somniloquence

It's been almost two weeks since I posted about my weird Schrödinger's terminal illness, but I haven't had much to report in terms of forward momentum, though things are starting to happen not so much all the time.

( Where I am now is not much different from where I was before )

On the nicer side, belmanoir knitted me the most beautiful shawl! It's lavender and has this lovely pattern with different stitches on two halves, and they're so intricate and pretty, and the merino wool is as soft as angel hair. I developed a wool allergy a while ago, and can't even wear my finest, priciest cashmere or merino or alpaca without something underneath it,, but this is so snuggly and cosy and has the softest hand. And a three-year-old friend of hers suggested that it needed to have a heart-shaped button on it, because that's how three-year-olds roll, you know, and she was absolutely correct--there's a button in the middle of it and I love it.

I am just in awe of people who can knit and crochet and needlepoint. I'm so lousy at that sort of thing, and how someone can follow a pattern and knit these delicate, artistic stitches is beyond me. I want to sit down with my copy of Sailor's Delight, a cup of French breakfast tea, and my shawl and read.

I need to finish Reverie, especially if I'm gonna have a limited lifespan left, but I also now want to write the Groundhog Day story for Kings that I'd been thinking of writing for Yuletide before bel whacked me on the head and brought me to my senses that it wasn't doable in my state. Though judging by the complete lack of response the Kings story I did write for Yuletide got this year, I'm not sure if that's worth the effort. It was perennially kind of a popular Yuletide fandom, but apparently that's not true anymore? Or maybe it was just me. I still love my poor tortured gay baby, though.

Thank you for signing up to write a story for me! I'm always very excited at this time of year, because I love gift-giving and receiving, so I'm sure I'll enjoy what you do because we share a fandom in common.

General stuff about me

I'm open to a lot of stuff: angst with a happy ending, romance, humor, ships (slash or het), gen, character studies, long plotty stuff (I love plotty stuff and fic with world-building or that goes in depth), fluff, or drama. I love first times and falling in love, friendships, relationships between people who are equals. Friends to lovers might be my ultimate trope, and found families is right up there too. What I love about my fandoms is the canon universe they inhabit, so I'm not really into mundane AUs, however what-if AUs (canon-divergence) can be really cool--I love it when someone comes up with a story off of one element being changed!

But there's definitely some things I don't want, which I mentioned in my optional details and will explain further here. I would really appreciate not having BDSM/anything particularly sex kink-oriented, non-con of any type, emotional abuse, ABO and that sort of thing (usually, if there are initials for it, it's a safe bet I'm not into it), any kind of animal harm. A new thing I've learned I really dislike is jealousy, and related to that, love triangles. I've battled grief and depression for a while and dealt with cancer recently, so something that might make me more depressed or fic about illnesses or death would not be my first choice, but if that's the direction your story goes, I'm also not the kind of person who'd freak out about it.

Some tropes and approaches I enjoy (thanks to dorinda for letting me steal her terminology) are hopeful endings even if it's not necessarily a happy-ever-after, words that camouflage deeper/unspoken meanings and hidden feelings, protectiveness (without posessiveness), extreme competence (with honest weakness), hurt/comfort, partners against the world, nurturing via food/drink/warmth. I also love many of the classics: extreme competence kink, having to share a bed, huddling for warmth and/or stranded somewhere, pretend couple, situations where one suffers or sacrifices for the other, rescues, everybody lives!, etc. Genre can be fun: someone finds they have superpowers, or is trapped in a time loop, things like that. If you can write time travel of some sort, I'll be giddy.

The fandoms I've requested

( The Red Sea Diving Resort )

( The Terror )

( Kings )

I have now completed both my Fandom Loves Puerto Rico auction items! The vid I made for minim calibre I'm waiting to post till closer to the Escapade vid show, but the Kings fic I wrote for innie_darling is up now. My little short story turned into another 10k monster, how does this keep happening?

The Captains and the Kings (10565 words) by gwyneth rhys
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Kings (TV 2009)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jack Benjamin, Ephram Samuels, Original Characters, David Shepherd, Lucinda Wolfson
Additional Tags: Post-Series, referenced suicide attempts, Character Death Fix, Rescue Missions, Personal Growth: Slow Burn Edition
Summary:

He stood for a moment gazing up at the night sky clotted with stars. As a boy he'd been fascinated by exploration and seafaring, and had learned how to steer by the sky when the king took them sailing. Every constellation in this hemisphere, every visible planet, had once been familiar to him, and he tried to name the ones he could recall, but they were too few, now. He'd let other interests take their places.

I'm super happy you are writing for me! Yay, we have fandoms in common and you love the same people I do -- this is wonderful, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with about these characters and fandoms we share a mutual love for. I may be adjusting this until signups are closed, but for now, this will suffice.

I used my Optional Details in the signup to provide more specific info on the individual fandoms or possible prompts, so I haven't added a lot of specifics here in this letter, just general thoughts about the fandoms I requested. I'm not always the best at providing prompts, but if you'd like more ideas than what's in the signup form, you can have the mods ping me and I'll do my best!

General stuff about me: I'm open to angst and romance and humor and slash and het and gen, character studies or long plotty stuff (I love plotty stuff), fluff or drama. I'd generally prefer not to have anything really grimdark, though, but if that's where your story goes, I'm not the kind of person who'd freak out about it. But I've been battling depression for a few years, so stuff that's going to make me more depressed might not be the healthiest thing. I love first times and falling in love, friendships, relationships between people who are equals. Friends to lovers might be my ultimate trope. Banter, sass, and having fun is always catnip to me.

Stuff I don't like includes BDSM/anything particularly kink-oriented (I don't mind mild, characters-flirting-with-some-kinks stuff, but if it's more than lightweight I might not be your best audience), non-con in any way, emotional abuse, any sort of animal harm, or deliberate cruelty. I'm not fond of AUs such as coffeeshops or sports or ABO, any of that sort of thing--what I tend to love about my fandoms is the canon universe they inhabit, that's what made me fall in love with them in the first place. What-if AUs (canon-divergence) can be really cool, though--I love it when someone comes up with a story off of one tiny element being changed! Obviously, I tend to hew pretty closely toward canon, is what I'm saying. :-D

Two of my requests involve twins, and I'm a twin, so I'm kind of sensitive to the way twins are often misrepresented in media--a little homework about twins and what we're really like would go a long way if you end up writing either TJ or Jack with their twins.

In some of my requests, I would love slash if I can get it (and you're comfortable with it), but slash doesn't automatically equal porn. For me it's about the depth of the bond between the characters, the discovery of a new intimacy or a strong connection. With straight relationships, I like seeing behind the expected: not simply love or sex because it's the standard, rather the exploration of what two characters may learn about one another or find in themselves through the relationship. I don't have anything against sex scenes (I love them!), but I prefer if a sex scene has a reason to exist within its story.

Some of the tropes and approaches I enjoy: right now, I really love hopeful endings, words that camouflage deeper/unspoken meanings, protectiveness, worry, extreme competence (with honest weakness), hurt/comfort, found or chosen families, partners against the world, nurturing via food/drink/warmth. Don't be afraid of the classics if you like 'em! Having to Share a Bed, Huddling for Warmth, Pretend Couple, situations where one suffers or sacrifices for the other, rescues, stranded somewhere (idyllic or non-), etc. And if you can write time travel of some sort, I'll probably fall in love with you.

( Specific fandoms )

Last post of 2014!

So this year I wrote two Kings stories for Yuletide. The first was my assignment, and the second was one I wrote for Destina as a treat because she was an awesome beta who wrestled my nearly 13,000-word story to the ground for me and made it way better than it had any hope of being otherwise. Also, she ended up on the pinch hit list TWICE and that is shit that should just not happen to anyone.

The only soul I have I stole from you (10663 words) by gwyneth rhys
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Kings (TV 2009)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Benjamin/David Shepherd, Jack Benjamin & Michelle Benjamin
Characters: Jack Benjamin, David Shepherd, Michelle Benjamin
Additional Tags: Post-Series, Friends to Lovers, piano playing, Reconciliation
Summary:

We take lovers into our souls like we take water into our throats, Jack thought, we drink in their kisses and breathe their breath. We fall in love and we’re unmade. “Have a little faith,” David said.

Strangers to the Fire (5894 words) by gwyneth rhys
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Kings (TV 2009)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Benjamin/David Shepherd
Characters: Jack Benjamin, David Shepherd, Silas Benjamin
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship/Love, 69 (Sex Position), Fix-It
Summary:

This is what his hands have tried to grasp since he knew what desire was, the prayer his burning mouth has longed to say.

I'm super happy you are writing for me! Yay, we have fandoms in common and you love the same people I do -- this is wonderful! Because of that, I'm pretty sure I will be a very happy recipient, just because I will have a gift story in a fandom I love. I'm terrible at giving prompts, I really am, so if you'd really love some actualfax prompts, have the mods ping me and I will do my best!

You might notice a strange similarity to my requests. I have loved all my requested fandoms for a long time, and have even requested them before, but this year I have been so utterly obsessed with Captain America: The Winter Soldier (well, and the first movie, too) that I can't even see anything else, so I've chosen Cap2-adjacent fandoms -- stuff with Sebastian Stan and Chris Evans. SebStan's been ruining my life for years, and now Chris Evans is too. I hate them. I love them. Hate them. Love them. Sister! Daughter! Ahem. Anyway. What this means, dear author, is that for the first time in my life I'm reading crossovery things. So if you want to cross any of these characters over with someone from another adjacent fandom, or someone else, or even write an OC, that's cool, as long as the focus is on the YT character. If you'd like to know what fandoms I'm into, you can see a lot of that in my tags on my journals <LJ handle is gwyn_r), and also in the list of fandoms I've written/vidded on my AO3 account.

General stuff about me: I'm open to angst and romance and humor and slash and het and gen, character studies or long plotty stuff, fluff or darker. This year, I'd kind of prefer not to have anything really grimdark, though, but if that's where your story goes, I'm not the kind of person who'd freak out about it. But I've been battling depression, and so stuff that's going to make me more depressed might not be the healthiest thing. I love first times and falling in love, friendships, relationships between people who are equals. Stuff I don't like includes BDSM/anything particularly kink-oriented, non-con in any way, emotional abuse, any sort of animal harm, kid/baby fic, and all that stuff that's kind of AU-y like wingfic and ABO or other things I try never to know about. I tend to hew pretty closely toward canon. Also, two of my fandoms involve twins this year, and I'm a twin, so I'm kind of sensitive to the way twins are often misrepresented in media--a little homework about twins and what we're really like would go a long way if you end up writing either TJ or Jack with their twins.

I'm going to steal heavily from Dorinda for this part of my likes list:  I love slash if I can get it, but for me slash doesn't automatically equal porn. For me it's about the depth of the bond between the characters, the discovery of a startling and unexpected intimacy. I don't have anything against sex scenes (I love them!), but I prefer if a sex scene has a reason to exist within its story. (And honestly, the same can be said for het for me as well.)

Some of the tropes and approaches I enjoy: right now, I really love hopeful endings, words that camouflage deeper/unspoken meanings, protectiveness, worry, extreme competence (with honest weakness), hurt/comfort, chosen families, partners against the world, nurturing via food/drink/warmth. Don't be afraid of classic frameworks if you like 'em! I mentioned hurt/comfort, but I also won't turn up my nose at Having to Share a Bed, Huddling for Warmth, Pretend Couple, situations where one suffers or sacrifices for the other, rescues, stranded somewhere (idyllic or non-), etc. 


( Political Animals )

( Kings )

( The Losers )