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

[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*