Title: Art Imitates Life
Fandom: The OC
Pairing: Ryan/Seth
Categories: Humour, post-canon, romance.
Length: Short (1700 words)
Warnings: Some Marissa-bashing

Author on LJ: silk_knickers
Author on AO3: silk_knickers

Summary:
The first phone call, unsurprisingly, was from Anna, on the day the full page ad ran in Comic Collector's Monthly.

Review:
A short, sweet piece of shmoop set a short way in the future of The OC, written during season 2 so somewhat jossed. I don't care, though, because it's well written and never fails to bring a smile to my lips.

The idea is that Seth Cohen starts publishing his own comic. The central character is a crime-fighting superheroine who bears more than a slight resemblance to Summer, and her plucky side-kick, Adam, also bears more than a slight resemblance to Seth. Various other OC personalities appear in various guises, all fictionalised through the lens of Seth's prejudices. Marissa is particularly hard done by as the evil Ms Barton, but Seth would so I can hardly call it character bashing really.

The story progresses through a series of phone calls between Seth and various others; his parents gushing about his success, Ryan being encouraging and faintly embarassed ("Is Ben supposed to be me?"), Summer enthusing wildly, and so on. Eventually of course Seth puts enough of himself out there for everyone to figure out what he won't say outright, and the story ends with a classic rom-com scene.

And that's it, really. This isn't and doesn't pretend to be a huge and important piece of literature, but it is an entertaining and gentle read. It flows nicely, all the characterisation fits, and aside from one slightly unfortunate choice of names (Autumn Breeze, really?) it ticks all the boxes as far as I'm concerned.

Art Imitates Life