mouthporn.net
#team as family – @theoldguard-recs on Tumblr
Avatar

The Old Guard Fic Recs

@theoldguard-recs / theoldguard-recs.tumblr.com

Need to find that one fic you lost? Try oldguardfinders!
Avatar
When Copley first learns of the God Killer, a new drug promising euphoria and invincibility, he doesn’t think much about it. The Old Guard isn’t in the business of catching drug traffickers, after all. But when he learns that people who shouldn’t have started dying of old age, the job suddenly seems more up their alley than he originally thought. With only what Copley’s been able to glean from his files, the Old Guard embarks on a journey to track down the warehouse manufacturing the new drug and to find out who’s behind the sudden deaths. What follows is intrigue, mystery, and more introspection than is required before Andy’s morning drink. Can the Old Guard stop the production of the God Killer before it’s too late? And who will they be when they come out on the other side?

No Archive Warnings Apply, canon-typical violence, unhealthy coping mechanisms, non-linear timeline, angst and feels, past relationships, background relationships, pov alternating, post-canon, mission fic, ensemble fic, communication, character study, families of choice.

gen, background canon relationships | 57k | Mature

Author Recommendation: I had a lot of fun planning and writing this fic, most especially because the fic went in a direction I hadn’t intended when I first wrote the prologue. I am particularly proud of the characters and the plot and in the end, this fic turned out to be mostly “found family goes on a mission and there’s action and mystery and intrigue with a little bit of dark humor.” Which, if I’m being honest, is my new type of fic to write. 

Avatar
Nile falls for the cashier at the corner store.

No archive warnings apply. Lesbian Nile Freeman, Nile Freeman-Centric, team as family, family bonding, internal conflict, developing relationship, awkward flirting, existential crisis, other additional tags to be added

Nile/Celeste | Incomplete | Teen

What I loved: Nile/Celeste!! What a galaxy-brained take! Celeste is so observant and so smitten at first sight - this is a fun read, and I hope the author continues this WIP. Go give this rarepair some love!

@aftermillennia is on Tumblr and has written other fic for the Old Guard!

Avatar
It's a tradition that had been born after a particularly awful job in northern Sweden; a simple affirmation that there were good things in the world even when they were up to their necks in the absolute worst it had to offer.
---
When the fighting is over and the mission has ended the family takes some time to take care of themselves and each other.

No archive warnings apply. Team as family, domestic fluff, fluff without plot, established relationship, showers, family dinners, family feels, post-canon, literal sleeping together, found family

Team as Family | ~2600 words | Gen

What I loved: Nothing makes me happier than the team being a family. Domestic fluff and how they take care of each other? Destroy me. The thing of this fic is that it goes back to how they’re not meant to be alone and them taking care of one another is something so special here. I love that this is an established thing they do and how they recenter themselves with the team.

Avatar

Fics:

All Nile-Centric | ~5500 words total | Teen

Dealing with immortality, processing, group bonding, finding a role, introspection, found family, death and dying, angst, grief, Andy is dying, soft, very long time jumps, character death (but peaceful), everyone we know but Nile is dead at the end [of the 3rd fic], new immortals.

Mod note: 3 fics; the first taking place 3 months post-canon, the second when Nile is 85 (60 years post-canon), and the 3rd when Nile is around 4000 years old. Series is marked as complete.

What I loved: Okay, you know when you’re in a Mood and you just listen to sad music and watch sad things because you need to just Be Sad For A While? That was me the other night. I needed a good wallow, so I found some fics that made me sad but made me feel better at the same time. This fic is poignant and lovely. It shows the changes that Nile goes through over her long, long life, but it also shows all the ways she stays the same. This is such a great take on Nile and Nile’s future and I really loved it. It feels very introspective, as it should, and I really was impressed by just how immersive it is.

Avatar
Nile vs. Married Life.
Or: Nile and Nicky draw the short straws and go undercover to expose a neighbourhood crime ring. It is not Nile's idea of the best time.

Graphic depictions of violence. Undercover as married, undercover missions, team as family, fake/pretend relationship, some misandry, canon-typical violence, domesticity, friendship, background relationships, competency, everyone is still friends

Platonic, Joe/Nicky | ~9600 words | Teen

What I loved: I love mission fics like this, I love the insight it gives into how Nile works with the team. It’s also very fun to read about this type of thing and how comfortable Nile is with Nicky. One thing I loved most is that it is SO clear that she’s friends with all of them and this feels like the sort of inside joke you’d use at any opportunity. This does a great job of showing a different type of mission the team might take and I just adore it. This author has written other fics for The Old Guard on AO3, though I did not see anything about if they were on tumblr!

Avatar
Andy loved her family. She loved Quynh, though she missed her lover constantly. She adored Joe and his easy laugh. She had loved Lykon and the stories he told. Loved Booker for all his faults. And she was coming to love Nile as well, and knew she would cherish the years she got to spend with her.
But Nicky would always be special to her - the little brother she had never had. There was just something about him that had made her want to protect him - to keep him safe and happy.
~~~
Or, Five times Andy was Nicky’s big sister, + one time he was her incorrigible little brother.

Content Warnings: No Major Warnings Apply

Tags: 5+1, Found Family, Fluff, Andy + Nicky Sibling Relationship, Friendship

Relationships: Nicky/Joe, Andy/Quynh

Word Count: 15107 (incomplete, 5/6 posted )

Rating: Teen

Prompted on the discord, and I absolutely had to write it! Kudos to the original prompter, as I had so much fun writing this :)

Avatar
"Is this a date?"
And Andy waits only a beat before saying, "No," at the same time that Joe nonchalantly says, "Yes," right at the TV.

No archive warnings apply. Post-canon, developing relationship, friends to lovers, team as family, slice of life, ficlet.

Andy/Nile | ~300 words | General

What I loved: This was one of the earliest Andy/Nile pieces in the fandom that I know of, and it’s a very sweet dinner-night-in-that’s-not-a-date! The author is on Tumblr as @rhubarbdreams and has written extensively for the Old Guard!  

Avatar
Andy did this on purpose, she’s sure of it. No matter how many excuses about skillsets and plans and 'you’ve been working on your Arabic, it’ll be good practice, Nile'… she knows now it was all a bunch of lies. There can be no other explanation for why she has been here, stuck with Joe in the middle of a hot, Italian summer while Andy has taken Nicky to the northern most part of France. It is a unique and unexpected kind of hell.
(A series of seven stories, snapshots of the first few years of Nile's time with the team. I'm trash for Nile & Nicky & Joe dynamics so there's a lot of that in here, but the others are all part of the craziness as well.)

Creator chose not to use archive warnings; additional warning in the author’s note at the start. Team as family, POV Nile Freeman, Canon-typical violence, slice of life, what would they do without Nile, We are just here for 13k of fluff and bonding and minor angst people, some plot, sharing clothes, protectiveness.

Team as Family with background Joe/Nicky and Andy/Quynh | ~13000 words | Not Rated, Gen

What I loved: So much of this fic feels warm and cozy to me (perfect for what’s a blustery November day in my part of the world) – I love the bonding, I love the vignettes, and there’s some very sweet Joe/Nicky content throughout. Nile getting used to the dynamics of the team takes centre stage, as do some extended convos between her and the other Old Guard folks.

The author has written other fic for the Old Guard!

Avatar
Quýnh is back from the dead, in a sense. She wakes most mornings with Andromache beside her, but they haven't been touching and they certainly haven't been talking.

No archive warnings apply. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Healing, Guilt, Getting Back Together, Touch-Starved, Team as Family, Character Study

Andy/Quynh | 3400 words | Teen

What I loved: I so appreciated the direction that this author took a possible conversation between Andy and Quynh, addressing feelings of guilt! This fic scratched an itch I had for this pairing and it’s really lovely. The author is on Tumblr as @biblionerd07 and has written other fanfic for the Old Guard!

Avatar
What is the rate of grey cast iron (Fe 94.3, C 3.4, Si 1.8, Mn 0.5%) corrosion in seawater? Joe wonders.
Joe sparks ideas. Booker does the technology—he loves the mechanics. Nicky noodles through the art of the possible. Andy pulls them all together and executes the plans. And, honestly, Andromache the Scythian would never stop looking – have you met her?

Creator chose not to use archive warnings. World War II, Unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Gen relationship | ~5600 words | Teen

What I loved: An inventive take on the “finding Quynh” story where the Old Guard works through different methods of search, eventually including modern technology! I found the ending rather hilarious, and the fic formatting really enjoyable.

Avatar
“One hundred years, Book, except for one day each year.”
He's too stunned to say anything at that, hollowed out by the new information, and instead just lets her pull him into a hug that creaks at his ribs. When her hand brushes the back of his head, he leans in closer, hoping to hold onto the moment and commit it to memory.
There are small mercies in the world, and somehow he’s been given one.
He watches them turn their backs, climb the stairs up, and go, while wondering about trees falling in forests. The sound of his own loneliness echoes on and on like frothy waves lapping on the shore until he leaves himself.
A year passes uneventfully, and he barely notices the time go until a message comes through on a secure email account he’s kept active for the past five years and tells him, ‘Prague’.

No archive warnings apply. Alternate universe, exile for a hundred years – except one day, and obviously it doesn’t last the full hundred, baklava guessing game, top tech recs, Copley brings the board of history to Booker, found family, post-canon, reunion fic, happy-ish ending, some angst along the way

Booker-centric, platonic, team as family | ~9400 words | Gen

What I loved: This one feels like a very compassionate take on Booker’s exile, and months later it holds up when I’m in the mood for this sort of fic.

Avatar
Andy knew that Nile’s bright-eyed demeanor could never last—that eventually she would get tired of seeing history repeat itself, tired of fighting for the same damn things to change.
And yet Nile still proves her wrong after all these years.

No archive warnings apply. Future fic, character study, Nile appreciation, Andy POV, Nile was the missing piece, family dynamic, team as family

Andy & Nile, Andy/Quynh | ~1700 words | Teen

What I loved: It’s a piece with a lot of heart, Andy gets her immortality back, and although the fic ends on a melancholic note (the death of one of Nile’s family members), and the ending got me misty eyed. It’s very heartfelt!

Avatar
During her service, Nile had gone to bed every night thinking: God, please let me wake up tomorrow. She no longer worries about waking up, but it doesn’t make swallowing down her grief any easier.
Sometimes guilt and grief are not so different.
Or: In the month after Merrick, Nicky and Joe show Nile how to live.
No archive warnings apply. Post-canon, found family, character study, POV outsider.

Nile-centric | ~2600 words | Teen and up

What I loved: Another great vignette where, through her conversations with the other members of the team, Nile comes to a resting place with all the time stretching out before her.

Avatar
The first month after Nile’s death wasn’t so bad. There were too many loose ends to clean up—first, there was the Merrick aftermath and Copley, followed by getting the hell out of Dodge and then Booker’s judgment. It was overwhelming and a complete mess, but it felt chaotically familiar, like just another SNAFU while on deployment. Nile could handle catastrophes.
The next month—that was a lot harder.
No archive warnings apply. Mod added tags: sparring, Nile’s family

Nile / Andy and Nile-centric | 3781 words | Not rated

What I loved: Nile dealing with her feelings in the months immediately post-canon! Adjusting to sparring! Getting to a point where she and Andy are a thing! THE FOUND FAMILY JUMPS OUT. It’s a great fic, and I love the length of it – satisfying to read and to chew on. 

The author is on Tumblr as @prettypaprika!

You are using an unsupported browser and things might not work as intended. Please make sure you're using the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge.
mouthporn.net