196: Make My Day. Ideally, Make It Better.

[thefourthvine]

The other day, a blogger I read intermittently said she really loved packing and moving. I had to leave the computer for fifteen minutes to avoid leaving a comment that a) called her a psycho lying liar pants b) advised her to seek therapy IMMEDIATELY for the sake of her children and c) begged her to come take care of our move, since she likes it so very much.

It's at this point that I need to make it clear that I am not in my right mind. And I have good reason to be crazy. Back in college, I knew every semester would end in tears. And not because of the finals, or the yay-finals-are-over relief - because I had to pack up my shit. I would happily have taken finals forever to avoid that.

And that was when a) I was a college student, so my major possessions consisted of a stereo system (this was back when we had stereo systems), three pots, and inflatable furniture and b) I moved every semester, so you'd think I'd've had it down to a science.

Now - well. We've lived in this house for ten years. We've been moving for four months. I hate this so much I can't begin to tell you. And that's actually the good part of this week. Other highlights include :

1. I realized that, because of the many and assorted delays of contractors and escrow, we will be moving into the house we started buying in February in the middle of August.
   
2. This, yup, means we will not be at Vividcon. I cannot tell you how sad I am about this, but there is just no way to supervise a move from Chicago. (I mean, it was one thing to miss VVC because I had a new baby. That is an excellent reason to miss a con. Missing a con because no one in the entire world can do anything when they say they will do it and how they say they will do it: not so acceptable.)
   
3. Best Beloved's car died irrevocably. At a car dealership. We are trying to be amused by this, but mostly failing, because that means we now, in addition to buying a house, are also buying a car.
   
4. I would actually rather buy another house. Seriously. With all the misery that entails. We've only been shopping for a car for one day, and we've already been reminded that there are only two ways we will ever be treated at a dealership. Either we will be ignored or we will be lied to and generally treated like morons who are longing to just give money away for no good reason. I can only conclude that people go into automobile sales because no one was hiring supervillain sidekicks that day.

So, really, life is sucking a fairish amount right now. (Did I mention that the earthling is on a new medication that makes him tired and cranky? No? Yet another fun factor in all this!)

Obviously, it's time to rec something. But this time, I am hoping to make it interactive! See, I will rec three stories that have alleviated quite a lot of misery for me, and then maybe you can recommend a fourth one to me!

Because, wow, I need the escapism right now.

The One That Proves That the Difference Between Marines and High School Boys Is - Something. Probably. I Will Figure It out Eventually. Get Some, by hackthis. Generation Kill, Brad Colbert/Nate Fick.

If you don't know what Generation Kill is, you don't entirely need to - the joy of an AU this long is that it's basically self-contained - but I hear there are weird purists out there who like to know what the characters look like and stuff. If so, there's a primer here. (Warning to people like me: this is a show about Recon Marines. Which means they spend all their time in camouflage and big-ass hat things that make them look like khaki Q-tips. Which means, of course, that to me they are all identical. So if you're like me, skip the photos and just read the summaries. Or, hey, just read the story.)

I read this story like five times the week it was posted. And here's the kicker: I don't like high school AUs. College AUs? Absolutely. But my feeling about high school is that I did that, sort of, even though I ditched four days out of five and spent most of one year in detention and skipped the last year altogether and - you're probably starting to see why I don't read high school AUs.

But I read this one. I love this one. hackthis has a knack for making me love characters I normally wouldn't - I'm thinking of sending her a letter about this, but the thing is, I can't figure out if it would be thanks or threats - and she succeeds in spades here. I mean, I was already reading Generation Kill because she made me (I am pretty sure I recall that gunpoint was involved, but I could be remembering wrong), but this story took it to another level. A frankly embarrassing level, in that I was silently beaming messages to the earthling: Be hungry. Ask to nurse. I need to finish my story.

This AU satisfied a need in my soul. I don't know what that need was, but you know that feeling you get when something is exactly perfect and shaped just right for you? I got that from this. I am betting a lot of you will, too.

Bonus: walks down memory lane for people who remember 1994!

The One with the (Fake) Giant Well-Hung Golden Bull. Perhaps I Should See If I Can Get One of These for Our New House. Operator, by troyswann. Stargate: SG-1 x The Matrix, Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill.

My love for the Matrix series has been well documented in these pages, and of course by "love" I mean "oh my god what what what did they seriously just spend three-quarters of my life DANCING, and also what the fuck was that with the electric crucifixion thing?"

So I am not exactly panting for Matrix crossovers. But I read this, because frankly I would read anything she wrote, up to and including a crossover between SG1 and Regency England, and I was not at all sorry. This, my friends - this is the awesomeness that I was promised with the Matrix movies. (Seriously. People kept saying, "You love science fiction! You'll love this SO MUCH! You have to seeeeeeeeee it." I finally saw it, and I loved the first, like, 20 minutes, nad then I spent the entire rest of the time hissing things like, "Entropy doesn't WORK THAT WAY" to Best Beloved. Normally I am better behaved in movies. I was better the second time through the first movie, and then I saw the second and third ones, and it allllll went south again. Like, Antarctic-south. I think I sustained permanent damage from all the eye rolling.)

I love this story. I love Jack as the captain of one of those ship thingies (what are they called?), Sam stuck inside the matrix (Sam is so awesome here), Daniel the operator, Vala the reluctant fighter for good (I mean, she's not reluctant to fight, you just get the feeling she wishes there was more moral ambiguity involved), and, of course, Teal'c. Teal'c is awesome.

This isn't necessarily a story I could crawl into, but, oh, it's escapism at its very finest.

The One That Shows Us That True Love Is Killing Spiders. (Really True Love Would Be Killing Cockroaches, and I Mean All the Cockroaches in the World. Why Don't Mad Scientists Ever Get on This? Mad Science, You Have Failed Me.) Junk Cheap, by devildoll. Stargate: Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay.

I have read this AU several thousand, thousand times since it was posted. I don't know why I haven't recommended it before. It's one of those inexplicable oversights. (Except maybe not, because this story always makes me want to make lasagna, and I went through enough of that in TS fandom. There are only so many lasagnas a woman can make, fandom! I am perilously close to my lifetime limit, and will soon have to pay an extra Surplus Lasagna Fee for each one.) But I am remedying that now.

The key concept here is: John owns a junk shop, and Rodney does not want him. Not at all. No siree. Who wants to sleep with a junk shop owner? Not Rodney, that's who! Even if he's, you know. Kind of hot.

This seems, perhaps, overly simple. I assure you it is not. There is action! There is the other kind of action! There are leaky showers! (I assure you leaky showers are extremely compelling within this context.) And did I mention that there is lasagna, and also baked goods of various kinds? (You don't get to eat them.)

But the real joy of this, and the reason I come back to it again and again, is that it is absolutely the kind of story I can crawl into and pull over my head when things get bad. There's true love, and comical old people, and a junk shop, and just enough conflict to keep it interesting without raising my blood pressure unhealthily, and it is just adorable and fun in the same way that old movies starring Audrey Hepburn are. I love it. And, right now, I need it.

So. Now it's your turn! Rec me something? Something fun and escapist? (Vulcans are appreciated, but in no way necessary.) I suppose the ideal story would be an AU where there are no real estate agents or car salesmen, but I will gladly settle for any kind of happiness. Really.

Comments

[jmtorres]

I am not sure whether I can in good conscience call this a rec. I've been reading a lot of Enterprise fic and it's defying Sturgeon's Law on levels of badness, so we're at the level of "things that don't make me cry [from a) purpleness of prose b) mischaracterization c) completely canon characterization but using all those bits where canon asserted the Vulcan would get hooked on neuron-eroding drugs and do casual sex ie why Enterprise is no longer considered Trek canon or d) bad writing like referring to Trip as "the Floridian" and "the blonde"] get saved on delicious!" So you see I have some standards but honestly I have yet to come across an Enterprise fic that is excellent, but that may be a flaw in the source material.

In any case, the Xynobia stories are a gay wish fulfillment fantasy. They're out there in space meeting new people and making allies, and they come to the planet of Xynobia. Where the general attitude about sexual orientation is "I know straight people! Some of my best friends are heterosexual. And I'm okay with that! I mean, whatever floats your boat! But it's a little unnatural, isn't it?" For the sake of interplanetary relations, Archer and Reed get married. The shock to the crew is that they were already doing it.

But yes. I think it qualifies as escapist fantasy where nothing really bad happens to anyone. I mean the biggest conflict anyone suffers is Trip trying to decide whether he's a) completely straight, okay with his gay captain best friend but totally straight himself despite all those naked bonding activities he likes to engage in or b) interested in exploring his ass with a Xynobian. Bless his heart.

[strina]

I totally just got into GK last weekend; that fandom is so good for as small as it is.

Bravo's Kingdom Come, A Red Horse (Brad/Nate) [Generation Kill] - Vampires are people, too.

An Illogically Beautiful Mind (Kirk/Spock) [Star Trek: Reboot] - A Trek/Good Will Hunting fusion-y thing and it's awesome.

Listening To Hear Where You Are (Kirk/Spock/Uhura) [Star Trek: Reboot] - Kirk in a skirt hits Spock and Uhura "right in the gender roles". Hot, and an awesome Uhura POV.

I Bring the Fire (Kirk/Spock/Uhura) [Star Trek: Reboot] - Pon farr fic with psychic bleed-through!foreplay.

And the two I've been reading to cheer myself up:
The Resurrection-verse (Steve/Tony, aka, Captain America/Iron Man) [Avengers] - Steve comes back from the dead and there's forgiveness and healing and basically? They spend most of the first story on the run from supervillains and it's still one of the most comforting fics I've read.

Defender of the Night (Buffy/Angel, Xander/Buffy) [BtVS] - Xander goes as Goliath from Gargoyles on Halloween and then gets stuck like that. There's angst, but there's also friendship that lasts through anything and seeing the heart, not the body and bonding about getting screwed by magic/fate and true love. And character death, but it's nobody canon didn't eventually kill anyway.

[msilverstar]

Be hungry. Ask to nurse. I need to finish my story. Ah do you print out and read on paper? Or just balance the laptop and the kid? I, um, did the latter.

For feelgood fic, I really like the SGA Bakery AU by anatsuno and cesare/almostnever

A Place on the Corner
Remembrance Day
Essentials

Good luck in moving! I feel your pain: we've been in situ 19 years and they'll have to pry us out of here when we die. Moving would be agony.

[anatsuno]

I think TFV reads her fic on a Kindle while nursing. :)

Thank you for the rec! *squeezes*

[jmtorres]

Do you like the Vorkosigan novels? Space opera. If you know that lo these many years ago in zine era, the Vorkosigan novels had their origin as the story of a Federation scientist running away with a Klingon warrior, much is explained about Vor culture. (Betan culture, I feel, is really far more liberal-socialist than even idealized versions of the Federation.) Hi, I just checked to see if you'd ever recced Vorkosigan stuff and I see you have, so I'll stop explaining what the series is about now!

lightgetsin and sahiya have written a series of novel-length stories that AU off around the novel Memory in that they go to slash land instead of "all the boys find wives" land as the canon starts to around there. They are delicious. I continually think of A Deeper Season as "the gay Vorkosigan novel" and have to remind myself it is not canon.

A Deeper Season
What Passing Bells
Seeds
A Place to Stand

[jmtorres]

I like pretty much all of sylviavolk2000's Highlander stories (I haven't read the other fandoms she writes), because all of the Highlander stories are fantastically littered with historically accurate details. They are like frozen plums. They also vary fairly broadly across genre from serious to humorous to psychological horror to apocalyptic to fluff (and also it is rather difficult to guess by the title which will be what; Gogmagog, for instance, is pretty hilarious: "What the goddamn is this? Musical swords?"). For the purposes of reccing you fic of happiness, I think you should read: Living Water, which is about Methos and his 63rd wife, whom he married in the late 1800s. She is a very silly woman and he loves her very much and with great amusement.

[pollyanna]

You may already know this short SGA story Friendly Competition by siegeofangels, but it's one that never fails to cheer me up when I re-read it - particularly when I get to "Steven".

[jadesfire]

If you want something that will make you laugh out loud, I'd rec pretty much anything written by greyias (full disclosure: we've co-written before and are writing at the moment, so I have bias but that doesn't mean she's not a snarky genius)

Her SGA Big Bang from last year is a great AU See No Evil, and probably where I would start, or possible Into the Woods, where Rodney is the worst kidnap victim ever.

[kellyfaboo]

Do you know how I got my Civic? I had someone go find it for me. Seriously, there is this service attached to my credit union but not a part of it that goes and finds cars for people based on their specifications. It rocks. If you have something like that where you are, I'd go for it.

[umbo]

Moving sucks, big time. So does going to most car dealers.

I have no recs, because I haven't been reading anything lately, but I do send *hugs*. And also Detective Adams to take out the car dealers who are being assholes.

[the_shoshanna]

Gah, what a horrid time you're having. I wish I could help, but I don't even think I have anything to rec (I get have my fic from you in the first place) -- except SPN that I don't think you read. Well, astolat's SGA Time in a Bottle is one of my all-time feel-good fics, but if you like it, I can't imagine you haven't read it until the pixels are falling apart already...

And we will miss you at VividCon!

[giglet]

Oh hon! Moving is so so hard!

I have an escapist moving fantasy for you, though. Or at least, I hope it'll provide some fantasy fodder, rather than an urge to throw packing tape.

So, after we kids were grown, my parents chose to endanger their lives in wildly bizarre ways in a far corner of the world, as a service to their country. (My parents were like this.) In return, the Army moved their household to said far corner.

My parents had been living in their house (along with varying numbers of kids, relatives, dogs, and strays) for 20 years. They had a lot of stuff. They were given advice from other people who had been moved by the Army before: pack the things you want to carry with you (ie, the things you'll need for the month that your stuff is in a container on the high seas someplace) and put it in the trunk of the car. Do not pack anything else. Make sure the washer is empty. Also (and this seemed a bit odd, but whatever) empty your trashcans before the movers arrive.

The movers showed up, and within 2 hours the house was packed and empty. When Mom unpacked 6 weeks later, she discovered that yes, indeed: Some PFC had put the trash in a can into a bag and sealed it; and then packed the trashbag inside the trashcan, and sealed it; and then packed the trashcan into a box, and sealed it; and seemed to have a real thing for packing tape.

On our last move, I depended on the fantasy that I could have a horde of fit young people armed with packing tape come in and move house for me so quickly.

[minxy]

If that was me? The yay moving girl? I'M OVER IT. I mean, yes, I like change, and packing is exciting if you're leaving a bad job and moving to a town with an exciting new possibly way-better job. But now I have these last four boxes here that have been taunting me for a week and still aren't unpacked.

Also, I bought a car. From a used car dealership.

Both of these things, I would like to say, turned out extremely well. I've never been to a dealership, of course, but there aren't any here. My fella, who has bought from a dealership, recommends 1) going online and picking out the car you want, and also possibly a back up. 2) going to the dealership, letting them show you something out of your budget, then pointing at the car you want and asking to see it. 3) Telling them to get the car within your budget. 4) *then* talking financing. I didn't do this. I walked up, asked to see anything five years old with all wheel drive and then picked my car. So.

My fall-back feel good stories lately are Merlin, for some reason. Fleet of Foot by enjambment, Onfindan by astolat or Pru's Drastically Redefining Protocol modern day British royalty AU (which has bonus schmoopy epilogs, absolutely adorable.)

I'll be back if I think of other pick-me-up stories.

I'm so sorry about the move thing. And the earthling's meds. And the moving interfering with vividcon. But I hope your new house/car (same child) will be as awesome an upgrade as mine has been.

[laurashapiro]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Oh god, I was SO looking forward to seeing you!

::WAIL::

I'm sorry. I'm supposed to be cheering you up, but I haven't reached the "acceptance" stage of grief yet.

D:

[watersword]

A Rock That Spoke a Word (An Animated Mineral It Can Be Heard). Merlin Emrys/Arthur Pendragon. R. "YARK!" I say happily, and my master blinks at me." 100% hilarity and dog-ownership-finally-making-sense.

Dead Soldiers: An Oral History of the End Times. Dean and Sam Winchester. R. "Using interviews with primary sources, this paper seeks to examine how Dean and Sam Winchester, two criminals with a history of violence and petty theft, became commonly known as a prophet of the Lord and the Anti-Christ." Long and plotty and gorgeous and you need to read this omg.

A Game of Chess. Faramir/Eowyn. PG-13. "Faramir and Éowyn after the fairy-tale wedding." Again, long and plotty and gorgeous — the prose sometimes veers into the purple, but it is rare to find a long movieverse Faramir/Eowyn fic. Discusses, pretty explicitly, domestic violence.

[bluemeridian]

Vulcan!

The 80/20 Theory as Applied to Cats in Bed by lazulisong [3.937 words, PG-13]
Crackish leanings and a generally guilty pleasure of a fic! Kirk keeps inexplicably appearing in Spock's bed, apparently because he has a subconscious (and possibly not-so-subconscious) need to cuddle. Bones is slightly off character, but amusing, but Spock is dead on. How can you not love a fic that has a cat named Tribble (Ship's Cat 3rd Class - Under 50 Pests Exterminated)? Spock's jammies are the icing on the cake.

Non-Vulcan fic, but most excellent:

Bluebird by basingstroke [5.475 words, R]
There's certainly the dark humor here that you would expect of this fandom collision, but it's also very, very creepy, as if the Addams' have been yanked out of their cartoonish existence and dropped into the real world. You see, Ianto Jones is an Addams on his mother's side and his cousins have come to visit him. Absolutely brilliant.

[kate]

I just reread my faaaaavorite SGA comfort fic the other day: Strangers on a Six Train by eye_queue. My next favorite is lamardeuse's Fashion Victim, and then the bakery AU msilverstar recced above, as well as astolat's Time in a Bottle. Junk cheap is on my list, too.

[quinfirefrorefiddle]

My absolute feel-good fic at the moment is beadattitude's Checkmate series, but I'm sure you've read that. My favorite escapist Harry Potter fics were mostly by Maya (Sarah Rees Brennan) who has now taken all her stuff offline, though you can still get the PDFs. So, hmm, all the good Stephanie Plum fics are locked up in yahoo groups, and I think you led me into the fandom of Jeeves and Wooster, so those wouldn't be new. (Though you have read "Green Ice", the Wooster/Wimsey crossover, right? Not what you're looking for, but fantastic.)

Well damn, I've been reading fanfic for a decade, I should know something. Oh! Got it. I know you aren't a Star Trek person, but as long as you know Janeway, Chakotay and Paris, you'll be ready for The Snow Queen by LR Bowen (thank heavens for CruiseDirector, because otherwise this would have been lost when JuPiterStation went down). It's sex, sex and more sex, and manages a balanced threesome in a stranded-in-a-blizzard-with-hostiles-on-the-trail setting really well. First time, too.

[quinfirefrorefiddle]

Oh, and of course I'm a genius- completely forgot my favorite AU of the moment- in the Newsies universe, "Everything You've Done Wrong", which is a contemporary highschool AU (no, don't turn back, this one's good) with the Mafia! And much slashiness! And H/C and angst and a couple of coke addicts and much, much love and sappiness as well. It's quite the wacky little rollercoaster, actually. And complete.

http://refuge.queenitsy.com/viewuser.php?uid=24

Moving is hell

[eileenlufkin]

I had to think about this, because most of the good stories I read are from your recommendations or by people I read because of your recommendations. (Thanks, by the way.)

Luckily, Toft recently recommended this:

http://katieforsythe.livejournal.com/8561.html#cutid1,

which is Holmes/Watson first time. It is also hurt/comfort, so hurt to start with, but she does get to the comfort.

[lastscorpion]

I've looked at new cars, but it's always been really hard to get anything useful from anybody working at a dealership, so I've always bought used cars. So far (4 cars over 24 years) that's worked out pretty well.

My favorite fanfic story, that I read over and over, is the massively multi-crossover Imperfections, by dasha.
Part of it's here, more parts are here, and some more parts are maybe just in her lj. (Although I thought I'd seen them archived somewhere else, I can't find them now.) It has The Sentinel, Stargate Atlantis, Quantum Leap, Due South, CSI Las Vegas, Bones, Psych, Benson, Highlander, and more.

Good luck with everything, and feel better soon!

[melannen]

I am so very late, but if you still want happymaking fics with Vulcans:

I have recently realized that there are people who do not *know about* brightfame's Cygnus Beta stories, and that is tragic, in epic proportion, especially as the series just finished. They're mostly gen (with some het and slash), and almost entirely about a collection of original characters, and yet, they are the best Star Trek fic I have ever read, and edging on to being some of the best SF I know of, period. It's the story of a Federation planet that is known for taking in refugees and outcasts, and how they handle a sudden influx of Vulcan refugees. But the recent refugees are not the only Vulcans on Cygnus Beta. There are lots of Vulcans. Vulcans in infinite variety. (Including some Vulcans who think they are elves, and speak Quenya.)

[terrio]

One of my favorite pieces of comfort-fic is frostfire_17's The Hostage Major.

[tartanshell.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry life is sucking for you right now. I hope it gets better soon. ♥

Here's a rec for you: Black Tie (http://ion-bond.livejournal.com/152522.html) by ion_bond, a crossover between Spider-Man/ Daredevil/ X-Men/ Iron Man/ Fantastic Four/ Incredible Hulk movieverses, written for the marvel_crossing ficathon. Even if you know nothing about some (or any!) of the superheroes, it's a really delightful read, with people being super in pretty much every conceivable way.

[alethialia.livejournal.com]

"Get Some" is epic and gorgeous and BRILLIANT. So much love for that story. Great rec.

And in that vein there is a whole lot of comment!fic set in that universe. (The story continues!) It kinda got crazy, so the cleanest way is to point you to the post I did detangling all the comment!fic (http://alethialia.livejournal.com/383580.html#cutid1). If you look through the links I noted when a piece was part of the "Get Some" universe (now with bonus additions by romanticalgirl). Very fun.

[antihysteric.livejournal.com]

This (http://community.livejournal.com/st_fanart_meme/282.html?thread=192282) piece of femmeslashy fanart (ST:XI/DCU crossover, Gaila/Poison Ivy), while unfortunately lacking in Vulcans, has brought me much N-quite-SFW glee recently.

I don't know if you do TOS-fic, but I've been getting a lot of comfort-reading mileage out of Surgeon's Mate (http://community.livejournal.com/spockmccoy/41402.html) (Spock/McCoy) and Incident Report (http://cimorene.net/cimorene/trek/incidentreport.html) (Kirk/Spock), too.

Pretty much anything in Holmes fandom by Katie Forsythe (http://liquidfic.net/katie.html), along with Absurdly Simple (http://www.hwslash.net/content/absurdly.html) by Irene Adler, cheers me up.

Aaaand cereta's Hanging Work (http://cereta.livejournal.com/165020.html) (DCU, Bruce/Dick) is ♥!

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

Seconding the rec for Katie Forsythe, who writes just about the best Holmes/Watson out there, and pointing out that there's even more at her LJ - katieforsythe. A particular favorite for adorability is the Holmes POV on "The Speckled Band," "Some Further Notes on the Roylott Matter," parts one (http://katieforsythe.livejournal.com/4360.html#cutid1) and two (http://katieforsythe.livejournal.com/4641.html#cutid1). In which Holmes totally does not have a phobia of snakes. Not at all.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Feeling down yesterday, I reread an old GO crack fic, and laughed till it hurt (doesn't take long at the moment, but I'd have laughed longer if I could have): Gender-swapping reptile fic with meaningful glances it-preg and salvation (http://lovelyzelda.livejournal.com/74002.html), by lovelyzelda

(Have a look at her other stuff too, especially My Little Ethereal/Occult Beings (http://lovelyzelda.livejournal.com/85029.html)! Other fic by Lovelyzelda (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=lovelyzelda&keyword=GO+fic&filter=all) - if there are any estate agents, they meet well deserved fates).

Oh, oh! I also want to rec the (non-fic) Disgusting History Lessons (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=meltedpeep&keyword=%5BHetalia%5D+Disgusting+history+lessons&filter=all) by meltedpeep, a series of potted histories of (mainly) Europe illustrated with the characters from Hetalia (you don't need to know the fandom, just the concept that the characters are personifications of countries). meltedpeep's posts are delightful, informative and hilarious, and there are absolutely no estate agents at all.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

No vividcon? So much sad! I.... I wish I had a cheery story for you, but I haven't read anything lately, and I get my best stuff from you anyway. Awwww. This'll be my first vividcon. Maybe we could set up skype and point it at the vids. :-)