we're all stories in the end

Always a joy. :D Here are some of my stories people have recorded lately.

+ kalakirya recorded Just Save The First Edition For Me (Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley)

+ adistantsun recorded Still We Wait (Harry Potter, Lily)

+ sophinisba recorded Rebirth (Merlin/Torchwood, ensemble)

♥!

Day 1 - A vid that made you start watching a brand new show
Day 2 - A male character study vid you love
Day 3 - A female character study vid you love
Day 4 - An ensemble vid you love
Day 5 - A vid everyone should see at least once
Day 6 - A vid you've watched at least ten times
Day 7 - A constructed reality/crossover vid you love

Day 8 - A vid you had to watch multiple times to understand

Us by lim (multi-fandom)

I'm still not sure I fully understand this vid, truth to be told. I love it regardless.

Day 9 - A vid that makes you cry

The Railway House by trelkez (Torchwood)

:(

If I haven't got my lump in my throat by about halfway through, then the very last shot will always get me. It's a beautiful vid that makes me sad in a cathartic, aching kind of way where the show just made me miserable.

+ Whee, my remix has been posted and it's awesome! Backstage Management (The Machiavellian Remix), a remix of Access Denied. It's GREAT - it totally messes with the original, adds in new characters, and has a killer ending. Go read, Torchwood fans!

+ If you'd like to hazard a guess at which remix is mine, have at it! There will be a prize for any correct answers.

+ So excited to watch kink_bingo gearing up for another round! Check out their accessibility policy (♥), these kinky vid recs and this year's changes. Also, icons.

+ I enjoyed Doctor Who, but all I really have to say about it is that I now want to draw lots of little hearts around Nasreen as well as Rory and Amy and Eleven. ♥

+ I am somewhat reluctant to watch Seeker because then there WON'T BE ANY MORE, but also I need to know what happens. I think I know what's winning out by the end of the night!

+ Also, there seems to be a meme going around where we ask people what our fanworks say about us, id-style? I always find it interesting to look at unconscious patterns in the things I make - I can always find them, certainly. However, I am curious - do any of you find my id showing in unexpected places?

a conversation:

such_heights: Not a spoiler: I LOVE AMY POND SO MUCH I CAN'T EVEN DEAL.
avendya: I am shocked by this development! (Please name a companion you do not love.)
such_heights: (...)

And thus, I am undone. *g*

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glorious crack:

pocketmouse has a theory! (5x02 spoilers)

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a fic rec:

Rotten Petty Perfect Sexy by copperbadge (Jack/Eleven, R)
For the first time in four hundred years, the Doctor regenerated with a sex drive. Fortunately, he knew exactly who to consult about it. (5x01 spoilers)

This induces much, much flaily happiness in my little shipper heart.

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in conclusion:

I am full to bursting of fanjoy, and oh, I've missed this! *draws sparkly hearts everywhere*

Here is a reclist of the year, of sorts. Below are a selection of fanworks that made me laugh, cry, flail, think, ache, rejoice and love over the course of the year. Below are romances, character studies, sweeping epics, AUs, meta, dance numbers, transitions, friendships, monsters, politics, zombies, and of course, robots. (There are always robots.)

Some of them are very famous, some only have a handful of comments. I love them all, because they all define what the past year in fandom was for me. There are a dozen fandoms represented here, and hopefully there's something for everyone. It's also worth noting that this list is defined by what's not included almost as much as what is - there were so many things I couldn't fit in! A lot of the time, I just couldn't pick only one story by a favourite author to include. (In one case, a certain author's best story is still sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to finish my beta.) My point is, this is in no way definitive, or even really a 'best of'. Just, here are some stories and some vids that I liked. Enjoy!

( 20 stories! )

( 13 vids! )

Thank you to all the authors, vidders, beta readers and cheerleaders that made the above possible, and here's to the stories to come in 2010. ♥

+ Whee, Yuletide! My assignment is awesome. \o/ (Yuletide author, if you're looking for my letter it is this way.

+ Also, IN A FIT OF I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT, I just signed up for festivids (like Yuletide but for rare vidding fandoms). It was shiny, I couldn't resist! *facepalm* Anyway, if you want to join me, sign-ups close on Tuesday.

+ I have not seen Doctor Who yet, though I am sure I will soon, as my desire to see Tennant wins out over my apathy at anything RTD writes these days.

+ Some recs:

Mr Potter Lives For A Day by snegurochka_lee [Harry Potter, Albus Severus-centric, with a bit of implied Albus Severus/Scorpius and cameos by James, Lily, and portrait!Snape, PG-13]
Albus wakes up on his seventeenth birthday determined to make the most of it.

This story is about far more than the summary would imply - it's a brilliant piece of slowly unfurling narration, and the premise has been haunting me for days. There's not a lot more I can say without spoiling it.

Like Water On The Moon by magnetic_pole [Harry Potter, Alice/Amelia, PG]

A gorgeous First-War snapshot and a lovely pairing.

Project Run,way Galaxy [Doctor Who] by othellia, a hilarious piece of crack told in over 130 macros.

You Don't Bring Me Flowers (Anymore) by blue_fjords [Torchwood, Tosh/Adam, R]

Adam (both the episode and the character) creeps me out like no one's business, but this is more tragic than disturbing, and a brilliant look at the alternate characterisation of Tosh in that episode.

+ Lastly, ( some more on last's night Merlin, with spoilery recs. )

+ Signal boost: yuki_onna is stranded far from home without funds. More details here.

+ Some stories I enjoyed recently:

Twitterpated by fled_music [Supernatural, slight Dean/Castiel, Sam]
Castiel insists that Dean and Sam start using twitter as a means of communication (seriously).

I clicked on a whim and was totally charmed!

A Cautionary Tale About Tomatoes (and zombies) by netgirl_y2k [Merlin, team Camelot, gen]
Armed with two swords, a slightly dented helmet and a wooden spoon, our heroes fight zombies.

Hee, this is delightful and brilliant! Not to mention exactly how a zombie invasion would go down on the show.

The Assist by 51stcenturyfox [Torchwood, Rhys/Gwen/Ianto, R]
Three adorable Welsh people have sex.

The summary nails it, really - this is sweet and fun and well-characterised, and reads like a breath of fresh air.

+ Ahahahahaha. Ha. Um. So I just did a stupid thing, namely count up approximately how much writing (academic, fannish and otherwise) I have to do over the next month or so by word count. And, well. Let us just say that frankly, I might as well be doing NaNo based on how it breaks down for words per day. D:

+ touchyerwood (*snicker* ... *is twelve*), a new Torchwood anon kink meme, is open for business.

+ A new anthology, Headcase, is accepting submissions for non-fiction pieces by LGBTQ writers & artists about mental illness.

+ I still have not watched Merlin. I may not do so before tomorrow evening. Woe!

+ People. I see this all the time and it pains me in my soul just a little. 'Discrete' and 'discreet' are two different words with two very different meanings. Discrete means 'separate and distinct'. Thus, even if Arthur and Merlin (hypothetical example!) are keeping their relationship on the down low, I rather doubt that they'd feel particularly discrete about it.

/end friendly PSA!

+ Lastly, ( some vid & fic recs! )

Dreamwidth cometh! It moves from Closed Beta to Open Beta tomorrow, and excitement abounds.

A top tip: if you want an account but you don't want to buy one and you're uncertain about getting an invite code, create an OpenID in the next day and 8 hours (and counting). All OpenID accounts without personal accounts will be sent an invite code when Open Beta launches. It's super easy! Also recommended if you've got folks on your flist who are migrating their comments over there. An OpenID account also allows you to make a subscription list and upload a few icons, write a profile, etc. Really, the only thing you can't do is post yourself. eta: Be sure to validate your email address, fyi! /eta

As soon as I have invite codes of my own, you guys will know about it.

For lots of thinky stuff both pro- and anti- Dreamwidth, I recommend metafandom and their dreamwidth delicious tag. I'm not going to say anything particularly intelligent on the subject, because I'm not migrating over to Dreamwidth per se. I think that the site is a great idea with a lot of really cool and interesting things going on, and I want to be a part of that. But the majority of my friends are still LJ-only, and there are some things I participate in on LiveJournal that won't migrate fully in the foreseeable future. Thus, I'm not going anywhere, but I am hanging out over on Dreamwidth because I am meeting new people and joining new communities etc. Multi-platform is my way forward! It's nice to start up on a site when I actually know what the hell I'm doing, also.

I am still dithering hugely on cross-posting and importing and a bunch of other stuff, but I shall spare you the flaily details. However, it's worth noting that I will be cross-posting entries like fic, vids, meta, recs, etc, and so if you only want to follow me on one service, please do. I won't be unfriending/un-accessing (or whatever the term is) anyone, so you'll still be able to drop in and see if you've missed things, if you like. I suspect I'll continue to have more LJ-only content than DW-only content, both public bits and the occasional flocked RL whatever.

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Every last one of my WIPs, both fic and vid, is amazingly stressful to me right now, I know not why. Oh, right, deadlines. (Seriously, though, making things to submit for this year's VVC is probably the most terrifying fannish thing I've ever done. Especially as I'm still not quite sure about what it is I'm working on to that end, nor the tech specs I'll need to meet. Eeep!)

On that note, I am posting my lgbtfest story tomorrow. It is Merlin fandom and it is multi-shippy, the prompt being Any historical fandom, any characters, It's true that their marriage isn't a passionate one; one or both of them prefers the attentions of their own sex. That doesn't mean they're unhappily married. Would anyone be able to look it over quickly when I finish it up later this evening? It also looks like it's going to be R-rated, which I wouldn't warn for except that it's out of the ordinary for me. I appear to be, well, not fading to black. Madness. All extra pairs of eyes much appreciated! eta: all sorted, thank you! /eta

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Finally, a rec of the 'yay they wrote my prompt!' variety.

Untitled fic, by nohwrah [Torchwood, Jack/Ianto]
*happy sigh* These days, it's very easy for me to forget just how much I ship these two, but nohwrah's extract of melanchonic romance captures it perfectly. ♥