This Yuletide I wrote six stories! I had a wonderful time writing them. Every single one of them just flowed, which I don't think has ever happened before - usually I struggle with at least one of them.
I've placed any spoilery notes for them under the cuts. Ideally, read the story before reading any notes below cuts. This goes quadruple for "You're Wrong About Misericorde," which I think is most fun if you read it completely unspoiled.
Don't Need to Know Canon Beyond Osmosis
The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman. The Golden Apple, for nitpickyabouttrains. The Endless offer a dreamer a choice.
All you need to know to read the story is that the Endless are godlike beings who rule and represent qualities such as death (and life), dreams (and imagination), etc.
( Spoilery notes on The Golden Apple )
"You're Wrong About" Podcast. You're Wrong About Misericorde, for NaomiK. Sarah tells Mike about the lost horror movie that became an urban legend.
All you need to know to read the story is that "You're Wrong About" is a podcast exploring what we're wrong about. They've had episodes debunking Koko the gorilla, exploring the social context behind Princess Diana, etc.
My notes on the story are spoilery. Very, very spoilery. Once again, I think this will be a lot more fun if you read the story first and my notes second.
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scioscribe was an enormous help in brainstorming this story, and she actually wrote a section of it. Which part is spoilery.
( Spoilery notes on You're Wrong About Misericorde )
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The Space Garden, forfresne. 9360 words.
When Meri La Nix was sent from the Mars colony to live with her aunt at Missiles Wait Manor, nobody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. But some of them thought it.
This was a late pinch hit.fresne prompted for a complete re-imagining of the story, and had "IN SPACE" as a possibility, so I jumped at it. The next thing I knew, I was madly attempting to retell the entire book in 48 hours. IN SPACE.
So yes, I wrote 9300 words in 48 hours. It was possible largely because the entire plot was already written for me, and also due to help fromsholio and scioscribe, who suggested "York Station" and "Missiles Wait Manor." The worldbuilding was informed by my recent discovery of The Expanse TV series.
Should Know Canon
Iron Fist: Fluffy, forsholio. 4802 words. Ward gets turned into a kitten.
I'd been idly wanting to write her Iron Fist for a while, but her "Ward gets turned into a kitten" prompt that inspired me. I thought it would be the most obvious thing I'd ever written, but surprisingly, it was not.
Ward has a lot of cat-like attributes, which was fun to play with in this story. I also appreciated Iron Fist's commitment to random ninjas showing up at any opportunity, which spared me from having to do more than hand wave the actual plot and just focus on kitten!Ward.
The New Mutants (comics).
I was delighted to see so many requests for this beloved fandom of my teenage years, and originally intended to treat all of them. I ended up running out of time, but I did at least get to treat two of them. There were a lot of prompts I loved, but I ended up going with my two favorites, which were "Write from Catseye's POV" and "What's it like for Illyana to meet our Ororo after she knew Limbo's Ororo?"
Funplace, forsheliak. 2032 words. Catseye/Rahne. Catseye and Rahne sneak away from a fight to visit a county fair.
Catseye is one of my favorite characters and her barely-subtext with Rahne is off the charts. Their canon dynamic is sneaking off together to have fun while their teams are fighting or otherwise engaged, so I just needed a suitable location.
She canonically has a very odd way of speaking, grew up believing that she was a cat who could turn into a girl, and is genius-level intelligent. She was an extremely fun character to write from her own perspective because she's so quirky and so utterly without angst. It was my first time writing the Hellions, whom I really like.
Seeds, forgenarti. 1168 words. Ororo has a garden. There’s not much I can be sure of, but I’m sure of this. It’s true in both the worlds I know. Maybe it’s true in all worlds, all timelines, all dimensions where there’s an Ororo.
Illyana gets so much first-person narration that I ended it writing it that way - it really made the story flow for me. I wrote this last-minute for Madness so I couldn't do much plot:
This one got the delightful comment fromgenarti, "This is note-perfect Illyana narration voice, and packs an impressive amount of characterization into "Character A gives Character B a houseplant."" Did you guess I wrote it?
Plants, of course, have unusual significance for both of them.
I hope those of you who wrote stories will do reveal posts talking a bit about them. I always enjoy reading them.
Comments open to discuss any of the stories and their canons. Spoilers for both stories and canons are fine in comments - no need to do rot13 or otherwise encode them. Just be aware of that if you read the comments.
I've placed any spoilery notes for them under the cuts. Ideally, read the story before reading any notes below cuts. This goes quadruple for "You're Wrong About Misericorde," which I think is most fun if you read it completely unspoiled.
Don't Need to Know Canon Beyond Osmosis
The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman. The Golden Apple, for nitpickyabouttrains. The Endless offer a dreamer a choice.
All you need to know to read the story is that the Endless are godlike beings who rule and represent qualities such as death (and life), dreams (and imagination), etc.
( Spoilery notes on The Golden Apple )
"You're Wrong About" Podcast. You're Wrong About Misericorde, for NaomiK. Sarah tells Mike about the lost horror movie that became an urban legend.
All you need to know to read the story is that "You're Wrong About" is a podcast exploring what we're wrong about. They've had episodes debunking Koko the gorilla, exploring the social context behind Princess Diana, etc.
My notes on the story are spoilery. Very, very spoilery. Once again, I think this will be a lot more fun if you read the story first and my notes second.
scioscribe was an enormous help in brainstorming this story, and she actually wrote a section of it. Which part is spoilery.( Spoilery notes on You're Wrong About Misericorde )
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The Space Garden, for
fresne. 9360 words.When Meri La Nix was sent from the Mars colony to live with her aunt at Missiles Wait Manor, nobody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. But some of them thought it.
This was a late pinch hit.
fresne prompted for a complete re-imagining of the story, and had "IN SPACE" as a possibility, so I jumped at it. The next thing I knew, I was madly attempting to retell the entire book in 48 hours. IN SPACE.So yes, I wrote 9300 words in 48 hours. It was possible largely because the entire plot was already written for me, and also due to help from
sholio and scioscribe, who suggested "York Station" and "Missiles Wait Manor." The worldbuilding was informed by my recent discovery of The Expanse TV series. Should Know Canon
Iron Fist: Fluffy, for
sholio. 4802 words. Ward gets turned into a kitten.I'd been idly wanting to write her Iron Fist for a while, but her "Ward gets turned into a kitten" prompt that inspired me. I thought it would be the most obvious thing I'd ever written, but surprisingly, it was not.
Ward has a lot of cat-like attributes, which was fun to play with in this story. I also appreciated Iron Fist's commitment to random ninjas showing up at any opportunity, which spared me from having to do more than hand wave the actual plot and just focus on kitten!Ward.
The New Mutants (comics).
I was delighted to see so many requests for this beloved fandom of my teenage years, and originally intended to treat all of them. I ended up running out of time, but I did at least get to treat two of them. There were a lot of prompts I loved, but I ended up going with my two favorites, which were "Write from Catseye's POV" and "What's it like for Illyana to meet our Ororo after she knew Limbo's Ororo?"
Funplace, for
sheliak. 2032 words. Catseye/Rahne. Catseye and Rahne sneak away from a fight to visit a county fair.Catseye is one of my favorite characters and her barely-subtext with Rahne is off the charts. Their canon dynamic is sneaking off together to have fun while their teams are fighting or otherwise engaged, so I just needed a suitable location.
She canonically has a very odd way of speaking, grew up believing that she was a cat who could turn into a girl, and is genius-level intelligent. She was an extremely fun character to write from her own perspective because she's so quirky and so utterly without angst. It was my first time writing the Hellions, whom I really like.
Seeds, for
genarti. 1168 words. Ororo has a garden. There’s not much I can be sure of, but I’m sure of this. It’s true in both the worlds I know. Maybe it’s true in all worlds, all timelines, all dimensions where there’s an Ororo.Illyana gets so much first-person narration that I ended it writing it that way - it really made the story flow for me. I wrote this last-minute for Madness so I couldn't do much plot:
This one got the delightful comment from
genarti, "This is note-perfect Illyana narration voice, and packs an impressive amount of characterization into "Character A gives Character B a houseplant."" Did you guess I wrote it?Plants, of course, have unusual significance for both of them.
I hope those of you who wrote stories will do reveal posts talking a bit about them. I always enjoy reading them.
Comments open to discuss any of the stories and their canons. Spoilers for both stories and canons are fine in comments - no need to do rot13 or otherwise encode them. Just be aware of that if you read the comments.