Fic Rec: "Gruff 'n' Grim" and "X-Ray-Ted"

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Title: Gruff 'n' Grim and X-Ray-Ted
Author: HG
Link to story: Gruff 'n' Grim and X-Ray-Ted (both require membership of Yahoo group ProsLib).

So, I wouldn't normally call myself someone who had a big thing for teddy bear fic, but these were HG, so when I found them over at ProsLib (and btw, is anyone else not getting ProsLib emails, even if their settings all seem to be fine?) I had to read them on that basis alone.

And I totally found myself laughing, and feeling a bit warm and fuzzy, and laughing more... the bit after Ray reads the book! Just - heeeeeee!

Yes, there are teddy bears, but there's also Bodie and Doyle, and as HG is so good at doing, they are perfectly themselves, totally together and just... oh, go and read! I promise it'll be worth it - feel good fic at its finest. *g*

Comments

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have to say...the descriptions...I mean, I just wouldn't read these, right? *g* But I did and I fell for them completely many years ago. Fine. Label me what you will. I like these stories! Those teddy bears...oh, just go read them! *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

*g* So glad you like them too - but then it's HG, of course we'd like them, right? Teddy Bears or not... oh, but especially these teddy bears... *g*

[probodie.livejournal.com]

Oh I loved these stories; they are just soooo cute, arent they? I want to snuggle the bears up together :-)

I would rather have these ficlets than any that show Doyle as an Elf/Cat/whatever, quite frankly.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Heee! Yeah, these teddy bear stories beat the elf and cat stories hollow. Although I have to say that I like Arduinna Finn's elf stories - have you read them? Lighter-footed Than the Fox and... erm... the one that was the sequel? Oh, and The Hag's Moggy-Next-Door cat stories! See, just sometimes someone does something dreadful just beautifully - it's everyone who does the dreadful dreadfully that's the problem for me... If you know what I mean. *g*

[probodie.livejournal.com]

Oh I agree with you, and yes, I love Arduinna Finn's stories. Have to go and reread The Hag's one as I cant really remember that one :-)

[squeeful.livejournal.com]

O_o I hadn't even noticed I wasn't receiving emails until you said because I have been receiving some. I just thought it was a slow week.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, not just me then!

And then, wouldn't ya know it, I actually get a ProsLib email this morning... Not that that isn't a good thing, but now I'm even more confused!

Love the icon, btw!

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I'm ambivalent to these types of stories. The writing in these was great, and they were cute, but I found myself skimming the teddy parts and rushing to the the B/D parts. Reading the book part was fun. Funny for a romance writer to find these types a bit too much, considering the mush I'll read! The "voices" for the teddies was right on, so it's definitely just me.

I do believe I'll pass on the Doyle as an elf type stories. I've never found Blair Sandburg as an elf entertaining, so I doubt I'd find Doyle as one my cup of tea either. A cat? Is Doyle a shape shifter of some sort? Is there canon for that? +beg+ You'd better clue me in if I have bestiality stories to avoid! LOL. There are some in Sentinel since both main characters have animal spirits and have morphed into them in vision sequences in canon, so I know where those are lurking. It never crossed my mind there would be those types of stories in Pros. But now that it's been mentioned, I do remember seeing art in a zine with Doyle sporting horns. Not a good look for him I didn't think.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Lol - each to their own! I'm normally a serious hater-of-mush, but then I wouldn't call these stories mushy at all, that's just not the tone. But then teddy bears?!

Doyle as an elf is rarely of the good, cos of course they tend to be by writers that portray him as this slim, fey, delicate-type, and much as I adore Ray Doyle there is nothing slim or fey or delicate about him! (Well, maybe his hips are slim, I'll give you his hips, but that's about it!) That said, have you read Arduinna Finn's "Lighter Footed Than the Fox" stories? There are two of them (can't remember the second title, and I'm too lazy to search right now, but if you find the one you'll find the other - just be sure to read them the right way around! The first one is the very short one.) I'd love to hear what you think of them...

And I presume that the Doyle-as-cat stories that probodie meant were the Cat Tales stories, by Fanny Adams. I can take bits of them in small doses, but I have to be very much in the right mood. And yeah, Doyle's basically a shape-shifter, but in a sort of magic-Celt-y kind of way rather than an epic-fantasy kind of way. Doesn't quite work for me. And there's no bestiality, Doyle's always in his human shape when Bodie... well, actually I've not read them all, but I'm presuming... cos ewwww!

Actually I struggle with the lads-into-Celtic-magic type story as well. Fanny Adams' Cat Tales is one, and there are various others. Most recently I think Angelfish has been doing it - a little bit at the end of All These Years, but then more heavily in The Far Shore (in NFA) - and it really really throws me. The lads just don't seem the type, you know?!

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I guess I don't get the Doyle-as-a-delicate creature idea. I mean, in canon, he's actually quite nasty at times (Involvement on the balcony), can fight with the best of them, and out-does Bodie a lot of the times with his scrapiness. I don't think his being slim has anything do with his masculinity myself. He's a tough guy.

I did laugh, though, about the idea that he's not in his cat form when he and Bodie go at it. Never presume anything with fanfic. I'll bet it's been done (the bestiality part). I have no doubt. Might not be these stories mentioned, but somebody had to write it in the past thirty years.

I'll read the stories you rec'd. I trust you (so far!).

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I mean, in canon, he's actually quite nasty at times
Yeah, I'd almost say he's the more dangerous of the two - Bodie's got a more "practical" attitude to violence for specific purpose, but Doyle's got that anger inside him - and the number of people he's actually thrown over a balcony! I can't see Bodie doing that somehow - too controlled, he is - he'd be thinking of it as he did it, whereas Doyle'd maybe think about it after having done it...

As for trusting my recs - bear in mind that I adore Larton, Rhiannon in general, and Helen Raven, and MFaeGlasgow, which alot of people seem to find odd choices... And I didn't at all like Journey West, and struggled with All These Years and The Far Shore by Angelfish (though I liked her other ones). And I adore the Moggy-Next-Door stories, by the Hag - and alot of her others in fact, even the Purple Cow one... *g*