☆❀☆

raremaleslashex author reveals were today, so now I can post about what I wrote, yay! ;)

I'm really, really pleased with this fic; since I started writing immediately after getting my assignment, I had lots of time to put the work into it, and it turned out exactly how I wanted it.

"Just for one night". A Redtail's Dream, Tuomi/Little Hare, 8.3k (!!), rated 0/G. Postcanon friends-to-lovers. Written for Terezimakara, who is a super lovely recip. :D

Summary: It has been a year since they first met, and Tuomi and Hare are still seeing each other. This isn't easy to do when one is a human and the other a hare spirit - but Little Hare has a plan to fix this.

Read it at Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25368649

Or at Dreamwidth: https://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/153289.html

Overall, this was a very good exchange for me, and I'm very happy with how it went! :D

I've already crossposted links elsewhere, but I figured I might as well slap these recs down here too. Why not. :D

Vatican Miracle Examiner

☆ Moonlighting by Madamefolie. Roberto/Hiraga + also Sister Anna Dolores, McGee, Julia, & Ruggieri Rutherford. 18+, 25.5k (!!).
Author's summary: A familiar face returns with a request-- and so our heroes find themselves enlisted to assist Zion's Law with an undercover mission. The terms of the assignment, however, are strictly ballroom.

My notes: The author tagged this with with: undercover missions, crossdressing, undercover as married, and action/adventure. And a few other things. Those together with the summary give a pretty good idea of what you're in for with this one. It's rated 18+, sure but, unlike most of Folie's other 18+ fic, I wouldn't recommend it for the porn; not because that bit isn't as good as it is in her other works, but because the undercover mission plot is so much fun! This fic has fucking everything - espionage, information recovery, gun fights, a really cool car chase, you name it. (And lots of McGee being his usual self, which delighted me. Everything is turned up to eleven, man.

Hetalia

☆ Cost by Greendragon_Templar. Australia and New Zealand, directly post-WWI. G, 2k.
Author's summary: Bloodshed’s not a foreign concept, but the stain of a world war will linger. They have suffered alone before; now, they suffer as a part of a much greater whole, mourning the state of the world.

My notes: It's been a while since I last read a fic like this one, so it was a cool drink of water. Very nations-as-nations, this one.

The next two were for raremaleslashex, which at this point of writing is still in the Anon stages. I'll add the author names in once they're revealed. :)

A Redtail's Dream

☆ Something He Can't Break by [Anonymous author]. Puppy-fox/Hannu (Yes, really). T, 3.4k.
Author's summary: Puppy-Fox finds himself in a human body, and with a particular caveat regarding Hannu.

My notes: This was delightful. Lots of little humour, and tons of points for taking a surprising pairing and putting it together in a way that I can look at it and say "Yeah, okay, I can see that". :D Plus the characterization in this one is great.

Stand Still Stay Silent

☆ where no other love goes by [Anonymous author]. Reynir/Onni, & Taru, Sigrun, Mikkel, Emil, & others. T, 10.7k (!).
Author's summary: The Kade in Red fled through the deep forests, and the mage followed.

My notes: Premise of this is that it takes place several years after current canon. There was a second mission, and it went... badly. This is about what happens after that. Contains temporary death, resurrection themes, and divine meddling. Reynir gets to do something cool. Happy ending. Yay! ANYWAY, what really interested me was the worldbuilding, and the background politics, and the mentions of the other mission. Well worth a read.

Hm! I see that Junnu Kuitunen/Samuli Tiira is in the tagset* for raremaleslashex. I hope whoever added that will request it, because I'm reaallly interested in seeing what they have in mind for this pairing. It's not one that I'd considered before, but the more I think of it, the more I like the idea of it; the city slicker/the outdoorsy guy. I don't have a firm grasp of characterization for either of them, but depending on the request, I could maybe try my hand at it. :D After a bit of canon review.

Come to think of it, I have only re-read the chapter with the Kuitunens a few times - on re-reads I usually skip directly to chapter 3, since that one has Åsa and Riikka and Anssi in it. Maybe I should give it another look. It'd be fun to write characters that I haven't written before. And if one of my WIPs turns out as planned, I will eventually need to figure out how to write Junnu anyway, so....

Aaand this has reminded me of all of my unfinished things. And all of the ideas that I haven't written yet. xD Drowning in a pile of fic prompts. Also: I need to do more aRTD stuff that is not SSSS crossover. Throwing the aRTD characters into an apocalyptic zombie plague is fun, but the aRTD canon itself is fun too, especially if you play around with the magical and folkloric bits that are already present in the comic.

☆ holiday_wishes is a comm recently brought to my attention - the general idea is that people can post wishlists of up to 10 things, and others try to fill them. What a nice idea. Perhaps some of you will post your wishlists?

☆ fandom_stocking has signups open! I don't think I'll be signing up for this fest this year, but I'm going to browse through the possibilities and see if I can fill anything, as always.

☆ Three Sentence Ficathon is happening on Livejournal. Leave a prompt, take a prompt, have fun. I remember that I really liked this fest last year, so hopefully this year I will as well.

☆ femslash_kink opens for prompting in a couple of days~ I might try writing something for this, depending on what the prompts are. Or maybe I'll prompt something and then... fill... my own prompt... (I have such a craving for some fucked up Marzanna/Vesna lately, seriously).

☆ [aRTD] My pal Kiraly drew some aRTD fanart of Tuomi and Hare for me and ahhh I love it. Go look at it, it's so pretty! <3 <3

☆ [Music Rec] I had some actual stuff to say but I can't remember what it was, SO, here's a random music rec: Good Prevails by Alpheus. I don't know a whole lot about ska/rocksteady/reggae as genres, but I know what I like, and Alpheus sure does have a lovely voice. "Our Strength" is a great track, ditto "Show Some Love" and "Reach for the Top" and - well, the whole album is solid, really. Aaand since I'm on the subject, if any of you have some ska/rocksteady/reggae favourites that you'd like to share with me, I'd love to hear about them! Like I mentioned, these aren't genres I explore much, so I'll give anything a try.

Haven't had the energy to properly go through the ToT collection yet, but since author reveals were today, I figured I might as well drop the recs for my lovely gifts, and de-anon the things I wrote!

My gifts

☆ [aRTD x SSSS] "Journaling the Apocalypse, or whatever" by Kiraly. Tuomi-centric, set during SSSS's year 0, journal format. 0+, 1.5k. Her voice for Tuomi is perfect. <3

☆ [aRTD x SSSS] "A Haven for this Heart" by Elleth. Joona/Hannu, set during SSSS's year 0. 0+, 1.4k. I love the way she writes this pairing, and she included my love for radio communication, ahhhh <3 <3

☆ [SSSS] "We Interrupt this Broadcast" by MadameFolie. Aksel, Berit, & Sigrun L; 0+, 215 words. Bite-sized canon-typical creepy radio happenings.

☆ [Small Trolls] "First Magic" by Lunarium. Jáhko & Veeti, 0+, ~400 words, delightful bite-sized cuteness with a hint of magic. <3

What I wrote

☆ [aRTD] "Let the Strings Sing" for TereziMakara. Tuomi & Little Hare. 0+, 1k. Tuomi searches for a song that he heard in his dreams, and tries to do something that should, by rights, be impossible. Ao3 | DW

☆ [aRTD] "The Song of Tuomi, the Hare, and the Fox" for TereziMakara. Tuomi, Little Hare, & Puppy-fox. 0+, 36 lines poetry. And then a fox came along and said, "Hey kid, I have an idea for you...." Ao3 | DW

☆ [SSSS] "Sailing Back". Ása Harðardóttir for Unlos. 0+, 100 words. Ása has had quite enough. A little rest will be good for her. Ao3 | DW

☆ [SSSS] "At dusk". Aksel Eide & Sigrun Larsen for IdleLeaves. 10+, 600 words. An encounter during the early days. Ao3 | DW

☆ [SSSS] "Full Circle" for ArgylePirateWD. Sigrun/Tuuri. 10+, 600 words, canon-divergent. They made it back safe and sound, and now.... Ao3 | DW

So, fics for Multifandom Drabble Exchange were revealed today. I really, really enjoyed this exchange - there's just something about bite-sized fic that I find really fun.

I suggest checking out the main collection and treat collection if you haven't already. So many fandoms listed! *_* A little bit of something for everyone, I think.

I'm not finished reading everything I'm familiar with, so for now I'm only going to rec my gifts.

( 7 recs under the cut - SSSS & YiH )

Aaand anyway, here's the 5 fics I wrote, for completeness's sake. (All crossposted to roesslyng, of course.)
( aRTD + YiH )

☆ Starting to feel better, FINALLY. I'm still coughing a lot, but by this point it's like, mostly a reflexive thing. Urghhwarblglarbl.

☆ I gave up on the Curiosity scarf that I had in-progress, and unravelled it, and started over. This one SHOULD be possible to do in one skein of Arroyo, but I wasn't managing it. I jumped down two sizes below the recommended needles and... it looks like now I'm able to work the recommended gauge. Lovely. xD Ahhh I'm still not used to actually paying attention to gauge... but if I want to do this scarf properly (without running out) then I guess I'm going to have to.

☆ Speaking of which, in a fit of craziness I ordered more Malabrigo Arroyo in the same dark blue, and I think I'll try making this hat to go with it. I like the bit in the description that says you can spend a lot of it just comfort knitting - that sounds reassuringly relaxing. :) Soooo hopefully when I start that one (whenever it'll be) that will go well.

☆ Kiraly drew an adorable Jonna/Riikka picture for me, which is posted over here. I can hardly wait for her to mail me the original, eee. <3 I realized today that I've only written two stories with them, which is a travesty and I must remedy this ASAP. xD

☆ A random fic rec: As Long As You Like by Kiraly. Author's summary is: A week after their first encounter on the ferry, Michael and Signe meet again. Some things have changed. Some things haven't. Goooo read it, it's a lovely fic with this pair - very true to character, and basically the continuation of their story to a part that I wish we'd been able to see. ...Yes, I'm only just now getting around to reading stuff from Chocolate Box. ;p
*I think that it's possible to enjoy this one even if you aren't familiar with Stand Still Stay Silent - all you need to know is that there was an illness spreading rapidly through Europe (and the rest of the world), and that these two met on a ferry that was bound for Bornholm, and they weren't able to return to the mainland because Denmark closed its borders.

☆ Noms start March 15th for nightonficmountain if anyone's interested. Schedule is here. This is a small/rare/inactive fandoms exchange - always nice to see those. Unsure if I'll sign up for this one, but I'll be keeping my eye out for people to potentially treat.

☆ Wow, is it ever nice out! I'd forgotten how good it feels to be able to wear a normal amount of clothing, rather than winter gear. Went out today with minimal layers and it felt great. SO FREEING. (Of course, this mild weather is not exactly season-typical, and that is worrying, but whatever. I'll enjoy this while it lasts.)

☆ Real life is kind of a pressure cooker right now (to put it mildly) so I've been spending some time offline, trying to deal with that. Success has been... uh... varied. But! Hopefully with the weather turning, and the days getting longer, it'll be easier to deal with things. (That sounds kind of weird, I guess, but - it's just hard to get motivated when it's freezing and pitch black out, you know?) On the upside, one recent RL-related positive is that my optometrist appointment went well; I don't need glasses. What a relief. I don't need yet another thing to worry about right now. And also, I've made an appointment for a driving lesson... on Friday. Probably would have been useful to practice more before paying for something like this, but eh, in other ways it's better to just go to a professional. I might end up paying for a whole set of them, who knows. (I neeed to get my license, good lord.)

☆ Chocolate Box fics have been revealed!* And I received three wonderful gifts! I feel so spoiled. <3 I haven't had a chance to look at the rest of the collection yet, but I'm sure everything else is awesome too. In particular, I have my eye on the SSSS stuff (apparently there's a great Signe/Michael fic in there, I can hardly wait). And there's over 30 fics in the YOI section, so there's bound to be something to my taste. And of course I always look at the art, no matter what fandom it is. :) Anyway, my gifts were as follows -
+ Keep it Close. A Redtail's Dream, Jonna/Riikka, G, 3.2k. Pining with eventual get-together! *_*
+ Like a feather on the ice. Yuri on Ice + Hetalia crossover, Phichit + Thailand gen, G, 3.9k. Phichit has a mysterious friend and this is basically the crossover I've been wanting for a while, haa. <3
+ Not Your Style. Yuri on Ice, JJ/Leo, 18+, 2.4k, set a year or two before canon. *_* There is nothing I do not love about this; it's the kind of fic I've been wanting to read with them for quite a while now. <3

☆ Fests/Exchanges! I'm still on hiatus from signing up for things, and will be for the foreseeable future, but that doesn't mean I haven't been keeping an eye on things. Signups for smutswap start next week (Schedule). I threw some things in the tagset, so who knows, maybe there will be requests I can treat. Also, the Porn Battle Prompt Stack is starting up over at pbam; prompts are open until February 22. On the fence as to whether I'll toss some prompts in there - I do have ideas, but I'd feel bad for prompting without writing anything. We'll see.

☆ Gen2 is coming to Pokemon Go soon (according to details over at pokestop) and oh my gosh, I can hardly wait. The game has been so grind-y lately, it'll be nice to work with something completely new. Though I expect that some of the game changes will cause it to be kind of buggy at first. We'll see...!

☆ I've started listening to an audiobook version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (unfortunately, Philosopher's Stone wasn't available at the time) and ohhh man, it's reminded me of how much I used to love that series. I haven't read the books in ages, and now I'm feeling so nostalgic. Looks like I'll end up listening to the entire rest of the series, probably. xD There is SO MUCH that I've forgotten about how these stories go! I mean, yes, I've seen the movies and so on, and rewatched some of the early ones a few years ago, but it just isn't the same. And now there's a part of me craving Hogwarts AUs for so many other series that I like. (Especially for A Redtail's Dream, because Fred and George make me think of Joona and Jonna. The thought of those two as wizards is just too funny.) Though as usual my preferences lean more toward fanart, hm.

I posted 79 (!) individual works over at roesslyng over the course of 2016. This is a higher number of fics than I've ever finished in one year. The total wordcount was over 100k, which is also more than I've written in any given year. This year has been great, output-wise.

Final count: Stand Still Stay Silent (35), A Redtail's Dream (22), Hetalia (9), Yuri on Ice (4), Frozen (3), Original Work (3), Mad Max (1), Song of Achilles (1), and Rose of Versailles (1).

( List under cut )

☆ Dreamwidth was down for maintenance today. I internally flipped my shit. Guess I hadn't realized just how much time I spend on this place. (My anoncomms, man!) ...I ended up reading fic. Whaddayaknow.

☆ Note to self: Take dad's computer down to the repair joint on Saturday. Sigh. I hadn't planned this weekend to be super busy, but when I tally up all of the stuff that I want to do, it doesn't leave much wiggle room. Maybe watching that movie will have to wait....

☆ Have a song: Passenger - Beautiful Birds ...Damn son, this is my first time hearing anything from this album (Young as the Morning, Old as the Sea) and oh nooo, am I going to have to get this one too... I think I will. Or maybe I'll ask for it for Christmas. Some of Passenger's stuff kind of runs together, but when he's good, he's really good.

☆ I got an awesome story idea while I was walking home from work! Of course, I can't say what it is, because when I talk about my ideas too much, they end up not getting written. But it is Super Cool, and I'm really excited about it. Maybe I should try working on it tonight?! MAYBE. Even though I'm both exhausted and hyped. Going to have to simultaneously wake up and chill out, geeze. Now, where is my pen...

☆ Oh, and speaking of writing, the short aRTD fic I wrote for the SSSSForum advent calendar was revealed today, and it can be read in the relevant thread or over here at my writing journal. Yay!