Briefly, as I am travelling:

Emmys: I'm thrilled Tatiana Maslany has finally won. She deserves this. I mean, I was rooting for one of the actresses on this particular occasion, but Tatiana Maslany does so amazing things on this show and in all these roles that she can win any time and I'm satisfied.

Otoh "Battle of the Bastards" winning best written episode over ANY episode of The Americans, season 4, is just baffling. (Yes, Sansa's scene at the end is great, and the overall direction is good, but the script otherwise? Ah well. Spectacle over character drama, I suppose.)

Politics: dire dire dire dire everywhere, including my own country. For some reason, the Washington Post coming up with a journalistic first of the most cynical type is my current personal least favourite, though. They published Snowden's original revelations together with the New York Times and won another Pulitzer for it, and now they're asking for him not to be pardoned but to go to prison. Somewhere, Nixon is cackling. And Ben Bradlee is turning in his grave.

Trying to cheer myself up: since it's "talk like a pirate" day, I give you Black Sails' version of Anne Bonny, in the s2 finale:

I can't be your wife, Jack. But you and I are gonna be partners till they put us in the fucking ground. "

(The Anne and Jack relationship: forever great.)

Also, going back a bit in (my) fannish time, here's the pirate king herself, Elizabeth Swann (sidenote: why I've never been tempted to watch any Pirates of the Caribbean movies post the third one - for me, that saga was Elizabeth's story, and the trilogy told it, completely), rallying a fleet: Hoist the Colours!

REMIX!

I'll be on a train in a few hours, as a happy reader in many a fandom. This year, the story of mine that got remixed was one of my newer ones, Here Be Dragons, which is a Merlin tale in which I went a bit meta with the story telling and myth building and messed up legacies. Also, it's my Kilgarrah the Great Dragon character exploration. It was written before s4 was broadcast, and so naturally one of the things I fretted about before Aithusa was broadcast was getting jossed. (And very relieved was I when it didn't happen. I'm fond of my messed up fanon for dragon-human relations.)

The remix story, which is called Waking Up Stories (A Dancemix with Dragons), not only manages to use Aithusa (and other things that happened in s4) but also tackles the storytelling theme with gusto, managing nifty parallels between Morgana (who is the pov character of the remix story) and Uther on the one hand, and Kilgarrah and Aithusa on the other. There are great guest appearances by Hunith and Morgause, and the Morgana and Aithusa interaction is delightful. I have my suspicions about the author (the Morgana centricity and witty dialogue make me think of netgirl_y2k; if it's someone else, then, Anonymous, I mean it as a compliment!). Anyway, reading this was a great way to start the remix 2012 archive expedition.


Now, here are some recs in other fandoms:


X-Men Movieverse:

Terminal Ballistics (The .45 Remix): Erik Lehnsherr wins forever at heartbreakingly dysfunctionally messed up. Oh, Erik.


Star Trek: The Next Generation:

Poker Face (She Can Read You Remix) : there are few Deanna Troi character explorations out there, and even less that focus on what it must be like being an empath (and among fellow Betazoids, telepath) in a society where everyone would automatically assume you to use that ability to your advantage. Very well done.

Pirates of the Carribean:


A broken silence, mended (The Tide Recalls Remix): in which a ghostly James Norrington pays visits to Elizabeth Swann and ends up as the one being haunted. I love the Norrington and Elizabeth interaction in this, and the graceful melancholia, pierced with sharp insights, of the whole piece.

Doctor Who:

Gearbox (The Won't Miss A Piece Remix): so just how does the TARDIS work? Multi-era, featuring various regenerations of the Doctor, and multiple companions, and drawing delightful character portraits of all.

Harry Potter:


A Quiet Interlude (The Standing on a Precipice Remix) : in which Lily Potter and Sirius Black have a chat during the last year of her life. I love it when authors tackle Lily and make her come to life as a complicated, three dimensional being. I also appreciate takes on Sirius that aren't a) about his immortal love for Remus or b) about his immortal loathing/secretly hidden lust (take your choice depending on shipperdom) of Severus Snape, and this story delivers on that count, too. Highly Reccomended.

1.) Lilah Morgan (Angel). Lilah rocked that 40s noir look. (Oddly enough, the next thing I saw the actress in was her cameo in Thirteen Days where she was Jackie Kennedy, also a style that suits her.)

2.) Gwen Cooper (Torchwood). Gwen, whose job demands a whole lot more running and physical fighting than Lilah's, came up with the black leather jacket and jeans combo which is both practical and still shows her off to best advantage. Go, Gwen!

3.) Arvin Sloane (Alias). A man who knows how to wear a suit, especially one with a Nehru jacket. The occasional colourful socks are the kind of excentricity that signal he's not any company's man, he's more likely to have an agenda benath the fashionable exterior, of course.

4.) Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Caribean). Elizabeth looks great in whatever she wears, whether it's her governor's daughter dress, a dress provided by a kidnapping pirate, simple sailor's trousers and shirt or a Chinese combination of same. Also, she knows what to wear when (well, after getting rid of that corset anyway); a practical woman after my own heart.

5.) Amanda (Highlander): with more than a millennium behind her, Amanda proved her fashion sense in all the ages, dressing up or down to the occasion, and looking great both in female and male wardrobe of any period. (*icon shows case in point*)

As it's unlikely I'm going to write more fanfiction this year, time for the two memes.

a) The one in which you post the first sentence of the first story you posted each month this year:

January

On the day Angela Petrelli turns twenty, she opens her eyes and decides her life is over.

Optima Mater, Heroes, Angela and Nathan Petrelli

February

I. DeEtta Kramer is small - petite, Kate’s mother would have said, and her father would have snorted and muttered something about pretentions – and has the kind of porcellain features that make Kate feel clumsy by comparison.

Investigations, Angel/Dexter crossover, Kate, Darla, Dexter


March

No story at all!


April


To Atia, hildbirth was always connected with the scent of apples and lemons and the sensation of clothes soaked in warm olive oil laid over her abdomen.

Survival, Rome, Atia and Octavia


May

No story!


June


The first time Hank sees her, standing in the wreckage of BeneTech Labaratories, she’s an anonymous figure hiding behind sunglasses and guns as she introduces herself and her organisation: Abigail Brand, of S.W.O.R.D.

First Impressions, Astonishing X-Men, Hank McCoy/Abigail Brand



July


The Doctor is in his third body, and just starting to adjust, badly, to a linear life, stuck at one point in time.

Patterns, Doctor Who, The Doctor (Three and Ten both), The Brigadier, Harriet Jones


August

No story!


September

She needed a crystal, pure and simple.

Shades of Grey, Farscape/Babylon 5, Chiana/Londo Mollari



October

No story!


November

No story!


December

In all his years as a political operative, Toby Ziegler has never participated in a successful campaign.

Words and the Men, West Wing, Toby Ziegler and Jed Bartlet

Conclusions: I definitely wrote less fanfiction (though a lot of meta). The break-up with Heroes is evident (last year, I wrote thirty stories in that fandom), as is the ongoing affection for Doctor Who. There were a lot of crossovers, and I experimented in new fandoms (Rome and West Wing). Considering my gen writer inclinations, what surprises me most is that I found a pairing I wrote repeatedly about and whom I most definitely ship, Hank McCoy and Abigail Brand from AXM. This feels a bit like writing Londo/G'Kar slash early on in that so far, I'm the only one to write Hank/Brand at all...


Moving on to

b) The other year in fic meme:

Favorite story this year: Patterns (Doctor Who).

My best story this year: Always the toughest category, but I'll go with Shades of Grey, which as opposed to most of the others isn't just character introspective but has an actual plot, and one that I think credibly unites two very different universes.

Most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Well, I was curious whether Game, Set and Match, my DW/B7 crossover in which the Master encounters Servalan would work for readers who were familiar with only one of the fandoms in question, and never heard from any, which I guess is an answer. However, there was some nice feedback on lj from readers who were fans of both British shows, and on considering FFN doesn't even have a Blake's 7 category, I hadn't expected feedback there. Similarly, not that many people read fanfics based on comics, and of those even fewer are interested in Agent Abigail Brand, so I shouldn't have expected reaction for Face of the Enemy, either, but I still couldn't help hoping for more, as I was rather proud of this story.

Most fun story: First Impressions (Astonishing X-Men). Because Beast as Lizzie Bennet and Brand as Darcy still makes me smile.

Sexiest story: I still fail at sex. My Londo/Chiana story, Shades of Grey, should be full of it, in theory, because both characters are sensualists, but in practice it's fade to black whenever tentacle action would be required.

"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: Time after Time (Doctor Who/Babylon 5). londonkds gave me the prompt to connect the Master with Mr. Morden in six steps, and the result was the most disturbing thing I've written this year. I'm still feeling smugly evil about that.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Order and Evolution (Babylon 5/ Pirates of the Carribean). I'm not a Vorlon fan. And while I enjoyed those whacky pirates as much as anyone, you can bet I never bothered to think the world building through. And yet here I was, writing sympathetic Kosh pov and Kraken pathos. That was a shift, alright.

Hardest story to do: I have become (death) (Babylon 5). This was my second story for the Remix Redux ficathon, as I had volunteered to pinch hit, and got assigned leyenn. Who writes mostly very shippy fanfiction, either Susan/Talia in B5 or Riker/Troi for TNG. She also had remixed a story of mine in the previous year superbly, so I really didn't want to let her down. But I read those (very good) stories and couldn't find an angle that would allow me to produce something original based on them. It was a massive headache. And then, at last, inspiration hit, because among these stories was a short one about Susan Ivanova returning to B5 and having a one night stand with Lyta Alexander. This gave me the idea of a Lyta portrait, which would allow me to use several ideas about Lyta I had (but never got down in a story before); the encounter with Susan could be incorporated as part of Lyta's relationships with other telepaths and the way she changed. After I had figured out the angle, the writing was no problem, and I felt happy with the result, but I never heard from leyenn, so I assume the remix did not find favour in her eyes.

Biggest surprise: Survival. For two reasons: a) because I hadn't expected to write in this fandom; I like Rome quite a lot, but were I to write about the period under normal circumstances, it would be straightforward historical fiction; this, however, was for the Remix Redux ficathon (my first contribution), and kangeiko's story about Octavia and Atia just spoke to me. And b) I hadn't expected much feedback, if any; it's a small fandom, and within that fandom, most fanfic is Pullo/Vorenus, while my story was about a mother/daughter relationship (as well as being an Atia character portrait), with no sex in sight. But it proved to be popular on lj and ffn both, which still makes me happy in a slightly startled way.

Most revealing story: About a character - hm, either Displacement (which is about Bob Bishop of Heroes - in retrospect my last story in the fandom, not counting crossover ficlets) or Patterns (aka behold my unified theory about Ten and Three and why he acted the way he did in The Silurians and The Christmas Invasion respectively). About me as a writer: Order and Evolution (Babylon 5/ Pirates of the Caribbean). Because I got a prompt that was just begging for crack fic (Kosh and the Kraken) and wrote serious stuff instead. I have a problem.

A story I want remembered: Face of the Enemy.

For likeadeuce: Six Degrees From Hank McCoy (X-Men) to Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Caribbean). I cheated a bit by using 1602!Hank, and... well, you'll see. Spoilers for 1602 by Neil Gaiman as well as Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon, and for PotC: At World's End.


( Avant! )

Name five characters who would make good supervillains (actual current supervillains excluded).

I'm assuming this also means no reformed supervillains, which excludes the likes of Emma Frost and no we-don't-know-yet-whether-they-are characters, either (this excludes you, Mark Milton). So, let's see:

1) Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica). Is already scary as hell as a ruthless sort of good person in a very morally grey world. Would completely take over the universe if she went dark side and didn't care about the body count any longer. Would also make everyone raising objections to her rule look like the bad guys, no matter how right they are.

2) Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Caribean). Mind you, if you read some posts, you'd think she's there already... Anyway: Elizabeth would not take over the universe, or even the Americas, but she'd be the most feared Pirate King there ever was (as opposed to "just" being one of the most respected), and of course she'd frame someone else to hang for her once the time of the pirates does come to an end.

3) Peter Petrelli (Heroes). I'm with yahtzee63 on that one. (See also: sparky77's "6e" universe.) Few things are more dangerous than emotionally unstable idealists going crazy, and this one isn't just unkillable but also equipped with all sorts of powers. Mind you, I can't see even Evil!Peter being the kind of supervillain who is after ruling the planet, because Peter might be crazy already, but he's genuinenly not interested in leading. But he'd be perfectly capable of being a supervillain who destroys the planet in a gigantic emotional temper tantrum. And/or subjugates on someone else's behest.

4) Delenn (Babylon 5). Back to the schemer/ruling the universe type of supervillain. Delenn already came close to wiping out humanity and managed to make anyone bringing that up afterwards look like a big meanie. Not to mention that even as a good guy, she's convinced of being chosen and manages to become President of an interstellar Alliance directly after her husband, whom she manoeuvred in that position to begin with, had the job. (Hillary can only dream of being so efficient!) Take away her sense of guilt and occasional qualms, and all would love her and despair. (Well, I'm not sure about the "despair"part. I see Evil!Delenn ruling the galaxy with Neroon and Lennier as concubines...)

5) Octavian, aka Augustus (history, actually, but I'm thinking specifically of the Rome version, as opposed to, say, the I, Claudius one). He'd be incredibly efficient at ruling any given country/world/galaxy, depending on which time frame you'd put him in, would destroy any opposition, but he'd also be the most joyless supervillain around. (Again, not true for other versions of Augustus; one might argue with Graves' father-knows-best interpretation, but his Augustus did know how to enjoy himself.) You could count on him avoiding all the Evil Overlord mistakes, but I'm sure his Trusted Lieutenants would secretly think that maybe a "death is too good for my enemies" rant once in a while or perhaps a chuckle or two would make the man less frighteningly efficient and more relatable to...

On this very busy day for me, I'm going with fanfic links.

Pirates of the Caribbean:

I saw At World's End again on the flight back from Los Angeles two weeks ago, and it occured to me that now that all three movies are behind us, I can safely say PotC is another of those fandoms where I like every single character. Which are rare. (I usually like most of the characters if I'm fannish about something, in varying degrees, of course, but not all of them. Firefly comes to mind as an exception.) Of course I knew I adored Elizabeth, and liking Jack and Norrington was nothing new, either, but feeling mushy about everyone from Barbossa to Will Turner to Pigelli to Jack the Monkey? And it's not even a fandom I'm really passionate about (for contrast as evidenced by galore of fanfic, see Heroes) or feel inclined to write. But there I sat, hit by wave of wave of fondness.


Itinerary is Will coming to terms with fate, by the always wonderful penknife. Will, being the straight man to Jack's show off in the original movie, is a character I hadn't expected to be nearly as fond of as I am now. (Or getting the good character development he did.)


Heroes:

As the stories are spoilery for the season 2 opener, I can't describe them. Just trust me on this: they're good!


Promises


Stop Calling

Pirates meta:
Entwined but never joined: a great essay about the relationship between James Norrington and Elizabeth Swann.

Alias:
Jack Bristow, after "Laura", and Arvin Sloane: Love is..., a wonderful ficlet by kangeiko which reminds me how much I love the First Gen spies.

Dr. Who:

From the same gifted artists who drew that sketch of the female companions, "The Doctor's Girls" some months ago, here come The Doctor's Boys, aka all the male companions. Enjoy and make sure you look at the whole lot, as it's rather large!

And the Doctor/Master slash continues to flow. Two stories from astrogirl2, doing the twistedness of this pairing full justice:

Eclipsing Binary

La Petite Mort

I also like Mastery by ariafic a lot, for similar reasons. Just a few more days until the finale!

Idle thought while reading through Brian Bendis New Avengers 1-6: this is why I can't boycott Marvel. You sure don't find the DC folk canonically strung up naked and completely aware of the absurdity (complaining to each other that they're still waiting for the evil monologue), with dialogue like, and here I have to retranslate, because I read it in German:

Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman): Why did they take our underwear?
Peter Parker (Spider-man): They didn't take mine. I don't wear any.
Jessica: Why aren't you wearing any underwear?
Peter: Because it chafes?

Also, those panels of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, aka Iron Man and Captain America, sharing donuts and flying must make likeadeuce and harmonyangel very happy and prove Bendis was a Steve/Tony 'shipper long before The Confession...


Fanfic!

Heroes/Dr. Who crossover:

Survival, in which Claude Rains ends up in London. Great Claude and Rose voices, spoilers through season 1 of Heroes and season 2/28 of Dr. Who.

Heroes:

Five Times Nathan Petrelli Crashed Down To Earth, by yahtzee63. If you don't know Yahtzee through her superb Alias fanfic, you might know her through her older AtS and BTVS stories. If you haven't read those, you know her via her Star Wars stories. Now she has started to write Heroes. *sits back and enjoys*


Pirates of the Caribbean:

The Swan in Flight is a wonderful look at Elizabeth after AWE. As it's written by artaxastra, one expects it to be good, but what came as a delightful surprise to me was the way she uses Elizabeth's relationship with her dead father, Governor Swann, fleshes out Captain Teague (aka The One Played By Keith Richards) and focuses on Elizabeth learning to be Pirate King in more than one way.

While batting off evil time consuming plot bunnies (that Renaissance idea still keeps haunting me, plus now I also have the idea of an Alias/Heroes crossover wherein Sloane competes with Linderman for a Rambaldi picture (because you know Rambaldi was the Isaac Mendez of the Renaissance, though actually he might have been the Peter Petrelli, absorbing all other abilities as well), I want to rave about other people's fanfic:

Pirates:

Limbo is a great and dark look at Will post-movie, by inlovewithnight. Extra effective for the way she builds on, how to put this unspoilery, method of his transformation.


Heroes:

Skygazer by cadesama. Angela Petrelli, most scary mother on tv since Livia Soprano or for that matter Livia Drusilla, and how she actually feels about her sons is one of the enigmas the first season left us with. While we wait for the second season, there is fanfiction goodness such as this. Great, great look at Angela in the aftermath of How to stop an exploding man.