Yuletide 2007 recs, round 3

[springgreen]

Naamah's Token (Kushiel series) - I've always enjoyed Phedre and Joscelin's odd, thorny, difficult, yet ultimately satisfying romance, particularly how it turns romance conventions of the promiscuous man and the chaste woman on its head. As such, I love that this fic is about the push-pull of Phedre's sexual desires, and I particularly love the scene between Nicola and Joscelin.

I heard the tale told once in Cereus House where I spent my childhood, of how proud Azza and cruel Kushiel wagered a province between them for a night spent in Naamah's arms.

Bentou for Two (Nobuta wo Produce) - I'm not sure if this will work for people who haven't seen Nobuta, but this saved the ending a bit for me. It's Nobuta and Mariko, gradually learning to be friends, and I really needed to read that.

The square flat box, blue with green stripes, held a couple of egg rolls, some boiled vegetables, and a patch of rice with a pig's face drawn onto it with gome seeds.

Scenes from the Lives of Princes (Coffee Prince) - Again, I'm not sure if this will work for people who don't love the canon, but this gives me all the same warm fuzzies that watching Coffee Prince does. Just... awwwwww!

Years after Coffee Princess proves as big a hit as Coffee Prince, they'll be sitting in Han Kyul and Eun Chan's living room after dinner, and Han Sung will say, "Why don't you make the coffee, Han Kyul? Your wife must be sick of it, after doing it all day."

All the King's Men (Cain Saga/Godchild) - This has everything I love about Yuki Kaori's series: poisons, absolutely insane plotting, hot like whoa, and Cain alternately being vulnerable, manipulative, and cruel. Also, zombie priest and dove! Embryonic shrew skull! The crack, I love it so much, and it doesn't hurt that the fic is extremely sexy as well.

Hypnotized by this strange sight, Crehador forgot the terrible suspicion which had brought him to this place, and watched as Cain, with a languorous sigh, let a single drop fall upon his small pink tongue.

Rehearsals (The Scarlet Pimpernel) - I have a giant weakness for The Scarlet Pimpernel, and this fic plays to everything I loved about the original. Percy and Marguerite grow up and learn to dissemble -- Percy's disguises have always been flashier, but I love that the author's Marguerite is so vivid and ruthless as well.

She was an unprepossessing sight that year, sulky mouth dominating her bony young face and straggles of greasy curls covering her eyes and her grimy cheeks - a year or two too young for the whorehouse but that was the most you could say.

Sefirot (Angel Sanctuary) - After this has been recced by several people, I have been saving it as a treat (it has taken me forever to get to the a's). And oh, I love this so much. Kabbalah and snippets from Alexiel's lives and Kira and Setsuna and oh! LOVE! Right now, my favorite section is "Geburah" because I am in love with bloody, icy Alexiel, but it may change any second. It's got reincarnation and sin and desire and I love it SO MUCH.

We spilled entrails and we rejoiced, and I could no longer tell where I ended and you began. Have you read your secret in me? Do you play a deeper game?

Nanatsusaya... am I your master? Or am I but your mistress?

A Taste of You (Angel Sanctuary) - I never thought I would like Kira/Katou, but I love this. I love the focus on taste, the gothic, lush, sinful imagery, the way Kira is cruel and casual, how the author weaves Setsuna and Alexiel into the fic. It also doesn't hurt that it's incredibly hot.

Kira has always liked the taste of cigarettes. He fancies that cancer is a spice, noxious and thickly sweet, one more forbidden fruit in a corrupt life.

Black Moon in the Afternoon Sky (After School Nightmare) - I'm in love with how this manages to capture the creepy, surreal, haunting atmosphere of the canon, with the gorgeous language and imagery, with the extremely hot Ichijo/Sou scenes, and I would rec it just for that. But I love it even more for how it treats Kureha and the penultimate scene, for making her just as important as Ichijo/Sou, for not ignoring her pain and rage and grief and love. If I ruled the universe, this would be how the manga ended.

On the way back, before you push the doors open, you can never stop yourself from wondering if the world ended while you were sleeping; if all you'll find above are the remnants of a holocaust, screaming shadows blasted onto bleached walls, or piles of corpses still bleeding from their open mouths.

The Last Rites of Wednesday Addams (Addams Family movies) - I love this, even though I've only watched bits and pieces of the movies on TV. I love the mother-daughter relationship, poisonings and all, and, ok. It's a rite of passage passed down from mother to daughter for hundreds of years! Involving things like being trapped in an Iron Maiden by choice! There really was no way I wasn't going to like this.

On their 18th birthday, each Nightshade woman is sat down by her mother - or, if her mother is fortunate enough to have been dismembered, eviscerated, set on fire, or otherwise deceased, another suitable Nightshade female - and given the Last Rites.

No, not the quaint little Catholic custom; this is a purely Nightshade tradition, handed down from each firstborn female.

The Walls of Sparta (300) - I wouldn't have read this were it not for liviapenn's rec; there is a reason why I avoided seeing 300. This reads like the flip side to Luminosity's vid Vogue -- while the vid was about taking on the male gaze, the fic is about the people the male gaze doesn't even see. I love the rage in this, I love that it gives voices back to the women, the slaves, the captives. This is my canon and my story in a way that Frank Miller's work can never be.

Her first husband, she initially thought, had joined the masters. He marched out and had not returned, he died with his oppressors. His friends were forced to the fight just as he was but--Persia! Blessed Persia!--they had run, they had fled and joined the liberators. They were free; she could imagine them with gold and silver, bronze and myrrh.

Comments

[bell]

Thank you for reccing my Nobuta wo Produce fic~~~. Am sorry that you felt the need to be 'saved' from the ending, but, at the same time, glad that my fic helped better it for you.

[springgreen.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the fic!

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for reccing "The Last Rites of Wednesday Addams"! I've loved The Addams Family ever since the age of 7, and getting the chance to play in that universe was so much fun.

It's a rite of passage passed down from mother to daughter for hundreds of years! Involving things like being trapped in an Iron Maiden by choice! There really was no way I wasn't going to like this.

The movies are FULL of stuff like this. I really suggest you try and get ahold of them - the mix of black humor and family dysfunction is just top notch. I think my favorite bit is the game they play at the end of AF, "Wake the Dead". Yes, it involves shovels and point totals (ten for a pelvis!)and is exactly what you're thinking.

Again, thank you SO MUCH.

[springgreen.livejournal.com]

Not at all! I really need to watch the movies now!