Kwanzaa Christmas - dundiefromgod
Ryan: There is no money in your budget, or in this company’s budget, for you to hold a Kwanzaa Party.
Michael: So the fifty thousand dollars the company spent on diversity training last year was fine? But I can’t have three hundred to follow those principles?
Ryan: That - that’s not the same thing.
Michael: Why do you hate black people, Ryan?

FACT: This is 912 times better than "Moroccan Christmas," and I would have loved to see this at the end of '07. Because frankly, Darryl explaining the word "blacktro" is enough to make the script worthwhile, even if every other sentence wasn't pure gold and perfectly in character. Fortunately, they are. Especially the initial over-the-phone showdown, in which Michael (with Pam's aid) is magnificently competent at negotiating party money.

21. [The Office] Where We Go Remains Nameless -- Emily's List
Kevin was not kidding about this. He loved Jim, not in that Oscar way, but like a brother. Like the brother he never had. Except that he did have a brother, but he was a jerk with a speedboat who never invited Kevin to the lake. What a tool.

-"Kevin has a new hobby - outing Jim and Pam." An amusing pre-season-4 fic from Kevin's perspective, which is way more exciting and intriguing on paper than it is on film! (well, partly from Kevin's perspective. Also Oscar's, as an outing partner, and in the latter half we get to switch over to pure Jim/Pam. WIN/WIN/WIN.

22. [The Office] Visiting Hours - kells8995
He starts to hang up the phone but she yells back at him, “Ryan Bailey Howard don’t you dare hang up that phone on me! I drove three hours to get here and I’m looking amazing today so you better sit back in that chair and talk to me. We’ve still got seven minutes left.”

Last one: Kelly/Ryan, or its remnants, about the former visiting the latter in prison, which doesn't go quite like she expected. Her grand plans to be smug and superior rather unravel in the face of reality, and become something sad and a little bit pitiful instead. But, you know, still featuring plenty of Kelly-esque pop culture references and her usual delightful attitude. Oh, and I lied about this being the last one; it's only the last Office fic.

23. [The Office -- ESSAY(S)] - The Pam Dichotomy & The Jim Paradox
Apparently there are updated sequels to these magnificent analytical essays (which are like school papers, if school papers were extra interesting and relevant to your hobbies), whose existence I have only recently heard of and haven't tracked down yet because I am too lazy to do five minutes of Googling. So here are the ones written post-season-2, which honestly floored me the first time I read them...and still kind of do. I am operating under the assumption that the entire fandom already knows about this. But I have always been famous for being late to the party, so I am linking to them 3 years after the fact. Because that's how I roll.

24. [Private Practice] Vacations - krys33
Summary: Eight years of bonus checks.
Beautiful, rather word-arty description of how Violet & Cooper's annual bonus-check-blowing vacation gets steadily more elaborate. Sweet (well, bittersweet if you include the final year) read. From back in the days before canon made you never want this ship to happen after all.

25. [Grey's Anatomy] These Are Just the Ghosts That Broke My Heart Before I Met You - Sly Brunette
It’s those damn steps that got her in so much trouble in the first place – go figure that it’s where she chooses to sit, wait; something wicked comes this way.
Lovely Cristina/Owen post-ep for "Before and After," the closest I've come to finding word art in a while, with all kinds of pretty phrases in parentheses scattered throughout.

26. [Grey's Anatomy] Just Look At The State of You - Sly Brunette
There's something fitting to the idea that they end up in the shower, of all places.
Oh look, here's another one. But this one's even better, a post-ep for the finale, and it is rated M for the usual reasons but somehow their second time still does not squick me any more than their first did. Geeze, ship! Even in writing you are too pretty to protest!

27. [Grey's Anatomy] Porcelain Fists - Morgen(writes)
“My hands kill people,” he hissed, thrusting both of them up in front of her face. His glass toppled over forgotten, leaking tequila into the cushions and down the side of her leg. “You should chop ‘em off, Mer." The words slurred together, all slush and bitterness like dirty snow in winter, falling in chunks from cars, coated in fumes and dark, ugly things.
-This post-That Episode Where Derek Tragically Doesn't Hook Back Up With Addison But Drinks A Lot Of Booze On The Couch [5x16] Mer/Der fic is incredible, and pretty much everything I needed to read after feeling somewhat dissatisfied by their conclusion on the episode itself. It's canon in my head and should be in yours as well. Some of the most splendid writing in existence for this couple.

28. [ER] Five Men Neela May or May Not Have Loved - OregonBlondie
This is something you should remember: she isn't ever drunk when she kisses him.
There are no capital letters in this, which is bothersome, and it's extremely vague (the list at the beginning helps; don't overlook it). But this also makes it extremely word-artistic; it's a whole collage of images and not all of them are pretty, but the effect certainly is.

29. [The Mentalist] Visions of Vermillion - Kenzimone
Summary: Death will linger, given enough incentive.
As previously mentioned - I have no need to watch this show, because all the best possible angst is right here, in this story. This chilling, haunting, ethereal, utterly beautiful and heartbreaking story of Patrick Jane's reflections on his loss.

30. [Dollhouse] Lines - (fittingly by) Dollsome
They're told to draw something that makes them happy, so Sierra draws butterflies. . . . She enjoys the way the crayon sticks a little to the paper when she pulls it away.
I don't even watch this show, but the fic makes me want to. A drawing exercise with hints of an innocent romance between some people named Victor and Sierra (see, I don't even know who they are, and it's STILL GREAT), every line perfectly capturing the child-like simplicity of the dolls.

31. [Lost] Heart Knows Calm - Dollsome
They shack up together, him and Juliet, and soon he memorizes the way her footsteps sound against the floor.
Canon cannot contradict this story of how their early days in 1977 came into being, and while canon's lack of explanation initially made me grumpy, now I'm just delighted that this fic patch exists to cover that base.

32. [Lost] All This Time I've Loved You And Never Known Your Face - Dollsome
Summary: An encounter.
A fantastic Sawyer/Juliet AU in which Flight 815 never crashed and they never met, at least not the way we saw, but manage to cross paths anyway. Read the author's note. It's much more interesting than anything I can say about it.

33. [Numb3rs] Ever After - Emma Demarais
Summary: Don decides he's ready to spend the rest of his life with Robin
When someone writes good Charlie/Amita fic that is more than 150 words long, I will link to that. Until that day, have some heartwarming Don/Robin spinning through a lifetime with all the illustrious trappings of engagement, marriage, and family.

34. [Without a Trace] Jean Paul Sartre's Script For Without a Trace - Bob Woodiwiss
MALONE: I got here as fast as your perception of fast tells you I got here.
I'm not entirely sure if this counts as fic or should just be labeled creative fan expression, but still, I will include it here. Since my brain refuses to absorb information that even marginally pertains to philsophy, I can't actually appreciate the humor, but I know the name and I know enough to know why this is funny. Which is almost the same thing.

35. [Glee] Fame - Harper M [NC-17]
Summary: Fame is fleeting. And if it does flee, Rachel's going to make sure she has a way to get it back.
-I TOTALLY IN NO WAY ENDORSE THIS NC-17 STORYLINE. But I didn't know what I was reading until it was too late, until I was already wholly and completely absorbed in the fact that dude, based on the one episode we have seen, Rachel would so do this. She would make an artistic solo sex tape, flaunting the Lolita edge, and store it in case her future career ever needed a touch of scandal. And she would rationalize it in exactly this calm and collected, professional way. Simply amazing writing, rife with detail.

36. [The Class] Dates of Doom, Fire and Brimstone - Tommygirl
Summary: Kat and Ethan have their first date, with a little help from Kyle, Lena, and Richie.
-Initially recced by eleigh, this qualifies as the Best Thing Ever. Seriously, the characterization for everybody is perfect; it's like getting to watch an extra-special bonus episode from this tragically and unfairly canceled* show.
*I will never not whine about this. It's just a knee-jerk reaction whenever one mentions The Class.

37. [How I Met Your Mother] Five Things Robin Scherbatsky Doesn't Do - fearlessfan
Summary: Robin doesn’t fall in love with Barney (except for how she totally does).
-Somewhat AU out of the season 4 gate after Robin leaves for her job in Japan, it's yet another plausible-sounding way this ship could have happened, complete with lots of snappy banter and their particular respective quirks. It's one wonderfully long story (9,000+ words), and it's worth it just to hear them watching Walker Texas Ranger DVDs while thousands of miles apart. Or, you know, for all the other parts. Read it now! Or Chuck Norris will roundhouse kick you in the face.

38. [Torchwood] Trying to Communicate - copperbadge
Summary: There's an alien in the Hub, and it's trying to communicate. This borders perilously on crackfic.
-A nearly-G-rated Torchwood fic (I know! How is it possible!) that approximately the entire internet has already seen, but which I nonetheless have to mention being in love with. Because the complete and utter hilarity of real live talking (alien) lolcat just never gets old "O HAI SEXIE JAK."

39. [Sarah Jane Adventures] The Still Point - Eponymous_Rose
Summary: Sarah/Alan: he sees the universe in her, the turn of the planet and possibilities stretching on into infinity.
-I tripped over it by accident and promptly discovered that I'm kind of okay with this pairing, and by "kind of okay" I mean this story, at least, is extremely delightful. Possibly because most of it is just a conversation between the adults around interjections from the kids off hanging out in the background. But still, I cherish it.

40. [SJA] Paperback - Eponymous_Rose
Sometimes it frustrated her how little the books actually revealed about the adult world. All she knew was that it seemed like people were a lot angrier and did a lot more shouting after kids were in bed, and that didn't seem at all worthwhile.
-Another 2-for-1. I haven't had a lot of time to go exploring in this fandom, all right? But I'm very fond of anything that is Maria-centric, and if it features Maria who is an avid reader, that is twice as excellent. Perfect character study to set the mood for the series opener.

41. [SJA] Five Ways The Bane Didn't Return For Luke, And One Way They Did - Amilyn
By the time Maria arrives, Sarah Jane has arranged him in the bed, closed his eyes, and is sitting beside him stroking his hair over the words on his forehead: "All information extracted. Archetype obsolete."
-I mentioned this in passing a few days ago, but I'm obsessive about cataloguing everything properly. Ergo, delivers what the title promises in a variety of eerily chilling ways.

42. [Doctor Who] Incense and Peppermints - Skylar
"And in 1969 an unmarried white man and an unmarried black woman moving in together looks a bit, you know... 1969?"
-OH HAI, guess who forgot to put this on her last batch of recs? *headdesk* Anyway, this is pretty much the one Doctor/Martha story I've ever found that was likable - for which we can thank scsquidsnaps - because it takes place during those missing months of "Blink" and it's only ever meant to be temporary. And anyway, the way they build up to it, even the most steadfast anti-shipper couldn't argue with it. ~~Well, as long as they were an easily swayed romantic at heart~~. BONUS: accompanying fanmix.

43. [Doctor Who -- ESSAY] TARDIS/Everyone - brigadiertardis
Actually, this is less an essay and more of what I imagine would be a hardback reference text. It could take days to work through it all - I still haven't managed - but it's a bafflingly brilliant examination of the TARDIS' emotional reaction to/relationship with the Doctor and every companion he's ever traveled with, plus a few more people for good measure. IT IS AMAZING.

44. [Doctor Who] The Thirteen Series...Again - hippiebanana132
The sequel package to what is otherwise referred to here as "The Most Wonderful Series of Oneshots," again written one after each season (4) episode aired, though not necessarily related to said episode. And again, they are all wonderful, but my pair of particular favorites:

a) Footsteps: Little by little, Rose is making her way back to his world
--This IS canon in my head for how Rose gradually broke down the barriers enough to find her way back.

b) Once Upon a Time: She might be playing at Cinderella, but this is no fairy tale.
--A scene from "Human Nature," but with Rose in place of Martha and minus Joan Redfern. And not really much happier for it, in the end.

***
So it turns out that the rest of this post is all post-Journey's-End stuff. I am still weirdly courteous about this spoiler, probably just because I avoided it for so damn long that it feels brand new to me.

45. [Doctor Who] Life Among the Distant Stars - hippiebanana132
She will never admit it, but she needs someone to love her as much as he needs someone to fix him. This is his gift to her. ... He took away their history and left her his heart.

"A fic detailing the first twelve weeks of the Doctor and Rose's lives post-Journey's End."  THIS. This is absolutely required reading, which I have decreed the best possible look at how Ten II and Rose start over (with a couple pingbacks to regular!Ten, just to make sure you don't get totally carried away), written in a series of vignettes based off lyric prompts - fanmix included. I can't even describe the perfection, it just exists in a pure state and is a large part of why watching that episode now only 90% wrecks me as a person.

46. [Doctor Who] Days Hence - Sunken Standard
Although if one post-JE fic were to equal the above one, it would be this. If only because this is an epically, wonderfully long saga devoted to exploring this new Ten/Rose dynamic in Alt!World. You can maybe tell from this statement that I haven't actually finished reading it yet, but I still know it's good. *is stubborn*

47. [Doctor Who] Throw Your Arms Over Your Eyes and Greet This Brand New Day - biggrstaffbunch (P.S. internet! Stop this trend of having obnoxiously long song lyrics for titles! Learn the majesty of the snippet!)
With a rueful smile and a few well-placed explanations, he maps her future and becomes a god. Turns a stranger into a lover and turns a girl into a jailor.
Post-JE option #3. There are SO MANY ridiculously pretty word-art things happening in this fic that I didn't know where to start. Many of them a much darker and more haunting spin than usual, but it sort of gets us to a happy place in the end. Maybe the darkness makes it more realistic. I don't know; this is a brand-new addition as of tonight (I finally got to break into my forbidden "LINKS FOR AFTER SEASON 4" folder!) and I'm still spinning it through my brain, but I really like what I've seen.

48. [Doctor Who] April in my Arms - shaggydogstail
Summary: This could just about be the worst idea the Doctor's ever had. If anyone can fix it, it's Donna.
And now, for a much happier version of post-ep events that do not involve Rose, but rather focus on the Doctor and those left on Earth. Like Sarah Jane!  Among others. Like Donna, about whom I mysteriously have no fic, because I'm baaaad. Or because I was, you know, avoiding season 4 spoilers like the plague until seven weeks ago. ANYWAY. This is wonderful and good and completely in character despite being a little bit cracktastic, but awesomely so, and winds up being Doctor/Donna and everything.

=============

Oh, look at that, we've come to the end! Actually, I'm pretty sure that over the course of the next week I will probably find a dozen more stories scattered about in random and forgotten places. Maybe we'll have a miniature "clearance recs" post for the 4th of July. ~~Or possibly I won't do this again until 2010. That sounds more like me.~~

The works in progress meme

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:03:47 GMT

Post a little weensy excerpt from as many random works-in-progress as you can find lying around. Who knows? Maybe inspiration will strike.

Because I haven't done it in a long time, nor have I written, and I should like very much to crank something out sometime this year. The last time I started to do it, I actually ended up finishing two fics instead, so there is some truth to the meme instructions.

1. untitled Grey's Anatomy fic from Rebecca/Ava's perspective, post-ep for...whichever season 4 episode it was when she came back and wasn't crazy yet. It's been a long time. I don't even know for sure that these details are correct anymore.
Her husband’s conversations had gone dry, as dull and smooth as the wood he sanded for his shop. There had been a time when she could watch him for hours, letting his stretches of silence steal over her in the calm. That memory had returned with all the others, but faded and without its significance attached.

2. untitled ER fic from Sarah's perspective, post-ep for the season 13 finale
“Can I come home yet?” she sobs, a futile request. He doesn’t say anything at all, just holds her tighter and lays his cheek on her hair. Dry wind rolls by, kicking up dead grass and dirt clods as she shuts her eyes and tries to freeze this moment, stretch it out to get her through the next however many days
...I find that those are the only works in actual progress I have left. The other ones are just junk I've already talked about that I will never finish. Let me show off my stellar (*snort-giggle*) writing ability for the hell of it:

3. a sentence I could use anywhere, about a first kiss:
"Just once," she asks softy, without a question mark.

4. From the secret lost fourth part of "Clockwork Silence," when I was going to circle back to Horatio:
He doesn’t envy the families with nothing to put their faith in except the doctors and the clock. Patience is a virtue he’s cultivated, but he’s never enjoyed the wait.

5. One of three sentences so far in "Turpentine and Patches," a series of Samantha Spade drabbles I was going to write based off a crackrabbit meme:
Running backwards from places she never meant to be, launching the story of her life.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 03:09:24 GMT

Was randomly listening to music, songs I've heard dozens of times before, and yet sometimes certain lyrics jump out as a spectacular quote to put before the start of a fic - I forget what the term is. In this case, from "Le Disko":

If what they say is true, if you're a boy and I'm a girl
I will never fall in love with you

No actual ideas of where to use it, and has probably already been done somewhere, but wouldn't it be fun for a maybe-angsty introspective femmeslash story, from the perspective of a character in a canon UST relationship?

Another random title without a plot!

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:24:12 GMT

You know what else somebody (a word which here means "Muse") should do?? A Miles piece about what he hears when all those buried corpses speak to him. Title: "Ghosts With Just Voices"

Two possible directions:
A) A series of brief drabbles (i.e. "sometimes they're chatty, laughing like they'd never died" // "sometimes they aren't like words at all, just sensory emotions, sharp and dark and violent")

Research component: watch all Miles scenes to see how he describes his reactions to this phenomenon, because I've been hella ignoring him since he appeared

B) A oneshot maybe-OC fic, detailing the impressions he gets of a life story from the ghost of one or two particular people, women maybe, or... *pause* Possibly...Alex and Karl! TWISTY GHOST LOVE, I TOLD YOU I COULD DO IT SOMEHOW. They'd probably be less about innocent & light-hearted stories and full of weird warnings and messages he can't quite figure out.

Or, you know, something.

Research component: find out which random Others/Hostiles/Dharmas have died, and any possible backstory that could be used therin

I will go down with this ship

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:18:21 GMT

SO...I haven't written in eight trillion years, but I've been having a crisis-of-conscience over my anchor ship on Lost. It's been Sawyer/Kate for the better part of 3 years, but then Sawyer & Juliet were ever so pretty...and Kate became unbearable...and by season premiere time, I was hardcore shipping Sawyer/Juliet, which was twice the fun of Skate with none of the nastiness or unpleasant parts. Two awesome characters, not two pairs of one awesome character being unfortunately besotted with a less awesome person.

Until last night. When Kate was out of sight, out of mind, it was easy enough to ignore and forget her. But now? NOW I HAVE ISSUES. Piney, lonesome, sad issues of being unable to truly let go of my OTP.

Then today, I was playing KeyQuest on Neopets (this is relevant!) so I was listening to CDs for music purposes, since my MP3 player is charging and the sad old computer can't run a big scary flash game online *and* play music at the same time. I haven't heard Dido in a while...

And then as I listened to the first song, "White Flag," and remembered how much I used to love it - I realized, hey, in the future, my next however-many-blog-posts about Lost are going to use lyrics from this song as titles. Because they are SO APPLICABLE!

And then, I realized I had a fic idea. Or, not a fic idea, so much as a fic-related idea. It came to me as I was listening to "See You When You're 40," remembering a great Grissom/Sara drabble someone once wrote to that title.

Someone - someone with actual detailed ideas, of which I have zero - should write a series of brief vignettes, or even drabbles about what happens to Kate & Sawyer now, and how they interact with one another, using lines from "White Flag" as chapter titles. Observe!

Shouldn't Still Love You
The Rules of "It's Over"
Let It Pass And Hold My Tongue
You Will Think That I've Moved On
All That Was There Will Be There Still

Alternatively, 2 & 5 would simply make a great single title if you just wanted one straightforward story about their reunion (5) or simply learning to navigate this new, post-relationship world (2).

Dude, I really want to write that last one. I'm devastated by my inability to even vaguely picture one single sentence or mental picture of how they'd do that.

But maybe if I keep watching the rest of the season, it'll come to me.

I has a meme!

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:40:01 GMT

Directions: The Bonsai Story Generator transforms your story from a coherent fic into a series of pseudo-profound word salad sentences, perfect for incomprehensibly poetic fic.

Plug in one (or more) of your fics and post three (or more) of your favorite bonsai story sentences. No fair picking sentences that come out almost the same (i.e. "What's that?" or "She stood there" or something like that). Annotate as you like.

From Piano Lessons:
I’m not living on the keys, she answered, unconcerned. --Neat image. It would make a great closer for a drabble, possibly in response to another's concern about her behavior or a situation she's in.

Ziva, Ziva, Ziva.
You’re the injury.
It was hypnotic.
He shot to make their exits.
--4 lines in a row that actually make sense - not bad, eh? And only the first and third are unchanged sentences. The fourth one could fit in a poem somewhere.

Close Your Eyes and See:
Her hands are curled into an embrace.
Her hands are looking lost. --I love when two cool lines come out next to each other. I wonder how you curl hands into an embrace? Cradling one another? Think about it. Then add a layer of headspin with the second sentence.

And now she's the corners of it all. Stability. Nice.

They reach out of the hushed words carefully. --I'm seeing "they" referring to implications, or perhaps old memories.

Library Nights:
He vanishes like a private correspondence. This is possibly my favorite line of all, and I might find a way to recycle it.

She might be responsible for something unknown, searching for the history majors to discuss theology. --Whoa! That is some incredible coherency right there.

Moonlight in Brazil:
By unspoken agreement, the endless hours until dawn are an unbearable expanse of existence.

That’s where his thoughts ought to stop sobbing. --Poor tormented thoughts.

Memories of soup. --Soup, soup, glorious soup.

Another night air; the media circus, the edge, and she puts up with it; puts up with it; puts up with a few months, just like in Raymond’s eyes.
--Comma splicing and a bit convoluted, but otherwise kinda fantastic.

The most recent letter from the lure of worrying.

Clockwork Silence
And Eric is lying like that, so implicitly as they might have spotted the viciousness of a trap, before he’s in the tidal wave against them.
--*dissects* OK, let's define "lying" as "not telling the truth," but in such a way that they don't realize he's betraying them (though they could have if they'd looked) - until it's too late. Yep, this exactly why this meme is such fun.

It bothers him to take his eyes. --I think that line's reserved for a sci-fi horror story.

He wakes up with a blank where he belongs. --Profundity

Utterances of the tongue, a very real possibility, one to the mark of a prayer, but he wasn’t supposed to be there for the rest of him. --More convolution! Your assignment is to dissect it.

Leftover Miscellenaous Fics:
Packing begins a dream. -Opening line FTW!

It’s the girls in ice and life on the kind of conversation they used to terrify her best friend. --I'm thinking this could relate to serial killers, somewhow. Which amuses me, since it came out of an O.C. fic about Summer missing Marissa.

And she lost herself twice, under her breath. --Also profound! Kind of gives me a shiver. And that's a good line on which to end this meme, I think.

Rmamblings

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:55:43 GMT

In a completely unrelated note, I found the binder where I stashed all the printed fic of my own writing after I moved it out of the main one, and...a lot of it is surprisingly palatable! I get so bogged down by my embarassed hatred of....whatever I called that horrible/self-indulgent H/Y fic, and "Suicide Girl" (and a few other things, like the last lines of "Hollow," but those two are the biggest offenders) that I forget how a lot of the other stories in my cache are actually pretty decent. My pair of NCIS fics, for example. I dared to play with dialogue and most of the lines still ring true. I'm newly impressed with the word art in my O.C. fics that nobody ever cared about. The "Diversions" story about Valera and pre-dark-side Cooper made me laugh out loud. And, I know "Blood on his Hands" has problems, but, *treasures first Proper Grown-Up Fanfic* The sentiment was good!

And damn, damn but there are some good lines in "Moonlight in Brazil." "Reality matters little in the powered dust of broken promises"? I think I was making an allusion to drugs with that line, since it's Yelina about Raymond, but I can't actually remember if it was deliberate or not! And BORROWED TIME, MAN. Not that it doesn't have squeaky bits here and there that could use tuning, but I am fond of that story.