fic rec: McFassy: Hard to Be Soft, Tough to Be Tender (NC17, RPS - James McAvoy/Michael Fassbender)
So, the pertinents -
Title: hard to be soft, tough to be tender.
Author: foxgloveli (I read it at mcfassy
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Michael is jailbait, James is confused.
(Her cut text - "If you're still alive, my regrets are few.")
Notes: Title and words for the cut from Help I'm Alive by Metric. Also, seriously blaming my twitter girls for this. <3 Also, inappropriate use of butter? There is a boy sitting on the pavement outside James' house, with a white vest and army cargo pants and black jacket bundled up in his arms. There is a small cardboard sign that says 'storyteller' beside him. James watches him while watering his garden, because the boy looks like jailbait, not because he's attractive or anything.
But he is.
I debated whether I actually wanted to rec this story for a little bit. Michael's age is ambiguously young. When I read it the first time through, for some reason I'd had the impression that Michael was 18 (even so far as wondering if jailbait meant something else in Britain or where the author is from), but it was, I think, a subconscious influence by his description in the quoted paragraph. I don't generally read under age fic... but I think in this instance it really is just ambiguous enough that it isn't as much of an issue.
My point is, the author has a brilliant concept here. It's just a beginning (enough of a beggining that I'm going to very politely ask her if I may borrow it a bit and explore something quite larger, with other characters and of course, with credit, because my muse has sat right up and paid attention) but it's an intriguing beginning. The sex, in the middle, detracts a little for me**, but only because it feels too quick, too left field. I wanted more build up... Especially in light of the ending. Which was lovely, I might add, and everything I wanted out of the story, and everything that her cut tag promised.
**ETA: Not to say that it was bad porn (as long as you don't mind a little misused butter, of course) - that was actually a bit poetic and dreamlike in and of itself.
Title: hard to be soft, tough to be tender.
Author: foxgloveli (I read it at mcfassy
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Michael is jailbait, James is confused.
(Her cut text - "If you're still alive, my regrets are few.")
Notes: Title and words for the cut from Help I'm Alive by Metric. Also, seriously blaming my twitter girls for this. <3 Also, inappropriate use of butter? There is a boy sitting on the pavement outside James' house, with a white vest and army cargo pants and black jacket bundled up in his arms. There is a small cardboard sign that says 'storyteller' beside him. James watches him while watering his garden, because the boy looks like jailbait, not because he's attractive or anything.
But he is.
I debated whether I actually wanted to rec this story for a little bit. Michael's age is ambiguously young. When I read it the first time through, for some reason I'd had the impression that Michael was 18 (even so far as wondering if jailbait meant something else in Britain or where the author is from), but it was, I think, a subconscious influence by his description in the quoted paragraph. I don't generally read under age fic... but I think in this instance it really is just ambiguous enough that it isn't as much of an issue.
My point is, the author has a brilliant concept here. It's just a beginning (enough of a beggining that I'm going to very politely ask her if I may borrow it a bit and explore something quite larger, with other characters and of course, with credit, because my muse has sat right up and paid attention) but it's an intriguing beginning. The sex, in the middle, detracts a little for me**, but only because it feels too quick, too left field. I wanted more build up... Especially in light of the ending. Which was lovely, I might add, and everything I wanted out of the story, and everything that her cut tag promised.
**ETA: Not to say that it was bad porn (as long as you don't mind a little misused butter, of course) - that was actually a bit poetic and dreamlike in and of itself.