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facetsoftext2012-06-22 10:22 am
facetofcathy) wrote in facetsoftext2012-06-22 10:22 am
Entry tags:
SPN J2 Big Bang 2012 Part II
Three stories, one Gen, one F/F, one JDM/Jared!
Fear Death by Water by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
st_salieri
Gen - R - 25,200 words
Author's Warnings: horror imagery (with dream violence, including self-harm), mild suicidal ideation
Author's Summary:
Very enjoyable story. My immediate response was one of relief that because this was gen fic, Dean's characterization wasn't going to be stretched beyond recognition to make him fit the role of slash and hurt/comfort bottom/woobie.
I thought Dean's anger and frustration and despair were very believable. Sam came off a bit too good; I would expect him to be more frustrated faster, but that's a minor quibble. The MOTW is interesting and the resolution is clever and satisfying. Season seven setting is very well done, and it fits well within the time period when the show itself seemed to forget Sam's fractured psyche.
This is not a story about disability. It's obvious from the beginning that Dean will have his blindness reversed, and this is not a natural injury. Any expectations of realistic insights into living with a visual impairment will not be met.
Very good casefic, snappy fun read with a satisfying ending.
No Map for Our Travels byintransitive [DW post has links to LJ and AO3 version. DW version is a single post.]
NC-17 - Jared/Jensen femslash - 27,000 words
Author's Warnings: several instances of homophobic language/slurs, and (spoilers - highlight to read) a brief scene of threatening behaviour, with references to stalking
Author's Summary:
I had a very strong emotional click with this story. I read it right after bailing on a J2 fic where they both behaved like jackasses in wholly unbelievable and socially inappropriate ways. I think finding a story about people who seemed like they could exist on Earth was so refreshing, I bonded hard to this one.
The story does have some flaws, the pacing falls off in the latter stages and the conflict is a bit manufactured and too easily resolved. But that's most of the romance-oriented fanfic I've ever read, so not a hard failing to overlook.
I genuinely liked both of these women, the setting seemed like it was real--most college AUs, you feel like no one ever goes to class or has a family. I liked their friends who were not too, too over-invested in their lives and the sex scenes were hot like burning. It's been a long time since I said that about a fic.
You can absolutely read this a two original characters--that's true of a lot of RPF AUs, but this fic does speak to fanon in a few clever and subtle ways that made my analytical side happy while reading too.
Very good, comfortable, feel-good read with some engaging characters. Recommended highly.
Water Is Moving Underground bylazy_daze [link to AO3 version at LJ masterpost]
Jared/Jeffrey Dean Morgan - NC-17 - 50,000 words
The Masterpost has no summary and the one on the community post is not very good.
This is a post-apocalyptic AU where most of humanity is wiped out by a mysterious force and the remaining people have X-men sort of abilities after the event. Jeff gets premonitions, and Jared, well, Jared can change the colour of things.
Jeff is with the resistance, resisting the guys who are all power-corrupted, and he recruits Jared because of a strong premonition.
I'd vowed to not read any superhero AUs ever again, but this seemed so intriguing. And as an action-adventure story it is superb. The plot is a bit predictable, but there's enough of Jared and Jeff cracking jokes about action movies to put a big enough lampshade on it, and the action is mostly fun and exciting, or gripping and suspenseful. The pacing is excellent and all the characters are at least engaging, even if there's a bit too much of a name that minor OC going on. I have no idea who Kim is.
Anyway I really enjoyed the whole thing except for three scenes.
Jeff explains how gay people can totally be straight-acting manly men, and wow, I totally had no idea. Talk about lamp-shading the sexual dynamics when you don't need to.
Jeff and Jared have one extended sex scene full of meaningful symbolism and Jeff being manly and straight-acting and dominating and did I say all manly? Jared is mildly submissive, a bottomy bottom who bottoms in a bottomy way and really, I get the fannish love for this dynamic, but it is done in such a stereotypical kink-meme fill way here that I just couldn't cope. But that's me, right, most fans want to see Jeff the manly, oh so manly, straight-acting man. (Have fandom heard of bears, or is real gay male culture just too icky for them to contemplate? Or worse, do they think the bear/twink porn cliche is real?) The shocking thing is that this is Jared not Jensen playing the foil for all this performance of masculinity.
The third scene is a brief bit where manly Jeff picks up Jared--that's Jared Gigantor Padalecki, mind--and that's when I laughed outloud. Which is not what your stirring romantic action scene is supposed to make me do.
If I pick all that nonsense out of the fic, it's a rollicking good read. With it, it's everything about fandom that made me love the femslash fic so much.
Do I need to point out that this reaction is all very much about my taste and view of sex, sexuality, gender and the complexity of human experience? Well, so will yours be.
Fear Death by Water by
st_salieriGen - R - 25,200 words
Author's Warnings: horror imagery (with dream violence, including self-harm), mild suicidal ideation
Author's Summary:
Dean and Sam take a break from their search for the Leviathans to investigate a series of deaths in a small town in New Mexico. A confrontation with the killer leaves Dean blinded. He must find a way to cope with the aftermath and deal with the extra "gift" he has been given, a gift that threatens to expose Sam's worst fears. Spoilers up through episode 7.10.
Very enjoyable story. My immediate response was one of relief that because this was gen fic, Dean's characterization wasn't going to be stretched beyond recognition to make him fit the role of slash and hurt/comfort bottom/woobie.
I thought Dean's anger and frustration and despair were very believable. Sam came off a bit too good; I would expect him to be more frustrated faster, but that's a minor quibble. The MOTW is interesting and the resolution is clever and satisfying. Season seven setting is very well done, and it fits well within the time period when the show itself seemed to forget Sam's fractured psyche.
This is not a story about disability. It's obvious from the beginning that Dean will have his blindness reversed, and this is not a natural injury. Any expectations of realistic insights into living with a visual impairment will not be met.
Very good casefic, snappy fun read with a satisfying ending.
No Map for Our Travels by
intransitive [DW post has links to LJ and AO3 version. DW version is a single post.]NC-17 - Jared/Jensen femslash - 27,000 words
Author's Warnings: several instances of homophobic language/slurs, and (spoilers - highlight to read) a brief scene of threatening behaviour, with references to stalking
Author's Summary:
Jensen's life is predictable and safe, and she likes it that way. At the beginning of her last year of grad school she knows exactly what the future holds, and it seems like enough, until she meets Jay. Jared Padalecki isn't a typical anything, and her arrival in Jensen's life shakes everything Jensen knows about herself into disarray. Jay has never done anything the way she was supposed to, and falling for her hot TA is no exception. As she gets closer to Jensen, she realizes nothing will ever be the same again – and she can't wait.
I had a very strong emotional click with this story. I read it right after bailing on a J2 fic where they both behaved like jackasses in wholly unbelievable and socially inappropriate ways. I think finding a story about people who seemed like they could exist on Earth was so refreshing, I bonded hard to this one.
The story does have some flaws, the pacing falls off in the latter stages and the conflict is a bit manufactured and too easily resolved. But that's most of the romance-oriented fanfic I've ever read, so not a hard failing to overlook.
I genuinely liked both of these women, the setting seemed like it was real--most college AUs, you feel like no one ever goes to class or has a family. I liked their friends who were not too, too over-invested in their lives and the sex scenes were hot like burning. It's been a long time since I said that about a fic.
You can absolutely read this a two original characters--that's true of a lot of RPF AUs, but this fic does speak to fanon in a few clever and subtle ways that made my analytical side happy while reading too.
Very good, comfortable, feel-good read with some engaging characters. Recommended highly.
Water Is Moving Underground by
lazy_daze [link to AO3 version at LJ masterpost]Jared/Jeffrey Dean Morgan - NC-17 - 50,000 words
The Masterpost has no summary and the one on the community post is not very good.
This is a post-apocalyptic AU where most of humanity is wiped out by a mysterious force and the remaining people have X-men sort of abilities after the event. Jeff gets premonitions, and Jared, well, Jared can change the colour of things.
Jeff is with the resistance, resisting the guys who are all power-corrupted, and he recruits Jared because of a strong premonition.
I'd vowed to not read any superhero AUs ever again, but this seemed so intriguing. And as an action-adventure story it is superb. The plot is a bit predictable, but there's enough of Jared and Jeff cracking jokes about action movies to put a big enough lampshade on it, and the action is mostly fun and exciting, or gripping and suspenseful. The pacing is excellent and all the characters are at least engaging, even if there's a bit too much of a name that minor OC going on. I have no idea who Kim is.
Anyway I really enjoyed the whole thing except for three scenes.
Jeff explains how gay people can totally be straight-acting manly men, and wow, I totally had no idea. Talk about lamp-shading the sexual dynamics when you don't need to.
Jeff and Jared have one extended sex scene full of meaningful symbolism and Jeff being manly and straight-acting and dominating and did I say all manly? Jared is mildly submissive, a bottomy bottom who bottoms in a bottomy way and really, I get the fannish love for this dynamic, but it is done in such a stereotypical kink-meme fill way here that I just couldn't cope. But that's me, right, most fans want to see Jeff the manly, oh so manly, straight-acting man. (Have fandom heard of bears, or is real gay male culture just too icky for them to contemplate? Or worse, do they think the bear/twink porn cliche is real?) The shocking thing is that this is Jared not Jensen playing the foil for all this performance of masculinity.
The third scene is a brief bit where manly Jeff picks up Jared--that's Jared Gigantor Padalecki, mind--and that's when I laughed outloud. Which is not what your stirring romantic action scene is supposed to make me do.
If I pick all that nonsense out of the fic, it's a rollicking good read. With it, it's everything about fandom that made me love the femslash fic so much.
Do I need to point out that this reaction is all very much about my taste and view of sex, sexuality, gender and the complexity of human experience? Well, so will yours be.