Title: Defender
Fandom: Haven
Pairing: gen
Categories: friendship, kids, bittersweet, pre-canon, child pov
Length: Medium, 2,820 words
Warnings: Bullying (perpetrated by a teacher, no less) and prejudice, cruelty to animals, implied childhood abuse (physical or psychological) and implied neglect (pretty much canonical). Some blood.

Author on Livejournal: n/a?
Author Website: Kalliopeia on fanfiction.net

Summary: Nathan and Duke, age seven, shave their second grade teacher's cat. Come for the shenanigans, stay for the implications. Not intended as a fluff piece.

Review: Again I bring a fic that to all intents and purposes should be fluffy, and comedic, and cute, and in actuality definitely isn't. The adorable moments and the funny moments (there are a few) are far outweighed by the depths of Haven's history and vast divisions lurking in the background underneath. From a seven year old perspective of innocence, nothing is spelled out, so this fic rewards canon knowledge for what exactly is going on between the adult characters. There are some downright disturbing implications between the lines, to be honest. We know what happened to this relationship next, but not exactly what happened to degenerate things to the level of the Tacks Incident.

But everything is so simple and innocent here, in this snapshot of a childhood event between two friends supposed to be on opposite sides of the town's divide. The basic idea, of seven year old Duke deciding to be the defender of Nathan, is just too heartbreaking in context.

You may get another bonus Haven rec from me today or tomorrow, if I have chance, to celebrate this week's return of the show's (probable) final season.

Defender

Title: I Bet My Life in Gravity Falls
Fandom: Gravity Falls
Pairing: Gen
Categories: Pre-canon, Family, Comics
Length: 30+ Panels
Warnings: Canon Typical Violence

Author on LJ:
Website: Laur-Rants Tumblr

Summary: Lyric Comic about Stanford and Stanley

Review: This is a beautiful comic that uses very wonderful color and light to mix together the lyrics of I Bet My Life with the story of Stanley and Stanford Pines.

It is good to see the brothers getting a nicer reunion did they did in the show itself.

Comic

Title: Twenty Years of Stealing my Food
Fandom: House M.D.
Pairing: Gregory House/James Wilson
Categories/Genres: Cheating, Relationships,
Length: 103,374
Warnings:Lots of cheating and adultery

Author/Artist on LJ: hwshipper
Author/Artist on AO3: HWShipper

Summary: A backstory taking place over twenty years, from how House and Wilson met all the way to canon.

Review: This fic is certainly not lacking in details. Want to know the huge amount of unheard story the show didn’t even try to capitalize on? This fic tells about how Wilson and House met way before the show says they did and how they stayed friends and more while everything else moves on around them.
This fic is rough and mean which is what makes the characters so believable. House is his usual self but this fic makes a point out of showing that Wilson is just as bad if not worse in a lot of ways while still maintaining his goody two shoe side which had to be tricky to do.
I doubt you will find a fic with as much cheating in it as this one but at the same time you won’t find a fic with this kind of faithfulness either. Despite the fact neither have moments of monogamy that last more than a few weeks they are constantly open with each other even when it hurts both of them and there are so many moments where their love for each other shines through.
This fic also has many side stories any my favorite is about Wilson’s two twin nieces and how they perceive House and Wilson’s relationship. They first see them together when they are very young and throughout all Wilson’s wives have wanted the two to be out about their relationship. They love Wilson but their reactions to House are so funny and adorable because they easily see through his scathing words to what he really means and like him for it.

Twenty Years of Stealing my Food

Title: The Book of Vices and Virtues series
Fandom: D. Gray-man
Pairing: Allen/Kanda, Kanda/Alma, Allen/OMC, Allen/OFC
Genres: AU, Romance, First-time, Adventure, Drama, Historical, Prostitution, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon
Length: Super-epic (214,460 words)
Warnings: Attempted rape, past and present child abuse, child prostitution, dub-con

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: MSylvatica @ AO3

Author's Summary:
Story 1: In which Allen travels from India to England in search of Black Order Headquarters.

Story 2: "Whenever there is hatred between two people, there is a bond of brotherhood of some kind" - Oscar Wilde, /De Profundis/

Review:
This lovely and long series contains two stories. The first is an AU version of Allen's journey from India to the Black Order headquarters in England. The second is a post-canon story about Kanda, Allen and Johnny being on the run.

The series has a pleasing circular nature. All the people that Allen meets or reunites with on his way to the Order are met again by Kanda on their way from the Order. While the first story is firmly a study of Allen, his character and his bisexuality, the second story is definitely Kanda's. As he asks around about Allen's character in an attempt to understand him better, he also gains much more knowledge of himself, both as he is now and as he was before he was reborn.

I did feel it got a little too philosophical in the middle, dragging the pace down, but I'm always impatient for the happy ending to happen. And it does, in a sweet, hot, and in character way. A great read.

The Book of Vices and Virtues series

Title: From That Moment On
Fandom: Marvel MCU
Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Tony Stark
Categories: AU, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Canon, Romance
Length: Long (22k)
Warnings: torture, brain washing

Author on LJ:
Website: Ao3

Summary: The Winter Soldier and Tony Stark have run into each other many times over the years and, despite the brainwashing and the memory wipes, something about the genius just seems so familiar. It kind of makes the Soldier want to keep him safe.

Review: This is a fast moving alternate origin story for Iron Man that includes a multitude of great concepts.

I love protective Peggy Carter and the Howling Commandos, and the chance to see how things would changed if the Iron Man movie had been created taking the events of Captain America into consideration.

Also Tony meeting Bucky for the first time and informing him that he is being followed around by baby ducks.

From That Moment On

Title: How Far Down

Fandom: Dredd
Pairing: gen
Categories: casefile, crime, backstory
Length: medium, 6,452 words
Warnings: author warns for 'threat of rape/non-con' but it's pretty minor

Author on Livejournal: n/a?
Author Website: Eli on AO3

Summary: 17,000 serious crimes are reported every day. How many more aren't?

Review: No matter how much confidence she has gained as a judge, where Anderson is truly comfortable is in other people's heads. She's not sure what that says about her.

This is both a small casefile following the events of the movie and a backstory fill-in for Psi Judge Cassandra Anderson. I like the extrapolation here for where Anderson goes next, with the struggle to find Judges willing to work with her, and her ending up by circumstance working alongside Dredd again anyway.

I like this fic for the opportunity to see Anderson in action again and these two partnered up once more, in a platonic sense, and it makes some good use of the psychic powers -- those scenes of Anderson busting into other people's heads were always the thing I loved best in the Anderson Psi Division comic strips.

There are also a few neat little character observations of Dredd along the way.

How Far Down

Title: Amour

Fandom: Angel: the series
Pairing: ~gen, ~Holtz/Justine
Categories: dark, angst, drama, flashback, sad stories
Length: long, ~20,000 words
Warnings: abusive relationship, canon character death, written prior to season 4

Author on Livejournal: viola_dreamwalk
Author Website: Viola_dreamwalk on AO3 (not all her stories are archived here) | Viola on fanfiction.net

Summary: An un-love story, happily never after.

Review: She looks at him the way Sarah did. The way Caroline had, at least at first. As though he's a poet and a prophet and a pilgrim soul. As though he's the hero of the piece, as though he could do no wrong. She looks at him and sees exactly what she needs, exactly what he wants her to see. He sees this and knows just how to make her love him. He finds he likes it.

This is the story of the antagonists of Angel: the series' season 3; Holtz, the archaic vampire hunter adrift in time, and Justine, who fought vampires like a cut-price slayer and will be remembered by most for slitting Wesley's throat. It's also the story of Holtz' wife Caroline and Justine's twin sister Julia, and the losses that forge Holtz and Justine's single-minded quests.

Viola is the author of my previous rec Percy Weasley, Rogue Demon Hunter, but the two works couldn't be more different. There is no light-hearted humour and quirkiness here, only velvet darkness and damaged, deeply flawed people, hampered judgement and loss. The prose is very beautiful.

This is a fascinating, lyrical exploration, filling in the gaps of who Justine and Holtz were and the skewed relationship between them.

Amour

Title: All You Have To Do Is Open Your Eyes
Fandom: The Losers
Pairing: Carlos “Cougar” Alvarez/Jake Jensen
Categories/Genres: Pre-Canon, Friendship, Romance, Humor, Fluff
Length: Medium (5054 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: torakowalski
Author Website: torakowalski

Summary:

“Okay, no,” Pooch says, holding up his hands, “there is no way I’m gambling for money against you and Cougar.”

Jensen frowns, leaning across the table to make wide, concerned eyes at Pooch. “Is it because we’re just that fucking good?” he asks.

“No.” Pooch knocks the edge of the pack once, twice against the table. “It’s because I’m pretty sure you can read each other’s damn minds.”

Review:

There's a lot of things I like about this fic. The characterizations, the instinctive way Jensen just gets Cougar, the amusing (if brief) additions from the rest of the cast. I love how concise the fic is and how colorfully the characters are written; they pop out of the text in full 24-bit color, bright and enchanting. The overall tone of the fic is light and cheerful, but shaded with just enough of The Losers' canonically characteristic darkness to give it a bit of heft.

But mostly I just want to rec this because of the third to last sentence, in which Cougar tells Jensen that he loves him in such a natural and Cougar-ish way that I literally read this fic repeatedly just to get to that one sentence.

All You Have To Do Is Open Your Eyes

Title: Objective Data
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairing: Jim Kirk/Spock
Categories/Genres: Pre-Canon, Alternate Universe, Outside POV, Kid Fic, First Time, Matchmaking, Romance, Fluff, Humor
Length: Long (22368 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: walkandtalk

Summary:

A young Vulcan decides to find a mate for his guardian, Spock. After careful calculations, Cadet Kirk is obviously the superior choice.

Review:

Senik, a nine year old Vulcan Yenta, decides to hook up his cousin Spock and Cadet Jim Kirk for fun profit science. It's hilarious.

Writing children convincingly is a tall order for writers. It's one thing to slip into the mindset of an adult character, someone fully formed with their own unique patterns of reasoning and behavior. But to strike the perfect balance of naivete, innocence, and perceptiveness that belongs solely to children seems to escape most writers, per my observations as a reader. Most seem to either fall short of or overshoot their character's intended age, turning a maturing child into a babyish caricature of a child or giving a child maturity and wisdom much too far beyond their years. Some authors even manage to do both simultaneously.

walkandtalk has a slightly easier job of it, since Senik is Vulcan and can already communicate on the level of adults. But there remains a childishness to his perception. There is lightness and innocence in him that separates him from the many adults he interacts with. Senik is slyly obstinate in a very specific way, weaseling without malice around the rules laid upon him by the adults in the way that children do. It is perhaps that, more than anything else, that cemented walkandtalk's characterization of Senik in my mind as one of the most convincing portrayals of a child I've ever read.

I haven't yet finished reading Objective Data's sequel, Subjective Assessment , but from what I've read so far, the collection of timestamps seems to be a perfectly adorable continuation of Spock, Senik, and Jim's (mis)adventures.

Objective Data

Title: Blue Agents of Destruction

Fandom: Megamind/Lilo and Stitch
Pairing: gen, early hints of Megamind/Roxanne
Categories: crack, humour, fluff, crossover
Length: medium, ~6000 words
Warnings: none

Author on Livejournal: n/a?
Author Website: Dal Niente on fanfiction.net

Summary: Roxanne wakes up to find a strange creature systematically destroying her apartment.

Review: ...it had seemed harmless enough at first. And it had been cute -- it's still cute, never mind that it's shredding her sofa. It's gleefully enthusiastic about everything, and the cheerful burring noises it's making provide a rather strange counterpoint to the sound of rending cloth. Big ears, big black eyes, big nose, big grin? And fuzzy to boot. It's adorable.

State of my brain today demands I rec something with a high crack/fluff/cuteness factor, therefore have a meeting between the mutually blue and not-really-evil protagonists of two of my favourite animated movies.

Set pre-canon regards Megamind, when Roxanne Ritchie finds a blue, evil alien making itself a nuisance, and not even the usual one, she calls up Metro Man to help deal with the problem, as you do... only he's busy mid-crisis, but someone else overhears and surprises her by showing up to help instead.

I love the parallels touched upon here between two little blue dudes conditioned by society or creator to think of themselves as bad by default. File under 'crossovers that you didn't know needed to exist'.

Blue Agents of Destruction

Title: January Girl
Fandom: Supernatural/Harry Potter
Pairing: Dean/Luna
Genres: AU, Crossover, Pre-Canon, Romance, Action
Length: Long (33,438 words)
Warnings: Minor character death

Author on LJ: parenthetical
Author Website: parenthetical @ AO3

Author's Summary:
With Sam trying out normal life at Stanford and his father working an undercover gig across the country, Dean is on his own and getting reckless. While investigating a series of mysterious deaths, he runs into a strange witch called Luna Lovegood, who is searching for what she calls a 'Horcrux'. (Seriously?) Suddenly Dean finds himself dealing with evil wizards, broomsticks, Bat-Bogey Hexes, Dementors, mirrors which order him to wear a pointy hat, and much more - all the while trying not to think too much about Luna's last name and whether it's accurate.

Review:
In this AU of the Deathly Hallows, Luna and some other members of the Order are in America tracking down a suspected Horcrux. Dean stumbles across her in battle, and her separation from the rest of the group results in her and Dean working together to track the Horcrux down. Luna is delightfully in character, and that results in an unusual - and all the more sweet for it - romance. Despite the dark subject matters that are Death Eaters and Horcruxes and Dementors, this is a light fic and an easy read. I don't quite believe that a Season 1 Dean would accept that there are good witches quite as quickly as he does, despite his protective instincts. Nevertheless, the fic is still a lovely read featuring a surprisingly compatible rare pair.

January Girl

Title: Graduate Vulcan for Fun and Profit
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairing: Gen
Categories/Genres: Alternate Universe, Original Character, Pre-canon, Mentorship, Friendship
Length: Long (15113 words)
Warnings: Original Character Death, Canonical Character Death

Author on LJ: lazulisong
Author Website: lazulisong

Summary:

It really does take a village to raise a Jim.

The members of the Kelvin's crew watch over Jim as much as he lets them.

Review:

To be frank, lazulisong's summary of the story is misleading almost to the point of inaccuracy. Graduate Vulcan for Fun and Profit is not about a group of people raising Jim so much as it is the story of Jim's relationship with one particular Kelvin survivor, a Vulcan linguist by the name of Sakel.

The two first meet, as far as Jim is concerned, in the immediate wake of Tarsus IV, when the vessel Sakel is stationed on receives a group of survivors, the twelve year-old Jim Kirk among them. From then until Jim passes back into his mother's custody, Sakel mentors him in the Vulcan language as means to help Jim cope with, distract himself from, and heal from what he endured. Alternating between the two weeks Jim and Sakel spent together during Jim's childhood are pieces of Jim and Sakel's adult relationship after Jim enrolls in Star Fleet Academy, per movie canon.

Sakel is a peculiar sort of Vulcan, sentimental almost to the point of un-Vulcan-ly, but in that way he's an excellent match to the wounded, young-but-no-longer-a-child Jim Kirk who thrives on learning but also the unobtrusive warmth that a more rigidly disciplined Vulcan would likely not provide. They build a fond mentor-mentee relationship in the short time that they spend together in Jim's youth. Years later, that relationship picks up almost where it left off, unaffected by time and distance, beyond Sakel's acknowledgment of Jim's increased linguistic competence. It's truly a joy to read their interactions, particularly their final 'interaction', both from Sakel's perspective when Jim is young, and then through Jim's adult perspective while he attends the Academy and on past the events of the movie.


Graduate Vulcan for Fun and Profit

Title: Five Times Synaesthesia Was a Problem For Tony Stark...
Fandom: Marvel
Pairing: Bruce Banner/Tony Stark
Categories/Genres: 5+1, Alternate Universe, Pre-canon, Angst, First Time, Virgin, Fluff, Established Relationship
Length: Medium (7009 words)
Warnings: Overt and internalized ableism

Author on LJ: sonora_coneja
Author Website: Sonora

Summary:

Tony struggles to deal with his synaesthesia most of his adult life. Can he ever find somebody who understands what he’s dealing with? Written for this prompt on avengerkink.

Review:

I've always been fascinated by the brain. It's something we take for granted, calling it a 'noggin' and 'grey matter' like it's little more than a chunk of tissue as opposed to a highly refined structure made of a fragile web of connections that make the finest of lace look thick and unwieldy in comparison. Its complexity laughs in the face of our attempts to understand it, and its adaptability and flexibility mock our attempts to imitate it.

By some quirk of genetics or prenatal brain development, Tony is born with synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Howard, in his bid for the Shittiest Parent Ever Award, is utterly unsympathetic and makes no effort at all to understand Tony's experience, a mentality that Tony internalizes and carries with him for decades.

Sonora, who has synesthesia, takes very deliberate care in her descriptions of Tony's various experiences of various stimuli, from pain and pleasure to music and emotion. There are also graphic descriptions of how alcohol and cocaine affect his synesthesia. Even if you don't ship Bruce/Tony, it's a stunningly good read for how well Sonora recreates the range of sensory impressions, however exaggerated they may or may not be. If you know anyone with synesthesia, or suspect that you may have it, then this is a definite must-read simply to understand what it is that this small minority of people go through, trying to reconcile their understanding of the world with how they learn they are supposed to percieve it.

Five Times Synaesthesia Was a Problem For Tony Stark...

Title: the postulate child
Fandom: Dishonored
Pairing: Gen
Genres: Pre-Canon, Drama
Length: Medium (14,732 words)
Warnings: Child neglect, bullying, non-suicidal self harm

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: CaliforniaStop @ AO3

Author's Summary:
Treavor and the Outsider.

Pendleton doesn't seem at all fazed by Corvo's use of black magic, and even gifts him a whalebone rune for killing Shaw; so perhaps it's not his first encounter with the Outsider...

Review:
A creepy and sad little fic about poor young Pendleton. Tormented by his horrible brothers and ignored by his parents, he decides to call on the Outsider for help after stumbling upon a bone charm. With the aim of killing his brothers, he tries to conduct his own blood rituals. His interaction with his family, his servants and the Outsider all feel nicely in character, and the tone and setting are suitably creepy for the content of the fic.

the postulate child

Title: Five Districts, Five Drugs
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean, Sam/OMCs, Sam/OFCs, Sam/Jess
Genres: AU, Pre-Canon, Angst, Drama, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Hooker, Dark
Length: Super!Epic
Warnings: Incest, drug addiction, prostitution, underage, dub-con

Author on LJ: rei_c
Author Website: N/A

Author's Summary:
Dean goes to pick Sam up from Stanford and ends up finding more than he bargained for.

Review:
The clue is in the title - this is a series of five fics, set in five different parts of San Francisco, wherein Sam is addicted to five different drugs. Instead of finding his brother at Stanford as we see in canon, Dean finds him in all sorts of places facing different challenges, both mundane and supernatural. Every fic has the same beginning paragraph and the same summary - and it's awesome to see how different the direction of each is despite this. The common theme of the fics is that Sam is taking drugs to deal with his psychic powers and their effect on his psyche.

rei-c's worldbuilding is amazing. The fics feature a wealth of different mythologies, and the author does justice to every one, despite how different they are. Hindu, Chinese, Vodou, Irish, Norse, and Wicca mythologies are all written with confidence, and if rei-c isn't an expert on all of them I certainly can't tell.

The other common theme of the series is Wincest, and healing brought to Sam by the arrival of Dean. Their relationship is definitely always a welcome comfort after the hurt, and there is a bit of the old being saved by true love trope - though the fics are too well-written to be called anything near saccharine.

Though drugs are a big part of the series, they are never glorified or portrayed as glamorous, and we clearly see that they aren't doing Sam any good. I wouldn't describe this series as depressing despite the heavy theme of drug addiction - because thankfully, there's always a Dean-shaped light at the end of the tunnel.

The warnings apply to the whole series rather then all of the fics, so make sure to look at their individual warnings.

Five Districts, Five Drugs Masterpost

Title: Of Sterner Stuff
Fandom: Kingsman: Secret Service
Pairing: Gen
Categories: Friendship, Pre-Canon
Length: 6.4k
Warnings: Spoilers for Movie

Author on LJ: schweinsty
Website: schweinsty Ao3

Summary: In which Roxy Morton applies for a position, makes a good friend, is a good friend, has a pleasant affair with a very nice girl, doesn't take people's shit, spoils a poodle, and saves the world.

Review: WARNING FOR SPOILERS in the story

When I went to see Kingsman in theaters, I really enjoyed it, but came out wishing that Roxy could have been the main character.

So imagine my delight when I found out that somebody had written a fic addressing this exact premise.

It's short, and won't make much sense unless you've seen the movie, but it is a great alternate POV of a kick-ass woman.


Of Sterner Stuff

Title: a bird in a gilded cage

Fandom: Haven
Pairing: Veronica (Audrey Parker)/original female character
Categories: drama, historical, pre-canon, femslash
Length: medium, 12,100 words
Warnings: None really, although I'd up the author's G rating to a PG13 for mentions of violence and minor character death. Downbeat ending.

Author on LJ: n/a?
Author Website: Othiara on AO3

Summary: "How many secrets can one town have?" The story of Veronica, Audrey's 1901 incarnation.

Review: This is an interesting one, and as far as fanfiction goes, it's probably not going to be the most-read story ever, not having any of the major characters in it as such, but I thought it was worth drawing a little attention to for being something rather different from anything else to be found in the fandom.

It's the tale of one past incarnation out of Audrey Parker's many lives fighting the Troubles: the canonically bisexual Veronica. And with the ancestor of Vicki Dutton (with the drawing Trouble), and a female Crocker heir, Veronica's time helping to fix Troubles in this story carves out a particularly female space in Haven's mythology.

It's sparsely detailed but well told, with many parallels drawn along the way to how things have clearly played out, over and over again, across the centuries, with Haven's guarded secrets and cagey townsfolk and Troubled cycle.

a bird in a gilded cage

Title: Cloud on My Tongue
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Zabuza/Haku
Genres: Pre-Canon, Drama
Length: Short (1,315 words)
Warnings: Underage (thoughts, nothing is acted upon.)

Author on LJ: des_solace
Author Website: desolate butterfly @ FF.net

Author's Summary:
Zabuza's stopped touching Haku, and meeting his eyes. Haku tries to puzzle out why.

Review:
A melancholy little fic outlining Zabuza and Haku's strange co-dependent relationship. It's just as disturbing and unequal and yet somehow sweet as their canon relationship seemed to be.

Cloud on My Tongue

Title: Counting Down to Another Day
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Eames/Arthur
Categories: Romance, Pre-Canon
Length: Medium (12,801)
Warnings: Brief references to torture and pregnancy termination (both in the past)

Author on LJ: recrudescence
Author Website: AO3

Author's Summary:
It’s not that he trusts Eames completely or anything that ridiculous. It’s just that they’ve worked together before, know each other more than peripherally, and it’s sometimes good to have a familiar face around while Cobb goes even more off the rails and off the grid.

Review:
Now this was lovely and so fluffy and just an all around wonderful read.

Cobb and Arthur are just starting their lives as criminals, but this isn't about that, not really. This is about Arthur and Eames's relationship that unfurls slowly from their first meeting. This is also, almost incidentally, an interesting look at Cobb and Arthur's start, where both of them aren't entirely sure about how to go about things, but Cobb is jumping the gun and not looking back, and Arthur follows behind. Then there's Eames, who somehow just clicks with Arthur, and their relationship is so sweet and kind of aching and then it turns really hot, haha.

I love it. This fic just erupts warm fuzzies from within me. Part of it is that Eames and Arthur don't immediately jump into bed with each other--wait, no, that's not it. They do jump into bed with each other, but all they do is sleep at first. They spend time, over the length of several missions, to build up their relationship (not that they're calling it that). It just makes every time they meet that much more special because it's an unspoken thing with them, something that they almost dare not to air, but it's so full of emotion.

This fic is such a great read if you're in the mood for fluffy, bubbly feelings.

Counting Down to Another Day

Title: start()
Fandom: Transistor
Pairing: Red/Transistor, unrequited Red/Sybil
Categories/Genres: Pre-Canon, Romance, Fluff, Drama
Length: Long (27655 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: pseudocitrus

Summary:

For some time now a gold triangle has flashed at her every performance, always at the back of the audience, just before the curtain falls.

Review:

If there's one thing about Transistor that gets me raging in both good ways and bad, it's that the game leaves far, far more open to the imagination than it gives you. Every little scrap of worldbuilding they throw at you only opens the world up wider to curiosity and speculation. But in that same way, it lets the player fill in the gaps with their own imagination, their own headcanons and backstories.

start() is one such backstory. It takes the few vague and mostly between-the-lines hints that canon gives us and expands upon the relationships between Red, Sybil, and the eponymous Transistor. The game's setting is fleshed out in wonderful detail, giving rise to a more colorful, and more startlingly transient world than the one that the player guides Red through. And yet, for all that pseudocitrus' imagining of the city of Cloudbank is quite literally created from their imagination, it still fits within the frame canon constructs neatly enough to be believable to someone who's played the game through.

However, just like any heavily headcanon-based work, your mileage may vary.

start()