Hieroglyfics Recs

HP/Sherlock Holmes, gen. Hogwarts Headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black sends for Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery of the disappearance of an important artifact. This story is told in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle, through the narration of Watson, and it’s done very well here, perfectly canonical-feeling. The merging of the worlds was very well done; I particularly liked Holmes’s distrust of the wizarding world, the reason for which is slowly revealed through a clever backstory. I think perhaps it’s because in HP canon we see the world of magic through the eyes of a child who is discovering its wonders, and of course, it’s magic, yay! to most of us, so the jaundiced eye is a fresh perspective.

HP/Hamlet crossover, gen. When Severus Snape finishes at Hogwarts, Dumbledore sends him to do a research fellowship with one Doctor Faustus, who is perfecting the Plothole-Plugging Potion. Severus drinks a test version and is sent whirling into the 16th century, where he lands on Rosencrantz just as he and Guildenstern are about to go to Elsinore. He puts on Rosencrantz’s doublet and hose, travels to Denmark, and the rest is history Hamlet. Or rather, Hamlet as it would have happened had an irascible young wizard with a talent for potions stepped in. Which is awesome.

Stephen has arranged for a source to stay at a gentleman’s club that caters to a particular sort of gentleman, with particular tastes; Jack, unknowing, follows him there. Possibly this is the Age of Sail version of the “undercover in a gay bar” trope, but it is handled so deftly and sensitively here that it seems completely in keeping with canon. Jack’s utter obliviousness is just wonderful.

Big Eden vid, Henry/Dean, Henry/Pike. This vid follows Henry as he moves from his New York life, to Big Eden and his relationships there: with his grandfather, with Dean, with the people of Big Eden, and ultimately with Pike. I particularly like how each section is self-contained in the narrative but follows from the previous bit and leads into the next logically and coherently.

This story feels exactly like canon, except for the zombies, and I can’t believe I actually wrote that sentence in a rec. No, seriously. It was originally written as a series of comments to the anonymous Aubreyad Kink Meme, and with the author’s permission, I collated it into a single file, which is linked above. And it rocks utterly. It is the story of a plague that comes to London, and of sailing ships, and of politics, and how Jack and Stephen’s friendship is sorely tested by difficult times; it is magnificent, and you should read it. There are clever references to canon and to other sources (I detected a Shackleton homage, and I am sure there are others.) And there are zombies.

Aubrey/Maturin, G to PG, can be read as slash or gen. Alas, my very favorite writer in this fandom vanished a few years ago. Her stories all begin with a short quote from canon, but were I left on my own I wouldn’t be able to tell where O’Brian’s words end and hers begin, so perfect is her voice. I adore her writing to tiny little bits. I especially love Sealegs, Unkindest Cut, At Dawn, and Blue Devils, but really, all these are wonderful.

Sharpe/Aragorn, with a tiny bit of Aragorn/Boromir: Sharpe and Aragorn get lost in their respective forests and bump into each other. This is my favorite type of crossover, in which the actor-identity connects the characters, and it is beautifully written.

Geoffrey gen (as per the author; I read it as implied Geoffrey/Ellen). Geoffrey’s madness from the inside out. In this case, his madness is directing Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love, and if I knew this play, I am sure I would have gotten even more out of this story. As it is, there are all sorts of wonderful wry bits of metaphor and in-joke that even a dullard like me noticed. I thought it particularly brilliant to use Cheryl, the stage manager from Theatre Sans Argent in the first episode, as the grounding center of reality here.

Boromir gen. The perfect combination of music, lyrics, and clips to tell Boromir’s story. Waaah.

Boromir gen (Boromir/OFC, but that’s not the point). Twenty years later, Gimli and Legolas uncover a secret. This is a “Boromir survives” story handled with grace and thoughtfulness, and with an interesting twist.

Sharpe/Teresa. Okay, this is my true OTP in this fandom. I adore Teresa, the commander of the Spanish guerillas; she is tough and smart and strong and not beautiful in a conventional sense. This vid spoils her arc, but it’s not exactly a surprise in the movies.

Sharpe/Leroy, Harper/Sharpe. Sharpe is in Leroy’s tent, and Harper is jealous. This writer has a whole series of Sharpe/Harper, but oddly I like this one best, and choose to interpret the Harper/Sharpe as unrequited rather than as present but over; I think that although I love the idea of Sharpe/Harper I have a hard time making a requited, active relationship fit into the series.

due South/Good Omens. Fraser literally has a demon on his shoulder - Crowley. Fortunately Aziraphale is there as well. The writing is right out of Good Omens, but the device of Fraser talking to a supernal being and Ray thinking he’s talking to him is right out of due South (or at least dS fanfiction). Lovely dialogue and a sweet ending.

Boromir gen - well, actually this vignette-y story is Boromir/The One Ring, I guess. Beautiful and poignant and exactly as long as it needs to be.

Perhaps this is AU, perhaps it just supposes that the narrator of the books (and movies; this is blond movie-Legolas) was led astray by certain assumptions. Whichever it is, I adore this Gimli, who also appears in the not-quite-as-good but still worthwhile Keeping Secrets (kind of a prequel, but both stories can be read independently). I will say no more so as to preserve your delight!

Original character slash. I know! Not even about the characters you know! And it’s in present tense, to boot. So the fact I’m reccing it must mean it’s extraordinary, and it is. It’s about the men charged with lighting the beacons to call for Rohan’s aid to Gondor: who they are, why they are there, and how the events of RotK affect them (and vice versa).

Jack/Stephen. This is my favorite type of story in this fandom: a missing scene which expands on the innuendo of the text (in this case, a discussion about the Sultan and his “Ganymede” in The Thirteen Gun Salute) but never takes it too far. Excellent character voices.

Sharpe/Harper, on watch at Christmastime; and you know, there were two similar stories in last year’s Yuletide, and I didn’t like either of them half as much as this gentle and understated story. The character voices are perfect and the language is so very evocative.

Viggo/Sean Bean. I wasn’t particularly interested in Orlando Bloom when I started reading in the fandom; this story, told from his perspective (and oh, how I love stories about relationships told from a third-party POV!) is one of the things that has changed my mind. Slowly, bit by bit, Orlando puts the pieces together and sees the strong, deep feelings that run between Viggo and Sean. It’s subtle and well-paced, and the external POV allows the men’s motives and feelings to remain obscure, only hinted at, which is what I crave for this particular relationship. Best of all are the Tempest references scattered throughout, never gratuitous, always perfectly fitting.

It’s hard to summarize this without giving away too much (and unfortunately the author’s summary errs, I think, on the side of not saying anything at all), but: it’s about perception and reality, identity and appearance, which are themes that I love writing and reading about. This was a Team Whimsy entry for the second DS Match, so you can expect magical realism rather than conventional truth. This elegant story takes canon and turns it sideways; the language and the structure work together to create a very believable and compelling world. And I was a little teary at the end.

Fraser/RayK and Fraser/OMC. The author’s summary says it all: Fraser, growing old. This Fraser is retired from the RCMP, and his relationship with Ray is in the past; one of the things I like about this story is that it doesn’t explicitly detail what happened, whether Ray died or they broke up or what, but it clearly devastated Fraser at the time - and just as clearly he has moved on, and this is what he has moved on to. Gentle and luminous, and Luzula’s knowledge of the far north shows in her evocation of the landscape and the authentic details of life in the far north. Because Fraser is so much about the land, formed by it, maybe, this works beautifully to limn him from a different perspective than most stories.

Frodo/Sam. Frodo’s a virgin, and the Ring plans to exploit this - so Sam is pressed into duty to, er, educate Mr. Frodo. Yeah. Written deftly and lightly, with great good humor and quite a bit of affection. Even if hobbitsex doesn’t appeal to you, this is worth reading for the amusement value.

Slap Shot 2/RPF, Palmberg/Nos4a2no9 (the fanfic writer) Um. I have a real kink for crossovers between FPF and RPF. And the meta here is a lovely twist: we usually imagine ourselves meeting the characters we like, don’t we!

Anthropomorfic: Australia/various continents. I giggled hysterically. And it actually has a basis in geology. All the other continents said Antarctica was a frigid bitch, but Australia remembered the good old days. Once upon a time, there had been three of them: Australia, Antarctica and India. Antarctica had covered herself with forests and they’d huddled together for warmth, with Antarctica nestled in his Great Australian Bight (as he liked to call it). Threesome continent-fic, dudes!

Big Eden, Henry/Pike. I don’t necessarily buy all of it as my backstory for Pike, but it’s a plausible backstory, the device of telling it through his interactions with the various people of Big Eden is clever and works well, and the writing is really luminous in places.

A first-time realization fic from Dief’s POV - with a fresh and clever Dief-voice I adored.

Firefly/Jane Eyre fusion-pastiche-parody, Jayne/Rochester (and really, Jayne/lots of other characters). The great novel Jayne Eyre comes to life before your gorram eyes. A fourth-wall-optional story in which Jayne from Firefly grumpily assumes the title role. Jayne is spot-on perfect, the Bronte characters adapt well, and the narrator is perhaps my favorite character of all.

Don’t be dismayed by the seven chapters - they’re all very short. Read the first two, at least, and I promise you’ll be hooked. Not to mention laughing out loud. You probably do need to have at least a passing acquaintance with both Firefly (or Serenity) and Jane Eyre (book or movie) to fully enjoy the story.

Oh, fine, have an excerpt:

“I have decided to send you away,” Aunt Reed said imperiously. “You are going to school.”

“School?” Jayne replied as though someone had trodden upon his toes. “What you tryin’ to do? Kill me?”

“Yes, actually,” Aunt Reed muttered under her breath. “You shall repair at once to Lowood, from whence I hope I shall never have the undesirious result of seeing you more, young Jayne Eyre.”

“You people sure do like speechifying with the big words,” Jayne said, stomping up the stairs to pack his simple bag of effects, including his dresses, his pantalettes, and his doll.

“I ain’t got no doll!”

It says you do in the book.

“Hell with the book!”

Fine. No doll. The next morning, his cheek unkissed and his kinspeople still happily asleep in their finely draped beds, Jayne boarded a carriage to be transported away to Lowood school, a place renowned for its rampaging bouts of typhus, consumption, and chillblains.

“Does my coach get robbed by a gang of desperate outlaws?”

It’s not that sort of coach.

“Well, it woulda been more interestin’ if it were.”

Sorry, dearheart. Jayne’s coach sped through the misty countryside of England, off to unknown places, where he should be faced with new trials and tribulations to make him prove the goodness within his heart was paramount to all obstacles.

“Narrator, I think you’re gonna be right unhappy with the outcome of that sentence.”

Pirates of the Caribbean, Tia Dalma. It’s a sonnet. It’s gorgeous and evocative.

Being Human: George/Mitchell. And after my complaints about understanding the actors’ accents, you can laugh at me, but what I like best about this story is how utterly British it reads. When I was in HP fandom, you could tell the Americans who were really trying from the Americans who didn’t give a damn, but then something like A.J. Hall’s stories stood out as something entirely different. The deadpan humo(u)r is very much like the show’s, and the story continues the theme of monsters and humanity, of what it is that separates Mitchell in particular from his fellows.

Heroes, Molly gen. A brilliant set of fairy-tale pastiches in a plausibly canonical frame story; beautiful and clever and kind of chilling, and kind of sad ,and kind of hopeful.

Heroes/SGA crossover, gen. When Micah grows up, he joins the SGC and is sent to Atlantis. It’s a really nifty take on the ’sentient Atlantis’ trope, and a perfect meshing of the universes. Written for the picfor1000 challenge.

Scenes from Epiphany are used to imply an AU history for John and how he met Rodney and came to Atlantis, and there’s some astonishing vid-manip work.

Mostly gen with reference to Geoffrey/Ellen and Cyril/Frank. The backstory of Geoffrey’s going mad during Hamlet is such a fact of canon that it could have been a dull story, but telling it through Cyril’s eyes gives it a fresh twist. Plus, yay for a Cyril story, with hints of his own drama and life.

Anna-centric mostly gen with a bit of Anna/Nahum. This was my absolutely favorite Yuletide story this year, and is my favorite S&A story ever. Anna returns from Bolivia to the “Theotre sons Argent,” as typed with Geoffrey’s old typewriter that turns a’s into “circular blobs,” and takes charge. The dialogue is fabulous, the details wonderful, and every character voice absolutely perfect. Quirky and charming, and as those who were in S&A chat with me know, Anna/Nahum is my seekrit OTP.

Gen with references to unrequited Vecchio/Fraser and Vecchio’s canon het relationships. I am a sucker for stories told from an outsider perspective, and this one, narrated by the Vecchio family priest, is wonderful. Father Behan is a fully-realized character, sensitive and perceptive, and he brings another dimension to the canon events we know, from Ray’s childhood conflicts with Frank Zuko to his acts as Armando Langoustini. I got weepy at the end.

Bwah-ha-ha! This is a clever little story, and it’s got dead!Bob in it, which is always a plus in my book. Crossover with a television show that I’ve only seen a few episodes of, but recognized anyway, and you probably will, too. Part of the fun (as well as the plot) is discovering exactly what it’s crossed with, so I won’t spoil it here.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit, gen (Roger/Jessica, references to various het and slash relationships). Someone’s killing CGI toons, and Roger and Jessica must find the killer. This is brilliantly conceived: the plot is clever and relevant in a very meta way, and the various supporting characters are fabulous. Tons of in-jokes and sly references, and great use of the literal punnishness of the original movie.

Sophie/Clarissa, PG. Clarissa comes calling on Sophie. The story is gorgeous, understated and gentle. The language is perfect, and the echoes of Jack off at sea in Sophie’s solitude are so nice. Maybe my favorite parts are the hints of Diana, and how the others see her. You don’t need to have read the whole series or even to have gotten to the books with Clarissa to enjoy this delicate femslash.

This casefic has Fraser and Ray going undercover at a dog show, with Dief, of course, undercover as a dog. It’s plotty and funny and well-written, and obviously involved a whole lot of research. The Dief POV sections made me grin a whole lot.

Donald E Westlake - The Dortmunder Series, gen, PG, short story. Westlake has long been one of my favorite writers, and this pitch-perfect Christmas caper story is an absolute gem that makes me wonder if he’s writing his own fanfiction. If you’re familiar with the series, you’ve probably already clicked; if you’re not, let me try to convince you, because this story stands alone and makes a great short introduction to the books. The Dortmunder stories are about a hapless gang of New York criminals who somehow always seem to kidnap the wrong victim, steal the wrong loot, or stumble into something that turns their planned crime on its head. The humor is rich and full without being overdone. The novels are fabulous, and this fic is fabulous, too.

Men awkwardly talking about their feelings! And kissing!

Fraser/every woman on the show! Hee, maybe you could consider this a bit of a constructed reality vid as well: Fraser as suave and sexy Lothario! Cutting a swath through the entire female population of Chicago! It’s fabulous and OMG hot, and it ends with a slashy implication, so, yay!

Heroes, Niki, Claire, Monica gen, PG, vid. This is an awesome vid of the Heroes women moving from cowed and dependent to strong, empowered, and kick-ass. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a constructed reality vid, because the show’s not quite like that. Oh, well. I’d watch this show. And I’d watch this vid. A lot.

A Mountie on the Bounty snippet. Beautiful and evocative writing.

Northern Exposure, various characters and pairings both het and slash. Fifty teeny snippets (written for a series of challenge prompts) which add up to a picture of life in Cicely.

I can’t even characterize this in my standard pairing lists. The fanfiction cliches we know and love, applied to the animal characters of due South. In the first section, Diefenbaker wakes up female…and it just gets crackier.

Fraser/RayK, Fraser/OFC. Fraser rescues an Inuit woman from a snowstorm; though she doesn’t speak to him, her presence gives him strength to rebuild his life after his failure to keep a relationship with Ray. Some readers probably see this as unbearably sad, because the OTP is broken at the start, but I read it as a hopeful and affirming story as Fraser and the woman lift each other from despair.

Fraser is dying, and Ray Vecchio comes to Canada for a final visit. It’s so sharp and clear and heartfelt - and heartbreaking. I love the imagining of Ray Kowalski as competent and brusque and intensely private in his love for Fraser. Showing the story through Ray Vecchio’s eyes works really well.

AU. Fraser leaves with Victoria, and makes one last phone call to Ray. It’s just a little scene, just a sliver of the story, but it’s so rich in what it shows and what it doesn’t. The Vecchio voice is fantastic.

A classic “hero’s journey” in which faint heart never won fair, well, never mind. This is awesome and funny and smooth, with a structure that makes my structure-loving-brain happy, and so many clever lines I don’t know where to start admiring.