sarren

So I loved Being Human UK season 1. And then the US version started the next year, and it was the same plot line, so I didn't bother, and just kept watching Mitchell and George and Annie, but then season 2 got dark, and then season 3 was just dark, dark and more dark and ended horrifically. But then season 4 and 5 had new characters that I adored, Hal and Tom and Alex, yay!!

(This post inspired by my Choc Box recipient having my OT3 as one of their other prompts so I was inspired to watch S4-5 again on the off chance I got inspired to write a Treat. But then I made the mistake of giving into to the urge to read a few of the handful of fics for them and found this awesome, perfect fixit ending for them and now i am feeling all replete, so idk.)

hold on to you, hold on to me by zoicite
Tom/Alex/Hal, 40k
Summary: One moment they were human and then the moment passed.

The adorable Hal Yorke singing Putting on the Ritz


And 7 minutes of Hal being adorable and also dorky here

So now I'm into season 2 of the US version and can't decide if it's queer coding or queer baiting, like, in S1 when they house hunt and the landlord thinks they're a couple and Aidan just goes with it I was okay they did that in the English version, but now Henry's progeny (a pretty young soldier he picked up during a WW) has turned up and they're physically familiar (Henry is very pretty and hearteyes Aidan madly in the flashbacks) and meanwhile Aidan talks to Bishop about how Bishop chased him for years with a butterfly net and now we've had a scene with Aidan in a blood drinking orgy with two girls and a dude (I say 'orgy', Aidan was wearing pants, but the others were all in sexy black underwear) but with only a couple of quick flashes of him with his arm around the dude sucking on the back of his neck and then the dude's dead or unconscious and the two girls are all over him. And now his maker Bishop (in Aidan's hallucination) is referring to Josh as Aidan's wife.

And I'm only half way through season 2. Pretty sure it's diverged enough from the original that I don't have to worry about them doing to Josh and Aidan and Nora what they did to George and Mitchell and Nina.

Also, honourable mention to baby!vampire Henry being played by the same actor who played 700 year old vampire Henry in Blood Ties several years earlier. I OT3'd Henry/Vicky/Mike, of course :)

Cat sitting this week at a friend's place nearby, usually I go home for dinner and family time but abandoned them tonight, had work to do (actual working from home work for my actual work). Finished earlier than expected so have had some Black Sails faffing time, yay.

I've reblogged a bunch of random stuff to my tumblr (which is all I use tumblr for), read some not spoilery fics recced by my bff and watched a couple of vids (multiple times).


Fics

you and i survived Vane/Rackham, Bonny/Rackham. Mind the tags for dubcon warnings, I was fine with it and I won't read rape fic. Pre-series, Bonny and Rackham join Vane's crew. This is freakin amazing, not just for the relationship development but for Rackham's pov thought processes.

For a change of pace, cute little Flint/Silver fic - Green-Eyed Monster Silver gets a macaw and calls her Flint

And a nice little sort of Rackham/Bonny/Vane one Braids In which Jack absentmindedly braids the hair of those he loves while lazing around in bed and no one minds it.



Vids

Loves Like This Flint all the way. SPOILERY to end of S3 - especially if you read the Summary. (if you don't I guess you could just see Flint being violent and sometimes kissing people *g* ) I've watched this vid several times this evening, it's awesome. And intense.

The link above is the embed at AO3, yay for commenting, or here's a link at vimeo if you'd rather avoid spoilery summaries etc.



On a completely different note, my bff showed me this next vid before I'd watched more than a couple of episodes because it's not plot spoilery - it's lighthearted first season (possibly second too, I can't tell) Flint/Silver humour vid. Full disclosure, I did not like Silver much until S3, so I was only mildly amused by this the first time, now Silver's has had character growth (so much, omg) I can look back on smirky Silver more fondly, and this vid is FUN. - Lonely Boy

I have a huge love for Mad Max Fury Road (my little squee post here)

My friend pointed me at this lovely ficlet - Layers of Life (I only look for fic on AO3 nowadays so I wouldn't have seen it otherwise)

Okay, first go through the archive, taking a breather. Have not yet even got to the two major fandoms I'm excited for however (Man from Uncle and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries). I have a feeling I will lose days once I start. oh, plus I have just started reading The Martian (got it for xmas, not seen movie yet, will afterwards) and there are heaps of fic for both movie and book, so that to look forward to too.

I was going do my recs so far yesterday but family inexplicably wanted me to spend NYE with them, and then when I tried to stay up after midnight Bunny complained bitterly about the light from the computer screen (we're staying in the same room and she's lost her eye mask).

So, how I do Yuletide is I avoid looking at rec posts before the reveal, I like to find fics myself and the deluge of rec posts skews people's reading towards the most popular ones with a snowball effect that's unfair on everyone else. IMO. Having said that, I don't read all fics in a fandom, I look at the synopses and the tags and choose whatever appeals. I'm not consistent, either.

This year, with all the time in the world and a no-longer-nearly-dead lj, instead of just posting list I have amused myself adding stuff about why I like the fandoms. I am having FUN.

( Killjoys )


( Sense8 )


( Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers )


( Temeraire - Naomi Novik )


( iZombie )


( Whitechapel )


( Rope )


( Various Georgette Heyer omg )


( Weekend Update (SNL) )


( Stargate Universe )

So there's this Obscure and British Commentfest that I discovered in 2013 when I was in Germany, wrote a couple of small commentfics sitting on my bed in my room. Didn't really notice it last year, but when it popped up this year I figured I'd leave a hopeful prompt or two, and after my exams I'd come back to it and write something.

I've been asking for The Champions for Yuletide for years and years without luck, so I put my prompts up, but not with any real hope -

- OT3 or closer than family bond
- Tremaine Finds Out 'big reveal' about their powers


And I've got TWO awesome fics. Firstly this lovely Tremaine finds out commentfic which made me so, so happy to get, yay!!

And now, NOW I just got this WONDERFUL 6000 word fic Deadly Vacation which combines lots of wonderful bonding type use of their powers AND Tremayne finding out.

I AM SO HAPPY.

I don't particularly mind spoilers for Downton Abbey (confession: I'd seen bits and pieces and already knew something that happens to Bates and when I got invested in the character i checked out his character wiki to find out what that was all about) so even though I'm only 1.5 seasons in I went looking for fic about Robert and Bates - I would love to read fic about their experiences together that formed such a strong bond between and Earl and his valet.

I kind of want all the BFF bonding fic in the world - during the war, back at Downton, wherever, I'm not averse to slash, but nothing that goes against canon, so I was vaguely thinking I wouldn't mind a 'comforting each other during the war' type fic, and out of only four Robert/Bates fics on AO3 (the other three of which are tiny) I found this wonderful, evocative story.


Ha, and then I had a quick look at what else the author has written and found this cute little Bobby/Crowley fic about The Kiss.

I hate spoilers, but every now and then the tension in show is too unbearable and I have to know what's going to happen.

Right now we're watching The Walking Dead and the Governor is stalking Andrea through the warehouse softly calling 'Andreeaaa... Andreaaaaa'

There were a few moments of light relief where Dragonfly and I paused the ep to do our 'Vilaa... Vilaaa...I need you, Vila... It's all right, Vila... we worked it out... Vilaaa...' impressions, but yeah, TENSE.

I've cracked and checked Wiki to find out if Andrea gets away.


In other news, I'm caught up on my high priority shows and can now start mainlining the ones I'm really behind on, TWD, White Collar, Lost Girl. Maybe one day I'll even get past season 5 Dexter. I have goals. You're supposed to have goals in life, right?

NEW SHERLOCK IN A COUPLE OF DAYS.


Another couple of Yuletide fics that I really liked:

Casablanca
We'll Always Have (Rick/Ilsa/Victor)
Rick stays in Paris. I didn't even know I wanted this fic until I read it.


Cotillion - Georgette Heyer
The Birds and the Bees (Kitty/Freddie)
Summary:In which Lord Legerwood has a conversation with his son, with predictable results, and Kitty provides Freddy with enlightenment.

I used to be a huge Heyer fan, have read most of her books multiple times, but it has been many years now since I've read any (though admittedly I read my faves so many times they're seared into my brain). Cotillion wasn't a fave, and I don't even particularly remember the characters in this story, but it is pure Heyer joy, and a surprise fave for this Yuletide.

Okay, I've had my second pass at Yuletide and am officially done. Is it just me or are the fics of a really high standard this year? I've only included a few recs here, for ones I'll definitely want to reread, but there were also many, many others I loved, in a variety of fandoms.

( A few more of my faves )

Fun Gathering today, lots of Vividcon vids watched, yay!

I'd mentioned a few vids I'd seen and enjoyed in the last couple of days (just found them from the lj vidding comm:

Batman and Mumford and Sons combo - I Gave You All (Under The Red Hood/Jason Todd) (I'd never heard of this movie but now I really want to see it)

Captain America comics (Steve/Bucky) set to OMG Celine Dion - It's All Coming Back to Me Now

Oh, this is a fantastic Dr who vid -
Summer of 69


Stayed up stupidly late last night reading this, totally hooked, though the theme isn't normally to my taste at all (angst/memory loss). It's Tony/Steve, but it's really about Tony coping with slowly losing himself. Great plot and roadtrip, with bonus Loki - The Last Love Song of Anthony E. Stark by jibrailis


And for anyone who's into Person of Interest who doesn't know Speranza's just posted a wonderful little Reece/Finch fic -
The Silenus Club by Speranza

Huh, a while back I was doing all these fandom related posts and not finishing them and now I'm watching Rizzoli and Isles instead of studying. I love this show. As usual, could care less about the crime, just in it for the relationships, in this case the wonderful friendship (I try to slash them but they keep inconviently falling in love with dudes).


The other week I randomly decided to make a list of my top ten fave fics. I could only do it with qualifications - three out of 10 were by Astolat and were followed by '...and then I have to go and read several other of her fics in that fandom'

So Astolat. Zebra describes her writing as 'wish-fulfilment' rather than realistic, which is true, but she can convince me of nearly anything, I say nearly because there was a dark, dark time when she was writing nothing but American Idol RPF which, just no, on both counts.

But now she's writing Thor/Loki. I love her writing, so I read some, even though I''m not really into either incest or gods slash, but it took a couple of epic, plotty ones to really hook me.

Stayed up way too late last night reading this one - Chaos War (34k) It was never easy to find Loki when he wanted to hide, but he wasn't doing a particularly good job of it at the moment. Probably he didn't think anyone from Asgard would be wasting their time hunting for him while the shining ones churned their way steadily through all the realm.

All her Avengers/Thor fics on AO3 - I do avoid the ones with rape warnings though, so I haven't read them all.


( Random Tom Hiddleston appreciation links )