[fic] Knowledge of the Hand (Tina Drake, PG: Daddy Sharp-Ears, for MMoM)

[glossing]

Title: Knowledge of the Hand
Media: Daddy Sharp-Ears (Uber/fusion of DC Comics [Gotham] and Jean Webster's Daddy Long-Legs)
Characters: Tina Drake and Jane Todd
Rating: PG, if that.
Length: 1700 words
Disclaimer: I am neither DC nor Miss Webster.
Notes: For jubilancy, without whom Dickie would be impossible, with much love. thete1 a while ago suggested Jane's

Comments

[jubilancy]

her roommates were nearly lunatic with their love of teasing her, her English composition had been deemed 'awkwardly phrased, the logic of its argument perilously ornate

Oh dear, this phrasing is so alarmingly perfect and wonderful, pitter-pitter-bam-Tina's heartbreak.

she was a bluestocking, to be sure, but that stocking was of the finest material, lovingly designed
Ahahah, wonderful.

I really love this to death, Jane's apple-chewing and Tina's standoffishness and glorious Dickie with Regina.

Much, much love.

[glossing]

I kind of cackled - a lot - and revised the prof's comments until they felt as Drakeian as I could make them.

I am so glad you liked this. For many, many reasons, but right now because it's all your fault that this is even in my head. Thank you so much! <3333333333

"I want to be wanted more than anything else in the world"

[glossing]

PS Is that icon quoting O'Hara's "Homosexuality" or am I projecting...?

Re: "I want to be wanted more than anything else in the world"

[jubilancy]

While I would like to say I was being that intellectual, I cribbed it from the Ramones song. Now that you've pointed it out, though, I'm calling it a double reference!

[caiusmajor]

Oh wow. Old fashioned girls-school AU for the WIN!

[glossing]

Yay, thank you! :DDD

[rubynye]

Oh, my God.

Daddy-Long-Legs!

I feel as if I turned a corner and found a friend from my childhood, grown up and filled out and gorgeous, arm in arm with and whispering some tartly sweet secret into the ear of a current friend, who's wearing new clothes and different lipstick and lit by a whole new light.

This is an absolutely glorious AU, and oh, TINA.

Tina stilled the querulous tremor in her chest and frowned. For a moment, she had imagined that Jane's hair was an entirely different color, a secret one, a secret that had just been vouched to her.

I can *see* that moment, feel it. I love how you've written it.

Just now, she was as free as she might ever be, the sun slanting behind high clouds, the sky bright as an electric bulb all around her, the horizon tilting down to the Hudson River.

That is such a lovely image. You've evoked some of my good memories from high school, the beauty of that kind of countryside.

Her body flew, as if she and Redbird were of a single muscle, a united torrent of motion, a union far beyond human

[glossing]

*snugs you hard* This AU and its source are very dear to me, so I'm just so *thrilled* that you responded to it so deeply. In the main thing, Tina's a peripheral character, but ze enthralls me, if that makes any sense.

I can *see* that moment, feel it.
Transmuting canon meta into imagery is just about my favorite thing.

You've evoked some of my good memories from high school, the beauty of that kind of countryside.
All of *my* good high school memories tend to be countryside, deliberately unpopulated, too. *g*

Thank you so much for such enthusiastic and thoughtful feedback. <3

[lomedet]

oh, this was so lovely.

(and I saw from something you said chez petronelle that there might be more to this, and that it might be epistolary in nature. if it were true, that might be more wonderfulness than I could possibly bear. ::shivers with aniticipatory glee::

[glossing]

Oh, my - thank you so much!

There is more to this (and it is epistolary, oh, yes), but jubilancy & I haven't yet figured out what to do with it, since the letters are handwritten at the moment.

[cmshaw]

whee! oh, *heart*. especially jane, but i suspect that that's not a surprise. i am so delighted that there's going to be more of this. especially if tina keeps on with her "athletic" pleasures. :)

(i hadn't read daddy-long-legs before, but i have just looked it up and spent rather more of my lunch hour than i should've devouring the first two-thirds of it.)

i did note a few equestrian nitpicks -- are you interested in them?

[glossing]

Thank you!

especially if tina keeps on with her "athletic" pleasures.
Tina is also pursuing her love of photography; she has been endeavoring to convince Dickie to pose - Classically, of course - and might just bribe Jane to do so as well.

I am *so* glad you discovered DLL! It kind of owns me, heart and soul.

Bring on the nitpicks, please! It's been fifteen years since I was in a paddock and then the sidesaddle stuff threw me even more.

[cmshaw]

Tina is also pursuing her love of photography; she has been endeavoring to convince Dickie to pose - Classically, of course - and might just bribe Jane to do so as well.

laughing...too hard...can't breathe...help....

*flaily hands of asphyxiation and love*

okay, okay, i'm back. :) the only nit which really threw me was tina removing her gloves: she should absolutely be wearing them from mount to dismount, and probably the entire time she's in the stableyard.

tina lifting herself into the saddle: that's either a notable athletic feat or a deliberate slap at jane, and if it's something that tina's in the habit of doing then jane's failure to hold the reins and the stirrup for her is notable itself. arabians are quite small, but immediately after making a point that tina is small and sensitive about her dignity it stands out that she's mounting unaided, without even a mounting block mentioned.

(the sidesaddle wasn't clear to me in the story; now that you mention it, the weight being on the right leg makes sense!)

[glossing]

Ahh, the gloves were a problem, since I needed Jane to touch her. Must ponder that.

jane's failure to hold the reins and the stirrup for her is notable itself
Ooooooh, that's good to know. I am determined to add that.

Mounting blocks! Dude, where were they when I was riding?

Sidesaddle - *sigh*. Reading about it was both confusing and upsetting. Maybe I need a detail about Tina arranging herself after mounting, just to make it clear? Hmm.

Thank you *so* much for this.