5 Yuletide Recs (to the tune of: Five go-old rings)

[flowerdeluce]

Five recs for: Westworld (TV), The Thick of It (TV), I Robot (2004), Chess Pieces (Anthropomorphic), Independence Day (Movies).



saw signs on the video (1,256 words)
Fandom: Westworld (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Maeve Millay, Clementine Pennyfeather, Dolores Abernathy, Charlotte Hale,
Additional Tags: Loosely Canon Compliant, Dreams
Summary: Maeve doesn’t know how many times she’s dreamed or died or dreamed of dying.

There’s a wealth of dreamlike imagery in this fic. Maeve’s dreams shift and slide her into different realities, places, bodies, and eras, taking the reader with her in a nonlinear structure that mirrors the show’s narrative style. Maeve’s strengths shine here, even when she’s barely conscious. It’s a beautiful work.

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Curtain Material (3,668 words)
Fandom: The Thick of It (TV)
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Nicola Murray, Malcolm Tucker
Additional Tags: Memoirs, Revenge, Politics, Post-Canon
Summary: The best revenge is writing a surprisingly excellent memoir.

Set a decade after the last series, this cleverly written fic revolves around Nicola’s epic fail fall from grace and subsequent acceptance of it. It’s written in a pitch perfect selection of emails, book reviews, podcasts, and even transcripts of Have I Got News For You?, all with incredible attention to detail. There are many stories unfolding here, with a juicy titbit of Nicola/Malcolm too! It’s a masterpiece.

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Learning to Connect (7,421 words)
Fandom: I Robot (2004)
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Pairing: Sonny/Del Spooner
Characters: Sonny, Del Spooner
Additional Tags: Robot Sex
Summary: Sonny is building something in the remains of Lake Michigan and it's about time Del went to find out what.

This is such an imaginative fic, rich with worldbuilding and Asimov-level ingenuity. I love what the author has done with Sonny’s film ending and where the future has taken the NS-5s (and humanity) in a short timeframe. It’s hopeful, happy, and the focus on Del and Sonny’s similarities and not their differences makes the (rather explicit) climax work.

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The Message (1,723 words)
Fandom: Chess Pieces (Anthropomorphic)
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Characters: White Queen, Black Queen, Knight, Player
Additional Tags: Correspondence Chess, Chess, Game
Summary: A game of correspondence chess. A knight’s quest. A reunion.

A wonderful peek into a long-distance (and long lasting) game of chess played between two female lovers. As they make their moves via postcards that travel the world, the pieces send their own messages across the battlefield of play. It’s ingenious. It’s captivating. It’s well worth a read!

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Scenes From A Relationship: Hand in Hand (5,382 words)
Fandom: Independence Day (Movies)
Rating: Gen
Pairing: Milton Isaacs/Brackish Okun
Characters: Milton Isaacs, Brackish Okun
Summary: Five times Milton and Brackish held hands covertly and one time they didn’t.

This is my gift, and I love it to pieces! It captures soft, everyday moments for this pairing alongside significant ones (devastating and heartening!), tying into the canon’s timeline from early eighties pre-slash to modern day. There are fantastic details concerning the claustrophobic and isolated world of Area 51’s lower levels, wonderfully comical moments, and it gives depth to many things canon glossed over.