As seen just now on musesfool's livejournal:

Give me two characters from two different fandoms with which I am familiar, and I will invent a relationship for them. And if I'm not familiar with them, I will make something up. Hell, I'll make something up anyway, so...

This meme has "me" all over it. Seriously.

Blessings Against the Thunder: Blackout Zone 2/3
by Vanzetti (vaznetti)
Firefly/Supernatural
PG-13
Spoilers for Serenity.

Thanks to musesfool and rez_lo for beta-reading and the_grynne for help with Chinese language.

Previous parts:
Eurydice Settlement
Caieta Port
Xú Landing, 1
Xú Landing, 2
Xinwuwei Docks, 1
Xinwuwei Docks, 2
Blackout Zone, 1

( Sam and Simon are still in the upper levels when water starts bubbling up into the basins of the laboratory their minder is showing them. She does her best to ignore it, until a column of water actually shoots up to the ceiling from the sink right next to her; Sam doesn't have to feign surprise as the three of them scramble back to the corridor. )

Next Part: Blackout Zone, 3

A/N: The final part should be up at the beginning of next week.

I'm getting a start on these, anyway!

For the_grynne, 5 historic women (or men, or warhorse) Pullo would have slept with.

Are there women Pullo wouldn't have slept with? Aside from members of Vorenus' domus and maybe Octavian's.

( and I forget everything I know about Roman sexual practices )

For phantomas, 5 rules John Winchester gave himself and then broke.

( there's a story hiding in one or two of these )

For gryphonrhi, 5 characters you'd love to see Krycek interact with. (You know, the whole little black dress of fandom, thing.)

( and in these, I suspect )

And for musesfool, 5 ways River freaks Dean out.

( I refuse to say whether my answers have anything to do with the story I'm working on )

Blessings against the Thunder
Xinwuwei Docks, 1
by Vanzetti
FF/SPN
John/Zoe

Thanks to musesfool and rez_lo for beta-reading, and to the_grynne for help with Chinese language.

Earlier parts:
Eurydice Settlement
Caieta Port
Xú Landing, 1
Xú Landing, 2


( in which we have a family reunion and the hints of a plot arc )

Link to next part: Xinwuwei Docks, 2

A note on language: I've allowed John's speech to conform to the dialect used by Mal and Zoe in Firefly; it sounds right to my ear, given the way I've translated the character. I know it doesn't match his speech patterns in Supernatural.

A little later than I originally intended, but here's my Multiverse story. A different Firefly crossover, just for today.

Dancing in Illusion
by Vanzetti
Gen, G.
River and Yoda
Post-Serenity and between trilogies.

( River takes Serenity dancing through the darkness... )

Another installment in this set of stories. This section has some adult stuff at the end.

Caieta Port
by Vanzetti
Adult, John/Zoe
Summary: I think this counts as the second date.

( Just don't hit me there, and I'll be fine. )

Next: Xú Landing, 1

You know how you can spend years avoiding that long article in German? Alas, I can no longer avoid that long article in German. I think that tomorrow I have no choice but to start spending some quality time with the dictionary; I just hope I remember enough grammar to get through it.

I don't know whether this is just further article-related procrastinating. There is some forward motion, but it's pretty glacial.

* * *

Not exactly an insta-rec, but pandarus is writing a SPN/BtVS crossover with Faith, Sam and Dean that works really really well. The dialogue and characterization are both spot on, and there's a really cool plot building there. Go read it and shower her with praise.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and now Part 4. A WIP, of course, and still gen, interestingly enough, although I can only hope that it won't stay that way forever.

ETA Part Five. And I certainly didn't see that coming. Please go read this story. It's moved beyond awesome.
* * *

Work again, I think.

twinkledru was thinking about Mary Sue, and loligo asked about original character romances. I've said what I have to say about both of these issues more than once, but I did start thinking a bit about writing. In fact I started thinking about putting my money where my mouth is and writing a story with a main character OC.

The first story I finished and posted was a Krycek/OFC romance. Well, romance might be pushing things -- the conspiracy was the A-plot -- but they did have sex. Twice, which may be a record for Krycek in my stories. (Alex Krycek: killing people to avoid thinking about his sexual frustration in Vanzetti's stories since 1999.) Anyway, it struck me as a reasonable thing to do; I don't really buy the idea that Krycek's primary emotional ties are to Mulder or Scully, and we see so little of the character that it seemed logical to me that he'd have some life beyond what we saw in the show. I started to consider what that life might be like and the next thing I knew I had a handful of original characters and a moderately plausible backstory. I'm still fond of those stories, but I'm not sure I want to go back to them; every now and then I think about transposing the OCs to an Alias story or an Alias/XF crossover, probably without the romance. And since then I've moved away from writing main character OCs. I do write crossovers, and I find it interesting that for some readers, a crossover might as well be an OC story -- I know that not all the people who read my crossovers know both fandoms. And crossovers do some of the same work that main character OC stories do, as well: they shed new light on and provide new context for the canon characters. But since one of my problems with the term "Mary Sue" is that it discourages more experienced writers from writing main character OCs and especially OC romances, I feel vaguely guilty about neglecting the genre in favor of the crossover. In XF, my interest shifted to the Krycek/Marita relationship, and then XF canon happened, and I still have issues. Someday, though. I'm going to write my grand unified theory of Sark story, and that's going to need OCs -- the difference is that Sark needs to form associations with characters outside of canon because he needs to get away from the Bristow-Derevko nexus of doom if he's ever going to become an independent person. Provided he survives the end of the series, at any rate. And I'm not entirely sure what kind of character and situation would best allow him to separate himself from the canon characters.

This was going to be a long post about the kind of canon characters for whom it's easiest to imagine an OC romance, but I got tired, and I expect that you can all fill in the blanks from what I've written above.

The Multiverse Archive is stuffed with good stories, so these are only a few of the ones I enjoyed.

First of all, I was a very lucky person, and got two stories written for me!

Ask Questions Afterwards has Leia Organa and Bones McCoy. Old school and very sweet. Which is a little odd, considering that "sweet" isn't a word I'd use to describe either character, but if you read it, you'll see what I mean.

Oh Brave New World has Kara Thrace and Susan Ivanova building a new life and a new world -- I really like the way the author inserted Ivanova into the BSG universe here.

So now I'm just waiting for Mal Reynolds and Lee Adama. ::taps foot:: Well?

Now, on to a handful of others:

Tunnel Visions: I don't actually know anything about B7, except by fannish osmosis, but I really enjoyed this nonetheless. Blake and wormholes and all the possible futures. (B7/FS)

A Tale From a Bar (in a galaxy far, far away): (SW/FS) Another story in which possible futures worm their way in and out -- Han and John and Leia and Aeryn and a priceless scene at the end with two other characters.

Catch a Tiger by the Tail: The FS/BSG crossover we've all been waiting for, but better than I ever imagined it could be. Read it and shiver.

Frame by Frame: (FF/Who) I don't exactly understand this story, but it's luminous.

The Big Bang and Everything After: (SGA/FF) Another beautifully written story, with an unexpected pairing that ends up seeming perfectly right.

Til Kingdom Come: (BSG/FF) The way the universes weave in and out in this dreamlike crossover is just... it's so well done. A light touch. Beautiful.

full of grace: (BSG/SGA) Painful and beautiful. I can't quite come up with words for this one, except to say that I recommend it, strongly. Not an easy read, but well worth it.

There are a number of others that I liked -- I could probably recommend half the stories in the archive -- but these stood out, and I wanted to get a couple recommendations out before the authors are posted.

While in Mexico, I read only four books, but two were by Anthony Trollope, who always suits that setting.

( four books )

Also, the pairing list that ate fandom is out at ithurtsmybrain, and the following caught my eye. I find it a difficult list, because I rarely seem to know all the characters in a given pairing.

( eight pairings )

There were a few others that made me laugh out loud, but Rygel/Leia! It's too perfect!