POSTER FOR THE FALLOUT BY SAGE
When does redemption begin? She likes to believe it is at the top of a tower, when a boy lowers his wand, his power, his control, his future in the ranks he had been promised and walks away to never be the same again.
The question for Draco Malfoy, of course, was when it ended.
“Chuck!” Blair rounded on her bedmate, delivering a smack to his upper arm. “I told you not to sleep over!”
“You know, you really need to stop hitting me,” he said wryly, rubbing his bicep with a pained expression. “I’m starting to feel like I’m in an abusive relationship.”
"The Unforgettable Fire by Maribells has been updated. Do I need to say more?
It’s times like these he wishes he had a mother—wishes there were someone who loved him unconditionally and perhaps without reason, someone who could listen and give him advice (the best advice), and always be there for him when no one else was.
Chuck wishes he had someone like that—someone whose shoes Blair used to fill and now she’s gone, and abandonment stings.
He thought, maybe, they could’ve grown old together.
"I’d say that there is God if, you know, I wasn’t an atheist. Well, either it’s some higher power watching over me or I just have extreme good luck because… I found something I liked.
Lovelie Amelie is the author of the story that made me believe in good GG fanfiction again - outside of my favourite writers, of course. (The whole point of this is to find something that I don’t already know, it’s not that there aren’t any brilliant works around here, it’s just that it sometimes seems I’ve already read everything worth reading.) Her story, chasing cars, was written after the disaster that was season three and goes AU somewhere after 3.18. Chuck tries to cope with losing Blair but some memories are just too strong to ever let them go. And maybe, just maybe, if two people are meant to be together, eventually they’ll find their way back to each other?
An oldie but goodie, I’d say.
… it’s starting to annoy even me. I mean, when was the last time I recommended something? These days, it seems that I go to FF.net only to turn my nose up not at stories per se but at their summaries. What is wrong with me?
It just makes me really, really sad. But! You can all remedy that and recommend me something. All characters-centric stories applies, in terms of pairings - it’s Chuck and Blair all the way, as always.
My only requirements are flawless orthography and punctuation, good writing style, natural dialogues, probable plot and of course in character-ness… Yeah, I’ll just shut up, like, now.
To give you all a little backstory, in response to this review to her story Into the Woods:
Reading the reviews for this fic are by far the most entertaining thing I’ve seen on ff.net in ages.
I’ve been fascinated by the Gossip Girl fandom. It does sort of lend itself to the theory that Chuck/Blair fans are more Chuck fans than Blair fans. To see the outrage/disgust they show over Dair but the totally ambivalence/excitement for Cherena sex, makes it seem slightly hypocritical. Particularly those posters here on shame Blair for any and everything she does outside of Chuck (have you seen how they’ve turned on her for being engaged to Louis?) but give a free pass to Chuck for everything he does. It’s more than a little fascinating to me.
Thanks for writing this. It spoke to the mind hive of fandom quite perfectly, and brought out it’s worst instincts.— wow (anonymous)
TerraBeth, the absolutely awesome person and writer that she is, responded like this:
It’s fascinating for me, too, wow. But something tells me that you’re letting your beef with C/B fans dictate your response instead reading the reviews carefully and/or thoughtfully.
1) Did you ever consider that the reason why the majority of reviewers didn’t have a problem with C/S was because C/S was in the story description? That kind of thing usually tends to turn off readers who, I don’t know, loathe C/S with the fire of a thousand suns. You’ve got a self-selecting segment of the population reading this story, and you’re trying to use its reviews as a means of making generalizations about C/B fans. That’s sloppy logic. For what it’s worth, I’ve seen more hate for C/S from C/B fans than any other base.
2) By claiming that it’s “hypocritical” to tolerate C/S and not D/B, you’re writing as if their potential sexual partners are not people, but completely interchangeable THINGS. Like, if Chuck gets a dollar, Blair should get a dollar too. But that simply isn’t the case. You’re objectifying human relationships and suggesting that our response to them ought to be objective as well, but they’re not objects, and we respond to them in entirely subjective ways.
I don’t feel D/B and I won’t argue with someone who does, because it’s pointless. Your attitude towards a ship isn’t a matter of math; it’s personal preference.
3) I can’t help but notice that you’re trying to criticize my readers by using evidence that isn’t even here. Where are these people who are “shaming” Blair “for any and everything she does outside of Chuck”? I don’t see them reviewing this story, so I can only assume that you’re talking about something you’ve read somewhere else. If that’s the case, don’t claim that you’ve gotten this impression from my reviews, because you haven’t.
Basically, what you’ve done here is cobble together a straw man out of exaggerated and distorted statements that you’ve read from C/B fans online, and you’re reading my reviews through the lens of prejudice in order to claim that all of us are hypocritical monsters.
We’re not.
So if you’re planning on writing your master’s thesis on the Gossip Girl fandom, I suggest that you read over a list of logical fallacies and work on your critical thinking skills first.
On a final note, the “worst instincts” of the fandom don’t belong to my reviewers. They belong to people like you, who troll reviews boards to bitch at other fans for having the gumption to like a ship that’s not theirs.
Did you even bother to read my story? Do you have any idea the amount of effort it took?
Have you ever even written anything in your life? I mean, other than snide comments on an Internet message board?
Yeah, I didn’t think so. But even if you did, I wouldn’t show up to shit all over it, or leave an anonymous (read: cowardly) review as a means of lashing out at a fan base I didn’t like.
Because that’s inconsiderate, assholish, shitbird behavior, whether it’s from a C/B fan, a D/B fan, a Jesus fan, what the fuck ever.
Seriously, you should be ashamed of yourself.
I have no words to describe how right she is. Thank you, Terra, for being with us - I hope there aren’t trolls big enough to ever make you leave this fandom ♥
(Source: signaturescarf)
Back when Chuck was a boy donning a bright-orange cravat who had smoked weed on the crosswalk outside school, because he was Chuck Bass and what the hell did he care about whether teachers or students hated him? It was a complex hatred, one that he relished. It was the sort of hatred that caused haters to feel a strange sort of self-hatred for hating someone who scarcely even thought of them. And that tended to make them involuntarily hate him even more; as he stood there, wrapped in his expensive coat, his only concern whether he could buy the answers to his SAT test and where his next drink was coming from.
She loved the picture he cut as he stood there – even before she’d ever associated him with feelings of love. She found him visually pleasing; she found him like a young Gatsby. That was the justification she gave herself when she walked over to him in the school yard. They were aesthetic kindred spirits and he was her boyfriend’s best friend.
But in reality, she had loved the way that someone so perfectly bored by everything would find her interesting. She was refreshed by someone paying her the due she was confident she deserved.
"I am so sorry for reporting this so late, you all probably know about it but still, there might be some people who don’t follow the FF.net and have no idea what has happened.
Ladies and gentlemen, Between the Shadow and the Soul by Nyx Underwood has been updated. It seems that we might have one of our best writers back and finishing some of the best pieces this fandom ever had. So please, welcome her back with much deserved love and reviews, so that she’ll stay inspired and willing to give us the Chuck and Blair goodness we do not deserve!
“What did I do?” Blair asked. Every staff member seemed to fade away. They were the only two in the room.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” he assured her. Her hand tightened around his and he just held fast.
“I could have stopped this.”
“You’re going to be okay,” he said.
Without preamble, he kissed her hairline fiercely. It was inappropriate; it was wrong; it wasn’t their arrangement.
But she was crying and he was crying and everything hurt.
"SaturineSunshine’s Blood Stained Canary is a heart-breaking, post-5.03 piece dealing with the unavoidable fallout of Blair keeping some things about the pregnancy away from Chuck. Do I need to say more?
“That’s because I am boring,” he said bitterly. “I’m a total fucking Boy Scout, nowadays. But that doesn’t stop anyone from expecting the worst of me. Not even you, apparently.”
“Chuck, that’s not what I thought,” Serena insisted. “I know you’re…much better now.”
“Oh—that must be why you sent an SOS to Gossip Girl when I went missing for a total of two hours,” he countered. “What did you expect? To find me lying in an alleyway somewhere with a needle in my arm?”
“Of course not!” she cried.
“Serena, I’ve been a paragon of virtue for over four mouths,” he rattled off. “I haven’t had one drink, one joint, not even one lousy little pill—other than those zombie meds Dr. Ostroff put me on. My schedule is packed with AP classes and extracurriculars I hate. And I can’t go anywhere—not even a goddamn museum—without my baby sister tagging along to chaperone me. Do you have any idea how fucking embarrassing that is?”
He knew he’d made a mistake as soon as he saw Serena react to his words. Her face was tensing up, twisting. Fighting back imminent tears.
“I’m sorry your baby sister is so fucking embarrassing, C,” she returned in a voice trembling with anger. “Next time I won’t bother coming to find you. And you can go off to military school, for all I care!”
"Lillith’s Cave by TerraBeth (one of my favourite writers, mind you) is a very interesting AU in which Chuck is a reformed bad boy, Serena is his innocent little step-sister, Bart is actually a concerned father and Blair is a new wild girl in town. I know, it sounds crazy but you need to read this. The beauty of AU’s is that the writers get a chance to explore many problems the show doesn’t even address. I love it that here Chuck is sent to the Ostroff Centre and has a personality disorder diagnosed because you know how crazy I am about that kind of a story line. We are yet to learn what happened to Blair but after season two I think we all agree that her bender is not as strange as it seems to be at first.
As always when TerraBeth is concerned, the writing style is great, the dialogues are natural and very dynamic and everyone (no matter how crazy this reality is) is very much in character.
I highly recommend checking out this story and when you do, don’t forget to review it.
Blair sat dejectedly, back straight, eyes downcast. “I have to leave you now.”
Nate nodded imperceptibly.
“I’m going to go to that corner, there,” she said, pointing some distance away, “and turn. You must stay in the car and drive away. Promise not to watch me go beyond that corner. Just drive away and leave me, as I leave you.”
Nate agreed solemnly.
Blair choked a little on emotion. “I don’t know how to say goodbye. I can’t think of any words.”
Nate’s eyes met hers. “Don’t try.”
Suddenly Chuck groaned from his spot on the floor a few feet off. “I don’t see why Nate always gets to be Gregory Peck.”
Blair glared at him. “Because that’s how it is.”
“It’s stupid.” Chuck made a face at her and continued his game of cat’s cradle with Serena. They were using a long stand of Eleanor’s pearls to play. “I’m always the photographer friend. I hate being the friend. Did you see his sandals? And that scruff?”
"An old-y but good-y. On How To Be Lovely by artemis sparks is a look at Chuck and Blair’s story throughout the years as if they were characters from Audrey Hepburn moves. A very Blair point of view, wonderful parallels, great, witty dialogue and what I like the most - a look into the future and finding your way back to the person you once loved but lost. AU after season two.
Simply a must-read, in my opinion.
At the unamused voice both boys spun round - and there, by the door, stood Blair Waldorf. Arms folded, hair immaculate in a white headband. She did not look impressed.
Carter swiftly put down the lemonade, moving to greet her.
“Sis.” He recovered his shock as he wrapped her in a hug. He was a good bit taller than her, eyes blue rather than brown - but they had the same dark hair and intelligence. “What are you doing here? I thought I booked you for the Jitney this afternoon.”
She gave him a look. “And I’m sure you didn’t want me interrupting your hangover, but Blair Waldorf does not take public transport. I had James pick me up.”
At that, Carter’s eyes narrowed. “I fired James.” Blair had told him the sleazebag kept hitting on her.
“I know,” she smiled sweetly. “He works for me now. And he was all too happy to reduce his fee after you dismissed him so unfairly.”
Chuck couldn’t stop his smirk as Carter glowered in disbelief.
"Homecoming by Basscop69 is one of those AU’s that does not simply veer of canon but put the canonical characters in a completely new reality. Here Harold and Eleanor Waldorf are dead, Carter is Blair’s older (and slightly over-protective) brother, who sends her for sex years to a boarding school so she can get away from New York and their parents’ memory and Evelyn Bass is alive, kicking and very much evil (a little bit like in bama02614’s Fake Empire). There are holidays in Hamptons, nefarious plots and a lot of entertaining drama. This story will be a very good read, I can already tell.
For so many years Chuck had seen Blair Waldorf as his opposite. Chuck and Blair had been antonyms in his mind like black and white. The basis of antonyms was, ironically, in their similarities – North and South were opposites but still both directions, happy and sad were opposites but still both emotions, and Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass were opposites but still both rulers of their little world. Just like black and white were both colours, they had been similar in some ways – conniving, calculating, manipulative, and relentless. The heart of their differences had been reputation – the good girl and the bad boy. He had been the cold bastard who fucked anyone and she’d been the frigid bitch who never would.
And then she had.
"Easily Bruised Chapter 4: The Abdication by fiona249 (via signaturescarf)
“I feel nothing at all for Chuck Bass,” Blair hissed.
Carter reached out towards her face gently, wiping away a tear Blair hadn’t even realised she’d cried. “Nothing at all, huh?”
“Dammit,” Blair angrily jerked her face away. “I shouldn’t even care. It’s just – I’ve lost so much lately – I got refused from Yale, and then Serena said I was a shameless bitch, and now Chuck -“
“Screw them all,” Carter said loudly, interrupting her. He hated crying girls. Maybe if he gave her the Freedom Speech she’d stop frowning and start doing better things with her mouth. He could think of plenty. Blair looked at him in shock. “You know what, losing everything was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
"Easily Bruised by fiona249 is a season 2 AU. After being rejected by Yale, Blair decides it’s time to let go her old life - and her old self. But in this universe no one knows how to make her leave the path to complete destruction.
This story has great plot, wonderful, convincing characterizations and I just couldn’t stop reading for even the tiniest bathroom break :) The author writes Blair’s insecurities perfectly and will make you understand what led Blair to this life of partying and one night stands while not making her out of character. The drama never ceases and I would totally want to see this turn of events on my screen. Enjoy and, as always, review!
She didn’t love Chuck, but it was nice to know someone who felt the same way she did. It was nice to feel like she wasn’t the only lonely one. She didn’t love him, but she wanted him to want her enough to stay with her, to make sure she wasn’t alone. She wanted to belong, even if it was in Chuck’s bed.
She remembers thinking, why does a person like Chuck get to have someone that loves him?
"I know that on the show Jenny was often whiny and annoying and most of you hated her with a passion of thousand suns but for me fanfiction, good, insightful fanfiction, made her character glorious. I’m completely drawn to the story of a girl destroyed by a city. Just so you know.
Emilyforprez has written a few great Jenny one-shots and I really had problem choosing one because they’re all wonderful but I finally decided on this one since it addresses one of my favourite story lines, which is Chuck and Jenny’s strange and twisted relationship. There is something about Jenny from goodbye and goodnight to the city that makes it all that much understandable. I really like it.
Love was a strange thing, thought Chuck, though it still appeared as if he were ready to die from or for it.
“Blair.”
“Mmmm…”
“Blair.”
He tried to shake her but she only assumed a sleepily wounded expression and rolled over, lying on her front with hair falling everywhere and obscuring his view.
Bitch.
Contemplating her smooth back, he decided not to leave a note, since he would be returning presently.
There was just something he needed to retrieve from his safe first.
"The Very Last Valkyrie’s epic historical AU, The Varying Shades of Peonies, has come to an end… But is in a desperate need of a sequel! I bet this is not what you’ve expected to happen but it just makes this story that much better. Chuck and Blair try to resolve their issues and Jenny makes one not-so-final appearance.
Read and see for yourself! Also, do not forget to review. Remember, happy authors, are writing authors and since we don’t know what season 5 has in store for us, let’s make sure our favourite writers don’t stop writing. Ever.
“Well, I dunno, it’s nice to… have someone,” Nate hesitated. “And Blair’s… well, she’s a great girl.”
That was the best he could come up with? Chuck thought in disbelief. Even given his best friend’s limited vocabulary, there was no excuse for that sort of halfhearted bullshit.
Blair Waldorf wasn’t a “great girl”- she was the most beautiful, devious, clever, infuriating girl he’d ever met. She kept him on his toes, challenging him in a way no one else ever had, and she drove him practically insane with wanting her.
And Nate was incapable of truly appreciating any of that, because he didn’t understand her. He was just too simple, too… oblivious. He breezed through life, paying attention only to what was directly in front of him- unless he got distracted by something bright and shiny. When faced with someone as passionate and complicated as Blair, the best he could do was stare at her with a mix of mild interest and bewilderment. It was like that one time Chuck had watched him try to solve a Rubik’s cube.
"I have no idea how did I miss it but Maribells’s The Unforgettable Fire has been updated. And boy, oh boy, so much happens in this chapter I don’t even know where to begin… You can expect Blair in denial, Nate making major decisions, Serena denying some ridiculous rumours, Erik freaking out at the thought of possible incest and Chuck pining. And in the end getting the one thing he wants the most.
