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Probably ought to break this out into a couple posts because it got long, but *shrug* :).
Day 2 - Post recs for fanworks I did not create
Part of the aim with this was a suggestion to choose lesser-known works, which for me tends to mean that I stumbled across the work on my own long after it was posted and my first reaction was "Why have I not seen this before?!?" Very unscientific approach, and patently flawed in a few of these cases, but I'm sticking with it. :)
FIC:
Not So Tepid by tigerlady/shetiger (Mag7 - Chris/Ezra)
I may veer gen-nish in Mag7, but I'm soooo not immune to hawt sexytimes, and this is one of my favorites. There's such awesome character work in this, with the great handle on writing from Ezra's POV and seriously nailing that cocky, wicked aspect of Chris I love so much - that wicked little gleam he can get sometimes, especially when he's jerking Ezra's... chain. Yes, chain. ;) Did I mention HAWT?
Untitled Suikoden fic by Aviy (Suikoden, gen)
I'm sometimes a less-is-more sort of h/c fan, and this is just the sort of fic that can be really satisfying for me. The story itself is a snapshot of one exchange, there's a whole hurt/comfort saga between the lines - Flik being injured, poisoned and feverish, and Viktor running out of options on how to fix it - but I'm not left wishing I could have the whole story. There's just enough snarking, and feverish!Flik, and Viktor taking care of business that I can accept the rest of it as a given and be entirely satisfied. I especially like that the whole scenario is an expansion of a single little one-line exchange from Suikoden 2. It gave me a new appreciation for how much scope for the imagination those games can have.
Lockdown by yuma (NCIS gen)
Another h/c fic - this one giving the full epic treatment. :) Yuma is generally awesome at this, but it really stands out in this story how true-to-canon it all is, just with the added benefit of actual peril for the characters. The whumpy element, when it pops up, came as a genuine shock to me on first read, and the ensuing "trapped with limited medical help" tropeyness is sooooo good. If I could have just *ONE* fic like this in every fandom - plotty and spot-on with the character work and great use of in-character h/c - I would be such a happy fan-girl.
Prodigal Son by kestrelsan (Giant Killing - Tatsumi/Murakoshi)
This one is representative of one of my other favorite things in fanfic... stories that work off of shared histories. There's something about relationships between two people who have a history together... the familiarity of it, whether it's working together like a well-oiled machine, or comfortable old-homeyness, or working through old wounds and resentments... every permutation of that sort of dynamic draws me in like WHOA, and this story nails it, with glimpses of the past Murakoshi/Tatsumi relationship and indicators of things moving forward in the present. This isn't a fandom that has a lot of fic, but given the plethora of possible pairings, I am sooooo grateful that my OTP has a story that is THIS spot-on devoted to them. :)
VIDS:
I don't have a lot of experience with vids, but I've been in a viddy mood lately, so throwing a couple favorites of those up here, too.
Aquarius by PhilonySSuikoden (Real Drive)
A lyrical, beautiful tribute to a criminally underappreciated anime.
Stand by gamblersruby (Mag7)
Such an AMAZINGLY perfect song for the fandom, great clip choices for appropriately intense and heroic moments, and this bit near the endt: "Every time you get up and get back in the race, one more small piece of you starts to fall into place." with the boys all falling into place... gets me right in the pit of my stomach every time. My love of Mag7 in a handy 3:45 minute video.
High School Never Ends by MeliChan923 (Ouran High School Host Club)
OK, this is a well-known vid, but I've been watching it a few times a day lately because I love it *SO* much. Ouran is such a visually fun series and the way the vid matches the awesome quirkiness of the show and the equally quirky song is classic. Absolutely addictive.
Come Undone - A Tony Stark Tribute by rei17 (Iron Man/Avengers)
Song choice is just - *OMG SWOOOON* - epic for this one. So perfect. RDJ's Tony in all his damaged-genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist glory.
Day 6. Rec Communities or challenges
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
casestory - As I mentioned up in one of my fanfic recs, I have such a fondness for coulda-been-an-episode style plotty stories (with extra whumpage/angst/sexy-fun-times, of course ^_^ ) so this community is one of my favorite challenge-type comms. I'm looking forward to what comes of the next round.
1 Sentence - (I've never figured out how to get LJ links to show up with the icon here. :P
I don't go back to watch this comm as often as I should, but I always find something to love when I browse by. Sometimes a single sentence can be so evocative.
genso_suikoden, marksofstars, and http://starsofdestiny.tumblr.com/
This is kind of a combination thing of Suikoden fandom across a couple different places. This past year has been interesting as a long-time fan of this franchise. The fandom's been surprisingly fired up, with the "marksofstars" comm running a 108-days-of-fanworks event earlier in the year, and the tumblr (along with a facebook page) ramping up a campaign to get Konami to release the games in newer formats. The level of enthusiasm coming from what's been a quiet fandom all of a sudden is pretty cool.
Day 1 - Post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created
Coming at this one from "what are my personal favorites" whether I think I would actually "recommend" them to a third party or not.
PODFIC:
Three Strikes and You're Out - The one that came out closest to the way I wanted it to sound, both from the technical side (only one glaring technical fumble) and on the delivery (nothing - honestly NOTHING - that makes me cringe in the voices or narrating style when I listen to it back. I can't say that about any of the other ones.). I think my reading style is well-suited for well-written Ezra POV like this, with his unique and sort of formal phraseology that is such a delight to roll around on one's tongue. :) I tend to struggle a lot with emotion vs. restraint in both the dialogue and narrator bits, and the balance is right where I wanted it to be in this.
An Honest Mistake - Definitely more obvious flaws in this one, but I was aiming for a pretty specific tone to match the sort of dreamy, contemplative style of the prose, and I think I was mostly successful with that, with enough positives to balance out the negatives. I had a lot of fun with the NPC voices in this and thought I was actually fairly decent at matching the rhythm of typical Sam & Dean banter during their back-and-forth dialogue bits. There are a couple lines in this that I give myself an imaginary high-five every time I listen for how well I feel they match how the actors would deliver them. :)
WRITING:
For what it's worth, I guess I'm most proud of two little drabbles.
Foreplay - Weiss Kreuz, Ken/Kyou - (Written for a theme of "kinks & fetishes")
Cold Feet - Mag7, J.D. gen - (Theme of "Cold")
Both of them capture moments that I felt were kinda unique takes on the characters and made full use of the hundred words to evoke the image I was shooting for. I've always loved how drabbles (or even single sentences - see the 1sentence comm above - can do that, and I felt that these succeeded well at that "art".
Oh... speaking of moments, I'm still pretty fond of this little snippet, too. Wish to hell I knew what happened before or after.
Day 2 - Post recs for fanworks I did not create
Part of the aim with this was a suggestion to choose lesser-known works, which for me tends to mean that I stumbled across the work on my own long after it was posted and my first reaction was "Why have I not seen this before?!?" Very unscientific approach, and patently flawed in a few of these cases, but I'm sticking with it. :)
FIC:
Not So Tepid by tigerlady/shetiger (Mag7 - Chris/Ezra)
I may veer gen-nish in Mag7, but I'm soooo not immune to hawt sexytimes, and this is one of my favorites. There's such awesome character work in this, with the great handle on writing from Ezra's POV and seriously nailing that cocky, wicked aspect of Chris I love so much - that wicked little gleam he can get sometimes, especially when he's jerking Ezra's... chain. Yes, chain. ;) Did I mention HAWT?
Untitled Suikoden fic by Aviy (Suikoden, gen)
I'm sometimes a less-is-more sort of h/c fan, and this is just the sort of fic that can be really satisfying for me. The story itself is a snapshot of one exchange, there's a whole hurt/comfort saga between the lines - Flik being injured, poisoned and feverish, and Viktor running out of options on how to fix it - but I'm not left wishing I could have the whole story. There's just enough snarking, and feverish!Flik, and Viktor taking care of business that I can accept the rest of it as a given and be entirely satisfied. I especially like that the whole scenario is an expansion of a single little one-line exchange from Suikoden 2. It gave me a new appreciation for how much scope for the imagination those games can have.
Lockdown by yuma (NCIS gen)
Another h/c fic - this one giving the full epic treatment. :) Yuma is generally awesome at this, but it really stands out in this story how true-to-canon it all is, just with the added benefit of actual peril for the characters. The whumpy element, when it pops up, came as a genuine shock to me on first read, and the ensuing "trapped with limited medical help" tropeyness is sooooo good. If I could have just *ONE* fic like this in every fandom - plotty and spot-on with the character work and great use of in-character h/c - I would be such a happy fan-girl.
Prodigal Son by kestrelsan (Giant Killing - Tatsumi/Murakoshi)
This one is representative of one of my other favorite things in fanfic... stories that work off of shared histories. There's something about relationships between two people who have a history together... the familiarity of it, whether it's working together like a well-oiled machine, or comfortable old-homeyness, or working through old wounds and resentments... every permutation of that sort of dynamic draws me in like WHOA, and this story nails it, with glimpses of the past Murakoshi/Tatsumi relationship and indicators of things moving forward in the present. This isn't a fandom that has a lot of fic, but given the plethora of possible pairings, I am sooooo grateful that my OTP has a story that is THIS spot-on devoted to them. :)
VIDS:
I don't have a lot of experience with vids, but I've been in a viddy mood lately, so throwing a couple favorites of those up here, too.
Aquarius by PhilonySSuikoden (Real Drive)
A lyrical, beautiful tribute to a criminally underappreciated anime.
Stand by gamblersruby (Mag7)
Such an AMAZINGLY perfect song for the fandom, great clip choices for appropriately intense and heroic moments, and this bit near the endt: "Every time you get up and get back in the race, one more small piece of you starts to fall into place." with the boys all falling into place... gets me right in the pit of my stomach every time. My love of Mag7 in a handy 3:45 minute video.
High School Never Ends by MeliChan923 (Ouran High School Host Club)
OK, this is a well-known vid, but I've been watching it a few times a day lately because I love it *SO* much. Ouran is such a visually fun series and the way the vid matches the awesome quirkiness of the show and the equally quirky song is classic. Absolutely addictive.
Come Undone - A Tony Stark Tribute by rei17 (Iron Man/Avengers)
Song choice is just - *OMG SWOOOON* - epic for this one. So perfect. RDJ's Tony in all his damaged-genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist glory.
Day 6. Rec Communities or challenges
casestory - As I mentioned up in one of my fanfic recs, I have such a fondness for coulda-been-an-episode style plotty stories (with extra whumpage/angst/sexy-fun-times, of course ^_^ ) so this community is one of my favorite challenge-type comms. I'm looking forward to what comes of the next round.1 Sentence - (I've never figured out how to get LJ links to show up with the icon here. :P
I don't go back to watch this comm as often as I should, but I always find something to love when I browse by. Sometimes a single sentence can be so evocative.
genso_suikoden, marksofstars, and http://starsofdestiny.tumblr.com/
This is kind of a combination thing of Suikoden fandom across a couple different places. This past year has been interesting as a long-time fan of this franchise. The fandom's been surprisingly fired up, with the "marksofstars" comm running a 108-days-of-fanworks event earlier in the year, and the tumblr (along with a facebook page) ramping up a campaign to get Konami to release the games in newer formats. The level of enthusiasm coming from what's been a quiet fandom all of a sudden is pretty cool.
Day 1 - Post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created
Coming at this one from "what are my personal favorites" whether I think I would actually "recommend" them to a third party or not.
PODFIC:
Three Strikes and You're Out - The one that came out closest to the way I wanted it to sound, both from the technical side (only one glaring technical fumble) and on the delivery (nothing - honestly NOTHING - that makes me cringe in the voices or narrating style when I listen to it back. I can't say that about any of the other ones.). I think my reading style is well-suited for well-written Ezra POV like this, with his unique and sort of formal phraseology that is such a delight to roll around on one's tongue. :) I tend to struggle a lot with emotion vs. restraint in both the dialogue and narrator bits, and the balance is right where I wanted it to be in this.
An Honest Mistake - Definitely more obvious flaws in this one, but I was aiming for a pretty specific tone to match the sort of dreamy, contemplative style of the prose, and I think I was mostly successful with that, with enough positives to balance out the negatives. I had a lot of fun with the NPC voices in this and thought I was actually fairly decent at matching the rhythm of typical Sam & Dean banter during their back-and-forth dialogue bits. There are a couple lines in this that I give myself an imaginary high-five every time I listen for how well I feel they match how the actors would deliver them. :)
WRITING:
For what it's worth, I guess I'm most proud of two little drabbles.
Foreplay - Weiss Kreuz, Ken/Kyou - (Written for a theme of "kinks & fetishes")
Cold Feet - Mag7, J.D. gen - (Theme of "Cold")
Both of them capture moments that I felt were kinda unique takes on the characters and made full use of the hundred words to evoke the image I was shooting for. I've always loved how drabbles (or even single sentences - see the 1sentence comm above - can do that, and I felt that these succeeded well at that "art".
Oh... speaking of moments, I'm still pretty fond of this little snippet, too. Wish to hell I knew what happened before or after.
no subject
I've never figured out how to get LJ links to show up with the icon here.
When you type the html for user name, you add the site in the tag, so within the html tag it would say user name=1sentence site=livejournal.com to show up as
no subject
And yay! for Mag7. :) I only discovered it a few years back, and was really pleased at how many active, interested fans are still around. If you do dig out your dvd's, stop by