Bandom - 5 Recs

[recsforalloccasions]

Bandom Recs originally posted on crack_van in April of 2007:

Love: The Package Deal by jjtaylor - Don't let the awkward title turn you off, this is one of the best stories to come out of Bandom Big Bang this year. An irrelevant plot point leaves Gerard Way with amnesia, regressed back to a time before he was married and before he'd gotten sober when he was scared and fucked up and hopelessly in love with Frank Iero. Gerard's amnesia forces Frank to reevaluate both his feelings for Gerard and his reaction to Gerard's marriage. This is the best kind of poly relationship story, messy and complex and fraught, not shying at all away from the challenges and complications of successfully navigating multiple relationships. JJ's characterization of Frank throughout the story is fantastic and I especially love how she portrays the often-tense relationship between Frank and Lyn-Z.

This is a Love Song by oliviacirce - Alicia/Mikey/Pete is one of the most popular threesomes in bandom, but it's still rare to find a story that really delves into their relationship as well as this one does. The heart of the story is the complex web of relationships between Mikey, Pete and Alicia. Mikey and Alicia both know how hard it can be to get over Pete Wentz, but the love they share for Pete only strengthens their relationship with each other. They're rock solid perfect for each other and I love the way Olivia Circe writes them. And Pete. Oh, Pete. Pete who's so sure he'll mess any relationship up, so convinced he can't have what he wants. I love Pete in this story, but I hurt for him too.

It's hard to think of anything I don't love about this fic, but I think what I love the most is how rooted this story is in canon. Tour dates and travel and holidays, Alicia's stint filling in on bass with From First to Last and My Chem's tour of Australia, all the little details combine to make for a very strong sense of time and place, a physical grounding for the emotional arc of the story.

Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy by themeletor - This story just fills me with glee every time I read it. It's the Summer of Like and Pete makes it his mission to convince Mikey Way of his own awesomeness and it's just so Pete, sweet and a little off-center and hopelessly endearing. I love how Mel writes Mikey and Pete's relationship here and also the way she sketches out Pete's relationship towards the rest of Mikey's band. But mostly I love how she gets inside Pete's head and his desperate need for Mikey to understand how beautiful he is.

Four Strings, Nine Lives, One Heart: The Jonnie Walker Story, As Told By Master Storyteller William Beckett by joker_and_thief - Nine snapshots from the life of Always-Been-a-Girl Jon Walker, with editorial commentary by William Beckett. I adore the format of this story. The quasi-storytelling style offers glimpses into key moments in Jon's life, but also a great perspective on how the guys of first The Academy Is... and then Panic at the Disco see and relate to Jon somewhat differently as a girl. Being the token girl in an otherwise all-male friend group can be both freeing and stifling in turn, and Joker and Thief does a great job of capturing that dichotomy here, and the way Jon has to balance the guys' protectiveness towards her with her own independence and desire to take care of herself.

Chimerical Romantics by dira - I couldn't let this month end without reccing something by Dira. Dira was the first Bandom author I read and I love everything she's written in this fandom, but Chimerical Romantics is by far my favorite.

Chimerical Romantics is a historical AU, set in some nebulous, undefined point in the mid 1800s. But, where the physical setting of this story is vague, the emotional and philisophical setting is sharply defined. Gerard Way is a Romantic in the grand 19th Century style. Shortly after inheriting the family estate on the Isle of Jersey, Gerard determines to form a secret society, The Chimerical Romantics. They will produce Great Art! And do Good Deeds in service to their fellow men! Frank Iero, a common sailor found ill and injured in an alley near the docks is one of those Good Deeds. Gerard insists on his being brought back to the Way estate to be nursed back to health, and then on bringing him into the Chimerical Romantics.

In the romance that follows, Dira displays an adroit knowledge of the complex class issues that divide Frank and Gerard and an understanding of the period mindset with regards to same-sex desire that is rare to find in fiction of any sort, but especially in fanfic. The greatest challenge facing Frank and Gerard is not their differing social status, it's the completely different ways of seeing and thinking about the world that result from their very different backgrounds. I especially love the way Dira has adapted the characters to fit their historical circumstances while still keeping them very much themselves. Frank, in particular, is both nothing like the Frank we know in background and yet everything like him in attitude and personality, and I absolutely adore this version of him. Basically, I adore every single thing about this story and think everyone should read it and tell Dira how awesome and fabulous she is for having written it!