#(beth would do SO GOOD in discworld. everything about her would absolutely thrive in discworld. discworld would reward her so hard

[marypsue]

fic writer self-recs

I was tagged by the lovely and talented @titleleaf!

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favourite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers.

I'm gonna try not to just reproduce the same list from the last time I did this (although I can't fucking find it, so who knows), and also shine the spotlight on some that I think don't get as much attention but that I'm still very proud of anyway!

(But also, the road goes ever on. It's always gonna be the road goes ever on.)

1. house rule #3 (MCU Thor, Avengers [2012])

“Darcy,” Jane says, firmly. “Breathe.” “I am totally breathing,” Darcy protests. “Look, after you offered me the job, she bought us a bottle of sparkling wine and thanked me really cryptically and I basically haven’t seen her since. And in that time, Selvig’s dropped off the map, and a supervillain calling himself Loki who could be her fraternal twin pops up and starts chewing German scenery in a helmet that looks exactly like the one in this book.” Darcy sits back in her chair, bouncing off the back. “Also, I told her about this professor who was a total pain in my ass, and like two weeks later he was on leave for ‘undisclosed reasons’ and he still hasn’t come back.” “This…could all be a coincidence,” Jane says, lamely. “Oh yeah. Same way that weird homeless guy you kept hitting with your car showing up inside that storm was all a coincidence,” Darcy says. “Oh, my god. I’ve been watching ANTM highlights with a supervillain.”

I love Darcy Lewis, I think the narrative voice in this one hits her sense of humour just right, and it makes me astoundingly nostalgic for the early 2010s.

2. definitely not bfu rpf (definitely not Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher Unsolved?)

“Even Scully took it seriously when the shadow government gave her cancer, man,” Bryan says, when he sees the glitchy footage. “There – okay, there are two issues with that line of logic,” Zane says. “First, cancer. That’s detectable by current medical science. It’s not exactly a matter of belief. Second, Dana Scully is a fictional character.” “So you won’t get an exorcism?” Bryan says, sounding defeated. “Bryan, my dear, I think you already know the answer to that one.”

Back when the Watcher guys were still attached to Buzzfeed, there was a really popular fandom trope that went around that Shane was secretly a demon. However, nobody seemed to have taken the next logical step - that if Shane was a demon, he wouldn't believe it.

(I don't write RPF, because I tried it and felt weird about it, but I just had to get this written, so I changed everybody's names to something that rhymed with the real-life people's names. Legally Distinct Buzzfeed Unresolved.)

3. Girls In White Dresses (Supernatural)

Mary’s the first to appear in the kitchen doorway, pistol raised, eyes flinty. But she pauses, just for a moment, when she sees Dean, and Jess’ stomach drops. Whoever - whatever - Dean really is, he at least hadn’t lied when he’d said he was Sam’s brother. He’s Mary’s son. And Mary’d just had to watch, helpless, while one of her sons died. Mary’s going to hesitate. But Jess can already tell that Dean won’t. By the way Dean's grinning, she can tell he knows it too.

I had to unfridge some of SPN's many, many freezer-burned women. Also it was so much fun to try to think up ways to hurt all of them emotionally as badly as the show likes to hurt its big strong men emotionally. (Lady Gaga voice) It's equality.

4. i hold with those who favour fire (Crimson Peak)

Perhaps she looks too long. Perhaps her eyes are playing tricks on her, perhaps it is only the lingering warmth of the body melting away the fallen snow, but it seems there are more autumn leaves gathered under Edith’s frozen form, more reds and golds spilling from beneath her nightdress and her hands and her golden head. The leaves flicker and dance, as though caught in a high October wind, though any such wind would be stymied by Allerdale’s protective walls. It isn’t until the hem of Edith’s gown begins to blacken that Lucille sees that what she had taken for autumn leaves are flames.

This one was written for a prompt meme where I asked for a character and a monster/mythical being, and wrote something short connecting the two. I should do that again, that was fun.

5. Boiling a Frog (Rick and Morty)

“It’s strange,” she says, tipping the contents of her cup carefully into the drain under the vending machine’s dispenser and crumpling the cardboard cup in one hand. “None of this feels really...real. Like, Grandpa Rick should be here complaining about how hospitals are breeding grounds for superbugs and how sitting in waiting rooms is pointless because unless you’re a doctor, there’s fuckall you can do to help anyway.” Morty suddenly looks uneasy, but Summer’s not sure if that’s because of what she said or because of the coffee. “I’m glad he’s not,” he says, and then looks horrified.

I broke up with this show when it became clear it was going to wallow and spin its own wheels and suck Rick's dick forever and that at least one of its creative minds genuinely seemed to think that was great and smart and good storytelling and if you didn't love it then you were just too stupid to appreciate his brilliance. But every once in a while the show managed to do something really interesting by approaching something heavy and awful sidelong with absurdist sci-fi and gross-out humour in a way that just worked for me.

I tried to do that here and found out just how hard it is to get a handle on that tone of almost manic energy with total black despair oozing out around all the edges. I think it really turned out, here, and despite no longer having any interest in anything to do with the show, I'm proud of it.

Also, I still love Summer.

I'm going to tag @daddygrandpaandthebeaver, @bixxelated, @marzipanandminutiae, @definitely-not-a-bug, @aquitainequeen, and, as usual, anybody who'd like to do it!