December Meme: humourous summaries of fandom faves

[krait]

My prompt for the 16th was: "Briefly summarize your [Some Number] most favourite fanworks in an unappealing or misleading way." - odditycollector

This is the sort of thing I've always admired when other people do it well, but have secretly worried I'm not witty enough to do, so bear with me here. :D


Barmy, by schemingreader. (Harry Potter, Harry Potter/Severus Snape.) Harry wakes up in the mental ward, escapes, then goes completely off his rocker and befriends Severus Snape. Meanwhile, Snape is going through a midlife crisis.

So Wise We Grow, by Deastar. (Star Trek: AOS, Jim Kirk/Spock.) The efficiency of the Vulcan postal service is legendary. Spock's kid is located, packaged, and shipped off to the Enterprise before Spock can point out that they have, in fact, sent him someone else's order.

Signals That Sound in the Dark, by dira sudis. (Vorkosigan Saga + Torchwood, Aral Vorkosigan/Jack Harkness.) Attractive bisexual captain from outer space seeks same for ONS.

Dirty Deeds by Miko. (Homestuck, Eridan Ampora/Karkat Vantas.) Lovely first-time fic wherein Eridan and Karkat meet, go out for dinner, and end up at a hotel to have sex... Although I may have slightly misrepresented the order of events.

All the Way Down by Coldhope. (Homestuck, Eridan Ampora/Equius Zahhak.) Equius half-drowns himself for spite. Eridan is responsible for the "half" part. Romance ensues.

Memory by emilyenrose. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers/James Barnes.) The Winter Soldier's brain is more frostbitten than everyone had hoped. Loki doesn't actually help, even while he's dead.

Five and One: I Wanna Hold Your Hand, by penbrydd. (Star Trek: AOS, Jim Kirk/Spock.) Spock is such an extremely helpful lieutenant, the Vulcan ambassador just threw up in his mouth a little.



Edited to add: Now with real summaries in the comments, in case anything struck you as intriguing, or you want to know just how far I can stretch a point in the name of amusement. :D

Comments

[elaineofshalott]

OMG I GOT YOUR PACKAGE TODAY! SOL [SQUEEING OUT LOUD]!!! I am drinking some of the Typhoo right now; I am SO EXCITED it is Typhoo brand tea because that shows up in one of my faaaaaavorite BBC Sherlock fics. (I'm such a fandom nerd.) (I've seen PG Tips in the imported foods section of the tea aisle at my local supermarket, and I've never bought any (YET, though I might do now), but I'm still ridiculously pleased it's there, because it shows up in one of my other favorite-ever BBC Sherlock fics. It is like a little bit of the story, come to life. Someday I will visit England and go to Tesco and become the first person ever to die of joy over simply being in a Tesco.)

Anyway THAAAAANK YOOOUUUUUU!! I mailed your card yesterday, so it should arrive soon. :)

[krait]

I am so glad you liked the Typhoo!

I don't know if it was you or someone else, but last year somebody told me they loved the Typhoo because of a BBC Sherlock fic, so that was definitely on my mind this year - I made sure I had some to include in everyone's package. :D Glad that it was fandom!delicious as well as drinking!delicious for you! (Next year: PG Tips? :D It's sold in some shops around me, so it would certainly be doable!)

Oh, and for the record, check whether a store called "Tuesday Morning" is located near you; they almost always seem to carry Typhoo tea, at least in the locations near me! It comes in large and very large boxes; I buy the very large box, because I like it and it's my standard make-to-take-to-work tea.

I'll keep an eye out for the card; thank you!

[odditycollector]

Whoops, I missed this.

I only read one of these (Dirty Deeds) so I am sure I am missing a bunch of good jokes, but yep, without the qualifier, that one is *super misleading*. (Tho "Attractive bisexual captain from outer space seeks same for ONS." sounds intriguing as is.)

[krait]

Heh. Yes, it occurred to me that I should perhaps give a "real" summary after the amusing one, but then I worried that it'd kill the humour for those who did know.

I think now that I shall create a key in the comments, so that people can get an idea of what really happens (in case they want to read!)

"Attractive bisexual captain from outer space seeks same for ONS" is possibly the best summary I've ever had to write, and I can't recommend the fic enough if you're at all familiar with the Vorkosigan novels! Jack Harkness + Aral Vorkosigan = ALL THE EMOTIONS FOREVER.

[odditycollector]

i think the key is helpful for the reccing part definitely. (Still, when I was asking I thought it wouldn't be fair to specify fandom, but it was tempting so I could get the jokes.)

& I am familiar with the Vorkosigan seres, but sadly our relationship didn't work out. . .

Content Key

[krait]

Now with real summaries, so people know exactly how far off my "misleading" attempts were.

Barmy, by schemingreader. (Harry Potter, Harry Potter/Severus Snape.) Lovely and often funny, but with deeper tensions. I've recced this fic before!

So Wise We Grow, by Deastar. (Star Trek: AOS, Jim Kirk/Spock.) In general, I hate kidfic, and especially the trope I think of as suddenly!children, but this fic is an exception because it managed to avoid the tropes and cliches that make me hate the genre, and it also manages to pull in some great little hints about Vulcan lives and culture. After the loss of their home planet, the Council contacts Spock with the news that his son has survived but his wife has not, so they're sending his son to the Enterprise to be with his remaining parent. Except that Spock is a sterile hybrid and wasn't on Vulcan when this kid was conceived. He's shocked and upset by the pileup of issues this brings; it wrecks his logical thinking, it destroys his relationship with Uhura, retroactively damages his relationship with his dead wife, and sets up a huge conflict between his reluctance to hurt a child by renouncing him (and thus declaring him a bastard in a culture that shames such children) and trying to be a single parent on top of being Kirk's 2IC.

Basically, this fic takes suddenly-a-parent and portrays it as exactly the kind of lifechanging spanner in the works it would be to somebody on the Enterprise's crew, and does it in a poignant and believable way where nobody is conveniently scapegoated or miraculously fixed.

Signals That Sound in the Dark, by dira sudis. (Vorkosigan Saga + Torchwood, Aral Vorkosigan/Jack Harkness.) Commodore Aral Vorkosigan: bisexual from a homophobic planet, embittered after an abusive relationship with a superior officer, slips away from his Imperial minders for a taste of sordid galactic anonymous sex. What he gets is Captain Jack Harkness, who has many secrets but has never been ashamed of his sexuality and wouldn't know "sordid" if it hit him over the head. I absolutely love the contrast of their secrets and their perspectives in this fic - if you know the characters, it hits doubly hard. Aral especially, because this is Aral post-Ges and pre-Cordelia, a man at the nadir of his self-estimation when it comes to sex and relationships.

Dirty Deeds by Miko. (Homestuck, Eridan Ampora/Karkat Vantas.) (If you're not familiar with Homestuck, here's what you need to know: trolls are an alien race whose empire requires them to contribute genetic material for reproduction periodically, and the penalty for noncontribution is death.) Collection is imminent and Eridan hasn't got a partner; in desperation, he pays an exorbitant fee for an illegal hookup with a likewise-desperate anonymous troll. They do their best, each pretty freaked out about the situation, and halfway through awkward first-time anonymous sex, they figure out that they know each other. They manage to finish, and end up renewing their friendship and heading out for a dinner date.

All the Way Down by Coldhope. (Homestuck, Eridan Ampora/Equius Zahhak.) Eridan Ampora, a lonely aristocrat, sees an old acquaintance nearly drown, and rescues him. As Equius recuperates, Eridan starts to see that his tumble into the water wasn't just recklessness; there are hints that he's been rather upset by some shifts in his only significant relationship (in addition to a romantic rejection from his own crush, his hetero lifemate BFF has just fallen in love, so he's suffering a sudden lack of support just when he needs it most). They slowly get to know each other better and discover that neither is the "has it all together" person that a superficial look would suggest, but together they're better.

Memory by emilyenrose. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers/James Barnes.) It is hard to explain how much I love this fic, especially without spoiling it! Suffice to say, amidst the wealth of "Bucky recovers himself" fic out there this is the rare gem that takes the other path. The Winter Soldier doesn't remember being Steve's friend, but he builds a life for himself anyway, as best he can, and Steve stubbornly does his best to help. When Loki's magic staff seems to offer the prospect of recovery, "James" has to make a choice between becoming the man Steve remembers and continuing the uphill struggle to become someone new.

Five and One: I Wanna Hold Your Hand, by penbrydd. (Star Trek: AOS, Jim Kirk/Spock.) Hand porn! Sort of. A mostly-humourous look at the cultural differences between humans and Vulcans - namely, that Vulcans kiss by touching fingers. Spock touches Kirk's hands a lot while Kirk is oblivious, until finally Kirk catches on.