The Tradëscan Codex

Title: Three Times Veronica Mars and Her Father Didn't Have Sex
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Pairing: Keith Mars/Veronica Mars
Summary: Crossing the line without going all the way.
A/N: Sequel of sorts to Towards Zero.

( Three Times Veronica Mars and Her Father Didn't Have Sex )

Dear 3_ships Sailor:

If you check out my userinfo, you'll find a 'thon policy which implores that you be true first and foremost to the prompt and your muse, and to consider whether I'd like a story as, at most, a secondary concern. I relax that a bit for yuletide, in that I recognize there is a sense that a story for it is explicitly a gift in a way which most 'thon fics aren't, but I don't really think about 3_ships like that; I approach it more like a regular ficathon, where the writer is required to craft her story to my prompt but I don't assume I'm even going to like it.

That said, if you want, you can certainly feel free to surf through this journal to get a feel for me, and here's a little bit more, if you are interested, to help you understands how I relate to the specific texts and characters in the fandoms I've requested and what I might like.

I'll ramble a little more, because if I'm going to write this letter at all than I might as well. My particular kinks are those historically disenfranchised, especially children and women, and so in particular young women, being awesome and pwning the universe.

Looking over my requests, though, if there's a theme to them this year over and above "young women pwning the universe" (which is my eternal bulletproof kink) then it's "delicious amorality." Don't confuse amorality with simple unprincipledness, however; every woman (well, maybe not Madison) I've requested has her own code of conduct, whether it be the hacker code or simply complete egoistic narcissism, which she will not be made to compromise easily, if at all. They simply refuse to let anyone else define what those principles will be for them. Lilly Kane would no more sleep with a boy not up to her (unorthodox set of) standards than Adelle would willingly sacrifice a Doll or Nimueh would turn away from her religion.

I'd like a fic which is affirming of these strong women rather than siding with the world (and in some cases, canon) against them.

I like both hate and love as the basis of sexual relationship, and my ideal threesome would have each leg of the triangle contain a different mixture of the two emotions than the other two. My requests are already pretty much set up for that, as most already include a pairing where one he character canonically hates the other (Veronica/Mac, Topher/Claire, Merlin/Nimueh). It was only just now looking over them that I realized in all three cases the hate isn't reciprocal--Topher doesn't hate Claire (how could he?), Nimueh doesn't hate Merlin, and while Madison doesn't seem to like Veronica very much, I don't think she cares nearly as much one way or the other about Veronica as Veronica does about her.

Feel free to go AU (as long you don't erase the dynamics which make the pairing interesting; a Veronica who doesn't hate Madisn just isn't Veronica); indeed, you'd probably have to in order to write Lilly/Mac/Cassidy or Nimueh/Morgana/Merlin, unless you want to write Lilly or Nimueh as ghosts, which would be fine too since there's canonical basis in both cases. (Writing them as ghosts might make porn hard, though.) Both AUs in which Lilly/Nimueh don't die and ones that rewrite canon so the threesome happens prior to their deaths are fine.

Beyond that, I like to think I'm easy to write for. I have few squicks; I'm fine with character death, BDSM, mpreg, dubcon, noncon, chan, infidelity, incest (I can't believe I got through the entire request form without requesting it, although I guess Mac/Madison sort of comes close), you name it, I'm probably okay with it. Just please no bashing of the women. Happy, uplifting fics are good, but so are soul-crushingly depressing ones so long as the moral isn't that being a strong woman is bad. Ambivalent fics where we're not sure whether we should cheer or cry are probably best of all. If I didn't like existentialism and pseudo-nihilism in my fic, I wouldn't be a Joss Whedon fan.

Title: Confirmation Hearing
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Characters: Veronica Mars, Cindy Mackenzie, Keith Mars
Rating: WS
Word Count: 432-ish
Summary: Cindy Mackenzie showed up to her best friend and boss's confirmation hearings with her hair dyed pink. A brief follow-up to my "Senator Mars" futurefic, The Art of the Possible.

( Confirmation Hearing )

( a promo pic from the movie or something, i dunno )

Apparently Krysten's the second female lead in a new movie. The female lead is Isla Fisher (who?!); the male lead is Hugh Dancy (again, who?!).* Members of the cast I actually recognize include Joan Cusack, John Goodman, Lynn Redgrave, and John Lithgow.

As much as I love Krysten, I think I'll wait for this one to go to video.

As for the other item in my voicepost, I've been listening to the LibriVox version of New Chronicles of Rebecca on my mp3 player, after having listened to Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm a couple of months ago (that being my first introduction to the book, spoken or written).

*This is me being too lazy to look up the unicode for an interrobang.

Three out of four down!

I uploaded my prettylightsfic last night; I love RPF so much, you guys. I look forward to the archive going live, too; I can never figure out whether to expect people to be able to identify which story I wrote or not. Plus RPF written for me!

Plus there's fic(s) in the yuletide archive written by me, of course. What's been going on in terms of comments has actually been quite interesting, and I'm not sure what to make of it, though I'd be perfectly willing to trade in "interesting" for another "wins yuletide" of the Requiem at Reichenbach sort. Everything I've written has at least one comment on it now, though, which is reassuring. And there's definitely still something to be proud of in being #33 to upload back in November.

And of course there's my Catchallthon fic, The Art of the Possible. I've been wanting to say something about it for awhile, but in the chaos (Hail Eris!) leading up to Christmas I never got the chance. I offered to write VMars since that's one of my fandoms, but of course when I got matched up the request was Logan/Veronica, which is so not my pairing, cf. this post where I wish Logan were a Cylon or even this one where I fantasize about a show sans Logan or Dick. I always believed the pairing in canon, though, dysfunctional as it was, even if I wasn't all that fond of the two of them together, so I just had to manage the balance between the dysfunction and the romance in such a way that I could be true to both the spirit of the request and to my muse. It wouldn't be fluffy long-term OTP happy ever after, but I didn't have any reason to necessarily think my recipient required that, so long as I respected the pairing. There's a line between recognizing the dysfunction and bashing, and at the end of the day it's not even all that fine of one.

As usually happens, I think the extra challenge made for a better fic.

So I had a structure: Veronica and Logan reunite in a one-night stand which recognizes what they had as real but also necessarily impermanent. The first draft of the fic had this happening not only in the context of Logan/Hannah, but also Mac/Veronica (they had a kiss in the very first section), but the latter pairing just made everything needlessly complicated in that I would have to sell not just one but two infidelities. The finished fic as written still has rather strong Veronica/Mac overtones, though, I think. If I were to write a sequel, I'm actually not sure where to take the story next--to a Logan/Hannah/Veronica threesome, or to Veronica/Mac femslash.

I did put in as much continuity porn as I could--not just the Logan/Hannah, but also making Lauren Sinclair a major character.

The Veronica-in-politics idea has been one I've been playing with for a while now. I might still write it in its original form: an AU where Cassidy Casablancas is a crooked POTUS, Mac is First Lady, and Veronica's the VP.

Oh well. In any case, I need to finish my 3_ships fic(s) by midnight tomorrow.

I don't think of myself as easily spooked.

But I do need to acknowledge that whenever I get into my car at night, I always check the back seat to make sure Aaron Echolls isn't hiding there.

Title: Not Quite Queen of the Damned
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Veronica Mars
Rating: Mostly worksafe, but possibly borderline
Summary: Faith and Vi hire Keith to investigate Phoenix Land Trust, Cassidy's old company. Is its business being conducted from beyond the grave?

PREVIOUS CHAPTER
MEMORIES

( not quite queen of the damned, pt. 3 )

Title: In Soviet Russia, Femslash Writes You
Fandom: Heroes RPF
Pairing: Kristen Bell/Hayden Panettiere
Summary: Celebrities roleplaying. In a zoo. As spies.
A/N: Prettylights version.

( In Soviet Russia, Femslash Writes You )

( How could you say that? )
Plain Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4cu0i3B13A

( I'm just curious )
Plain Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwUEENb5jlw

( So go there and do it. )
Plain Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX1Vvisc4RM

( Go ask Alice )
Plain Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpv3HM_M_hs

( Spoilers for 319 )
Plain Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfYxl7FSQLA

( Mac meets Lauren )
Plain Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHSP_QPvbgw