a++ would smuggle into space again

First things first: check out help_japan and help_japan if you prefer the fannish auction method of donation! I'm offering fic and, because I'm sad I can't offer a song this time, in-person baked goods to anyone living between San Diego and Santa Barbara.

Bonus for people on my journal: If you're a Bay Area person, and you don't mind waiting until summer (which is when I get home), go ahead and bid. I'll deliver up to Petaluma, out to Stockton, and down to San Jose.

... No one is going to bid on this, are they.

So on the recommendation of vega_ofthe_lyre I read all of Crown Duel today while out on a four-hour walk. (When I started, it was so hazy you could not see the mountains which are approximately four miles from my house. I always think I'm making up these conditions, and then they happen again.) I liked it. I think if I'd read it in seventh grade I would have loved it so much that I would even now still be trying to get everyone else I've ever met to read it, and occasionally peppering my conversation with references to the romance of the ~ekirth ring~. Now, unfortunately, my thought process goes, "Oh, it's like Captive Prince, but het, and Damen is actually as Untutored A Barbarian as everyone thinks he is."

I really need to just bite the bullet and read Dunnett, instead of reading all of her knockoffs and inspirations, but I will say that one thing I deeply, deeply appreciate about Captive Prince is that Laurent is as much of a bastard as the main villain of the second half. In fact there is one point where said villain is posturing in black clothing that sets off his sparkly blond hair and I almost choked to death. Meanwhile the main hero Vidaric is hot and all and I adore all his subtle eyegestures of humor and strongly support Sherwood Smith's decision to have lots of scenes in which the heroine cuts straight through his bullshit, but, like, I guess the difference between Vidaric and Laurent is that Vidaric is from those productions of Macbeth in which Malcolm is testing Macduff when he lists all the horrible things he wants to do, and Laurent is from those productions of Macbeth where Malcolm is being at least partially honest, and wants to know if Macduff can be trusted to take him down should his appetites get out of hand.

Yes, I too have noticed the weird trend where my blog has become Captive Prince Appreciation Station. I don't know what to tell you.

I did spend a good portion of those four hours yelling at Mel, the heroine. I don't mean, like, quietly, in my head. I mean, I wandered into a gated community at one point, because I thought it was a shortcut, and I knew I was a sweaty chick with a massive backpack and there were these two cops there whose jobs were to prevent trespassers, and I was thinking, "Okay, stay cool," and then Mel IGNORED THE ENTIRE YEAR OF VIDARIC BEING NICE TO HER IN ORDER TO POINTLESSLY MISTRUST HIM AND ENDANGER THE COUNTRY AGAIN and I hissed JESUS CHRIST, COME THE FUCK ON really loud just as I passed the cop car. Not my finest moment. When she wasn't in charge of political machinations, though, she was pretty cool. I like the part where she steals a bright white horse in the middle of a manhunt because she knows she's gotta go out with panache.

Guys, I need you to tell me that in light of the fact that I've defaulted on three exchanges this year, I cannot sign up for AU Big Bang with the Elizabeth and Darcy Fight a Revolution AU.

I have never written that many words sequentially in my life.

So as indicated in my post of two nights ago, I have been listening to audiobooks. I've been getting myself to sleep for some time by the magic of having people talk to me in my ear, and I have pretty effectively coupled the reward mechanisms of flash games and audio dramas through GemCraft and Picma, which are unplayable without an additional distraction, but amazing with one. (Gemcraft is especially fun because then everything I listen to sounds like it's raining and being electrocuted.)

The thing that I have discovered is that it is pretty much impossible to find reviews of audiobooks. It is spectacularly easy to find "reviews" "of" "audiobooks", if you follow me, and "discussion communities" and "places for lovers of audio literature," but discussion communities and places for lovers of audio literature are sort of thinner on the ground.

( so here are some reviews of audiobooks. )

Also, courtesy Radiolab: This is Your Brain on Metaphors. This is something for the scientists and the writers, and anyone who wants to read something that is fucking fascinating. According to Sapolsky, the accumulated research indicates that our visceral metaphors -- I'm disgusted by his actions, I am pained by your remarks, I think he's a warm personality -- are easily confused with their literal counterparts in our brains and are governed by the same regions.

This is for poor, poor astridv, who bought me in help_pakistan, back in August. Her request was for Riza rescuing Roy. I hope that this somewhat qualifies, and that she does not hate me for all of ever, though I would in fact understand.

Credit to schellibie for my favorite joke, and to prodigy for ... uh ... this.

in between the apples and the chloroform, ~600 words, Fullmetal Alchemist manga/Brotherhood. No warnings. Roy/Riza.



( It's all a little fuzzy, really, not that he is going to admit it out loud; he is a military man and does not break under coercion, even such impressive coercion as her extended and eloquent silence. )

I wrote two stories for this year's Yuletide!

For LeeSide, who has no journal that I can find, I wrote Monte Carlo Doctrine fic. Monte Carlo Doctrine is a four-panel webcomic by odditycollector which ran for 37 comics (and if you like A Softer World, I urge you to go check it out, because it's a very similar sense of humor) so I knew the fandom for this was going to be tiny, but what I didn't count on was that the fandom for this was going to be me and livrelibre, who was my If on a winter's night... recip last year, and who wrote a treat for LeeSide as well taking the opposite view. And you should read it! Hers is Love Rain. Ah, Yuletide, home of the metafictional coincidence.

Mine is other ghosts. You need zero knowledge of the canon to read it, but since it's eight four-panel comics it's a very quick read: here. If I did a ficmeme about favorite unappreciated stories, this would, inexplicably, be it (inexplicably because I spent much of December hating it) and I think some of you might like it a lot, so, you know. S-self-rec?

The other fic I wrote was you're gonna leave them all behind, for starlady, and it was Disney Princess Superheroes fic (based on a piece of art by kreugan.) This one was a lot of fun to write and now I have to go see the Frog Princess finally jesus christ. Though I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for naming it after "Firework".

That pretty much concludes our Yuletide programming for the year, though there might be one more post of post-reveal recs, because shit, people on my flist can write. Have you noticed this? It may have come up occasionally.

ETA: Oh! And! Speaking of metafictional shenanigans! odditycollector wrote me a Deeba haiku for Madness and I totally missed it until today. It is delightful. Go read it!

(ICON. Okay, so only lian will get it.)

Oh, Dreamwidth. Just as I had 22 new tabs open for you, my computer smashed into the floor, taking with it my marked fics. There are all sorts of things I wanted to rec for you but you will have to go without them. BE STRONG. Here is a pretty much entirely new list of stuff, and I guess I'll link the other stuff when I have my computer back from Apple Care. And I still haven't touched my bookmarks. Oh my god. What has happened to my life.

Two outside-the-cut recs:

Hainish Cycle, A Piece of the Continent. Well, first of all, have you all read Left Hand of Darkness? Go read Left Hand of Darkness. It certainly has its issues, but it's one of the few books that consistently makes me cry, it's so beautiful and warm and intense and lovely. It's a brilliant example of what you can do if you are willing to both make your characters fallible and lovable -- and in fact, Estraven is one of my favorite characters anywhere, ever.

This fic takes on the challenge of a sequel to Left Hand of Darkness and delivers perfectly. Not only do I love the worldbuilding, but I admire the devotion and dedication to the style of the original, the feeling that every person is absolutely unknowable and that every person must try to know each other anyway. This is perhaps one of my top three of this Yuletide, not even because I enjoyed it so much (I did) but because it is pitch-perfect.

I said, on impulse, "It's right." A phrase that someone had used, with great warmth, when Connac finally fixed the radio the other night; and again one afternoon, when a school of fish, startled by something too deep to see, veered and flashed across the underside of a wave, lacing the blue with gold.

Greek Mythology, Bakcheois: This, on the other hand, is noncon, dubcon, mindfuckery, horror, and death, and it's my favorite story so far.

“It’s sex, isn’t it?” said Semele’s son, and laughed at my expression. “Oh, it is, you know it is, and when he took you to that brothel you were thinking of him every moment. If it takes sex to make a girl a woman, shouldn’t it take sex to make a boy a man? And you want him every instant you’re with him and every instant you’re apart, you dream of his eyes and his mouth and his hands. I’ve walked in your dreams, Pentheus, so I should know.”

( R&G, Middleman, Young Wizards, Study in Emerald, and a bunch of others )

Okay, I just got back from family Christmas, but I had to make a recs post to celebrate my gift, which is fantastic: Rasa, for Un Lun Dun/Haroun and the Sea of Stories. I guess my ENDLESS WITTERING ON about how dhobikikutti's story is canon for me sparked an interest, haha! Omg, this is so wonderful, though. It's about Cordoba and it's peppered with crossovers and references and little pieces of genius, and Deeba's voice is perfect. I love it and I strongly recommend that y'all rush out and love it as well.

I wrote two stories, one of which my recip hasn't commented on (;_;) but despite their lack of love I feel really good about them. One is, if you know the canon (unlikely), ridiculously easy to guess, and the other one is not! Feel free to do so in the comments. And now, recs! These are just the recs for which I had a tab open when I traveled to the land of no internet. I have whole sets more coming, believe me.

( Heian Period RPF, Echo Bazaar, Hotel California, and more under the cut )

My yuletart gift went up today you guys!! It was just a delightful experience all around. It is called WARRIORS and it is with RUFFNUT AND MULAN AND SUKI, possibly on some kind of ill-judged superhero team? By ill-judged, you guys, I mean "too cool to have recurring villains, because they would annihilate them". Okay, so, Suki would have to break out most of the emotional maturity here, but CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE: Suki painting Mulan's face in Kyoshi colors, and Ruffnut disparaging Mushu, and crime just weeping into its hands at the thought of being fought by them.

AHEM. BUT. I love so much about this besides that -- I love that the girls are in action, and in three different kinds of action; I love love love love that Mulan isn't dolled up in the clothes she hates, and Suki is in the clothes she loves; I love Ruffnut's absolutely perfect expression of "ff, yeah, I can take you."

Anyway, I am really happy this year, is what I am telling you.

Also you should have some recs:

Sea of Paradise (Ponyo): This is probably the technically best digital work posted to Yuletart thus far, possibly in any year. It's beautifully polished and perfected, and the symbolic elements where her dress becomes goldfish ruffles/the sea are brilliant.

Happy Together (Being Human): Chibi versions of the characters. Beyond adorable. A remarkable amount of expression and depth for a style that leaves out noses and shading.

Paleolithic Sunset (Earth's Children): This is a gorgeous watercolor, with a beautiful horse, for a book I read a truly embarrassing amount of times in middle school. But that last bit is not important! I would totally buy this as a print.

Your turn, uncle (A:TLA). If this isn't by sqbr it is by someone copying her style! It's totally darling. This is exactly what I want to do every time I play a strategy game, so ... Azula, once again, MY (ILL-CHOSEN) HERO.

Victor Paper Dolls™ Presents Kiss Me Katniss: The Girl on Fire (The Hunger Games): Oh shit, I have no idea why this is so clever, but I love it anyway.

The Island (Slings & Arrows): This is sequential art which involves Darren and Geoffrey going to a carnival. I cannot top bossymarmalade's description of it: "wow, this reads and looks and tastes like an indie comic -- but one of the entertaining, engaging kind, not the kind that thinks it's better than you!" This is probably my favorite not-my-gift piece so far, and in fact is so far up my alley that I had to go back and check the header to see if it was secretly a gift for me.

Echo Bazaar: in the mid-forties on Watchful and Persuasive, mid-thirties on Shadowy, Dangerous 13. I'm seeking the Topsy King.

Here follows tl;dr.

( echo bazaar and obvious choices (spoilers for Comtessa, Melancholy Curate) )

( echo bazaar and characterization vs game mechanics (possible spoilers for Long-Lost Daughter) )

( echo bazaar and connected: the orient )

Two recommendations:

1. Echo Bazaar: Timesuck, or excellent timesuck? I am an intriguing and observant lady, an admirer of art and beauty, a little heartless, magnanimous, melancholy and hedonistic. I'm connected with the Bohemians and the Church, and I'm searching for a card game where I can play for my heart's desire with the stake my soul. I'm the protégé of a mysterious benefactor, I'm having recurring dreams and intense nightmares, I'm seducing a honey-sipping heiress and a young jewel thief, I'm trying to immortalize prisoner's honey and Jack of Smiles in verse, and everything I just listed is an actual stat in the game.

2. A little over one day left to register for Yuletide! If you need an AO3 invite, I have one left.