Fanthology Overflow

[sub_divided]

fanthology is up and the current theme is "Fairytales." Little Red Riding Hood seems to be a popular one, I wonder why that is. Recs for this theme don't have to include characters from series A pretending to be characters from fairytale B, they can just use fairytale language or themes or be evocative of fairytales in general. Personally I feel that as long as the reccer can justify the rec it's all good.

That said, there are a few stories I wanted to rec to fanthology this week, but didn't because I couldn't bring myself to stretch the theme that far. Instead I'll talk about them here:

The First Death gives Yami no Matsuei a mythological grounding that has pretty much replaced the canon for me. Muraki is living perpetually on the edge of death -- until the paperwork catches up, at least -- and his mother and Tsuzuki were part of an agreement between an angel and a devil... the problem is that the myth is not particularly fairytale-like, and it doesn't show up until more than halfway through the story. If I had to classfy this fic as anything, I'd call it an exceptionally convoluted case fic.
Why you should read it: well reasoned, well plotted, well written and adds to the canon. It's long, but easily keeps the reader's attention since individual chapters are short and varied (here third person POV, here first, here a mission report or journal entry).

Mountains Once More starts with "Once upon a time" and that's where the fairytale similarities end. ^^;; the story, which is Sanzo/Goku (Saiyuki), is framed by another story, but the framing story is a parable not a fairytale. I couldn't have recced this in any case, as Aki's fic is locked and her ff.net account has disappeared.
Why you should read it: It has socially retarded!Sanzo and mature!Goku, which is the way I like the characters to be when they're paired together. In the author's own words, "39 fic which doesn't turn one of the characters into a female or a pedophile."

A Hundred Years Ago is Peter Pan fic written in the style of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, which is written in the style of a fairytale. I'm not sure, but I think that might be one degree of separation too many... also, this fic has been recced by everyone and their grandmother already.
Why you should read it: Exactly captures the style of the original, is twisted and symbolic and, in classic fairytale fashion, slightly surreal. If someone else reccommended this to fanthology I would not bat an eye. Implied onesided Hook/Pan.

Medea Dreams, by Tin for Count Cain, exactly fits the theme, but I liked the postscript better.
Why you should read it: It has that strange quality where even though I didn't particularly like it, one year later I still remember it, and even remember most of the lines. This is probably a better indicator of quality than "like" or "dislike" anyway.

An Evening of Sevens is memlu's breathless Fakir/Ahiru holiday fic that doesn't fit into Princess Tutu's timeline but is just as poignant. Like Mountains Once More, it's framed by a another story, only this time the framing story is a fairytale so you could make a case for this fic counting for the theme, maybe. In fact I might change my mind and rec it if no one else does.
Why you should read it: it's beautiful and soooo romantic. I was iffy on the characterization at first, because the perfect dialogue is a little too perfect for Fakir and Ahiru, but once you get a little further into the story it makes sense, in its own way. You don't need to know anything about Princess Tutu to enjoy this.

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I could really have sworn there were more than this -- more that exactly fit the theme too -- but I don't keep bookmarks and my memory isn't too good, so.