cest_what | Entries tagged with recs

I'm not quite sure if I'm doing the between-fandoms-butterfly thing or if "Anime and Manga" in the monolithic sense really is my fandom at the moment. Possibly I would be writing more if that were true. The only thing I've written lately-ish is 3000 words of an unfinished Shingeki no Kyojin space AU. (Why. Nobody asked for one. And I hate SnK.) (I mean I kind of love it but I also genuinely think it is terrible and would not recommend it to anybody, except for the times when I would because it's so good.)

I actually had a conversation with

blottingtheink yesterday about why SnK is so traumatising. I just finished reading No. 6, which also features dystopian bleakness and a certain amount of body horror, and some of the things that happen in it are really terrible, but it doesn't get at me the way SnK does. And partly that's because it's not nearly as terrible, and there are a lot more interludes with adorable mice and impromptu dancing lessons that are only sort of heartbreaking, and general joy to go with the emotional precipices and bleakness.

But also, really importantly, it's because No. 6 deals with horror and traumatic events the way you expect them to be dealt with. When something horrifying and tragic happens then it is the only thing happening on the page. Darkness creeps in at the edges and there are ominous sfx and you cut to the POV character's wide horrified gaze. And after it has happened they fall to their knees and process it.

In SnK, a named character will have their legs torn off and it will happen in a corner of the page, with no build-up and no fanfare. Nothing stops for the terrible things in SnK. There's never any time to process, and never any way to prepare. It's really effective in conveying the characters' overwhelmed horror and sense of dissociation, but it does it by forcing you to feel overwhelmed with horror and dissociated.

Wow, ok, things that are not traumatic: swimming anime episode tonight! I started watching Free! because it was hilarious, and now I'm watching because I love it in terrifyingly unironic ways. Seriously, though, I love that it's a show that knows its audience is slashy fangirls, and has no intention of backhanding that audience in the name of trying to get the teenaged boy demographic as well. And I love how kind the whole aesthetic is. There's a massive amount of fanservice, but it's not mean fanservice, the ways shows full of e.g. upskirt shots often are. There's affectionate laughing at everyone, but you never get the impression the show doesn't respect its characters and their arcs, and they're never forced into uncomfortably suggestive situations or made to be undressed when they don't want to be. Other than the shirtlessness and the female gaze-iness, most of the fanservice is about feelings, and they're real feelings, the kind that matter.

It's just not the show I would have expected from "fanservicey slashy sports anime created by popular demand from shippers about boys who can't keep their clothes on".

Anyway, I thought I might try doing some kind of weekly rec of the best fanwork I've come across from the week. This week's is a fanvid:

Stray Italian Greyhound by

zazzle

It's No. 6, and it's Nezumi/Shion, of course, because all of the No. 6 story is about their love really. It kind of kills me: it hurts, watching Nezumi deal with being in love hurts, and then it's joyful and gentle and I can't really deal. And I love this song anyway, but the vidder relates it to this canon beautifully, throw open windows, ugh.

Yep alright, there's an update for one of my favourites of the many ridiculous BL manga I've started tracking, so I'm gonna go do that now.

Tonight is All of the Posts Night, sorry. Next themed set of recs! This one is tentacles.

... yes. God, I am so weirdly charmed by this fandom's tentacle habit. Some of these are tragic and some are hot and wrong and some are hilarious and some are really darling. A lot of them are Rose.

Say, Lady, the Tentacles Ain't Half Bad by kayliemalinza (Jade/Rose)
(1,700 words, mature.) Jade is following an intriguing new smell on the battleship, when she finds Davesprite attempting to fight off a terrifying grimdark lady with tentacles. This is very much dogtier Jade, she's doggy and godpowered and super inappropriate, and this is just ... it's weird and disturbing and full of body horror and it is so fucking delightful. I couldn't keep the delighted grin off my face, I wanted to roll around and gnaw on it like Jade. Ummmmmmmmm. God.

Dear Penthiive by Anonymous (Feferi/Sollux)
(3,800 words, explicit.) Sollux doesn't know what he did to deserve this, but he's really hoping he doesn't do anything to fuck it up. This is kind of darling xeno porn, complete with Sollux's insecurities and Feferi's determination.

Learning Each Other (Got a Lot to Learn) by

cypher (John/Karkat)
(1,800 words, explicit.) Funny and rather sweet xeno aphrodisiac first time tentacle PWP. File this one under things I read three times before realising that I had better bookmark them.

( More recs )

Another themed rec set! This one's for stories set on the battleship or the meteor during the three-year journey to the new session.

Adventures in Collaborative Storytelling by

askerian (Jade/Karkat/John)
(2,500 words, explicit.) Prospit twins battleship fic, in which accidental typing in the wrong window leads to uncomfortably revealing collaborative porn writing. Oh my god. I am absolutely delighted with this, and also weirdly uncomfortable in a way where I almost feel as though I've betrayed the characters' privacy by reading it? I don't even know. But it's awesome, both their voices are great, and the accidental revelations are even greater.

The Impossible Project by

gloss (Dave & Terezi & WV)
(1,200 words, illustrated, G.) It's not like Dave is really pining to resume photography. Oh, I love this. The Cantown Council forever. Seriously, this has such a great Dave voice, the inside of his head and what's important to him, and most of all it's such a great little view on the relationship between Dave and Terezi and the Mayor, on the meteor.

The Second Verse by

sour_idealist (Terezi & Vriska)
(1,600 words, G.) Terezi can still smell the berry-blue stain on the roof. Ughhh why does this fandom make me want to read all the things that will break me. This is a really great, story-shaped snippet of the Scourge Sisters and what they were and what they messed up, with an excellent Terezi voice. And a gut-wrenchingly perfect conclusion.

Cape Wrath by elwing_alcyone (Dave/Karkat)
(1,800 words, G.) That one time was, as it turned out, only the first time Karkat touched Dave's cape. Sadly no cape biting, but this is ridiculously cute. Featuring bonus WV.

______

Others? What have I missed?

I currently have 132 Homestuck bookmarks at pinboard, which seems like an excellent reason to start posting rec sets. I'm going to start out with a few themed sets. This one is for the Alpha kids.

Loops by lantadyme (Roxy & the Auto-Responder)
(1600 words, G.) A pesterlog between Roxy and Dirk's Auto-Responder. Oh man, Lalonde is the best friend any artificial boy could ask for. Written before they had interacted in canon, but a great version of their dynamic.

can you take me back where i came from by attentionmerrymakers (Dirk & Roxy, Dirk/Jake, Roxy/Jane)
(4900 words, teen.) A high school AU. Dirk's fate was basically sealed the first time Roxy Lalonde kicked her feet up on the desk next to him and asked him about his auto class project. This has the most flawless characterisation for all four of the kids, I love them so much it hurts. It also somehow feels longer than it is, like a full-length AU, which I appreciated a lot. (Warning for one of the pairings being incredibly unresolved.)

Betty Crocker Bought A Batch Of Bitter Butter by attentionmerrymakers (Roxy & Jane)
(1900 words, teen.) It's Roxy's fifteenth birthday, and Jane has, of all birthday presents, sent her an invitation to join BettyBother. This pretty much goes nowhere, and has already been jossed as far as Roxy's homelife goes. And it delights me utterly, I can't even say.

How You Survived the War by roachpatrol (Dirk/Jake)
(3200 words, explicit.) It's the Novice Mode on the Strifebot Dirk sent him that gets him, and it's how much the robot looks like Dirk. Fuck. Um, wow, yes. This is an excellent depiction of Jake, intrepid chipper young gentleman adventurer and so incredibly, starvingly alone. (Now jossed for the canon starving aloneness of Dirk and Roxy.) It's painful as hell and wonderful.

Rendezvous Mode by Laylah (Dirk/Jake)
(2200 words, explicit.) Dirk's added some new processes to the brobot for Jake to try out, if he's okay with it. This pairing kills me with all its potential for heartbreak. But this is basically pining porn, plus a robot, and it's pretty great.

Tomb Raiders by Laylah (Dirk/Jake)
(2800 words, mature.) Dirk, Jake, makeouts on the summit of a temple. Yep.

Waiting for the Cavalry by elwing_alcyone (Roxy & Dirk)
(2600 words, G.) Roxy always meant to hug or fist bump or something when she met Dirk in real life, but instead everything is just really awkward. Oh man, this is perfect: Roxy and Dirk's isolation and the way that plays out, the way Roxy yearns to be touched and Dirk is so guarded. And the way the friendship shines through the awkwardness all the same.

Carry Me Home Tonight by anxiousAnarchist (pale Roxy/Dirk)
(1100 words, teen.) Dirk helps Roxy to bed - because Roxy Lalonde of all people can find a way to get shitfaced even in the Medium - and she looks after him and he looks after her. Ugh, Derse kids, breaking my heart so good always.

A New Hope by minna (Jane/Eridan)
(700 words, G.) The alien boy with the cape and the fish face seems like kind of a douche, but he's sitting on his own and Jane's feeling reckless. Oh my god, this delights me.

This is an edited version of a post I made over at my fic LJ. I decided that if I was going to try out the Dreamwidth thing for real, I may as well start as I mean to continue. By which I mean talking about Homestuck until I run out of breath, and then maybe continuing with terrible pictures. (Not really a joke: this fandom makes me wish I could draw so badly.)

NOTES: This is going to inevitably contain some spoilers. In Homestuck canon basically everything is a spoiler, every single fact functions as a reveal, including characters' names and appearances. Seriously, for the first 200 pages/panels we only know one character's name, and everybody else is only a chat handle on his screen. This is something the author did deliberately, to recall the way that internet friendships work, where you usually don't learn someone's name or what they look like until you've been friends with them for a while.

THE PREMISE: Homestuck is an epic multimedia webcomic.

( It is the geekiest, most meta-tastic thing ever, utterly ridiculous and hilarious and self-conscious, EXCEPT ALSO it will break your heart and make you keysmash in overwhelmed emotion and pain and the kind of delight that fuels solar systems )

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