Calufrax

Story: Supreme Courtship
Author: x_los
Rating: Adult
Word Count: 6023
Author's Summary: From the Best Enemies Kink Meme: "Legally Blonde (the musical) crossover, Ainley!Master/Davison!Callahan. The Master is surprised to find an older version of the Doctor working as a cutthroat lawyer, but it's okay because older men are hot." Now with more Eight and Lucie, because Sheridan Smith!Elle Woods could not be ignored.
Characters/Pairings: Five/Ainley!Master, Eight, Lucie

Recced because: OK, so, logic dictates that I should probably choose something a bit more accessible (and I did say more serious... and I doubt x_los will thank me), but I want to rec this one, so, er, here it is!

Regarding the accessibility issue though and to bring us all up to speed, know this:
In 2010 'Legally Blonde: The Musical' (surprisingly excellent, despite being a musical adapated from a film)(which I also think is surprisingly excellent) opened on London's West End starring Sheridan Smith (who plays Eight's companion Lucie Miller) as Elle Woods, and Peter Davison (Five) as Professor Callahan, who is much more villainous than the movie version of the same character (one of his songs is called 'Blood in the Water') but who still makes a move on Elle towards the end. This spiffy video advert they did has some fun visuals of Smith as Elle, and Davison as Callahan (dancing). Really all you need to know is that Five's been chameleon-arched and now thinks he's a lawyer. I just think the Legally Blonde stuff is a fun background.

Anyway, so it's a good and amusing idea. Five is so totally unlike Callahan, who is quite like Ainley!Master. There's a lot of humour to be derived from that and from misunderstandings, etc, and if you're read other x_los stuff you'll know she's good at humour. She's also very good at a) writing porn - so if you like that sort of thing, there is some of that and b) writing the Doctor/Master relationship. Nothing is easy and no conversation isn't actually a confrontation, but they like each other enough that it works if either of them are willing to admit it.

This fic also has something else to recommend it - Eight and Lucie! One of my all time favourite Team TARDISes. They are very good here, particularly Lucie, who brings some fun meta-commentary on the Doctor/Master relationship towards the end. In short: I like this fic very much – I hope you enjoy it.

( Excerpt - this is Eight and Ainley, discussing options )

This is my last day of reccing - I'm sorry so many were of a similar theme, but I hope you've enjoyed some. Here I must trouble you once again with some more excellent Doctor/Master - and bizarrely it is yet more Four/Master, as if that is a common pairing one can easily over rec without caution...

Story: The Moment Has Been Prepared For
Author: x_los
Rating: Adult
Word Count: 3955
Author's Summary: From the Best Enemies Kink Meme, "Four/Ainley - sex at Logopolis, in which they genuinely connect and the Doctor thinks the Master isn't so bad after all..." Now with more DOOM. Also a Prelude to Scarf Destruction.
Characters/Pairings: Four/Ainley!Master

Recced because: I think this is one of x_los's best fics, which is saying something because I love pretty much everything she's written. It's a fantastic character study of each of the characters (in general, and in these specific regenerations - at these specific and important points in their lives. Four at the end, Ainley at the beginning) and examination of the relationship between the Doctor and the Master. It's melancholy and thoughtful, like 'Logopolis', but not without hope - or humour. Four becomes so dour in his final stories that he needs someone like the Master (someone he knows of old, someone it's worth impressing) to challenge him and push him to be his old self just before he becomes his new self. It's a very important and transformative fic, both plugging a gap between 'Logopolis' and 'Castrovalva' and changing the way those stories and their central characters are viewed. Also the prose is very good. I hope you read and enjoy it.

Excerpt: ““We may die,” the Master said, explaining himself when he didn’t need to, pressing the Doctor when he’d already surrendered. “We should take this chance,”–he meant ‘you,’ as if he needed the persuasion–“it could be our last. This may fail, we might never–”

The Doctor spoke for himself, unequivocally. “It is, and it won’t. But I’m dying regardless.”

The Master gave him a troubled look, and spoke more sharply than he intended to. “What do you mean?”

“The Watcher paid me a visit.”

Story: A Very Original Sin
Author: x_los
Rating: Adult
Word Count: 6,797
Author's Summary: “Just my friendly pet goosnake. He makes a much better companion than a cat: just as independent, sheds less hair, and he's very hypoallergenic.” After the TVM, Eight acquires an unorthodox companion.
Characters/Pairings: Eight, goosnake!Master, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Warnings: Explicit Sex

Recced because: I know x_los was last recced less than a week ago, so forgive me, but I would have been sad not to recommend this one. Where last week's rec was based around a clichéd premise, this is an 'original' one i.e. what would happen if after the TVM the Doctor had travelled with the ridiculous CGI gooey snake version of the Master (not dead - but of course) for a bit? Crack yes, but no more than 'canon' gave us, and oh what glorious crack it is. One of the things I like best about my OTP is the dialogue - but if the Master's a snake, he doesn't have any (not much, anyway) - fortunately Eight is a Doctor who can keep up his end of the conversation. Another thing, then, then I like about Doctor/Master is that it is a ship that spans the pretty ones and the not as pretty as Paul McGann ones. Goosnake fic should be ridiculous, but actually it's just business as usual because the Doctor is the Doctor, and the Master is the Master even if he's a snake made out of bad 90s CGI, and that's shown very well here. Also it's silly, and very funny, and very sweet.

( Excerpt )