Unfit for Society Recs

Battlestar Galactica

The name of this story is your name by beccatoria
You are a Cylon. Ellen Tigh tries to explain it to you, before she dies, coughing in the smoke of the campfire; weak as Laura Roslin was at the end.

"The Five," she says. "We were born. We grow old. We die. The replacement bodies we made for our own resurrection were just clones. When we made you, we had to start from scratch. Your cells never stop replenishing themselves. I thought I was doing you a favour."

She laughs.

You look at her and don't know whether she is your mother.

You say, "You named all the others. John and Leoben and D'Anna and Simon and Aaron and Daniel and Sharon. Why didn't you name me?"

Ellen coughs in the smoke. "You asked us not to," she says.

You understand that. epic, heartbreaking story of Caprica and human history.

~*~

Fringe

Orphan by rainer76
A series of interviews between Lincoln Lee and Peter Bishop, set between episodes 4:04 and 4:05 "I had a home. I didn't for the longest time and then I did. You wouldn't fight to keep that?" Peter asks, his voice so very low.

Lincoln feels flayed open by his gaze, hard as sapphire, recognition sizzles through him. I know you, Lincoln thinks, amused and startled and close to touching. Something inside of Lincoln realigns.

"I am."

They're never going to see eye-to-eye about which time-line is correct, they're going to be forever opposed, and surprisingly, Lincoln's okay with that. Sharp, smart look at one way Peter's return could (but won't) go.

~*~

The Good Wife

Nothing About Ecstasy by templemarker
Alicia gets drunk and Kalinda takes care of her. Sharp and lovely. "You think I betrayed you," she continued, stating the obvious in that way she used truth as a bludgeon. She used mistruths like a scalpel. Kalinda was a cache of weapons in a miniskirt and a misleading ponytail. "I didn't."

~*~

Harry Potter

Because It Is My Heart by magnetic_pole
Alice is not very pretty, at least not the way Lily is--she's a bit overweight, with a round face and short, coarse hair and a bump on her chin that Petunia secretly thinks of as the hogwart. But she's very bright and quick to learn, and she's absolutely fearless, and she likes Petunia, and that's enough. Actually, that's more than Petunia has ever imagined. Alice always makes Petunia feel as if something wonderful is about to happen to her, and it's a new and heady state of affairs. This is really lovely, bittersweet in the best ways.

~*~

The Good Wife

Till The Water Runs Clear by mardia
Sharp, sad and hopeful look at Alicia in the near future.

~*~

Hanna

she's got you high (and you don't even know yet) by Viorica8957
Short, lovely story of Hanna learning to negotiate the outside world while trying to court Sophie.

~*~

Veronica Mars

There is No Relativity (The Fright Fest Remix) by kristin
Wallace and Veronica watch horror movies and discuss what genre their lives are. This is both heartbreaking and hopeful. I hope Wallace can be the best friend that Lilly couldn't be. Veronica needs him. And the original story: Our lives will not flash before our eyes by andchimeras

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The Good Wife

Buckingham Fountain in June by celli
Really lovely moment between Kalinda and Alicia as they stop for ice cream and play hooky for a little while.

For I come without answers by empressearwig
Painful and pitch-perfect story of Alicia making some hard decisions when Diane asks her to come with her to Lockhart & Lee.

low hanging fruit of the poisonous tree by kel
This story somehow makes Kalinda EVEN MORE AWESOME than she already is in canon, which I hadn't thought possible. Peter Florrick loved power more than he loved Alicia. Alicia loved the idea of Will more than she loved the reality of Peter. Will loved the idea of still being in love with Alicia after all these moldy years more than he loved Alicia, or even just the idea of her. So, love. Really, what was the point?

People wanted to believe that love was complicated, but it wasn't. Love was rarely complicated and almost never interesting. Kalinda would rather unravel what really mattered, like revenge.

*

The Good Wife

Once More Into the Fray by abvj
Really lovely, meditative look at how Alicia moves from being married to Peter to being in love with Will. In the end, it doesn't matter how much they once loved each other, how happy they were once upon a time even though she had spent the better part of the last two years of her life trying to convince herself otherwise. There's no argument, no lie told or final act of betrayal that was the final straw, no epiphany to be had.

One day Alicia just wakes up and she is exhausted and her reserves are exhausted and the fight just doesn't seem worth it anymore. Always, she has been a practical woman. Pragmatic to a fault and every single part of her gives way to the fact that it is ridiculously impractical to stay in a marriage that is never going to work again. (couple minor issues, e.g., using 'that' for 'who' and 'discrete' for 'discreet')

without any sense of strategies by mardia
Lovely, quiet look at Will and Alicia once they're together, from Will's POV. His entire life, Will Gardner has never been the guy who cared more. He's never been the guy who fell first, fell harder or sooner than the other person did. But Alicia isn't like anyone else he's ever met, so it makes sense in a way that she'd be the exception to the rule in this too.

you can like the life you're living (you can live the life you like) by mardia
Things aren't going to become simpler because Alicia wants them to be, or because she's made a decision. In fact, they're just going to become much harder. Everything she does from this point on is going to affect so many people. It's going to be hard, and long, and there are absolutely no guarantees about much of anything, going forward. AU of 2x01 - Alicia holds onto her phone and hears both of Will's messages, and makes a decision. Lovely. (also, major points for using lyrics from "Chicago" as a title)

~*~