baudown

Here's some fic I read (actually, re-read) over the past week, which you might enjoy (if you haven't already):

1. A few days ago, I was going nuts looking for a particular story in which Spike discovers Xander practicing dirty talk, and then shows him how it's done.  Thanks to rebcake for finding it.  It's Rehearsal, by thebratqueen, and it's as good as I remembered.

2. During the Fandom Snowflake Challenge, I recced a story by Anna S that people seemed not to have read before.  This is another story of hers that people may not have come across, because you really have to go hunting to find it.  It's actually a short three-part series of canon AU Spike/Wesley.    Incredible writing, heartachey, and hot.  But warning: Spike is damaged.

    First: http://eliade.livejournal.com/168541.html
    Second: http://eliade.livejournal.com/170156.html
    Third: http://eliade.livejournal.com/170327.html

3.  And in honor of episode 2 of Sherlock airing tonight (!!!), there's Five Years Prior by feverishsea.  I read this story for the first time about six months ago, and I keep coming back to it, again and again.  Told from Lestrade's POV, John and Sherlock meet as younger iterations of themselves.  It's a very special story -- the writing is excellent, the conceit and the progression of their relationship is believable and moving, but there's something more, too, and I'm not quite sure what, but it really got its hooks into me.

Have fun!

So, I've been re-reading Subtleties by Anna S. It's something I do fairly frequently, each time slightly terrified that it won't have the impact it did, oh, say, the first seven or eight times I read it.  But somehow, it never stops affecting me in a way that is powerful and rare.

It started me thinking, about how reading this story the first time was such an enormously significant event for me.  When I came upon it, I'd only been reading fanfiction for about six months, slash for even less, and Spander less than that.  I'd only recently gotten over my initial distaste for the pairing -- I'd been reading primarily Spangel.  But I'd been finding some Spander that I kind of liked, and then -- Subtleties.  And I had one of those experiences where reading something doesn't feel like reading -- it feels like an actual experience, as if I was in that story, sharing every moment, every thought, every emotion.  Every word of it just rang true and resonated in me.  It wasn't until I went back and read it a second time that I even had an appreciation for the beautiful, beautiful writing, because the writing and the content were so organically intertwined.

And here's what happened:  the story made me fall head over heels in love with Spander, and though I do dabble a bit in other fandoms and other pairings, I think S/X will always be my OTP.  It made me an obsessive Spander reader.  It made me want to write them, despite never having done any writing in my life (and I'm not exactly a youthful flower anymore).  It made me stop thinking of fanfic/slash as a guilty pleasure, and start seeing it as a legitimate form, and one in which there is a great deal of extraordinary work.  It made me give feedback on someone's writing for the first time, and dip my toe into those on-line waters. It made me open a livejournal account.  It precipitated a lot of changes, which have generally enriched my life.

I know that it sounds slightly insane -- a piece of fanfic having that kind of impact.  But I'm assuming if you're reading this, it doesn't sound quite that crazy to you.

So, those are my thinky thoughts for the day.  I was wondering about other people's experiences -- is there a fanfic piece that stands out for you in this kind of way?  If so, I'd love to hear about it.