The Turtle Jourtle

Slash Fiction Will Rot Your Brain

2026-03-10T17:01:34Z

On the floor next to my desk, I have a large plastic canister decorated with a print of gingerbread houses and cookies. It was designed to hold festive food, but it lost its lid before I acquired it, and I use it as a wastebasket.

Today I was thinking about painting it to look less, well, tacky. That led me to really look at it. I don't know if I'd never looked at it closely before or if it had simply been a long time, but my first thought today was a new one: "Look, gay gingerbread men!"

Yes, my wastebasket is adorned with gay gingerbread men. Slash fiction will rot your brain, folks.

(There are plenty of other possibilities, of course. Butch-for-butch gingerbread lesbians. Gingerbread men with their gingerbread-gender nonconforming gingerbread girlfriends. Pairs of masc gingerbread enbies. Whatever. But to me, they were gay gingerbread men.)

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Lifetime Fic Bingo: 2019

2025-02-13T08:10:20Z

I've been done with this year for a while, but I wasn't able to do the write-up because my laptop was out of commission. Happily, it's back now.

It's 2019. Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus are on the radio. Here in the USA, the year's top film is Avengers: Endgame. New terms coined include: large language model and review bombing.

For 2019 I read five fics: one Man from U.N.C.L.E., two Sherlock Holmes, and two Professionals.

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Lifetime Fic Bingo: 2016

2025-01-11T04:23:56Z

It's 2016. The Chainsmokers are on the radio. Here in the USA, the year's top film is Rogue One. New terms coined include: cancel culture, girlboss, MAGA, and touch grass.

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My Latter-Year Recs for Bistocon

2024-08-11T06:00:04Z

The virtual Bistocon took place this weekend. At previous Bistocons, the rec panels have often been dominated by older zine-era fics, classics of Pros fandom. This year, for a change, the con com asked people to recommend fics published in 2010 and later. I don't feel that newer fics have been underrepresented among my recs, particularly. Yet, having made the effort to identify all the Pros fics in my Beloved Collection that were published in 2010 or later, then winnow those down to relatively few titles, it was inevitable that I'd make a post about it.

I shared some of these during the rec panel, but not most of them. I sorted them into a few different categories for easy reference, as seen below.

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Enjoy!

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Lifetime Fic Bingo: 2003

2024-04-02T00:50:48Z

It's 2003. Outkast is on the radio. Here in the USA, the year's top film is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. New terms coined include: binge-watch, dad bod, eggcorn, flash mob, level up, manscaping, muffin top, SARS, Skype, and unfriend.

For 2003 I read five fics: two Professionals and three Man from U.N.C.L.E..

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Fics of the Year 2023

2024-01-01T02:01:44Z

I've read around 200 works of fan fiction this year, totaling roughly 2.5 million words. Many of them have been excellent, but I thought it might be fun to pick some highlights on this New Year's Eve. Below are the fics that stood out the most in each of the categories listed, along with the comments I wrote after reading them.

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Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you enjoy my fanfic ramblings (because there are going to be a lot more in 2024).

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Million-Word Challenge: S is for Spiderweb, A is for All the Kasha They Could Eat

2023-01-07T06:37:30Z

Well, I told byslantedlight that Island Innocents, one of her favorite Pros fics, might be the first story I read for this challenge. I'm still working on that one, but it occurred to me yesterday that Christmas was nearly over, and I hadn't read Cord Smithee's Spiderweb, an MFU story that is my favorite Christmas fic in any fandom. So I read it, followed by it's wonderful companion piece All the Kasha They Could Eat by Jest, and now those are the first fics to be added to my challenge board for the year.

Both of these fics are just so good. Their characterizations are what most stand out, but they are beautifully executed in all other respects as well. The way All the Kasha They could Eat, in particular, uses events from canon is excellent, and Spiderweb even has a non-boring sex scene (*g*). 12,194 and 7,006 words. Both NS/IK slash. Both particularly recommended.

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Prosfic Bingo: M is for Mistletoe and Wine, I is for I Know I'm Not Forgiven, Z is for Zigzag

2022-12-30T07:32:37Z

And now, my final bingo post of the year!

I've been intending for months to read A Mercenary's Tale by Fictionwriter for this round's letter M. The New Year is coming up fast, though, and I haven't been finding a lot of energy for reading, so instead I'm going with Mistletoe and Wine by O. Yardly, one of the fics recommended as part of the Prosfic Rec Advent Calendar. This is a nice fic. It combines a slightly unusual getting-together narrative with a large dose of holiday cuteness. 5,670 words. B/D slash.

I Know I'm Not Forgiven by jat_sapphire is also a good fic. It has an absorbing plot and good atmosphere to accompany the supernatural elements of the story. I did have some trouble following the characters' emotions, but as I've said before, I think that's a TinTurtle thing and not the fault of any particular story. 10,378 words. B/D slash.

Z is another letter for which I had a different fic picked out than I ended up reading. I was impatient to finish my bingo card, so I opted for a short one: Zigzag by HG. The text of this fic incorporates the titles of all of the stories O. Yardly had published at the time it was written. Trying to spot those was fun and the other elements of the story were enjoyable enough, too. This even turned out to be an unlabeled Christmas fic, so it was appropriate for this week. 1,806 words. B/D slash.

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Things I Like (at Halloween): ghostbusters

2022-11-09T10:08:09Z

My favorite of the two Halloween Pros vids I've encountered is ghostbusters by Perruffus / María Magdalena Fernández del Río Ossandón. Happy Halloween, all.

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Prosfic Bingo: W is for What a Day for a Daydream, Y is for Your Eyes are like Limpid Pools

2022-10-12T06:37:42Z

Last week, I read What a Day for a Daydream by LilyK (sc_fossil), one of this year's Big Bang offerings. The plot of this fic is based on a movie, so its fundamentals were set before LilyK started writing. I think she did well in light of that. The characters were sympathetic and the prose was good. I'm afraid I found the events of the story pretty implausible, though, and not really in a fun way. 12,757 words. B/D slash.

Your Eyes are like Limpid Pools by Corvidology (draycevixen) is a fun and fluffy Christmas fic. The dialog was excellent, and I particularly enjoyed the juxtaposition of what Ray thinks and what he says. 1,206 words. B/D slash. Particularly recommended.

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Fandom Holidays

2022-09-12T22:25:27Z

Now and then I wonder what it means that Man from U.N.C.L.E. fandom goes all out for Halloween and Professionals fandom for Christmas.

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