End of Year Exchanges
Jan. 10th, 2022 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
argentum_lsThe final exchanges of the year were, as they usually are, ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
yuletide_admin and hlh_shortcuts.
Unfortunately, I went into Yuletide unmatchable. That seems to be a theme of the year. While the mods did what they could to help me find an assignment, the one I ended up with turned out to not be workable and I made the hard decision to default.
Somehow, though, I received not only a gift, but a treat too! And both in the same fandom: My Babysitter's a Vampire.
My gift was Just Call Me Up (Whenever there's Trouble) - 3738 words - by karrenia_rune. She took one of my prompts, which was for either a bodyswap or powerswap of the two main characters, and ran with it.
I also got a delightful treat from reeby10: It's All in the Smell - 1287 words, who took one of my other prompts about one of the characters trying to learn to gain control over his visions. It's exactly in the feeling of the show, too.
Shortcuts was an entirely different story (ha!). No matchability problems here, nor any trouble generating a story idea.
My gift was Once (or Twice) Upon a Time - 6535 words - bycarenejeans -- who it turned out was also the person I wrote for. My signup for this event has a lot of options thrown in, both for characters and tropes. Normally, I receive a Richie-centric story (which, let's face it, is always wonderful, and in no way am I complaining). This time, though, the flavors got shifted around and I got a Methos-centric story! About time-travel! If you haven't already read it, you should.
For her, I wrote No Present Like the Time - 4366 words - No matter how old an immortal gets, some birthdays must be celebrated. And some gifts ... well, Amanda and Methos are there for Duncan when he gets his.
Normally, Shortcuts stories require a lot of consideration and trial-and-error before I find an idea that is sustainable. For those of you wondering who the stragglers are that Amand-r keeps referencing -- me. I'm one of them. I'm almost always working on my story right up through, and sometimes past, deadline. And then right up through, and sometimes past, the start of reveals. This year was no different. However, that wasn't from procrastination. I found an idea for this story out of the gate, and had a substantial start before November began. Then progress slowed.
In the request, carenejeans indicated a love of crack fic, with specific reference to wingfic. My skills and tastes don't normally point that direction, though I've certainly dipped my metaphorical toes into the genre. I knew right away that I wanted to write a story about Duncan receiving some kind of superpower for his 500th birthday. I just couldn't figure out which power.
The basic idea was to take an existing character trait and amplify it. This made Methos' and Amanda's powers easy to decide. That canon provides examples of characters with powers also helped justify the idea.
But ... there still needed to be some worldbuilding decisions. If all characters over 500 have a power, then why don't we know about them? Do Immortals get powers only at 500, or is it every 500 years? Can the powers be denied? What powers might the other old Immortals have? Is it possible that an Immortal wouldn't get a power?
Originally, the story idea was for Amanda and Methos to be waiting with Duncan to see if he got a power. Once I decided he should, the original question ground the story to a halt: which power? I debated actual time-travel ability, the ability to share consciousness with his household AI, and ... for the longest time ... the ability to make electronics work when, by all rights, they shouldn't, or they shouldn't be able to do the thing they're being used to do. There was going to be a point in the story where the audience learns that the AI was never connected, yet it still works simply because Duncan assumes it should. There was also going to be a point where Methos goes to microwave dinner and discovers that the microwave has never been plugged in, yet it somehow still works.
It was while trying to select a title that the power decision got made. I floated the title idea at idel, and she did that thing where she finds the essence of my discombobulated thoughts and tells me to stop being obtuse. And, with that, Duncan gained the power to stop time.
Kronos, on the other hand, is the one who ended up with wings--which, because we clearly don't see any evidence of those in canon--he also had to cut off. Who knows what powers Silas and Caspian had. Or Fitz, for that matter, since he's name-dropped in the story. What do you think?
yuletide_admin and hlh_shortcuts.Unfortunately, I went into Yuletide unmatchable. That seems to be a theme of the year. While the mods did what they could to help me find an assignment, the one I ended up with turned out to not be workable and I made the hard decision to default.
Somehow, though, I received not only a gift, but a treat too! And both in the same fandom: My Babysitter's a Vampire.
My gift was Just Call Me Up (Whenever there's Trouble) - 3738 words - by karrenia_rune. She took one of my prompts, which was for either a bodyswap or powerswap of the two main characters, and ran with it.
I also got a delightful treat from reeby10: It's All in the Smell - 1287 words, who took one of my other prompts about one of the characters trying to learn to gain control over his visions. It's exactly in the feeling of the show, too.
Shortcuts was an entirely different story (ha!). No matchability problems here, nor any trouble generating a story idea.
My gift was Once (or Twice) Upon a Time - 6535 words - by
carenejeans -- who it turned out was also the person I wrote for. My signup for this event has a lot of options thrown in, both for characters and tropes. Normally, I receive a Richie-centric story (which, let's face it, is always wonderful, and in no way am I complaining). This time, though, the flavors got shifted around and I got a Methos-centric story! About time-travel! If you haven't already read it, you should. For her, I wrote No Present Like the Time - 4366 words - No matter how old an immortal gets, some birthdays must be celebrated. And some gifts ... well, Amanda and Methos are there for Duncan when he gets his.
Normally, Shortcuts stories require a lot of consideration and trial-and-error before I find an idea that is sustainable. For those of you wondering who the stragglers are that Amand-r keeps referencing -- me. I'm one of them. I'm almost always working on my story right up through, and sometimes past, deadline. And then right up through, and sometimes past, the start of reveals. This year was no different. However, that wasn't from procrastination. I found an idea for this story out of the gate, and had a substantial start before November began. Then progress slowed.
In the request, carenejeans indicated a love of crack fic, with specific reference to wingfic. My skills and tastes don't normally point that direction, though I've certainly dipped my metaphorical toes into the genre. I knew right away that I wanted to write a story about Duncan receiving some kind of superpower for his 500th birthday. I just couldn't figure out which power.
The basic idea was to take an existing character trait and amplify it. This made Methos' and Amanda's powers easy to decide. That canon provides examples of characters with powers also helped justify the idea.
But ... there still needed to be some worldbuilding decisions. If all characters over 500 have a power, then why don't we know about them? Do Immortals get powers only at 500, or is it every 500 years? Can the powers be denied? What powers might the other old Immortals have? Is it possible that an Immortal wouldn't get a power?
Originally, the story idea was for Amanda and Methos to be waiting with Duncan to see if he got a power. Once I decided he should, the original question ground the story to a halt: which power? I debated actual time-travel ability, the ability to share consciousness with his household AI, and ... for the longest time ... the ability to make electronics work when, by all rights, they shouldn't, or they shouldn't be able to do the thing they're being used to do. There was going to be a point in the story where the audience learns that the AI was never connected, yet it still works simply because Duncan assumes it should. There was also going to be a point where Methos goes to microwave dinner and discovers that the microwave has never been plugged in, yet it somehow still works.
It was while trying to select a title that the power decision got made. I floated the title idea at idel, and she did that thing where she finds the essence of my discombobulated thoughts and tells me to stop being obtuse. And, with that, Duncan gained the power to stop time.
Kronos, on the other hand, is the one who ended up with wings--which, because we clearly don't see any evidence of those in canon--he also had to cut off. Who knows what powers Silas and Caspian had. Or Fitz, for that matter, since he's name-dropped in the story. What do you think?
no subject
Date: 2022-01-11 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-11 05:25 pm (UTC)I know carene is also in the club because my gift didn’t post until the first day or reveals, which made me feel far less bad about hers still needing some finishing paragraphs.