The Tradëscan Codex

There's six pairings that Ari wasn't able to (or at least hasn't yet) guess in last week's meme. They're from two book fandoms, a comics fandom, a TV fandom, a theatre fandom, and a movie fandom, although I can think of at least one pairing which arguably fits into more than one of those categories. New parts of clues are underlined; the parts of the old clues I took out to still make 15 words are in strikethrough. Two are 0T3's/rival OTP's (e.g., Wesley/Fred/Lilah).

3. Sentences flow together and genome shared, as do selves in bodies stripped bare to red-headed clones travel  through infinite times, possibilities. Hook shop? Got myth?> [Robert A. Heinlein's World-as-Myth -- Lapus Lazuli Long/Lorelai Lee Long -- guessed by wisdomeagle]

5. Complements, conqueror and nurturer Talk about smart kids: all the world, save one brother, falls at their feet, via computer. [Ender's Game -- Peter/Valentine -- guessed by seriousfic]

10. A madwoman, irresistible; and her caretaker, now awake: the future which manipulates them underestimates their love. [The 4400 -- Tess/Kevin -- guessed by wisdomeagle]

12. New canon (boo! invented in his mind) wrecks old OTP, gives new one. No need for Ursine ingestion? No thanks, though. [X-Men Movieverse -- Bobby/Rogue/Kitty -- guessed by wisdomeagle]

13. Cooler than Tryst with cat no rival for red-haired true love beauty--'til David's star arrives in school Queens? [Ultimate Marvel -- Peter/MJ/Kitty -- guessed by wisdomeagle]

14. Age Epoch too young for chaos theory, girl pupil too young to dance waltz; her absence breeds madness.

wisdomeagle

Based on likeadeuce's recommendation here at xmen_on_lj, I drove to my not-so-local comic book today and picked up Uncanny X-Men Annual #2, which focuses on Emma Frost. While I was there I picked up New X-Men Ultimate Collection #3, which collects together a couple of trades I haven't read yet and don't own, and issues 15, 17, 18. 20, and 23 of the Peter David run of Supergirl, issues which sadly haven't been traded to my knowledge. And it made me think; I used to have a post on LJ where I kept track of all my comics, but I stopped updating it after I started using LibraryThing extensively. But while that works for the TPB's, the single issues aren't recorded there, as they don't have ISBN's, and while the Buffy issues are reproduced in the omnibuses, I do own some issues where I don't own the corresponding trades. I thought I really should have a list. So that's what this here is.

Again, thanks to likeadeuce for the issues sent to me by her.

Dark Horse
( buffy 49, 58, spike & dru, s8 1-5 )

There is no fic (or, fandom being fandom, there probably is) in which Buffy masturbates about no one in particular, gets off, and is satisfied. There is no conflict, no interest for anyone but Buffy. It's fun to visualize, yes, but to write about?

This is how I've felt every time I sat down to write Cuckoocest. There is a scene in Time Enough for Love in which Laz and Lor, who are both clones of Lazarus Long in every respect except for being xx instead of xy, claim that a sex act between the three of them would be masturbation, not incest. I don't think Lazarus ever really believed that claim, despite ultimately giving into the twins' demands. (No man can resist Laz and Lor.)

But the Cuckoos are not only clones of each other (using the term "clone" loosely, as Marvel does; it's unclear how much genetic material they share with each other or with Emma), they are telepathic with  each other, often demonstrating a hive mind. Cuckoocest--the Five- or Four- or Three-in-One having sex with itself--is masturbation in a way that normal incest or even clonecest is clearly not.

It's clearly psychoanalytic: Cuckoocest allows for a sexual unification which is at one, quite literally, Self and Other. It is sexual energy directed inward, but at the same time directed at a separate body.

This particular psychoanalytic setup is unique to telepathic 'cest--other than the Cuckoos, the only siblings eligible for this that I can think of off the top of my head are the Witch Mountain kids (either the original or the remake, the latter of which much more explicitly sexualizes the sister)--but the overall setup applies to most 'cest kinks, I think. 'Cesty romance represents an ideal of intimacy assumed to be unreachable by normal romance. Again, I think there is something rather psychoanalytic about that (rather frelled-up) assumption: wives are for lusting after, sisters are for loving, and 'cest is a reunion of the two roles in an overcoming of the whore/madonna dichotomy.

But I like fluffy 'cest. And you might have noticed that I can't write fluff. I enjoy reading it sometimes, but my mind shuts down when I try to write; my main attempts are good fics but not quite in the 'shippy way they were intended to be. I made them work by shifting the focus away from the relationship itself to something else.

There are pairings which, from their canon characterizations, could never be comfortable with their 'cestasticness: Marscest and most brands of Summerscest fit here, I think. But there are also fics where the taboo would be less strongly felt: Laz/Lor (which is basically canon), Annie/Hallie, Cuckoocest, Val/Ender (Val/Peter would be unhappy but for reasons other than the 'cestiness). And while there is much pleasure brought to me by imagining their 'cest, I can't find a way to write about it.

. . .

I notebooked the above passage on the train yesterday. Then I went on to write 200+ words of Annie/Hallie, which I just posted (after making a new offline backup of my LJ, just in case), and about a thousand words of Cuckoocest. The Cuckoocest is PWP; I'm still convinced that it must be PWP, because of the always-already nature of the pairing. No plot is possible. I don't think it is (I hope it isn't) just many many pages of anatomical description; I did my best to capitalize upon the tension between Self and Other discussed above. If someone wants to beta it for me, however, I'd be much obliged; not only because I'm not sure it worked, but also because I'm not a girl, and I think we've well established that femslash is about--perhaps not lesbian sex as such, but--female sexuality in a way that m/m slash is not about male sexuality.