There are women I've been who you would not have liked

Dear Yuletide Writer

snowishness — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 14:05:13 GMT

Hi! I'm Snow.

And you're absolutely fantastic.

You've got the information from my requests, so if you're someone who does well without an overabundance of information, well. Feel free not to read the rest of this. But if you're like me and the more information the better, or if you buy into the whole 'stalking your recipient is a sign of love' philosophy, read on!

I'm easy. I promise. If you can't see how to make the letter of my requests work, write me something about the characters that works for you. I want you to like your own story, to focus on something about these canons that you love.

Things I like
The purpose of this list is that if if you picked any one of these things and built a story around it, it would be awesome and I'd love it. Not that you try to include everything on this list, or anything silly like that. And if you got an idea just from the prompts I gave, great. This is just here for reference, then.

Character development. I'd rather have complex characters than 100% likable ones.
Trust. Particularly when a character trusts another more than they should, but that trust turns out to have been well-placed. Or the very fact that they were trusted made the other person rise to the challenge.
Platonic love. Friendships where the very notion that they would have sex or be attracted to each other doesn't come up, because it would be dismissed by both parties. (These aren't all I like, I've requested at least one romantic relationship after all.)
Relationships based on equality. Relationships where both the people clearly are bringing something to the table. I particularly adore relationships where both the people are messed up, but in just the right way for each other.
Love not being enough. What I mean by this is that sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't, but if they do work out it's not just because the people loved each other, it's because they put effort into it.
Snark, witty banter. People saying clever things.
Alternate Universes. Whether they branch off from canon or completely cracky things of crack. Seriously. There isn't a fandom below where I would object to getting a high school AU. In fact, I would probably draw little hearts around it.
Disintegrating situations. Especially people doing their best to gain control of a situation that is bad and turning worse. They don't have to fail, or succeed, it's how they meet the challenge that's really interesting.
Endings. I am a sucker for a happy ending, but go with whatever fits the fics and if it's sad or angsty I can still love it loads, as long as it feels complete.
Self-determination. People controlling their own futures
UST. Unresolved sexual tension. I love it so very much, but also unresolved emotional tension, where there's a lot that just can't be said.
PWP. Especially if it gives insight into how characters are thinking

Things I don't care so much for: character bashing, specifically christmas shenanigans, and crossovers.

An additional note: If you're worried about your interpretation of canon, obviously don't completely flout stated facts (unless you're writing an AU!), but I'd rather have a good story about who you think the characters are than anything else.

Now, deep breath. And this is just a c/p of my requests, sorry I don't have time this year to elaborate more on them.

Bel Dame Apocrypha - Kameron Hurley
Nyxnissa so Dasheem OR Rhys DashasaNyx is an absolutely fascinating, if not always sympathetic character, and I'd love anything that gets at the heart of the woman she is. Maybe something that looked a little into her sexual behavior, or shows some of her history, or anything else about her that you want to investigate. Or talk to me about Rhys, show more of his journey particularly in the early books. You don’t have to include both characters but you can if you want.

InCryptid - Seanan McGuire
Aeslin MiceI love the mice so much and I would really love anything silly or silly-serious about them. Give me one of their holidays, or how the drive back to Oregon went, or how any of the colonies took being split up so they could follow the Price children. I’m up to date on the series, so no concern about spoilers.

Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Alec Campion and Richard St VierI always always appreciate reading more about Richard and Alec. Anything from tiny moments between the two of them to complete AU’s to just the mess that is their life, to just more of Alec being clever and Richard being appreciative, I will like.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

A Passover Story

snowishness — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 01:27:27 GMT

Scene 1:
Rami (taskmaster): What do you mean, they're still reproducing?
Tinubiti (midwife): Well, it's kind of self-explanatory. Babies. Happening...
Rami: You're a midwife. You're supposed to stop that.
Tinubiti: Actually, it's just the opposite. I'm supposed to help with the birthing.
Rami: By killing the babies. Hebrew babies. Remember Pharaoh's policy of making a powerful but dissatisfied group even more dissatisfied?
Tinubiti: Uh, I can't. The babies, are, uh, too fast.
Rami: Too fast?
Tinubiti: Yeah. They're, uh, born too quickly for me to get there.
Rami: Well, it's not like it makes any difference to me personally if one more survives or not, but Pharaoh has a policy.
Tinubiti: Cannot catch babies. Very fast.

Scene 2:
Amram (Moses' father): Wow, it sure seems like life is tough here.
Damaris (slave): Eh. It's not so bad. There's the nice water of Nile here.
Amram: But the Egyptians totally enslaved us. And now they're killing all the male children.
Damaris: Well, the male children, sure.
Amram: But it will totally wipe out our chances of future generations.
Damaris: We can worry about that later. Future generations, no future generations, mortar, mortaar.
Amram: Well, I think it's kind of bad.
Damaris: Wait, your wife's pregnant isn't she?
Amram: Yeah.
Damaris: Mazel tov!
Amram: You know, my wife has this idea that if this is a male child, we could game the system, by putting him in a raft. Kind of like drowning by boat.
Damaris: Huh. How do you think that will work out?
Amram: Well, whatever happens, my son won't get leprosy, so it should be okay.

Scene 3:
Bai (priest): So, how is the latest crop of staff-snakes going?
Djal (priest): Great! Ten more just hatched today.

Scene 4:
Nebi (Chariot captain): So no one here knows his name?
Metit (handmaiden): We just call him Pharaoh. It never really comes up.
Sokkwi (Chariot captain) (enters): So, speaking of fishing babies out of the water.
Nebi: Uh, we weren't really-
Sokkwi: That Moses fellow. Right out of the water, I hear.
Sheba(handmaiden): Yup. Princess took him as her own.
Nebi: Does she have a name?
Metit: We do not discuss it with outsiders.
Sokkwi (to himself): In a raft as a baby. That sort of thing would change a man. Make him...different.
Sheba: Who invited him?

Scene 5:
Rami: Keep the slaves gathering rocks. Pharaoh can never have too many rocks.
Eran (Hebrew officer): Yes sir.
Rami: Hey, are we still killing all male children of you hebrew-types?
Eran: You don't know?
Rami: Well, I never heard that it was canceled. On the other hand, latest census has 600,000 Israelites of battle age. How could there be so many if we were killing all the male infants?
Eran: Beats me.
Rami: Speaking of which, I think it's time for me to whip a slave relentlessly for a while.
Eran: I hear one of the princes isn't too happy about that. That Moses fellow.
Rami: It doesn't concern me.

Scene 6:
Metit: The princess seems to be quite upset by Moses' departure. She keeps yelling.
Sheba: Yeah, weren't you shocked when she said: “You horrible son, your presence has been nothing but a bad mark upon my name.”
Metit: I was appalled by her language.
Sheba: The Pharaoh is pretty shaken up too. This could send him to an early Pyramid.
Metit: That means that the person who becomes new Pharaoh would be...Pharaoh.
Sheba: Wait, we don't know his name either? What is up with this dynasty?

Scene 7:
Djal: And then the evil ugly Moses had his staff-snake eat up ours.
Bai: All of them?
Djal: Every last one of them. Foul, gluttonous, fiend.
Bai: Why would he do something like that?
Djal: He said “let my people something, one God of Israel, blah, blah, blah.” I think he just hates staff-snakes.
Bai: Oh. That makes sense.
Nebi (entering): Hey! Moses just turned the Nile to blood.
Bai: Really? We can do that too.
Djal: Well, part of the Nile.
Bai: In a jar.
Djal: With red dye.
Nebi: So it's not really blood then, is it?
Djal: Devotees of Ra are the only ones qualified to judge that.
Nebi: Um, what about the blood to water side of things. So, you know, we can have something to drink and don't all die of dehydration?
Bai: Uhh, well...
Djal: Dehydration has its virtues!

Scene 8:
Damaris: Well, I think this is good.
Amram: You mean that we're still alive and healthy at the age of 110? Or because you think the mass frog death will convince the Pharaoh to let us go?
Damaris: No. I just hate frogs.
Amram: Well, it's still a bit strange.
Damaris: By the way, whatever happened with your son and the river?
Amram: Darned if I know.
Eran: Hey, you, help gather rocks and clear dead frog carcasses.
Amram: Why? They're not affecting us hebrews.
Eran: If we don't, the new taskmaster will come and beat us. When they replace him.
Amram: It's been 60 years.
Eran: Any day now.

Scene 9:
Metit: Freaking lice! Just because we're a massively hierarchal, slave-oppressing, baby male child-murdering society doesn't mean we deserve lice!
Sheba: Well, at least we can drink the water and the frogs are gone.
Metit: The priests say that not drinking water is virtuous.
Sheba: I thought they said “No, our precious staff-snakes are gone!”
Metit: They say both. They have many talents. That's why they disproportionately dominate the resources and mineral wealth of Egypt.
Sokkwi (enters): So, we're kind of being smited here. Is the Pharaoh going to give into this staff-snake guy?
Sheba: Uh, have you met Pharaoh?
Sokkwi: No. Are you offering to arrange a meeting?
Nebi (enters): Wild beasts are attacking. Run awaaay!

Scene 10:
Tinubiti: So I was out in the field, delivering a calf-
Sheba: Wait. Don't you usually deliver human babies?
Tinubiti: Cow babies are slower. Even more so now that all the cows are dying. But it's totally not my fault!
Sheba: Reeaally?
Tinubiti: It because Egypt is being smited. Which also has nothing to do with me.
Sheba: You seem just a little too in the middle of all of this.
Tinubiti: Hey, there are painful boils breaking out on my skin. How about you?
Sheba: Yes, me as well. How very convenient for you.
Tinubiti: Excuse me while I recoil in agony.

Scene 11:
Bai: Hail.
Djal: It would be really nice if we could actually stop this one.
Bai: What if we resurrected the frogs, and had them jump above people, forming a protective barrier?
Djal: Well, we can't actually do any of those things.
Bai: I label you downer-type.
Djal: There is the fact that we're all kind of dying from these plagues.
Bai: Yeah. I miss my staff-snakes.
Djal: Me too.

Scene 12:
Nebi: So, I've noticed that none of these plagues seem to be affecting you.
Damaris: Could be.
Nebi: Like right now, my fields are being eaten by locusts, while yours are fine.
Damaris: Huh. Locusts are irregular.
Nebi: Could I, like, defect and join your side?
Damaris: I don't think we have any formalized rituals for that yet.
Sokkwi (enters): Hey, what are two you talking about?
Nebi: Uh. Get to work collecting rocks, you hebrew-type, you.
Damaris: I sure love collecting rocks. (exits)
Nebi: These locusts are awful bad.
Sokkwi: Oh, I wouldn't worry about it. The way all light is fading away, they won't be able to see where they're going.
Nebi: Good. (pause) Wait, what?

Scene 13:
Metit: It's a pity all the hebrews are leaving. Now we won't have anyone to collect rocks.
Sheba: The Hebrews are leaving? Gosh, no one ever tells me anything.
Metit: So you don't know that all the firstborn died?
Sheba: I did not. Doesn't Pharaoh have a firstborn?
Metit: Not so much anymore, no. And he had a distinct name and everything. It's so sad.
Sheba: All the firstborns died? That explains why Nebi and Djal aren't around anymore.

Scene 14:
Sokkwi: You look funny when you're not wearing your priestly garments.
Bai: Well, since we failed totally to stop any of this, and the charioteers were depleted as well, us priests were basically drafted. Driving a chariot isn't hard, is it?
Sokkwi: Don't worry. I'll walk you through it. We're just chasing the Hebrews.
Bai: Doesn't that sound a little dangerous? Like the God of Israel might smite us, or something?
Sokkwi: He's smited us ten times-
Bai: Eleven if you count the death of the staff-snakes.
Sokkwi: Eleven then. That has to be the upper limit.
Bai: Look, we've got them all cornered against the edge of the water.
Sokkwi: Water. I wonder if we'll see any babies in there?

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Holiday Fics (Yuletide Reveal and Others)

snowishness — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 20:35:59 GMT

Fandoms: Space Vehicles/Space Exploration, Corruption of Champions, Guilty Gear, Dumbing of Age, Cinderella, Swordspoint, Bel Dame Apocrypha

The first fic I wrote is Paper Dreams. When I got my prompt for Space Vehicles I went, 'oh shit', because it seemed like the norm is a lot more anthropomorphizing than I'm used to, because for the most part, space travel is interesting to me because it's an extension of humanity going somewhere that no individual could go. So this is the fic I wrote to work through an idea in my head.

Paper Dreams (1244 words) by Snow
Fandom: Space Vehicles
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Voyager 1 (Space Vehicles), Voyager 2 (Space Vehicles), Original Female Character(s), Original Child Character(s)
Additional Tags: Science, Building by hand, Development Process, POV Female Character
Summary:

The Voyager craft were never meant to live longer than her, and yet here they are, and she's not sure that the spacecraft know how to stop any longer.

The second fic was an attempt to actually do what my recipient asked for, to give them something about one of the Voyager's from the spacecraft own point of view. I set it in the present/future, and tried to play with how long the craft has actually been out there.

Escapist (1554 words) by Snow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Space Vehicles
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Voyager 2 (Space Vehicles)
Additional Tags: Science, IN SPACE!, Loneliness, Anthropomorphic
Summary:

T+36 years and 125 days.

Voyager 2 drifts in space, even as her body only moves in one direction, grateful that she still has a working chronometer, grateful that a sense of time is as necessary to the instrumentation as it is to Voyager's own sense of self.

Having done that, I decided I needed to write some porn, basically. A pinch hit request for Corruption of Champions went out and I left on it because I love terrible things like that. I'm not sure I did as good a job as I would have liked, but I did have fun writing it.

None of Us Perfect (2877 words) by Snow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Corruption of Champions
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Characters: Original Female Character(s), Ceraph (Corruption of Champions)
Additional Tags: Terrible things, NSFW, Transformation, Brainwashing, Kinks, Bondage, Exhibitionism, Gangbang
Summary:

It turns out that being strong willed and wanting to be a champion isn't really enough.

I wrote Like Your Halo's Lined with Mistletoe as a treat because I'm always happy to write Guilty Gear fanfic and because I really wanted to write something set in winter and with Christmas. It's Sol/Ky preslash because I have a weakness for UST. There's a bit set during the Crusades and then a 'many years later' thing.

Like Your Halo’s Lined with Mistletoe (1148 words) by Snow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Guilty Gear
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sol Badguy/Ky Kiske
Characters: Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske
Additional Tags: Unresolved Sexual Tension, Christmas, Catholic Character, Crusades
Summary:

Ky Kiske, Sol Badguy, a church and a snowy day.

Then I decided that since I'd just written Guilty Gear for which there was no other fanfic in the archive, that I also needed to write some Dumbing of Age. After staring at the list of requested characters for a while I picked Dina and Joyce to focus on, and Sarah ended up around just to popcorn, so that was fun. Again, a winter/Christmas theme, because I was kind of in the mood, and because we totally did a secret santa gift exchange my freshman year.

I Can Tell by That Shrieking Alarm (1031 words) by Snow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dumbing of Age
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Dina Saruyama, Joyce Brown, Sarah Clinton
Additional Tags: Gift Exchange, Misses Clause Challenge, Female Character of Color, College, Arguing
Summary:

Joyce gives Dina a present, and it doesn't work out very well.

I scrolled through the list of yuletide prompts, trying to find one more thing, when I saw a request for Steampunk Cinderella. It sounded like a lot of fun, and when I poked at the archive it didn't seem like anyone had written it yet, so I took hold of it. I got off to a bit of a slow start, ended up cutting most of my first four hundred words, but after a point I seemed to have gathered up some steam and I had a lot of fun writing about a princess who's also an engineer, and about a prince who wants to build things too.

The Sun Hasn't Died (2315 words) by Snow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cinderella (Fairy Tale)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cinderella/Prince (Cinderella - Fairy Tale)
Characters: Stepmother (Cinderella - Fairy Tale), Prince (Cinderella - Fairy Tale), Cinderella (Fairy Tales), Stepsisters (Cinderella - Fairy Tale)
Additional Tags: Cinderella is her own Fairy Godmother, Steampunk, Tinkering, Falling In Love
Summary:

Steampunk Cinderella

That's all that I wrote for yuletide, but then I wrote some fics for other friends for the Christmas timeframe. The first of those is a Swordspoint fic because I have so very many Alec/Richard fic thoughts and there's is such a lovely and complex relationship to explore.

A Woven Thread (1003 words) by Snow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alec Campion/Richard St Vier
Characters: Alec Campion, Richard St Vier
Additional Tags: Oral Sex, babbling during sex, Love, Canon Relationships
Summary:

Alec, Richard, too many questions and not enough blowjobs. (A problem easily enough solved.)

A friend of mine basically dared me that I couldn't write a shippy fic for Testament from Guilty Gear, so I had to try. I decided on Ky because I figured he would be stubborn enough to keep trying. It features Ky falling out of a tree, which is always fun. From Testament's PoV, which was a fun exercise.

Monsters in Your Head (Demons in Your Bed) (1861 words) by Snow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Guilty Gear
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ky Kiske/Testament
Characters: Ky Kiske, Testament (Guilty Gear)
Additional Tags: Trees, Christmas Spirit, First Kiss, Earnestness, persistance
Summary:

A shippy fic, for Testament

When I was asked to write Bel Dame fic I lept on the chance to do femmeslash, since that's pretty much something my fics so far had been lacking. Then there's the fact that Nyx is just so much fun.

Would Smell As Sweet (585 words) by Snow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Bel Dame Apocrypha - Kameron Hurley
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Nyxnissa so Dasheem/Original Female Character
Characters: Nyxnissa so Dasheem, Original Female Character(s)
Additional Tags: LGBTQ Female Character of Color
Summary:

"My own full name is too much of a mouthful for me," Nyx says, but she does her best to cushion the words -- or distract from them -- with a caress of the other woman's hand, fingers playing over the lines of blood at her wrist. "It's a little unreasonable for you to expect me to remember yours."

Then there was Sol/Venom with a prompt of 'fluff'. I decided that huddling for warmth is one of my favorites to do with Sol, since he's so very well-suited to it.

You Do It Well (330 words) by Snow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Guilty Gear
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sol Badguy/Venom
Characters: Sol Badguy, Venom (Guilty Gear)
Additional Tags: Huddling For Warmth, Fluff, Winter
Summary:

Sol/Venom, huddling for warmth

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Dear Yuletide Writer

snowishness — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 16:25:07 GMT

I failed terribly at this, and I'm sorry.

this is last year's, if it'd be somehow helpful. There is a lot of general likes stuff there.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Trope Bingo Card

snowishness — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 13:15:42 GMT

chosen family	au: fantasy	indecent proposal	in vino veritas / drunkfic	wingfic
au: fairy tale / myth	curtainfic	au: apocalypse	hurt / comfort	sharing a bed
transformations	metafiction	FREE ★ SPACE	au: supernatural	matchmaker
amnesia	character in distress	locked in	meet the parents / family	marriage
huddle for warmth	mind games	au: alternate professions	au: space	food porn

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Kink Bingo Card

snowishness — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 22:13:46 GMT

Fandoms: Firefly, Original

dirty talk	suspension	pegging / strap-ons	torture / interrogation	uniforms / military kink
bondage	genital torture	watersports	gangbang	consent play
crossdressing	body alteration / injury	wildcard	pervertibles	pictures
class fantasies	animal play	mirrors / doubles	chastity devices	bodies and body parts
body inflation	bites / bruises	subspace / headspace	virginity / celibacy	teasing

This is a list of all the stories with titles and links and fandoms and ratings and summaries. The stories (will) go from left to right within each row, then down.

Title: Can You Take Me Back Again?
Fandom: Original, Science Fiction
Pairing: f/f (Dina/Larissa)
Prompt: Pictures
Rating/Warnings: Explicit/None
Summary: Larissa had never imagined that someone could look at her this way.

Title: Smile like the Summer Sun
Fandom: Firefly
Pairing: Kaylee/Inara
Prompt: Class Fantasies
Rating/Warnings: Explicit/None
Summary: Kaylee doesn't always feel comfortable with Inara, doesn't always know what to touch.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Beginning snippet of fanfic

snowishness — Sun, 26 May 2013 14:29:06 GMT

Guilty Gear, Sol and Ky, Untitled

The first time Sol sees Ky, the kid looks like nothing more than a bedraggled kitten: hair and clothes plastered to his skin by the rain outside to make him seem even smaller, his eyes enormous and pleading. Sol looks at him for a moment, then goes back to his meal. He's probably one of the kids of one of the soldiers -- shouldn't be here, but his mom or dad will send him home. Not Sol's problem.

A couple of minutes later there's a polite clearing of the throat, the sort of thing that's easy to ignore. Sol does so.

"Excuse me," and it's a tiny little voice, with more confidence than Sol would expect such a thing to have. He glances up, unimpressed, to stare at the thing and hope he goes away. "I'm looking for Commander Undersn."

"'s'not here."

The thing's lips twitch into a frown, before there's a look of determination that Sol's only seen five-year-olds apply to their refusal to go down for a nap. (And he doesn't give a damn if the kid looks more like he's twice that age: he's still well below the age where people should be here.) "I can see that. If you could tell me where he is, I'd appreciate that."

"No," Sol says. Hell if he can be bothered to keep track of the Commander's whereabouts, and for all he knows he could be out on patrol.

The thing gives him a look, and Sol's not sure if he's going to start yelling or crying. Apparently he decides on sniffing and turning away instead. "I'll ask someone else, then."

Sol doesn't try to stop him. Why would he?

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

List of Fandoms/Open Prompting Post

snowishness — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 21:53:51 GMT

Basically I really needed a list of fandoms that I know. They're listed roughly in level of comfort, with the most familiar at the top. I'm willing to try most things, but with the bottom ones I'm not as confident in my ability to do them justice anymore, or I might be pickier on characters.

Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Guilty Gear
Party Animals (BBC show)
Fairy Tales
Arabesque Trilogy - Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Girls With Slingshots
Dragon Age II
Deathstalker Series - Simon R. Green
Toby Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Various Disney movies
Newflesh Trilogy - Mira Grant
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
InCryptid Series - Seanan McGuire
Vorkosigan Saga - Louis McMaster Bujold
Firefly
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Shelter (2007 movie)
Sherlock (BBC show)
Avengers (movie, including all the lead-ins minus Hulk)
Doctor Who (classic and new)
Last Exile
Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This can also serve as an open prompting post, give me prompts from any of these fandoms with characters or pairings and I'll give them a try. :)

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Untitled Guilty Gear Ky/Dizzy piece

snowishness — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 22:02:07 GMT

There are things that Ky has done that he won't forgive of himself. Like the time he asked Dizzy if she'd ever doubted that she had a soul, and she looked at him for a long moment without answering. Her eyes said that she'd never doubted it before.

"Do you think I have one?" she asked, with the sort of trust in her voice that Ky knew he hadn't earned, didn't deserve.

"Of course I do," he said, because, really, one only had to speak to her for five minutes to figure out that.

"So have you ever doubted it?" It was an innocent question, not reproachful, but Ky flinched as if stung. She didn't push when he didn't answer, although he almost wished she had. It would make things a little easier, but then it wasn't her responsibility to make things easier for him.

"Have you ever doubted if you had a soul?" she asked, following what Ky had to admit was a more logical train of thoughts than his actually had been.

He shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

"Why?"

Because I'm human, he wanted to avoid having to say. Because I was born in sin but not of a created being. Because the intelligent design that created me was God's, not a scientist's.

He was startled out of his spiralling thoughts by Dizzy's hand on his shoulder. "It's good that you haven't doubted. You shouldn't be afraid of that."

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

snowishness — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 20:54:21 GMT

Finished up my Swordspoint fanfic from a while ago, about Alec and his sister.

It's up on Archive of Our Own now. Content warnings for discussion of arranged marriage of a 15-year-old, and allusions to child abuse.

In Mercy's Shadow Nothing Grows (1244 words)
Fandom: Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Alec Campion, Janine Campion
Summary: An examination of Janine and Alec's childhood through two times they might have run away, the first: if Alec were older than Janine, the second: if he were younger.</p>

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Pretty Space Pictures

snowishness — Thu, 03 May 2012 22:43:41 GMT

Hi. I'm Snow and for my senior design capstone we designed stuff.

I wasn't involved in any of the CAD design for any of these, but I'm sharing them anyway, with some explanation, so there.

Look, pretty pictures!

First, our space station. We called it "Habitat Orbiting Mother Earth" or HOME. It orbits at 72,000 km radius, or roughly 200 times as far from Earth as the International Space Suit. It's designed for three crew for time periods of six months at a time.

Here it is in the rocket.

Being deployed.

At final configuration in space. See how tiny the Earth is?

And second is our "Satellite Servicing Vehicle", or SSV. It goes to satellites that need servicing with one crew member inside of it.

It looks like a frog to me.

Interior view!

Servicing a satellite. The satellite here is particularly large.

The Robotic Servicing Module, or RSM.

Also we have fuel depots, not pictured. They're basically tanks of fuel.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Guilty Gear Ficlet

snowishness — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:29:40 GMT

Solder My Heart Back Into My Frame

It's a cold, wet night, just like the one before, and the one before that. Ky supposes that he should at least be grateful that it's not snowing, and he is. He just wishes for a little bit of sunshine during the day to lift the gloom of the men, if nothing else. The burden of responsibility weighs heavily on Ky's shoulders, and the way the rain has doubled the weight of his uniform while he walked once around the camps isn't helping with that.

There's a fire burning in Ky's tent, and he can see that from far enough away to let him be suspicious, rather than appreciative, by the time he pushes the flap aside. "Sol." Ky's not sure if having him around is better or worse than Ky's tent being actually on fire.

Sol lounges indolently on top of Ky's sleeping bag, and he simply lifts an eyebrow, as though even talking is too much effort.

Ky wants to let him be, wants to simply take comfort in the fact that Sol follows at least as many of Ky's orders as he did Kliff's, but the man infuriates him too much for that. "I doubt my tent is any more comfortable than yours, or any dryer," he says instead.

"Maybe by this point," Sol responds.

Ky huffs. "If there isn't any pressing business you have for me to attend to, then you should return to your own tent." Ky wants to add that if there is pressing business then Sol should send it through proper channels, but he'd rather give up an hour of needed sleep than risk having whatever Sol might have that's important get lost when Sol decides it's not worth the effort to share after all.

Sol continues to look amused, and Ky is opening his mouth to tell him off more strongly when Sol moves his cupped hands away to show that he's holding one of Ky's teacups. When he hands over the cup Ky can feel the warmth leaching from the cup to him, and smell the strength of the tea. He lifts it to his face to let the steam collect on his face, before bringing it down again to look at Sol.

"Thank you," Ky says, at least as pleased as he's being polite, but Sol just shrugs.

"Don't expect it, kid."

He stands, then, and he goes, leaving Ky with his cup of tea and his five hours of sleep until the next day.

A/N: Written in the last hour, instead of me doing Russian hw.

I'll probably upload this to AO3 in a couple of days/when I remember, but I welcome any and all concrit before then, or after that point. I think this is the first Guilty Gear fic I've actually finished.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Half a Swordspoint Fic

snowishness — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:01:37 GMT

Like the title says. Completely unbetaed/unedited, and written while I'm sick and rather out of it, so please please if anything's wrong let me know.

It goes like this:

Alec is seventeen, his head full of equations and ideas of what is right and what is wrong. He watches his little sister clutch her book closer to her where she's curled up. "Is it really still that good? Don't you have it memorized by now?" He can read his math books seven or eight times, but that's different, there's always more meaning there. He always misses so much the first time through.

She looks at him, green eyes younger and much more pissed off than his. "Do you think I would still be reading it if it weren't, Davey? God, you're ridiculous!"

"Don't blaspheme!" comes the call from their mother from the other room, and there's a moment of sibling solidarity in the glance Alec and Janine share. They'd both thought she was still out, and for a second they're both terrified that she'll call them over to chastize them more thoroughly.

Alec has finally unclenched his hand from his book when Janine nods at him. "Do you want to visit the stables?" he asks, after she's already stood.

"I think that would be nice," she responds, and they go.

Out in the stables, Alec reaches a hand filled with oats out to Belle. He can feel her warm breath against the palm of his hand.

Janine ignores them both to sit down on the stool and bend the spine of her book back again.

"Fine, I'll bite," Alec says after a moment. He doesn't like being ignored, and he likes even less Janine pretending that she knows better than him. She's fifteen, and even worse, she acts it. "What about that book are you enjoying this time around?"

"You wouldn't understand," Janine says, and Alec turns his most withering glare on her. She doesn't even glance up.

"And what, exactly, wouldn't I understand?" Alec asks.

"What it feels like to be trapped!" Janine looks up at him, suddenly all fury, startling his own out of him.

"What do you--" he starts, but she doesn't let him finish.

"Tomorrow I'm going to have my wedding dress measured, and the day after that I'm going to pick out decorations with mother. We're planning out the rest of my life, and you're still worried about whether or not mother is going to take away your books when I don't even have a choice!"

Alec opens his mouth to protest that without his books he'll stagnate and fall apart, that they're the only things that really help, but he bites that back and says something else instead. "You do have a choice."

She snorts at him, pulling her hair back from her face with her left hand. "Yes, why don't you be the one who tells mother I'm not doing it instead?"

Alec suppresses a wince and rubs Belle's forehead instead. "We both know that wouldn't work. But we wouldn't have to talk to her. We could just...go."

"Go where exactly, Davey?"

"Anywhere," he answers honestly. "Leave the city. Belle and Gabriel can carry us."

"And then what will we do?" Janine asks, rolling her eyes at him.

"Anything. What are we going to do now?"

Janine rolls her eyes again, but she doesn't answer. Instead she opens her book again.

"Well?" Alec prompts.

"Do you really think we could?" she asks, her finger on her page to mark her place.

"I do," he says.

When he waits, weeks later, after weeks of planning, she opts to go to her wedding instead. He doesn't ever get the chance to ask her why.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Yuletide.

snowishness — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:34:11 GMT

Wow. Where do I start? This year I got three treats plus the fic from the writer that was assigned to me. In three fandoms. And in two of the fandoms the gifts for me are the only things written for those fandoms.

They're all absolutely fantastic.

I'm going to start with Dear Vienna. It's a Guilty Gear fic, and it's Ky/Johnny. It's so much unresolved sexual tension and about found families and doing what's right versus what's legal and it's beautiful and gorgeous and I simply want to hug it as close as I can. I just...Johnny's lines make me smile and I ache for it to be resolved but I also like a lot that it isn't, and the way that it isn't feels so right. And I adore Dizzy's role in the fic.

And then I also got The Elephant in the Room. Which is Swordspoint, Alec/Richard, and Richard's going blind and pushing Alec away and it hurts so much that it's beautiful. And the last line is wonderful and painful and aldfjal. I love Alec and Richard precisely because they're so bad at making things work out for them.

And then madness. I somehow got two more fics. I don't even know, but they're both gorgeous.

A Giddy Thing is Girls With Slingshots (the webcomic) and Jamie/Erin and so very very wonderful. Jamie has to investigate missing coffee and it's funny and adorable and perfect for them.

And then there is no losing game, which is Swordspoint again. I say again, but really it's more like Swordspoint always, since it's a tour of all the ways Alec and Richard could be them if they were elsewhere and elsewhen. It just...does such a good job showing why these two will always be my OTP.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Dear Yuletide Writer (And Others) <3

snowishness — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:37:23 GMT

Character development. I'd rather have complex characters than 100% likable ones.
Trust. Particularly when a character trusts another more than they should, but that trust turns out to have been well-placed. Or the very fact that they were trusted made the other person rise to the challenge.
Platonic love. Friendships where the very notion that they would have sex or be attracted to each other doesn't come up, because it would be dismissed by both parties. (These aren't all I like, I've requested at least one romantic relationship after all.)
Relationships based on equality. Relationships where both the people clearly are bringing something to the table. I particularly adore relationships where both the people are messed up, but in just the right way for each other.
Love not being enough. What I mean by this is that sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't, but if they do work out it's not just because the people loved each other, it's because they put effort into it.
Snark, witty banter. People saying clever things.
Alternate Universes. Whether they branch off from canon or completely cracky things of crack. Seriously. There isn't a fandom below where I would object to getting a high school AU. In fact, I would probably draw little hearts around it.
Disintegrating situations. Especially people doing their best to gain control of a situation that is bad and turning worse. They don't have to fail, or succeed, it's how they meet the challenge that's really interesting.
Endings. I am a sucker for a happy ending, but go with whatever fits the fics and if it's sad or angsty I can still love it loads, as long as it feels complete.
Self-determination. People controlling their own futures
UST. Unresolved sexual tension. I love it so very much, but also unresolved emotional tension, where there's a lot that just can't be said.

Things I don't care so much for: PWP (or, rather, porn without character development. If your porn gives me insights into a character's relationship then I'll love it), character bashing, and crossovers.

An additional note: If you're worried about your interpretation of canon, obviously don't completely flout stated facts (unless you're writing an AU!), but I'd rather have a good story about who you think the characters are than anything else.

Now, deep breath. And on to the fandoms!

Arabesque trilogy - Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Any
I love about this canon the characters, Grimwood's skill with descriptions, the underlying background, and the interactions between the characters. If you want to explore any one of those aspects I would be super interested. I love all the characters, although the four nominated are the ones I'm most intrigued by if you have an interesting story about any of the others I'd love to hear it.

I really love all the characters in here. I love how snarky Tiri is and I would adore seeing earlier conversations between him and Raf. Tiri being snarky during a lie-detector test while Raf's in prison would be brilliant, for instance.

The thing I love most about Zara is her bitterness, and I'd love to see stuff with her in New York, or her relationship with Raf. I love Hani knowing better than anyone and how adorable she is, and I'd love to see her growing up a little around Raf or Zara.

Or, if you're up to it, explore the setting. The culture and history are an intrinsic part of the book, and they are woven so beautifully with the characters and the plot. This story simply wouldn't work in any other setting, and if you want to do something exploring that I'd adore that as well.

Girls With Slingshots
Jamie, Erin
I really really love that Jamie and Erin are together, not having sex, and that they don't feel a strong need to define what they have, just to enjoy it. I love Erin's quiet confidence and Jamie trying to figure things out and the way they're in love. I really think Jamie can be read as asexual easily, and it would make me incredibly pleased if you went with that interpretation. But really anything cute or serious (or any shade in between) between her and Erin would be an absolute pleasure to read, so go with whatever you'd like to write that involves their interactions. And it doesn't have to be particularly relationship-focused. Any kind of them on an adventure or playing board games or interacting with other people would be great.

So this post is mostly relevant strips about Erin and Jamie's interactions, but there's also some stuff at the top about seeing Jamie as asexual. I'd love anything that explored both of their interactions together, or that filled in some of the gaps when they're not on screen, or talked about Erin before she met Jamie. I'd also love them interacting with any of Jamie or Erin's friends, or a quiet moment of just the two of them relaxing, or a wacky adventure. Basically anything with Jamie and Erin would make me very happy.

Guilty Gear
Ky Kiske, Johnny Sfondi
They don't need to be slashed, though they most certainly can be, and that's the direction I'm leaning with this. But if you prefer gen or just can't see the slash between these two, don't try to force anything. I like the bond they form over Dizzy and their teasing interactions and quasi-alliances. I like that Johnny still has a strong sense of justice and conscience, and Ky's respect for that. If you'd prefer to write Dizzy/Ky and have Ky confiding in Johnny some of his confusion about how strongly he feels, that would be pretty awesome too. Although honestly, anything with Guilty Gear, including either Ky or Johnny would make me very happy. I can totally get behind Ky/Sol if that's what you want to write. (Basically I adore Ky a lot. Also, I ship him with everyone. I even ship him/his conscience and him/gen adventures. And Sol's a lot of fun too.)

I love the characters of Guilty Gear more than the setting, so while background exposition on what it's like would be awesome (because I do really like the setting, just not as much as the characters) anything character-focused would tickle me immensely. You don't need to include both Ky and Johnny, because while I'd like shippy fic I'd also like gen fic developing either of them.

If you want the focus to be on Ky, I'd love anything dealing with his religious struggles, how messed up his childhood must make him in little ways, learning to confide in someone, struggling to solve all his problems on his own...

If you want the focus to be on Johnny, I'd love anything that takes place on the Mayship, anything with his interactions with other cast members, particularly Dizzy and May. I will say that I'd prefer not to get a shippy Johnny/May fic, but gen with them would be great.

If you feel like writing a shippy fic then anything set anywhere in their relationship would be great, although I have a particular soft spot for post X2 and pre Overture.

But seriously, write me anything in Guilty Gear and I'll be enormously pleased.

Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Alec Campion, Richard St. Vier
Basically I just love Alec, and I love Richard. Write about their early interactions, before they were in a relationship together, or how it developed, or as Richard's going blind. Tell me about that conversation when Richard says he can't stay in the city, or the conversation when Alec says he's actually going to take over Tremontaine. I'd love to see things from either Richard or Alec's perspective. This doesn't need to be shippy either. It can be about how they conduct themselves in public, how they fell into that, what Alec's thinking when he watches Richard fight, or what boundaries they feel they have to keep up against each other to make sure they don't scare the other one off.

I think I said most of what I wanted about these two, but Alec and Richard are both one of my few OTPs, and they both individually fascinate me. I actually gave specific prompts in there, but I will say that I can't really see fluff for these two, unless it's a kind of reluctant fluffiness, where Richard is trying to see how much he can take care of Alec for a little while, how much Alec would let him. (And I would love a fic like that a lot.)

And should you wish to stalk me further, most of my journal here is unlocked, my fic is here and I'm very frequently in #yuletide under the name Snow.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

snowishness — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:42:58 GMT

Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back at me). Other people (including me) can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

vista_blows gave me:
Tea
Nail Polish
Kukalaka
Mediation
Mumford and Sons

Tea.

I love tea. My preference is for fun loose-leaf tea, generally, but I prefer bagged tea to no tea and there are several bagged teas I'm super-fond of. (The one that vista sent me that's raspberry, strawberry and loganberry is absolutely delicious and a favorite.)

My absolute favorite kind of tea is a pumpkin chai. It's also the only tea I have sugar in, and it's delicious with brown sugar. (With the caveat that if I'm super distraught I will take a plain black tea and dump as much sugar in it as it will hold. But that only happens once or twice a year.)

I have some very odd kinds of tea. Some of my favorites are creme brulee, north african mint, and saigon chai. My favorite discontinued tea tasted like pistachios.

I definitely use tea as like a comfort food, with specific teas for specific moods that I want to fix.

Nailpolish

I also love nailpolish. I love looking at my nails and seeing something bright complex. I have a lot of colors of it: Black, White, Sparkly Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Light Purple, Dark Purple, Bright Pink, Gunmetal Gray.

It started when I decided I was going to pain my nails rainbow for an LGBT march on Washington thing.

I started drawing things on my nails when I stated to my then-boyfriend that the dark blue is the color of the Scottish flag, and he said that I should get some white and make the Scottish flag on my fingers. I thought about it, and it seemed like something I could indeed do.

My nails are currently pretty simple: alternating blue and purple on my left hand and alternating blue and black on the right hand.

Examples of things I have done include: octopodes, pacman, plaid, rocket ships/airplanes, butterflies, the Irish flag, the Russian flag, dice.

Have a couple of pictures.

I do them with nailpolish and a toothpick. And patience.

Kukalaka

Kukalaka is Julian Bashir's teddy bear on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I've always loved the character of Julian Bashir, and I think Kukalaka, being a relatively raggity teddy bear that's clearly loved is an important sign of that, of the childish side that Bashir recognizes in himself and is okay with. He wants his inner child to be strong. There's the best fic about Bashir's history with Kukalaka, but I can't find it.

Mediation

I guess this is something I do sometimes? I used to be....ridiculously emotional, and I still cry at the drop of a hat. So from that perspective I'd rather be not emotional in a situation, and involved in helping sort something? I also really don't like seeing other people fight or be upset, and if I think that I can help I do, though it's never like stepping in between people who are actually disagreeing, but I'll talk to people individually.

I wouldn't say I'm much good at it, I feel like I'm just playing devil's advocate or misrepresenting the other side, or being useless. My mediation technique feels a lot like I just say 'Well I think that they think'.

Maybe it helps that I have a great amount of trust in my friends not to ever want to be hurting each other?

Mumford and Sons

I think mjules first mentioned them, but I might not have been paying as much attention as I should have. (You have to catch me in a specific mood before I'll actually enjoy listening to new music.)

Vista was rather more persistent, and so I listened to Little Lion Man (again?). And I loved it. So now I enjoy their music. That's really all there is to it.

I was going to icon their songs, but that project's been stalled for, like, six months. So I'm just going to dump them here.

They're all free to use with credit, if anyone wants.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Icons!

snowishness — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:44:57 GMT

Meme from wrabbit, and I'm really glad because I saw it pop up on my network at some point and I wanted to do it.

1. Reply to this post with "UNICORNS", and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee

The text of this comes from Oscar Wilde's poem Ballad of Reading Gaol, taken completely out of context of the original. For me this icon is about putting on the brave face, telling people my tears are foolish and that I acknowledge it and so I'm not upset. While on the inside I'm still unhappy and torn up about it, even though I know it's stupid.

This is a quote from the Seanan McGuire song, The True Story Here. The concept of the song is that Red Riding Hood is a descendent of the wolves, who goes out into the woods and discovers her true heritage. This icon for me is about being stronger than you know you are, and that finding that strength is just a matter of time.

I love the girl in this picture, looking off into the side. She makes me think of someone sitting in a bar, listening to what the other person has to say. An intimate moment in a location not easily suited to it. The text is from the song Momentum by Vienna Teng. This is also my way of positing that I agree with the person I'm responding to.

It's Peter Mandelson! I call this icon "super-thoughtful" because there's such contemplation in his expression. That's really all there is to this icon. It's the looking a hair up from straight ahead, I think. It was made by bizzu. I love this icon.

This is a quote from the movie American Astronaut. It's a very strange movie, and this is just the alarm clock scene. The alarm clock goes "What did your father teach you? What did your father teach you?" and the character has to respond "My father taught me to kill the sunflower." to prove he's awake. American Astronaut is an incredibly strange movie, a space western musical that came out in 2001 in black and white. This is one of my surrealism icons, unfortunately I don't encounter surreal situations often enough.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Hi

snowishness — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:09:32 GMT

Things I'm not doing this weekend: camping.

Clearly, it's not meant to be. I had to be talked into it, but I agreed, was cautiously anticipatory, and then, y'know. Hurricane. So. Camping seems like it would be a bad idea, because although we would be heading due west, it wouldn't be west enough to want to be in a tent.

Things I am doing this weekend:

Hanging out at my roommate's parents. She extended the invitation, I accepted, given that even if the worst that happens is a lot of rain and we lose our power (we're pretty likely to lose our power), I would still rather not be in an empty apartment when that happens. I'm not too worried about the storm, umm. Trying to be optimistic here.

Also, everyone who mocked about our Earthquake, I mean...it wasn't that disturbing to me, I wasn't panicking or anything, but it's not...without its consequences. Washington Monument has surface cracks in it now.

Things I am doing this semester:

Classes! Lots and lots of classes. I'm taking 19 credits, or 6 classes and one credit of independent research. The independent research is already going to be quite a bit more than three hours per week (which is what the fact that it's only one credit says it should be) because I'm gonna have three hours of meetings every week. But, umm, one of the meetings is a lunch one where I get fed pizza. And mostly hear about other people's cool projects. So I don't object to it. Just really glad I'm doing much less work for my student group this semester. (I went from treasurer to webmaster.)

I mean, honestly...looking at my class schedule, it almost looks lighter this semester. I'll put up a picture in a bit, and sure my Tuesdays and Thursdays are pretty booked, but I only have one class Monday Friday, and I never effectively use the time in between classes anyway, and I have less of that.

And I had a class last semester, where I was doing 15 hours of work for that one class, and none of my classes this semester are supposed to be like that. Plus, I get to take Russian (so excited about that) and the syllabus for one of my classes says we'll be writing a screenplay in groups based on our plague preference. Exciting, right? (And if I have to drop a class due to too much work, then I'll have to drop either Russian or the plague class, because everything else is required, and I did do 17 credits last semester.)

And also I have to be looking for a job starting I guess midsemester...

Fun times!

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

There's Fic.

snowishness — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:04:17 GMT

I am back from Canada. Well, sort of back. Still at my parent's house for the next week. But I'm definitely not in Canada anymore.

The prompting worked out very well, low enough pressure and short enough that I could write them all up in my notebook without any ability to canon-check or look up facts, and then type and post them when I had internet/computer access.

<3

So thanks to everyone who prompted. I uploaded all the results to AO3, though I'll probably reread to check for typoes and awkward phrasing when it's tomorrow and I'm a little less dead-from-tired.

They Hand You the World's Smallest Microphone (343 words)
Fandom: Newsflesh Trilogy - Mira Grant
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Georgia Mason
Summary: Prompt: George Mason, protected sources.

Cobwebs All Collected (882 words)
Fandom: Sherlock (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Mycroft Holmes, Anthea (Sherlock)
Summary: For the prompts: "Mrs Hudson, chess master of 221" and the follow-up "I wonder who would be competition for Mrs Hudson? Mycroft? Anthea?"

I'm Not Done With You (859 words)
Fandom: Sherlock (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Lestrade (Inspector)
Summary: For the prompt: I want Lestrade looking after Sherlock. Bonus if they cuddle.

Unloose the Cord (609 words)
Fandom: Party Animals (TV), Doctor Who (2005)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ashika Chandiramani/Scott Foster
Characters: Danny Foster, Eleventh Doctor, Ashika Chandiramani, Scott Foster
Summary: For the prompt: The conversation that Danny Foster has when he meets Eleven. Ashika's reaction to the two of them also...

Wisdom is a Butterfly and Not a Gloomy Bird of Prey (581 words)
Fandom: Firefly
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: River Tam, Kaylee Frye, Simon Tam
Summary: Prompt: River Tam and The Juniper Tree fairy tale.

Two Words to Break It (1333 words)
Fandom: Firefly
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Major Character Death
Relationships: Kaylee Frye/OMC
Characters: Kaylee Frye, Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity - Character, River Tam, Simon Tam, Jayne Cobb
Summary: Prompt: Three times Kaylee hated her ship

Like We're Swans (653 words)
Fandom: Cinderella
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cinderella - Character
Summary: Prompt: Cinderella's early days in the castle from the pov of the servants

Chalk it Up to a Starry Night (331 words)
Fandom: Toby Daye - Seanan McGuire
Rating: Mature
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Toby Daye/Tybalt
Characters: October "Toby" Daye, Tybalt (Toby Daye)
Summary: Prompt: Toby/Tybalt

Let's Go Into the Darkness (808 words)
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Julian Bashir/Elim Garak
Characters: Julian Bashir, Elim Garak
Summary: Bashir/Garak, Garak molesting Bashir's inseam.

And tomorrow back to work on the epic of Mycroft/John Regency-ish AU. (And work things, but fanfic is more exciting than that.) Hey, but I think my confidence in my writing has been restored at least a little. <3

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Make me write for you

snowishness — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:08:08 GMT

It's been kind of a shit week so far and I woke up at five this morning to really intense pain (which has thankfully gone away), and I have to leave for the airport shortly and hope that they'll fix my ticket that they messed up on.

So I'd like you to leave me a prompt. I can't promise to write anything, or anything good, but I want to try, partly just so I have something else to focus on.

I'm willing to give a stab at the following fandoms, some of them I don't really consider myself familiar enough to write but I want to try anyway:

Sherlock
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Fairy Tales
Various Disney Movies
Assorted Marvel (Deadpool, Iron Man, X-23, anything listed here: http://snow.dreamwidth.org/84265.html)
Swordspoint
Deathstalker
Greek Mythology
Arabesque Trilogy
Doctor Who (mostly new)
Firefly
Party Animals
Buffy
Doctor Horrible's Singalong Blog
Any of these women not already included in the above: http://snow.dreamwidth.org/84934.html?#cutid1

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Women Who Are Awesome

snowishness — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:28:37 GMT

Every once in a while (mostly when I'm bored) I'm a terrible lurker/stalker who goes looking at the entries of people that I have little to no connection to. I refuse to feel guilty about it this time because it's led to a lovely meme. This was stolen off of curuchamion.

"List 100 awesome female characters" meme.

So. For an experiment: rockin' awesome female characters in no particular order.

I added italics if the character is a woman of color canonically, and bolded the name if she's canonically queer, because I wanted to see the results of that.

1. Ashika Chandiramani (Party Animals)
2. Amy Pond (Doctor Who)
3. Martha Jones (Doctor Who)
4. Donna Noble (Party Animals)
5. Kirsty MacKenzie (Party Animals)
6. Jo Porter (Party Animals)
7. Toby Daye (October Daye Series)
8. May Daye (October Daye Series)
9. George Mason (Newsflesh Trilogy)
10. Arya Stark (A Song of Ice and Fire)
11. Ace (Doctor Who)
12. Anthea (Sherlock)
13. X-23/Laura (Marvel)
14. Pepper Potts (Marvel)
15. Danielle Moonstar (Marvel)
16. Surge/Noriko Ashida (Marvel)
17. Xi'an Coy Manh (Marvel)
18. Zara bint-Hazah (Arabesque Series)
19. Kaylee Frye (Firefly)
20. Zoe Washburne (Firefly)
21. Inara Serra (Firefly)
22. River Tam (Firefly)
23. Jasmine (Aladdin)
24. Chickie Brown (Southland)
25. Lydia Adams (Southland)
26. Becks (Newsflesh Trilogy)
27. Rose Constantine (Deathstalker Series)
28. Katherine Tremontaine (Swordspoint Series)
29. Layla Salim (Kick)
30. Jackie Schneider (Kick)
31. Jamie (Girls With Slingshots)
32. Jadzia Dax (Deep Space Nine)
33. Erin (Girls With Slingshots)
34. Hazel (Girls With Slingshots)
35. Angel (Girls With Slingshots)
36. Thea (Girls With Slingshots)
37. Emma Frost (Marvel)
38. Ezri Dax (Deep Space Nine)
39. Kira Nerys (Deep Space Nine)
40. Tori (Shelter)
41. Buffy Summers (Buffy)
42. Willow Rosenberg (Buffy)
43. Tara (Buffy)
44. Dawn Summers (Buffy)
45. Joyce Summers (Buffy)
46. Anya Jenkins (Buffy)
47. Faith (Buffy)
48. Cindi Mayweather (Metropolis Suite)
49. Cordelia Chase (Buffy)
50. Jessica Stein (Kissing Jessica Stein)
51. Julia (Forest Kingdom)
52. Kasidy Yates (Deep Space Nine)
53. Lavie Head (Last Exile)
54. Uhura (Star Trek TOS/XI)
55. Sophie Montgomery (Party Animals)
56. Taghred Salim (Kick)
57. Romana (Doctor Who)
58. Helen Cooper (Kissing Jessica Stein)
59. Tiana (Princess and the Frog)
60. Lotte (Princess and the Frog)
61. Catherine Li (Spin State)
62. Artemesia Fitz-Levi (Swordspoint Series)
63. Mariesa van Huyten (Firestar)
64. Cordelia Naismith (Vorkosigan)
65. Jam Kuradoberi (Guilty Gear)
66. Dizzy (Guilty Gear)
67. I-no (Guilty Gear)
68. May (Guilty Gear)
69. Eden Sinclair (Doomsday)
70. Amber Jury Khaos Komix)
71. Nay Oten (Khaos Komix)
72. Charlie Trueman (Khaos Komix)
73. Rose Marshall (Sparrow Hill Road)
74. Velma Martinez (Velveteen vs.)
75. Sally Donovan (Sherlock)
76. Peri (Doctor Who)
77. Millia Rage (Guilty Gear)
78. Styx (Firestar Series)
79. Baiken (Guilty Gear)
80. Nijie Kitagawa (End of the World Blues)
81. Cessily/Mercury (Marvel)
82. Natasha Romanoff (Iron Man 2)
83. Sarah Jane Smith (Doctor Who)
84. Hazel D'Ark (Deathstalker Series)
85. Investigator Frost (Deathstalker Series)
86. Demeter (Greek Mythology)
87. Diana Vertue/Jenny Psycho (Deathstalker Series)
88. Shotgun Suzie (Nightside books)
89. Molly (Secret History Series)
90. Buffy (Newsflesh)
91. Tegan (Doctor Who)
92. The Luidaeg (October Daye series)
93. Michelle Watson (Voice of Steel short story)
94. Eon (Eon)
95. Medusa (Greek Mythology)
96. Persephone (Greek Mythology)
97. Hani al-Mansur (Arabesque Series)
98. Loup (Santa Olivia)
99. Khadra Shamy (The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf)
100. Susan Ivanova (Babylon Five)

Commentary: There were definitely more I would have liked to list. At times I felt like I was reaching, but then I'd go "Oh, her, I love her, why isn't she on the list yet?" These are pretty much all characters who steal the show for me when they show up (although in some cases they are the show...It would be interesting to see which of these I would count as main characters for their stories).

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Presenting fic.

snowishness — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 19:01:50 GMT

I wish I could say that I've been writing fic instead of sleeping, but I've been spending a lot of time not-sleeping and I only spent Friday night writing fic. I finished up a fic that...I won't say that I shouldn't write description heavy things, because I need work on them, but I think both the amount of difficulty I had writing this (seriously, it was all stare at computer...maybe I can say something about hair) and the fact that I can still feel where it needs work means I need more practice on description...which is why I need to write things like this, that are a bit outside my comfort zone.

Also, it's the first fic I've finished since April so I'm going to be at least happy about writing something.

If you're not familiar with my cover song project, the idea is that I find songs covered by someone of a different gender than the original singer with gender-specific pronouns in the original that aren't changed in the cover. This is the project. The first post has the full explanation. Anyway, at some point Jules and I were talking about how it would be cool to see fanvids with these as background songs, or fic. So I decided to give it a go.

I'm Trying to Find the Words to Describe This Girl (Without Being Disrepectful) (1108 words) by Snow
Fandom: Sexy Chick (Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Category: F/F
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary: It's fic based on Paloma Faith's cover of the song Sexy Bitch/Chick.

And then I finished that and I always get kind of twitchy in between writing a fic and waiting for beta feedback. But on the other hand I was also happy/content that I'd finished something. So I went to bed. It was one in the morning.

I was lying in bed, trying to sleep, but some ideas had been vaguely percolating in my head. I'd been thinking a lot about the alienness and asexuality of the Doctor, in part because of this article.

Now I've always thought of the Doctor as asexual (and no less so in the new series), but it was nice to see someone involved in the show supporting that. I was also thinking more about the Eleventh Doctor than I usually do as a result of this song:

I haven't written much Doctor Who fanfic, but suddenly I had John's voice in my head telling me that there was a madman in his living room. And that he seemed to know Sherlock.

I tried to roll over and get actual sleep, but that didn't work, so I powered up my laptop again and wrote this:

Say That I'm Fond (1030 words) by Snow
Fandom: Sherlock (TV), Doctor Who (2005)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: asexual!Eleventh Doctor/asexual!Sherlock Holmes
Characters: Eleventh Doctor, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Summary: John thinks anyone would be surprised to come home to find Sherlock curled up on the sofa with a strange man. He just didn't know at first how strange the man is.

Meanwhile, my primary fic project right now is an AU Regency-style John/Mycroft fic. Which I just got to 9000 words at. But while it's been slow going, I think I've figured out everything so there aren't any plot holes that need filling in my mind. So hopefully I'll be able to finish it in the next month or so? Maybe? Hopefully...

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

September - Now Book Post

snowishness — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 05:30:36 GMT

The theory is that I'm reading to the moon and one page = 1 kilometer. You can hit the 'reading to the moon' tag to see past entries.

This update includes 29 books or 9382 pages. (I'm entirely certain I've lost some and that some are out of order. Oh well. :/)

I also spent some time wondering whether or not I should include comic books, but I decided to include them but group them where grouping made sense, because I've included comic book compilations before. (Also, I've read a lot of comic books recently...I got a trial one-month subscription to Marvel Digital Unlimited, what can I say?)

On my graphic, that looks like this:

32708 / 384679
 8.503%

Edmundo Paz Soldan - The Matter of Desire. Soldan's style is just gorgeous. Really truly gorgeous. And this book is not really about the affair a professor has with one of his students. That is the catalyst for a series of other events, but it's not really what this book is a about.

William Butler Yeats - The Poems. Poetry. Well, now I can say with certainty that He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven is my favorite Yeats poem, but quite a number of other ones were good too.

Sarah Hall - Daughters of the North (The Carhullan Army). Dystopia. Interesting enough, even if she decided to skip over the climax of the book (and I mean literally skip over it) for not terribly good story-telling reasons.

Pablo Neruda - An Anthology of Odes. Poetry. I love poetry for its focus/centering on emotions, and these are very good at that, particularly with the odes that are odes to specific emotions.

Vanessa Place - La Medusa. Post-Structuralist. Parts of it were very very good, but mostly it was just dull/overdone.

Seanan McGuire - An Artificial Night. Urban Fantasy. I would definitely say the books in these feel like they're getting better, and maybe part of that is Toby's realisation about a couple of things here. She's undeniably undergoing character development, which is always nice.

Arthur Conan Doyle - A Study in Scarlet. Mystery. Pretty much what you'd expect, lol. Been forever since I've read any Sherlock Holmes, though.

Wolfblade - Jennifer Fallon. Fantasy.

Exilee/Temps Morts/Selected Works - Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Poetry.

Eon Dragoneye Reborn - Alison Goodman. Young Adult/Fantasy. Mostly what I recall about this is that I was interested in the sequel, and that I wanted to read a fantasy book where a boy dressed up a girls.

Seanan McGuire - Late Eclipses. Urban Fantasy. Fun.

Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami. Fiction. Never knew quite what I could expect to have happen next.

Mira Grant - Deadline. Biomedical thriller/zombie book. Parts of this continue to bother me, but for the most part it was very enjoyable and they only bother me because I don't want to have to wait a year to find out the implications.

Jon Courtenay Grimwood - The Fallen Blade. Fantasy. Set in 15th century Venice, Tycho is the first vampire in Europe, though he wouldn't use the word vampire to describe himself. Very interesting.

Jean-Paul Sartre - The Flies. Play. Meh. I didn't find it very interesting at all.

Eugene O'Neill - Mourning Becomes Electra. Play. For a play, O'Neill uses far too much prose description.

Aeschylus - The Oresteia. Play. Meh. All the action takes place off screen. Bored of the Oresteia now too.

Michael Lowenthal - Avoidance. Fiction. Deals with child abuse and camping and uses Amish communities as simile material. Interesting.

Swordspoint - Ellen Kushner. Fantasy. I think this is the third time in a year I've read this book? >> What can I say, I really love it.

Kill Shakespeare - #1. Comic book. Hilarious. Richard the third tries to recruit Hamlet to kill Shakespeare.

Invincible Iron Man - #504. Comic book. No comment on the storyline, but I disliked how many advertisements were in this. :/

Civil War (2006) - #1-#7. Comic book. Nice to read, I already knew pretty much everything that had happened in it already though.

Deadpool (2008) - #1-#23,#25. Comic book. Deadpool's my favorite.

Tales of Suspense (1959) - #39-#42,#45. Comic book. Wow. Introducing Iron Man!

Iron Man (2004) - #1-#14. Comic book. Extremis! I was really impressed with the art here.

Young Avengers Presents (2008) - #1. Comic book.

Fear Itself: The Worthy (2011) - #1-#6. Comic book.

New Mutants (2003) - #1-#13. Comic book. I really like the team introduced here.

New X-Men (2004) - #1-#38. Comic book. The kids have it rough.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Meme

snowishness — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:24:36 GMT

Stolen from the network.

1. Comment with any ship from a fandom that you know I have some knowledge about (if it's a fandom I only know by osmosis, this could be hilarious).
2. I will rant about aforementioned romantic ship. This may be incoherent gushing or exclamations of disgust or evocations of apathy, depending on what it is.
[note: it doesn't have to be a romantic ship, though if you don't want it to be, you should say so. Also, if you just want to hear my thoughts on a character, that's fun too.]

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

That was fun.

snowishness — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:05:20 GMT

Yesterday, at dinner out with my apartmentmate (who hasn't been around much this summer at all, mostly living at her parent's).

Me: So I'm actually getting cautiously excited about the Avengers movie.
Her: What's that?
Me: Did you see Iron Man?
Her: Yes.
Me: Did you see the scene after the credits?
Her: I didn't see it in theaters.
Me: *takes that as a no* Did you see Iron Man 2?
Her: No.
Me: Did you see Thor?
Her: No.
Me: *explains the concept of the Avengers in the comics and such*...And it's kind of ramping up now, since they just had Thor and the Captain America movie just came out.
Her: It did?
Me: Yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
Her: You want to see it tonight? After dinner?
Me: Sure!
Her: Awesome.

So then we went to see Captain America. Which was pretty cool.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().