Sam/Dean, RPS: Cockles & J2, White Collar X-over, AU, Gen, Destiel
Hi, guys! I'm going to be one of yr guest rec'ers for the month of June. I thought about what kind of rec themes I could offer, and then I realized I could very well recommend my favorite fics from my reading lists, so that's what I'm going to do.
These are some of my faves from my Winter and Spring reading lists:
Title: And They Cry to See Your Face Author: honeylocusttree Pairing: Gen Rating: R Length: Shortish Warnings: Gore, language, violence. Comments: awesome fic is awesome. lot of commenters focused on how bamf the Winchesters are here, but I just felt the bitterness of their situation. even while they were risking their lives, shortening their years from the stress alone, they're still feared/hated/misunderstood. I particularly adored the outside pov on Standford!Sam, who in a way died pinned to that apartment ceiling as surely as Jess.
Title: Flaws Upon Your Sleeve Author: glassyskies Pairing: Misha/Jensen Rating: PG-13 Length: Long Warnings: mentions of Domesic Abuse Comments: This is a WIP, but it's so awesome I've got to recommend it regardless. I think that with a writer like Cassandra, the best way to recommend her is to quote her. So here, a quote:
Between the tangle of soft, hesitant tongue and the worry of boozy breath, Misha imagines, hopes, that Jensen wants to say made for me. He doubts it. But Misha is in the business of telling stories.
He likes the quietness of a good lie, someone else’s love story, resting in his mouth. He allows himself to hold onto it just long enough that he thinks maybe it’s not all lies. Maybe this is my story.
Title: Redefinition Author: whereupon Pairing: Sam/Dean Rating: PG-13 Length: 7,900 words. Note: First Season Comments: This fic is an oldie but goodie, and I have to recommend it because gives one of the most gorgeous meanings of love I've ever read.
Love according to Whereupon's Dean: Love is staying up all night and pretending not to look at the clock the whole time, waiting for somebody to get home, like keeping vigil ever made a damn bit of difference; love is pulling the trigger again and again until it feels like your arm is going to break, so that when it isn't practice, when it's real, you won't miss. Love is going hungry so that somebody else can eat, and love is telling lies so that somebody else can sleep, and love is wanting a better life for somebody else. Love is the ashes-and-whiskey, gut-punched feeling when they finally get it, and love is not asking them to turn it down, and love is feeling like a fucking asshole for being even just a little happy when they come back.
Title: Unorthodox Methods Author: captanddeastar Pairing:Neal/Peter, background Peter/Elizabeth, Sam/Jess Rating: PG-13 Length: 3,000 Note: You can hear the podfic here. Comments: Peter pov fic, where Peter is jealous of probie!Sam&Neal, when he really really doesn't have to be. In this fic, El is as fabulous as always and Peter is hilariously insecure. Sam? Sam is a Neal fanboy. A gloriously poignant/funny fic where the Peter/Neal is lovely and Sam&Dean love (though Dean is mostly absent) is epic and beautiful.
Title: My Charade is the Event of The Season Author: princess_aleera Pairing: echos of Destiel Rating: PG Length: Short Warnings: Crack? Descriptions of icky stuff. Comments: Here we see a Dean who is so effed up by his own hallucinations that he doesn't see what's the big deal with Sam having Lucifer roaming about in his mind. The Cast in Dean's head comprises of Gabriel, Jo, Bobby and of course Post-Leviathan!Cas, black oozing gunk and all. The fic is supposed to be cracky, but idek. It was cracky in the way that a fic about a guy self-medicating by way of hard alcohol and losing his mind can be.
Fandom: CW RPS Title: Threatening the lives we belong to Author: gigantic Pairing: j2 Rating: M for realistic. Length: Short Warnings: Infidelity, lack of moral at the end of the story type thinger (though maybe I should have put them in "incentives" instead of "warnings"? because DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO THINK/FEEL/DO). Comments: *Old fic* Imo, fanfics are always better when the author doesn't tell you how to take anything. Just puts it out there and then you can judge or not judge or whatever. In this one the boys have a lot of feelings, but they don't talk about the ~feels or about teh sex. Some of the of the commenters said that it felt "manly" to them. I don't know if it was manliness as much as avoidance. You can see the affection and the sweetness right in the spaces where inability/unwillingness to say anything is specially loud. 'Cause love is there, but so is betrayal. Reading this fic was like reading about two boys playing at the beach, running around, with a broken bottle superficially buried just steps away, the story ending just before one of them steps on it.
Title: Neon Showman Author: bertee Pairing: j2 Rating: M for Mayhem Length: Long Warnings: *by the author* Language, Chad, sexual references, more Chad Comments: This fic works if you forget IRL!Chad* and embrace the charming and harmless moral decrepitude that is a fanfic!Chad who can't find it in his shallow soul to believe in fidelity, but who has the innocence to believe in his bff's right to happiness and never even thinks of judging. The comic timing in this fic is amazeballs, and yet so is the love and affection (that is often subsumed in comedies where the lulz deflect ~the feels). Lovely funny fic you should reserve for a bad day.
Title: Everything with Wings is Restless Author: oddishly Pairing: Sam/Dean Rating: Mature for charmingly bizarre Length: Long Warnings: Cross-dressing? Comments: So when I saw that this fic was inspired by "The Illusionist" I was like OH LORD NO, WHY DID I CHOOSE TO READ IT?!?!? No, not bc I hate that film, but because I love it and usually when I read fics inspired by movies they almost never as good as the movies and almost never as good as the writer's other fics. Instead of adding to the fic, it tends to take away. I don't know if it's that usually the author's energy dissipates when they try to recreate the film, but in this case I think the fic-writer did a wise thing and just let the film act like a muse, not as a blue-print. The result is that magic substitutes the supernatural, and the boys are illusionists not hunters, but there's no weight of Sophie and Edward and the Ottoman Empire, just clever echos created by the writer's quirky style. Plus, magical realism (which I love) bc we're never sure whether the magic is real or not, but that's rly not the point. Lovely, charming writing by a newish spn writer. <3
These are some of my faves from my Winter and Spring reading lists:
Title: And They Cry to See Your Face Author: honeylocusttree Pairing: Gen Rating: R Length: Shortish Warnings: Gore, language, violence. Comments: awesome fic is awesome. lot of commenters focused on how bamf the Winchesters are here, but I just felt the bitterness of their situation. even while they were risking their lives, shortening their years from the stress alone, they're still feared/hated/misunderstood. I particularly adored the outside pov on Standford!Sam, who in a way died pinned to that apartment ceiling as surely as Jess.
Title: Flaws Upon Your Sleeve Author: glassyskies Pairing: Misha/Jensen Rating: PG-13 Length: Long Warnings: mentions of Domesic Abuse Comments: This is a WIP, but it's so awesome I've got to recommend it regardless. I think that with a writer like Cassandra, the best way to recommend her is to quote her. So here, a quote:
Between the tangle of soft, hesitant tongue and the worry of boozy breath, Misha imagines, hopes, that Jensen wants to say made for me. He doubts it. But Misha is in the business of telling stories.
He likes the quietness of a good lie, someone else’s love story, resting in his mouth. He allows himself to hold onto it just long enough that he thinks maybe it’s not all lies. Maybe this is my story.
Title: Redefinition Author: whereupon Pairing: Sam/Dean Rating: PG-13 Length: 7,900 words. Note: First Season Comments: This fic is an oldie but goodie, and I have to recommend it because gives one of the most gorgeous meanings of love I've ever read.
Love according to Whereupon's Dean: Love is staying up all night and pretending not to look at the clock the whole time, waiting for somebody to get home, like keeping vigil ever made a damn bit of difference; love is pulling the trigger again and again until it feels like your arm is going to break, so that when it isn't practice, when it's real, you won't miss. Love is going hungry so that somebody else can eat, and love is telling lies so that somebody else can sleep, and love is wanting a better life for somebody else. Love is the ashes-and-whiskey, gut-punched feeling when they finally get it, and love is not asking them to turn it down, and love is feeling like a fucking asshole for being even just a little happy when they come back.
Title: Unorthodox Methods Author: captanddeastar Pairing:Neal/Peter, background Peter/Elizabeth, Sam/Jess Rating: PG-13 Length: 3,000 Note: You can hear the podfic here. Comments: Peter pov fic, where Peter is jealous of probie!Sam&Neal, when he really really doesn't have to be. In this fic, El is as fabulous as always and Peter is hilariously insecure. Sam? Sam is a Neal fanboy. A gloriously poignant/funny fic where the Peter/Neal is lovely and Sam&Dean love (though Dean is mostly absent) is epic and beautiful.
Title: My Charade is the Event of The Season Author: princess_aleera Pairing: echos of Destiel Rating: PG Length: Short Warnings: Crack? Descriptions of icky stuff. Comments: Here we see a Dean who is so effed up by his own hallucinations that he doesn't see what's the big deal with Sam having Lucifer roaming about in his mind. The Cast in Dean's head comprises of Gabriel, Jo, Bobby and of course Post-Leviathan!Cas, black oozing gunk and all. The fic is supposed to be cracky, but idek. It was cracky in the way that a fic about a guy self-medicating by way of hard alcohol and losing his mind can be.
Fandom: CW RPS Title: Threatening the lives we belong to Author: gigantic Pairing: j2 Rating: M for realistic. Length: Short Warnings: Infidelity, lack of moral at the end of the story type thinger (though maybe I should have put them in "incentives" instead of "warnings"? because DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO THINK/FEEL/DO). Comments: *Old fic* Imo, fanfics are always better when the author doesn't tell you how to take anything. Just puts it out there and then you can judge or not judge or whatever. In this one the boys have a lot of feelings, but they don't talk about the ~feels or about teh sex. Some of the of the commenters said that it felt "manly" to them. I don't know if it was manliness as much as avoidance. You can see the affection and the sweetness right in the spaces where inability/unwillingness to say anything is specially loud. 'Cause love is there, but so is betrayal. Reading this fic was like reading about two boys playing at the beach, running around, with a broken bottle superficially buried just steps away, the story ending just before one of them steps on it.
Title: Neon Showman Author: bertee Pairing: j2 Rating: M for Mayhem Length: Long Warnings: *by the author* Language, Chad, sexual references, more Chad Comments: This fic works if you forget IRL!Chad* and embrace the charming and harmless moral decrepitude that is a fanfic!Chad who can't find it in his shallow soul to believe in fidelity, but who has the innocence to believe in his bff's right to happiness and never even thinks of judging. The comic timing in this fic is amazeballs, and yet so is the love and affection (that is often subsumed in comedies where the lulz deflect ~the feels). Lovely funny fic you should reserve for a bad day.
Title: Everything with Wings is Restless Author: oddishly Pairing: Sam/Dean Rating: Mature for charmingly bizarre Length: Long Warnings: Cross-dressing? Comments: So when I saw that this fic was inspired by "The Illusionist" I was like OH LORD NO, WHY DID I CHOOSE TO READ IT?!?!? No, not bc I hate that film, but because I love it and usually when I read fics inspired by movies they almost never as good as the movies and almost never as good as the writer's other fics. Instead of adding to the fic, it tends to take away. I don't know if it's that usually the author's energy dissipates when they try to recreate the film, but in this case I think the fic-writer did a wise thing and just let the film act like a muse, not as a blue-print. The result is that magic substitutes the supernatural, and the boys are illusionists not hunters, but there's no weight of Sophie and Edward and the Ottoman Empire, just clever echos created by the writer's quirky style. Plus, magical realism (which I love) bc we're never sure whether the magic is real or not, but that's rly not the point. Lovely, charming writing by a newish spn writer. <3