The Tradëscan Codex

Pick up to 15 OTPs.
Describe them in 15 words or less.
Have your flist guess the OTP.

1. Pedal photography with an exhibition at the Tate; better bring a book. [RPF -- Joss/Summer -- guessed by wisdomeagle]
2. Nativity's transposition, two forked roads, meets again with money and mathematics. Jealousy ebbs, equilibrium restored. [Veronica Mars -- Mac/Madison -- guessed by wisdomeagle]
3. Sentences flow together, as do selves in bodies stripped bare to times, possibilities. Hook shop?
4. With harboring metal, OT3. Innocence heals old wounds, restores faith, likes to frak. [Firefly -- Mal/Kaylee(/Serenity) -- guessed by wisdomeagle]
5. Complements, conqueror and nurturer: all the world, save one brother, falls at their feet.
6. Omnipotence and omniscience, innocence and experience, cape and chair: both can self-destruct quite well. [DC Comics -- Supergirl/Oracle -- guessed by wisdomeagle]
7. Out of poetry fashioned she him; he remade himself; forever is a long time. [Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- Spike/Drusilla -- guessed by wisdomeagle]
8. Man and metal, not brother or sister, but still 'cesty enough for me. [Sarah Connor Chronicles -- John/Cameron -- guessed by wisdomeagle]
9. She'd do anything for her, but she's not alone. Never partner, just quirky assistant, alas. [Veronica Mars -- Veronica/Mac -- guessed by wisdomeagle]
10. A madwoman, irresistable, and her caretaker. The future underestimates their love.
11. Former hostage, employed: trusted to watch, kill on betrayal (but doesn't, out of spite). [Astonishing X-Men -- Kitty/Emma -- guessed by wisdomeagle]
12. New canon (boo!) wrecks old OTP, gives new one. No need for ursine ingestion, though.
13. Cooler than red-haired true love, but just a fling--'til David's star arrives in school?
14. Age too young for chaos, girl too young to dance; absence breeds madness.
15. School visit leads to playing hooky, and a return to brother's bed, broken. [Firefly -- Simon/River -- guessed by wisdomeagle]

The Yuletide reveal has happened, so I can say that I wrote The Hurricane as my main assignment. It's for The 4400, which is on record as being one of my fandoms (has a tag and everything) and of course has Summer Glau as recurring character Tess Doerner as part of major OTP Kevin/Tess. My assignment listed "Any" as to characters, so I wrote Kevin and Tess and Maia, another one of my favorite characters. It's Maia-centric, focusing on one possible response she might have to her precognitive abilities. Also, it quotes Wittgenstein and the Roddenberry version of the Drake equation without attribution, as formulae in Kevin's journal.

Yuletide treats included Proof, a short exchange between Thomasina and Septimus from Stoppard's play Arcadia. It's mostly dialogue, perhaps because I wrote it immediately after rereading the play, and is mostly about grammar and logic. OMG, OTP.

Also I wrote The State of Nature, which is the Pam/Nikki Bourne Identity fic I said I wanted to have immediately after seeing Ultimatum. This is mostly born from the question of what Pam does after that movie; my answer is the university lecture circuit. It reminds me of the structure I might use for a femslash_minis fic--setting it up, bringing the characters together, sex, thematic resolution. Here, sex acts as political science.

Neutral Parties, The 4400, Diana & Maia & Nina. Maia and Nina are two of my favorite 4400 characters (not counting Summer's character Tess, of course): Maia the pre-teen with superpowers (she can see the future) and Nina the tough-as-steel superior officer. Here their degree of control over their lives is contrasted nicely with Diana's sensations of being overwhelmed, as the NTAC agent goes about a day in her life, taking her adopted daughter to a birthday party. Firm grasp of the characters and of the more realistic feel of the show.

The Bridal Path, The Addams Family (movieverse), Wednesday/Joel. Wednesday. Wednesday. This captures her, and the feel of the series, perfectly--comedic and dark and will-to-powery all at the same time--and it's Wednesday Addams.

The Longed-For Moment, The History Boys, Dakin/Posner. The author replicates the genius of Bennet's dialogue and the feel of the play without a wrong note, e.g. "I was lying there, and all I could think was I may be a Jew, I may be small, I may be homosexual, and no one from my supervisor to my bedder will let me forget I'm from Sheffield. But at least I'm about to get fucked." This fic is as much fun to read as the play was to watch, and no less intelligent either.

All that is overdue, Arcadia, Hannah & Septimus. I love Thomasina (it didn't hurt that the freshman who played her in the British Drama presentation at Colgate was really hot), and this is a fitting memorial--Septimus and Hannah in the library, divided by time but having something in common nonetheless. Sparse but beautiful prose.

Behavioural Software, The Bourne Identity (movieverse), Nicky(/Jason). Nicky after Treadstone, with Jason always there, watching. Superbly written, and develops her character quite nicely.

Coming Soon. . . recs for fandoms C-Z!

Here are twenty-five favorite characters from twenty-five different shows, in no particular order.

1. Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenbeg) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Fred Burkle (Amy Acker) from Angel
Bonus! Drusilla (Juliet Landau) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
3. River Tam (Summer Glau) from Firefly

Is there really anything else to be said about the above?

4. Player (Justin Shenkarow, Jeffrey Tucker, Joanie Pleasant) from Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? ( Commentary )
5. Dr. Olga Vukavitch (Justina Vail) from Seven Days ( Commentary )
6. Morgan Matthews (Lily Nicksay, Lindsay Ridgeway) from Boy Meets World ( Commentary )
7. Capt. Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) from Star Trek: Voyager ( Commentary )
8. Cindy Mackenzie (Tina Majorino) from Veronica Mars ( Commentary )
9. President Mackenzie Allen (Geena Davis) in Commander-in-Chief( Commentary )
10. Donna Moss (Janel Moloney) from The West Wing ( Commentary )
11A. Tess Doerner (Summer Glau) from The 4400 ( Commentary )
11B. Maia Skouris née Rutlidge (Conchita Campbell) from The 4400 ( Commentary )
12. Clarissa Darling (Melissa Joan Hart) from Clarissa Explains It All ( Commentary )
13. Alex Mack (Larissa Oleynik) from The Secret World of Alex Mack ( Commentary )
14. Fred Rogers (Himself) from Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood ( Commentary )
15. Nona Mecklenberg (Michelle Trachtenberg) from The Adventures of Pete and Pete ( Commentary )
16. Rogue (Lenora Zann) from X-Men (90's cartoon) ( Commentary )
17. Kitty Pryde (Maggie Blue O'Hara) from X-Men Evolution ( Commentary )
18. Jan Brady (Eve Plumb) from The Brady Bunch ( Commentary )
19. Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family ( Commentary )
20. The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant) from Doctor Who ( Commentary )
21. Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelly) from Star Trek: The Original Series ( Commentary )
22. Col. Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) from Battlestar Galactica (2003) ( Commentary )
23. Rita Repulsa (Barbara Goodson, Carla Pérez, Machiko Soga) from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers ( Commentary )
24. Ezri Dax (Nicole de Boer) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ( Commentary )
25. Rory Gilmore (Alexis Beidel) from Gilmore Girls ( Commentary )

Ari wondered what it meant that she guessed that most of my favorites were female. It means that she knows me well, because most of my favorites--all but four, plus the ambiguously-gendered Player--are female. Which is interesting, because many of these relate to early childhood, when my heterosexuality wouldn't have been a factor (right?). I'm not sure what it says that I've always found it easier to identify with (or at least be interested in) female characters than male ones, but I think it's pretty clearly true.

Anyone who has been following this LJ knows I am a defender of seriality. I (in theory if not always in practice) wait until a work is finished to start posting but still serial post it anyway, and always use the same anecdote about my brother complaining about how shows on DVD are missing something without the commercials. It's an intellectual position designed to give the author as many tools in their toolbox as possible, because most of my flist are talented writers whom I trust to use those tools effectively. The anticipation, the frustration, the withdrawal: these emotions, while not always pleasant, are sometimes what we need even if they aren't what we want. (Yes, I will go to the grave defending Joss for that quote.)

But don't think for a moment that I'm immune to the pleasure of inhaling an entire chaptered fic or season on TV. There's something wonderful about being so caught up in a fictional universe that one loses track of the soi-disant "real world" (which makes me think about how it has been way too long since I've read a novel, especially a long one).

Of course, the simple truth is that for the most part, the only practical mechanism for producing such detailed worldbuilding and depth of story is a serial one. So we have a paradox; we must embrace seriality in order to eschew it.

Which is a (characteristically, for me) long-winded way of saying that I've spent the last week or so mainlining episodes of The 4400. I watched season 1 (such as it is) last Saturday, and watched season 2 (again, such as it is) Thursday and Friday.

The 4400, while excellently done science-fiction, isn't nearly will-to-powery enough (which is one of its strengths, actually) for it to earn the sort of love I have for Buffy or Veronica Mars. (When they start the spin-off series Tess of the 4400, on the other hand....) But I think it'll settle in comfortably with my other minor fandoms.

( Vaguely spoilerish? )