i hear the voices when I'm dreaming

Happy new year, Dreamwidth!

Woke up with headache; hope that's not indicative of the year to come.

Word for this year: either float or flow, can't decide. (Me, indecisive? Surely not! Wait, unless...)

#

Yuletide has been revealed so I can share what I wrote:

After death, life (1455 words) by isabeau
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Chronicles of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Achren (Prydain), Gwydion (Prydain)
Summary:

After the collapse of Caer Colur, Achren -- fully prepared to die, forced into life by Gwydion-- considers who she is

It doesn't quite do justice to the prompt -- I tried doing something plottier and juicer, it just kept stalling -- but it's also the first YT fic I've written in 8 years. Actually the first thing I've uploaded to AO3 in 8 years.

(I find myself wanting to sign up for YT next year ... haven't since 2015, but I actually have things I want to request. Fandoms to nominate, even.)

#

There was Canine Companions representation in the Rose Parade today, walking along the Lions Club International float, but it was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing, unnoticed by commentators. The dog is one of Phoebe's littermates (!) so I was hoping for a closeup. Oh well.

Since authors have been revealed, I can say what I wrote:

Unmasked (4459 words) by isabeau
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mulan (1998)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Fa Mulan/Li Shang, Fa Ping/Li Shang
Additional Tags: Yuletide, Canon Rewrite, Shang is a doofus, Canonical Character Death, emotions are hard, #Yulechat Challenge
Summary:

This is how the world actually works: instead of leading soldiers into battle, Shang is given command over a disorganized bunch of conscripted civilians who don't know the business end of a sword. Instead of fighting to defend China, he is stuck training these misfits into something resembling soldiers. And instead of being devoted to a wife or his job as a soldier, he is becoming attracted to one of his men.

I didn't actually intend to do Yuletide -- I didn't look through the fandoms, I didn't look through the letters, I didn't plan on writing treats -- but as always I'm on the pinch hit list, and when Linsky's came out I went for it, half assuming it would have been snagged (since they were bit the rarest of Yuletide fandoms). I was surprised to get it, but in a good way, and ... rewatching the movie had me realizing how much Shang goes through in a short time (though the timeline confuses the fuck out of me, because they train for like three days and then have a long?!?? march and then everything happens at once and how does time even work) so it was fun to play with that and also with how bad he is at emotions ("you fight good") and ... anyway. Much babble, sorry.

So ... this year was kind of crazy, in the best way possible. I had a flood of creativity right around the time Dear Yuletide Writer letters came out, so I ended up a) making a spreadsheet of people I wanted to write for, because I actually had writing mojo and b) writing a lot.

I mean, not a lot by overall fandom standards, but it was 3k worth of fic spread over eight fics, and one of them turned into the longest fic I've written for YT -- over twice as long as the second longest, which was back in 2005 -- and the third longest fic I have on AO3, and another was the third longest fic I've ever written for YT, and given that a vast majority of the YT fics I've done, as well as all challenge fics in the last few years, have skated barely above the 1k minimum? It's pretty damn impressive.

Plus, I am happy with everything I wrote. Every damn thing.

#

My assignment matched me on La Belle et la Bête | Beauty and the Beast, and my recip's DYW letter encouraged retellings with variations. And I played with things for a while, but the idea I kept coming back to, the story I apparently wanted to tell, was basically ace lesbian PoC, and so that's the story I ended up writing.

For always, forever (7625 words) by isabeau
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: La Belle et la Bête | Beauty and the Beast
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Belle/La Bête | Beast/Beauty (La Belle et la Bête)
Additional Tags: Fairy Tale Retellings, Lesbian Character, Female Character of Color
Summary: A retelling of the story where things are not always as they seem

#

I also snagged a pinch hit fairly immediately, because it was someone on my list of to-(maybe)-write-treats-for. I subsequently did a bit of private flailing because omg what if I get things wrong, but I had a good cheerleader (hi mel!) and a good beta (hi rsf!) and I am very pleased with how it turned out.

The Middle Path (2666 words) by isabeau
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Ram Dass
Summary: London is not India, and Ram Dass doesn't think of it as home, but it is where he must go.

#

And then there were the random but full-length treats, that I wrote just for the pleasure of writing.

Gambit (1163 words) by isabeau
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Chess (Board Game)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Pawn (Chess), Queen (Chess)
Additional Tags: Anthropomorphic, Lesbian Character, (can chess pieces even be lesbian?)
Summary: Pawns can dream of promotion to queen, but sometimes that isn't as fun as it sounds.

Frog And Toad Write Fic (1113 words) by Frog and Toad
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Frog and Toad - Arnold Lobel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Toad (Frog and Toad), Frog (Frog and Toad)
Additional Tags: Characters Writing Fanfiction, Yuletide Is Awesome
Summary: Frog and Toad do almost everything together, so why not Yuletide too?

#

So that's it for the full-length treats ... but there are also Madness treats.

I am Groot (Groot's Story) (78 words) by isabeau
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Groot (Marvel)
Additional Tags: I Am Groot, Yuletide Treat
Summary: Groot's perspective on Guardians of the Galaxy.

That one ... ended up being wildly popular. I'm torn between squee and wanting to hide in pleased embarrassment. \o/ (And it now has a non-hovertext version; I didn't think of access issues until after the collection closed, and then I couldn't figure out a way to do it un-anonly.)

The Cost of Life (300 words) by isabeau
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Peter Quill, Meredith Quill
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Not A Happy Ending
Summary: Alien technology saves Meredith's life, but at what cost?

Triple drabble by the precisest definition (three 100-word segments). I blame the prompt for the ending.

Endings (100 words) by isabeau
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Galaxy Quest (1999)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Alexander Dane
Additional Tags: Galaxy Quest TJC, Inevitable Reboot, Drabble
Series: Part 1 of Galaxy Quest Drabbles
Summary: Endings are always hard. Some are harder than others.

Reboots (100 words) by isabeau
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Galaxy Quest (1999)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Mathesar (Galaxy Quest), Jason Nesmith
Additional Tags: Inevitable Reboot, Alternate Universes For Everyone, Drabble
Series: Part 2 of Galaxy Quest Drabbles
Summary: Canonical AUs can be confusing.

Authors have been revealed, so I can show off what I wrote:

Wine and Water (1052 words) by isabeau
Fandom: Greek and Roman Mythology
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ariadne/Dionysus
Characters: Dionysus (Greek and Roman Mythology), Semele (Greek and Roman Mythology), Ariadne (Greek and Roman Mythology), Hades (Greek and Roman Mythology), Persephone (Greek and Roman Mythology)
Summary:

Love, death, and adventures in the Underworld

(in re-canoning myself for this, I realized that Dionysus is pretty damn genderqueer. \o/)

Rince and Repeat (1162 words) by isabeau
Fandom: Glitch (video game), Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rincewind, The Luggage, Rube (Glitch), Magic Rock (Glitch)
Summary:

Rincewind gets into trouble -- again -- and the Rube makes some bad decisions.

Okay, yes, Glitch/Discworld. IT WORKS. Poor Rincewind!

(I think this is my first yuletide crossover.)