Pairings: L/Light, Light/Mello, Matt/Mello, L/Mello, L/others, Light/others
Warnings: violence, torture, BDSM, sexual assault, dubious consent, rough sex, major character death(sort of), substance abuse, infidelity(kind of), strong kink
Author’s Summary: The story takes place after Death Note ends, although the main characters have not died. Here the Yellowbox Warehouse is essentially the pinnacle of L's 6-year long offensive against Kira, who believes L to be dead, when he really isn't.
Review by Winter: Where do I start with this? One of the things I loved about Death Note was that it was, essentially, a very elaborate cat-and-mouse game between two brilliant people (or three, later on). There were plots within plots within plans--you were never quite sure what was going to happen. It was awesome.
This story, though, takes complicated to a whole new level. I mean, I just finished reading the whole thing and I'm still trying to wrap my head around what happened. It's AU, obviously, since everyone is still alive--L apparently faked his heart attack at an opportune moment, Mello faked his when Takada misspelled his name, Matt was wearing Kevlar, and Ryuk never killed Light; instead, L struck a deal with Ryuk and took Light as a prisoner. There's a lot of psychological maneuvering too: L and Light are always, always playing games; Light and Mello have their own games; and Near is apparently out for both L and Light's blood because he wants the title of L for himself. Oh, and there's a new Kira on the rise and L and Light have one year to stop him/her/them, otherwise Ryuk is going to kill them.
This, believe it or not, is only the beginning. It's a wild ride. The author(s) do a good job of keeping you guessing, and they expand quite admirably on L's background, as well as what happened with Beyond Birthday. There is also, obviously, lots of sex. I mean LOTS. Look at that list of pairings. It seemed strange to me at first, because I had always considered Light to be asexual...but then again, who knows? In this story, Light, L, and Mello all use sex as a weapon to get what they want--Light most of all. I think it's plausible.
In any case, the point of this long, rambling review is that this is most definitely a story worth reading if you have the time for it. It's plotty and sexy and holy fucking shit, it's an epic; what more could you want? I haven't read the sequel yet, but hopefully it's just as good!
ETA: Well, I've read the sequel now--it ROCKS.
