I misunderstood the point of this ride

Taking a breather mid-work-day after a somewhat nerve-wracking meeting with my boss, so, hello out there. I hope you lot are doing all right.

In the world of Lilith Does Too Many Exchanges, a lull of sorts approaches; the chocolateboxcomm archive is live, and the rarefemslashexchange archive will be soon (hopefully tomorrow). I'm not doing anything but once_upon_fic, which has a pleasantly long creation period, until May at least. Whew. I'm hoping to come out of the winter blues with a more balanced professional life (as I keep getting the hang of this position) and fresh energy to put towards my original projects. Fingers crossed.

Oh, but speaking of Chocolate Box! My gifts are amazing and deserve all the eyes on them.

In The Script of the Future, X-Men Comics, Mystique/Destiny, 721 words, G
A sweet look at the earliest days of their relationship, through Raven's eyes, which includes one of the best and most intimate, lovely uses of her powers as an accessible adaptation and it's so romantic and I just can't. I love them so much.

Gravitating towards you, Sailor Moon, Hotaru/ChibiUsa, G
A beautiful portrait of this pairing; in the creator's own words, a "royal portrait, sort of. Because they can't stop looking at each other instead of the painter." Delicate, graceful lines and gesture, a deeply intimate mood, and an excellent use of a limited palette. Could be appreciated with no canon knowledge whatsoever, I suspect.

In other news, I stumbled across an old fannish friend out of the blue on tumblr this weekend, someone I hadn't spoken to in 10+ years, and I've been feeling a little giddy about it off and on. I mean, on the one hand, help, I'm old. On the other, she's still writing (and tormenting a fascinated audience with her cruel chapter cliffhangers and intense emotional scenes) and it's just so lovely to rediscover a lost connection. It makes me feel more hopeful about the world, or life, or something.

Onwards and upwards and all that jazz!

My ex asked me this weekend whether I'd finished my Yuletide story. No indeed, but it's moving along. (Though I will say - knowing that there's a relatively concrete neuropsychological reason why I struggle so much with time management does not magically solve the problem!)

This fall has been a lot. The hibernation urge is strong as we move into winter. That said, I haven't been entirely unproductive! femslashex reveals went up yesterday:


( Vulcan kisses and Fairy Tale AUs )

It was a fun exercise in drawing for fandoms I've been meaning to for ages, and never gotten around to. I should really do more TOS art (how were these my first??); the retro sci-fi costuming is so much fun! Also I've been loving all the canon Harley/Ivy comics I keep catching glimpses of on tumblr ... every once in awhile I feel so genuinely grateful for the way some segments of culture really have changed (or started to) from the norms of even a decade ago.

My own gift was this lovely little Sailor Moon S interlude, A Little More Time, by SugarFey - a depiction of Haruka and Michiru (with a little Setsuna) in between the two major arcs of that season. I've been having a lot of resurgent Sailor Moon feelings this year, and I was so delighted to get this gift. It's just the right mix of sweetness, hotness and angst!

It's very strange how thoroughly out of the habit of reading fanfic I am lately, even though I've participated in so many exchanges this year. I'm always excited to read my gifts, when I get fic, and writing now and then is a delightful and tantalizing challenge, but ... IDK. I do think Yuletide will be different (even though I never manage to read more than a fraction of the archive), because it's very much its own thing. So much variety! Such novelty! And reading the archive is just a favorite holiday tradition, of course.

The malaise is probably a combination of the fact that I don't have a "main" fandom, that the ones I'm most interested in lately are fairly rare, and that I mostly want to listen to audiobooks while I draw (or ride my bike, or do almost anything else). I should find myself some podfic. I'm sure there must be some for The Locked Tomb, at least?

I'm especially excited for multifandomdoodle. I would love to have more all-art exchanges; I crave ALL THE FANART even more than I used to. I go looking for some after almost every book I read lately (the genre ones, in any case). If I didn't hate running things like this, I would totally start a book fandoms fanart exchange.

chocolateboxcomm creator reveals were more than a week ago, but my pandemic brain fog/disjointed awareness of the passage of time has been a lot, lately. I had a ton of fun drawing for the exchange as usual!


( My contributions! )

My GIFTS, though. likeadeuce wrote me The Only Hell Ma Guthrie Ever Raised, a deeply delightful piece of classic New Mutants comics gen that was exactly the kind of balm I needed. The best kids! Shenanigans! Magneto and Emma Frost being, respectively, stern and snarky! And then there was this intriguingly tropey piece of Locked Tomb smut, Fingerbones, by DachOsmin. D/s-inflected necro/cav ritual sex set at the very start of Gideon the Ninth, my gosh.

Cabin fever shows some signs of breaking, as the weather has been warming up (I got to go back to commuting to work by bike last week, which was such a relief). At least, to a point. Semi-quarantine continues to be painful and lonely, and there was an awful scare in my family (non-COVID-related) last week that has me even more shaken right now, which I didn't even really realize was still possible. So I've buried myself in a reread of the Murderbot Diaries over the last few days. I'm excited to write my first fairy tale retelling in years for once_upon_fic (and my goodness, aren't I grateful for the generous writing period, in this time of deeply unpredictable creative energy/exhaustion). And the BFF has convinced me to try and take up Tumblr again, luring me with talk of upcoming The Expanse fic. I hadn't been back over there in three years, so it's a bit surreal.

Speaking of both Murderbot and tumblr, I'll leave you with this truly stunning Murderbot animatic/fanvid which gave me ALL THE FEELINGS, good lord. Made by a 20-year-old, I have wasted my life.

Happy New Year, friends! It's all very symbolic, I know, but I'm going ahead and embracing the relief of leaving 2020 behind. It was a terrible year for me on every level, and I really have no positive spin to put on it. Good riddance.

On a brighter note, Yuletide reveals! I had really wanted this to be the year of treating, but alas, pandemic malaise wouldn't allow for it. Still, I enjoyed writing my assignment:

entre'acts
Wayward Children Series - Seanan McGuire
Alexis Chopper/Jack Wolcott, T, 6.4K
When home is a horror movie world, happily ever after isn’t really part of the package; happily in-between, within the pauses in the tale, are where life is lived and where peace can be found.

My recipient, Cakemage, wanted Jack and Alexis to have a chance to be happy, and requested (situationally-appropriate) fluff. It was a good challenge, and ultimately I decided to craft a series of missing scenes set in between and after the events of Down Among the Sticks and Bones and Come Tumbling Down, with a tiny bit of catharsis around Jack and Jill at the end, as well.

Also, here is a tiny batch of ( initial recs in Carmilla, The Locked Tomb, Monstrous Regiment, and Humans Are Space Orcs (meme). )

More later, I hope, but now I'm going to get to work on my chocolateboxcomm sign-up. If you're meant to spend New Year's Day on the sort of pursuits you want to continue throughout the year, I feel good about my choices.

I hope 2021 is good to you all. (Or else!)

femslashex reveals are up! I had a lovely time creating this year, as always.


ardor (Carmilla, Carmilla/Laura, T)
"... with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips traveled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs ..."
for KannaOphelia

Floriography (This Is How You Lose The Time War, Red/Blue, G)
Another form of esoteric, archaic epistolary communication ...
for Shadaras

stay put (Wayfarers Series, Rosemary/Sissix, T)
One advantage of mammalian girlfriends: they’re so WARM.
for Stonestrewn

I also received an absolutely delightful Original Fiction story from TheseusInTheMaze, about a witch in trouble who transforms into a cat to escape, only to land in the very inviting lap of a visiting queen ... and quite understandably, struggles to find the will to change back: Shapes, and Their Influence.

I'm deep in Yuletiding now, naturally. And also, this looks like it could be a lot of fun ... I think I might put up a "tree." (You should too! I'm hoping to do some treating.)



Life is ... really, really difficult right now, in a quiet, grinding way. I am going to indulge in as much fannish holiday nonsense as I can possibly manage, because egad, do I need an escape.

After such a long, intense holiday season, it’s been extremely lovely to relax and spend time reading this year’s Yuletide crop! I have so many more I want to read, but since I’ve already been more thorough than I manage most years, I thought I’d put together some pre-reveal recs for a change!

First things first: I received two gifts this year, one in the main collection and one Madness treat. They’re both really fantastic - I am the luckiest to have stories for two of my obscure fandoms, written by such talented writers. <3

The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim
Do You See Me?
Lotty Wilkins/Caroline Dester, G, 5447K
This lovely fic is everything I could have asked for - it effortlessly takes up the dreamy, atmospheric quality of the source’s prose, puts plenty of delightful bite into Lady Caroline’s POV, and fixes the major painful problem I had with canon, beautifully. The sweetness of Lotty and Scrap’s dynamic is complimented by the cathartic reworking of Scrap’s reaction to Mr. Briggs. So good!

Chronin
Travelers
Mirai Yoshida/Hatsu, G, 1093K
Aaah! I’m so beyond pleased to get fic for this! It’s a delightful little post-canon conversation between Mirai and Hatsu that showcases everything I love about their dynamic (the way Hatsu challenges Mirai and all her expectations at every turn) and pokes at the whole topic of time travel a bit more. Deftly written and full of possibility. <3


I’ve been reading all over the archive in whatever order fancy takes me, and trying to really mix things up, so I haven’t read every story in nearly any fandom that has more than one. Here are some entirely random favorites( in 14th Century RPF, Captain Marvel, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Gideon the Ninth, The Good Place, Oxford Time Travel, Slings and Arrows, Victor/Victoria and Wayfarers. )

I’m looking forward to sharing a bit about my own story after reveals. After all these years, Yuletide continues to be one of my favorite fannish holiday traditions, period. And I really needed it this year!

Well, apart from the fact that everything is terrible I love this time of year so much. I have my favorite indie convention coming up this weekend, femslashex stories and art have just been revealed, yuletide assignments are out ... and of course there's Halloween and (theoretically, sometimes) cool, crisp weather and changing leaves, etc.

My yuletide assignment is exciting and challenging and I am thrilled with it; I can hardly wait to start reviewing the source material! And check out the not one but two amazing femslash gift fics I found in my inbox this weekend ...! Both answering requests I've been stubbornly making for years, too. <3

Favors: Killjoys, Dutch/Delle Seyah Kendry, Explicit. The hot, aggressive but relatively light fake relationship/kinky sex story I've been dying for since season one!

Allegiances: Craft Sequence, Tara Abernathy/Catherine Elle(/Seril), Teen. One of my favorite pairings in one of my favorite series, brought together by an uneasy working relationship and an uncomfortable (but inexorable) divine connection. JFC, I'm delighted.

Sigh, I suppose I should get back to work, which is very boring today. Before I do, though ... I was poking around the yuletide community for the first time in ages, and I came across something intriguing: a challenge for folks who would enjoy receiving art treats for their Yuletide requests. Be still my overambitious fanartist heart!

Basically, people are leaving comments if they'd welcome fanart treats, and you should all go add yourselves immediately to: the Wrapping Paper Challenge on dreamwidth or on LJ. YAY.

Well, I continue to more or less live in outer space (I’d feel guiltier about this, but it’s kind of a survival thing right now; finances and mental health are both pretty disastrous, although I’m doing my best to change that, slowly).

After an ... extended period of rewatching, note-taking and analysis, the outline for my Garak/Bashir fic project(!) is coming together, although I’m weirdly having a much easier time with the emotional arc than the plot. (This is seriously unusual for me! At least, in my original work, where concept/plot/worldbuilding are always the easier part, so far.) I’m getting closer, though ... and deeply excited to just immerse myself in writing these characters.

(Mainly, I’m struggling to invent the specifics of a convoluted, covert plot worthy of Elim Garak. I mean, that’s kind of next level, you know? Argh.)


Also, I semi-accidentally took a NSFW fanart commission based on the suspension scene from The Policy of Truth a scorching hot BDSM-centric fic by Prevailing (WiP, but worth it, and I’m fairly certain she will finish it eventually). Which was also a bit of a departure on a number of levels.

( Here’s the (NSFW!) full image. )

I kind of have a lizard problem. But at least I’m enjoying myself?

This show.

I’ve been thinking about posting here again (for things other than exchange letters) a whole bunch lately, especially with rumors of Tumblr’s increasing instability as a platform, and my lack of motivation to check out this Imzy thing. Oh, I’m sure if that’s where the next great migration lands, I’ll wind up following. But in the meantime, I miss this space, the sense of having a stable ’home’ for my fannish/private self online. I doubt I’ll ever post more than sporadically, since a lot of my internet/social media time is taken up by my more public persona, but even so.


Anyway, speaking of exchanges, sign-ups are open for femslashex, and you should totally get in on it. It’s become my favorite annual fannish event, for fairly obvious reasons ... all femslash, massively multifandom, and includes fanart. I really like this trend in fanwork exchanges, even though there are a fairly small number of fanart pieces every year; I’m not sure if it’s the problem with outreach to fanartists (this is definitely an issue, and one I’m at a loss with), the number of people only requesting fanfic, or both. (Request fanart, people. Please? I mean, I get wanting a story, but we make nice things toooo, and we want to make them for you!)


Also, possibly because I’ve become a heavy Goodreads user in the past year (and am thus much more conscious of what I’ve read when), I find myself wanting so many small SFF book fandoms lately. So I made a fairly tl;dr post over on my tumblr with some recs for books you should read and sign up for in exchanges! And now I’m going to crosspost it here.

( The Craft Sequence, by Max Gladstone )

( Wayfarers, by Becky Chambers )

( The Arcadia Project, by Mishell Baker )

Yuletide, here I come.

So the other day I saw this post fancasting Rihanna as Crowley and Lupita Nyong'o as Aziraphale on my tumblr dash, and had to try and give it a shot. Could've done a better job with the shading, but it was super fun to do nonetheless! I should make a point of drawing more fancasts in the future.



Summer's ending, and with it, I'm supposed to be doing less fanart, but ... that doesn't really seem to be happening, does it? I'm currently signed up for fanartremixexchange, femslashex, and tw_fallharvest. All my assignments are super exciting! And of course, here I am producing completely random things.

( Scott McCall is a Magical Girl. )

Also, speaking of fanart, Teen Wolf, and Sailor Moon, I'm meant to be reccing the latter on fanart_recs this month (and I'm behind! I need to get another post up, stat). Here's a roundup of my ( Teen Wolf recs from last month! )

It occurs to me that I know nothing about any incoming new shows this fall. Anything you guys are excited about?