2012 Yuletide recs: part 3

[wakeupnew]

Now that reveals have gone up (on that note: SOME OF Y'ALL WERE FUCKING SNEAKY AND ARE GOING TO RECEIVE EMAILS SHORTLY), I can post this! I was probably overthinking it but thought that a certain omission toward the end of the alphabet might tank my secret identity. To the last few recs!

PITCH PERFECT
The Whole World Stops and Stares
(Aubrey and Chloe in the time between the puke-heard-around-the-world and the start of the movie. Really lovely dynamic between the two of them, and very funny.)

"I know that right now feels like the most terrible moment of your life," Chloe said, in that same soft, steely tone, like she expected Aubrey to up and bolt at any moment. "But it isn't. You were made to perform, Aubrey. You were born to sing. I know that it doesn't feel that way right now, and the rest of the school year is probably going to be horrible, but--" Chloe pressed the paper towel against Aubrey's jaw when Aubrey made a contradictory noise. "But, you'll get through this."

THE INCREDIBLES
the greatest good
(Helen, on life. I loved this -- it brought all the detail into her character that the movie didn't necessarily provide, and fits so well with her in the film. I love her backstory and the way that she sees herself in Dash's chafing at the rules, and the image of her comforting an invisible Violet after she's had nightmares.)

With every attempt her mother makes to dissuade her, to make her ignore her ability, Helen finds some new way to make use of it.

God must have one hell of a sense of humor, her mother says, to give the gift of elasticity to someone so stubborn.

THE OFFICE (UK)
Never Stop
(Dawn and Tim and a very happy ending. I loved the extra touch of the documentary cameras as well.)

"It's not that I'm against the cameras," Dawn explains to them the next day. "I always liked them. Lent a bit of excitement to a really boring job. But now I've got as much excitement as I think I can handle."

"She's got a house and a mortgage and a studio," Tim chimes in from off-camera. "It's so exciting."

TITANIC
Unwritten Truths
(Rose and Jack get their ending, but is it happy? Bittersweet and lovely.)

Today, as the sounds of Jack’s pencils sliding over the pages of his sketchbook press into her skin, she stares down at the book in her lap. All she can see are her dirty hands turning the page, the calluses lining her fingers from too many hours spent holding sewing needles obvious and glaring.

Idly, she wonders what her mother would think of her now. A smile spreads across her mouth at the mere thought.

VEEP
Riding it out
(In which Dan is, to quote an absolutely accurate commenter, a MAGNIFICENT BASTARD. Also everyone is beautifully, perfectly conniving and profane, and I lost more time than I want to admit, to that goddamn impossible unicorn. Gary's obnoxious, obsequious reply-all emails are the icing on the cake.)

“I’m just saying,” Mike was saying as Dan edged through the door of Selina’s office. “One of the downsides of being a woman politician is you can’t make your subordinates take memos from you while you’re on the toilet. It’s a serious disadvantage. LBJ wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without the toilet memo power play.”

Selina had her head in her hands. “Why am I always LBJ in these scenarios? Why do I never get to be Kennedy?”

With Benefits
(Again, wow, beautifully conniving and profane and hilarious. Dan and Amy are getting busy on a regular basis, to which Amy's reaction is: "Oh my god," she pants into the collar of his tux. "Goddammit, fuck, why couldn't it just be crystal meth?" Perfect.)

Last Sunday morning, Dan made her coffee. He grudgingly let her borrow one of his old work-out shirts from his stupid prestigious college and they sat around his apartment and worked on ways to politely tell a certain Republican senator to go eat his own dick, choke on that dick, and die. Sometimes he sexts her at totally inappropriate moments during the work day. When he comes by at night he brings Thai food from the place they both like and, occasionally, he even remembers what her favourites are. Dan is the worst person she's ever met in her entire life and yet is still somehow managing to be less of a turd than her last two boyfriends.

WATCHMEN
I never will confess, my sin is pride
(I liked this as a look at Sally -- it's complicated and twisty [mind the warnings in the tags], just like the comic.)

No, she's had enough trouble with men, the way they seem to come into her orbit at all the wrong times, wanting all the wrong things. She long since gave up trying. It's enough now that she's got her memories and her daughter. She grips Laurie's fingers, leans towards her, and Laurie looks down with a distant sort of love in her eyes. They don't understand each other, never have, but that doesn't matter.

"YOU BELONG WITH ME" - TAYLOR SWIFT
You Belong With Her
(In which the two ladies realize that they're a lot more awesome than the boy they were fighting over. I especially love Meg here, and the touch of her being a kickass gamer.)

They don’t say anything for a while after that because they just agreed on something and it’s freaking Taylor out. By the time Meg’s brother arrives Meg has slumped back again, her thigh resting lightly against Taylor’s side. At first she’s sure it’s some kind of psychological warfare but then this is Meg Nelson, who’s dated half the football team and doesn’t get changed under a towel after gym. A brush of skin can’t possibly mean as much to her as Taylor, who only kissed a guy for the first time a few weeks ago. Can it? Her leg is warm where it presses against Taylor’s side, skin on skin.

That's all, folks!