[fic] for thete1: The Triple-Cross (World's Sleaziest OT3)

[glossing]

Title: The Triple-Cross
Characters: World's Sleaziest—Gary Glanz, Matches Malone, & Pete the Penman
Summary: The con is complicated, but not half so much as the geometry among these three.
Rating: Adult Filthy
Disclaimer: DC, not me.
Notes: I ignored Waid's Birthright, in that Clark's not a vegetarian. Enormous thanks to romanyg for bringing Pete the

Comments

*screeeeeeeeeeeam* (or maybe I mean '*creeeeeam*')

[thete1]

Okay, so maybe it's more like "aaaahhhhhh" and a little bit of "nnngaah" and a whole lot of "UM!!!" as Jack points out, over my shoulder, beside me, staring unblinkingly at THIS BEAUTIFUL THING

[solvent90]

It isn't as if either of them have anywhere else to go. This brownstone is their world; there is nothing else. Pete can no more rescue this child than he can *fly*.

I really want to sit down and unpack every single line of this - that one up there is the first one I had to reread more than three times, but then nearly everything was like that. Just. Wow.

Pete copies originals until they're better than they were. He forges the appearance of truth from miscellaneous materials; his work depends on the fact that people want to believe what they see.

Oh. I have no idea how you do that, pack so much suggestion and almost-metaphor and theme into a single clean line.

And then the story, ohmygod. The way in which Gary and Matches and Pete are like a harsh parody of Tim and Bruce and Clark and then again maybe just more primal/basic/different versions of them - that conversation between Gary and Pete just made me ache with its hopelessness, its patternedness - and how Batman and Superman and Robin are something else again but shadow

[glossing]

Wow, thank you so much. This story kept veering back and forth between utter absurdity and the urge to take it a little more seriously, and your comment's telling me that I managed to do both.

its hopelessness, its patternedness
I can't get over how *right* "patternedness" is for all of this. Thank you.

the class implications of Bruce and Tim choosing to play this way.
I know. It's one thing to say they love their costumes - that's just *true* - but the content and context of those costumes are something else altogether.

[oneangrykate]

You had me at "gunsels". You had me much earlier than that, but I screeched out loud at "gunsels".

You make even the crackiest of the crack sing, and I don't know whether to envy or fear you for that. Except that it's not crackfic, not really - you've got a cracky premise, sure, but what you choose to say though the premise, the twisty layers you've got going, makes it more valid than a lot of things that pass for Stories of Serious Business.

Lines like White brightens into the unwritten page, the uncarved plate, the promise of nothing and all its possibilities rule me.

[glossing]

You had me at "gunsels".
Hey, if anyone knows the word's etymology, it's Bruce. :D

I am very touched, and flattered, that you think the absurdity achieved something beyond itself. I cover you with hearts!

Thank you, *so much*.

[glossing]

I am delighted that you enjoyed this! THank you, sweetcheeks. :DDD

[petronelle]

My mind is blown.

I squeaked and apostrophized you constantly, in between saying 'HEART!' every other paragraph at a minimum.

You have the slick, repellent charisma of Matches down beautifully here. I want to kick sense into him and do him, possibly at the same time.

Gary -- oh Tim, stop -- don't stop -- he's so beautifully a victim and wholly in charge of how far he'll let things go, at the same time.

Pete scares me as much as either of the others, if not more, for his complicity and his total abdication of his role as moral arbiter of the universe. Of course Pete's never been that, and no one expects him to be except the audience.

You owned me long before you got to the spanking, and pages before the sex.

But after those you owned me a little bit more.

This was astonishing and terribly, wonderfully filthy. We are so lucky to have you in the fandom.

[glossing]

Oh, thank you!

I want to kick sense into him and do him, possibly at the same time.
I have a feeling he'd get off on that. Big time.

Pete scares me as much as either of the others, if not more, for his complicity and his total abdication of his role as moral arbiter of the universe.
You've identified, precisely, the major issue I had with this - I found it very difficult to account for him playing the role so thoroughly that he *wouldn't* go Super and break it up. I'm still not sure whether I did account for his complicity; I'm still coming up with different scenes and explanations.

terribly, wonderfully filthy
WHOOHOO! I'm very, very glad. \m/

We are so lucky to have you in the fandom.
Hardly. At least, I feel pretty damn lucky to be here.