I wanna know what love is; I want you to show me.

[thefourthvine]

Older fandoms, you confuse me so. The story I'm reading right now has piercing gazes, searing gazes, cuddling, comforting, lengthy descriptions of eyes that change color (Green! Hazel! Gold! No, I'm not kidding - really, gold, and this isn't the right fandom for him to have been implanted with a Goa'uld.), marriage proposals, men of action sharing their feelings in astonishing detail and with great (sometimes searing) honesty, a guy telling another guy how beautiful he is, holding hands, kissing, and two adult men (of action!) with extensive disposable incomes living together and sharing a bed.

And it's gen.*

I am patiently waiting for the mutual declarations of eternal love while hugging (or crying; I'd totally take crying) in the rain. Then, and only then, will I be able to stop reading.

So, does anyone have a story from an older fandom to recommend to me? You people have mostly been at this longer than me - surely you've got some nice gen or slash story favorite from a pre-LJ fandom that you could link me to. Gen or slash welcome - especially gen that I can read as gen. Seriously. Save me from myself. And this story. I am just bewildered, here.

-Footnote-

* Another gen story in the same fandom (but by a different person) features a noted canonical horndog turning down NSA sex with a beautiful woman because he's in love with someone else - that someone being, of course, the guy who is his Entirely Not Slashy Totally Hetero Life Partner. (It also had a paragraph about their great and abiding love, and the Totally Hetero Life Partner isn't even in the story. Nor is there any explanation of why the THLP would want his "friend" to turn down the sex - I mean, seriously, it was just presented as "this is what you do when you're in love with your THLP, forswear sex and cleave only unto him, but in a straight and manly way." I guess I am just not straight enough to understand that.) And the author's note contained a diatribe against slash. Oh, my people.

Comments

[joandarck.livejournal.com]

Oh, have you got any Wild Wild West recs? I read a bunch of that last year, but, yeah, it's hard to find.

[stillane.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Best I can really do is this (http://przed.com/fic/www/index.html), which you're almost guaranteed to have already seen. I get the impression there's a lot out there zine-wise, but... when you have this kind of material (http://stillane.livejournal.com/46802.html#cutid1), how can there not be oodles online, too?

Grr.

[joandarck.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! Yes, I've read the przed ones. And some others, too -- there was a whole page of them by somebody who had a bent towards West being kind of cruel towards Artie, including dub-con. I haven't seen the show in so long that I couldn't swear they were OOC, but they were certainly, you know, interesting.

[stillane.livejournal.com]

You know, I think I stumbled onto those at one point, too. And then kind of stumbled away again, because... well, I just couldn't see it. While Artemus may be extremely smitten with Jim, he's also the only guy around who will consitantly tell him he's being an asshole (politely, of course). Also, there's the whole fact that Artie getting hurt in canon tends to lead to Jim stoically flipping out. (The guy wiggs out on Ricardo Montalban. A freaky, magic Ricardo Montalban.)

And then there's Loveless, who at one point sets Jim up to go after Artemus with the line, "To make a man kill that which he loves, that is the challenge." Or something very similar. The word love is definitely in there, and there's no question he specifically means Artie.

Plus, they seem to have this geeky kind of affection between them. Artie makes things that go boom to impress Jim. Jim is... kind of a dork around Artie.

*does not at all think of SG:A parallels*

So, yeah. While I adore misunderstanding fic, I've got a hard time picturing them in a truly hurtful dynamic. They have too much faith in one another for that, I think. *shrugs*

[joandarck.livejournal.com]

The guy wiggs out on Ricardo Montalban. A freaky, magic Ricardo Montalban.

Well that, indeed, shows commitment. Not a man to be wigged out on lightly!

Plus, they seem to have this geeky kind of affection between them. Artie makes things that go boom to impress Jim. Jim is... kind of a dork around Artie.

AWWWWWWWW.

While I adore misunderstanding fic, I've got a hard time picturing them in a truly hurtful dynamic. They have too much faith in one another for that, I think.

Well, heck, I doubt there are many buddy shows where the main friendship is that dysfunctional! Now I'm trying to think of one. Uh... Pinky and the Brain?