Snowflake Challenge, Day Two

[sunlit_stone]

Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create

At least three, they say. Ho boy :P


Vorkosigan Saga
Victory Conditions (The Rashomon Remix)
8.6k, gen. by likeadeuce
Ivan always looked like an actor playing a model cadet in a training vid. This impressed the hell out of Kostolitz when Miles first introduced them, but he'd since amended the comparison to 'an actor in a training vid, who's perpetually on a break between shoots, and is eager to get back to a party – to which common folk are not invited -- going on in his trailer.'

Miles looked like, well, Miles. That had taken some getting used to with the way Kostolitz had been raised. But Miles strategized like he was two meters tall and plasma-arc proof, and that fit Kostolitz's idea of a Barrayaran officer just fine.

And four other perspectives.

So I need you guys all to read this so I can talk you all about it, because damn. This is a really hilarious piece with great character work--pitch-perfect academy-era Miles, and a wonderful depiction on Ivan and Miles' relationship. Which would be enough to love it in its own, really, but it's also got Kostolitz, and is partly about Miles and Kostolitz' loyalty relationship!!! I have pined for that ever since the end of Warrior's Apprentice, and sadly there are only two fica to feature Kostolitz on the AO3--this fic, and Improvisation by fawatson, the fic it's remixing. So it is a delight to me. It also involves Baz' cousin as an underconfident academy cadet, originally from fawatson's fic but used to great effect here, and the way it's set up the fic alternates between the four cadets out for drinks after the, ah, incident, and transcripts of their interrogation.

A taste, just to give you a feel for the thing:
Vorkosigan: And in return, the chief instructor wondered why, when the commandant agreed to have his facilities overrun by energetic and motivated cadets, he did not make a greater effort to ensure that – for example – experimental weapons were not lying around where just anyone could get to them. I'm not saying that the particular cadet who brought these problems to the attention deserves a commendation but –

Examiner: You would take one if it was offered. I see. I regret to inform you that I am not here to nominate you for the Imperial Prize for setting a building on fire.


Thor: Ragnarok

just in it for the game
6.2k, Thorki. by grim_lupine
“It's excellent rehabilitation for my image,” Loki says, widening his eyes. “They love you, and because of that they'll trust me. You wouldn't ruin this for me, would you?”

Thor glares at him.

Loki’s mouth twitches. “Also, it's the funniest thing that's ever happened to me.”

Oh my god. This is so funny--continually escalating fake dating with Loki and Thor on the ship post-Ragnarok, except of course it escalates into an actual romantic relationship. (And then keeps escalating!) Hilarious, and remarkably sweet. Do note of course that it's (explicit) sibling incest, which is understandably not everyone's cup of tea.


Doctor Who

Practical Mythology
14k, Nine & Rose & Jack (with canonical levels of flirting). by lyricwritesprose
Jack Harkness is a conman and a survivor. He doesn't believe in legends. And he shouldn't be running towards the invisible menace—but he is.

lyricwritesprose is hands-down my favourite Doctor Who writer, and I absolutely love her stuff with Nine, Rose, and Jack. She absolutely nails the Doctor's depiction, having him be both an occasionally terrifying alien (and her works always remember that he is an alien, non-human despite surface appearances) and a person of deep and extraordinary compassion. (And these aren't of course necessarily exclusive; sometimes the compassion is why he's terrifying.) This fic is set immediately after "The Doctor Dances"--technically speaking it picks up during the end scene--and, in the author's own words, is her "exploration of what it would have been like to discover you're traveling with something out of legend." It's also, I think, about Jack coming in to his own, some, and involves the settling if the Jack-Rose-Nine dynamic. Highly recommended.

(If you're not into Nine-Rose-Jack, she also writes Classic Who (her longest fic is about Ace!) and excellent Eleven-Amy-Rory stuff. Periodically I go in intending to just reread a fic or two and end up rereading almost all of her oeuvre. Seriously, definitely worth checking out.)


Classical Roman History RPF

Descent
9.2k, Emperor Augustus/Marcus Tulius Cicero filius. by emilyenrose
The greatest treat of all was sitting on his father’s lap to add his signature to the bottom of a letter to Atticus while his father corrected his spelling: kappa iota kappa epsilon, the pen slipping in his chubby hand, rho omega nu. Cicero the younger sends his greetings to Titus the Athenian.

clutches faceOkay, look, sometimes a person studies Classics and develops... feelings... about certain historical personages. Who are usually douchebags, granted, and yet. Cicero Junior wasn't one of mine, but. Gah. Guh. It's just... guh.

The fix flashes back and forth between Marcus' youth, especially his relationship with his father and cousin but including the development of a kind of summer fling between Marcus and Augustus, back before he became Augustus, and Augustus offering Marcus the position of consul in the present day, basically in memory of his father. (Who for those of you who are just joining us--well, as Marcus says: “You proscribed him,” he said flatly. “You made truce with Antony and you proscribed them all. My father, and my uncle, and my cousin. My whole family. He was your ally and your adviser and your friend and you wrote his name up on the deathlists.”)

I think a quote from the beginning really sums up the spirit of the fic:
“I was sent for,” growled Marcus. “I’ll wait.”

The secretary faltered. “Ah, certainly. If I might just take your name, then…”

“Marcus Tullius Cicero,” said Marcus.

The secretary looked as startled as if he’d claimed to be Mithras risen. After a moment of awkward silence one of the freedmen – Marcus didn’t see which – hissed, “The younger.”

Akrarophoros
9.2k, Julius Caesar/Methos. by Sineala
What does it take to cross the Rubicon?

As the pairing suggests, this is a crossover with Highlander. Featuring Methos, who takes the part of--well:
Methos. Caesar thinks about it. It is an old, old Greek word, and a very strange one for a name. Drunkard, or something akin to it. Whoever would name himself so--?

Oh. He is numb with the realization, his mind nearly refusing to process any more news since the first of these shocks. "I do not drink overmuch," he hears his own voice saying. "I hardly drink at all."

Or: Methos, as Dionysius, finds Gaius while he is fighting the Gauls, and proposed a bargain: power and glory to be his, in exchange for the rites of Bacchus returning to Rome. They have sex, as part of a sacred rite to seal the deal. Note that this was written for the drugs/aphrodisiacs square of a bingo card, and it definitely fills it out; I'd say the sex is consensual, but it's definitely intoxicated (although agreed to pre-intoxication).


Rivers of London

The Nightingale
117 words, gen. by hamsterwoman
An acrostic-sonnet (because I'm a glutton for punishment).

Hamsterwoman has written several fannish poems (including a wonderful Laurence/Napoleon rondeau, for me!), but I think this one is my favourite. It focuses mainly in the time after the war and just as he is acquiring new apprentices, and it really captures the feeling of, mmm, exhaustion and isolation Nightingale would have felt during those times. My favourite bit: Shades --/No, merely shadows -- linger in the corners


Person of Interest

Famine
13k, Finch/Reese.
"Le couvert d’une relation peut nous donner plus de latitude d’action. Il me semble que les avantages surpassent les inconvénients...
- Harold, êtes-vous en train de me faire des avances ?
- D’après ce que j’ai cru comprendre c’est déjà fait, et vous les avez acceptées, Monsieur Reese", réplique Harold de son merveilleux ton pince sans rire.
Absolutely wonderful fic in which Harold and John's poat-S3 covers have to fake-date. For the cover, you know. nods solemnly

I spent a lot of time looking for this fic after I finished season three, and totally failed to find it because it was in French! Don't be like me--if you can read French, you should absolutely check it out. (Theoretically I'm translating this, but due to moving out I have made absolutely no progress in the past several months, so don't hold your breath.) But seriously, if you can, check it out.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Oh wow, I totally did not expect the RoL to be the sonnet -- thank you for the rec! :DDD

And in the other sense, thank you for the Vorkosigan fic rec -- it's going to take me a bit of time to read 9k, but the fic definitely sounds relevant to my interests! (I do love early Miles, and him happening to his surroundings.)

[sunlit_stone]

I really like the sonnet! I read a bunch of your poems--weolz about this time last year, since you recced them in a Snowflake post! :) But I think that's the one that's stuck with me the most. Funnily enough it feels to me like it has the spirit of post-WWI poetry--you know, we sent out tons of young men for completely stupid reasons and they died, pointlessly but very painfully. And then there are we who survived, or did something close to it. Especially just looking at the end, there: Will they be lost/Like those others in a frozen always --/Extinguished brightness? Is it worth the cost?

It's an excellent fic! And Miles happening, haha, yes, what an accurate description :D (Miles' is the last transcript, and it's really a wonderful to read, with Miles going full, well, Miles, on his interviewer. Reminds me of that scene in Cetaganda, a little, with Dag Benin, though I'm this case his redirections are not quite so successful :P)

ETA: ooh, I wanted to say--love the icon!

ETA2: ah, to clarify--I don't mean to say that fighting in WWII was pointless and stupid (it's pretty close to as opposite of that as you can get)--I was thinking specifically of the Ettersburg mission, to retrieve the Black Library.

[hamsterwoman]

I was thinking specifically of the Ettersburg mission, to retrieve the Black Library.

Yeah, that makes sense! And that was the feeling I was going for with the last line, so I'm glad it does work that way :D

ETA: ooh, I wanted to say--love the icon!

Thank you! :) I ended up getting a paid DW account finally, so now I have icons! But not even half all the icons I use on LJ, so I still need to figure out how to tweak the ones that were automatically imported to give myself access to my newer fandoms or ust more recent icons (like, I don't have my RoL icons here, or any of the Dragaera ones either, and I probably don't need all the House MD icons in active rotation XP)

[jainas]

I totally get you. Why stop at 3 when you could be reccing ALL THE FICS! :D I need to do my own post (which will be longer that 3 of course), but I'm running a bit late.
All those fics sound relly good and interesting. I'm totally adding almost all of them to my ever-growing "to read later" list, which has now reached unparraleled lenght due to the yuletide influx... so it may be a while before I get to them...^^

And thank you for reccing Famine of course! I have always be very surprised that there aren't more "fake-dating_for-cover-post-S3" fics out there. :)

[sunlit_stone]

Yes, exactly! *in a zombie voice* Too many good fics...must rec...must rec!

I'm glad they sound interesting! If/when they do get around, I hope you enjoy them :)

Yes, exactly! It's such a perfect setup for it--Professor Whistler and Detective Riley have no reason to interact, that's an anomaly... but if they're dating now, why, all of a sudden everything makes sense! And Famine is such a lovely execution of the idea; you really have the characters and there's a wonderful tenderness between them. Sadly I can't download French into people's brains, but at least ai can bring it to their attention.

[philomytha]

I will talk to you about Victory Conditions! Because it made me go 'damn I wish I could write like that' a lot, it is so clever and subtle. I think Ivan is my favourite in it, which I guess makes sense since in a very oblique way it is a fic about Ivan, at least Simon has been commissioned to find out if Ivan's okay and that's what he's doing in the fic. But he's so obvious and unsubtle except where he's really subtle, it's a really good portrayal of him as both incredibly sharp and competent in his own areas and also really both clueless and not caring outside of them. Plus he knows exactly how to get the results he wants - if he was in command they would have had a normal successful mission and finished in the middle of the pack, which is exactly where Ivan wanted to be. And Cor Jesek is so so cute, completely out of his depth except for the bit where he's all 'doesn't everyone know this popular music? huh, that's weird', because he is not a Vor and he is not, like Kostolitz, trying to be a Vor. I want to know where he is twenty years down the line, because he's going to be in charge of something interesting and out-of-the-way.

[sunlit_stone]

Yay!

I do love the Ivan here (and as I think I said in my rec, it does a really good job at portraying the Miles-and-Ivan relationship).

it's a really good portrayal of him as both incredibly sharp and competent in his own areas and also really both clueless and not caring outside of them yes! And, mmm, when he's not sharp I think there's a sense in which it's because he doesn't care for the results of sharpness--he definitely has an excellent understanding of his cousin Miles, for example, and as you say, if he'd been in command he'd have ended up exactly where he wanted. And--even his interview with the examiner, in a weird way, I think? He's not trying to control the interview in the same way Miles is, but it does seem that he avoids questions/spends time not being interrogated by going on a bunch of tangents--which is funnily enough a lot more subtle than Miles' way of doing things, since 'distracted accidental tangents' is very in-character for him. I don't think he came up with the strategy specifically for this interview, I think he uses it Ina lot of places (see also: his conversation with Miles when he finally finds him in TWA), but I do suspect that it's at least partway deliberate.

And Jesek! Yes, he was a great character. (Though I'm not sure that I'd describe Kostolitz as trying to be Vor, exactly. Though certainly, if subconsciously, trying to be part of the Vorish system, instead of the newer way of doing things.) And note also the bit where he thinks that it's easier for Kostolitz to share the blame since he didn't actually do anything wrong! He reminds me of Baz, actually, I think--better at systems than people. (& I'd definitely love to know where he is the years down the line too, although if the answer is 'friends with Miles' that's going to make Miles' wedding even more interesting.)

[kiki_eng]

Fake-dating is awesome, thanks for reccing that. :)

[sunlit_stone]

:)

[avon7]

Ooh, that sounds like Vorkosigan fic I would like! I'm bookmarking it now. Miles and Ivan are my OTP - in a cousinly non-romantic way

[sunlit_stone]

Oh, awesome! It really does do a great job of the Ivan-&-Miles relationship, like I said in the post. I hope you have fun with it :)