Uffish Thought

Stories other people should write for me:

1) a White Collar version of Chicago's Most Wanted wherein Neal... or no, wait. Wherein Peter gets amnesia while undercover and runs off to be a criminal mastermind! I want this like burning, people.

2) indulgent NCIS LA AU where Hetty adopted Callen as a child, and he turned out basically the same but much more competent.

3) Nikita and Phil Coulson are locked in a cell together and have to escape. Much dryly sarcastic ass-kicking ensues. (PROOF that this would be fucking awesome)

Which reminds me!

( thoughts about the end of Nikita S1, before I start S2 )

Now I just have to find time to sit down with inmyriadbits and catch up on the newest four eps. *sigh* Hopefully by Friday, so I can watch Nikita and Fringe live. Back-to-back kickass ladies! \o/!

I neglected to do this last month, but in the wake of Delicious's fail!reboot, it seemed time to do some old-fashioned recs.

I often feel like everyone has read everything before me,but as I pointed out to a friend the other day: *I* love reading what others have to say about good stories, even if I've already read them. So hopefully you'll enjoy these!

Best long: Freeport (Gundam Wing)
Confession: I have never seen Gundam Wing. I scanned one primer and googled some images before reading this epic, and I could have even skipped that step, because this story is practically original scifi. AWESOME original scifi. The premise: several years after an interplanetary civil war, two men reluctantly team up to [fight crime] track down a threat to the fragile peace. The setting: a battered former-prison space station full of criminals and outcasts. The characters: two former teenage terrorists who spent most of the war struggling to do the right thing, and being hated and feared by both sides. Wufei is a stiff-necked martial arts expert and former scholar whose entire clan blew themselves up rather than surrender during the war; he now works as a specialized law enforcer and believes in Justice, though he lives thoroughly in shades of grey. Duo is an ex-street rat/thief with survivor's guilt who is cheerful, anti-authority, cocky...and oh yeah, nicknamed the God of Death. They have Major Issues, and are extremely competent.

Loved the casefile, loved the complex worldbuilding, loved the action and the investigation writing; loved the romance and the slow build of character arcs and revealed history and shared ground. The story is very accessible to a newbie, since only 2 of the 5 canon leads appear in 95% of the story and the characters don't know a lot about each other's past, despite having a powerful connection from the war. As in a lot of good scifi, the anarchic society of Freeport is a touch implausible, but Maldoror grounds it in humanity and everyday details that make it work. This fucker is LONG, too, and was polished up from the original version several years later. Take a long Saturday afternoon, and enjoy the read.

Best short: The Sincerest Form of Flattery (multifandom)
Clever five-things fic that points out the influence of Sherlock Holmes on modern procedurals by pairing quotes from the books with scenes from Due South, Numb3rs, House, Psych, and Castle. Fabulously true character voices, investigative shenanigans, and an inspired cameo of pineapples in the Psych bit, all suffused with fondness for the original canon and the inimitable Watson & Holmes.

I almost had a fit of but-I-beta'd--this ethics and recced A Week in the Life (Avengers, Coulson fic), but no. This was my favorite.

Best re-read: Crown of the Summer Court (Merlin)
I think I reread this at least once a year, and I still love it endlessly. Elves in Camelot! With that hilarious-yet-epic tone that is my favorite thing about Merlin! Happy ending that warps canon in lovely ways! Scorchingly hot sex! This story really does have everything.

Best crossover: Captain America's Art Crawl Adventure (Captain America/Middleman)
*keels over laughing* Best. Wake-up call. Ever. Lindsey literally came in and woke me up to read this, and I didn't even mind! The image of Wendy Watson and Steve Rogers fighting a glue monster at Art Crawl is the most genius idea. For added hilarity, the Middleman is totes a Cap fanboy, and the tone/POV is perfect. Art Crawl! \o!

Best gen kink-meme fill: Floor 37 (Suits)
Mike's last three days of indentured servitude to Louis (and whoever Louis farms him out to) are spent in the service of an elderly lawyer named Jack. You'll probably guess Jack's identity in about 3 seconds, but he's a charming OC, and the story does a lovely job opening up the world of the show and looking at mentoring. I really wish this was an episode.

Best slash kink-meme fill: Boden's Mate (XMFC/Inception)
Epic XMFC/Inception AU of Epic Awesomeness! If you have not read this yet, for the love of god WHY? The story has intrigue and clever, intense dreamsharing action sequences and pining and awesome universe-shifting of the characters and a sequel! (Possibly more than one someday!) I had this thing stalker-pinned and *still* couldn't stop myself from clicking over to the thread at least once a day in hopes of an update.

Best TV: Fringe
THIS SHOW. I wish I had something coherent to say about catching up (13 eps in 3 days! \o/), but I'm stuck on OLIVIA OMG and YAY.

Most ridiculous: Resident Evil
Lindsey and I have decided to start having "let's get drunk and marathon shitty movies!" nights every once in awhile. The Fast & the Furious series went down more smooothly with a case of Corona; we were going to drink Bloody Marys for Alice, but did not have any vodka. Alas. For such a DEEPLY ridic franchise, there are shocking numbers of awesome ladies - at least two in each movie, passing the Bechdel test and kicking ass and generally being the best survivors. They are wearing skin tight outfits most of the time, but, uh, my principles were muted by the booze.

Most fail: Delicious
And the fannish diaspora continues, as everyone runs to find an alternate bookmarking site that won't betray them. *sigh* I have started adding bookmarks again out of sheer perversity, which of course is harder than it used to be to find/remember tags, and I feel very alone because no one else I keep track of is doing so, but it works. I'm curious about Pinboard (that Pinboard/Fandom fic made my week), but I don't really have the money/time to explore.

And of course, I posted Open Secret, Simon/Alys UST fluff written for philomytha's birthday. ♥

I ran across this blog post comparing Dollhouse and Fringe back in S1 (warning: link contains major spoilers for the S1 finale), and started howling with laughter at this bit:

2. Clear-cut good and evil
Mind you, I'm not saying we'll have any idea who the various factions in Fringe's world are working for, or what ends they ultimately serve -- not until the end of the third season, at least. But we're pretty sure that the hot blonde FBI lady, her hunky brooding surrogate brother-slash-love-interest-and-all-of-a-sudden-this-just-got-a-little-freaky, and his wacky lovable weirdo genius dad are the good guys. (Maybe not so much the wacky weirdo genius, but we're constantly reassured that he means well.) Meanwhile, the slyly evasive lady with the robot arm? And that freaky English dude with the bandaged-up face and the one creepy eye? Yeah, they're pretty much evil.

Ahahahahaha, bless his heart. The lady with the robot arm is not so cut-and-dried, nor are our heroes so, heh, one-dimensional.

I am at the point of being sick and gross where I start to sympathize with the Fringe characters who die in horrible ways at the beginning of each episode.

....Which reminds me that I never posted those Fringe icons I made.

( Red and blue versions of glyphs, and lots of Olivia. See my current icon for one example )

Home safe from the wilds of New York! I successfully shepherded the twin through her thesis-writing, visited my old roommates, and had a lovely fannish dinner with dotfic, followed by an intrepid hike through last weekend's blizzard.

I did not, alas, send any postcards. But I will when I go back after New Year's! I promise!

Also, Lindsey managed to hook me on Fringe. (How does she do these things? Am I just that easy?)

(THAT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION, LINDS.)

******

I was skimming the latest LJ news announcement, and stumbled across this unfortunate sell line:

FYI, an annual subscription costs less than a large pizza with everything on it, PLUS it's rumored to make you lose weight in your sleep!

All I could think was: I don't want to make alien fat babies!

Yes. Anyway. Another reason to defect to Dreamwidth, if I ever bother to set up my account there properly.