a conspiracy of cartographers

So I -- sort of wrote this in my head in the shower? I have no idea what the hell this is, or if it wants to be anything when it grows up, or if it's even worth mirroring on the AO3, or anything. All I know is that it is a plotless fic in which girl!Dean Winchester watches Buffy. YEAH, I DON'T KNOW EITHER.

Contains spoilers through Buffy s6, real Supernatural canon knowledge only through s2 but a couple of ironic digs at later events, and trace amounts of nuts.

( Buffy on Reruns in All the Hotels )

ETA: Posted with some minor edits on the AO3.

So ... of all the things to bang out the day after finishing my Harry Potter reread, I wasn't really expecting this. I am fairly sure it should be subtitled "A Vindication of Ginny Weasley," or perhaps "Reasons to Ship Harry/Ginny, Haters to the Left," or perhaps even "In Other News, Aria Is Still Easy For Evil Overlords."

In any case, it is a remix of feverbeats' Tom Riddle Is a Stupid Vampire. My version is a bit longer -- because, as usual, I can't really write short things, but hell yes this one came in under 4000 words -- and it is:

Tom Riddle Will Take Your Soul (The Waking Dreams Remix), Tom/Ginny, Harry/Ginny. Pour your heart out to a Horcrux, and it will pour itself out to you.

This fic, this fucking fic.

I have my credit notes over at the fic proper, but what the hell, this was a labor of love and I think I should talk about these amazing people: Amelia for hand-holding, cheerleading, feeding me lines, hanging around for hours multiple nights in a row to yell about all the Loki feelings -- in short, this fic would not exist without them. Scott for saying smart, necessary things, and for making sure that my love for Loki didn't mean I was too nice to him. Olivia, as always, for forcing my structure to be better and for making the finished thing actually look good. And I can't even keep track of how many of you I additionally threw partial drafts at or wailed at while the fic was eating my soul; you are stars.

But now it is DONE.

Shatter, Thor/Loki, 32,209 words YEAH THAT'S RIGHT. "Loki," Odin says, heavy with disappointment and regret for all he has to raise his voice, "Odinson. I cast you out."

And now I am going to step away from the computer for a bit and read American Gods or something, because this fic is kind of my baby and I am not sure what to do now I have set it free.

So I wrote a fic! It is an extremely belated fic for filia_belialis' birthday, or Christmas, or because she lets me crash in her room; probably all of the above! Anyway, we are partners in flailing about Demon's Lexicon, so Demon's Lexicon fic it is!

Fix, Nick/Alan. "What's stronger," Nick said, "a demon's mark or a magician's mark?" Spoilers like hell for the end of Covenant, wild speculation, aaaand my total inability to feel even a little guilty about writing this. I would happily write Alan all the damn time.

It is Yuletide reveal time! I love Yuletide reveal time, because it means my flist is rife with awesome surprises. Meanwhile this entry is rife with things that are probably not very surprising.

My assignment: Aschesis, Young Wizards, Ronan & Darryl. The assignment itself made me giddy with joy, because while my recipient said she'd be happy with any story involving the two of them, what she really wanted was an exploration of what it meant for Ronan dealing with the consequences of Wizards at War in conjunction with Darryl the ex-autistic abdal, and -- someone was specifically asking me to write identity porn!! It was also great fun because while I love writing in the YW style, my comfort-zone POV characters are Nita and the local Seniors; writing snarky sullen Ronan while maintaining the essential optimism of the world was a lovely challenge.

My fic that wasn't assigned to me in any way but still happened and then grew into a goddamn novella because I apparently have a lot of unfinished business with this canon: No Second Coming, Dark is Rising, Will/Bran & the Drews. Apparently everyone has a lot of unfinished business with this canon, because I look at this fic's current hit count and then I have to go sit somewhere quietly for a while. I'm completely delighted with it, really; I wanted to give the characters their agency back, and I don't think there's anything cathartic in quite the same way as a fix-it fic. This one was nurtured to life and coherence by the combined efforts of fahye, schiarire, nextian, polarisnorth, and oliviacirce; if there's anyone else I threw a draft at in a panic and have forgotten to thank, just raise your hand and I will gladly add you to the list of praises.

My Yuletide Treat that actually stayed Treat-length: The Demon's Fun Day Out at the Park with a Picnic, Demon's Lexicon, Nick & Alan. The title started as a joke on SRB's journal re: why Nick can't have nice things, and when innocentsmith linked to the conversation in her request letter, I was so charmed by the title and by the notion of a story in which nothing seriously bad happens to the characters that I wanted to write a little something. It still turned out sort of melancholy and longing rather than fluffy, but Nick and Alan both smile, which is like a happy ending.

I ... should probably start replying to all the lovely comments I've received. DAUNTING.

Things I have done this week:

1. Cleaned ALL THE THINGS. (Or at least many of them.)
2. Watched Sanctuary.

Let me tell you about item two! Sanctuary is basically what would happen if Torchwood was a grassroots Canadian organization that employed people who were actually professional enough to not sleep with each other. In case that makes it sound less awesome than Torchwood, I hasten to add that the part of the tea boy is played by Bigfoot, and that the part of the immortal in charge of the organization is played by a badass, competent woman who happens to also be Amanda Tapping.

Amanda Tapping would probably have been enough incentive to get me to at least give the show a go, but we haven't even started our Vancouver Bingo yet! The Lestrade-esque police detective is Kavan Smith (Lorne from SGA), Amanda Tapping's dad is Jim Byrnes (Joe Dawson; I think my joy could be heard from space), Bigfoot is Christopher Heyerdahl (Todd the Wraith, and Halling, and ... probably secretly the entire SGA cast, because he's awesome like that) and he also plays Jack the Ripper, oh my god; and, like the cherry on the awesomecake, Peter Wingfield is James Watson. Who is Sherlock Holmes. Look, it's complicated.

The point is, it was pretty fucking inevitable that I wrote some Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper when the canon gave it to me like a shiny gift of awesome. Um, knowledge of the canon is mildly a good idea? IDK, I think you can probably read it anyway.

Dissect the Suppositions, John Druitt/James Watson. Night after night, I poured my insights out to you, never knowing that the target of my manhunt was the man who dissected my suppositions.


For my next trick, I'll write time-traveling Sherlock!Holmes/Babylon 5!Jack the Ripper. No, not really. Well, probably not. Shut up, I know I have a problem.

Today I cleaned so many of the things! I am now too tired to properly enumerate them, but let me tell you, I am crazy accomplished. Therefore it seems like a great time for, as feverbeats correctly called it, a meme of EGO.

Post, in your journal, a rec list singling out the best of your own fics. Tell people why you are especially proud of those particular fics, and of course provide links to them. Yes, that's right, this step involves self-promotion. How else are people supposed to find your fics? List as many or as few as you feel appropriate to represent your body of writing.

Also include a paragraph about the types of fics you most enjoy reading or are most interested in reading in the immediate future -- favorite tropes, pairings, fandoms, whatever. If you're particularly lazy, link to that Dear Writer post you did for whatever holiday exchange comes to mind.

Reply to other rec posts (like for example the one you are reading now) by reccing a fic of your own that might fit the original poster's tastes, or that you'd just really like them to read, because maybe they don't know they'd like it.

( 13 fics, in no particular order except alphabetically; these are apparently the fics that still make my heart sing with joy when I think of them. )

Unrelatedly, IT IS SO HOT OUT. Ice cream time.

First, Remix reveals were today, so I can say that I wrote Dimensions in Space (The Perfect Fit Remix). It's basically the fic I've wanted to write about Mickey for years.

Second, WisCon's vid party was last night, and I have discovered lots of new excellent vids. The entire list of vids shown is here, compiled by the awesome damned_colonial; I do have a short list of recs, though:

*One Girl Revolution (multi): One in the awesome tradition of kickass small-screen women.
*I Enjoy Being a Girl (multi): And another, this one somewhat more tongue-in-cheek.
*The Other Love Quadrangle (BSG): I secretly suspect that Adama/Leoben, Adama/Roslin, Leoben/Kara, and Leoben/Roslin are EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE EVER WANTED. Thanks for that, vid.
*I'll Be There For You (Black Books): This is everything that I love about Black Books, all wrapped up in happy music. <3
*Anything the Doctor Can Do... (Doctor Who): The Doctor and the Master keep trying to one-up one another. This is made 1000x better by the fact that John Barrowman is singing one half of the duet.
*I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes): This vid does not quite convince me I need to watch A2A, but it does give me fucking shivers. I was clutching my face by the end.

I basically recommend the entire six-hour playlist, though. :D

HAPPY 2010, EVERYONE. It's that time again; giftfic reveals ahoy.

My Yuletide: Three From the Track, Dark is Rising, gen. Writing Merriman's POV was terrifying, but ended up being a lot of fun. This fic is actually a specific bookend to my WIP post-series novella, that I started forever ago but swear I will finish someday. Yuletide did remind me how much I love writing in this world.

My dSSS: Magnificent Mile, Fraser/Kowalski. I wrote a lot of this while spending Thanksgiving break in rural Maine, hanging out at a diner much like the one in the fic and savoring the cold and the wilderness. Eventually I'm going to write myself into a corner, and then I'll be forced to move to the Great White Nowhere.

My dSSS pinch hit: Dawn, Fraser/Kowalski, kidfic. I think I'd been trying to write due South kidfic since ... at least April. Upon reading my recipient's list of likes, including kidfic, and then a bunch of other helpful guidelines, I suddenly hammered out approaching 8000 words. Bless fic exchanges for untangling writer's block and creating gifts at the same time.

And now, of course, the slightly belated fic-year-in-review meme. ( Total count: 23. This was a good fic year. )

You know, when I woke up this morning (...yesterday morning?) I was not intending to write fic. When I arrived home after dinner I was not planning to write fic. When I went out to see a play, I was not planning to write fic. But I got home from the play, I wrote fic.

A State of Being (In Five Steps, With Flowchart): Ray always did things backwards with Fraser. Out of order, upside-down, hanging off rooftops, putting the sled before the Dief, all that good stuff. Ray Kowalski's guide to romantic relationships. Yeah, I made a flowchart.