[meme] favorite fanfic

[escritoireazul]

I found this easier than I expected, though harder to keep it just to five. I'm not one of those people who really like what I write, most of the time, especially once I finish it. I always look at it and see the ways I failed to do what I wanted.

However, I've really loved seeing other people's lists, and I've saved a bunch of them to my Fic To Read list, which means they were helpful, too. Here's a list of fic I like today (or I like at least pieces of the stories).

+ "Iteration", XMM, Gambit/Pyro

Summary: John lost a lot at Alcatraz, and gained a little bit in the aftermath.



I just love Pyro post-X3, and how he might feel. I also love the John&Bobby dynamic, no matter who wants whom or doesn't want whom. Adding Gambit to the mix was just a lot of fun, the way he's not really on either side, he's more of a neutral zone, and I think Pyro needs that, in the aftermath of everything.

+ "Pyretic", XMM, John (Bobby)

Summary: He'll miss his memories and daydreaming about how the world will end.



Again, here, I love John&Bobby, and the way he tries to separate John from Pyro. I love playing with identity, and he's a good character to use for it. The fire imagery makes me happy, too.

+ "From Whence Salt Came", The Lost Boys, Star

Summary: Before Michael, Star wasn't very balanced.



I love this version of Star, fighting to save herself and Laddie. I always thought she looked worn down in the movie, close to mental and physical exhaustion. This her, earlier, before the vampires and her own hunger has worked on her so much, when she still finds hope in herself instead of looking to an outside source.

Also, it has one of my favorite paragraphs I've ever written:

David stopped just outside the ring of curtains that offered only the semblance of protection. He stared at her until she could feel his gaze strip away her clothing, her skin, her mind, letting him view her essence, a blur of colors slowly being converted to black.

+ "Monster In the Woman", Harry Potter, Viktor Krum (Hermione)

Summary: Viktor is always searching for something, even at the end of the world.



I really like Krum's character, and I always have, but I didn't start to love him until I wrote this. I really like looking at the wizarding world through his eyes and the way he cares for Hermione.

Also, apocalypse fic for the win.

These next two are a pair, unofficially. They mostly only match in my mind, but they are both a little twisted and a little wrong, which I love. (Plus Remus and Sirius will always go together in my mind.)

+ "sins of the flesh (tastes like chicken remix)", Harry Potter, Remus Lupin

Summary: Remus always loved the taste of meat.



I love playing with the werewolf side of Remus, the way he's not trusted, and is trusted, and should/shouldn't be trusted, and the way the animal side can color everything else. The blood and the scent and the twisting darkness inside, those are some of my favorite things.

It also includes one of my favorite sections from a story:

Before everyone he’d loved was dead, or as good as, when Peter still followed James around like a sycophantic puppy and Sirius still planned most–but not all–of their adventures, Remus never thought about who did or did not deserve to meet the wolf or what would be the easiest prey or how nice it would sound if someone screamed for him.

He growled at people in the halls between classes, under his breath or just a little louder if any first years were about. They’d stare at him and the whites of their eyes flashed; it was a beautiful sign of fear. He told himself he wouldn’t have ever done it if Sirius didn’t laugh so hard each time.

Remus ate his meat raw when he could. It was tender and juicy; blood burst into his mouth and it was wonderful. When bloody, almost everything tasted just like chicken, they said. They were wrong, of course; beef was darker, richer, and bloodier and lingered on his tongue.

He’d grin, blood smeared at the corners of his mouth and across his teeth, and his friends would laugh for hours at the inside joke and everyone else thought Remus was strange, a good boy really, but just a little crazy. After James and Sirius’s pranks, everyone was just glad he was the harmless one.

And then he grew up.

Oh, Remus, how I love you.

+ "Time Is Running Away (The Dream A Little Dream Remix)", Harry Potter, Sirius Black

Summary: Sirius dreams in layers, no delineation between past, present, and the future perhaps.



I like Sirius because he's so flawed, because he was so cocky before Azkaban and so broken after, never to mentally mature. I also like how twisted his can be, his thoughts, his plans, and his relationship with Remus.

I love the way Azkaban sticks with him, too, and this section still gives me chills:

Azkaban tastes like horrid things, nightmare sweat on rotting flesh and sick-sweet apples, rancid beneath perfect red skin. It coats his tongue, fills his throat, taints every swallow. It gets stuck between his teeth, something hard and tangible, gristle from phantom meat left out in the sun too long. What's worse is it makes him hungry, the thoughts of food, even gone bad and sour.

Later, when he dreams of it, lying low with Remus, he wakes up with it in his mouth again, and he can't accept the kiss he's offered first thing every morning, because he made a mess of so many things already and he can't foul Remus with this, too.

I love the Love, Once Given, a series set after The Fast and the Furious, cowritten with shisaiyan.

+ "Laundry Day (Extended Version)", The Fast and the Furios, Letty/Mia

Summary: Every three days or so, Mia has to do laundry.



Even though I really want to give them a happy ending, I love this, the way Mia and Letty circle each other in secret, the way they give each other scraps of time, the way Mia is on the edge, and everything really does revolve around Dominic.

Mia deserves better, though.

+ "cannot see the stars at night", Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawn/Willow (Xander)

Summary: Dawn will never stop looking for stars.



I love, love, love Dawn's relationships in this story, both with Willow (and, in effect, books, the way their brains are so much a part of their love) and with Xander. There's an ease to the way she interacts with people which I enjoy.

I really started to adore Dawn after writing this, and I want to see more of Dawn on the edge of being an adult, and what that does and does not mean for her.

Comments

[peri81.livejournal.com]

First I have to say icon love. It was the whole reason I read everything on this post.

Second, I love how you write Remus. and Sirius. The way you use words is beautiful.