Fandom: WHITE COLLAR
Pairing: Neal/Peter/Elizabeth, reference to Neal/Kate
Length: 546 words
Author on LJ: travels_in_time
Author Website: unknown
Why this must be read:

Hello! It's me, laughingacademy, and I'm thrilled to be the first person to take the wheel of the crack_van for the White Collar fandom. I will do my best to drive it like I stole it.

I'm not going to post my overview until next Wednesday at the earliest, because I expect at least one big revelation and/or twist in the mid-season finale (which will air at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, September 6), but in the meantime, why not start reccing stories? So here's one of the first fics I read in this fandom. All you need to know is:

1. Neal Caffrey is a charming and gifted con artist and forger (among other things).
   
2. Peter Burke is the smart, good-hearted FBI agent who put Neal in prison.
   
3. Peter is married to Elizabeth, and they are arguably the best husband-and-wife on TV since Firefly was cancelled.
   
4. Neal sent Peter birthday cards from prison.

Neal's motives for mailing the cards are never spelled out on the show, which gave travels_in_time the space to create this touching and plausible arc for him.

The third year there's no anger left, just weariness. The time seems endless, days blending into each other without variation. Orange and beige and bad food and miserable bunks, and even the dreams that he's been holding on to, of a future with Kate, have gone vague and colorless. There's life out there, he knows there is, but nothing seems real anymore. And if it doesn't seem real to him, then what guarantee does he have that he is real to anyone else? There's one person who knew him, one person who always saw him clearly, but it's been years, and no doubt he's been busy chasing other mavericks who've offended his over-developed sense of justice.

Don't forget about me, is what the third card means.

Communication

Hi, I'm innocentsmith, and I'll be driving the Crack Van (Crack TARDIS? Crack canary yellow roadster?) for Doctor Who this month. I'll be focusing mostly on Doctor/Master stories from several eras; I tend to like fic with lots of twists and turns, companions being awesome, and angst that's leavened with cracky fun. Let's get underway with a little old school Who...

Fandom: DOCTOR WHO
Pairing: Doctor/Master (Three/Delgado!Master)
Length: 6811 and 2095 words, respectively
Author on LJ: x_los
Author Website: x_losfic
Why this must be read:

Most people, finding themselves trapped in a Groundhog Day-style time loop, would waste time being alarmed and gradually humbled by the unfathomable mystery of existence. Most people, however, are not renegade Time Lords: Delgado!Master just gets progressively more exasperated and creative.

( The Doctor caught the Master digging a pungee pit outside the window of his lab. )

Killing the Groundhog: A Controlled Outcome and its coda, Civil as an Orange

Fandom: SUPERNATURAL
Pairing: gen
Length: 2,660 words
Author on LJ: dsudis
Author Website:
Why this must be read:

Hi, it's laughingacademy. Yes, again -- through a vagary of scheduling, I will be posting recs for both White Collar and Supernatural (which I have covered before) this month. Pray for me.

This time around, I'm opening with an older story (c. 2007) by an author who hasn't been recced much at crack_van in this fandom. That's a pity, because dsudis has a knack for putting an interesting new slant on SPN canon, and finding unexpected pockets of peace and joy. Take this story, in which Dean finds himself re-examining all those times he got stuck looking after his little brother when he was sick: "So you puked on me in the car and that was, what, some kind of subconscious judo nurturing thing?"

Yes, Dean. Yes it was.

Contagious

Someone just handed me the keys to the Sentinel Crack Van and told me to take her out for a spin. I'm a nervous first time driver so bear with me while I work out where all the gears and pedals are. I wanted to start out with a story that always gives me a combination of goosebumps and warm fuzzies so...



Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: NONE
Length: Two parts linked from the author's index page.
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: How To Warm Up A Slightly Damp guppy
Why this must be read:

This is one of the very first stories I read in this fandom and I go back to it often. We get to see a Jim who's out of his depth, and almost as much a victim of Blair's panic and despair as Blair is. He's forced to call on a bemused Simon Banks for help and I liked that it's Simon that Blair trusts enough to finally allow in and respond to. There's a lovely mixture of angst and humor that blends well and isn't jarring when going from one to the other.

And now I'm going to hope like hell I got this right and line up my next rec.

Hello! Am Helen and I'll be driving this month's Impala van for CW RPF! I mostly read J2, Jensen/Jeff and Jensen/Misha, so expect lots of that :) I like my stories long, with plot, lots of porn if possible and quite often AU *g*

Fandom: CW RPF
Pairing: Jensen Ackles/Jeffrey Dean Morgan, various others
Length: 106k
Author on LJ: epeeblade
Author Website: Fanfic by epeeblade
Why this must be read: This is a sci-fi BDSM fic. How do you mix those two? Well apparently if you are epeeblade, the mix is pretty damn good! Read this story for the exceptionally well done sci-fi. For the amazingly hot sex. For the wonderful pairing that is Jensen/Jeff. For the tastefully written BDSM. The romance and did I mention the amazing sci-fi?

A small summary: Hundreds of years in the future, in a galaxy torn apart by war, Commander Jeffrey Dean Morgan must team up with Lt. Jensen Ackles to rescue two lost soldiers on a planet with a society based around BDSM (bondage, domination, submission, sado-masochism). Jensen, who specializes in sexual espionage, must go undercover as Jeff's sexual submissive to prove that Jeff is a Master worthy of bringing the captive troops home. In a city made up of alien technology so advanced it's like magic they discover not everything is what it seems, including their own mission. The citizens of planet 328 have their own politics and and their own secrets. And just how far will Jeff and Jensen have to go to appease their own military, who is far more interested in the technology than in rescuing the missing men? Somehow, they must also deal with their attraction for each other and decide which is more important: duty or love.

Special Note: Although this story can stand alone, it is part of the Sex Corps series of fic. If you are interested, please check the Sex Corps Verse Master Post. This takes place immediately after "Seven Days to the Wolves." This story has a rather large number of warnings, please read them. Am a rather squearmish person, but I've read this story more than a couple of times.

Meadows of Heaven

Hi, I'm Evil Jacquie and I'll be steering the van for Mag 7 this month. I am a confirmed C/B fan but I will try to give you a little bit of everything. Heck, there might even be some gen and C/V in here somewhere. I hope you'll enjoy the scenic route.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

Pairings Chris/Buck

Length less than 10k

Author on LJ Not as far as I know

Author Archive Drinking n Fighting

Why this must be read: The wonderful way the author brings the boys together. Charlotte is a true C/B writer and she has written a lot of stories that “explain” how Buck and Chris got together, but this one is one of my favorites. She captures the voices of Chris, Buck, Vin, and Josiah exceptionally well in this shortish story and the actually getting together is sweetness itself.


Reconciliation

Hi everyone! I'm turlough and I'm driving the crack_van for bandom this month. I'm a complete MCR fangirl so most of the stories that I'll rec will be centered around that band.

Fandom: BANDOM
Pairing: Frank/Gerard
Length: 107,060 words
Author on LJ: novembersmith
Author Website: Master Post of Fic & on AO3
Why this must be read:

When his family moves to a small town in Vermont Gerard's life takes a strange turn. Also includes: unexpected nature walks, murder, pining, improper treatment of crime scenes, a number of bone-related puns, high school bullies, and a short-range shrub named Ferdinand.

This is an absolutely wonderful cross between a high school AU and a ghost story. It's the kind of story that leaves me flailing helplessly, lacking words to express how much I loved it and how good it was. The characterisations and the dialogue and the atmosphere are just fantastic and I love the way novembersmith makes the forest such a real and tangible place. This Gerard is one of the best teenaged Gerard I've ever read, everything about him rings so true: how open he is emotionally, his spontaneity and enthusiasm, and his love of Mikey.

I think this is one of the best stories from this year's Big Bang and also one of the best stories that's ever been written in the fandom.

( Excerpt from the story... )

The Anatomy of a Fall (or here)

(...Okay, So It's The Same Galaxy, A Couple Years Off - or here - is a delightful little ficlet that takes place a few years after The Anatomy of a Fall)