Uffish Thought

Dear Yuletide Author,

My favorite time of year has come, and I'm so happy you're writing one of these beloved fandoms for me! If you'd like more information about my tastes, extensive squeeing about the fandoms/characters, and/or specific prompts, please continue below. If that sort of thing doesn't inspire you, please just know that my Do Not Wants are incest, amputation/maiming, main character death, daddy/mommy kink, & ageplay.

Go forth and write with my best wishes!

To anyone wandering by looking to write treats - I am delighted by them and have my AO3 settings set to accept gifts. \o/

( General Likes & Dislikes (including DNWs) )

( Fandoms: Bodies, Nine Worlds, Goblin Emperor, Temeraire )

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thank you for writing fic in this tiny fandom for me! Here's some information about me, my general likes/dislikes, and specific ramblings and prompts for my requested fandoms if that will help you.

( General )


( Requested fandoms )

Naturally, just as I was about to respond to a bunch of AO3 comments and clear them out of my inbox, the archive goes down. *pats AO3* Oh, well.

...I completely forgot what else I was going to say. I'm very tired. I could rec something, but the archive's down, so that would be mean. I haven't seen POI or Sleepy Hollow from this week or Elementary from last week yet, but tomorrow's my day off, so hopefully that will happen. I've still only seen the pilot for Agents of SHIELD and judging by people's reactions, I suspect my lack of enthusiasm for seeing the next two is not going to improve. *sigh* I love Coulson a lot, but unless the rest of the crew starts leveling up, I'm worried.

The Arrow premiere is on October 9, and I am looking forward to that - Felicity! Summer Glau as a new character! Ridiculous vigilante shenanigans and a high probability of shirtless men with very fine musculature! :D After that, it's a bit of a dry stretch until Almost Human on November 4th. I guess I could check out Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, but I'm already side-eying the show for changing its name three times and I'm very picky about my Alice in Wonderland remakes. We'll see.

[as inmyriadbits set up to watch another episode of Leverage]

Lindsey: Let's go steal ourselves some Leverage! Oh, wait, we already did that.

me: You did *not* just say that.


ETA
Lindsey: I'm going to go get myself a tasty beverage for Leverage!
/o\

FUCK YES COULSON LIVES!!!

....Yeah, no one is surprised. But everyone is happy! *twirls*

There are many things I love about Primeval:
1) dinosaurs!
2) hot people with guns!
3) how it killed off a very annoying character I hated!

So naturally, I encouraged the shit out of Lindsey when she decided to combine those things by killing off *another* character I hate, Horatio Caine from CSI: Miami, in this delightful little drabble she wrote in chat for me.

If you are unfamiliar with Horatio: watch this and tell that Horatio does not deserve to die. Terrible puns! Cosmic justice via giant prehistoric lizard! Becker facepalming! ♥

Also, apparently CSI: Miami has been canceled. Her timing is impeccable.

*cackles and reads again*

ETA: 100% improved if you picture the croc spitting up those damn sunglasses afterwards, which she told me about in chat but sadly did not fit into the ficlet. Heeeee.

I neglected to do this last month, but in the wake of Delicious's fail!reboot, it seemed time to do some old-fashioned recs.

I often feel like everyone has read everything before me,but as I pointed out to a friend the other day: *I* love reading what others have to say about good stories, even if I've already read them. So hopefully you'll enjoy these!

Best long: Freeport (Gundam Wing)
Confession: I have never seen Gundam Wing. I scanned one primer and googled some images before reading this epic, and I could have even skipped that step, because this story is practically original scifi. AWESOME original scifi. The premise: several years after an interplanetary civil war, two men reluctantly team up to [fight crime] track down a threat to the fragile peace. The setting: a battered former-prison space station full of criminals and outcasts. The characters: two former teenage terrorists who spent most of the war struggling to do the right thing, and being hated and feared by both sides. Wufei is a stiff-necked martial arts expert and former scholar whose entire clan blew themselves up rather than surrender during the war; he now works as a specialized law enforcer and believes in Justice, though he lives thoroughly in shades of grey. Duo is an ex-street rat/thief with survivor's guilt who is cheerful, anti-authority, cocky...and oh yeah, nicknamed the God of Death. They have Major Issues, and are extremely competent.

Loved the casefile, loved the complex worldbuilding, loved the action and the investigation writing; loved the romance and the slow build of character arcs and revealed history and shared ground. The story is very accessible to a newbie, since only 2 of the 5 canon leads appear in 95% of the story and the characters don't know a lot about each other's past, despite having a powerful connection from the war. As in a lot of good scifi, the anarchic society of Freeport is a touch implausible, but Maldoror grounds it in humanity and everyday details that make it work. This fucker is LONG, too, and was polished up from the original version several years later. Take a long Saturday afternoon, and enjoy the read.

Best short: The Sincerest Form of Flattery (multifandom)
Clever five-things fic that points out the influence of Sherlock Holmes on modern procedurals by pairing quotes from the books with scenes from Due South, Numb3rs, House, Psych, and Castle. Fabulously true character voices, investigative shenanigans, and an inspired cameo of pineapples in the Psych bit, all suffused with fondness for the original canon and the inimitable Watson & Holmes.

I almost had a fit of but-I-beta'd--this ethics and recced A Week in the Life (Avengers, Coulson fic), but no. This was my favorite.

Best re-read: Crown of the Summer Court (Merlin)
I think I reread this at least once a year, and I still love it endlessly. Elves in Camelot! With that hilarious-yet-epic tone that is my favorite thing about Merlin! Happy ending that warps canon in lovely ways! Scorchingly hot sex! This story really does have everything.

Best crossover: Captain America's Art Crawl Adventure (Captain America/Middleman)
*keels over laughing* Best. Wake-up call. Ever. Lindsey literally came in and woke me up to read this, and I didn't even mind! The image of Wendy Watson and Steve Rogers fighting a glue monster at Art Crawl is the most genius idea. For added hilarity, the Middleman is totes a Cap fanboy, and the tone/POV is perfect. Art Crawl! \o!

Best gen kink-meme fill: Floor 37 (Suits)
Mike's last three days of indentured servitude to Louis (and whoever Louis farms him out to) are spent in the service of an elderly lawyer named Jack. You'll probably guess Jack's identity in about 3 seconds, but he's a charming OC, and the story does a lovely job opening up the world of the show and looking at mentoring. I really wish this was an episode.

Best slash kink-meme fill: Boden's Mate (XMFC/Inception)
Epic XMFC/Inception AU of Epic Awesomeness! If you have not read this yet, for the love of god WHY? The story has intrigue and clever, intense dreamsharing action sequences and pining and awesome universe-shifting of the characters and a sequel! (Possibly more than one someday!) I had this thing stalker-pinned and *still* couldn't stop myself from clicking over to the thread at least once a day in hopes of an update.

Best TV: Fringe
THIS SHOW. I wish I had something coherent to say about catching up (13 eps in 3 days! \o/), but I'm stuck on OLIVIA OMG and YAY.

Most ridiculous: Resident Evil
Lindsey and I have decided to start having "let's get drunk and marathon shitty movies!" nights every once in awhile. The Fast & the Furious series went down more smooothly with a case of Corona; we were going to drink Bloody Marys for Alice, but did not have any vodka. Alas. For such a DEEPLY ridic franchise, there are shocking numbers of awesome ladies - at least two in each movie, passing the Bechdel test and kicking ass and generally being the best survivors. They are wearing skin tight outfits most of the time, but, uh, my principles were muted by the booze.

Most fail: Delicious
And the fannish diaspora continues, as everyone runs to find an alternate bookmarking site that won't betray them. *sigh* I have started adding bookmarks again out of sheer perversity, which of course is harder than it used to be to find/remember tags, and I feel very alone because no one else I keep track of is doing so, but it works. I'm curious about Pinboard (that Pinboard/Fandom fic made my week), but I don't really have the money/time to explore.

And of course, I posted Open Secret, Simon/Alys UST fluff written for philomytha's birthday. ♥

So, Lindsey and I have been watching Hikaru no Go on Hulu - oh, the drama! oh, the epic, destined gay love eternal rivalry! oh, the awesome (of playing a boardgame)! ♥

Sadly, I made a dreadful mistake. Hulu only has the first 56 eps up for viewing, and *ahem* the usual suspects have failed to provide more. I don't suppose anyone could help a girl out? It'd be the beginning of a beautiful friendship... ;)

fannish5
List the 5 series (tv, book, or movies) that best kept their quality, from beginning to end.

I didn't let myself consider any TV still on-air in case I jinxed it, so this is what I ended up with:

1) Avatar: The Last Airbender
Far and away the TV show that never let me down

2) Vorkosigan saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Let me tell you how much I love this series and how it shaped me as a person. No, it is too much, let me sum up: MADE OF AWESOME.

3) Due South
So awesome it still has an active and recruiting fandom after two cancellations, a lead actor switcheroo, and 15 years gone

4) The Thief series - Megan Whalen Turner
Not only is the world fascinating and the characters human and complex, but each book pulls off some sort of insane narrative innovation on top of an amazing plot.

5) Ouran High School Host Club
A delightful little gem of cracktastic adorable, all the way through.

Hmmm. It's interesting that 2 of the 3 TV shows I chose are animated. I wonder if that has to do with the amount of preplanning that animation requires, and how it effects the continuity of the show.

I have read in quick succession today:

• one zombie apocalypse fic


• one Cinderella AU


• two woke-up-in-another-universe stories


• one stuck-in-a-time-loop story


• ETA: and one love-potion-gone-awry fic

It's a day for cliches, apparently.

*****

I've also been trying to figure out a riddle related to the Sharpe series. I started watching the TV adaptations because Lindsey is reading the Temeraire books for the first time, and then I stumbled onto this delightful Sharpe/Temeraire crossover ficlet, and my dad conveniently has copies of the whole bloody series - all 14 episodes.

Sharpe, for those who are unfamiliar, is basically Horatio Hornblower on land, in a rifle company, with bonus impoverished-and-abused-orphan backstory. The TV series stars Sean Bean, who wears his uniform half-unfastened all the time and gets beat up a lot. I feel I need not explain more.

( Anyway, the author has posted a riddle about Sharpe's unknown father which is taunting me with its apparent simplicity. )

I don't suppose any of you care to try? :D