God, as if I have any time for reading (*the Muse screams: WRITE!WRITE!WRITE!*) But these fics demanded it of me and I thought I'd share the joy/pain:

Under a Haystack

There's something primitively satisfying about seeing your favorite boys from fandom play daddy - this we know. So it should be no surprise that watching Sam protect an age-regressed Dean is just too awesome for words. And yet, I usually shy away from age-regression fics. I don't know if I've ever seen it done right before now - usually, when an authore de-ages a character... they lose the character. At least that's been my experience, but janissa11 totally captures Dean as I can imagine him being at 7. This is a wonderful, fun and touching read. I'd rec it to anyone.

Not Her Type

What a fun little ficlet :p Dean/Abby done just right. I'd love it if there was more of this!

Just Another Kid

And it makes perfect sense to me to follow up a crossover rec with this fic right here. Because crossovers are all about seeing things from different perspectives to me, and this fic - written from an outsider's POV - gives me the Winchesters from that perspective. Love it.

Horses, Freedom and Cheap Perfume

And while we're on the subject of different... An NCIS crossover with Chris Kane :p Gibbs hauls him as a murder suspect. Good things he's a close friend of Tony's. How can I even express my love of this idea without inappropriate gestures?

ETA: And I can't forget this...

A Fashionable Profit

Dean as a Calvin Klein model :D This would be fun on its own, but the interaction between John and Dean - and between John, Dean and Sam - and between the family and the outside world... That's what left me with a huge ass grin when I finished reading this fic.

"Look out the window to your right if you want to be scarred for life," Sam said.

"Please don't," Dean said, but of course, John did.

"Christ," John said. "What the hell are they doing putting that across from an elementary school?" Then he leaned down a little further, and saw the rest of the poster. "What the--Dean, that's you."

"Tell him what he wins," Sam said.

John glared at his younger son in the rearview mirror, but put the car in drive. "I'm not happy about this. I think me and Calvin Klein are gonna have to have a talk."

"You can't kill Calvin Klein," Dean said.

"I said talk," John said.

"When you say talk you mean kill," Dean said.


:D

How much do I love crimsonquills' NCIS stuff? :p Oh so much. But her AUs are particularly fun. Here are my favs:

[ Crash Space ] [ Change of Pace ] [ Put Out to Pasture ] [ The Thrill of the Chase ] [ Yin and Yang ] [ Elements of Truth ] [ Skin Deep ]


And if that gets you into an NCIS-reading mood (like it did me) you ought to check out this list of recs.


In other news, I know I found a really cool Torchwood icon and saved it for if I saw the show and liked it. Now I don't know what I did with it and that is not good. Because Owen is the pretty, Jack and Gwen are fun (if a bit demented) and I want an icon to use when I discuss these things :p Also, I need to ask if I would be weird and uncultured in saying that British tv characters laugh an awful lot. Like, a creepy lot compared to the US programs I'm used to :p First episode of Dr. Who? Lots of laughing. The Doc and Rose laugh running from manequins. They laugh about ditching Rose's home time just a little while after she realizes her boyfriend didn't die a plastic-y death. Gwen is laughing with Jack just shortly after finding the Torchwood base. We Americans generally like to be all surly and suspicious when we meet one another - or at the very least, we like to be smart-asses and if we laugh there's a 50% chance we are a) lying, b) about to shoot you or c) all of the above.

Actually... maybe that just holds true for the American programs that I watch.

Also, British actresses get to look normal and still star in shows :) Gwen is so girl-next-door. She even has a little gap in her teeth :D British television rocks, I suppose is the conclusion I'm working up to. And I haven't even seen the Jeeves & Wooster dvds I've got in my Netflix queu.

I've got to give you this one gen rec today:

i thought the world was fragile by annabeth_fics

Dean dies on a Tuesday. And Sam's not so good with promises. And demons learn the downside to giving a Winchester one of those neat little mental switches Ava thought were so great.

Wow.

I've gotta make a few author-specific fic recs, because fleshflutter's stuff is just that good for it.

Five Ways Dean Winchester Didn't Die - just, damn. Read the title and imagine what could be done with this. It is.

This Thing of Ours - the Winchesters as an organized crime family.

I Don't Like Tuesdays (Tell Me Why) - this is post-Mystery Spot Sam for me. It so, so is. All broken and beautiful, yes.

And a single vid rec...

#1 Crush - perhaps the most appropriate song for Sam/Dean (or even Sam and Dean) in existence.

Oh God, you guys. There's been a lot of great fic going around - with codas to 3x11 and entries to abouttwoboys still popping up...

So here are my favorites of the bunch, SPN and J2 - some drama, some romance, some comedy. Maybe something will strike your fancy as well :)

Fervorless as I by kroki_refur. In February, Sam Winchester dies for the second time. This is so amazingly, crazily heartbreaking! Written with Refur's remarkable ability to jump back and forth along a timeline without once losing you, while amplifying the angst to heretofore unforseen levels :) Read this! (Spoilers for 3x11)

Me & Jesus Don't Talk Anymore [link to InsaneJournal]. Creepy, creepy fic that sort of sneaks up and gets you. I love it when they do that :p

Something Borrowed, Something Blue by belyste. J2 set to the premise of The Wedding Date :D which I didn't like as a movie, but loved as a premise, and it works for J2 maybe better than any other fic I've seen at abouttwoboys so far. Also read belyste's Can't Point the Way to Your Heart when you get a chance - J2 set to the premise of Hitch :D I swear, these movie-based J2 AUs are like crack. Really good crack! You can't get off the shit. It hurts to go without!

I Don't Want to Be In Love (But You're Making Me) by keepaofthecheez. Oh. The great thing about keepa's J2, is it's like a whole other world unto itself. And you want to live there. And take lots of pictures, 'cause the boys are always doing something really hot in keepa's world! Virgin!Jared and Playboy!Jensen. And Mike, Tom and Chad in some of the funniest roles they've been cast into for a J2 fic ever :D Lovely!

Stand By Your Man by thehighwaywoman. The Wedding Singer starring our boys :D This is such a lovely fic, with such a nice angsty little interlude between the happy and the happy ending :)

And this is not from abouttwoboys... In fact, I haven't yet read it. But I have it on good authority that Ramble On is one of the best SPN gen fics out there. So. Gonna give that a shot.

( Thoughts on Malleus Malificarum. )

And speaking of disquieted... Go read fleshflutter's In the Valley of the Shadow. Sam/Jess/Madison/Dean. This is so deliciously disturbing... in that slow-building, subtle way that is so much freakier than a quick, in-your-face creepy.

I love it when a fic just knocks me upside the head with how good it is :)

The Difference Between a Rule and a Law. Prison Break, Michael, Linc (Some M/L implied)

Rule three hundred states that there is only one law that matters.

Law number one says you do not abandon your brother.


This is gorgeous and the style is spectacular. This is the Michael and the Lincoln that exist in my head. Wow.

OMG, y'all :D I've gotta give one more rec tonight: Old Country. Ha! :D Sam and Dean become English barons by inheritance. In the Wizarding world. This is, like, everything my Supernatural-obsessed, HP-loving heart could ask for. Set post-Deathly Hallows and All Hell Breaks Loose.

If you don't think you want to read this, consider: Dean. An owl. The Impala.

*loves*

Five Times Bela Talbot Feared for Her Life (And One Time She Was Actually Right). What a great little piece by tigriswolf. Honestly, I like Bela more than any other female we've ever seen on Supernatural - pain in the ass bitch that she is :p The key to this fic is the brevity of the glimpses into Bela's life - proof that there is a real person lurking beneath the cold calculation, leaving you wanting more. Followed by the kind of quick, clean end you can just picture for her.

“Listen to my voice,” he says, “and tell me if I’m serious.”

Hopefully I'm not giving anything away that you couldn't have figured out on your own having seen Fresh Blood and thought about the title of this... But one of the many reasons I like Bela is the perspective she gives us of Dean.

"The legend is so much more than the man."

Sometimes I forget - insulated by the show's focus on Dean and Sam - what a name the Winchesters have made for themselves in the outside world. Bela reminds me of that - and of how dangerous the boys can be under the right circumstances. Also, how adorable :)

Dean: Tell me I can shoot her.
Sam: Not in public.

:D

And while I'm reccing here, anyhow... here are a few more good reads I've had recently :)

The Infectious Love of Eric Kripke by nemo_88 J2, NC-17. Supernatural gets moved to Showtime... and Wincest becomes canon! :p Heh. Yeah - now imagine Jare and Jen's reaction!

Also: Lingering in the Golden Gleam - J2 Family Man style :D

And my one vid rec: Cowboys From Hell - a general Supernatural vid by ladymanson. Great editing, Pantera, and our favorite clips of the boys being badass :) What's not to love?

ETA: One more link... to The Human Condition, a Human AU BtVS/AtS archive!

Oh, this vid is a work of genius! :)

Ma Winchester, everybody. Our modern day, mojo-working Ma Baker :p

*loves*

And here's a bit of squee-worthy fic:

Open Source by poisontaster John/Matt Live Free or Die Hard! It so had to be done.

Ripped From the Headlines by rememberbefore J2 AU. Such a feel-good fic.

It's a Major Minor Thing by lightontheblue. J2 roleplay as Sam/Dean!

This, That and Them by mijmeraar There are so many kinds of sweet in this :) Fun, funny, beautiful J2.

I got a bit of a surprise yesterday :p I went to visit my youngest sister and her fiancee(*hurrahs for fiancee - he is awesome* ;) and I discovered an interest in something I never thought I'd be interested in.

A video game.

I don't play them generally. I'll happily waste an hour with my children if they've won some video game time and want me to play Mario Bros. or such :p But the shoot-em-up, gory stuff? Na-ah.

However, my sister and her other half play them a lot. And one of those games is Devil May Cry.

Wow, guys. I admit - though I don't play games as a rule, and I don't condone violent games for children, I have often applauded the use of storytelling in modern-day video games and I am impressed by the quality of the video game graphics these days. Both those things come together in a game called Devil May Cry 3, which tells the story of a half-human/half-demon named Dante who hunts demons to avenge his mother's death (sound familiar?;) and has an (evil?) twin brother named Virgil. (You can find out more about the storyline here).

So I browsed around some DMC communities and guess what I found? Supernatural/Devil May Cry crossover :D Here they are, if you're interested:

Kind Connections and Wrong Way by rocknload Sam and Dean go to kill a monster. They end up buying him a drink instead.

Stupid Games by zaleho

A bit of reading and viewing I'd recommend to any asking :)

The work of bka0711 - a number of Wes-centric fics that totally own me :p I can't believe I missed them at the time they were written - this journal isn't updated anymore, nor does the author still write in this fandom. But each piece is excellent. You won't believe this person isn't writing for a show somewhere (and so probably on strike ;) Each fic (Worlds Apart, Worlds Apart 2, and Second Thoughts) is full of so much squee-worthy stuff. Including canon and AU Wes, old school Angel Investigations, family vibes, Lorne and likeable Scoobies. These are gen fics, which I don't read all too much of, but for something written this well? I'm more than happy to overlook my own preferences.

Eloise Bright's Older Fics - speaking of oldschool Angel and great gen :) I love everything our dear Eloise pens, of course, but these are some of the fics that shaped my love of AtS and all things Wes. My favorites are Uncontrolled Circumstances and Present Imperfect, but I love every fic on the list.

Full Circle by emiliglia Bringing things back around to Supernatural, this is a neat little piece written for the awesome spn_wishverse community, a comm focused on the world and events of the SPN episode What Is and What Should Never Be.

On a Steel Horse by dayin03. A Deanvid set to Bon Jovi's Dead or Alive which is so perfect and so fun :p I admit to being a shameless Jon Bon Jovi fan back in the day and totally digging the Young Gun movies so I really enjoyed this piece. (Wincest fans will also want to see Addicted :)

Lonely by zenamydog Oh - this is a wonderfully well-crafted vid that tells a deliciously angsty Wincest tale.

Vids by michaela3105 Crash, Creep and Savior are Wincest (and the last involves a fic by zenamydog. Michaela's vidmanips are art in every manner of speaking. She also has a great Sam/Ruby (A Storm is Coming) and evil!Sam (Change). Plus a Heroes vid that might win me over to the show like only Petrellicest might do otherwise.

In other news, I've decided to create a tag just for my unhealthy obsession with Wes (my Biggest Fandom Fetish). I realized I might as well when thunder_nari pointed out the mistake I made in my last post - I named Wes as his own fandom :p Heh. I swear I didn't mean to do that! *shakes head* And yet, it is so appropriate.

That is all.

Holy crap! I had this rec tagged to the end of my last post, but then I actually read through a bit more of the series. Collegebound by mute90. Sam & Lex at college together. This fic is art :D Read it.

*loves*

In the midst of reveling in MW!love the other day I found The Sentimental Conversation on YouTube - the first in a triptych of short films. Part 1 is Rex starring you-know-who. Strange, confusing - a little scary, to be honest - but Michael's gorgeous, so I am willing to face my fears ;) And make icons. Just a few are under the cut.

( cut cut )

Then I did a bit of reading in various fandoms. Jenwyn updated The Boy Disease (le squee!) and my Angel: After the Fall has finally come in (le double squee! ;) And I discovered this amazing crossover of Supernatural and X-Men that has me bouncing in my seat like my little boy on sugar :D

mute90's X-verse is so dramatic and edgy and suspenseful. It builds the story of the Winchesters in the X-men world just perfectly in a series of ficlets. I'd recommend it for anyone with even a cursory understanding of either fandom.

(You Papa!Winchester fans pay particular attention to Not Normal and Soldier Boys. They inspire that mixed reaction of Aw! and *shivers* that only John can pull off :) - being the simultaneously loveable and badass daddy that he is.)

And if you're interested in more SPN x-over goodies, check out And That Was That, Skywalker and Strangers.

Once again I find myself infatuated with a totally new fandom, and LJ seems to have been ready and waiting to nurture my new interest :) As strange as HSM 2 slash sounded in my head when I wrote my drabble last night, I rewatched the movie today (I was much too distracted during the first viewing by fic-y thoughts) and knew there had to be like-minded slashers out there. The boys were wearing one another's clothes in one scene! You can't tell me that someone over at Disney didn't know what they were saying there.

And sure enough, I found a number of HSM communities when I looked. Not to mention some icons and fics that made me squee a bit :D I've got to check out more of iconthology's work and I enjoyed magickalmolly's Hey Batter, Batter, as well as:

( I'll Show You How I Swing - More Ryan/Chad Recs )

It isn't nice of new fandoms to take over my brain these days. I've become crap at doing anything creative about expressing my interest, so any bunnies that attack just sort of stick where they hit and squirm.

I blame sutext-y youth programming. And my children. And even you, chlare, who wrote that lovely bit of Liam/Wes/Will the other day, prompting me to reread your popularity series and no doubt putting me in a receptive mind-set for a East High pairing ;P

ultraviolet9a's The Things of Light is amazing. It's a short little Supernatural/AtS Crossover. Shanshus and dead man's blood and crossroad demons... And lines like

“I lost a lot of people because they were nothing to someone,” Angel says. “It doesn’t work this way.”

Check it out.

the black car crossed the roads. and the ghosts followed.

I just found out that one of my fics was cited in a thesis written at Bryn Mawr called Reflections on the Modern Folk Process :p My fic (an AU from back in Dark Angel's glory days) is only mentioned for a moment, but how cool is it to find yourself in a thesis paper written for an English Deparment in an entirely different part of the country? :p The author calls fanfiction "reclamation" and basically categorizes it as folklore. She also mentions PBG, Northlight, and Bulletproof - some of my favorite DA authors - not to mention the Inimitable PB, who at one time owned me thanks to fics like If Scheherezade. Read it if you get the chance and inclination (It features Ben - Jensen Ackles's character on DA).

A quick rec for you all tonight: a post-Deathly Hallows, sans epilogue H/D by the brilliant fourth_rose, whose Not In the Hands of Boys will you keep you up all night, anxious to read what you can in one sitting :) I know... because that's what I've just been doing ;p Fantastic, fantastic stuff. Sweeping storylines, well-written characterizations and dialogue to die for. I anxiously await the next update :)

And in the meantime... I decided to do this :p


Top 10 Signs That You're Reading a Nevcolleil Fic
(For those of you who might not remember - yes, she has written a bit ;)
Or, more appropriately: Top 10 Characteristics of a Nevcolleil Fic

( #1-10 )

Read fourth_rose's fic or stick around and give me a holler. Is there anything I've written that you remember fondly? :p Any WIP you've been particularly patient in waiting for progress on? Give my Muse a kick in the pants - I deserve it ;)

Man it feels good to get back to the computer :) I haven't had time in weeks and I've been feeling the void :p I've become so slash-deprived I wrote, like, 50 words of slash in my head for the carpenter and the sewing guy on the HGTV design show Divine Design! Plus I watched Spiderman 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, so that didn't help. Harry is exponentially sexier in the third movie and that moment, in Silver Surfer, when this exchange happens:

Reed: Yeah. I didn't play football. I stayed inside and studied like a good little nerd. And now? Fifteen years later... I'm one of the greatest minds of the twenty-first century. I'm engaged to the hottest girl on the planet. And the jock is standing in front of me asking for help, and I say he's not going to get a damned thing unless he does exactly what I say.

Susan: I am so hot for you right now.

Johnny: Me too!

I so feel the Reed/Johnny in that movie. Or Reed/Susan/Johnny maybe :D

Also, NCIS has lost a lot of its Gibbs/DiNozzo-ness for me (though the Tim/Tony still lurks just beneath) and I'm battling the Ziva/Tony beast, but Supernatural has had several slashy moments to keep my slasher's brain busy. Haven't the boys been awesome this season? Wow. And Mercedes McNabb guest-starred last night! Joss totally pimps for Kripke - that's 3 Angel girls who have guest-starred already. I wait in baited breath now for Charisma :) If Fate is kind, she's gotta follow the trend.

Speaking of Fate being kind, I checked my junk e-mail before it automatically rolled over as trash (because sometimes my mailing list messages and such end up there by accident) and I found out I'd been missing my Favorite Author alerts from FanFiction.Net. I've had kikkimax listed there since she wrote some awesome Tony-centric NCIS fics way-back when.

Well, now kikkimax is writing for Supernatural! A World Without Monsters has an amazing kick. Bullies is loads of fun with a little bittersweet. And Defect is one of the best crossovers I've ever read. It combines worlds so seemlessly, has a compelling and clever plotline and features all the things that attracted me to kikkimax's writing in the first place - empathy towards and insight into all of the characters, great attention to detail and the history of the canon (canons), and fresh perspectives on familiar characters and events. I've never seen an episode of Criminal Minds, but I felt totally comfortable in this story and now I'd love to watch the show!