The Middle Distance

Yes, I know he's green in this icon. He has a diverse "wardrobe," what can I say? As promised in this post, here's a collection of DeviantArt links I made when I was thinking about this very thing just a couple weeks ago. Thanks to QW for her suggestions!

( Here be links - please give the artists FB if you like )

I am in no way trying to "prove" anything about the way Crowley "really" looks with these. (He doesn't look the same in all of them by any stretch.) I AM looking to prove that this is not an idea that's unique to just one person. There are a lot of different artists here, from a lot of different time periods in the fandom. (If you know of others, please let me know.) This has been a thing for years, for many people, that's my point. I think. Maybe the point is dolphins.

Is this a conversation we could be having on lower_tadfield without touching off a wankstorm? I hope we could--the fandomsecrets comment thread is a better meta discussion than anything I've seen on LT for a very long time.

Stop with the denials, artist. That is TOTALLY a lightsaber.

So I did manage to get a little writing done for the IJ porn battle....

Seems that gender-bending warrior-bonding femslash was my theme this time.

Discworld (Monstrous Regiment), Polly/Mal, "taboo."
(Squick warning on this for a very special kind of, ahem, bloodplay)

Crossover, Chronicles of Narnia/Lord of the Rings, Aravis/Eowyn, horsewomen.


The glorious hyel and I kept crossing each other - I think both the prompts I wrote were hers and I know she wrote two of mine and did an AMAZING job, so the least I can do is rec the hell out of her:

A Moon-Lit Challenge (Crossover, Good Omens/His Dark Materials, Adam/Lyra, revolution)

Dream Interpretation (Crossver, Sandman/Hellblazer, John Constantine/Morpheus, dream interpretation)

and one that wasn't one of my prompts but I wish it had been:

Heaven (Moby-Dick, Ishmael/Queequeg)

G was feeling down on Sunday because they had a bad gig on Saturday. (Yes, I went out to see them - as M put it, "If you can't trek downtown to a dive bar in a blizzard, why bother living in this city?" My feelings exactly. The place wasn't crowded per se, but it sure wasn't dead either.) So we lounged around and surfed the web and watched Order of the Phoenix which he hadn't seen, and he did laundry and made seafood pasta and was still talking about how much he liked the Hogfather movie so I loaned him the book, and it was very cozy. This does not mean I wish him more gigs like that one, though. Woof!

The gift story for me at go_exchange has been posted! Right Honorable, by a Secret Writer, NC-17. I thoroughly enjoyed it - it's zippy, it's slightly cracky, it's warm and sexy and playful. It looks like the writer had a great deal of fun with it, and I completely approve of that. Adam goes into politics! Aziraphale makes Crowley beg for it! Anathema talks to Agnes...on the phone? Great fun.

My dear maelipstick was inspired by my post yesterday of that godawful Photoshop Your Pet with Jeebus site, and wrote me sweet 'n'evil Aziraphale/Crowley comment fic. With ILLUSTRATION.

Gack! I owe so many emails and replies. I suggested a project and I have no time for it! Work! Work!

In good busy-ness news, though, signifier is here on his book tour. Most of the weekend at Wizard World in Rosemont, but he was at the Aerie last night. He still gives the world's best neck rubs and Burning Man anecdotes.

In the absence of anything meaningful from me (yet!) here's a rec. What Really Happened 2.0, or How Aziraphale Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Loving the Porn, by violet_quill. Search your feelings, Good Omens fen. You know it to be true.

Fuck work. Don't wanna talk or think about it anymore.

For me these days, the best temporary remedy for the Republican Economy Blues is the SQUEE.

So have some recs! This is what brightened up my last 24 hours more than anything else.

***

Harry Potter

Essay: rexluscus has written an astoundingly beautiful and wise journey of meta on Snape in DH. (**SPOILERZLIEKWHOA**)

Illustrated fic: Platform 9.99999999999999 by Didodikali (trickofthedark). Gen. Dumbledore, King's Cross, and atonement. (**SPOILERZLETMESHOWYOUTHEM**) Quiet and strong and packs a profound punch. Very inventive and unusual.

Art: Inspired by another story by Didodikali, Just Try Me by Frodobolson72 on DeviantArt. G-rated but smoking. Made well before DH, so no spoilerz...except it almost is, in a way!

***

Pratchett-tastic!

There's only thing in all the worlds that could have improved Monstrous Regiment. I didn't realize what it was until I read the first part of this story. Duh - appearances by Aziraphale and Crowley, of course!

At Stake by daughtersofisis. Good Omens/Discworld crossover, PG-13ish. Part 1 of a WIP. Vivid, plotty, hysterical--has that so hard-to-achieve Pratchettesque quality of making me want to stop and applaud the author every few lines, while still maintaining a plot that can keep the dream of fiction going even with the fourth wall made of Swiss cheese.

If you read only one Good Omens crossover this week, make it this one:

Falling Without a Parachute
by musegaarid
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: James Bond/Crowley (!)

It's tense, tautly-plotted, rich with all sorts of prickly nuggets on good and evil and the liminality of secret agents, it's wistful and moving, and when it's funny it's very funny (vintage car one-upmanship!) and when it's hot it's very hot. And she does a spot-on first-person Bond voice.


***

Here's a silly meme from shadowvalkyrie via skull_bearer:

The Challenge: Assemble a superteam from your various fandoms.
Your team must consist of the following:
(1) Team Leader
(1) Warrior
(1) Smartypants
(1) Hottie
(1) Comic Relief
All your superteam members must be from DIFFERENT fandoms.

here's mine -- all of them from different fandoms.

The superhero team:
Team Leader – Sam Vimes
Warrior – Éowyn of Rohan
Smartypants – John Constantine
Hottie – Grownup Adam Young
Comic Relief – All the Democrats in the US Senate


The supervillain team:
Team Leader – Great Cthulhu (why settle for a lesser evil?)
Warrior – Anakin Skywalker at his whiniest
Smartypants – Stephen Colbert
Hottie – Young Tom Riddle
Comic Relief – Borat. And a bunch of owlbears.

***

OK, now back to the Porn Battle. Six days of it left to go. Why yes, I am hoping to do one a day. Why yes, they will all be different fandoms. I think. That's the plan anyway.

Why, yes!

The giftfic posted for me at go_exchange: Casual as Birds. (Aziraphale/Crowley, PG). Definitely not your usual holiday fluff: it's got war-battered London, and stoic, sympathetic Aziraphale, and Crowley who's been through a hell worse than Hell, and bittersweet TLC with so much unspoken and it's absolutely beautiful. (No, it's nothing like my request - but I don't mind a bit!)

And not one but two wonderful people wrote giftfic for all us GOE mods!

xylodemon wrote Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot, (PG, Crowley, gen), which is a hilarious series of day-in-the-life vignettes as a mischievous demon tries to get through his New Year's Resolutions (yes, the Gaiman-Pratchett ones) with his dignity, such as it is, intact.

And blueeyedtigress wrote New Year's Plans, a pair of mirroring vignettes in which Aziraphale and Crowley scheme sweetly in their own very distinctive ways. So much WAFF....

There's just no text-box big enough to contain the squee. Thank you all so much!

Who can?

To commemorate swashbucklathon's decision to extend its deadline to December 31, here's some recs. Just things I particularly enjoyed.

Fic: Sandman

Untitled by katilara. A simple but very atmospheric and eloquent story about Death's centennial day as a mortal. Which she spends with a pirate.

Art: Harry Potter

Drinking Buddy by pinkelephant42. (Snape, Draco, Squid, G) Fantastically colorful drawing with glorious textures of wood/sky/water, and a suggestion of a really interesting story in there somewhere I would love to read.

Just Give In... by sillyshy. (Hermione/Tonks, PG) Never enough femslash, is there? This one won me over with its charm, its expressions, and yes, its corsets. Gets me every time.

Saturday Afternoon Piracy by theo_winterwood. (James, Remus, Sirius, Peter, PG). The Marauders play dress-up. I adore the colorfulness and children's-book-illustration quality of this; it makes their fantasy world so much more vivid than the mundane one that surrounds them (for a certain value of "mundane" that is).

Fic: Pirates of the Caribbean (Why yes, the main object of Swashbucklathon was to piratify fandoms that suffer from a pirate deficiency. But you can't leave this one out!)

Bait for the Wind by thegiantkiller. (Tia Dalma/Elizabeth; various other pairings, R). This is a haunting and bittersweet story, not much more forgiving than the sea. But Tia Dalma has her moments of sad generosity.

Fic: Good Omens

Right Between the Deadlights by use_theforce_em. (Aziraphale/Crowley, NC-17). Yes, I've recced this one before, and I would have even if it hadn't been written for me. Just fantastically raw and funny and gritty and fascinating; in which Aziraphale finds a way of earning respect in a milieu where he is utterly out of his element. Yum. Hot. Also featuring beautifully cinematic appearances by War and the Kraken, who are not out of their respective elements at all.

Art: Supernatural

Untitled by cathybites. (Sam/Dean, R/NWS). I've never watched an episode of this show, so you know this is special if I'm reccing it. It's just...utterly...gorgeous. Stark and flowing and passionate Aubrey Beadsley homage with wallsex on a ship. You want to look at this, trust me.

Fic: Lord of the Rings

Upon the Western Wave by tears_of_nienna. (Aragorn/Legolas, PG). Yes, there are canonical pirates in the LOTR-verse. (PJ even played one in ROTK). Lots more should be done with them. This is a decent start, though it focuses more on the central relationship....but what I love is that there is so much acknowledgement of other tidal pulls on their affair. Aragorn has Arwen. Legolas has the Sea and the West.

Comic: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Slayers on the High Seas by redpiratemel. (Buffy/Faith, PG-13). OMG! Another fandom I've never been in, but WOW - the story; the expressiveness; the snark; the sexiness. If more pro comics were this good, I would probably read more of them.

Fic: Sherlock Holmes

The Adventure of the Crimson Coat by tmartian42. (PG13; gen, no pairings). The very fact that AU Sherlock Holmes piratefic exists is reason enough to rec it, don't you think? Oh yes, and it's also very nicely done!

Me, I'm thinking of writing a little bit more in the "Brag It Out"-verse, and maybe a short thing in some other fandoms entirely.