Looking for long, scrupulously & painstakingly in-character, angsty, realistic, post 5-13 fics

[queerasfray.livejournal.com]

(Confession alert!) I'm having trouble finding the "right" post-series fic. I've started several that seemed quite promising at first but then later went off the reservation character-wise. It's a bummer to start a multi-chaptered fic only to have it wander off into the tangled wilderness of OoC land. I'm not particularly a fan of fluff (especially Fluffy!Brian) or nothing but sex-sex-sex 24/7. I'm looking for something gritty and real and angsty, and the longer, the better. I want something that is going to totally engross me and satisfy my bottomless need for The Feels.

Thanks ahead of time!

ETA: Wow! Thank you all for the response! Some great suggestions in the comments!

Comments

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

I watched S5 in January of 2006. That was when Showtime re-aired it for the first time after the initial run. So I had to wait each week for the next episode. Yeah, I got to marathon S1-S4 before that, so I didn't have to wait. And it is a different experience when you watch each episode as it airs. So when original watchers express extreme dislike for S5, I get where that comes from. That said, watching in one shot gives you time to watch/rewatch and figure out stuff.

Considering that the 'wedding' was presented in the very last episode, and all this other shit had to happen first, I kinda knew it wasn't gonna happen. And when I saw the end of 513 for the first time, I was like O.o Like, did I miss something!!? With that episode, I took it for what *I* thought was going on. And I never thought of Brian as being left to turn back into an aging club boy. That final scene with Michael, I just saw that as Michael going, "hey, get up, you have things to do." And I saw Brian re-building Babylon not because he needed a place to hang out, but so that he could say, 'look fuckers, I rebuilt it, now what?' Part of me sees Brian spending more time in an office in Babylon, as opposed to the backroom.

But that's just me. Maybe I just want to believe that Brian actually grew up. Kinda hard to be Peter Pan when Wendy and all the Lost Boys are gone.