(no subject)
It's time for me to talk about Invisible Ficathon, because it proved a FONT OF DELIGHTS. There's a ton of amazing stuff in that archive, but for the record a SIGNIFICANT PERCENTAGE of the very best stuff was written for me. >:D
The Hidden Island; or, the Eyebrows of Fate, The Lost Heir - Phoebe Marlowe
"I may," he added, "have the moral fiber of a ravening wolf, but I lack the talent to display it in greenery."
Even before I read the fic I guessed that
rymenhild had written it, which meant I had exceedingly high expectations that were NOT AT ALL disappointed. For those of you who remember, The Lost Heir is the novel that causes all the trouble in Heyer's Sylvester; this is the story of what happens when a BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADY is stranded on EVIL COUNT UGOLINO'S ISLAND, and it is beautiful and perfect and subverts expectations in the best possible way.
First Steps Past the End of the World, Millie Goes to School/Revolutionary Girl Utena
The shadows around Nanami were apt to take on odd shapes as various students bent mirrors or disingenuously brushed against lamp-shades in her presence, and whispers of witchly weirdness found their ways to her on the breeze.
Then Nanami's omelet turned back into an egg one morning at breakfast, and the school realised that something greater than a caper was afoot.
I gave out such a shriek of delight when I found this my inbox; THE PERSON WHO WROTE THIS IS A GENIUS. Nanami Goes to School! Merry pranksters and good-natured abound, except that Nanami came from Ohtori and therefore everything is AWFUL and WEIRD until Nanami is helped by the power of BELIEF and FEMSLASH. I love Nanami so much. I love this fic so much.
Millie Goes On a Date, Millie Goes to School
It didn't matter, in the end, that Millie had received a perfect score on her maths prep, or how many delicious crumpets with lashings of jam had been at breakfast, or how utterly scrumptious Lydia Worthington was when she cornered Millie behind the Infant School dormitories. It only mattered that tonight was the full moon, and last Saturday, Millie had been bitten by a werewolf.
SPEAKING OF FEMSLASH, if what you are looking for is adorable magical boarding school girls going on adorable dates with each other (while combating unfortunate accidental werewolfing) -- and let's be real, who among us is not looking for that -- then this is certainly the ficlet for you. So adorable! I would read SO MUCH of this.
Eating Cookies, Les Mousserables
Look, you're a very selfish monster
Because you don't act fair!
And just for the delightful cherry on my Invisible Ficathon sundae, someone took Sesame Street's Les Mis parody (which is here, if anyone hasn't seen it and would like to) and wrote me a themed ... to Sondheim's "Barcelona." From Company. I'M SORRY, I'M STILL DEAD OF LAUGHTER.
So those were my gifts, and they were all perfect, but there was also a ton of other stuff worth reading in the ficathon. The other great thing about this ficathon is because it's all based around stuff that doesn't exist anyway, in many cases (though not all) zero 'canon' ... metacanon? supercanon? ... knowledge is required.
The Rule of St. Philomel, The Buggre Alle Thys Bible
If a novice be heard to say, “If a Thinge is worth doing, it is worth doing Right Well,” he shall be lost to the order and never admitted Againe.
This is a religious order I feel we can ALL get behind, and that's all I'm gonna say.
Bee Culture for Detectives, Practical Handbook of Bee Culture - Sherlock Holmes
I, in my fifteen years as an investigative consultant for the NYPD and New Scotland Yard, have twice had the good fortune to investigate human crimes committed with bees. ("The Adventure of the Melliferous Madam," Summer 2004; "The Ingenious Case of the Bee Assassins," Fall 2013.)
This fic consists of excerpts written by three different Holmeses, and while all of them are delightful, the Elementary one is unsurprisingly my favorite. Sherlock takes SO MUCH GLEE in his bee assassins!
The Matter With Kansas, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
The mysterious patient in room 213 rolled across the lobby, hesitating in front of the door.
That wasn't really how it went, of course. She was in the lobby, so she was no longer in room 213. She was checking out of the hospital, so she was no longer a patient. And, if the intern's suspicions were correct, and she really was the sister of the boy from Kansas...well, she was no longer much of a mystery.
This talented fanfiction author has expanded upon the events of Snoopy's masterpiece in a truly heartwarming fashion that really grapples with the ethical, psychological and socio-economic questions raised by the original work.
Feel Free to Flee, The Princess Bride - Simon Morganstern
They were informed of the Event by Michael, the first bodyguard, Eleanora, the handmaiden (so called because she was Princess Noreena’s hands; that is, she held the items that no princess would hold herself), and Rufus, the Florinese footman who had wrestled Francis, the second bodyguard, to the floor to prevent him from attacking Prince Humperdinck.
The only packing scene that Morganstern did not include in the original novel -- Princess Noreena of Guilder and her handmaidens, removing themselves from Florin. A MASTERPIECE OF BEAUTIFULLY-DESCRIBED HATS.
Truth! Justice! Freedom! Reasonably-priced love! And a black coffee!, Miserable Les
Petiterre had three advantages though, which he was well aware of. He was a young vampire, he'd grown up not far from Ankh-Morpork and, unlike most other vampires, he was likable. He secretly suspected it was because he wasn't as handsome as most vampires naturally (or supernaturally) were, and instead of making burlap sacks look like haute couture, he made nicely tailored suits look like burlap sacks.
THIS FIC IS A WORK OF ART. It is so dedicated to sparkle motion. Although it is also one of the few fics in the collection that I would probably recommend that you have at least a little knowledge of Les Mis before reading, just because there are SO MANY amazing injokes on both the original novel and the particular habits of Les Mis fandom in this glorious Discworld AU, right down to the little historical author's notes. Les leLes, guys. Les leLes. I'm dying, I'm dead, I'm done.
The Extremely Appropriate, Inoffensive, and Altogether Cheery Pony Party, The Pony Party
The inscription continued, “Remember the Sebald Code and Verse Fluctuation Declaration!”
I do not know what was meant by this. I know no one named Sebald, and though I made an attempt to see bald people, they were not helpful, though several are indeed coders.
There were several Snicket fics in the exchange but this was by far the most amazingly conspiratorial and Snicketian of all.
Prelude to a Mask, The King in Yellow
There has been no challenger to the might and glory of the city of Yhtill in five hundred years. They have conquered their greater enemies, laid waste to their lesser ones, and put the rest under their boots as vassal-states and payers of tribute.
I don't really know much or anything about the King in Yellow, but this is super legit creepy.
No Matter What The Hell I Do, La Triviata
At the moment the fashion for the well to-do gentleman in Ankh was leaning towards top hats, multiple waistcoats and outer garments that couldn't seem to make up their mind over whether they wanted to be coats or cloaks, so had split the difference and combined a number of capes at various points from shoulder to hem.
So this CROSS-DRESSING ASSASSIN'S GUILD AU of a Discworld opera would be a beautiful thing even if I did not possess the secret knowledge that it was stealthily inspired by Sungkyunkwan Scandal, which makes it three times as beautiful again. Assassin's guild AUs for everything! Bonus points for the moment everyone who's read Maskerade is waiting for, when THE FATEFUL DOOR STICKS.
Adventure on Io, Captain Cosmos
Captain Cosmos turned to the leader. "Thanks, friend! You sure saved our bacon." With the broad, honest smile known to all who had fought at the Space-American hero's side, he offered his hand to shake.
If you, like me, burst into helpless giggles every single time you read the word "Space-American," then THIS IS THE FIC FOR YOU.
Things to do in Zyzzlvaria when you're temporarily discorporated, Escape from Zyzzlvaria/Doctor Who (2005)/Welcome to Night Vale/Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
"Ye great blasted idiot!" said Scotchy to Algernon. "You canna recognize a plot device when you see one?"
...and if you, unlike me, have three hours on your hands and really want to spend a lot of time solving a set of fiendishly clever puzzles set within a hilariously genre-savvy fic, then this, I believe, is the fic for you! ... I mean I also really enjoyed it, I just do not have three hours in which to solve puzzles. (I am too busy using those hours to write up fanfic recs.)
notes towards the antecedents of wicked counts, The Lost Heir
Regarding the birth and breeding of Count Ugolino, it strikes this Gentleman that it came about in much the expected way; he was born, on the sunniest and most unremarkable of days, and grew to villainy out of nothing less than the sheer tedium that was all his peers could offer.
More Lost Heir fic! Though this fic is more fic of Sylvester than it is The Lost Heir since it involves the characters in Sylvester writing Lost Heir meta and fanfic... but I am NOT COMPLAINING because it is HILARIOUS.
Through the Mountains, The Cave of Two Lovers
The two women were being very careful with each other, because a new peace is often more dangerous than war, and a woman's grief is more dangerous than either. They both still wore their hair in mourning knots for their children. They had lost their husbands to the war long ago.
This is ... really sad and moving and thoughtful Cave of Two Lovers aftermath fic ... I know. I KNOW.
I Forgot a Bit of the Title Here, But the Story Goes..., Cave of Two Lovers
He turned around and walked away quickly, hoping that he'd managed to keep the confused tangle of emotions he'd been feeling off of his face.
Was it possible? Was he, a were-badgermole, falling for this were-wolfbat?
An antidote to sad! My notes for this just read "VARIOUS LOVERS FORBIDDEN FROM ONE ANOTHER," which I think is accurate. There is another section that is a Pacific Rim AU.
Five Overdue Books, The Library
This is an earlier episode. You know because the statue of George Washington is motionless upon its pedestal, and Fox is alive. Fox is on a cooking show.
"I can't really cook," she admits to the studio audience, which mostly consists of scarab beetles and budgerigars and piano embalmers. "I made a bet with Prince Wing and lost, though, so here I am."
OK, first, if you haven't read Kelly Link's short story "Magic for Beginners," then go, find it, read it, discover the amazing show-within-a-show The Library, and then come back and read this, because it's pitch-perfect.
Of Wood Wits, Bisimbi Bi Masa and Speculating Frogs, The Forbidden Greeny Jungle Field Guide
"Do you want to relate a legend, discover a legend or be a legend?" she has asked me a thousand times. The obvious answer, of course, is "all three."
Nnedi Okorofor's universes offer amazing possibilities, and are super fun to play around in; this fic takes full advantage of them, and tells a great story in and of itself.
Linked, Galaxy Quest
"YOU ARE AN OFFICER OF THE SHIP," it replied promptly.
"I know I am an officer of the ship-" even in her own quarters she was repeating the dang thing! "- but what is my purpose?"
My notes for this fic say "GALAXY QUEST HEADCANON ACCEPTED."
Meta: Preston of the Spaceways, A Retrospective, Preston of the Spaceways
Preston himself was typically cast as a fair-haired, barrel-chested, deep-voiced officer type with a classic profile. In the last and most successful adaptation, the 1860 holovid directed and produced by Abraham Winters, the classically beautiful Emily Alexander took on the role, playing Preston as a woman for the first time.
I think this is something based on something in the Honor Harrington books? Which I have never read, so for me this is just a description of a movie that I have no context for but would really want to see.
So that was ... like half the ficathon I just linked. I'M SORRY, it was all really good! Also, for completion's sake, I also wrote a thing: Gifts for the Adon, a short Dalemark mythology story about Manialiabrid of the Undying and her uncle. Mostly what happened is I accidentally gave myself Opinions about Manaliabrid's personality while writing it, which I had never particularly had before...
Anyway I had a ton of fun with the whole thing; I hope it happens again next year!
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/371283.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.
The Hidden Island; or, the Eyebrows of Fate, The Lost Heir - Phoebe Marlowe
"I may," he added, "have the moral fiber of a ravening wolf, but I lack the talent to display it in greenery."
Even before I read the fic I guessed that
rymenhild had written it, which meant I had exceedingly high expectations that were NOT AT ALL disappointed. For those of you who remember, The Lost Heir is the novel that causes all the trouble in Heyer's Sylvester; this is the story of what happens when a BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADY is stranded on EVIL COUNT UGOLINO'S ISLAND, and it is beautiful and perfect and subverts expectations in the best possible way.
First Steps Past the End of the World, Millie Goes to School/Revolutionary Girl Utena
The shadows around Nanami were apt to take on odd shapes as various students bent mirrors or disingenuously brushed against lamp-shades in her presence, and whispers of witchly weirdness found their ways to her on the breeze.
Then Nanami's omelet turned back into an egg one morning at breakfast, and the school realised that something greater than a caper was afoot.
I gave out such a shriek of delight when I found this my inbox; THE PERSON WHO WROTE THIS IS A GENIUS. Nanami Goes to School! Merry pranksters and good-natured abound, except that Nanami came from Ohtori and therefore everything is AWFUL and WEIRD until Nanami is helped by the power of BELIEF and FEMSLASH. I love Nanami so much. I love this fic so much.
Millie Goes On a Date, Millie Goes to School
It didn't matter, in the end, that Millie had received a perfect score on her maths prep, or how many delicious crumpets with lashings of jam had been at breakfast, or how utterly scrumptious Lydia Worthington was when she cornered Millie behind the Infant School dormitories. It only mattered that tonight was the full moon, and last Saturday, Millie had been bitten by a werewolf.
SPEAKING OF FEMSLASH, if what you are looking for is adorable magical boarding school girls going on adorable dates with each other (while combating unfortunate accidental werewolfing) -- and let's be real, who among us is not looking for that -- then this is certainly the ficlet for you. So adorable! I would read SO MUCH of this.
Eating Cookies, Les Mousserables
Look, you're a very selfish monster
Because you don't act fair!
And just for the delightful cherry on my Invisible Ficathon sundae, someone took Sesame Street's Les Mis parody (which is here, if anyone hasn't seen it and would like to) and wrote me a themed ... to Sondheim's "Barcelona." From Company. I'M SORRY, I'M STILL DEAD OF LAUGHTER.
So those were my gifts, and they were all perfect, but there was also a ton of other stuff worth reading in the ficathon. The other great thing about this ficathon is because it's all based around stuff that doesn't exist anyway, in many cases (though not all) zero 'canon' ... metacanon? supercanon? ... knowledge is required.
The Rule of St. Philomel, The Buggre Alle Thys Bible
If a novice be heard to say, “If a Thinge is worth doing, it is worth doing Right Well,” he shall be lost to the order and never admitted Againe.
This is a religious order I feel we can ALL get behind, and that's all I'm gonna say.
Bee Culture for Detectives, Practical Handbook of Bee Culture - Sherlock Holmes
I, in my fifteen years as an investigative consultant for the NYPD and New Scotland Yard, have twice had the good fortune to investigate human crimes committed with bees. ("The Adventure of the Melliferous Madam," Summer 2004; "The Ingenious Case of the Bee Assassins," Fall 2013.)
This fic consists of excerpts written by three different Holmeses, and while all of them are delightful, the Elementary one is unsurprisingly my favorite. Sherlock takes SO MUCH GLEE in his bee assassins!
The Matter With Kansas, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
The mysterious patient in room 213 rolled across the lobby, hesitating in front of the door.
That wasn't really how it went, of course. She was in the lobby, so she was no longer in room 213. She was checking out of the hospital, so she was no longer a patient. And, if the intern's suspicions were correct, and she really was the sister of the boy from Kansas...well, she was no longer much of a mystery.
This talented fanfiction author has expanded upon the events of Snoopy's masterpiece in a truly heartwarming fashion that really grapples with the ethical, psychological and socio-economic questions raised by the original work.
Feel Free to Flee, The Princess Bride - Simon Morganstern
They were informed of the Event by Michael, the first bodyguard, Eleanora, the handmaiden (so called because she was Princess Noreena’s hands; that is, she held the items that no princess would hold herself), and Rufus, the Florinese footman who had wrestled Francis, the second bodyguard, to the floor to prevent him from attacking Prince Humperdinck.
The only packing scene that Morganstern did not include in the original novel -- Princess Noreena of Guilder and her handmaidens, removing themselves from Florin. A MASTERPIECE OF BEAUTIFULLY-DESCRIBED HATS.
Truth! Justice! Freedom! Reasonably-priced love! And a black coffee!, Miserable Les
Petiterre had three advantages though, which he was well aware of. He was a young vampire, he'd grown up not far from Ankh-Morpork and, unlike most other vampires, he was likable. He secretly suspected it was because he wasn't as handsome as most vampires naturally (or supernaturally) were, and instead of making burlap sacks look like haute couture, he made nicely tailored suits look like burlap sacks.
THIS FIC IS A WORK OF ART. It is so dedicated to sparkle motion. Although it is also one of the few fics in the collection that I would probably recommend that you have at least a little knowledge of Les Mis before reading, just because there are SO MANY amazing injokes on both the original novel and the particular habits of Les Mis fandom in this glorious Discworld AU, right down to the little historical author's notes. Les leLes, guys. Les leLes. I'm dying, I'm dead, I'm done.
The Extremely Appropriate, Inoffensive, and Altogether Cheery Pony Party, The Pony Party
The inscription continued, “Remember the Sebald Code and Verse Fluctuation Declaration!”
I do not know what was meant by this. I know no one named Sebald, and though I made an attempt to see bald people, they were not helpful, though several are indeed coders.
There were several Snicket fics in the exchange but this was by far the most amazingly conspiratorial and Snicketian of all.
Prelude to a Mask, The King in Yellow
There has been no challenger to the might and glory of the city of Yhtill in five hundred years. They have conquered their greater enemies, laid waste to their lesser ones, and put the rest under their boots as vassal-states and payers of tribute.
I don't really know much or anything about the King in Yellow, but this is super legit creepy.
No Matter What The Hell I Do, La Triviata
At the moment the fashion for the well to-do gentleman in Ankh was leaning towards top hats, multiple waistcoats and outer garments that couldn't seem to make up their mind over whether they wanted to be coats or cloaks, so had split the difference and combined a number of capes at various points from shoulder to hem.
So this CROSS-DRESSING ASSASSIN'S GUILD AU of a Discworld opera would be a beautiful thing even if I did not possess the secret knowledge that it was stealthily inspired by Sungkyunkwan Scandal, which makes it three times as beautiful again. Assassin's guild AUs for everything! Bonus points for the moment everyone who's read Maskerade is waiting for, when THE FATEFUL DOOR STICKS.
Adventure on Io, Captain Cosmos
Captain Cosmos turned to the leader. "Thanks, friend! You sure saved our bacon." With the broad, honest smile known to all who had fought at the Space-American hero's side, he offered his hand to shake.
If you, like me, burst into helpless giggles every single time you read the word "Space-American," then THIS IS THE FIC FOR YOU.
Things to do in Zyzzlvaria when you're temporarily discorporated, Escape from Zyzzlvaria/Doctor Who (2005)/Welcome to Night Vale/Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
"Ye great blasted idiot!" said Scotchy to Algernon. "You canna recognize a plot device when you see one?"
...and if you, unlike me, have three hours on your hands and really want to spend a lot of time solving a set of fiendishly clever puzzles set within a hilariously genre-savvy fic, then this, I believe, is the fic for you! ... I mean I also really enjoyed it, I just do not have three hours in which to solve puzzles. (I am too busy using those hours to write up fanfic recs.)
notes towards the antecedents of wicked counts, The Lost Heir
Regarding the birth and breeding of Count Ugolino, it strikes this Gentleman that it came about in much the expected way; he was born, on the sunniest and most unremarkable of days, and grew to villainy out of nothing less than the sheer tedium that was all his peers could offer.
More Lost Heir fic! Though this fic is more fic of Sylvester than it is The Lost Heir since it involves the characters in Sylvester writing Lost Heir meta and fanfic... but I am NOT COMPLAINING because it is HILARIOUS.
Through the Mountains, The Cave of Two Lovers
The two women were being very careful with each other, because a new peace is often more dangerous than war, and a woman's grief is more dangerous than either. They both still wore their hair in mourning knots for their children. They had lost their husbands to the war long ago.
This is ... really sad and moving and thoughtful Cave of Two Lovers aftermath fic ... I know. I KNOW.
I Forgot a Bit of the Title Here, But the Story Goes..., Cave of Two Lovers
He turned around and walked away quickly, hoping that he'd managed to keep the confused tangle of emotions he'd been feeling off of his face.
Was it possible? Was he, a were-badgermole, falling for this were-wolfbat?
An antidote to sad! My notes for this just read "VARIOUS LOVERS FORBIDDEN FROM ONE ANOTHER," which I think is accurate. There is another section that is a Pacific Rim AU.
Five Overdue Books, The Library
This is an earlier episode. You know because the statue of George Washington is motionless upon its pedestal, and Fox is alive. Fox is on a cooking show.
"I can't really cook," she admits to the studio audience, which mostly consists of scarab beetles and budgerigars and piano embalmers. "I made a bet with Prince Wing and lost, though, so here I am."
OK, first, if you haven't read Kelly Link's short story "Magic for Beginners," then go, find it, read it, discover the amazing show-within-a-show The Library, and then come back and read this, because it's pitch-perfect.
Of Wood Wits, Bisimbi Bi Masa and Speculating Frogs, The Forbidden Greeny Jungle Field Guide
"Do you want to relate a legend, discover a legend or be a legend?" she has asked me a thousand times. The obvious answer, of course, is "all three."
Nnedi Okorofor's universes offer amazing possibilities, and are super fun to play around in; this fic takes full advantage of them, and tells a great story in and of itself.
Linked, Galaxy Quest
"YOU ARE AN OFFICER OF THE SHIP," it replied promptly.
"I know I am an officer of the ship-" even in her own quarters she was repeating the dang thing! "- but what is my purpose?"
My notes for this fic say "GALAXY QUEST HEADCANON ACCEPTED."
Meta: Preston of the Spaceways, A Retrospective, Preston of the Spaceways
Preston himself was typically cast as a fair-haired, barrel-chested, deep-voiced officer type with a classic profile. In the last and most successful adaptation, the 1860 holovid directed and produced by Abraham Winters, the classically beautiful Emily Alexander took on the role, playing Preston as a woman for the first time.
I think this is something based on something in the Honor Harrington books? Which I have never read, so for me this is just a description of a movie that I have no context for but would really want to see.
So that was ... like half the ficathon I just linked. I'M SORRY, it was all really good! Also, for completion's sake, I also wrote a thing: Gifts for the Adon, a short Dalemark mythology story about Manialiabrid of the Undying and her uncle. Mostly what happened is I accidentally gave myself Opinions about Manaliabrid's personality while writing it, which I had never particularly had before...
Anyway I had a ton of fun with the whole thing; I hope it happens again next year!
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/371283.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.