the fandom librarian

Vid recs again today! I've wanted to do a wordless vid rec post for a while, actually; it's something you don't see all that often but is really impressive when it's done well. (I had to cut down this list to get it to five, actually. :( I would have included more but then it's a slippery slope to indulging my completionist streak all the time!)

Girl on Fire, by Claire [The Hunger Games]
The sense of motion in this vid is really stunning, especially in the more violent interludes. The softer, slower sections are handled impressively, too; Jennifer Lawrence did a great job letting Katniss' facial expressions do her talking, and the vid captures those moments perfectly.

Heads Will Roll, by thedothatgirl [The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]
The music is actually not the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song of the same name but rather a string quartet cover of 'This Is Halloween', just so you know it does belong on this list. Ichabod's little face! All of his glorious incompetent flailing around! Again, really excellent sense of motion, and the comedic timing is perfect as well.

With Or Without You, by em [Doctor Who]
Nothing in this vid should work. Slowmo, weird color effects, the pacing is just mostly quite slow wih loooong clips. And yet it's perfect. GOD TEN LOVED ROSE SO MUCH, I CAN'T.

Mr. Brightside, by jarrow [The Talented Mr. Ripley]
Let's put it this way: somehow this movie is EVEN MORE HEARTBREAKING when compressed into three minutes and accompanied by string quartet.

God Loves, Man Kills, by meivocis [X-Men trilogy]
The X-Men series is really intense for something I remember as a Saturday morning cartoon. I think this vid lives up to that intensity -- the blinking effect seems like it should get annoying, but it really works. (Trigger warning for self-harm of a child and mutilation; the close-up on the stumps where Angel hacked off his wings is... really hard to bear.)

YULETIDE YULETIDE LALALA. At the moment I have nominated Some Girls, Tennis RPF, Blurred Lines Sexy Boys Parody and The Outlaws of Sherwood, but I've got some time in case I want to change my mind...

For khoshgeleh_16, who asked for a very carefully curated list of figure skating fics! I, uh, tried? Well, hopefully at least some of it will be suitable. XD Judging from my brief ventures into the shallows, Figure Skating RPF is a fairly compartmentalized fandom -- there's a big section of Weir/Lysacek, a sizeable chunk of Weir/Lambiel, the inevitable Weir/Adam Lambert crossovers and then there's all the other skaters in existence floating around together out in the big blue deep. I think I covered the shallows pretty well back in 2010, although I have to say that my tastes have changed a lot since then and some of the sillier recs are less charmingly ridiculous than they are just plain ridiculous, so take them with a grain of salt. Anyway, that's why there's no Weir/Lysacek and very little Weir/Lambiel here even though that's the majority of the fandom. Variety is the spice of life, etc., and also I didn't want to have to reread all those fics to figure out which of them are actually good if you're not in the flush of new-fandom love.

Hearts Beat Time Out, by mosca [Johnny Weir/Ben Agosto]
If you like long, plotty fics to help get into a new pairing, start here. If you like short, funny fics to help get into a new pairing, start at the bottom. I feel like this fic is very accessible even though it doesn't really feel like the standard slash fic plot: both POV characters are a little self-contradictory and can alternate between being wishy-washy and being jerks, which is... well, more realistic than the usual Resolute Star-Crossed Lovers schtick. It's a Sexual Awakening Fic but it's not all about homosexual panic, either. Both Tanith and Irina Slutskaya have sizeable roles as well, which I liked. No man is an island, not even drama queen figure skaters!

the badger game, by jocondite [Evan Lysacek/Jeff Buttle]
Evan wakes up in bed with Adam Rippon. Hilarity (for the rest of the tour, at Evan's expense) ensues.

The Circle of Acceptable Women, by mosca [Meryl Davis/Tanith Belbin]
Figure Skating RPF: femslash edition! I was talking just the other day with nahco3 about how female athletes tend to be forcibly closeted less by media hostility and more by the insistence on their invisibility, so it feels very apt to consider a fic speculating about the experiences of Meryl Davis growing up as a very femme lesbian in a sport that polices gender presentation so strictly. Her relationship with Tanith is painted very well but it's almost ancillary, at least to what I get out of the fic.

Nine Lives by anonymous [Stéphane Lambiel/Johnny Weir]
It's a Catwoman AU. Stéphane is Catwoman. It's exactly what you'd expect.

The Advancement of Learning, by mosca [mostly Johnny Weir and Stéphane Lambiel friendship fic, with a few hints of Johnny Weir/Ben Agosto]
Scenes from the period when Johnny and Stéphane were training at the same rink. It's a really lovely outsider POV and very funny without being crack.

Done with a day of September Recs before noon? Have I been replaced with a pod person? Hmmm.

More tropes in hockey fandom! I do love me some genderswap.

Des Plus Brillants Exploits, by twentysomething [Malkin/Crosby]
Girl!Sid and Geno at the Vancouver Olympics. Geno's POV is so sweet and sincere that I feel like it shouldn't work, but it does! And all the Ovechkin cameos are gold. (I know I will get yelled at if I don't mention this caveat -- the descriptions of ice dancing are not correct, but if, like me, you don't know anything about ice dance, I'm guessing it won't bother you much.)

I Don't Think You're Ready, by siegeofangels [Crosby gen]
This is everything I wanted in a gen fic about the possibility of women playing in the NHL. Also, I'm kind of in love with PR Katie.

Shake It, by hapakitsune [Gallagher/Galchenyuk, Prust/Gallagher/Galchenyuk]
The glorious porn you never knew you wanted about Brandon Prust teaching AGally how to get girl!BGally off. I'm serious. It's glorious.

we set our dreams to carry us, by mardia [some gen, some Crosby/Malkin, some Staal/Skinner]
AKA the series where Eric Staal is Erica. Ovi cameos continue to be golden! Predictably, I just really want Erica to rob Jeff's cradle blind.

rule 604(a), by puckling [various]
I think this one is very interesting conceptually; it's a series of micro-fics all written around the theme of contraception.

SORRY NOT SORRY ABOUT ALL THE HOCKEY, GUYS.

Ahhh, tropes in hockey fandom, my old nemesis, we meet again! I decided not to get too specific on this one, although I think it is actually possible to dig up five separate recs for specifically "got drunk!married in Vegas" which probably tells you more about hockey fandom than it doesn't. So just plain old marriage fic for today!

Playing for Keeps, by marycontraire [Briere/Giroux]
The one where Danny and Claude decide to get married and it's not really a big deal. I loved that there was no major drama but the little problems that cropped up felt true-to-life, especially Claude's uncertainty over it being Danny's second marriage. (I also love love love how this author writes Danny's kids.) And the way their teammates finally find out is absolutely perfect.

at the end of all your lines, by Lake [Carter/Richards]
I couldn't not include at least one drunk!married in Vegas fic, come on, and this is my favorite. Carts and Richie wake up married and decide not to do anything about it, because they're lazy and bad at feelings! And then are cruelly separated by the trade and pine for each other! And then are reunited to live together forever in wedded bliss! It's kind of refreshing to see a fic where the drunken marriage isn't consummated right away but isn't ignored either; they might not be doing anything about being married, but they don't pretend it never happened, either.

you're the apple to my pie, by daisysusan [Hall/Eberle]
My incompetent baby Oilers, I love them so! This may be me playing favorites but I love how drama-free this fic is. They decide to get married! So they get married! Schmoop ensues! It's basically the Platonic form of marriage fic. And I know they're young and dumb and it's probably a terrible idea but whatever, plenty of athletes marry their high school sweethearts and stay together forever I BELIEVE THESE KIDS CAN MAKE IT WORK. (I have a lot of feelings about Hallsy and Ebs. Just... don't ask.)

oh what a thing to do, by ellot [Carter/Richards]
Believe it or not, I had to seriously winnow things down to only have two Carts/Richie stories on this list. Fandom likes to get them married A LOT. (Art imitates life, etc.) Technically this is marriage proposal fic rather than marriage fic but whatever, I do what I want and every scenario (the fic is four different ways Carts and Richie proposed to each other) is heart-warmingly adorable.

Marry Me A Little, by bessyboo & thisissirius [Kane/Toews]
Don't click on this unless you have A LOT of free time to devote to reading, it's ridiculously long. It's also really hyper-dramatic and only makes sense if you apply soap opera logic (Kaner is getting traded! Tazer can only prevent this by MARRYING HIM! Despite both being madly enough with each other AND MARRIED neither of them can nut up enough to mention it!) but I love romance novels so I enjoy it. If you don't enjoy romance novels, uh, maybe give this one a pass. (If you don't enjoy romance novels, what the hell is wrong with you? Romance novels are the greatest.)

I am getting to the requested themes, I swear! Slowly. (Plenty of days left in the month if you want to suggest something else as well, because I'm capable of thinking up lots of themes but if I'm left to my own devices they're mostly going to be either hockey or vids.) This particular set was requested by kfunk22, and I'll be the first to admit I'm not really big into Inception (aside from watching L.E.S Artistes about a million times SOMEONE TIE THAT VIDDER UP AND MAKE HER VID MORE I AM A HUGE FAN), but I have braved the wilds of the AO3 and vidding to bring you some Inception recs about ladies: let us all be grateful I escaped the Fireswamp of Arthur/Eames AUs alive. (I don't hate Inception or Arthur/Eames, I swear! There's just... a lot of it...)

Gravity, by shinealightonme [Mal]
A beautiful vid about a very mysterious woman. This movie had such great cinematography; there should be more vids out there!

i am the hero of this story (don't need to be saved), by electrumqueen [Mal/Cobb]
What if Mal was right all along?

Presque Vu, by rageprufrock [Arthur+Mal, Arthur/Eames]
This is cheating because it's primarily an Arthur/Eames fic, but Arthur's relationship with Mal is so fascinating and central to the story that I wanted to include it anyway. In the movie it seems like Arthur is doing everything for Cobb; this fic (which is a monster, fair warning) is predicated on the assumption that Arthur was Mal's friend first.

take the long way home (soft as the radio), by gyzym [Ariadne/Yusuf, Arthur/Eames]
The one where Ariadne takes pictures of everything but doesn't realize what she's seeing in her viewfinder.

Hotel, by kaydeefalls [Ariadne]
ELLEN PAGE'S LITTLE FAAAAAAACE <3 <3 <3

I actually had a great day today -- I got to see distira andidhren24! -- but I also managed to fall up an escalator and now my knee really hurts, so we're going with a feel-good rec set today. These stories aren't necessarily funny, but they're all written with a sense of humor that, well, makes me smile! I would apologize for it being hockey fic again, but... that's the fandom I'm in right now, so just deal with it, I guess? Super short notes because I really want to finish rereading The Outlaws of Sherwood for the millionth time and go to sleep already.

Flip Shut, Hang Up, by thehoyden and twentysomething
Alex Ovechkin's POV is a gift to us all. As are his musical selections.

Closed Fracture, by lightgetsin
Found family is the best theme in the world and I would happily read a million fics about Mario being Sid's dad. GO WRITE MORE ABOUT MARIO BEING SID'S DAD, FANDOM. MY BRUISED KNEES DEMAND IT.

We Should Get Jerseys ('Cause We Make A Good Team), by svmadelyn
Abby Sharp is the best Sharp.

do it like they do on the discovery channel, by hazel
I'm only here for the descriptions of Kaner's vintage eighties porn tbh.

Tour de Force, by thehoyden
Secret novelist Kaner, aka the fic that made me start reading in hockey fandom. thehoyden has so much to answer for.

Also, I cannot in good faith recommend the Hallsy/Ebs fanvid set to a Taylor Swift song, but. It definitely makes me smile.

It really should not be this difficult for me to pick out five fics about Eric Staal. \o/ mardia requested this, so any and all blame falls on her doorstep! Also, I am really alarmingly mono-ship about EStaal (to the point where I sort of irrationally dislike Sasha Semin SOLELY BECAUSE PEOPLE SHIP HIM WITH ERIC) and therefore you're not going to find anything but Staal/Skinner on this list: you have been warned. (JEFF is allowed to date whoever he likes, though, and in fact I encourage him to acquire sexual experience with multiple partners, preferably including Actual Swedish Prince of My Heart Gabe Landeskog. The part of my brain responsible for shipping is a dark and scary place.) With these disclaimers solidly in place, on to the list!

the chatfic where Eric is Jeff's babydaddy, by shoemaster & go_gentle
If you only read one ridiculous, sprawling, epic chatfic in your life, make it this one. (Or, uh, maybe the one where Ebs and Hallsy go on an accidental couples vacation, I would need to search my soul A LOT before picking a favorite.) I love everything this fic chooses to be. The degree to which Eric pines for someone he has ALREADY KNOCKED UP is astronomical and yet perfect. Also perfect: the degree to which he lives in fear of all parental units and their reaction to the fact that he knocked up a teenager. (Shout-out to Enough To Crush Your Veins, because sometimes when I'm feeling down I go back and reread all the parts about Jeff's mom hating Eric and cackle to myself. Parental hatred is so good for me.) MOST PERFECT: ALL THE DOMESTICITY, FOREVER AND EVER, AMEN.

Essentials, by lightgtsin
Ahahaha speaking of domesticity. Clearly I have a pattern.

I Think That It's Best If We Both Stay, by distira
Written for me, written for me, my objectivity is nil because this was written for meeeeeeeeeee! And it's beautiful and perfect and full of fabulously unsexy details of athlete life. And seriously, why IS it that everyone writes AUs where Jeff never makes it in the NHL, but this is the only one where Eric's the one who washed out somewhere along the way? I call shenanigans.

Call It A Draw, by rsadelle
La la la DOMESTIC THREESOME FIC lalala

If Heaven's Hypothetical, by impertinence & shoemaster
Y'all didn't really think I was going to leave this one out, did you? PERSONAL FAVE. I sincerely doubt anyone who's ever heard of hockey fandom hasn't at least seen this fic, but if you've been holding off on the "Jeff is homeless" AU because you're afraid it's going to be unavoidably sketchy, let me reassure you that it is beautiful and wonderful and not in the least dubcon-y. (At least in my opinion? Obviously your mileage may vary but I think it's handled as gracefully as possible.) And god, the payoff for all that pining is glorious.

Drive-by rec post today because I am in an airport about to board a plane and I don't have time to follow any of your excellent suggestions (all great and I will do my best to do them justice!) so instead I'm doing something a little different! These are five non-fannish music videos that I think are legitimately awesome.

Blurred Lines (Sexy Boys Parody) - Mod Carousel
I feel like calling this a parody really sells it short -- it's genuinely a great music video even without reading it as criticism of the original Blurred Lines music video. The singers are all fantastic and everybody looks like they're having so much (sexy!) fun.

Winner - Pet Shop Boys
Transgender roller derby girls. Every time I watch this video I tear up a little.

Like Me - Teen Beach Movie
It's a fucking Disney channel musical. It's terrible. And yet also incredibly hilarious? You're welcome for the earworm.

Gazpacho - La Ogra
It's a music video! It's a recipe for gazpacho! What more do you want? (Tip of the hat to khoshgeleh_16 for introducing me to this song.)

Soccer Practice - Johnny McGovern
I... feel like I should justify this choice somehow, but I got nothing. It's a super catchy song! TECHNICALLY non-fannish! Though if it somehow became a Yuletide fandom I would not complain... (Really that goes for all of these. C'mon guys, that Blurred Lines parody would make for such great fic!)

Hi guys! Long time no post, I know. I'm still alive and finally back from Europe (and missing khoshgeleh_16 and aramley terribly ;_;) and I'm trying to commit to being around more, so I've decided to challenge myself by doing a set of five recs every day this month. I've got some themes in mind already, but if there's something you'd like to see (fandom-specific or not), drop a comment and let me know, because I definitely don't have plans for all thirty days! This first set is something I promised to ladytelemachus ages ago, so hopefully she still wants to read it and forgives my incredible tardiness...

Trope Inversion in Hockey RPF

Let it not be said that I went into hockey fandom willingly. I went kicking and screaming all the way (while managing to unwittingly incept a couple of you before even accepting the fandom into my heart? My brain is a weird place sometimes and my enabling powers are apparently off the hook), but damn if that fandom doesn't know how to write a good fic. (And some really shitty ones, let's be real, we aren't looking for miracles here.) And furthermore, hockey fandom is all about tropes, which is pretty much my jam, y'all know I was doomed from the start.

Let's talk about tropes! I love them all (okay, almost all, de-aging sometimes freaks me out and I can go either way on mpreg and babyfic, but I will reject nothing out of hand), and I love it when a fic goes all-in on one: balls to the wall, let's cliche the fuck out of this trope is really good for me. But there is a special space in my heart for fic that takes a trope and uses it to say something else, whether it's about fandom or fic or the world in general. So here, have some recommendations for what I think are really outstanding examples of trope inversion.

a light-handed approach to regulation, by hazel (Kane/Toews) [Alpha/Omega]
I can see you flinching and backing away from the alpha/omega category already. Don't. I have a lot of opinions about the Alpha/Omega trope in general and how it expresses unspoken anxieties about the debate surrounding reproductive rights and this fic is a really great example of that, but all of that aside, this is a fantastic story with great worldbuilding and an unexpectedly beautiful romance.

Switch, by montrose (Kane/Toews) [BDSM Universe]
I'm not sure how many of you have read helenish's Take Clothes Off As Directed (if you haven't, go, this page will be waiting when you get back), but this story does not suffer in comparison AT ALL, and that's saying something. BDSM universe as a metaphor for women's rights is definitely still worth exploring, but this particular example also does some really interesting things with the "myth" of bisexuality, which I hadn't seen before and thought was very well handled.

Fastening One Heart to Every Falling Thing, by thefourthvine (Crosby/Malkin) [Soulbonding]
You know what's all over fandom these days as a romantic trope? Soulbonding. You know what would really, really suck in real life? Being soulbonded to someone. You know what's actually romantic? Being with somebody because you want to, not because you have to. Throw in some truly spectacular worldbuilding and a heaping portion of hurt/comfort AND really delightful found family and you have one of the masterpieces of hockey fandom!

beating like a hammer, by grim_lupine (Richards/Carter) [De-Aging]
De-aging is a weirdly prevalent trope in hockey fandom despite the fact that the basic premise (someone gets turned into a child due to an inability to handle adult stressors and is consequently left helpless and lacking in verbal filter, prospective romantic partner must take care him/her and in the process reveals/discovers that their love is mutual) is sketchy as hell. I was really pleased to discover this fic, in which nobody is regressed to below the age of consent, and also the glorious misery of teenage brain chemistry is showcased to perfection.

Love in Fast Forward, by ionthesparrow (Richards+Carter) [Friends to Lovers]
I hesitated to read this for a really long time because the summary ("No, they don't get together in the end") made me think it would make me sad. I cannot express how wrong I was. This story (pair of stories, really) is one of the most uplifting narratives I've ever read, and I keep going back to it when I need a pick-me-up. It wasn't the first fic I thought of to put on this list by a long shot, either, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it needed to be on here, because what trope is more prevalent in sports RPF than friends to lovers? Aside from rival hatesex, that's pretty much all sports RPF is. But there's more than one kind of love out there. They don't always have to get together in the end.

And that makes five! I hope even if you're not in a given fandom you'll take a look (especially for this set, because if you're in hockey fandom you've probably already read all five of these at least twice) -- I'll do my best to pick accessible examples. It's been a long time since I've done recs, but it's good to get back in the saddle!

So aramley and I are traveling together, and I essentially double-dog dared her to write this fic despite the fact that I've never seen a single episode of Hannibal in my life, and then she refused to play unless I participated. The end result being this fic, i.e. proof positive that we are simultaneously the best and the worst. This also means I squeak in under the wire with my "at least one fic every month" policy! We actually had this finished earlier, but we didn't have Internet until tonight, so. I'm posting this so I get to decide which country's standardized spelling to use, btw. aramley wants you all to know that she had nothing to do with all the missing "u"s.

title: quis custodiet ipsos custodes
fandom: Hannibal (NBC)
pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
words: 2100
rating: pg
summary: Will and Hannibal post-consult in Rome: Hannibal wants to take Will to the Capuchin ossuary and Will just really wants some gelato.
warnings: all of my knowledge of Hannibal comes from gifsets on tumblr. aramley has seen exactly two episodes. we have, however, been to all the places in Rome which are mentioned! take that as you will. aside from the implications of cannibalism, there's really nothing offensive in the fic itself.

( the gelato is people )