The Marci Rating System

My reading has been kind of all over the place this week, doing a lot of bookmark hopping on AO3. I thought I’d read this one before, but maybe not?

Go Ask Arthur, by fictionalcandie

Ariadne huffs, frustrated, because Eames doesn’t seem the least bit concerned that Arthur is apparently stalking him (or possibly some kind of mind-reading alien wizard), but she steps aside so he can finish making his tea, and goes back over to draft more impossible loops in things.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Went looking for something fluffy to post for the day, fell into re-reading Inception fic from my pinboard bookmarks. Awww….

Short and sweet:
Counting Down, by Valonia

I was looking for the one where Eames and Arthur move out of Mombasa and Eames has a conversation with Yusuf about compromise and keeping a relationship together, but it’s time to feed the cat so it’ll have to wait!

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I went looking for a different fic, found this one, couldn’t resist re-reading it at 8 am on a Monday morning. Nothing like reading about winter Solstice in Vermont when it’s just past summer Solstice in New Hampshire!

“We aren’t a team like you two aren’t dating,” she says, glancing between Eames and Arthur. “Just because no one ever calls it that doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t know what it is.”

-from Jonquil in December, by wldnst

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

From Crime and Medicine, by eleveninches

ACTUAL QUOTE:

“I can’t stop thinking about it.”

That sounded ominous. Arthur paused in his typing. “Can’t stop thinking about what?”

Fischer sighed. Arthur glanced down at his phone to see Fischer looking weary. “Breaking up my father’s empire.”

“Your father’s a teacher,” he said.

“Don’t you think I know that?” Fischer snapped.

(I’m pretty sure eleveninches wrote all of the most hilarious Inception fics I’ve read, including the classic The House That Cobb Built, which I’ve re-read several times when I need something to giggle at.)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I keep meaning to do a WIP weekend, where I go through everything tagged WIP on my pinboard and sort out what’s been finished.

This is not that weekend.

But I read this fic yesterday, and it was cute:

Sharing Is Caring, by theleaveswant

(Inception; sleepy morning cuddling; inspired by TFLN: “Just rolled over and found your boyfriend in bed with me. Is mine at your house?”)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I was skimming through the Pacific Rim fic on pinboard and AO3 last night, as one does, and it was a beautiful microcosm of fandom classics: kid!fic, domestific, mental bonding (canon!), hooker!fic, high school AU, and — of course — coffee shop AU. Because apparently no fandom can be complete without a coffee shop AU these days.

(And possibly no discussion of coffee shop AU could be complete without a shoutout to I’ve Got Nothing To Do Today But Smile, by gyzym. Seriously, I couldn’t remember the title so I googled ‘inception coffee shop au’ and it was the first result.)

(In fact, was Inception the last movie that got lots of fic that didn’t have huge amounts of semi-canon background (Star Trek, anything Marvel or DCU)?)

Extra note: Pacific Rim fic was a nice change from Teen Wolf’s all teen angst, all the time fic. Grownups! They are interesting!

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I saw Superman: Man of Steel last night — contrary to nearly every review I’ve read since, I liked it. Sort of. There were elements of it that I liked. Liked a lot, even!

1. Henry Cavill as Superman. His expressions were priceless. And awesome. And for a significant portion of the movie he was much less broody than I expect from a DC character. (Dude totally rocked the beard, too.)

2. Amy Adams as Lois. The fact that she knew from the beginning that Superman and Clark Kent were one and the same instantly catapulted this movie to “better than all other Superman incarnations” for me. Plus, A+ working with a hologram.

Then there were elements that I thought were bad, but they were somehow so bad that they they merged into hilarious.

1. “Dear Kryptonian Council-beings; You are somewhat cordially invited to a hat-off with Elrond and his grim band of elven cronies. Please bring: hats; stone cold expressions.”

2. When Zod said, “You have no idea how long I’ve been searching for you!!!!” all I could think was ‘well, actually, we kind of do, because you did your coup thing after Kal was born, and then you were imprisoned, but only for a few weeks before the planet blew up and you were freed, unless Jor-el was actually a crappy scientist after all, and Clark said he’d been on Earth for 33 years, so… you’ve been searching for 33 years, give or take — right?’

3. Good news, Clark! You’re NOT the only Kryptonian left! It’s just that the rest are prisoners that we forgot about in the paranoid zone, or wacky settlers that we shunned and then abandoned. Yay?

(And then there was the part that just really made me shouting-at-the-screen-crazy, which was that if Zod was all ‘it’s my destiny to protect Kryptonians and Kal is the only one left,’ then the logical extension of that really should have been ‘I will stand by his side as guardian for all my life,’ not ‘I should probably kill him too.’)

Alternate Titles For This Movie

1. Clark’s Bad Day

2. Zod Makes Poor Choices

3. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

4. Don’t Plan Like This

5. Is Anyone Worried That Christopher Nolan Can’t Stop Making Movies Where Buildings Crumble To Dystopic Dust?

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I was going to rec a couple of Teen Wolf fics, but bluemeridian has beaten me to it with both style and panache. (Though I’ll still give a shoutout to Do You Want It On Your Biscuits, Baby?, by clio_jlh, because any fandom where going grocery shopping together is a common theme is a fandom after my own heart.)

And I’d like to re-rec Everything Is Coming Up Rainbows, by angelgazing. Remember when everyone was writing about Inception, and there was this awesome story about the team as Care Bears? Yeah, it’s that one. Still one of my go-to fics when I want to read something fun and awesome. (Arthur is Grumpy Bear! My favorite!)

Arthur rolls his eyes, and Eames is beaming like a kid who’s just been told Christmas is coming twice this year. He kisses Eames on his stupid fuzzy cheek, then interrupts another drawn out “awww” from Ariadne to say, “We’re married, by the way,” over his shoulder, “in real life. Did you guys not know that?”

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

1. Arthur’s a fisherman!
every dog, by wldnst

2. Tony’s a werewolf!
What Lies Inside, by Penumbren

3. No, Tony’s a kitten!
Momentary Paws (or, DO NOT WANT), by velithya
(Note: How much do I love that ‘woke up a kitten’ is apparently the new ‘woke up gay’? LOTS.)

4. There are no words.
Breaking Dawn trailer
(Okay, so any parents who let their kids seen the 1st movie b/c it was all about values, or whatever? Yeah, might want to give this one a look-see before sending the tots.)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I see your angst-filled x-fic, and raise you this: magical were-unicorn fic!

Everything’s Magic, by foxxcub

Author Summary: “Eames is a were-unicorn, and Arthur is the architect unknowingly out to destroy Eames’ home. The rest is just a fairytale love story.”

Eames never believes fairy predictions, as they’re mostly rubbish. But he can’t exactly call a half dozen yellow bulldozers and a fleet of contractors rubbish.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.