Duet for Tenor and Transradial Orthosis

Duet for Tenor and Transradial Orthosis is a story written by shukyou and illustrated by lord_mune. It ran in Issue 29 and can be found at s2b2.livejournal.com/168145.html and shousetsubangbang.com/mirror/duet-for-tenor-and-transradial-orthosis/.

Summary

A man with a metal arm and a man who builds airships somehow manage to have an unsterotypical steampunk adventure.

The first thing I noticed were his hands, which were stained beyond all washing by brown-black grease hiding in the creases of his knuckles and beneath what little of his fingernails hadn't been bitten down to the quick. They were delicate, though, I could see by the way that he set his glass on the bar and ran his fingertips around the damp rim where his mouth had just been; he touched it like he'd touch a lover, I thought, long before I knew he'd never in his life touched a lover that way. The scent of new money rolled off him, not in that flashy, obnoxious way tasteless barbarians turn gilded lilies with a few extra notes in their billfolds, but like a man who'd come to enjoy all the things that wealth could get him but still didn't feel like he fit in any of the places you had to go to get those things. He waited until the starched-collared bartender had wandered his way to the other end of the bar before inclining his head in my direction and saying to me, "I'll buy you a drink if you let me see that arm."

This story contains not-too-graphic descriptions of injury and orthotic surgery.

Connections

This story has no connections to other stories or universes.

Related Links

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Author's Notes

First off, I have to thank beeblebabe profusely for this one, she was the brainstorm behind Gus, and anything truly excellent that Gus says, you can bet it probably originated from her awesome brain. (She's also responsible for half of the original, years-ago fanon that spawned this, and if you can figure out what that is, I'm impressed!)

I had difficulties getting Gus' voice in my head (mostly because I kept hearing him as George Carlin, for ... reasons), and he eventually wound up sounding like Julian Rhind-Tutt (the one on the left), because I was looking for a gentle British tenor, and most of the British tenor voices that I could think of were manic British tenors, and that's something else entirely.

My knowledge of opera is not particularly sophisticated, but I get by. Just in case opera isn't your cup of tea, here's the cheat sheet for what got in the story.

The title was very nearly 'Che gelida manina', or 'what a cold little hand', the title of a somewhat well-known aria from La Boheme -- and I probably would have gone with it had the title of my last story not been impenetrably in German. Thus, I went weird.

Gus' mother is named for Beverly Sills, the beautiful bel canto soprano, who was in fact very well-known for singing Violetta, and who was also awesome enough to be on the Muppet Show.[1] I couldn't find a recording of her singing Un bel di (from Madama Butterfly, an opera that's spectacular musically but pretty dang racist in execution), but here's Maria Callas, who's also drop-dead amazing. The bit of La traviata that Gus sings during the operation can be seen at the end of this. And Papageno is the (male) bird-catcher from Mozart's Magic Flute![2]

And finally, as for art, a million billion thanks go to sukiyakii for going above and beyond with this project, and with such enthusiasm! Really, she's responsible for so many things about Enzo's arm that I never would have thought on my own, and you can see a great many of them in her design. Little things like the fingerprints? Would never have thought of on my own. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why collaborating with an awesome artist is awesome. Brava, brava! And roses thrown on the stage!

(from ladysisyphus.livejournal.com/723183.html, where sketches can be found)

Reviews

I’m spoiled rotten by now: this is yet another wonderfully quirky story by Shukyou! This one – of which I can for the love of me not remember the title, no matter how many times I try – is set in a steampunk world that reminds of a New London. As the author simply plunges you into the story, there’s little time for worldbuilding. And yet, there are details aplenty that paint a colorful picture of this world the handsome young playboy Enzo lives in. That is to say, Enzo is still handsome, but after a run in with a betrayed, murderous and acid carrying husband (never a good combination!), he has to go through life not with an arm of flesh and blood, but with a barely functioning, ugly robotic arm.

And he soon discovers life just isn’t the same when you’re maimed…

Until he meets engineer Gus. As Gus takes Enzo under his wing, the latter soon finds out that calling Gus an enigma is a bit of an understatement…

“He personified the maddening middle ground between attraction and repulsion, the center where he neither noticed nor cared, and I wondered for a fleeting moment if his pyjama pants were liars and he’d lost his cock and balls in some terrible accident, rendering him the most masculine eunuch in human history.”

Despite its 50 pages, it felt like the author took her time developing the two characters, whose personalities appear complete opposites. There are no explanatory chunks of text, no analysis in italics, no…There’s just Shukyou who slowly and sweetly drags you into this stunning and slightly tragic  story, until you live and breathe the steampunky atmosphere and even forget to exclaim ‘huh, is this really a free story?’ and ‘why don’t more people know about this?’ altogether.

At first, both Enzo and Gus are mostly locked up in their own thoughts and little worlds. At first, too, it seems like Enzo is completely dependent on his engineer, who might be his only hope to ever live a life without his painful travesty of an arm, but who seems completely unaffected by his playboy antics. But as the story progresses, and their worlds collide, there are surprises and surprisingly tender moments to be enjoyed. This short story will put a smile on your face, especially if you appreciate gorgeous writing.

RATING: 4 STARS

(from boysinourbooks.com/2014/02/06/review-bodies-in-space-duet-for-tenor-by-shukyou/)