e

I still can't believe what a consistently awesome time I have with this exchange. Not only did I get two awesome gifts, but it turns out that the fantastic POI f/f rarepair treat was by st_aurafina, who recced one of the only other fics for said rarepair back when I posted my Dear Chocolatier letter. st_aurafina, I can't believe you! Or maybe I mean that I can't believe I didn't guess it was you! OMG!

*ahem*

Meanwhile, my other gorgeous gift, the Imperial Radch AI gen with such lovely Radchaai touches, turns out to have been LadyGwenllian's first fic in that fandom, but I've been glad to see it getting attention from other fans of the series, so maybe it won't be the last. ♥

On the writing side of the exchange, I wrote 2k for the music video "Genghis Khan", plus a little 600 word treat for one of amovingtarget's Dishonored prompts, both of which were really interesting and fun to work on in different ways.

I'm a little sad that I didn't manage more treats, but this is the highest total wordcount I've managed for any Chocolate Box so far, so... maybe next year!

This year's Chocolate Box assignment was very exciting for me, because the fandom I matched on was an adorable four minute long music video about a James Bond-like spy and his nemesis. And I'd never written for a canon so tiny before, or one without dialogue or even names for the main characters!

In some ways, it was very freeing, because the canon was incredibly easy to review as many times as I needed to (and somehow I never did get tired of it); in other ways, it was a fascinating challenge, because I needed to fill in whole areas of the story space that most other canons would have provided for me, making it almost like a midway point between the kind of fanfic I'm used to and original fiction. It was both nerve-wracking and incredibly fun to work on!

Plus, I had the supreme pleasure of joining the fandom trend of incorporating the song's lyrics into story titles, bit by bit.

Title: And Dip Into When We Need
Fandom: Genghis Khan - Miike Snow (music video)
Pairing: Gold Nose Villain/Secret Agent
Rating: Teen
Contains: Action, combat, heists, sinister plots, accidental telepathy, angst, enemies to lovers, and a happy ending.
Word count: 2103
Summary: It was all in a day's work, really -- until it wasn't.

( It was all in a day's work, really. The fight in the lobby, the sniper in the stairwell, the race to rewire the elevator followed immediately by assassins dropping in through the ceiling as it ascended to the roof. )

It's that time of year again!  I'm already thrilled that you've signed up to write one of the following relationships, but for people who like more details, more details are here! Please do note that there might be spoilers for individual canons past their respective cuts.

( General likes )

( Doctor Who (2005) )

( Foreigner by CJ Cherryh )

( The Good Place )

( The Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie )

( The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel )

( Person of Interest )

( Stumptown )

Above all, if trying to meet any of the specific suggestions I make above stresses you out too much, please don't worry about it. Just show me what you love about these characters, and I know I'll be thrilled too! ♥

I have what I thought was a pleasantly mild-mannered cold, but it's clung on for something like ten days at this point. I wonder if you can get a watered down version of the flu if you were vaccinated against it?

Looks like the CDC thinks yes: "Flu vaccination has been shown in several studies to reduce severity of illness in people who get vaccinated but still get sick." That's cool to know! I'm definitely happier now than I remember being while sick with the full-strength version.

Anyway, have some belated Wednesday reading and watching.

READ

I finished Castle in the Sand DesdemonaKaylose and neveralarch, which was just as much of a dysfunctional delight as you'd expect from a story where Megatron and Rung get conjunxed while Starscream, the third in their triad, organizes the reception, and yes, that does include violence as foreplay. But in a kind of adorable way?

I also read the tiny and lovely My Hogwarts Will Be Intersectional Or It Will Be Bullshit by swingandswirl, written in direct response to JKR being unpleasantly transphobic on twitter this past week, and skimmed through Magical Metamorphosis by EontheDragonMage, which is a lovely Goblet of Fire rewrite in which Harry Potter realizes she's a girl, and a lot of other little injustices in the stories are worked out along the way as well. As of this writing, it's also a WIP, but it's just reached the end of the school year, so I didn't feel too unsettled when I got to the end of chapter 17.

( And then there's the very strange historical omegaverse hockey RPF... )

VIEWED

I don't usually think to include works of visual art in these posts, but Honk by vass, which comments very wryly on the ongoing drama regarding the AO3's Hugo award, merits an exception.

WATCHED

( Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. )

( The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel through episode 3x01, "Strike Up the Band" )

I'm still hard pressed to categorize this show, but it hasn't stopped me nominating it for Chocolate Box.

( Sym-Bionic Titan through episode 1x05, "Elephant Logic" )

I had hazy dreams of writing far more treats than just the one, but if I could only manage one, I'm glad it was for phoenixfalls, who wrote for me my first Chocolate Box lo these several years ago!

Title: Couples
Fandom: Person of interest
Pairing: Sameen Shaw/John Reese, but like, as bros?
Rating: Teen and Up
Contains: Snark, bad jokes, Shaw's frustration with civilian pastimes.
Word count: 663
Summary: The good thing about getting a number who's on his way to a couples retreat is that it narrows down the possibilities for violence. The bad thing about it that Shaw has to go to a couples retreat, too.

( read on DW )

I do wish I'd finished it just a few minutes earlier, so I could have come up with a better title before the collection went live -- but I did have an awful lot of fun writing it!

OMG, I'm so happy with both my gifts!

For Deltarune, I got the adorable ficlet Sleepovers Are For Heroes, Too. It gets the character voices and video game feel so well! It made me laugh out loud! It gives these beautiful kids some proper downtime! I was definitely looking for heartwarming fluff in this fandom, and that's exactly what I got, and it even fits a tiny little character arc into its 400 words. I love it to bits.

And then for How to Get Away with Murder, I got after italian, which takes the Wes/Annalise undertones the show always teased and plays them out in all their tangled, gorgeous, ethically dubious glory. It's so deep in Annalise's point of view I could almost taste it, and I couldn't have hoped for a better Wes -- sometimes all but eclipsed by Annalise's musings about him, but still managing to surprise me.

I'm so delighted by this combination of gifts, too. The sweetest of gen fluff and twisty teacher/student shipfic: get you an exchange that can do both, apparently!

What a fantastic Chocolate Box, seriously. ♥

( complaining about The Good Wife and, separately, Lost Girl )

*
Less gloomily, I've been enjoying the videos of YouTube user TB Skyen lately. (Unfortunately, most of them aren't captioned.)

I'm unfamiliar with probably 90% of the media he covers, so I've only sampled a scattering of his work, but I love the way he'll sometimes insist that he isn't being political at all, he's purely examining artistic and narrative decisions -- and then he just happens to demonstrate that there is no artistic or narrative justification for the incredibly sexist design choices of the powers that be. Well played, sir.

Not to mention, his delighted squee over the Undertale quasi-sequel (?) Deltarune is incredibly endearing.

*
Also in YouTubery: Why are Siamés' music videos so amazing??

The Wolf was stunningly good, but I might love Mr. Fear just as much. (Cartoon violence in both videos, and possible body horror warning for the latter.) They're just so stylized and stylish and expressive! And the animation meshes so perfectly with the beat!

(And I admire the way they make a genuine artistic virtue of what I suspect is a strategic reuse of footage to keep the workload/budget reasonable.)

*
Possibly against my better judgment, I seem to be gearing up to do Chocolate Box this year! Deadlines can be tricky for me, but surely I can write 300 words in a month's time? (I say knowing full well that last time the story wouldn't let go of me in less than 1000.)

I haven't signed up yet, but I have drafted up some requests and offers, so... I admit it's looking likely at this point. It's just such a fun exchange!

alhflkahsgldhsgls so last month I signed up for this gift exchange called Chocolate Box, which is beautifully low pressure, because all you're agreeing to do is create one (1) nice sketch or short fanfic of at least three hundred words for the person you're assigned. So simple, so adorable, so tiny, right?

That's what I thought right up until I got FIVE WHOLE AMAZING GIFTS -- from, I am guessing, at least two separate people -- and just, HOW IS MY LUCK EVEN?

I DON'T EVEN KNOW. IT IS A MYSTERY TO ME.

But since author reveals aren't for a week and it's killing me that I can't go lurk adoringly at my writer(s) and bask in how awesome they are, I'm just going to tell you all about it. IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER (or rather, in what I think might have been chronological order, only the AO3 is confusing me now so you know what, don't even worry about it):

In How to Get Away with Murder news, I got ACTUALLY FEUDAL ANNALISE/BONNIE FEELS, and I'm not sure I have actually stopped screaming. When I wrote about my quasi-feudal feels in my dear author letter I never dreamed I would get an ACTUAL MEDIEVAL AU, but it is so amazing and so perfectly HTGAWM-awful and so them. HOW IS THIS MY BEAUTIFUL LIFE.

In Person of Interest news, I got ZOE/JOHN FEMDOM OF INFINITE HOTNESS. Oh my gosh, I just casually mentioned in my letter that I would be delighted by kink, and in return I got a Zoe who's both careful and confident in her handling of John and a John who is so there for that, and just, it's the most wonderfully nuanced take on how BDSM could work for them. I know there's at least one of you here whose interests this might be relevant to, okay. SHARE IN THE CELEBRATION.

In Elementary news, I got the loveliest, loveliest portrait of Sherlock and Joan's lives growing, as the summary says, increasingly intertwined. It's so painstakingly, heartbreakingly in character, and I can't even say how delighted I was to see Marcus make an appearance too. I almost don't want to capslock in case I disturb the perfect delicate balance of this fic somehow, but seriously, THIS FIC.

In a surprise twist of MORE PERSON OF INTEREST NEWS, I also got this absolutely classic Finch/Reese fic of wry observations, understated pining, and just the most gorgeously gentle resolution. There are so many amazing things about the later seasons of this show that I wouldn't give up for the world, but you remember that quiet intimate feeling of the first couple of seasons with these two shut up alone in a library? NEVER GOING TO BE TIRED OF THAT. Also if you like hands, the name of this fic is "Palmistry", I am just saying.

And then as if all of that were SOMEHOW NOT ENOUGH, I said in my letter that I'd love to see some Bear character development, because I'm weird like that? AND I GOT BEAR POV. With Finch/Reese as well, and so many pack feels that I can't even. It is so hard not to quote the last line here, seriously, but I'm going to be strong so you can read it in context. HEARTS.

This is the first time I've ever gotten gifts in an exchange[1], and I'm still not sure what to do with the fact that I basically won the fannish lottery. I got some of everything! Three different fandoms; four different relationship categories, including gen; tiny perfect 300-word fics and lovely longer ones; and so many of the things I love best about these fandoms and pairings. It's an embarrassment of riches, and I'm just so happy that I had anything at all to do with these stories coming into the world.

Best February 14th ever.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

1. Although I will always have love for a brave unknown anon who tried, and so clearly wanted to make me something wonderful, but who must have ended up getting overwhelmed by life or something in the end, as so many of us do. Let us remember the fallen soldiers of fandom as well as the glorious heroes, okay. (back)