We walk on air, Watson

Thanks so much for creating for me, and for taking a look at my letter!

I have more ideas/prompts for some canons/characters than others, but I would be genuinely thrilled to get anything in this letter, regardless of whether I've written a long or short section on it.

I am just called whalebone on AO3 :) Treats are enabled and welcome!


Request 1: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman


Request 2: Benjamin January Mysteries


Request 3: Culprits


Request 4: Armadale - Wilkie Collins

Request 1: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

Mary Malone | Lyra Belacqua | Will Parry | Worldbuilding 
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen characters (giver's choice)

General Likes
Missing scenes | Exploring new places | Mutual pining | Protectiveness, hurt/comfort | Competence kink | Strong sense of place | Complicated relationships with family, home, faith. | Friends-to-lovers | Complications of inhuman/human relationships | Slow-burn | Trauma recovery | Tenderness and gentle touching (hair stroking, hand holding, face touches, all that stuff.) | Banter and snark | Non-mundane AUs (setting change or canon divergence) | Setting change AUs I like: steampunk, solarpunk, historical, fantasy | Time travel and time loops | 5 times fic / 5+1 fic | Women in leadership positions, working with/against other women | Mission fic | Fixing/building things together

DNWs
Non-con | Mpreg | BDSM | Incest | Watersports & scat | Underage | Teenager (under-18)/adult romance and sex | Omegaverse | Sex pollen | Unrequested non-canon ships | Medical kink (meaning: explicitly kinking on medical treatment, doctor/patient relationship, use of medical equipment. Feelings and attraction developing during hurt/comfort, wound care, etc., are fine.) | Readerfic | Character bashing (characters can be critical of others, particularly if canon-compliant, but I don't like characters being made to be villains when they aren't meant to be.) | Pre-relationship that doesn't go beyond that

Fandom-specific Likes
- Alternate worlds
- Canon-typical weirdness (mulefa? Super weird. Love them. Mary's time in their world is one of my favourite parts of the books)
- Focus on personal growth and learning and kindness
- Death meaning becoming part of the world again
- The importance of stories
- Family of choice
- Daemons, of course - the bond between daemon and person, daemon settling, the huge intimacy of daemon-touching. I love that Will and Mary will be able to get to know their daemons.
- Armoured bears, their society, and their sky-iron souls
- Rebuilding in the aftermath (Lyra and Will moving on; building 'the Republic of Heaven'; Mary and Will navigating the real world)
- The alternate history and geography of Lyra's world
- Dust! Anything about Dust and what it is, what it can do, how it can affect the world
- The history of angels and the angel rebellion, and what they do after the books
- Relearning how to use the alethiometer
- Lyra going on adventures and learning more about her world, and how she works to better it
- Please feel free to include canon from The Book of Dust, and equally feel free to ignore it.
- Ships I like: Lyra/Will; Baruch/Balthamos; Lord Asriel/Marisa Coulter as background; Mary Malone/Female Characters (except Lyra).

Request 2: Benjamin January Mysteries

Benjamin January | Hannibal Sefton | Rose Vitrac January
My gift must feature one or more of my chosen characters (giver's choice)

 

General Likes
Missing scenes | Exploring new places | Mutual pining | Protectiveness, hurt/comfort | Competence kink | Strong sense of place | Complicated relationships with family, home, faith. | Friends-to-lovers | Complications of inhuman/human relationships | Slow-burn | Trauma recovery | Tenderness and gentle touching (hair stroking, hand holding, face touches, all that stuff.) | Banter and snark | Non-mundane AUs (setting change or canon divergence) | Setting change AUs I like: steampunk, solarpunk, historical, fantasy | Time travel and time loops | 5 times fic / 5+1 fic | Women in leadership positions, working with/against other women | Mission fic | Fixing/building things together

DNWs
Non-con | Mpreg | BDSM | Incest | Watersports & scat | Underage | Teenager (under-18)/adult romance and sex | Omegaverse | Sex pollen | Unrequested non-canon ships | Medical kink (meaning: explicitly kinking on medical treatment, doctor/patient relationship, use of medical equipment. Feelings and attraction developing during hurt/comfort, wound care, etc., are fine.) | Readerfic | Character bashing (characters can be critical of others, particularly if canon-compliant, but I don't like characters being made to be villains when they aren't meant to be.) | Pre-relationship that doesn't go beyond that

Fandom-specific Likes
- Such a vivid sense of place
- Music - both Ben and Hannibal being talented musicians is catnip to me
- Navigating the complex social strictures of New Orleans society
- Ben's relationship with his very different sisters
- The way Ben and Hannibal look out for one another and rely on one another
- Both Ben and Hannibal are total woobies but in very different ways - Ben is a true iron woobie, stoic until he can't be stoic any more, while Hannibal is often frail, ill and struggling, but trying to put a good face on it. There's so much space for hurt/comfort for these two.
- Anytime Ben and Hannibal quote Shakespeare or poetry at one another I am delighted.
- Ben's fascinating mix of kindness, deep anger, complicated spirituality, and how he carries such trauma and grief but is still so pragmatic about facing any problems and still finds such love and enjoyment in life.
- Hannibal suffers so much from his addiction and illness, but he's got this lightness and gentleness about him.
- Rose's scientific mind and her studies, and how coolly calm and logical she is in her approach to the world.
- Rose cross-dressing.
- Ships I like: Ben/Rose, Ben/Ayesha, Ben/Hannibal, Ben/Hannibal/Rose

Note
I've not managed to read beyond Good Man Friday yet, so I would appreciate no spoilers for the later books - thanks! <3

Request 3: Culprits

Joe Petrus-David Marking | Jules | Officer
My gift may use exception I explain below

 

Note: This series is 8 1-hour episodes available on Disney+. Promo post here.

General Likes
Missing scenes | Exploring new places | Mutual pining | Protectiveness, hurt/comfort | Competence kink | Strong sense of place | Complicated relationships with family, home, faith. | Friends-to-lovers | Complications of inhuman/human relationships | Slow-burn | Trauma recovery | Tenderness and gentle touching (hair stroking, hand holding, face touches, all that stuff.) | Banter and snark | Non-mundane AUs (setting change or canon divergence) | Setting change AUs I like: steampunk, solarpunk, historical, fantasy | Time travel and time loops | 5 times fic / 5+1 fic | Women in leadership positions, working with/against other women | Mission fic | Fixing/building things together

DNWs
Non-con | Mpreg | BDSM | Incest | Watersports & scat | Underage | Teenager (under-18)/adult romance and sex | Omegaverse | Sex pollen | Unrequested non-canon ships | Medical kink (meaning: explicitly kinking on medical treatment, doctor/patient relationship, use of medical equipment. Feelings and attraction developing during hurt/comfort, wound care, etc., are fine.) | Readerfic | Character bashing (characters can be critical of others, particularly if canon-compliant, but I don't like characters being made to be villains when they aren't meant to be.) | Pre-relationship that doesn't go beyond that

Fandom-specific Likes
This show somehow doesn't have a fandom so I would love anything! Feel free to include any other characters from the show, so long as the focus is on the requested character/s.

- Joe being simultaneously a super-competent badass and emotionally vulnerable
- The tension between Joe's past and his genuine desire for a normal life with Jules
- Jules being ready to climb Joe like a tree the minute they meet - first-time fic or early-days-in-the-relationship fic would be amazing.
- Joe/Jules domesticity
- Jules rising to the occasion when Joe's world intrudes on his own
- Officer and Joe's friendship
- Officer's lying - when is she telling the truth? Is it never? Always? Who knows!
- I ship Joe/Jules (I call him Joe in this for ease, but feel free to call him David if you prefer, or Muscle if that works best for your fic) and love platonic Joe & Officer. Jules & Officer in an AU where she survives would also be fascinating. Like Joe's suddenly brought a little sister home, except she's also a con artist.

Tag exception:
If you would prefer to write Joe/Jules I don't mind at all if Officer doesn't appear. I'm also happy for a fic to focus entirely on Joe. I do want Joe to feature.

Request 4: Armadale - Wilkie Collins

Main Allan Armadale | Ozias Midwinter-Allan Armadale | Lydia Gwilt
My gift may use exception I explain below

 

General Likes
Missing scenes | Exploring new places | Mutual pining | Protectiveness, hurt/comfort | Competence kink | Strong sense of place | Complicated relationships with family, home, faith. | Friends-to-lovers | Complications of inhuman/human relationships | Slow-burn | Trauma recovery | Tenderness and gentle touching (hair stroking, hand holding, face touches, all that stuff.) | Banter and snark | Non-mundane AUs (setting change or canon divergence) | Setting change AUs I like: steampunk, solarpunk, historical, fantasy | Time travel and time loops | 5 times fic / 5+1 fic | Women in leadership positions, working with/against other women | Mission fic | Fixing/building things together

DNWs
Non-con | Mpreg | BDSM | Incest | Watersports & scat | Underage | Teenager (under-18)/adult romance and sex | Omegaverse | Sex pollen | Unrequested non-canon ships | Medical kink (meaning: explicitly kinking on medical treatment, doctor/patient relationship, use of medical equipment. Feelings and attraction developing during hurt/comfort, wound care, etc., are fine.) | Readerfic | Character bashing (characters can be critical of others, particularly if canon-compliant, but I don't like characters being made to be villains when they aren't meant to be.) | Pre-relationship that doesn't go beyond that | Allan/Neelie, Allan/Lydia and Ozias/Lydia

Fandom-specific Likes
- Identity porn
- All the intrigue and wild stuff of a Victorian sensation novel
- The absolute devotion and adoration that immediately springs up between Ozias and Allan
- Ozias as an iron woobie
- Allan just wants to sail his boat and travel the world - lots of opportunity for adventures
- Lydia! She is ruthless and smart and angry and honestly I feel like I understand why she was driven to the lengths she was, considering her status in the world. I would love something that digs into Lydia's psyche a little more, or an AU where she lives and can do something more with her life. Maybe she can have a wild romance with another woman who doesn't live by Victorian rules.
- I absolutely ship Ozias/Allan and would love shipfic, but I'd be delighted by canon-level close friendship.

Tag exceptions
If you just want to write about Lydia I would be absolutely fine with that. Equally, if you want to write about Allan and Ozias I don't mind if Lydia doesn't appear. I would like Ozias and Allan to appear together, though.

I've been ill for pretty much all of 2024 so far, so I've not had much energy for anything. I'm slowly starting to feel like I'm coming out of it now, thank god.

Reading

I managed to read a fair bit recently. My favourite book so far this year has been The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, which was somehow funnier, weirder and bleaker than I expected. I'm planning on picking up Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew because I enjoyed Karunatilaka's writing so much. I also loved In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, which is a fairly harrowing memoir on domestic abuse, but it's so beautifully written, with each chapter driven by a different narrative trope, that I blasted through it in a couple of days. The chapter written like a choose-your-own-adventure novel has stuck with me ever since.

I'm currently reading System Collapse, the latest Murderbot book (still fun) and I've started The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, about Scott's expedition to the South Pole.

Writing

It's taken me ages to get back into the swing of writing this year, and I'm not quite there yet, but I have managed to tidy up a few things that have been lingering. I've not written much new stuff, but editing has got my eye back in. I have to finish up my fic for Candy Hearts, which is unexpectedly going right to the wire.

I wrote three Rogue One fics for Seasons of Drabbles:

Write down what you remember (200 words, Bodhi-centric)

Not Yet (300 words, Jyn Erso & Saw Gerrera, pre-canon)

Settling (600 words, a series of double-drabbles in a daemon AU. Featuring Jyn Erso, Bodhi Rook, K-2SO).

I also edited and posted the 10th chapter of my Rogue One/Hunger Games AU To The Victor. I enjoy writing the mentor and Capitol stuff so much that I've still not got to the actual Games kicking off, but I do have a bunch of stuff for that written - I just need to get it into shape. There's just a lot more characters to juggle once that really gets started, and it's quite difficult to make the action in the arena compelling when your POV characters are watching it at a remove.

Lastly I decided to stop procrastinating on posting the Victorian M/M fic I've been working on. It's technically an AU of my original work but I hope it will stand alone, especially as it has its own plot now. I posted the first two parts here: luthier_balloonist
Watching

I actually went out last night! To London! I haven't been out properly since my baby was born in 2022, and before that it was all pandemic lockdowns, so it's been ages. A friend and I went to the Comedy Store to see the improv performance. It was fabulous, not least because one of the players was Sophie Duker, aka one of my favourite Taskmaster contestants. She and Josie Lawrence were hilarious together, and if they could turn any of their sketches into some flirty romance they did.

I also started watching Culprits on Disney+, which I'm enjoying a lot so far. Joe seems to be living a pretty great life - he has a handsome boyfriend he's really into, two great kids, a nice house - but his past criminal life is catching up with him. It stars Nathan Stewart Jarrett, who I love. He's excellent in this, and on a completely shallow note he looks absolutely incredible with long locs, and in the first episode alone he wears a) a natty suit, b) very short shorts, and c) nothing at all. I feel very catered to.

Here's some more recs for Yuletide! There weren't that many fandoms I was familiar with, and due to time/brainspace limitations I chose to stick to short fic (though there's some longfic in my Marked For Later list that I would love to get to at some point), but there were some gems later in the alphabet.

Fraternal Stone

The Radiant Emperor series | Zhu Chongba & Xu Da | T-rating | 1.3k

I love Zhu and Xu Da's friendship in the books, and this was a great look at them in their early monastery days. There's some great in-character teasing interactions, and the throughline metaphor of the fruit works really well.

5 Other Things The Bassoonist Failed to Tell His Husband

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme | The Bassoonist/His Husband | G-rating | 1k

First, this is based on a sketch from John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme on Radio 4. It's extremely funny, and you can listen to it here (it's the opening sketch but honestly I recommend the whole show).

This fic is so funny and I love how it takes the silly premise of the initial sketch (the bassoonist in question has failed to tell his husband that he is, in fact, a bassoonist) and just runs with it. I can hear John Finnemore's voice exactly while reading, and that is a great compliment.

it's been a weird day for me (i don't think it's been a good day for you)

The Thick of It | Nicola Murray & Malcolm Tucker | T-rating | 1.8k

This is just a spot-on post-canon Nicola Murray (who has fled to Arizona to rebuild her life, but she's far too Nicola to really do very well at it), and I absolutely love the idea that Malcolm gets out of prison and starts a furious political podcast. What I wouldn't give to listen to him absolutely eviscerate the current Tories.

Bungee Courage

We Are Lady Parts | Amina Hussein/Saira | T-rating | 1.2k

This is lovely. I really enjoy how ridiculous they both are, and the parallels of what they can and can't do. Saira's voice especially is great, she's so prickly and intense and full of feelings while hating that people have noticed.

I'm slowly working my way through the Yuletide collection. There's some fantastic fic in the fandoms I know – have some recs!

not mine

Andor | Vel Sartha/Cinta Kaz | T-rating | 2.9k

Excellent Cinta voice, and it really digs into the tension of her relationship with Vel and their different approaches to the rebellion. I also love the links it draws between Cinta and Cassian.

moses (slow of speech and of a slow tongue)

Attack the Block/Doctor Who | Moses, The Master, The Thirteenth Doctor | T-rating | 3k

This really gets Moses as a character. He's taciturn, observant, and smart. The crossover elements work seamlessly – I've been hoping for a crossover between these two fandoms for ages and this really works.

Major Opportunity

Blackadder Goes Forth | Blackadder/Darling | T-rating | 3k

I'm envious of the character voices here – everyone is spot-on, and it really captures the absurdity of a Blackadder episode. It's genuinely very funny.

And dig for us as we have done

The Detectorists | Lance & Andy | G-rating | 3.3k

This just feels like an episode of the show. The interplay between Lance and Andy is great, and the whole thing really captures that warm, late summer vibe.

The Half-Seen Door

The Green Knight (2021)/Piranesi | Piranesi, Sixteen, Gawain | G-rating | 1k

This is written in sonnets and it's amazing. So dense with allusion and reference, with a strong sense of rhythm and rhyme that really has something to say about the characters.

The Lai of Sir Gawain

The Green Knight (2021) | Gawain/Bertilak de Hautdesert | T-rating | 3.9k

A beautiful post-canon fic that really captures the strange melancholy of the movie. The slow deepening of the central relationship is really well done.

The Fic in a Box reveals happened earlier this week! I wrote two things:

The Edge of the World

His Dark Materials | Gen | T-rating | 11k | Roger Parslow & Billy Costa & Tony Makarios

Set during Northern Lights, Roger, Billy and Tony are sent to the farthest North after being kidnapped by the mysterious General Oblation Board. After a slow start I had a lot of fun writing this. I've not tried to write from a child's POV for a long time, but I think it works. I like writing these kinds of characters, where there's enough canon details to extrapolate from but also a lot of leeway. I became very fond of Roger, Billy and Tony while I was writing this, and I wish canon didn't end so tragically for two of them!

Dhuheartach

Original Work | Gen | G-rating | 6.8k | Lighthouse Keeper & Crew of a Ghost Ship

James Airy, the new lighthouse keeper of Dhuheartach, considered himself of scientific mind. He was not a man given to believing in ghosts.

I spent 48-72 hours absolutely obsessed with this lighthouse off the Isle of Mull. Designed by Robert Louis Stevenson's father, it was built after a truly awful number of ships were wrecked in the treacherous waters. If any lighthouse is going to be haunted by a ghost ship, it's this one. I went for a more melancholy, gentle tone than a spooky one, though, which I think works pretty well. As usual I got myself all attached to my OCs.

And I got three gorgeous gifts, one for each of my Robot/Human original work tags! I love every single one of them and feel very lucky with this exchange.

Yes? by shamebucket

Original Work | F/F | G-rating | Android/Her Human Soulmate

This has some lovely solarpunk worldbuilding woven into it, with a great android POV that has some real specificity to the android v human experience. And there's an adorable stargazing meetcute with an older love interest.

What We Are by LadyBrooke

Original Work | M/M | T-rating | Mage Healer/Broken Android Healing Doesn't Work On

I love the blend of magic and technology in this, and a lingering tension between the two. There's some beautiful melancholy moments, with lingering trauma and slow healing that feels very Tolkien-y.

Breakers, relays, contactors by isevsianne

Original Work | M/M | E-rating | Human Pining for Robot Best Friend/Robot Pining Too

I love pining and this fic delivers it in spades. There are some exquisitely aching moments of yearning and the main character being so caught up in his blind spots that I want to shake him (lovingly). The space station setting is so remote and yet has all of that delicious forced proximity. And then a bonus chapter of wireplay, aka one of my favourite smutty things in robot ships.

Reading

Finished Thursday Murder Club, which was a lot of fun! I thought I'd guessed the answer to one of the mysteries, but Osman managed to surprise me. I'll pick up the second one for sure.

I've started Havana: Year Zero by Karla Suárez, which is my last book in the Storygraph Reads the World challenge for this year. This one is for the Cuba prompt (if that wasn't obvious from the title)

I jumped ship from Goodreads to Storygraph a few years ago and I prefer it in basically every way. This is the second year I've done the Reads the World challenge, and while I've not loved every book I do like how it makes me look further afield and try new things. 

So far I like the book okay. The premise is interesting: Cuba in 1993 is in the 'Special Period', the huge economic collapse following the end of the Soviet Union. The protagonist and narrator, Julia, is a mathematician on a quest for a document that proves the telephone was invented not be Alexander Graham Bell in Scotland, but by a Cuban. I love the premise, and there's so many interesting details about life in Cuba at the time, but so far Julia's life mostly revolves around three men (her ex-lover, her current lover, and a man who is definitely interested in her) and none of those relationships are particularly working for me. But I'm only a quarter of the way through, so I'm holding out hope that it will get more interesting.

My new non-fiction book is Shadowlands: A Journey Through Britain's Lost Cities and Vanished Villages by Matthew Green. I'm only on the first chapter, about the Neolithic settlement on Orkney, but it's fascinating and beautifully written. I was a bit wary that this book would be some elegy for a mythical, bygone "good old days" Britain, but it definitely isn't that at all. 

Writing

Very little! I finished a second fic for the Fic In A Box exchange, this one an original work. I'm quite pleased with it, and it also took me over my 150,000 words goal for the year. Hurray! I had intended to edit a bunch of fic this month but I think I need a bit of a break from looking at my own stuff after writing so intensely last month. I've not even had the energy to properly read my gifts for the exchange - I feel a bit burned out (and have a chest infection). But I'll set aside time in the next couple of days to make sure I appreciate my gifts properly, and hopefully I can jump back on the writing train soon.

Watching

Hey Duggee, mostly, because my toddler loves it. It's cute but it's no Bluey.

But also Interview With A Vampire! I bought the first episode on Amazon ages ago, but then they announced that it would be on the BBC so I waited. I have never read the books and only know some bits through osmosis but I am really enjoying the show. Jacob Anderson is absolutely brilliant as Louis (and it's becoming ever more apparent how wasted he was on Game of Thrones), and Sam Reid is so very watchable. I also like how thoughtfully the racebending of Louis seems to be being handled - Louis grappling with his new status as a vampire while grappling with his status as a Black man in Louisiana is some of the most interesting stuff in the show.

I've never really been into vampires or had a vampire phase, so my understanding of the inherent eroticism of vampires is more academic than anything else, but after a few scenes in these three episodes... yeah, okay, I get it a lot more now. This show is horny as fuck and beautiful while doing it. 

The second Doctor Who 60th anniversary special was great. It was a proper, solid Who episode, and felt like a spiritual successor to Midnight (aka the best episode of Russell T. Davies' original run, for my money). David Tennant and Catherine Tate were on fire, their chemistry is as good as ever. I can't believe I ever doubted Catherine Tate. It was funny, sinister, emotional and exciting all in the same episode, which is pretty great when for the most part it was just those two actors playing against one another. 

Can't wait for the next one, because these specials have been far better than I expected so far, and also: NCUTI GATWA LET'S GO.

Reading

I finished reading Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski, which I still wish I'd read years ago. It's so positive and affirming, though it was a little depressing to confront how many cultural myths about women's sexuality I've internalised and had never really challenged. You're normal and that's normal and that's okay are the book's mantras.

Now I need to find my non-fiction read for December! I have a list of non-fiction books I'm interested in, and I think I want to lean a little lighthearted and easy for the end of the year, since December will not only be dark and dreary but also busy. I'm eyeing up Greek to Me by Mary Norris, which seems to be part travelogue and partly about the author's obsession with language and alphabets. It sounds fun and interesting, and hopefully will remind me of sunny Santorini while I'm in cold, rainy Glasgow.

For fiction I'm about halfway through Ran Away, the 11th Benjamin January book. I am hooked! The 10th book was probably my least favourite of the series so far, but this one is brilliant and I want to read it rather than do nearly anything else. The first part was set in Ben's past in Paris and it was great to get to actually see that, and to meet Ayasha as a person rather than a source of Ben's angst (though I do love Ben's angst, he is a perfect iron woobie). Ayasha was delightful, brilliant and sharp-tongued and smart, and Hambly's attention to period detail just as good in 1820s Paris as it is in 1830s New Orleans. I'm now back in New Orleans, and Ben is trying to prove Huseyin Pasha's innocence, while trying to keep up with the demands of playing piano at the balls of the rich. And Hannibal is back! Hambly's attention to detail of this social mileu is second-to-none, and she clearly has a great time poking fun at them. I particularly enjoyed the musicians and servants placing bets on which petty arguments would escalate into duels, and this aside:
Writing

Still behind on my word count goal for the month, but no more behind than I was last week! I've written just over 32k so far, so getting to 50k will be a tall order but not entirely out of the question provided I can get some decent writing time this weekend. I think November is going to be my writing month, and then I'll try and do some editing in December. I usually edit as I write, for the most part, so it's been interesting to try and let myself just throw things at the wall, as it were, and just keep pushing through rather than getting caught up in making the previous bit "right".

To the Victor (Rogue One Hunger Games AU): I have a solid version of chapter 10 done, and I can definitely get that polished up in December. I have a big, unwieldy draft of chapter 11 that will need a lot of work but essentially hits all of the beats I want to hit. I may need to kill some darlings of character interactions just to tighten up the pacing, but I'll see how I feel later. I definitely need to rework a tense, action-y scene -- always a bugbear -- not least because it contains lots of [[FIGURE THIS OUT LATER]] notes to myself. I skipped merrily to chapter 12 and I think I need to make myself outline it in a little more detail as now I'm trying to juggle not only the mentors in the Capitol but also the tributes in the arena, and it's A Lot.

Indulgent Victorian AU: now actually resembles a story, or at least the start of one, rather than a collection of scenes that don't hang together! I know the broad outline of the plot (it's not quite the same plot as the original, but I can't resist going back to that well but making it Victorian). I am enjoying writing all the repressed pining and taking any opportunity for the characters to call one another "my dear" while telling themselves that it's completely platonic. I need to do some more research on how hot air balloons worked back then, but mostly I want to write some UST in the backstage of a Victorian theatre.

As-yet-untitled fantasy romance thing golem_djinn: isn't going along as quickly as I would have liked, but Anand has been saved from the Big Bad and they are almost out of the desert at last! Unfortunately I feel like I've lost my sense of the character voices and the emotional beats that I want to be hitting, so I think the actual solution is going to be to reread the whole thing from the beginning. But if I can at least write the roughest of outlines of the ending I'll feel better about it, and then I can go back and actually rework it properly. Things have cropped up as I've written and there's things that should be built into the world or characters earlier, and probably other things that should be trimmed or cut because they didn't go anywhere. But that's why it's a WIP, I guess! At this point I think this will be a 2024 project, really.

This time next week it's December, somehow! I have actually really enjoyed trying to write a ludicrous amount in only 30 days, but I'm looking forward to slowing down. Maybe then I'll have the time and energy to watch some of the many TV shows or films I've been putting off.

Inspired by mildredmost to try posting a little more in namespace (since Tumblr doesn't really do it for me) and to use my journal for something other than exchange letters. Let's see how long this fit of nostalgia for the old days of Livejournal lasts!

So with that in mind, I've stolen this fun fic meme:

Go through your last 5 fics and share the first and last line. Provide no context.

To the Victor (WIP)

A lot of people were surprised when Jyn Erso emerged as the victor of the Hunger Games.

"Lead the way."

Fractals

Baze sat in the shabby spaceport, weary to his bones.

"The rebellion."

A Spring Moon

The spring festival was busy.

The clouds overhead shifted, and Sarantsatsral's smile was lit by the moonlight.

Ostinato

"Hey, can I get a hand with this?"

“Yeah,” Daniel breathed. “I have time.”

Ocean Whispers

The early breeze was warm and tinged with ocean-salt.

The wind in the trees outside sounded like whispers.


What I'm getting from this, mostly, is that I don't have very compelling opening lines, and I have a tendency to end my fics with a line of dialogue (though To The Victor is only about halfway done, so maybe that one won't!) I do struggle with both opening and closing lines and tend to just go with "good enough".

I do like the opening line of To the Victor, I have to say. It's also the only one where the opening line came to me as the idea that sparked the entire story, so make of that what you will.