Lackadaisy Pimp-Post
Jan. 3rd, 2012 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
handful_ofdustMy standards for Lackadaisy fic are pretty high, overall. I need to feel like the voices are right, like the characters jibe with the original, as though what happens in the story could fit into some sort of existing interstitial. Head and shoulders above everything everyone else has produced thus far, therefore, stands “The Midnight Special” by Prodigy, basically gen with hints of Viktor/Mordecai pre-slash (http://archiveofourown.org/works/34901), which traces the difficult process of skinny, transplanted young New Yorker Mordecai Heller settling into cold, sleepy, hicktown St. Louis, in all its massive body-count and emotional face-blindness glory. It also manages to explain that “Wanted” poster in a way that not only doesn't contradict canon, it genuinely feels like it should be a part of canon Tracy J. Butler just hasn't told us about yet.
Similar in quality—though I know I'm somewhat biased about this—is, of course, “Lackadaisy Yontif” by sovay, Mordecai POV (http://sovay.livejournal.com/431388.html#cutid1), which explores the necessary dichotomy between his perhaps not exactly “chosen” profession and his Judaism. (As Prodigy points out, he's a guy who refuses to use aliases which sound like goyish names; I somehow think this is probably a bit of a psychological cornerstone of his personality, down to and including the relationship between keeping kosher and OCD.) And then there's Prodigy's second Lackadaisy fic, “Where There's Smoke” (http://archiveofourown.org/works/201155), which both posits not exactly a friendship, so much, as the long-since-discarded flirtation with the idea of one between Mordecai and Dorian “Zib” Zibowski, as well as a sizeable hint of Mordecai/Mitzi May. For those who like that sort of thing, I mean, which I actually do.;)
In and between, we also have stuff that's not as good, but still worth a look-in. In terms of my personal favourite ship, there's “No One Above Me To Stay My Fierce Hand” by gyzym, Mordecai/Viktor (http://gyzym.dreamwidth.org/tag/lackadaisy), a series of pointed little observations and exchanges. On the Ivy/Viktor tip, meanwhile, we have “Perennial” (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5813716/1/Perennial) and “Rozpada vo Svikoch” (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7301513/1/RozpadavoSvikoch), both by xcgirl08, whose Viktor POV is particularly good: Stoic, smart, fatalistic. The description of kneecapping's after-effects in “perennial” is harrowing enough that I may have to take it into account, if and when I cover that particular part of the Mordecai/Viktor downspiral. She also wrote “A Top Hat of White Satin”, gen, Nico and Serafine Savoy POV (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7265220/1/ATopHatofWhiteSatin), which gets a minus two on attempting a Cajun dialect, but a plus two on everything else, particularly on messing with expectations. And finally, there's “Lackadaisy Puttershot” by Guille von Cartier, gen, Asa Sweet and Mordecai (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6957816/1/LackadaisyPuttershot), which genuinely almost reads like a couple of pages from the strip itself, and goes a way towards confirming the idea that Asa probably didn't get where he is just by being “charming”.
Unfortunately, however, because the field is so damn small, I sometimes find myself making do with things which don't quite measure up, which is how we get to “Lesson Learned: St Louis Is Not New York (Or New Orleans)” by Ryuutchi, Mordecai/Nico Savoy (http://archiveofourown.org/works/140218), a piece I mainly included because I really like the Nico voice—Mordecai's seems dicey, not least because I truly question the author's assumption both that “Elijah Metzger” is his actual name (it'd seem to disqualify it as a useful fake I.D., if so) and that he comes from some sort of multi-generational established Jewish gangster family, because there just weren't a whole lot of those around, back then—and I admire the way the author dealt with how cat-porn would actually “work”, both physically and as a concept, without getting into horrifying thorny dick territory. I'm also glad to discover there's at least a couple of other people who ship Mordecai with the Savoys, if only individually; while I don't quite believe in the general thesis of “Affectionless” by Bridgette th Masquerade Turtle, Mordecai/Serafine (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6940135/1/Affectionless), and decry its overall execution, it is a fun read, so there ya go.
All right: Round-up complete. Click, sample, enjoy. Write! The field's been left lamentably open, in terms of takers.
Similar in quality—though I know I'm somewhat biased about this—is, of course, “Lackadaisy Yontif” by sovay, Mordecai POV (http://sovay.livejournal.com/431388.html#cutid1), which explores the necessary dichotomy between his perhaps not exactly “chosen” profession and his Judaism. (As Prodigy points out, he's a guy who refuses to use aliases which sound like goyish names; I somehow think this is probably a bit of a psychological cornerstone of his personality, down to and including the relationship between keeping kosher and OCD.) And then there's Prodigy's second Lackadaisy fic, “Where There's Smoke” (http://archiveofourown.org/works/201155), which both posits not exactly a friendship, so much, as the long-since-discarded flirtation with the idea of one between Mordecai and Dorian “Zib” Zibowski, as well as a sizeable hint of Mordecai/Mitzi May. For those who like that sort of thing, I mean, which I actually do.;)
In and between, we also have stuff that's not as good, but still worth a look-in. In terms of my personal favourite ship, there's “No One Above Me To Stay My Fierce Hand” by gyzym, Mordecai/Viktor (http://gyzym.dreamwidth.org/tag/lackadaisy), a series of pointed little observations and exchanges. On the Ivy/Viktor tip, meanwhile, we have “Perennial” (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5813716/1/Perennial) and “Rozpada vo Svikoch” (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7301513/1/RozpadavoSvikoch), both by xcgirl08, whose Viktor POV is particularly good: Stoic, smart, fatalistic. The description of kneecapping's after-effects in “perennial” is harrowing enough that I may have to take it into account, if and when I cover that particular part of the Mordecai/Viktor downspiral. She also wrote “A Top Hat of White Satin”, gen, Nico and Serafine Savoy POV (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7265220/1/ATopHatofWhiteSatin), which gets a minus two on attempting a Cajun dialect, but a plus two on everything else, particularly on messing with expectations. And finally, there's “Lackadaisy Puttershot” by Guille von Cartier, gen, Asa Sweet and Mordecai (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6957816/1/LackadaisyPuttershot), which genuinely almost reads like a couple of pages from the strip itself, and goes a way towards confirming the idea that Asa probably didn't get where he is just by being “charming”.
Unfortunately, however, because the field is so damn small, I sometimes find myself making do with things which don't quite measure up, which is how we get to “Lesson Learned: St Louis Is Not New York (Or New Orleans)” by Ryuutchi, Mordecai/Nico Savoy (http://archiveofourown.org/works/140218), a piece I mainly included because I really like the Nico voice—Mordecai's seems dicey, not least because I truly question the author's assumption both that “Elijah Metzger” is his actual name (it'd seem to disqualify it as a useful fake I.D., if so) and that he comes from some sort of multi-generational established Jewish gangster family, because there just weren't a whole lot of those around, back then—and I admire the way the author dealt with how cat-porn would actually “work”, both physically and as a concept, without getting into horrifying thorny dick territory. I'm also glad to discover there's at least a couple of other people who ship Mordecai with the Savoys, if only individually; while I don't quite believe in the general thesis of “Affectionless” by Bridgette th Masquerade Turtle, Mordecai/Serafine (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6940135/1/Affectionless), and decry its overall execution, it is a fun read, so there ya go.
All right: Round-up complete. Click, sample, enjoy. Write! The field's been left lamentably open, in terms of takers.
