post self-recs for at least three fanworks that you createdI find this one difficult! But here are a few, all medium-short: a non-Yuletide that was only belatedly uploaded to AO3, a pinch-hit for an old movie, and a Yuletide assignment for a show that sadly fell right off the earth.
1. "Some Living After We Die", Life on Mars (UK), Sam/Gene (written 2006)I wrote this one in one long sitting (well, broken up with a walk for some fresh air), as a gift for a friend going in for surgery. It's a post-ep scene for the episode where Sam Tyler is being held hostage; right before Sam's about to get shot, Gene basically says to the gunman, after you shoot him you better shoot me instantly or I'll kill you. And I thought about the wording of that threat, and what it said about big-tough-Gene that he is practically self-immolating at the prospect of losing Sam.
Some Living After We Die (3893 words) by
DorindaChapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Life on MarsRating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Gene Hunt/Sam Tyler
Characters: Gene Hunt, Sam Tyler, Nelson (Life on Mars UK)
Additional Tags: Rain, scuffling as foreplay, Alley Sex, Mutual Masturbation, Near Death Experiences, Aftermath, Drinking, Kissing, Hand Jobs
Summary:
It wasn't every day you discovered just how you'd die, when it came down to it. Or just who would die for you.
2. "I'll Marry You Some Time", Rio Bravo (1959), Colorado/Dude (written 2009)This request went to pinch-hit at the last minute, and I had seen the movie a bunch of times, so I nabbed it. It ended up being about Dude (played by Dean Martin)--I explained his canonical breakdown (where before the movie, he came to blows with his best friend Chance [John Wayne] and left town with a woman, returned without the woman, and since then has been the town drunk, mocked and abused by the saloon of bad guys) by positing that he had been struggling against his homosexuality, even though no one else in his life was bothered by it.
I really enjoyed slipping the story right into canon scenes, and between canon scenes, and then post-canon, tangling it in there good and tight. Like, it starts out right before this singing duet between Dude (Dean Martin) and the young gunslinger Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and traces the subtext of that scene in the story's text, interpreting their demeanors and expressions in ways I enjoy:
And the story's title comes from another song they sing together in the movie, which felt perfect, and kept me from the traditional agonizing search for a fitting title. :D
I'll Marry You Some Time (4335 words) by
DorindaChapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Rio Bravo (1959)Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Colorado/Dude
Characters: Colorado - Character, Dude, John T. Chance, Feathers
Additional Tags: Western, First Time, Missing Scene, Canon Related, Post-Canon
Summary:
He hasn't sung in a long time, but it's coming back to him.
3. "Blood, Steel, Skin", Rubicon, basically a Kale character study but with several pairings (written 2010)"Rubicon" was a tragically short-lived series on AMC from 2010, with one short season: a story of espionage and conspiracy and paranoia, strongly influenced by the 1970s conspiracy-thriller movies like Three Days of the Condor and All The President's Men. It looks like all the episodes are up on Dailymotion.com;
here's the pilot.
My favorite character, and the favorite of a lot of other people including TV critics, was Kale Ingram (see icon), the main character Will's supervisor, former CIA, former Marine, canonically gay and not in the closet (plus he lives with a younger boyfriend). He's extremely competent, steely but full of deadpan humor, wound up tight, a man of light and shadow, caught between his vulnerable underling (Will, a smart but fragile intel analyst) and a growing conspiracy potentially involving their mutual boss and powerful cronies.
The story is mostly based on two
ENORMOUSLY SPOILERY scenes from the show:
* In 1x05, Will shadows a mysterious man who's been following him, and traces him to a restaurant, where it turns out the man is having lunch with Kale. And we get to see some of the lunch, where we see a heaping helping of yearning from the man, Donald Bloom, and his reaction to killing-for-hire vs. Kale's--that sort of characterization and implied reams of backstory is catnip to me:
* Then in 1x11, Donald is sent to kill Will, but surprisingly, Will barely manages to turn the tables. And the only person he can call, when he finds himself injured and shocky and with a dead assassin in his apartment, is Kale. Kale comes over with a "cleaner", and the scene unfolds with almost no dialogue once it gets going. (In case you can't quite see it clearly, the thing he writes on the pad to show Will is DON'T COME OUT.)
So I wrote a story grounded in Kale having to do the cleaning and disposal of someone he once worked with and who loved him. And I liked doing the present day in past tense and the flashbacks in present tense, trying to make the past seem somehow more instant-memory-like. I also enjoyed tying each flashback to a segment of the ongoing present, and also to a piece of the title:
* Blood, when Kale as a youth has accepted his sexuality and is finding his own strength in his lack of fear of pain; the nosebleed from getting punched, tasting the blood in his throat. In the present, it's his analysis of how manageable the pool of blood is, but his discomfort with that not being his first reaction.
* Steel, when Kale in the Marines is about to leave for the CIA, and he's grown scornfully weary of the military closet; the fellow Marine he's fucking and the way that guy fetishizes his dress sword. In the present, it's the steel of the dismantled tools used by the cleaner.
* Skin, when Kale is doing wetwork for the CIA with Donnie, and is realizing that he doesn't enjoy killing but Donnie sure does; the danger and crazy buzzing under Donnie's skin as he tries to get closer. And in the present, it's the feeling of Will's thin, fragile skin through his shirt when Kale touches him without gloves.
It's one of those little card-house things that got really engrossing to build, fun for me and hopefully fun for the reader.
Blood, Steel, Skin (2867 words) by
DorindaChapters: 1/1
Fandom:
RubiconRating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kale Ingram/OMC, Donald Bloom/Kale Ingram, Walter Carrington/Kale Ingram
Characters: Kale Ingram, Donald Bloom, Will Travers
Additional Tags: Canon Gay Character, Episode Related, Military, Spies & Secret Agents
Summary:
Kale Ingram does what must be done.
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