I'm jed, I'm your SV hostess for October, and I'm doing themes. This week is The Happy Place, i.e., Denialfic.

We're in a unique position: we know how it ends. They hate each other; they're enemies. But every week we watch them onscreen, and they're so pretty and they have no one else and the way they look at each other makes us swoon, and it just doesn't seem right that they'll end up at each other's throats if it's not in a kissy way. Thus the popularity of denialfic, also known as Rift? What Rift? (RWR). There is even a LJ community set up to minister to the tender sensibilities of the riftphobes: denialcorp.

There are all kinds of denial fic. I'm usually not a fan of curtainfic (i.e., domestic tranquility) or anything with kids (even though I wrote a fic with a kid in it myself). Denialfic tends to start from some point (specific or not) in S1 territory, where the boys still gaze at each other like timid deer, limpid-eyed and ardent, which is easy to ruin by making it sappy and emotionally garish. I tend to like the stories where Clark and Lex have a real-seeming relationship that starts, restarts, or picks up again long after they are supposed to be bitterest enemies. Some writers have enough talent, however, that they can posit a strong, realistic relationship happening in a version of right now that makes a rift seem stupid and gimmicky. You find yourself thinking, "Well, if they had anyone who could write working on this show, they wouldn't need a brutal rift to make their clunky, obvious points." With that, I give you some of my favorite mitigating stories that happen right now, or maybe a little sooner.

A Nice, Friendly Game by Koi

Freshman Orientation by Punk

The Butterfly Effect by The Spike

Direct Link: A Nice, Friendly Game
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Author on LJ: koimistress
Author Website: Seems to be down at the moment...

Why this must be read: Koi's best known story is probably Mercy, which is a very dark futurefic that caused all kinds of commotion when first published...but this is denialfic week and this story opens up limitless vistas of prickly, scratchy, unscripted and realistic future with a smart, crazed, slightly annoying Lex and a bold, blushing Clark who is just a little bit in awe of him (and will be, for a few years hence). Plus, it's clichefic of the highest order and funny, sweet, poignant, sexy and just...perfect. The sex manages to be incredibly hot and romantic while actually being quite demure in terms of graphic description when compared to the majority of Smallville smut.

Read, enjoy, and tell her how much you love it.

ETA: Accessing the Story: For some reason, this link is defaulting to an ftp: address even though it's been coded in this post as http. If you cannot access the story by clicking on the link, you can change the ftp to http in your address bar and you should be able to get it that way.

Direct Link: Freshman Orientation
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Author on LJ: runpunkrun
Author Website: The Underground Punk Maneuverability

Why this must be read: College Clark thinks he's emotionally so much more ready for love than Lex. They're in an established relationship, but Lex is still wary, at least according to Clark. The dialogue is like something from a 1930s screwball comedy, except gay(er) and with added cock. Everyone learns something, but lessons are painless for the reader when they're so witty and sweet and fuckity (hey--it's a word, or it should be).

Read, enjoy, and tell her how much you love it.

Direct Link: The Butterfly Effect
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Author on LJ: spike21
Author Website: The Spike

Why this must be read: It brings in the science-nerdy and fanon-druggy aspects of Lex in a truly compelling fashion, allows Clark to grow up a little in the sweetest possibly way, and is totally romantic while insisting that the reader consider terrible, cruel futures. It makes chaos theory kind of sexy and lets both of the woobie boys at least try to be selfless. Personally, I'd give this a PG-13 rating as written, but you know it went NC-17 about three paragraphs after she stopped writing it...

Read, enjoy, and tell her how much you love it.

Fandom: CSI
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: shosen
Author Website: Totally Kawaii
Why this must be read: This is a gen post-ep fic for season two's "Stalker", an episode in which Nick is stalked from inside his own house. The resolution of the episode was a little sloppy, and once it was over the stalking incident was never mentioned on the show again. There's no real reaction from Nick regarding the invasion of his privacy, and consequently the episode is a starting point for a lot of fic writers who want to deal with the resolution we never got onscreen.

This particular treatment is a short gen piece that not only deals with Nick's residual feelings of violation, but it also showcases his friendship with Greg in a really nice way. Shosen chose Greg as the character to reach out to Nick and offer him the help he couldn't ask for on his own, and she did it in a really nice way that follows their canon interaction very well. This is absolutely my favorite post-"Stalker" fic.

Walk Away

Fandom: Buffy
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Author on LJ: I think this is Te, The Spike, and Debchan, but I'm not sure
Author Website: see above
Why this must be read: This story is pretty famous in the circles I revolve in as one of the best ever written in this pairing. And there is *a lot* of Spike/Xander. Now. Not so much when this was written, it rode the crest when the pairing was first popping up.

Here we have pre-personality transplant Spike, Xander still living in the basement, and porn. What's not to love?

Night Watch

A Live Journal malfunction was responsible for any "comments will be screened" messages you received yesterday and has been corrected. Sorry for the unintentional censorship. *g*

And thanks so much to the anonymous LJ fairy who very kindly gifted crack_van with 2 months of paid membership! I'm pretty sure you're going to get your money's worth!!

Sincerely,
The Management

Donna the Vampire Slayer by Nomad
Fandom: The West Wing
Pairing: Read and see how it all turns out. Ensemble of BtVS and WW characters.
Author on LJ: nomadicwriter. Yes, I'm a total sucker for Nomad's fic. I can't help it.
Author Website: Nomad's Realm

Why This Must Be Read: Well, I know there are a lot of BtVS fen in this community, and this is an *excellent* step into West Wing fandom and its characters. Things begin after S5 BtVS and S2 West Wing, then it heads AU. There's a new Slayer called after Buffy's death...and it's Miss Donna Moss. Plus, the story is just kick-ass. Funny, cool, and and super long, plus who doesn't want to read about all these characters meeting?

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan Rydell/Casey McCall
Author on LJ: Lanning
Author Website: Lanning Cook's Fiction

Why this must be read: First off, Lanning is one of those authors that smart readers follow from fandom to fandom. If she wrote "Test Pattern" slash, where Red was secretly in love with Green, and Yellow was jealous, I'd read it.

More specifically, she manages to get Dan and Casey's voices down pat, as well as the secondary characters. Anyone who's seen any of Sorkin's work knows how difficult that can be (which is a major reason people were concerned when he left The West Wing this season).That she does this in what is essentially a PWP, is truly amazing. Even a newcomer to Sports Night will understand more about the players when reading this fic.

This fic is about Dan and Casey, an empty television studio, and a search for some private time.

"Casey sagged against him helplessly, closing his eyes in resignation as his last shred of cool did a buck and wing and exited stage left. He returned the kiss, heart pounding and shaking all over. Nobody had ever kissed him like Danny..."

Location, Location, Location

Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing: implied Scorpius/Sikozu, if you squint
Author on LJ: andrastewhite
Author Website: Altogether Elsewhere
Why this must be read: One of Farscape's recurring themes is turning villains into allies, or at least into sympathetic characters with understandable motivation. A few authors in the fandom tackle this prickly transformation in Scorpius which we see in Seasons Three and Four. "Travelling Light" is a remarkable character study of Scorpius and what draws him to Sikozu in Season Four, when he's still cooling his heels in a cell on Moya. The glimpse of the crew we get through Scorpius' eyes alone is worth the price of admission, but this story also provides keen insight into Scorpius, Sikozu, and their growing alliance in Season Four.

Also, the language is wonderful - spot-on for Scorpius, and a treat to read aloud.

Travelling Light by Andraste

Direct Link: Iron Pokers Into True-Love Knots
Fandom: From Eroica With Love
Pairing: Dorian/Klaus
Author on LJ: kadorienne
Author Website: http://www.belladonna.org/eroica.html

Why this must be read: The real hassle with recommending Kadorienne is choosing which fic to rec - she has extensive knowledge of canon (not an easy thing to do with a manga series that is mostly untranslated), and a particularly lovely interpretation. While I have several favorites among her fics besides this one, it seemed like a good introduction. Kadorienne gets you right inside Klaus' head and tells you why it is, exactly, that an uptight German NATO officer would be in a difficult position if he found himself in love with a certain English thief.

cesperanza wrote briefly that the difficulty with writing romance today is the lack of obstacles facing characters contemplating a relationship. This is not the case with the Eroica fandom, which chiefly takes place during the 70's within the confines of NATO. So when our heroes manage to overcome all the difficulties in their way, the happy ending is that much sweeter - and Kadorienne excels in that department.