(no subject)

For purimgifts this year, I wrote a small series of Agents of SHIELD ficlets about Simmons. AoS has been an intensely frustrating show to be fannish about for me. It has several things I love in my fandoms: Geekery and constant crossreferences to other parts of its massive canon, technobabbling scientists, over-the-top ridiculous action scenes, secret identities and other kinds of identity play. It ought to be a show I love with very few reservations, but the problem is that Agents of SHIELD is very badly written.

Simmons at the beginning of season 2 is sent undercover by Coulson to infiltrate HYDRA. HYDRA knows that she used to work for SHIELD, that she was one of the 'good guys', but they accept her, as they presumably accepted a lot of other former SHIELD agents, because HYDRA and SHIELD were so intermixed that it's impossible to tell the difference between a SHIELD agent and a HYDRA agent. They accept her, but they certainly don't trust her.

So of course, when the writers decide to have Coulson give her this assignment, they also decide they're not going to actually show Simmons on the assignment very much. Because they certainly don't have the writing ability to have made it emotionally convincing.

But I think it's a fascinating storyline that I wanted to see fleshed out. Simmons at HYDRA isn't just going to be presented with the normal struggles any double agent faces. As a scientist for HYDRA, she'll inevitably be tasked with creating weapons of mass destruction. If she sabotages those weapons and is caught, she'll be killed. But if she creates those weapons, she is sacrificing everything she believes in, putting her team and the whole world in harm's way. I think it calls into question the ideal of science as an apolitical act in pursuit of universal truth, and that makes for great human drama.

I had a simple template for each of these stories: Jemma Simmons in some fashion accomplishes something that lives up to her ideals, despite being in this compromised situation. They're small triumphs, but they let Simmons be the hero, just for a moment, and I think she must seize those moments as life preservers.

Compromised (510 words) by seekingferret
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Characters: Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1
Series: Part 1 of Uncompromising
Summary:

Jemma Simmons, uncompromising and compromised.

Compromises (344 words) by seekingferret
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Characters: Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2
Series: Part 2 of Uncompromising
Summary:

Jemma Simmons, uncompromising and compromised.

Compromiser (505 words) by seekingferret
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons
Characters: Jemma Simmons
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3
Series: Part 3 of Uncompromising
Summary:

Jemma Simmons, uncompromising and compromised.

(no subject)

My purimgifts fics this year were by ishouldbewriting.

I don't know how to describe them. They were truly impressive in the breadth of ideas and fandoms they contained.

They All Do It and its companion art Papageno are fun and clever metatextual blends of a variety of classic works that feature the struggles of strong female characters- The 1001 Nights, The Magic Flute, Megillat Esther, each blurring into the other and sharing stories and lessons to the others in a delirious blend.

Reason, Wisdom, and Nature and its companion artwork Die Zauberflöte Poster Art is a Magic Flute Pamina-POV ficlet about her relationship with her father and her mother, and I think moreover, about the way they each had to fight against the perceptions of the larger community in order to create lives that had meaning for themselves. The servants of Sarastro and the Queen are really present and active and important in this story, in a way I found really thought-provoking.

And The Book of Rut is a lovely narrative poem about Ruth's journey from Moav to Israel, with a gorgeous visual context.

I'm grateful for all of them, and encourage everyone to check them all out.

(no subject)

Have some more purimgifts recs, while I'm at it.

My single favorite fic in this year's exchange, other than the ones I received, is this marvelous XMFC Erik/Raven ficlet, "Yahrzeit". Jewish!Mystique!!! A really convincingly written Jewish!Erik, afraid of his heritage and yet willing to let it in in small doses, often at Raven's urging.

Yarzheit (800 words) by scribblemyname
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: First Class (2011)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Raven | Mystique
Characters: Erik Lehnsherr, Raven | Mystique
Additional Tags: Community: purimgifts, Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Yarzheit, Judaism, Emotional Hurt, Coping, Established Relationship
Summary:

Raven sits up on the bed and sets the report aside, climbs over his lap, and pushes him down to kiss him as though he loves her because he does love her. She cannot be Charles but she is her own kind of beautiful.

I really loved the Sports Night/Brooklyn 9-9 crossover that began with this fic. It was pretty obvious by day 2 that roga had written it, between the sparkling dialogue and the constant hockey jokes, but it's delightful in that way that great roga stories often are.

Overtime (Part 1) (557 words) by Roga
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sports Night
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Dan Rydell, Natalie Hurley, Jeremy Goodwin, Casey McCall
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1
Series: Part 1 of Overtime
Summary:

Overtime is always unexpected.

I enjoyed this post-movie Veronica Mars fic a lot.

Best Served Cold (1137 words) by igrockspock
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Veronica Mars, Jackie Cook
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2
Summary:

When a corporate lawyer posts nude pictures of an old friend on the internet, Veronica gets revenge -- the legal way.

I really liked this picture of Julia from Selfie.

Efficient, Androgynous Julia - Have All the Happiness (3 words) by DefinitelyNotScott
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Selfie (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Julia Howser (Selfie TV)
Additional Tags: Digital Art, Collection: Purimgifts Day 2
Summary:

A portrait of Julia Howser.

And I loved this characteristically detailed Vashti-POV version of the Megillah from daegaer. (liv, I was not wrong!)

In the Citadel of Susa, I (1430 words) by Daegaer
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: תנ"ך | Tanakh, Jewish Scripture & Legend, Ancient Persia, Megillat Ester | Book of Esther
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Vashti, Ester | Esther, Artaxerxes, Hegai, Mehuman (Abrahamic Religions)
Additional Tags: Persia, Persian Empire, Eunuchs, Queens, Kings & Queens, courtiers, palace plots, Collection: Purimgifts Day 1
Series: Part 1 of In the Citadel of Susa
Summary:

Artaxerxes, the King of Kings, makes a demand that Vashti his Queen cannot and will not meet.