Dreamwidth style system discussion

Surely no one needs an explainer on this fandom, right? If you do, google is your friend, I reckon.

The tv show ended the way it did (the less said, the better), and we will never see the book series completed; having got these two elephants in the room out of the way, let's concentrate on what drew me to this fictional world: medieval-England-like politics, fantasy, lots of intrigue, a sprawling cast of characters with endless permutations of shipping possibilities... ASoIaF/GoT really had a lot going for it. And I think this is why it attracted so many talented authors.

I've read extensively in this fandom, and if you had the patience to trawl through the sheer mass of fic posted, you were simply bound to find something to your taste. When it comes to single out the stories I enjoyed the most, I think I'm going to have to take two different approaches: the ship way (my favourite was, unsurprisingly, Jamie/Brienne, but I've read pretty much any pairing under the sun, lol) or the astounding-author way.

Let's start with the latter. I'm just going to list who my favourite authors are and give you a couple of recs for each of them, sure in the knowledge that whatever work of theirs you will read is pretty much awesome. I'll keep the shippy recs for another day. One last warning: something I found particularly satisfying in this fandom is AUs of the canon divergence kind, because changing one single fact and seeing how the consequences span out is extremely interesting in an intricate and politically fraught world as Westeros. So most of the stories I'm going to rec here fall under this category. Last but not the least, for me, this fandom is all about the women.

arbitrarily. My top pick: the joinery. 14K words. Cersei/Ned, Cersei/Jaime. by what right does the wolf judge the lion -- ned stark takes the iron throne, and with it, a lannister for a wife.

lareinenoire. My top picks: 1)Reap the Whirlwind. 6K. The circumstances under which Cersei Lannister finds herself Princess of Dragonstone are not the ones she anticipated.; 2)False Sorrow's Eye 18K. Elia Martell/Lyanna Stark. Two women survive Robert's Rebellion and everything changes.

Net_girl_y2k. She writes mostly femslash and it's ALL excellent. My top picks: 1)Had A Dream I Was The Queen (woke up, still the queen). 7K words. Rhaegar marries Lyanna Stark, and runs away with Elia Martell; 2) The Sisters BlackNight gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no husband and bear no children. I shall wear no gowns and no jewels. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life's blood to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come. The Night's Watch is for women. Lyanna Stark survived and was forced to take the black. Arya decides to follow in her aunt's steps. Podfic available!

vixleonard. My top picks: 1) No Featherbed For me 154K. Arya Stark wanted to be a knight; she wanted to find glory and adventure with Needle in her hand. But that is not an appropriate life for a highborn lady, and that was all Arya of House Stark was allowed to be. This is the definitive Arya story. What an epic journey. 2) The Evening Star. 38K. Some day people will tell tale of Ashara Dayne, the tragic and beautiful sister of the great Ser Arthur Dayne, who flung herself from the Palestone Sword with a broken heart. They will whisper about the man who dishonored her at Harrenhal, the man who got a bastard on her. But they will never get the story right.

astolat. Keeping in mind I'll rec the shippy bits elsewhere, my top picks: 1)The Price of Bread and Salt 12K. “The girl asks for more deaths than she is owed. The Many-Faced God may grant it. But for this, there will be a price. And a man cannot say what the price will be. A girl must pay. A man must pay. A girl’s brother must pay, if he agrees.” Podfic available. 2)Royal Flush. Robb Stark had swept his entire hand of cards off the table, and Tyrion couldn’t see how to make a single play at all.

The Pitt

Compiling this rec list made me realize arbitrarily has written for The Pitt too and I didn't notice! So I went on a good ol' binge-reading and come offering this gem runner's high. 7K. Robby/McKay/Abbot threesome, woot. Jack joins a run club, Cassie’s raw-dogging a 10k, and Robby’s sweating. Can't believe I'd missed this.

A quick one, because tonight I'm shattered. In the unlikely event someone isn't familiar with the show or the movie, Fanlore has a good rundown.

My main ship back then was Mal/River (now that I'm older I'm slightly squicked by the age difference though River is so much more powerful that Mal that this redresses the balance a little), so my recs reflect this. Also, Firefly seems to be the little black dress of crossovers, as it goes well with any fandom. I remember reading loads of very fun crossovers, unfortunately I had only a handful saved in my bookmarks.

No Power In the 'Verse by vialethe. 24K words. Mal/River. Having no choice but to feel, River cherishes all the more deeply the ability to act. If only she knew what action to take." A believable and gorgeously written take on this unlikely pairing. Very good River voice, which must be a bitch to get right.

I Fall by Kass. Mal/River. River knows what she wants. Probably the first story that made me fall for this pairing. It's adorable how persistent River has to be and how flustered Mal is.

Whiskey and Wry by musesfool Mal/River. There's a difference between what a man wants and what he knows is right. Exquisite yearning, lovely character voices.

Good Luck Charms by Nary. Pre-series Wash/Zoe. Lovely backstory for one of the best married couples in TV.

And Then It Went all F*ing Stargate by indyhat. Firefly/Generation Kill. Gen. Spot-on character voices. Hilarious.

The Pitt

never waste a Friday night by morphosynctactic. Trinity/Whitaker. Don't hit the back button! I know they have siblings vibes. Yet this works. It's tremendously in character. And hot. And sweet. And hilarious. You would think that sleeping with Trinity Santos (who isn't actually that into him) would rip Dennis' self-esteem to shreds. But it turns out that when she texts him "i thought your dick was going to be kind of weird but it’s pretty solid” and "your fingerblasting is adequate" he knows that's the truth and nothing but the truth.

This is not a fandom I was much obsessed with. The tv show was all right, in its early seasons at least, eminently watchable. Not something I've ever wished to revisit. However I remember enjoying some of the fic back in the day.

Only one has withstood the test of time. needs must by thatotherperv. 98K Harvey/Mike. Extremely explicit. 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. It's an AU where Mike is a prostitute. Dom/sub. Now, BDSM is totally not my cup of tea, but this fic does such a great job of explaining this dynamic that I could totally see the appeal. Also, everything is perfectly in character. And there's lots of plot (the first two seasons are basically re-written, IIRC). And emotional growth. Plus, it comes in podfic form too, read by the crazily-talented dodificus. I lost count of how many times I listened to this story and every damn time it grabs me by the throat and never lets me go for the whole 11 hours of it.

I quite like Donna/Harvey as a pairing, unfortunately it was never very popular in the fandom. I remember being so happy when I found this little gem: Happy To See Me by Zinnith (I originally had bookmarked on LJ, just to give you an idea of how old some of my fic recs are; it was easy enough to track down in the Ao3 too, though). Great character voices and lovely, lyrical prose.

The Pitt

One of the aspects that made the previous Dom/sub story work for me was how explicit and detailed the kink negotiation was. That reminded me of an excellent fic that hinges on that very concept in this fandom: Red Light, Green Light by avocadomoon. Now, it's avocadomoon, the BNF author for Kingdon, so I don't think I have to say more. Her fic are consistently the ones with the highest number of hits on the Ao3 for a reason. Anyway, for my DW friends who are not into the Pitt, this story features Mel and Langdon becoming friends-with-benefits. I'm making this sound boring. It's so much fun. I always giggle when I re-read certain parts.