the slowest snowflake

Time to cringe my way through the next snowflake_challenge.


Challenge #7: Promote/Rec/Sing the Praises of Yourself!

In RL, I may no longer be an active stage manager for the most part, but dangnabbit, I can still manage a stage excellently when called upon to do so.

I'm a very quick learner, and good at keeping buckets of info in my head at all times. This is part of what makes me a pretty good stage manager, and tends to be useful at work in general. It also comes in handy for trivia, as long as the trivia is related to things I actually find interesting and not, like, sports or popular music.

Switching over to fandom: well, I do genuinely like my own fics and vids? I mean, I very much write for myself at this point, so as long as I continue entertaining myself, it's just bonus awesomeness when other people enjoy it, too.

Reccing myself awkwardly:

Boden's Mate (X-Men/Inception, primarily Erik/Charles) is probably what I'm best known for, and I'm still really proud of it. Look, plot! I like plot.

she's the one that they call old whatsername (Star Trek Reboot, girl!Kirk/Spock) is my personal favorite thing I've ever written. And while I have next to nothing in common with Kirk in any incarnation, if you want to know how my brain works and what my internal narrator sounds like, that's the fic to read. (Or, um, any scenes narrated by Alex in the Boden's Mate 'verse, for that matter.)

In terms of vidding, The Hymn of Acxiom (MCU, Bucky) is my personal favorite vid. The lyrics are just so eerie and well-suited to the Winter Soldier.

I also think Die Young (Buffy, ensemble) is one of my better vids. Because, like -- that's it. That's the show.

And lastly, what the hell, I spent pretty much all of 2019 working on The Conspirator's Gift (X-Men, Charles/Erik), and if I can't rec my own obscure medieval mystery AU, who else will?

the continuing saga of snowflake

JUMPING RIGHT ON AHEAD with snowflake_challenge

Challenge #8: Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create.

Aw yeah, this is MUCH better than self-promoting. I'm just gonna dive into my AO3 bookmarks and pick out a few of the fics that I go back to reread over and over and over again. (I rarely bookmark, mostly because it doesn't usually occur to me and not because there shouldn't be lots of other excellent fics on this list, but if you want a super eclectic assortment of awesome fic in a wide variety of fandoms, this is what I've got.)

Um, clearly good characterization is my bulletproof kink, because that's pretty much the only thing these all have in common. That, and longer/plottier fic, as a general rule.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, by which I mean in reverse order of when I happened to bookmark them:

Ordinary Numbers by BootsnBlossoms & Kryptaria
James Bond (movies), James Bond/Q
Summary: More than anything, Mike Taylor wanted to be ordinary. Being a genius, he learned early in life, meant people expected too much. A career at the MI6 Help Desk seemed the perfect way to guarantee a lifetime of obscurity, until he got a very unusual tech support call.
Why I like it: it's just very clever! Tech support!Q is delightfully snarky. The slow burn of their weird friendship-into-relationship-without-actually-meeting fills me with joy. And when the AU element finally transitions into canon, it's an excellent payoff. I reread this every time I'm in a 00Q mood, so, like...several times a year.

The Buried Treasure Racket by Dorinda
The Sting, Henry Gondorff/Johnny Hooker
Summary: After the events of the movie, Henry and Johnny take it on the lam, and run smack into a few complications and a few revelations.
Why I like it: YES I AM RECCING A FIC FOR THE STING. I do what I want. Look, this is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I absolutely request it every single goddamn year for Yuletide, because boy howdy, if this movie had come out in the past ten years, slash fandom would've been ALL OVER IT. And this is hands down the best Henry/Johnny fic I've ever read. The characters are spot-on, the con they run is exquisitely clever, and obvs the romance is A+. This is the sequel we deserved. (And if you haven't seen The Sting, GO WATCH IT NOW. RIGHT NOW. Charming, clever con artist movie with peak Robert Redford & Paul Newman.)

26 Pieces by Lanning
Sherlock (BBC), Sherlock/John
Summary: Mycroft gives Sherlock the apparently simple task of solving a puzzle box containing a stolen microchip. It isn't simple.
Why I like it: Ah, the golden era of Sherlock fic, when we only had one series to go by and the actual show hadn't tanked spectacularly yet. This is a fun little mystery with excellent characterization, and a great use of the hurt/comfort trope (which is one of my faves when done right). A bit more torture than I usually prefer, but handled well and never feels like whump for the sake of whump, and I just...really like the way they write these characters.

The Sparrowkeet Series by audreyii_fic
Avatar: the Last Airbender, Katara/Zuko
Summary: Ba Sing Se has fallen and Katara has been captured by the Fire Nation; a more adult take on the potential progression of S3. AU series of interconnected one-shots. Zutara.
Why I like it: This fic proves that ANY trope can be golden in the hands of a good writer. She tags it as "mildly dubious consent", which I agree with, and it's also underage (Katara is 15, Zuko 17, as per canon). Normally neither of these aspects appeal to me. This fic is the exception. Every single character feels 100% true to their canon characterization plus, you know, what actual teenagers are like (as opposed to the sanitized Nickelodeon children's TV version). Her Sokka voice, in particular, is hilarious and dead-on. And while the first fic in this series has sexual content (though not terribly explicit, IMO), honestly, the majority is about how all of these characters grow and evolve as people with the AU turn from the end of S2, and I honestly think the way she handles Aang's character arc through the final showdown with Ozai is smarter and more resonant than how the show handled it.

Time To Grow by zarah5
X-Men: First Class, Charles/Erik
Summary: In which you'll find chess dates which aren't dates (or maybe Charles is wrong about that). -- Based on First Class, this turns (slightly) AU during the beach scene.
Why I like it: The definitive XMFC fix-it fic. Gorgeous characterization, particularly of Charles. Just...so, so good. This is how I want to believe the movie ended.


Gonna stop there. There are so, so many more good fics out there. I should do a real reclist one of these days.