We Can't Rewind, We've Gone Too Far

threesentenceficathon is still running, but I wrote one (1) fic and one (1) prompt and then stopped. I'm not sure why, writing in general has been going well, but oh well. Here it is.

( Narnia )

Recs, all about cats:

Narnia, any, "self portrait"

And my prompt: Any, Any cat, starving!!

So a lot of people have been posting pictures of pretty things and cute fluffy animals right now, and I am extremely grateful for that. And if you need more cute fluffy animals, I do have a kitten tumblr.

But on the other hand, trickortreatex author reveals were today. So if you feel like what you need right now is some dark fucked up escapism, well, then have I got a fic for you.

(And when I say escapism ... well, that would be a spoiler.)

Title: The Marriage Beneath the Shade
Rating: Explicit
Fandom: The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen
Characters: Rachel M., Helen Vaughan, various nymphs, satyrs, etc.
Warnings/Enticements: Horror, Dubious Consent, Missing Scenes, Body Horror, Transformation, Dreams, Pretentious Classical References, Orgies, Erotic Asphyxiation, Masturbation, Dirty Talk, Explicit Sexual Content (involving teenagers), Dead Dove: Do Not Eat
Summary: Her memories of those days were often confused. It was a blissful confusion, though. All of that summer felt like a dream, a very physical embodied dream.
Wordcount: 5593 words

On AO3

Recent: Mostly fanfic, but I did finish Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and had a bunch of thoughts. I don't think there was much attention paid to the order of the poems when I studied some of them in university, and that felt very relevant when actually reading the whole thing. (Although he did change the order occasionally, so.)

Tried and didn't get anywhere with a bunch of things, which is frustrating but I suppose to be expected right now.

Current: Randall Munroe's How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, which is sitting in the kitchen and gets picked up whenever I'm waiting for my tea to steep. More comfort rereading.

Started Biggles Buries a Hatchet, but it's set in, or at least near, a gulag so it's not going very fast.

Did a lot of reading in Unmarriages: Women, Men, and Sexual Unions in the Middle Ages at the library, which has been great. Oh, and I read two academic articles, on Rapa Nui history as indicated by genetics and palaeolithic textiles. I miss my pensive citadels.

I'm flipping through a lot of craft books, usually ones I've read before or at least by familiar authors, and those probably won't go in the books file but they're very relaxing.

Also, mom went through the some of the old newspapers in the kitchen, which means I dug out (and then immediately spilled tea on) two magazines I'd been reading and maybe I will get back into those.

Future: I gave My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness back to the library early August when it became clear I wasn't going to finish it then, but I just picked up the hold again today.

I need to reread a certain Victorian horror novella for exchange reasons, so probably Thursday I will sit down and do that and make notes.

And then I've got a fantasy novel with a trope that is Exactly my thing on Libby, but we'll see how that goes. And if it doesn't, I got Swordheart by T. Kingfisher for my birthday yesterday so I can reread that.

I have two more threesentenceficathon fills, and the longer ones from the last post are now on AO3. I may put up a very short recs post tomorrow.

These are both more or less original fiction.

( Vaguely-Slavic fairy tale )

( Four Apples )

So my current obsession is the Roaring Twenties Magic series by Allie Therin, which is irritating because the fandom is basically nonexistent (apart from some very nice fanart). But this is not the first time I've created a new fandom tag on AO3, and it probably won't be the last!

Title: Absolute Bastards
Rating: Explicit
Fandom: Roaring Twenties Magic - Allie Therin
Characters: Wesley Collins | Lord Fine, Sebastian de Leon
Warnings/Enticements: Established Relationship, BDSM, Handcuffs, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Major Spoilers for Once a Rogue, Explicit Sexual Content
Summary:
“So, tonight you get your revenge for the last time we were here,” Wesley said, locking the door.

“I don’t need revenge,” Sebastian said. He remembered being handcuffed to this bed, Wesley’s gaze constantly flicking to his restrained arms. Wesley’s confusion at Sebastian’s composure, and the way he had reacted when Sebastian’s magic finally surged up and knocked him to the floor. All the little things he had said, even then, that had made much more sense after they’d kissed.

“What if I want you to have your revenge?”

“Then it’s not my revenge, is it?”

“Are we going to argue semantics or are you going to handcuff me to the bed? I ask merely for information.”
Wordcount: 2227 words

On AO3

So in multiple Yuletides past I have asked for someone to write me a queer consideration of Mercedes Lackey's Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms. I wouldn't recommend that series to anyone (I cannot even tell you how desperately it needs an editor) but it is excellent comfort reading for me ... except for things like One Good Knight, which I read around the same time as a couple other fantasy books that were also OBVIOUSLY setting up a lesbian relationship and then randomly threw in a het ending at the last minute and therefore have a probably disproportionate grudge against. Where was I?

Right. So. This year I requested it again but then also got assigned Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, and there was nothing in my recipient's requests against it, so I decided I'd write it myself, and at least get some enjoyment out of it. ...And then I received exactly the kind of queer reimagining that I wanted! And my recipient liked my fic! So clearly I won Yuletide both ways.

Because they are basically just about queer fairy tales I would not say that you need to know anything about the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms to understand these fics. My gift has more canon characters than my assignment does, but all you really need to know is that The Tradition is a magical force that makes fairy tales and folktales and songs play out in the real world (whether the people involved want to be in a fairy tale or not), and Godmothers are overworked magicians who try and mitigate the damage, usually by creating happy endings.

My gift was Writing Our Own Happily-Ever-Afters by StableState, which has poly and a GREAT take on the woman-disguised-as-a-man story and also an excellent pun.

I wrote

Title: Blossoms in Ashes
Wordcount: 6155 words
Fandom: Cinderella (Perrault), Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms (Lackey)
Rating: G
Relationships: Various
Characters: Cinderella, Prince Charming, Fairy Godmother, Stepsisters, Stepmother, Godmother Elena (Five Hundred Kingdoms)
Warnings/Enticements: Abuse, Queer themes, Regendering
Summary: “All over the Five Hundred Kingdoms, down through time, there have been countless girls like you for whom the circumstances were not right. Their destined princes were greybeards, infants, married or terrible rakes, or not even Princes at all, but Princesses! … And there are dozens and dozens of other tales that The Tradition is trying to recreate, all the time, and perhaps one in a hundred actually becomes a tale.”
A variety of events documented in the chronicles of the Godmothers of the Five Hundred Kingdoms.

And I managed to fit in a Madness treat before getting covid right before Christmas (booooo).

Title: Nevertheless
Wordcount: 350 words
Fandom: The Waste Land (T. S. Eliot)
Rating: G
Relationships: None
Characters: Madame Sosostris
Warnings/Enticements: Poetry, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Common Cold, London, Post-World War I
Summary: She brings the horoscope herself.

Okay, so last year when I was taking a break from writing I got an idea for a novel set in Toronto in 1920, and that’s been brewing ever since. Here’s my various posts about it on tumblr. (That link works on desktop but may not work if it tries to open in the app, because Tumblr Is A Functioning Website.) And then this October icannotreadcursive made a list of original character prompts, so I did a few of those, and generally it was a fun thing to think about at work even for the ones that didn’t get written down. Although they are also all in the tag above, here’s the links separately:

Day 3: In a cherished memory (Josie)

Day 4: Waking up from a nightmare (Fred and Tom)

Day 10: In a different time period (Modern AU, everyone)

Day 16: Expressing or exploring their spirituality (Verry, definitely not doing that)

Day 24: Being cared for by someone they love (Verry, Tom, and Fred)

And earlier this month I also posted a ficlet for Band Sinister by K. J. Charles.

I am also in trickortreatex, but I haven't opened my gifts yet so I will post about that after the anon period.

One of my few superstitions is that I don't want to talk about anything good until it has already happened, in case I jinx it, but today was my first day at work and everything is good, so I think I can say: DW, I have a job! A full time job! With benefits! Yay!

Apart from that, I have been liveblogging and writing various meta about Dimension 20: The Ravening War on Tumblr: Calorum, Amangeaux, Karna

I also wrote a poem which contains massive spoilers for A Court of Fey and Flowers.

Here is a very incomplete rec list for threesentenceficathon. The last post of my own fills is back here.

First of all, a few from 2022 since I had them sitting around: ( Read more... )

And this year’s. Both posts, random order, separated by fandom. Format is title [if any], fandom [if not specified above], characters, prompt.

( Narnia )

( Other )

The threesentenceficathon is now closed for prompts, but remains open for fills forever. Here’s some more of mine, in all different fandoms; I will eventually post the last bunch of them once I’m sure there’s not going to be any more.

( The Old Guard )

( Our Flag Means Death )

( Snow White (Disney) )

( Marvel Comics )

( This Is How You Lose the Time War (El-Mohtar & Gladstone) )

( Batman Comics )

( Goodbye Earl - The Chicks )

( Original D&D-ish fantasy )