Fancake

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Svetlana Vetrova, Yuna Hollander
Rating: Explicit
Length: 6087
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply. Shane is probably unfaithful to Rose - he doesn't seem to think their relationship's over at that point in the fic.
Creator Links: tackytiger on AO3
Themes: Pining, Ambiguous relationships, (not really) Unrequited love, Unreliable narrator, Canon LGBTQ+ characters

Summary: Does it count as Shane Hollander walking Ilya like a dog if Ilya buckles the collar on himself and hands Hollander the leash?

Reccer's Notes: Tackytiger describes the fic as a small character piece looking at Ilya's feelings at various points in his life. It's not tagged for "pining" but to me, that's very much part of Ilya's feelings. There are dog metaphors throughout, with young Ilya longing for a dog (but knowing his father would never allow it), then, in the Rose era, Ilya longs for Shane and snatches any scrap of Shane he can. It ends at the Cottage with their relationship restored and acknowledged, but there's still a sense of Ilya being dependent on Shane's attention and affection, still feeling like a stray who got lucky. Poignant, and really well written.

Fanwork Links: Lick, Lick - locked to AO3.
And there's a podfic by me.

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis, SG1
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Vala Mal Doran, Cam Mitchell, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan
Rating: Teen
Length: 6000
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: busaikko on AO3
Themes: Marriage of Convenience, Teams, Ambiguous relationship, Humor, Friendship

Summary: Rodney had extorted a promise from John to not get recruited into SG-1 while he was on temporary re-assignment to the SGC. As John finished reciting his marriage vows from the crib-sheet Mitchell had handed him, he suspected Rodney would never let him live this down.

Reccer's Notes: With Atlantis stuck in San Francisco, John goes out with SG1 on a mission that needs his gene, but the local Ori-worshipers require those entering the sanctum (where there may be ZPMs) to be married. So John and Vala get hitched, and are able to trade for not one but three ZPMs, which is just as well as later in the story John desperately needs both Vala and the ZPM-power. The story focuses on John and Vala's friendship which develops after their marriage and despite John returning to Pegasus, then later deepens into something more. Cam is initially a dick due to jealousy as he and John had a past fling, but he gets his head out of his ass. The John/Vala relationship is wonderfully written and we're left in the end with it still being an little ambiguous (this is Vala, after all), but definitely hopeful. A lovely read.

Fanwork Links: So Good to You

Fandom: Deadloch
Characters/Pairings: Eddie Redcliffe/Dulcie Collins
Rating: Teen
Length: 2518
Content Notes: Internalised homophobia, unreliable narrator, political correctness and Eddie aren't even in the same universe
Creator Links: pintpotjudas on AO3
Themes: Female relationships, Backstory, Ambiguous relationships

Summary: Just Eddie, musing on hair. And lesbians. And herself, a bit. (She's meant to be thinking about the case.)
Set in a lull (???) in episode five, or thereabouts.

Reccer's Notes: The detective partnership of Eddie and Dulcie is central to Deadloch, and it's "enemies to friends" in canon, but with a tantalising hint of maybe-polyamory at the very end of the show. In this story, Eddie thinks about lesbians in general (Deadloch's full of lesbians), her odd fascination with Dulcie's long, thick, hair, and remembers a female friendship from her teens. It's a believable character study where we understand a bit more about Eddie and see the beginnings of her attraction to Dulcie, even if Eddie's still mostly in denial. Interesting, and well written, with great characterisation and Eddie's usual hilarious and colourful turns of phrase.

Fanwork Links: Horsehair

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: Alt John Sheppard/Teyla Emmagan, Caroline Lam, Hank Landry, Sam Carter, Daniel Jackson/Vala Mal Doran, Cam Mitchell, Rodney McKay, Kate Heightmeyer, Jennifer Keller, Teal'c, Aiden Ford, Evan Lorne, Elizabeth Weir, Radek Zelenka, Carson Beckett, Bill Lee
Rating: Teen
Length: 45,630
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: vain_glorious on AO3
Theme: Ambiguous relationships, Amnesia, AU, AU: fork in the road, Bodyswap

Summary: A head injury changes Sheppard's reality.

Reccer's Notes: Sheppard falls and sustains a serious head injury off-world, and on waking, discovers he's not in Atlantis but in the SGC infirmary, and married to Teyla. He also discovers that everyone else recalls a completely different history for the past five years, and they think he's brain damaged, crazy, or both. This takes a fork in the road premise and runs with it, showing John's bafflement and refusal to accept that what he knows and remembers is a delusional result of the injury, despite all his bosses, friends, doctors and Heightmeyer telling him so. Of course, everyone thinks he's being a bastard to Teyla by not recognising her as his wife and recalling their marriage, but he remembers her only as his friend and teammate. He does love her, though, so his relationship with her is ambivalent, complex, and full of angst. Eventually, matters become clearer, and although John and Rodney aren't friends in this alternate reality (in fact Rodney actively dislikes him), Rodney nonetheless helps find John a way to set things right. It's left unresolved, with us not knowing whether John succeeds, so be aware of that if it might bother you. It's a powerful story of John trying to cope when everyone around him believes one thing and he's clinging to something very different, unable to be Teyla's husband while trying not to hurt her too badly. A great read - essentially Gen despite the relationship with Teyla, as it's not canon-John who's married to her.

Fanwork Links: The Undone Years

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: Rodney McKay, John Sheppard
Rating: Teen
Length: 2740 (text version)
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: Mad_Maudlin on AO3
Theme: ambiguous relationships, friendship, epistolary

Summary: After the events of "The Hive," Rodney write a letter.

Reccer's Notes: This is a classic in SGA fandom, and a brilliantly executed epistolary work. The first version is a scanned letter which I've tagged as fanart because making something this detailed and realistic is absolutely art, coffee mug stains, hilarious addendums, typos, and all. There's also a text-only version. This is Rodney, still detoxing from the enzyme, writing furiously to John to berate him for his actions in "Lost Boys" and "The Hive". The letter perfectly captures Rodney's rage and desperation, his jumbled thoughts and distractibility, and his intense feelings for John. It's funny in places but also very poignant, especially where Rodney writes about John's need to save Ford. The fic's tagged as Gen, but the strength of Rodney's feelings hints at a closer relationship, at least on Rodney's part. In fact, in pocky_slash's initial fic "Stutter" (very much worth reading) of which this is a remix, Rodney's feelings are clarified. It's an extraordinary creation, rings very true to character, and oh, the wonderful line: "THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH WINGDINGS IN THE WORLD FOR MY RAGE."

Fanwork Links: Dear John (WIP remix) (images version), and Dear John (WIP remix) (text version)

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Jack O'Neill, Elizabeth Weir
Rating: Gen
Length: 3367
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: 30toSeoul on AO3
Theme: Ambiguous relationships, Character study, Pre-canon, Pre-slash

Summary: The top secret base (or Tyler, as Sheppard starts calling it in his head) is a hundred and twenty-nine miles away, tucked into a valley in the Transantarctics, and it makes him blink the first time he sees it.

Reccer's Notes: The depiction of McMurdo in this Sheppard-centric story is excellent as the author did several RL stints down there on the ice. We see John's life in Antarctica, culminating in the events at the start of the Pilot, and we see him encountering Rodney. There's no real relationship between them in this, just a hint of some interest on John's part, at the end. It's an interesting read, especially if you're a Sheppard fan.

Fanwork Links: Harsh Continent