a conspiracy of cartographers

So there's that 20 Days of Vids meme going around? And I adore it, because it is giving me yet more vids to watch; I have only slowly and insidiously amassed fandoms that are frequently vidded, so it's only sometime in the last few months that I've become really addicted to watching vids, which means that I am now hoarding them with great delight and enthusiasm. I do have quite a few, but I'm not sure if I'm actually capable of doing the meme -- I mean, for one thing, it actually assumes some sort of variety to my vid-watching habits. And I can tell you right now that, for the most part, they can be divided into three fairly neat categories:

[1] WOMEN ARE EXCELLENT <3
[2] omg this ship
[3] wow I will never get tired of watching this character's awesome face

(Okay, there is also [4] I never noticed that about the show before and I want to HAVE THIS VID'S CLEVER BABIES but that makes me sound slightly less shallow somehow.)

This makes for joyous vid-watching, but it doesn't necessarily make for joyous meme-answering. Therefore, in lieu of the meme, I'm just going to give a boatload of enthusiastic vid recs.

( 34 vids: Buffyverse, Doctor Who, due South, Highlander, multifandom, Stargate Atlantis, White Collar, & some miscellaneous additional vids. )

It occurs to me also that I am posting these right before VividCon kicks off. Quite a few of my friends will be at VVC. (I am a wee bit jealous and am starting to plot going next year.) Have fun, guys! :D

I am full of so much glowy holiday spirit I don't know what to do with it! My giftfics this year are splendiferous. I only received the one Yuletide story, but that's all right, because i. I only wrote one and that's karmically sound; ii. I also have my due South Seekrit Santa; and iii. I would not trade in these fics for the world. They're just. Sdldfskd.

First, I opened my holiday card from wintercreek this morning; on the outside of the card is a charming little picture of two guys on a sleigh ride through a snowy woods, and on the inside is a holiday letter from Fraser and Ray. How wonderful is that? They told me about their impractical Christmas tree, and that Dief says 'hi'. I think I want letters from fictional characters all the time, because it's awesome beyond words. Thanks, wintercreek, it's absolutely wonderful. <3

And that was just the preliminaries!

My Yuletide: But Rather Darkness Visible [Doctor Who/Young Wizards]
How do I love this story? Let me count the ways. Let's start with the one where it's a Doctor Who/Young Wizards crossover. I strongly suspect that whoever wrote this story either has me friended or follows me (so HEY THERE, ANON, I LOVE YOU) because how long have I been nattering on about how I need to write exactly this? Of course I was never going to, and now someone has, for me, better than I could've! The mythological blending is perfect, there are Shakespeare metaphors and of course a Star Wars joke, and both Dairine and Ten are absolutely pitch-perfect. I can't stop beaming.

My dSSS: loquacious (loh-KWEY-shuhs) [due South]
Fraser/Kowalski established-relationship fic, post-series. I am completely in love with this Ray; Fraser feels somehow incidental to the story, which I love, because there's a point in the narrative where Stella tells Ray that the Mountie's been good for him, and spectacularly misses the point. What I really love about it, though, is that each section header starts with a long word that Ray then uses sometime in that section, which -- I was not previously aware how easy I am for Ray making beautiful paragraphs! I really am. And the ending is whipped cream topping off the awesomecake.

Now with that metaphor I'm off to have breakfast with the folks. The Archive is slow like a very slow thing right now from all the Yuletide traffic, so I'm going to give it a rest for a few hours (during which I might even come up with some sort of attack plan for how I'll organize my read-through); and of course there's the rest of dSSS to read. Plus the physical present exchange with my parents.

I'm an extremely happy Aria! I hope all of your Yuletides/other holiday practices/normal days are going wonderfully too.

And what do I do on my day off? Why, compile a list of favourite due South fics and post it at ungodly hours of the morning, of course.

There is lots of really great due South fic in the world, and I have probably read at least a good 80% of what the internet has to offer. One of the great blessings of this fandom (besides the astonishing lack of wank, which is a wonderful breath of fresh air after Doctor Who fandom, and no, don't even try to tell me about the Ray Wars, I don't wanna know) is that, by and large, most of the fic is really good. Inevitably I have become pickier about the way I like my Fraser and Rays as I go along, but the number of times I actually hit the back button is negligible compared to the other fandoms I've been in.

In saying this, my basic point is that I couldn't possibly do a comprehensive reclist of the due South fic that I like. (Hell, if you want that, it's what delicious is for.) This is instead a rather smaller list of the fic that possibly made me shriek and flail and gnaw on my knuckles the first time through, or made me say "YES!" aloud, or just makes me feel really happy and comfortable each time through and bears up well under rereads. I try to stick to one story per author, but a lot of the time it can be taken as read that if I like one thing, I like most if not all of the other fic they've written also. This list is possibly for my own reference as much as anything, but maybe you'll discover something new here, or an old favourite.

( 15 fic recs: 9 F/K, 4 F/K/V, 1 F/V, and 1 genfic; here be genderswap, robots, werewolves, amnesia, porn, plot, a recipe guide, a picture book, various locations all over North America, and some really awesome stories. )