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

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

This has got to be Sentinel fic. You're reading old Sentinel, aren't you? *g*

That was never my corner of the fandom (or of fandom in general), so I can offer little explanation, but lo, I am amused.

[joandarck.livejournal.com]

I was just about to say, were it not for the eye colour, I would have thought that had to be Sentinel.

Is there completely non-sexual licking of someone from head to foot? By any chance?

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

Ah, the play of mental boxes, so endlessly fascinating. *bewildered with you*

:)

[carta.livejournal.com]

what the hell fandom IS that? (I'd totally read it.)

Also, I love love LOVE this story: Visual Aid (http://grapefruithead.com/ourboys/va.txt) by Charlemagne. - Sports Night, Dan/Casey with the "I am straight! But I have a life-size picture of my best friend in my bedroom! I touch myself while I look at it! OMG!" angst. It's awesome. I dub it pre-LJ since the fandom was not primarily on LJ at the time, and the show has since been canceled (woe).

There is no gen in Sports Night - even the "gen" stories are slashy. Such is the way of the Sorkin.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

It is totally not TS. (For one thing, I think I read every readable story in that fandom like three years ago; it was my gateway to dS.) It is much worse than TS as far as Gen That Is Totally Not Gen goes.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Do we get to guess the fandom?

Twenty bucks on The Sentinel. :-)

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Bwee! (http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/78863.html?thread=3470351#t3470351)

[notpoetry.livejournal.com]

One of the first slash stories I read was Trigger Fish's New York Rain (http://members.tripod.com/waywardslashwriters/NewYorkRain.txt). It's Law & Order (I know), Jack McCoy/Mike Logan (I know), and right now I'm repressing the urge to reread it for the trillionth time because I know it can't possibly be as good as I remember it. It's old-school slash fanfiction, with a lot of elements that were new then but have become cliche now, and some classic tropes that have entirely fallen out of style. The whole series is fascinating to read just from an "evolution of fandom" stand-point. I almost wish we'd had LJ, so I could go through and read the comments on the story and see what other people thought.

Just for reference: according to the collective page this site is hosted on, it was last updated in August of 1998. I ... won't share how old I was then, because then I'd have to go and cry.

(The whole series is up here (http://members.tripod.com/waywardslashwriters/Trig.html), and all of it is worth reading.)

(I know the internet is a very small place, so ... is there any possibility that TrigFish is, say, out and about on LJ anywhere?)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Is there completely non-sexual licking of someone from head to foot? By any chance?

Not yet, but I live in hope. It seems inevitable, really.

[nestra.livejournal.com]

I vote for Starsky and Hutch.

Though the changing eyes could totally be Doyle's, if she's reading Pros.

[notpoetry.livejournal.com]

That is my 2nd favorite Sports Night story of all time. It has the best Dan/Casey kiss ever.

Oh my god I love it so much.

(Also, the entire Our Boys (http://grapefruithead.com/ourboys) archive is hours of fun.)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Let us boggle together, shall we?

*boggles*

[joandarck.livejournal.com]

Green, hazel, and gold could be Star Trek -- there are a lot of gold eyes in Star Trek.

[meresy.livejournal.com]

Could even be early Due South. Ray Vecchio's eyes get that treatment sometimes. *g*

[zoerayne]

Heh. I have to admit my first thought was Sentinel, but the eye colors are wrong. *g* I would guess Pros, but I don't think I've every read anything quite so OOT in Pros.

There's actually a genre name for those kinds of stories: smarm. I don't know if anyone uses the term anymore—I haven't heard it since Sentinel fandom's heyday—but it used to be very commonplace.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, I love Visual Aid. It's so fabulous. And now you've made me want to re-read it, which is a great blessing, because a) it's way better than the story I was reading for most of last night (see above) and b) it's short, so I'll be able to get some work done soon.

There is no gen in Sports Night - even the "gen" stories are slashy.

You're talking to someone who wrote a gen story in which Dan plots to destroy Casey's love life (and his diet), and who is currently writing a gen story in which Dan and Casey are experiencing homophobia in the workplace. (No, really. It's...a long story, at this point.) So I am forced to agree with you: the Sorkinverse is just that slashy.

But then, I totally write my SN stories from the perspective of They Are So Doing It. I mean, I don't come out and say they're in a relationship, but in my heart, I believe it with every fiber of my being. Oh Danny! Oh Casey! Yours is the forever love.

*wistful sigh*

[giandujakiss.livejournal.com]

Starsky & Hutch gen stories were like that too, I'm told. Some may still be. And of course, back in the day, gen fans were really at war with slashers; some threatened to report slashers to the copyright holders.

[meresy.livejournal.com]

Of course, the addendum precludes that. :-P

[stillane.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'm gonna have to assume this is either in the Professionals or Starsky and Hutch zone. I'm leaning more toward S&H, though, because of the cuddle factor. (And you're totally not going to tell us, are you? *puppy eyes*)

As for pre-LJ fandoms: I'll let you know. I'm going through a Man from U.N.C.L.E. kick just now, and spent a sad few days last week unsuccessfully looking for the huge trove of The Wild Wild West slash that just had to be out here somewhere. If M.U.N.C.L.E. trips your fancy, I can keep track of what I liked.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Man, why does everyone think TS?

*has a moment of remembering all the "gen" TS she's read*

Oh, right, that's why. But, in the defense of those writers, I have to say that much of what I've outlined above could have happened in the canon in TS. Jim and Blair were special that way!

[joandarck.livejournal.com]

Wait, how so? "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." -- that sounds like Kirk and Spock to me...

[rydra_wong]

and this isn't the right fandom for him to have been implanted with a Goa'uld

Stealth crossover!

Seriously, wouldn't that add so much to so many golden-eyed stories? At first, you think you're reading smarm, but in the next chapter - Goa'uld takeover of the planet!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Can I just say I am a little disturbed by how many fandoms have changing eyes? GOLD changing eyes?

[meresy.livejournal.com]

You never know, with these crossovers. ;-)

[drlense.livejournal.com]

My fandom guess is "Magnificent 7". There's almost as much "heterosexual life partner" fic in there as there is in "The Sentinel".