sing we joyous all together
So after all my flail and bother, I ended up writing three stories for yuletide this year.
For my official assignment, I wrote:
No Place Like Home
Recipient: diagon
Fandom: Ugly Betty
Character/Pairing: Amanda Tannen, Alexis Meade/Daniel Meade, Marc St. James/Cliff, Bradford Meade, Wilhelmina Slater, Christina McKinney, Betty Suarez, Justin Suarez
Rating: R, implied incest
Summary: While Bradford Meade fights for his life in the hospital, Alexis and Daniel share their grief. Too many carbohydrates induce a strangely twisted - and strangely familiar - dream for Amanda.
When I got this assignment, requesting a snazzy, snarky funny story that featured Amanda, Marc, Daniel, and Christina that could be an episode of the show, I admit, I panicked. I signed up for the fandom thinking I'd write a character piece or some hotass Daniel-gets-topped porn, or maybe stretch my wings a bit and write a short caper story.
But Yuletide rules say that you should use all of the characters in the prompt unless the recipient's notes say otherwise. Diagon's didn't, and I twisted and flipped and turned trying to come up with a short piece that would throw all four of these characters together in some way that would shake one of them up enough to make for a "point." I had a momentary inspiration for a Scooby-Doo overlay where Bradford or Wilhelmina was a Scooby-Doo villain, but the recipient not being American, I thought the references might escape her. So...
I started thinking about the show, about the way that it works, the magic realism, the OTT nature of the stories, the metaphors, the vivid color palette... and blam. It was the color palette that did it, that and "Green Girl" (Elphaba, Wicked). I'd absorbed, accidentally, a handful of Wizard of Oz references scattered through out episodes that I only half-remembered seeing.
From there, the idea of including Halston as Scooby became Halston as Toto and the rest got developed in conversation with just_katarin. I spent a lot of time stumbling over who would be the Lion and who the Scarecrow and who the Tin Man. In one episode of Ugly Betty, Christina says she wishes for some courage for Marc, which would've made him the Lion. But it was Amanda's Oz, she was Dorothy, and she'd not think of Marc as a coward. And so...
Amanda = Dorothy, searching for her father/home
Marc = Scarecrow, searching for a mind of his own, with his boyfriend Farmer = Cliff
Christina = Lion, searching for the courage to take her designs public without the shelter of Wilhelmina's patronage, ironic b/c Amanda calls her Braveheart
Daniel = Tin Woodsman, searching for a heart, not his, but Alexis's, and he's paralyzed by rust (rUST *g*) from Alexis's tears, Alexis=Tin Woodsgirl
Betty = Witched Witch
Wilhelmina = Glinda
Bradford = the Wizard
Really, though, the entire fic was written to justify one awful pun on "there's no place like home." Okay, not really. That'd be sad, given it's almost 12,000 words.
I loved writing this fic. It was a stretch for me in so many ways, but I had tons of fun playing with these characters, both how they fit into canon and how Amanda might see them given a sufficiently sexual charge.
Many thanks to my readers, linaerys, poisontaster, ainsley, rivers_bend, moveablehistory, my co-conspirator just_katarin who helped me developed this idea, and my beloved beta who learned this fandom just for me, way2busymom.
For my pinchhit:
Rhythm and Blues
Recipient: blackbird_song
Fandom: SG-1 RPF
Character/Pairing: Richard Dean Anderson/Michael Shanks
Rating: R
Summary: Michael has to go, but it screws up all their rhythms. It takes more than a year to fix them.
I was hanging out in #yuletide when the pinchhits went live. I'd waited all night for them, and when they came, I kept looking for one I could do. They went every four minutes and it was getting really late, so I set myself a time limit and swore I'd go to bed if I hadn't picked one.
Then I saw this request go out: Michael Shanks/Richard Dean Anderson, romance preferred, but friendship fine. And for a suggested prompt, she offered the period when Michael was gone from the show (s.6).
I jumped on it so fast my own head spun. It's not that I had any particular attachment to the pairing. In fact, I'd never really thought about it before. But my RealSpouse and I have been watching SG1 from the beginning, and I love Daniel like pie and ponies. I knew I was going to hate when Daniel left, and I couldn't imagine how Michael's castmates would feel. So that was the beginning.
When I went journal-diving and re-read all of Catherine's prompts, I realized she has a fondness for hurt/comfort fics, reunion fics, and "oh no I almost lost you" fics. Right away, I knew what story I had to write.
Michael has to leave because it's just not right for him anymore, and Rick can't continue the relationship they have if Michael's leaving. What happens while they're apart and what happens when Michael comes back.
I knew I wanted to cover a lot of time in a short space, and short vignettes seemed the way to go. They also suited my "feeling" for this story, somewhat sparse, the emotion plain.
Then I started watching and reading source material. Rick kept talking about "rhythms" and how Michael "got his" and that gave me the idea to make the cadences part of the story as well.
The hardest part of this story was chronology. Figuring out what happened when and what *could* happen when took more time than writing the fic. Normally I write my RPF as AU, and doing it as close to canon as this piece was challenging in the very best way.
Writing came easily, and the only thing I had difficulty with was writing out the porn. They'd been so sparse[ it just didn't want to happen in full explicit detail, and in truth it didn't need it.
This is possibly one of my favorite stories I've written outside of the Break Loose universe in a long time. I'm so very grateful to blackbird_song for the prompt and to way2busymom for the beta help.
For my Yuletide Treat:
Life Lessons for Peyton Manning
Recipient: marginaliana
Fandom: Commercials/NFL RPS
Character/Pairing: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Jason Taylor, Matt Hasselbeck, Ben Roethlisberger, Tina Fey, Lucky the Leprechaun, Snap, Crackle, and Pop, and...well, a whole lot of commercial characters
Rating/Warnings: NC17, dubious consent, sex toys, bondage, humiliation
Summary: There's a conspiracy in Commercial World to teach Peyton Manning an important life lesson.
Gods, I wish there was an excuse for this fic. *g* There's just not. Some of the credit, or should I say blame, goes to marginaliana for her inspired commercials prompt that included a crossover in commercial land. More, perhaps, goes to azewewish, idiosyncratic, moonmelody, and way2busymom, plus TechnoDaddy for facilitating my latent football obsession and loathing of Peyton Manning.
I also blame azewewish and idiosyncratic's The Bet series, football RPF (Matt Hasselbeck/Ben Roethlisberger) and recent discussion of post-Pro Bowl football rps from me.
Beyond that...I blame a football weekend, mimosas, and the wretched encouragement of way2busymom who persists in encouraging me. *hugs Belinda*
The fic... it's like this. Peyton Manning (quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts) has made a series of terribly annoying commercials - for "Manningsmind.com" and for Mastercard. They drive me batty with the level of self-promotion. The implication is that Peyton Manning is the best quarterback in the NFL. About which I disagree. Tom Brady (quarterback of the undefeated New England Patriots) is the best quarterback in the NFL. Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Matt Hasselbeck (Seattle Seahawks) are pretty damned good too, and on any given Sunday as good as Peyton.
I thought, well, if it annoys *me* that Peyton's doing all this promotional stuff, it's not a stretch to think that Tom Brady might really hate it too and want to teach Peyton a lesson. And, since his commercials are amongst the most frequently shown during football weekends, quite probably the mascots of commercial world are sick of him and his 'popularity' too.
So, what if Tom Brady teamed up with the folks in commercial world to teach Peyton a lesson in humility?
Of course, since it's me, there's bondage-porn (I'm so sorry Lucky, Snap, Crackle, and Pop!) involved. I mean, what good is a "moral story" without sex to drive home the lesson. (Never fear, though, Ben who stars as the Brawny Mountain Man and Matt who stars as Mr. Clean do not actually have sex with Peyton Manning. They do watch for awhile, though.)
There are so many references in it, but, people who read it have asked for a list, so, here it is - spoiler-protected: highlight the white spaces to read -
* Peyton in the hallway chased by Jason Taylor - Manningsmind.com commercial
* Red ribboned pony who bites and references "Chocolate" and "Razor" - Verizon Christmas commercial for new phones
* Talking Apple that shakes - Applebee's Apple
* Priceless Peyton - indirect reference to his Mastercard commercials
* Falling down a snowslope, dancing penguins, penguin sharing Coke with polar bear - Coke North pole commercials
* Patrick Kerney and Antonio Cromartie - league leaders for quarterback sacks (knocking the quarterback down before he can get rid of the ball)
* Vikings and Celts and Peyton checking his wallet - the Discover card, "what's in your wallet?" campaign, also oblique reference to the Minnesota Vikings
* checking his wallet but only having Mastercard - Peyton as the mascot for Mastercard
* Silly Manning, tricks are for kids, white rabbit - Trix breakfast cereal
* Guy at the whiteboard drawing/what can Brown do for you/give him a bigger smile - UPS's new whiteboard campaign
* "Something strange happens to people this time of year"/pushing the boulder off the cliff - Toyotathon
* Starched-shirted guy giving out information/Dex - Dex, yellowpages, "Dex Knows" campaign
* Gummy green stuff that talks - Mucinex
* Horse shit, Clydesdales - Budweiser
* Gekko - Geico insurance
* Bald guy in white - Mr. Clean cleaning products, the mascot was a very gay looking white-shirted muscle man. He's replaced by Matt Hasselbeck:
*Mountain man in flannel - Brawny paper towels mascot, replaced by Ben Roethlisberger:
* quicker picker-upper - Bounty paper towels
* Tom's the better quarterback - Tom Brady, as per above, also:
* Three hand-height cartoon figures dressed in bright coats and stockings and caps - Snap, Crackle, Pop, the Rice Krispies elves
* A little man, about knee high, freckled and dressed all in green/marshmallow hearts, clovers, stars etc - Lucky the Leprechaun for Lucky Charms, the stripey marshmallows are new, and practically an abomination *G*
* Guy in a winter coat, green bottles - Heineken campaign where the kid brings a six-pack to a party as a gift, everyone takes one, and he ends up having to take one from the next guy who brings a six pack
* Do I have to do everything myself? - Tina Fey, American Express commercials where she's running around doing a million things and then Amex calls with a disputed charge and she doesn't have to do anything
* I ordered an Eli - Eli Manning, Peyton's brother, quarterback for the New York Giants
* pink bunny beating a drum - Energizer batteries rabbit, current commercial crop has Energizer powering an entire city
* diamond bitch collar/he went to Jared - Jared jewelers, "he went to Jared" campaign, added bonus, Jared Padalecki features as a very toppy top in a lot of my CWRPS fic, it amuses me that Tom might've gone to Jared for lessons *G*
* priceless/everything else there's Mastercard - the Mastercard Priceless campaign
* "two seconds to sack" - Manningsmind.com commercial
* taking a knee being good enough for Tom - umm, this is a long football explanation; long story short, in situations when there's not much time left on the clock and the risk of the other team regaining the football by accident outweighs the benefits of trying to move the football, the quarterback may "take the knee" and elect not to get hit, nor move, nor lose the football and let time run out. Tom Brady, despite being a phenomenal quarterback is well-known for protecting the football rather than massaging his ego at the end of the game. There's also the sexual implication of "kneeling for someone" here.
As for where I came up with them all, true story: I sat down and watched football on Saturday, wrote down every commercial I saw with a potentially usable theme or mascot, added the memorable ones from my childhood and recent campaigns and then sat down on Sunday and started writing.
This fic, gods, it was fun to write. It's complete and utter crack, with no excuses or justification. But I had a great time with it and I hope if you read it, you do too.
Thanks to liviapenn, kaizoku and way2busymom for beta. <3 And to idiosyncratic for the loan of the pictures. *g* Baby, if you want me to reupload them somewhere else, let me know!
I expect I'll have more rec sets and yuletide flail, but I'd like to thank my author again, tanjetea for the Ugly Betty story Five Times the Meade Brothers Lost an Argument with Their Father written for me. It's a wonderful look at the Meade family dynamics and well-worth the read.
I'd also like to point you to shantih's yuletidetreasures.org/#yuletide ficlet written because I wouldn't shut up about slashing them. *g* It's great fun!
And, one last thing. Pimpage! Just because the reveal is over doesn't mean the fun has to stop. There's now approaching 4000 small fandom stories in the Yuletide Treasures Archive, and there are over 2000 unfilled requests available to be written as New Year's Resolutions! Want to get in on the Yuletide spirit all year round? Join us for the Hug-n-Write Challenge the third weekend of every month, now til next Yuletide!
For my official assignment, I wrote:
No Place Like Home
Recipient: diagon
Fandom: Ugly Betty
Character/Pairing: Amanda Tannen, Alexis Meade/Daniel Meade, Marc St. James/Cliff, Bradford Meade, Wilhelmina Slater, Christina McKinney, Betty Suarez, Justin Suarez
Rating: R, implied incest
Summary: While Bradford Meade fights for his life in the hospital, Alexis and Daniel share their grief. Too many carbohydrates induce a strangely twisted - and strangely familiar - dream for Amanda.
When I got this assignment, requesting a snazzy, snarky funny story that featured Amanda, Marc, Daniel, and Christina that could be an episode of the show, I admit, I panicked. I signed up for the fandom thinking I'd write a character piece or some hotass Daniel-gets-topped porn, or maybe stretch my wings a bit and write a short caper story.
But Yuletide rules say that you should use all of the characters in the prompt unless the recipient's notes say otherwise. Diagon's didn't, and I twisted and flipped and turned trying to come up with a short piece that would throw all four of these characters together in some way that would shake one of them up enough to make for a "point." I had a momentary inspiration for a Scooby-Doo overlay where Bradford or Wilhelmina was a Scooby-Doo villain, but the recipient not being American, I thought the references might escape her. So...
I started thinking about the show, about the way that it works, the magic realism, the OTT nature of the stories, the metaphors, the vivid color palette... and blam. It was the color palette that did it, that and "Green Girl" (Elphaba, Wicked). I'd absorbed, accidentally, a handful of Wizard of Oz references scattered through out episodes that I only half-remembered seeing.
From there, the idea of including Halston as Scooby became Halston as Toto and the rest got developed in conversation with just_katarin. I spent a lot of time stumbling over who would be the Lion and who the Scarecrow and who the Tin Man. In one episode of Ugly Betty, Christina says she wishes for some courage for Marc, which would've made him the Lion. But it was Amanda's Oz, she was Dorothy, and she'd not think of Marc as a coward. And so...
Amanda = Dorothy, searching for her father/home
Marc = Scarecrow, searching for a mind of his own, with his boyfriend Farmer = Cliff
Christina = Lion, searching for the courage to take her designs public without the shelter of Wilhelmina's patronage, ironic b/c Amanda calls her Braveheart
Daniel = Tin Woodsman, searching for a heart, not his, but Alexis's, and he's paralyzed by rust (rUST *g*) from Alexis's tears, Alexis=Tin Woodsgirl
Betty = Witched Witch
Wilhelmina = Glinda
Bradford = the Wizard
Really, though, the entire fic was written to justify one awful pun on "there's no place like home." Okay, not really. That'd be sad, given it's almost 12,000 words.
I loved writing this fic. It was a stretch for me in so many ways, but I had tons of fun playing with these characters, both how they fit into canon and how Amanda might see them given a sufficiently sexual charge.
Many thanks to my readers, linaerys, poisontaster, ainsley, rivers_bend, moveablehistory, my co-conspirator just_katarin who helped me developed this idea, and my beloved beta who learned this fandom just for me, way2busymom.
For my pinchhit:
Rhythm and Blues
Recipient: blackbird_song
Fandom: SG-1 RPF
Character/Pairing: Richard Dean Anderson/Michael Shanks
Rating: R
Summary: Michael has to go, but it screws up all their rhythms. It takes more than a year to fix them.
I was hanging out in #yuletide when the pinchhits went live. I'd waited all night for them, and when they came, I kept looking for one I could do. They went every four minutes and it was getting really late, so I set myself a time limit and swore I'd go to bed if I hadn't picked one.
Then I saw this request go out: Michael Shanks/Richard Dean Anderson, romance preferred, but friendship fine. And for a suggested prompt, she offered the period when Michael was gone from the show (s.6).
I jumped on it so fast my own head spun. It's not that I had any particular attachment to the pairing. In fact, I'd never really thought about it before. But my RealSpouse and I have been watching SG1 from the beginning, and I love Daniel like pie and ponies. I knew I was going to hate when Daniel left, and I couldn't imagine how Michael's castmates would feel. So that was the beginning.
When I went journal-diving and re-read all of Catherine's prompts, I realized she has a fondness for hurt/comfort fics, reunion fics, and "oh no I almost lost you" fics. Right away, I knew what story I had to write.
Michael has to leave because it's just not right for him anymore, and Rick can't continue the relationship they have if Michael's leaving. What happens while they're apart and what happens when Michael comes back.
I knew I wanted to cover a lot of time in a short space, and short vignettes seemed the way to go. They also suited my "feeling" for this story, somewhat sparse, the emotion plain.
Then I started watching and reading source material. Rick kept talking about "rhythms" and how Michael "got his" and that gave me the idea to make the cadences part of the story as well.
The hardest part of this story was chronology. Figuring out what happened when and what *could* happen when took more time than writing the fic. Normally I write my RPF as AU, and doing it as close to canon as this piece was challenging in the very best way.
Writing came easily, and the only thing I had difficulty with was writing out the porn. They'd been so sparse[ it just didn't want to happen in full explicit detail, and in truth it didn't need it.
This is possibly one of my favorite stories I've written outside of the Break Loose universe in a long time. I'm so very grateful to blackbird_song for the prompt and to way2busymom for the beta help.
For my Yuletide Treat:
Life Lessons for Peyton Manning
Recipient: marginaliana
Fandom: Commercials/NFL RPS
Character/Pairing: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Jason Taylor, Matt Hasselbeck, Ben Roethlisberger, Tina Fey, Lucky the Leprechaun, Snap, Crackle, and Pop, and...well, a whole lot of commercial characters
Rating/Warnings: NC17, dubious consent, sex toys, bondage, humiliation
Summary: There's a conspiracy in Commercial World to teach Peyton Manning an important life lesson.
Gods, I wish there was an excuse for this fic. *g* There's just not. Some of the credit, or should I say blame, goes to marginaliana for her inspired commercials prompt that included a crossover in commercial land. More, perhaps, goes to azewewish, idiosyncratic, moonmelody, and way2busymom, plus TechnoDaddy for facilitating my latent football obsession and loathing of Peyton Manning.
I also blame azewewish and idiosyncratic's The Bet series, football RPF (Matt Hasselbeck/Ben Roethlisberger) and recent discussion of post-Pro Bowl football rps from me.
Beyond that...I blame a football weekend, mimosas, and the wretched encouragement of way2busymom who persists in encouraging me. *hugs Belinda*
The fic... it's like this. Peyton Manning (quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts) has made a series of terribly annoying commercials - for "Manningsmind.com" and for Mastercard. They drive me batty with the level of self-promotion. The implication is that Peyton Manning is the best quarterback in the NFL. About which I disagree. Tom Brady (quarterback of the undefeated New England Patriots) is the best quarterback in the NFL. Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Matt Hasselbeck (Seattle Seahawks) are pretty damned good too, and on any given Sunday as good as Peyton.
I thought, well, if it annoys *me* that Peyton's doing all this promotional stuff, it's not a stretch to think that Tom Brady might really hate it too and want to teach Peyton a lesson. And, since his commercials are amongst the most frequently shown during football weekends, quite probably the mascots of commercial world are sick of him and his 'popularity' too.
So, what if Tom Brady teamed up with the folks in commercial world to teach Peyton a lesson in humility?
Of course, since it's me, there's bondage-porn (I'm so sorry Lucky, Snap, Crackle, and Pop!) involved. I mean, what good is a "moral story" without sex to drive home the lesson. (Never fear, though, Ben who stars as the Brawny Mountain Man and Matt who stars as Mr. Clean do not actually have sex with Peyton Manning. They do watch for awhile, though.)
There are so many references in it, but, people who read it have asked for a list, so, here it is - spoiler-protected: highlight the white spaces to read -
* Peyton in the hallway chased by Jason Taylor - Manningsmind.com commercial
* Red ribboned pony who bites and references "Chocolate" and "Razor" - Verizon Christmas commercial for new phones
* Talking Apple that shakes - Applebee's Apple
* Priceless Peyton - indirect reference to his Mastercard commercials
* Falling down a snowslope, dancing penguins, penguin sharing Coke with polar bear - Coke North pole commercials
* Patrick Kerney and Antonio Cromartie - league leaders for quarterback sacks (knocking the quarterback down before he can get rid of the ball)
* Vikings and Celts and Peyton checking his wallet - the Discover card, "what's in your wallet?" campaign, also oblique reference to the Minnesota Vikings
* checking his wallet but only having Mastercard - Peyton as the mascot for Mastercard
* Silly Manning, tricks are for kids, white rabbit - Trix breakfast cereal
* Guy at the whiteboard drawing/what can Brown do for you/give him a bigger smile - UPS's new whiteboard campaign
* "Something strange happens to people this time of year"/pushing the boulder off the cliff - Toyotathon
* Starched-shirted guy giving out information/Dex - Dex, yellowpages, "Dex Knows" campaign
* Gummy green stuff that talks - Mucinex
* Horse shit, Clydesdales - Budweiser
* Gekko - Geico insurance
* Bald guy in white - Mr. Clean cleaning products, the mascot was a very gay looking white-shirted muscle man. He's replaced by Matt Hasselbeck:
*Mountain man in flannel - Brawny paper towels mascot, replaced by Ben Roethlisberger:
* quicker picker-upper - Bounty paper towels
* Tom's the better quarterback - Tom Brady, as per above, also:
* Three hand-height cartoon figures dressed in bright coats and stockings and caps - Snap, Crackle, Pop, the Rice Krispies elves
* A little man, about knee high, freckled and dressed all in green/marshmallow hearts, clovers, stars etc - Lucky the Leprechaun for Lucky Charms, the stripey marshmallows are new, and practically an abomination *G*
* Guy in a winter coat, green bottles - Heineken campaign where the kid brings a six-pack to a party as a gift, everyone takes one, and he ends up having to take one from the next guy who brings a six pack
* Do I have to do everything myself? - Tina Fey, American Express commercials where she's running around doing a million things and then Amex calls with a disputed charge and she doesn't have to do anything
* I ordered an Eli - Eli Manning, Peyton's brother, quarterback for the New York Giants
* pink bunny beating a drum - Energizer batteries rabbit, current commercial crop has Energizer powering an entire city
* diamond bitch collar/he went to Jared - Jared jewelers, "he went to Jared" campaign, added bonus, Jared Padalecki features as a very toppy top in a lot of my CWRPS fic, it amuses me that Tom might've gone to Jared for lessons *G*
* priceless/everything else there's Mastercard - the Mastercard Priceless campaign
* "two seconds to sack" - Manningsmind.com commercial
* taking a knee being good enough for Tom - umm, this is a long football explanation; long story short, in situations when there's not much time left on the clock and the risk of the other team regaining the football by accident outweighs the benefits of trying to move the football, the quarterback may "take the knee" and elect not to get hit, nor move, nor lose the football and let time run out. Tom Brady, despite being a phenomenal quarterback is well-known for protecting the football rather than massaging his ego at the end of the game. There's also the sexual implication of "kneeling for someone" here.
As for where I came up with them all, true story: I sat down and watched football on Saturday, wrote down every commercial I saw with a potentially usable theme or mascot, added the memorable ones from my childhood and recent campaigns and then sat down on Sunday and started writing.
This fic, gods, it was fun to write. It's complete and utter crack, with no excuses or justification. But I had a great time with it and I hope if you read it, you do too.
Thanks to liviapenn, kaizoku and way2busymom for beta. <3 And to idiosyncratic for the loan of the pictures. *g* Baby, if you want me to reupload them somewhere else, let me know!
I expect I'll have more rec sets and yuletide flail, but I'd like to thank my author again, tanjetea for the Ugly Betty story Five Times the Meade Brothers Lost an Argument with Their Father written for me. It's a wonderful look at the Meade family dynamics and well-worth the read.
I'd also like to point you to shantih's yuletidetreasures.org/#yuletide ficlet written because I wouldn't shut up about slashing them. *g* It's great fun!
And, one last thing. Pimpage! Just because the reveal is over doesn't mean the fun has to stop. There's now approaching 4000 small fandom stories in the Yuletide Treasures Archive, and there are over 2000 unfilled requests available to be written as New Year's Resolutions! Want to get in on the Yuletide spirit all year round? Join us for the Hug-n-Write Challenge the third weekend of every month, now til next Yuletide!