rheaitis

summer country (1013 words) by toujours_nigel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Arthurian Mythology
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Guinevere/Arthur Pendragon, Guinevere/Lancelot du Lac/Arthur Pendragon
Characters: Arthur Pendragon, Guinevere (Arthurian), Lancelot du Lac
Additional Tags: Married Couple, Pre-Poly, Polyamory Negotiations, Polyshipping Day
Summary: “How very like you,” Guinevere laughs, “to ask for a gift that delights us all, when you were granted the boon having delighted us.”

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.

So when I read Ursula le Guin last year, I was fascinated by the idea of sedoretus, but I was also insanely busy and/or depressed at the time, so I didn't get fannishly engaged, other than a brief notion that it made Potter simultaneously easier to ship and incredibly creepier. Then, today I found melannen's post on group-marriages, and, well, right post at the right time, because now all I can think about are sedoretus. In all my fandoms, please. Pretty please.



( Arthurian Mythology, which has to be done across generations. )



( The Charioteer )



( Harry Potter )



( Narnia )



( Pride and Prejudice )



( Avatar:the last Airbender )



( Bollywood, clubbed together. )


What else, what else? It doesn't work with the Alexandriad, except it does when Alexander and Hephaistion marry Darius' daughters, who needn't be of the same moiety, but even that's wobbly. Works excellently and creepily with Wuthering Heights, actually. And of course there's the Vorkosigan Saga, which a lot of incredibly dedicated people have drawn charts and family-trees for, on melannen's post and elsewhere. Oh, oh, and Hysteria, I'm almost certain it works there.


tl;dr: I've gone mad and am charting my fandoms to new relationship-styles.

 I wish for once that authors would accommodate a large number and variety of awesome people in their novels, and nevermind whether or not they clash horribly or show up interesting contrasts. And, this above all, your high-feminist priestess/warrior-chick does not have to, and should not be forced to, in any way/shape/form negate your delicate, poised, lovely young princess. Hell, they can be the same person, what with that thing about being able to contain multitudes. But if they aren't--and yes, the same society can bloody well accommodate both/all sorts, bloodygods--then they can get along, or at least, you, the narrator/author needn't play such stark favourites, please please, prettyfuckingplease.

and no. Just, no. Down Guinevere, Up Morgana is not a fun game, no indeed it is not. Especially when, dear Marion Zimmer Bradley, especially when you make Guinevere a sweet, simpering, missish young girl, and seem to forget that female leisure is a relatively new creature and the bloody High Queen of Britain will, in fact, not get to sit around stitching Christian tapestries all the bloody time. Where are her godsfucking courtiers, I ask you? Where are her lands, her vassals, her maids-of-honour, her coterie. And not, not, not absofuckinglutely not just the high born women of her husband's clan/court, where are her women? and why is she behaving like someone out of a saas-bahu serial?

Argh.

Bloody T.H. White (god rest his dead white male soul) at least made me cry with the people. It's the bloody Arthuriad, what's the point if they're not all great-hearted fools who break you to teeny tiny miniscule pieces? What is this Tristan and Isolde? 

[/rant]

I wrote over a hundred fics last year, here and elsewhere. (elsewhere being maryrenaultfics, lgbtfest, yuletide, and fandomcommerce.) *happy*

Now to start off the count for 2010. Prompts, anyone? In a drabbling mood. Fandoms are anything in the tags. (Or, alternatively, anything I can read up on, or am likely to know.)

So, I'm writing for yuletidethis year, first time ever. *deep breath*

Go nominate, I've put up the Alexandriad, the Arthurian legends, and *dhan-te-naan* Kaminey. I'd love writing fic for either the Alexandriad or Arthuriana, both being long-lasting loves, but, as you know if you peruse this lj at all, Kaminey is my newest infatuation, and, by gods I've fallen hard.

All of which means, applegnat, and 22by7, that you should please request a Kaminey story, yes? please?

ETA: yes, i know I don't have to write what I nominate, it's simply that the two overlap.

Title: Seer.
Fandom: Arthurian legends.
Pairing(s): Morgana/Guinevere, Guinevere/Arthur, Guinever/Lancelot, Arthur/Lancelot(ust)
Disclaimer: notminenotminenotmine.

( the High Priestess of Avalon sees many things. )

QUEER MONTH DRABBLES

Because only two of you asked for anything, here, I've made my own list *is disappointed in f-list*

( mah topics, let me show you them )


Anyway, expect at the rate of one each day, not yet sure as to which when.

And now I venture off to write an exam. Ciao, all