Tyrannosaurus Recs

[bironic]

synn's writing process is not unlike the way nature makes diamonds. There's a long period of intense pressure spent in darkness, sometimes bits of carbon crack and flake off, and then, at last, a gem emerges into the light, small and compact and meticulously constructed and beautiful.

This time it's Thrice Turned, a Snape/Harry story—sort of—set at the end of Deathly Hallows. Look, Snape/Harry makes me run away hiding my eyes, but this one works for me, a lot, even though I still shudder at phrases like "Potter's [fill in the sex word]," in part because Ginny is in the mix as well—again, sort of—and because of the distanced, understated tone. There's also genderbending and bodyswap, but not in a way I've seen often before. The setup is fascinating and the execution doesn't leave Snape or you with easy answers. The whole thing is rich enough to read like the start of an AU. An original, thought-provoking story, and probably even more enjoyable if you like the pairing normally.

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I have been stressy and grumpypants and insomniac lately, but today had many lovely things in it. For instance:

• we went for an Indian buffet networking lunch,
• my department director said she's trying to get funds approved to offer me an extended contract in a project management position,
• I talked for an hour and a half with a really interesting man I'd only gone down to see to check a fact with,
• the bluegrass station played a peppy version of Dylan's "Señor,"
• the impromptu lemon-margarine-pepper-corn starch sauce I made over a handful of frozen shrimp and scallions turned out super-tasty, and
• I went swimming for the first time in the rooftop pool my apartment building was supposed to open in May but only finished and got county-inspected a couple of weeks ago.

Then I got a blatant scam message in reply to a Craigslist housing item that was too good to be true, but whatever. A) I could tell right away, and B) swimming.

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I think I know which line I'd like to complete for kink_bingo. It involves finishing that Rodney/Katie consent play WIP and waiting for the SGA S5 DVDs to arrive so I can make a tentacles vidlet. What music goes with tentacles? I'm serious; I can't figure out what to set it to. newkidfan once did a wordless vidlet set to a heartbeat sound, where John stopped hearing Rodney give a presentation because he was focused so hard on Rodney's hands. Maybe something like that to imply the hotness.

…Or nothing could happen and I'll finish the round with one square done plus the anthropomorficlet that wasn't long enough to count for another.

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Another few recs to close things out:

- thedeadparrot's Star Trek II/III vid, Searching. Haunting stuff. She calls it slash. As a TOS slashphobe, I call it bursting with the care Kirk and Spock have for one another. ETA: Or maybe it was just haunting to me, since the music sent me halfway back to that feeling, on a night where I was feeling on edge for hours.

- Lullabies in a Minor Key by penknife. An aching portrait of Rodney and Jeannie growing up.

- A Long Gold Sliding into Dawn by synecdochic. This has been around so long, and recced in so many places, that I was sure I'd read it. Turns out I hadn't. The characterizations may not be quite canon, but it's brilliant in the way fanon can be more brilliant than canon—a look at what a lifetime of war can do to someone, and longing for but resistance to intimacy, and John not understanding what he wants or what he has until Rodney pushes him hard enough to see.

- The vid Cure for Pain by verbal_kint10, via blackmare_9. House's pain, in drug-staticked visuals.