Spurious Claims

Dear Yuletide Author 2015

2015-10-28T15:33:11Z

Dearest, most wonderful author: I am SO SORRY that this letter didn't end up linked from my sign-up. I've gotten horribly sick over the last week, and things kinda went awry. If you ended up finding this letter later--and you've already started writing--please don't feel like you have to start over or anything. Optional details are optional,and also it's my own fault!! I'm going to be jazzed about pretty much anything you could write about any of these three fandoms, because I love them so!

Women's Hockey RPF - Any Character
The CWHL and the NWHL are the two current North American leagues. NWHL games are all available for free on Youtube.

So I got into Hockey RPF this past year, and the only thing that it was lacking for me was lots of women. I'm SO EXCITED about the NWHL, and I plan on watching many, many games now that I've finally finished school this October. I don't know nearly as much as I want to about all these ladies, so please, take this as your opportunity to tell me All About Your Fave. Tell me who I should ship. Tell me who has the best and most epic backstory. Tell me who is the most adorable, or the most sexy, or the most badass.

I'm super happy to receive femslash (seriously, I will ship any two ladies; lay it on me), het (the Scrivens' epic goalie love! or heck, any one else!), or gen (friendship feeeeeels, locker room shenanigans, fun AUs, anything at all). Feel free to crossover with men's hockey if you like, so long as the woman is the focus.

If you're slightly overwhelmed by the "any character", I'm especially interested in

Specific Prompts

Someone develops an epic crush on a teammate. Pining! (I love pining so much that unrequited or requited are both fine by me.)

TEACHING. Older player helps younger player with her hockey moves and then helps her with her MOVES. OR, hey, maybe older hockey player helps younger player with the hockey, and maybe along the way, older player's finally starting to be comfortable with her sexuality, and younger queer player helps her learn a thing about picking up chicks. Or about cunnilingus. LEARNING, teaching, instructions. ALL GOOD. This could be as gen or as sexy as you like. :)

Tropey AUs like soulmates, a/b/o. Btw, I'm super happy with stories about platonic soulmates, or gen stories set in a/b/o universes.

Push (2009) - Nick and Cassie
An awesomely silly movie starring Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning featuring superpowers and shady government agencies.

Yeaaaah, I definitely ship it, and I know many other people do, too, BUT if you don't, have no fear. My thing about these two is their co-dependent, us-against-the-world found family. I LOVE that dynamic, and so anything that plays into that will make me brim with joy.

I am super into the age difference, and Nick experiencing buckets of self-loathing for even thinking about it. That's part of the appeal for me. I'm actually okay with underage in this fandom, so long as it is portrayed as problematic. But aging Cassie up is great, too.

Specific Prompts

A few years down the line, they pretend to be a couple to infiltrate somewhere: a gross businessman with his much younger girlfriend, and Nick has lots of guilty feels about how it's not far from the truth.

For some dumb reason, they get picked up by local police, and they're stuck with trying to carefully extricate themselves from misdemeanor charges without bringing too much attention to themselves.

Someone does something mean, uncool, or even downright evil to Nick, and Cassie executes some low-key (or not so low-key) revenge. (Or vice versa!)

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) - Gaby, Napoleon, Illya
A Guy Ritchie movie that came out this year starring Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, and Alicia Vikander.

OT3! I'm happy to read Gaby/Napoleon/Illya, but if you'd rather do Gaby/Illya + Napoleon, that's great as well. Or, if you wanna stick to straight-up friendship fic, that's cool, too. I'm down for Illya/Napoleon if that's your heart's desire, but I'd definitely prefer that Gaby was significantly involved.

I'm very much into a poly arrangement for these three, and that could be a full triad with all three of them, a hinge situation where two people have separate relationships with a third, or something where they break off into pairs every so often. I'd love to see something where it starts out as Gaby/Illya and evolves. I love the Gaby/Illya in the film, so I'd love if that's there somehow, even if subtly.

Specific Prompts

Any of the three taking steps to protect the other two, especially relatively soon after the film where they don't all 100% trust each other yet, but they're getting there.

Any of the three begrudgingly finding that they genuinely like one or more of the others.

In a lag between cases, Gaby runs across a situation where a stranger needs help or needs punishing, or even just a situation that needs fixing, and she decides to do it. The boys find out halfway through, and obnoxiously decide that Gaby needs their help. Shenanigans ensue.

Things I Love in General (in no particular order)

Shippy fic of all kinds: boyslash, femslash, het, poly, multiship. One fave in particular is queer different-sex couples.

Gen fic is great: especially friends helping each other out of tough spots, found families, case fic, day-in-the-life.

UST like whoa.

Friends with benefits (they can fall in love or be perfectly happy as FWB, it's all good).

Pretend/fake relationships.

Awkwardness, dorkiness, making mistakes, failboating. Characters who mess up and then recover, possibly with the help of friends.

Mistaken/hidden identities.

AUs (workplace, historical, magical, etc)

Trope inversions.

Holiday fic: I celebrate Christmas myself, and I'm just as happy to see any other winter holidays or even just winter themes.

Characters being trans, asexual, bisexual, or any other minority genders or sexualities. I especially like stories that aren't necessarily about their gender/sexuality; it's just part of the character's life, and the story's about something else. I have an especial love for queer A/B/O relationships if that's somewhere you wanna go.

On Porn

If you like to write porn, I'd love to read it. (I also love many things that are NOT porn, so don't stress if it's not your thing, or it doesn't fit the story you're writing.) I especially like talking during sex, humorous sex, and vulnerability. I am down for all kinds kink, from the barely-there to full formalized arrangements. Seriously, so long as there is consent, I'm good to go. (However, I will say that I have a fondness for under-negotiated kink where people are dumb and inexperienced, and so they're not giving fully informed consent, but they're still super into it? If that makes sense?) Here's a few things I particularly like: spanking, vanilla kink, class fantasies, humiliation, sensation play, subspace.

Kinks I'd rather not read: knifeplay, bloodplay (with an exception for menstruation, which is okay), basically anything with skin-breaking.

Things I Prefer Not to Read This Year

Genderswap/sexswap of the "woke-up-this-way" variety. Rule 63 is fine.

Mpreg where it is unusual for the universe. Mpreg in a universe where it happens all the time (like A/B/O) is a-okay.

High school AUs.

Non-con. (Dub-con is okay, especially if it's AMTDI/sex-pollen variety, or if they talk about/negotiate it afterwards so that they do it better in the future.)

I've enabled this journal entry for anonymous comments, so if you have a question for me, please ask! Or, you can contact concinnity .

Sleepy Hollow Voice Meme (i mean sort of - temper expectations)

2014-04-18T18:08:03Z

For my dearest, darlingest analise010:

OKAY. So the first thing to know is that while I am calling this a voice meme, it is really more 15 minutes of semi-whacked-out rambling. I recorded it because I am home alone, and the medicine I'm taking for my sinus infection makes me sort of loopy, and I was bored. BUT. I dunno. It's kinda amusing? I hope you guys find it amusing. I'm not really in a state of mind to make these judgment calls.

At one point, you hear me freak out because I realized I'd made coffee earlier and then not drunk it, so I go to find it, and then later, I decide it would be a great idea to read some Spanish poetry, lol. WHO AM I EVEN.

Also, hey. I've not been on LJ in a long, long time. How ya'll doin?

Be my valentine!

2014-02-02T01:03:31Z

HELLO MY PRETTIES.

I have been less active in fandom for a while, and I would like to remind myself and all of you of why I love you. I do not care if we have never spoken or interacted or what. I like to meet people! SO.

Would you allow me the favor of making a Valentine for you?? I can write ficlets or send you recs or make you an icon or record audio telling you how pretty you are or mail you postcards or send you a sexy poem (not written by me)! Wouldn’t you like that?

YES? Good. Okay. Now follow instructions!!

1. Reply to this post. Or send me an PM or a tumblr ask. Or idk a carrier pigeon. I am not picky. It doesn’t matter if it’s Feb. 13; send it anyway!

2. Tell me some things you might like to receive!! I much prefer to write/create for prompts, so please don’t be shy!

3. I WILL MAKE YOU A THING by Valentine’s Day! Hurrah!

Here are fandoms I can write fic for: Sleepy Hollow, Elementary, Teen Wolf, Merlin, Arrow, The Musketeers (BBC), Emma Approved, and prolly some more if you know I’m familiar with it and bat your eyelashes just right.

I do not give a single flying fuck what pairing or thing you want, because you know what? YOU ARE PERFECT and I AM MAKING YOU A VALENTINE, so you will get my very best effort. It might be very silly and only 5 sentences long, but it will totally exist.

If by some strange twist of fate, I get more than 20 requests, I will regretfully have to just send the rest of the people loving notes as opposed to making things. <3

This is cross-posted to Tumblr. My tag for this will be #valentines from fleete if you’d like to follow along there!.

Snowflake Challenge Days 3-4

2014-01-05T17:07:43Z

Day 3 - Rec things

Arrow
Hideaways by moirariordan - Explicit - Oliver/Felicity - Superb characterization, and I particularly like the O/F dynamic. Look look look:

"You keep - ow! - ace bandages inside your jacket?" Felicity is mind-boggled by this. "Like - inside?"

"Yes," Oliver says calmly, like this is no big deal at all, like it's totally normal for somebody to sew medical supplies into custom-made Italian businesswear, like everybody does it and Felicity is the one who's weird for questioning it.

Furlough by moirariordan - G - Oliver & Digg & Felicity, with hints of O/F - A low-key holiday where everyone's tired and weighed down, but they get away for a bit and make cookies. And damnit, that's not even a good enough description, because moirariordan has a killer ear for dialogue and character dynamics, and I am terribly jealous of the writing in this fic.

Sleepy Hollow
One Fine Day by nestorius - Explicit - Ichabod/Abbie - "In which Ichabod is flustered and Abbie is not." - Subdued, fantastic writing, a very matter-of-fact Abbie, and a sex scene that is both imperfect and extremely hot. My favorite kind!

Sleepy Hollow/Elementary
YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT. I haven't even started this yet, and I already know that it's going to be perfect and that you should all read it!
The Hellhound of the Rockefellers by flourish - Teen - It's 30K friendshippy crossover casefic with hints of Ichabod/Abbie. So excited!

Teen Wolf
but my gravity's centered by magneticwave - Teen - Victoria/Chris - This was my gift in the TWHolidays exchange, and in lieu of the summary, I need to give you part of the author's notes: "My headcanon has been and always will be that Victoria Argent was forged in the fires of the New York ballet scene in the late 80s and came to hunting having already conquered the scariest profession in the human world and found it lacking." ALSO. There's cis-woman!Chris. OH MY GOD IT'S SO GOOD. Magneticwave writes the way I want to write.

Art art art

Pacific Rim cunnilingus art by unfbadger - NSFW - This art pretty much sums up the way I like my het dynamics to work. I still haven't seen Pacific Rim, tho.

Merlin face art by mingusto - SFW - *salivates* Their style is so so gorgeous.

Day 4 - Interact with someone new

For this challenge, I am going to count the fact that I went and left comments for moirariordan, who wrote the lovely Arrow fics above and has also written for quite a few other fandoms (Teen Wolf and American Idol, for starters - zie wrote that one fem!Derek car sex thing I LOVED). They seem to like a lot of my favorite things: ladies and kink and AUs galore. Here's their AO3.

Snowflake Challenge Day 1 & 2

2014-01-02T15:21:38Z

Hello dears! Day 1 of the Snowflake Challenge is Self-Recs, and in the spirit of variety, I decided to show you something besides fic! Here are some icons I've made.

I'm new to iconning and graphic work, but I credit fandom with teaching me everything I know about the subject. I make simple graphics every other day for my job, so it's been an incredibly useful thing to learn. I'm not terribly great at it, but the whole process of taking a drab photo and making it SPARKLY AND FULL OF COLORS pleases the same part of my soul that wants to pick up shiny things on the sidewalk. Put another one in the column labelled, "Fandom Makes My Life Better."

That's Anthony Stewart Head holding a kitten. You're welcome.
BUFFY. BUFFY AND WILLOW. THEY ARE BESTIES.
This is my faaavorite icon I've made ever. It has something to do with the superhero pose Gwen is doing.
Sisterly love!! This is from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which I enjoyed muchly.
Capt. Janeway, being a bamf. I'm not actually up on VOY, but I've made a fuckload of icons for Janeway and for Kira in DS9.

If you're interested in more icons, you can find them at my Photobucket, which is not terribly well organized. <3
Feel free to take, use, whatever! Please credit me if you do.

Day 2 of the challenge is reccing communities, and honestly, I'm feeling a tad adrift from communities right now, seeing as I'm in all new fandoms. Would anyone care to rec communities for Sleepy Hollow, Elementary, or Arrow? I'm gonna go scan everybody else's answers to these.

Send help. I am watching the CW again.

2013-12-20T01:06:17Z

So I accidentally watched all of Arrow this past week. Well. "all" is overstating it. I skipped over the flashbacks, for the most part. There are flashbacks in every episode, so I'm not what you could call "well-versed" in canon at this point, and I may never be, because UGH FLASHBACKS.

I should start out by saying that I know almost nothing about the DC comic universe. So I'm sure that people who DO will have ~feelings~ about this show and the decisions they're making with the characters. From what I hear, there are already some pretty significant departures from the comicverse, so if you're a DC loyalist, I'd tread carefully.

Things That Are Great

Eye candy of at least two genders. Let's just be upfront about that. This show is allllllll about the eye candy. It's the CW, what do you expect. But what's even more impressive is that Stephen Amell, who plays the Green Arrow, is actually able to do some of the serious stuntwork that his character requires. It's pretty neat. That's him, below. The poor man is half-naked in every episode.

Randomly cool actors, including John Barrowman, Alex Kingston (in a guest role), Summer Glau, Manu Bennett, and Colton Haynes (who is playing a character who is surprisingly likeable)

It bears repeating: JOHN BARROWMAN. John Barrowman plays a snarky asshole and makes faces at people like he's picturing them naked, as you can see:

Geek girl sidekick. Have I mentioned that I have a Thing for geek girl sidekicks? Oy vey. Gimme some Willow (BtVS), some Chloe (Smallville), some Gabrielle (Xena), some Hermione (HP). I love those gals as much as the day is long. This show has a geek girl sidekick named Felicity, and she is wonderful. She also seems to be half of the fandom's most popular ship, so that's also cool.

MULTILINGUALNESS. People bust out Mandarin, Russian, and the occasional Arabic in this show, and it is lovely. I do not speak these languages, so I'm not clear on how precise the pronunciation is, but Amell does seem to put a lot of work into getting it as accurate as possible. There is a scene where Amell's character and Summer Glau's character seduce each other in Russian and UNF.

Some very cool lady characters, although they're not always centralized or valorized. I've seen some disappointment about the way The Huntress was handled, for one, which is totally understandable. But I am very invested in Black Canary here (see my flail below), and Moira Queen is a surprisingly interesting character who's often working in a morally grey area. And Isabel Roshev, played by Summer Glau, is kind of wonderful.

Unlike Barrowman, Summer Glau's character has a tendency to look at people like she's picturing their mutilated corpses squishing under her boot heel. It's pretty hot, tbh.

Ships That I Will Read and Write the Shit Out Of, In the Order That I Discovered Them

Oliver/Diggle, because they are best bros and like to roll around on mats together and awkwardly talk about their feelings and they should have sweaty, angsty, macho sex. I think slash fandom would have poured into this fandom if Diggle were either 1) white or 2) a twink, but he's neither of those things. He is a big, black, badass dude, and he needs to bend Oliver in half, like, pronto. I mean, seriously, look at this man:

Oliver/Thea, because sibling incest is best!!

And okay, let's be clear, I would also read any combinaton of Queencest at all. Moira/Thea? Moira/Oliver? I'm very sorry, but if Stephen Amell and Susanna Thompson want to convince us they're playing mother and son, then they need to stop eyefucking each other.

Oliver/Felicity, because the fandom ships it, and so do I. I am, in fact, writing O/F fuck-or-die at this very minute. It seemed like a good way to introduce myself.

Felicity/Black Canary, because I don't know anything about comic!verse Canary, but she seems kind of queer and feminist and awesome in Arrow, and when she first met Felicity, she batted her eyelashes at her and cooed, "You're cute." I JUST WANT HER TO SEDUCE FELICITY AND ALSO MARRY HER AND FOR THEM TO FIGHT CRIME TOGETHER. ALL OF IT.

Black Canary/Anybody tbh, because damn girl.

She wears leather and pouts and has this "friend" named Sin with a punk aesthetic that you almost never see on CW shows:

This is Sin. Isn't she divine? *sighs longingly* She's played by Bex Taylor-Klaus. Actually this photo might be from the other show where Taylor-Klaus plays a queer punk street urchin (The Killing), but you get the idea.

IN FACT. Maybe Team Arrow should have a big orgy. Or conversely, just be a big pile of found-family!feelings together. I will read fluffy domestic fics about Diggle/Felicity/Oliver(/Sarah/Sin) all day long. LOOK AT THESE THREE. THEY ARE BASICALLY ALREADY MARRIED:

Isabel Roshev/Conquering the World. Isabel is Summer Glau's character, and I am kind of really into her. She's unapologetic and a crazy good business woman and has sex when she wants to,and just tries really hard to be good at things. ALSO, and this cannot be overstated, she murmured some Russian in a sexy voice, and it was the best 4 seconds of my life. I want her and Oliver to be bros-with-benefits who respect each other and run a company together and maybe occasionally fuck when they're bored. I am not sure this is going to happen. The show seems to want me to be suspicious of her, and it makes me sad.

BARRY ALLEN/EVERYONE. The motherfucking Flash, ya'll. They've been subtly working up to his origin story for the whole first half of the second season, and I really, really liked it. All of the cinematography devoted to Barry has a very classic, old-school superhero feel to it. Also. He's an adorable, sassy, baby-faced twink in this canon, and I want him to bat his doe eyes at basically everyone.

Apparently Barry's introduction may actually be a back-door pilot for his own show, so we'll see if that happens.

Things That are Not Great

Characters of color have a tendency to die or leave the show or be evil. How novel.

It's a pretty male-identified show. Like, if we take a tally of the women with speaking parts in the show, Oliver and his best bro John have slept with all them except for the ones they're blood-related to. And Felicity. Naturally, this means that Oliver/Felicity is the fandom's favorite ship because she is LITERALLY THE ONLY WOMAN HE HASN'T SLEPT WITH. Yet. Ahem. Laurel Lance is probably the most central female character, but her storylines are often tied to being a love interest or to being a victim. That's not all that she is, of course; she has some cool stuff dealing with career and family. Hopefully we get to see more of that, PARTICULARLY her relationship with her sister. I really, really hope we get to see a sisterly reunion there, and not only because I <3 Sarah forever.

At the end of the day, this is a very silly CW show, so you can't go in expecting a lot. Luckily I love silliness. Add that to the pretty and the multishipping, and I could hang out here all day.

Which brings to my final point:
This is a fandom that needs more people! It is really hurting for diversity in its fanfic. I'd say that 75% of the fic on AO3 is fluffy Oliver/Felicity h/c where she gets her damsel-in-distress on. (And just to be clear, I do love me some damsel!fic. I feel a little ashamed of myself for liking it, but I try not to.*) But I have gobbled up all the fluffy h/c, and now I need more of all the other kinds of fic! So if you would like a show about Pretty People Who Do Silly Things, this might be the show for you. Come write porn with me!

*I should really write a post about the complicated feminist shame I experience surrounding some het fic and het-centric fandoms, because on the one hand, shame is neither useful nor healthy, but on the other hand, examining my socially constructed desires can be useful and healthy. So. Yeah. Put that on the to-do list.

'Tis the Season!

2013-12-08T17:50:09Z

HELLO. I haven't posted in a scandalously long time. The fall snuck up on me and banged me on the head, and these few couple of weeks have been especially hard. So many things to do! Here's some updates from the last month.

1. Podcast! I was interviewed for the Verse Vs. Verse Podcast! You can listen to the episode on Tumblr (mp3 and YouTube) if you want to here me stutter about the writing process and fandom studies and established relationships and whatnot. Seriously, I'm not very articulate, so settle in for some Uhs and Ums.

2. Fics! I have written for tw_fallharvest, tw_holidays, and merlin_holidays. Only the first has been revealed thus far. But I also did a pinch hit for the Sleepy Hollow Fanwork Exchange, which was LOTS of fun. AND, I finally finished a fic I've been working on for ages for my beloved concinnity. So here's the fics I can reveal thus far; I'll post the others when they're revealed.

Let's Make Up Our Own Tradition - Teen Wolf, Lydia gen, PG-13 - Lydia once again finds herself somewhere with no memory of how she got there, but this time, everything's going to be okay. (Basically fluffy/mysterious Thanksgiving fic.)
Out of Order Hallelujahs - Sleepy Hollow, Abbie/Ichabod, PG-13 - Abbie needs distracting from her holiday feelings. Ichabod helps. (Pre-relationship. I.e. the one with Handel's Messiah and kissing.) Listen to analise010's amazing podfic of this!
Ancient Methods of Roasting Chickens - Merlin, Arthur/Gwen/Merlin/Morgana, PG-13 - The four of them do not always turn up in the same life, but now that they have, they are determined to make it work. (I.e. the one set in the 50s where Arthur tries to cook food and Morgana pines.)

I had a very difficult time writing for exchanges this season, and I'm not sure what that's about. Possibly the 3 jobs I'm doing right now? I dunno. It was just hard.

3. Holidays! I am determined to inject some Christmas spirit into my apartment this month. I have bought my very first full-size Christmas tree, which makes me feel very adult and fancy and like I have some real ownership over the place I live. It's almost done being decorated; I'll post pictures when it's done. Hurrah.

4. Current Projects! I'm thinking my next writing projects will be all Sleepy Hollow. Possibly porn. Possibly BROTP shenanigans. Possibly a mix of both. I will say it's a tad intimidating to post in a fandom where one of the actors actively reads fanfiction. Or at least pretends that he does. ORLANDO JONES WHY MUST YOU MAKE THINGS HARD. PUN INTENDED.

And hello to all of you lovely peoples! HOW ARE YOU? Tell me about your lives! How are things? Anybody got any juicy Sleepy Hollow prompts for me? <3 I MISSED YOU GUYS.

Merlin OT4 Fic: Ancient Methods of Roasting Chickens

2013-11-24T05:37:35Z

Title: Ancient Methods of Roasting Chickens
Written for: concinnity
Author: fleete
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: Arthur/Gwen/Merlin/Morgana (and various combinations thereof)
Word Count: 6K
Content Notes: reincarnation, cooking, 1950s, polyamory, references to 1950s racism, brief references to racial violence and slavery, people being stupid about their white privilege, stalking
Summary: The four of them do not often turn up in the same place in the same life, but now that they have, they are determined to make it work.
Now they just have to get Gwen to remember who they are.

A/N:Thanks ever so to flammablehat

AO3 Link to Ancient Methods of Roasting Chickens

Fic for Dad

2013-10-01T19:13:14Z

When I was little, I wrote a lot of poetry. My dad loved my crappy poetry. He collected it and typed it up and printed it out so he could keep it. Later in my life, when I'd ask him what he wanted for Christmas or his birthday, he'd go all doe-eyed and say, "Could you write me a poem?"

I really don't like writing poetry anymore. I've tried, the last 3 or 4 Christmases, to write him poetry. It comes out terrible. And he can tell that I'm not really putting my all into it, is the problem. He thanks me for my extra-crappy poems anyway, and never says anything, but I can tell. Disappointing my Dad is beginning to grate on me. I've mentioned that I don't really write poetry anymore, but he really likes to have stuff that his kids make. My sister has taken up crafting/painting and is making him random-ass crafts that make Dad go all gooey and delighted. And she inspired me, because I realized I could make him something besides a poem. I could write him fic. Since, y'know, that is a thing that I actually enjoy doing. I told him I "write short stories" now, and at first he was all "hmmm," but once he had time to think about it (and possibly to get over his everlasting desire for my terrible poetry), he is Very Interested in my stories.

So. SO. I'm trying to write original fic for my dad for Christmas.

I've never written original fic before. I mean, not since the 3rd grade. I'm all, WHERE DO I START. I have to come up with CHARACTERS and SETTINGS, which I guess it's not that different from fanfic. But still. I dunno. So I'm brainstorming. If my Dad were to fill out a list of tropes that he likes for a fic exchange, it would probably look like this:

Favorite Tropes: Family dynamics!! father/daughter relationships omg best, sibling relationships, music! all the musics!!, singers and bands, holiday themes, kidfic, FLUFF, happiness, people being protective of their family, workplace relationships that are like family, history - especially Texas, inspirational stories of people making it big, schmoop, hurt/comfort, friendship
Favorite TV Show: NCIS
Favorite Musics: The Eagles and other 70s soft rock like Jackson Browne, but also random bluesy hipster people that he finds on YouTube
Favorite Food: Chocolate chip muffins.

My current plan is to write either a longish (15-20K) fic for him OR to write several shorter ones and then get them printed up in a book, cuz he'd like that a lot. And now I need to brainstorm fics. Going in a tropey direction will likely be good for me, because the trope will give me some structure while I figure out original characters. My first thoughts are bandfic, some kind of family X-mas thing, and maybe a workplace thing. I dunno. (Suggestions are super-duper welcome.) Should be a fun project, though!

WIP-Elimination Exercise

2013-09-21T06:37:56Z

Last year at some point, I made myself do a little exercise where I listed my main WIPs and what it would take to get them finished and also what's holding them up. It was really useful for me, so I'm gonna do it again, seeing as I have these fics that are so so close to being finished.

The Merlin OT4 Gift Fic for Concinnity
Current Word Count: 4700
Estimated Words Left: 500-1K
What's the problem: Er, well, there isn't a problem exactly. It just needs finishing. And a beta. It's a bit odd, actually, cuz I think the tone jumps around. I should just write it and then let a beta or three tell me what to do about it. Yeah.

The TW Melissa/Sheriff Fic
Current Word Count: 4200
Estimated Words Left: 2K?
What's the problem: It's a little disjointed, for one. It started out as a 5 times fic, and so the first two major scenes aren't closely connected. Maybe I need to come back to the original 5 times concept, actually. Or some other kind of plot scheme that acknowledges the disjointedness. Hmmm.

The Intensely Sappy Sheriff/Claudia Fic
Current Word Count: 1700
Estimated Words Left: 500ish
What's the problem:This is sort of a companion piece to the Melissa/Sheriff piece, and I stopped working on it mainly because I realized that I had turned Claudia into a manic pixie dream girl. (To be fair to myself, this is kind of easy to do when you set out to write a female Stiles.) I need to go back and make her more like a person and less a means for me to give the Sheriff his manpain. I'm attached to the words I've already written, though, so it's this kind of tug-o-war between what I know needs to happen and my authorial pride.

The ST:ID Angst-a-thon Carol Marcus Fic
Current Word Count: 4K
Estimated Words Left: 500ish
What's the problem: Actually this one has already been beta-ed by two people, and so I do have concrete advice from smart people about what needs to happen: add feelings and add an ending. That's it. But its a post-movie fic, and it's extremely angsty cuz it's all about her father's funeral and her complicated feelings about her father, and yeah. It's hard to write that kind of thing when you don't have the zeal of having just seen the movie to propel you forward.

These four are the fics I can see myself finishing in the foreseeable future. I've also got the perverse_bang Merlin OT3 fic that I didn't finish (10K of that sucker and it probably needs another 5), but I think I need a break from it. Or maybe for someone else to read it and tell me what to do with it. IDK.

I also just got my assignments for both TW_FallHarvest and TW_holidays, and those both take highest priority. I've got an idea and plot for one, but not the other.

Quick Sleepy Hollow (FOX) Review

2013-09-17T17:00:58Z

etothepii and I watched it last night. Since the two of us have been watching Teen Wolf for so long, we had very, very low expectations and were pleasantly surprised. In sum? B+ Would watch again. THE REST OF YOU SHOULD WATCH IT WITH ME AND WE CAN ALL WRITE HET TOGETHER, IT'LL BE GRAND.

I already ship it, what can I say.

In terms of storytelling, it was a pretty okay romp. The plot was decent, the vague supernatural badness was occasionally a little creepy. There was lots of exposition, but it was a pilot episode, so what are you gonna do. The supernatural arc that they revealed was a bit over the top in my opinion.

Let's be real, though, my interest is in the characters, not the plot.

OH MY GOD, BADASS BLACK PROTAGONIST YAY. Her name is Abbie, and she's a cop and smart and has feelings and walks around with her gun and her womanpain (her partner/father-figure gets killed off early in the episode) and I love her. I love her so. She spends part of the episode trying to herd her confused little time-travelling dude by wielding her gun and telling him to "get in the damn car or I will shoot you," and basically that's all I want out of a het dynamic, guys.

They have a Buddy Cop Dynamic, guys!! Only the best dynamic ever!! They're teaming up to stop the supernatural baddy, and the show is already setting them up to be best bros 5ever, and that's always a good start for a ship in my book.

Also, their height difference makes me all wibbly.

Such pretty people!

Time-travelling white guy--Ichabod Crane--is adorable and confused and spends several minutes playing with the car's power windows, and etothepii and I agreed that that's really all we need out of him: to follow around Lady Cop while she gets shit done and ask her to explain things like Starbucks and iPads. He has a little backstory about his wife turning out to be a witch; the wife (on the left in the pic up top) seems to be an exposition box character, he talks to her in dreams about all his problems.

The only thing that was really, really Not Okay was that they killed off John Cho.

I was so excited, guys. There was time travel and the supernatural and an awesome black female protagonist, and then John Cho walked on screen in a cop uniform, an I was like, "SOLD." I was already planning all the different ways I was gonna ship John Cho with the female protagonist and the male protagonist and the police captain guy and all the extras and also the rifle he was carrying, and then he died. D: He was a one-episode character, I am so sad. DDDDDD:

I will soldier on, though. I will definitely watch next week, and I may or may not be composing fic in my head about Abbie explaining modern birth control to Ichabod.

Booooooks and beta request

2013-09-16T16:44:17Z

I had a marvelous weekend, because my dearest concinnity came and stayed with me, and we did cool San Francisco things like sitting in coffee shop / bookstores and drinking cocktails made by dudes in bowties. It was AWESOME. We even bought books, books on paper. Here are the books ~~I bought~~ that concinnity got me for my birthday because she's the best:

1. Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan - It's seems to be historical British fantasy, with Queen Elizabeth I interacting with fairies and things. concinnity says we met the author at ICFA a couple years back and she was super nice, but I have not memory of this. Anywho, it seems like lots of fun, and full of ladies!!
2. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill - I wanted a mystery, because I'm interested in trying to write more mystery myself, and wanted something unusual. This protagonist is a 72 year old Laotian man who's one of the only doctors left in Laos after the Communist takeover in the 70s. I am ALL ABOUT unconventional narrators and being immersed in settings I don't know much about, so I'm excited about this one.
3. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik - Because I wanted to leave the bookstore with something I knew for sure would contain good writing, and also I like to support fellow fan people when they grow pro, and also, dude, Novik can write. Write like whoa. So YAY. Also, I hear there is a fandom for these books? I am interested in that.

I worked hard on my Merlin OT4 fic this weekend, and it is getting close to done! Anyone want to beta 5-6K of OT4 reincarnation feels set in the 1950s? (OT4 = Arthur/Gwen/Merlin/Morgana)

22 Icons! [Buffy, Firefly, Merlin, Misc Tentacles, Pretty Little Liars, X-Files]

2013-09-11T02:13:35Z

For the record, I have trouble with icons with multiple people in them, so sorry in advance. :) But I tried!! There are icons under here I swears.

Buffy

Firefly for teprometo I had difficulty with finding good laughing caps, for some reason. Maybe it's due to Joss and all his tears.

Merlin for sp_owl

Misc Tentacles for jelazakazone

Pretty Little Liars for tambear13

Vampire Diaries for pslasher

X-Files for riventhorn

The tentacle artists are Todd Anderson (pink octopus photo) and Becky Garratt (tentacle needlepoint).

- Take whatever you like. Please credit.
- Textures used by sanami276, rockstar_pink, aaaand another person whose name I can't find right now.

Icon requests plz?

2013-09-07T04:37:53Z

I've just had a wild hare to make some icons, but I don't know what to make. Anybody got any requests? I'll make any fandom/character, so long as I can find screencaps!

TW Vidding Wishes

2013-08-30T00:27:21Z

I have a sudden and intensive need for an Allison & Victoria vid to this song:

It would be rather darker than the music video, I think. :DDDDDDDDDDDD OMG WOULDN'T IT BE AMAZING?

These are the times when I wish I had vidding skills.

Pimping: Teen Wolf Fall Harvest

2013-08-22T15:54:11Z

tw_fallharvest Sign ups open Sept 1-5

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! It's back! I love this fest! I mean, I'm feeling pretty depressed by S3 in general, but will I stick around long enough for this fest? Heck yes I will. Woo-hoo! It's run by the amazing fuzzytomato02, marguerite_26, and eldee.

I've been hurting for an exchange fest, guys. I've quickly come to the conclusion that exchanges are the absolute best chance of getting long fic out of me, because I LOVE writing for a) prompts, b) deadlines, and c) to make specific people happy. I honestly don't even care about getting fic in exchange (athough it always delights and suprises me). I just want to write things to specification like the subby little writer I am.

Does anybody know if merlin_holidays is happening again this year? If not, I shall definitely do some kind of mini-fest as a replacement so that I can write teensy little holiday Merlin fics for you guys!

Ficcy Questions: British Racial Segregation

2013-08-16T16:40:24Z

Okay, so I'm writing a Merlin OT4 fic for a friend that's set in 1953 Britain, and I'm wondering what the racial situation would have been like then for Gwen. I googled a bit, and was having trouble finding stuff, but what I'm interested in would be common knowledge for a modern Brit. So I figured I'd just ask my flist!

1. What was the extent of racial segregation in the early 1950s?
In the US everything was separate at that point. Schools, churches, public facilities, even a lot of stores. If you have knowledge that's specific to particular locales, that's useful too!
2. Specifically, what was the situation with the Anglican church? Was it segregated? If so, were there separate services or did people just sit in separate sections? Are there other Christian churches/denominations for whom racial segregation was similar/different?

Thanks guys!

DEAR TEEN WOLF FANS,

2013-08-15T04:57:11Z

I feel strongly that I should inform you that mockturtletale is now writing things in your fandom. Rejoice and give thanks, because this writer has given me many hours of enjoyment via Suits fic, and I have been GREATLY TEMPTED to enter Hockey fandom just so that I can read their hockey fics.

They just posted a 22K Derek/Stiles fic that is apparently going to be the first part in a SERIES. GO NOW, READ IT, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE. And then report back about how awesome it is.

I'm not reading it (yet) because I have grown a-weary of Teen Wolf. What can I say, I'm a sensitive soul. This is why I couldn't hang in SPN fandom; I just couldn't continue reading about characters who had been so profoundly traumatized.

(Is that stopping me from watching the mid-season finale? No. Obviously. I'm a glutton for punishment.)

Paperlegends Art: Bloodstone

2013-08-10T14:40:23Z

Art Title: Bloodstone
Artist: fleete
Pairings/characters: The fic is Merlin/Arthur, but none are pictured in the art.
Rating (if applicable): G, SFW
Warnings: No content warnings, contains spoilers for the fic
Summary: When Arthur decides to clean out the magical artifacts from his father's attic, he has to call in an expert, Merlin, to help him.
Artist's notes: I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do a craft, and so blue_eyed_1987's story called to me, with the way it revolved around physical objects. It's a delightful fic, and although it couldn't be posted today due to the perils of RL, it will be someday in the future, and all of you should look forward to that day!! "Bloodstone" is just a temporary title for the art, not the official title of the fic.
Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin, but I do own this art.

Art

The pendant pictured here is constructed of art wire and a bead. The "stone" I purchased at a bead store, and I don't remember what exactly it's made of. I'd never done wire wrapping before, or actually jewelry making of any kind, so I had to learn! It was a lot of fun, though. I very much recommend it to anyone who wants to make some jewelry but doesn't know where to start. There are lots of great tutorials on the internet to help beginners like me. :)

In the story, the pendant is a bloodstone. Bloodstones, aka heliotropes, are traditionally considered to have healing powers, particularly for ailments of the heart. Typically, they are black or greenish stones with red, blood-like flecks in them. This stone is meant to represent a piece of a particularly large vein of red jasper in a larger bloodstone. Although they're usually found outside of the UK, an outcrop of bloodstone can be found on the Isle of Rum in Scotland. And in blue_eyed_1987's fic, this particular stone has a complicated set of powers attached to it. <3 It's all very mysterious.

Progress Shots

The first pendant I made (pictured below) was too swirly and feminine to be something that Arthur would wear, so I went with a different design in the end.

An Algorithm for Mistakes Podfic

2013-07-26T14:38:17Z

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Practically nothing is going to get done today, because I shall be listening to one of my very favorite podficcers read a fic I wrote!

Podfic: An Algorithm for Mistakes
Podficcer: lunchee
Length: 3 hours 6 miutes
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Lydia/Stiles
Summary: Lydia has a plan: attend college, study the biological makeup of werewolves, win prizes, and wear amazing shoes. She does not expect to make friends with Stiles. Or flirt with Stiles. Or accidentally start a pack war with Stiles. Whatever. The point is, Lydia has a plan.

Get the podfic at AO3 (oops, link was wrong, but is now fixed!)
Read the fic at AO3

If you do listen to it, remember to give lunchee lots of kudos and comments and love!!

DEAR WORLD,

2013-07-03T02:28:44Z

MY ENTRY FOR CHALLENGE TWO OF summerpornathon IS EXCELLENT.

YOU ARE WELCOME.

LOVE,

FLEETE

Life Update: things are looking up

2013-06-19T21:43:51Z

- went to an academic conference. Missed my own panel due to having to go the ER to make sure I didn't have Lyme disease. I did not have Lyme disease, just a super weird reaction to some bug bites. Took a whole lot of Benadryl and slept through my panel. On the whole, the conference was pretty cool, though. I like the people in that set a lot.
- spent time in Texas with my friends! It was super delightful, and I got to meet isweedan, who is a lovely podficcer/Bandom fan.
- decided while in Texas that I definitely needed to go back into therapy, and so I set up an appointment. I spent 30 minutes after that crying about it, but concinnity fed me things and hugged me, and ultimately, I was pretty proud of myself.
- came back to San Francisco, met with a company, and got a job!! A part-time job that will pay me money on a regular basis!! So that is exciting.
- and I went to therapy, and it was nervous-making but also cathartic. I feel both fragile and good right now. I went to a place where they offer sliding scale pricing, and the counselors are people training for their MFTs, and my person was great.

I feel like I'm in a turning point with my life. Things are looking up, and although I'm feeling pretty nervous about all of it, I'm also more hopeful than I've been in months. It's a good feeling.

Everything's going to be okay! I am going to adjust to this new city! I am going to make friends here!

Oh and btw, I am all about befriending fanfolk IRL. Fanfolk are the best folk. If you or anyone you know lives in the Bay Area and would like to get together occasionally for coffee and squee, I am game!!

Hey, girl, heeeeey. Wanna beta my stuff?

2013-05-21T19:59:24Z

Anybody wanna beta 3K of Star Trek fic? It's post-Into Darkness, contains major spoilers, super angsty, Carol POV.

:D IT'LL BE FUN I SWEAR.

Pimping: Star Trek Woman-Centric Drabble Fest

2013-05-20T02:58:15Z

where_no_woman is a killer lady-centric Star Trek comm, guys. Come and write ficlets!!!

fleete @ 2013-05-18T09:53:00

2013-05-18T16:53:16Z

OKAY SO.

1) I get to make art for blue_eyed_1987 for paperlegends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111 Seriously, yay. I am already busy with the high-flying ideas, guys.

2) TREK.

I really really enjoyed the movie. It was a pity, cuz I went with a bunch of people who were just there to see a movie, and not necessarily there to see TREK, which is crazypants and disappointing, cuz I can't fangirl with them, but oh well. I bounced in my seat and clutched my husband's arm and grinned and laughed, and it was fun. Definite fun. Maybe it wasn't the Trek movie to end all Star Trek, but hey, that's no problem. We got fanfiction. Speaking of which, here are the things I desperately want out of fic in the next few months.

Kirk/Uhura/Spock - was anyone else feeling this in this movie? I was feeling it A LOT.

Carol Marcus - I loved her character in the TOS movies, but we didn't necessarily get to see her at full-level awesome in this movie - mostly because terrible things were happening to her. So I just want to read (and, okay, write) all of the fic about how she grows up to be the greatest scientist of her generation and how she gets over her family trauma (something I am already composing in my head, natch). Also, I'm very curious about her as a Starfleet officer, because in TOS, she was very adamantly NOT in Starfleet. She was an independent scientist. I want to know all about that. And hey, if anyone wants to write searing porn of her with, oh, ANYONE, I will read that too.

I have the beginnings of two Reboot fics from years ago that I never finished. I started them back when I was too shy to post fic. Maaaaaybe I shall finish them? It could be cool.

3) I've got to ramp up my participation level in the next few weeks. I need to finish my perverse_bang; I need to work on PL; I need to get back into mating_games. (I felt rather poorly about my contributions the first few weeks of mating_games and lost my mojo, but that's not really fair to my team.)

I guess my plan for the day is to write
- dissertation
- perverse_bang
- paperlegends
- Trek plot bunny