rheaitis

I had a rather busy Yuletide, as anyone reading this journal can wearily attest. *g*


I was assigned to write forfilia-noctis/bee_muse to much abject horror. Whining, wailing, ringing up marginally-fannish friends to do the same at them, and similar scenes of mourning ensued, because I'm shit at keeping secrets even when the same haven't got to be kept from my girlfriend who lives in the same room as me, dammit. Fairly certain she knows I was her gifter. Anyway. I wrote two stories for her:

the night the beloved body (12163 words) is a Hadestown pre-canon fic where Persephone finds out about Hades/Minthe and promptly goes up to Mum ahead of schedule, dragging Minthe unresisting in her wake. I had enormous fun writing this, though I'm not very sure about accuracy re: dialect, and will probably add another chapter sometime this month, to flesh out the Eurydice/Orpheus angle. bee_muse has promised in comments to liveblog this story, so if that happens it'll be fun.

Since the above was dragging, and also because I had the unfair advantage of knowing what she was writing as her assigned gift, I also wrote Between the Shadow & the Soul (5027 words) which is a Penny Dreadful fic set immediately post-canon, where the crew finds out that Ethan is a [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] and in good tradition decide to chain him up, dose him with drugs, and see what happens. This is the approximate plot of both my fic and her Like a Clock during a Thunderstorm, and ideally they ought to be read in tandem, with the significant difference that she approaches it from Ethan's perspective and I from Vanessa's.


I also wrote three treats this year, all Renault.

For greerwatson/greerwatson  I wrote The Thousandth Man (6569 words) about an adult Hugh Treviss serving in the ICS and meeting Ralph quite by accident in slightly discomfiting circumstances. This was extremely interesting to write, since the British in India I have a lot of feelings about, none of them remotely positive, but otoh I do love The Charioteer and had been wanting to write a Treviss story roughly forever: in the end laziness won out and I stuck to familiar ground. *g*

For naraht/naraht I wrote A Vote of Thanks to Mr. Abse and Lord Arran (2529 words) a TC fic set in 1967, a couple of days after decriminalisation. I have any number of feelings about this story, since in India a similar decriminalisation occurred when I was nineteen and was rescinded again when I was twenty-four(ish)  and I cannot imagine, though I might just have to experience, living till you're in your fifties knowing that you are a criminal because of how you love, and then, when use and old age accept them, to be told that your love-life is no longer of legal interest. Especially for Ralph, who is so stern with himself and has disciplined himself into such unnatural shape, already in his mid-twenties.

For fawatson/fawatson I wrote Foster-child of Silence and Slow Time (1124 words), an Alexadriad fic about Pausanias' wife in the prelude to Olympias' overnight stay en-route to Epirus. When I can't supply sisters, I explore wives. That aside, Pausanias' wife, never awarded a name in canon, struck me very strongly when I read Fire from Heaven this time, simply because a woman whose reaction to being scared and mystified is to go over stores of food and weaponry is my kinda girl! *g* I also wanted her to have a good, if largely absent husband, and a place of her own in the world. Enough bad things will likely happen to her soon enough (given canon) that I also supplied her with a brother.


So that was my lot. I'll probably go round and squeal at all my gifters sometime soon.

I've got two full-length stories!

My assigned gift, was 'A Night at "Eve's Fall!', a Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries fic which captures the glittering twenties to perfection. Set in a woman's (possibly lesbian) club, it's a Mac-Phryne friendship fic that starts out comfortable and glamorous and tumbles rapidly into chaos, much like the show: honestly it reads like the first scene of an episode, or a cold open. I especially loved Phryne's innate detective-ness, and the easy closeness she has with Mac. And, oh, the clothes, the appearance, the attention paid to setting. It's like watching a bit of the Jazz Age unspool in front of one. Thank you, dear Author.

My full-length treat (which I know is a treat because I didn't request the fandom, and because I suspect I know the author) is a canon divergence AU for The Charioteer. In 'Corkscrew' Andrew shows up in person to bid farewell rather than accomplishing the deed via letter, runs into Ralph, and the whole truth tumbles out. I love it, every scrap and witty repartee, and just Ralph, Ralph you heart-breaking, charming, manipulative bastard. Andrew himself is very solid and sensible and I just want to swathe him in a blanket and dispense hot chocolate and alcohol as necessary. Dear man. ahem. Laurie is also pitched perfectly, but my heart in this fandom belongs to everyone but him, which is perhaps only proper. I... have already read this one twice, because it's essentially a screwball comedy version of TC. (Ralph played by Katharine Hepburn)

I'm done. I wrote and posted my assignment and the three treats I meant to write, and now I really have to study and stop looking wistfully at my unfinished story (which is inevitably the one I'd started first), or I'll end up needing an extension on my course-work.

Trudging on with Yuletide, at about the 4k mark. (spent two of my class-hours today writing instead of paying attention to the lecture {bad research scholar no biscuit!}) Rather enjoying it. If nothing else it provides a welcome change to everything else.

In July, bee_muse and I moved out of campus to a one-bedroom flat in the neighbourhood, which she had plans of purchasing. Last week we realised that even a fifteen-minute bout of rain left water seeping in through the walls and that our termite infestation was persistent and affected the whole building. Our landlord is refusing to return the advance her father had made for the purchase, which amounts to just above six months' rent. We've also been unable to find a different apartment so are faced with a move back into the hostel and associated restrictions.

Also, bee_muse's fairly virulent dust-allergy has been reclassified as asthma, so there's that. Though moving back to campus should help with that.

And I read and wrote a 12-page book-review in twenty-four hours flat.

So, uh. yeah. Yuletide. Yuletide and shopping. *g*

Thank you Yule gods and little fishes, all my nominations got approved! I was a tad worried about Hild. Now to trawl through the tag-set and ruminate requests and offers.

And then to write the letter. The last few years I've been putting it off till the last moment, and last year I think I ended up not writing one.

What I Got

I was an exceedingly lucky child this year, since I got no less than SIX stories, two in the main collection and four in Madness.

Both my main stories were by fawatsonPrep School, which is a TC fic that shows Ralph as a child, and which was this delightful romp that still foreshadowed the coming trouble. Tiny Ralph was a delight and I wish he was non-fictional so I could hug him and feed him treats. Doubtless this would affront him.

The Beginning of a Love Affair, which shows the first meeting between Sisygambis and Alexander, which is a relationship that doesn't garner much attention. Which of course makes this even more precious (my precious). Fa, who presumably knows my weakness for it, also included a mention of Hephaistion's sisters, which was the cherry on top of a delicious cake. <3



Of the treats two were TC, both by naraht:
One of the white-headed boys was a snap-shot of Sandy's schooldays, which was very interesting. I don't think much about Sandy, and this was very unexpected, but the more I thought about it the more plausible and somehow right it seemed.
Beyond the Sea was an AU where Ralph is a PoW after his ship goes down, and sent chills down my spine with the last line.

The other two were Arthurian:
Once and Future was a modern AU-ish, with the last section flashing back to the original legendarium. I especially liked how the Jen/Arthur interaction spoke to the change in expectations and the dreams were deliciously creepy.
More than Blood is an AU where Mordred is killed as an infant, and is the sort of soft, sad thing that reminds me unbearably of T.H White. Inevitably, one feels sorrier for Arthur than he might deserve.


***

What I Wrote

I only wrote two things this year, and the second began life as a cut-scene from the first, so I'm hesitant to even claim its existence as a separate thing. Anyway.

I wrote, as my assignment, 1 Samuel 19, which takes off where Season 1 of Kings leaves off, and shows us the three main characters (well, the three main young characters, since Silas is very much a main character even if Rose arguably isn't) in detention, house-arrest, and exile. I... am actually somewhat conflicted about this fic. My recipient's request for an OT3 is one I was unable to fulfill, since my original plan for that would have required a 30-40k fic, which proved impossible for various reasons. However, I do rather like how it turned out, and I have hopes of continuing it over this year.

For a treat I wrote Family Planning, which was, if nothing else, an interesting experiment in writing a het scene from the p.o.v of the supremely uninterested guy.

If nothing else, I'm taking away from this Yuletide a great love for a rather minor and rather overlooked character, Lucinda Wolfson. It's not a bad take-away.

I've got my assignment, which I'm pleasantly surprised by. I offered it very spur-of-the-moment, because I wanted the excuse to review the source, and lookit, now I do. *g*

However, my source and my girlfriend are both away for the next fortnight (bee_muse had surgery a couple of days ago, is fine, will recover at home for ten/twelve days before making the journey) so for the moment I have to finish up my Spooky Story for maryrenaultfics and finish up my too-long-and-abandoned w.i.p that was originally intended for rs_games. And, yanno, draft my MPhil thesis, but hey, two months is a lotta time.

The one where Mr. Odell is divorced but not dead, and meets Laurie when he's at school.

The one where Hazell does not get off on being spanked.

Ralph's stint of being obliging.

Charles and Laurie at Oxford.

Laurie's childhood.

Ralph's childhood.

More fic about Hugh Treviss, dammit.

How do Alec and Ralph meet and hook up?

Sandy. Just, anything about Sandy.

Bunny's backstory and front-story.

Alec the philanderer.

Lucy/Gareth, the love story.

Lucy Straike as vicar's wife.

Aunt Olive! Aunt Olive at school, Aunt Olive as a lesbian, Aunt Olive having every idea what Laurie and Ralph are up to, just Aunt Olive.

Admiral Ralph Ross Lanyon, deeply unlikely as that is.

Ralph in Narnia.

or, more likely, Ralph running into any of the Pevensie children, pref. Edmund.

Laurie marries Nurse Adrian.

Nurse Adrian! All the fic about Nurse Adrian, please.

Reg Barker, who is aware that our Spud is a bit off but doesn't actually feel at all uncomfortable about him. Why? How? Discuss at length. :)

Madge and her affair and how she feels about Reg and what she thinks of Laurie being truly insufferably nosy.

Bim and the exigencies about being a pilot in the Battle of Britain, poor bastard.

Ralph as a children's author post-war.

Laurie in the BBC (possible cross-over with The Hour, though I dunno much about that show.)

Cross-over with Night Watch, possibly via Kay (NW) and Andrew, but also possible through Viv Pierce (NW) and the Barkers, I think.

Alec/Sandy. Just all of it.

Alec/Andrew, which really I should write again at some point.

Ralph/Laurie/Andrew. Because. or maybe Ralph/Laurie, Laurie/Andrew, with all parties concerned aware and consenting. Ralph+Andrew optional but loved.

Ralph/Bunny, the good bits.

Dave, you utter creepazoid.

Mervyn in hospital.

Miss Haliburton and why she waives her misanthropy for Laurie.

Alec+Miss Haliburton friendship fic.

Lucy's first marriage.

Nurse Adrian and Andrew Raynes. Anything from friendship to romance, because really, why can't Andrew be bisexual at least?

Laurie realising he doesn't dislike all queer parties.

Ralph's first birthday party for Laurie.

Laura Odell. Anything here, really. While I don't believe that a fem!Laurie would be in the armed services, it would be very interesting if she was. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_Territorial_Service)

Rachel Lanyon being in the WRNS. First Officer WRNS Rachel Lanyon, omnomnom. (http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~pv/pv/courses/posters/images1/wrens1.html)

Annie Raynes and the ambulance services. Ooooh, Annie Raynes meeting Kay Langrish (NW) in London in 1940/41.

Alice Deacon, being a female doctor in the 40s. (poor girl)

Sandy/Alec, a long and happy romance.

Andrew in the 50s, the death Renault imagined for him.

Finally seeing homosexuality decriminalised in their fifties (Ralph would be 53, Andrew 47) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Offences_Act_1967)

The Straikes finding out that Laurie is gay (though I've received two beautiful fics about Mr. Straike finding out about Ralph being gay, at least.)

Ralph becoming a radio operator for the RNVR.

Hazell's Hollywood career.

Ralph at school.

Teaching Laurie Odell fencing, by Hugh Treviss.

Reg meeting Ralph.

Lucy and Gareth Straike having a baby. She's only about forty-five, isn't she?

Any of the characters reading David Blaize. The boys, of course, but even one of the older lot, it was published earlier enough to effectively be a book of their youth.

Actually, fictional characters reading fiction is lovely in general. Loom of Youth, I think, would be very interesting for Ralph, perhaps moreso than David Blaize.

Last, and perhaps crackiest, a sedoretu set in TC. A sedoretu, explained in detail here, is a foursquare marriage, with four sexual (a/b, b/c, c/d, d/a) and two asexual (a+c, b+d) couples: it is usually composed of two men and two women, but that is not truly necessary. My ramblings on sedoretus in TC here. As with all others, this is just me speculating, and not in any way a demand for fic.

[more as it occurs]

( Dear Yuletide Author, )


***

Feel free to write something entirely different if you’d rather, of course, these are just off the top of my head, (as is everything in the requests themselves) and do not in any way indicate that I must have a story along these lines. I’ll appreciate anything you write. Thank you.

My yuletide fic, it is done! And clocks in at about 1200 words! And will probably grow a little when I fiddle with it! But most importantly, it is done! And is not cracky! I rather like it! I can now go write treats! Exclamation mark!

And, y'know, go reread the prompt to be sure it fits the letter of the request, seeing as how I havn't much of a clue as to the spirit thereof.