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]

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)