170: Rich and Rare

[thefourthvine]

Lately I have been assembling recs sets, clicking on links, and staring gloomily in dismay when I realize one of them is now friends-locked. Curse you, LJ Strikethrough!

Anyway. It's apparently been making me all slumped and possibly even emo, which eventually led to this conversation:

Me: Alas, my latest potential set also has an unlinkable story.
BB, looking worried: ...Did you just say 'alas'?
Me, swooning dramatically: ALACK. WOE.
BB: Okay, this needs to end right now.
Me: *dons black turtleneck, begins soliloquy to handy skull*
BB, wearing the "placating the crazy person" expression I know so well: Look, why don't you do a small fandoms set? They can all be from Yuletide, and that won't be friends-locked.
Me: YES YAY NO MORE TURTLENECK.
BB: Thank god. You were depressing the dogs.

(Note: for the record, I don't think I was actually depressing the dogs; any downness that can be cured with a can of fishy glop is not true depression.)

Best Beloved was absolutely right, on all scores. I don't recommend small fandoms nearly enough, as proven by the agony I experienced whittling this set down from the original short list of eleven (to give you some idea, the usual short list has four stories on it; I don't usually keep looking after I've already found what I want). And I didn't actually succeed in getting all the way down to four, either. Um. One to grow on?

I had so many possible stories to recommend - and so much difficulty with the winnowing process - because small fandoms just make me deeply giddy. (Pretty much all fan fiction makes me giddy, yes. It may be that I need to take more deep breaths, yes. But we're focusing on just the small-fandom-related giddiness here, thanks.)

Don't get me wrong - I love love love seeing what big fandoms do. It is, for example, delightful to see the way ideas spread, mutate, mate, and eventually give birth to crazed AUs in which Rodney is a salmon and John is a Viking. (Note: because my imagination failed to come up with an AU concept crazy enough that I could be sure it hadn't been done - god, fandom, I love you so much - those words were selected via random URL generator. I know of no actual salmon/Viking AUs, so please do not head over to sgastoryfinders and ask for the link. And be grateful I didn't use the randomly-generated AU involving John as no-bake Kahlua Christmas balls; that could only have ended badly.)

But with small fandoms - especially really small fandoms - you just have the pure essence of fan fiction: one writer, one source, mano a mano. It's like boxing. Only, you know, with a lot less risk of permanent brain damage.

So, here we have the results of five writer-on-canon bouts that the writer definitely won. And, oh, thank you, small fandom writers (and Yuletide mods): you have restored my will to recommend! (And lifted the cloud of gloom which I was apparently bringing into the household, so Best Beloved thanks you, too.)

The One That Features Sex with Gazelles. Well. Okay. Really, It Just Mentions Sex with Gazelles, but It's Not Like You Wanted to Know the Details, Am I Right? In the House of Dust, by kindkit. Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh/Enkidu.

I still remember reading this story during the Annual Yuletide Glut. (You know. The thing where you wake up on New Year's Eve with only a vague memory of where you've been and what you've been doing, a serious headache, a suspicion that some members of your family are probably mad at you, and a conviction that a whole bunch of people recently had sex right near you. And you totally haven't been drinking.) My mouth dropped open, my heart exploded, and I fled to the comments page and left incoherent feedback. (All Yuletide feedback is incoherent, I find, especially after the first dozen or so stories. Someone needs to do a study on the mind-altering affects of Yuletide, seriously.)

And, see, as it happens, I am a hardcore Gilgamesh/Enkidu shipper. (As far as I can tell, so were the original authors of the Epic of Gilgamesh. B.C. slashers for the win!) But you don't need to be - you don't even need to know who Gilgamesh is - to read this story, because kindkit tells you everything you need to know in the story notes. (Note that you will be spoiled for the story of Gilgamesh by reading this. But, frankly, the thing's been around for more than two millennia; I think the spoiler space is way over the horizon on that one.)

What's it about? Well, I'm going to try to avoid going all literary analysis (I think that's one of those things you're not supposed to try at home, right?) on you, here, but: clay! Writing! Immortality! And the not-so-much immortality! There are so many lines on this one that make me want to scamper around in circles until I collapse in a delighted heap, but I'm not going to quote them. Instead, I'm going to say: get you to this story. It is gorgeous and perfect and filled with much deeper thoughts than I ever manage to think. (Also: Enkidu/Gilgamesh OTP SQUEEEEE!*)

The One That Makes Me Wonder If Maybe My Car Is Cheating on Me. Screenwriter's Blues, by minim_calibre. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Neil Patrick Harris/Toyota Camry, Neil Patrick Harris/pretty much the whole world, Harold Lee/Kumar Patel.

Do I need to explain to you why you need to read this? Not if you've been paying attention. I mean, it's the adventures of Neil Patrick Harris and his stolen gay love interest, who is a car. And there are strippers.

...And, okay, I need to interrupt this story summary for an announcement: NEIL PATRICK HARRIS IS A REAL PERSON. I went to check IMDb to see if got the names right, and the credit for "Neil Patrick Harris" was, well, Neil Patrick Harris. He was playing himself in this movie! Okay. Okay, probably you all knew that. But why didn't you tell me? (Best Beloved says he also came out recently. Where the fuck have I been?) If I had known this, it would've added a whole new layer to my nuanced understanding of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (which currently stands at "Bad shit happens to some stoned hungry guys. Hee!").

Of course, knowing that Neil Patrick Harris was not just some guy they made up for the movie would've probably prevented me from reading this story; apparently my celebrity squick doesn't work retroactively, though, because I am still totally in love with this. Because, come on: it is about a guy and his car. (Actually, someone else's car, but the heart wants what it wants.) It is about true love. And it, all by itself, is a perfect justification of the use of second person narration in fiction. What more do you want? (Also: REAL PERSON OMG.)

The One in Which Character Death Is a First Principle. The End and Other Stories, by kaneko. Dead Like Me, Rube Sofer/Mason McAdam.

Okay. I don't know this fandom at all. (I know there's a dead girl, but that can be said about so many fandoms. Although I think usually dead girls in other fandoms don't have quite the same inclination toward sarcasm, nor are they usually as active.) But I adore this story. The pairing is actually kind of a secondary thing for me, here; I love the world this story is set in, the characters, the whole concept (a crisis in the world of the dead, which seems, as portrayed here, to be a lot like life, except the jobs are shittier and your extracurricular obligations involve touching other people's souls in a way Barbara Cartland would never write about). This whole thing is - it's just really fun. I dug up the link recently, to recommend it to someone (who, as a reward, informed me that the main character of this show is killed by a toilet seat), and I was compelled to re-read the whole thing, because it makes me smile that much.

And I'm not sure why, really. This should be a sad story in a sad fandom, and instead it's funny and mostly light, with interludes of stress and cooking and sex and just the faintest hint of tragedy. Perfect, really. And I'm not going to go for the obvious thing here ("just like life" blah blah blah "deeper meaning" blah); I'm just going to say that this is a death story that makes me very happy. (Also: Wow, is there a worse way to go than getting killed by a toilet seat? I would not want to have to write the eulogy for that one, let me tell you.)

The One That Proves That My Childhood Wish to Live in a House with Secret Passages and Rooms and Dungeons Would Probably Not Have Worked out All That Well in Reality. Oh, the Pain of Disillusionment. A Maze of Twisty Passages, All Alike, by Merry, aka merryish. Vorkosigan series, gen.

You know, it occurs to me that it's kind of strange that the Vorkosigan series is a small fandom, since it seems like 75% of all fans have read at least a few of the books. (Which is a good thing, because you need to know at least some of the universe for this story to work for you. It's also a very right thing, because in many ways I think Bujold would write even better fan fiction than she does novels, but that's a whole other deal.) But when the stories that exist are as good as this one, it kind of makes up for it, you know?

One of the things that's weird about small fandoms for me is - okay. I enjoy stories about minor characters in large fandoms, but not immensely. But in small fandoms, I really love stories about the supporting cast. It's almost as though stories in really small fandoms are more like remixes (in the Remix challenge sense; I don't mean derivative, not at all) of the canon than traditional-style fan fiction - they're recutting and refining and switching up the points of view and revealing the other side of the canvas and just generally revealing the canon.

So my point is, this is a Vorkosigan story that is not really about Miles. Oh, Miles still causes the problem - Miles is the epicenter of trouble in the Vorkosigan universe - but Ivan and Gregor deal with it. How awesome is that? Ivan gets to reveal unexpected competencies, and Gregor gets to reveal unexpected skills, and they work pretty well as a team, and it's just way cool.

Also, it's funny. There's disappearing corpses and head injuries and clubbing first, asking questions later, and while that would not precisely be a recipe for happiness in real life (for one thing, I like my real life to be as corpse-free as possible, even if the corpses do choose to stay put), it is totally a recipe for joy in the Vorkosigan universe. (Also: No one says "That idiot Ivan" even once. I didn't know you could do that!)

The One That Will, Guaranteed, Make You Never Want to Look at, Let Alone Eat, Fruit-Flavored Ice Cream Toppings Ever Again. Second Verse, Not Exactly the Same As the First, by julad. Askewniverse, Dante Hicks/Randal Graves (and Jay/Silent Bob).

I remember seeing Clerks for the first time; at the end, I said to Best Beloved, "I think Dante should've ended up with Randal." So what if I had to wait a decade? I got the ending I wanted, and here it is.

Oh, sure, there's plot in this story (as much as there was in the movie, anyway), and there's banter, and there's humor, and, you know, all kinds of good stuff. Wheeee! But the really crucial point, the one I keep coming back to, is: YAY OMG I GOT THE ENDING I WANTED. (Capslock of glee totally necessary to convey the headiness of my emotion.)

And, I mean - I can't really say anything more about the story. If you watched the movie and you're a slasher at all, you'll want to read this, and if you like humor you'll probably want to read it no matter what, and if neither of those categories applies to you, let me know and I'll rec you something as a substitute. There you go.

So instead I'm going to talk about one of the weird aspects of small fandoms, which is that sometimes a story will basically close out a small fandom for me. I finish reading the story, and instead of thinking more more more, as I typically do with great stories, I just sort of sigh happily: Perfect. Done now. (Not literally done, of course; I typically scroll right back up and re-read the story immediately. But replete, if you see what I mean: totally satisfied, because with the addition of this story, the canon feels complete to me.) Resonant's Higher Education is one example of that kind of story. And this one is another. I've read other stories in this fandom, and I'm sure I will again, but the Clerks canon became complete for me the minute I finished this story.

(In other words: I GOT THE ENDING I WANTED OMG YAY!)

-Footnote-

* I have just had my brain flattened by what is possibly the worst crossover idea of all time: Gilgamesh x Highlander. No, seriously - what if he kept the immortality flower and started the whole there-can-be-only-one thing off? I, I am just so very tempted, and - please, someone please convince me it is a terrible idea to write this crossover of badness (featuring a fandom I don't even know). Very very quickly. (Or, ideally, link me to where it's already been written. Surely it's already been written?) Fannish intervention! Stat! This is my cry for help!

Comments

[ratcreature]

I loved that Dead Like Me story, and you should watch that show, it is awesome and funny.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Well, sometime in the next eon, it should crop up on our Netflix queue, and then Best Beloved will watch it; if she likes it enough, maybe I will, too. But I have - you know, a worry that it won't live up to the story. That's always the problem with my fan-fiction-first approach to TV; a lot of times, the FF is better than the show itself.

[tevere.livejournal.com]

This should be a sad story in a sad fandom

And that was the genius of the show itself, I think: it managed to tread a line between the sadness of the theme (a sadness that could be both wistful and absolutely shattering), hope and genuine joyousness. It walked that line perfectly for two perfect seasons, and oh! it's still the only show that raises the hairs on my arms, makes me cry, and makes me wonder and hope all at the same time. And that's the genius of kaneko's story, too: that she can capture that tone. For me, at least, the best 'Dead Like Me' stories transcend pairings. I'm in love with the world, the characters, the concept, baby! *g*

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Wow, does everyone like Dead Like Me? I'm starting to think I should inch it up in our Netflix queue.

It's definitely a lovely concept (from the little I know about it), and I can see that it could be fabulous if done well.

For me, at least, the best 'Dead Like Me' stories transcend pairings.

Ooo! Do you by any chance have recs of other Dead Like Me stories? This is the only one I've read, I think.

[pentapus.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* I know a long, multi-volume epic in which Methos is Enkidu. But I don't think Gilgamesh sticks around, so. Really, your idea is still free.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

*hopeful look*

Do you have a link, by any chance?

Really, your idea is still free.

No! It's totally fine that it's not! Really really fine, because if there's any story I shouldn't write even more than the SGA x HL I'm currently working on much against my own better judgment, it's the *Gilgamesh* x HL one.

[vickita.livejournal.com]

Re: Neil Patrick Harris, not only is he a real person, who did, in fact, come out here a while back, he also played the Emcee in a production of Cabaret, and dude, he looked like this (http://www.playbill.com/news/article/77194.html).

Holy cow.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

Neil Patrick Harris is clearly a man of depths.

...And now I'm wondering if minim_calibre knew he was gay when she wrote Screenwriter's Blues. Either way, she's a person of great genius, of course.

[marag.livejournal.com]

::happy sigh:: There are not enough good things to say about "A Maze of Twisty..." I'm pretty sure I left incoherent feedback amounting to "Yes! Yes! That's it! Squee!" when I first read it :)

That story captures the characters so perfectly and, well, I'm always a sucker for a good Ivan story.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

There are not enough good things to say about "A Maze of Twisty..."

Oh, god, I know, and the thing is, I totally resisted reading it for the longest time, and now I cannot recollect why. I mystify myself sometimes.

That story captures the characters so perfectly and, well, I'm always a sucker for a good Ivan story.

It so perfectly does. And I, myself, am always a sucker for a good Gregor story; I believe I loved The Vor Game so much simply because it was Gregor out of the Emperor's shackles, if that makes sense. (As well as being a sucker for an Ivan story, of course.) Although it's been interesting to see Gregor grow into the shackles to a certain extent over time.

[apetslife.livejournal.com]

Heeee. Oh, HEE. Merry's Vorkosigan story is one of my favorites of ALL TIME.

I can't believe no one said "that idiot Ivan" either. I mean, like Miles said, he grew up thinking that "Ivan" was the guy's middle name.

Heeeee.

Awesome recs list. Love the Gilgamesh/Enkidu one, too. And your description of the Yuletide hangover? Yeah, been there, done that. *wince*

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Merry's Vorkosigan story is one of my favorites of ALL TIME.

*nods vehemently*

It is awesome beyond description. Well, beyond my descriptive powers, anyway.

And your description of the Yuletide hangover? Yeah, been there, done that. *wince*

The Yuletide Glut and its associated hangover are clearly part of our traditional native folkways. Obviously, we should all get that week off for reasons of culture.

[melpemone.livejournal.com]

I've never actually remembered to go looking, but the fact that there is Clerks slash has made me the happiest girl in the world right now. Thanks bunches for the rec. :-)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. I was starting to think this was a set that everyone had read all of, which is, you know, always a worry when you're as slow with the recommendations as I am. But no! You had missed out on the Clerks FF, which is a tragedy. And now you know!

*very pleased*

[tingler.livejournal.com]

Damn.

So far I've managed to avoid getting sucked in the "Dead Like Me" zone, even with it being shown on Sci-Fi and people watching it right in my house, but I think I just lost my next-to-last finger-grip.

And...::blinkblink::

You've never seen *"Highlander"*?!!

But--but...*Duncan*! And *METHOS*!! (And Joe and Amanda and, and, SWORDS!!)

And Merry has written some *awesome* Highlander, too.
http://www.anyroad.org/merry/dmfanfic.html

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

So far I've managed to avoid getting sucked in the "Dead Like Me" zone, even with it being shown on Sci-Fi and people watching it right in my house, but I think I just lost my next-to-last finger-grip.

*smug*

I'm pretty sure I should be apologizing for this, but really, my impulse is to figure out what I can do that might cause you to lift that pinky.

You've never seen *"Highlander"*?!!

Well. I've seen three episodes. Or parts of three episodes. I don't think that really qualifies me to write in the fandom, you know? NOT THAT THAT APPEARS TO BE STOPPING ME, damn it, at least with the SGA x HL Story of Shame.

...Ooo. Merryfic. *clicks*

[saffronhouse.livejournal.com]

Oh, joy joy joy -- a morning of wonderful trafing to start Sunday. Thank you!

[saffronhouse.livejournal.com]

wow, that should be wonderful reading, obviously. Apparently I was briefly abducted by aliens mid-comment.

[fearlessdiva.livejournal.com]

I don't know why there isn't more Vorkosigan fic in this world, particularly slash. There are those two long epic Gregor/Miles novels by E.E. Beck and Sahiya (A Deeper Season http://lookingglass.thelightgetsin.com/ads01.html and What Passing Bells http://lookingglass.thelightgetsin.com/wpb01.html) which I enjoyed and I've read Merry's and one or two other random ones, but it just doesn't seem right that that's all there is, especially now that Lois isn't writing Vorkosigan anymore.

Btw, Lois got her start writing Star Trek fic back in the day of mimeographed zines, so that probably accounts for the fanficish feel that you picked up, which I think is probably the character-centered-ness of her books.

I like the fantasy books she's writing now, but I have to admit that I don't enjoy them as much as I did Vorkosigan.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

ooh, I didn't know about What Passing Bells.

*clicky*

I did love A Deeper Season, despite my abiding love for Ekaterin....

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

You know that Shards of Honor actually is fanfic, right? It started off as a fic written about a Klingon and a Federation officer before she filed the serial numbers off and published it. Eventually of course the series grew far, far beyond that; but that's how it started.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

See, I had heard that, but only as, you know, unsourced rumor. I take it's true? It makes a ton of sense; I read Shards of Honor long before fandom, and I was like, "Something is odd about this book." And then, later on, I re-read it and realized that it read like fan fiction, more than any of her other work (well, her Vorkosigan work - The Sharing Knife is really, really heavily in the romance-focused FF tradition, I think).

[norah.livejournal.com]

HI I LIKE YOU.

♥

That is all.

xoxo

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

HIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI!

*pounce*

I miss you.

<3! (Initially mistyped as <3~, and I'm trying to figure out what that would be. Heart on a string?)

[darkluna.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thank you for that Clerks rec! That's going to be how it ends in my little mind from now on. (Much like I have convinced myself that Darth Mary Sue comes and picks up the halves of Darth Maul at the end of Phantom Menace, dang it.)

I've never seen Harold & Kumar, but that story rocked too.

I am not the person to talk anyone down from crazy crossovers. One of my current fic projects started when I saw the Fullmetal Alchemist movie and said "Hey, what if the Thule Society found out about Narnia?"

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

That's going to be how it ends in my little mind from now on.

So very much yes. Why do you force Julad to do your work for you, Kevin Smith? This is the ending we all deserve!

Much like I have convinced myself that Darth Mary Sue comes and picks up the halves of Darth Maul at the end of Phantom Menace, dang it.

See, now, if I had a Darth Mary Sue character, I'd probably just have her pre-emptively lop George Lucas's head off. But I'm, you know, kind of bitter.

I've never seen Harold & Kumar, but that story rocked too.

It's probably worth seeing Harold & Kumar just so you can more fully appreciate that story, actually. (Also, Harold and Kumar: MFEO!)

One of my current fic projects started when I saw the Fullmetal Alchemist movie and said "Hey, what if the Thule Society found out about Narnia?"

AWESOME.

And maybe you and I should form a cracked-out crossover support group, because I am still patiently waiting for someone to cross FMA with Supernatural.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

You recced my story!!!! *is delighted*

Thanks.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Actually, you caused me no end of torment by writing two small fandom stories that I desperately wanted to put in this set. But I try really hard to avoid recommending the same writer twice in one set, so one of them had to go. It was not an easy choice.

*whimpers pathetically*

(Feel free to make future decisions even more difficult, though. I am totally willing to suffer agonies of indecision because of an excess of wonderful stories.)

[bluevsgrey.livejournal.com]

Okay, what exactly does Askewniverse mean? Stuff that was directed by Kevin Smith? Where does the term come from?

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

It's named for Smith's production company, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_Askewniverse) View Askew.

[neonnurse.livejournal.com]

Some more good and unusual Vorkosiverse crossover fic can be found at http://www.tsnm.shoesforindustry.net/ . I like all of A. J. Hall's stuff, actually, and recommend it highly. The E.H. Smith trilogy this story is riffed off (as a birthday present) is also excellent, but FictionAlley seems to be down, so I can't give that link.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you!

*clicks with joy*

(Also, what is it with archives going down lately? Seems like loads of them are having down time. Is this related to the Yahoobot thing, I wonder?)

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

You're making me read stories when I don't know the canon! I can't decide whether to glare at you or bake for you.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I will totally take cake, thank you.

(And, yes, I suppose I should be sorry, but in fact I am deeply pleased. What would tempt you further down this path? I ask purely out of curiosity, you understand.)

[risha]

Sooo... if I want to maintain any sort of rep with a fanfic reader who loves Gilgamesh/Enkidu slash, I probably shouldn't mention that one of my favorite professional romance authors wrote Gilgamesh vampire het?

It's really good, promise. He spends most of the book missing Enkidu, and bonds with the female lead over her dead BFF.

[aderam.livejournal.com]

Dear lord! Highlander x Gilgamesh?!?!?!?! That sounds so awesome! Now I really want Enkidu to be Methos' teacher. That is such a good idea.

[clayeer.livejournal.com]

wow. dead like me. i'd forgotten how much i loved that show.