#lonsheep

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A Wholesome Family Christmas, by Lonsheep

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Awesome Worm fanart, by  lonsheep

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The Garden of Flesh by Lonsheep

[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.

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Worm: The Visual Novel Experience , by Lonsheep

“ We know that the Entities use the Kiss/Kill dynamic as a tool to stir up conflict in the hosts. Up until now, we've seen more of the killing side of conflict in Worm... But what happens in an alternate universe far away if the tables are turned? In this universe, the Hand of God doesn't roll the dice to determine your fate. He spins the bottle. Welcome to Worm Actually, where your soul mate is six degrees of separation away. Your task is to find a happily ever after ending, and maybe save the world and solve entropy in the process.”

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Satyrical, by Lonsheep