[interesting] archivist 12/mina de malfois

[wisdomeagle]

So I'm thinking (in the interest of me spamming LJ more letting new folks get to know me and old folks know me beter) that I'll start regularly posting intros to the things I list as interests on my profile. I stripped my interests down to one when I went no-LJ last year, and have been adding them back when things strike me as interesting. I've currently got 54.

First up: archivist 12/mina de malfois. Aka Mina/Arc or this is my OTP from mina_de_malfois.

Don't know Mina? It's kind of indescribable, but: it's original fiction in the form of Mina's memoirs, where Mina is a twentysomething fangirl with delusions of BNFdom. Knowledge of particular fandoms isn't required -- although knowing Harry Potter probably helps -- the story is about fandom in general, and how wonderful and insane we are. In true "fandom is my fandom" spirit, MDM has inspired Yuletide and Femslash Annual requests for a few years now -- geez, it's been since 2006? -- and is the hilarious, heartwarming, and excellent tale of a young woman's experiences in the fictional Sanguinity fandom.

There are currently two and a half seasons, and the story's on hiatus for awhile, but there's plenty to enjoy. All of S1 seems to be available unlocked at Mina's JournalFen account. There are plenty o' instructions in her userinfo on how to get all the goods.

Now that that's out of the way, on to the earth-shattering OTP goodness:

The non-spoilery version is that Archivist12, aka Arc, is Mina's archivist and friend who helps her out when she gets in hot water and finds her endearingly silly. Arc is an Older (!) and wiser Woman, and she was a Girl Guide in her youth. [wink] She's basically just ten kinds of awesome and Mina's fans (and Mina's mun) as well as Mina herself have a bit of a crush on her (though it's unspoken in Mina's case). Let's see, it's a) lesbian with b) an age difference and c) takes place online, in a way that captures the wonder and absurdity of cyberculture. OTP, y/y.

[slightly more spoilery and intended for readers of Mina]



What I love about Mina/Arc -- and Mina in general -- is that there is deliciously gooey subtext that's clearly intentional, but that doesn't invalidate other pairings. Yes, I'm hoping for Mina/Arc, crossing my toes and holding my breath and wondering if shipping them hard enough will magically make pr0n appear, but I enjoy the fact that Xena, Jen, Josh, PrinceC and Warr1or also attract Mina's attention. And I love that Arc has a romantic past -- and possibly present -- with Xena -- and that none of that invalidates the feelings that Arc and Mina obviously have for each other. (Whither thou goest, that's all I'm saying!)

I love Mina's love for Arc, and Arc's for Mina, love that Arc is wiling to wait, love the cross-genness, love how flustered and confused Mina is by her awakening bisexuality. Like Mina, I'm a fangirl with a thing for older women, but I'm unlike Mina in just about every other way. So it's not just wish-fulfillment OTPing (well, maybe mostly) -- it's awesome to see a story arc unfold that gets me in places I can't empathize with but that gets me in that lizardgut place. (I was never bicurious or questioning -- I suspected I was gay for years before twelve-year-old me knew -- but coming-out-to-self stories hit me hard.)

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I love Mina. I think Mina/Arc is my favorite pairing, but there are so many great pairing possibilities and I love all of them.

I have been kind of uncomfortable with the Jen/Josh storyline for a while, though, and it's kind of affecting my enjoyment of the series as a whole. Jen/Josh's situation is played totally for shock/laughs without any regard for actual intersex or trans people. Even just a little research on various types of intersex conditions would have been nice; the "all female on top, all male below the waist" thing is just not how it works.

[wisdomeagle]

I was under the impression from the mun's comments/commentary that Josh/Jen literally changes sex in a mystical magical pure fantasy way -- sometimes has boy parts, sometimes girl parts -- and is genderfluid.

That said, it's not my favorite plotline either, and I'd have preferred a less fantastic, more conventional trans plotline.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I couldn't quite get a handle on what exactly was going on. I haven't read all the comments, so was mainly trying to go from the story itself to figure it out, and I got the impression that sie had breasts, but also a normal-sized, fully functional cock (from the scene where Jen pulls up hir shirt to prove sie's female, and the scene where Mina and the grad student walk in on hir).

But either way, yeah, whether it's a full-on female on top, male on bottom kind of thing, or even more fantastical than that, I was disappointed that the author went that route. Not just because it borders on offensive to me, but because otherwise Mina's world isn't appreciably different to ours, so the sudden turn for the fantastical didn't really fit to me.

But it's a fairly small part of a series I love overall, so I try to just gloss over it.

[piperrhiannon.livejournal.com]

Skipping the spoilers 'cause I've never heard of this, I gotta say, this sounds like a fun way to waste some time.

Also fun: getting to read about your interests.

[wisdomeagle]

Enjoy! :) It's a great way to waste a great deal of time.)

Next up will be the BSC!

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

WHITHER THOU GOEST. *happy sigh*

[wisdomeagle]

NO WORDS. Sigh they're so awesome.