Five Fics - the Must Re-Read Selection
Dec. 20th, 2018 10:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitewithfishyalumesse asked me on the Five Things Meme post for "Top 5 fanfics, any fandom. The kind you read over and over and they're always THAT GOOD." So you can blame her for this.
THE NUMBERING IS RANDOM, I CANNOT CHOOSE.
1. Title: Theft of Assets, Destruction of Property by Helenish
Fandom: Harry Potter
Author Summary: Surely it is a mistake to allow a single youthful indiscretion to cloud an already promising career.
Why I Love It: Neville Longbottom/Draco Malfoy I repeat, Neville Longbottom/Draco Malfoy, how is this a thing? How? how is it an amazing thing? How does it take the backwards attitudes of the wizarding world and run with them towards their ideas about sexual mores and the legal system? It's full of pining and people misunderstanding each other for legitimate reasons regarding culture and fear and shame and actually carefully addresses it and deal with the aftermath! The premise is that, in pureblood circles, virginity is a Big Deal, so when Draco happily loses his to Neville in his last year at Hogwarts, and Lucius finds out, Lucius launches a lawsuit against Neville for damages. AND MARRYING DRACO IS PART OF THE SETTLEMENT, which Draco accepts in order to get out of his father's horrible clutches. We see a fairly OOC Draco trying to figure out who he is and what his value is, and finding it again, and Neville quietly struggling with the idea that he's done something awful without meaning to to someone he cares deeply about, and both of them SEETHING WITH FEELINGS. It's great. You'll need to take occasional breaks.
2.Title: Blake's Corollary by pagination
Fandom: Batman, Nolanverse, Dark Knight Rises
Author Summary: If there are any two men less likely to share their toys than Bane and Bruce, John doesn't want to meet them. Also? John is not a toy, goddammit.
Why I Love It: I'm just going to include some of the tags here: nuns can be badass too, orphans are terrifying, John Blake is kind of a troll, Bruce has the emotional maturity of hand soap, when Bane is the sane one you know things are really bad, Barsad hates everything, Babs rules. This fic is awesome, because it takes the pretensions of the Nolanverse Batman and Bane relationship, and injects the impatient snark of John Robin Blake, who is simply trying to save Gotham, Bruce, you sack of crap, and watches the fireworks. It gives Blake's world a fully fleshed life - the orphans, the scary and hilarious nun who raised him, the costs of training with two of the most dangerous fighters alive, and the emotional costs of living in a city like Gotham. Gotham eats its children, and deciding to care about that in the face of the inevitable pain is where the absolute purity of Blake's spirit shines through - he will not permit himself to ignore it. He will not look away. He's magnificent, and a magnificent shit, and this fic manages to be plotty and pornful and full of wonderful asides to a broader world beyond the Batcave. Read it immediately.
3. Title: Thomas and the Society of Sentinels by Alex51324
Fandom: Downton Abbey, (and a fusion with some worldbuilding of The Sentinel, a tv series from 1996)
Author Summary: After being arrested for gross indecency with another male person, Thomas Barrow learns that he has a natural gift which will plunge him into a startlingly different society which exists in parallel with the one in which he has lived his life until now. He’s not entirely sure whether or not that’s a good thing…. Downton Abbey/Sentinel fusion. (If you are not familiar with the Sentinel, fear not: the note at the beginning of chapter 1 will fill you in on everything you need to know.) This story occurs in the same universe as my other Sentinel/Guide stories, but is intended to work as a standalone. Diverges from Downton Abbey cannon in series 3 (3x07 UK or 3x06 US)
Why I Love It: Thomas Barrow, in canon, is a weaselly little shit of a servant who works in a large household, who has a very dim view of humanity and a willingness to screw other people over to benefit himself. He truly believes that everyone is out to screw everyone else over, and the only difference is how well you can get away with it. He's also gay, and his relationships with men throughout the series generally reinforce his awful worldview that people, even people who are close to you and at risk of exposure themselves, will screw you over for their own sake. So, what happens when he's, by act of fate, plopped in amongst a bunch of people who are totally fine with his sexuality, are all kind and well adjusted and go out of their way to ensure the happiness of everyone who comes in contact with them? Who legitimately will bend over backwards to ensure that he's happy and will assume the best of him? He absolutely does not buy it one little bit and screws himself over in the process of trying to protect himself. This fic. THIS FIC! Is all about the process of beginning to trust, and how your past experiences mean you will view something totally differently than someone with different experiences, and also how utterly not obvious that is to the other person. If there ever was a fic about maladaptive coping mechanisms coming to bite you in the ass, and how to fix it, and where it can't be fixed, ever, not even a little, except for maybe when it can? this is that fic.
4. Title: Muckraker! by ORPHAN (not an orphan account, that's the author's name)
Fandom: Venom (film)
Author's Summary: After the probe crash, Eddie's getting his life back together. Sort of. So what if his new beat writing PR puff pieces for Silicon Valley startups isn't exactly glamorous? And so what if every time he closes his eyes, he dreams of the distant stars, and the bottom of a smooth black hole, one that used to be filled with teeth?
Why I Love It: Venom fandom is exploding, and I love it. I was in it for the comics, but this uses mostly movie canon and maybe a little bit of comics to flesh it out, and it's wonderful. It's from the sub-genre of "Eddie and Venom get together after the crash," and it gives a lot of good and loving space to Eddie pining for his lost symbiote and being a resolutely badass ruthlessly compassionate anticapitalist investigator while trying to put himself back together. He has support systems, a new job, and a relentless drive to show exactly how the rich and powerful are shutting their eyes to the harm they are doing to the vulnerable people of San Francisco.
This fic utterly NAILS the way Eddie was so focused on compassion and listening to marginalized people that he sometimes literally cannot relate to the average human, who's willing to ignore a little bit of suffering, just here and there, just because what can you do about it? But Eddie Brock would walk up to the Garden of Eden and punch God in the face for kicking two children out of their home. Also, the Venom symbiote is really, truly alien here, and there's some lovely focus on its recovery and their relationship and love and it is a fucking gift and you should read it immediately.
Edit - I feel like I should mention that the warnings on this fic are a little vague - the violence levels are pretty normal for the comics, which are slightly more detailed from the movie. If the movie was PG 13, this fic leans towards R. It's not dwelling on the suffering and pain, but there is one scene of deliberate torture, some passing animal harm, and some gleeful violence against white supremacist shitbags. And, ya know, people get eaten.
5. Title: King and Lionheart by thehoyden - FYI, this fic is AO3 locked and you need an account to read it. comment if you need an invite, I'm happy to share.
Fandom: Hockey RPF
Author's Summary: Sidney’s wedding day doesn’t go quite as he’d planned. When he’d bothered to imagine it at all, he’d thought of a nice June wedding in Nova Scotia, outdoors with the sun streaming down. He hadn’t imagined this hurried affair on the tarmac on a rainy and unseasonably cool day in early September, a month after his twenty-fifth birthday.
Why I Love It: They get married in the first scene. They get married in the first scene for immigration and hockey reasons and it's still a GLACIALLY SLOW SLOWBURN FIC. Oh, GOD, they are MARRIED and they don't speak the same LANGUAGE - stick a fork in me, I am D O N E. (this kink is bulletproof for me) Ugh, I love this fic so much. This is all about Sid, the boy who would do anything for hockey, and finding Geno, who feels the same way, and they don't know each other and can't speak the same language but they both have hockey in their hearts and it's beautiful and slow and there are no stupid misunderstandings at all, just the slow creation of a real relationship out of a fake marriage and I LOVE IT.
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Date: 2018-12-20 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 07:09 pm (UTC)Um. Maybe I should warn for canon-typical levels of violence? Or slightly more? If the movie was PG 13, this is def an R.
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Date: 2018-12-21 06:19 am (UTC)Oh, maybe? :O I personally don't really pay attention to violence warnings because I will happily dive into gorefests and I adore action sequences but maybe just to be safe?
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Date: 2018-12-21 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 07:05 pm (UTC)YES THE ENDING IS BELIEVABLY HAPPY. Change and growth and happy queer relationships!
That author basically only writes in stories in Downton Abbey that have happy things for Thomas Barrow that also admit he was a tool and needs to be kinder. Which, frankly, are the only kind of stories I read in DA - I care about literally no other characters.
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Date: 2018-12-20 07:29 pm (UTC)gonna open this fic Right Now and get started reading it Right Now, honestly, thank god for fandom
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Date: 2018-12-20 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 09:37 pm (UTC)I can not write a slowburn. I have never written a slowburn in my life and I bless those who can.
Thank you for pointing me in the direction of that Hockey RPF, though.
(I just wish somebody would write one about the MN Wild and not have magical MPreg in it. LOL)
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Date: 2018-12-20 10:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 11:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-21 12:20 am (UTC)If it makes you feel better, I read basically no fic about the Bruins bc when they are tagged, they are usually the villains
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Date: 2018-12-21 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-21 02:45 am (UTC)