TS fic hall of fame (so far)

[zelempa]

A couple of different people have asked on comms and so forth for all-star favorite TS recs, and I thought I'd give some of mine.

From the repetition of authors here, it'll be clear that I have not read at all widely in this fandom. I tend not to spend nearly as much time enjoying existing things as I do trying to make new things. The downside to that of course is that I end up retreading things that have been done, and I lack important cultural background, and I'm kind of a feedback vacuum; but what can I say? I like making things!

Other caveats: I tend to rec things that were written, and that I read, a long time ago (years), so they've had plenty of time to stew in my mind. I tend to have read authors I know from SGA, because that's how I got into fandom. And I tend to have read only short things, as I'm commitmentphobic.



Best Low-Pressure Guy-Grope: Nothing On by Francesca

"Yeah, I'd grope you. I'd totally grope you. I mean, I'm not stupid--there's just, like, a lot of you there to grope. In the grope-o-rama sweepstakes, I'd be the winner, wouldn't I?"

"I wasn't proposing a sweepstakes, Sandburg," Jim said irritably. "I was just thinking, two adults, nothing on TV, I hate Scrabble, you're cute as a button--why not, is all."

Francesca (cesperanza)'s stories were the first I read in TS and for a long while they were the only ones. I had a bookmark folder of TS stories at one time that was just my own personal favorite subset of the stories Francesca had written. So I'll give you two more of hers.

Best "I Love You": I Love You by Francesca

"Yeah!! Well, maybe. Yeah. Sort of. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I mean: yeah."

"Do you mean 'yeah'?"

Two years ago I would have named this as my favorite TS story of all time. I'm a little more conflicted about it now because it's sort of two different stories in one--a lengthy dialogue followed by some internal monologue and sex. The lengthy dialogue is still one of my favorite pieces of fiction. Ever.

Best Pheromones: The Object of My Erections by Francesca

"Okay. So you're saying yesterday?--nothing, today?--ha-cha-cha, right?"

"I'm going to kill myself," said Jim, burying his face in his hands. "No, that's stupid: I'm not thinking rationally. I'm going to kill you."

I have a real thing for stories which make use of something that was presented in canon. At the time when I first read this, I had only seen season 1, so it was difficult to satisfy that--many stories (many of which I still haven't read) making use of elements introduced in later episodes (dials, spirit animals, breath of life, etc etc.) This story deals touchingly with the emotional ramifications when Jim's heightened pheromone sense (cf 1x9 Attraction) suddenly begins reacting to Blair.

Best Role Reversal: Origin by resonant8 and kassrachel

"To be able to sense so much, take in so much ... I used to get so pissed at you, man, you kept saying, 'Help me get rid of this stuff' -- like you had this great gift and you wanted to fucking give it back! I'd give a couple of teeth to experience things like that. Compared to that, I just feel ... numb."

The plot of this story is quite simple--Jim shows Blair that he can achieve something like heightened senses just by being still and observing. This story has a particular distinction for me because I read the sex. You have to understand that back in the day when I first read it, I didn't read sex. Oh, I read stories with sex in them--preferred them, actually--but I'd skim the actual sex scenes. They would generally be tonally different, very self-contained and largely skippable in terms of plot and character development. Well, in this story, I read the sex, dammit, hung on every word. It's perfectly integrated into the story, essential, interesting, and hot.

Best Sixth Sense: Nuance by Livia and Resonant

"Look, all I'm saying is, you can tell a girl doesn't like her lunch, but there was nothing about David fucking Lash that set off any alarm bells?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking well-scrubbed and smug. "And, hell, you don't have the slightest clue when I'm lying to you--"

"You lie to me, Chief? I'm wounded." Jim really wished Blair would tighten the belt of his robe.

Using Jim's senses as a lie detector was slightly mentioned in one episode, but the show didn't really go there; this story does, convincingly, with an actually compelling crime plot (so rare!!!) and, of course, complications to Jim and Blair's relationship.

Best Blair Voice: The Couch by t_verano

This was just a little low-self-esteem fostered paranoia talking, right? Jim was Jim. Jim didn’t usually eat spaghetti on the couch, either. But that wasn’t because he didn’t like spaghetti. Spaghetti was just more--active than, say, popcorn. More exuberant.

Yeah, that made sense. Jim was just being careful about the exuberance factor. Okay.

I only read this about a day ago and even though I like to give a story about at least a year to dwell, and even though I haven't read much of T's other stuff so I can't really compare, I have to rec this because it is such spot-on, hilarious, bittersweet Blair interior monologue.

That was--what, only three authors? Obviously I need to get out more. If you want to save me time by recing your all-star favorites, go for it.