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Title: City of Iron, City of Tears
Authors: calamitycrow and ariadnes_string
Fandoms: Supernatural/ X-Men First Class
Rating: PG for this part.
Warnings: none
Spoilers: Basically a mid-twentieth-century AU for early-season SPN and a kind of missing scene for XMFC.
Word Count: ~3.4K for this part.
Disclaimer: not ours, no profit.

Summary: The Second World War is over, but the Cold War is just heating up. In a divided Berlin, Capt. Dean Winchester of Army Intelligence and Agent Sam Winchester of the newly-formed CIA come up against forces even they have never imagined.

Part One

( City of Iron, City of Tears 2/? )

Friends, I feel it is my fannish duty to spread this piece of possibly erroneous gossip:

Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast in the next Star Trek movie

Probably not true, huh? But fun to think about. Please give your best suggestions for his role, and more importantly, hair color and outfit, below.

I wrote Homeland fic this year for Yuletide, which I enjoyed immensely, both because I loved the show and was glad to think more about it, and because it gave me a chance to write some of my not-at-all-secret vices: het and religion.

The experience was made even better by the generous beta help I got from destina and twoskeletons. Their names were redacted in the initial posting--but you can see them now!

Title: A wind that passeth away and cometh not again
Fandom: Homeland
Recipient: marycontraire
Rating: Explicit/ NC-17
Warnings: um, impact play? I guess that's what you'd call it? Slightly violent sex. And y'all know how much I like to write slightly dissociative mental states, yeah?
Spoilers: through the few minutes of the finale.
Pairing: Carrie/Brody
Word count: ~2.8K
Disclaimer: not mine, no profit.

a/n: many thanks to destina twoskeletons for the generous and expert betas.

Y'all--I am starting the year with three WIPs. Not good. Not good at all.

I didn’t think I’d be able to do a Yuletide rec list this year, but before I knew it I had a bunch of fabulous fics I wanted to spread the word about, especially because a few of them are from fandoms that I don’t think have been mentioned in the com's rec posts yet.

I’ve already flailed over my own gift, No Rules for Fools from the Hour fandom here.

Here are six more, arranged alphabetically by fandom.

Grimm
Wolves in Waiting
Author’s summary: Nick has a key, and a lock. (Nick/Monroe, E, ~5.7K)

I go back and forth on whether I really want this to be a sexual pairing, but this fic has definitely done a lot to help me make up my mind. Amazingly hot, but also filled with perfect character notes.

Jane Austen Fight Club
Jane Eyre Has a Posse
Author’s summary: After an initial success, Jane Austen's Fight Club has become tedious and routine. If fight club is to thrive, the ladies will need a serious intervention, Brontë-style. Featuring exciting crossover action! (All the Austen and Bronte heroines—all of them!, G, ~3.8K)

This story is hysterical, edifying, and pretty much makes all the literary criticism on why Austen was not on Charlotte Bronte’s list of favorite writers beside the point.

Regeneration
Where Unknown, There Place Monsters
Author’s summary: “He had the rest of the day to get through before he could talk to Rivers, but he was glad of that. It was right that the first confusion and pain should be borne alone."
This is what happens at the end of that day. (Prior/Rivers, M, ~5.2K)

It wasn’t written for me, but this story exactly fills one of my prompts. Even if that wasn’t the case, though, I would still adore it. I guess it has a somewhat limited audience, since it takes place at a very specific point towards the end of the second novel in the trilogy. But the language is pitch-perfect and the current of feeling is amazingly strong and intense. If you’re at all interested in the relationship Barker suggests between these two men, this story is a must-read—I don’t have the words to recommend it strongly enough.

Sherlock RPF
The Scene is Now
Author’s summary: They told him: "It will change you, if you let it." (Benedict, Martin, Amanda, M, 5K+ words)

Pitch-perfect fic featuring a confused and poignant Benedict—all UST, which is how I like this pairing. A flistie steered me to this fic, and I’m so glad she did.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Felicitations
Author’s summary: If this were a mission he would assume it was compromised
(Haydon/Prideaux, M, ~2.5K, book ‘verse, but I think expect it works for the movie)

Killer fic for a killer pairing. Great Jim POV and voice—and the ending packs an emotional punch.

Wicked Gentlemen

Bliss is an Abyss
Author’s summary: There are things worse than pain. A peaceful life in the country, for one, and an honest man. (Explicit, Harper/Sykes, ~1.4K)

Lovely snippet of post-novel Harper/Bellimai.

Happy New Year, all!

Finally getting a chance to tell y'all about the absolutely lovely Yuletide fic I received, in The Hour fandom.

No Rules for Fools:
Author's summary: Lix has a new assignment for Hector, Bel and Freddie. Can they get it right this time? (explicit).

The fic has a really delightful premise: it's a couple of years after the events of S1, and Lix finds a way to give our favorite threesome a chance to break back into broadcast news: get an interview on the set of the new Cliff Richard movie for the CBC. Easy right? No excitement, right? But of course our guys have a way of making everything exciting.

The real joy of the fic are the period details, though, which I won't spoil for you by telling you about them here--just take it from me that if you like stuff about mid-century Britain, you'll love this.

I've read hardly anything else (traveling! family!) but hope to this week!

calamitycrow and I have been working on this one for a while, and we've decided the time has come to give it a nudge out into the world.

Happy third night of Hanukah, folks!

Title: City of Iron, City of Tears
Authors: calamitycrow and ariadnes_string
Fandoms: Supernatural/ X-Men First Class
Rating: PG for this part (probably won't go higher than an R, if that).
Warnings: none
Spoilers: Basically a mid-twentieth-century AU for early-season SPN and a kind of missing scene for XMFC.
Word Count: ~5.3K for this part.
Disclaimer: not ours, no profit.

Summary: The Second World War is over, but the Cold War is just heating up. In a divided Berlin, Capt. Dean Winchester of Army Intelligence and Agent Sam Winchester of the newly-formed CIA come up against forces even they have never imagined.

( City of Iron, City of Tears (1) )

In case you have any functioning brain cells after watching The Hobbit trailer--

Very brief thoughts on three episodes I think I'd like to see again.

( Merlin 4x12 )

( Grimm 1x07 )

( Homeland finale )

Is anyone still watching Homeland? If so, do you want to talk to me about

( question that is a big spoiler )

So, clearly not everything you see on tumblr is true, but these things seem to be:

Ben Whishaw, Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons in the new BBC versions of Richard II & Henry IV I & II

If the casting of BW as Richard II is anywhere near as perfect as it sounds, that one, at least should be amazing.

Ben Whishaw has also been cast as the new Q to Daniel Craig's Bond

Am shipping Bond/Q already.

And he's going to be in a film about Jack Kerouac (played by Chris Evans) and Allen Ginsburg (played by Daniel Radcliffe) and their friends

No. You read that right. DR is going to play this well-known Jewish poet from New Jersey:



Okay, he's going to play him when he looked like this:



So I suppose it's vaguely plausible (though not as plausible as Jesse Eisenberg would have been. Still, Chris Evans as Kerouac sounds awesome.

My week has eased up some, thank goodness--hope yours has too!

( why yes, I do want to discuss Homeland 1x07, how did you guess? (spoilers) )

In other news, my audiobook for running and driving at the moment is Neal Stephanson’s Cryptonomicon,

( blathering on about books )

Also, I was overcome with a wave of Anglophilia when I signed up for Yuletide, and only requested British books and shows (The Hour, Whitechapel, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Regeneration). I offered some US stuff though!

I have been amusing myself by scrolling through the requests from time to time, and being tickled to death that multiple people are requesting fic for “Jane Austen’s Fight Club” and “Feminist Ryan Gosling.” Viral video rules, apparently.

Happy Friday, folks!