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The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Fanvid: Seriously

2018-04-19T07:26:34Z

Title: Seriously
Song: "Seriously" by Yonina
Clips: S1
Summary: Who do you think you are, to take yourself so seriously?

White Collar Fic: Birthday Surprise

2018-02-23T10:45:18Z

Title: Birthday Surprise
Characters/Pairings: Peter, El, Neal, Mozzie
Rating: PG
Summary: It's Neal's birthday

Notes: Set in S1. Written for pipilj for the gen exchange at collarcorner round 50.

Also posted on AO3

It was dinner-time by the Burkes', and El was getting frustrated. There they were, enjoying their dinner after a hard day's work - Peter and her... and Peter's laptop, which displayed a small, red blinking light on a map.

Finally, she decided to say something. "Why don't you just invite him over for dinner?"

"Hmm?" Peter had been staring at the screen. Now he looked up, blankly. "Who?"

El gestured towards the computer. "Neal."

Peter looked at the computer, then back at El. He gave her a sheepish grin. "I'm sorry." He pushed the laptop away. Though El noticed it was still clearly in view.

"What do you expect to see there?" she asked.

"I don't know," Peter admitted. "I'm just.. I'm sure he's up to something."

"Like what?"

"I wish I knew. It's his birthday today."

El could not see the connection. "So you gave him the day off?"

"He's a felon."

El took that as a 'no'.

"Besides," Peter added, "he said he wasn't planning on doing anything special."

"On his birthday?"

"That he'd catch up with his files and maybe go to bed early."

"On his birthday?!" El could feel her jaw dropping. From everything she knew about Neal, she'd expected something completely different.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Peter glanced at the computer again. The red dot was steadily blinking at the exact same place it had been for the past few hours. Neal hadn't budged ever since he came home.

"Why don't we go pay him a visit?" El suggested.

Peter got that deer-caught-in-the-headlines look of his. "Oh, no, Hon, I don't think-"

"Nobody should be alone on their birthday," El declared. "You're not going to let him sit and read files, are you?"

Besides, she knew her husband. He'd continue worrying about Neal and what trouble he might be up to all night. Better to just go and see.

So that's what they did.

Though when they finally trekked up the four flights of stairs to Neal's loft, Peter was still mumbling about how this was probably a bad idea and that he'd rather be home.

They knocked on the door, and after a short pause, Neal shouted, "Just a minute!"

They heard Neal moving about. Then the door opened wide to reveal Neal, wearing an old t-shirt and sweatpants. He was wiping his hands on a paint-smudged washcloth. "Peter. Elizabeth."

Peter noted his paint stained clothes. "I thought you said you'd be working case files to-"

El swatted his arm. "Happy birthday, Neal!"

"Yes, happy birthday," Peter echoed. He held up a wine bottle. "We brought you some wine."

"And cake!" El added, raising the tray in her hands.

"Wow. Please, come in." Neal accepted the bottle from Peter and frowned at the label. "You really shouldn't have."

"I know," Peter said.

Neal put the bottle aside. "I wasn't expecting guests," he threw over his shoulder as he hurriedly gathered a jacket from the back of a chair. "Give me a minute."

He disappeared into a back room, leaving Peter and El on their own.

El moved over to the kitchen table and put down the cake, then started rummaging in the small closet for some plates and spoons.

Peter, meanwhile, walked out to the balcony, where an easel had been placed in front of the New York cityscape. It was covered with splotches of paint, oozing in all colors. A half-filled glass of wine was standing on the parafet.

He was about to risk touching the canvas, when Neal reappeared, now dressed in polo-shirt and trousers.

But before he could say anything, there was another knock on the door. "Let me get that."

It was Mozzie. "Good evening, Mon Frère!"

Completely oblivious to Neal's attempts to signal that he wasn't alone, he continued, "I know how you're always feeling down on the Big Day, so I thought-"

"Mozzie!" Neal spoke over him, as he opened the door wider. "Come on in! Join the party."

"Party? You're having a party? And you didn't invite me?" Moz leaned to look past Neal. He froze when he saw Peter and El. "You invited the suits and you didn't invite me?!"

Neal took a steadying breath.

El saved the situation. "Mozzie! Come, have some cake!" she cheerfully called out.

"Dairy?"

"Of course not."

"Coming!" Mozzie took a few steps into the apartment, then paused. "Oh, and I brought you a gift." He produced a wrapped box from his pocket. Glancing at Peter and El, he added in a whisper, "Better not open it while the suits are... you know."

"Yeah."

"And I would have brought you wine, but your selection is so much better."

Neal waved him in.

With El and Moz discussing cake frostings, Neal walked outside to the patio, where Peter was inspecting the painting he'd been working on. "What do you think?"

"Oh." Peter glanced at Neal, then back at the painting. "It's... uh... colorful."

Neal grinned. "You're really wasting your talents at the FBI, Peter. You should be an art critic."

Peter rolled his eyes.

"So... you decided to surprise me?" Neal asked.

"It was all El's idea."

"Hmmm." Neal had suspected as much. Though he also suspected this little visit was also part investigation. He wasn't sure he minded, though. He had thought he'd prefer to be alone tonight, but maybe he was wrong.

Peter looked over at Neal. He would have loved to know more about Neal and birthdays, but for now, he decided not to ask. Call it a birthday present.

"Come," he put a hand on the young man's shoulder. "Let's make a toast for the birthday boy."

White Collar Fanvid: Call Me

2017-11-30T08:40:21Z

Title: Call Me
Song: "Call Me" by Isolier Band
Rating: PG
Summary: The White Collar team keeps on finding new ways to call each other. inspired by wc_rewatch

Notes: This song was a candidate for the 1983 Eurovision contest. Like most Eurovision songs, it tries to have universal appeal (ie, sound like English), except that in this case, the whole song is about trying to write a song with an English 'ring' to it. My kind of humor.

The Americans Vid: Brave New World

2017-09-09T21:43:05Z

Title: Brave New World
Characters: Philip, Elizabeth, Paige, Nina etc.
Song: "This is War" by Thirty Seconds to Mars
Rating: PG
Summary: A warning to the people, The good and the evil, This is war.

WC Reverse Big Bang and NaNoDownUnder

2017-05-31T21:18:41Z

My two challenges for June: White Collar Reverse Big Bang and NaNoDownUnder

Reverse Big Bang - becuase I can finally vid!

NaNoDownUnder - because even though I'm not down under, for me summer is a much better time for writing than fall, and there's no way I'm going to write a novel in a month.

Network update

2017-05-29T14:04:50Z

So, I set up a little network. Whoever wants to, can sign up and play, there's no need to give actual information.

Currently it doesn't do much - it's a "mostly LJ" clone which allows you to set up a personal blog and subscribe to other people's blogs, as well as comment, like and rec a post. It's pretty much bare-bones as far as looks, because I haven't studied up on that side of things yet, and of-course it's missing a lot of functionality.

I'n not sure where I'm going from here. Making a clone of any of today's networks doesn't require much, but is generally useless.

Writing & Networking

2017-05-15T15:00:47Z

I've been meaning to update for a while, but like the rest of my writing - it keeps getting stuck on the draft stage. So, here goes.

First, the most exciting news -

For the past few years I've been beta'ing Mums-the-Word's White Collar fics, which gave me the greatest privilege of reading her fics ahead of everybody else. Her stories always draw me in, even when it's not a genre I'm particularly fond of, and I think it was a real loss to the white collar community when she hung up her fanficcing pen.

She recently branched out into original fiction and published her first book. I highly recommend anything she writes.

*

I signed up to an intensive 5-hour writing workshop. We were supposed to do hands-on work on our current stories, but I wasn't about to share my fanfic WIP with anybody in the group (just giving the backstory seemed daunting), so instead I took a vague idea I had for an original story. Which meant I wasn't really doing any hands-on anything, because my idea was really too vague for that stage.

The workshop emphasized three things in writing a story (in descending order of importance):
- heart - find the one sentence summary that makes you excited about the story
- drive - the character's struggles
- skeleton - the basic genres

I came back home and tried to find the heart of my current WIP. It's a White Collar story about Neal getting into trouble (what else), and thinking about it, I realized that Peter was missing from most of it. So I changed the focus from Neal to Peter&Neal. This led to a couple of intensive weeks of (re-)writing. But then, once I got all the new scenes plotted out, my drive petered out again. I either didn't find the heart of the story, or I'm just not in a writing mood.

*

I ran across the following comic:

It was a serialized comic in which the artist and his pen teach kids about the art of cartooning. I do love artists doing meta. In any case, this was a story in which the comics were being destroyed by a scary shadowy figure, and the final reveal is that it's the artist himself, who had trouble adjusting to using new technology.

Or, as he says here: "It's always like that. Usually the comics artist's greatest enemy is himself, with all his doubts and insecurities."

I added it to my 'inspiration wall' (which is currently not really inspiring me to do anything, with all my doubts and insecurities)

*

I was watching a show about ancient archaeology and they were discussing the Greek influence on the Phoenician communities about the 5th or so centuries BCE, when lo and behold, this pops up on the screen.

It sort of reminded me of the 'Tomb of the Diver' frescoes I used for one of my recent fics. And that's because it is. The show credited it as "diners", which seems to be the file name they found online.

Turns out you can learn something by writing.

*

Still thinking about my social network idea. I got all excited for a while, but then lost my drive. Now I'm slowly regaining it.

I talked to a family member who knows much more about such things than I do.

FM: So you want to start a startup?
Me: Um... no. I want to make a social network.
FM: *rolls eyes*

So I got a crash course on startupping, and I'm not sure I'm up to it. I find it difficult to explain to people why Facebook isn't good enough and I don't know anybody in RL who uses Tumblr or LiveJournal. I also don't know many fans I can ask about such things. This doesn't bode well for my social network.

I also started looking into what is required to make such a thing. Apparently a LOT has changed since I last wrote a website more than a decade ago (hand coding HTML with a bit of PHP). There's a lot of open source code that does most of the work. So I'm still tinkering with it, and meanwhile learning about the new methodologies and technologies.

Also, now that I realize how ridiculously easy it is to set up basic data-driven sites, there's a few other websites I want to set up.

White Collar community comm

2017-04-18T08:05:03Z

I set up a new community to help keep everybody updated on what's going on, whether on LJ or DW.

wc_theisland / wc-theisland

I tried to list all the active white collar community comms and events on LJ/DW. Please let me know if I missed anybody.

Everyody's welcome to post of new comms/events/challenges etc, I will cross-post as needed.

A new social network

2017-04-06T03:35:20Z

While I'm pondering the LJ situation, and why DW is not the best solution for me, it occurred to me that I could start up my own fan-oriented network. Not the easiest thing, but not impossible either, I hope.

The question is - if there was such a thing, would people move over? Or more specifically for me, would you move over to a new network if there was something better, even if you just spent a lot of effort moving to DW?

What do you feel is missing in the current networks?

My main ideas (besides an easy to use interface and editor that doesn't drive you mad):

1. Besides blogs and communities, there will be worlds (ie, fandom portals), to create an ecosystem around a fandom. A community or specific post could link to a certain world, and be visible on its feed/site

2. Share any content, with no need to double post to AO3 and other fandom sites.

3. Post to multiple blogs or communities and still retain ownership of the post and comments.

4. Extensive search options

5. Ability to mark fanworks as such, and mark suspected plagiarism as such

6. Community/blog events - Watch (or read etc) together, either live or offline, one-time or recurring

Why I'm not moving to DW (right now)

2017-04-05T11:44:24Z

I suppose my main problem is that DW is not a good service. I have serious trouble posting things there and it limits my ability to follow other communities. I really can't figure it out, because it's a service that was built for fandom. So why is it so difficult to post my fanworks on it?

My LJ entires are all archived on my computer, my fics are all archived on AO3, and I don't really fear the Russians will care about this blog. YouTube, on the other hand, keeps on deleting and blocking my vids. Germany really hates me, for some reason. As far as my fanwork is concerned, that bothers me a lot more. There's not much the fan community can do about it, even if we would care more, which we don't.

The only reason to move right now is because the fan community is moving. But my main fandoms are not that active anyway, and not worth the hassle of moving my entire blog over there. Also, for various reasons, the communities I co-run are already there.

What I would really love is for somebody to use the opportunity and create a platform that will be really useful for fans. One that will draw in all those people who moved over to Tumblr. One that will allow fans to create a whole ecosystem around a show. One that will allow me to post anything I want, share it with whatever communities I want, and still maintain ownership of it.

If something like that already exists out there, I'd love to move there.

Purimgifts 2017 fics

2017-03-16T09:45:29Z

Once again, I got much more than I could have hoped for from this challenge. My gift couldn't have been more perfect: a series of Purim Torah fics, Torah she'b'al Peh from Yavneh II prepared by ladonnaerrante.

My entry this year was also a series of fics:
Title: Who I Was, Who I Will Be
Fandom: Tanach (Jewish Bible)
Summary: They left their people for an unknown future, far away from everything they've known, but can they really leave it all behind? Three women, three stories.

White Collar vid: Elizabeth's first case

2017-01-26T06:44:28Z

Title: Elizabeth's first case
Characters: Elizabeth/Peter
Song: Music: "Peaches 'n' Cream" by The Ikettes
Rating: PG
Summary: Pre-series. Elizabeth is being followed...

Notes: Prepared for the 5th round of runthecon, for ultra_fic's prompt 'peaches and cream'.

2016 Vidding/Ficcing Retrospective

2017-01-09T15:18:06Z

Vids (11 total)

White Collar: Smile!, Reviewing the Situation, New Boy in the Neighborhood, Our Man Haversham, Summer, Beautiful, Shana Tova, Great Day, '1461 Days' Promo

Galavant: What A Knight

The Americans: You Want It Darker

Fics (19 total):

White Collar: The Raphael, Give Me A Minute (To Get Used To You Again), Karma's a Beach, Stockholm Syndrome, Two men are caught with a stolen wallet, Waiting for a Counterfeiter, Blame Game, Paper Flowers, Thanks with chocolate chips, The Music Box, The Fresco Kid, Lifeline

The Americans: Nanu Nanu

Purim Gifts: The Maid's Tale, The Wise Woman of Avel, The Bride, Purim Anatevka, What part of 'enough' don't you understand?, How does one bless the new moon on Venus?

Overall, about the same number as last year. A bit less vids (and shorter ones) and more fics (not necessarily longer). Most of my fanworks are thanks to challenges, and wc_rewatch.

I'm finding it harder to actually produce something, though. I still have ideas that I want to fic and vid, but even when I actually start work on them, I very quickly lose the drive to actually finish. I procrastinate, and soon I get stuck, or the idea doesn't seem as exciting as it did when I first thought of it.

So, this year, I intend to make an effort to finish all those half-finished fics and vids which have been accumulating.

White Collar Fic: Lifeline

2016-12-08T21:43:33Z

Title: Lifeline
Word Count: 1500
Characters/Pairings: Peter & Neal
Rating: PG
Summary: Pre-series. It's a dark and stormy night, and Peter gets a phone call from Neal

Notes: written for H/C Advent challenge at whitecollarhc.

Peter's phone rang.

In the Burkes' bedroom, both El and Peter continued sleeping.

A storm passing through earlier that day had dumped over two feet of snow on New York. Peter had left work early, hoping to beat traffic, but the storm hit earlier than expected. He'd been stuck in snarled traffic for hours. El had a difficult time getting home as well. She'd had to cancel an event, and had gotten home completely wiped.

They'd both collapsed in bed, grateful to be out of the cold wetness outside.

Peter's phone fell silent, but a few moment later rang again.

El woke up first. She leaned towards Peter. "Peter? Honey?"

"Hmmm?"

"Your phone."

"Hm?" He stuck out his hand towards the general direction of the nightstand, groping in the dark for the ringing machine. It took him a few minutes, but his hand finally closed on it. He squinted at the screen, but the number was marked 'private'. "Yeah?"

"Peter!" A familiar voice filled his ear. "Isn't this a great night? All snowy."

"It's the middle of the night, Neal," Peter mumbled, his mind ready to fall back asleep. He didn't have the energy for Neal's babbling tonight.

"I know, I know. But it's so quiet and peaceful."

"Yes, it was, until you called. Good night, Neal."

"Wait!"

Something in Neal's tone stopped Peter from hanging up. "What?"

"Okay, so I was climbing this building-"

"To rob it?" Peter inserted snarkily.

Neal ignored him. "-and there was this icy patch, and I slipped."

"You're hurt?" Suddenly Peter was wide awake.

El stirred by his side. She sat up and turned on the light, concern written on her face.

"Nothing that a few weeks in traction won't fix," Neal answered almost cheerfully.

"Neal, you're hurt." It wasn't a question this time. "Tell me where you are and I'll send an ambulance for you."

Neal laughed, but it was cut short by a spasm of coughing. "Oh God, I think I cracked a couple of ribs."

"Neal." Peter racked his brain for what to say. "You can't just-"

"I'm not going to get arrested tonight, Agent Burke."

"You prefer freezing to death?"

"Aren't we dramatic."

Peter covered the phone with his hand and mouthed at El, "Call Diana, have her trace this call." He pointed to the phone.

El nodded, grabbed her phone and headed to the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

"Peter?" Neal probed.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here. So why did you call me?"

"It's so quiet, Peter. And dark, and cold. I don't want to fall asleep."

Great. "So you call an FBI agent?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Okay, okay." Peter thought what else he could say. "So what possessed you to go out in this storm?"

"It's the perfect time, Peter. There's nobody else around."

Peter could not refrain from rolling his eyes. "For good reason!" If he could, he would have reached through the phone and shaken the young man to his senses.

El came out of the bathroom. "She's on it," she whispered.

Peter nodded his thanks. "Can you move?"

"Barely."

"Can you feel your toes."

"More or less."

"So what's your game plan? Keep me up all night and then what?"

"You worry too much, Peter."

"I worry that I won't get any sleep tonight," Peter grumbled.

Neal ignored that. "But enough about me. What are you doing for Christmas?"

"Me?"

Neal laughed again. "Is that too personal?"

Peter sighed. "We're going upstate, to my parents."

"Sounds nice."

"It is. They've got a big farmhouse."

"With a hearth?"

"Yep."

"I'd love to sit by one right now."

"Neal..." Peter wasn't sure what to say. This whole scenario was ridiculous. "You need medical attention. I-"

"Great detecting work, Agent Burke."

"Tell me where you are, and I'll come get you. I promise you won't spend Christmas in jail."

The silence at the other end of the line lengthened. "Neal?" Peter finally asked.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Come on."

"I'd rather take my chances."

And the phone went dead.

"Damn!"

El came to sit by Peter on his side of the bed. "What's going on?"

"It's Neal Caffrey," Peter explained, quiet unnecessarily. "He got himself into trouble and decided to call me. What did Diana say?"

"That she'll try to get the ball rolling with the tech guys, assuming there's anybody there. Oh, and that you need to keep him talking."

Peter sighed. "Kind of difficult right now."

He looked down at the phone in his hands, willing it to ring again. Which it obligingly did.

"Neal!"

"I thought you were worrying about your beauty sleep."

Peter didn't bother answering that. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, holding up. So, tell me a story."

"A story?"

"Yeah."

Peter thought for a moment, then cleared his throat. "Once upon a time, there was a young thief, who thought he could evade the FBI forever. But he-"

"Peter," Neal interrupted. "I want a story with a happy ending."

"This is a story with a happy ending."

"Uh-huh." Neal didn't sound very convinced. "For who?"

El's phone rang, and she answered it with a whispered "Hi." Once again putting some distance between Peter and her.

Peter spoke up, unconsciously trying to cover up the other conversation in the room. "Neal, it's the middle of the night, you're out in a snow storm, you're injured - what kind of happy ending are you envisioning?"

"Have some faith, Peter. Don't just look at the half-empty glass."

"The glass is 99% empty, and you know it. Come on, Neal, be realistic. You want to talk until you freeze?"

"Tell me more about your farmhouse upstate."

Peter was not happy about changing the subject. "It's not mine, it's my parents'."

"But you grew up there."

"Yeah."

"What was it like?"

"What was what like?"

"Growing up on a farm. It must have been a lot of fun."

Peter smiled, despite it all. "It was." Remembering that he had to keep Neal talking, he continued, "We had horses, when I was a kid."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and on nights like these, I loved taking my horse out, to run in the snow." He got lost in the memory, so it took him a few moments to realize there was no snarky response back from Neal. "Neal?"

There was no answer on the other side of the phone.

"Neal?"

Peter checked that the call was still running. "Neal!"

But nobody answered. Peter felt like crumbling up that silent phone into a little ball.

El looked over at him. "It's Diana," she mouthed.

Peter looked at his phone, then put it on 'mute' and offered it to El. "Here, give it to me."

"Here's Peter."

The two exchanged phones.

"Let me know if he comes back on line." And then to Diana. "What's up?"

"Apparently the tech guys don't go home when it's stormy. They traced the call to the Whitestone waterfront. I'm on the other line with NYPD. I understand this is Caffrey?"

"Yes. Tell them to approach carefully, and that he needs medical attention. They should have medics with them."

"Will do, Boss."

Peter was already heading for his closet. "And tell them I'm going to meet them there."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. Send me the number of the officer in charge."

After Diana signed off, Peter turned to El. "Anything?"

"It's completely quiet."

Peter shook his head. "I hope he's alright."

"Peter, there's nothing you can do by slogging your way across town in this weather."

But Peter was already pulling on a pair of pants. "I've been chasing him for so long, I want to be there when he's arrested."

El had a feeling there was more to it than that, but she realized there was no point in arguing. "Drive safe."

He gave her a quick kiss. "I will."

***

The darkness of the night was already starting to disperse by the time Peter drove back up to the Burkes' brownstone.

El was up, working on bills in the kitchen. She looked up as Peter entered. He didn't have that look of satisfaction he usually had when he closed a case, but she wasn't sure whether that meant anything. This wasn't a regular case. "Did you get him?"

Peter shrugged out of his coat and dropped down into a chair. "He wasn't there."

At El's questioning look, he continued. "We found his phone, still on, but Neal wasn't there."

El looked at him in consternation. "So... what? This wasn't real?"

The whole night felt unreal. "NYPD think Neal was playing a joke on us, but I don't buy it."

"So what do you think happened?"

Peter shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know if we'll ever know."

But Peter was wrong.

A few days later, he got a card addressed to his home address. Unmarked, of course. It was a get-well card, with a colorful bouquet of flowers on the front. Inside it said: "Sorry I couldn't hang around. Appreciated the pep talk. Not sure what I'd have done without it. Love, Neal."

White Collar Fic: The Fresco Kid (Master Post)

2016-11-29T18:55:19Z

Title: The Fresco Kid
Artist: sheenianni
Author: treonb
Word Count: 10K
Characters/Pairings: Neal & Maria Fiametta
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Spoilers: None
Summary: AU. Neal joins forces with a new partner in order to steal an ancient fresco that may or may not exist. Part of my "Free As a Bird" 'verse - an AU in which Neal never escaped from prison and never made a deal with the FBI.

Notes: Written for the 7th White Collar Big Bang challenge, inspired by wc_rewatch. The beautiful art accompanying the fic is by the very talented sheenianni (art post here). Many thanks to the challenge organizers, without which this fic would never have been writtten.

Chapters: One | Two | Three | Four | Five

White Collar Big Bang Vid: 1461 Days Promo

2016-11-28T07:22:05Z

For my White Collar Big Bang art, I prepared a promo vid for citrinesunset's fic "1461 Days"

Music: "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten

My argument with the radio

2016-11-17T10:50:56Z

Last night I was listening to a music and performing arts 'current events' program.

I just caught the tail-end of an interview with a songwriter who's written quite a few hits in recent years (I vidded one of his songs, and meant to vid quite a few others). He was interviewed because he's giving a workshop on songwriting, and he was talking about how he prefers to set aside hours to work and work with a deadline and not wait for a muse.

"If I put paper and a pencil in front of you, and give you an hour to write a song, then after an hour, you're going to have something on the page, right?" said the radio as it glared at me.

I glared back.

Bottom line: I lost the staring contest and went to work on my big bang.

Commercial

2016-11-06T10:17:39Z

I don't usually share commercials, but this is a really funny one - it's for satellite service and it's mostly in English. I even thought to vid it.

White Collar Vid: Great Day

2016-10-28T10:14:52Z

Title: Great Day
Song: "Yom Gadol" by Subliminal & Hezi Shaked (clip here)
Rating: PG
Summary: When you're feeling down, we're there for you. Inspired by wc_rewatch

Download link (60 MB, MP4)

White Collar Vid: Shana Tova

2016-10-02T12:56:30Z

Title: Shana Tova (Happy New Year)
Characters: Peter & Neal
Song: "Dip your apple" by the Fountainheads (to the music of "Waka Waka")
Rating: PG
Summary: The Jewish new year is all about foregiveness (and honey).

Notes: Prepared for the fan_flashworks 'honey' challenge. Inspired by wc_rewatch

The Americans Vid: You Want It Darker

2016-09-28T21:02:01Z

Title: "You Want It Darker"
Music: "You Want It Darker" by Leonard Cohen
Clips: S1-S4
Rating: PG-13

ETA: Clip is facing copyright claims. It's currrently available, but if removed, it can be downloaded here.

White Collar Vid: Beautiful

2016-08-24T19:00:04Z

Title: Beautiful
Characters: Mozzie
Music: "What Makes You Beautiful" (One Direction)
Rating: PG
Notes: Prepared for wc_rewatch, song inspired by WatchMojo's Top 10 Most Hated Songs (honorable mention). Posted on AO3.

White Collar Vid: Summer

2016-08-18T22:56:18Z

Title: Summer
Characters: Neal & Mozzie
Music: 'Summer' by Avior Malasa (clip here)
Rating: PG
Summary: Neal is gone and Mozzie is left with the memories

Notes: I made this vid because the song reminded me of the show. The words go something to the effects of: We used to have so much fun in the summer. I waited so long for summer to come, and forgot you aren't there with me.

White Collar Fic: The Music Box

2016-08-05T13:21:27Z

Title: The Music Box
Word Count: 500
Characters/Pairings: Mozzie & Alex
Rating: PG
Summary: Tag to 1x11. If Alex played her cards right, she might finally get her hands on that music box.

Notes: Written for wc_rewatch, posted also on AO3

Mozzie was sitting on his regular park bench, munching on a sandwich. Pigeons pecked by his feet, fighting over every crumb that fell.

It was a beautiful day.

That is, until the pigeons suddenly fluttered away and he looked up to discover Alex looming over him.

"Why is Neal looking for the music box?" She never was one for small talk.

"Alex!" Mozzie burst into a fit of coughing. "What a pleasant-" he waved at her with his sandwich, unable to continue his sentence.

Alex just rolled her eyes, and sat down next to Mozzie, waiting patiently for him to regain his breath.

"-surprise!" he finally gasped out.

Alex wasn't impressed with the attempted niceties. "The music box?"

"Why do you think he's looking for the music box?" Mozzie countered with a question of his own.

"Because he asked me for it."

"Ah." Mozzie wished Neal would have told him Alex was back in town.

"Well?" Alex demanded, having had enough with Mozzie's attempts to deflect the question. "Why the sudden interest?"

Mozzie put his sandwich away. His nice lunch at the park was obviously at an end. "It's a complicated story."

"I know he's working for the FBI," Alex said.

"Oh." Mozzie threw her a quick glance. "So maybe it's not as complicated."

Alex had thought she'd catch him off guard with the revelation. "You know about this?!"

This semi-interrogation was getting worse and worse by the minute. Mozzie cleared his throat. "Well... Neal thinks that if he'll find it, he'll be able to get together with Kate." Mozzie, of course, had his doubts about the mechanics of that deal, but he wasn't about to detail them to Alex of all people.

"Kate." Alex shook her head. She should have known that woman was somehow involved.

"Having a source inside the FBI can be quite advantageous," Mozzie pointed out, trying to change the subject.

"He had them run my prints!"

"Ah." Mozzie nodded knowingly. "That must be the Suit. He's quite protective of Neal."

"The Suit?" Alex looked at him in shock. Mozzie was speaking almost... affectionately. About the Feds. For a second, she'd wondered if she'd stepped into a mirror world.

"Look, you want the music box, right?"

Alex thought it was a given, as much as she'd denied it to Neal.

"This might be your best opportunity yet. Neal now has access to FBI resources, and he certainly has the motivation to go find it."

"So? He can't steal the music box with the FBI tracking his every movement."

Mozzie smiled. "Give him an incentive to slip that tracker, and he'll find a way. Now, if you'll excuse me," he got to his feet, "I've got to go check on... something." And with that lame excuse, he made a hasty retreat.

A pigeon landed at her feet, and looked up hopefully. Alex ignored it.

Maybe Mozzie had a point. If she played her cards right, she might finally get her hands on that music box.

White Collar Fic: Thanks with chocolate chips

2016-07-21T12:53:26Z

Title: Thanks with chocolate chips
Characters: Neal & Elizabeth
Rating: PG
Length: 400
Summary: Tag to 1x07, prepared for wc_rewatch and fan_flashworks's "crack" challenge

Originally posted at fan-flashworks.

"Honey, I did not lie to the FBI. There was just a lot of milk and cookies and pleasant, distracting conversation while Neal slipped around the back."

"If you open the door a crack for me, I'll throw it wide open for you."
- Jewish saying on repentance (slightly rephrased)

Elizabeth wasn't expecting guests. Peter had just left for work, and she had settled down with her morning cup of coffee to go over invoices when there was a knock on the door. For a moment she considered ignoring it, but Satchmo, nestled comfortably by her feet, gave her a reproachful look.

How did he know? "I don't see you running to the door," she told him.

But she got up to answer the door anyway.

Peter's CI was standing outside, a big smile on his face. "Morning, Elizabeth."

"Neal!" She blinked. "Is everything... is everything alright?"

She looked worriedly up and down the street.

Neal followed her glance. "Yeah. Yeah. Everything's fine." But it was obvious Elizabeth hadn't asked just for the sake of polite conversation-making. The question-mark still hung over her. "I'm not on the run."

"Good. So why are you here?"

Neal held up a little white box, tied with an overflowing red ribbon. A red sticker on the side said "The Greatest Cake".

"We need to work on branding," he said with an apologetic shrug as he handed it over. "Go on, open it."

"You really shouldn't have. I mean, this-" Elizabeth said as she opened it, and inhaled the scent of fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. "Wow."

"Made only with the freshest ingredients," Neal added a bit of salesman spiel. "It's a little token of my appreciation."

Elizabeth looked up from the cookies. "For what?"

"For being there for me."

"I-" Elizabeth wasn't sure what to say.

"For believing me. Without you," Neal continued, "Peter wouldn't have listened to me."

Elizabeth instinctively defended her husband. "Oh, he would-"

"He wouldn't," Neal corrected, his words insistent.

Elizabeth looked like she was about to argue, but then decided not to. Neal was probably right.

"So..." Neal added after a few silent moments ticked by, "I guess I'll get to work, before Peter gets too suspicious."

After Neal had run off, Elizabeth returned to her desk - she put down the box and tried a cookie. Soon there were only crumbs left of Neal's token of appreciation. Satchmo once again gave Elizabeth a look of consternation, but Elizabeth ignored him.

"The Greatest Cake" indeed made the most amazing things. Maybe she'd give them a call next time she needed a cake.