Cimorene

Never Let No One Man Worry Your Mind (5538 words) by cimorene
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cosmo Brown & Don Lockwood, Cosmo Brown/Other(s)
Characters: Cosmo Brown, Don Lockwood
Additional Tags: Queer Gen, Queer History, vaudeville, Chicago, Friendship, Drag Queens, Queer Themes, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship, Queer Culture
Summary:

"Cos! Thank God you're alive, I thought my double act was about to become a single," Don said. "Where have you been?"

"In jail," Cosmo whispered back, "Happy birthday."

Don clapped him on the shoulder. "Thanks; you're a little late, but... in where?"

"Keep your voice down," hissed Cosmo, just as a hail of applause blew the curtain back and practically deafened him. "In jail."

waxjism

perhael

It's actually a subject of some curiosity for Mark whether Wardo really likes that many people that much, or if somewhere under the dense shell of affability and social conditioning there's a tiny core of judgmental superiority. Not because Wardo's ever given any sign of it, and Mark's done some judicious digging when Wardo was at his most inebriated - it's just that, well, he also likes Mark.

Really, he obviously does. It's not like Wardo gets anything else in particular out of their friendship, not anything he couldn't get from anyone else. He's better at algorithms than Mark is, and he's not even studying programming. Wardo is wealthier, taller, more fashionable, more social, and more conventionally attractive. Mark is marginally stronger and also better at fencing, but Wardo shows no signs of being a fencing fetishist, and it's not like he needs Mark to carry his books for him. It's usually Wardo who ends up carrying Mark's things that he forgets to take with him.

But meeting Mark's needy demands in bed also hurts Eduardo's back.

And his thighs. And his cock.

Mark hurts Eduardo's cock.

This...really should not be as surprising as it is.

“What happened? Look, turn on your computer and tell me if the quote’s accurate.”

Chris fires up his laptop and finds the first report, on the gossipy end of the tech blog. “Why are you asking? You don’t think it sounds like Eduardo?”

“No, I think it sounds exactly like the kind of defensive shit Eduardo always came out with when someone tried to call Mark out.”

Worse yet, the movie makes it all – the ups and downs of Mark's friendship with Eduardo – sound like a tragic love story with an unhappy ending, which it wasn't.

It wasn't a love story.

Was it?

“Miles. When I sat down to breakfast two days ago, we weren’t at war with anyone. Please tell me that’s still true.” He wasn’t sure how much of that statement was in jest.

Miles looked mildly offended, but a slight grin was playing around his lips. “Give me some credit, Gregor ...” I always do. “... if I was going to start a war I’d at least make sure someone else looked like they’d started it.”

"Why isn't he saying anything?"

"Give him time," another voice says; and this voice he recognizes, too. He looks where his mother is looking, and finds Raven Durona standing over him, hands on his hips, his mouth crumpled into an unbecoming frown. "Let him figure out where he is."

"When he was decanted," the Countess his mother says, "he looked around, clapped his hands together, and asked where his breakfast was. Why does he need time now?"

(555):
Hello, Ladies.
Good night (1 bajillion) Bad night (0)

“Please give the orphan children my apologies that I was unable to perform my ab xylophone recital for them. And if I'm not back by tonight, let the local wolf pack know that they'll need to accept my rain check to go hunting with them. Swan dive!” And with that, he executed a perfect dive out the nearest window into the cockpit of his personal supersonic jet. He put on his helmet and buckled up, first, of course. Being awesome is no excuse for ignoring safety regulations.

And yes, Yuletiders, this is one of the best fics. After all, I wrote it with a quill made from a rare bird with feathers made of gold which I plucked while writing a treat for you.


(Surprise Care Bear BDSM Orgy!)

Time Magazine 12/20/10
WOMEN OF THE YEAR, by Alice Liddell.

I arranged to meet the women of the Alliance for lunch at noon on Wednesday, but at ten the kraken was loose outside Seattle and at eleven-thirty there was the typhoon off Malaysia...

"There, you see? It's complicated, Water Sprite, and what I'm saying is, you have absolutely no idea what it's like to be a superhero of colour."

"But I'm green." The Water Sprite looked down at the back of her own hand.

"You're not human, you're part of an aquatic species where green skin is a mark of high status, so it doesn't count!" said The Belle in exasperation.

"Racist," said the Water Sprite with another offended column of bubbles.

"Item one for the next council meeting: diversity training for everyone on staff and especially the Water Sprite," said Cinder Woman. "Make a note of that, will you, Belle?"

“Whether or not the Grand Duchess of Marshovia has any abilities, skills, or other changes resulting from today’s attack is a question better saved for her. You may ask her when she is fully recovered,” Jasmine said.

“I don’t know whether the Grand Duchess plans to petition the Princess Superheroines for membership,” Belle said. “If she makes such a request, we will of course take it under advisement and evaluate her potential with our organization. It’s too early to speculate at this time.”

“No, this was not a standard sleeping enchantment,” Jasmine said. “We did not call on the Grand Duke to break it with true love’s first kiss because they had their first kiss many years ago—as is proved by their three children.”

1. There's No I in Team by thefourthvine. Sports Night, Casey/Dan. A deeply hilarious story with a brilliant antagonist who comes bearing motivational slogans.



2. Temperate Self-Governance, by speakmefair. A Knight's Tale, post-canon, Chaucer/Wat established relationship, adventure. This is Wat's POV and fun, touching, funny, and very well-written sort of adventure story, that actually has a plot. A GREAT plot. Chaucer gets called into service as a spy for John of Gaunt, and Wat, advised by a well-meaning Will, gives in to his duty to help out, whether Chaucer wants him to or not. Which necessitates a bit of a quest in the company of Adhemar, ahahhaha. And in spite of the est.rel., this story has a new-relationship uncertainty to it that makes for a definite sub-plot of romance.



3. A Hogmanay Carol. HP, Minerva McGonagall/Rolanda Hooch. This is a lovely intimate portrait of McGonagall and her grumpy temper, holiday traditions, favorite literature, and her suppressed sexual attraction to Madame Hooch. Brilliantly-characterized and perfectly executed.



4. The Invisible Wall. George Weasley/Lee Jordan, accidental voyeurism, Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean. A prank gone awry traps these four, forced to witness a completely unexpected sex scene between George and Lee. The humorous and traumatized commentary is funny, and at the same time the George/Lee, porny as it is, is really touching and very romantic; in fact, it made me say OF COURSE, and start shipping it, and go looking for more, but I didn't find anything else I liked quite as much as this one.



5. Secretary Tuesdays, or: Things Unspoken. Harry/Draco, Portrait Snape, future (Auror) fic, EWE. Unlike typical Aurorfic, this one is a light-hearted comedy of manners/adventure. The post of Harry's secretary is cursed and he's been getting a new one every week... until Draco Malfoy takes the post. Lots of great little moments, not least due to the presence of Portrait Snape over the secretary's desk making caustic comments.

First, a new pairing. I'm a big fan of Discworld, and I've even read and recommended a couple of pieces of fanfiction for it in the past, but I not only didn't know of the existence of this pairing, it had never really occurred to me. Drumknott/Vetinari! It does make sense, though, and both the pieces from this Yuletide (although both are UST, and one leaned all the way over into potentially innocent friendship) were impressive and just really wonderful. I went looking for more at once, but there's very little of it out there (in fact, the only person I could find who'd written it was kindkit, and she was also the recipient of both these pieces. My heart goes out to her: it's such a drag to have a fandom of one. Hopefully many other people will have their attention caught by the pairing this Yuletide like I did, and more fic will eventually result.)


1. Like Clockwork. Discworld, Vetinari, Vetinari/Drumknott, gen/UST. This is an exquisitely crafted, wistful little story. Using Vetinari's POV works incredibly well for it, too. It's so disciplined and restrained, even in the length of the story; everything is said with very few words and large portions of what it says it doesn't actually say at all, but leaves to be inferred.



2. A Place Like Home. Discworld, Drumknott, Drumknott & Vetinari, friendship/UST. Another extraordinarily well-done little piece, but this one is all Drumknott. A Sunday off work with his sister's family, a gift for his geeky nephew, an awkward conversation with his sister, and his character really shines through it all. Drumknott's confidence and his ... unexpected closeness to the Patrician is just so sweet, calm, and understated. The whole piece is a cosy, heart-warming delight.




Since there is only one other piece of Drumknott/Vetinari that I was able to find, it seems appropriate to rec it here as well.

Midwinter by Kindkit. Discworld, Drumknott, Drumknott/Vetinari, mature, 16000+ words. Set during and after The Truth. A long, delicious, leisurely, exquisitely-executed slow piece. Drumknott's POV is fantastic, and there are lots of hilarious little details that make the narration sound like canon. Especially at the climax(es), the writing is just perfect, tense and dramatic and really touching. The really astonishing thing about this story is that it moves out of UST like the two Yuletide pieces into, well, sex, and actually carries it off for a pairing where such a thing is necessarily tricky. What it does with the rest of the relationship is even more fascinating, though.



Another pairing that honestly hadn't occurred to me, but which I really enjoyed, was Bod/Silas from Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book.


3. Home is the Hunter. Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman. Bod, Bod/Silas. A grown-up Bod, working as an architect, eventually moves back to his hometown to be near the graveyard.


I'm quite a fan of Richard/Marquis de Carabas fic from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. I've seen it before of course, but it's a rare pairing partly, I think, because the Marquis is so tough to get a handle on, in such a way that it's much easier to write gen about him.


4. A Very Big Favor. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman. Richard Mayhew, Marquis de Carabas, gen or debatably UST. This piece is funny, adventure-filled, and perfectly captures that slightly confusing madcap-quest aura of canon, while still allowing Richard to be more confident, and less clueless, than he was in the book. It's also got some really wonderful dialogue and characterization, to say nothing of the really delightful bits of London Below, and the details it added about the Marquis were instantly added to my personal canon. A really awesome story.


Lastly, another piece of Laurence/Tharkay from Naomi Novik's Temeraire universe. I have quite a soft spot for this pairing.


5. A Voyage of Discovery. Temeraire - Naomi Novik. Laurence, Laurence/Tharkay. Three times William Laurence was oblivious on the journey to Australia. The slight sense of humor and the narrative voice in this piece were especially great, and Laurence's POV both believable and sympathetic. All three of the scenes are lovely.

• Reservoirs. Will & Bran smarm/friendship or UST, 30-years-in-the-future-fic. Friendships, like reservoirs, are often shaped by what lies well below the surface. But even after thirty years of friendship, Will Stanton is not entirely prepared to find some unexpected depths. This one has Bran being a brilliant Welsh Plaid Cymru politician and government minister, which is perhaps the rightest future!Bran I've ever encountered (and I think I've read probably at least 90% of Will-/Bran out there). It's also dramatic, exquisitely tense, and very well executed. Plus, the politics are a very nice touch - gives the story a bit more scope and weight.



• Auld Lang Syne. The popular theme of Bran meeting Will's family when they're a bit older, this one set at age 15, given a happy, slashy twist. They're more happy to see each other than they expected, which leads Will's family to assume they're dating, and in the meanwhile, Will struggles with whether to tell Bran the truth.



• thou fond deceiver. College-aged Bran begins to remember the past over Christmas with Will's family. Friendship. Contains a New Year's party and Will's sister staring because Bran is pretty, plus a touristy visit to Windsor castle.

• Sweets for the Sweet. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Charlie/Wonka futurefic. THIS was my other Yuletide fic. Actually I probably should have listed it first, except I wanted to start with TDiR since I had three of it. This was just the sort of thing I wanted in my Charlie/Wonka futurefic - Charlie having grown into adulthood, and learned candy magic in his own right, and being Wonka's partner now, and not just his protegé. Plus there is candy, and magic, and oodles of sweetness in a Christmas vignette involving, of course, the glass elevator! The little details - the off-the-wall dialogue, hints of visual description, the references to taste - are all exactly right! ♥



• The Wisdom to Know the Difference. Coraline (movie), Coraline/Wybie UST or pre-relationship. Two years after the movie, Wybie wishes for more adventures. Coraline, meanwhile, has learned that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Awesome use of Coraline-esque magic, here. I really liked this piece.