Meddow's Adventures in Fanfic

[meddow]

So the season three of Heroes sneak peek looks spectacularly awesome. Certainly the volume is living up to its name – HRG, Angela, Elle, Bob and Sylar (all of whom I would place in the Heroes rouge gallery) + loads of new villains. I think the show has figured out what the people want (and by ‘people’ I of course mean me). Add some shirtless Petrelli brothers and all the crummy plotlines of last season shall be forgiven. Though will somebody please end the strike so I don’t have to wait until September or later.

In Who related stuff, I’ve been trying to find good Donna fic lately, which is hard. Seems her role in fandom is an enabler of or spectator to Ten/Rose or Ten/Martha (though, oddly enough, not Ten/Jack or Ten/Master) and not as an actual character worthy of her own storyline or perspective. *Sigh*

Back to Heroes again, I’ve also been trying to track down some good HRG fic, and there is a bit of it out there, and I really like Sandra/Bennet. Since Cautionary Tales they’ve been my Heroes OTP. I’m not sure if ‘messed up’ really describes it, it’s kind of Arthur/Molly crossed with Molly/Snape (does that exist?). Though there’s not a lot of that in existence. And, unfortunately, I can’t seem to get my head around Bennet/Anybody not Sandra since he seems to be the least likely character on TV at the moment to cheat on his wife. What with the whole guilt issues of him endangering and memory erasing his family, I hardly think he’s going to add to the mess with infidelity. Plus, dude is loyal to his family, it’s his defining characteristic and greatest redeeming feature. The exception for this mental block for me is the very rare pairing of Bennet/Nathan since Claire’s two alpha dog daddies it is a bit too much to resist. And I once read a rather brilliant piece of Bennet/Sylar.

Anyway, would people be interested in me reccing the good stuff I find?

Comments

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I noticed the lack of Donna fic too. I always put it down to the fact that people don't want to write her yet, because they aren't confident in *how* to write her, until we get more Donna screentime. Or that's my theory anyway.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Oh, and yes. I would be interested in recs. Or Who recs at least.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. She strikes me as a character it would be easy to write badly as well, it'd be tempting to focus on the yelling, conflict and slapping and not on Donna as a person/character.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Precisely! So I figure no fic is better than bad fic at this stage. I love TRB, and it did give us some insight into Donna, but I think it is hard to know how she will react to things until we get more of her to analyse :D

(ooh, can't wait!)

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I haven't really read much there but marriedonmars is a Donna comm and I think there is some Donna/10 stuff and definitely other Donna-fic there. :)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I've been watching that comm, and another, i_love_donna. That's where I've found the vast majority of Donna fic I've read. Still not much. Hopefully it'll pick up. :)

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I think it will once people see more of her and get a better idea of things. So far, all we've got is Runaway Bride to go with and, sadly, too many people were turned off by her. Me, I love her!

[jadeddiva.livejournal.com]

Super-interested in any Heroes fic you find, especially HRG.

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

I can only help with the Donna fic, since I've never watched Heroes (It's on my list of shows-I-mean-to-watch-some-day):

Kiss Me, Please Kill Me (http://honorh.livejournal.com/397732.html) by honorh (PG-13) - So, remember that novel Harold Saxon wrote, entitled Kiss Me, Kill Me? Apparently, Donna owns it--and had it signed. Not surprisingly, Donna wears Captain Subtext's Truth Helmet, and the Master wrote the Doctor's own sex fantasies. Or, now that I think about it, the sex fantasies that the Doctor would never admit to having but so obviously does.

Donna: The Beta-Reader (http://nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com/1402415.html) by nostalgia_lj (unrated but perhaps PG-13) (sort of a crossover with Angel) - The Tenth Doctor writes Angel/Spike emo!slash. Of course. From the POV of a lonely, non-human whose soul mate is another albeit evil non-human. Not that he's projecting or anything. Especially not about the blonde human girl who left him alone, or the blonde other non-human who had different ideas about what it meant to be a vampire and who made fun of his scarf. Nope, no self-inserts here. None at all. He has no idea what Donna's talking about and is *never* using her as a beta reader again. :)

Moving in a Straight Line (http://community.livejournal.com/teawiles/13217.html) by goldy_dollar (PG-13) - This may not be *quite* what you want, since it does end up Doctor/Rose, but its use of Donna is wonderful, making her more than a mere enabler. In fact, Donna's presence in this fic is what keeps it from being only a basic emo!Ten fic. I especially love how she just randomly appears in the TARDIS one day, ready for her adventures:
When he comes back, he wonders if he's well and truly mad (no drums yet) because he finds Donna. In the kitchen. Eating fruit loops.
Also, I want my own Snelly!

Not Her Type (http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=14465) by kalima (PG-13) - Donna gets the better of the Doctor, by using one of the oldest fanfic cliches in the book. I hope Rusty and Company write Donna half this well!

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

I posted some Donna recs for meddow in a comment below (http://meddow.livejournal.com/94529.html?thread=342593#t342593), if you're still interested. :D

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Will definitely take a look at your recs :)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Cool. I'll post some recs when I track down the links (I really should have bookmarked).

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I read a couple those when you recced them on your journal, but the other's I missed the other two.

And you should watch Heroes some day. It's flawed but it answers it's mysteries and is so ambitious and fantastically shot with enough interesting characters to make me forgive it's weaknesses.

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

And you should watch Heroes some day.
I know I should. It's just that those ubiquitous "Save the Cheerleader. Save the World." commercials so. freakin'. annoyed. me, before the show even started, that I couldn't bring myself to watch it, at first.

[fantasticpants.livejournal.com]

You're probably gonna have trouble finding good Bennet fic that isn't slash (I've been obsessively involved in the Bennet-fandom since it formed, pretty much). The morally grey corner of fandom is small-ish, and most of the stuff there is is of the slashy persuasion.

I adore Sandra/Bennet (liked you Harry Potter comparison xD I tried to make one at some point but got stuck at Claude/Bennet~=Sirius/Remus) - it's complicated and painful and he doesn't really deserve her, but they obviously love each other a great deal and it's a beautifully real relationship - but fandom tends to steer away from married couples as a general rule. Personally I'm just wary of writing them because I'm not sure I could get Sandra's voice right. Anyway, these are the only Sandra/Bennet fics I'm aware of - Homelife (http://community.livejournal.com/rare_heroes/14706.html), Canons & Fugues (http://yumemiru-kikai.livejournal.com/2986.html), Five Stages (http://varcinie.livejournal.com/11128.html), Tell Me Anything (http://yumemiru-kikai.livejournal.com/13980.html), and Shirt Button (http://indyhat.livejournal.com/35260.html#cutid1) (some have Claude/Bennet, too), but they're all very lovely. I can also tell you the rare_heroes Sekrit Santa exchange is gonna have two Sandra/Bennet pieces (one due tomorrow), if that helps.

I totally understand your mental block, though mine broke instantly after Company Man. Aaand I'll continue this comment soon, just need to do a lewd Photoshop thingy first.

[fantasticpants.livejournal.com]

Right, so, about Bennet slash (or anything outside Sandra/Bennet). For me there are three main points that help me overcome the Sandra block - (1) Canon vs. Fanon, (2) 'Morally Grey', (3) Claude/Bennet.

1) Way I see it, fanon exists in a slightly different universe for me than the show canon. It's much more... bendy. I agree that Bennet is extremely unlikely to cheat on Sandra in canon. I'd hate it if the show went there. But fanon operates under different rules, so as long as the issue is addressed and not completely ignored in the fic, I'm fine with Bennet/someone-who-isn't-Sandra. Also, there are always AUs and 5YG-verse to fall back on...

2) Those are kind of the magic words when it comes to Bennet-fic, because, well, he's really good at rationalization and compartmentalization. So he could put his relationship with Sandra on one shelf, and anything else he has going he'd categorize differently.

3) I use Claude/Bennet as an axiom to all Bennet-slash, pretty much (well, Sylar/Bennet is a different category, since it's unlikely to be absolutely consensual). It's the only Bennet-ship other than Sandra/Bennet I can fully buy as an actual relationship (and I've written all sorts - Matt/Bennet, Mohinder/Bennet, Hana/Bennet, Sylar/Bennet - nothing comes close to Claude/Bennet in my book, though). They had 8 years together, were obviously very close, and operated outside the borders of normal society - in a different world, in a way. They've got means, motive and opportunity. I can see Bennet separating his home life and his Company life almost entirely, and employ the 'what happens at the Company stays at the Company' mentality. So with that in mind, I can see him loving Sandra and cheating. It adds another layer of complication to the relationships in question, but as far as I'm concerned that's part of the fun! :D

Um, sorry for going all rambly on you. If you're interested, my stuff is here (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=fantasticpants&keyword=My+Fic+-+Heroes+%28omgwtf%29&filter=all), but it is pretty much all Bennet-slash.

Oh, and I totally love the idea of Nathan/Bennet too, I just wish they had some canon interaction outside the pyjama kidnapping attempt, lovely as that was.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

OMG, Sandra/Bennet I haven’t read already. Thank you so much XD. It is such a shame that fandom has an aversion to married couples. Sandra/Bennet is by far the most interesting canon couple in Heroes, and the only one the show has really managed to get right with the writing. He’s done some truly terrible things to her, and yet she’s not a weak character for not leaving him. She's there because she loves him, not because she needs him. In fact, she seems to hold the ultimate power in the relationship because she can choose to leave him at any time because of who he is and what he’s done and while it would hurt her, it would be far more devastating for him. 5YG Bennet was just not as awesome as normal Bennet, and while it could have been the glasses, I suspect that it was a result of him never quite getting over Sandra leaving him.

Thanks for pointing out 5YG. I forgot that Heroes has a canon AU within which fic writers can play. You could pair Bennet up with anyone and I’d have no mental block issues. Plus he knows everyone in that universe, so very random rare pairs could happen.

The canon-fanon separation thing’s a great way to look at it. I’m just going to have to separate the two somehow. And I totally agree with you on Bennet/Claude being the ultimate Bennet slash pairing. Bennet/Haitian come close with the history and working relationship (and that scene in Lizards is just fantastic), but nothing can really come close to the messed up-ness of an eight year relationship ending in a shooting and them reuniting under not the best circumstances and then the inevitable beating the crap out of each other until they realise they see eye-to-eye about the Company that is going to happen should they ever meet again (please please come back Christopher Eccleston). Even if just gen, that is one hell of a history between to characters.

And I really hope Jack Coleman’s right and he is getting a storyline with Pasdar in the future. If Bennet does turn out to be the shooter, Bennet/Nathan could turn out to be as epic as Bennet/Claude.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I remembered you were looking for Donna fic when I read this one, and it is cracky, and funny. You probably would have come across it eventually if you are a member of any Donna comms (which like me, you probably are), but nevertheless, I like to share the Donna love.

Five Times Donna Slapped the Doctor for Being a Pervert (http://magicallaw.livejournal.com/74703.html)

I'm just starting on my Donna fic reading journey. Any recs? I checked out the ones gwynevere1 posted in the comments above, but was wondering if you have any?

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that! I saw it this morning on my flist, but didn't have time to read and probably would have forgotten about it. And I've been working on a rec post, but I've still got to track down the links to what I've read (I badly need to develop a bookmarking system). I'll get it up later tonight or tomorrow.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I have a beautiful bookmarking system, especially for fic because if I didn't, I'd never find anything! It's all done by fandom then ship. So Doctor Who has got subsections of 'Donna/Doctor', 'Martha/Doctor' 'Rose/Doctor', 'Jack-centric' and 'general'. LOL. I WIN AT GEEKDOM.

Looking forward to your recs. It is heartening to see a few Donna communities on LJ.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Here they are (http://meddow.livejournal.com/95553.html). There's only five since there's so little Donna fic out there. I complain, but I can't seem to come up with any Donna plots myself, so I really shouldn't.

And great bookmark system! I'm totally stealing it ;)

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. And you're welcome to the bookmark system! I also have a 'fic recs' section, and 'fics to read' section. Because as I said, me = geek.

BTW, do you know anywhere that streams DW? (such as TV links used to?). I am thisclose to getting a friend addicted and this is the final step :P

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I think the BBC streams Doctor Who these days, but it's useless if you live outside of the UK. Besides knowing of places you can download the episodes rather than stream, I can't really help I'm afraid.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Yea, I'm in the same boat. Thanks though :)