EXCHANGE INTERFACE

One assignment (which was a treat):
ad astra per aspera (2026 words) by tielan
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sam Carter (Stargate), George Hammond (cameo)
Summary:

Even after the Challenger disaster, even beyond the Cold War, Sam has a yearning to reach for the stars. Human risks and military applications are one thing, but a dream of what the stars represent - the possibility of the human spirit - that's something else.

This was quite fun to write, nutting out the motivations behind Sam, mapping out her pathway through the AF and Op Desert Storm, and the issues she would have had to walk in and lay down that gauntlet.

With a couple of decades of hindsight and a lot more worldly experience, it's kind of intriguing to see the original "reproductive organs" comment and what led up to it. It's hazing. Gendered hazing, yes, but hazing. Once they realise she's going to give back what she gets, they stop dishing it. (Also: Jack chides them with a glance.)

The idea of General Hammond dropping a 'trail of breadcrumbs' for Sam was optioned by someone else in fandom. It might even have been the Fandemonium authors Jo Graham, Melissa Scott, and Amy Griswold in their SGA Legacy series. I can't remember anymore; it all blurs.

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One treat (which was a trick):
seeking sensei (356 words) by tielan
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Mako Mori
Additional Tags: Trick or Treat: Trick
Summary:

Mako's footsteps echo in the layered dust and hollow silence.

I picked this one up on a whim. It's not very notable, I'm afraid - the recipient got four other gifts/treats, so I can't imagine this was particularly popular.

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The unfinished treat (Pepper, Maria, Jane, and Helen Cho avert Civil War) is about 1.2K in and counting. I don't know if I'll gift it to the requester - might just add Maria/Steve angles to it and post it on my own cognizance. Certainly it's further than I've ever gotten with any other Civil War alternative.

For Chocolate Box, I wrote three fics:

For lmizutani:
FANDOM: Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
TITLE: Teach A Girl To Fish And She'll Dream Forever
SUMMARY: Rilla Blythe is the youngest of the Blythe kids, the baby of the family. At least, that’s how Kenneth’s used to thinking of her.
TAGS: Rilla Blythe & Kenneth Ford, Rilla Blythe, Kenneth Ford, friendship, childhood
RATING: G
NOTES: I felt kind of bad about this, because I was assigned to the same recipient as Yuletide, and I'm sure she wanted someone else writing something else. And she got me. :/ It's just a little piece of them developing a childhood friendship - not very deep, but a kind of base on which to build their later relationship.

For millepertuis:
FANDOM: Pacific Rim movies
TITLE: Hypertactile
SUMMARY: Three drifts isn’t enough to scar someone; it shouldn’t have been enough to bond the way they have – or, rather, the way Raleigh has bonded with Mako.
TAGS: Mako/Raleigh, co-sleeping, post-Operation Pitfall
RATING: PG-13
NOTES: A pinch-hit that swung my way, and which I was in an easy position to fulfil. Plus, I have a great fondness for angsting these two out before getting them together.

For Haywire:
FANDOM: Marvel Cinematic Universe
TITLE: Killing Me Softly
SUMMARY: Hangovers were never fun. They were considerably less fun when you’d been pulled up on the carpet of the Director’s office for a 0900 meeting.
TAGS: Maria Hill, Jane Foster, Pepper Potts, Valkyrie (cameo), Wanda (cameo), Natasha (cameo), Melinda May, Girls' Night Out, Karaoke, Fluff
RATING: PG-13
NOTES: A treat I decided to write pretty much yesterday. It's lighthearted and silly and features the all-female Avengers team I introduced in Monstrous Regiment.

They're okay fics, not my most brilliant work, IMO.

In return I received two gifts: one assignment, one treat a few days after reveals.

My gift:
Light As Air by lillypillylies - a Harry/Luna fic with trio friendship that is delightful and perfectly characterised from Hermione and her persisting questions, to Ron and his blunt affection, to Harry needing to stave off a panic that Luna doesn't actually like him after all.

And a treat:
Between the Music And The Rests by scribblemyname | scribblemyname - a Maria/Steve AU where they're IN SPACE and the Avengers are IN SPACE and I want to read the entire IN SPACE novel that must surely come from this. *hint hint*

So, it's been a week of Remixes live for me.

1. Remix Me 2016: a story-specific remix, where we submitted stories to remix, and someone picked one of our stories out to remix.

The remix of my story is amazing! The original is "And Miles To Go Before I Sleep" with a Stacker Pentecost focus, but its remix "See Me Stopping Here (a remix from away)" has done more than I would ever have asked for!

2. femmeremix: AO3 Archive: a female-character centric remix. I wrote two stories - one assignment, one pinch hit, and while neither are brilliant, they're sufficient unto the day thereof. :)

3. MCU Rolling Remix 2016: The idea of this was that one person would write a story, then the next person would receive the story and remix it. The person after that would remix that story, and so on. So it's a chain of remixes, all down the line.

If you can guess any of the ones I wrote, then...you're doing pretty well, I think!

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Finally, my fics for the Franzi and Gecko's Friends Write For Each Other exchange were:

title: still in it for the fight
summary: Anyone with any sense knows that the media storm around Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket is going to be a hurricane; their friends are mostly just hoping that the PPDC's newest pilot pairing don't capsize in the middle of it all.
tags: Raleigh Becket/Mako Mori, Alison Choi/Tendo Choi, Sergio D'onofrio/Caitlin Lightcap, Mako Mori, Raleigh Becket, Vanessa Gottlieb, Alison Choi, Tendo Choi, Sergio D'onofrio, Caitlin Lightcap, Hercules Hansen, POV Outsider
notes: I haven't written Mako/Raleigh in quite a while, so this was kind of a challenge.

title: Only Half Barton
summary: Lila Barton is bored.
tags: Lila Barton, Cooper Barton, Siblings, Kids say the darndest things, Before Dawn They're Your Children, parenting is hard, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie)
notes: A fun little bit that I developed after a conversation in YT chat. :D

title: weapon of choice
summary: She’s sharp and cold as the rocks of the Austrian Alps, a knife of a woman from the precise click of her bootheels across the institution floor to the icy condemnation of her gaze as it rests on Steve.
tags: Maria Hill & Steve Rogers, Maria Hill, Steve Rogers
notes: Quite a few people asked for Maria or Maria/Steve, unfortunately, I only just squeaked in my assigned fic, and was trying to write my Remix fics (all three of them) at the time, so I didn't manage to do more than just one ficlet. Which I think is a bit of a pity...

So now that Yuletide has been revealed, these are my four gift-fics for the 2015 Season:

Yuletide Assignment

fandom: Mad Max: Fury Road
title: The Road To Legend
summary: Fair go, whisper the eddy currents, stirring the sands. Not easy pickings, but a fair go.
rating: PG-13
characters/pairings: Furiosa, Capable, The Dag, Corpus Colossus, Toast The Knowing, Cheedo The Fragile, Max Rockatansky
tags: Post-Movie(s), Slice of Life, Misses Clause Challenge

This was my assignment, and I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. It worked out pretty well, I think, but wasn't very popular. Someone else had written a better, more detailed version of this story, and their work was more recently posted (mine was the first Mad Max Fury Road fic posted in the YT challenge) and so by the time people got around to reading it (if they did), they were 'eh, not as good'.

Yuletide Pinch-Hit

fandom: Tokyo Crazy Paradise
title: Magnet And Steel
summary: The boy he used to be trapped her into service; the man he is becoming wants her to stay of her own desire.
rating: PG-13
characters/pairings: Shirogami Ryuji/Kozuki Tsukasa, Shirogami Ryuji, Kozuki Tsukasa, Shibuya (Tokyo Crazy Paradise)

Until two days ago (when someone posted three little ficlets), I had written the only two fics in this fandom on AO3. And, yes, last years YT Madness ficlet "Chrysalis" connects with this YT assignment fic "Magnet and Steel". I nearly linked the two, but decided, no, I wouldn't. I did anon Chrysalis after I posted, though. Just in case.

This was kind of fun to write - I've had some little bitty plot bits and pieces here and there for this manga ever since I read it back in...oh, 2009? Writing last year's Madness ficlet and this year's pinch hit forced me to actually complete them.

I guess I'll have to actually write the story where Tsukasa climbs into Ryuji's bed as an acceptance of their relationship, won't I?

Maybe next Yuletide....

Pacific Rim Secret Santa

title: together we are not optional
summary: Co-pilots, after the Drift.
rating: PG-13
characters/pairings: Mako/Raleigh, Caitlin Lightcap/Sergio D'Onofrio, Mako, Raleigh, Herc, Caitlin, Sergio
tags: relationship, love, friends, angst, fluff

The request was for Caitlin/Sergio taking Mako/Raleigh in during the holiday season. But the movie happens at the start of the new year, so the next 'holiday season' would be the Lunar New Year - which, given the strong focus of PR on the Asian countries, would be perfect.

However, there was the small issue of actually getting Mako and Raleigh together first. I've wanted to address the issue of previous sexual partners before in fic, particularly since I could write either Mako or Raleigh as ace, but since they have such a lovely respectful relationship, I really prefer them as het - and hot for each other, but working out how the whole issue of boundaries works.

So Part 1 is them getting together, and Part 2 is them working out how to balance it all in the midst of the crazy publicity that would be post-Pitfall in the Jaeger program. It's a very simple piece, which is just as well, because the Captain Hill Secret Santa was kind of crazymaking.

Captain Hill Secret Santa

title: Personal Is Not The Same As Important
summary: Personal is not the same as important. Maria Hill and Steve Rogers understand this far too well.
rating: M - canon-standard violence, flashbacks of physiological and mental torture.
characters/pairings: Maria/Steve, Maria, Steve, Rhodey, Akela Amador, Cameron Klein (Technician Guy), Melinda May's Mom, Original Male Character...and then we get into cameo territory, which is Pepper Potts, Nick Fury, Natasha, Sam, Vision, Wanda...
tags: Civil War (Marvel), Angst Action/Adventure, Happy Ending, Aftermath of Torture, Psychological Torture

Oh look, it's yet another Maria-in-Civil-War fic. Actually, the recip was a late entry into the Secret Santa. So I gave her my assignment and took hers on instead - and she wanted something that dealt with MCU Civil War. This was the short version and the happy-ending version. (Seriously, the long version involved a trip to Asgard, Maria picking up the Hammer, and ending up holding the universe together while pregnant with Steve's child to stave off Ragnarok. And it was angsty as hell, in case you couldn't tell.)

So, I wrote the Civil War section of the fic. Which featured Maria being awesome, because this is me and this is Maria Hill. And then, because there was no way that Maria was just going to forgive Steve and take him back...it turned into a two parter. With a side of torture and psychological angst, because it's kind of fun putting Steve through the emotional wringer. I was writing the penultimate scene when I realised the connection between the two (sometimes my brain does this; I'm writing something without quite knowing where it's going, and then BANG the connection to the beginning is there and it is Very Good) and then it was tea and happy endings.

--

So that was my 2015 Christmas Season.

Now to do the Year In Fic list... Sheesh.

TITLE: No Fate
SUMMARY: This is not about their soulmarks. It never was.
PAIRING: Maria/Steve
CHARACTERS: Maria, Steve, Doc Fine, Sharon Carter, Melinda May, Skye, Bucky, Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark
RATINGS: M
WARNINGS: childhood trauma (non-sexual)
NOTES: For the Trope Bingo square 'soulmates/soulmarks'. Inverted somewhat, and pokes a bit at the whole idea of One Person Bound To You Forever And Ever.


TITLE: Steve Rogers And The Inappropriate
SUMMARY: Kneeling is taking his mind off all the things he’s not doing. Mostly because his Inappropriate is filling his mind full of the things he could do while kneeling to Lieutenant Hill – assuming she didn’t punch him for it.
PAIRING: Maria/Steve
CHARACTERS: Steve Rogers, Maria Hill
RATINGS: E
NOTES: Part of me looks at that title and thinks "the inappropriate what?" But the idea of The Inappropriate comes from an advert that was seen around Sydney for a while, featuring fruit drink and...oh, I don't even remember what it was. Some CGI'd cutesy creature that was your Fantastic or your Impolite or your Something You're Not Supposed To Let Out In Public. What am I saying? IDEK.

For pbam - Porn Battle Golden Oldies: PB15 prompt 'Steve/Maria, carpet'. I was hoping to write a sequel, but I don't think it'll get done before the PB ends.


TITLE: The Compressed Sense Of Eternity
SUMMARY: He wanted their first time to be slow and easy between the sheets so they could take the time to learn each other and how they fit together.
PAIRING: Mako/Raleigh
CHARACTERS: Raleigh Becket, Mako Mori
RATINGS: NC-17
NOTES: For pbam - Porn Battle Golden Oldies: PB15 prompt 'Mako/Raleigh, blue, smile'.

1. Pacific Rim Secret Santa (AO3)
fic: Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel (Only Different)
summary: "If an intelligent mind can reside in a body like mine, I see no reason that an intelligent mind cannot reside in a body like yours. Others may sum us by our physical characteristics – I the cripple, you the beauty – but we are more."
what: Hermann/Vanessa, pre-movie

2. Pacific Rim Secret Santa (Tumblr)
fic: to strengthen whilst one stands
summary: Family is not an important thing; it is everything. ~ Michael J Fox ~
what: Mako & Stacker, pre-canon (during the Tales From Year Zero comic)

3. Captain Hill Secret Santa (Tumblr)
fic: deep as the scar that's under my skin
summary: The stakes are higher than friendship - in more ways than one.
what: Steve/Maria, relationship

Next volley in the fic war:

TITLE: Don't Reach For The Moon
SUMMARY: Pentecost's voice reverberates through his head, the bone-deep resonance of it, drilling them day and night. Raleigh starts with those memories and tries not to think of the empty space beside him, moving with the focus and determination that lived beneath the skin of his easy-going brother.
CATEGORY: Mako/Raleigh, Raleigh & Yancy, relationship(s), the Drift
RATING: G
NOTES: For the fic war with quigonejinn, whose last shot ended with Mako-as-Jean-Grey vs Raleigh-as-Logan sparring in the Kwoon. I went with the sparring theme - and filled a Pacific Rim kinkmeme prompt while I was at it. For the same person I filled the last three or four kinkmeme prompts. I'm beginning to think she's the only person leaving non-slash prompts on the kinkmeme, because those are the ones that I fill.

I'm sorry, but when the first half of your summary is "female character gets raped and male character helps her get over it" I don't really care that the second half of it is "but the story is better than I'm describing, I promise!"

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I just had a small panic attack - thought that not_primetime was due on the 3rd June, not the 3rd July. Haven't even started it.

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Still need to watch the last two eps of Agents of SHIELD. But I'm on a Pacific Rim kick right now after finishing Anchor and Anchorage.

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Desperately seeking Captain America: The Winter Soldier download that has good graphics (ie. sharp). There has to be some out there - someone always manages to put one out ahead of the actual DVD release - but I don't know where to find them. I have graphics that I want to do in decent quality, and while I could do them in the vidcam quality version, I don't really want to.

If you know of a quality DL of CA2:TWS, please let me know!

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Kink Bingo? Trope Bingo? Cotton Candy Bingo? When are these 'due'? Because I've written fics for them, but haven't posted to the comms yet. (Haven't gotten any bingos.)

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I have 200 people subscribed to my AO3 account! (This is probably small potatoes to the BNFs, but it's pretty big for me.)

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Found someone to do a PR fic war who likes the same pairings as me! Minimum 500 words, thematic connection from fic to fic, two weeks to write it.

First shot across the bows:

The Meeting Of Your Sparks
It had been a while since he felt a warmth like this in his belly, but he remembered how it felt to be attracted to someone in his gut – that pull of interest that was one part sexual, one part personality, all parts desire.
Mako/Raleigh, background Stacker/Herc, single parent/teacher AU (construction AU)

TITLE: Mako Mori and the Eleventy-One Thousand Bridezillas - Part 2/2
SUMMARY: Mako doesn't see why she should 'put a ring on it'. Or 'How To Get Married: The Guerilla Version'.
CHARACTERS/PAIRING: Mako/Raleigh, Max, Herc, various original characters
CATEGORY: Relationship, Humour, Fluff, and a whole lot of rather silly tags.
RATING: PG-ish.
NOTES: I put together some fluff. It got a better reception than I expected so I've added a bit more. There will probably be a Part 3 at some point, wherein everyone and their bestie has something to say about how they got married and how to have a wedding celebration.

I didn't do this in 2012 - I think I just pointed people at my AO3 account. But it's kind of nice to have it all in one spot, and I'd kind of like to start using my DW/LJ again after letting everything lapse. Tumblr is all very well, but sometimes you want a thinky conversation with people!

This was a relatively productive year:

( 38 Avengers, 27 Pacific Rim, 10 other fandoms )