Mask of a Mask

Little Rustin in my imagination

For what it’s worth, my taste runs toward devotion, dysfunction, and pornography. But I’ll follow any story if it catches me right, and especially if the language is good.

This is also pretty biased toward what’s been published semi-recently, because there are so many great writers working in the fandom right now and I only have so much time to read through the last decade+ (!!!) of fic.

I only linked to one work/author, though many have written multiple fantastic fics. It’s also all Ao3, and with the exception of the first rec, not in any order at all.

Names of endurance, names of devotion (names of poisons, names of guns) by zombieboyband (@bonesandpoemsandflowers). E, in progress, archive locked.

Summary: "I always thought Crash seemed like a good time, is all."

There's a beat of quiet. Marty can count on one hand the amount of times he's managed to surprise Rust and he wasn't expecting to score just now.

"The fuck gave you the idea that Crash was having a good time?"

"Didn't say he was havin' a good time. Said he seemed like he was a good time. There's a difference."

Commentary: Absolutely my favorite work in the fandom. The language is beautiful and unrelenting in driving the story forward, and the characterizations of Rust and Marty are intoxicating and so fucking smart. I’ve stopped looking at how many times Ao3 says I’ve visited this one.

Something Stuck in Your Teeth by @enkelimagnus , E, complete.

Summary: July 1995, six months since Dora Lange, Marty and Rust are stuck in a sweaty car on a long drive and months of built-up tension come to a crash.

Commentary: I think this fic does so much with the fact that in 1995, Rust and Marty have such sharper edges than they do in 2012. This is hot, and a little mean, and also has such incredible throughlines of desire.

Something Like That by @mycapeisplaid , M, complete, archive locked.

Summary: When Rust invites himself along on one of Marty's social nights out, he realizes that the change in their relationship from friends to lovers has sparked some new, intriguing feelings.

Commentary: Mycapeisplaid has a whole deck of fics that I adore and that emphasize devotion and the reality of relationships. I pulled this one out because I love how this Rust is on a bit of uncertain ground, and Marty gets a chance to shine.  I have been utterly charmed by this since the first time I read it.

We’ve got a taste for one another by @death2toby, M, complete.

Summary: Post Ledoux, pre-everything else, Marty is about to move back home with Maggie, so naturally he and Rust have to fuck first.

Commentary: The desperation of this gets me every fucking time.  

The unknown by @duesternis, G, complete, archive locked.

Summary: “My wife, Claire,” Rust murmurs after a moment, smokes, stares at the wall for so long that Billie wonders if there’s a second half to that sentence.

Then: “Ezekiel took the shape of a heron.” Another pause and Billie wonders if it’s her time to say something.

But Rust goes on, stubbing his cigarette. “Marlowe’s partial to birds. I hope you don’t mind, Miss Billie.”

1994-2012

Commentary: His Dark Materials crossover, IE, daemons are in play. If you think our two repressed men having to deal with parts of their souls on display would be interesting, you would be right.

Chimney Swift by Peppaandgeorge (@timetickson), M, in progress.

Summary: He rose on his knees a little, trying to find her big round skull in his view before lining up again. It wouldn’t be difficult; she’d been sniffing around their cabin since the development of a new quarry a couple hundred miles north began. First just drying meat, then the mean little cat Travis kept for mice. Sometimes their laundry. He’d shot sparrows with the Grant brothers in the summer and rabbits since he was nine, could hit a deer as it sprang away from thirty paces, hooves kicking leaf litter, this was easier than hitting a tree.

Be Rust, be born out of small-town tragedy and now you follow calamity like a migratory bird. No one knows the orange glow of suffering over the horizon better than you.

Commentary: I am besotted with the language in this (and all Peppaandgeorge’s work). It is so vivid, and so beautiful. This also plays with backstory in such captivating ways.

A temporary suicide by AvocadosUnderTheEaves, (@applesorcery), E, complete, archive locked.

Summary: They stumble backwards in the direction of the mattress. The air is dark and hot, almost unnaturally still despite the fact that Rust cracked all the windows open a while ago and the air conditioning is cranked all the way up. Marty tastes like beer, but not like anything stronger, so. Fair enough.

In which Marty is drunk and wants to get laid.

Commentary: I was a fan of AvocadosUndertheEaves in another fandom, and everything they write is incredibly hot. This is no exception.

Bright as the morning, soft as the rain by thegingerbeck (@tozerving), E, complete.

Summary: Rust just turns slightly, burrows himself deeper into the mattress. “Like I said”, he huffs out, voice partially muffled in the fabric of his pillow. “Ain’t gotta stop what you’re doing on my account”.

Rust and Marty in the early morning light.

Commentary: Love the language in this one, love the imagery, love someone working on a similar theme as me and doing an even lovelier job.

Wet teeth by hibiscus_tea, E, complete.

Summary: Marty follows him. Not clear where. Cut of Rust’s shoulders, loping walk of a predator and with some starved line to him. STATE POLICE across his back.

Evening, and a brief interlude by the bayou

Commentary: The language, the atmosphere, the delicate balance of Marty’s internal monologue, the fucking image of Rust in the car at the end – everything in this lives rent-free in my head.

Out of Time Man by @palmviolet.  M, complete.

Summary: Submission is a matter of handling someone. Rust hates to drive but he’s going to need something to do with his hands, with his eyes, some lost hall of memory to fall back into as Marty says, “Gay rodeo,” twitchy in the passenger seat, and, “What d’ya make of that, huh?”

— October 2000, Rust and Marty catch a case that has two worlds colliding.

Commentary: I used to live for plotty casefic in fandoms – and this reminds me why. Palmviolet always has an incredible command of language and a ruthless edge on her characterizations, but this also balances a great case and an amount of research that makes me salivate.

need more rustmarty fics with crash era or I will go cray