To Erin is Human...

Yuletide Letter 2016!

2016-10-03T17:21:40Z

Because hey, even if I don't use this journal for anything else over the course of the year, we'll always have this.

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hi! If you decide or have decided to browse through my other assorted Dear Author letters over the years, you'll probably noticed I've cribbed a good portion of this letter from them, but things get slightly refined over time. You know how it goes. Besides, plagiarizing from yourself is the only plagiarizing that's actually reasonably ethical! :p

That said, hello! Welcome to my letter, I hope it helps to alleviate any possible stress over your assignment instead of making it worse.

If you're trying to glean my personality or general demeanor from my journal here, then I am extremely sorry for its sparseness over the last few years, but feel free to check out my tumblr, twitter, or even (if you actually have an account), my imzy personal blog if those are the kind of thing that helps you out. (Although I've been leaning a bit back of even tumblr lately.) If you could care less, then great, carry on!

My general likes include banter, happy endings (although I am perfectly fine with bittersweet or even sad if that's where your muse takes you), throwing in little canon details that you might miss on first read but totally make you squee come the second time around, wit, humor, dramatic irony, missing scenes, and in-character-ness. (Of course, nobody ever actually tries to write a character OOC, outside of crackfic for the purpose, so don't fret too much about this point. Plus one of my fandoms doesn't technically have much in the way of canon characterization, because online games. As long as you make a good faith effort, you'll be fine.) I also like slice-of-life stuff, as is kind of evident in a lot of my requests this year.

As much as I love fic that feels like it could fit right into canon, I also have a soft spot for AUs, so if you get bitten by an AU bug, go right ahead, I'll more than likely adore it.

Dislikes aren't many. Not really a huge fan of major character death for Yuletide, even if I don't mind reading it on a normal basis. Also, and I really doubt this will be much of a problem, but in the interest of full disclosure, depiction of injury to fingernails or toenails skeeves me out more than I can even begin to describe, so if somehow you have a bunny where that might come up, even if it wouldn't really fit in the majority of the fandoms I requested, maybe try to avoid it? Other than that, though, I won't really have much trouble with where you decide to take the fic!

Also, don't feel tied down to the characters I've requested. You can totally feel free to add ones that aren't listed, even in a reasonably large capacity, as long as (this probably goes without saying) you keep the focus on the requests. :) If there are any exceptions, where you can leave out requested characters, I'll have noted them in the individual prompt breakdowns.

And now that I've blathered on quite long enough, on to the nitty-gritty of my requests! It'll go as follows. The requests themselves, a little bit on the fandom, how to access it (should you either need a refresher or decide you just cannot write what we matched on and need to write something else badly!) and why I love it, and then a bit more elaboration on my requests themselves (And please, do not take the relative lengths of the various elaborations as any indicator as to which fandoms I want more. I would be overly thrilled with a gift in ANY of them).

Critical Role (Web Series)
* Kaylie (Critical Role)
Really, anything at all that's centered on Kaylie would be amazing, because she just intrigues me, a lot. I cannot think of a point in her life that I would not enjoy reading about, and it can be anything from a fun day-in-the-life adventure story or a introspective character study... I'd be happy no matter how it shakes out!

Critical Role! Voice actors playing D&D! Weekly sessions! Absolutely freaking amazing! Matt Mercer is a genius DM, end of sentence. Streams live on Thursday nights, with the archive available on Geek & Sundry's website! I just love the way that these guys interact, both with each other and with what the world (in the form of the amazing DM-ing of Matt Mercer) throws at them. It's compelling and fun and thrilling, worrying, and hilarious all in turns. It's great!

It's amazing. I knew I'd be requesting Critical Role, but at first glance at the character list, I was just overwhelmed by the options. I was almost going to go for an 'Any', even, and then my brain just kept screaming for Kaylie. And when I say I'd enjoy reading about anything, I pretty much mean it. An in-depth look at her life growing up... what it was like for her at the College of the White Duke... some road tales of her travels with Dr. Dranzel... a look through her eyes and her perspective of those first fateful meetings with Scanlan... what it was like having to lay low in Westruun... what's going on with her travels right now... anything! Really! And don't worry if you've got something going and then she shows up again during the writing period, jossing you completely. It's part of the possibilities of an ongoing canon, and I will absolutely not hold it against you.

Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson
* Lightsong (Warbreaker)
* Llarimar (Warbreaker)
I would love to see more or less anything of the interaction between these two. And you can do it either after Lightsong's ascension to godhood or before... or even both! It would be interesting to see the shift in their relationship.

Warbreaker is an absolutely lovely fantasy novel (as I'm sure you're aware, if this is the one we matched on.) Brandon Sanderson's worldbuilding is ludicrously impeccable, and as awesome as it is, he doesn't skimp on populating those worlds with absolutely fabulous characters. And this one is no exception. Better yet? If you need a refresher on it, he himself has uploaded a PDF of this one to his website for free download! It's on this page, along with pretty much all of his drafts. (The final version is, of course, the one at the bottom of the 'versions' section.)

My prompt itself pretty much covers what I would love to see. Reading about these two really at any point in their timeline would be fascinating. Seeing them before the rather significant lifechanging event in their lives, knowing what's coming, and seeing how their interactions are different from how they end up? Awesome! Just seeing more of their interaction as we knew them in the novel? Also awesome! Just... these two in general make me happy, and their interplay was pretty great in the book, especially considering the gap in knowledge between them. Absolutely fascinating.

Shirokuma Cafe | Polar Bear's Cafe
* Grizzly (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Panda (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Penguin (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Shirokuma | Polar Bear (Shirokuma Cafe)
Something that feels like an episode would be lovely here. These guys hanging out in or out of the cafe, getting up to the kinds of shenanigans that they get up to, you know how it goes. Crazy fun!

Shirokuma Cafe! Available for streaming on Crunchyroll. Animals! Living side-by-side with humans! Having jobs and businesses! (Even if those jobs involve... being zoo displays!) It's hilarious and fun and absolutely wacky in a way that I just find great. I just love all the characters and how they interact and the real affection there even if they can get frustrated with each other sometimes.

I was originally going to request an Any on this one, but then it occurred to me that I'd feel kind of sad if any of these guys were left OUT, so requesting all of them it was. I know this makes character juggling a bit tricky, but I really don't mind if one or two of them are more in the spotlight, and the others take more of a background role. I'd just like all of them there, being themselves! They can just be hanging around at the cafe or at Grizzly's bar, or getting into wacky hijinks. Feel free to add other characters if you need them, or don't! Whatever you'd like, it's all good!

Redwall Series - Brian Jacques
* Lady Amber (Redwall)
I think what I'd like most for this one is something either pre- or post-Mossflower, so basically either her life with the Corim under Verdauga, leading the squirrels, and what kind of leader she was in that circumstance, before the arrival of Martin changing the game, or alternatively, her part in helping to pick up the pieces afterwards. Either could be interesting, or if you even want to try both, that'd work too!

Redwall! Children's book series that was really my first fandom as far as my current conception of fandom goes! They're truly delightful, if a bit predictable if you've read enough of them. But for my first real foray into the fantasy genre, I cannot thank them enough for leading me down a path that's given me a lot of enjoyment into adulthood.

That said, Mossflower was the first book I read in the series, and Lady Amber is almost certainly the underlying reason why squirrels are my favorite animal now, so when I saw she was nominated, I absolutely had to make the request. That said, my request as is pretty much covers it. I'd just like to see what she's like in those bookends of that piece of canon, and I'd be really interested in seeing what you come up with!

Galavant (TV)
* Madalena (Galavant)
I'd like a bit of postcanon here! Does Madalena succeed in learning the the intricacies and the full power of the D'DEW? Do Gareth and Sid manage to make their way over to divert her current course of action? Does it actually work? Does she end up becoming a dark queen or empress or something else entirely? I don't know! I would love to know what you think happens, no matter what it is!

Gaaaaaaaalaaaaaaaaavaaaaaaaaant! Musical comedy extravaganza that simultaneously didn't last nearly long enough and, yet, was a miracle that it lasted nearly as long as it did. Two short seasons! On Netflix! And absolutely freaking hysterical!

I had so many favorite characters in this show, but right now? Madalena was the one I most wanted to read about. Her story could be going anywhere and since we'll almost certainly never get to see it (*sheds a tear*), I'd love to at least get a concept of her future via fanfic. If, in the spirit of the canon, you feel like writing up some lyrics to insert for random songs, do feel free, but also do not remotely feel as if that's a necessity in the least!

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

It's that time of year again...

2015-10-18T19:56:04Z

... so I'm actually making a post to say...

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hi! If you decide or have decided to browse through my other assorted Dear Author letters over the years, you'll probably noticed I've cribbed a good portion of this letter from them, but things get slightly refined over time. You know how it goes. Besides, plagiarizing from yourself is the only plagiarizing that's actually reasonably ethical! :p

That said, hello! Welcome to my letter, I hope it helps to alleviate any possible stress over your assignment instead of making it worse.

If you're trying to glean my personality or general demeanor from my journal here, then I am extremely sorry for its sparseness over the last few years, but feel free to check out my tumblr or twitter, if those are the kind of thing that helps you out. (Although I've been leaning a bit back of even tumblr lately.) If you could care less, then great, carry on!

My general likes include banter, happy endings (although I am perfectly fine with bittersweet or even sad if that's where your muse takes you), throwing in little canon details that you might miss on first read but totally make you squee come the second time around, wit, humor, dramatic irony, missing scenes, and in-character-ness. (Of course, nobody ever actually tries to write a character OOC, outside of crackfic for the purpose, so don't fret too much about this point. Plus one of my fandoms doesn't technically have much in the way of canon characterization, because online games. As long as you make a good faith effort, you'll be fine.) I also like slice-of-life stuff, as is kind of evident in a lot of my requests this year.

As much as I love fic that feels like it could fit right into canon, I also have a soft spot for AUs, so if you get bitten by an AU bug, go right ahead, I'll more than likely adore it.

Dislikes aren't many. Not really a huge fan of major character death for Yuletide, even if I don't mind reading it on a normal basis. Also, and I really doubt this will be much of a problem, but in the interest of full disclosure, depiction of injury to fingernails or toenails skeeves me out more than I can even begin to describe, so if somehow you have a bunny where that might come up, even if it wouldn't really fit in the majority of the fandoms I requested, maybe try to avoid it? Other than that, though, I won't really have much trouble with where you decide to take the fic!

Also, don't feel tied down to the characters I've requested. You can totally feel free to add ones that aren't listed, even in a reasonably large capacity, as long as (this probably goes without saying) you keep the focus on the requests. :) If there are any exceptions, where you can leave out requested characters, I'll have noted them in the individual prompt breakdowns.

And now that I've blathered on quite long enough, on to the nitty-gritty of my requests! It'll go as follows. The requests themselves, a little bit on the fandom, how to access it (should you either need a refresher or decide you just cannot write what we matched on and need to write something else badly!) and why I love it, and then a bit more elaboration on my requests themselves (And please, do not take the relative lengths of the various elaborations as any indicator as to which fandoms I want more. I would be overly thrilled with a gift in ANY of them).

Critical Role (Web Series)
* (Any)
Here's where I go and give you terrifying carte blanche. Seriously, whatever you want to write for this fandom, I'll be happy with (even if it's about characters that weren't nominated)! If you want some specific ideas, you can take a look at my letter, but don't feel beholden to them.

Critical Role! Voice actors playing D&D! Weekly sessions! Absolutely freaking amazing! Matt Mercer is a genius DM, end of sentence. Streams live on Thursday nights, with the archive available on Geek & Sundry's website! I just love the way that these guys interact, both with each other and with what the world (in the form of the amazing DM-ing of Matt Mercer) throws at them. It's compelling and fun and thrilling, worrying, and hilarious all in turns. It's great!

Having been on the receiving end of an Any prompt or two, I know it can be intimidating, especially with such a large list of characters nominated. It was just entirely too difficult for me to choose who I most wanted to see! So I'll leave it up to you who you most want to write! Give me the Critical Role fic you most want to see in the world! Pre-canon, around canon, post-canon, AU, whatever. That said, if you want a few idea-snippets, let me throw stuff out there, totally stream-of-consciousness (and probably long, because I'll do my best to cover every nominated character). Vax and Vex teasing each other like siblings are prone to do. Grog, having more fun being in an angry rage than anyone has any right to be. Scanlan composing new songs to use to inspire his comrades (parodies of current songs entirely welcome). Percy in those early days on the run from the Briarwoods. Keyleth worrying about her Ara'mente. Pike, overseeing the reconstruction of the temple. Tiberius and his relationship to his arcane power. How Gilmore started his shop! Or like I said, feel free to write about anyone NOT nominated. A story about Clarota or the Briarwoods or the guest characters or any NPC we've ever met... fine by me! Might be entertaining!

Flight Rising
* Crim (Flight Rising)
* Pinkerton (Flight Rising)
* Scribbles (Flight Rising)
* Tomo (Flight Rising)
Good times at the Trading Post! What are these guys like when they're just interacting with each other and not necessarily with the dragons that are coming to do business with them? Feel free to include the other Trading Post denizens if you'd like.

Flight Rising! Petsite! Adopt and breed dragons! My lair is right here if you somehow feel you will garner any insight to my likes and dislikes from my dragons. As for what I like about it, well... dragons. In many fun colors! That's the main draw for all petsites, of course, but I also really love what lore we have for FR, and the humor that manages to sneak in as well, whether it be in item descriptions or site announcements, or anything!

As far as my request, it's pretty much a case of what you see on the tin. I love the thought of the trading post dragons getting to see each other every day and what sort of relationships they might have with each other. Don't necessarily feel the need to have to focus on all four of these characters to the exact same level. Feel free to have one or two take center stage if you desire, as long as the others make appearances. Or interject with other Trading Post-ers! Baldwin can be a hoot, or Swipp (and his kids! Aaaah, how adorable!) Have fun with it!

Nethack
* Oracle (Nethack)
I'm curious as to what it's like being the Oracle in the downtime between ever so brave adventurers visiting en route to Yet Another Stupid Death. Day-to-day life in the Dungeons of Doom! Somehow not getting killed by anything! Do the shopkeepers come down and visit occasionally? What's up?

Nethack! In continuous development since pretty much the Paleolithic era! It's a roguelike game, so it's tough (and by that I mean I have yet to actually beat it in the... well over a decade I've been playing (albeit off and on) despite several heartbreaking near misses) but incredibly fun to play, and different every time you play it. It also manages a subtle sense of humor in various item interactions and the limited dialogue that you can encounter.

My request speaks for itself. It's gotta be kinda lonely being the Oracle. Or maybe it's not! After all, she has her visions... and maybe even dwarves and elves and stuff (like shopkeepers, as mentioned, who knows. She has to stay supplied somehow, and it's not like she's short on cash) dropping by. I'm just interested here in what's going on when she's not giving out consultations to player characters.

Shirokuma Cafe | Polar Bear's Cafe
* Grizzly (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Panda (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Penguin (Shirokuma Cafe)
* Shirokuma | Polar Bear (Shirokuma Cafe)
Something that feels like an episode would be lovely here. These guys hanging out in or out of the cafe, getting up to the kinds of shenanigans that they get up to, you know how it goes. Crazy fun!

Shirokuma Cafe! Available for streaming on Crunchyroll. Animals! Living side-by-side with humans! Having jobs and businesses! (Even if those jobs involve... being zoo displays!) It's hilarious and fun and absolutely wacky in a way that I just find great. I just love all the characters and how they interact and the real affection there even if they can get frustrated with each other sometimes.

I was originally going to request an Any on this one, but then it occurred to me that I'd feel kind of sad if any of these guys were left OUT, so requesting all of them it was. I know this makes character juggling a bit tricky, but I really don't mind if one or two of them are more in the spotlight, and the others take more of a background role. I'd just like all of them there, being themselves! They can just be hanging around at the cafe or at Grizzly's bar, or getting into wacky hijinks. Feel free to add other characters if you need them, or don't! Whatever you'd like, it's all good!

Town of Salem (Video Game)
* Godfather (Town of Salem)
* Mafioso (Town of Salem)
* Consort (Town of Salem)
* Consigliere (Town of Salem)
Give me Mafia life! Really, anything you can think of with these guys (and feel free to add or feature any of the maf roles not in the list). Show a plot going down at night, or what they do in the daytime when they're feigning respectability, or conflicts they have with other roles... anything, really! Enjoy yourself!

Town of Salem! Multiplayer online game you can find here. Inspired by the game Mafia, it involves bluffing and deception and intrigue! And it's pretty fun to play. It will of course occasionally run into one of the main downfalls of online games, which is other players who enjoy being disruptive more than anything, but if you manage to avoid them, the game itself is really great and makes you have to think. It's good times.

I always kinda like it when I end up rolling mafia. You have the team aspect working for you in ways that the other roles don't. So yeah, have another 'what it says on the tin' elaboration. And given the nature of the fandom, my normal leeriness of character death in a Yuletide fic is out the window with this one. Gimme a mafia fic and I'll be happy as a clam, even if it ends with absolutely all of them dead and cursing the Spy with their last breaths.

And that is that! More than any of my optional details (which are optional! You are not beholden to them!), the most important thing is that you have fun with writing whatever it is you're going to give me. If you enjoyed writing it, there is no doubt in my mind that I will enjoy reading it. Have a great Yuletide, and I hope it all works out flawlessly for you!

Sincerely,
dizmo

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

Time for my yearly actual use of this journal for POSTING...

2014-10-20T23:10:59Z

... which means it must be time for...

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hi! If you decide or have decided to browse through my other assorted Dear Author letters (ESPECIALLY last year's...) over the years, you'll probably noticed I've cribbed a good portion of this letter (and even two of my prompts!) from them, but things get slightly refined over time. You know how it goes. Besides, plagiarizing from yourself is the only plagiarizing that's actually reasonably ethical! :p

That said, hello! Welcome to my letter, I hope it helps to alleviate any possible stress over your assignment instead of making it worse.

If you're trying to glean my personality or general demeanor from my journal here, then I am extremely sorry for its sparseness over the last few years, but feel free to check out my tumblr, if that's the kind of thing that helps you out. If you could care less, then great, carry on!

My general likes include banter, happy endings (although I am perfectly fine with bittersweet or even sad if that's where your muse takes you), throwing in little canon details that you might miss on first read but totally make you squee come the second time around, wit, humor, dramatic irony, missing scenes, and in-character-ness. (Of course, nobody ever actually tries to write a character OOC, outside of crackfic for the purpose, so don't fret too much about this point. As long as you make a good faith effort, you'll be fine.)

As much as I love fic that feels like it could fit right into canon, I also have a soft spot for AUs, so if you get bitten by an AU bug, go right ahead, I'll more than likely adore it.

Dislikes aren't many. Not really a huge fan of major character death for Yuletide, even if I don't mind reading it on a normal basis. :D Also, and I really doubt this will be much of a problem, but in the interest of full disclosure, depiction of injury to fingernails or toenails skeeves me out more than I can even begin to describe, so if somehow you have a bunny where that might come up, even if it wouldn't really fit in the majority of the fandoms I requested, maybe try to avoid it? Other than that, though, I won't really have much trouble with where you decide to take the fic!

Also, don't feel tied down to the characters I've requested. You can totally feel free to add ones that aren't listed, even in a reasonably large capacity, as long as (this probably goes without saying) you keep the focus on the requests. :) Ensemble fics are fun!

And now that I've blathered on quite long enough, on to the nitty-gritty of my requests! It'll go as follows. The requests themselves, a little bit on the fandom, how to access it (should you either need a refresher or decide you just cannot write what we matched on and need to write something else badly!) and why I love it, and then a bit more elaboration on my requests themselves (And please, do not take the relative lengths of the various elaborations as any indicator as to which fandoms I want more. I would be overly thrilled with a gift in ANY of them).

Watership Down - Richard Adams
* El-ahrairah
* Rabscuttle (Watership Down)
If you're up for it, I would absolutely love an all new tale of these two, framed as a lapine folktale being told in some warren somewhere, whether we've heard of it or not. If not, just a straight-up story of El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle without a frame around it would be amazing too! I love El-ahrairah's trickery and cleverness and Rabscuttle's support.

Ahhhh! Watership Down! I have loved this book since I was probably about... oh, twelve? And it may well have solidified, along with the Redwall series, my love of fantasy from a young age. Anyway, if you've read it, you know how it goes. Rabbits! Adventure! Really awesome worldbuilding and culture building. If you haven't, and you're here for one of the other fandoms, I do recommend it! It's at Amazon here in paper and ebook formats.

As for my prompt itself, I don't really know how much elaboration it really needs. The rabbit folktales were some of my favorite parts of the novel, and I have gone back and read each of them over and over, and I just love El-ahrairah as a trickster figure, and always always loyal ol' Rabscuttle. It's just one of those cases where I can never have enough and am always willing to get moooore!

Rookie of the Year (1993)
* Henry Rowengartner
The first thought I had in my mind, and what prompted me to request this fandom in the first place? What would it be like for Henry AFTER the season depicted in the movie? To be the middle school kid in Chicago that happened to be a critical piece of that happy alternate universe in which the Cubs actually won the World Series more recently than 1908? How would he manage to deal with the notoriety that comes from that, which I'm sure would be even greater than that which came from being on the team in the first place? (If this does not tickle your fancy, I have other ideas for you in my letter, as my feelings about Henry are VAST AND EXPANSIVE.)

Rookie of the Year. Rookie of the Year. 1993 movie in which a 12 year old breaks his arm and the tendons heal "a little tight", giving him a massively insane fastball, ultimately getting him in the Cubs bullpen in defiance of all logic, and, SPOILERS, ultimately does what I wish deep in my heart of hearts would happen in real life, gives the Cubs a World Series championship. Sadly not available on Netflix streaming (or happily, as I would be WATCHING IT ALL THE TIME) but it is on Amazon instant video for your refresher needs. (Ignore odd baseball factual errors such as a division championship going directly to the WS because lol.)

ANYWAY. My prompt! First, if you come up with anything Henry-centric whatsoever, I'll probably be pleased as punch. The one actually listed on my prompt is just one thought. Others? Let's see.... Henry as an adult. Does he try to become a pro ballplayer again the long way round? Does he succeed? Does he go some other baseball-connected route like scouting or broadcasting? Does he end up in some other career entirely, but still showing up at the annual Cubs convention every winter to share his love with the fans? (And also regular trips to throw out the first pitch, not unlike the Cubs ACTUALLY HAVE THOMAS IAN NICHOLAS DO practically every year?) Or maybe Henry during that magical year? What happened in those moments we didn't see? Really, you'll pretty much do no wrong if you just write it with love and enthusiasm. (I am a Cubs fan DEEP WITHIN MY BONES and have been since forever and the experience has provided me with joy and tears and lots and lots and lots (and lots) of frustration. And it has also provided me with a great appreciation for this cheesy movie. XD

Cutthroat Kitchen RPF
* Alton Brown
I am going to give you more or less free reign on this one. I love the Mischievously Evil Alton as depicted in the show, bringing in those cruel cruel sabotages with glee and relish. Exploring the persona during the course of an episode would be fun, or, if you want to go a different direction, normal-life Alton thinking about that persona and how the sabotages force chefs to have to simplify down to the basics of cooking each dish and how to get it done would be fun. Or really, anything you think up would be lovely! And feel free to bring in any of the judges or even contestants!

Cutthroat Kitchen! Food Network competition show! Alton Brown hosting and providing professional chefs with some of the MOST HORRIBLE COOKING CONDITIONS OF ALL TIME. I fear I may be slightly twisted as evidenced by how much I adore it.

This is another example of the fact that I don't think I really need to elaborate all that much on my prompt. You can go with something where Evil!Alton IS Alton, or you can absolutely play with the fact that it's a persona for the show, and, yeah, feel free to toss in any other Cutthroat Kitchen personages you like! (If you are truly interested and need to know for the purpose of adding in others, my favorite judge is probably Jet, followed closely by Antonia and her hilarious love of processed foods. XD)

Corruption of Champions
* The Champion
* Kelt
* Marble
* Whitney
So the farm is probably one of the sanest places in the extremely fucked up world that is this game. So I'm requesting the Champion and then the denizens of the farm. I will say, though, that you're not required to include everyone, and you can pick and choose. But I want the Champion (who can be absolutely any configuration you'd like from fresh through the portal up to... strange bizarre freak of nature with animal parts and multiple sex organs) spending some time on the farm. It can be as depraved as you want, or you can set yourself a perversely backwards challenge and try to manage writing some fluffy gen-fic in this game world. I'm interested in seeing what you do with it.

So. Corruption of Champions. Text-based, extremely not safe for work... probably not safe for life, and I mean that... fetish game, located here. WARNING: If this is not what we were matched on and you're just fandom exploring, tread with caution. There are a ridiculous number of common triggers in the game, and graphic descriptions of non-consensual sexual activity are nigh-unavoidable. It's very over the top and can be hilariously so if you're in the mood for it, but it won't be everyone's cup of tea.

That said, yes. Whitney's Farm. Whatever characters you'd like to focus on. Kelt and his tendency to be a complete and utter douchenozzle? Go for it! Whitney's stability? Yes! Marble's sweet disposition? By all means! Binging on canine peppers and Marble's milk? Surely! Any combination of the above? Sure! Referencing canon-possible events elsewhere? Why not?! Covering canon-possible events at the farm itself? Yeah! Bringing in other characters? Yeah, okay! But yes, obviously, given the canon, I won't bat an eye to getting porn on Yuletide. Given my prompt, though, even with the nature of the canon, I won't be upset if I don't, either. (I'd probably tip my hat to your ingenuity!)

City of Thieves - David Benioff
* Lev
* Kolya
The only reason I'm not leaving this blank is because I know from personal experience how terrifying *no* direction is. I just love the interplay between these two in the middle of an impossible situation. Friendship fic, slash, something hilarious, something angsty as hell centering on Kolya's death, I will take aaaanything your heart desires and be thrilled for it.

So! City of Thieves! (Over here on Amazon in paper and ebook.) Wartime novel set in WWII Leningrad during the siege. Two strangers tossed together on an unlikely mission and becoming friends in the process. Fabulous book which manages to blend together multiple tones, from comedy, to pathos, to horror, to tragedy. And does it well.

I really really like this book and it all hinges on the bond between Lev and Kolya. As my prompt says, I'm giving you more or less free reign on this one! I'd love missing scene fic. I'd love a small intimate inner monologue about what one of them thinks about the other. Hell, I'd like an AU where they're hockey players or farmers or cosmonauts or tigers or something ridiculous. As long as you keep the characters recognizable, I am putty in your hands. :)

And that is that! More than any of my optional details (which are optional! You are not beholden to them!), the most important thing is that you have fun with writing whatever it is you're going to give me. If you enjoyed writing it, there is no doubt in my mind that I will enjoy reading it. Have a great Yuletide, and I hope it all works out flawlessly for you!

Sincerely,
dizmo

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

Because apparently my journal now only really sees activity once a year....

2013-10-07T04:06:54Z

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hi! It's an absolute pleasure to, well, not exactly meet you, but at least have you lurking about and trying to glean my likes and dislikes. To that end, I'm extremely sorry that my journalposting has trickled down to... well, basically Yuletide stuff over the last few years. Nevertheless, I promise I am thrilled that you are writing for me and the odds are extremely good that I will enjoy the hell out of whatever it is you end up giving me. Because it'll be all mine mine mine! (Okay, and whoever else reads and enjoys it.)

If the sparseness of the journals dismays you from a getting-to-know me sense, feel free to check out my tumblr over at erindizmo. But do not dismay about the tendency towards monofannishness on it as of late, even if that fandom is one that I have requested. If that's not the fandom you end up writing for me, I won't like what you give me any less, I swear. It's just the whole New Shiny effect. You know how it is. :p

Anyway, as for general likes and dislikes, well, you'll probably recognize much of what I'm about to say if you've poked at my previous Yule-letters, but if you can't steal from yourself, who can you steal from? :p

My general likes include banter, happy endings (although I am perfectly fine with bittersweet or even sad if that's where your muse takes you), throwing in little canon details that you might miss on first read but totally make you squee come the second time around, wit, humor, dramatic irony, missing scenes, and in-character-ness. (Of course, IC-ness on some of the fandoms with less characterization is a bit more nebulous, so you obviously have leeway on that point if that's the one we matched on! Also, of course, nobody ever actually tries to write a character OOC, outside of crackfic for the purpose, so don't fret too much about this point. As long as you make a good faith effort, you'll be fine.)

As much as I love fic that feels like it could fit right into canon, I also have a soft spot for AUs, so if you get bitten by an AU bug, go right ahead, I'll more than likely adore it.

Dislikes aren't many. Not really a huge fan of major character death for Yuletide, but other than that, I won't really have much trouble with where you decide to take it. :D

Also, for those fandoms in which I have requested characters, you can totally feel free to add ones that aren't listed, even in a reasonably large capacity, as long as (this probably goes without saying) you keep the focus on the requests. :) Ensemble fics are fun!

And now that I've blathered on quite long enough, on to the nitty-gritty of my requests! It'll go as follows. The requests themselves, a little bit on the fandom, how to access it (should you either need a refresher or decide you just cannot write what we matched on and need to write something else badly!) and why I love it, and then a bit more elaboration on my requests themselves (And please, do not take the relative lengths of the various elaborations as any indicator as to which fandoms I want more. I would be overly thrilled with a gift in ANY of them).

Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson
* Lightsong (Warbreaker)
* Llarimar (Warbreaker)
I would love to see more or less anything of the interaction between these two. And you can do it either after Lightsong's ascension to godhood or before... or even both! It would be interesting to see the shift in their relationship.

Warbreaker is an absolutely lovely fantasy novel (as I'm sure you're aware, if this is the one we matched on.) Brandon Sanderson's worldbuilding is ludicrously impeccable, and as awesome as it is, he doesn't skimp on populating those worlds with absolutely fabulous characters. And this one is no exception. Better yet? If you need a refresher on it, he himself has uploaded a PDF of this one to his website for free download! It's on this page, along with pretty much all of his drafts. (The final version is, of course, the one at the bottom of the 'versions' section.)

My prompt itself pretty much covers what I would love to see. Reading about these two really at any point in their timeline would be fascinating. Seeing them before the rather significant lifechanging event in their lives, knowing what's coming, and seeing how their interactions are different from how they end up? Awesome! Just seeing more of their interaction as we knew them in the novel? Also awesome! Just... these two in general make me happy, and their interplay was pretty great in the book, especially considering the gap in knowledge between them. Absolutely fascinating.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
* Any
I am going to more or less give you carte blanche here. I have irrevocably fallen in love with every single one of the main characters in this show. (Yes, even the ones that a significant number of people dislike. I love them too!) And I'm really liking the side characters, also! So I'm not going to be disappointed no matter what you give me. I'll say, basically, have at! But I'll also toss some ideas in my DYA letter in case you need SOMETHING.

Ah, AoS. (Watchable at abc.com or here on hulu!) I've been overjoyed at the thought of this series since October 13 of last year when Clark Gregg's casting was announced. And I am not any less overjoyed at the series now that we have some of it. Basically, I came for the Coulson, and I've stayed for the everybody. Including the Coulson.

That said, when I go specifically into my prompt, Coulson was not actually eligible to be nominated. And that is perfectly peachy keen with me! I have absolutely no trouble finding Coulson-fic to read on a daily basis. So of course he can appear, and can even be in it quite a bit, but I would honestly prefer to read something focused on other character(s). Whichever one or ones you offered, in fact. (Also, as much as I adore Clint/Coulson, don't feel you have to toss some in there. On balance, I would prefer if you didn't for this particular exchange (but I won't be huffy and grumpy if that's where your muse takes you).) But as for pairings aside from that? Seriously... I SHIP EVERYONE ON THIS BUS!!!! If you want to write a pairing? Write a pairing. Seriously. Any pairing. At all. Or none. I will be overjoyed either way.

So what should you write? The fic of your heart! Don't have a fic of your heart? I'll just toss out a few thoughts. You can incorporate any or all or none of them, to your heart's content. Lab shenanigans with Fitzsimmons! Dr. Streiten musing on just what it's like when doctor-patient confidentiality turns into doctor-patient's boss confidentiality, with the patient being left in the dark. Skye, trying to reconcile the gray areas that SHIELD is involved in now that she's learning more about them. Mike Peterson and his recuperation after his run-in with the Night-Night Gun. Ward trying to figure out what this whole People Skills thing is all about. When Franklin Hall was teaching baby SHIELD science recruits, was it a refreshing change from the being shuttled around from place to place? May, trying to reconcile her place as a SHIELD legend who wants to be anything but. Maria Hill wondering if this team of Coulson's is going to work out at all. Or anything else you think of! Run free like an unfettered stallion! Fly like a '62 Corvette! Woooo! (Also? I am as aware as you are that this is an ongoing canon, so if something gets jossed between you conceiving it and me reading it on Christmas morning? That is totally fine with me.)

Qbo Meets Qbo (YouTube Video)
*Daniel 123
*Jane 234
This video was just adorable. I just want more of the two bots! Somehow! If Daniel 123's face sounded familiar, did they meet before? Or did Jane 234 just know a similar Qbo? Ooo, backstory! Or explore the budding romance, because you cannot tell me Daniel 123 wasn't totally flirting. Or you could go another direction entirely and do some crazy postapocalyptic Wall-E-esque scenario. Really? Anything goes. The 'canon' being so short means you have a lot of room to play in.

Qbo Meets Qbo is a YouTube video that is under two minutes long and is really a prototype product demonstrtation more than anything. But it's nevertheless adorable! Flirting robots! Who doesn't like flirting robots? That said, my prompt pretty much covers it. I just want more adorable baby-faced robots who can identify themselves in mirrors. :D

Old Spice Commercials
*Man Covered in Hawks (Old Spice 'Poker Face' Commercial)
*Man Covered in Wolves (Old Spice 'Irresistible' Commercial)
Frankly? I want these two to meet. Do the hawks get along with the wolves? Is there macho posturing going on? Is there just inherent acknowledgement of their respective coolness? What reactions do other people have if they see them together? What does Animal Control think? You are under no requirement to actually answer any of these questions. But I would just love to see what happens when the two of them interact.

Two Old Spice commercials! Poker Face and Irresistible. When you see two commercials with immensely suave dudes... with ridiculous numbers of animals crawling on them... you kinda want to see what happens when they meet. My prompt basically says so and there's not much elaborating I can do on that score. If you go for this one, I would absolutely love to see what you come up with.

Nested (Browser Game)
*None
Obviously, it is hard to nominate specific characters when absolutely everything is randomly generated, and you have literal universes to work in. Really, just tooling around Nested, I have come across so many tiny little stories that could be expanded on, from the secret thoughts of animals and nanobots to sad little tragedies in the psyches of tourists. If you play around and you find something? Go for it. (Far from required, but an awesome bonus? Include screenshots of what provided inspiration!)

From the man who brought you the timewaster that is Cookie Clicker, have the entire freaking universe. Nested is really just a randomly generated universe simulator... okay, multiple universes, because you'll find more. It has everything from the freakishly disturbing thoughts of cats to the hidden (censored) files on people's computers. And spacefaring civilizations and chipper nanobots... and dragons... and once I discovered a trapped demonic being in the core of a gas giant. But then you can also find strangely poignant things like a woman's thoughts including 'I miss her.' and memories including 'The day my daughter got sick.' And you will CRY.

Anyway, just play around. Explore! Find stories! See if they wind together, see if they don't, but find something that spurs on your imagination, and I'm sure I will absolutely adore it.

Corruption of Champions
*The Champion (Corruption of Champions)
*Kelt (Corruption of Champions)
*Whitney (Corruption of Champions)
*Marble (Corruption of Champions)
So the farm is probably one of the sanest places in the extremely fucked up world that is this game. So I'm requesting the Champion and then the denizens of the farm. I will say, though, that you're not required to include everyone, and you can pick and choose. But I want the Champion (who can be absolutely any configuration you'd like from fresh through the portal up to... strange bizarre freak of nature with animal parts and multiple sex organs) spending some time on the farm. It can be as depraved as you want, or you can set yourself a perversely backwards challenge and try to manage writing some fluffy gen-fic in this game world. I'm interested in seeing what you do with it.

So. Corruption of Champions. Text-based, extremely not safe for work... probably not safe for life, and I mean that... fetish game, located here. WARNING: If this is not what we were matched on and you're just fandom exploring, tread with caution. There are a ridiculous number of common triggers in the game, and graphic descriptions of non-consensual sexual activity are nigh-unavoidable. It's very over the top and can be hilariously so if you're in the mood for it, but it won't be everyone's cup of tea.

That said, yes. I toyed with nominating this fandom last year, and then forgot when noms rolled around. Didn't forget this time, and yes. Whitney's Farm. Whatever characters you'd like to focus on. Kelt and his tendency to be a complete and utter douchenozzle? Go for it! Whitney's stability? Yes! Marble's sweet disposition? By all means! Binging on canine peppers and Marble's milk? Surely! Any combination of the above? Sure! Referencing canon-possible events elsewhere? Why not?! Covering canon-possible events at the farm itself? Yeah! Bringing in other characters? Yeah, okay! But yes, obviously, given the canon, I won't bat an eye to getting porn on Yuletide. Given my prompt, though, even with the nature of the canon, I won't be upset if I don't, either. (I'd probably tip my hat to your ingenuity!)

And that is that! More than any of my optional details (which are optional! You are not beholden to them!), the most important thing is that you have fun with writing whatever it is you're going to give me. If you enjoyed writing it, there is no doubt in my mind that I will enjoy reading it. Have a great Yuletide, and I hope it all works out flawlessly for you!

Sincerely,
dizmo

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

LJ, seriously.

2013-01-01T21:17:17Z

Anyway, LJ and crossposting are apparently not getting along right now, and as I really don't feel like re-coding things...

My end-of-year fic roundup is right over here at my DW. Along with another thanks to my Yuletide writers now that I actually know who they are. :D

If you feel the need to comment and want to do it over here instead of over there, though, that's perfectly fine.

I must have been very very good this year.

2012-12-26T22:47:48Z

Amazing Yuletide fic and then three Madness treats? Yes please.

Anyway, starting off with my main gift fic:

A Planetary Romance (4379 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Solar System (Anthropomorfic)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Earth/Mars
Characters: Earth (Anthropomorphic), Mars (anthropomorphic), Spirit (Mars Rover), Opportunity (Mars Rover), Venus (Anthropomorphic)
Summary: Earth and Mars hadn't talked for a very long time before the rovers came along.

Guys. Guys. It's Earth/Mars femslash! And there are misunderstandings and jealousy and silly-if-well-meaning rovers and matchmaking Venus and silly moons and can I roll around in this fic forever because I really really want to?

And then on to my three (yes, three!) Madness treats:

In order by upload date because I couldn't possibly pick an order of prominence myself...

Somebody had to write this (so why not me?) (189 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: AO3 Tags, Meta - Fandom
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary: This is a stupid fanfiction and I shouldn't have written it. I have no shame. Don't like, don't read.</p>

Abandon hope all ye who enter here . . .
(A little piece of silliness, wherein the above summary, dubious poem below, author notes and accompanying tags are entirely composed of existing AO3 freeform tags.)

It's another found tags poem! I loved the last one I found so ridiculously much and this one is no different! It starts off with a tag that I have personally used, even. Bonus points for the penis-tags-stanza. Seriously, people can use all the eye roll inducing tags on fic that they want if ultimately I get something like this.

Apocalypse Rescheduled (833 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Solar System (Anthropomorfic)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Earth - Character, Mars

Earth grumbles to Mars about how the scheduled apocalypse didn’t happen after all and those seven billion ants crawling around are still here to be irksome. Oh well. ;) Couldn’t stop giggling at this one even if I for some reason can't find myself overly sympathetic about the fact that humanity has not been destroyed. XD

Oo-de-lally Slash (106 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Robin Hood (Disney 1973)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robin Hood/Little John
Characters: Robin Hood (Disney's Robin Hood), Little John
Summary: Inspired by the most blatant ejaculation metaphor in any Disney cartoon. Yes, that scene where they're playing in the water.

A freaking hilarious filk parody of Oo-de-lally from Robin Hood. I swear to God, I will never ever look at that song again. The meter is perfect, which is something that’ll often throw me from song parodies if it’s off, so I am giving so much applause to this author right now.

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

It's that time of year....

2012-10-14T21:02:10Z

Dear Yuletide Writer!

Yay! You want to write for me! Rest assured that I am probably one of the most easy-to-please recipients you could possibly ask for. But I also know the pleasing stability that comes along with having a little more to go on than what shows up in the request, so here is a letter for you! I will probably be liberally cribbing from previous years' Yuletide letters, but hey.

My general likes include banter, happy endings (although I am perfectly fine with bittersweet or even sad if that's where your muse takes you), throwing in little canon details that you might miss on first read but totally make you squee come the second time around, wit, humor, dramatic irony, missing scenes, and in-character-ness, although a lot of my requests this year are anthropomorfic, so you have a lot more leeway on that score.

As much as I love fic that feels like it could fit right into canon, I also have a soft spot for AUs, so if you get bitten by an AU bug, go right ahead, I'll more than likely adore it.

Dislikes aren't many. Not really a huge fan of major character death for Yuletide, but other than that, I won't really have much trouble with where you decide to take it. :D

P.S. For any of my fandoms, feel more than free to add any of the other characters in any capacity, but I'd still like the focus to be on the requested ones, obviously. I love ensemble-fics too, so yay! :)

Now, on to my individual requests:

Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
* Phil Coulson
Obviously, the life of a high school principal generally involves things other than wrangling teenaged superheroes, and we've seen glimpses of Coulson not being immune to the other parts of the job. (And, in many cases, he is even extremely overinvested in those other parts.) I would kind of love to see what he gets up to when he's not having to deal with the main kids, and perhaps what sort of unorthodox solutions his S.H.I.E.L.D. training leads him to!

My love for Coulson is completely unhealthy. Should this be the fandom you matched on, be known that as I write this, I'm in the middle of a hugenormous Coulson Lives kick from the NYCC announcement that was just yesterday and this morning's Ultimate Spidey ep what with the date with Aunt May and everything. The fact that USM!Coulson is quite a bit different from MCU!Coulson has not escaped my (or hopefully anyone's!) notice, and I love both versions and am looking forward to seeing a fic with this one. Really, any kind of Coulson-centric fic, even if it ignores my optional details entirely, and I will be happy as a clam, particularly if it at least alludes to his utter badassery. Bonus points for referring to his Captain America fanboyism!

AO3 Tags
* Freeform Tags
On my tumblr, I have gone into a number of appreciative rambles of some of the more idiosyncratic freeforms that people use to tag their fics (As evidenced here: Link to my tumblr rants ). I think it would be fun to see just some wacky freeform tags (of your choosing, as goodness knows there are plenty out there!) hanging around with each other and goofing off.

I'm going to kinda caution against character hate on this one. I know that crazy freeforms are a bit of a divisive topic in some circles, but they please me greatly and have from the outset. Yeah, too many of them at once, and I'll roll my eyes, but as a rule, they make me smile. Anyway, really, this request is kinda self-explanatory. There is a completely hilarious pool of freeforms you can choose from, and seeing how their personalities might or might not match up to their names would be hilarious to see. Of course, if you have some other idea, such as using freeforms as a whole as one monolothic anthropomorph, chatting with the other varieties of tags, or going on an Adventure to Save the Fic or something, go for it.

Solar System (Anthropomorfic)
* Earth
* Mars
I know that Jupitearth is the latest fad as far as spaceshipping goes. (... In as much as anything can be called the latest fad in that respect, but I digress), but Earth and Mars have so much more history. I secretly ship it, but even BFF fic would be lovely. Bonus points for guest appearances by the rovers!

This is the fic I'm gonna be most inclined to say HAVE AT IT with. Characterization, plot, anything you want? I am more or less open to any interpretation possible. From full on lovers (and ahahah, the thought of a crazy NC-17 planetfic loaded with kinks or whatever kind of amuses me) to bickering siblings that secretly love each other.. (Moooom! Earth keeps throwing rovers at meeeeee...) I will take it all and be utterly joyous.

Robin Hood (Disney 1973)
* None
No need to deer-in-headlights at the lack of character requests! Seriously, if you want to, you can write any sort of fic with any of the main characters you'd like! I would be completely thrilled! But what was I thinking requesting none? I think it would be kind of need to see a view-from-the-galley kind of thing, with OC peasants, maybe, or even background critters in court, and their lives around this epic movie, when they might not ever meet Robin, or just see him in passing, or have to give taxes over to the Sheriff, or just happen to be cheering at the archery competition. Really, anything set to the side of the movie would be really fun to read.

Again, don't take my optional details (which are optional!) as a requirement. I just love the thought of seeing what goes on in the daily lives of background extras, NPCs, if you will, because they do have their own lives, which may or not be all that great, but they're still theirs. Even if you decide not to go with it, though, I'll love what you give me with the main characters, so don't be concerned. A day in the life of Kluck and Marian? Go for it! Robin and Friar Tuck planning the best way to give to the poor? Great! The adventures of Richard off in the Crusades? Okay! Seriously, I'll be happy if you're happy. It's one of my favorite Disney animated flicks and has been since I was a kid.

Okay, now that that's taken care of, I hope you feel slightly less daunted than you may have been at the beginning. Just have fun writing it and I have no doubt I'll have fun reading it! Happy Yuletide, my darling author!

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

Not crossposting, for once.

2012-02-14T08:38:38Z

This is officially my 1000th post on this particular LJ.

I would do something spectacular.

But I don't feel like it.

:D

Stuff and nonsense.

2012-01-25T06:17:06Z

First of all...

I am a bit shocked that there is any way shape or form that I could be considered 'cool', but I'll take it.

Anyway, as of late I've been sucked into the joy and amazing that is feelschat. ... Er, an AIM blast group of Clint/Coulson fans, and oh my God, talk about full of fun and bouncy and mutual fangirling and the ~~occasional~~ ~~okay frequent~~ sometimes large buckets of angst, and everything is beautiful and somehow sometimes everything hurts at the same time. But I'm rambling.

It's done wonders for my fic productivity, although I don't know if the couple little ficlets I did just to share with chat will ever reach wider distribution. That remains to be seen. First, I work on the thing I've been poking at for ages. One step at a time.

Last night, I spent a hefty chunk of time going through my really ancient LJ entries... like, from my very first journal and everything, and wow... 'Was I ever that young?' comes to mind. XD

In other news... Well, there really isn't much in the way of other news. BUT HELLO ANYONE WHO'S READING THIS, YOU ROCK. :D

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

Yuletide roundup!

2012-01-01T20:06:14Z

First of all... yaaay, happy new year!

Next... What a fun yuletide that was! Now that the dust has settled, and reveals have happened, it's time for a post!

First thing's first. Ridiculous amounts of thanks go to baniszew for Rest In Whirled Peace. Again. How can I reiterate how awesome it is to read about superheroic ice cream flavors? All of the awesome, and that's that! Cannot say how thrilled I was.

As far as my own output goes, I ended up writing four fics. My assignment, a pinch hit, and two small treats.

First up, my full lengths:

Appointments, written for ferdelance. Discworld. A morning in Vetinari's office. Footnotes a-plenty. Fun to write, most certainly. Even if I stressed out a couple times in the writing all Oh God why did I say I could write Vetinari what was I thinking?!

The Calm Before, written for brandnewsoul. Captain America: The First Avenger. It's an interlude between Steve and Peggy on the morning before that last raid on HYDRA hq. Sweet and bittersweet at the same time, and I'm glad I had a chance to write it.

And then, my madness treats, both quite short:

First Try, written for kissoffools. Captain America: The First Avenger. Steve's reaction to his first 4F. I just love capturing those missing moments we don't see in canon, and I'm pretty fond of this little ficlet.

Strong Suit, written for JaneTurenne. The Avengers (2012). Yes. It's a ficlet written from the POV of one of Agent Coulson's suits. Because this is how I roll. The end. :)

I swear, December 2011 was one of, if not the most productive month I've ever had as far as fic goes. Makes me feel a wee bit accomplished and I kind of hope I can keep up... well, if not writing so prolifically, at least writing regularly during '12. Well, time will tell!

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

Yuletide and various sundry other things... AKA, gasp, Erin's posting something.

2011-12-30T20:52:06Z

Yeeeeah, I'm definitely going back to crossposting to my LJ from DW consistently... on those occasions I post, which is rare, but I'd like it to be less so. There's a new year's resolution for you. A good chunk of my LJ-flist is doing the same, for reasons that probably don't need rehashing.

Anyway, anyone who's made the DW jump, feel free to circle me up however you'd like. Same username from LJ.

Right! Anyway! As for content! First thing's first! Yuletide!

It's always fun when the fic you receive is in the canon you requested that really, nobody needs any crazy canon knowledge in order to appreciate.

That being said... A bajillion thanks to my author, who wrote me Rest In Whirled Peace. It's Ben & Jerry's anthropomorfic and they're ice cream superheroes. I mean, come on, how can you not want to read that?

After I finished reading that... a couple times... I proceeded to show just how obsessed I was and read absolutely every fic with one Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD in the Yuletide archive. (And then I did it again the next day with Madness.) And believe me, they're all delightful, whether or not my favorite NINJA BAMF IN A SUIT is a main character or not, so please, by all means, read them and enjoy if you remotely care.

There are, of course, numerous other fics that bear reading, but I really really suck at rec lists, and most of them have been covered in other places if you're looking for recs, so far be it from me to tread on old ground.

And now, changing trajectory slightly...

Sheer morbid curiosity had me do something in a fit of temporary what-was-I-thinking-ness last night. And I happened to actually find something hiding in the mists of the internet that I thought didn't exist anymore. That being what I'm pretty sure is my oldest surviving piece of (published) fanfic. It's X-Files, it was written when I was nineteen or so... give or take a year (we're talking so old I found it on an angelfire archive). The prose is ever so slightly purple. (Ahah. Yeah. Ever so slightly.) And I kinda wanna facepalm at my younger self for the thing, if not so badly as some of the ridiculous Mary Sues I safely paper-journaled about a few years before that. And I have a conundrum. Should I post it to the AO3, with a roughly appropriate backdate? I mean, for the interests of completeness, and to see how far I've come... but, again, facepalm. But I wouldn't want to orphan it either.

Hm. Maybe with appropriate tags to let someone know what they'd be getting into.

I'll contemplate further!

And in a brief interlude covering RL... Still sadly jobless... although it being my first Christmas season out of retail since, like, '03 or so? Let's just say it was a bit surreal being home on Black Friday.

But Christmas was marvelous. Got a Kindle Fire from Andrew and it is a ridiculously fun gadget. I'll definitely be using it as a tablet more than an ereader, though. (I've got my nook for that... Had a Sony Reader, but I broke it, oops, thank God for squaretrade... But I got reimbursed and went for a new model. Thing is LOADED with fanfic now, I love it.) But man, Angry Birds is so much nicer on that screen than my phone's. >_> He also got the LotR extended edition on bluray for my whole family, to go with the huge TV we got earlier this month. :) In addition, as I commented on twitter on the day, I really appreciate socks and underwear as gifts so much more now than I did as a kid.

Also, the presents I gave were pretty much universally well-received, which always makes me extremely gratified. I love picking out the perfect present. Although the individual that expressed the most joy was, of course, my dog, who got a squeaky toy and went into transports of delight. Good times.

Anyway, wow, I think I've just said more than I've said in ages combined, so I'll leave it at that! TTFN!

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

Writer's Block: Bah Humbug Day!

2011-12-21T08:38:09Z

.... Ha. Ahaha. Ha. Hahahaha. AHAHAHAHA.

Three words.

NEW. COMMENT. SYSTEM.

Although hey, at least my icons are still in fucking alphabetical order when I post new!

*HEADDESK*

Linking some fic, woo!

2011-12-18T01:17:08Z

Finished a WIP I've been working on for two freaking months on avengerkink. Cleaned it up and posted on the AO3. Realized I also never linked the other one I wrote for the same kink meme on my personal journal.

So here goes nothing.

Two fics, both Marvel movieverse, both Clint/Coulson. Very very different atmospheres, though. In finishing order, although the second I started well before the first...

A Very Coulson Christmas, PG-13. 2,366 words.
Coulson brings someone he's dating home for Christmas for the first time in years. Clint's looking forward to it.

Mirror, Mirror, NC-17. 21,593 words.
A certain god of mischief captures Coulson behind a mirror, and replaces him with a double. Phil gets to watch as his doppelganger subtly sabotages the Avengers... and becomes much more proactive in his love life than he'd ever dreamed of.

It's that time of year...

2011-11-19T09:39:50Z

Time for a...

Dear Yuletide Writer,

... Man, I am out of practice. I never actually got around to writing my DYW letter last year, and I still feel kind of guilty about that, although I ended up adoring the fic I got, I don't want to leave anyone without additional info that they might want, so here I am!

And right now I am going to liberally crib from my '09 letter:

If you browse through my previous Yuletide letters, you'll see that my main comment is that I'm a pretty easygoing recipient. That still holds true. Chances are, if you're happy with what you've written, I'll be thrilled. Chances are if you're not happy with what you've written, I'll be thrilled, too, so, y'know.

Things in general that I like in fic, kind of in brainstormy list type, and really, this is just a rambly thing, I do not need or expect this entire list in any fic you may give me, because yeesh. XD: Humor (but don't feel beholden to it if you don't feel you can pull it off. Like I said, I'm easy. That really goes for this post in general. XD), happy endings, wit, subtle references to strange little canon details that you might not notice if you don't pay attention, or blink, but would totally be awesome on a reread XD, the sense that what's going on could be a missing scene from canon, appearances of other characters that don't necessarily have much to do with what's going on in the story, as long as their appearance isn't ridiculously frivolous, characters finding something funny even if nobody else does, dramatic irony, and general fun times.

... All of this? Still perfectly true. I'll also mention that if you get the urge, as much as I love fic that feels like it could be canon under the right circumstances, I do also like AUs. So if you get bitten by an AU fic bunny and want to run with it, I will quite happily go along for the ride.

Time to give you more detail on my indvidual prompts.

The Avengers (2012)
[Clint Barton, Phil Coulson] Coulson is bar none my favorite character in the Marvel Movieverse. And I have quite happily jumped on the ship that resulted from about 47 seconds of actual screentime in Thor. But no worries, I'm also perfectly happy with gen if you can't slash these two. What I'd most like to see is something dealing with their contrast in personalities. Phil is obviously a bit more businesslike, despite the occasional flashes of dry humor, and Clint attempting to get him to loosen up even a bit is fabulous.
Okay, first, can I just say I am entirely too gleed by the fact that a movie that isn't even OUT for another six months is up for Yuletide? And that the only two characters nominated kind of happen to be one of my OTPs in the fandom? Right. Anyway. Everything I said up there about being easy to please? Goes twenty times over for this prompt. I love the Marvel movieverse, although as far as comics go, I tend to be MUCH more of a DC fan, so you really don't have to worry about me nitpicking against Marvel comic continuity and characterization (not that that's much of a problem with Coulson in the first place) as I know next to nothing about it at this point. :b I am fairly convinced I have thus far read if not ALL, at least 97% of the Coulson fic on the internet, and I have rarely been really disappointed by it. (God, he is such a BAMF. SUCH. A. BAMF. ... I cannot squee enough about that man, I swear.) And the dynamic set up by that ridiculously brief scene? Makes me happy, and I really hope to see more of it in the movie. Like... a lot. Right. Phil! Clint! Snarkiness! Dry wit! I will be on the floor with glee! Throw in any of the other characters? At all? I'll ALSO be on the floor with glee! I'm so freaking easy.

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream
[Chubby Hubby, Cherry Garcia] I would totally love to see a sordid covert romance between Chubby and Cherry, but in this fandom, seriously, you can write me *anything*, and I'll be perfectly thrilled with it. You don't even have to limit yourself to nominated flavors. You have free reign if you come up with a better idea. :)
... Yeaaah. I just love the idea of anthropomorphizing ice cream. Especially with the crazy flavor names they come up with. But yeah, I really do mean it when I say you don't have to limit yourself to the characters I offered, I'm just throwing it out there if you wanted a bit of guidance. If instead you want to write a ridiculous fantasy epic involving the treacherous Rocky Road... or even Vanilla's surprisingly non-vanilla proclivities... seriously, anything your little heart desires, I WILL BE BEHIND YOU ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. PS. My own personal favorite flavor is butter pecan. So I'd love even a throwaway mention. :)

City of Thieves - David Benioff
[Lev Beniov, Kolya Vlasov] The only reason I'm not leaving this blank is because I know from personal experience how terrifying *no* direction is. I just love the interplay between these two in the middle of an impossible situation. Friendship fic, slash, something hilarious, something angsty as hell centering on Kolya's death, I will take aaaanything your heart desires and be thrilled for it.
I love this book. I love these characters. I'd love missing scene fic. I'd love a small intimate inner monologue about what one of them thinks about the other. Hell, I'd like an AU where they're ostriches or something ridiculous. As long as you keep the characters recognizable, I am putty in your hands. :)

The Letter People
[Mr. Q, Miss U] Poor Mr. Q can't even hardly speak with out Miss U around to help him out. They're virtually inseperable! Makes me wonder what they talk about and do when they're not forming words! If you show me, I'd be QUITE gleeful. And load it with all the Q words you can. XD
Ahahah, here's another case where I can crib from my last letter. *innocent* As I put it... 'This is what I get for remembering kindergarten and hitting up youtube right before fandom nominations. This is probably the fandom I am least expecting to have written for me (as of my writing this letter, in fact, I'm the only one who's offering OR requesting it), but one never does know. Mr. Q is hardly ever seen without Miss U, as one knows quite simply by, well... writing words, quickly or otherwise. ;) It's a fairly interesting dynamic, if you mean... well.... if you mean, 'Erin, you're thinking about over twenty year old low-budget educational children's programming a leeeettle too much there.' So, yeah, anything exploring those two, but... that's another 'I really don't care if you use my character suggestions or prefer to go into the strange quite-possibly-transvestitism of Mr. Y, or the obvious UST between Mr. M and Mr. T, or... even wax rhapsodic on the splendors of the Silly Bull!'. It's essentially an Any prompt in sheep's clothing. ;)' <--- Yep. That.

So there you have it. My letter to you, dear author. Just... have fun writing for me, and I know I'll have fun reading it. Can't wait to thank you by name come January! :D

dizmo @ 2011-09-02T14:40:00

2011-09-02T21:40:42Z

So apparently they've posted the 'Final 10 Days!' signs at the Borders I work at.

On, of course, my day off.

Wow. Just...

I'm processing this. Not that I didn't know it was coming, for obvious reasons.

But still. Man.

JESUS CHRIST IT'S A FIC MEME GET IN THE CAR.

2011-08-29T19:07:59Z

... I'm posting again? What madness is this?

Anyway, a ~~fic~~ ~~porn~~ fic meme that I much belatedly swiped from half my flist, copied directly from [Bad username: blindmadness"].

01 » Submit a pairing (or threesome, or solo person) and a prompt by replying to this post.

02 » Please use the following format: fandom, pairing, prompt.

03 » I'll then reply with five sentences of smut. As I'm pasting from Maj, she went on to say that the original meme allows gen prompts and the like. I'm returning that caveat because I'm ~~a complete coward~~ willing to branch out my porn-writing muscles as best I can, but it's really not my forte, and please don't be mad at me if I somehow cannot manage to porn up your prompt. I will try my best!

04 » If I can't do the prompt then I will beg for your forgiveness, and offer it up to others let you select another if you'd like. [Though if anyone on my flist sees one they'd like to do that I've passed up, seriously, go for it!] And I add the further caveat that I warn you now up-front that I have this annoying tendency to flake on fic-memes like you wouldn't believe, but I will do my best to at least muster up a ficlet for at least one of everyone's prompts.

That being said... multiple prompts encouraged! :D

This is where I am supposed to list my fandoms but oh GOD I have so many. Generally, if you know I'm into something, feel free to prompt from it, but I'll go ahead and shortlist DC comics, Harry Potter, BBC Sherlock, Doctor Who, Babylon 5, Les Mis, and... I dunno, anthropomorphic kitchen tools. :D

Possibly still alive. Shocking!

2011-08-09T06:55:25Z

Hi LJ!

... I know, I know. 14 months. You've probably forgotten who I am.

But I'm alive! :D I've just been... tumblring more than anything, I guess.

Really, I'm mostly posting because peridium told me to and for some reason I listened.

I would go down a rundown of my life over the last fourteen months buuuut yeah.

I MANAGED TO GO TO SDCC THIS YEAR. IT WAS GREAT.

... And excellent timing because I'm having to jobsearch again on account of... ha, I work at Borders. *facepalm* But that weekend let me take my mind off of it!

... GIP. Just because it's funny.

My brain is a strange place.

2010-06-04T00:08:35Z

Times like this I totally wish I were a credible artist.

I just got the mental image of Batman surfing on Superman's back through the air.

And I cannot stop giggling.

I did not know I could write anything that long!

2010-05-07T19:22:02Z

I amazingly and successfully finished my fic for au_bigbang. This actually makes me feel somewhat accomplished, because I've never written anything that long. XD It successfully upped my AO3 total wordcount by 63 percent. By itself. Dang.

That being said... if you wanna read it...

Title: Good Men
Fandom: DC movieverse
Pairing: Batman/Superman
Rating: NC-17
Summary: After the return of Superman, he and Gotham's new vigilante get to know one another. Written as if I lived in the moviefusion-verse and were writing superhero RPF. Because I so would.

Fic is right here!

And there's an epic fanmix for it by dwg over here!

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

It's kind of an amazing thing when you find your Doctor.

2010-04-13T10:01:04Z

Right. So Doctor Who.

I've always been fairly familiar with the mythology and basic story.

I've watched some of the Tom Baker serials with Andrew, bought him a scarf for his birthday. It was pretty epic.

I've recently decided to actually attempt to really get into it, thank goodness for streaming Netflix.

I steamed through Nine pretty quickly, and he was fantastic and all.

Ten, I find rather enjoyable, and am about halfway through his first season, and of course have every intention of catching up in time, although am not watching nearly as quickly.

But, y'know... new Doctor, I kinda wanted to get in on the ground floor and not continue to lag behind while the Whovians on my various lists get the joy...

So I've mainlined the first two Matt Smith episodes tonight along with tyriangalley, and having just finished...

And oh my God the immense squee that Eleven has engendered in me... I cannot even begin to describe it.

Just... Wow. I can't even begin to describe my... effervescent glee.

I... actually have a Doctor.

Wow.

:D

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

Personal challenge to self. Anyone else can feel free to take it up.

2010-04-02T22:23:58Z

Right, so I've been thinking. Missed the first already, but hey, it's still ridiculously early in the month, so...

I'm hereby challenging myself to give comment-feedback to at least one fic on the AO3 every day this month. Because I'm really really bad at it and I know authors really really appreciate it.

And two today to make up for yesterday.

And with any luck, I won't end up flaking on this and I'll even continue it past this month, because, really, it means I get to read more fic! \o/

And yes, anyone else can feel free to join me in my self-challenge! It'll be awesome! :D

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

What the heck, I should be in bed right now.

2010-01-28T12:09:47Z

Buuut... A Sailor Senshi Maker!.

I blame mithen and her amazing Sailor Bat. That's all I have to say.

Okay, that's that. Going to bed. Really. Honestly.

Night!

Tag Wrangling 101! Lesson 1!

2010-01-06T05:54:22Z

Right! So! I am, well, as most people who follow my journals in any capacity probably know, a tag wrangler for Archive of Our Own. What with Yuletide driving us crazy (in a good way, honest! ;)) lately, we've been getting a bit more publicity. (Which is kind of awesome! Because lord knows we need more wranglers! XD) However, as much description as has been given as to what exactly it is that we wranglers get up to, nothing quite manages to sum it up as well as seeing the interface and the steps and the stuff that we do!

So... I've decided to make a few posts showing off! And I've just finished the first one!

I will be calling them... Wrangling 101.

If you have no desire to see the inner workings of the Wrangulator, please, feel free to skip this post. If you're on dial-up, and this will kill your connection... definitely feel free to skip this post because...

Well... you've decided to brave the post. I applaud you. In lesson one of Wrangling 101, I'm going to show off what we do to assign a fandom tag to a media type, and create a canonical tag for it, making the user-generated tag a synonym to the canonical. Screenshots and commentary abound!

We will start with the front page of the archive. Which is just the same as anyone else sees but with one subtle difference.

As you see, when you're a wrangler and logged into the archive, you get a special link down at the bottom which will take you to where the magic happens! :D

This is what you see when you click on that link. The first group of links are to the groups of tags in each category that aren't assigned to a media type (in case of a fandom) or a fandom (in the case of... well, everything else). You see that at the time that this screenshot was taken, there were 31 unassigned fandom tags, 1052 unassigned pairing tags, 4161 unassigned character tags, and 3962 unassigned freeforms. (These numbers all used to be markedly less, but... Yuletide was the equivalent of a tag blizzard, and we just got the okay to wrangle again about a day ago. They'll be dropping again.)

The second group of links are the mass wrangling links where you can go to access all the character tags in a fandom, for instance, or all the fandom tags in a medium. These are out of the scope of lesson one, so I'll talk about them later. The little bar down at the bottom... well, that's self-explanatory, I think.

Let's click on 'Fandom' and see what we can assign!

This is the fandom mass assign page. I clicked on the dropdown to show the mediatypes that we can shoot fandoms to! You'll also see some oddness, like the tag hidden by said dropdown that starts +psych"fandom":, etc. These show up on occasion, are usually archives of imports, and get fixed by the authors pretty quickly. Any tag that isn't tagging any works, isn't a canonical or synonymous with a canonical gets automatically raked away periodically so as not to sit around gumming up the works.

Here we see, among others, the fandom tag 'Sweeney Todd (Sondheim muscal)' Specific enough that we know exactly what we're talking about, but not exactly in filtering format, so we get to tinker! Yaaaay, user diversity in tag naming! It makes wrangling fun! :D

We could just select the ticky-box (WHOOOO TICKY!) and choose the appropriate media type from the drop down (which is useful when you want to assign a bunch of fandoms to the same media type... hence the reason it's called the 'mass assign' page). But I'm just showing off how to do one tag this time. So we'll go ahead and click on it and see what we get.

And here is the Edit Tag page for a completely unwrangled tag! The only information it has at present is its name and what type of tag it is.

The musical should be categorized in Theater, so we'll go ahead and select that one from the dropdown and hit the 'Save changes' button.

Yaaaay! It's now successfully out of the unwrangled bin and into Theater!

Now it's time to work on pinning down the canonical format for the tag.

So I drop by the tag wrangling section of the AO3 internal documentation wiki and check to see what the current guidelines are for the canonical naming of musicals. (All of our guidelines are subject to change at any time, based on constant discussion, and, yes, listening to feedback from the users. We want to make things easier to use for you guys, not more difficult, I promise! :D)

The guidelines say that the proper canonical for a musical is Title - Composer/Lyricist/Librettist. Well... that should be simple! ... But wait... The musical's full name is technically 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'. ... Should I insert the subtitle? Wait! I know who to consult!

A quick run to tag wrangler chat should solve this sticky wicket! These things are so much easier now that the character limit for tags is 100 instead of 42. :) Yaaaay collaborative efforts!

Okay, back to the tag edit page!

I'll go ahead and put the canonical that was decided on into the 'Rename' field. NOTE: This will not rename the tag that the author put on her fic. What it will do is create the new tag, and then the tag we've been working with will be a synonym for it. So whenever you click on 'Sweeney Todd (Sondheim musical)' in the fandom field of a fic, it'll bring up everything tagged with 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Sondheim/Wheeler' or any other synonyms it may acquire.

Enter the new canonical, hit 'Save changes'...

SUCCESS! It's now a synonym of our shiny new canonical! But how will I let the other wranglers know that the fandom is now in the archive? I'm not overly familiar with the fandom myself, and someone who is may want to have fun wrangling it!

And here we go... Tag Wranglers have an unholy fondness for...

Google Docs spreadsheets. This here is our assignment spreadsheet. It's where we keep track of what canonicals are currently in the archive, and who's wrangling what fandoms. Right here? In the middle are my fandoms. ... Although, oops, I need to update that notes section. I went through and did a bit of cleanup wrangling yesterday, so my dates are off. But that's not what I'm worrying about at the moment. Scrooooooooooooooooll dooooooooooown to the bottom of the spreadsheet...

... yes, it's a long spreadsheet... And add our new fandom! I'm not putting anything in the 'Wrangler' or 'Notes' column at the time being, because I'm not claiming the fandom for myself (anyone who wants it, though, can come and add their name!), and I didn't do any real wrangling in the fandom other than creating the canonical. So I'm done with that for now!

Just to doublecheck that everything's A-OK, I'll drop by the tag edit page for our new canonical...

... And voila! It's listed as the official name for the fandom, magically put into the proper media (because of the media of what we were using the 'Rename' function on), and the synonym is attached perfectly! We may now pat ourselves on the back! Yaaay!

ETA: Yes, I went back afterwards to fix the fact that the 'the' in the subtitle really needed capitalizing. Which just goes to show another immutable law of wrangling. You CANNOT screw up so badly that it can't be fixed. :b

.... And that is my first little mini-demonstration of tag wrangling. It gives you a general idea of the interface and some of the tools that we have at our disposal (TICKY BOXES! SPREADSHEETS! :D :D :D), and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about anything I have up. (I'm fairly sure some other wranglers would be more than willing to chime in as well.)

If everyone likes this one enough, I'll probably have more similar lessons for such things as wrangling stuff inside a fandom. Characters, pairings, etc., etc. But really? That's more than enough for now. Hope you found it interesting! :D

This entry was originally posted at my Dreamwidth. Comment here or there, either's fine by me! :D

Yuletide reveal! Yaaaaay!

2010-01-01T21:58:27Z

Okay. First thing's first.

MANY. MANY. MAAAAAAANY thanks to amatara for the fabulous Bearing Witness which OMG YOU SHOULD HAVE READ ALREADY WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU IF YOU HAVEN'T.

Um. Yes, anyway. Yes! Thank you! You wrote a brilliant fic, thank you thank you thank you.

Now... for the two I wrote.

First for my original assignment: For andraste, I wrote A Letter, Delivered by a Raven, to a Small Cottage in the Elven Village of Ivyleaf, Home of an Apprentice Baker. Probably the longest title I've ever used for a fanfic ever. XD It's Order of the Stick fic! Which... well, if you're not familiar with that particular webcomic, go and avail yourself of it, because it's awesome. If you are, it's a letter written by V. Which... led to some interesting moments when I was like... must be more unnecessarily wordy! Chop chop! :) It was very fun to write and the prompt was kind of great.

Second, for the pinch hit I managed to nab and... well, I got a rather enthusiastic reaction.

For melannen, one of the seven fics she got for the same prompt, aaaah!, Packet Switching. Anthropomorfic. Fandom/LJ, Fandom/DW. Awesome prompt, spawned lots of awesome fic, and I have to say I'm actually kind of ridiculously fond of mine, so... yay! :D

That was so fun. Is it next yuletide yet? :b

Crossposted to my DW, comment here or there. Least I could do in the spirit of my anthropomorfic. XD

Absolute ecstatic rambling.

2009-12-25T07:29:20Z

Don't want to further strain the AO3 servers at the moment by posting a comment, although I will later...

Yuletide author? How is it you know me better than I know myself? Because... oh my GOD, I literally had to remind myself to breathe after I finished reading my story. It was just... wonderful and sweet and misty-eye-making and... awesome, and the complete epitome of everything I asked for in that prompt.

I'm STILL grinning, in fact.

That being said...

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Babylon 5? Go now and read Bearing Witness.

It's Vir... oh, it's everything that makes Vir Vir. And it's... the Londo and G'Kar dynamic that... Man, if I didn't know better, I'd honestly think JMS wrote this fic himself.

*HAPPY FLAIL*

Okay, that's all. Seriously.

THANK YOU AGAIN, AUTHOR. YOU'LL PROBABLY GET EVEN MORE SQUEE ONCE I COMMENT TO THE STORY.