June 29th, 2005 
01:06 am The Snake Pit by ChiMonkey (PG-13)
I have 2 days and 4 recs left. Welcome to Spam-Land. Mind the power-crazed Stykera.

Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing: John/Chiana, Stark/Zhaan
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Unknown
Why this must be read:

From "Five Things" we go to a slightly more conventional AU, which manages to combine two different styles of AU seamlessly: the "change one event" style and the "familiar characters in a completely alternate setting" style. How is this done? By trapping them in an evil virtual reality they were able to escape in canon, of course!

I am a hopeless fan of the episode "John Quixote". I find that not nearly enough fic gets written featuring the living personification of Stark's Twisted Core of Evil I refer to as AvaStark. It's Stark as villian without affecting the innate nobility of the character. It's the dark side of someone who is fundamentally a pure if troubled soul. ChiMonkey writes him eerily well. This piece also features a set-up for John/Chiana I can not only stand but find myself liking a great deal: John and Chiana alone in a hostile environment, growing closer because they can't shake the feeling they're the only "real" people in this place.

Criminally insane. They say she killed her brother. Went totally nutters and stabbed him forty times with a butcher knife. They say that's when her hair turned )

Go, take your meds, and don't forget to tip your orderly.

The Snake Pit
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01:22 pm Fragment of a Lost Poem by Inalasahl (M)
Fandom: FIREFLY
Pairing: Inara/Mal
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] inalasahl
Author Website: http://inalasahl.compromisingpositions.net/
Why this must be read:

This is a great, plot driven resolution of the underlying tension between Inara and Mal. It starts after Inara has left and continues the chase for Simon and River by the 'hands of blue.' It integrates lots of bits of the series and conveys all of the characters really well. I really liked the way that all of the characters were affected by Inara's presence and absence and the way the whole story existed within a world. This is a great story on its own and a fantastic firefly fic.


Fragment of a Lost Poem
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02:17 pm Persistence of Memory by MistressRenet (NC-17)
Fandom: YAMI NO MATSUEI
Pairing: Tatsumi/Watari
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] mistressrenet
Author Website: MistressRenet's House O' Insanity
Why this must be read: When Tatsumi puts Watari's memory to the test, he ends up dredging up a few bittersweet recollections of his own. This is a lovely look at Watari's ability to remember everything that ever happened ever and still forgive. A growing strain of wistfulness runs through the fun, but the end feels hopeful and at least cautiously happy.

excerpt )

Persistence of Memory
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02:26 pm Never meant to be by Emerald Embers (PG13)
Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairing: Anakin/Obi-Wan
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] emerald_embers
Author Website: http://www.sector-7.org/~emerald/
Why this must be read:

The Anakin and Obi-Wan duel is one of the most striking sequences in RotS. This takes a moment from that fight - where their outstretched hands almost touch - and takes an AU line from there. Writing believable Anakin/Obi-Wan without undermining his feelings for Padme is difficult - but this does it. It is an Anakin who wants the people he cares for to be safe, and an Obi-Wan struggling to reconcile his friend with his actions.

It's sad, short and everyone is broken. For these guys, there is no happy ending.

Excerpt )

Never meant to be
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02:39 pm Talking to the Dog by Blue Champagne (R)
Fandom: due South
Pairing: gen.
Author on LJ: unknown.
Author Website: unknown.
Why this must be read:

Heeeeeee. Ray talks to Diefenbaker. I *love* Diefenbaker. There's actually a whole series of these, but the only page I can find for this author is through archive.org. Should anyone have updated info, I'll revise this to include that.

Talking to the Dog


That's it for me this month. Thanks!
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03:12 pm Just One of Those Days by lady_lefaye (PG13)
Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairing: Luke/Anakin (kinda)
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] lady_lefaye
Author Website:
Why this must be read:

Read this for the laugh value. Written for a 'Luke goes back in time and meets his father and Obi-Wan' request this starts off several years after the events of RotJ. Luke - feeling a little isolated, and in awe of the task of re-establishing the Jedi Order - manipulates the Force to go back in time and get to know Anakin Skywalker, the man behind the machine.

Unfortunately nothing quite goes as planned. Luke ends up in a cantina, being flirted with by a young man who thinks he's his mother. Thinks that Luke's his mother. I mean that Luke is Luke's mother. Not that she's his mother at the moment. Or even currently married to his father. Not that he is his father yet.

In short, time-travel may do many things. It does not, however, affect the Skywalker clan's tendency to have complicated romantic relationships. With each other.

Or just read and laugh )

Just one of those days
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03:34 pm No Darker Than Yours by RivkaT (NC-17)
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Withheld
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] rivkat
Author Website: RivkaT's Site
Why this must be read:

I like the rec that I wrote for this story when it first came out, so I'm going to use it again. Your reaction to this one generally would go something like this....

Oooh, that’s hot. Hey. Wait. That’s the wrong pairi--*narrows eyes*--but!
Bruce! Eeeeeee, he knows! He knows!
Lex *warned* you, buddy.
But—but—Lex—and—what? Wait. No, what?
NOOOOOOOO! I don’t *believe* you, Rivka! *cries*
BATARANG YAY!
And then *stifled voice* and there, so you see how that happened, OMFG!

....this story has some twisted, explicit scenes, and you'll wince. There's also great sex, cool Bruce Wayne, Clark and Lex characterizations, deft handling of multiple p.o.v.'s and so much obsession and gamesmanship. Love this story muchly.

No Darker Than Yours
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04:26 pm A Better Fate Than Wisdom by Brigdh (R)
Fandom: YAMI NO MATSUEI
Pairing: Hisoka/Tsuzuki
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] wordsofastory
Author Website: nextdooruniverse
Why this must be read: Normally I'm a bit iffy about first person narrative, but Bridgh has safe hands; she loves Hisoka, but more importantly, she gets him. For all his (perfectly understandable) maladjustment, Hisoka truly tries to do his best by Tsuzuki, but sex is messy and they're both messed up, and intimacy's just not as easy to achieve as he might hope. Of course that makes the victories - awkward, unpracticed, and tender - all the better.

excerpt )

A Better Fate Than Wisdom
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05:48 pm 'Three-Way Switch' by Marian Mendez (PG)
Fandom: BLAKE'S 7
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] entropy_house
Author Website: links to her sites are here

Why this must be read:

This is a clever and funny look at what happens when rebels mistake Vila for Blake during a raid on a Federation outpost. As a result of the confusion, Blake is forced to masquerade as Avon and Avon as Vila. The results are hilarious. Grab a cup of coffee, sit down and enjoy this delightful one-shot, written for [livejournal.com profile] blakefancier's Blake fiacthon - but keep your wits about you, because you'll need them. Enjoy!

Three-Way Switch
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07:40 pm Cul-de-Sac by Ian McIntire (G)
Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing: None. Gen featuring Stark and Harvey, references to Stark/Zhaan
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] ianmcin
Author Website: Unknown
Why this must be read:

Because it's Stark! And Harvey! In John's Brain! Wait, you need more that that? Fine.

Last year's Stark-a-thon produced some of the very best Stark-centric fics ever written, around some pretty strange requests. On of these was [livejournal.com profile] neuralclone's desire to have Stark and Harvey interact. While this has been done before (in [livejournal.com profile] astrogirl2's brilliant A Meeting of Minds and [livejournal.com profile] kernezelda's deft remix of it, for example) Ian managed what no-one else has before - fit such an improbable meeting seamlessly into canon. Moreover he does it in such away that explains a great deal about Stark's slightly regained calm when he reappears in “La Bomba” and “Bad Timing”.

But I'm getting ahead of myself and giving the game away. If for no other reason, this has to be read because Ian takes two wonderful, multifaceted characters and plays them off of each other against the shifting surreal backdrop of John's mind, resulting in what is sometimes buddy movie, sometimes cat-and-mouse thriller, and sometimes just frelling odd. And to top it off, the dialog shines with Pygram and Goddard inspired intensity.

Please Stay )

Go dumpster diving, and give John nice dreams of feedback.

Cul-de-Sac
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11:13 pm Breaking Up is Hard to Do by Riley Cannon (NC-17)
Fandom: OZ
Pairing: Beecher/Keller
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] rileyc
Author Website: Riley Cannon's Fiction
Why this must be read:

June is almost over, and I realized I still had a couple of recs in reserve...

My last two recs are stories very much opposite of each another. One long, one short. One written in the middle of the whole "Oz" series; the other written after the full run, with the foreboding that comes with total knowledge of the horrors that play out.

The fic in this entry is -- according to the author's notes -- "post-You Bet Your Life, and totally AU with regard to the new season." It was written in the middle of Season 4, before a lot of pesky complications. When there was hope.

It has drama, humor (Nope, you couldn't pay for entertainment this good, Vern Schillinger was thinking as he sat in the cafeteria and watched the latest installment of "Days Of Our Prags" play out.), back story, introspection, an original character, and -- of course -- angst, love and sex.


Breaking up is Hard to Do
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11:15 pm There by Alinewrites (NC-17)
Fandom: OZ
Pairing: Beecher/Keller
Author on LJ: [livejournal.com profile] alinewrites
Author Website: Aline's Oz Fiction
Why this must be read:

Because it's filled with vitality and yearning and sex and darkness. It's hot and chilling at the same time.

There
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