#babylonsheep

[meggoreads]

Don’t mind me, I’m just completely in awe and envy over babylonsheep’s writing in Birds of a Feather

[lousiestruby]

baby tom and hermione from birds of a feather by @lonsheep-blog, a childhood friends au set in 1930s-1940s. here they are doing research on Special Things, and probably (most likely) avoiding theodore nott.

[hermioneficrecs]

Fic Rec #732

Birds of a Feather by babylonsheep

Hermione x Tom Riddle (sort of  . . . eventually?)

In 1935, Hermione Granger meets a boy who despises fairy stories, liars, and mediocrity. He offers her a deal of mutual convenience, and soon a tentative friendship forms—if Tom would ever lower himself to call anyone a "friend". But whatever they have, it's something special, and if there's anyone who can appreciate Specialness, it's Tom Riddle. (1930s Childhood Friends AU)

WIP as of 30/01/19

[this-is-getting-silly]

Contessa and Number Man versus Psychosoma, Nyx, and Night Hag of the Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand.

This image was drawn by the amazing Babylonsheep for the amazing maroon_sweater. 

You can find sheep’s other awesome drawings here and read maroon’s writing here. I urge you to go throw some money at sheep to make more, and support maroon’s writing in any way you can.

[hottakehoulihan]

Tabloid

Characters behave recognizably canonically: Yes (mostly OC). Not abandoned incomplete: Complete Engaging (Funny/cool/thoughtful/feels): Thoughtful/cool. Do I recommend it: Yes. Oh yes. It's my #2! Curbstomp, Cuddles, Crack, Cyoot, Concept?: Concept.

Premise: Paul is an adult with a real job as a photographer. He triggered as an adult. Many of the things that drive the young to incautious and idealistic excess are not going to catch him; he's got a plan, and that plan involves keeping his head down, his perceptible behavior all above-board, his cape life extremely secret, and his finances flush. Paul takes pictures for a living, and does a lot more to ensure that living is what he keeps doing.

Babylonsheep / lonsheep calls this an 'artfic' and it was only on this reread (the first time I read it on SB instead of on AO3) (I linked AO3 because the peanut gallery is a bit silly and distracting for a first readthrough) that I realized that he calls it that because of his frequent and top-notch fanart and/or illustrations of the story. When Paul--who works for the PRT as an image consultant and photographer, sometimes--takes a good picture of Weld? We get to see the picture. That's great, but until this readthrough I thought the author was using 'artfic' because the artist was attempting to write this as Serious Fiction. And you know what? That would have worked too. I like crack, curbstomp, cuddles, and cutesy fic just fine; my dessert buffet tray is replete with options. But I love this story.

Read it already.

Honestly, I worry that Babylonsheep put so much effort and perfectionism into this work (and into forum responses) that they've burned out (their DA and SB accounts are now silent).

...but if they burned the candle at both ends? Damn but it was shiny in a good way. I'll be looking up the other Babylonsheep stuff and reading it even if I don't know the fandoms. Even if they're not fandoms.

I'd suggest skipping the SB archives until a second readthrough (because I AM confident you will want to reread this story in a year or three, and I wouldn't say this about many non-crack fic) but there is some good stuff in the forums too.

And some amazing image work. One of the final images shows all the gangs of Brockton Bay put together around a big table, and it rocks my world. I'm going to make it a wallpaper or print it out or something.

When I did my recent answer to the "what are your top five wormfic?" It's a hard thing to answer because I like different fic for different things; I won't be reading "Maitresse Butterfly" (it doesn't exist I made the title up just now) for the same reasons (or in the same deshabille) as I would Amelie Claire Bride of Kerrigan or Carrie Was an Amateur (also made up those titles). ...probably, anyway.

But there was never any question that Tabloid would be in my top two.

And thank goodness we got all those epilogues; IMHO the first 'epilogue' is actually the most important part of the whole story. ...and every single moment of the rest was a dessert to be treasured.

Read it already.