I'm late, but on the plus side, I'm no longer living in an Edgar Allan Poe story and have found the source of the
noise. There was a smoke detector that needed new batteries. It was stuck to the ceiling, above a shelf that blocked it from view. Have had to ask for help from someone taller than me to turn it off. But, hey, at least it's off now. (It seems to have taken my internet with it, though. Dammit, neighbour's wifi! The internet is being denied my brilliance.)
I wrote four fics this yuletide, for a total of 10 132 words, both of which are less than last year, but I'm okay with that. I think I did okay.
Twelve Days of Mad Science (6456 words) by
sevenofspadeChapters: 1/1
Fandom:
X-Club (Comics)Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Kavita Rao, James Bradley | Dr Nemesis
Additional Tags: Crack Treated Seriously
Summary: Prank wars at the Office of Pure Empirical Science!
This was my assignment and it was such an absolute joy to write! I've had the basic idea of "prank wars with the X-Club" for ages and when it turned out that my recipient loved pretty much everything I did about canon, I figured it was time to write it. Except I had no idea what the pranks where going to be and here I drew a lot on their letter for ideas. I couldn't quite fit everything in or fit it in perfectly, but I'm still really proud of what I came up with. The hardest part was probably finding quotes that could work, ngl. I also enjoyed coming up with a lot of the background details as ways of showing friendship/closeness between Kavita and some of the other characters (sharing food and drink with Jeffries, her certainty that Danger wouldn't drop her, her having seen the numbers on the inside of Magneto's arm, asking Illyana for help, Rogue helping her pull off a prank, etc). I like it when there's more to the story than just what's on the page.
Five moments in the life of Augustus Mayerling (1176 words) by
sevenofspadeChapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara HamblyRating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Augustus Mayerling
Additional Tags: Backstory, Yuletide Treat
Summary: Becoming Augustus Mayerling is a process.
The first treat I wrote this year! I went a little outside of the prompt, seeing as it probably referred to the beginning of Madeleine and Augustus' relationship and instead I made it about the beginning of Augustus as a person. It's not as polished it could have been, but I did manage to pull a trick I like to do, sometimes, where most of the dialogue is indirect and only specific lines/people get direct dialogue. It's no coincidence that the only actual line of dialogue in the fic is
"Augustus." (I briefly considered referencing Joan of Arc or le Chevalier d'Eon on top of La Maupin, but then I decided I was being French enough.) A lot of people seem to have picked up on
despite what France might think, the world is bigger than France, too. It's totally my favourite line from that fic.
A Terrible Weakness (1247 words) by
sevenofspadeChapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Glittering Cloud - Imogen Heap (Song)Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Narrator (Glittering Cloud (song)), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Superheroes, Yuletide Treat
Summary: None of this was Paladin's idea.
I think this one can be read without canon knowledge, but in any case,
here's the song it was based on.
I had great fun writing this! I really enjoyed writing Paladin, her snark and her naming herself after a D&D character class. (Hey, it worked for
Rogue.) Writing Overseer without once referencing gender was fun. In retrospect, the hand eyes might be inspired a bit by a plot point from
Masqué (aka the "nearfuture Paris does superheroes" comic, as opposed to "WW2 Paris does superheroes" which is
La Brigade Chimérique) but only insofar as what they look like. Their power is quite different and besides, hand eyes have been a thing for a while. Wasn't there some in
Pan's Labyrinth? I really like
A 'is Paladin going to lose her fucking shit in the next twenty minutes?' dog. as a line.
Seas Would Rise (1253 words) by
sevenofspadeChapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Viva La Vida - ColdplayRating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Original Characters
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat
Summary: Dead, mortal and gone, the gods went and left behind the world.
Canon knowledge for this one is also unnecessary.
I wrote this for my main recipient last year, because their prompt was something I'd often wondered about the song myself. It's also the story where I had to retype about 2/3 of it because I done fucked up, but I like it despite (because?) of that. It ended up more mythic than I first thought it would, but I really like the picture that's created by the juxtaposition of the mythic segments and the interrogation transcript. There's a running theme throughout of Sea laughing. It's somewhat of a remix/retelling of the story of the city of Ys and the worldbuilding is definitely based on the traditional breton conception of the world, in particular with
"Sea. Wind. Earth. What more do you need to make a world? Nothing." (those three elements are what the three branches of the triskell stand for, btw. Sea's the wave-like one, Air's the top one and Earth's the last one, if memory serves).
Overall, I had a great time on the writing side of this yuletide and have I told y'all about the amazing amazing AMAZING fic I got as a gift?
Another Opportunity (2903 words) by
Alasse_IrenaChapters: 1/1
Fandom:
Ancient History RPFRating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Hannibal Barca, Scipio Africanus
Additional Tags: Reincarnation
Summary: In which it takes several lifetimes for Hannibal and Scipio to arrange a dinner date. Reincarnation AU.
So yeah. I pretty much won yuletide this year.
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