leavethesky

A few recs between papers and exams:

First, Xena:
The Pappas Journals I and II by Elaine Sutherland is Mature, Mel/Janice. Someone recommended this to me long ago (theholyinnocent? adastranot?) and it was well-worth the wait. This story is exquisite and powerful. This is a darker Mel/Janice with hints of sunlight. Told from Mel's POV, it takes these two from war-torn, besieged Athens into the Hell of Nazi Germany. I'll admit, I cried my eyes out over this one. Beautiful and haunting, incredibly well-written, with subtle, deft touches of the Bard's ancient Greek in translation. And what she does with the scrolls is...inspired. I'm totally floored. All hail Elaine Sutherland!

Then on to SVU and LAO:
24 Frames by theholyinnocent is Mature, Alex/Olivia. wizened_cynic reminded me that this fic was absolutely exquisite and needed to be recced. It's Alex and Olivia told in quick, breathless vignettes. Beautiful.

Four Things Serena Southerlyn Never Said by fewthistle is Serena/of, Mature. Fewthistle's back! And working her usual miracles with underdeveloped characters. Her Serena has soul and depth and the writing as always is hauntingly lovely.

Misc/RPF?
Lamplighter by theholyinnocent is Harper Lee (from Capote played by the glorious Katherine Keener)/OF and it's Mature. theholyinnocent didn't know whether to characterize this as RPF or fanfic and I'm not sure either, but for anyone with a Harper Lee fixation or a Keener one, this is the fic for you. It has theholyinnocent's usual gorgeous prose and a few scenes from the life of a master storyteller who only wrote one novel. Also, I'm a sucker for Southerners transplanted to the big bad City...because I was one once.

I know, I promised fluff and I delivered the heavy. Again. Sorry. You'd think with all of this work I'd want something light, but, no. *sigh* Fluff soon.

Where in the hell did this Barek/Eames pairing come from?!?! It has just exploded all over my flist all of a sudden. And I'm grateful, very grateful. But confused. I don't watch L&O: CI, so I know absolutely nothing about this pairing in canon, except the part about hot chicks with guns and gold shields. And that's all I have to know really. Still. Is Barek a new addition. All I know about L&O: CI is that I hate I hate D'Onofrio's emo!genius character so I don't watch.

Guns & Microscopes keeps delivering the goodies to my flist:

the circumstance of fired shots by quasiradiant, Barek/Eames, R.. I'm lazy tonight, so I'll just quote what I wrote in quasi's comments, 'cause really, that's all I need to say: "There is something so 'exquisitely' (there's that word again) quiet and understated about your work. I feel like I"m holding my breath because any sound I make could drown out your words. It creates this incredible tension that runs under and around the actual narrative. In other words, you don't have to write and describe action-packed scenes in order to keep me on the edge of my seat. Just describing the itch of the medical tape and the multi-colored lotion bottles is enough. You turn the everyday into moments full of power and potential.
and your language:
You look up, and her face is really close to yours, and when she looks at you, you both freeze there. She swallows, and you can hear it.

"I'm a little wounded, here," you whisper.

GAH! can you tell I have a HUGE litcrush on quasi? no. it's totally not obvious. really.

Another fantastic fic from that I JUST found the time to read:
Not So Soft by tremblingmoon is Alex/Olivia, R. I'm such a sucker for post-Loss fic and this one makes all of my Alex/Olivia dreams come true.Again, I'm being lazy tonight, so I'll just mirror what I said in comments to this fic, tremblingmoon does wonders with Alex's character, bringing her back from Witness Protection not completely intact and very much marked by the years she's been away. In fact that's one of the best things about this fic, the way the writer conveys the passage of time so effectively. It's such a tricky thing to do without resorting to obvious tricks, but tmoon does it with grace. Also, this line should tell you everything you need to know:
Helping her pack only a week ago, the young agents smiled at her kindly when they spoke, bright faces open and encouraging, like the words “friends” and “settle” and “life” were still part of her vocabulary. Like the syntax of affection, of safety, of comfort was something she hadn’t struggled for two years to forget.

Go. Give the Love to these great authors and the writers I haven't even gotten to yet. So much ficathon goodness, so little time. :)

Sickly so this is a quickie:

omiceti's glorious and haunting, One Hundred Things That Might Have Happened, Alex/Olivia, R, is up on LJ and recently updated. To recap, this is a series of mind-blowingly well-crafted drabbles (yes, I know, and I don't do drabbles:) set in a non-linear framework. Omiceti is a master of characterization and she captures moments that feel like fragments of memory. And, like memory, they vary from important moments to the trivial, giving them all an incredible resonance. Nothing here feels unimportant. Even the most trivial event feels like a potentially critical clue.

via suckeredin and lovetheshallow (I think) on the TWoP boards some incredible new SVU fic. All Alex/Olivia:

One Hundred Things that Might Have Happened by Mira. Alex/Olivia, Mira. A series of short drabbles that form a non-linear and completely arresting story. It isn't finished yet, but that shouldn't stop you. This is an exceptional piece of writing and it's like piecing together a beautifully sculpted puzzle. Plus, lines like this:

It feels nice, this heat between her legs. Innocent, like a crush. Almost like normal, almost like she can want someone without feeling like a perp.

Also by Mira, an incredible (and complete!) Loss fic, The Summary of Errors that will break your fucking heart.

Mira is the new black. :)

remember, feedback=teh love so please leave it for these incredible writers.

I'm sure some of you have noticed a glaring omission in my recs -- BDSM, non-con, darkfic, and hardcore. And by BDSM I do not mean olivia tying alex's hands to the bedpost. I mean the serious stuff. You know, the stuff that exists beyond PWP in that space where there's violence, very little to no emotional content, and/or... I think I'm wading into a semantic morass here. help.

Semantics aside, there is some beautifully written BDSM and hardcore fic out there that I'm ignoring because it's just not my kink. No judgments, no moral issues here, I just don't like reading it. That simple. And I'm not going to make myself read something just because I should. Femslash should never be broccoli.

So, if any of you femslashy writers and pimps have recs to the harder stuff in any fandom, let me know and I'll post the links or point to your LJ so that the non-vanilla types can get their kink on. Gracias.

eta thelastgoodname,broccoli lover and ficpimp extraordinaire, reminds me that she recs bdsm and darkfic when she can find it. And that hp_girlslash features a good bit of it, including one last weekend. But don't just go to her LJ for the bdsm, all of her recs are the good stuff. The REALLY good stuff.

also ETA slcadet reminds me that maybe I do like some BDSM after all. Maybe the issue is that I'm just less willing to read not-so-good BDSM fic to find the good. How did she accomplish this? by pointing me to a fic I'd loved and lost, trancer21's Switch at Passion & Perfection (where else?). Alex/Olivia, NC-17 explores the math problem: what if two tops meet and fall for each other? okay, maybe it's not a math problem although there is definitely physics (and politics) involved. slcadet also has BDSM fic and recs on her own LJ (which I have yet to read) and has even co-authored a recent addition to the SVU fandom, Hidden Agenda, Alex/Olivia, BDSM, NC-17.