Fandom: GOOD OMENS
Pairing: Pestilence and Pollution (gen. Ish.)
Length: One-shot
Author on LJ: lady_oneiros
Author Website: her LJ

Why this must be read:

GO's Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse are fairly popular characters, but it's hard to write them well. This story takes one of the weirdest, least explicable—but potentially most interesting—throwaway lines in GO, the idea of Pestilence going into retirement and being replaced by Pollution (possibly because Gaiman and Pratchett didn't want to have to make AIDS jokes), and gets a story of a protégé/mentor relationship out of it. Slimy and sinister, and yet you can admire the artistry involved: especially compelling is Pestilence’s ego, the suggestion that all the Horsepersons vie for primacy in their own ways and each might have a ground to claim it in his or her own mind. I do believe Pollution is both impressed and a little frightened by such revelations.

One reason I think this story works so well is that the author is a student of microbiology, and has thought through Pestilence’s psychology of disease in unnerving detail, clearly enjoying integrating the workings of research institutions and the mutations of viruses into the story. It’s a bit more actual science fiction than is usual, and that makes it very convincing; but it’s quite accessible to anyone. (I like her note at the end explaining her gross little bacterial injokes, too.) Once you've read this, check out its companion piece As Forlorn Hope (R)

Antigen

Fandom: MARVEL COMICS
Pairing: Jean Grey/Wanda Maximoff (Marvel Girl/Scarlet Witch)
Length: ~1500
Author on LJ: sheepfairy
Author Website: Sheepfairy's Delicious Page
Why this must be read:

The X-Men:First Class series helped create a surge in popularity for this femslash pairing, and Take Your Chances is one of my favorite examples. sheepfairy's Wanda is a wonderful point-of-view character. She's sweet, conscientious, well-mannered, and shy, which makes her courage in declaring her love for her best friend all the more touching. Also, as a bonus, we get bitchy Pietro Maximoff, which is always a selling point.

Excerpt:

The movie was probably pretty good, but it still wasn't enough to distract Wanda from her Jean-centered thoughts. Calling Jean for the first time might have been one of the best decisions in her life, but there was a good chance that she'd ruin it by pushing too much. And then it would be back to just Pietro and her, all the time. Then again, there was also a good chance that she would eventually go crazy if she didn't try to push it further. Not-noticing didn't seem to working out too well. And Jean would figure it out eventually anyway. A very polite telepath with a good understanding of personal boundaries was still a telepath, and Wanda had never even been very good at hiding things from normal people.

Read the whole story here:

Take Your Chances

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: none, gen
Length: 36 KB
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: at Starfox's Mansion. Click on "Fanfic", then "DCStreets" to get the index list of her fic
Why this must be read:

This is one of those stories that has haunted me from the day I read it. Jim's been at a conference for a week, and he returns home to find Blair... completely unstrung. Seems Blair thinks Jim's dead. Of course, as is often the case with our boys, it's slightly more complicated than that. Jim is simultaneously warmed and terrified by Blair's complete disintegration in the face of his supposed death, and there's some lovely tender moments while he tries to help Blair regain his equilibrium and get to the bottom of what's going on.

I think one of the things I like the most about this is that you never do really get the whole story about what happened. I just love stories like that, that explain enough to satisfy you but leave enough bits hanging that you're intrigued. It's not a cliffhanger, or a WiP or anything; the author said she was going to write the story from Blair's POV but unfortunately, as far as I know she isn't writing in the fandom anymore. So you'll just have to make up your own explanations.

( Excerpt )

Rampage