Juke Box Dive

Updated 07/14/13

My attempt to be organized! I wish I had started this ten years ago (!) when I started this journal. This is definitely a work in progress and doesn't begin to include even a quarter of the fics and art that I've read/look at and loved. It was just the ones I had at hand at this very moment. I'm working on it :D

( Harry Potter: Remus/Sirius )

( Harry Potter: Other Pairings and Gen )

( Lotrips and The Hobbit )

( Suits: Mike Ross/Harvey Specter )

( Castle )

( Emergency! )

( Other Fandoms )

The funniest thing in both of the fic gifts I received this season is that they both deal with the theme of home. I loved that.

Home by xylodemon, who is one of my most favorite writers of r/s
Summary: One week became two weeks became three weeks became a month.
I had asked for story about Sirius finding out that Remus was living rough once they've left Hogwarts and this definitely fills the bill. I love it. It's so much about Boys in Love and has one of the things I LOVE in fic, which is fantastic dialogue. The characters are really well done, too--they're grown up, they seem real and I love seeing them find each other.

Home Sweet Home by anonymous (so far).
SummarySummary: Pomona Sprout stakes out a section of the library. No one seems to mind—quite the opposite, in fact.
This was written for me during the hoggywartyxmas exchange, the first time I had participated. It's absolutely a perfect story for me and I really can't wait to see who wrote it. The focus here is on Pomona Sprout and her relationships with others--Remus, Minerva, Irma but with herself as well as she creates and works on a project. I don't know. I'm not doing it justice. It's so well written and the characters are really well done. I just love it.


Like I said, this was the first time I participated in this fest and there are sooo many good stories so far. I'm a bit behind in reading (I'm getting there!) but it's just... So far, it's really about the characters, which I love. Check them out! I have a recs list started but I'm going to post them in one go.

Holy smokes it's been a long time since I did this. My reading habits have been many and varied, but I'm afraid I didn't keep up with links as well as I would have liked :( Still...

( Castle! )

( Emergency! )

( Suits! )

Finally caught up on rs_small_gifts fic/art (and just in time for slashababy to be posted, which I'm starting on tomorrow--it's after midnight and freeeezing in my house). I have read sooooo much r/s today and it was all good (seriously, I never felt like skimming or skipping--how awesome is that for an exchange? Everyone got good stuff). There are my favorites.

It's the Thought by gryffindorj
Summary: Remus and Sirius have agreed to make each other presents this year. Sirius finds the task a little daunting.
Warning (though not for me): rather explicit (NC-17 rating well deserved)
So much to love about this one: dialogue, characterization, dialogue (I really liked the dialogue).

At This Moment (You Mean Everything) by littlepistols (aka cackling_madly).
Summary: Remus couldn't say no to his mates and their latest adventure, especially when Sirius was looking at him like that…
Sex and rock-n-roll, what more do want out of a marauders fic? The characterizations, particularly Sirius, are really well done and it's very well written, too.

Comfort and Joy by pavlablack
Summary: Non-magical, modern-day AU. Sirius can't get his new neighbor out of his mind.
I was about three or four paragraphs in when I started reading slower just so this would last. Really well done, well told story.

The Unlikely Survivors' Club (Or The Bloody Lucky Bastards Brigade, as Sirius Black prefers to call it) by rosemaryandrue
Summary: In which Sirius Black destroys baby monitors, Nymphadora Tonks is still a disaster in the kitchen, and they're only missing one person to make a perfect Christmas. Secondary pairing Nymphadora Tonks/Emmeline Vance
Another one that I knew within a few paragraphs that I wouldn't want it to end. Excellent (and I haven't even finished reading it yet *fingers crossed on the ending*). Come for the Remus/Sirius, stay for the Tonks/Emmeline

The switch by some authors to keep their work hosted only on AO3 rather than Livejournal (removing it when it'd been there before) makes me sad. It means I can't share their work with friends who hate AO3. I miss that conversation and community that happens (or happened) on LJ. I'm not shaking my cane in the "back in my day" way but I do miss it. For what it's worth, no matter where else I may decide to post, they will always be here on escribo, too.

Anyway :D Recs! Because fandom, no matter where it happens, is awesome.

Remus/Sirius:
The Door through the World by amuly (also on AO3)
Growing up under the stern hand of Walburga Black was nothing less than torture for young Sirius. Until one day, he found a small, forgotten door, hidden in a store room. It was through this door that Sirius discovered a whole other world, and a whole other life. Ah-May-Zing. I printed this out (all nearly 100,000 words) in something like 8 point font and no margins so that I could take it with me to Florida to read in the train station (since I had hours to wait) and then finished it just before we pulled into Orlando. There is so much to love about this: the characterizations, the story--the structure of it, the telling, the idea of it. The writing is so good. I was able to get totally lost in it (which turned out to be excellent thing because I'd forgotten to charge both my iPods before leaving and this helped me to tune out my surroundings. Excellent work. Definitely one of the best stories in r/s.

Ever After by busaikko
Non-magic AU. Once upon a time, an astrophysicist was wooed by the gay Scheherazade... I like stories that feel really grounded and real, and this is that.

Of Cinema and Sticky Notes by bluepeony
AU: Remus Lupin is the office bore. Sirius Black is the office sweetheart. They fancy each other, on a purely aesthetic level. Here's another. It's anxious and lovely, which aren't two words I usually use together but there you are.

I had some more from rs_games but I've lost the post :( and have to go back through them, which is fine since I haven't even finished reading half of them yet. I know there was a lot of great stories and artwork there, though.


Suits
Answer in the Form of a Question by Blackstar777
Everything seems to be back on an even keel after the drama at Pearson Hardman and the emotional tsunami that ripped through Mike’s life: Gram, Tess, Rachel. So of course that’s when he and Harvey end up having phone sex. The sex scene in this is amazing, whichever one. All of them. It's just a really sexy story.

Best in the World by mskatej
Mike takes ecstasy with a hot client at a Pearson Hardman function but once he’s high he’s only got eyes for Harvey. There is a surprising dearth of (really good) sex in Remus/Sirius fic so...it's not that I forgot about sex but it's not what I tended to look for in fic there for a while. Suits fandom? Rife with it. Every kink imaginable, every position, every possible combination. Soooo much playing with power dynamics, which I love. But mostly? really incredibly written sex scenes. Porn that actually really hot. This is a good example--in character, funny in all the right places, and hot.

So, the strangest thing happened. I spent the weekend reading Suits fic. I have a pairing! Mike Ross/Harvey Specter. Why is that strange? Because I've never seen the show...and now I don't want to because I'm rather enjoying my headcanon, which is obviously fanon since I don't know canon. Weird.

Anyway, what I like is that there is plenty of BDSM, D/s, and hurt/comfort. Apparently it's a thing on the show? I mean, not literally since it's primetime and all, but enough to lead to some really fantastic fic. I suspect I'd be really disappointed if it's not blantantly obvious, though. Like, if there's no chance that they'll kiss one day (or, rather, Harvey pins Mike to the wall and ravages his mouth) because both characters repeatedly declare themselve heterosexual at every give opportunity, I couldn't stand it. Not because I'm anti-heterosexual but because...let's a girl's imagination take her to great heights kind of thing.

Anyway. Recs! If you are at all interested in the things I listed above. Also, long, multi-chaptered fics--the fandom is knee deep in them.

Needs Must by thatotherperv.
Holy smokes. The first one I read (and I'll be honest--dropped it into a doc and changed the names to Remus (playing the role of Mike) and Sirius (playing the role of Harvey). That worked for me. But then somewhere along the line I didn't need to change the names. It was still Remus=Mike, Harvey=Sirius, as if Remus and Sirius were actors playing a role. Make sense? Whatever. The writing is excellent and it's smoking hot.
summary: When Grammy needs an upgrade in care, Mike knows that the usual one-off gig as a paid submissive won't be enough. He takes a job he's been refusing for a while - a long-term, full-time contract. He expects his client to be a sadistic asshole. He expects not to like it. He's wrong on both counts. This is, at heart, schmoopy hookerfic.

Good Boy by MajaLi
Summary: After a long process of trial and error, Mike becomes Harvey's sub. Or maybe he always has been.

Gag Order by Joni_Beloni
So...I'm not sure what to say about this one. Read the tags--it's full of Things One Must Warn For (and for good reason). To be honest, when I saw where it was going, I skipped ahead until I found where the comfort starts (around chapter 10) being all "yeah, yeah, yeah bad people in the world, let's get to the making Mike feel better". Still, it's well done. I just have a low angst threshold.

The Care & Keeping of Harvey Specter's Puppy by smartalli.
A little on the sweet side of what I'm looking for in this fandom so I almost didn't read it, but there's this character called Donna (I guess...not having seen the show remember) who sounds completely awesome. I've cast her, too, so I'm not sure I want to see who the actual actress is. Such a weird relationship I have with this fandom. Anyway! This is really sweet, and I like that it's nearly completely from her POV.

ETA:
He's a Friend by janedujour Mike/Harvey. Hurt/Comfort. Well written. These are a few of my favorite things. Summary: Mike accidentally imposes on Harvey's evening with a "friend" when he is mugged in the neighbourhood and needs a place to crash.

Blurred Haze by Enigmaforum. So...Mike/Harvey. Hurt/Comfort. Well written. Sensing a theme :D summary: the associates of Pearson Hardman take their "welcome" rituals too far.

Human Qualities by tunes84. See above. summary: On the morning his body is used to shatter one of Pearson-Hardman's finest glass conference tables, Mike comes into the office exactly twenty-seven minutes late.

The New Deal by Closer. Gen Mike and Harvey and so perfect. I loved this one. summary: Harvey Specter, second year law student at Harvard, was walking home one night when he found a teenaged runaway named Mike freezing to death on his doorstep.

Hey hey hey :D As part of my Christmas present, kiltsandlollies wrote a story for me about Lily Potter and combined it with my (rather strange?) love of postcards (seriously, I have close to 200 postcards. Love. Them.) by writing each part on the back of a card showing art by Donald Hamilton Fraser. The art is gorgeous, as is the story.

She's shared it here: Seven for Some Secrets Never To Be Told.

Two recs posts from me in one day. Strange, I know :D I hurt my back and have spent the last night and day reading fic. These recs are from the 2011 rs_games fest, which had a theme of "journeys", and I happened to be on Team Remus :D I'll have to come back and add the artists/writers when they're revealed.

There are a ton of good stories, all of which you can find here. These are my absolute favorites but by no means all I enjoyed.

Art
Can't Have One Without the Other by mypretty_art What I like best about Jamie's work is that it is consistently Remus and Sirius and consistently authentic to the 70s. Also, no one works as well with light and shadows.

Follow Your Own Tracks by kath_ballantyne Beautiful work. It looks like ink drawn on parchment (possibly the marauders' map?), which give it a timeless appeal, as if it had been created in their world.

Fic
Under a Blue Moon by only_veetee An incredible, detailed AU where Remus was raised by Fenrir. I love how the relationship between Remus and Sirius builds and the ending is good, too. Excellent work.

Those Who Wander by thesiriusmoon A cool and different Bring Back Black fic. Quite dreamlike as Remus goes on a quest to find Sirius.

A Place Only We Know by protegonox First war story coming together story set in Finland. Really great descriptions (I mean, just incredible). The story had true emotional depth, too. I almost didn't read it because it deals heavily with religion (and Remus' loss of faith) but I'm so glad I did. It's wonderfully written.

Where the Heart Is by edgewareroad A Next Gen story featuring Teddy. Really well written. I loved it just for that.

Riding the Rails by thesiriusmoon AU set in America during the Great Depression. This is incredibly detailed, wonderfully researched, and an engaging story. Excellent read.

flash/back by llassah Brilliant "lying low at Lupin's" fic, just incredible. I can't even describe it. The dialogue is great and there's an easiness to the writing, a maturity--the boys are very mature--I just. Seriously one of my favorites.

From Moon to Moon by izzybeth An AU set in 1426 AD where Sirius travels East along the Silk Road and meets a wolf. So original and so engaging. Great characters, great universe building, and a terrific use of magic.

mypretty_art created a picture for my Remus/Sirius story, These Four Kings. It is gorgeous. Jamie is such an incredibly talented artist and I am so lucky that my writing inspired her to draw. Go! Look! And absolutely let her know what you think. Her work is amazing!