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crack_van2013-06-26 03:26 pm
stars-inthe-sky.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2013-06-26 03:26 pm
Entry tags:
"It's All Your State of Mind" by Panache (T)
Fandom: Parks and Recreation
Pairing: Leslie Knope/Ben Wyatt
Length: 5,623 words
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: FFN
Why this must be read: In a great example of "what could've been," this fic considers Ben's media meltdown as a potentially viral video, complete with personal fallout...and a response that only Leslie Knope could engineer. Bonus points for "Dunk a State Auditor" and probably the best context one could imagine for the line, "Leslie Knope. Don't tell me you're not ready to talk solutions?"
Thanks to Leslie, Ben manages to laugh at himself for the first time in seventeen years. Not the half-hearted, awkward laugh of the outsider trying to play along, to fit in (and failing, always failing) but really and truly laugh.
It feels fantastic. Feels like the first day of spring; like carnival lights and kettle corn; like alcohol without the hangover. Feels like jumping off a cliff and discovering you can fly.
For forty-eight hours.
For exactly forty-eight hours Ben Wyatt, professional misanthrope, believes magic is possible.
And then the inevitable happens and he crashes to the ground.
Someone's uploaded the video of his on-air breakdown to YouTube™ and because that's just how his life works . . . it goes viral.
Totally viral.
Epically viral.
Cindy-Eckert-left-him-a-message-about-how-he's-ruining-her-life-all-over-again-and-he's-pretty-sure-he'll-be-featured-tomorrow-on-every-local-morning-show-around-the-country viral.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ben Wyatt. National Joke.
Chris is understandably upset. And he starts talking about Ben taking time for himself, needing to recharge his batteries, which is Chris-speak for 'I might have to suspend you for a time.' For all his cartoonish optimism and legendary softness, if there's one thing Chris Traeger understands it's image. (It's part of the reason they work so well together. Chris is serious about putting their best foot forward, and Ben respects him for it. Because loathe as Ben is to admit it, it's a necessary and useful talent he just doesn't have. See above re: National Joke).
For the first time in three years, Ben leaves work early.
He hates this town. Hates this crazy, messed up, Alta-Vista using hell-hole that tricked him into thinking his life had finally turned a corner, into reading the real-estate section first, and believing something like a corn-maze actually mattered. And really, who wants to live in a town that needs seven time-capsules, a fat coaster, and where the most popular radio show is called "Crazy Ira and the Douche"?
The answer comes in the form of Leslie's picture smiling up at him from the Metro section article on the Chamber of Commerce meeting that he's left open on the kitchen counter for two weeks straight. (It's not creepy and stalkerish if he just hasn't gotten around to throwing it away, right?)
He wants to live here.
He desperately, desperately wants to.
God, he needs a drink.
He's on his fourth beer and just finishing sitting through what might be the worst phone call with his parents ever (he almost asks whether they're going to ground him again . . . except yes, they probably would) when there's a knock on the door of his motel room.
And somehow he just knows who it's going to be.
Even her knock sounds cheery.
For a split second he contemplates ignoring her, just sitting here in the dark, drinking his beer in a completely non-pathetic . . .
Oh, who is he kidding?
He hasn't been able to ignore Leslie Knope since she informed him the Pawnee Municipal building has feelings.
It's All Your State of Mind
Pairing: Leslie Knope/Ben Wyatt
Length: 5,623 words
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: FFN
Why this must be read: In a great example of "what could've been," this fic considers Ben's media meltdown as a potentially viral video, complete with personal fallout...and a response that only Leslie Knope could engineer. Bonus points for "Dunk a State Auditor" and probably the best context one could imagine for the line, "Leslie Knope. Don't tell me you're not ready to talk solutions?"
Thanks to Leslie, Ben manages to laugh at himself for the first time in seventeen years. Not the half-hearted, awkward laugh of the outsider trying to play along, to fit in (and failing, always failing) but really and truly laugh.
It feels fantastic. Feels like the first day of spring; like carnival lights and kettle corn; like alcohol without the hangover. Feels like jumping off a cliff and discovering you can fly.
For forty-eight hours.
For exactly forty-eight hours Ben Wyatt, professional misanthrope, believes magic is possible.
And then the inevitable happens and he crashes to the ground.
Someone's uploaded the video of his on-air breakdown to YouTube™ and because that's just how his life works . . . it goes viral.
Totally viral.
Epically viral.
Cindy-Eckert-left-him-a-message-about-how-he's-ruining-her-life-all-over-again-and-he's-pretty-sure-he'll-be-featured-tomorrow-on-every-local-morning-show-around-the-country viral.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ben Wyatt. National Joke.
Chris is understandably upset. And he starts talking about Ben taking time for himself, needing to recharge his batteries, which is Chris-speak for 'I might have to suspend you for a time.' For all his cartoonish optimism and legendary softness, if there's one thing Chris Traeger understands it's image. (It's part of the reason they work so well together. Chris is serious about putting their best foot forward, and Ben respects him for it. Because loathe as Ben is to admit it, it's a necessary and useful talent he just doesn't have. See above re: National Joke).
For the first time in three years, Ben leaves work early.
He hates this town. Hates this crazy, messed up, Alta-Vista using hell-hole that tricked him into thinking his life had finally turned a corner, into reading the real-estate section first, and believing something like a corn-maze actually mattered. And really, who wants to live in a town that needs seven time-capsules, a fat coaster, and where the most popular radio show is called "Crazy Ira and the Douche"?
The answer comes in the form of Leslie's picture smiling up at him from the Metro section article on the Chamber of Commerce meeting that he's left open on the kitchen counter for two weeks straight. (It's not creepy and stalkerish if he just hasn't gotten around to throwing it away, right?)
He wants to live here.
He desperately, desperately wants to.
God, he needs a drink.
He's on his fourth beer and just finishing sitting through what might be the worst phone call with his parents ever (he almost asks whether they're going to ground him again . . . except yes, they probably would) when there's a knock on the door of his motel room.
And somehow he just knows who it's going to be.
Even her knock sounds cheery.
For a split second he contemplates ignoring her, just sitting here in the dark, drinking his beer in a completely non-pathetic . . .
Oh, who is he kidding?
He hasn't been able to ignore Leslie Knope since she informed him the Pawnee Municipal building has feelings.
It's All Your State of Mind