Fit to be Tied
| Bodie/Doyle Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Fit to be Tied |
| Author(s): | Gwyneth Rhys |
| Date(s): | March 1996 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | The Professionals |
| External Links: | online here |
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Fit to be Tied is a Bodie/Doyle story by Gwyneth Rhys.
It was published in Close Quarters and is online.
Summary from the Zine
"Can the lads survive hours of togetherness—a bit too much togetherness? Find out what happens when Bodie and Doyle become closely bound, literally, in a rather compromising position."
Reactions and Reviews
Inspired by a scene from the movie The Refi is hilarious and had me chuckling out loud. Doyle and Bodie are caught by the villains they are chasing and end up bound hand and foot in a warehouse, with a gun-toting guard for company. An 'another fine mess you got me into' scenario immediately erupts with each blaming the other for their predicament; the arguments get increasingly louder and, sad to say, more childish, until the guard can stand it no longer and gags them. A brief, wonderful silence follows while they consider the options, bearing in mind that the length of cord between hands and feet passes between their legs and thus any careless movement brings tears to their eyes. The only way to remove each other's gag is with the teeth ... and you can guess the result It proves to be too much for the by-now-hysterical guard: "I don't fucking believe this! You two are snogging!" he yells, stamping around in circles, hands to head. With that, Bodie slips his hands free and Doyle trips the guard - who by now is probably looking forward to the comparative peace of a spell inside, preferably in solitary! [1]
The beginning of this story is no surprise – an often used situation with the guys. It gradually develops some sort of plot which gets more and more amusing. Don’t expect a subtle and ambitious story, a subtext – no, it is just plain fun. And I dream about an episode about this story ...[2]
[The title is] an expression meaning 'to be furious' - very good title for this fic, in fact!Umm, apart from that, I didn't much enjoy this. I can see why Rhys thought it was a good idea - have the lads tied up and bickering endlessly, even annoying their captor.
What didn't work for me was what they actually said - the dialogue was off, somehow, not the words they would use... And finally, there is The Relationship. Rhys does a good job of showing that the lads are feeling off-balance and the sexual attraction is lurking. But I found the alternate kissing and bickering quite confusing.
Very nice ending though - it's worth it just for the last scene of trading insults (and very concrete physical description, too).[3]
Bizarrely enough, I always quite enjoy this story - and I say bizarrely enough because I totally agree with everything that you say! It's all so American-slapstick, from the dialogue down to things like "I don't fucking believe this! You two are snogging!" their captor yelled, his hands on either side of his head. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" he shouted, stomping around the room in circles. - I can picture that happening in half a dozen American comedies!The author's trying with the dialogue (snogging *g*), but it's the rhythms of it that are out as much as anything - as you say, there's absolutely no Liverpool sing-song to what Bodie's saying, when we're told he's sounding Liverpool, so it just doesn't quite work... And poisonous dwarf will only ever make me think of Lucy Ewing, now... *g* And of course pit vipers are found in the Americas, and etc etc.
But... It's almost so American that I've come around the other side of it - like Fly on the Wall - I like the premise of it, I like the idea of the situation and the tension between the lads and yet the humour of them... and because the author's got the rhythm of another genre completely down quite well - I'm sort of buying into the genre of it, I guess! Hmmn - almost like an AU where the lads are speaking in a completely different language (eg, Victorian English) and yet just about keep some spark of themselves? The spark's not quite enough for me to want to read it over and over, as I do with my favourite AUs, but it's enough that I'll buy into it briefly...
Or maybe I just like the idea of the lads tied up and unable to hide the strength of their passion any more... *g* Or, you know, the lads tied up. *vbg* [4]
The "alternate kissing and bickering" made me laugh out loud - yes it's a weird combination and that's why I like it. I can see your point with a exaggerating dialogue compared to the episodes. For me it is necessary to show a contrast.[5]
I can't say that I don't like the story, it's just...First of all it's IMO a quite believable origin for the story. I mean that the growing mutual attraction between them could cause a disturbance or even lead to annoyance. And I really like the imagination of them tied up like that...!
But although Doyle 'knows better' ("His last coherent thought was of Bodie, praying he wasn't dead") he is later very insulting to Bodie. And Bodie isn't better. They squabble like little children. Maybe that's a very 'nice' partner therapy for the both of them, but I don't really enjoy such verbal fights (unless they are very well written).
But I agree that the end is a nice summing-up(?) and very well done! [6]
I tried to read this but I admit, I'm very impatient with endless fighting, even when it's leading up to important revelations. I would have been happy with a very short story like this. I don't like bickering on telly either. It's very off putting in general for me.[7]
As a short story, I could have enjoyed it, but I was really with the villain in this one, after yet another round of insulting bickering and just wanted to shut both of them up! *g* So, I got impatient and skipped a lot, but nice ending! [8]
I agree... that the dialogue is out of character. I found it both too vicious and too immature - and for both reasons, not at all funny. I tend to agree with Firelfanzine that maybe it's good for them but not for the reader! But a 'spat' like that mostly reminds me of the school playground and just irritates me - very few adults insult each other that way out of either hate or love. I can't actually hear them, or even really see them, in this story, although the author tries really hard to make us see the cords. The last straw, for me, was 'tumescent manhood'....[9]
I have to agree with everyone who has a problem with the dialogue in this one. It’s just not the normal banter for the lads, they’re never that malicious with each other, so it doesn’t really work for me. Which is a bit of a shame as I think the story could have been a good one if it had been handled a little differently, the situation certainly has a lot of potential*g* The ending comes out better though, much more Bodie and Doyle and quite nicely done.[10]
I like the idea of this. It's a believable premise: the lads get edgy with each other as they try to deal with unrecognized and then unresolved sexual attraction -- they start snapping and pushing each other's buttons. I can go along with that. But the bickering really got on my nerves. It was too adolescent. I see the lads as occasionally boyish, but not immature. However, I confess this is a pet peeve. I see far too many writers who don't understand the difference between bickering and genuine conflict. I'm not saying that every fic needs a lot of conflict -- as you point out, this is just a quick, comic bit of a story -- it's just that I find bickering instantly tedious. (Unless the dialog is *very* witty and I didn't find this witty.) But that's my own bias...The writing is pretty pedestrian. A lot of unnecessary dialog tags, explanations of the obvious, just clumsy overall.[11]