Slashy Nominations 37: The Best of Life Is but Intoxication

[thefourthvine]

Today I return to the charming, silly, and extremely redolent world of the drunkfic, in which confessions are made, men are fucked, and there's no regrets until morning. My reasons for using this theme today will become clear with the next Fandoms I Have Loved post; in the meantime, engage in drunken revels with the guys below.

Best FF That Leaves You Wanting to Give a Certain Character a Short but Pertinent Lecture on the Virtues of Knowing One's Ability to Tolerate Alcohol and Not Exceeding One's Limits: First Warning, by Rave, aka dorkorific. Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack/Will. Yet another entry in the long series of stories in which Jack gets Will drunk and we're all very grateful. This one has excellent characterization - I think she's got both voices down very well - and is a bit of a tease. Just the thing to begin with, no?

Best FF Featuring an Excellent Use of the Word "Twee," Not to Mention Some Lovely Archaic British Slang: And When He Falls, by torch, aka flambeau. Good Omens, Crowley/Aziraphale. I would like the record to show that I am still absolutely appalled by the existence of Crowley/Aziraphale. Yes, I am. But I can't help loving stories that contain as many perfect lines as this one. My love affair began when Aziraphale says "billy-o." By the time I read "Aziraphale tasted like all things good and wholesome, and also like claret," I was prepared to marry this fic. Which I suppose would count as a drunken proposal.

Best FF Involving Meditation as a Cure for Hangover: Bacchus Blessings, by Kass. The Sentinel, Jim/Blair. There are definitely downsides to getting drunk. Because waking up with a hangover is bad, yes, but waking up with a hangover and not being sure whether or not you had sex with a friend - that's hell. And it's a hell we've all visited a few times, so why not make a return trip with Blair in the hot seat?

Best FF Featuring the Customer of Every Used Car Salesman's Nightmares: Fall, by Mia. Due South, Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski. Do we want to see Benton Fraser deep in the throes of repression? We do not, for it is scary and involves learning Arabic and running through chicken coops with the chickens' best interests at heart. Do we want to see Benton Fraser drunk? We absolutely do, even though it is scary, because immediately after the girl named Michelle comes the boy named Ray, and a happy ending - and orgasm - is had by all. Yay!

Comments

[acari.livejournal.com]

Rave = dorkorific

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Many thanks. I will update the post.

[(Anonymous)]

Weirdly, I notice that in several of your recent recs, one of the participants "comes in their pants". As in, that's the exact wording, not me being coy. Subconscious thematics?

Also, I'm loving the Crowley/Aziraphale fics. Not so much the slashiness, but the writing.

slempike/blessures

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Huh. I hadn't noticed that, but of course now I'll be unable to avoid noticing it. And if it is indeed subconscious thematics, I don't want to know what it says about me. Some depths are really best left unplumbed.

As for C/A, I know, I know. That's why I cannot stay away from the fandom, try thought I might. The writers in GO so often nail the tone of the book, and the stories are so often well-written and funny and wonderful...I just can't help myself. I must read them. I must nominate them. I must, in certain select cases, build small altars to them and perform rituals before them. (Were you here when I nom'd "Baby Snakes?" 'Cause if you haven't read that, lord, you should.)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yes, I read that, and was duly amazed. First GO fic, and what a place to start! (Typing GO is weird because it's also the abbreviation for a school story list I belong to. Scarily, sometimes the worlds collide...)

I went back and read Good Omens a few days ago. It's a few years since I last read it, and the fics had reminded me of what I loved. I thought that I'd probably notice discrepancies in voice, but that's not the case at all. Obviously it's different, but it's not incongruous. Are there bad GO fics out there? (I fear that the answer is inevitably yes, having seen the horror of fanfiction.net.)

(I just got a journal, thanks to FT threads. May I friend you?)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Friend at will (thanks!), and welcome to LJ. Say goodbye to all your time forever. I hope you didn't have, you know, plans for the next decade or so.

Truly, I've read some GO FF that didn't quite work for me, but it's a far cry from that to bad, and I've never read anything bad in that fandom. (Note to fate and other nasty-minded creatures: this is not a challenge. I don't want to read anything bad in this fandom ever ever ever.) About the worst it's gotten for me so far is meh. Not that I doubt the existence of bad GO FF, mind you; I'm a total believer that anything that can be will be in this frightening online world. But GO is, at least for now, one of my favorite fandoms, and you've put your finger on the reason why.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reccing "Bacchus' Blessings"! Man -- there's one from the vaults. That story feels like I wrote it a zillion years ago. :-) I'm glad it's still being read...

Your recs are smart and snarky and well-written, btw, so I'm adding you to my flist so I can keep up with them. Whee!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I'll second that whee, just on general principles.

As for "Blessings" - hey, from the vaults or not, it's good. And when you think of all the zillions of people who have discovered the wonderful world of online slash since that story was written - well, we're pretty much due for a revival, no?

And you can revel in the knowledge that in FF, you don't have to die to have your work considered classic. (Hell, you don't have to wait as long as it took for us to get to see all three LotR movies, or as long as The Sentinel was producing new episodes. This is pretty much your instant-classic genre, here.)