The Pointless, Yet Poignant, Crisis of a Co-Ed

Another Yuletide has come and gone, and I wrote in a fandom that isn't Young Wizards this year!

Postcards from After the End for Kass. Newsflesh Trilogy, Georgia Mason/Shaun Mason. They sent their posts and articles via blind relay. They sent their very rare postcards much the same way.

I'm very much afraid that it wasn't my best effort, but my recipient liked it, and that's what matters. Also, it has hockey references, because apparently that's how I roll now and forever. The zombie apocalypse has to happen first, but the Maple Leafs do, eventually, win the Stanley Cup again.

In return, I received TWO OUTSTANDINGLY AWESOME WORKS, BOTH FROM MY ASSIGNED YULE GOAT. Y'all, I don't know how they did it, but belford deserves all the praise in the world and you should go give them some.

The first present was Bigger Than You Think an interactive story of exploration, which was a CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE VIDEO GAME COMBINING XKCD AND ITALO CALVINO. I almost burst out crying Christmas morning, I was so happy with it. Also, it wasn't quite The Fic That Won Yuletide (I think the Twisted Princesses fic that got linked on i09 did that), but it was up there, and I am happy that it was FOR MEEEE.

The second present was Tropesis, in Young Wizards, which was The Winged Defender/The Lone Power in the time before entropy. I know I said I loved the video game, but this one hit me where I LIVE, and I think I love it EVEN MORE than the video game. Go read it, it's beautiful.

The Kaleidoscope fics are live, and while I can't tell you which fic I nearly killed myself writing until next Saturday, I can recommend quite a few of them.

( Recs in Coffee Prince, The Inheritance Trilogy, Saving Face, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and Mongolian History RPF under the cut! )

If those weren't enough, there's a list of all the fanworks, gifts and treats alike, here. Go give them some love.

Now, I need a favor in return: I'm about to embark on a three-day cross-country drive with my father. My type-A, ADD father, whom I adore but who also is not, shall we say, good at transitional periods, change, sharing, or driving for extended periods of time. We have audiobooks and NPR podcasts, but those only go so far. For the sake of our filial relationship, please, recommend to me any good, novel-length fic you've read recently, preferably on the AO3 for ease of Kindle-ing. I don't care about the fandom or pairing, though I have been heavily into the Avengers movieverse lately.

Today is my birthday! As a reverse present, have some first-run Yuletide Recs. More will be coming once the AO3 recovers a little.

( Anthropomorfic, Foxtrot/Calvin and Hobbes, Young Wizards, DCU/Young Wizards, and Lost Girl Recs )

Evan Lysacek has been a douchebag again.  This is nothing new, and Johnny Weir has also been less than gentlemanly  in their ongoing attempt to make the world wonder just what their deal is*,  but the difference is that since the Olympics, Johnny is on Showtime and Evan is on cereal boxes.  One of these things has a much better chance of spreading its message to small children than the other.  So, if transphobia and homophobia in an Olympic Gold Medalist make you a little angry, consider writing to one of his sponsors and expressing that fact.

laurashapiro  has posted Stay Awake, the only fanvid I can think of that has ever made me want to scream in horror.  Seriously, it's beautiful and economical and after I saw it I went and sat under the shower with all my clothes on for a while.  Watch it now.

And once you've gotten your fluffy blanket and mug of hot tea and recovered from that, watch damned_colonial 's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which is a panfannish lovefest dedicated to the women of the Age of Sail and which will make it all better, guaranteed.

*Seriously, they need to either accept their mutual right to live in the way that they choose or fuck.  Not sure which, but this whole bitchy questioning of each other's gender and sexual identity is getting old, fast, and harshing my squee.

So I don't know if something got into the water supply lately or if it is just the natural creative juices of summer and the end of finals, but there have been an awful lot of really amazing alternate-format fanworks floating around lately. As at least two of these made me want to run raving into the street, thrust a laptop screen at random passers-by and scream "READ THIS NOW," I thought I'd do the next best thing and post a recs set.

FANART: Doctor Who: In which we learn that maps can make you feel more lost than before: A Partial Map Of Your Tardis (Subject to Change) byalibi_factory

If you find yourself in a place which is no longer there, count to ten and step approximately 17 cm to the right. If at any time you should become hopelessly disoriented within the TARDIS, simply scream until help arrives.

When I was a wee lass with a book surgically attached to my hands at all times, one of my favorite parts of reading through authors like C.S. Lewis and Tamora Pierce was that if you had the nice hardback edition, or sometimes even the tatty paperback edition, the endpapers of the books would have maps of the places in the books. You could see that Mordor was almost a whole hand away from the Shire, and that Cair Paravel closer to the Stone Table than the Lantern Waste by a whole pinky knuckle. As I got older and took more geography, the source of amusement changed (usually to laughs of the "Deserts don't work like that" and "What, a despot is really going to PLAN a city with narrow, easily fortified alleyways? Riot control, people! Look at Paris!" variety), but I still love maps of places that aren't there.

Whatalibi_factory has done here is map the unmappable, the place that's bigger on the inside than on the outside, in the only way that makes sense - the completely nonsensical and utterly real. The Library has a card catalog, but it also has sections for "Lies" and "Yet to Be." One floor is The Aether, with a simple red balloon floating in a grey mist; the shuttle can take you anywhere, but it may not take you back. All of this, I might add, is presented in near-perfect modern graphic design form, with clean, beautiful lines. READ THIS NOW.


FANFIC: Iron Man Movieverse: In which we are reminded that Pepper Potts is more detail-oriented than you and learn that Happy can apparently pilot a Helicarrier: Benefit Limitation Agreement by quigonejinn

This Benefit Limitation Agreement (the "Agreement") is entered into as of this 19th day of July, 2008 (the "Execution Date"), by and between VIRGINIA ELIZABETH POTTS, a natural person residing at 3948 Garden Drive, Apartment 138, Pacific Palisades, California, 90272, and ANTHONY EDWARD STARK, a natural person residing at 12 Andrews Street, Malibu, California 90263.

Okay, so this one is technically two years old, but it was published at the same time of year and is newly relevant with the appearance of Iron Man 2, so I'm including it anyway. In addition, it is almost unbearably awesome, and I need to make sure that everyone I know has read it. It is, in point of fact, a contract, drawn up by Pepper and Tony, governing the limitations on their "friends-with-benefits" agreement. If you are contemplating a similar arrangement, I strongly urge you to take it as your template, particularly the provisio re: "Supporting Our Troops and Recognizing the Contribution of Labor Unions." READ THIS NOW.


MULTIMEDIA: Leverage: In which the universe tries to make my head explode with concentrated awesome: Survival by Eliot by sullensiren

And the two normal-looking guards they'd seen on the way in hadn't fared too well, since the last time Eliot saw them, right before he and Alec were running to duck and cover, they'd had two of the diseased-types chewing on their faces. Eliot didn't know what they were, but they sure as hell looked like-

"Zombies," Hardison said, half urgent horror, and half geeked-out glee that made Eliot want to grind his teeth.

This multimedia event hits every story kink I have - unusual story presentation, OT3 of Thieves, zombies, badass teachers, footnotes, needing to know the plural of apocalypse, jokes about fan culture - Every. Damn. Thing. It takes the form of a website where Eliot gives advice on how to survive the zombie apocalypse while Hardison compiles everything and makes snarky remarks in the footnotes, with cut-away links to story vignettes that show how the apocalypse started and how Eliot, Hardison, and Parker worked to save everyone. The website itself is a thing of beauty, with links to FAQs, bios, forums, and a Dreamwidth community. The story is good, and this is format porn at its finest - it actually got me to use Formspring. READ THIS NOW.


FANVID: Doctor Who: In which di-br says goodbye to the Tenth Doctor and the rest of use split our sides laughing: Tenth Doctor: The Musical by di-br

The Tenth Doctor Era, told through the power of interpretive dance music!

I was slow to warm to this vid, at first, as the whole "character theme songs" bit has been done and overdone, at least in anime fandom, and this didn't seem all that different from those videos. But it is, dahlinks. It is. di-br re-tells the whole of the Tenth Doctor era in just under 7 minutes, while Nine watches and cringes. ( I have often wondered what my younger self would think about my older self; I have a strong suspicion she would be disappointed by the lack of cargo pants and 18th century merchant vessels, but such is life.) The moment I was sold was the moment that Martha Jones came onscreen to the tune of "Fuck You," because if any character in the Whoniverse has earned some gratuitous profanity, it's her. It just gets better from there. READ THIS NOW.

FANFIC: Star Trek Reboot: In which we are reminded again that the mommas of Jim Kirk, Josh Lyman, John Sheppard, and other J-named rebels against authority should probably be canonized post-haste: {beep} Or: A Lifetime of Problems Told Through Winona Kirk's Answering Machine. by vivid_butterfly

Stardate 2244: "Sweetheart? It’s your mother. I heard about what happened with little Jimmy. This is because you’re never around you need to quit your job and-/Are you sure you want to delete this message?/  (beep)"

Okay, so this is another cheat, as it's a year old, but it's either this or {and swallow fireflies}, the Amy Pond fanmix/fanfic by paperclipbitch , and I can't do a rec set that is 60% Who even if the Who fen are being BAMFs right now. My hands-down favorite thing about the Trek Reboot fandom is its slavish devotion to taking the female characters who were tossed haphazardly into the canon and making them into real people, with thoughts, feelings, and personal agendas.  I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.  The trend especially stands out with Gaila, the green-skinned space babe who was onscreen for about two minutes and who has had literal reams of digital ink devoted to her, but Winona has also fared well.  READ THIS NOW.