Journal of Mistress Kat

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Here are the last 20 recs, hope you've found something to read in between holiday busyness. I still have tons of recs to do, particularly for Daredevil and Person of Interest, so I will see about doing the more usual Week of Fic Recs with 10 recs per day in early 2016...

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Three Days of Christmas Kat's Fic Recs - Day Three


Avengers

Five Times Pepper Took Care of the Avengers and One Time They Took Care of Her - Tony/Pepper, Clint/Natasha, Thor/Jane but really this is gen friendship focused fic. In which Pepper is awesome and frightening efficient. This a cute and domestic look at the Avengers and their (sometimes unexpected) friendships in the context flu-like symptoms... Made me laugh :D

Five Times Pepper Potts Took Care of Tony Stark (and One Time Tony Stark Took Care of Her) - Tony/Pepper. My favourite of the canon pairings because I like how obviously Pepper is in charge even if it may not appear like that to the casual observer. This maps the less than smooth early relationship, and there's plenty of h/c.

Four Times Pepper Potts Saved The World - Tony/Pepper. Pepper is a BAMF who gets things done. I love Pepper's characterisation in this; strong and determined despite/because of her doubts and fears.


Daredevil (TV)

Betting Blind - Matt/Foggy. Matt and Claire make a bet. Rather fluffy with lots of pining but sweet all the same.

I'm Gonna Give All My Secrets Away - Matt/Foggy. In which Matt's other secret is that he's still a virgin. Because he hasn't trusted anyone enough to... Well. Anyone besides Foggy that is. Unashamedly schmoopy.

(my heart) never could lie to you - Matt/Foggy. The 'five times Foggy describes things to Matt even though he doesn't' concept is a loose framework for a lovely bff fic where unrequited feels are requited after all, and there's food, dancing, h/c, cohabitation, banter and romance (aww the romance especially, wait till you get to the end!)

Right There Next To Me - Matt/Foggy. Adorable college era fic where Matt tries to exercise self-denial about his feels (spoiler: it doesn't work that well).

The Boxer-Puncher - Matt/Foggy. Foggy takes up boxing for reasons that are only partly related to self-defence. Matt likes it. A lot. I love Foggy being a BAMF and this has it in abundance. And ngh, the power dynamics in this are crafted with great subtlety and understanding, and while the concept of physical strength plays a large part, the psychological aspects are not even a little neglected. Excellent read, highly recced.

You Put the Devil in Me - Matt/Foggy. Matt touches Foggy a lot. Foggy does not take the hint. Adorable.


Merlin

No Matter How Far Away You Roam - Arthur/Merlin, modern AU. Pure Christmas fluff where Merlin is Arthur's long-suffering assistant and has to go home for Christmas him to pretend to be his boyfriend. Their respective families find the whole thing both adorable and hilarious. Great, Christmas read to leave you smiling.


Person of Interest

Concierge Service - Finch/Reese, Finch/Reese/Zoe Morgan. Zoe is awesome. John just needs a little... direction. Harold has everything well in hand. Oh my god this is amazing and funny and so very, very hot too.

Domestication - Finch/Reese. There's joy to be had in everyday things. This is such a lovely fic, with an easy feel to it. Made me smile and smile and smile.

Fealty - Finch/Reese. Kara takes Reese and in the process digs out some truths that he would've much preferred to stay hidden. Ugh, the sheer emotional impact of this gets me right in my sappy d/s feels. I love that this is from Harold's pov too because his struggle with the Catch-22 situation he's been handed is entirely believable. Highly recced.

Ghost - Finch/Reese. Finch is taken by an enemy that the show didn't do enough with. Reese reacts more or less as you'd expect him to. Engaging, long (42k) read where everyone is a BAMF and the supporting characters are made excellent use of.

Love And Marriage - Finch/Reese. There's an entirely rational reason for why getting married makes sense. But oh what a surprise there is waiting for them at the wedding, and what a realisation that leads to... Hilarious, aching and gorgeous in equal measure.

Taken - Finch/Reese, aob AU. Short and sweet alpha/omega fic which left a sappy grin to my face.

Technical Support - Finch/Reese, canon AU. In which Harold works in IT and John in security, no one is quite what they seem and Kat's 'hidden competency' kink gets hammered until it rolls over and purrs. Utterly, utterly delightful and satisfying and funny. Which is unsurprising given the author.

The Right Move - Finch/Reese. Sheer, glorious porn. John asks for a kiss and gets bent over a desk. Computer equipmeng gets put to some excellent use. Hot and funny and yeah, ngh, hot.


Psych

Pineapple and Caramel - Gus/Shawn. Adorable little fic about getting together and building a family.


Star Trek (AOS)

Where You Lead, I Will Follow - Kirk/McCoy. Ahh dancing! Also Kirk's and Spock's lessons are a thing of beauty.

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I have had three cups of coffee. I still feel sleepy. In fact, I've been tired a lot lately but I'm trying to combat this with Berocca and making sure I get out of the house at least once a day. Sitting in the garden counts, okay? I did that this morning but it wasn't that warm and the sun kept hiding. Now I'm back on the sofa and sun is out again making me feel guilty for just wanting to hide inside with the curtains drawn.


My cats are being particularly clingy at the moment. This may have something to do with the (finally) cooling weather as last night they actually slept inside. They are currently both on the sofa with me, Perdie next to my head and Tricks holding onto my toes. Aww.


Have finally uploaded more icons. I'm paying for the extra space but haven't really been taking advantage of that. I will also be making some icons today, yes sir.


I've been re-reading a lot of old SPN fics lately, rediscovering old favourites (like Birds on a Wire and The Epic Love Story of Sam and Dean and Mixing Light to Light and also of fuck Bitch and ahahaha Leader of the Pack and also Green and Gamboge and oh man I could go onnnn). Good times.


This has led me thinking about fic tropes again. Here are three tropes that I don't like despite fully acknowledging some people's ability to write them spectacularly:

1. Time-travel. Idk, I just don't like the idea of people missing each other in such a fundamental way as being in different sections of the time stream. I don't like characters receiving dire warnings or sage advice from their future self. I also don't like future self/present self sex. Yawn.


2. Apocalypse fic. I don't like the idea of world ending. Apocalypse was one of those things I was absolutely terrified as a child (growing up in 80s with constant talk of nuclear war and Tšernobyl happening relatively close with warnings of not to eat berries etc from the forests that summer and... yeah) so it's not a setting I want to read about. Though, like with many other darker fictional scenarios, I think I could actually write it quite happily. Lol it's like fictional switching that mirrors the other switching: I'll do things to others with glee that I will not have done to me *g* Double standards ftw!


3. Crossovers where a character gets it on with the actor playing them. Like Dean/Jensen or even stuff like Gerard/Poison. Similar thing to the time-travel cliché of having sex with yourself. Oh, see also: clones and mirror universes. I just... I'd rather read a good traditional masturbation pwp to be honest. Adding a second (third?) person to the mix doesn't really help. Say Merlin's spell goes wrong and he ends up with a double and then Arthur goes 'By the Grail, we must have a threesome!'... Yeah, not doing it for me. It lacks the kind of tension or spark you have between to different people. Honestly, if I met my future self or my mirror universe double, I wouldn't be interested in having sex with myself. For real, we'd probably just drink tea and try to get twice as much work/writing done and divide up responsibilities because we are inherently lazy.

From dislikes to likes. Remember that Working Hard for the Money meme I pimped a few days ago. Well, I left quite a few prompts there and one of them even got filled \o/ I thought I'd put them here too in case some of you are desperately wondering what to write me for Christmas... *g* Seriously though, eternal gratitude to anyone who might get inspired:

Bandom, Patrick/Pete
Early days, the band need money to tour. Patrick makes it by selling his... nope, not his body. His voice. Because turns out that it's not just good for singing, but it's also extremely good for talking dirty on the phone sex line. Pete finds out. Inevitable ensues. - Filled here: That Pretty Mouth Say Such Dirty Words by the wonderful synnerxx

Psych, Gus/Shawn
Someone is attacking the ladies and gentlemen of the night in Santa Barbara. Only way for Shawn to get a good 'psychic reading' of the attacker is to go undercover as a companion for hire. Cue Shawn hanging on street corners in tank top and torn jeans. He is... surprisingly good at the role. Better than his excellent acting skills alone could account for. Gus starts thinking about all those years Shawn spent away and just how he made ends meets... Angst, confrontation, jealousy, some creep touching Shawn in bad places, bonus for Gus decking the guy flat out, happy endings :D

Bandom, Ryan/Spencer
When Ryan's dad finally kicks him out, Ryan is too proud to go asking for help from his best friend. In retrospect, he should've maybe swallowed his pride.

Merlin, Gwen/Morgana
Modern AU, Morgana's uni mates drag her onto a pub crawl that ends in a strip bar. Morgana is shocked to see her project partner Gwen on stage. Shocked and... well, kind of... unable to take her eyes off her.

Star Trek Reboot, Kirk/McCoy
Modern AU, BDSM, Kirk is good at going to his knees and begging and making his clients believe he means it. In truth he despises every guy who thinks himself a "Master Leather God" or some such nonsense, thinks himself to be a Dom and a real man for smacking him around. And yet... they're paying for it because they clearly can't get anyone to do it voluntarily. If he had a choice, Kirk wouldn't sub for any of these guys. Truth be told, he's not sure he'd sub for anyone... although sometimes he thinks maybe, with a right guy, it could be... sort of okay. Maybe with a guy like Dr McCoy, the sarcastic, grumpy ER doctor who's looked after Kirk on more than one occasion after the extras he charged his clients for were a little too much after all. My undying gratitude for anyone who would write this, seriously.

Sherlock, John/Sherlock
AUish, world where contracting yourself out as a sex slave for a pre-determined period of time is an accepted if not that respected way of making money. After John saves the lives of men in his regimen, they pass the hat around and buy him one hell of a thank you present: Sherlock Holmes at his exclusive service for six months. John appreciates the gesture, he really does. Sherlock is scary smart, funny (often unintentionally though) and seriously, seriously hot. And he can apparently suck cock really, really well. Better than John's ever had. Or so he tells him. Because, well, John kind of has... moral objections for actually having sex with anyone who's been paid to do it. It's going to be long six months. And at the end of it... well, who knows.


Right, enough rambling for today. I'm going to go wash dishes and put rubbish/recycling out now because these are the things that need doing. Then after that I'm going to sit down and do some icons, dammit.

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Yes, I'm doing it again. Validating my habit of procrastinating with porn reading fanfic when I could be writing it doing thesis.

Enjoy.

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Bandom

50 bucks buys a lot of weed - Frank/Gerard, college!AU. An adorable little fic where Gerard bribes the stoner next door to pretend to be his boyfriend.

asking to be born - Patrick/Pete, mpreg. Oh my god guys. So, this is an older fic but it was new to me. I'm mostly neutral about mpreg but it's not my first choice which may explain why I bypassed this fic during my first trip around the Bandom block. Anyway. I read it now and... I think I teared up no less than five times during it because of all the feeeeeeeeelings. *clutches heart* Gorgeous, painful, utterly, utterly beautiful fic. Don't read it when hormonal though. Trust me.

Everything's Another Excuse (To Keep From Doing From What We Want To) - Ryan/Spencer, Brendon/Jon. Post-break up fix-it fic. I loved the characterisation of everyone in this, but especially Brendon from whose pov the story is told.

Find Out What It Means - Patrick/Pete, hooker-fic. Ah yes, I am on a bit of oldies kick. I recently re-read this and well, it remains one of my all time favourite hooker-fics. Canon compliant except for how Patrick sometimes has sex with guys for money, no big deal. Pete is not a responsible adult in this, but there's a happy ending anyway, eventually. The fic does an excellent job at addressing the reasons and consequences, the psychological effects something like this might have, without becoming preachy or making anyone into a victim. Great, great read.



Hawaii Five-0

Kauoha ("to order or command") - Danny/Steve. Author tells me this is an Ella Enchanted fusion, which is a film I haven't seen, but it matters not because the concept is intriguing: Danny is cursed with obedience. You would expect this to go to the kinky place, but it doesn't (well it does a little in the middle there), instead it's actually a rather interesting exploration of free will and lack of it and what a curse like this might mean for a man in Danny's position.



Psych

All The Little Things - Carlton/Juliet. There is such sensuality to this fic. Subtle look at the dynamic as well; Juliet really is the brave one.

Snuggle Time - Gus/Shawn. Does what it says on the tin. Gus and Shawn and some sweet snuggles. Adorbs.

The Apothecary and the Augur - Gus/Shawn, Victorian!AU. There are not many AUs in this fandom so this was such a treat. Setting is fictional Victoriana/bodice-ripper/magical realism. Shawn ["augur, investigator (and on occasional weekends, purveyor of an imported fruit as strong as the pine but delicious as the apple)"] and Gus ["official apothecary to the London Constabulary, part-time investigator and full-time caretaker of one wayward Shawn Spencer"] are brought into to consult in the case of, you guessed it, Jack the Ripper. And that obviously necessitates Gus going undercover as a lady of the night. The language in this caused a severe case of writer's envy and heart-eyes while the dialogue made me weep with hilarity. If you like the show even a little bit, you will love this fic. Highly, so very highly recced. Go read it already. And do check out the deleted scenes for some utterly delightful crossovers, linked at the end.

The Year Under - Carlton/Juliet. The partners are forced to go into hiding for a year in order to avoid the attentions of a gang leader with a grudge. The plot may stretch the limits of believability, but the writing and characterisation are just lovely. There's a wonderful dream-like quality to this, reflecting the 'seperate from the real world' setting perfectly.

When The Hammer Drops - Gen, Lassiter centric. A case goes wrong and then just keeps on doing that. Lassiter is put throug an emotional wringer but luckily he has his partner and some good friends to help him. This is a long and satisfying read with a well-plotted and believable case. I really liked the take on Carlton and Juliet's partnership.

Things that have kept me sane and entertained and happy lately:

- This delicious James McAvoy picspam

- Interesting musings about fame and real person fandom

- Doing two mixes for the Mixtape Exchange (one for Psych, one for gen theme of 'slow slide to madness/evil' *g*). Also really looking forward to receiving mixes for all three of my prompts.

- Dwarves from The Hobbit

- Reading fic in various fandoms. I think next week is possibly Kat Recs All The Fics: Round 2, so you might want to mentally prepare yourselves for another week of fic recs. Hardship I'm sure.

- Trying to write some fic. Have over 2,000 words of ridic George/Mitchell (Being Human UK) rentboy!fic done that I'm trying to finish... Also, I just found four handwritten pages of Gus/Shawn (Psych) rentboy!fic on a notebook. Apparently I'm working on a theme. And that theme is male prostitution.

- Rewatching all of Glee. I don't even care, it's my happy place right now and I still have ALL THE FEELINGS about Kurt. And Blaine/Kurt. Also Brittany/Santa. My favourite scene of season 2 is the Kurt&Blaine duet at the Regionals, especially because of Puck's/Mark Salling's face in the audience when he's watching it, how unashamedly emotinal he is. I have a theory that it is actually more Mark Sallig being a GIANT SAP WITH HEART-EYES than any acting in character.

- Speaking of Glee... A confession: I'm having a massive celeb crush on Darren Criss at the moment. I can't help it, he's just so geekyandscruffyandhotandhewritessongsohgodiwanttobakehimcookiesandthentiehimtomybedand... Um. Anyway. I may or may not have folder titled in 'Darren Criss Sex Riot' on my laptop, and these may or may not be just some of the photos from there.

( IT'S A DARREN CRISS SEX RIOT )


That's it from me for now. All contributions of recs and sexy pictures will be gratefully accepted and used responsibly for the maintenance of mental health.

Hawaii Five-0

Jaws - Danny/Steve, shapeshifter AU. This is such an awesome piece of crack fic that actually starts to build some really interesting mythology about this version of shifters... Would have happily read a lot more in the 'verse.

Let's Dance Like We Used To - Danny/Steve. Rachel and Stan move back to the mainland, taking Grace with them. And where Grace goes, Danny goes. And, it turns out that where Danny goes, Steve goes. Eventually. Oh, oh, my heart, just the warmth and family feeling of this toward the end, my heart expanded at least three sizes. Wonderful read.

Sounds Like Love - Danny/Steve. Ngl, I could read a thousand of these 'undercover as a couple' fics and not get bored. Mmm ust.

Sugar Rush - Danny/Steve. N'aaww this is such a cute little story. Includes chocolate pastry. Delicious!

We Believe in the Sum of Ourselves - Danny/Steve. Coda for 1.16. Danny is a little worked up and Steve has problems compartmentalising. Ranting and hot sex :D



Psych

Concatenation - Gus/Shawn. This is, I think, hands down, my favourite fic for this pairing. Possibly because it matches so well my own take on the dynamic... Because of course this is something Shawn needs and of course he would go looking for it in the wrong places at times. Gus' pov is perfect; patience, uncertainty and sense inevitability and rightness.



Sherlock

Let You Kiss Me (So Sweet and So Soft) - John/Sherlock. Sherlock keeps kissing John, who is not entirely sure as to why. This is a lovely story with good characterisation, especially when it comes to Sherlock's plans and reasoning.

The Velveteen Doctor - John/Sherlock. Gradually, John becomes real for Sherlock. Such a lovely premise and even lovelier execution. Includes one of the best first kiss scenes I've read in a long time. Gorgeous piece.



The Professionals

Wolfkammer - Bodie/Doyle. I actually have a feeling I've recced this already but I can't find the post on my lj so it's likely that I did that only in my head. Anyway. This is a fascinating casefic with a supernatural element and a well researched locale. Bodie and Doyle are sent to Germany to consult on an unusual case and whilst there end up dealing with some personal revelations... Thoroughly enjoyable.

The Spell - Bodie/Doyle. An entirely charming tale full of arms dealers and self-analysis and just a little bit of magic...

Lately my posts have been skewed toward RL ramblings. But I am still watching TV and squeeing about various series, just haven't had time to write about them. Brief overview of what I currently follow and would consider myself to be fannish about.


( Supernatural )


( Glee )


( Flashforward )


( True Blood )


( Psych )


( Gossip Girl )


( Merlin )


( Stargate Atlantis )


In addition I'm also watching sitcoms such as Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, My Name Is Earl, and The Big Bang Theory. I will probably also check out Eastwick and Leverage soon as well. So all of these are something you can squee to me about, and since I have canon knowledge, you can consider them included in my list of "will write" when I ask for prompts etc. :D

Right, enough of this procrastination. I need to have a bath, buy groceries and make fish soup.