Hey, I'm Perpetual Motin, and I'll be your CSI van driver for the month. I am a slasher through and through, and I love just about any CSI pairing you can throw together, so this should be an interesting month.

Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Warrick/Gil, Warrick/Greg, Warrick/Nick, Warrick/Brass, Warrick/Speed
Author on LJ: julianlee
Author Website: "The Thwarted Invasion"
Why this must be read:

For my first rec of the month, I picked something that's still very new in the fandom. I am, at heart, Julian Lee's bitch, so getting to rec this great new story is making me all squealy and happy.

So, why must this fic be read? Firstly, it's a "Five Ways" story, and I always find them to be absolutely fab when done right, and Julian does right. We get to see Warrick how he *might* have ended up if things had gone just a touch differently, or it had been a different time. We see Warrick as a very successful gambler, as an alchemist in medieval times, as the torn-up individual he could have become after the whole Holly Gribbs debacle, as a jazz pianist, and as a man who has to start over after Holly Gribbs and ends up in Miami.

I have a favorite moment for each part of the fic:

1. Gil going out of character to make out with Warrick [a moment that even Julian Lee fesses up to, which makes it completely forgivable in my mind].

2. The whole language of the second part is great because it's set in medieval times, and Julian Lee works hard to use an older-sounding version of English for the whole section.

3. The absolute angst of the Warrick/Nick part is just wonderfully painful and stomach twisting in the way fantastic angst always is.

4. Warrick+Brass+piano bar+no words spoken during the "courtship"=lovely.

5. Warrick/Speed locker room sex.

The story's not on her website yet, but it's on her lj. She broke it up into two parts, and you should read them both, fawn over her, then read them again.

Part One
Part Two

Fandom: X-MEN MOVIEVERSE
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: vagabond_sal
Author Website: Wordsmithy
Why this must be read:

This story achieves the absolute impossible: it makes movieverse!Storm likeable. And interesting. And fun, damnit. (It also parts seas in its lunch breaks, and, if you ask really nicely, will turn your water to wine.)

Amongst its many achievements (as if giving movieverse!Storm a personality weren't enough), this fic also resists the temptation to bash any character -- a temptation to which all too many writers succumb. I'm particularly fond of this story's Jean. Sure, she's a little uptight in places, but she's basically a good person with a sense of humour just under the surface. In other words, she's Jean Grey, and not some Evil Bitch Queen of DOOM! who exists solely to get in the way of a particular pairing and generally make people's lives miserable. Her burgeoning friendship here with Storm is somewhat reminiscent of the Scott-Logan interaction in the first film, albeit less slashy although the tension comes from other (and, to my mind, more interesting) factors.

Yes, the Storm of this story doesn't have a whole lot in common with the one we saw in the movies. But: a) people can change a lot in a decade or so, and we weren't given any of her backstory, so this fic is perfectly possible, and b) I can guarantee you that this Storm is much more entertaining, anyhow.

If you're a Storm fan who screamed abuse at the screen felt homicidal was disappointed with her portrayal in the movies, I cannot recommend this story highly enough. Hell, I recommend it to everyone else, too. Great characterisation, some wonderful touches of humour (the '90s references are a blast), and there's a little Hank and Warren in there, too. What's not to love?

Some Rain Must Fall

Fandom: Highlander
Title: Change Of Plans
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author's Website: Doesn't Seem To have a personal one
Why This Must Be Read:

Highlander has given us some absolutely wonderful secondary characters over it's run and one of them was the absolutely fascinating Sean Burns. We only saw him in the briefly but it was enough to fascinate more than a few fans. Lucky for us, Cathryn Bauer was one of them. Cathryn, in Change of Plans, goes back to who Sean used to be. Before he became the therapist we saw before his death, he had many other identities and of those, the crucial first life. His life as a pre-Immortal. Cathryn takes us back to the Hebridean island of Iona and a young monk named Sean. This story has long been one of my favorites featuring Sean. It takes the traits we saw briefly in him and follows them back to their origins. We see Sean the healer at his earliest, seeing hints of how his pre-Immortal existence will shape his Immortality and does so against the backdrop of the history Iona provides.

It's a great character piece and one well worth the read.

Change Of Plans

Fandom: STAR WARS: TPM
Pairing: Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon
Author on LJ: pandarus
Author Website: http://www.rebeccalizard.net/fay/ (Motto: "Spreading the Yay, One Ho at a Time")
Why this must be read:

Here's what Pandarus had to say when she posted this story earlier today (2004-08-07 17:49:00, according to the entry header):

I get the impression that TPM has quite a fair few 'Jedi Made Into Mindwiped Pleasure Slave' stories. The different cliches that fandoms come up with, eh? I've read a couple of very good TPM stories which deal with this, but - yeah. Wanted to have another crack at dialogue-only fic, and I started off in a silly frame of mind, playing it strictly for laughs. After a while, though, it devolved into schmoop. I'm not at all sure whether this works, because the tone isn't consistent.

Trust me — it works. Obi-Wan tries to Do the Right Thing by Qui-Gon, even though "I'm finding it very difficult [...] when you're walking around half-naked and looking at me like I'm made of chocolate. Um." With hilarious cameos by Yoda and Mace Windu.

"Free"

Fandom: PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Doyle(Cade)/Bodie
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: http://www.angelfire.com/nb/annehiggins/
Why this must be read: Because it shows that an A/U can work in this fandom and work beautifully when written by a talented author. In this story, Doyle is Doyle (sort of) and Bodie is Bodie. It's kind of a death story, but not. I don't want to give too much away because that would take away from the reader's enjoyment of the story.

But here's the basic plot. Bodie and Doyle were lovers while partners at CI-5. However towards the end of their partnership, Doyle is injured and has amnesia, basically "dying." He gets a new identity.

In the years since Doyle's "death," Bodie has moved to Hong Kong, but 15 years later Cowley convinces him to come back to London to take over CI-5. Doyle who doesn't know he's Doyle has been living as Alan Cade (a character Martin Shaw played in the BBC show, The Chief). The two men meet because of their jobs and become lovers again. However, Cade has no idea who he really is.

You'll have to read the story to find out if Ray/Alan figures out the puzzle and they live happily ever after. *g* But, I happen to think it's a very likable read for a lazy Sunday afternoon.


Whatever Happened to Raymond Doyle?