Generation Kill

Since I mentioned it yesterday, I thought I might post about it today. Generation Kill is a 2008 HBO miniseries about the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. On paper, nothing could be farther from what I normally like. However, I fell into the fandom headlong during the pandemic, and, as I wrote at the time, somehow, watching a bunch of puerile marines fumble their way through a poorly-planned, incompetently-led, questionably-motivated military invasion helped me maintain my sanity during lockdown. Basically, I came for the trainwreck factor and stayed for the awesome fic. I think Generation Kill is the fandom with the highest quality of writing I have ever had the pleasure to read in.

As usual, let's start with some stories that could be enjoyed even if you're not familiar with canon.

1. Don't You Shake Alone by dsudis. This is PTSD-flavoured baby fic. Yeah... It sounds weird and possibly boring. Yet it isn't. It's romance too (M/M, Brad/Nate for those who know the characters). An excellent depiction of PTSD, new parenthood and two people deciding to commit to each other, all rolled into one. Luckily for me, it also exists in podfic: here by chemm80, who is another pdoficcer who should be doing this for a living, she's so good.

2. Rock Happy. This is a Stargate Atlantis crossover. Now, I've only watched SG film 20 years ago and possibily caught only a coupe of eps of SGA (dubbed in Italian, lol) in the paleolithic so I wasn't familiar with either canon. It has a bunch of OCs, I think. This was super interesting. Plotty and gen! And so absorbing.

3. Born Ready by makeit_takeit. 98K of the best kind of M/M romance.20 years worth of The Making of Brad and Nate. Best enjoyed if you know the canon, but since this follows our main characters from when they were teenagers and long after canon has ended, you can totally just be swept along in this epic, amazing romance. I'd buy this as a book if I could. And if I could just pay someone to record a podfic version, I would. It's been at the top of my fannish wishlist since reading this masterpiece.

4. To Shame The Devil by Kalliste. This is a future!fic AU, with supernatural elements and genderswap. I think it works pretty well for those unfamiliar with canon, honestly.The podfic by Chemm80 is another of my all-time favourites.

5. I could rec another 10 fics easily, but since it's the lead-up to Christmas I'll leave you with this little festive gem Managing Expectations by alethia. Podfic version: here by chemm80

The Pitt

So, one of the two hot ER cowboys I mentioned yesterday, Dr Jack Abbot, is a marine veteran himself. The crossover with Generation Kill was just begging to be written and the excellent astronomical_light rose admirably to the challenge and delivered: the path we took to get here. Brad/Nate and Robby/Abbot. “Well, I’ll be damned,” Jack says, resting his hands on his hips and tilting his head in assessment. Santos was right—Brad is a little impaled. It’s been something like twenty years since the last time Jack saw him, yet he looks infuriatingly unchanged. His hair’s a little darker, less sun-bleached blond, but for all that he’s still golden California tan he’s got far fewer lines around his eyes than Jack can say about himself.

So, as I said a couple of weeks ago, I'm going to take part in this challenge where you post recs for the month of December. I'm not sure I'm actually going to be able to keep up with daily posts for a whole month, but I can sure try. Few things fill me with more excitement than proper fic recs. I still miss the golden days of fic reccing, back when crack_van or epic-recs were active on LJ. Anyway, the way I decided to play it is this: I'm going to try and do a different fandom each day (though I might do repeats for those fandoms I have more recs for); I'm also going to do a single story for The Pitt every day as that's my current fandom (and I haven't been this obsessed with a single fandom and pairing for years, lol); I'm also going to add podfic links whenever possible, because podfic makes everything better.

Veronica Mars

Rich Dirt by theohara. Logan/Veronica, spoilers for S1, technically, though this is an AU of Shelley Pomroy's party. 3K words. I can't believe I'm kicking off this challenge with a fic which is on LJ and actually still accessible. Lol. It's been over 20 years since this was posted. Maaaan, I'm a true Fandom Old. This fic is second-person narration which is something I usually abhor, please don't let it put you off? It's very good. There's a great podfic by knight_tracer (one of my fave podficcers, I just love her voice and accent!) here.

A Strange New Story Every Time by gyzym Logan/Veronica, futurefic, spoliers for the first three seasons only. Almost 20K. Veronica and Logan meet again in NYC, 10 years after the end of the original run. There's a tiny White Collar cameo, btw. Fantastic characterisation and the dialogue is * chef's kiss* perfect, the banter between these two. Also, the character have aged and thank God matured. Love a future fic that actually allows for character growth. Podfic (a collab!) is available here

The Pitt

Okay, this is mostly for those of you who haven't watched The Pitt yet, Noah Wyle's new medical show set in a Pittsburgh ER. If you haven't you totally should, it's the best tv I've watched in a long while, though of course I literally grew up with ER and John Carter was my first tv crush back when I was 12, lol. Still, what really stole my fannish heart is an unlikely and yet absolutely perfect pairing between two doctors: Frank Langdon, canonically known as ER Ken, a heartthrob, cocky, talented and very damaged fourth-year (senior) resident and just-starting-at-this-new-ER second-year resident Mel King, who is neurodivergent (probably autistic), kind, empathetic and such a darling. They have a mentor/mentee dynamic in canon but their chemistry is undeniable.

I'll get you started with an instant fandom classic for the pairing:2:00 AM by orphan_account. 8K words. Frank/Mel. “I don’t understand why you’re letting that asshole crash at your place,” Santos says, flopping back on the couch in the break room. “Seriously, Mel. There's a reason his wife kicked him out.” You can listen to it as a podfic here. Do not read this if you haven't watched the show yet, as it'll spoil a big character development point for Langdon that was a huge plot twist-. As I said, this is already considered a fandom classic even though The Pitt has been around for less than a year. It showcases Langdon and Mel's dynamic perfectly with great characterisation. It also features a lot of medicine and many of the other characters, it encapsulates pretty well what the show is all about while delivering grade-a shipping stuff.