The Reading Room - A Pros Halloween Story Spectacular!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the joint Reading Room post of myself and milomaus - and for anyone out there who'd also like to review/rec a specific Pros Halloween-ish story, because we're inviting you to join in too!

In the comments below you'll find reviews/recs/discussions of:
Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward (hosted by byslantedlight
Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)
Just reply to those comments to talk about those stories.

If you'd like to add your own story for discussion, just post a new comment to the main post, giving the story's title and author as the comment subject heading as you can see we've done, and otherwise as normal. Though if you could include a link to the story in your comment, that'd be fab... *g* They can be as loosely based on Halloween as you like - as long as there's a connection, it's fair game.

Please don't use the comment subject headings for anything else in this week's Reading Room! And of course general comments can be made to the post as usual, without subject headings. (If anyone really hates this way of doing things, do let me know - it seems to have worked pretty well over at ML Mead's Dear Author Discussion (which is ongoing, by the way, though sadly moonlightmead hasn't been able to join us yet, though I know she was hoping to)

I'll add the titles of stories to the main post as we go, so people can see what's being chatted about. There'll be just a few hours tonight, from about 7.30pm, where I won't be around, but otherwise - I should be. *g*

Right - are we ready...? *g*

Comments

Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

This is an AU story about Bodie (an ex-army man who went into computing on his return to England, rather than CI5), and Doyle (who took up writing rather than police work, when he inherited a house and money). It's an alternative dimension, one that came about after a lot of little changed decisions, and for me to like this kind of Pros story, there can't have been so many of those decisions that the lads stop being the lads. Their characters have to be the same, and I have to believe that the lads in the story are the lads I see in the episodes - albeit stre-e-etched in some other direction.

LoT does stretch my belief in their characters a little, but it clings on with the curly bits of its fingernails. They have different professions, which suggests different choices - are these based on Pros B/D characters, or not? Well:
- Bodie didn't continue in his army/SAS/CI5 track, and he's an altogether more sedentary character - he's a computer technician, so he has to be. But he turns up to work every day, teases "the secretary" (junior technician), and is loyal to his boss. When he meets Doyle they almost immediately work as a team, and he's unfailingly loyal to him as well.
- We see Bodie being technical with cars/mechanics in Pros, so I can stretch that to computers (the explanation for both is that he learned them in the army).
- Doyle didn't go into the police/CI5, he writes gay romance stories, and has a sizable inheritance behind him - it's more of a stretch for me to justify this as our Doyle. Our Doyle chose the police to "get some discipline" - this Doyle made no such conscious choice, and we're not given a hint of why he chose writing. He doesn't mess around with motorbikes, there's no hint of the altruism that we see in Pros-Doyle... but he is stubborn and tenacious and determined not to be beaten - he is feisty Doyle from the eps, even when he's being bashed and people he loves are being threatened/hurt. So I can go from there, believing in this Doyle.

There's a bit of me that wonders if it wouldn't have worked better the other way around. Bodie came back from the army to inherit the house and settled in to write about his experiences, and Doyle is out working hard for his living - I'm not sure why that seems more likely to me, but it somehow does - maybe because I find it easier to believe that Bodie has a wealthier/"better" background than Doyle.

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

So - 1) What do you think? Which way around would be more believable for you?

Bodie's a bit the over-strong-one for my usual tastes too, but it's written from his pov, and so again I can just about go with it... Doyle says "I love you" a bit too easily for my belief, but okay...

The setting is odd, and a bit amorphous. They nip in and out of London as if they live in a suburb, but I don't get the feel of a London suburb. I didn't quite have a handle on the time of year either, although if we can do the maths, it turns out to be May, which does fit with the idea of spring and the change to summer time, but... only if you work it out, somehow - I think I was missing visual clues to it being May, rather than mathmatical ones. *g* I like to be able to see what's going on, as well as be told it.

And then it's all a bit explain-y for my usual tastes too, and there's a bit of lecturing about safe sex and cottaging, and an over-emphasis on how the lads are going to be able to have sex without worrying about AIDs, and... to the point that it's sometimes like a Jane-at-her-worst kind of story.

So - why in the world do I still like this story? With having to work against all of the above, and various other niggles popping up, I really really shouldn't - and yet I do. Something in these lads says to me that they are my Bodie and Doyle, and something about the story catches my attention and belief. I wonder what it is - and I wonder if I can work it out from hearing other people's thoughts...? *g* So...

2) What do you think of this story as a piece of writing? Do you believe in it?

Otherwise it's quite a traditional ghost story, where our heroes have to work out what's going on, and how to fix it - and I could go with that too. They're neither of them presented as credulous, just dealing with the evidence before their eyes, and determined to do that even through their fear - and their growing attraction to each other doesn't hurt, because they have that comfort, that wonderful thing to balance out the horror.

3) What about B/D and the paranormal - can you believe in that in this case? Is this how they'd deal with it, do you think?

What d'you reckon? *g*

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Drive-by, really - I know I keep harping on about my personal quibble and you will all be sick of me for repeating it, sorry! - being generally disinclined to accept supernatural stuff in Pros (and not being much into it anywhere else either) it takes a really gripping plot or great language or vivid characterisation to draw me in in spite of that, and for me this story doesn't have that. I can just about see them, I suppose (a bit more easy to see Bodie than Doyle, I agree with you) but almost everything just leaves me feeling, well, meh. I don't really care about the ghost stuff and I don't feel that excited about the computer stuff either, so ... I like Bodie's co-workers well enough, but Doyle's Devil-Rides-Out family history is just - a big disconnect for me.
I guess I shall have to recuse myself on this one, on the grounds of antipathy to supernatural stuff generally *g*

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[murphybabe]

I do like this fic, on the whole. It suffers slightly because of a few things, some of which you mention. One is that, for me, it is more dated than most Pros fic because it's partly set in the IT world, which is where I lived for 19 years *g* So there's nothing to be done about that and time marches on etc. etc. so let's try and ignore that aspect.

However, putting that aside, the other things that bother me about it are a slightly soppy and clingy Doyle, even though he's written as brave and resolute, and a strong, competent Bodie. Normally this version of Bodie would be fine by me but the two portraits are just that teeny bit over-egged, as it were - it's almost Mills and Boon. And, having said that, I can't count the times I have read this fic, so obviously nothing stops me from liking it.

My main issue comes from the supernatural aspects. I've said before, I don't like supernatural fic. I can't believe in it. I thought this was very well written, however - except for when all the damage occurs and then everything returns to normal. How can that be? Even if I push myself to accept a supernatural demon-thingy, it caused physical damage to property that someone else heard. So on the stroke of the clock it's all mended? Ack.

And... I like this fic :)

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Thank you for picking this one - it's one of the very first Pros fics I read waaaay back when - I enjoyed it at the time, and wondered if I still would, and I do.

And I shouldn't, not because it's badly written or anything, because it's not, but the paranormal thing isn't a great love of mine, and the lads aren't nearly enough themselves for me to see them or hear them. I can't see either Bodie or Doyle taking notice of anything they can't shoot *g* I like your suggestion of their roles being swapped, btw - I'd love to read it that way!

Having said all that, I'm still charmed and held by the story itself. Though I do worry about the amount of tea everyone drinks - blimey! - and I wish they'd stop 'tripping' down the steps and stairs... *g* But apart from minor teeny things like that, I loved reading it again.

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[jessebee.livejournal.com]

Whoo, and didn't you pick one of my favorites here? *g* On a number of levels! Okay. Since you have posed questions, let me see if I can stick to the format *bg*

1. The way it was written, with Bodie and Doyle in those particular professions, works fine for me. Honestly, neither of the canon lads strikes me as the writing type, that way, so I can cheerfully suspend my disbelief there. The computer thing seemed, to me, to be a nod to LC here in the USA so again, suspension of disbelief working just fine *g*.

2. As a piece of writing, I generally enjoy it quite a lot. Ellis Ward has some writing quirks that I notice in about all of her things, that niggle, but overall I enjoy the story flow enough that I can put them aside (mostly). The way the storyline is set up is well done, imo. The lads deal with the situations and evidence as it appears, in the "whatever is left must be the truth" way. They are, as you say, neither of them credulous, but Bodie has a history here with the supernatural already, which is the reason Doyle is sent to him in the first place. When he agrees to help, Bodie goes about very very deliberately eliminating the possible "normal" causes before starting to treat it as a supernatural situation. I could have used a little less description of all that, in fact! *g*.

Doyle is introduced as a man already reaching the end of his rope. He has already been through the "it can't be supernatural!" thing off-screen.

They also, as you say, have the growing attraction to balance out the increasing fear, and I appreciate the way the author has them note the distinct possibility that their attraction is, in fact, just a by-product of the situation. One hopes, of course, for the sake of their long-term happiness, that it is not!

3. I think I more answered that above, sorry! So let me add here, that for me, part of the attraction of the story is the way the author does not answer, in any seriously definitive way, exactly what the supernatural entity is. The story is not a screed either for or against either religion or magic. In fact, the author is at pains (sometimes too many pains) to be clear about how Bodie refuses to assign religious meaning or purpose to the happenings. And that, for me, is very refreshing.

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward - Pt I

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I'm going to jump in with my first thoughts before reading everyone else's in order that I get my thoughts down before I get confused by what I've been persuaded to see. I'm already beginning to see the casting t'other way about, which is something I didn't think of when I read the story. Still pondering what I think of that one :0)

So here goes. (And just for clarity, I've read and enjoyed stories by Ellis Ward previously, but hadn't run across this tale before.) For me, it got off to a rocky start, unfortunately hitting just about every single gong on my turn-off checklist:

- Computing porn; loving descriptions of hardware and operating systems that do little to further the plot. (Inadvertently compounded, in this instance, by being rendered almost impenetrably obsolete by virtue of the story's vintage - ''Doyle lowered himself into the chair in front of the table and typed in the date and time at the prompts.'' I actually have no problems with the plot requiring some degree of exposition with regard to IT of any age, but I do baulk at lingering on the port nomenclature.

- Everybody's gay. No they're not. Stories which inexplicably operate in an entirely gay universe don't work for me. Particularly when they veer towards twee 'we all know we're gay and look how well adjusted we are about it' moments.

- Random career choices. As already mentioned, apparently, Bodie has ''electronics training'' - ''Bodie began to relate his stint in the Army, and how he had been trained in electronics with specialization in computers'' Really? As far as I knew, Bodie is ex-Para's and ex-SAS, his canon expertise is in weaponry. When did he serve with an Engineering Corps? I prefer, if altered to fit the story, that appropriated canon be acknowledged and explained (and, if this deviation is sufficiently contemporaneous to constitute a nod to real life, then it hits another gong – conflating fictional characters with the very real and private human beings who play them).

- Too many women. Oestrogen heavy Pros. The lads get on fine with women, but gay or straight, they're lads. I can't cope with them as BFF substitutes.

- A-Z itis – ''the corner where Sherwood Park Road and Robin Hood Lane came together'' If I know the area, I don't need it, if I don't, it's meaningless. If the plot doesn't hinge on knowing the exact location of Blackfriars Bridge, I really don't need a six digit grid reference for it.

- Lukewarm safe sex. Sex is either safe or it isn't. Looking someone up and down, taking a perfunctory sexual history and then leaping, condomless, into bed with them, is not safe sex. I have no particular prejudices about whether fictional sex is safe or not. Bodie and Doyle were driving off into the sunset even as AIDS was being named; they lived in a world untroubled by HIV awareness, where the most pressing concern was herpes. Either leave them to their quaint anxieties or do the thing properly.

- Clothing porn; loving descriptions of how the characters are dressed. Actually, although I thought most of it was unnecessary, I didn't find it off putting in this case. It didn't seem to hold up the narrative, therefore I simply accepted it as a stylistic quirk. So Brownie points for not hitting that particular gong :0)

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

I'm very late, I started reading but got caught up, and sidetracked, and everything. And then there was the rugby *g*

...this is a story that I've read and enjoyed, although it is a bit of hard work in parts due to the masses of detail. Which was part of the distraction *g*

They nip in and out of London as if they live in a suburb, but I don't get the feel of a London suburb.

Actually Wimbledon and surrounding suburbs: all the place names are real, except for Merton, which is the Borough name, although I have the feeling that she jazzed a few things up, like the size of houses and the ever-present proliferation of vegetation and flowers in gardens that aren't paved over car spaces, for a start. Or maybe well-tended gardens were more common in that area in the late eighties!

if we can do the maths, it turns out to be May

I initially considered a late March to very early May plausible birthday for Doyle, based on the fact that summer time had already started at the beginning of the story, plus it was "seven months" after the August wedding - give or take a week or so - and his birthday is "Sunday week" as he tells Bodie - I got the dates for summer time and everything. Then I read, quite late in the story, that it was April 1960.

So: research here, if you like (but most of it ended up redundant because she told us the information).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2xpHcSzUYJaRFU2NHk4ZlRPM00/view?usp=sharing

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[paris7am.livejournal.com]

I *hate* being otherwise occupied so I cannot participate the way I'd like to... I have to write and dash. :(

I remember being very enthralled by this story when I first read it, and was looking forward to reading it again. And I enjoyed it! A lot! but I also discovered that my first blushing love-blindness grew into critical glasses, too... Maybe it was knowing the plot, so not being on edge?

1) What do you think? Which way around would be more believable for you?
I thought the characterization worked - I could see it the other way round, too. Doyle does get portrayed as the computer geek much more than Bodie, but why? Not so sure. But Bodie is also portrayed as an author very realistically, too - as in Professional Dreamer? I didn't question it in this case - they worked for me.

2) What do you think of this story as a piece of writing? Do you believe in it?
There is so much to love! Yes, I believe it. I tend to be the one chortling while my teenager watches Ghost Adventures etc... I especially cannot take seriously anything in which people suddenly hear a message in a some strange static sound (NO, that was not a voice saying "I will kill you"!) But this was very well done, creepy and frightening, and Bodie's skepticism made it much more believable to me. I liked their relationship and how it progresses - there are some lovely lovely descriptions of each of them - the "safe sex" discussion and the focus on penetration aside. I had some moments of "No, don't stop and make sure you have a lovely little meal right now - please please finish what you're doing, so the Thing won't come out and eat you tonight!" whereupon they would go off to make a carefully described cup of tea and some light snacks... Sort of like that Eddie Murphy skit where he complains about how some folk - they see their toilet is full of blood and a monstrous voice says "GET OUT!" but they just stand there and say Hmmmm?

3) What about B/D and the paranormal - can you believe in that in this case? Is this how they'd deal with it, do you think?
In this universe, I think it *is* how they'd deal with it. They face it, investigate, work together. Except for all the tea breaks! The focus on the Thing working by affecting their perception through fear really made it okay for me.

I somehow wish that we had other stories to go along with it all - I want to know what happened in Africa, and the story of Bodie and Father what's-his-name, and how they work it out from here, and maybe a passage or two from A Man of Integrity (instead of the detailed descriptions of D's grandpa's life...?). Perhaps work in a Cowley figure...

Thank you so much for recommending this story!

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Yes, as you all have said, there are all sorts of reasons why this story ought not to work for me. Yes, as some of you have found, it does anyway. *g* I will admit I'm not all that fond of mixing the supernatural with the Pros world, but since this is AU, that aspect works fine (handwaving for illogical things aside *g*). And, since it is a complete AU, the characterizations can be broader than what I'd enjoy in a canon-based story. Basically, they have to have some resemblance to "my" Bodie and Doyle, and I have to enjoy them. I'm pretty easy when it comes to AUs. *g* Ellis Ward's writing style doesn't appeal to everyone, but it suits me. It's the sheer (some would say mind-numbing) detail she provides. I love it, but a lot of people can't handle it, which is fair enough. For me, the story works, I enjoy the characters, and (crucially), I can disappear into the story and just...enjoy it. Revel in all that detail. So, it's not a story that I reread all that often, and there are all sorts of issues with it, but when I'm in the mood for it, it works for me.

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It's funny, isn't it, how the all sorts of reasons can completely kill one story, and yet another story can be so rock-solid in other ways that we're able to get past them without problems...

I rather like her detail too, in most cases, though alot of it is hugely extraneous.It's not quite setting the scene or the atmosphere, it's more explaining than describing... and yet it works, it does become part of the atmosphere of the story. I don't remember that much detail in her other stories - or again, maybe I'm just not consciously noticing it for some reason - but now I want to go back and re-read them too, to see...

I can disappear into the story and just...enjoy it
Yes! Whatever she does, that's the end result for me too - and that's the most important thing... *g*

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward - Pt II

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

- One of the things I like about fanfiction is that it's rarely commercially edited; so no one replaces terms which are specific to one market, as with ''brinjal chutney'' which I discover is aubergine based. It's a moot point whether Doyle would have actually served this at all, let alone Bodie eaten it with ''sandwiches... filled with cheese and pickles''. It's hard to imagine what ''pickles'' the author envisioned, but it's not something which exercises me. The story has a number of culturally off notes like this, most notably the "potato cellar" itself, which despite the story's assertion that ''they had been fairly common before 1950'' are actually, by reason of the climate, almost unknown in the UK, and including my personal bête noire, the use of 'loo' as interchangeable with 'bathroom', but I didn't find any of them perturbing. It is an AU, after all.

However, in keeping with the ethos of the Reading Room (what's the point of embarking on something, just to stay in your comfort zone?) and the spirit of enterprise, I persevered.

And I'm glad that I did, because after the rocky start things got decidedly better. Horror is not my genre, but this wasn't overdone or laughable (I have a tendency to giggle at monsters) and I found myself getting truly caught up in the lad's terror. The dénouement wasn't anti-climatic and I enjoyed the lad's unfolding relationship (succumbing joyously to the dangled gigglebait of the last four digits of Doyle's 'phone number ''3645'').

Going back to what BSL said, I didn't recognise the 'voices' as being the lads from the show, I can't imagine the canonical Bodie or Doyle coming out with any of the things they say here, but again, since it's an AU, I didn't see that as a particular flaw.

All in all, I'm glad I put in the effort to read this and my thanks go to byslantedlight for suggesting it and, of course, Ellis Ward for writing it.

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward - Pt II

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I don't know that it'd need to be commercially edited as much as edited by someone who knows to do it - I'd've edited the brinjal pickle waaaay out of the story! Or I'd've added just a quick line to show that it is an odd thing for them both to like, and that it wasn't an everyday thing that you'd expect to be given with a cheese sandwich... I assume it's a confusing with American pickles, and the author perhaps thinking oh that's what they mean by pickle in England...

It's pretty clear the author's not English, and actually that she's almost certainly American, but... there's that magic, the rest of the story for me was strong enough that I could float past things like that.

I'm not sure she makes that loo/bathroom mistake though? She has the line "Right. 'S downstairs, just past the loo and the bathroom. And at Doyle's place Bodie went quietly with Doyle to the upstairs bathroom. There Doyle commandeered the toilet to relieve his bladder,

I didn't find any of them perturbing. It is an AU, after all.
I'm still working on this - for me, even if something's AU, it has to hold up in its own universe. If a universe is set in England, then it has to be an English universe... *g*

But I'm very glad that you ultimately enjoyed it! *g*

Re: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I admit it's one of my fav Pros stories. I love supernatural and I wish there were more. I want fear and scary and demons and, and... a downright horror story. I like LoT so much I have a personal copy printed and bound so I can indulge whenever I like. I need to get my zines out of storage soon! I wish I had time to read this right now!

Thanks for hosting.

RE: Legacy of Temptation by Ellis Ward

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I feel so inadequate - I have six zines (only three of which are Pros) in a bag. None of which are personal copies.

And I've only had those (and the bag) since May.

I do have an annual, which I've had since 1978 (at least that's what it says on the cover). That's on a bookshelf.

The annual is mostly Brian Clemens - and you'd have to be an ocular contortionist to get your slash goggles working on it!

Still, I wouldn't be parted...

I'm not a natural lover of the supernatural (or horror) and where I do like it, it tends to be things like The Wicker Man because I think people are much more scary than ghosts.

But I like Poe, and funnily enough (nods to heliophile_oxon) the film of The Devil Rides Out. (Consistency not being one of my virtues :0)). And, after I got into it, I liked this.

It'll definitely go on my 'worth another read' list.

So yea Reading Room, because I'd've sailed by it left to my own devices.

Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)

[milomaus.livejournal.com]

Tricks and Treats by Callisto (http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/19/tricksand.html)

I adore this story to pieces! It´s sadly rather short, but there is so much shown with just a few words, the Lads are clearly together for some time, even living in one flat. They know some of their neighbours, it´s Saturday, a day off, Bodie´s just home from a three day badger op and Doyle is about to go shopping.
It is Halloween. It´s never so much as written down, just kids on the door trick or treating, and so obvious, there are no explanations needed.

The part I like absolutely, totally best, is just one sentence. We as readers are still with the Lads last night and their mornings doings, Doyle reminiscing, when this comes:

Christ, was the carrier bag moving?

That´s all it takes to to make you read on filled with anticipation what happens next.
There is suspension, humor, laughter, mischievousness on all sides and love! The Ladsy kind of love, no sappyness. Nothing is told, everything is shown in detail, it´s wonderful!

RE: Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Aaaand yet again I'm supposed to be meeting a deadline today (buggrit!) but I do just want to say:

I love this fic SO DAMN MUCH.

Yes, maybe there's the tiniest bit too much of Bodie-is-just-a-big-kid-really (I mean, yes, he is - but it's just bordering on being laid on too thick at one point here ("the third kid in the room" is actually said in so many words). Still, it's bordering only, and the whole thing is so bloody brilliant that I would happily and joyfully accept this and more.
It's one of the funniest fics in Pros.

I feel positively guilty for liking it so much in spite of the possible harm being done to the poor unhappy ferret and the choice of a woman for the "bad" neighbour.

The description of the two kids - I swear I can see them. Can see Bodie relating to them - it's just bloody perfect. Kids in Pros are too often far too damn sweet or perfect, and these kids are grimy, inarticulate, borderline cruel, and blindingly obviously stuck with at least some difficult shit in their lives. And Bodie takes to them like a duck to water, of course, because they're practically him-as-a-very-young-child - and they ring true to the period in everything they do and say. The way he talks to them. I can hear every word.

And there's one thing I love which I have to apologise for because it's actually me mis-reading a line (I do it every time, even now that I know better): the kids' hair being cut skin-head short, which callisto describes as "nit-ridding". Now "nit-ridding" is perfect (not to mention being a very effective way of avoiding nits) but my eye reads it every time as "nit-riddling" (a riddle being a coarse sieve, of course) and for some reason I love this too, it always makes me think of the way nits have to be "sieved" out with a fine-tooth comb. Not sure why I mention that, but never mind! *g*

RE: Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I'm not quite as fond of this fic as you are (though I like it alot!), but I do agree about Bodie-as-big-kid being just a bit overdone. Maybe even just taking out the specific reference to it (which felt a bit like hammering home, just in case anyone had missed it) would have done it.

Good point about the woman neighbour being the "bad" neighbour - actually I've read a few fics recently where that's been the case, and it does start to stand out. It's either annoying on the part of the writers - or, possibly just as likely, an accurate reflection of the way men think - they would be more likely to define a female neighbour in terms of something annoying about her, because the alternative is that she's someone they'd fancy or who has the good taste to fancy them, and if she's neither then by definition she must be evil/an old bag/a termagant/etc. Blokes they just think of as other people...

Actually, hang on - one of those places was in Legacy of Temptation - the lads are quite nasty about her when the female neighbour complains about the noise at Doyle's house very late at night (as if that was unreasonable...), and she's described as an old bat... *headdesk*

RE: Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

This is a fun story - and it's one of those halloween-not-supernatural ones. *g* I like Bodie's relationship with the two lads, and Doyle's as well come to that - we see in the eps that they both like and can handle kids (without being soppy about them), so it works.

Christ, was the carrier bag moving?
Yes! Fabulously halloween-line, right there! *g*

(Though I do agree with Heliophile that Bodie-as-mischievous-chocolate-hungry-child is a bit too over-egged...)

RE: Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)

[murphybabe]

I absolutely love this, and thank you for recommending it because I hadn't read it before. Yes, Bodie is a bit too big-kiddish, sure. But a ferret! In a bag! And the two urchins are great because they aren't sweet, or deliberately cheeky, or many of the ways that children are often described in Pros fic. They are revolting.

There are so many specific words and phrases that I love that I can't pick them out to quote them - we'd end up with half the story in this comment. The writing is quite spare in places so we see the action - or the results of it - and I love the humour. A brilliant little fic.

RE: Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this one from start to finish, and every single word in between. Especially the ferret. Ah, it's just perfect - gentle and funny and sweet without the slightest hint of mush. My only complaint is it's short! How dare it be so short? I want more!

RE: Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Yes, I enjoy this one as well. Partly for the humour--it's meant to be a fun story, and it is. But mostly for the three-D-ness of all the characters--Bodie and Doyle and the kids. They're all just alive in the scenes, which makes for a good read. There are some technical things that I blink at and go on (like pov slips), and I agree with what others have said about the female neighbor, and, especially, I worry about the drugged-up ferret. But I also take it in the spirit with which it was offered: great fun, and a solidly together Bodie and Doyle. (Love it that Doyle buys one curlywurly. *g*)

RE: Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Apparently, 'Written for the "Discovered in The Anarchist Cookbook" challenge on the discoveredinalj livejournal community'.

If I was being really, really, picky, this story might benefit from a light polish.....but basically this is a nice little bit of fluff with a drugged ferret, a randy but knackered Bodie, an indulgently vengeful Doyle and a pair of engagingly feral street urchins who put me in mind of my own youthful trick or treating.

I felt a bit sorry for the ferret, but even that had apparently recovered by the end of the story.

Are Halloween stories supposed to have warm fuzzy endings?..........:0)

And yes - I liked the Christ, was the carrier bag moving? line too!

Re: Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

You had me at "Callisto".

Tricks and Treat by Callisto (hosted by milomaus)

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I don't know where to put this, because several people have commented on it. So I'm just adding it as a stand alone comment. I didn't actually find Bodie's 'big-kid-ness' overdone.

Starting with his 'eyes-bigger-than-his-belly' overture to Doyle, which ends with Doyle finding him in the living room, unbuttoned, and fast asleep in front of the test card, which I just loved.

So much of the time the lads have perfect sex. Perfectly passionate, perfectly redemptive, perfectly newly found or perfectly destructive, but this wasn't perfect, this was Bodie's flesh less willing than his spirit. This was Doyle's sly, but ultimately still loving, revenge. It was comfortable, stable - a real relationship - with all the pettiness and loyalty which that can entail.

Bodie is a serious man, with serious skills. To my mind, that's why he indulges the child within. Doyle uses guilt, Bodie reverts to the playground, as a mechanism for remaining human. A defence against becoming the cold blooded killing machine Bodie sees in Tommy McKay and Doyle is afraid he'll see in his mirror.