Hello! I'm widget285 and I will be at the tiller of the crack jolly boat for the Hornblower fandom this month. I do apologize for the late start this month, but I'll make up for it, I promise.

This month's installment is a bit of an experiment that I'm calling "variations on a theme." In thinking about possible recs, of stories that I've read and enjoyed, one thing that I've noticed is how sometimes two (or more) authors might touch upon the same theme and yet come up with different yet equally satisfying results. That is the starting point for this set of recs.

Theme no. 1 is drawing. Apparently those sailor boys are an artistic bunch, but then, look at what they have to work with?

Fandom: HORNBLOWER
Pairing: Horatio/Archie
Author on LJ: the_dala
Author Website: none
Why this must be read: Because this vignette provides some lovely insights into the relationship between these two characters. An artistically inclined Archie presses Horatio into service as an alluring, if reluctant model. It’s a sweet, sexy tale, as lovingly drawn as the sketches in Archie’s notebook. It’s a brief story, but well worth the read. And the ending is absolutely priceless.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Fandom: OZ
Pairing: Alvarez/Mukada
Author on LJ: lexa_c
Author Website: none
Why this must be read: Miguel Alvarez gets a surprising visit from Father Mukada in solitary. Um, I don't want to give too much away because this lovely, lyrical story is quite short. There's an exquisite sense of weariness and desperation here -- from both characters -- as this ever-complicated relationship takes a new turn.

A brief taste:

The padre should have wings, you think, and not the fragile and frayed paper-thin wings of a butterfly. Sometimes you think you felt the brush of his wings when he leant over you as you huddled half-in and half-out of the shower stall, the touch of warm feathers against your face, alive and thrumming with blood, snowy white and shading down to gold like something on a gilded-edged prayer card.

Read Misericordia

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: Jim/Blair
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: The Slash Zone

Why this must be read: Because the first scene starts out with Blair stripping down to a pair of white socks, nearly causing a riot and getting Jim to arrest him!

If you haven't already guessed, this story is an A/U. Jim, who is undercover, meets Blair in a strip club where the grad student is working to get some fast cash for school. Upon seeing Blair, Jim's protective Sentinel instincts kick into overdrive and before Blair can say 'shake your bon-bon,' Jim arrests him, not once but twice for lewd and lascivious behavior.

One thing leads to another and Blair winds up back at Jim's loft and they end up in bed together. Jim insists it's just the Sentinel/Guide 'bond' - or so he informs a stunned Blair whose never really heard of Sentinels and Guides before, but is intrigued. However, Blair isn't buying it, he thinks Jim and he share a deeper connection and Jim is in denial about being gay and so the battle of wills begins between these two strong men.

Is it love or merely the Sentinel/Guide component? This story twists that cliche, adds in some humor and takes the tired "bonding" story and turns it into a compelling journey of Jim's insecurities and inhibitions. This one hits all my buttons and I think it will hit all yours too.


Primal

Hi! I'm geek_mama_2 and I'll be recommending some great pirate!fic to you this month. My tastes are fairly wide-ranging, although I have a fondness for romance, h/c, humor, and well-written smut, both slash and het (although the latter is scarce on the ground in this fandom). Many great PotC stories have already been recommended, but I am gratified to see that quite a few of my very favorite stories have not. So without further ado, let's get started...

Fandom: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Pairing: Jack Sparrow/James Norrington (with a smattering of Jack/Will/Elizabeth and James/Anamaria)
Author on LJ: viva_gloria
Author Website: Imagin'd Glories
Why this must be read: Gloria is one of the best writers in the fandom, and this, her 31-chapter gift to us, posted every day in January, is nothing short of genius. It is the story of how Captain Jack Sparrow is marooned, and how he survives alone, in spite of injury, loneliness, fear, and occasional despair. And it's the story of how James Norrington cannot accept the rumor of Jack's death and begins to search for him. It's the story of men who refuse to abandon hope. It's beautifully written, funny, exciting, and heartbreaking. It is absolutely too good to miss.

Marooned

I'm Alyse, and I'll be giving you a whirlwind tour of Stargate: Atlantis fanfiction this month. I tend towards McKay/Sheppard, but I like to dip my toes into all sorts of genres and all sorts of pairings, so my recs this month will span gen, het and slash, and hopefully give all characters a look in.

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Author on LJ: thegrrrl2002
Author's website: thegrrrl's slashfic
Why this story must be read: For me, and for many other fans, the heart of Stargate: Atlantis is the relationship between two of the leads - Major John Sheppard and Dr Rodney McKay. Much as I love the other characters, it's the banter between these two that raises the calibre of many episodes. Certainly the some episodes become the Sheppard and McKay show and more than once the sheer joie de vivre in their exchanges has filled me with glee and made me laugh out loud, as they are alternatively snarky, sarky and sweet.

It's hardly surprising then that McKay and Sheppard is the most popular slash pairing so far, and of those authors writing this pairing, TheGrrrl is one of the best. She perfectly captures the rhythms of their speech patterns, the form of their banter and, most of all, the genuine affection and respect that underpins it.

Credentials is one of her early SG:A stories, and it therefore reserves a fond place in my affections. Snarky, funny, sexy and very, very drunk (at least Sheppard and McKay are), on the surface it's a plot what plot with an 'Aliens made them do it' twist, but, as with all of TheGrrrl's stories, there's so much more to it. It leads to angst and misunderstandings and John being slightly weird the way that only John can be before a happy, snarky ending.

I love Sheppard's slow realisation of what happened, and McKay's utter confusion and misreading of the situation. And the exchanges between the two of them are a joy. This is the way I can see a relationship between the two of them - both covering up their fears with sarcasm; Rodney's all bitter vitriol, John's half ironic and self-deprecating, and all the while watching the reaction closely.

Go read.