Gentlebeard's Story Corner

My place to celebrate and recommend truly wonderful OFMD fanfic and podfic. Over 18s only (due to rating of some work)

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Intro 📍

I finished reading yet another beautiful fic then listened to an old favourite podfic as I did my chores today, and I wanted to make a way to remember these amazing pieces of work. To celebrate them and recommend them and generally give love to the amazing authors and narrators who contribute such a huge amount to my fandom life, and to whom I'm very grateful.

These stories often change me on a molecular level as I read them, and it doesn't seem right to keep that to myself.

The fics I enjoy reading are all Ed/Stede (respectfully, you won't find Stizzy or Steddyhands here, because it's just not my thing).

I love an AU. Any AU really, gimme those silly middle aged men falling in love in any universe, but I've read and loved a lot of cannon too.

Not entirely sure what shape this will take yet, but I'm going to work my way back through far too many pages on my AO3 history and go from there.

[funkelnder-stern]

Merlin's smile in every episode💫🔮

S1E4 The Poisoned Chalice [4/65]

[estazolam]

To others, the yellowed pages hold nothing but a legend; to him, they hold the very ideal he has believed in, the faith he has clung to, the other half of his soul, the one he has loved devoutly, and waited a thousand desperate years to see him again.

Inspired by twi: solisolsoli

[lindie-kninjaknitter]

The podfic of “Liquid Gold” by @perkynurples is complete with 14 hours of audio for your next road trip or deep closet clean out! The 396 chapter SMAU is recorded in ten installments to follow the story beats, most 60-90 minutes with one two hour file. https://on.soundcloud.com/IEtUlAJWtp9J671Fln

Liquid gold By perkynurples

https://archiveofourown.org/works/40931679?view_full_work=true

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This story is so lovely! 🐝🎨

[lindie-kninjaknitter]

Podfic of “The Reno Cure” written by Rotten_Soldier, a gorgeous and meticulously researched 1959 historical AU, where Stede comes to a “divorce ranch” to legally dissolve his marriage and meets Ed, a fixture in the underground gay community. Narrated by me, music and sound engineering by happydaiz. 12 chapters posting Sunday and Thursday

The Reno Cure by Rotten_Soldier

https://archiveofourown.org/works/44880253

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very important information for your week

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by Zuckerbaby_1

Author:  Zuckerbaby_1 (if they are on Tumblr, please let me know so I can tag them)

Podfic narrator: Kninjaknitter (@lindie-kninjaknitter) (find podfic here)

Artist: Zuckerbaby_1

Rating:  Mature

Words: 21,517 (complete, 6/6 chapters)

I found this fic as a podfic first and it immediately became one of my soothing, comfort listens. It’s on Kninjaknitter’s ‘Insomnia’ playlist on Soundcloud for good reason.

I love this fic, for a lot of reasons, but importantly because it feels authentic. Ed’s history is so beautifully written: who he is, the family he found in many of the crew, and the queer community that was there for him when he was younger and that he helped shape and make a safer space for others later on. The shop always standing, always open, always safe, when it’s needed.

This fic is also funny! And fluffy. Ed and Stede’s meeting, and getting to know each other over fleeting, and somewhat confusing (poor Ed) interactions at the shop, are really fun to read. All the characters are such an enjoyable version of themselves to get to know.

Something about this fic, especially to listen to, feels like you’re in the Weirdo Hours yourself, that sort of liminal feeling of the early hours, when time doesn’t really exist and everything is a little bit possible.

There’s also some really lovely art by the author that gives such a fun insight into the shop and some of the things described in the fic, which is a treat to be able to see.

Author’s summary:

It’s 2007 and Ed Teach owns a sex store in Sydney, Australia. One day a strangely uptight but well-dressed strawberry-blonde rectangle of a man comes in and asks for Crisco shortening. He comes back every month or so, Ed flirts, the guy buys some Crisco shortening. Never looks around the store, never seems interested in anything else, doesn't respond to flirting. But still... He's buying all that oil-based lube. Colour Ed intrigued.

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by samwise and MerryFinches

Author: samwise (if they are on Tumblr, please let me know so I can tag them, *edit @well-tenderised-snake)

Artist: MerryFinches (@merryfinches)

Podfic: not yet, but 🤞

Rating: Explicit

Words: 70,146 (complete, 13/13 chapters)

My newfound love is a good exes to lovers gentlebeard AU, and this a good exes to lovers gentlebeard AU! Favourite trope, no notes.

I love the bitchiness and the bickering in this story and the love and heartbreak it covers up. I love watching Ed and Stede’s friendship re-blossom and watching them have fun, because they are very silly people who get to have a lot of fun in this story.

This was a Reverse Big Bang fic and MerryFinches art is so, so beautiful, I want to live in that colour scheme. And the story feels like the art, warm, bright, fun, loving.

The whole thing is like a warm Greek island holiday hug, with a dollop of bitchiness and true love (and seven sugars).

Author's summary:

When Stede misses the flight to Lucius and Pete's Greek destination wedding, it's already a disaster, but fate hasn't finished with him yet. Good news: one other wedding guest also missed the flight, so they can journey on together. Bad news: it's his ex, Ed Teach, who he hasn't seen since their messy breakup five years and four months ago. (Not that Stede is counting.) As they rush to make it to the wedding on the backup travel plan, new stresses, old heartaches, and sheer bad luck combine to make a hard journey even harder. Things are shaping up to be a disaster - but maybe fate hasn't finished with them yet.

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by moosh

Author: moosh (if they are on Tumblr, please let me know so I can tag them)

Podfic narrator: Kninjaknitter (@lindie-kninjaknitter) (find podfic here)

Rating: Mature

Words: 4,869 (complete, 1/1 chapters)

Series: Part 1 of gold star & squiddy pie

I listened to the podfic of I Need Another One months ago, then stumbled on the podfic of Three Novembers just today, and have now finished my afternoon reading the other four stories in the series. 

A story about (at least to me) looking after yourself the best you can, while trying the best you can. About finding the good, and the little things, and the things that get you through until things are actually, truly better. About forgiveness, and giving yourself grace, even while holding yourself to account. About the power of kindness to strangers.

I love the structure of I need another one, the little snippets of their friendship, it’s a format that is really lovely to listen to in a podfic. Then, if you explore the rest of the series you get all sorts of different writing styles to enjoy and get to know these characters better.

Check the tags carefully on these stories, and look after yourself, but so worth a read or listen if that’s something you want to do.

Author’s summary:

At the beginning of each month Stede comes into Ed's shop and gets a tiny, different colored star tattooed somewhere on his body. Stede never says why, and Ed never asks.

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Extra Reno Cure treat, the author, @the-rotten-soldier kindly made this playlist. Which I may have listened to. A lot.

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by Rotten_Soldier

Author: Rotten_Soldier (@the-rotten-soldier)

Podfic: I live in hope (and anguish) that we might get a podfic of this one day. I would have it on repeat, if we did.

Rating: Explicit

Words: 86,000 (complete, 12/12 chapters)

Series: Part 1 of From Reno, With Love

My love for The Reno Cure? Oh, my undying love for The Reno Cure. When I finished it, I wandered around in a sort of daze for a while, thinking there was something I must be forgetting to do. But it was just this world, and these boys. I wanted to live in it longer.

These are such fantastic versions of these characters. The love is beautiful. The friendship is beautiful. The heartbreak is beautiful. The story is so vivid, you can feel the dust and sweat from the desert on the back of your neck.

I love Ed and Stede in this story, so much. Rotten_Soldier writes Izzy as someone I would want on my side. They even manage to endear Calico Jack to me, you know, a bit. It's still Jack... ***

Author’s summary:

It’s the summer of 1959, and classics professor Stede Bonnet is determined to become a new man. He’s made two monumental changes so far: he’s resigned his position at the University of Chicago, where he has taught for his entire career, and he’s left his wife Mary, to whom he has been married for nine years. Now he’s off to the only place in the United States where you can get a no-fault divorce: the deserts of Nevada. He’s checking in to a so-called Divorce Ranch just outside of Reno, where he’ll spend the requisite six weeks establishing residency. After that, it’s off to California to assume his new teaching position and his new life.

It's the summer of 1959. Ed Teach has been living in Reno since he was a teenager. He's a radio DJ, an artist, a handyman and a fixture of the community, particularly popular in the underground gay nightlife scene that is still recovering from the brutal vice raids of the McCarthy era.

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by nomadsland

Author: nomadsland (if they are on Tumblr, please let me know so I can tag them) Podfic narrator: Kninjaknitter (@lindie-kninjaknitter) (find podfic here)

Rating: Explicit

Words: 56,524 (complete, 16/16 chapters)

Series: Part 1 of Pirates of the Care-i-Bae'n

Starting with a classic, I can’t imagine there are many people in this corner of Tumblr who haven’t read this one. Old Bae Season is on so many top fic lists in this fandom, and for such good reason. It is stunning. (As an aside, it is also one of the fics to blame for making me believe academic conferences must be much sexier than it is surely possible for them to be in reality...)

nomadsland and this fic are a masterclass in writing slow, beautiful, believable reconciliations. They write in a way that shows the hard work and love involved in forgiveness and makes you trust that there is hope. All whilst making your insides wiggly as you wait, as patiently as you can, for them to get there.

I will sometimes be happily going about my day when a line enters my head, unbidden, and destroys me all over again, in the best possible way.

The podfic, too, is a beautiful narration of a beautiful story, and hurts me in it’s own special way. ***

Author's summary:

Ed picks Stede up at a bar for what ought to be a one-night stand, but it turns out they're attending the same academic conference the next day.

“Yes, please, a – Loose Cannon, did you say? Really, how charmingly nautical.” There. Words. Sub-optimal words, but words nonetheless. He grins, aiming it toward the stranger while taking him in in smaller doses. Leather boots, faded, artfully ripped black jeans, a purple cropped shirt under a silky, billowy black – kimono? Overshirt? Facial scruff. Lots of hair, salt and pepper, pepper only just winning out, for now. Tattooed knuckles, forearms, collarbone. Earring, silver stacking rings on most fingers, a nose stud that somehow softens the whole, well, lewk and – okay, he’s staring. He stares some more as the man reaches to accept his own drink, revealing more tattoos up the arm and an inch more of skin below the crop top. The stranger makes some obscure gesture to the bartender, then meets Stede’s eyes, which he worries might actually be protruding from his skull, like a cartoon. AwOOga.