I BRING YOU RECS

[sophia_sol]

Because calvinahobbes expressed some slightly worried interest in maybe reading more bandom as a result of my recent bandom barista AU, here is a post of bandom barista AUs!

Actually I think I will start with bandom barista AUs and then move on to barista AUs in general because barista AUs are awesome and you know it.

(oh god. Somehow this turned into a post with SIXTEEN fics in it, which is RIDICULOUS. I don't even want to think about how much time it took me to compile this, especially since I kept getting distracted to reread. OH WELL. ENJOY.)

(a note: I'm not always good at balancing my squee levels between different recs in a rec post. Assume that if I posted a link to a fic in here, it is great and I liked it a whole lot, even if I don't actually say anything to that effect in the rec itself....)

To begin with! More Panic! at the Disco, since that's the easiest place to go from my fic! You will notice that almost inevitably it is Jon Walker who is the barista in any given Panic barista AU. This is because Jon Walker has canonically worked at Starbucks in the past.

The Way I See It #186, by beingothrwrldly
Spencer/Jon, ~5,800 words
In which Spencer and Brendon and Ryan are college students and Jon is a barista. And then there is flirting and, as the author says, no angst whatsoever. A lack of angst is so delightful!

There's A Reason They Call It A Crush, by iamtheenemy
Brendon/Jon, ~10,000 words
In which....Spencer and Brendon and Ryan are college students and Jon is a barista. This one has a wee bit more angst but that is okay! Because everything is adorable and there is a happy ending still! This one also has Tom Conrad as an important character, who if all you know of bandom is my fic you will not have heard of. Tom is (was? idk these things) a close friend of Jon's but he is not a part of the band, and that's all you really need to know.

Wind in Your Eyes, by la_dissonance
Brendon/Jon, ~3,000 words
Yeah, in which Brendon is a college student and Jon is a barista. In particular, though! Brendon almost gets hit by a bus and Jon helps him!

Hold the Pose, by zarah5
Brendon/Ryan, Spencer/Jon, ~42,000 words
Oh hey, this one's a bit different! Jon and Brendon are college students and roommates, Ryan's a famous author, Spencer's opening a cafe and Jon is one of his employees. And it is awesome in pretty much all the ways.

Accidents, Trolls, and All Night Coffee, by mahoni
Spencer/Jon, ~5,200 words
Also a bit different! This one's an urban fantasy AU, but Jon's still a barista. The other three get a little lost, and Jon helps them out.

About This Old Coffeeshop, by twentysomething
Brendon/Spencer, ~2,200 words
This one's even MORE different! Jon isn't involved at all. Whaaaat. In which Spencer opens a coffeeshop and Pete convinces him to hire on Brendon for baked goods. (although actually in broader fandom, pairings involving Jon tend to be backgrounded. Barista AUs are just unusual like that. The most popular Panic pairings are actually Brendon/Ryan and Brendon/Spencer, afaik)

OKAY, moving on now to the other band that has a lot of barista AUs out there, that being My Chemical Romance! As with Panic, where there's one dude who is most often the barista, the same holds true for MCR. Usually the barista is Frank, and I'm actually not entirely sure why. It kind of makes me want to see a fic where Gerard is the barista, just to see how that would work! (Gerard/Frank is by far the most popular pairing, so all of the following fics are for that)

Anyways.

On Measuring Life With Coffee Spoons, by iamtheenemy
Gerard/Frank, ~7,500 words
In which Frank is a barista and Gerard is an artist who spends too much time hanging out at Starbucks and being a little bit of a creeper. Um. This could actually be the summary of the next two fics too? BUT THAT IS OKAY because it is a delightful formula! This one is my favourite of the three but they're all great.

I've Barely Been Gone, by annemari
Gerard/Frank, ~13,700 words
This one features a recurring theme in MCR fic, that of Frank being sick. Frank has a canonically crappy immune system and gets sick really easily. So. Frank, Gerard's favourite barista, is off sick and Gerard is worried about him!

A Latte and a Cookie, by mistresscurvy
Gerard/Frank, ~3,200 words
In which Frank plies Gerard with much-needed coffee and cookies.

To complete the bandom part of this post, have the sole non-Panic-or-MCR barista fic that I have bookmarked. It is The Academy Is.../Cobra Starship.

Five Romance Novel Beginnings William And Gabe Never Had, by rsadelle
Gabe/William, ~3500 words
Only one fifth of this is barista AU, but an excellent barista AU it is. In which Gabe is a barista bringing sexy back. The other four parts are great too, though, if you want to read them as well! Contemporary, Office, Pretending To Be Together, and Witness Protection!

AND NOW non-bandom time, for those of you who are sick of hearing me natter on about bandom but still want your barista-AU fix!

untitled, by melannen
Star Trek, Kirk/Spock, short
So this is extremely not!fic, it being in fact a comment-discussion of how a ST:TOS barista AU would actually work, in three parts. It makes me all full of warm and fuzzies for barista AUs in general and this one in particular even though this one doesn't technically actually exist. WHATEVER. I'm a rebel like that.

Grande Soy Triple Dirty Chai, by friskaz
Suits, Harvey/Mike, ~38,300 words
Originally written for a kinkmeme, and really I am bad at summarizing fics (WHY DO I EVEN TRY? My broken sense of spoilers makes it SO HARD to get it right!) so I am just going to quote the original prompt: "Harvey is (still) a lawyer. Mike is the only barista that gets his coffee order right, and isn't afraid of a bit of intelligent and snarky banter." Except even better than that! I would totally be rereading this fic right now if it weren't so long.

Ten Cups Of Coffee (A Love Story), by passe_simple
The Social Network RPF, Andrew/Jesse, ~10,000 words
In which Andrew's a Starbucks barista and Jesse's a grad student panicking over his dissertation! And there's communication via notes written on coffee-cups!

untitled, by longsufferingly
Supernatural RPF, Jared/Jensen, no length given but it's pretty short
In which Jared is a barista and Jensen owns the bookstore next door!

I've Got Nothing To Do Today But Smile (The Only Living Boy in New York), by gyzym
Inception, Arthur/Eames, ~19,000 words
In which Arthur is a lawyer who hates his job and stress-bakes on the weekends, and Eames opens a coffeeshop across the street from Arthur's office. It is exactly the kind of heartwarming that barista AUs are meant to be, the kind of thing Melannen discusses in her not-fic above about what the point of a barista AU is.

The Stars and Scones Bakery and Coffee Shop, by luciazephyr
Dresden Files, Dresden/Marcone, WIP, currently a little over ~30,000 words with one part to go
I AM SORRY. Yes. I am reccing you a WIP, because I am CRUEL like that. But luciazephyr is a fantastic writer and I cannot deprive you of this fic because that would be crueller. Okay, full disclosure, I have only read the first two parts (of five posted) because I do not handle WIPs well but those two parts are great and everything she writes is great so I fully expect the rest to be completely worth it as well. And the last part is in beta right now! So you shouldn't have too much longer to wait! ...er, I never actually gave you the summary, did I; too busy apologizing. OKAY. This is actually closer to being a bakery AU than a barista AU but it takes place in a coffeeshop so it still counts! So let me quote the official summary at you: " In which Harry is the best baker in Chicago, but still ends up starting a few fires along the way." Yeah.

Comments

[calvinahobbes]

That was FAST, Sophia! Now I am slightly worried about how quickly you turned up 16 fics that caters specifically to my whims.

The pertinent question now might be: where are the primers? Because, um, I might need some pictures.

[calvinahobbes]

AND, you know, thank you! Yay!

[sophia_sol]

:D :D :D

I had TOO MUCH FUN doing this! And, you know, I was really aided in my efforts by my careful tagging on pinboard! I love tags so much.

And PRIMERS. I CAN DO THIS FOR YOU. I will go looking. :D

(to start with, the dude in my icon right now is Gerard. YEAH. He is awesome.)

[sophia_sol]

OKAY, let me start with one basic primer for the three main bands of bandom:

BANDSLASH PIMP POST by femmequixotic. Starts with Fall Out Boy (which I didn't include any fics for in this rec-set because I don't actually have any barista AUs for them, but take it as read that they are AWESOME. Also it's important to know at least a little about them because Pete Wentz, their bassist, is kind of the king of bandom. Bandom could also really be known as Six Degrees of Pete Wentz. The main DW comm for bandom is named after Pete's nightclub. Most of the bands are on Pete's label. ET CETERA.), then moves on to MCR and Panic. This primer's kind of out of date, being from four years ago, but gives you the basics of their history and what they look(ed) like.

And now moving on to individualized primers for specific bands!

Three primers by missmollyetc, also four years out of date but that is okay.
Panic!
MCR!:
FOB!

Things it is important to know about Panic since 2007: the band SPLIT in 2009. Jon and Ryan went another direction and just Brendon and Spencer remained as Panic! at the Disco. (this is particularly tragic since Spencer and Ryan are childhood biffles and seriously this split makes me SO MUCH THE SAD. But Brendon-and-Spencer is really awesome too. So. These days they tour with Dallon Weekes and Ian Crawford, but Dallon and Ian aren't technically ~part of the band~)

Things it is important to know about MCR since 2007: Bob Bryar, their drummer, left before their most recent album, so these days it's a four-person band. They tour with Jarrod Alexander who, like Dallon and Ian, isn't technically part of the band. (They used to tour with Mike Pedicone but they kicked him out because he was doing some uncool stuff.)

Things it is important to know about FOB since 2007: they are currently on INDEFINITE HIATUS ~the tragedyyyyyyyy~ and Patrick has started a solo career in which he DOESN'T WEAR HATS. (yes this is a big deal.)

Ooh, here, have a more up-to-date primer for Panic, by roga!

And to finish off, since I did include that one Gabe/William fic, have a Gabe/William primer, by airgiodslv!

….Yay! If you have any more questions DO NOT HESITATE TO ASK.

(and if I am getting too much enthusiasm all over you do not hesitate to ask me to back off too...!)

[calvinahobbes]

I am BACK on my computer so now I can open all the picspams \o/

I am sad that they have split up ;_; I don't know these people, but their splitting up makes me sad! What is this??

There may be questions later, who knows, but for now: I don't think you can possibly be too enthusiastic. I love getting someone else's fannish enthusiasm all over me! :oP

[epershand]

There is also The Rift In the Lute by jocondite, which is a vaguely Romeo-and-Juliet story about Spencer-who-works-at-a-snobby-coffeeshop and Jon-who-works-at-Starbucks. TWO COFFEESHOPS, UNEQUAL IN DIGNITY. IN A COLLEGE AU IS WHERE WE LAY OUR SCENE.....

(And, I feel obliged to add, Jon's Bookstore by foxxcub, which is stored in my head as "The AU where Jon doesn't know how to make fancy coffee drinks.")

As for primers, the very topical fandomcoffee opened up just this week! Or did you mean primers about bandom, not primers for people who want to write about coffeeshops?

[calvinahobbes]

OMG now I want an entire Romeo-and-Juliet type fic in Shakespearean English ;__; But apart from that, it sounds like the AU of my heart ♥ (so does the bookshop one, OMG bookshop!AU \o/ )

I did mean primers about bandom, but that is just because I never thought to dream a coffee primer post. Clearly I'm not dreaming big enough. God, I love fandom so much.

[sophia_sol]

...HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THAT FIRST FIC? Must read!

(and oops, I totally forgot to include Jon's Bookstore in this post, didn't I! *fail*)

[kiki_eng]

Because calvinahobbes expressed some slightly worried interest in maybe reading more bandom as a result of my recent bandom barista AU
I have this terrible, terrible grin on my face. (...and so it spreads. *rubs hands together, gleefully*)

I cannot possibly have read all of these, so I am excited. I like barista AUs. :) (I have a couple wee femslash bandom barista AUs bookmarked, also, if you are interested?)

[sophia_sol]

:D I know, right? I am trying to restrain my glee so that I don't scare Calvina off before she's properly caught by bandom, but EEE I AM SPREADING THE LOVE.

I am glad I have managed to include some you have not yet read! And ooh, yes please do share the wee femslash ones! I do not have enough femslash in this fandom.

[verity]

Despite being a barista, I have never read a barista AU! TIME TO CHANGE THAT. PERHAPS FIRST WITH YOUR FIC I HAVE OPEN IN ANOTHER TAB <3 <3 <3

[sophia_sol]

...you have NEVER READ A BARISTA AU? *shocked* Yes that needs changing!

I hope you enjoy!

Barista AU!

[melannen]

:D

I never actually posted this anywhere, did I? Here, have the only snippet that exists of my TOS Barista AU:

They've worked out the compromise, but nothing's been officially settled yet, and Kirk is still stuck in his supervised house arrest, being all noble martyr-y and emo, when McCoy stops by on a visit..

He has, of course, brought a bottle of something, and they don't even bother pulling out glasses, just pass the bottle back and forth.

"Feeling sorry for ourselves, are we, Mr. Kirk?" McCoy asks, and Kirk replies, "I'm still Admiral Kirk to you until tomorrow morning, Commander," mock-stern, and then he shakes his head.

"I'm just thinking about having civilian spouses, and maybe even children someday, on starships. How different my live would've been if Mom and Sam and me could have actually gone out with Dad."

"Nice thoughts?"

"Hell no," Jim replied. "They probably would've gotten divorced before I was even born. If they didn't kill each other first. Distance was the only thing that made it work. And you joined up to get away from Jocelyn, don't deny it. It'll change things. But all the same... not having to choose between having a ship and everything else..."

McCoy took the bottle back and gave him a long look. "You did a good thing, here, Jim. If I could have even considered the possibility of keeping Joanna... It'll take a while to settle out, but we'll be better for it in the end."

"I know. I'm just sitting here wishing I could be on the Enterprise, watching it with you. It's--" he gave a humorless bark of laughter, "Typical, that's all. We've turned the Fleet in a whole new direction, and I don't get to be there to enjoy it." He noticed the very odd look McCoy was giving him, and added "Don't worry about me, Bones, I can manage civilian life. Maybe I'll buy another sailboat."

McCoy sighed, long-suffering. "Great Bird of the Galaxy, has all that caffiene made you soft in the head or something?"

Jim stared at him quizzically.

McCoy gave him back the bottle. "Dammit, Jim, if Spock won't finally man up and marry you, I'll do it myself. Hell, tell him that, and that'll probably be enough to make him do it."

Jim started laughing, softly and weakly.

"And I'm sure between the three of us, we'll come up with some kind of make-work to keep you busy on board," McCoy added, with an overdone leer. "How do you feel about doing housecleaning in high heels and pearls?"

"God. The obvious solution all along, and I didn't even see it. If you can't win the game, change the parameters of success..."

"And someday," McCoy said, pointing at him, "I am going to finally get the details on that story. Not now," he added, cutting Jim off. "Save it for the wedding reception." He reached into the medical satchel he'd brought with him and pulled out a familiar insulated drink bulb, and handed it to him. "Here."

Jim put down the whisky and turned it in his hands. "What's this?"

"Commodore Katha'sat passed it to me to give to you, with its congratulations on getting out of Starfleet alive. It's Hestv savn'ch. I checked it out for you: apparently it's a stimulant and concentration enhancer for the Hest; for humans it's a mild euphoric. Never let Katha'sat bring this out when it's playing poker with you, but it's supposed to taste pretty good."

Jim saved it for the grand opening of Enterprise's new lounge and coffee bar.

Re: Barista AU!

[sophia_sol]

:D :hearts;:hearts;:hearts;:hearts;:hearts;

I and my journal are honoured to host this snippet! It is excellent.

Re: Barista AU!

[sophia_sol]

...FAIL at coding hearts. That was supposed to be ♥♥♥♥♥

There.

Re: Barista AU!

[calvinahobbes]

Did I ever comment on the not!fic? I have a sneaking suspicion I didn't? But it was made of win, and this is even more win! OMG, they are ridiculous and you know (?) I am all about McCoy/Kirk/Spock :oP Heeee! ♥♥♥

[I still don't have a ST icon, boo :o( ]

Re: Barista AU!

[ellen_fremedon]

Oh my gosh, I missed this when you posted it. This is lovely. I want to doodle hearts around it.

[calvinahobbes]

So, luciazephyr finished the Dresden AU WiP so now we can read it \0/

Except, I don't know Dresden fandom, so - if you have time, could you tell me what I need to know in order to enjoy the fic? Don't worry about spoilers, I am okay with those. P. S.: I checked your bookmarks but I couldn't find a Dresden primer and also I am lazy!! But gosh, I adore your tagging system so much ♥♥♥

[sophia_sol]

....DAMNIT I just spent a bunch of time typing up a primer sort of thing for you here and then STUPIDLY clicked a link from this page and lost everything I'd been writing in the commentbox. *headdesk*

Soooo I'll get back to you on this one.

[rsadelle]

♥ Thanks for the rec!

[sophia-sol.livejournal.com]

You are very welcome! <3 (In fact I have muchly enjoyed many fics by you and I am just really bad at telling people this. So, uh, I am telling you now. *awkward*))

[speak-me-fair.livejournal.com]

Social Network RPF. Oh s_s how I love the way we both...drift off into the land of awesome.

[sophia-sol.livejournal.com]

Awesome is EXACTLY RIGHT. *nods* :D

[justice-turtle.livejournal.com]

...urban fantasy barista AU.

URBAN FANTASY BARISTA AU.

You know, usually RPF bothers me exceedingly, but bandom doesn't seem to? Possibly this is because I'm familiar with the character/actual-singer distinction from the Monkees (who probably inspired the whole... cracky!AU!band thing with their TV show back in the sixties, if one can say anyone but the Beatles movies started it).

Anyway. Urban fantasy barista AU. XD

[sophia-sol.livejournal.com]

URBAN FANTASY BARISTA AU. :D

Huh, that is interesting that you make that distinction between music rpf and other kinds! And that is awesome that they had a cracky band AU tv show. Heee.

At any rate, if it means you get to enjoy an urban fantasy barista AU that is excellent.