phoenixfalls

Hello and welcome!

I'm a very irregular poster to this journal, and don't have any particular focus - I post when I'm moved to say something, and it is just as likely to be about fandom, politics, or my dog.

I'm American (Californian to be specific), cis female, mixed race, queer, and progressive. I've got a handful of chronic illnesses that I may sometimes discuss. I used to be a voracious reader of science fiction and fantasy, but that's tailed off in my current job so all my knowledge is about a decade out of date. I'm very multi-fannish and an inveterate multi-shipper; I write and read fic, and I have just recently begun podficcing.

Some information you may find useful:

Where Else to Find Me: tumblr | AO3

Current Passion: Probably my dog Jack? I haven't been feeling particularly fannish or passionate about any sort of media for a few years, most of my attention eaten by pandemic, politics, health issues, and my job, all of which overlap in stressful ways. My comfort fandoms, which I reread in regularly, are probably MCU, Stargate: Atlantis, and Teen Wolf; my only successful creative endeavors of late have been in Criminal Minds and various Sherlock Holmes adaptations. I really enjoy my job (well, 90% of the time) but I'm unlikely to talk about it much here.

Transformative Works Policy: My blanket permissions, which are also listed on my AO3 profile:
- Fanart/Fanmixes/Filk of my work are all great!
- Remixes are great!
- Translations and podfics are great! (As long as you have not edited/changed/bowdlerized my work in any way. If you need to make a change like that, please ask me first.)
- Sequels are great! (As long as you acknowledge that they're not canonical for my work.)
- I would rather you not archive my work elsewhere publicly without my explicit permission.

I do ask that you let me know if you've transformed my work in any way, so that I can view and squee and link! :)

Feel free to friend/follow me, or just send me a message saying hello; I do like meeting new people, though I lean to the introverted side of the spectrum. But almost all of what I post is public, so I'm just as open to people lurking and posting the occasional comment it that's more comfortable. It's certainly how I experience much of the internet. :)

(up to date as of 1/1/2023)

Current Mood: complacent

Title: Make Makin' It Your Intention
Author:

phoenixfalls
Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Relationship: Edgin Darvis/Xenk Yendar
Word Count: 1,123
Rating: Explicit
Tags: First Time, Premature Ejaculation, Humor, Bad Sex Bingo Fill
Summary:
It had been years since anyone but Ed had touched his dick.

Link: On AO3

So I went and requested a bingo card from badsexbingo. This is my first fill, because I could not resist.

( Card below the cut... )

Current Mood: mischievous

I didn’t sign up for

ficinabox this year, but I spotted a 3K pinch hit that I thought I could make happen, so I picked it up. Almost 5.5K later…

I was really happy to finally finish a fic using one of my favorite classic stargate fandom plots: the team is alone on a planet, there’s an ancient device, they do some adventuring, some injuries are acquired, and it all ends with a kiss! I have read and loved so many fics following that basic shape, and am proud to finally post a version of my own.

Many thanks to

sanguinity for the beta, helping me make sure things that were totally clear in my head were also clear on the page!

Title: This Mortal Armour That I Wear
Author:

phoenixfalls
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Relationship: Ronon Dex/John Sheppard
Word Count: 5,475
Rating: Mature
Tags: Pining, Quests, Team Fic, Oh Those Wacky Ancients Mind Control First Kiss
Summary:
John touches something he shouldn't.

To his dismay, Ronon is the one who ends up paying for it.

Link: On AO3

Current Mood: pleased

sanguinity has already announced on her journal, our summer

pod_together project has just been revealed!

Title: Friends of Cordelia
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Character: Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan
Rating: Gen
Word Count: 5,702 words
Podfic Length: 00:37:14
Tags: Queer Themes, Worldbuilding, Museum Exhibit, POV Outsider
Summary:
During her decades of service to the Imperium, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan commanded a special place in the hearts of queer Barrayarans.

Explore their stories today at the Vorbarr Sultana Capitol Museum.

( Behind the scenes musings... )

Current Mood: pleased

Snagged this fun little exercise from

garonne's post:

Going through this, I really don't have very many hard no's. . . but there's a whole heck of a lot that I'll only read if I already have massive trust in the author (and usually also only in very specific moods).

Dear author,

Thank you so much for offering to create something for me! I’m pretty easy to please, so if nothing in this letter sparks your imagination, or if you already have an idea of what you want to create, please feel free to ignore the below.

Gen tropes I love: Loyalty kink, long (complicated) histories, casual physical intimacy, gen kink, casefic/mysteries, shared secrets, hurt/comfort (that doesn’t slide into whump), travel themes (road trips, stranded somewhere, airport lounges, hotels). Common slash tropes reimagined platonically.

Shippy tropes I love: First times, developing relationships, PWPs, polyamory, friends-to-lovers, kink, kink & relationship negotiation, animal transformation, arranged marriage, trope subversion, mixed-orientation relationships, loyalty kink, iron woobies, stoic pining, travel themes (road trips, stranded somewhere, airport lounges, hotels). Common slash tropes reimagined for femslash and poly ships.

Kinks I love: Non-penetrative sex, masturbation, switching, coming in pants/coming untouched. Orgasm delay/denial/control and edging. Marking, possessiveness, tattoos, collars, special items of jewelry &/or clothing, clothes-sharing. Voyeurism/exhibitionism, semi-public sex. Watersports. Somnophilia. Cross-dressing. Non-sexual kink. Non-romantic kink relationships. In terms of BDSM I like D/s and S/M, blood play, breath play, fire play, gun play, knife play, scarification, wax play, praise kink & service. I can enjoy impact play and bondage but they aren’t my favorites, and I prefer improvised implements to a well-stocked toy chest.

And those categories are just for ease of navigation – feel free to mix from the shippy/gen/kink categories as you like, no matter what you’re writing for me!

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - Edgin Darvis/Xenk Yendar
Xenk is my newest blorbo - I watched the movie and immediately fell in love with this paladin, his absolute faith in Edgin and the way he is so capital-G Good without being rigid about it. The mix of his literalness with that smirk that makes you wonder if he gets a bit more than he lets on, but enjoys playing up the stereotype. I don't have any top/bottom or dom/sub preferences for these two - I really just want more exploration of their dynamic and how it can continue to play out post-canon. I would particularly love iron woobie Xenk doing some stoic pining for Edgin, and Edgin continuing to have no idea what to do with Xenk's faith in him (but trying to take care of Xenk because somebody has to).

Inception - Arthur/Saito
I am shallow; these are two very attractive men who wear very attractive suits very well. I love the way Saito wields power and Arthur yields to it, so Arthur attaching himself to Saito post-canon the way he was attached to Cobb absolutely works for me; for the same reason, I'd love any sort of PWP involving power exchange. Limbo is always fun to explore, and I'm also definitely open to AUs for this pair.

My Dearly Beloved Detective - Shirley Holmes/Jane Watson
This is definitely a relationship that calls for either get-back-together fic or something fun and tropey! I'm always open to casefic for a Holmesian fandom, and for this particular Holmesian fandom crack and crack treated seriously are extremely welcome. But whatever the outside trappings of the fic are, I just want to see Shirley and Jane back together - Holmes and Watsons need each other, and the place the movie left them simply cannot be allowed to stand. Please wave away Robbie in any way you like; this is not a ship where I'm interested in a poly setup.

1. Ran across an article in the wilds of the internet that identified the trees currently in full bloom outside my bedroom window - they are apparently Callery pears! Of course that sent me down the rabbit hole of learning how they went from the near-perfect ornamental street tree to being banned in multiple states. But the piece of this new information that is sticking with me is that people find the smell repugnant, describing it frequently as similar to "rotting fish." And so now on my 3-4 times daily walks with Jack, I'm sniffing and sniffing and sniffing. . . and I just don't get it? Yes, it's not a pleasant perfumey scent, and I would even agree that there is something to the smell that hints at decay. But it is a distinctly vegetal decay in my nose!

2. I got myself Invisalign a little over a month ago, and I have never in my life been so aware of my teeth. I didn't have braces as a teenager, so this constant low-level pressure on my teeth is just distracting! But in theory it will be worth it, both for preventing potential future breathing issues (family history of sleep apnea makes me extra cautious) and for the reduction in my ability to wear away at my enamel with my chronic teeth grinding.

3. In addition to white blossoms with a vaguely rotten scent outside my bedroom window, spring also brings my annual war against the finches. I have a potted thyme plant on my balcony that I moved up here from SoCal with me and every year, just as it's sending out its new growth, the finches raid it for nest-building materials. My desk is right next to the balcony door, so I keep an eye out and bang on the door every time the finches swoop down, but I invariably lose because I get distracted by the things I'm supposed to be doing at my desk (namely, working). BUT. This year, I have a new ally! Apparently the chives that I tossed in a pot last summer are tempting alternate building materials! And I'm happy to give the finches my chives, because they grow back much more quickly than the thyme does.

4. Returning to the issue of my teeth, one thing that my dentist did not prepare me for is that Invisalign is absolute murder on fingernails. The trays are really quite tight, and every time I eat (or drink anything besides water) I've got to work my fingernails between the edge of the tray and my gumline and lever it up until it snaps free. My nails keep breaking in this effort! Uncool.

5. It's raining outside, a fact I am relishing, because I love storms and cannot stand the heat of summer so the longer winter/spring last the happier I am. But I always feel a little guilty for enjoying the rain these days, because Jack-Jack is such a sun-lover. His favorite way to spend the day is to head out to bake on the balcony as soon as the sun hits it, and spend the next 6-8 hours (until the sun goes behind the building) sprawling until he overheats, then wandering inside for some water and a little cooldown time, then heading back outside to bake some more. On cloudy days he lays in his chair, looking longingly for a rare sunbeam to exploit; and on rainy days he pouts from either his bed or my bed, clearly disgusted with the universe. Today was a pouty day for my poor little man!

Current Mood: amused

Tagged by

sanguinity , thank you! No clue who might want to take part so I'm not tagging anyone, but I promise, if you want to share then I want to read!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

92, 10 of which are collections of multiple ficlets

2. What's your total AO3 wordcount?

163,717

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I don't really have a fandom I consider myself "in" right now; I've been struggling to write anything at all for a couple years, so any fandom that I have a solid idea for I'll try to see if I can get some words out. Most recently I've completed fics for Vorkosigan Saga, Criminal Minds, and D.K. Broster's Flight of the Heron; I've started but not completed fics for Stargate: Atlantis, White Collar, and Teen Wolf.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

A Lonely, Lost Thing, MCU, Rhodey & Tony MIT gen/pre-slash

500 mL, MCU, Bruce/Tony watersports PWP

The Floor Under Our Feet Whispers, Teen Wolf, Sheriff/Derek fluffy get-together

The Tender Solemn Dawn-Time, MCU, Rhodey & Tony MIT fluffy pre-slash

Three Decades, Three Proposals, MCU, Rhodey/Tony sappiness

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try. I've failed a lot at it, though I do still intend to respond to all comments I haven't previously responded to. You know. Someday.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't write very much angst in general, and certainly don't write very many angsty endings! But I do have two breakup fics in my catalog:

my tired soul on fire, My Dearly Beloved Detective, Shirley Holmes/Jane Watson

Annul a Want, MCU, Melinda May/Natasha Romanov

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

This was a surprisingly hard question to answer! I think the majority of my fics are happy, overall, but I don't think of them as having happy *endings* because I don't actually picture them as having discreet endings at all. Much of what I write is sort of snapshot-like, deliberately constructed in a way that hopefully the reader leaves the fic with a sense of the world outside/before/beyond it.

So here, have the fic I've written that makes *me* happiest:

Get Their Good Tidings, MCU, Rhodey/Tony landscape porn reunion fic

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I don't think I've ever gotten anything I'd outright categorize as hate, luckily; I've gotten a couple fics where people objected to a narrative choice I made in a way that made it clear they felt it was morally objectionable, but they were reasonably polite about it.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Heck yes, it's what I consider my comfort zone as a writer. I particularly like kink fic, because I love smut that also serves as insight into the characters, and kink fic is GREAT for that. Plus I just like kink! Not all of my smut is cerebral, plenty of it is just designed to be hot.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really. I've written a couple fusions, but the only true crossover I've written is this ficlet:

Joan Watson & Annalise Keating, HS AU

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I have. It was a weird experience. It happened here on tumblr! Someone let me know anonymously that they had seen someone post one of my fics as their own, in a different fandom (so all they had done was change the characters' names). I went to the person's tumblr, verified that it was mine, messaged the person asking them to take it down and messaging the few people that had reblogged it letting them know that it was stolen. (It had less than 20 notes at the time, I think.) I went back to the thief's blog later and they had deleted the post and then posted a bunch of text posts talking about how they were spiralling emotionally. Which. . . yeah, I still don't know what to do with that.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! My Elementary ficlets (those that existed in 2019) were translated into Russian, here. Which, of course, I can't read, but it's deeply flattering!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

sanguinity and I have a joint project. Like she said in her post, it's great fun and I also hope we finish it one of these days!

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Nope.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

All of them! Not only am I in this multi-year slump, even before that I had a terrible record of picking projects back up and finishing them once I initially set them down.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Characterization and the telling detail.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot. Generally making things happen, creating a sense of forward momentum.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've never written a character where it was necessary for me to develop thoughts on writing dialogue in another language. Which is nice, because I have no doubt that I would completely overthink it!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

MCU/Iron Man movies

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Also nope. Look, I just don't really do favorites. Everything has its pluses and minuses, my favorite is totally dependent on mood and how I'm defining "favorite" in that particular moment.

After some goading from

sanguinity , I decided to sign up for the Fuck, Marry, Kill exchange on AO3. It was too novel a concept to resist - you match on a trio of characters within a fandom, and get to choose who you will have fucking, who you will have marrying, and who you will have being killed. (Minimum 100 words for each.)

I received two absolutely delightful collections of drabbles as gifts, both by Sanguinity. The Elementary set features an absolutely galaxy brain pairing for the "Marry" drabble, and Mycroft getting exactly what he deserves. The Vorkosigan set is extremely sweet and ends on a perfect note of hilarious outrage.

Fuck Marry Kill: Holmes Men Edition
Fandom: Elementary
Selected Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Morland Holmes, Mycroft Holmes
Additional Characters: Joan Watson, Jamie Moriarty, and bees

Fuck Marry Kill: Galactic Genetics Edition
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Selected Characters: Sergeant Taura, Bel Thorne, Mark Vorkosigan
Additional Characters: Armsman Roic, Miles Vorkosigan, Kareen Koudelka

And I was assigned to write for Sanguinity as well, I suspect to neither of our surprise, given the size of the exchange. I played with a number of different fandoms and trios, but ended up having the most success with the Vorkosigan Saga trio I deliberately did not sign up for, because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to manage it: Aral Vorkosigan, Ges Vorrutyer, and Serg Vorbarra. I'm not generally drawn to writing dark!fic, and I certainly didn't want to write any sort of happy ending for two out of those three characters, so I didn't offer them.

But I've always had a great many feels about Kareen Vorbarra, and of course I have plenty of Aral feels, and my brain delivered me this linked trio of ficlets:

Outlive the Bastards
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Selected Characters: Aral Vorkosigan, Ges Vorrutyer, Serg Vorbarra
Additional Characters: Kareen Vorbarra
Tags: Time Period: Reign of Ezar Vorbarra, Extremely Dubious Consent, Abusive Relationships, Canon Compliant
Summary: At the end of it all, it is Aral Vorkosigan and Kareen Vorbarra who are the ones standing.

All in all, quite an enjoyable exchange, though it was stressful that there was no DW comm for it, and so there was nowhere for the mod to post announcements when, for example, reveals were delayed by three days. I don't know that I'd sign up again, but I'm glad I did this year.

Current Mood: accomplished

Stolen from

sanguinity .

Rules: Give us the links to your fics with the most hits, most kudos, most comments, most bookmarks, most words, and least words.

Most Hits: 500mL, 17K+ hits
Kinky PWP for a large slash pairing in a megafandom, written as a response to a kinkmeme prompt back when the kinkmeme was really active - this one is not surprising at all. I'm still fond of it though! Avengers, Bruce/Tony, watersports + manhandling.

Most Kudos & Bookmarks: A Lonely, Lost Thing, 689 kudos, 152 bookmarks
Technically gen fic, but it was pre-slash. Again, in a megafandom and written as a response to a kinkmeme prompt back when the kinkmeme was active, but this time a rare pair! This was conceived as the first fic in a giant sprawling poly series, but I only ever got to some of my Rhodey/Tony pieces before I lost confidence in it.

Most Comment Threads: Sudden and Silent in its Arrival, 39 comment threads.
This one was a multi-chapter fic posted in installments, which does increase comment threads. Still Avengers, but Pepper/Rhodey/Tony AU fic that I banged out in my most successful NaNoWriMo, so I was quite pleased with the reception.

Most Words: Sudden and Silent in its Arrival again, 24K words.
The longest thing I've ever written, by a lot! Someday I would really like to write something lengthy again. It was such a different feeling experience, to get so immersed in the world of the fic. My little ficlets don't take up anywhere near that amount of brain space!

Least Words: Killers, 150 words
Mad Max: Fury Road fic! I'm quite fond of it, actually, though I was never very deep in the fandom and only wrote this one fic for it. Written for Drabbletag6 in the femslash100 community on LiveJournal. You will notice, it is not actually a drabble! I love ficlets, but 100 words is just SO short. My ideas I think most comfortably fit in 300-500 word range.

Because I am very multi-fannish, I cannot let this post stand with almost exclusively Avengers fic on it! So I'm also going to post the first non-Avengers fic in each category:

Most Hits (non-Avengers): Control, 5.6K hits, 8th most hits overall
Inception, Arthur/Saito, watersports PWP. Apparently the key to hits is slash watersports PWPs? I like this one better than the Bruce/Tony one, though, because it's one of those fics that turned out exactly the way I wanted it to. That's a rare thing!

Most Kudos & Bookmarks (non-Avengers): The Floor Under Our Feet Whispers, 456 kudos, 104 bookmarks, 3rd most kudos & bookmarks overall
Teen Wolf, Derek Hale/Sheriff Stilinski, fluffy get-together fic with a hint of praise kink. Very rare pair in a mega fandom; I had no idea how this one would be received, but I was pleasantly surprised! I think I successfully tapped into the fandom's desire for Derek to have nice things.

Most Comment Threads (non-Avengers): In the Shape of You, 15 comment threads, 5th most comment threads overall
Okay, I cheated. It's the Teen Wolf fic again. But this Warehouse 13 fic is just below it! And since it's femslash, I'm going to exclude the TW fic to get more diversity on my board here. Besides, I'm very fond of how this came out - it was experimental for me, writing a ficlet for each of 10 prompts, each of which can stand on its own, but together they tell a complete story. Myka/Helena, angst with a happy(ish) ending.

Most Words (non-Avengers): Your Want is Bigger Than You, 6K words, 3rd most words overall
Elementary, Joan/Ms. Hudson, most important tag here is "Everything is Better with Dragons." I'm very happy with this fic too, because it gave me the opportunity to put a bunch of ideas I had floating around in my head about Ms. Hudson's role as a muse and how possessiveness works in polyamorous relationships onto paper. And the audience that found the fic seemed to resonate with those thoughts! Which is a lovely feeling.

Current Mood: cheerful

Exile	You're Only Young Twice: Age Regression	Vulnerability	Hypothermia	Betrayal
Woke Up In Bed Together	Courtship Rituals	Worst Case Scenario	Drunkenness & Inebriation	Kidfic
Fandom Fusion	Hello Again: Resurrection	Day-In-The-Life	Domestic Bliss	Seduction
Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey: Time Travel	Speech-Deprived	We're All Going To Die!	Scars	The Same Only Different: Canon AU
Relative Values: Families	Rescue Me: Damsels/Other In Distress	Getting Physical: Touching Hugging And Cuddling	To The Highest Bidder: Auctions And Slavefic	What Is This Thing You Call 'Love'?

Current Mood: determined

sanguinity kindly gave me interview questions! Thank you! If anyone wants to play, I'll write interview questions on request in the comments.

1) Has Jack made progress on learning how to play?
He has! He definitely knows how to play with his best doggy friend, Willa. I throw something, they both go running after it; Willa grabs it because Jack is not quite pushy enough to grab it first. Then Jack either tries to play tug with Willa, grabbing onto a corner of the toy and wrestling her for it; or he harries her until she keeps running and they chase each other around the yard. It's pretty adorable.

On his own, Jack does like to pounce on stuffed toys, and if I throw one and he's in a feisty mood he will run and pounce a couple times before lying down to chew on it. He's clearly not as excited to play with me as he is with Willa, and he doesn't like changing elevations when it's just the two of us - if he's on the bed and I throw the toy on the bed he'll pounce; if he's on the floor and I throw the toy on the floor he'll pounce; if I try to get him to jump onto or off the bed after the toy he just looks at me totally baffled.

2) Does your username refer to a waterfall, a city, a bird, or something else entirely?
To the best of my recollection, the thought process behind my username was:
Angsty teenage phoenixfalls needs a username for ICQ > Angsty teenage phoenixfalls likes the idea of the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes > "PhoenixRising" is already in use as someone else's username > Well what's the reverse of rising? Falling? > Oooo, that's an even angstier image! > And I have been PhoenixFalls ever since. :)

3) What's your favorite fandom for which you've never seen/read/heard the source?
This is hard! I've gotten into most of my fandoms before/without knowledge of the source material; but if I like the fandom enough, I usually then seek out the source material! So fandoms that I consider myself in that I still haven't consumed the source material are rare! All that comes to mind is comics-based Stony fandom, which is sort of borderline - I'm obviously familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I have gone in and searched out comics-specific fic writers to get that different flavor of Steve/Tony. I really like a lot of the plottier longfic in that fandom, and am now passing familiar with a good number of the big Steve Rogers and/or Tony Stark based events from the comics; but I have no real desire to read the comics.

4) What's the perfect match between a weather and an outdoor activity?
Walking on a late autumn afternoon, when the sunlight is the particular shade of gold you only get as the year is winding down. The temperature is brisk, with a light breeze rustling the falling leaves, the occasional gust causing a brief flurry of red and gold. The blue of the sky is a little deeper, and I feel at my most alive even as the world around me is turning in to slumber.

5) Is there a standard order by which you judge a Hawaiian restaurant?
The most important element, bar none, is the mac salad. Obviously has to be mayonnaise based, but I don't like it *too* mayonnaise-y; I like the style with the mashed potatoes mixed in (which also reduces the mayonnaise-forward-ness); absolutely no acid/vinegar, that's a mainlander mac salad thing. If it's a lunch plate style place that's all I ask; if it's a sit-down restaurant style place I also ask that there by some veggies mixed in, usually grated carrots, sometimes diced cucumbers.

If the mac salad is good the place is worth revisiting, and I'll just try different entrees until I find the one I think they do best. There's a couple different styles of fried chicken that I usually try, as well as the barbequed chicken, the katsu chicken, the fried fish and the fried shrimp, and of course, loco moco. At least one of those will be good, and then I'll just keep ordering that. :)

I also have a soft spot for spam musubi and wakame salad - a Hawaiian restaurant gets bonus points if it has both of those on the menu for me to order when I'm in the mood.

Current Mood: cheerful

Writing has just not been happening for me the past few years. Between pandemic, Jack, drastic shifts in my work life, health issues, and probably more things I'm forgetting, there just has not been any space in my brain for it.

But I'm trying to make space for it again now. I briefly attempted to join Write Every Day in March, with the extraordinarily modest goal of just writing an alibi sentence every day.

Under the assumption that some days (hopefully more as time passed and I got back into the swing of things!) I would successfully write more than one sentence, I also signed up for

kinkluckydip , since it was only a 300 word minimum and I was guaranteed to be writing smut, which is very much my comfort zone for fic.

Write Every Day did not go terribly well. In retrospect, in my entire life, the only thing I have ever trained myself to do everyday that is not physically required (eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom) is brush my teeth. I have never even successfully added face washing to that one daily task! I'm just not a daily habit kind of person, apparently.

But! The pressure of a deadline did motivate me to write a complete fic for the first time 16 months! At least I know deadlines usually work, even if ridiculously low pressure daily goals don't.

I matched with

shetiger on three different fandoms & relationships. When I got the assignment and thought that writing every day was going to work out for me, I was planning on writing a fic for each! I did in fact start three different fics. But as the deadline approached it became clear that I needed to narrow my focus and be realistic about which of my fic starts was going to be easiest to finish. So I ended up producing:

Title: The Right Combinations
Author: [Unknown site tag]phoenixfalls
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Relationship: Aaron Hotchner/Jennifer Jareau
Word Count: 921
Rating: Explicit
Tags: Sparring, Cunnilingus
Summary:
“That means you’re the overall victor today. Are you ready for your prize?”
Link: On AO3

I always low-key shipped Hotch & JJ (in fic, not in canon) and I had a lot of fun writing this. Also researching grappling techniques!

My request ended up going out as a pinch-hit, and providing more evidence of how well our tastes align, shetiger picked me up and wrote me a delightful Criminal Minds fic as well, featuring my high-key Criminal Minds ship of Hotch/Morgan: Circle of Light.

So yay, fic!

I'm now trying to set a modest weekly writing goal of simply opening my laptop and a Word document every Saturday afternoon. I was initially thinking of carving out 1pm - 3pm every Saturday afternoon and making myself try to write for those two hours, but my therapist suggested I not force myself to sit there frustrated, so literally the only goal is to open up the document and turn my brain in that direction for as long as I am enjoying it.

We'll see how it goes?

Current Mood: amused

via

melannen : I'm asking those who love the outdoors to post a picture on your page. A picture that you took. Just a pic. No description (but yes alt text!). The goal is to regain peace and harmony without negativity. Please copy the text, put a picture on your page, and let's look at these beautiful pictures.

Have decided to spam my feed (I've forgotten the DW terminology. . . f-list was LJ, right? what the heck is it over here?) with my favorite pictures of Jack from our first four-ish months together.

Jack wearing a bandana after his first visit to the vet.

Here is Jack just home from his very first vet visit. He was very brave, and was given a snazzy bandana for his trouble!

Jack in his chair, with his blanket tucked in around him.

Here is Jack in one of his favorite spots - the chair he has claimed for his own, surrounded by pillows and with his blanket gently tucked around him.

Jack sitting on my bedspread, body poised but with an air of expectation.

Jack poised expectantly on my bedspread. Do I have a treat? I did, in fact, have a treat.

Jack buried under a pile of dirty laundry.

And here is Jack discovering the joy that is rolling around in a pile of dirty laundry. We still haven't figured out how to play together, but if ever I want to see Jack get excited, I just have to toss a couple dirty t-shirts onto the ground!

Jack doing Very Important Doggy Things. . .

Jack sitting upright on the sofa; the TV tray with my laptop open is in front of him.

. . . and Jack gamely helping me out with my Very Important Human Things!

A pair of pensive Jacks. . .

Jack in his chair, neck extended and gaze on the distant horizon.

Jack hanging with a new friend. . .

Jack in his vest on a trail strewn with fallen leaves.

. . . and Jack geared up and ready for Adventure!

Current Mood: amused

After a hiatus of several rounds, I returned to

holmestice this year! In exchange, I was gifted a lovely Elementary fic:

The Case of the Mauled Ringmaster, by alexcat

A case in London serves as the backdrop for Joan very deliberately evaluating her relationship with Sherlock, and deciding she is ready for it to make a shift to the romantic.

On the writing side, since I haven't written anything in a year and a half, I decided to request only being assigned to someone who was comfortable receiving a PWP - smut being my comfort zone fic. Because I knew this was unlikely to overlap with my usual fandom offers of Elementary plus a smattering of extremely rare fandoms, I also offered one more popular fandom: Ritchie-verse Holmes (the Robert Downy Jr. movies). I own them on DVD, and had been rereading old MCU fic, so I figured I could manage to branch out in that regard, as long as I could stay with my comfortable high ratings.

I was assigned to yakichou, who requested Ritchie-verse and mentioned like lingerie and cross-dressing, as well as a focus on Watson. Early on I became enamored of the idea of corsets, and at the end of the day I wrote some pretty straight-forward corset-based smut. The focus ended up being less explicit than I originally intended, which happens a lot to me with Holmes/Watson in any 'verse, but the smut at least gave me a place to start, and everyone who commented seemed pleased with what I built around that start -- the idiosyncratic mess of 221b, and the push-pull of the banter between Watson & Holmes. So I feel pretty good about what I wrote!

Title: Strait-Laced
Author:

phoenixfalls
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (Ritchie movies)
Relationship: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Word Count: 1,235
Rating: Mature
Tags: Corsets, Established Relationship
Summary:
Watson confiscates a corset belonging to his flatmate.
Link: On AO3

Current Mood: pleased

Six months into the current pandemic, my employer (the State of California) has finally sort-of figured out remote work and is moving to make many of us permanently work from home -- including me!

This is a significant change, since when I took the job it was with the understanding that I would be travelling near-constantly; now I am not only not-travelling, I am not even using my cubicle! In fact, they're taking away our cubicles! We will be unable to come into the office more than one assigned day per week, and on that day we will use shared desk spaces.

I was actually excited about the travel part of the job, so this is kind of a bummer for me. BUT. The travelling meant that I could not commit to a pet. Now that I am not travelling, well, I absolutely have time for a pet! So I surfed online adoption groups, had a couple zoom meetings with shelter dogs, and on Thursday I brought home. . . JACK.

Jack in the car on the way home from the shelter.

The shelter estimates he's about 1 1/2 years old; they didn't venture a guess as to breed but I'm thinking Jack Russel Terrier x Beagle x something that explains his thick kind of feathered tail. He's very timid, but warming up to me quickly, and clearly extremely smart. We haven't done much exploring together yet, for two reasons: one, I'm easing him into things; and two, the air quality is unhealthy to hazardous outside due to the fires. I haven't yet figured out what treats he likes -- he's turned up his nose at all sorts of treat items, both dog treats and people food -- and he's clearly never been groomed or played with before, so he was either freaked or nonplussed by those attempts. Still, just in the three days he's been living with me he's opened up tremendously, rolling over for belly rubs and giving me the most delicate little kisses.

Current Mood: excited

Borrowed from

sanguinity .

1. Are you an Essential Worker?

( Unfortunately, yes... )

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: home

So, when last I posted, I was gung-ho about writing a ficlet a day for the month of June, and was asking for any and all prompts in my own personal kinkmeme of sorts to aid me in that pursuit. June felt like a good month for the exercise -- my work schedule looked to be relatively stable, and between attending some out-of-town training and being scheduled on a later shift (which shortened my commute significantly) I was expecting substantial evening free time compared to the rest of the past few years.

And then several opportunities for promotion became available all at once, and I got caught up in a whirlwind of prepping applications, scheduling interviews, prepping for interviews, travelling to interviews, doing follow-up after the interviews. . . and then being offered a new position! In my state capital! Which was 400 miles away from my (then) current city!

It's a complicated situation -- even though it's a promotion, the ins-and-outs of the way the position is designed meant that I did not receive relocation assistance. SO. I took a night to celebrate, then immediately got caught up in a new whirlwind: scouring rental sites for possible new homes, scheduling appointments to see the likeliest prospects, driving 400 miles up the state to make those appointments, driving 400 miles back down the state to get back to work, working my regular 45-50 hour week, packing up my whole life, submitting an application for the best place I saw, following up with the rental company, following up with my employers for my employment verification, following up with my prior landlords for my rental history, contacting moving companies, discovering moving companies are OBSCENELY OVERPRICED and instead planning the move using U-Haul, bribing friends to help load the truck, getting thrown for a loop when a start date of August 12th turned into a start date of August 30th. . .

TL;DR: I spent the summer getting a new job and moving my whole life 400 miles!

So in all that, my kinkmeme kind of fell off my radar? And I kind of mostly fell off the internet altogether? Oops?

But I'm now in my new place, and my new job, and I will no longer be working 10 hours a day 6 days a week! More like 8 hours a day, plus frequent (employer-financed) travel after regular work hours. Which will hopefully mean more free time. . . when I finally finish getting unpacked, of course!

And just because it amuses me, here, have a picture of the boxes left to unpack: my library. Keep in mind, this is my library after TWO significant downsizing operations in the past two years. That left-hand stack is three boxes deep, the other stacks are only two boxes deep.

A large stack of cardboard boxes, staggered four boxes wide, up to five boxes tall.

So I've been really struggling to write lately. It's gotten to be kind of painful, actually, where I am actively miserable every time I force myself to sit down and work on something. This sucks!

Under the theory that perhaps I am simply out of writing-shape, I have devised a plan. My goal is to write one ficlet (somewhere in the 200-400 word range, likely) every day for the month of June. But to do that, I need some help. I need LOTS and LOTS of prompts for inspiration. So I have decided to open my own personal kinkmeme!

The rules are simple. To leave a prompt, simply reply to this post. Put the fandom and character/relationship in the subject of the comment, and your prompt in the body. if I fill the prompt, I will do so in response to your comment! There is NO LIMIT to the number of prompts you can leave -- PLEASE leave me any and every prompt that pops into your head!

ANYTHING GOES, prompt-wise. Smut and kink are not only welcomed, but encouraged! No relationship or trope is off limits! Prompts can be a anything from a detailed scenario to a single word. (Keep in mind that I'm only going to write something ficlet-length though!) This whole post is going to be a Choose Not To Warn space; if you're concerned that something in your prompt may be upsetting to other people reading through, feel free to add a warning to the subject line, but I'm not going to require this.

I'd really get a kick out of this feeling like a true kink meme, which means I encourage any and all participation that you are moved to! Leave +1s on prompts that you want to see filled! Feel free to start discussions! Go off topic! And if you happen to be inspired to fill a prompt somebody else has left (or even one you left!) I will read delightedly!

And if you're feeling bashful about a particular prompt, I am enabling anonymous commenting. Please do leave me those prompts you desperately want written but don't want attached to your name! This is a judgement free zone (in general I try to maintain a judgement free zone? but here in particular I want to emphasize that!) so I would love to see (and perhaps write!) whatever kinky/dark/tooth-rottingly fluffy thing your id desires.

I am going to be bringing over the prompts I have left languishing in my tumblr inbox (with the prompters' permission of course! plus the anonymous ones) to get the ball rolling.

So without further adieu, these are all the fandoms I think I might be able to write ficlets in:

Fandoms

Books: Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey; Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente; Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold

Movies: Die Hard (1-4); Inception; Mad Max: Fury Road; Marvel Cinematic Universe (though I haven't seen Captain Marvel or Endgame yet); Skyfall; Star Wars (Sequel trilogy)

TV Shows: Criminal Minds; due South; FBI; Flashpoint; How to Get Away with Murder; Leverage; Person of Interest; Stargate Atlantis; Stargate SG1; Teen Wolf; Warehouse 13; White Collar

Sherlock Holmes Adaptions: 1994 Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns; 221B Baker Towers; Bravestarr: Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century; Elementary; Herlock; My Dearly Beloved Detective

And we're off to the races!

Current Mood: excited

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