The Ink-Pot and the Palette

Rec, did I say? Nay, a flailing, screaming, OMG SO BRILLIANT go read it imperative.

Le Silence de Roman by lyrstzha is a "fix-it" for a medieval French troubadour tale called Le Roman de Silence, The Romance of Silence, which treats of gender in a way that one doesn't really think of the Medievals as doing.

Here is a translation of the key part of the source material, which lyrstzha provides in the introductory notes:

They dressed Silence as a woman.
Lords, what more can I say?
Once he was called Silentius:
they removed the -us, added an -a,
and so he was called Silentia.
After Nature
had recovered her rights,
she spent the next three days refinishing
Silence's entire body, removing every trace
of anything that being a man had left there.

Lyrstzha tells another side of the story in iambic tetrameter, with wit, humor, and real love for the spirit of the source material. Here are arguably the crowning lines of her whole tale:

[Silence says]
"...Because it seemed to my mind
That I stood unique in kind.”
Merlin snorted at this cry;
He smiled and scoffed and rolled his eyes.
“So lament all under the sun!
Each thinking he's the only one
To bear strangeness as a brand
Like an exile in a far-flung land.
In truth there is no such creature
As one who's common in every feature.”

It's under 2000 words and a joy to read, especially aloud. I can't recommend it highly enough.

I've been reading a lot in the Teen Wolf fandom lately (a lot a lot). Here are three Sterek recs:

First, Last, and Always by sffan
Explicit rating
13,000 words

( Read more... )

this boy, half-destroyed by M_Leigh
Teen and up rating
25,600 words

( Read more... )

the blood blooms clean in you, ruby, also by M_Leigh
Teen and up rating
48,000 words

( Read more... )

In both of M_Leigh's stories there's a strong and cohesive plot thread involving Alphas and magic and all the most interesting things from canon. But what the author does better than the show's writers is make the story arise from the deeply flawed characters who inhabit it.

Both stories have that rare quality in fanfic: re-readability. I'm going back to re-read them tonight, in fact.

Sherlock Holmes and the Curious Case of the Howl in the Night (Sherlock BBC) by sideris is about 8000 words of funny, sexy, Sherlock-and-John first time (well, the first few times) fic with the most incredibly spot-on character voices I think I've seen so far in this fandom.

And it's touching, and emotionally resonant. The scene where Sherlock applies his powers of deduction to John's body is absolutely gorgeous:

Pressing his palms together, [Sherlock] taps the forefingers of both hands thoughtfully against his lips and murmurs, "Now, let me think. What does this body want?"

"I'd've thought that was obvious," John says, lifting his hips from the bed on the off-chance Sherlock needs a clue. "Even to a genius."

It's as if he hadn't even spoken. Sherlock is gazing at his body, as if everything he needs to know is written there, in ways far more obvious than John's straining dick could ever be. He runs a finger down the centre of John's chest, and follows the the line down, from Adam's apple to sternum to navel. "Soft," he says, pressing his finger lightly into the flesh at John's waist. "This is a man who likes to eat."

John cringes. He's put on weight since he was invalided home, but he didn't think it showed too badly. Until now. "Are you saying I'm fat?"

"I'm saying," Sherlock replies, eyes still glued to John's stomach, "it's obvious you're a man who has appetites."

It's a lovely read.

People are gathered in Seattle for Pacificon, a C6D-plus-Leverage-and-White-Collar-and-some-other-shows fandom writing convergence thing, and they are writing fic, and there is this short, delightful Due South/White Collar crossover by china_shop called Don't Kill The Messenger (He's Already Dead), that will repay in giggles the very small amount of time it will take you to read it. It's gen, it's funny, and it's totally unexpected.

Due South. White Collar. Crossover. Proof that fans are geniuses.

"Il y a longtemps que je t'aime" means "I've loved you so long".

As the title of the 2008 film by Philippe Claudel, it seems a little random unless you understand that "Il y a longtemps que je t'aime" is the refrain of a French folk song so basic that you learn it in French 101, called "À la claire fontaine."

"At the clear fountain, as I was out strolling along, the water was so beautiful that I went in for a swim. I've loved you so long, I will never forget you."

Then, as you watch this stunningly well-written and gorgeously filmed movie starring Kristin Scott-Thomas (speaking not a single word of English), and realize that her character's name is Fontaine, and watch the theme of springs, and rivers, and pools, and rain, unfold in the subtext, the title all starts to make sense.

I can't say a single other thing about the movie without spoiling it--it's the kind of story where "what happens" has already happened, and the whole movie is about revealing what that was.

But I can tell you this: I just finished watching I've Loved You So Long, and I feel like I've just now, finally, understood the art of storytelling.