Uffish Thought

This was an excellent Yuletide for me!!!

First of all, my story: the Yuletide algorithms in their infinite wisdom matched me with philomytha for Nirvana in Fire, which I got her into in the first place! It was really lovely writing for someone whose taste I knew well, and her prompt for a Temeraire crossover was very inspiring.

Seed (2815 words) by Spatz
Fandom: 琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV), Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lin Shu | Mei Changsu | Su Zhe/Mu Nihuang, Lin Shu & Xiao Jingyan & Mu Nihuang
Characters: Lin Shu | Mei Changsu | Su Zhe, Lin Chen, Xiao Jing Yan, Mu Ni Huang
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Temeraire Fusion, Fix-It, Fantasy Medicine, Crack Treated Seriously, more secret identities, Hugs

He listened also with a wistful air to the story of Xiao Sheng, the emperor's minister, who swallowed a pearl from a dragon's treasury and became a dragon himself; Laurence did not understand his attitude, until Temeraire said, "I do not suppose that is real? There is no way that people can become dragons, or the reverse?"
-His Majesty's Dragon, Chapter 8

I'd say it's very accessible if you've seen NIF but don't know Temeraire at all, since you basically just need to know that a few characters are dragons now, but not at all accessible the other way around. Sorry, fellow Temeraire fans. You should watch NIF? :D

I received THREE gifts this year, which was really exciting! Two were for The Breakfast Club, based on my prompt about the gang quietly keeping in touch via notes in each other's lockers, and one was for my NIF prompt about Jingyan meeting Shen Zhui in a restaurant on MCS's hint. I loved them all, and I'm really touched that three separate people wrote me stories - the Yuletide spirit is strong this year!

Nirvana in Fire
An interlude at Jiyun restaurant by Melody_Jade
The first meeting between Jingyan and Shen Zhui.

The Breakfast Club
Bender's Spring Cleaning by rhys_brad_fan
It was that time of year again. The birds were singing. The flowers were blooming. Kids were finally getting ready to say goodbye to school and hello to summer vacation, which meant as such it was time for John Bender to clean out his cesspool of a locker.

Freeze Tag by Missy
A single note ping-pongs its way throughout Shermer High throughout the course of a single day.

Thank you all once again!!!

I've got a stash of recs, but I was so busy over the break that I think I'll wait for another day so I can accumulate some more. Yuletide! \o/ And happy New Year, everyone!

( January: Star Wars, Leverage, Goblin Emperor, Vorkosigan, Chalion )
( February: Yuri on Ice, Rivers of London, Fantastic Beasts, Hannibal )
( March: Yuri on Ice, Voltron )
( April: Star Wars, Yuri on Ice, Voltron )
( May: MCU, The Mummy, Witcher, Yuri on Ice, Ouran, Queen's Thief )
( June: MCU, Six of Crows )
( July: Goblin Emperor, Wizard of Oz, original, Teen Wolf )
( August: Hannibal, Naruto, Leverage )
( September: Mythbusters, Lord Peter, Books of the Raksura, Captive Prince, Murderbot )
( October: Leverage, Dragon Age, Kingsman, Magnificent Seven )
( November: Stranger Things, Hobbit, Walking Dead )
( December: Goblin Emperor, Temeraire, Yuletide )

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thank you so much in advance for writing me a story! I love that we both share one of these tiny, beloved fandoms, and I'm excited to read what you come up with for me.

( General likes/dislikes )


( Fandoms: The Breakfast Club, Nirvana in Fire, Murderbot, B13 )


Thank you again, and good luck with your writing! If there's anything that's really confusing or stymying you about my prompts, or you have a thrilling plot bunny that really inspires you but you're not sure I'll like or not, or whatever, please feel free to get in touch with inmyriadbits (DW, Tumblr). She's my twin sister, so she knows all my preferences and all of these fandoms and can guide you - and will probably be delighted to keep the secret from me and then tell me all about it after reveals ;)

Dear Yuletide Author,

OMG YULETIDE IS HEEEERE!!! Thank you, fellow fan, for loving one of these little fandoms enough to write me fic for it. ♥ You are welcome to ignore my optional details, of course, but if you like having some hints and prompts and guidelines, read on!

( General preferences )

( Fandom specifics )

If there's anything that's really confusing or stymying you about my prompts, please feel free to PM inmyriadbits (DW, Tumblr). She's my twin sister, so she knows all my preferences and can guide you - and will probably be delighted to keep the secret from me and then tell me all about it after reveals ;)

Dear Yuletide Author,

I am SO sorry for putting this up late! You are clearly an awesome person who shares the same love for the same tiny fandom(s) as me, so I'm extra embarrassed. Hopefully this letter will be helpful to you, however belated!

( General )

( Requested fandoms )

Good luck, author anon! Thank you for writing for me, and have fun!

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thank you so much for writing for me! You share one of these tiny fandoms with me, so I already like you and will be delighted by whatever you choose to write for me -- but if you like knowing more about my tastes or the particular things I like/want for these fandoms, read on! (or, if you've hit the 'oh god what have I done' stage of getting your assignment, I've included some plot bunnies to kick your brain out of the panic zone ♥)

( An incomplete list of things I like )

( Banlieue 13 )


( Political Animals )


( Books of the Raksura )


( Temeraire )


( Rivers of London )


( You're Next )

Yuletide reveals are up, yay! I wrote gimel for donutsweeper, a quiet little Arrow team story about Oliver and Diggle crashing Felicity's Hanukkah celebration. Many, many thanks to inmyriadbits for the beta job of awesome, and to arsenicjade for doing a last-minute Judaism-pick for me. ♥

I got three awesome stories this year, which was a new and delightful experience!!!

( gifts: Lockout, B13 )

I also beta'd three fics this year, all of which were awesome.

( betas: Bletchley Circle, Arrow, & Curse of Chalion )

Oh god, apparently I am now that fan who starts a fight in the comments of the Yuletide rules post, thereby causing a panic and harshing everyone's squee. *headdesk* I imagine the spirit of Yuletide will prevail; I just wish people weren't misunderstanding the new rule as DQ'ing all the sub-fandoms, just that the mods *may* rule one ineligible. (Also, I wish Elementary wasn't disqualified. D:)

...I suppose since, as of next month, I will have spent over half my life in fandom, it was about time I got my BOFQ membership card. It still comes with a 'get off my lawn you kids' stick and free dialup, right?

I'm trying to decide it would help or not to suggest that they just eliminate the If the character is in the main character in the fandom, the fandom itself may be ruled ineligible part of the new rule but keep the 'no characters are eligible with over 2000 works' part, thereby allowing people to request the permutation fandoms but only with minor characters. You'll still have a problem if you want to request, say, Holmes/Watson fic for A Study in Emerald, or Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot fic for Arthurian legend, or a Joan Watson character study, but you could get around a lot using the optional details. *eyes comment thread warily* Maybe in the morning.

*****

To encourage me to keep on track with my POI Big Bang:

Word Count: 7,076 / 10,000 minimum
Scenes to complete: 2
Training montages Segues to write: 4
Scenes to write wholesale: 2, including the climactic balcony scene, so help me.

Belated again, whoops. I got a little distracted by Person of Interest and my car dying and finally giving two weeks notice at the call center (starting off the new year right!). I wrote Nikita fic for gothicgunslinger, a Birkhoff character study:

No Easy Walk To Freedom (1707 words) by Spatz
Fandom: Nikita (TV 2010)
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Seymour Birkhoff, Percy, Amanda, Nikita
Summary: Hacking is 90% hardware and 10% software: 90% knowing how a thing works, and 10% figuring out the people who made it. It's the 10% that'll get you screwed – or save you.

The title is from a Nelson Mandela speech. I had a lot of fun coming up with backstory for Birkhoff, which was my recipient's sole request, and thankfully the show left me a lot of room to work with there. I did a partial rewatch focusing on the Birkhoff-heavy eps but didn't finish due to holiday busyness, which I'm a little sad about. I'd forgotten just how fast things go down on the show: it's narratively and emotionally intense, and awesome.

Weirdly, I think the part I enjoyed most about writing this story was remembering all the 'period' details about computers from the nineties, now fuzzy childhood memories. Made me all nostalgic. [Of course, now all I can think is how hilarious it would be to watch Harold Finch completely school Birkhoff. He offers to hack the Pentagon for lols when he's accidentally high and builds the world's most insanely advanced AI; you know he'd think Shadownet was adorable.]

( and now, that Yuletide retrospective meme everyone else did back in December but I never got around to )

Hurrah for successful Yuletide upload! I managed to get my computer working in safe mode, thank the merciful computer gods. And thankfully Yuletide is on AO3 now, because I had to edit for typos twice immediately after posting. *sigh* Also, I uploaded about 30 minutes before deadline and the archive didn't even blink or slow down at all. Nice.

Then I got all anti-nostalgic about the year they had to put up the low-graphics version of all the stories on a separate server to keep everything from crashing, went to read through the Fanlore entry, and discovered Ghost Soup Infidel Blue. Ahahahaha. ♥