These Are a Few

My mental health is a bit of a mess at the moment, so I need something cheering to do tonight. I've decided to share some recs based on the favorite story elements that I posted in my recent thread on that topic at ci5hq.

I asked about people's favorite and least favorite themes/tropes/story elements in Professionals fic. This was my own response:

I like hurt/comfort, believed-dead plots, amnesia, melodrama generally, undercover as gay, arcs about overcoming internalized homophobia, fics with backstory, dæmon fic, and sci-fi AUs, especially if the characters retain analogous jobs and backgrounds.

I don't like rape fics, years-long separations, permanent disability, fics with open endings, or AUs that give the Lads totally different lives or histories. That said, I think I have examples of all of those things except the last in my collection of favorite Pros fics.

In this post, I'm going to name my favorite examples (as far as I can remember) of each of these elements, including the elements I don't usually like. I'm going to cover both of my major fandoms: The Professionals and The Man from U.N.C.L.E..

(Recs like this inevitably include minor spoilers. I've enclosed the more spoilery of them in spoiler tags, however.)

hurt/comfort
Pros: Definitely the Lost and Found series by hutchynstarsk (gen)
MFU: There is a lot to choose from here, but I'll go with Scheherazade by leethet (gen). Honorable mention to Fear Itself by Rellim78 (gen).

believed dead (inherently a somewhat spoilery category)
Pros: [Spoiler (click to open)]The Palest Ink by JGL (slash) or Phoenix Rising by przed (slash)
MFU: [Spoiler (click to open)]Oubliette by LeetheT (gen) or A Light in the Window by otherhawk (gen)

amnesia
Pros: There You Are by jat_sapphire (slash)
MFU: Shore to Ocean by channeld (slash). This fic works for me, but YMMV.

other melodrama
Pros: As You Now Are In Your Blood by morganstuart (gen) and Endgame by Tarot (chrisquinton) (slash)
MFU: A lot of my favorite MFU fics are more or less melodramatic, but I'll go with Friend to Fear by paulah (slash)

undercover as gay
Pros: Masquerade by Tarot (slash)
MFU: None. There are relatively few examples of this trope in MFU fandom. I've read a couple, but none that I feel enthused about. Recs welcome.

overcoming internalized homophobia
Pros: My beloved Just When You Least Expect It (Just What You Least Expect) by Stew (slash)
MFU: Steam by AconitumNapellus (slash). Honorable mention to Spiderweb by Cord Smithee and its companion piece All the Kasha They Could Eat by Jest (both slash).

fics with backstory
Pros: There are so many fics I love to choose from here that any selection will only be the favorite of the day. Today, I'll pick one for each of the Lads: Camouflage by lezlies (gen) for Doyle and Sighting by halotolerant (slash) for Bodie.
MFU: Again, it's hard to choose, and in this case I've already mentioned some of the possibilities. Let's go with The Blind Eye Affair by evan_nicholas (gen) for Napoleon and Monsters by azdak (gen) for Illya. (If you feel that what Monsters includes is not quite backstory, substitute The Commotion in the Commissary Affair by otherhawk (gen).)

dæmon fic
Pros: There are no dæmon fics in Pros! Somebody write me one!
MFU: The great Work-master/leads to no excess by Malteaser (gen), despite its very weird name.

sci-fi AU
Pros: Heat by Lainie Stone (slash), which is on the Proslib CD. Among Internet accessible stories: the Dirty Computer series by jat_sapphire (slash).
MFU: MFU canon is sometimes sci-fi itself, of a B movie type. For extra sci-fi goodness, though, try Return to Save Point by captain_starcat (gen) or Unit I, Series LYA: Press to Activate by orockthro (gen).

And now for the least favorite elements, most of which, as I said, I still have examples of among my favorite fics.

rape fic
Pros: Mere Anarchy by Rebelcat (slash)
MFU: Home by AconitumNapellus (aconitumn) (slash)

years-long separation
Pros: The Greatest Song I've Ever Heard by jj_minerva (slash). (Originally I listed The Last to Know by PR Zed here, but a check showed that the separation in that fic is not as long as I remembered.)
MFU: At a Distance by Nyssa (slash)

permanent disability
Pros: Signing by agent_talis (slash) and Decrescendo by erushi (slash), though I have mixed feelings about the latter which you can read about here.
MFU: None. I'm sure AconitumNapellus's series To Live a Little (slash) is as good as everything else she writes, but I haven't been able to read it as I find this theme triggering (in the older, more formal sense).

fics with open endings (another somewhat spoilery category)
Pros: [Spoiler (click to open)]Love Lies Bleeding by Shoshanna (the_shoshanna) (slash)
MFU: [Spoiler (click to open)]Need by Paper_Crane_Song (gen)

very divergent AUs
Pros: None.
MFU: None.

Another dislike, which someone else's comment on the favorites thread reminded me of, is "Ray as pitiful" (the analog in MFU being "Illya as pitiful"). As in the case of most of my other dislikes, however, I do have some favorites that include this element, although I wouldn't describe the characters as pitiful so much as delicate, submissive, or dependent. The issue is fairly mild in both of the stories I mention.

infantilization of the designated woobie
Pros: All the Queen's Men by Victoria Racklyft (slash).
MFU: This Kind of Thing by ChannelD (slash), which hits two dislikes, as it's also a rape fic. (That goes a long way to justify the way ChannelD writes Illya here, but not all the way, in my opinion, especially at the end of the story.)

Finally, I've thought of another story element I love and will read fics on the basis of: relationships that fall between what is generally considered normal for a friendship and what is expected of a romantic relationship. I'd definitely appreciate any recs of that kind. My own appear below.

liminal relationship
Pros: The Long Trick by fiorenza_a (gen)
MFU: Lipstick and Vodka by Orockthro (gen with Illya/OMC). I also wrote an MFU fic of this type: What We Are by TinTurtle (gen?).

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How about you? What are your favorite fics with these elements? How about with your own favorite elements?