Fanfic Author Appreciation Week (Entry 12/?): machaswicket and the Clever Subtitle I Am Too Hungry to Come Up With
When I started working on this (seemingly indefinitely extending) series of posts for Fanfic Author Appreciation Week, I thought I could keep it manageable. Then I started remembering more and more authors, and, well... here we are. People keep getting added to my list. It is as if the universe is doing everything it can to keep me from producing more boring, poorly-written interpretations of Veronica Mars. Touché.
Apparently machaswicket has had a few tributes done for her during this week, so that was a relief. However, I was also told (and I am sorry if this is not accurate) that it was all for her Arrow fics. That is all well and good, I suppose (withholding rant in order to avoid hate mail and blocking), but uh, what about her incredible Veronica Mars fics?
I am just going to assume that if you are reading this you are familiar with machaswicket’s VM-related corpus. It is probably best to go right to some particular things I enjoy.
The author has a couple different universes (I’m not sure about the appropriate terminology, and I haven’t eaten yet today, so my brain is even less useful than usual at the moment), I believe, so I’m not sure which ones I am getting into... Okay, two stories, finally.
1) Caught Up is a one-shot from Keith’s perspective. Keith and Veronica are attending Logan’s promotion ceremony. I am assuming it is pretty accurate, as the author seems pretty into research, although that kind of stuff is not the most important part of these fics. It is a sweet fic, actually, and ties into the other one I will discuss below. While I personally like the holdover tension between Keith and Logan in canon (probably because I’m a dork), machaswicket (I am not sure what the “short form” of this handle is supposed to be) does a really nice job of having Keith and Logan in better place without making it all smiley-faces for Lt. Cmdr. Echolls. Two quick passages from this fic that speak for themselves.
a) Keith followed Veronica to the group and offered handshakes and nods to each of them. He’d met a couple of them before, at various get togethers at Veronica and Logan’s place. It didn’t escape his notice that there were far more people here already than the 10 chairs would suggest. He wondered if Logan had tried to limit the guest list, or if he had underestimated how many people actually gave a damn about him.... Even this many years later, the effects of Lynn and Aaron’s parenting -- if it even deserved to be called such -- were evident to Keith in some of the actions and expectations of their son.
b) Keith gave an exaggerated grumble and used Logan’s proffered hand to pull him into a half-hug. He slapped Logan’s shoulder affectionately and then stood back. “Congratulations, son.”
Logan’s eyes darted away, the same thing every time Keith called him son, but then he lifted his chin and smiled. “Thanks.”
2) Gravity Sings comes before the fic referenced above. It is definitely post-movie, and I think it is post-TDTL, although I’m not sure (not that it matters that much). Since this series is supposed to be fun rather than contentious, I will refrain from pointing out a number of “interesting” ways in which Gravity Sings, shall we say, “anticipates” MKAT.” I will simply say that, with all due respect to Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham, Gravity Sings is arguably better than either The Thousand Dollar Tan Line or Mr. Kiss and Tell (both of which I enjoyed). I know I am not the first person to suggest this, either.
If that is not enough of an inducement to read the fic (for the first time or once more), I do not know what would be.
Thanks, machaswicket!
[Previous FAAWk Entry: Fanfic Author Appreciation Week (Entry 11/?): nevertothethird and That One Moment]
[General Disclaimer: I decided to do these publicly, even though I am worried I will forget someone, so apologies in advance to those whom I inevitably can’t write up. These are in no particular order. Lengths will vary for no systematic reason.]
