Fandom: TRANSFORMERS
TF Continuity: G1
Pairing: none
Length: 2,727 words
Author on Deviantart: mythical-darkener
Author website: on FF.Net
Why this must be read:

For such a short story, Vaeru packs a heck of a punch! Early in the war, Jazz is captured, tortured, and interrogated. The description of what he goes through is chilling, and the way it is written only increases the impact. It also has one of my absolute FAVORITE ending lines ever.

Requiem

Fandom: STARGATE UNIVERSE
Pairing: Canon-level Young/TJ; mostly gen
Length: ~630 words
Author Warnings: None
Author on LJ: shena8
Author Website: Fic is on her LiveJournal and/or at Shenandoah Risu - FanFiction.net

Why this must be read:

Col. Young is a difficult character to like. These five brief, believable glimpses into his life do an excellent job of humanizing him.

Shenandoah Risu is an excellent writer, and it was hard to pick which story of hers to rec here. I recommend all her SGU fic as an intro to the fandom.

( It begins )

Five Times Colonel Young Had A Good Day

.

...And so I come to my last rec of the month. *tosses van keys to the lovely Callisto*

Fandom: THE PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
Length: 3252 words
Author on LJ: przed
Author Website: Zed fic.

Why this must be read:

When I started planning my recs for this month I couldn’t decide if I wanted to end with a work related story or with one centred on Bodie and Doyle’s relationship, so I decided to be greedy and do both. *g* Zed has a great sense of the lads, of how what’s not said between them is just as important as what is, of the partnership between them and of who these two men really are.

Sometimes, a typical day at the “office” can surprise you.

In the middle of a firefight his concentration was absolute and his blood sang with a wild joy. Times like those he'd catch Doyle's eye and they'd both grin and he'd know exactly what the silly sod was thinking. Times like those, they were unstoppable.

Stop and Start

.

Fandom: STARGATE UNIVERSE
Pairing: The author gives "Wray/Greer, Riley/Brody, hints at Young/Rush and Young/TJ"; I think I see a few others.
Length: ~2,000 words
Author Warnings: None
Author on LJ: nemo_r
Author Website: Fic is on her LiveJournal

Why this must be read:

I'm delighted to have found a story this good to share before I need to hand back the keys to the van. I'm going to hunker down with the rest of her oeuvre later.

The S1 episode "Divided" left the crew of Destiny in disarray, and while this was dealt with somewhat in canon, Nemo does an excellent job of filling in gaps and exploring some of the consequences of the mutiny.

I'm going to quote a bit from the middle of the story. ( My favorite part )

Frayed at the Edges

Fandom: TRANSFORMERS
TF Continuity: 2007
Pairing: none
Length: 4,259 words
Author on LJ: none found
Author website: on FF.Net
Why this must be read:

This story takes five stream-of-consciousness POVs and builds a nuanced picture of how the characters (Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Sam, Mikaella and Miles) deal. Each section shows the weaknesses and strengths of these characters in a way I have not seen before. The way each section segues into the next is absolutely seamless and draws you further in.

Not Okay

Fandom:  RUROUNI KENSHIN
Pairing:  Hiko/Okon/Omasu
Length:  12k
Author on LJ:  n/a
Author's Website:  AdultFanFiction.net
Why this is a must read:

I've had a lot of fun sharing some of my favorite RK authors and their fic this month.  Hopefully my mediocre reviews haven't scared anyone off from the wonderful stories themselves.

Anyway, since I started the month with Hiko, I decided it was fitting that I end the month with him as well.  Poor Hiko.  Up there on that mountain of his, all alone and unappreciated with nothing but an endless supply of sake and his pottery wheel for company.  Luckily for him, the two lovely ladies from the Aoiya decide to show him just how much they appreciated his help when he saved them from the Juppongatana.  What follows is threesome smut at its finest. 

"Hiko-san, you saved our lives," Okon said. "It's the least we could do. We are so grateful to you--if there's anything else we could do, anything at all..." She leaned in to emphasize her words, lips parted and cheeks flushed.

"Oh yes, " Omasu seconded. "Anything, Hiko-san." Her doe-like brown eyes rested on his lips as she spoke, and then began to travel down the rest of his body.

The Hiko Sandwich

Fandom: TRANSFORMERS
TF Continuity: G1
Pairing: none
Length: 8,067 words
Author on Deviantart: ariel-d
Author website: on FF.Net
Why this must be read:

Take this little gem as a salve to the previous captured/tortured!Jazz rec. It's a fun take on the fandom trope: what happens when you try to lock up saboteur Jazz?

Project Drive Megatron Insane

Fandom: STARSKY & HUTCH
Pairing: Starsky/Hutch
Length: 3066 words
Author on LJ: dalegardener
Author Website: Dale's fic can be found on her journal or at AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/users/Dale_Gardener
Why this must be read:

I confess I've been driving in a great big circle this month. We started with an angsty Bloodbath fic, and now another angsty Bloodbath fic is our last stop before the garage. Dale Gardener is a newer writer in our fandom, and I hope she sticks around for a long time. This fic is new, and I love its hurt Starsky and comforting Hutch, but I especially love the way Hutch seems even more hurt than his partner, more devastated by Starsky's experience, more haunted by things he can't say aloud. Starsky holds it together better -- for a while. Dark and creepy, but hey, it's Bloodbath.

Small Rituals

Last rec for the month from me boys and girls! I hope you had fun and that at least some of you enjoyed the recs *g*

Fandom: CW RPF
Pairing: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki
Length: 29k
Author on LJ: hils
Summary: Jared wishes he had the life of Sam and Dean Winchester but unfortunately they are fictional characters in a series of books. Instead he's stuck working at the library with only his imagination for company. When he breaks his leg in an accident his life goes from mundane to just plain boring, until he finds himself in possession of a computer. Pretty soon he's fully immersed in the crazy world of Supernatural fandom. It's just lucky for him he has resident BNF Jensen to hold his hand through it all. Now if they could just get over the fact that Jared thinks Jensen is a girl everything would be awesome.

Why this must be read: I so totally love fandom stories! Not stories where the boys find out about slash (even though those can fun be at times), but stories where the boys are fans themselves (oh wait, have I rambled about this before? Oh yeah, I did, ops?) and they manage to be part of fandom, any fandom! This hits a little closer to Supernatural than any other story I've ever seen and they are SO DAMN CUTE! I can't help but feel sympathetic towards Jared as well, cause am all laid up right now with a broken leg, on a 3 month medical leave from work and am trying to fill my days with LJ and fiction *g* Also this story boasts a wonderful twist and some breathtaking "description" of the Supernatural novels that Jared is reading. Those made me tear up more than the actual episodes did.

Read that And There's That Pesky Thing Called Reality

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: None
Length: 63 k
Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website: www.ysone.com
Why this must be read: Okay so I know it's a bit of a cliche that Blair was poor as a church mouse and that's why he was living in that warehouse in The Debt, but this story was written some time ago before there were quite so many "Blair as poor as a churchmouse" stories out there and I love this one. Jim's somewhat "out of his depth" attempts at being a good a Samaritan against his actual wishes is amusing and heartwarming. The scene where he cleans up Blair's kitchen and then goes shopping for him always makes me smile because it's just so Jim.It's a lovely sweet story about their gradually developing friendship.





Samaritan

Fandom: BANDOM
Pairing: Gerard/Frank, Brian/Greta, Brendon/Ryan, Spencer/Jon
Length: 227,460 words in total
Author on LJ: harriet_vane
Author Website: Fic journal sticky post
Why this must be read:

The one that starts with Brian adopting 14-year-old Gerard and his 11-year-old brother Mikey, hiring Brendon the college student to look after them during the first summer, and ends with Gerard's first year in college and Pretty; Odd's first tour.

I was quite suprised when I found that this hasn't been recced here before. It's a well-deserved classic, both in the MCR and in the Panic parts of the fandom. It's a series of stories about belonging and love and family. About change and growth, where people's backstories matter, where change takes time, and things don't magically get better overnight just because we want them to.

Everything about it is excellent, the setting and plot and atmosphere, the characterisations and the dialogue. It's funny and serious and heartbreaking and thoughtful, and absolutely awesome. If you haven't read this yet you should run and do so now!

( Excerpt from the story... )

Forever, Now (77,320 words)
Star Shaped + Coda 1, Coda 2, Coda 3 (61,950 words)
Best Days (7,710 words)
The Lines You Amend (80,480 words)


This was my last rec for crack_van this month. I hope you've managed to find something worth reading among the stories I've recced.

I realized that I didn't have any Decepticon-centric fic yet this go-around, so I dug up this lovely fic.

Fandom: TRANSFORMERS
TF Continuity: G1
Pairing: Soundwave/Starscream
Length: 30,616 words
Author on LJ: katsukofic
Author website: on FF.Net
Why this must be read:

Some years back, a "28" meme started up in the TF fandom, and was the direct source of a LOT of really excellent short fics. Each part does not have to be connected to the previous one, and in typical TF multiverse madness, they don't have to be in the same continuity either... This one is the Soundwave/Starscream collection. I especially love #5 Naughty, #9 Dancing, #12 Caring, #15 Exhausted, #16 Playing with Kids--well, you get the idea. Each "chapter" pretty much stands alone, some tie into each other, some refer to other work by the same author, but each short fic is worth a read.

Need You Want You Hate You Love You

Fandom: DOCTOR WHO
Pairing: Doctor/Master (Eleven/OC!Master)
Length: 2,200 words
Author on LJ: tabula_x_rasa
Author Website: Dreamwidth journal
Why this must be read:

Problem: you're a Doctor/Master shipper, and you love the Eleventh Doctor. But Eleven hasn't had a Master to interact with yet, and there's no telling when that might happen, or who will be playing him, or whether he'll still be devouring entire turkeys. (Okay, actually, I think everyone's agreed that we don't need a repeat of that last. But the other two points stand.)

Here we have a delightful little romp with Eleven, Amy, Rory, and an OC!Master. There's banter, and flirting, and shoutouts to Classic Who. All the voices are great, and everyone (with the exception of the guy holding the Doctor hostage) has a good time. Especially the reader.

( He beamed. He couldn't help it, really. Trust the Master to escape the inescapable— he always had before (the Doctor, quite frankly, depended on it). He was all in black, of course, with black hair and he'd gotten back a rubbish little goatee he was probably terribly proud of, bless. )

And Other Things That Never Happened

Fandom: TRANSFORMERS
TF Continuity: G1
Pairing: none
Length: 5,783 words
Author on LJ: h_m_huskies
Author website: on FF.Net
Why this must be read:

Optimus gets a tank full of diesel and needs someone to drive back to base. On the way, Cyberwulf paints a lovely friendship between Sparkplug and Optimus Prime.

Tanked

Fandom: SUPERNATURAL
Pairing: gen
Warnings: Reference to sexual assault, childbirth complications.
Length: 1,225 words
Author on LJ: apocalypsos
Author Website:
Why this must be read:

So, God. What is his/her deal? How much is s/he to blame for everything that’s happened, and why would s/he put everyone through all that? apocalypsos offers a sad yet hopeful answer with this look at the wayward deity and his/her attempts at being human. Lest that sound too heavy, I should point out that it’s also very funny. Take God’s foray into piracy:

Pedro was a pirate. He drank and wenched and stole. He sinned like he was working his way up to stealing Lucifer's seat in Hell. He broke every rule put in front of him and even a few he made up for himself.

He quite enjoyed being Pedro, all of the sinning notwithstanding.

Unfortunately, the sinning was what got him in the end. He did quite well at veiling himself for one short human lifetime, just long enough for a bit of a break, but all of the sinning called for a trip somewhere other than Heaven. The one who came to claim him nearly pissed herself in fear when she recognized him.

Next time, he would simply have to hide better.

“Curtain”

Fandom: WHITE COLLAR
Pairing: Gen, or Peter/Neal pre-slash
Length:
Author on LJ: nightcamedown
Author Website:
Why this must be read:

This is a charming pre-canon fic in three parts, set during Peter’s three-year pursuit of Neal. It’s funny as hell, and best of all, given canon it’s totally plausible. Even this bit:

"Still on desk duty?"

"Three more weeks," Peter said.

"One more week," Neal said, "and I know you know I would know that."

The grin was sharp in Peter's voice. "I'm no good with dates."

"Uh huh. And how was your stay at Ospedale Niguarda?"

"The first day was a little awkward," Peter said calmly. "The nursing staff was under the impression that I had broken my leg while attempting an extremely unorthodox sexual position with my art student boyfriend."

Neal gasped. "Why on earth would they think that?"

"I believe it's because that's what you told them."

“Just Someone In A Summer Town”

Hello, everybody! My name is jerico_cacaw, and I'll be your Criminal Minds' driver during October. It's been a while since this particular van was seen here and there's a lot to share; I plan to favor series and authors with many great fics, so following the links to the authors' archives is strongly encouraged :).

Fandom: CRIMINAL MINDS
Pairing: Team!fic, mostly gen
Length: ~41,000
Author on LJ: amichevole
Author Website: Fic masterpost on LJ
Why this must be read:

amichevole, aka tfm aka the friendly murderer is a talented writer with a knack for (among other things) AUs ... which brings us to the Zombie Cantos series. Every fandom needs a good End of the World fic and, as everybody knows, zombies make everything better (as long as they remain fictional). In these stories, amichevole manages to keep the characters IC and to show each of them evolving accordingly to both their circumstances and their canon personalities. She's not afraid of killing the good guys (which is code to Warning! Main characters die!), but doesn't do it gratuitously, and as all other events, they impact the survivors' behavior.

What The Thunder Said <-- The fic that started it all
The series' master post <-- The whole series, in chronological order

The first story is safe (deathofmaincharacter!free), so give it a try even if you don't plan to read the rest. Remember to read amichevole's other stories! Even if you are not into zombies, you'll surely find something of your liking in her masterpost.

Fandom: SUPERNATURAL
Pairing: Sam/Dean, ref to Dean/Lisa
Length: 3k words
Author on LJ: giddygeek
Author Website: http://www.anyroad.org/geekdom/
Why this must be read:

So in some ways, this story has been Jossed Kripked Gambled to hell. In other ways, not so much. giddygeek’s version of Sam and Dean's reunion has the same off-kilter feeling, the creeping sense of wrongness, that pervaded the season six premiere, as well as the idea of Dean’s life with the Braedens as a spot of light surrounded by hungry shadows.

The wind dies down. The light stays broken. Dean goes inside, sits down at the kitchen counter with Ben, drinks a beer, and eats some cookies. At Lisa's house, there are always cookies.

"Come to bed," she says, when Ben's gone off to sleep and the house is settling quietly around them. "It's late, Dean."

"Yeah," he says. He takes her hand, pulls her close to kiss her, feel her heart beating against his chest and her soft hair against his cheek. "Yeah, okay," and they go up the stairs to her room, where it's quiet and dark, and always warm.

“Fairweather Home”

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Length: 20k
Author on LJ: dessert_first
Author Website: Fic Masterlist
Why this must be read:

Well, folks, this is my last rec. It's been a pleasure, and I hope I've made up at least partially for my pun-happy introduction. *g*

This fic does so much well. For one thing, I love it when characters take a shot in the dark and make the Big Confession when they have no idea how it'll pan out, so the first line of this fic had me instantly invested.

Also, I really admire the way dessert_first wrote this. She manages to balance Ray's desperation and determination while keeping the narration simple and unsentimental. I think that's impressive in a fic that could have turned maudlin fast. Instead, it maintains a believable tone and dialogue that shows Ray Kowalski at his most stubbornly courageous.

A beautiful fic, and a great note to end the month on!


( Excerpt )


Again, This Time

Fandom: WHITE COLLAR
Pairing: Neal/Peter/Elizabeth
Length: seven chapters
Warnings: Brief mentions of child abuse.
Author on LJ: sam_storyteller
Author Website: copperbadge
Why this must be read:

This is a fantastic long fic that covers all of season one, recasting canon and slipping in missing scenes to show how Peter, Neal, and El could fall in love and make it work. Plus, sam_storyteller takes the D/s, power-play subtext of the show (hi, one of the main characters wears a collar tracking anklet and spends a fair amount of time in handcuffs) and runs with it like whoa.

Exquisite

---

This is laughingacademy signing off as the debut reccer for White Collar. I’m sorry I never got around to posting a fandon overview, but Jesus, did you see the size of the one I did for Supernatural? My fingers are sore and my head hurts.