Cerulean Blue

Yuletide, baby!

Thank you for signing up, dear writer, and thank you for offering in one of these fandoms. I know I will love whatever you write, and I hope you have fun!

Some general likes: character pieces, thoughtful world-building, plot that explores alternate beginnings and endings. Angst with happy or at least resolved endings. Closed door sex but public flirting and maybe even some cheeky foreplay. Dialogue. Apocalypse is always fun. Crossovers!

Some general dislikes: alternate settings unless requested, explicit sex, real-world politics unless it's a real-world property to begin with. Non-requested character deaths. Gore.

Specifics under individual cuts.

( North and South )

( The Stand )

( The Diplomat - request is spoilery through season three )

( Daisy Jones and the Six )

Kinda had an itch in the immediate aftermath of the Skeleton Crew finale. Might have more. Who knows.

TITLE: For the voyage is long and the winds don't blow
FANDOM: Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
RATING: PG
PAIRING: None
CHARACTERS: Jod Na Nawood, Female Jedi Exile
SUMMARY: A little history of the pirate known as Jod Na Nawood, though he would not own a bit of it, in truth.

AO3 link

Thought I would share the awesome trio of Little House on the Prairie stories I received for Yuletide and Yuletide Madness! Of the fandoms I requested this year, it surprises me that this was the one each writer chose, but it is a definite win for me :-)

Hasty Hearts and Steadfast Love - Almanzo Wilder/Laura Ingalls and Charles Ingalls/Caroline Ingalls, but it's just as much about Ma and Laura and is a wonderful little glimpse at the kind of advice Ma would be in a perfect position to give.

On the Way Home - Almanzo/Laura. One of my prompts was for Laura and Almanzo to be stuck waiting out a blizzard in the Brewster schoolhouse, and this author delivered in spades. I love the way this brings both of them to a bit quicker understanding of one another, but also respects the age difference and boundaries set by Laura's father. Almanzo is just perfect here!

Warm Together - Almanzo/Laura, a quick little drabble about Laura craving warmth and a picture of early marriage. One thing this made me think about is how Laura, and most likely many of De Smet's residents who survived in The Long Winter, would never want to be cold again, and would very likely fear it.

All told I think I'm now due for a Little House re-read. Maybe in the new year.

Happy Yuletide to all!

Hurray, Austen!

Dear writer, thank you! I'm pretty easy but also brimming with ideas. Please take anything you see here as suggestions and not directions! Frankly I'm just always thrilled to read Austen fanfiction.

Here we go:

( Persuasion )

( Crossover Fandom )

( Pride and Prejudice )

Snowflake continues....

Challenge #10

Five Things! The five things are totally up to you. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


How about, the last five fics I read on AO3? And I'll make this a little more interesting than that by only choosing one per fandom (I tend to binge in fandoms) and none of my own Yuletide gifts.

Sweet Ginger by pauraque (Black Beauty) - A drabble about Black Beauty's dream of Ginger. It brought me right back to my childhood - I loved this book! - and boy, it's a gut-punch.

The Adventure Begins by Shadaras (Star Wars) - I don't want to spoil this for you! Just know, it's an alternate tale for how Luke's story begins, and Beru Lars is awesome here.

Catch Fire by igrockspock (The Diplomat) - You'll be outright spoiled for the end of The Diplomat season one, but this is an excellent take on how the new season could begin.

Until Some Other Day by sheafrotherdon (Captain America/MCU) - I still love all the stories about Steve Rogers returning to Peggy Carter, but this one really sticks with me.

The Art of Marriage by Jen_814 (Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen) - Edward marries Lucy and Elinor has to move on. One of my favorite AU tropes for S&S featuring my favorite AU pairing.

Skipping a few (for now, or forever, who knows) to answer Challenge #8.

Challenge #8

Talk about a current fannish project (fic, art, vid, crochet, funko pop village) (that you are creating or enjoying)

I'm geeking out over New Rockstars' retrospective breakdowns of the X-Men movies on YouTube.

We watch a lot of New Rockstars at our house, and I'm also digging this video about what might have happened during the MCU Blip for Matt Murdock/Daredevil. It's a plotbunny generator, seriously.

Challenge #3

Create a wish list of fandom things (podfic, graphics, playlists, canon recs translations, research help, vids, sky's the limit!) that you'd like to receive

Oh gosh. I think most of all I'd like the Josh Lyman/Donna Moss video I thought of years ago, set to Avril Lavigne's "Complicated."

I don't think I have anything new, though. Here's the list I put together in 2019. It all stands.

Will this be the year I complete the challenge? Stay tuned! I'm starting several days late, so...

Anyway, Snowflake #1!

Challenge #1

Update your fandom information. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


Well, let's see.

My primary fandoms these days are MCU and Jane Austen. If I'm watching or reading, it's there, and if I'm doing fannish activity online it's probably writing Jane Austen. I'm always talking about doing more (the padawan has asked me for Jyn Erso/Cassian Andor fix-it fic, so...), and I'm really and truly only productive in micro-fandoms meant for Yuletide, but there you have it. My primary participation in fandom is in fic writing and reading; I've stayed out of the forum/community/whatever circuit for awhile, with the last really being The Americans.

Historically, I came up from X-Files fandom and haunted Harry Potter fandom for awhile. I was an almost day-one Livejournal addict, ran a website for awhile, participated in niche groups for X-Files on forums and email lists that eventually moved to LJ or died off.

My fic is housed here at AO3. (I think that's all of it, or all that I'm willing to keep published)

I'm trying, anyway.

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Yuletide was awesome, and I feel properly spoiled. I'm also going to brag on my 2022 gift, because I was a crappy recipient at the time and want to draw your attention to the awesome. But we'll go in reverse order.

2023 - I've gotten so predictable in my requests, y'all, but this year I went with a dark horse in Werewolf by Night and it paid in spades. It's a Fearless Life by treewishes is a really great what-if of Jack wishing he had never been born, featuring founding member of the X-Men Angel in the Clarence role. I truly love this story and think you might as well, if you were, like me, delighted by Werewolf by Night.

Keeping with the It's a Wonderful Life theme, I also got Love is Patient by Karios , a look at the whole story from Mary Bailey's POV with a bonus ending for the film that I would have loved to see in canon. Mary Bailey is very probably my favorite film character, and I love her more every year. This story gave her agency without breaking the film's story and I really love it.

These stories really were a gift. I was one of the amnesty recipients for Yuletide after a default with no NYE make-up story. I did turn in a story this year - and I will share that later, this post isn't about that - but I felt pretty guilty anyway. 

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Okay, looking back at 2022 - I don't know how I got so lucky, and I confess that I was really, really bad about commenting. I'm never a great commenter - I sometimes get these several paragraph responses to stories and I feel inadequate. And then I just...I don't know. I was so busy at the beginning of 2023, and trying to keep up with everything, I always knew I would drop things I didn't realize I was even holding. This was one of those things and I regret it awfully.

First there's this super A League of Their Own drabble by desertvixen (Marla Hooch, Dottie, and Kit), which is delightful and spoke directly about, I think, the most underserved character in ALoTO.

But also! 

igrockspock wrote me some Matt Murdock/Jennifer Walters entitled Baggage That Goes with Mine. My request IIRC was to just pair Matt and Jen and see what happens. Answered! Every big of Daredevil and She-Hulk that my bruised fangirl heart needed, more than once, several times actually, throughout 2023. I scrolled through and re-read pieces of it often, rediscovering it more than once. Alas, usually at 2am, on my phone, half-asleep, but that was 2023.

This right here is why I ship them, if you're wondering:

I can't recommend this story highly enough. And now I need to stop typing and go re-read this while drinking something warm and caffeinated (tea. I'm going to drink tea.)

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BUT WAIT. I CAN'T YET. Because I haven't told you about THIS ONE.

buries wrote a nearly 20,000-word story about Matt Murdock, Jennifer Walters, and...HOWARD THE DUCK.

Y'all.

Look, 2023 - I know, you know, we all know. And I read this story and my brain just did not compute what just happened. This is a gloriously told story. Implausible and fantastic. The characterization is dead-on throughout, none of the characters are left behind. Matt and Jen - oh lordy, Matt and Jen! Obscure villains! Howard! But also, you guys, Jessica Jones. Trish. This is concept art for a movie that really SHOULD be in development because this entire universe is so much fun.

And again with the oh-so-perfect Matt and Jen, who are not allowed to date anyone else now that I know they can be so good together. This is just fact.

Witness:

This is ALSO why I ship them. And why I read this story more times than I could count, but again, failed to somehow praise and thank the author for sufficiently. 

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So yeah, I need to go curl up and read. And read and read again.