Devil’s Gonna Follow Me (Wherever I Go) by Lyaka

http://archiveofourown.org/works/516956/chapters/912562

Site: A3O

Genre: Cartoons, Comics and Graphic Novels

Fandom: Avengers – The Ambiguous Fandom

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 63086

Ship: Steve/Bucky

Warning: None Archived

“The man who used to be Bucky Barnes lined up his shot. His finger twitched, only once, very precisely.
Help me, the bullet sang.
Ninety-eight floors below him, the bullet glanced off a vibranium shield with a musical ping.
And Steve Rogers looked up.”

In my opinion, there are many different types of writers: there are those who create, those who expand, and those who expound. Fanfiction writers tend to be the expanding and expounding type. I consider the expanders to be world-builders, whereas the expounders are character-builders. Lyaka is an expounder.

This story is about what happens when what happens when you take a broken man and try to create the perfect soldier. Then realize that even the soldier is flawed, so you try to create a cold blooded killer. However, if you’re constantly erasing and remaking a man, that requires constant maintenance. So what happens when you can no longer maintain that which you have created?

I feel like I just created the prompt for a new Winter Soldier fanfiction. It’s funny though, so many fanfic writers (who write Winter Soldier fics) like to try and answer that question. And I feel like every one of them tries to do something new with the same old (but never tired) prompt. You can’t write a Captain America meets the Winter Soldier story without talking about how Bucky Barnes had to fight that Red Room conditioning in order to remember Steve Rogers.

What I love about Lyaka, is that they honestly talk about the psychological aspects of it. They wants to tell you about what it feels like to be a man out of time; what it feels like to be erased and remade into something you can’t even recognize. I love fanfic writers who honestly try to tell you about the struggle it takes for Bucky to be able to cope in the new millenium after a 70 year blackout. I love fanfic writers who remember to talk about what that was like for Steve. Lyaka did both, and for that reason this story is absolutely fantastic.

Related articles

• Character Death in Comics (worldsgalore.blogspot.com)
• Must Watch Trailer – Captain America The Winter Soldier (averagenobodies.com)
• The Captain America That Wasn’t… (Graphic Novelties) (popmatters.com)

The Asus Vivo Smart Tab

So after the travesty that was my experience with the Surface 2, I had a long conversation with my stepfather about PC-replacement tablets. He reminded my that he had been using the Asus Vivo during his last visit, and proceeded to tell me about how he was so pleased with it, that he ended up ordering about 6 more for the rest of his office. He commented about how his boss had even gotten rid of his laptop in place of it.

So of course, I had to try it.

Microsoft’s Surface 2

I have a headache.

That’s how I feel at almost an hour of playing around with the Surface 2. Oh it’s pretty. Microsoft definitely went all out on its PC replacement – and it’s definitely a replacement, because this thing refers to itself as a PC. I don’t know if the battery life leaves much to be desired for the simple fact that I just turned it on and started using it. Microsoft could have probably fixed that problem, but there was no “Charge Device Before Using” type of directives, so I just turned this thing on and rolled with it. The 5-10 minutes of configuration might be a hindrance, but I customized this device to my specifications, so that might have been a factor.

Niteryde’s Exploration of Vegeta

Site: Fanfiction.Net

Genre: Anime

Fandom: Dragon Ball Z

Rating: T – M

Word Count: Twelve stories and counting

Ship: Vegeta/Bulma

Warning: Violence, sex, cursing and all that jazz.

I am a very big fan of Vegeta and Bulma’s miracle of a relationship, simply because you honestly never see it coming. They go from hating each other to having a son to, a lot later,  somehow managing to be married. The three year gap between Frieza and the Androids is a gold mine for fanfiction writers. I don’t even remember watching the episodes leading up to or around it, but there seems to be a general belief that that whole era was skipped entirely. And, personally, I’m okay with that.

Admittedly, those 3 year gap stories get extremely repetitive in this ship, simply because that sometimes seems like that’s all these kids want to write about. It’s so open for interpretation that almost anyone can work a story from that time period and it would somehow managed to still fit canon. All you have to do is have it start at the death of the Frieza and end with the Androids – plus make mention of that purple-haired guy and the Cold family. Another thing I find noticeable about this ship is that it yields a lot of sex. I understand that Bulma and Vegeta are very passionate ch

Captain Vegeta as he appears in Cross Epoch. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

aracters when they’re ready, but their shippers can get very smut-happy. To the point where you cannot write an M-rated Vegeta/Bulma fic without porn in it. It’s just impossible.

So for a long time, I tended to not read any 3 year gap stories. I stuck to the Alternate Universe or post-Cell games stories. Or even the post-Buu stories. Whichever one it was that caused Vegeta to kill/almost kill Trunks. The reconciliation/ road to becoming a family type stories are extremely insightful, and they really show you how good the author is with characterization and growth. You kind of have to walk the line with those Alternate Universe stories, because Still A Prince!Vegeta – and I’ll never understand why that is a valid way to show a specific character trope – does not seem to have a very good family life.

What I like about Niteryde (finally!) is that they truly explore the character of Vegeta, inside and outside of his relationship with Bulma, and make you care about a story line that has been worked to death and back. This author honestly takes the time to make you feel like you really know Vegeta. Like rrabbit did with Draco Malfoy, Niteryde does not pretend that Vegeta was never a bad man; this author embraces that truth and uses it as a device for his redemption. Vegeta was horrible, and this is a fandom that will never tell you different, but I love the way in which Niteryde shows you that he could change.

Froth by forthright

Site: Fanfiction.Net

Genre: Anime

Fandom: Inuyasha

Rating: K+ (OMG, IKR!)

Word Count: 51,022

Ship: Miroku/Sango

Warning: N/A

So this is a really cute Sango/Miroku get together fic. Sango moves into the city to start school and find work, ends up getting a job at a coffee shop with Miroku.

I never quite understood the appeal of the coffee shop genre. Yes, it seems very true to life when you’re in a big city setting, but it’s so cliche that it seems unnecessary for it to be used in fan fiction. Especially fan fiction based on an anime that takes place in Feudal era Japan.  This is one of those moments in fan fiction’s use of Alternate Universes, that the author really has to watch how they’re manipulating the setting and how that affects characterization. You have to make sure that, by taking these characters out of they’re natural setting, you are not robbing them of what made us love them in the first place. Thankfully, this author knew what the hell they were doing.

There is honestly not a lot of stand alone Miroku/Sango fics in this fandom, which is understandable considering that Miroku/Sango are a canonically background couple. If there’s anything I’ve learned in my decade of fan fiction reading, it’s that couples that are canon do not hold the same interest for story-building as couples that are not canon, especially background couples. And a lot of times, when the number of fics are low, so is the quality. Thankfully this ship yields a healthy number of good fanfics, to keep old readers happy and draw some new ones in.

I, personally, like this ship for the simple fact that I loved Miroku and Sango’s dynamic in the anime. Yes, he was a pervert, and she beat him up quite a few times for it. But sue me if I’d like to believe that beneath all of that drama, there was a love story waiting to happen. I think that the author of Froth understands that, and, for that reason, made it such a good read.

Customer Service

Despite currently working in the field, I hate customer service. Oh, I understand that it is a vital necessity to any business, but it is ridiculously frustrating, and most aren’t paid nearly enough to be raided on by so many people for just doing their job. The answer is not going to change just because the customer decides to throw a bitch fit.

The Moment When

You realize that you make a bit too much to go back home and make less.

AngelExposed’s Fanfiction: Marvel should probably hire her.

Site: Fanfiction.Net

Rating: T-M

Ship: Romy (Rogue/Gambit)

Warning: There’s a good bit of Angst to go around.

So, this author, AngelExposed, has been writing this major collection of X-Men fanfics for years. They’re called the Dismal Angel Episodes, and it’s basically seventy-three six-chaptered fics collected into three series. I haven’t read the whole thing so I can’t tell you what the entire story is about, but I can tell you that this is some good stuff. Like Marvel should really consider hiring her.

From what I can tell, this series is majorly Romy centric, so you already know that’s drama. I jumped into it during the current third series, DA Revelations. I haven’t read the whole thing, but it’s basically Remy finding out he has a daughter and trying to turn his life around. It sounds nice and straight forward, but I’m being very lazy by not telling you what’s really good. You need to read it.

I suggest reading it from the beginning of the first series, mostly because this chick is not going to be done anytime soon. She’s been known to take a few years worth of gaps, and I am entirely willing to let her have it if I can get some  more good stuff out of her.

So, um yea, if you love a good angsty Romy, where Rogue and Gambit’s relationship is beyond screwed up, the origins of Gambit’s daughter is villianously unknown, and there’s some underlying Kurrty tension (plus Kitty’s out of wedlock child), then this is totally the fanfic for you.

Go read it!

Executive Shrimp and the Really Good Gundam Wing Fanfics

Site: Fanfiction.Net

Genre: Anime

Fandom: Gundam Wing

Rating: M

Word Count: about 6 stories worth (four of them unfinished).

Ship: 2×1

Warning: Majority of these are AU.

To be honest, I prefer 1×2 or 1x2x1, but this broad is pretty good at what she does so I’m okay with roles being reversed. I got into her with the story Warheads, which is a post-Endless Waltz look at the lives of Heero and Duo. Admittedly its not canon, but it’s close enough. It was realistic and gripping, and it made me so confident in her that I await, with baited breath, her updates of these other four stories that she seems to be writing simultaneously.

In her most recent stories, she (or he, because I really don’t know) tackles some really heavy stuff, all AU. In Loneliest Road, Heero and Duo are married and on their way to the birth of Duo’s child from a one-time affair with Hilde. In Love Thy Neighbor, Duo is a devout Christian having to deal with the arrival of Heero, his openly gay neighbor. In Brothers, Duo’s mother dies, leaving him to get to know his estranged father and adopted brother, Heero. And Lastly, inThousand Words, Heero and Duo are best friends and roommates in college who get tired of dating girls. There’s a better summary for that last one, but that’s basically the gist of it without giving it away.

I have no summary for the last story simply because it deals with character death and I didn’t read it.