Fic recs and other stuff

[maggie33]

After a long deliberation I decided not to sign up for RMSE after all. I will try to treat, there are some good prompts already. But I’m afraid 1000 words could become too big of a commitment for me right now with my erratic health, and treats can be shorter. Treating for Multifandom Drabble Exchange went well (at least I hope so 😊), so I will stick with that for now.


As for recs – here are two. The first is The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty fic from Hurt Comfort Exchange 2021:


nowhere but footfall to the path (6500 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: 成化十四年 | The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Tang Fan & Wang Zhi, Tang Fan/Wang Zhi, Sui Zhou & Tang Fan
Characters: Wang Zhi, Tang Fan, Sui Zhou
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Hand injury, Captivity, Post-Canon, Pre-Slash, Broken Bones, Threats of Violence, Pining, Feeding
Summary:

It is, Wang Zhi thinks, entirely too early for him to begin hallucinating. Sure, he already spent more than three days in this miserable cell, and the bruises and welts left by his captors ache; the food has been scarce and the water even scarcer. But all of it combined should not result in him being so far gone he would hear Tang Fan's voice. Tang Fan is in the capital, safe, solving cases and striking confused horror in the hearts of any wrongdoers, cherished and protected by his family. Tang Fan is -

- dragged into the stinking, narrow space of Wang Zhi's prison, arguing with the guards on the way. Something about the proper treatment of His Majesty's subjects.

The next rec is for a post-canon Vincenzo fic, and it goes behind the cut, because I gush a little and there are spoilers for the drama and for the fic.


Growing Pains (45059 words) by Sam_t_a
Chapters: 10/?
Fandom: 빈센조 | Vincenzo (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jang Han Seo & Jang Joon Woo | Jang Han Seok, Jang Han Seo/ Original Female Character(s)
Characters: Jang Han Seo, Jang Joon Woo | Jang Han Seok, Hong Cha Young, Han Seung Hyuk, Vincenzo Cassano | Park Joo Hyeong
Additional Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Brothers, mentions of torture but nothing explicit, Past Abuse, Past Drug Use, Fluff and Angst, Redemption arcs for everyone involved, Implied/Referenced Suicide, mild depressive episode
Summary:

There were a lot of things Han Seo still couldn’t get right. He didn’t always know what to say to people he was meeting for the first time or just how to say it. He didn’t always know how to be sure that someone wasn’t playing him.

He couldn’t use a fax machine to save his life. There were actually many more things that came hard to him than things that came easy, but there was one thing that he never had to work at.

Han Seo was always on time.

If Han Seo had been a little late, though, if he’d arrived at work just 10 minutes later, he would’ve been too busy to take the call, and on his darkest bitterest nights, he sometimes still wishes he had.

This is a WIP (10 chapters posted for now), but it’s already an amazing canon divergence Vincenzo fic - what if Han Seo lived and Han Seok went to prison instead of dying horribly at Vincenzo’s hands.

I selfishly wish it was Han Seok/Han Seo instead of gen, but it’s still a great fic with very well written, complicated and still pretty fucked-up relationship between brothers, and with believable beginning of redemption for Han Seok, and the chance for him to repair the relationship with his brother at least a little bit. It’s mostly from Han Seo’s POV, and his voice here is so good.

Vincenzo also appears a few times, and he’s dark and ruthless, and super cool. Almost too cool, but I don’t care. That author’s note for chapter 9 says it best:

Viewer me: Vincenzo's so overpowered, it's annoying...
Writer me: And then he outsmarted the Interpol and singlehandedly took out all the other mafia guys in the tunnel!

LOL My reaction was similar. It really works for me in this fic, especially when he’s a secondary character instead of the main one.

The author also woobiefies Han Seok a little bit, but again, this is fanfic, so I don’t mind. That’s what fanfic is for. 😊


I also found out that Taecyeon was in a boy band with Junho (Seo Yul from Chief Kim), and I might have spent an hour today watching 2PM vids of youtube. And now I want Chief Kim/Vincenzo crossover AU where Seo Yul and Jang Han Seok are in a boy band together. 😊

My favorite 2PM song for now is My House.

Here is the official vid on yotube.


And the same song from the concert in 2020 in two versions:

Focus on Taecyeon

Focus on Junho


And here is a nice interview with Ok Taecyeon about Vincenzo (full of spoilers, of course).

Comments

[china_shop]

Ahaha, I watched My House a lot when I was all flaily and weird about Junho.

Fwiw, Taecyeon is also in a Kdrama called Bring It On, Ghost! in which he is EXTREMELY CHARMING! (It's not a great show? But it's worth it for him, imo.)

(Sorry the ending of Vincenzo flopped for you! I'm avoiding reading any of your thoughts/spoilers about it, but that sucks. :-(

[maggie33]

My House is a very catchy song with nice dance moves. I watched it more than once, too. 😊

As for Vincenzo – I pretty much got over my disappointment with those last few episodes already. Vincenzo gave a new fandom and a new ship, and that is a great feeling. I’m in the middle of re-watching my favorite scenes, and maybe I will even finish watching the last episode this time. 😊