fancake

Fandom: The OC
Pairings/Characters: Seth/Ryan
Rating: T
Length: 5,3408 words
Creator Links:

candle_beck.

Summary: Short-lived amnesia and the necessary repercussions.

Reccer's Notes: I remember reading this around 2008 and being astonished that people were writing fic for The OC! This story is the absolute perfect combination of words; Seth's voice is so hard to capture, but CB nails it, any extraneous fat has been trimmed, so you're left with a punchy, well-balanced and charming story.

Fanwork Links: Black Out/Swear to God

dirty_diana

Fandom: The O.C.
Characters/Pairings: n/a
Rating: Teen
Length: 5h35m
Creator Links: RHAPpy Hour,

jordanparhar
Theme: Old Fandoms

Summary: an epic retrospective podcast of all characters and seasons of The O.C.

Reccer's Notes: The host of this show, Jordan Parhar, is such a big OC fan that when he got cast on one of his other fandoms (Big Brother Canada) he tried to name his alliance with other players "Newport". This is a fun listen as Jordan and Eric discuss all four seasons, their over-identification with supergeek Seth, most ill-conceived storylines, and other entertaining topics. Yes it is that long! so save it for when you have a solid block of silence to fill or plan to listen in shifts.

Fanwork Links: RHAPpy Hour 31 The OC: Series Retrospective | with Eric Stein

moirariordan

Fandom: The O.C. (+ Joan of Arcadia)
Pairing: Summer Roberts, God (yup)
Length: ~2,057
Author Links: wizened_cynic / delicious list /

wizened_cynic
Theme: female characters, crossovers/fusions

Summary: Summer Roberts talks to God.

Reccer's Notes: Um, yeah, there's absolutely no reason why everyone shouldn't read this. This is like Buffy, except Summer has better hair.

Yeah.

Story Links: Summer, God, and Manolos
alt link

moirariordan

Fandom: The O.C.
Pairing: Summer Roberts/Ryan Atwood
Length: ~22,000
Author Links: ffnet profile (I CAN'T FIND THEM ANYWHERE ELSE! IT'S A MYSTERY!)
Theme: female characters, rare pairings

Summary: There are moments when everything yet to come hangs in the balance. For Ryan and Summer, this was one of them.

Reccer's Notes: This is a truly exceptional story that I seriously cannot find anywhere but on fanfiction.net. I want to stalk this author and read everything they've read but they're like some mysterious fic fairy that has only three stories on a stupid, annoying archive and no other traces that I can find, anywhere. It's like magic! But no seriously, if you know who this author is tell me because I want to bake them cookies or something, holy shit I love this story.

It's a mid-season two AU that is structured at first as a series of post-ep ficlets that slowly coalesce into a coherent story. I, like a small yet dedicated part of OC fandom, got pretty fed up with the Marissa-and-Seth's-Emotions Rollercoaster around this period in canon, and thus Summer/Ryan was born, because they're both way too cool for all that bullshit. Or something, maybe it's more like, they're the hottest people on the show. Maybe both. Probably both.

Anyway, this is a really great love story and Summer is so very awesome in it. It switches between Ryan and Summer's POV and has wonderful characterization and oh my, oh my, Summer's chapter after the events of the season two finale is heartbreaking and fantastic, oh my. Spoilers for the second half of season two - and if you aren't familiar with canon, you might get confused as to what's happening, but that's what Wikipedia was invented for. Hint.

Story Links: Never

moirariordan

Fandom: The O.C.
Pairing: Summer Roberts/Ryan Atwood
Length: ~5,812
Author Links: website /

lalejandra /

lalejandra
Theme: female characters, rare pairings

Summary: (no author summary) Set before "The Era," 2.04. Summer/Ryan, Seth/Zach, Marissa/Booze.

Reccer's Notes: Here's the part of the month where I rec my favorite Summer Roberts stories! I know you're all super excited.

I love lalejandra's Summer so incredibly much, I can't even put it into words. Whenever I try to describe it, it just comes out as choking sounds and that Simon Cowell chin-hands .gif. And since I have a habit of shipping my favorite characters together, and a little bit of a ~thing for utterly ridiculous characters like Ryan Atwood, it's kind of awesome that she has all this porn about them. Really good for me and my life choices. Really.

You don't even need a summary of this story, because you should trust me that it's utterly kick ass and you're going to love it. ( Here have an excerpt )

Story Links: Summer Roberts: Perfect Manicure, Bad Attitude
@ AO3

moirariordan

Fandom: The O.C.
Pairing: Summer/Ryan
Length: ~12,200
Author Links: website /

lalejandra /

lalejandra
Theme: hurt/comfort
Summary: (no author summary, so you get an excerpt) Summer thought about calling Holly. Or -- or someone. She had a lot of friends and she could go hang out with any of them. She didn't need to spend most of her days watching television with Chino and not thinking about Seth more and more. Which was funny. She knew there was a word for it, but couldn't remember what it was, and probably Chino didn't know. But she bet there was a word for this whole situation. Maybe it was German -- they had long words, right?

Reccer's Notes: I love everything lalejandra writes and she's written a lot, which is good for me. But her OC fic I love extra a lot because everyone is so fucked up and hopeless and nobody knows what the hell they're doing, which I really relate to, honestly. Plus her Summer is so incredibly fierce, even when she's pissed off and hurt and acting totally bizarre. But well, that's part of her charm.

Anyway, this takes place post season one, and all you really need to know is that Seth is kind of a douche and Marissa has problems and Ryan is complicated and Summer is just trying to like, deal.

Story Links: Secrets and Lies and the Home Shopping Network
alt link

moirariordan

Fandom: The O.C. / Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing: none, Seth/Summer at the beginning, but not really.
Length: ~5400
Author Links:

lalejandra / fic website
Theme: crossovers
Summary: (snippet) Too many British men melting out of shadows for her taste. Too much weird stuff happening. Summer didn't think she had ever used the word "weird" so many times in her life as she'd done in the last forty eight hours or whatever it had been since they'd first driven up to the giant fucking crater.

Reccer's Notes: This is fucking amazing, and you should read it, and also all the other Buffy crossovers that lalejandra wrote (they're all archived at the site). This, FYI, is my personal head canon. Because I mostly erase everything out of my head after like, the first half of season two, and imagine that this happens instead. Also in my head, Summer moves to Europe to like, find herself or whatever, and also to fight demons, and Ryan comes with her and they have a lot of sex. The end.

Story Links: Red Dust

flyingcarpet

Fandom: Angel the Series crossed with: Arrested Development, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, The OC and Harry Potter
Pairing: none - gen
Length: author doesn't say, but it's short. (I'd say under 5,000 words)
Author Links:

annakovsky (fics are linked here.)
Theme: Crossovers & Fusions
Summary: the title pretty much sums it up.

Reccer's Notes: On the show, Angel's son was magically squeezed into a normal suburban family (complete with false memories of growing up there) after Angel made a deal to ensure his safety (because apparently living with Angel isn't the most secure, nurturing environment for a young boy). So this fic takes the idea that he might've been squeezed into a family from some other fandom instead, and absolutely runs with the concept, to great effect. Don't worry if you're not familiar with every crossover fandom on the list.

Story Links: Five Families Connor Was Not Magically Squeezed Into After His Real Vampire Dad Slit His Throat