Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairing: Luke/Mara
Length: 2,461
Author on LJ: b_hallward
Author Website: My Fanfic
Why this must be read:

This author is a wonderful storyteller and she uses the ocean as a metaphor for Luke and Mara's relationship in this piece just brilliantly. I loved the quiet atmosphere, the complexity of the author's writing, and how true to Mara and Luke this fic is.

Life was rarely as simple as he wanted it to be, and Mara had a knack for forcing him to acknowledge that.

They both knew death, the gaping holes it left, the hard cold drop of abandonment as an old life was pulled to pieces in an instant (two bodies blackened and skeletal, huddled against the sand, the dome of the main house falling in on itself with a crack) and he knew she would risk her life for him without hesitation, but it didn't get twisted up inside her, fears magnified and distorted like a shadow thrown out across the floor, undermining her judgment.

The Slow Unfolding Science of Cosmology

Fandom: THE X-FILES
Pairing: Multiple (imagined)
Length: 5k
Author on LJ: laurajv for fic; also at Dreamwidth. 
Author Website: Devilmonkey, her personal archive, or her Gossamer author page
Why this must be read: "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (3x04) is widely regarded as one of the series' classic episodes - on everyone's top-ten list, included on the "eight essential episodes" DVD, and so forth. It also this little exchange between the title character (brilliantly played by Peter Boyle), a man cursed with death-related foresight, and one of Our Heroes:

Bruckman: You know, there are worse ways to go, but I can't think of a more undignified way than autoerotic asphyxiation.
Mulder: Why are you telling me that?
Bruckman: Look, forget I mentioned it. It's none of my business.

In the context of the episode, it's pretty clearly a throwaway line, a piece of morbid humor of the kind for which the show was famous. But that didn't stop fan writers from taking it as grist for angsty MSR, frequently using as impetus for Scully to "save" Mulder from his fate. This hardly abated after the writers confirmed in subsequent interviews that, yes, Bruckman was just messing with Mulder's head. What sets "Solo" apart is that, while treating as serious the implications of that exchange, it takes them as one aspect of Mulder's sexuality, which is in turn presented as one aspect of his character and psyche as a whole. The fic packs a huge punch into relatively few words, giving an efficiently telescopic view of Mulder's canon-based history, and the Mulder voice is spot on.


( excerpt )

Read the whole fic, also available at the Gossamer page linked above.

Fandom: WATCHMEN
Pairing: Dan Dreiberg/Laurie Juspeckyk
Length: ~1400 words
Author on LJ: anonymous contributor to the kinkmeme
Author Website: n/a
Why this must be read:

It’s smut, and really hot smut, but it also says a lot about Dan. It perfectly captures the insecurities that haunt Dan in canon; with Laurie, with his loneliness, with who he’s become without Nite Owl. It’s nice to see an exploration of these things in relation to Laurie’s re-entrance into Dan’s life. And the evocative writing and very hot sex scene certainly don’t hurt :)

Sitting across the table from her, he'd felt pinned, a bug on a specimen board, carefully flayed for her scrutiny. Torture, every minute of it; the wanting and the knowing-he-couldn't, while she chatted on, not oblivious so much as unconcerned. On the terrace outside, talking about that weirdo with the pain fetish - almost too close for comfort. Because all this - the anonymous nightly violence in the name of the greater good - was just a stand-in for their own darker desires which, given free reign, might uncomfortably mirror those of their own victims.

Hiding

It’s hosted on the kinkmeme and the comment limit is filled up on the post, but there is a thread for leaving feedback on older meme fics here. Feel free to leave feedback there, anonymous or otherwise!