recs and links

Brief, lovely look at Julie Taylor and three moments she was awesome.

Oh, Fred. Oh, George.... Professor McGonagall did not see the ghost until more than a year after his first appearance. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared, horrified, as he came drifting past. / "It can't be," she whispered, voice low and rough with grief and disbelief.

She was wading through paperwork and discharge formalities when Simon’s surgeon approached, bowed over her hand, asked if he might be permitted to book some of her time. He was polite, respectable, well groomed. Alliance. The revulsion she felt, the rage, was overwhelming. She put a pretty smile on her rejection, a well-trained silver tongue. He left feeling he’d been paid a better compliment than if she’d accepted. She swallowed bile as he walked away. Inara, making her choices, in the aftermath of Miranda. Lovely.

In the afternoons, Lucy usually took care of what Peter called "handwriting practice" and she called bumf. Susan didn't like that. It was not an activity she enjoyed, but between Peter galloping off to parts unknown and Su being gracious and Ed sitting in court, they all said they didn't have the time to do any paperwork. Hmph. Lucy plonked herself down at her desk and attacked her list of Things to Do. A day in the life of the Pevensies, kings and queens of Narnias. Lovely.

This is a discussion among participants in these debates, primarily fans of color, about how discussions about race and fandom have shaped their experiences and politics, and of what the emerging movements mean for fandom and antiracism. The conversations took place informally at WisCon (http://www.wiscon.info) and have been transcribed, edited, and supplemented by e-mail discussion afterward.

Ten wonderful little slices of life with the Middleman and Wendy.

Wendy comes home in bad shape, and Lacey decides she and the Middleman need to talk. Lovely.

Dean sighed, and did exactly what he'd been doing since Sam was seven and huffing because Dean was telling him it was bedtime. He caved. He did his level best to look innocent as he stepped on Sam's toes on the way to the door, though. Sam and Dean stop for waffles. Hilarity ensues.

Utterly lovely story in which Sam and Dean take a break after the apocalypse (written post s4/pre s5) and slowly fall towards each other. (Wincest)

I tried, you want to say. I tried everything I could, and nothing worked. But you can see it in his eyes: you didn't try hard enough. You just failed, all over again. After that, you suck Ruby's blood like a fucking vampire, and you don't care. This time you won't fail. This time you'll save him. You'll save the world. Absolutely heartbreaking look at Sam, post 4.22. The second person POV really works here.

Interesting story that casts Ruby and Azazel as Sam's shadow parents, watching over him and waiting for him to come into his own. Especially chilling are Azazel's reasons for leaving him with John.

That was twice now that Zachariah had tried to reduce Dean into an eating-and-fucking golem, a mindless beast that could be controlled with fresh meat and other, more delectable flesh. / Zachariah hadn't counted on his little helper, his mud-monkey, his weapon of choice having a memory, or at least fragments of one that he could slide together to stay whole, stay strong, even after his descent into hell, where he was harrowed for longer than he'd been alive. / And Dean remembered. Maybe not everything, maybe not always clearly, but that simply meant he was human. Sam, Dean, Castiel and bumper cars. Adorable.

There are black people everywhere in this country, and even setting your show in, say, the pacific northwest really isn’t much of an excuse, but I find it mind-boggling to watch episode after episode where Sam and Dean drive through a landscape of such exquisitely evoked Americana…except without the black folk. It’s like some sort of freaky horror movie. Not the kind you were going for? Then let’s talk. Because it’s not just the black women. [...] Because you have some black men on the show. They have major roles across multiple episodes. They engage the plots, have multiple interactions with all sorts of people and have as much of an emotional life as any other non-Winchester character does. But there’s a problem. A big one, really, and this has to do with the space in the story that these black men occupy. Because every single time they are tragically evil, and they are killed off to add to the emotional angst of your white leads. (utsusemia on LJ)

"Jim. I do know why you did what you did for the Kobayashi Maru, now. It is why I do not think you cheated. You passed your first time, for the record. It was an acceptable mark, and as the Kobayashi Maru is a pass/fail exercise, you were not able to improve upon it for purposes of your transcript. It is why I should have realized earlier that you were...attempting to achieve something else, when you insisted on retaking it." Achingly lovely look at the crew, mourning, from Spock's POV.

hee!

The problem with living in a building filled with other young, photogenic artists was, Wendy knew, that idealistic rebel very easily devolved into pretentious jerkwad. Lovely slice of Wendy/Lacey. Sigh.

Their first proper prank had taken place in their fourth month of school. Remus considered it proper because it had been a collective effort and marginally successful. It had also been a premeditated attack, rather than a random act brought on by boredom, circumstance, and Sirius' chronic inability to behave normally. On that landmark occasion, Remus had learned three rather important things: Sirius was madder than a cupboard full of Jarveys, James' sense of adventure was really just a death wish in a nice set of robes, and no good could possibly come from messing with two bags of itching powder, a breeding pair of Bowtruckles, and an impossibly large brassiere in the same afternoon. SO FREAKING AWESOME AND HILARIOUS! Totally nails James & Sirius's gleeful anarchy, and Remus & Peter's slightly stealthier penchant for mischief. I love the running gags that are never explained, and the many and varied descriptions of James's hair. *hearts*

Sometimes, Gus daydreams about having a new best friend. Most of the time, he can comfort himself from the trials of Life as Shawn Spencer's Best Friend with thoughts of a tell-all book, or by planning a trip to Vegas where they don't nearly get their kneecaps broken. When it gets tough, he just thinks about how popular his blog would be if he started telling all of Shawn's secrets, like how he's read all the Twilight books, and kind of thinks Robert Pattinson is dreamy. ♥ Gus/Shawn FTW!

This was written over the month of August for and it takes place the summer before the Marauders' final year at Hogwarts. Sirius gets disinherited, Dumbledore is missing, and MWPP+Lily go on a quest to find him, and have adventures along the way. With many lovely Remus/Sirius and James/Lily moments. (This links to the last part, which has links to all previous parts at the top.)

Ridiculously hot, porny Max/Alec heatfic. Awesome.

Adorable Parker/Hardison/Eliot story.

eee! a cover for me! by . ♥

"I am trapped in your apartment, I have no shoes, and I have the worst hangover I've had since college. I'm stealing eight pairs of your socks." There's a snowstorm, the power goes out, and Dana, Dan and Casey end up in bed together. Adorable and hilarious and very them. *heart*

In the aftermath of 4.22, Sam starts seeing dead people. Well, more than usual. Dean tries to deal. Lovely bit of reconciliation between them. Also, I really like Sam hanging out with Chuck.

How Eliot Spencer got his name. Lovely SPN/Leverage crossover with wee!Eliot encountering the Winchesters.

Highly enjoyable SPN/CM crossover in which the Winchesters and the BAU investigate the same case. "Anybody else, I'd say we were dealing with copycats or just a huge coincidence. But those guys escaped custody at least twice that I know of, and Dean Winchester's already faked his own death once before." / "There wasn't much left to find after that explosion in Colorado." Hotch folded his arms across his chest, somehow managed to look even more serious than usual. "You think they engineered the whole thing and escaped again?" / Morgan shrugged. "Possible." / "Well," Reid said with a laugh, "at least we can be sure they weren't resurrected."

Fantastic SPN/VMars crossover. Missouri sends Sam and Dean to Neptune to stop a zombie uprising. They fall in with Veronica and Logan and the rest of the Neptune crew. Really well done blending of the two verses, drawing the parallels neatly without hitting the reader over the head with them. I enjoyed this a lot.

Hee! Adorable GO/SPN crossover in which Dean takes Sam to London and they have a run-in with a more congenial angel-demon pair.