mixed habitat & densely vegetated hiding places

sanguinity gave me these five questions to answer! I'll come up with five questions for the first five people who ask, so please comment if you want to play.


( 1) What's a favorite research detail you've included in a story? )

( 2) What advice would you give to someone about to experience a New England winter for the first time? )

( 3) Do you have a favorite kind of pen? If so, are the pen-wormholes reliable about bringing them to you? )

( 4) How do you choose your next book to read? )

( 5) What makes for a good exchange letter? )

space_swap creators have been revealed! I received two fantastic gifts, both of which fall squarely in the category of "if I don't request this again, it's only because I already got exactly what I wanted for it":

other places only make me love you best (3874 words) by hannelore
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: General Audiences
Relationship: Gillian Taylor/Nyota Uhura
Additional Tags: Crushes, Mutual Pining, Friends to Lovers, brief mention of 20th century homophobia, Science Girlfriends, Post-Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, subspace communications
Summary: Gillian is thrilled when Nyota contacts her about working together on a whale language translator even though they are stationed on different vessels far across the galaxy. Two years after Gillian left her past, she's given the chance to go back to Earth for a brief science mission. It's not until she steps onto a bus in Sausalito that she is jolted both back and forth in time so abruptly that it rocks her entire world.

Guiding Light (1882 words) by lah_mrh
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Philippa Georgiou & Saru
Additional Tags: Backstory, Friendship
Summary: The Archimedes' first contact with the Ba'ul, before and after.


And I wrote this for facethestrange:

Falling Awake (3178 words) by pauraque
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Characters: Sylvia Tilly, Mirror Sylvia Tilly, Airiam, Michael Burnham
Additional Tags: Dreams and Nightmares, Blood, Friendship, Self-Discovery, Season 1
Summary: The crew has returned from the Mirror universe, but Tilly is still troubled by dreams of her other self. She turns to connections in the waking world to help sort it all out.

Chocolate Box works were revealed yesterday— over 1000 fics and art pieces in a huge variety of fandoms! I wasn't signed up (though I did contribute one treat) but here are a few entries that stood out to me:

art

Quiet Moon (G, Harry Potter, Remus Lupin/Severus Snape) by Rebecca
A quiet moment under the full moon.

Aggressive negotiations (G, ST:DIS/Star Wars fusion, Keyla Detmer & Joann Owosekun) by laughingpineapple
No matter how this goes, Keyla will fly them out of here in one piece.

forest friends (G, She-Ra, Light Hope/Mara) by koraki
Mara meets some new Etherian critters and takes them home to visit Light Hope.

fic

The Weather Outside is Frightful (G, ST:TOS, Kirk/McCoy, 772 words) by Rosencrantz
Trapped on a hostile planet, Bones must contend with the horrors of snuggles.

stay or go (M, ST:VOY, Janeway/Seven, 680 words) by ijemanja
Seven still has a lot to learn.

A New Path (G, ST:AOS, Spock & Spock Prime, 477 words) by lah_mrh
Spock has a conversation with his younger self.

Much to do with hate, but more with love (T, Romeo & Juliet, various m/m pairings, 2279 words) by shewhostaples
Romeo was not born to hate. (Four paths that might have been taken.)

Look Again (T, M*A*S*H, Hawkeye/Charles, 2442 words) by scioscribe
Hawkeye and Charles get two days' worth of leave in Seoul, and Hawkeye sees something he can't shake.

Experiment 823: Maximum Overdrive (G, MST3K, Crow & Tom Servo & Mike, 526 words) by RobberBaroness
Tom and Crow attempt to recreate a prank from this week's experiment.

Marshmallow Fluff (G, Calvin & Hobbes, Calvin & Mom, 907 words) by Wotwotleigh
Just when it seemed like the latest rainy camping trip couldn't get any more miserable, Hobbes has turned up missing!

[eta: creators]

I am way behind on everything (yes, everything--I really don't think there's a single area of life where I'm actually caught up) and I know I owe replies to a lot of people. I'll get there, I promise!

But first, startrekholidays reveals happened, so let's start there. I received this fantastic gift:

The Reflection (1703 words) by NervousAsexual
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Character: Romulan Commander (Star Trek TOS: Balance of Terror)
Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, References to Depression, Questioning Authority, Romulans, Episode: s01e15 Balance of Terror
Summary: A reflection, the crew said. Another Tellus, following along on the other side of the bent light, tracing every move they made. Maybe so.

I was surprised and delighted to get fic for my most longshot request, and it's so good! A thoughtful study of one of the most compelling one-off characters from TOS, perfectly capturing his strange melancholy and the curious bond of respect between him and the mysterious "human commander" of the Enterprise. Go read it and give the author love!

I wrote:

Festivals of Light (1420 words) by pauraque
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Rating: General Audiences
Relationship: Beverly Crusher/Deanna Troi
Summary: Aboard the Enterprise, holidays from many worlds are observed all year long. While attending a celebration of the Bolian winter solstice, Beverly and Deanna find that some traditions just make sense no matter what planet you're from.


Since I didn't end up having time to treat in yuletide, this was my last fest fic for 2020. Phew! I signed up for a lot this year, especially towards the end. A year-end fic roundup post will be coming soon.

The Friendship Flash Fall collection is open and I have been blessed with two delightful friendship-filled gifts!

Timebruised (564 words) by shadaras
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: G
Characters: Michael Burnham & Sylvia Tilly
Summary: Michael and Tilly try to sleep, the first night after Discovery slips through time.

Kal-toh (300 words) by kingstoken
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: G
Characters: Uhura & Spock
Uhura carefully moved the small magnetic stick from the centre of the twisted bundle and transferred it to the small structure that was beginning to form near the top...


Also, I'm back from vacation and gradually catching up on stuff. Let me know if I missed anything important!

[eta authors]

It's 15 days too late for this, which is just about how behind I am on everything else at this point, so at least I'm consistent? /o\

I wrote a lot of fic this past year, mostly for fests. Well... all for fests, actually, or at least for things with deadlines. Not coincidental, that. Towards the end of the year I bit off more than I could chew and did have to drop out of one fest, which was a first for me, and a bummer. Next year, more realistic scheduling! But according to AO3, I wrote about 30,000 words in 2013, which is a bit more than in any past year, including years in which my fandoms were much more active.


( Harry Potter )

( Star Trek )

( Warcraft )


I'm going to be bold and say that most of these were solid stories that I'm proud of. It was flattering and encouraging this year to be invited to write at daily_deviant and to win/place in a couple of categories at hpfanficfanpoll. I hope this doesn't sound stupid or vain, but what I really want out of writing is to give other people enjoyment, and when I meet that goal it makes me happy.

Onward!

Since it's the last day of kink_bingo and the last day of Rectober (whoever decided that was a thing... I never quite figured that out), here, have some KB recs.

Harry Potter
Schoolboy Blues by delphi (Explicit, Snape/Filch, kink: class fantasies)
author's summary: Severus Snape knows every shortcut at St. Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys, including a few of his own devising.
If that summary hasn't already convinced you to read this fic... well, then you're clearly not me! This is the best kind of AU, where this new way of seeing the characters lets us look into them more deeply.

Star Trek: The Original Series
Feel Fine by sineala (G, Spock & Kirk & McCoy, kink: emotion play)
author's summary: Spock finds that he wants to be happy.
A wonderfully thoughtful and astute portrait of Spock after the events of STIV, learning and re-learning how to navigate the space he inhabits between Vulcan and human. Just lovely.

Warcraft
Scarlet and Ivory by usefulobject (Mature, Interrogator Vishas, kink: torture/interrogation)
author's summary: Vishas fantasizes that deep down, those damned Forsaken really like what he does. You don't get to be Scarlet Interrogator by not being creepy.
I love how Vishas projects his own twisted thoughts onto his victims — because, of course, they're the perverted ones! This fic nails the tone of how scary things are presented in WoW, with a hint of macabre humor that lightens the grotesqueness just enough.

X-Files
Palliative by sineala (Mature, Krycek, kink: enemas)
author's summary: Alex Krycek deals with his oilien experiences in a unique way.
Longtime friends know that the oilien episodes hold a special fascination for me, so it was a real treat to find this post-Apocrypha fic from KB 2010. The way Krycek experiences the trauma of the possession and the way he regains his sense of control are so perfectly him.