Better Late Than Never Feedback Challenge Response

[rabid1st]

I drew the talented penknife as my feedback recipient but I was unaware of that until Saturday evening. I had, indeed, forgotten all about the boniblithe's Feedback Challenge until I recieved a bit of a heads up from keswindhover

So, I rushed to read and I am happy to report...I was well entertained.



The first story I read was Lights Out a BtVS fic that concentrates on Giles.

Favorite Line: I don't have a favorite...I like them all.

I must take a moment to compliment Penknife on the simply marvelous inner male voice in every fic I read. It is rare in fanfic to read such sympathetic and masculine portrayals of character. Penknife gives us complex men with layers and needs without falling into submissive postures. This makes the slash particularly affective. In this fic, Giles plotting against Angel is a foreshadowing of the Giles that plotted with Wood against Spike. This is a scary man...and yet wholely sympathetic. Everyone should go read this story and get a little shudder about what lurks inside Buffy's father figure.

The second story I read was The Curtain Story I went in with some trepidation as I am one of the Original Fans of the Original series. But I had a wonderful time with this charming ficlet. Kirk and McCoy try to buy some curtains. It's that simple.

"You know," Kirk said more than a few drinks later, "I don't think I've ever bought curtains."

Now that I knew penknife could handle Kirk it was time to sample the slash. Not just any slash, folks. The original slash couple...Kirk/Spock. I remember as a very young child asking my mother if Kirk and Spock were married. Mom gently explained to me that Kirk liked girls and I countered with, "But none of the girls ever work out and join the crew like Mr. Spock."

Family Ties Takes my innocent question and runs with it: What if Spock and Kirk are married and Kirk just doesn't know it? This fic is set after Spock returns to life via the Genisis device and the bond with McCoy. Sarek helps Spock break his bond and learns something very interesting while rummaging around in Spock's mind. As usual, Penknife gives us wonderfully rich male voices...but beyond that she does excellent Vulcan. It is very difficult to do the Vulcan logic without delivering cartoonishly stilted dialogue. This and the other work I sampled featuring Vulcans bring the characters to life in a refreshing totally canon way.

Finally, though I have only read two Harry Potter fanfics...and one of them was a Buffy Crossover...I sampled a story called Ephemeris. This is an NC-17 Sirius/Remus fic set during OotP. S/R are cleaning up the old homeplace and start sharing a bed (in a platonic sense...at first at least). This is a funny, touching, sexy fic filled with men having a confusing time working out what they want and how to get it.

Favorite Exchange:

"Might as well burn the place down."

"After all this work?" Remus said. "It's been too late to decide on arson since at least tea-time."

Second Fave (over morning paper and cuppa):

"Not that there's much worth reading in the paper these days," Molly said.

"I'm still at large," Sirius said, pausing to read an inside page. "Well, that's a comfort. I think I'll clip that one out, just in case I ever have a bad moment."

Favorite Line: "Don't try to spare my feelings," Remus said. "I'm hoping to actually die of embarassment so that all my suffering will be over."



So, to sum up: This Feedback Challenge was loads more fun than I thought it would be and just the sort of break I needed before putting my nose back to the Pixilated grindstone.

Also: Go read the fic of Penknife at Pen(knife) to Paper and you can have an equally good time.

Rae