Cat-loving AI; idtastic fic

[enemyofperfect]

READ

I still seem to be taking a break from The Fifth Season, but I did read a book this week: Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer, which is a YA novel, adorable and suspenseful by turns, about an AI and their teenage friends. I was surprised by the intimate partner violence storyline, but I really appreciated the story's deliberate and thoughtful inclusion of nonbinary characters in particular. Plus, the AI and their friends! Are all so adorable! I felt a particular affinity for Firestar and Ico, but I basically love all of them. And I'd love to see Bryony play a bigger role in the next book.

I also read Masked Ball by Waid, which is another excellent Holmes/Watson fic for the original stories, this one with a fun case to play the pair against.

Retrieved from Impossibility by phnelt is a delightful Eliot/Parker/Hardison first time AU in which Eliot is a cyborg. It is delicious.

Finally, and for me most atypically, I read something like 60k of a WIP on fail_fandomanon, a community I had previously almost never visited unless it was to torment myself by deliberately reading wrong and terrible opinions. But this fic is so good! It isn't on the AO3 yet (although I'm so glad the author intends to post it there once it's finished), so for now it appears to rejoice in the name "Prompto/Ardyn postgame slavefic", which probably tells you something about whether or not you're interested even if you know nothing about FFXV.

It's just... okay, so first of all, it targets my id so precisely I feel basically like I won the fanfic lottery in ever stumbling across it. It's at the intersection of at least three subgenres niche enough that occasionally I forget how much I love them: a character accidentally acquiring complete power over another human being and feeling bad about it; another character so desperate and/or world-weary that they will find a way to enjoy literally any treatment they receive; and two characters who are bound together by trauma that's at least partly the fault of one of them, but that has also shaped both of them so profoundly that they can't help but seek understanding in each other.

And secondly, it's just breathtakingly well written. I'm obviously incredibly biased by its subject matter, but it really, genuinely is. It has all the painful misunderstandings of your average fandom catnip, but whenever I think I know how one plot point is going to unfold, it ends up going half a twist further than I was expecting. And the prose is gorgeous, and there's a fever dream written in the form of a play complete with dramatis personae, and it's just... so fucking good! I'm almost outraged!

Anyway, in the unlikely (?) event that my flailing has caught anyone's interest, the first installment -- written before the author realized there would be further installments -- can be found here. For the rest... good luck, honestly. I have not found a way to make the meme anything other than hell to navigate. (I can't wait till it's on the AO3!)

WATCHED

Doctor Who spoilers through 12x05, "Fugitive of the Judoon":

I really enjoyed Tesla in 12x04, and Ruth turned out amazingly in 12x05. I'm looking forward to finding out what's going on with her and Thirteen! I also quite enjoyed Jack kissing Graham.

Stumptown spoilers through 1x13, "The Dex Factor":

Well, I'm not really sorry to see the end of whatever was going on with Max and Grey. But Tookie and Ansel are such an adorable pair, and Miles was great this episode, especially when he was giving Grey a hard time. Plus, Dex and her new sexy nemesis! They don't want to have to kill each other! And Dex actually drank the ominous cocktail! That's so cute!!!

I've also rewatched the first two episodes of Leverage with an eye towards participating in the conversation over at the_rewatch_job, although so far I haven't actually managed the participation part, whoops. I really feel like I'm appreciating the show more the second time around, though -- I think having some familiarity with characters already helps a lot with my investment in the shenanigans.

In nonfiction news, I accidentally caught a little of Andrew Yang's town hall on CNN the other day, and he was so bewilderingly human and reasonable that I ended up staying for the rest of the hour. I'd had it in my head that he was a one-issue candidate, but it turns out he speaks my exact language -- i.e., geek who cares about things -- and apparently I'm really weak for that? He wants to decriminalize heroin and have a presidential psychotherapist and penalize Facebook every time it runs an ad containing provable falsehoods, and he said all of these things on TV. I'm still kind of baffled by it.

I do wish, though, that somewhere in all his talk of having an autistic kid, he'd take a stand against Applied Behavioral Analysis (cn: torture). The one mention I could find on his website is far from a clear repudiation, and it might be no more than wishful thinking on my part to consider it anything but approval.

But more cheerfully, have Garden of your Mind by sandalwoodbox, a lovely Critical Role vid set to a musical remix of Mr. Rogers!

Comments

[schneefink]

Thanks for reminding me of the Ardyn/Prompto postgame slavefic! I hadn't read any of the new parts in over a year. There are several ff_a WIPs that I love and I enjoy following, but I'm too lazy to check out the 100 words threads and then I forget.
(The way I caught up was finding the most recent installment via dememe and then going back via the "previous post", though I think if one started reading now that would take quite a while...)

[enemyofperfect]

OMG, I'm so delighted that you've read it too! I'm sure I'll be terrible at keeping up with this one as it wraps up, so I'm impressed that you're able to follow multiple WIPs there.

I can verify that the previous posts do take quite some time to go through for this one, ahaha. ^_^ But it was worth it, for me at least. It's just got so many amazing flavors blended together!

[schneefink]

Most of the WIPs update on the WIP thread, so I usually just check that one - plus, some of them have DW journals where they collect their writing, which I find very convenient. (For example, I like Harker the trained vampire.)

[enemyofperfect]

OMG, you're allowed to collect anon meme things elsewhere on Dreamwidth, that isn't considered breaking anonymity? I'm so naive in the ways of the meme!

But thank you so much for that link -- I had seen a couple of installments of that and was super intrigued, but I didn't have the energy to track it down at the time and I guess it slipped my mind. Now I have new idfic to read!

[schneefink]

Well, if you use a sock account for that, you're still as anonymous - besides, authors often get revealed anyway when they post the finished works on AO3. A favorite previously-a-meme-WIP fic of mine is Silver and Gold, where Heimdall adopts Loki; and of course "Course of Honor" :)

I hope you enjoy poor Harker's suffering! I'm particularly fond of the snippets set in the not-quite-as-dark future.

[enemyofperfect]

Belatedly replying to say thank you so much for recommending Silver and Gold! It really hit me in the feelings in the best possible way.

[violsva]

I love Masked Ball so much. It is my favourite Irene Adler fic ... except that I can't rec it as an Irene Adler fic because that would spoil the entire reason it's my favourite Irene Adler fic. *facepalms* Normally I am pretty low-key about spoilers but this one for some reason is different.

[enemyofperfect]

I can totally understand being hesitant to spoil that! I know I was really pleased with myself for figuring it out -- well, and I enjoyed getting to go back and forth about whether I'd guessed right as I read it, so maybe "figured out" is too strong a way of putting it. But it's so beautifully set up and executed. And she's just so great!

[pink_ink]

i'm curious about the Catfishing novel. are there any human nonbinary chars, or is it only the ai that is nonbinary?

hmn considering reading the holmes/watson fic bc they're one of my old OTPs. i've been listening to the hound of baskerville the last couple of days so it would be nice to read some fic :D

also, ABA is all sorts of terrible and needs to not be a thing anymore like yesterday, yes.

[enemyofperfect]

Yes, there is at least one explicitly nonbinary human character, plus another character who's exploring their gender! I could be wrong, but I had the feeling that the author wanted to make sure to show it as a real, human thing, and not just a thought experiment pertaining to AIs. (There are also some instances of hostility or cluelessness towards nonbinary people in the book, both from parents and from well-meaning friends, but they're pretty clearly presented as bad things, I think. As always, lmk if you have more questions/you'd like other content warnings!)

Sherlock Holmes hasn't ever been one of my main fandoms, but there is some really amazing fic for it out there. If you do read Masked Ball, I'd love to know what you think!

And yeah, so much agreement about ABA. I only really know what I've read from people who've experienced it, but that's... also all I need to know, I think.

[pink_ink]

ohh nice! thank you for explaining. i'll put the book on my endless to-read list. i don't feel like reading much YA atm but it comes and goes.

i haven't been in sherlock holmes fandom for ages but i remember reading such good fic back in the days! heh.
thank you! i added it to my ao3 to-read list and share my thoughts i read it :D

[scytale]

Oh my goodness, Garden of your Mind is lovely! It almost made me teary-eyed, and I'm not even in the fandom. Thank you for the rec! o.o I sent it over to a Crit Role friend of mine.

[enemyofperfect]

I haven't seen any of their latest campaign either, but the vid still gave me all the feels. I hope your friend enjoys it!