Rectober No. 13 - Recced Recs at Last

[nia_kantorka]

banner by capitu

Rectober has been just wonderful. I found some new fandoms, a new pairing I adore and in general some great and lovely fics (art and vids as well). So, thank you, birdsofshore, for this October treat. Thank you capitu and raitala again for these awesome banners (I’m going to miss them in my f-list). :D

I wish everyone a happy Halloween– if you are celebrating or not, have a good day and weekend!

Ok, here are some of the fics I managed to read (based on rec posts or recs I got in comments or messages) and loved. I read some more but one can’t love all the things.

Looking at this list I know why I haven’t read as much Career Fair fics as I wanted to. But I did read a lot of things. Be warned this post is going to be long. You'll find H/D recs at its end.


Other fandoms
Title: Needs Must
Author/Artist: thatotherperv
Fandom Suits
Pairing(s) Mike Ross/Harvey Specter
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 98,695
Tags: AU, Prostitution, Dom/sub, Relationship Negotiation, Kink Negotiation, Praise Kink, Barebacking, Subspace, Disciplinary Spanking, Sub-Drop,
Summary:
When Grammy needs an upgrade in care, Mike knows that the usual one-off gig as a paid submissive won't be enough. He takes a job he's been refusing for a while - a long-term, full-time contract.
He expects his client to be a sadistic asshole. He expects not to like it. He's wrong on both counts.

Why I loved it:
Thanks to lauren3210 I’m a Suits fan now. Harvey and Mike have so much potential for a slash relationship. I love these two and this fic, aww, it’s the most wonderful thing I’ve read in a while. I can’t really put all my thoughts about their deviant and fascinating relationship into some coherent words. So, I’m cheating and give you the link to Lauren’s rec post (which is worth a closer look): http://lauren3210.livejournal.com/12369.html
If you are open-minded and wouldn’t be disturbed by some Dom/sub and pet play dynamics you really should give this fic a try. It’s amazing and I could just start and read it again. :D

Excerpt:
"Good." Harvey pulls Mike's upper body close, so he leans into Harvey's slouch. It puts his breath right on Mike's neck, ghosting where skin meets leather. "When you leave, you can put it in the drawer of the side table, closest to the elevator. That's the first thing you do from now on when the doors open. You may need a mirror to put it on at first. I'll make sure one's there by tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

As little as the collar does for Mike's libido, he can't help reacting to what it does to Harvey. The easy glide of his hands has gone hungry and grasping, squeezing at Mike's ass although his words are instructional. He presses Mike's hips to him on each pass. His breath is uneven, inhale-heavy as he takes in the taste of leather.

Title: I Don’t Feel Right (When You’re Gone Away)
Fandom Suits
Author/Artist: lauren3210
Pairing(s) Mike Ross/Harvey Specter
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 47,575
Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Fluffy Ending
Summary: Harvey loves his suits. But there may be something else he loves more. He just needs a little something to help him realise it before it's too late.

Why I loved it:
Lauren’s own fic is a treat as well. I mean, it’s just so great to see how Harvey and Mike describe their relationship via suits, waistcoats, cufflinks, ties and shoes. I never thought about the ‘art of suits’ before I read this fic but I’ve smarten up and one can learn a lot about suits. There is danger and both characters definitely think too much and talk too little but it’s ok– they’ll get there in the end. It really was a wonderful story.

Excerpt:
Harvey spends a great deal of time paying special attention to the care of his suits. He sends them off to the best dry cleaners in the city despite the exorbitant cost; takes care to hang his jacket carefully over the back of his chair to ensure it doesn't get wrinkled; eats hotdogs without the trimmings (despite actually preferring them covered in mustard, not that he would ever let Mike know this) so that they're never stained; has Donna keep baking soda in her desk in case some incompetent associate spills coffee near him.

Harvey spends so much of his time surreptitiously regarding his suits and checking for anything hazardous to their continued perfection that he finds himself surprised that it took him until long after the paramedics had pushed him out of the way and leaned over Mike to notice that his entire suit is absolutely covered in Mike's blood.

Title: To Shame the Devil
Fandom: Generation Kill
Author/Artist: pommederis
Pairing(s) Brad Colbert/Nate Fick
Rating: NR-17
Word Count: 54,801
Warnings: Genderswap, AU – Gender Changes, Supernatural Elements, Future Fic, Internalized Homophobia, DADT, DADT repeal
Summary: It’s not like Nate’s never been picked up in a bar before, but he doesn’t ever remember it going quite like this.

In his experience, gorgeous, stacked, and insanely tall blondes who look like they should be gracing the cover of a Victoria’s Secret catalogue don’t generally saunter into grimy Cambridge dives populated by obnoxious Harvard grad students, walk straight up to his booth, plunk themselves down next to him without so much as a by-your-leave, and open with “I certainly hope that you’re not drinking Coors Lite or some similar lowbrow swill, or else I will have lost all faith in the pretentiousness of the dicksuck Ivy League communist elite of this country.”

Why I loved it:
noeon recced it here and it sounded super intriguing. Though I was a bit sceptical too. Growing up next to the iron curtain and seeing that a lot of my male friends had been forced to either spend some time in the army or do community service after school, I have never been good at being pro army and am still more a pacifistic kind of woman.

But this fic starts five years after the original series and Nate left the army around two years ago and is studying in Cambrigde at the moment. And though you can see a lot of the army dynamics or the code of honour (or however this is called) the most interesting thing is the story of gender swapping and how to deal with such a terrifying experience (Brad didn’t understand fully what he signed-up for because he was too smashed). Well, they are both wonderful characters here, no matter the gender or appearance.

And I loved all the devilish and divine aspects– this gave the story a wonderful bigger dimension. You don’t need to know canon very well to get the picture. So, yeah, I can recommend this fic and am sure I'll look for more fics like this.

Excerpt:
But he hoped anyway, even if it was a uniquely painful kind of hope. If this worked, he would lose Brianna, lose knowing that Brad loved him, lose all of the pain and joy and strangeness and wonder of the last half year, but at least he wouldn’t know he’d lost those things. And Brad would be okay, or as okay as he’d ever been, and free to live his life the way he wanted. And assuming the price was not the ultimate one, Nate’s life would go forward too, and never have been wrenched off the rails it had previously been running on.

Title: Something Different
Fandom: The Dark is Rising
Author/Artist: cimmerians
Pairing(s) Will Stanton/Bran Pendragon (Davies)
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~8,700
Tags: Underage (~16/17), Schmoop
Summary: In my own words:
Will visits Bran in Tywyn four years after 'Silver on the Tree' because he can’t get him out of his head.

Why I loved it:
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper and Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce are the two series I loved as a twelve-year-old and still love them to pieces. I’m re-reading this books on a regular base and was squeaking like my teenage self when I saw noeon’s rec post about this story.

One could think I knew by now that there is a fandom for everything (you just have to look for it) and, yes, Will and Bran make so much sense together.

And this story captured Will’s and Bran’s characters just perfect. Will, the last of the old one, is so old and very young, shy and bold, innocent and skillful– all of it and more in one person. Bran is this broken, strong, cocky character who disguises his hurt heart in layers and walls. He laid self-inflicted pain on top just to hide his true self even better. It was so wonderful to see Will reaching straight for Bran’s heart and working like balm on his soul. Yay, I love this two guys and they are just what the other needs.

Excerpt:
"Have I done this before?" Bran said in a faintly shocked voice, repeating Will's muttered question as he turned on the small lamp next to his bed, "are you daft? Of course I have. Haven't you?"

Will felt a sudden and desperate urge to lie, but he fought it off. Not now, and not to Bran. "No," he admitted softly, and then pushed himself to the final limit. "Nor ever wanted to, with anyone but you."

Bran's eyes softened at that, mellow gold gleaming. "Oh," he said, the edge vanished from his voice as if it had never been there. "I didn't know that."

Title: Home
Fandom: Vampire Diaries
Author/Artist: pleasebekidding
Pairing(s) Alaric Saltzman/Damon Salvatore
Rating: NR-17
Word Count: 23,218
Warnings: Major Character Death, Resurrection, Alternate Reality
Summary: It’s five years since Bonnie and Damon took Evilaric down, with Elijah’s help. Spoilers for 3.21.
**
On the ground a few feet from the entrance to the crypt is a body.
It’s a completely familiar body. Damon knows every inch of it. He knows where to kiss it to produce glorious moans. He knows what it tastes like.
Except no because Alaric is dead and more than dead; he is the ash in the coffin in there, slowly being taken away by the eddies of air that sneak into the crypt.
It is Alaric. It smells like Alaric. It’s wearing Alaric’s clothing. The clothing he died in and was resurrected in for a final time. Damon falls to his knees and reaches out. Dances his fingers over the small of Alaric’s back.
It can’t be real, it really can’t.
It is.

Why I loved it:
One more fandom I’ve found thanks to lauren3210. Nearly always when it comes to tv series I have no clue about nothing. Of course I’ve heard about the series but I didn’t know who is who when I started this story. It worked, though I’m sure it would have worked better if I had known more about the series.

Nevertheless, these two have a very special relationship, hate at first, a growing friendship and even more fragile love comes into the bigger picture. But then one had to eliminate an evil form of the other and, well, let’s just say it wasn’t the easiest thing to do. There is a mixture of guilt and regret and despair in this fic but it is also a lot of love and humour and, lacking a better word, a very tender atmosphere. Both these boys are strong and stubborn and so lost without each other. It was very sweet to see them finding a way of just being together– of being home.

Excerpt:
So Damon had crossed the strait with the top down and only a little dizziness. The world was a brilliant blue, though it was doubtless cold, and at the midpoint of the bridge, with the odd sensation of flying, and with no thought to the hundreds of cars all around him, Damon had suddenly thought it:
I wish Alaric was here to see this.

And now, they have done it. Crossed the bridge. And Alaric is wearing the strangest expression, and Damon thinks suddenly that he’s pitched it wrong. That Alaric doesn’t get it.

“Don’t you get sick crossing water like this?”

Damon shrugs. “It’s not that bad.”

“We took the long way around? So you could show me this.”

Damon shifts in his seat. “Yes.”

Harry Potter
Title: The Kiss
Author/Artist: frayach
Pairing(s) Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy
Rating: R
Word Count: 5,175
Warnings: Angst, Dementors, Dark
Summary: Draco’s trial is over, and Harry remember almost everything.

Why I loved it:
This story was recced in a comment not only by firethesound but iwao too. And of course I needed to read it, even if it’s not a fic for the faint of heart. It is one of those were you start to think about Albus Dumbledore’s sentence “After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” And death can not only be an adventure but a more human solution at all.

I thought a lot about this fic these last days. About ethical questions like death penalty, assisted suicide and the main questions: Is a life without a soul worth to be called living? If not, wouldn’t be death a blessing? Can a life based on a lie (or a lost memory) be a happy life? As was to be expected I came to no conclusion.

But I know I wouldn’t have taken Harry’s path. To see his chosen fate was even worse than Draco as an empty vessel. I have no clue what I would have chosen in his stead. There are many options but aren’t they all bad? Suicide? A kiss for myself? Becoming a Dark Lord? Leaving the magical world forever? I’m sure I would have tried to take revenge. One way or another? And even though I know it wouldn’t bring Draco’s soul back, I couldn’t have lived like that. Not one minute.

No excerpt but two questions:
What would you have done? Which path would you have chosen?

Title: Eclipse
Author/Artist: mijan
Pairing(s) Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 287,239
Warnings: Dark Magic, Slash, Male Bonding, Plotty, Slow Build, Adventure, Hogwarts Sixth Year
Summary: "You're dead, Potter... I'm going to make you pay..."

Draco swore his revenge on Harry for Lucius's imprisonment, and Harry all but laughed at him. But Draco is planning more than schoolyard pranks this time. The old rivalry turns deadly when Draco abducts Harry for Voldemort. It's the perfect plan, guaranteeing revenge, power, and prestige, all in one blow. But when Draco's world turns upside down, the fight to save himself and Harry begins, and the battle will take them both through hell and back. If they come back.

Notes: This story was written before the publication of Half-Blood Prince. It’s an old story (from 2003). So... let's go back a few years, and imagine that the last bit of canon that we know is Order of the Phoenix.

Why I loved it:
Well, this is not just a fic but a whole book. It’s as epic as one of JKR’s books and as complex are its ideas. I don’t want to spoil too much, but going this long way with Harry and Draco (from enemies to reluctant partners to friends and lovers in a chaste way) was just amazing. I didn’t miss a thing. I even got a lot of the feelings, I had during Deathly Hollows, because there are other mind boggling revelations in Eclipse and some slightly too long camping sequences (when I recognised that, I really had a good laugh) which alternate with the most fascinating scenes.

It’s long, it’s dark, it’s not explicit at all, but it’s worth every minute of reading.

One advice in case you are going to read it. Don’t look for the sequel! The author didn’t finish it and deleted all chapters except the first one. So, don’t read it. Yes, you will be tempted, but remember, it’s unfinished and trust me, just don’t…!

Sadly I can’t remember who recced it. Nevertheless, all the kudos to whom it may concern!!! I searched but didn’t find the journal or community. It could be possible that I got the rec before rectober… but this fic is just SO GOOD and needed a rec.

Excerpt:
Draco had frozen in place. "I... I just can't do this. I can't. Maybe... maybe we should just chalk this up to a valiant effort by a Gryffindor with a chronic hero complex, go back to that tree up there, and call it a night. Maybe you can catch a fish. I'll even help clean it if you want. Or maybe –"

Harry placed one finger across Draco's lips, effectively silencing him. Then he reached down and took Draco's other hand in his, firmly gripping both of his hands now. Keeping his eyes fixed on Draco's face, he made sure he had his undivided attention before speaking.

"Don't look at the water. Just look at me. Can you do that?"

Grey eyes stared back at him, unblinking, trusting. "Yes."

Congrats, you’ve made it to the end of this post. :D