Fandom: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Pairing: Mark/Eduardo
Length: 70,000 words
Author on LJ: hapakitsune
Author Website: At AO3
Why this must be read: TSN writers keep finding new and exciting ways to reconcile Mark and Eduardo following the depositions and this one had Woke Up Married, after a wild night in Vegas, leaving everyone to deal with the fallout.

Chris is worried about an ulcer, Dustin is rooting for those crazy kids, Eduardo is freaking out and Mark is... strangely OK with it all...

"I don't hate anyone, least of all Wardo," Mark says. They all turn to stare at him. "What?"

"That's great, Mark," Chris says. "But it's not really the point. I don't actually care how you two feel about each other right now, I'm more concerned with how people think you feel about each other."

"You don't care? I care." Dustin pats Eduardo's shoulder. "I am a loving and open person and I want you to know that I am pulling for you crazy kids."

"Shut up, Dustin," Chris and Eduardo say in unison and Mark says, "I appreciate your support, Dustin."

Also, there's a wonderful portrayal of their families, especially Eduardo's Mãe.

Eduardo flags down a passing waiter and says, "Coffee, please. And maybe a gun so I can speed the inevitable along."

"Sure thing, sir," the waiter says cheerily. "Would you like decaf or regular?"

Fandom: INCEPTION
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Length: ~ 15,500 words
Author on LJ: linckia_blue (Fee/enjambament)
Author Website: Master List of Fic on LJ
Why this must be read: We've all considered the possibility that the events of the movie were a dream, but what if you woke up one day to find out that ten years of your life had been a dream? That's what happens to Arthur.

When he wakes up, he's 19 again. Still. He's been in the dream - a military experiment - for about 24 hours, but what a difference a day can make, and though his body's 19, his mind is closer to 30, with all the experience and knowledge that comes with time.

Arthur's first goal is to figure out if any of the dream was real - did the people he knew even exist? So he sets out to find Cobb, Ariadne, Eames, and answers. It's not an easy quest, especially since the people responsible for the experiment never intended on letting him, or any of the group, leave with their memories intact. But Arthur has to try if there's any chance Eames is real and alive, especially since Arthur died in Eames' arms and the last thing he said to Eames was in anger.

Not only does this story have a brilliant premise, but it delivers plot, action, and character development while juxtaposing the remembered world of the dream against Arthur's new reality. People often remark, "if I knew then what I know now" - Arthur has that opportunity, but has he lost more than he's gained?

( Arthur woke up and he knew that it had all been a dream. )

On Livejournal: In Our Line of Work

Also available as a podcast: In Our Line of Work (podcast) - read by podcath and crinklysolution

It doesn't matter how old or new a story is, authors love feedback!

The only rule I set for myself this month while doing recs is to limit myself to one story per author ... which is harder than it might seem given how many of these writers are not only good writers, but highly prolific. Be sure to check out their websites and fic lists if you like what they write.

Fandom: INCEPTION
Pairing: Arthur/Eames, Ariadne/Saito
Length: ~ 31,404 words
Author on LJ: eleveninches
Author Website: Master List of Fic on LJ; Fics on A03
Why this must be read: Much like the last rec, this story has the team participating in an experiment that plays out the events of the film. However, in this one, their participation is voluntary; most of them are grad students or profs affiliated with universities and they've joined a team put together by Robert Fischer for an inter-university challenge to learn about inception. Except Fischer's reasons aren't as academically upright as he's led the team to believe, and everything starts to unravel when Fischer goes missing.

Thus begins an adventure of epic proportions. Someone's trying to kill the members of the team and Arthur is forced to run. Now, Arthur knows he's just a grad student and not really a precise and lethal point man, but he doesn't consider how the others might have changed themselves until he finds an Eames that isn't quite how he remembers.

This story's a mostly-fun romp, and it's hilarious to see the characters we know, as real people with quirks and insecurities, who aren't criminals or action heroes or anything other than ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary situation. What this story does is challenge assumptions about who we are and how we want to be seen by others. Are the characters' dream selves really all that different from their real selves deep down? And ultimately, how much do those differences really matter?

( It had taken ten hours and six dream levels to get Dominic Cobb to give up how to perform inception. )

On AO3: Crime and Medicine

It doesn't matter how old or new a story is, authors love feedback!

Fandom: Musical Theater / The Last Five Years
Pairing: Jamie / various OFCs
Length: ~1K words
Author on LJ: seekingferret
Author Website: At AO3

Why this must be read: I haven't seen a lot of L5Y fic out there, but if there were to be a full-fledged fandom, I imagine there would be quite a lot of angst, with maybe some "Goodbye Until Tomorrow" fluff mixed in. This fic is neither of those things. It's a quicky, funny look at Jamie's utter lack of success having "Shabbos dinners on Friday nights / with every Shapiro in Washington Heights." You can imagine why he's been waiting for someone like Cathy, with dates like these.

( Jessica Shapiro looks like all the rest. )

Jamie and Every Shapiro in Washington Heights (And One Shiksa Goddess)

Fandom: WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE
Pairing: Harper/Alex
Length: 2.708 words
Author on LJ: amathela
Author Website: none
Why this must be read:

It's time for another bit of femslash. In this fic Alex tries not to use magic for one day and this is a lot harder than she thought. Thankfully Harper is there to help and to remind her that she doesn't need magic. Even if it would make the school field trip more fun and maybe less dramatic...

Alex and Harper are... cute in this fic. Really, there is no other word for them. It's a fluffy, sweet fic about their friendship which transforms into more without big drama. The dialogue is similar to the ones in the show and the writing style is purely and simple like the relationship of these two. :-)

Amusement Shark Rides (LJ)
--> Alex tries not to use magic. And fails.

Fandom: Wilby Wonderful
Pairing: Duck/Buddy (pre-movie)
Length: 1275 words
Author on LJ: helens78
Author website:AO3

Why this must be read:

It's about eight degrees Fahrenheit here in Wyoming, and this story warms me from the inside out, both because of the searing descriptions of a hot summery Wilby day, and because of the scorching erotica.  There's also a certain satisfaction in seeing Duck completely undone, like whumpage with intense sexual gratification instead of actual whumpage.

Looking Without Looking

The same figure who's been dressed in white is currently jacking up the YnM van, which has hit a pothole and lost a wheel.

Sorry for the sudden silence after that orgy of posting: the hackers who've been attacking LJ recently nearly ran the van off the road. Not to worry: I know someone who could use a few test subjects for his experiments.

Fandom: YAMI NO MATSUEI
Pairing: Muraki/Tsuzuki (non-con)
Length: 5,115
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Author page on FF.N

Why this must be read: Speaking of experiments... this has to be one of the most *sick* Muraki/Tsuzuki fics I have ever read. Usually, I don't go for much in the way of gore, but this one captured Muraki's twisted personality so well, it broke past my inhibitions. Written as if it might be a cut scene from near the climax of the Kyoto Files arc, it shows us just what Muraki might have been up to, after he kidnapped Tsuzuki and held him hostage for seventy-two hours in that sub-basement lab beneath Shion University. There's a gleefulness to the gruesomeness, and that's utterly befitting Muraki's tendency toward morbid humor.



In_Vivo

Fandom: BIG TIME RUSH
Pairing: James/Logan
Length: ~3,700
Author on LJ: geenoway
Author Website: AO3 profile
Why this must be read: I won't lie, James/Logan is a particular favorite pairing of mine. There's an episode in the first season where Logan explains that he's never asked a girl out, but has been out on double dates James arranged for them. Building off that detail, this fic shows us those dates, using them as a framework for the developing relationship between the boys. It's a very natural progression, both as a friendship and a relationship, and a great look into how the boys grow together.

( excerpt )

Sticky Dating Situations

Fandom: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Pairing: Mark/Eduardo
Length: 22,000 words
Author on LJ: vaingirlfic
Author Website: At AO3
Why this must be read: An AU fic, and the first fic I've recced this month which is less than all sweetness and light.

This one is an AU where Mark is Mark but Eduardo never went to Harvard due to his abusive upbringing, where his father pimped him out for business deals. (Warning for non-explicit, underage rape references.)

Eduardo is understandably rather messed up, but Mark, not, perhaps a bastion of mental health himself, doesn't really mind. I think I would, personally mind a little if even someone as hot as Eduardo got me put in jail, but not Mark. Not really...

“I know this doesn't really register with you most of the time, but I'm a crazy person, Mark. Normal people wouldn't put up with me.”

“That's not true,” he says, though not as emphatically as he meant to.

“No, you're right. Everyone is easily infatuated by some dude that got them sent to prison—”

“Only for a few hours, and it wasn't even prison, just the police station, it was no big deal!” Mark interrupts indignantly

The fic is beautifully crafted, with the creeping horror of Eduardo's upbringing carefully expressed, and the mess that it left Eduardo not flinched from, but showing a slow recovery with Mark's stalkinghelp (and his mom's). And there's what the author jokingly calls inappropriate humour, but I call just enough to make this a perfectly balanced fic.

The boy's never been good for much...