It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #51 · 8:08pm Mar 9th, 2022
Sometimes, this blog practically writes itself: I stumble on to a fic that just leaps out at me and gets easily paired with something already on my to-do list. And that's the cases this week, though I won't tell on which one is which - I don't want to do either a disservice.
I'll lead today with the older of the two: Cut by MetaSkipper.
Flash Sentry - being a bit distracted - realizes he has a date for breakfast out tomorrow morning. He also realizes he could use a haircut to clean up before the date. The problem is that he realizes this when it's nine at night. As luck would have it, he stumbles on to a posted ad that reads: haircuts on call, at your home, up to 11:00 PM, call for pricing.
He makes the call - and finds Aria Blaze at his house with a pair of scissors, a comb, and a very frank critique of his shampoo choices.
Now, I've mentioned before that I've got a soft spot for sirens stories (I blame I-A-M for it), and particularly with how they cope with their changed lives after the Battle of the Bands. This story's a great one of those, and leverages a pretty uncommon pairing: Aria and Flash are only tagged together in 19 stories total and most of those have Aria just as one among the full Dazzlings crew.
While some parts of this one are a bit... odd (the hair washing scene still has me a little confused as to why it's set the way it is), the story as a whole is a nice look inside Aria's new life and thoughts with the use of Flash as a sounding board companion. And you get a lot of wonderful showing of how their connection develops across the multiple haircuts. It's fun to see that development and that building from "Ah hell, you?" to a pretty legitimate friendship. (I also like the small detail that who Flash is dating never actually gets revealed. Good avoidance of shipper complaints!)
In all, it's not a deep story, but it's a highly enjoyable one.
The follow-up to that is Tethered-Angel's Criminal Behavior.
It's 3am. And a drunken, barefoot Aria Blaze is throwing billiard balls at Sunset Shimmer's window to get her attention. And why, pray tell, does she want that?
Aria grinned. “I wanna do some crimes. You in?”
And then they do a whole bunch of crimes.
Oh, and along the way something something friendship?
Okay, so one part of why I enjoy this one - aside from the aforementioned weakness for depowered siren stories - is that it embraces Sunset Shimmer's alter ego of Flanksy. It's something that very few stories utilize, and most outright ignore it as too inconvenient to Sunset's characterization. But it's a fun bit of character and this whole story leans into the idea of Sunset being good but not good. Aria brings out the bad in her as they revel in mostly harmless but illegal shenanigans, building a nice little friendship through mischief. As well, it delves into who the Dazzlings have become after their fall and shows where Aria's gone to in that time.
This one's on the same pile as the previous - it isn't terribly deep and emotional and meaningful, but it is fun and does some good character work as the two characters develop a connection. It's just that the previous one does it over a haircut and this one does it over vandalism and underage drinking.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
