Singing the Body Electric

Fandom 50 #5

recthething (the community where you can rec or request recs for fanworks) is having their weekly Community Recs Post today, it's been exactly a month since I made my first post in the comm, and as it happens there's a nice round ten recs for rarer ships among what I've posted so far. That all added up to a good occasion to plug the community and repost some of my recs here.


Touch-a Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me by the_wanlorn
Fandom: The A-Team (2010)
Ship: B.A. Baracus/H.M. Murdock
Medium: Fic
Length: 14,440 words
Rating: Teen
My Tags: drama, humour, happy ending, getting together, misunderstanding, touch, trauma, case/mission, fight/breakup, making up, first kiss (ship), first time (ship)
Author's Summary: In which Murdock is jumpy, BA is an idiot, Face is unhelpful, Hannibal is a troll, and there's an inevitable happy ending.

Excerpt:

"Are you dying?" Murdock demanded, blocking his way.

"What?" he asked, trying to figure out where Murdock got that from for a moment, before realizing that he'd be there all night if he kept at it. "No."

Murdock didn't look convinced. "Are you sick?"

He didn't say, "Yeah, sick of you, fool," which he thought showed remarkable restraint on his part. Instead, he repeated, "No."

"Are you a Skrull?" Murdock asked, peering at him suspiciously. "Because if you are, I want the real B.A. back. You can have Face, instead."

"I ain't a pod person, either," he growled, and was about to ask what the hell was wrong with him and what the hell was a Skrull, when a guy bumped past Murdock, and he flinched away. The irritation drained out of him, and was replaced with horror.

He'd broken Murdock.

This is my favourite kind of misunderstanding story, where no one's jumping to unreasonable conclusions or missing something obvious. They're just not at the right stage of their relationship yet for the truth to be evident, until the misunderstanding happens and gives them the opportunity to learn more about each other and get closer. This is a sweet fic where B.A. notices that Murdock flinches when he touches him, tries to fix the situation by being less gruff with him, and inadvertently makes things worse for a little while. It does a great job of balancing Murdock's more whimsical eccentricities with some elements of more grounded trauma, paints a lovely picture of who B.A. is as a person, and really makes the most of the ship's premise of two characters who communicate and show love in very different ways somehow really working together.



Untitled Andhera/K.P. Hob by cloudmancy
Fandom: Dimension 20: A Court of Fey & Flowers
Ship: Andhera/K.P. Hob
Medium: Art
Length: 1 piece
Rating: Teen/SFW
My Tags: drama, romance, ambiguous ending, getting together, enemies to lovers, blades, competence, injury, touch
Artist's Caption: do you think love can bloom, even on a battlefield?

Description:

A full-colour drawing of Hob (a bugbear and veteran soldier) kneeling astride a prone Andhera (an archfey prince of the Unseelie Court), pinning him down and holding a sword to his throat. Head turned in surrender, Andhera has a hand pressed to Hob's chest, over his heart.

The backstory of Hob and Andhera first having met on the battlefield, with Hob having bested the young enemy prince but spared him, is what first piqued my interest about where these two's dynamic would go—and the subsequent physicality of their friendship in light of both their established desires for touch had me shipping them from the moment they started wrestling and sparring. This is a fantastic piece that lives in that liminal space between the intimacy of violence and the intimacy of attraction, and in the parallels between the rules of engagement for warfare and the rules of engagement for courtship.



Keep On Gruckin' by kirazi
Fandom: Deadloch
Ship: Dulcie Collins/Eddie Redcliffe/Cath York
Medium: Fic
Length: 5010 words
Rating: Explicit
My Tags: humour, pwp, romance, happy ending, getting together, established relationship, ______ with benefits, bonding, first time (ship), first time (gender), comfort sex, fisting/stretching, threesomes 2+1
Author's Summary: Eddie needs a gruck. Dulcie and Cath offer to help her out.

Author's Excerpt:

"This is not a good idea, love," Dulcie says, keeping her tone level. "I know I said I’d try to be more open to change, and I hear and respect your opinion, I truly do, but this is—it’s like the hobby farm. It's really not going to work."

"I just think," Cath says, bright-eyed and earnest, "that it would be a healing experience for me. For us both! To share that kind of intimacy. I am committed to working through my anxiety about you fucking your partner and I'm sure that would be so much more manageable for me if we fucked her first. Together."

This is the exact scenario I finished Deadloch craving: Cath, in all her overenthusiastic commitment to what she thinks is a good idea, earnestly convincing more practical wife Dulcie that giving Dulcie's cop-partner Eddie the cathartic gruck (grief-fuck) she's craving is best for all of them moving forward. The story captures the dry, absurd humour of the show and also its heart. These are characters who don't always show their love in ways their loved ones find easiest to handle, but the love is there nonetheless. It's really sweet to see those bonds and that understanding come through via the intimacy of a recommitted couple having a threesome with the feral cat of a human being they seem to have adopted into their lives.



My Silver Lining by ohvienna
Fandom: Deadwood
Ship: Jane Canary/Joanie Stubbs
Medium: Vid
Length: 3:47
Rating: Mature/NSFW
My Tags: romance, drama, happy ending, getting together, developing relationship, first kiss (ship), parallels, abuse, substance use, sex work, hardship, bathing, undressing, clothing, dancing, kissing, devotion/loyalty, graphic violence (Note: the "abuse" tag refers to Joanie's past relationships and not Jane/Joanie)
Song: "My Silver Lining" by First Aid Kit

Excerpt:

I hear a voice calling, calling out for me / These shackles I've made in an attempt to be free
Be it for reason, be it for love / I won't take the easy road

The Jane/Joanie relationship was one of my favourite parts of Deadwood, and this vid does a gorgeous job of highlighting their moments as individual characters and as a couple. It shows in parallel the hard roads both characters fought their way down, through survival and into their sweeter moments together. Great song choice as well that captures the series' blend of historical and modern sensibilities.



Iron House by Parhelion
Fandom: The Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout
Ship: Archie Goodwin/Nero Wolfe
Medium: Fic
Length: 8020 words
Rating: Mature
My Tags: drama, crime/mystery, happy ending, getting together, developing relationship, au: prison, mentorship, h/c (emotional), first time (ship), arrangement to feelings, separation
Author's Summary: Usually, sooner or later, those who shoot others and make cute with the law end up in jail. In this world, that's exactly what happens to Archie and Wolfe.

Excerpt:

"No, Archie. I don't want to make you accessory to a felony--or is it a misdemeanor?"
"Nuts. I'd love to share a cell with you."
---Rex Stout, The Golden Spiders


Sure, I know why you want to hear all about it, Father. You're hoping for one of those "Oh, do not do as I have done" confessions, right? No?

Nice of you to care, but I never spent much time worrying about my immortal soul. Neither did he, as far as I could see, and I could see pretty far. But I'll tell you what I will do. You listen to what I have to say without piping up, you put it under that seal of the confessional that you priests value so much, and I promise I'll give you all the details and let you ask questions after. That's as far as I'll go, though I will add my word's been known to be good for years around here.

It's a deal? Let's go, then.

This fic takes the canon backstory of a young Archie Goodwin entering Nero Wolfe's employ after shooting two men while working as a security guard and imagines instead that he went to trial for the killings and subsequently became the cellmate of an already falsely imprisoned Wolfe. We then get a story set in my favourite missing-scene period of the pair's earliest days together, heightened by the danger and unavoidable added intimacy of getting to know each other in prison instead of in a New York City brownstone. It captures everything I enjoy about Archie's voice and the character dynamics of the source material, with an added twist, and it contains the shortest and most veiled single-paragraph sex scene to ever consistently make me swoon.

Even better, there's also a sequel that picks up after they're both pardoned.

Monday to Sunday by Parhelion
Fandom: The Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout
Ship: Archie Goodwin/Nero Wolfe
Medium: Fic
Length: 1370 words
Rating: Mature
My Tags: character study, romance, happy ending, established relationship, au: prison, reunion, starting over
Author's Summary: The first week of freedom is supposed to be the critical one.

Excerpt:

His first words to the newly freed man were, "That suit is abysmal."

"I can do better, since someone spotted me twenty bucks. Maybe you could introduce me to your tailor?" The chalk-striped blue suit coat he was wearing was bold but businesslike, much like the way Nero Wolfe had moved in on a deal back in the pen.

As for the man himself, he grunted. "You may not wish to commit yourself until you have seen what the young men are wearing in Manhattan this year. Get in."

I did, next to him in back. Some guy I didn't recognize was driving. When I glanced at the back of our driver's neck, Wolfe told me, "Jack will be giving you lessons to refresh your knowledge of controlling these mechanical contrivances."

Of course he was going to start right out by deciding how everything would go, now that we were both free of Mannerheim. I made a note to discuss this with him as soon as there were no ears around that I didn't recognize. Right now, Wolfe was getting a break because of the ride, the twenty, and the fashion advice.

As with the first story, this one likewise captures canon's tension of what it means for Archie to be Wolfe's man, through the additional thematic lens of imprisonment, freedom, and choice.



Untitled Fang/Izzy Hands by ajjiwannabeyourdog2
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Ship: Fang/Izzy Hands
Medium: Art
Length: 1 piece
Rating: Mature/NSFW
My Tags: romance, happy ending, established relationship, intimacy, cuddling, touch, frottage, scars, tattoos

Description:

A monochromatic drawing of Izzy and Fang in bed together, Izzy in his underwear and Fang covered from the waist down by bedsheets—and by Izzy's body, as Izzy sits straddling his lap. Izzy is making a faint "ngh" sound, his hands on Fang's shoulders. Fang has his arms around Izzy's back and is smiling softly. Both of them are flushed and have shut their eyes, their faces nuzzling close together as they hold each other.

A delicious drawing that's chock-full of characterization and intimacy, with particularly lovely details on Fang's tattoos and Izzy's flogging scars.

Untitled Fang/Frenchie/Izzy by lisaveeee
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Ship: Fang/Frenchie/Izzy Hands
Medium: Art
Length: 1 piece
Rating: General/SFW
My Tags: romance, happy ending, established relationship, kissing, physical affection, smoking
Artist's Caption: oh, go on then.

Description:

A limited palette drawing of Izzy surrendering to kisses from Fang and Frenchie. Izzy is in the middle, his arms around both men and a lit cigarette tucked between his fingers as he hunches down, seeming to laugh despite himself. Fang is going in low to kiss the corner of Izzy's mouth, while Frenchie is holding Izzy by the chin to kiss the tattoo on his cheekbone.

I started having feelings about these three together from the moment I saw the promotional still of Fang hugging Izzy while Frenchie holds Izzy's hand, and this is the sweetest follow-up to that scene I could have asked for. The loose, sketchy style gives so much character and movement to this piece and backs up the caption perfectly. You can almost feel Izzy initially having leaned away from the attention and ducked his head, only to give in and put his arms around Fang and Frenchie as they adorably persisted or just made too tempting a pair to refuse. Fang and Frenchie having to stoop down but still fitting naturally into Izzy's embrace is a lovely detail.



Further Negotiations Amongst the Penguins by starfishstar
Fandom: John Finnemore's Double Acts: Penguin Diplomacy
Ship: George Bunning/Søndergaard
Medium: Fic
Length: 2404 words
Rating: General
My Tags: romance, happy ending, getting together, script, proposals, domesticity, animals, science
Author's Summary: Stuck inside on a stormy night, Søndergaard and Bunning talk about divorce, love, loneliness, and what it takes to build a nest together. They’re talking about the penguins. Obviously.

Excerpt:

BUNNING: And when they go out to sea, once they’re done nesting for the season...do they always stay in their pairs? Seems like that would be a rather crowded life for a penguin, never getting to go off on one’s own.

SØNDERGAARD: Oh, no, no, they’re very independent! Well, I can’t speak to any other sorts of penguins, but lancelot penguins allow one another a great deal of independence. For much of the year, they swim off to wherever they like. It’s only that they know there’s a mate they can return to, back on land, when it’s time to build a nest again. Someone to come home to, as it were.

BUNNING: (QUIETLY) What a striking thought.

For those not familiar with it, Penguin Diplomacy is a half-hour radio play from 2017, set in the South Atlantic just after WWII. It involves a British government official both getting into an international incident with and befriending an eccentric Dane who has laid claim to a small island while studying the penguins there. This story nails the charm and comedy of the original as it picks up shortly post-canon with Bunning paying a social call to Søndergaard and his little lancelot penguins (all named for film stars of the day, including male couple Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne, who are raising a chick together) and seamlessly takes the original's romantic subtext into the realm of requited love. It's the sort of note-perfect "everything I wanted" sequel that I sometimes forget isn't official.



Untitled Medic/Scout by time-left-to-kill
Fandom: Team Fortress 2
Ship: Medic/Scout
Medium: Art
Length: 1 piece
Rating: Teen/SFW
My Tags: romance, pwp, happy ending, established relationship, teasing, medical kink (light - for the location)

Description:

A full-colour drawing of a RED team Medic and Scout fooling around in the infirmary. Scout is sitting on the edge of the operating table alongside a cup of tongue depressors and some jarred body parts, legs wrapped around Medic's waist and reeling him in by his necktie. Medic has taken off his gloves and has an arm around Scout. Both of them are smiling, and there is the implication that it might have something to do with whatever Scout is whispering in Medic's ear.

This is one of those opposites-attract ships for me: an older, buttoned-up and brilliant mad scientist and a younger, not at all academically inclined, overcompensating hoodlum. But the thing I love about opposites attracting are the places where they overlap, and one of those places for Medic/Scout is being very silly, very enthusiastic people at times. This piece captures the joy of them being on the same page with that energy—a page that looks straight out of the kind of 1960s pulp magazine I want to read. It's gorgeously rendered, with figure work and colouring that frankly leaves me in awe. The style perfectly captures and runs with the mid-century vibe of the source material, and the dynamic pose and little details make it feel like this is just one instant in a full and delightful story.



The Knife by slipstreamborne
Fandom: Watchmen (Comic)
Ship: Dan Dreiberg/Laurie Juspeczyk/Walter Kovacs
Medium: Comic
Length: 3 pages
Rating: Mature/NSFW
My Tags: drama, ambiguous ending, developing relationship, first time (character), h/c (emotional), blades, trauma, sexual healing

Excerpt:

Read a story, once. Man walks into an emergency room. Doctor inquires to his complaint. Man says he did not come of his own will, but at the urging of his friends. Doesn't know why. He is in no pain, suffers no ill health.

"Well then," says the doctor, "there's no reason for you to stay."

The man turns to go, at which point the doctor sees the knife sticking out of his back.

A sharp and brilliant short comic about childhood trauma and adult relationships.