Yuletide post reveals post! Usually this would be the first post I make in a new year but crazy fam stuff and…you know…Sherlock…kinda deferred it. Small year this time around again, although I actually got quite a bit written given how insane school was this year and how late (and long) my exam period was. I wrote 5 fics, 1 of which was a pinch hit and 1 a full-length treat. Two were Madness fics on the somewhat longer end. (Both also posted after the main collection went live because my life just kinda sucked in December lol.) I wrote the full paring spectrum this year again - slash, het, fem. No first times this year (not counting fandoms, and even then the only new one was Jolene.) All around, I’m actually quite happy with this year: I think the quality of work I produced was fairly high on the average.
Stuff I Wrote:
Title:
We Don’t Have To Talk About ItFandom: Mighty Ducks
Paring: Charlie/Adam
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,051
Summary: Charlie loves Adam, has always loved Adam. Everything else is a choice.
Comments: This was my assignment. It was both hard and very interesting to write. There’s nothing especially rating-worthy here, but it is rather dark in an angsty and hopeless sort of way. I see Chadam as a very complicated paring, a relationship marred by all sorts of things - Adam always seems to be far too focused on himself to notice the harm he causes (without necessarily trying to cause harm) and Charlie is loyal - especially to Adam - to an extent where you start to wonder… I worried a bit about how serious this was and I struggled with my own (rather negative) feelings for Adam, my love for the paring and trying to write a story that would be pleasing to the recipient. I loved exploring the consequences that come out of this dynamic and the actions and non-actions of both of these characters. The whole thing came out to be nicely emotional, IMO, while still being more dark!angsty rather than sappily melodramatic, which I’m happy about.
Title:
Where We StandFandom: Mighty Ducks
Paring: Charlie/Adam
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,536
Summary: When Adam finds himself in need of a lawyer, he turns to the one person who's always been there for him.
Comments: This is the pinch hit. When I got it (somewhat late in the game) I was like “I’m not smart - I just wrote for this fandom, how am I gonna come up with a second idea this fast?” I think it turned out alright in the end, although the setting is extremely similar for both fics, but the tone and the ideas behind them are different. This one is a bit more lighthearted, a little more hopeful. (I actually did this…last year I think?...when my main assignment and pinch hit were from the same fandom and paring.) I have to admit that while I didn’t make Charlie a lawyer in this specifically to entertain my newfound law school knowledge I did slip in a couple of things from Contracts and Civ Pro in there just for my own amusement lol.
Title:
Years AfterFandom: War and Peace
Paring: Dolokhov/Sonya, Sonya/Nikolai, Nikolai/Maria (background), Pierre/Natasha (background), Dolokhov/Helene (mentioned)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 4,214
Summary: Nine years since Dolokhov's proposal, five years since the Battle of Borodino, three years since Nikolai's marriage, Sonya's life has changed significantly. And maybe, just maybe, it's about to change again.
Comments: SO EXCITED to have gotten to write this fandom for someone. I was a bit afraid I just wouldn’t have the time. But I did! I love this paring (Dolokhov/Sonya) and I’d been wanting to write them in a post-war setting (hell, any setting) for a while. Maybe I’ll even do that this year for the Het BigBang now I’ve taken the first step with this fic… It became a bit more of a Sonya character study than a paring!fic, partially for background and character establishment and partly to try and fit the recipient’s desires, since she wanted a Sonya story but I wasn’t sure how she would feel about a Dolokhov/Sonya story. (But she liked it so YAY!) I didn’t even realize how much I would love writing Sonya until I was doing it, even though she is a fave character of mine. This also required some digging around for canon epilogue info (mainly for the names/possible ages of the NextGen kids - BTW, so cool that there’s a NextGen in this fandom too, HA). Also, Dolokhov’s letter to Sonya is part my imagination, part stolen from Dolokhov’s proposal to Sonya in a fanfic (not mine) and part stolen from the original un-published version of War and Peace. Also, loved the chance to stick in some of my headcanon about Dolokhov and his son :)
Title:
BilliardsFandom: Eugene Onegin
Paring: Onegin/Lensky
Rating: PG
Word Count: 780
Summary: Onegin decides it's about time Lensky learns how to play billiards.
Comments: I actually considered rating this one PG-13 because of some of the sexual innuendos and the sensual details in it, but in the end, it’s all very vague UST and kissing is the only thing described graphically or in any concrete manner at all. I couldn’t resist writing this - this paring, this fandom! I couldn’t imagine it not getting some love. I was also a good chance to write something a bit hot, even if not graphic. The thing that I had to work around in this one was not calling Onegin “Eugene” (as per the recipient’s wishes) and for some reason I realized I was having a hard time with that lol. In Russian, calling a character by their last name wouldn’t be weird, it’s a cultural thing, but I feel like in English I only call people/characters by last name if I don’t know their first name, they’re my professor, they go by their last name as though it were a first name, or I DISLIKE them. (I guess I could have called him Yevgeny, but this is one of those Russian names which sounds super weird when read in English lol.) Worked out find in the end though :)
Title:
The Morning AfterFandom: Jolene (Dolly Parton song)
Paring: Narrator/Jolene
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 897
Summary: The morning after her confrontation with Jolene, Andrea realizes what she really wants and might have wanted all along.
Comments: This one actually, gets explicit enough in parts where it pushes that top barrier of the PG-13 rating. So femslash. I really like how this one came out. There were some very strong stories in this fandom so I’m not surprised that my little ficlet did not receive a ton of attention. But, personally, I liked it. When I first listened to the song I thought this would be a great fandom to serve as a femslash vehicle. I enjoyed giving these characters their personalities - Jolene as super-confident, sometimes even a tad vulgar, and Andrea as shy and maybe a bit sheltered too - and building the chemistry and tension between them. I’m also happy with the quality of writing in this one.
Thank you to all the Yuletiders for being awesome as usual! This exchange is always a highlight of my holiday season!