Hieroglyfics Recs

Kowalski and Vecchio get stuck in an elevator. I’ve found it hard to read Ray/Ray lately, because one Ray is always Ray and the other is Kowalski or Vecchio, which irritates and confuses me. But this story is in first person, and that neatly sidesteps the problem - plus, when POV-Ray thinks of himself, it is as ‘Vecchio’, and Kowalski calls him Vecchio, and, I dunno, it just works for me. Plus, slyly funny and hot like burning.

Brideshead Revisited, Charles/Sebastian, NC17. Charles gets drunk with Sebastian, and falls. Fabulously in-character and with the feel of genuine Waugh. And the fact that I am, of course, picturing the young Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews as they were in the miniseries doesn’t hurt.

Sharpe/The Prophecy crossover, Lucifer/Sharpe. In India, Sharpe (and this is bookverse Sharpe, pre-movie-series) encounters a stranger. I have not seen The Prophecy, in which Lucifer is played by (as you might guess) Viggo Mortensen, but the Devil is recognizably enough the Devil that I didn’t need to. And I am entirely in love with this story, from the younger, more venial Sharpe (I recall reading somewhere a quote about Bean playing great villains, and that Sharpe is a villain that happens to be one of the heroes) to the casual and tiny reveals of the Devil’s identity that speak to the reader but that Sharpe doesn’t recognize. (I adore the unreliable narrator aspect of this, the complicity of the reader in the underlying truths of the story that are hidden from the narrator!) Fabulous.

Aubrey/Maturin: The aftermath of Stephen’s escape from prison and torture in H.M.S. Surprise. The one that started it all, for me! Gorgeous writing, hot and sweet.

Sharpe/Diego Alatriste, crossover-ish, NC17, short story. A wounded Sharpe takes refuge in a castle haunted by Viggo Mortensen a 17th-century Spanish captain. It’s a clever crossover idea, and hey, a little ghost rimming never goes amiss.

Sharpe/OMC. Sharpe brings some keepsakes from India to a jewelry buyer who is clearly modeled after Viggo Mortensen. Ahem. Okay, PWP-ish, but nicely written and hot. There is also a sequel.

Sean/Viggo, serial novella. [The link goes to her fic list in lj memories] I guess this is a slow WIP, but I would consider it complete at part 11, with everything after that lagniappe or sequel - at least, in its current form. During the filming, the whole cast is touchy-feely except for Sean, who here is borderline homophobic and uncomfortable with the flying innuendo; gradually he realizes that Viggo is coming on to him, and even more gradually he realizes that he’s wanted that all along. I am a big fan of the slow build of sexual tension, and this story delivers. Sean’s slow transformation from denial to open desire is delicious and very, very sexy. A few missteps grated on me, but they were overwhelmed by the consistent, entertaining ensemble characterization (I love Ian in particular), the men that never failed to be manly (except for Orlando, who makes an adorable 14-year-old girl), and the exceptional HOT.

Legolas comes to terms with his desire. Book canon, so we have dark-haired Legolas, and the Fellowship’s visit to Lothlorien in exquisite, luminous detail. I think it’s always a challenge for an author to convincingly show a character’s growing desire for a character who is not conventionally attractive; it’s easier to imagine the dwarf falling for the elf than the other way around. This story, with its subtle and gentle tension, makes a believer of me.

Faced with possible death, Gimli considers mortality. Movie canon, written with the elegance and beauty of the books. The sensuality of the language enhances the sensuality of the story.

Orlando/everybody. This story takes the “fandom slut” cliche and turns it on its head. Orlando serenely moves throughout the cast, using his unique gift - his ability to love, and to inspire love - to make each person more whole and complete, to heal their wounds both physical and psychological. It’s not so much an “Orlando fucks everybody” story as an “Orlando loves everybody” story, and that emotional dimension is what elevates it above other stories of this type.

Legolas/Gimli by one of my favorite writers. Beautiful and very, very hot.

The Quest finishes when Ray runs out of vacation time, but every year for the next ten years, he returns to Canada and he and Fraser do their three weeks of searching for the Hand. But when Diefenbaker dies [because I don’t want people going OMGDIEF, can’t read, woe!: this is futurefic, Dief is old, it’s not unexpected - but the lost of his best buddy devastates Fraser, and Ray’s the only one who really understands], they have to rethink their plans and their relationship. I have never seen a “same time next year” scenario with them post-CotW before, and I really liked the idea, seeing them older and more settled in their new lives, yet only really feeling alive with each other once a year. Wonderful dialogue and a thoughtful plot make for a very satisfying story.

Wiseguy, Vinnie/Sonny, AU assuming Sonny escapes from the Rialto - and brings Vinnie with him. It’s a fabulous road-trip story, a perfect set-up and a satisfying ending.

(Podfic version as edited by Lim.) Every once in a while I see a mention of this story on my flist that begins, “I know I must be the last person to read this…” so I figure I’m maybe not the last. A great action/adventure/history in an engaging and clever format, read by three dozen readers and assembled with care and skill into a not-quite-seamless but nevertheless pretty darn good whole. The variations in volume and quality of the various recordings have been mostly evened out. And I realized that I really don’t mind hearing American and Canadian (and Athosian and Satedan :-) voices as rendered in an English accent; I thought it would throw me, but quickly the accent faded into the metaphorical background, and I just heard the story.

Bon Cop, Bad Cop, Martin/David (with implied Martin/Suzie). Martin and David investigate an art vandal. This was written for ME for Yuletide, so naturally I adore it! Crazy bilingual casefic chock full of Canadiana.

This is a rec with a caveat, not because of the story but because of me: it’s a post-CotW F/V, which makes me oddly uncomfortable. I’m not sure why I can happily accept the unraveling of the CotW resolution for Ray/Ray, but not for F/V. It’s just me, I guess. So I liked the story in a lot of ways, but am still left with a little niggling waah at the end. Anyway, the plot made me happy, especially the way it was resolved, in which you really see how Vegas has changed Ray - and how it hasn’t. I really liked the characterization of Fraser. And Kowalski shows up at the end, which does a lot to make me feel better about things.

Ray/Ray with hints of F/K/V. Vecchio’s work in Vegas must come to an abrupt end when he sprouts wings; there’s a lovely metaphor of devils and angels, there, and in fact the whole story is rich with metaphor and imagery, sensitivity and grace and poetry. There’s a bit of plot which is not really resolved - I hope this story gets expanded or the clearly needed sequel written.

I particularly like stories that do the background work to show why the CotW resolution doesn’t work out - why Vecchio doesn’t make it with Stella in Florida and why Kowalski doesn’t make it with Fraser in Canada. Fraser is a constant presence, the bright red elephant in the room that they do not talk about. And all this against a plotty casefic background makes me deliriously happy, particularly since the romance plot and the case plot and the what-about-Fraser plot all intertwine in a thoughtful way.

RPF - American Frontier, Lewis/Clark, Lewis/Mahlon Dickerson. This well-researched and well-written story reminded me very strongly of Gore Vidal’s American history novels - if Vidal had included explicit sex. The sex does not feel jarringly modern in the least, but is written with the same careful language as the rest of the story; it’s not gratuitous, but is an important part of Lewis’s character and part of the seeds of his discontent and discomfort that eventually lead to his suicide. (Um, is that a spoiler? This is history, folks.)

RPF, Hugh Dillon/Callum Keith Rennie, set during the period before Hard Core Logo filming. Hugh struts around and acts like a jerk until he realizes that the reason Callum won’t have casual sex with him is that Callum’s not casual about Hugh. The sex is nngh hot, and the emotion is just as raw and urgent.

A post-CotW discovery fic, mmm. The voices worked really well for me, and I particularly love the aching yearning in Fraser, that he wants Ray and cannot bring himself to act. The choices in metaphor and description are lovely, with lots of realistic cold-climate detail.

Posted as F/K/V, but it’s really F/K plus F/V plus a tiny bit of Ray/Ray hatesex. Also a little RayV/Stella. This is lovely and angsty, with incredible structure, but man, is it fucked up. At the end my heart just aches for poor Ray Vecchio - well, really, for all of them. (And for Stella, too!)

I loved this. It’s a kind of AU take on the end of the series, I guess, because the circumstances around Vecchio meeting Kowalski are entirely different, but oh, man, this is awesome. Victoria is caught in Atlanta, Fraser must go there to give a statement, Vecchio calls Ray K and warns him that Fraser is probably going to go crazy - and it turns out that crazy, for Fraser, means drinking heavily and sexing up everything in sight. (Including Ray, of course.) Yum.

32-minute podfic, 22MB. I started reading the (text version of the) story once, but it either didn’t impress me enough to finish, or I didn’t like it enough to leave a comment. I was being fairly picky about what I was reading at the time which probably had something to do with it. But also, I think that I’m more likely to enjoy a story if I listen to it, rather than read it - provided it’s presented well, which this one is.

This is an angsty story about what being undercover means to Ray K. The insights about how Ray prepares himself for being someone else are wonderful; I tend to forget that Ray is undercover as Vecchio, canonically, and that the way he approaches Fraser must be colored by this. I also really like the ending, which is not precisely happy, but (as I keep meaning to post about) I enjoy endings which are not precisely happy.

The reading is very well done. Keerawa has a pleasant voice, reads slowly, and infuses each line with meaning and energy. The individual characters come across clearly, including Ray-as-Ray and Ray-as-Gary both. The porn is quite sexy, and perhaps listening to this story while grocery shopping was not the smartest idea I’ve ever had.

I’m generally not a fan of stories about younger versions of the characters, but this AU in which they are college friends who become something more while on spring break is lovely and hot and sweet, with well-done structure that flips between flashback and present.

Fraser/RayK/RayV in all combinations. Vignettes that show the progression of the relationships into a threesome. Great use of repetition, and some fresh imagery and phrasing. And hot like burning.

I suspect a lot of people passed it by because it’s labeled as a deathfic - but it really only qualifies on a technicality, when you consider the content, and the end has an awesome payoff that’s a staple of many post-CotW stories but gets a fresh twist here.

Sort of a PWP, in which Fraser determinedly seduces Ray, but what sets this apart is the language, which does more for the characterization than a whole string of Fraser cliche. Very sexy, very believable.

Post CotW, Ray and Fraser stop to visit Maggie near Inuvik, get involved in an investigation, and figure out their relationship. This kind of reminds me of The End of the Road - no, wait, this is a happy story, but there’s something similar in the tone and style that I can’t quite identify. The writing is lovely, the plot involves things happenening - real, external things, that the characters respond to in convincingly in-character ways - and the sex is an integral part of the story, that somehow manages to be more breathtakingly erotic the less explicit it is. (In fact, the part I like least is the most explicit sex scene near the end, which seems tacked-on and gratuitous to me.)

I know Toft from the HP fandom, and I’m happy to see her in my new fandoms. This is a cross-dressing Sheppard story; cross-dressing is not really one of my kinks, but it’s handled very well here, and there are a lot of interesting aspects of Sheppard’s sexuality explored here - not to mention of McKay’s. Men communicating poorly is one of my story kinks.

John gets turned into a female…and nobody notices. I like this take on genderswitch because John stays very much John, with his only physical differences hidden or hideable, and the interesting part is how others react (or how John thinks they would react).

Lorne/Zelenka. I have a serious soft spot for Lorne/Zelenka, and I think she gets their voices very nicely. I really like the detail of setting, too, as their acquaintance slowly builds and becomes more. Spoilers through 3×12.

Snape/Harry, NC17, art. I guess this is the art equivalent of songfic…no, don’t go away! This comic-strip illustration of the Beatles song gave me a well-needed giggle this morning.

Eight years after CotW, Ray finally gets the nerve up to go after Fraser. This basic storyline has been told a zillion times, but it’s done well here, with some lovely bits of writing and some lines that really zing. What I like best about this story are the vivid little snapshots at the beginning, of Ray and his new partner, of Stella and Vecchio down in Florida, of Frannie and her babies. Oh, and the emotional aww of Ray and Fraser finally getting together, of course.

When Fraser comes to Chicago to visit the Rays (who are in a relationship), each man dreams of the others together. I have a hard time with threesome fic that isn’t PWP, because I have a hard time believing in a perfectly-functioning triad of these guys, but using the fantasy/dream device works beautifully here to make it all seem possible and plausible and utterly desirable. Each POV is distinct and well-written, and the ending makes me go mmm.

Post-COTW, in which Ray goes back to Chicago, Fraser gets posted in Banff, and they slowly figure out they need to be together. There’s so much detail, so much richness, and the pacing is slow and sure and perfect within a well-crafted structure. I like seeing Fraser posted somewhere other than middle-of-nowhere, Canada after COTW, and I also loved the implication that the bowling alley was Vecchio’s cover story, because yeah, that always seemed hinky to me, too. The one thing I wasn’t fond of was the present tense, which didn’t work well for me with the time span and structure - I kept noticing it, which knocks me out of the story.

Fraser/RayK, Fraser/RayV, implied Ray/Ray, implied…things I don’t even want to mention. :-) NC17, short story. The warning at the beginning tells you it’s going to be semikinky!sex threesome fic with tentacles, but it starts out as a deceptively normal story in which shortly after Fraser discovers that Ray and Ray are having a relationship, each of them separately approaches him for inexplicably motivated, incredibly hot sex. I really like the POV, which is a somewhat distantly-observed Fraser, not so much in his head but rather commenting with wry detachment. There’s all sorts of great detail, from the cases they’re on to the amazing sex they’re having. And then the story takes an abrupt turn for the total crack as the punchline to the shaggy-dog story sneaks up on Fraser - and on the reader. Hee!

Aubrey/Maturin, NC17, AU. If this is a fusion with something I don’t recognize, it’s brilliant, and if it’s an original fusion I’m floored. It takes O’Brian’s world into a different direction in the same way the Temeraire series does (but with its own completely realized execution: swords and sorcery, and a complicated feudal/sexual structure), and as such it would be fabulous as original fic. The dialogue and characterizations are fabulous, the minor characters from the series welcome grounding in canon, and the plot nicely done with a punchy ending.

Northern Exposure, Chris/Joel, NC17. Joel reacts to Chris’s pheromones. The voices were spot-on perfect - I could hear them in my head, even hear Chris’s measured tones narrating it for me. It’s told as a series of possible events, and oddly the what-if-ness made the alternate possibilities each seem more plausible and real.

A tiny sharp ouchy bit of zing.

This is apparently based loosely on the movie Never Been Kissed: Rodney’s masquerading as a biology grad student in order to get close to Professor Sheppard, for purposes that I don’t want to spoil here but the cool thing is that the AU converges with canon, which is my favorite type of AU. As you might expect, he gets close to Professor Sheppard in an, er, rather different way than he was supposed to. The absolute best part is Ronon, who takes to hanging out on a college campus with unexpected zest.

RayK/Turnbull, implied RayK/Fraser. Ray turns up drunk at the Consulate, looking for Fraser - but he finds Turnbull instead. Turnbull is so goofy and earnest and sweet: “Oh, you needn’t apologize, Detective — Ray,” Turnbull said warmly. “You can kiss me any time you feel it’s necessary.” I wasn’t a fan of the ending, which sort of leaves things in an uncomfortable place that doesn’t really fit with the rest of the story.

This story reminds me, in an oblique way, of AJ Hall’s HP story Lust Over Pendle. The stories themselves have nothing in common, but what both share is a sort of trancendence of genre, in which the world of the story is utterly original, surpassing canon, yet reasonably derived from it. Hall’s story is a comedy of manners, while M’s is cyberpunkish SF; both have action-adventure plots which bring the authors’ worlds into a collision with the more familiar canonical ones.

In this story, John, Teyla, and John’s son Ben - whose mere presence raises questions in the reader’s mind, and who is really at the heart of this story - are refugees on a planet called Bajan, which is somehow protected from the Wraith. To be allowed to stay, John must give up one memory at a time to the Bajan authorities. Slowly the strands of detail weave a story, and we learn who Ben is, why John has left Atlantis, and what has happened to other refugees from the Wraith.

I remember being confused by the combination of “gen” as a descriptor with NC17 as a rating. After reading the story, I have to agree that this story is essentially gen. However, it is most definitely about relationships: John’s friendship with Teyla, his somewhat off-balance relationship with his case officer Ekatarin, his prickly detente with other characters I shall not mention here, and most of all the fierce love between John and his son. (The NC17 is for explicit het sex, John/OFC; it is not a romantic relationship, more of a convenient outlet between military comrades.) I really like the action-adventure component of the story; the bits of John’s parents and life on Earth didn’t work for me as well, although some repeating themes I thought were beautifully done. The thematic structure is fantastic, really well done, with interesting parallels drawn between events of various episodes and the events of the story. The writing is evocative without calling attention to itself.

This was written between S2 and S3, so the events of S3 have made it AU. I strongly rec this story for action-adventure fans and John Sheppard fans in particular.

Tim Bayliss/Billy Tallent. This is a rewritten version of Shell’s first fanfic, and as someone who tried but failed to read the earlier version, I can say this is a bazillion times better, with tightness and focus and pacing that was missing from the first attempt. Bayliss is undercover, posing as a member of a Utah polygamist cult that is clearly based on the Fundamentalist LDS church. This is the element that originally attracted me to this story; I saw a documentary about the FLDS, Banking on Heaven, at a film festival earlier this year, and I can say that as horrifying as the elements of this story are, they’re not very far removed from the reality.

Just before going undercover, Bayliss meets Billy Tallent, who while in Arizona to play a concert meets a young escapee from the cult, who is subsequently murdered. The two men feel an instant connection. In fact, for me, it’s a little too instant - not the immediate sex, but the closeness of their relationship afterward - and because of this, the story feels more like an established-relationship story than a first-time, to me. (By the way, if I were rating this story I’d give it NC17, because the sex scenes are explicit.)

If you, like me, don’t know anything about Homicide, skim (or ignore) the prologue, which will only baffle you. (Interestingly, I discovered after reading that Bayliss is canonically bisexual.) If you don’t know anything about HCL, don’t worry. In fact, IMHO the characterization of Billy is a long stretch from canon, even given the passage of time and the way the events of HCL (which this story does spoil) might have affected him. But actually, this Billy is a far more sympathetic and even heroic character - to the point that I felt as though some of his actions (and some aspects of their relationship) were unrealistic for anybody. But, you know what? I didn’t care. It was still a great read, and hurt/comfort fans will sigh happily.

This is a rec with a caveat. I originally passed over this story because a, BSDM isn’t my thing, and b, I had not read the series which the story notes say this is an “unauthorized homage” of. I read it because of Cathexys’s (locked) post in which she referred to the story as a feminist critique; this is how I read and interpreted the story, and that’s why I liked it.

I guess I’d describe this as a “BSDM AU”. For discussion that includes the BSDM aspect and the relationship between this story and its source, see Millefiori’s post here; to me, it reads as brilliant social satire on traditional views of the role of women:

Until 1941, subs hadn’t been allowed in the military at all; temperamentally unsuited, everyone said, for fighting. Much better to keep them safe at home. Subs were excellent aids and secretaries, junior engineers, kindergarten teachers, nurses, assembly-line workers, mechanics, accountants—careful, rule-following, meticulous, obedient. In the midst of World War II, personnel shortages had forced the armed forces to allow subs to enlist, but they’d been put in separate units, and couldn’t be promoted beyond Corporal. Subs had separate rank insignias until 1970 and wore an S-pin on their collars until 1982.

I’m not generally a fan of BSDM, but here I don’t think it’s intended to be either particularly realistic or even titillating, so for me it works more as a metaphor, the absurdity of which is what makes the satire work. Helen also pokes fun at some canon and fanon elements (such as Sheppard’s frequent defiance of orders). The characterizations are fairly loose, as usual with her stories. The writing is beautifully invisible and just pulls the reader along.

In Mountie on the Bounty, Ray tells Fraser he can’t swim. This beautifully-written story consists of a series of tiny snapshots of Ray’s life which show us why - and then take us forward, to a sweet and fitting future.

Benny’s got a thing for Ray’s neck; Ray figures it out, and provokes him. The dialogue is snappy and funny and really seems true to the characters. I think I’ve got a thing for Vecchio’s conversation.

Sharing a hotel room together, Fraser catches Ray masturbating. The pacing is just right, and the emotion, and I love Fraser’s POV. One thing I really like about this story is the way little details from the show are included in a subtle way which grounds the story in canon without seeming like it’s retelling everything we already know. And oh, the sex is so hot.

While on their quest, Ray and Fraser make a side-trip into the undiscovered country, so to speak. This story hits my magical realism kink; the representative of the afterlife seems like he’d have been perfectly at home in the show, and the denoument is perfectly logical and makes me happy.

For reasons that don’t need exploring at this juncture, Ray wakes up female. This genderfuck story is funny and hot, and the ending makes me dance with glee.