minutia_r

(if you follow me on tumblr, you may have seen all this before, but I don't think there's a lot of overlap)

And everybody knows who wrote which Chocolate Box stories, or at least they could if they wanted to, because the authors have been revealed.

I got two lovely fics:

Like a Man of Mettle by Nary

Hey, look, it's Gabriel DeWit/Elijah Pinhoe (of the Chronicles of Chrestomanci) fic! The first one ever written, to the best of my knowledge, which is not surprising since they never met in canon, and also they only appear in canon as quite old men. Bask in the glory of grumpy, awkward young!Gabriel running away from his duties as Chrestomanci straight into a patch of stinging nettles, and young!Elijah helping him out with herb lore if you know what I mean.

Borrow Your Lust by PhoenixFalls

Fic about Ethan and Terrence (from the Vorkosigan Saga)! It's not quite as rare a pairing as Gabriel and Elijah, but seeing as how Ethan and Terrence are canonical life partners, I feel like there really should be more.

I love stories about people who for one reason or another don’t get how ordinary human relationships work trying to relationship, and this definitely hits those buttons. Also, it’s got an intriguing idea about one possible use of telepathy during sex, even if they end up not going there.

My assigned recipient was Miss_M, and I wrote her two Kencyrath fics:

An Economy of Blood and Bone was supposed to be about Trishien and Kirien’s relationship, and it is, but it’s more about Trishien’s backstory and the Women’s World and the Jaran and the intersection thereof. And economics.

Turn-Collar is the one where Brier and Tori discuss the fact that Brier broke her bond with Tori and got herself bound to Jame instead. It is so far the only work on AO3 tagged Loyalty Break-Up, which is a damn shame.

I also wrote a couple of treats for other people, both in the PJO/HOO fandom: Twice-Favored was for inelegantly; it’s a T-rated Annabeth/Nico/Percy interlude with capture the flag and a bit of kissing.

And finally, for dhampyresa, I wrote Delphi Falls, In which Rachel does some research with Ella and Skypes with Annabeth. And also Annabeth, Hazel, and Nico go on a quest to either prevent or start the zombie apocalypse, but that honestly happens offscreen. It’s also my 100th fic on AO3! Hooray!

Some stuff I did for exchanges and whatnots a while back and never linked to here:

The Dressing Gown of Dimensions, a Chrestomanci/Discworld crossover written for rare pair fest. It features Millie/Christopher and Vetinari/Drumknott, as well as Roger, Julia, and Leonard of Quirm.

Also I did a pencil drawing and a digitally colored version of Steve Rogers with a golden apple of temptation for the WIP Big Bang.

Now it can be revealed! This is what I wrote for yuletide:

Unmoored

He had always thought he would end up married to his work. He had studied hard, worked diligently, brought himself to the attention of the right people--and ended up with an appointment to the Chrestomanci’s personal staff, as high as one could rise in Flavian’s chosen profession if one hadn’t happened to be born with nine lives. And when he got there he’d found Mordecai waiting for him. Mordecai, who threw all his previous ideas into confusion.

Flavia/Mordecai, about 5000 words, rated T.

Dear rarewomen author,

Hello and thank you for offering to write a story about one or more of my beloved fictional ladies! You may have noticed that I take the “rare” part of rare women quite seriously--none of these characters have more than a handful of stories written about them, if that. What this means is that I can pretty much guarantee I’ll be thrilled with whatever you write. It’s not like I’m going to be able to compare it unfavorably to the dozens of other stories about these characters, right?

But, seeing as how “anything” is a terrible prompt, have some optional details. Also, have a brief description of the canons I’m requesting, in case you don’t want to write for the fandom we matched on, or I’ve made it to the pinch hit list, or you’re idly curious, or you want to write me a treat. Or just on the off-chance that anyone reading this letter wants to consume some excellent (but obscure) media.

( Attack of the 50-ft woman )

(If you are reading this because you read my journal/tumblr, and were not previously aware of rarewomen--you guys, do this fic exchange with me! It has all these excellent ladies and more available to write and request! I have gotten truly awesome stories for it in the past! You can find the details here. And if you have not done a yuletide-style fic exchange before, don’t be fooled--writing a letter to your assigned author is completely optional, and writing a letter more than twice the required length of the story is . . . well, let’s go with optional again. Optional is a polite word.)

As mentioned previously, I got not one but two stories for rarewomen this year, and they are both so excellent I don't know what to do with myself.

Betony wrote me from the private correspondence of miranda argent chant.

As you may have guessed from the title, this is Miranda epistolary fic. That alone would have me fistpumping the air with glee, but! This fic! It absolutely nails the scheming, self-absorbed Miranda of my heart, and it is funny as hell.

And also! Ollipop wrote me Kindred Instruments.

Yesssss, this is what I wanted in Lotus Durona fic--multifaceted and sparkling, cold-blooded and matter-of-fact, with currents of strong passions running beneath the surface. And I love the way Lotus and Vasa Luigi flirt: "How are your surgical skills?” “If you give me a knife, I’ll demonstrate.” INDEED.

Go read them; you won't regret it!

Crap, I forgot. Well, it's still Sunday somewhere.

It felt like being buried alive.

"You can't do this to me," said Gabriel. "I'm a nine-lifed enchanter and you're just a . . . a gamekeeper."

Mr. Farleigh's lips curved slightly. "That's right." It was plain that he knew Gabriel had meant to say witch.

This is from Hunt of the Unicorn. It's been refusing to move for, oh, a year, but before I got stuck I did write a bit of chapter four, and this is part of it.

Each Sunday, post six sentences from a writing project -- published, submitted, in progress, for your cat -- whatever.

It is not strictly Sunday here anymore, but I keep seeing dropsofviolet doing this, and thinking, "I've got enough semi-abandoned WIPs by now that I could probably do this." So I am doing this.

"But Julia must come out. How do you expect her to find a husband if she's not in Society?"

"She could start thieving things from temples," Chrestomanci suggested. "That's how I found a wife. Of course, I lost a life in the process, and since Julia only has the one I can't really recommend it. Pity," he went on, idly poking at a kipper, "but I imagine she'll work out something."

Perhaps on Thursday I'll do what-I'm-reading-Wednesday!

inerasabledreams asked: “I’m a little confused, in "Conrad’s Fate,” Gabriel de Witt said that is not possible for a person living in another series, but Millie (Series 10) lives with Christopher in Series 12 … Someone could explain?“

I’m glad you asked, inerasabledreams! (You asked the fuckyeahchrestomanci blog and not me, but that was an understandable oversight.) This is indeed one of the most vexed questions in Chrestomanci canon, and it’s complicated by the fact that Mordecai Roberts, aka Tacroy, also spends most of his life in Series Twelve while being a native of Eleven (Not a Series).

I should start this off with a disclaimer that the question was never resolved in the books, and now never will be; I have reasons to prefer my own theory and will elucidate them below, but ultimately it’s just a theory and no more canon than any other. That being said, over on the fuckyeahchrestomanci blog, elanchana gave the following answer: "It’s because Millie used one of Christopher’s lives as an anchor. Presumably you die if you move to another world/series without moving your circle of doubles around as well, but if you have a life to give then you’re fine. I THINK that’s how it works.”

With respect to my esteemed colleague, I don’t think this can be right. At least not if, as I understand, she is referring to Christopher’s life which Millie initially used to travel to Series Twelve. I don’t see how that life could have been used to fix Millie in Series Twelve when Christopher got that life back shortly after; there would still be a sort of void of missing life-essence in Series Ten in that case.

However, it occurs to me that maybe she’s talking about Christopher’s life that’s in Millie’s wedding ring? In which case Millie would not be living on her own life, as it were, but a borrowed one of Christopher’s. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this theory elsewhere, and it makes a certain amount of sense. However, it still doesn’t explain how Mordecai was able to spend his life in Series Twelve–and also, Conrad had to go back to Series Seven after six years, and more time than that passed between the time Millie arrived in Series Twelve and the time she married Christopher.

(I must also admit to personal–one might even say partisan–reasons for disliking this theory; as someone who ships Christopher/Conrad as well as Christopher/Millie this seems too much like Christopher choosing Millie over Conrad for my tastes. I touched on some of these issues, as well as Christopher’s left-and-leaving problem, in my story Worlds Enough, and Time.)

Another theory, advanced by sesame_seed in her story La Familia, is that being outside her own Series does in fact have a negative effect on Millie, and she eventually solves this problem by going on occasional trips to Series Ten. Again, my problem with this is twofold: If occasional trips to one’s native Series are enough to deal with the problems caused by being displaced from it, why can’t this work for Conrad? And since even brief trips to Eleven are likely to prove fatal for Mordecai, how does he manage?

In the Chrestomanci books, we do see one instance of someone intentionally fixing herself in place in a world other than the one she was born in. Gwendolen does this by arranging for someone else to take her place (and since we are dealing with people with only one life here, it causes a chain reaction, dragging nine people out of their native worlds and permanently fixing them in different ones.) It’s as if taking a life out of one world creates a gap that can only be filled by another life–and this, I will argue, is what Christopher and Gabriel do with Mordecai and Millie respectively in The Lives of Christopher Chant.

In the book, Millie says to Mordecai that he is like herself and Christopher–part of him is somewhere else. While he has lived most of his life in Series Twelve, his soul has remained in the Dright’s keeping in Eleven–and this is why, I believe, he never had any trouble living outside his native series until that point. Later, Christopher buys his soul back–in exchange for one of his own lives, which remains, however briefly, in the Dright’s keeping in Eleven. Similarly, when Mother Proudfoot comes to collect Millie’s life (or a reasonable approximation) on behalf of Asheth, Gabriel gives her one of his own in exchange, which she takes back with her to Series Ten. It’s this exchange of lives and souls, their own for ones that belong properly in Series Twelve, that enable Millie and Mordecai to remain in Series Twelve as permanent residents.

Obviously, this is the sort of magic you only do in life-or-death situations–maybe it’s only possible in life-or-death situations. And that’s why the option wasn’t available for Conrad.

I’ve had this theory for a while, but this is the first time I’ve written in all up like this, as opposed to obliquely alluding to it in fic. It’s … certainly long, isn’t it. If you have gotten this far, I salute you.

The rarewomen stories have been revealed, and I got a follow-up to "The Hundredth Dream of Carol Oneir"!

You can read it here:

Dream On by Qem

It's got some really chewy ideas about how Carol's growth as an artist affected the events of the original story, as well as fun ideas about what happened to the Cast of Thousands afterwards. I'm really quite happy with it.