Thirty Days of Recs, Day 6: D/s AU!

[sabinetzin]

Oh, D/s AU. It’s something I feel like I read a lot and barely ever like. I really like it in theory, but in practice, it often ends up being a justification for OOC behavior, nonsensical worldbuilding, and jacked up moon logic. So here are some stories that don't fall victim to that syndrome.

Take Clothes Off As Directed by helenish
(SGA, John/Rodney, ~11000 words, NSFW)
This story has some problems, but it's still one of my favorite SGA fics- it was, in point of fact, the first SGA story I ever read.

The Directedverse by aris_tgd
(House, multiple pairings, mostly NSFW)
This is actually the story that lead me to the previous entry. In a lot of ways, I like it better; it's not a response in the same way that Take Clothes Off As Directed was, so the world is constructed somewhat differently. On the whole, it feels less like genderswap-in-hiding and more like a fully realized D/s universe.

The Spaces Inside by lavvyan
(SGA, John/Rodney, 7664 words, NC-17)
I really like this story because of how different it is than most D/s AU. It is, at its heart, a love story, but it's about two deeply fucked up people who start off in a fucked up place, and it's really beautiful and sort of heartbreaking.


Day 1: Teen AUs
Day 2: Illustrated stories
Day 3: Hilarious stories
Day 4: Ladies, Part 1
Day 5: Dirtybadwrong stories

Comments

[seekergeek]

Oh, D/s AU. It’s something I feel like I read a lot and barely ever like. I really like it in theory, but in practice, it often ends up being a justification for OOC behavior, nonsensical worldbuilding, and jacked up moon logic.

Ha. That's the same way I feel about Sentinel and soulbonding trope fics. I want to love them, but they always seem to be crap. It makes a fangirl want to cry in her Cheerios. I so sympathize.

[cesare]

"This story has some problems"

I'm curious to hear more about this if you're willing to elaborate. As Directed is one of my favorite stories in any fandom. But nothing is perfect. So I'd be interested to know what problems you see in it.

[sabinetzin]

The main problem I have with As Directed is that it's really a genderswap story. It doesn't have the elaboration I'd like to see; it's simplistic to say that a universe that sees itself in terms of doms and subs would work the same way as one organized into men and women, even if there are major similarities. I get why she did it that way, and I think it works great as a counterpoint to Xanthe's stories, but it's not totally satisfying as a D/s AU, y'know?

[cesare]

That is interesting. Personally I love that it posits a universe where subs have the social position of women in our culture... I loved the anecdotes showing how the submissive role is socialized and how that divorces "femininity" from gender by showing how sub socialization gave John some stereotypically feminine behaviors. I guess it didn't feel simplistic to me because it's an idea that was familiar to me but that I never knew that I really wanted to see dramatized in a story until I read Directed. If you've read things in that vein before, I imagine that aspect is pretty 101, but it was really satisfying to me.

Also I never read the stories that it was written in counterpoint to; maybe that would change my perspective too.

[aris_tgd]

Hey, thanks for the rec! I'm really glad you like the stories. They were a lot of fun to write.

I should point out as I do whenever anyone recs this by pointing to that tag that there are some non-House things on that tag--I wrote a Pirates of the Caribbean story that I posted in two parts which will also show up. If you just want the House stuff it's all on the AO3 under this series tag which is also where I'll add more if I write it. (I've got a few short things for kink_bingo this year which will show up there when I post them.)

[sabinetzin]

Thanks! ::changes the link::

[stagnation13]

but in practice, it often ends up being a justification for OOC behavior, nonsensical worldbuilding, and jacked up moon logic.

I will be sure to keep these things in mind as I continue to work on my SGA D/s AU.