I’m looking for a pdf of winterlive’s 2009 Big Bang “Talking Points”. It was posted on a separate site outside their Livejournal, which has now disappeared. I would really love to read it again.

Summary: Texas state senator Jensen Ackles (D-16) is a dyed-in-the-wool idealist, a squeaky-clean boy scout, and a notorious press-dodger. His star is on the rise, and it's worth a career to get the scoop on him. The L.A. Times' star reporter Jared Padalecki might just make it to the Washington Post before his 30th birthday, if he can get the story - he'll have to go undercover and join Jensen's team. But it isn't long before the lie starts to feel like a betrayal, and Jared never expected to like his subject as much as he does.

In the mood for Gothic fanfic right now, whether it’s Sam and Dean, or Jensen and Jared.
No tag here, and not much under the Gothic tag on AO3 – not sure whether that’s because no one uses that tag, or maybe no one writes it.

So Imma list the usual Gothic tropes here – not trying to be academic, but thought the specifics might trigger your collective memory. The story will contain some, if not all:

- Darkness – physical, emotional, psychological, atmospheric.

- Dark, abandoned settings – often a haunted house, usually with a terrible secret or monstrous inhabitant. The scenery in the fic is important, atmospheric – sometimes rises to the level of a character in the story.

- Mystery as a key element. Usually the Past is somehow affecting the Present.

- Supernatural elements – monsters, witches, ghosts, curses, etc

- Lonesome, isolated heroes (or anti-heroes)

- Strong undercurrent of romance or sexuality – usually dark and repressed

- Horror, fear, disgust – affecting the reader emotionally, sometimes viscerally.


Hmm – maybe not so surprising that there aren’t more stories like this.

Any bells? Let me know. Thanks so much. (And no angel sex, please.)