Slashy Nominations 69: The Clothes Make the Men, Unless the Men Make the Clothes

[thefourthvine]

This set is all about what we wear and what it says about us, or rather, what our beloved characters wear and what that says about them, because this is fandom, where we don't so much navel-gaze as gaze into the navels of entirely other people, many of whom are fictional. And we don't limit ourselves to just navels, either.

However, in a tribute to navel-gazing (the official sport of California!), I have decided to make this set all about me. Well, I'm making the titles all about me, and I'm selfishly picking stories from some of my favorite fandoms, including the ones y'all are insanely tired of, so - yeah. All about me. Go me!

Best FF That Implies That There Are People in This World Who Don't Appreciate Being Dragged to the Bedroom and Told to Take Their Clothes off Slowly. Which Is Certainly News to Me, and Unwelcome News at That. Adorned and the sequel Borealis, by Resonant, aka resonant8. Due South, Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski. This is one of the stories I read first in this fandom, and it ruined me for PWP for at least, oh, a week. Because this? Is maybe the ultimate Kowalski and Fraser character study. Every line tells us something important about one or both of the guys, and the sex would be unimportant if it wasn't just as revealing. Here we have the difference between the outer Fraser (god-Mountie, worshipped everywhere above 40 degrees north, known for cleanliness and smiling in the face of fate's cruelty) and the inner Fraser (I'll let Resonant surprise you). Here we also have the inner and outer Kowalski. And we get a nice long look at how they manage their appearances. And was not that just the worst story summary ever? It was. So, look, I cannot summarize this at all, obviously. But it's good - great, actually - and it's got a happy ending, provided you read the sequel. And it's got the ritual exchange of jewelery and other adornments analyzed in enough detail to spur three or four anthropology dissertations. Just read it, OK?

Best FF That Describes Wee Blair Sandburg as Little Orphan Annie, and, You Know, I Can Totally See It. And I Bet He'd Have Made That Godawful Movie Much More Interesting, Though I Don't Know That I Want to Hear Him Sing. Dork, by Francesca, aka cesperanza, and Miriam Heddy, aka miriam_heddy. The Sentinel, Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg. Yes, I did have to include a TS rec today, because some evil person linked me to the Sentinel mah jongg game, which is impossible and which never fails to give me a headache (itty bitty tiles featuring itty bitty pictures of Jim and Blair, including some that are nearly identical), but which I nonetheless cannot stop playing. I suspect subliminal mind-control, frankly. So, anyway, I've had TS on my mind a lot lately, because this game has little sound bites as well as little pictures and sometimes bigger pictures, and I thought it was time to reacquaint myself with those aspects of these guys that aren't related to a Chinese tile game. What better way to do that than to dress 'em up, or, rather, to let two very skilled authors dress 'em up? In this story, Blair cuts his hair (!) and gets in touch with his inner nebbish, and Jim loses his mind and gets in touch with his inner gay lust monster. I think we can all agree that that is a mighty appealing concept.

Best FF That Features Pink* Flip-Flops and Pink Baby Booties and Yet Is Not at All Girly and Does Not Feature Any Actual Babies. Sports Night, the Fandom of Internal Contradictions, How I Love Thee! Tin Men, by Punk, aka runpunkrun. Sports Night, Dan Rydell/Casey McCall. The SN lovefest continues on this LJ with this story, which combines some of my favorite elements of the show: Danny's snitfests, Casey's cluelessness, waist-down sartorial weirdness (live pants-free anchoring is canon, folks, and I've seen the episode that proves it!), killer dialog, and fantastic supporting characters. "Tin Men" incorporates all that in a light-hearted, funny, frothy mixture, and it throws in an established Casey/Danny relationship, which is all the canon needed to make it perfect. (Well, I believe that said relationship is canon, but I still want them to come out and say it.) So, basically, this story is exactly like the show. I think I'm required by law (or at least by fanofall, Procurator-General and Sports Night Pimp Mama) to note that if you like this story you should probably try a few episodes of the show, because if you don't, babies the world over will develop debilitating earaches. But, hey, don't feel pressured or anything.

Best FF That Made Me Secretly and Pathetically Proud of My Results on the Which Teen Titan Are You? Quiz. I Was Tim. I Am Cool. Albeit In a Truly Geeky and Pitiable Way. Management Strategies, by weirdnessmagnet. Teen Titans, Tim Drake/Kon. (Can somebody remind me what Kon's last name is, please? I've got superhero-induced memory rot.) I hope it's a surprise to no one that Tim's not Robin anymore. If it is, um... Hey! Guess what? Tim's not Robin anymore! So, how will our anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive, multiple-persona-loving Boy Wonder cope now that he's out of spandex and kevlar forever? (Or, you know, until DC figures out what to do with him.) Weirdness Magnet has the answer, which turns out to be, "not as well as you'd expect given how well he handled the massive strangeness of the Batfamily, although still better than 85% of superheroes would." Tim's learning to be a Real Boy, and he's finding it just about as easy and pain-free as Pinocchio did, provided you're judging by the XXX-rated movie Pin-POKE-me-o: Pinocchio's Adventures on the Island of Dominatrix Toys (probably not a real movie). But, hey, there's an upside: he may not be a superhero right now, but he can still have sex with them. On the couch. In his father's house. See? He really is learning how to be a real teenager!

-Footnote-

* Apparently the flip-flops are not textually pink. But the author doesn't say what color they are, so I feel free to imagine that they are pink, and I intend to make full use of said freedom.

Comments

[greenet.livejournal.com]

Um. El. As in Kon-El. But I suppose Kent or Luthor would work as well. *evil smirk* I love Teen Titans, I truly do.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Is now the time to confess that I've never fully understood the whole Luthor + Kent = Kon thing? (I have never actually watched or read (or whatever you do to this canon) Teen Titans, so I'm at a disadvantage.)

I always thought it was Luthor + Kent = True Love Forever. So Kon's origin is mysterious to me. And much harder to find info about than you'd think.

[greenet.livejournal.com]

It's been replied to below as well, but - Kon & Tim discovers in the first issue of Teen Titans (which you can find in trade under A Kid's Game and it's good) that Kon's secret human donor was Lex Luthor. This causes Kon much angst because up 'til then he'd been going: "I'm a clone of Superman, damnit! I'm genetically (or something) MEANT to be a Superhero!" and then he finds out he's got the genes of a super villian as well...

I find Teen Titans interesting. The DC writers have all the best monkey crack.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Explain your icon at once, because I think I am in love with a mutant bug-girl thing.

(Kon: a perfect blend of Superhero and Supervillain - he's a morally neutral Supersquared! Angstshakes all round!)

I'm not even going to ask how Lex became the secret donor, because I'm sure there's a good answer, and I'm sure it would totally destroy my brain to know it. And my brain, frankly, has already seen better days. (Mostly ones not occupied by Sentinel Mah Jongg.)

[greenet.livejournal.com]

*snickers* It's Catwoman, actually. She has a new costume and she's not Halle Berry and thus she's amazingly cool. (Catwoman? Halle Berry? What the hell where they smoking when they came up with that, that's what I wanna know.)

How Lex became the secret donor, I don't know. Possibly it's been revealed in the issues I don't have, but... Cadmus lab made Kon, and Lex owns Cadmus, so...

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

-Footnote-

ahahhaha.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

You are evil.

That is all.

(*snerk*)

[shrift.livejournal.com]

Kon's Kryptonian name is Kon-El. His secret identity is Conner Kent.

And yes, Kon has two daddies -- Lex Luthor and Superman.

Comics has the best crack ever.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Wait. His secret identity is Connor Kent? I thought his secret identity was Superboy, and his cover identity was Connor Kent, except when it was, um, Kon-El.

This, plus the Luthor + Kent = Kon thing, is giving me a major headache. Comics, why must you be so mysterious and confusing and yet so alluring?

Also a major desire to find a comics store (assuming this is a comic one can buy, as opposed to a TV show or something). Said desire has been increasing ever since I became a regular reader of scans_daily. I thought I had kicked the crack for life back in college. Curse you, LJ! And curse you, comics makers!

Must...resist...comics store. Must.

[shrift.livejournal.com]

His secret identity is Connor Kent? I thought his secret identity was Superboy, and his cover identity was Connor Kent, except when it was, um, Kon-El.

It's confusing, I agree. His civilian identity (which, in the comics, is your secret identity, because the other superheroes & villains aren't supposed to know it) is Conner Kent, and this is a recent development. His superhero name, the one he goes by publicly when he's in the costume, is Superboy.

I guess you could say is REAL name, as much as he has one, is Kon-El.

This, plus the Luthor + Kent = Kon thing, is giving me a major headache.

Superboy is a clone of Superman, only the scientists couldn't get the cloning to work until they added human DNA to stabilize the process. Lex Luthor was the secret donor. This is also a recent discovery.

Also a major desire to find a comics store (assuming this is a comic one can buy, as opposed to a TV show or something).

Yes, this is the latest incarnation of the comic book Teen Titans, which is being written by Geoff Johns, and the latest issue was #13.

(It is not to be confused with Teen Titans, Go!, which is a tie-in comic with the anime-like Teen Titans cartoon on the Cartoon Network.)

Okay, so the whole comics/cartoons thing is insanely twisty and complex, but -- best crack ever!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Must...resist...the comics crack. Must. Cannot go back to the grim addiction I suffered through in college; cannot face nights lying awake wondering what the next issue will hold and whether I can afford it if I just skip a few meals. I know better. I do.

But it calls to us, the precious. We wants it, oh yes.

*shameless pimp*

[zeelee-penguin.livejournal.com]

*koff* The latest Teen Titans features Kon going to Gotham all by himself to search for Tim, because he needs his Timmay, don'cha know....

Re: *shameless pimp*

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

You...evil...

Succumbing...oh...succumbing...

Can feel the crack calling to my brain. Oh god will the madness never end?

He needs his Timmy! Please let me not squee over that - it would just be too humiliating.

(Love your icon. Love it. And I refuse to see any signficance in my insane fondness for so many comics icons.)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

P.S. I love your icon. In a very unhealthy way.

[shrift.livejournal.com]

Hee. Thank you kindly.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

That icon, on the other hand, is kinda scary. Who is that giant-thighed man?

[ardent-muses.livejournal.com]

I think your summary of Adorned is as good as any I've seen. I've read it 437 times and I still don't know what it's about. It's one of my all-time faves, though. One of the stories that I would kill to have written. :)

You're getting into some good stuff here.

And I haven't forgotten what we discussed. It's just been the month from hell here, and I'm more behind than usual (which is saying something). :)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Wouldn't we all kill to have written this story? Because, wow.

I actually started this set with that one because it is pretty much about what this set was about (ick - that sentence was awful); clothes and adornment not so much sex-related as self-related or image-related. So, in the other stories Blair and Jim change their appearances to match who they are instead of using apperance to hide who they are, while Tim has to learn how to live when he can't hide behind his costume and mask. "Tin Men" is a little less related to the theme, but the way Danny is dressed does say a lot about him, about both his self-confidence and his insecurity.

Totally pretentious, yes, but it was "Adorned" that made me want to build a set around that concept.

Take your time. No rush!

[fanofall.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually read any of the things that you've recommended here yet, but that's because I have been completely entranced by Teh Pretteh.

I can't believe I didn't know about The Sentinel Mah Jongg game before. It's like crack. I'll never do any real work again. Damn you, thefourthvine!!

Um, okay. Now I'm gonna go read, assuming I can wrench myself away from Jim'n'Blair long enough to do that....

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Yay! I have successfully spread the addiction. Now perhaps the gods of Sentinel Mah Jongg will allow me some measure of freedom.

Just wait until you've started snapping, "No one asked for your opinion, Blair" at your computer screen, or hissing, "Thank you, Jim. I so wanted to hear that," or even, "Gerbil? I'll show you a damn gerbil." Then comes the stage where you have names for many of the tiles - "Let's see, I need another Moody Blues Trio. And, cripes, a left-leaning Nurse Blair and a Big Head Jim."

You have so much to look forward to! Get cracking. Only by passing on my addiction in full measure to at least two others can I ever obtain release from my own.

[fanofall.livejournal.com]

So who's the Procurator-General now?

That's it! T-shirts all around!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Well, I started this LJ as sort of an application to join the Procurator-General's staff. I just had no idea I would encounter the P-G in person. Or, rather, not in person, but electronically.

Yay! T-shirts!