A Certain Slant of Light

It's been a while since I've done a bingo, but I couldn't resist the latest hc_bingo amnesty round, as it's specifically for small fandoms and who doesn't want to give a small fandom more love?

loss of hearing	forced soulbonding
haunted	loss of home / shelter

I haven't absolutely decided yet, but I'm leaning toward doing a fic for the prompt "loss of home/shelter," for Rosemary Sutcliff's Blood Feud (14 words on AO3! Very small!) - because lo these many years ago I wrote a pair of fics called Diptych in Amber, which had fics from the perspective of Jestyn and Alexia... and I always meant to round it out to a Triptych in Amber by adding a fic from Anders' point of view, but somehow it never quite came together.

But I think something about loss of home - losing his home to the blood feud, and finding a new home with Jestyn and Alexia - I think that might do very nicely.

Oh hey! I filled a Ladies' Bingo square almost by accident! This is an outtake from my NaNo (I'm at 22,367 words) for "silhouette." Phase one of Ashlin & Olivia's friendship is collapsing.

***

I saw Ashlin one last time. I would have avoided her if I could, but I had to go to pick up my portfolio from the art room.

I had meant to pick it up after my history final, but when I peered into the room, Ashlin was in there painting, and I chickened out, and cursed her all the way home. It wasn’t just the portfolio. I had wanted to have one last chat with Mrs. Marks before summer.

So I went back on the very last day of school, even though I didn’t have any finals. In fact, practically no one had any finals that day, and there was almost no one there. The school seemed bigger and brighter than normal: the sunlight from the doors seemed to stretch along the polished floors for miles.

The art room was dim, though: the lights were off, and the light from the windows obscured by the leafy trees outside. I peered in. Ashlin wasn’t there. I slipped inside, rushing to the back shelf to grab my portfolio, but when I turned around to leave…

Ashlin had finished the Queen of Summer, God knows how. The painting loomed out of the shadows, and even in the dim light it was beautiful. The duskiness of the room enhanced the shadowy mystery of the forest, while the bright colors of the Queen seemed to glow against the darkness. She almost shimmered, like a heat haze in high summer.

I gazed, mesmerized, taking in all the details. The butterfly perched on the Queen’s fingertip. The spray of daylilies in the background, bright orange against the dark green of the forest. Occasional glimpses of the deep blue sky through the branches.

I don’t know if Ashlin saw me looking at it. I think I heard her right when she arrived, and turned, and saw her standing the doorway. She was just a dark silhouette against the bright lights of the hall, but even though I couldn’t see her face, I knew her. I knew her height, her manner of holding herself, like a bird perched on a twig on the verge of flight. Her chin lifted, just a smidgeon, and I knew that too.

“Olivia,” she said.

“Ashlin.”

She swayed, as if she meant to move forward, but she remained in the doorway, outlined by the line. She lifted on hand to the door jamb as if to support herself. “I’m just here for my painting,”

I hoisted my portfolio like a shield. “I’m here for my portfolio.”

Her shirt had a draping medievalish sleeve that fell to a point, creating a great black triangle against the light. “Well,” she said. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” I said. Suddenly my feet began to move - that was how it felt, like they started walking without any contribution from me - and I walked past her with my head down, so I didn’t see her face, but once I was out in the light shining hall my steps faltered, and I turned around.

She no longer stood in the doorway. She must have gone inside, but I couldn’t see anything in the art room: it was simply too dark in comparison with the dazzling light of the hall.

“Goodbye!” I called. And then I ran.

And then she was gone.

hc_bingo is open again! I'm so tempted to sign up; it's always been my favorite bingo, and it's also been a while since I wrote any fanfic, so maybe it would get me going again...

But I've also been thinking that I need to focus on my own original writing, and hurt/comfort bingo is such a tempting distraction, perhaps I should resist it's siren song.

On the other hand, I have an almost polished first draft of Sage, and once I've finished that I really ought to take a brief break before jumping into another big project. (My current plan for my next novella - possibly novel? I feel like this one could grow alarmingly - is The Depressed Civil War Nurse and the Doctor with the Permanent Limp from His War Wounds Find Love Even Though They Believed Their Infirmities Made That Impossible. It will have a better title once I've actually written it.)

And what is better for a brief break than writing a short story about Stockholm syndrome or survivor's guilt or scars?

The time for trope_bingo is upon us! I am posting my card here, in order to beg for your aid and assistance in brainstorming story ideas!

The one square I am wedded to using is “character in distress,” because that is pretty much perfect for the fic about Lucrezia Borgia’s descent into the catacombs of Rome in order to save her brother Cesare, who is in the clutches of his vampire lover and needs a lot of saving. It will be glorious!

That leaves me with three possible lines to use:

curtainfic	rites of passage / coming of age	au: mundane	soul bonding / soulmates	in vino veritas / drunkfic
amnesia	hurt / comfort	transformations	character in distress	immortality / reincarnation
fuck or die	holidayfic	FREE ★ SPACE	deathfic	bets / wagers
mind games	presumed dead	against all odds	language and translation	trust and vows
au: alternate gender norms	time travel	marriage	metafiction	au: crossover

I am kind of yearning toward the “language and translation” square, because I have a strange and terrible fascination for stories about characters who connect despite the unfortunate fact that they don’t speak the same language and can only communicate nonverbally - like Jamie and Aurelia in Love Actually, or that one couple in the first Call the Midwife episode. Those are the only examples I can think of now.

One would imagine Sutcliff would lend itself to this sort of thing, but actually I think her protags always speak the requisite languages or learn them really fast. (Although IIRC seascribe had a fun Eagle AU where Esca didn’t know Latin?) I think there’s a reason both the examples I listed come from visual media; this would be really hard to get across in writing, because this would be quite hard to write, I think.

In any case, I feel pretty burnt out on Eagle fic right now. Or, actually, this is not quite true: I have one Eot9 story left that I want to write, a Cottia story during her summer in Aquae Sulis while Marcus and Esca were haring around Caledonia. Cottia has been misbehaving, and Aunt Valaria decides she needs a firm lecturing about How the World Works:

Aunt Valaria: You are Iceni in a Roman world, a woman in a man’s world, and a child in an adult world. You must never tell people what you really want or how you really feel, because to do so is to give away your only weapons: secrecy and charm!
Cottia: I refuse, I refuse, I refuse to believe that this is true (I am secretly afraid it is true), I REFUSE.
Aunt Valaria: How did I fail you, how did I fail?

But I don’t think there’s a trope for that.

Anyway, this is all a moot point, because if I used that vertical line I would have to write metafiction, so probably I should toss it on that account. And possibly I should toss the diagonal too, because of the “au: alternate gender norms,” tag. I don’t know what I would write for that.

Plus, if I did the horizontal with “transformations” I could write the Black Swan story about Nina the wereswan! I don’t know what I would do for amnesia, but I already have a title idea: “Lest We Forget.” And you know titles are always the worst part! (Thoughts who I could give amnesia?)

And for immortality...maybe I could write something about Tortall’s gods? More Tortall fic is always good. And of course hurt/comfort would be perfect to Tortall fic too. Hurt/comfort is generally a perfect prompt for any fandom, but especially for fandoms where characters canonically spend a lot of time getting swords thrust at them.

Title: Angels and Demons
Fandom: Les Miserables
Pairings: Enjolras/France, Grantaire's massive unrequited crush on Enjolras
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: So not mine. :(
Prompt: hc_bingo, bruises
Summary: Enjolras's new mistress is the female personification of France - or so he says. Grantaire thinks she might be an evil spirit.

Title: The Threefold Tie, chapter 2
Fandom: Rosemary Sutcliff, Eagle of the Ninth
Pairings: ALL THE PAIRINGS. Esca/Marcus, Esca/Cottia, Marcus/Cottia.
Rating: PG
Beta: sineala & savvierthanu
Disclaimer: So not mine. :(
Summary: After an argument with Esca and Cottia, Marcus is left alone on the farm. Can they repair their ties?

Also on AO3: Chapter 2: Memories

( Chapter 2: Memories )

So savvierthanu and I were chatting about how hard it is to come up with titles for stories, and I suggested a game of title roulette. Basically you come up with titles and write the story based around that - preferably using quotes from classic literature because the context of the quote might help spark a story, whereas if you get a title like "Starfish" or something then what do you even do with that?

(Little Mermaid ninja AU?)

- sorry, I got distracted. I gave savvy "In the Forests of the Night," from Blake's poem "Tyger Tyger," and naturally this led to weretigers and she wrote an adorable story about Chekov, who has suddenly turned into a Siberian weretiger and is snuggling with Sulu: Weretiger. Cuddly weretiger! Awww.

This left me with questions.

1. Why are cuddly weretiger stories not a thing? LET US MAKE THEM A THING, FANDOM. I am also game for cuddly werepandas and wereflying squirrels.

2. If a werecreature goes into space, do they stop being a werecreature because there's no longer a moon to put them in their animal form? Or do they just turn unpredictably whenever they're in too close proximity to a moon? What's the mechanism for were-transformations, anyway? is it something to do with the gravitational pull of the moon, or is it the quality of moonlight?

And if werecreatures do turn unpredictably in space, has Starfleet banned werebeasts from its ranks? "I'm sorry, we just can't have you suddenly turning into a tiger and eating members of the crew, it's bad for morale!" And if so, think of the dramatic possibilities! A werewombat sneaks through Starfleet training, concocting anti-were serum in secret in the science lab, only to run out at a critical moment!

...Unfortunately I do not know any of the Treks well enough to write this. I release the werebunny to the world! Go forth and propagate stories!

3. I also note that the title "In the Forests of the Night" still lies unused. But unfortunately I have no weretiger story ideas at all. If it involved either drugs or restraints (WERETIGER ENCAGED), I could totally use it for hc_bingo, too...

"Do they always put you in a cage for the full moon?"

"Always," she said, letting her striped hair fall like a curtain over her face.

"But that's horrible."

"Not as horrible as coming back to yourself and finding the 'tween maid dead," she said.

EDITH CRAWLEY, LADY WERETIGER. No wonder she thinks no one will marry her.

ALTERNATIVELY. A Little Princess fic. Sara Crewe goes walking through Miss Minchin's establishment soon after she arrives, and finds Lavinia in her cage. It would go some way to explaining Lavinia's sour temper...and why she hates Sara. She can't stand having anyone know her secret.

Fic: A Brother's Blood
Fandom: Frontier Wolf - Rosemary Sutcliff
Rating: PG-13
Beta: carmarthen and sineala
Prompt: hc_bingo, death
Summary: His father squeezed Cunorix’s hand. There was little strength in his withered fingers, but his broken nails dug into Cunorix’s palm. “Sometimes, my son,” he said, “to be fond of the Romans at all, is to be too fond.”

Also at AO3: A Brother's Blood

( A Brother's Blood )

Apparently bingos do mini-challenges when they do not actually have a bingo running? I had not realized that this might be the case until I looked at trope_bingo this morning and, oh look! They have a May challenge. With cards to choose from!

I am trying to decide if I want to do the challenge: trope_bingo didn't go nearly as well for me as hc_bingo did, possibly because I don't find tropes quite as inspiring as hurt/comfort (unless of course they are hurt/comfort tropes. Cuddling for warmth FTW!), but also possibly because I did it during the Semester from Hell (tm) and perhaps I should give tropes another chance by taking a card now.

And also perhaps the fact that tropes don't come as naturally as character torment means that writing more of them stretches my abilities more as a writer? It's always good to try new things.

Although by that way of thinking, possibly I should take one of the AU cards. They have noir AUs! Circus AUs! Royalty AUs! (Royalty AUs? Is that really a thing?)

I could totally see a Veronica Mars royalty AU. Lily as assassinated princess! Veronica, her lady-in-waiting! Also possibly bodyguard, though that would give her an extra burden of guilt for Lily's death. Logan: possibly a prince from a neighboring land? Neptune of course would be a kingdom, or at least a city state.

(Veronica Mars: also perfect for a mermaid AU. They already live in the town of Neptune, for goodness sake.)

Must contemplate this.

Also! Seeing the trope_bingo challenge inspired me to go see if hc_bingo was doing a similar thing, and indeed! A May challenge! But not just any May challenge: it is a challenge for fics for tiny fandoms, and therefore basically made for me.

pneumonia	caught in a robbery
lacerations / knife wounds	counseling

I'm kind of drawn toward the pneumonia prompt (although it's also hard to go wrong with knife wounds...), but I don't have a real yen which fandom to write for. Anyone have any requests/thoughts/ridiculous yet awesome ideas?

It is spring break! I think I've mentioned this already. I'm pretty excited about all the lying around watching movies and maybe writing my robot book that I plan to do. (The robot story is becoming a children's book. I HAVE A PLOT AND EVERYTHING. IT IS SO EXCITING.)

HOWEVER. Spring break is a time for relaxation, but nonetheless, I have things that must be done. I have deadlines!

1. My three-page art history paper. It is three pages! It will be easy! Get on it, self!

2. My eight-page identity paper about Uncle Tom's Cabin. (I also mean to write a post or two about Uncle Tom's Cabin. I have feeeeeeelings about Uncle Tom's Cabin, starting with how the epithet "Uncle Tom" is only a little less unfair than using "Lolita" to mean a sexually precocious girl. Like, have the people who use lolita that way read Nabokov's Lolita? It's about a child molester! Lolita is not sexually precocious, she's a little girl being abused by a creep!)

3. I have one last fic to write for trope_bingo, for the square "day at the beach."

Maybe I could write another Psych fic. There's a beach in Psych! Shawn & Gus's office is right by it! (How much are they paying for that? Oceanfront property is usually pretty steep. Does Shawn have a shady deal with someone so they pay less rent than it's worth?)

A treasure hunter on the beach in Santa Barbara is bludgeoned to death with his own metal detector! Shawn and Gus are on the case. It turns out there is a sunken Spanish galleon out in the bay! (We will gracefully ignore the fact that no one has ever noticed it before. Minor details!) They borrow Shawn's dad's boat to go check it out and end up being taken hostage by a crew dressed up as Spanish pirates (because why not?) and -

...but then it's not a "day at the beach" fic, but a buccaneering ocean fic. Drat.

Maybe I could write a fic about "the Bennet sisters (+ Mary) go to the beach." They live in California, right? So even if they're not right on the coast, they're probably within day-trip distance of a beach. They are trying to cheer Lydia up after the Wickham debacle, through the medium of sun, sand, and Frisbee games!

They lose the Frisbee to the tide, like you do, and Lydia stares after it tragically - not in a metaphorical, "THE FRISBEE IS GONE FOREVER, LIKE MY HEART" manner, because that doesn't really sound like a Lydia way of thinking, but more in a "I am a little fragile right now and small setbacks make me tear up" kind of way. And then there are group hugs and ice cream!

I might time this to coincide with Charlotte's visit, because YAY CHARLOTTE. But on the other hand, five characters is a lot to keep track of.

ETA: And also, it might be a little cold for a beach trip. But OH WELL, I like the beach idea, maybe Lydia insists they go to the beach even though it is winter and everyone is like "Well, let's humor her, she's had a rough month."