Vespa Ilkay needs to find a thief who might be working for someone with an eye for Ancient Martian artifacts. Covertly. Reporting the serial killings yields… subpar results, so her next stop is Valles Vicky’s Vixen Valley– a place for fine dining, good conversation, beautiful people, and contraband from across the galaxy. Oh, and information on at least every backend deal on the planet. Despite knowing how Vicky worked, Vespa just wished it didn’t come with a price this steep.
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Buddy Aurinko/Vespa Ilkay Characters: Vespa Ilkay, Buddy Aurinko Additional Tags: Enemies to Lovers, and there was only one bed, Sharing a Bed, Cuddling & Snuggling, Almost Cuddling, Reverse AU (The Penumbra Podcast), you can read it without any knowledge of that though, basically it’s the oasis hotel theres only one bed and buddy is NOT sharing these sheets, Humor Summary:
“Whatever could be the matter, darling?”
Vespa groaned, glaring up at the ugly popcorn ceiling of their room at the Oasis. It was certainly easier to look at than the predicament hoarding all the blankets in the frigid air conditioning. At least a ceiling couldn’t be smug about it.
“I think you know what the matter is,” Vespa huffed.
In which Buddy and Vespa, still enemies to loversing, share a bed at the Oasis and totally aren’t flirting or anything. No way in hell. Why would you think that haha. These guys? Nooooo definitely not them
Thanks to @entropyre and @stubbornjerk for writing the wonderful au that inspired this fic and giving me their blessing to write it!
Preface: i’m far from the first to talk about this, but i recently made a post about works with f/f ships or more prominently featuring women getting a lot less interactions so after about ten seconds of deliberation i decided i might as well make a rec list for penumbra so those of you who are new to reading vesbud might have an idea of where to start! this list will mostly be newer oneshots which means im leaving out a few of my favorites to make this a good starter list but every vesbud fic is perfect to me
This one is one of my favorites. I bookmark very, very sparingly and this is one of the thirty or so that are on that list. The fic explores Vespa’s psyche following the flashback events of Time Gone By in haunting, beautiful prose that I still remember bits of to this day because they stuck with me so firmly. Be prepared for angst and check the content warnings, but this is still one of my favorite fics of all time.
This one!! Another one of my bookmarks, this one is a mermaid au near and dear to my heart. It’s a very fun read all the way through with what I can only describe as a strong authorial voice that I feel matches the story and narration really, really well. It’s one I reread often and enjoy more and more every single time. Another plus is that this fic (and this author consistently!) actually portrays Vespa’s hallucinations often, realistically, and without stigma so this is one I would definitely check out.
This one is post season three finale, so make sure you’re caught up before you read it, but I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again, this is a bookmark, it’s phenomenal, it knocked me dead. If you like angst, this is the fic for you. If you like hurt/comfort, this is the fic for you. If you have eyes, can read, are fine with the content warnings, etc, this is the fic for you. I cry about twice a year and this almost got me.
Hey, there’s a familiar name! I feel bad reccing myself too much, but the acting in this one is genuinely wonderful. It might as well have been done by the actual cast, and that’s not me tooting my own horn, since I just wrote the fic. That being said. The fic is also very good. It’s an action comedy meet cute where Vespa and Buddy meet when Vespa, getting chased by police, jumped in the first car she saw, yelled “drive!” and the rest is history.
Ever just been gay for your wife? If you’re more into fluff, domesticity, and being head over heels for your partner, this fic is wonderful for all of that!! It’s really the vesbud equivalent of a warm hug. It explores postcanon domestic life for Buddy and Vespa and is overall a wonderful time!
I know I said I’d keep most of the recs on this list fairly short, but it would be literally criminal not to bring up the Reverse AU. It’s a fan project putting together fully soundscaped, acted, and soundtracked episodes of an au where Vespa is a private eye and Buddy the mysterious thief. There are full backstories to keep characterization up while also respecting the bones of canon they’re working with (which is super impressive imo), bonus fics, and even bloopers. Check them out on ao3 or on their youtube channel here!
This is a series of two oneshots with two podfics, all of which are excellent, featuring a lot of hurt/comfort and emotional hurt/comfort. Essentially everything I look for in a good comfort fic. The podfics are beautifully done and acted, including soundscaping and music, plus the writing is absolutely beautiful. I’ve already included Danny on this list a number of times and I cannot stress enough how much his work has done for the entire vesbud tag. I wish I could put in everything she’s ever written lol.
Oh my god. Oh my god. Hoo. Whew. Howdy. That being said, if you heard the line “I know how to make a special lady feel special” and tripped and/or choked on something, this is the fic for you. It’s a precanon vingette in which Buddy and Vespa accessorize for a heist by figuring out how to hide knives on them and it’s just excellent. Opaldawn is one of my favorite vesbud authors but this one was just straight up a direct gift to the lgbt community.
Another one having to deal with the season three finale, so my only caveat is that you should be careful of spoilers! This one is absolutely wonderful, as is everything this author writes. If you’re a big fan of fluff and angst (but mostly angst), this fic is absolutely wonderful. Devastatingly sad in the best way. It definitely helped me process a lot of what I felt coming out of that last season!
In which Buddy and Vespa visit Ranga on their honeymoon and enjoy the scenery, talk about Vespa’s childhood, and oh, yeah, run into Vespa’s ex, a TENTACLE MONSTER. It shouldn’t be as good as it is, but it’s genuinely wonderful, with a lot of fun worldbuilding and moments that fill in bits of Vespa’s past we don’t get to see in canon. I found it absolutely delightful and it’s going on the rec list for a good reason. Just trust me on this one. For fans of Elevator Pitch Podcast, this may or may not be the same Rae who has starred in numerous episodes.
This is a collection of fics revolving around Vespa and the various weekly prompts that have come out this summer. While not all of these are primarily vesbud fics, all of them revolve around the fandom showing a well written female character a little bit more love! If you want to join, the event is still ongoing and the prompts are going up weekly, though you can write and create outside the prompts if you want!
Hey wonder who that guy is. Anyway, I couldn’t get through this without a little self promo, so here’s one of my favorite of my own fics. Buddy and Vespa commit a heist by pretending to be a bereaved femme fatale wife and a hardboiled detective respectively. They flirt profusely while their crewmates who they may or may not be mocking have to hear it all go down over their comms.
Anyway, I hope all of this is some help for those of you without any idea of where to start! If you want more recs, I have plenty, plus you can go ahead and treat all of these as author recs as well. I didn’t put any writers on here whose stuff I don’t generally like. I hope you consider giving these fics and others a read to help out with the lower interaction f/f fics tend to get!
In the fourteen years between stealing the Iris of Jupiter and meeting Buddy Aurinko, Jet can recall almost nothing of value.
Logically, he knows what transpired. He landed on an asteroid in the main belt, safely only because of Ruby. He sold the Iris. Ruby told him about the fifteen people dead from what he had done, and Jet Sikuliaq proceeded to stumble into the nearest bar he could find and lose himself in it.
Beyond that, his memory is one large blur. The years slid by quickly and meaninglessly. The Solar-Outer War ended. He continued to steal, smuggle, sell. He continued to use. He slept in the Ruby, on the few nights when he was too exhausted to find a hotel room or resist sleep. He either started a fight or found the most shadowed corner and drank until he passed out.
The name Unnatural Disaster was already known amongst smaller circles before the Iris, but in the following years he made it true: Jet Sikuliaq is a smear across the galaxy, bringing calamity wherever he goes.
It takes a woman with hair red as a Martian sky to stop a storm in its tracks. To teach him how to make more of himself than a warning sign, to hold his rage in his hands until it no longer controls him, and to identify the heavy weight sitting in his chest for what it is: guilt.
Dr. Ilkay rolled her eyes, but took the seat anyway, making a point to put her leg up on the arm of the chair. Despite the brutishness of the action, it suited her— scrubs and all. “You really know how to make a gal feel special, huh?”
Buddy gave her a smile. “I know how to make a special girl feel special—”
She blinked, then glanced at Dr. Ilkay, who seemed… tense, not meeting her eye.
She swallowed, cleared her throat, and said, “Never mind that.“
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Buddy Aurinko/Vespa Ilkay Characters: Vespa Ilkay, Buddy Aurinko Additional Tags: Post-Episode: s03e21-22 & 25 Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond, Episode: s03e21-22 & 25 Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond Spoilers, Angst, Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cuddling & Snuggling, in a very we might never see each other again way, i cried while writing this. twice, Hallucinations, not shown but discussed enough to tag it, Aftermath of Torture, Non-Sexual Intimacy Summary:
“Mrs. Ilkay,” the guard repeated, “meet your new cellmate.”
Maybe she still had a streak of pride or dignity or stubbornness keeping her mouth shut, but it wasn’t strong enough to prevent her from jumping when the door flew open, someone stumbled inside, and Vespa’s chance of escape slammed shut before she could so much as process whatever the hell had happened.
She didn’t want to know who her cellmate was, if there was anyone there at all. She didn’t doubt it was someone a thousand times more broken down than she was. If Vespa could barely drag her aching body to meals, this new cellmate of hers likely couldn’t do much more than mumble. Someone that weary stuffed into her already too-small solitary cell would break her if a physical breaking wouldn’t. Vespa hadn’t ever liked mirrors, especially if they showed what lay beyond.
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: F/F Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast Relationship: Buddy Aurinko/Vespa Ilkay Characters: Vespa Ilkay, Buddy Aurinko, Sasha Wire Additional: Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond Spoilers, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff and Angst, rangian proverbs Language: English Words: 1997
(SPOILERS up to the Season 3 finale.)
She’s close enough to touch. Her wedding gown pools out onto the floor, blood-stained and torn in three places, her hair unpinned. Even like this, here, in the darkest, most corrupt pit in the entire galaxy, Buddy Aurinko is the most beautiful vision she’s ever seen.
In a den of pirates, Vespa Ilkay holds onto what she knows.
An Ancient Martian tomb miles beneath the planet’s surface. Captured by Miasma and forced into strange and sinister experiments, things are looking grim… for Buddy Aurinko.
Buddy Aurinko: master thief, has never stayed imprisoned for long. But she has Detective Ilkay to consider now, the woman Miasma’s really torturing, whose mind is straned a little more withe very test, with every turn of Miasma’s dial.
Buddy could escape on her own, if only she’d leave the detective behind.
But will she? To answer that, you’ll have to ask yourself: who is Buddy Aurinko?
Reblogging since the second chapter is up. Read the whole thing HERE!
She arrived in the night: Buddy Aurinko, the woman who got away, the thief Vespa Ilkay couldn’t catch.
Leading up to that night, things had been so simple: solving crimes, chasing after a killer with an eye for Ancient Martian artifacts, and scouring every case for a chance sighting of the master thief.
With Buddy though, things never happened on chance. Vespa was just lucky. Buddy had a case where she presented that she had the only lead on the killer. She knows exactly what plans to take next, and according to her, the killer’s after something very big, and very dangerous this time.
According to Buddy, anyway.
But the question remains: can Vespa trust Buddy Aurinko?
