sakura_no_miko | Fic rec - Stardust and Rainbows (Reply)

Rating: main fic is PG-13, but the sequels go to NC-17

Pairing: Heero/Duo, Trowa/Quatra

Warnings: canon-typical violence, PTSD, discussion of a suicide attempt, discussion of past sexual abuse, discussion of force sterilization, discussion of past abusive relationships

Other notes: friendship, post-canon, relationship study, rebuilding relationships, family, hurt/comfort, unrequited love

Length: 6k, plus sequels. WIP

Summary: It's A.C. 200. Duo and Quatre reunite at a Preventers summit in L1, then commiserate (and more) on the couch at Duo's apartment.

My thoughts:

First note: this series ends on a cliffhanger of sorts? The most recent sequel ends by introducing new plot threads. If you are not into WIPs you may not be interested in this rec.

Anyway, if you’re still with me:

I spent some time squinting at this author’s name, wondering why it looked familiar. Metalocalypse. That’s where I knew this person from. I read their Metalocalypse fics some odd years ago. Huh.

But, um, anyway. Gundam Wing. I’ve given up on the AO3 Gundam Wing section a few times. I sit here and think, I’m feeling nostalgic, I wanna read some stuff from when I was younger. But the thing is — oh man, I read a lot of….not really good fic back when I was younger, and even then, most of it has disappeared from the Internet. So I’ll want to read something, but then when I do, it’s not as good, or, worse, way more problematic than I remember. And then I get bored and stop.

It's like, I want something from a nostalgic fandom, but written with a more modern style of fic writing.

Then — holy crap, I ran across this excellent series and it’s like, yes. Yes. This is what I wanted to read, holy heck.

I don’t know where to start. I love, love the character interactions here. The camaraderie. The openness. Well. I suppose everyone is being open with everyone except the person who matters most — everyone seems to connect with everyone except the person they’re in love with.

There’s this one concept I’ve been coming back to more and more as I get older, and that’s the whole ‘teenage protagonists in a war’ setting. I mean, when I was a teenager, of course I wanted to read about people my age having adventures and winning wars and whatnot. I sometimes forget certain of my ships are underage, because, to me, personally, I think if you’re old enough to fight for your life you’re old enough to have sex. But that’s thing — these characters exist in this odd, liminal space, where they’re expected to make horrifically mature decisions but they are still teenagers.

So — I like how this fic approaches the idea that, yeah, they’re all old enough to be falling in love with each other, but they’re really not mature enough to deal with all these relationships on top of PTSD and varying levels of violent and sexual abuse.

There was this part:

“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction,” Quatre continued, trying to keep his train of thought on the tracks. “Heero approaches a problem with the expectation of a result—or results. He thinks in mathematics. He can work with multiple variables and solve for each one. Quickly. That’s why he’s so hard to debate with, Duo. He inputs the problem, comes up with several solutions, all precisely calculated and correct, and fires them one after another until you retreat.”
“That bastard,” Duo muttered, slapping his fist. “He’s treating me like a goddamn tactical exercise. He’s using combat maneuvers!”
“Amazing,” said Quatre distantly. “Mathematical evaluation with military execution. He’s still the Perfect Soldier.”
“He’s a perfect asshole. Verbally annihilating me, then shutting me up with sex because he knows that’s what I want. That sociopathic motherfucker!” Duo performed another futile attack against the air for a few moments before finally settling down, looking completely deflated. “Quatre, just shoot me now,” he moaned. “Anyone pathetic enough to love someone this evil needs to be euthanized.”

Where — yes, of course, to them, the easiest way to explain anything is in terms of actions, specifically military actions, first, and emotions after. It just gets that line of both young adult and soldier so well.

And this fic just has so much talking — like, real talking. People helping each other sort their shit out. Duo and Quatre support each other with their taciturn crushes; Heero and Trowa bond over their inability to talk to the men who love them. I don’t know here Wufei is, which is slightly odd, but most of the female characters don’t show up, either.

(I always wonder about that when I write fic — if there’s an ensemble cast, but I’m focused in on the two main guys and kind of, just not including anyone else, does that come off as…weird? Especially when it’s two same sex characters. Like I feel some guilt over not representing everyone, but at the same time, they’d have nothing to do in the plot anyway. Hmm.)

Although, the fourth part, dealing with Trowa’s past — that was a rough read, man. Hate to see my characters getting abused, although, later in part five, watching him and Quatre work through Trowa’s problems is really nice. Again, communication. It’s nice to see, like, the opposite of a rom-com. Like, things aren’t always working out, but everyone is making an effort to understand.

(On a side note, I have a very vivid memory of, I dunno, early 2002, and reading a letter to Animerica where someone had just realized that the main characters in Gundam Wing (and Final Fantasy 7) were terrorists. Because, ah, post 9/11 terrorism became a very emotional topic. They did actually cancel a few episodes of--not Gundam Wing, but the original Gundam? that was airing on Toonami at the time. I think they said that the colony drops in particular would be in bad taste.

Also, man, did Gundam Wing have a complicated shorthand for shipping. That said, I think I prefer the old 1x2, 1xR, 3/4, 1+3, 5x...5x... Wait. What were Milliardo and Treize's numbers, lol? I've finally forgotten, thank the gods. But, um, I actually prefer the algebra to the name smush thing people like these days. name smush names irritate me, lol.)

(Looking for more fic recs?)

Originally posted on pillowfort on 12/17/18

Fic rec - Stardust and Rainbows

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