Slashy Nominations 117: Under the Influence of Strong Passions. And Various Chemical Substances.

So. I do plan to reply to all the comments to my poll; I was thrilled to get them, and I actually have interesting things to say in response to most of them. Some of them. Okay, all of them, but we're operating by my definition of the word interesting, here, so those who commented should probably be on their guard.

In the meantime, though, drunkfics. Because a) you know I have love for them and b) no one can suspect any of these of being seriously flawed stories.

And it's interesting to reflect, with my new determination to recommend vids no matter how much I shouldn't*, just how much FF categories don't match vid categories. Drunkfic, for example, is one of the Grand Old Traditions of fan fiction, and yet I can think of only one drunkvid, Charmax's "Lily the Pink," (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ensemble, available under "BtVS Ensemble" at Bronze Ambition) and even then it isn't the same sort of thing, really.  It could be because intoxication is not all that visually interesting unless you're hoping to get into the pants of the intoxicated person in question. But I'm wondering if it's also because drunkfics focus on two things you can't show in vids: dialog - i.e., the intoxication frees someone to say something he otherwise wouldn't or couldn't - and sex - i.e., the intoxication frees someone to go down on someone he otherwise wouldn't.  

Of course, we could just not see many drunkvids because we don't see much canon drunkenness.  I don't know for sure how often people get down with the substances on TV shows, but I'm suspecting it's maybe not all that often, possibly because of those ever-present Impressionable Children. I do know you don't get a lot of full-out intoxication in movies, probably because, let's face it, when you only have two hours for the entire story, it's tough (though not impossible) to justify spending a half hour on something anyone who attended even one party in high school has seen too much of.

Whichever.  But, anyway, if you want a vid rec for this set, it's going to be "Lily the Pink," which is well worth a look, folks.  If the resultant giggle isn't enough of a reason, download it so you can admire the sheer quantity of drinking shots Charmax found. The Buffy folks apparently used their broadcast time wisely.

And now, speaking of wise uses of time, let's move on to the FF.

Best FF That Proves Definitely What I've Always Suspected: People With Mind-Reading, Mind-Changing, or Mind-Control Powers Are Deeply Wrong and Creeeeeeepy. Yes, Xavier, This Includes You. Memories, by rhyo. The Authority, and, honestly, I've no idea what to call this, but in my opinion it's gen. If you're not familiar with the comic book - and, really, if not, why not? - the problem with categorizing this story is that there's a gay relationship in the canon. But although said relationship is mentioned, this story is not about that. It's at least in part about Jenny Sparks, the butt-kickingest team leader ever to slug down a fifth of lab alcohol in seventeen seconds and then travel to another universe solely for the purpose of calling Batman an armor-dependent pussy and Robin a colorblind catamite and both of them sorry excuses for superheroes. Or, wait - just heroes, isn't it? As they aren't exactly super. That is not what happens in this story. But trust me, it could; she'd enjoy the pants right off of that. Here, though, we get to see her doing some things she really doesn't enjoy - to wit, trying to console a team member and get in touch with feelings. Her solution to that problem is get said team member, one Apollo, drunk off his ass. Unfortunately, that loosens his tongue, and Jenny ends up hearing way more than she wanted to. About Apollo. And his memories. And about the fact that, Marvel comics aside, there are very few people who can be trusted to rummage around in someone else's brain, and those few aren't the people who would allow themselves to do it.

Best Set of FFs That Proves That All Major Life Events Are Eased by Whacking Doses of Opiates. Or, OK, No. But Definitely All the Ones That Involve Arterial Bleeding Are. Rock, Toilet Paper, Scissors and Island Life** , by Tallulah Rasa, and does anyone know if she has a LJ? Stargate: SG-1, gen. Yes, more gen drunkfics. I don't know what the world is coming to. I do know, though, that these are actually drugfics; it's morphine, not alcohol, that is loosening the tongues of our good Colonel and his good civilian consultant. (And, yes, I have no problems describing Daniel as Jack's in the absence of slash; for one thing, who else does Jack have? And for another, who else could Daniel possibly belong to? And for a third, well, that's how they act a lot of the time.) Oh, and I should warn you; the author doesn't consider these stories sequels. I do, in the sense that when I read one, I have to read the other, and one of them mirrors the other, and also I consider one to resolve certain issues raised in the other, so I'm just going to rec them at the same time and save myself a lot of soul-searching. So. In both of them, a leg gets hurt. And there's morphine. And then there's talk. And what talk it is; "Rock, Toilet Paper, Scissors" sums up almost everything I love about this fandom. And "Island Life," well, it sums up why I'll probably never watch the canon. Because this didn't happen in it. And it should have. It should have. So I'll stick with my fan fiction, my denial, and my ignorance, I think. Anyway, even if you're not a big fan of denial or ignorance, these are brilliant stories, both of them, and I can't encourage you enough to go read them right now this minute.

Best FF That Proves That the Flowers Are Our Friends. At Least If We Want to See More Sex. And Who Doesn't? Blindsided, by Resonant, aka resonant8. Stargate: Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. All of you wondering what the hell was up with the meaningful-conversation drunkfics may now breathe easy; we have returned to the land where "fun with chemicals" also means "fun with body parts." And this one is a whole lot of fun, folks. One of the reasons I get such a kick out of recommending the two Stargate fandoms side by side is the voice of English teachers past in my head, saying "compare/contrast" over and over. (Yes, I am subject to these little auditory hallucinations. Really, it's a small price to pay for the many years of fun I had in classrooms across the land.) Because just as the former stories summed up my love for SG1, this one sums up most of my love for SGA. And I could write a really solid essay explaining that statement, with illustrative quotes and proper structure and everything. But I won't, because I love you too much for that. Instead I'll say: there's funny in this, and also snark, and spitting dandelions, and substance-induced hallucinations. McKay demonstrates why he needs no drug to loosen his tongue, and John demonstrates why he needs no drug to display his fundamental flexibility. (And also that he's just really, really easy, which may not be canon - I'm not sure - but is a peck of fun all the same.)

Best FF That Proves That the Phrase 'Alcohol May Intensify the Effect' Doesn't Just Apply to Medicines. Granted, by Kim, aka meadowlion. Sports Night, Dan Rydell/Casey McCall. And here we have another pair of guys that never needed any chemical to loosen their tongues - it would probably take a substantial vat of something potent to stop these two from talking entirely - but who nonetheless benefit from some time spent amongst the intoxicants. What I really love about this one, though, is that Dan doesn't use alcohol to reduce his inhibitions. He uses his brain for that. The alcohol is for plausible deniability, and trust me when I tell you that is so Dan that it might as well appear in his official staff bio. ("Dan Rydell has been an anchor with Sports Night since its inception. Obviously, Dan has an abiding interest in all sports, except soccer, and also NASCAR if you define that as a sport, which Dan does not. He likes Casey McCall, spackle, New York City, Hilary Rodham Clinton, and poker. And he drinks, but mostly to watch other people get drunk; he himself prefers to use alcohol in moderation, except when plausible deniability is essential to his plans.") It's equally typical of Casey that he says exactly the right thing at the right time in this story; the man can be counted on to miss 99% of emotional cues, but the other 1% of the time he hits them so perfectly you sort of forget about his failures. Anyway, this story may be itty-bitty (500 words), but it is an excellent piece of interaction between the pairing often voted Most Meant to Be Together, If Only Because They've Excluded Everyone Else in the Universe.

-Footnotes-

* If you're wondering why I shouldn't, I could explain it to you. Or I could just point you to my own personal attempt at a meme. It is the movie meme that's been going around recently, and I think it pretty effectively says everything that needs to be said about why I should not be trusted when it comes to recommendations of visual media.

** I already did a theme vid rec for this, so I suppose what I'm doing now is wrong by some definition. Oh, that's right; it's my definition, and I can change it. So after you read "Island Life," go watch "Pretty Angry," by barkley, which can be found at her vid site. And, yes, there's a password thingy, but surely every person reading this has read Snow Crash, right? So no worries. (And if not, why not?) The point of watching the vid after reading the FF is that they deal with the same topic. Except that the story makes things the way they should have been, and the vid shows the way things really were. This, for me, is a fundamental difference between vids and FF. Although I imagine I will feel differently once I learn to understand the complex wonder of "created reality" vids, which right now for me translate, 99% of the time, into "random assemblage of clips" vids.