zahri

2024

Stories published: 9

Fandoms published: 2 (as always, I am grouping all of the DCU together. I tagged 7 different parts of the DCU during the year)

My wordcount for the year was 12,428, which I consider pretty respectable. Well down on last year, but I didn’t publish nearly as big projects this time.

In terms of my all time stats: Some movement here. One new entry to the top ten kudos: Big Damn Heroes, and the picture frames have changed and so has your name and there’s an endless road to rediscover have moved up to 3rd and 4th respectively. It’s now split as 4 YOI, 4 DCU, one Girl Genius and one ATLA; I have to go down to 15 to get a Vorkosigan story.

Most popular story: Big Damn Heroes. This one has surprised me a bit in terms of how well it’s done; I was expecting a story focused on Duke Thomas and about real world problems was going to end up hanging around the tier that most of my women-focused stories end up at. I’m glad to see it doing well; it’s just not the one I’d pick out of the pack personally.

Favourite story written: Every Beginning is a Promise was my big project of the year that involved the most research. I sort of expected it to do better given the mix of characters tagged on it, and it’s got some of my favourite little character moments of the year. I’m particularly proud of my Stephanie Brown voice in it, in terms of what stands out to me.

Best reception: The Circus, probably. Which played very well in my individual social circle on tumblr. This is one of my classic dramatic irony stories, and while it had niche appeal, I’m surrounded by those for whom it does have that appeal.

Favourite underrated story: The Circus. Yes, I just also tagged it for best reception, but stay with me. I knew it wasn’t going to do well on a wider basis, comparatively, because ‘Janet Drake was a good mother trying her best’ is not a popular fandom opinion, but I had a lot of fun with it and I’m going to keep adding on to my Mother’s Day series. Maybe I try to finally get to Mary or Martha this year.

Favourite title: Engaged! (in defending your previous poor decisions) yes it’s too wordy, but the pun makes me grin. I love a good pun in a title. Also Dick is having a terrible time in the story and that’s reflected in the title.

Hardest story to name: Every Beginning is a Promise. This one I had to canvas for poetry to find something approximately on theme. Finding something that fitted the vibes between Bruce and each of his Robins (+ Cass) in regards to their first patrols was

Themes I noted in my stories this year: this was definitely a year of the take-that at fanon again. I’ve got a habit of writing stories to react to things that annoy me in fandom. This year we had: Buried Six Feet Under (aka Jason you’re not the only character who’s been buried alive); These Small Hours (irritation at that post going around suggesting Clark couldn’t cope with the birth of his own kid and Bruce would need to be the one to step in to support Lois); and Every Beginning is a Promise (a reaction to the whole ‘Bruce changed after Jason’s death and never did a single nice thing for any of his Robins, he was unsupportive blah blah blah’ take). Yes, I turn my petty complaints into stories quite often. I don’t know if you’ve noticed.

Commentary: very much a quieter year this year, but I still cleaned up and put out a bunch of things and wrote a whole host of new bits and bobs. The Yuri!!! On Ice stories had been hanging around unfinished in my drafts for ages, and I really wanted to get This Sense of Completion into a position where I could post it, because of all rarities for me, it was a story where the characters involved kept telling me ‘okay we want to have sex now’ and striking up innuendo with each other. And that never really works out in my writing, but this time they were, so I wasn’t going to waste it. I didn’t get anything long and plotty finished to publish it, but I did get far more short pieces done than I thought I might, at the start of the year, and to be honest one-shots are my comfort length in storytelling anyway. I’m also quietly proud that I actually wrote something Superman related because, despite how it might appear from the outside, the Lois & Clark TV show was actually my earliest and first DC property, and also one of the first fandoms I ever read fic in.

2022

Stories published: 2

Fandoms published: 2

Most popular story: Herds of Little Vorkosigans. Definitely. Not a lot of competition but this definitely won.

Favourite story written: Herds of Little Vorkosigans. I’m actually annoyed as I lost about 500 words of another sequel in this series about Gregor and the hunt for his future Empress, which I liked even better, but I couldn’t resurrect it or remember the details clearly enough. In any case, I spent a lot of time fantasising about all the extra children Aral and Cordelia never had.

Best reception: Herds of Little Vorkosigans. It’s very very hard to beat the reception of dropping fic in the Vorkosigan fandom, as I’ll always get a whole pack of comments, as that’s the fandom culture, plus I’ve been around so long.

Favourite underrated story: State of Origin. This was something I wrote in DMs to a friend during State of Origin 2021, then turned around and cleaned up to publish in 2022. I am tickled beyond belief that I managed to get this out before the next series dropped and included a State of Origin episode (though one was inevitable given the Brisbane setting). I’m never giving up my headcanon that Rusty’s Dad is from NSW however – the parallels with Anthony Field as his voice are too funny to not be true. Also hilariously this story outed me as an Aussie to some of my readers, which will never stop being funny. I’ve never hidden it particularly well.

Favourite title: Herds of Little Vorkosigans I guess as it’s just such a nice tribute to Cordelia’s moment of genetic greed in Barrayar, and how the story came to be.

Hardest story to name: Neither of them were particularly hard. I’m going to nominated State of Origin as I played around with ideas for a slightly more creative name that still fitted like an episode title, then defaulted to the obvious name.

Commentary: Another very quiet year where a lot of my writing was stuff rescued out of drafts, cleaned up and published. I also added to the drafts backlog that gets put into the queue, I guess? I really enjoyed adding an additional fandom to my tally (Bluey), which I just notice means that I wrote fic in a new-to-me fandom every year between 2019 and 2022, which makes a nice 4 year streak (that is not broken for the 5^th!) Most Bluey fic isn’t really my cup of tea – I mostly just wanted to write my own episode – so it’s a rare case of fic for a fandom I barely participate in (where an actual fandom exists).

Bluey is a comfort and a companion in dark times. It’s also one of the most Australian TV shows around at present. I’ve got a spreadsheet which I’ve used to track that I’ve seen all episodes, and it’s complete. I love the respect the show has for both the children and the adults watching it. I love seeing situations and references I recognise (Hammerbarn! Election Day including a democracy sausage in Circus! The Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Book! Summer Christmas episodes!) I love that Bandit is dad goals for all my male friends who are parents. I adore how recognisable Brisbane is as a setting for the show, from the house designs, the plants, and the episode that literally strolls along Southbank and shows all its greatest hits. I love that they put out a Father’s Day episode for Father’s Day, which Aus holds at a different time of year to everyone else aside from our Kiwi cousins.

Baby Race is probably my ultimate tearjerker. 

Time for an update on what I've been reading/watching and really it's been 'watching' as I've been under the weather

Malory Towers (Series 1):

OH MY GOD. I was frustrated back last year when there was no estimated release date on the ABC, and then forgot to check. For months. And then I was feeling under the weather this weekend, thought I’d take a quick squiz for comfort reading purposes, and THERE IT WAS. Apparently posted last August.

For a Girl’s Own fan like me, this show was like a warm hug. It was DELIGHTFUL. The episodes gently followed along through the main events of First Term at Malory Towers, with a handful of updates, content revisions and additional plotlines to bulk things out. The Ghost of Lady Jane Malory gives plenty of scope to show off Alicia’s worst tendencies to contrast against Sally’s behaviour. (The general shape of the Emily plot I am SURE I remember from somewhere, but can’t remember exactly where – might be in one of the St Clare’s books?) But opening up the casting worked just fine for a story set in the period it is set in, particularly in terms of Joan; if you take publication dates as the series starting in 1946, Joan quite reasonably could have been injured as a kid during the War due to bombing or an explosion.

Also giving Darrell a reason for why she has to slog to get marks creates a nice rounding to her character.

They put a fair amount of work into Gwendoline Mary to make her more understandable and less one-note (and I appreciated that even as I wanted to growl every time she raised her voice to be prissy and stand on her dignity), but honestly, the best character update in my opinion was giving KATHERINE a character outside of “issuing orders as the head of the form”. You could really feel how underwater she felt at times about having to be a leader and the responsible one, while still being a teenager and wanting to join in the fun.

The episode pacing in itself was a little uneven, as while each would wrap up the main story plot that they titled the episode after, there was frequently B and C plots that slopped awkwardly between episodes. This didn’t matter so much when you were just binging it in one go, like I did, but it did make it harder to keep track of where an episode stopped and started.

Really only had one big cringe point that I had to pause and then force myself past (During The Dress, when Gwen convinces Darrell to try it on). Pretty good going, honestly. Random Added Boy Character was essentially a deus ex machina that I felt did not need to be written in, but I suppose his existence brought the number of male characters in the show up to 2.

The costuming was delightful (particularly the terrycloth swimming robes that matched their day uniforms), the ocean pool was a REAL ocean pool (with a lifeguard that was casually mentioned and never seen, hah), and oh wow was it nice just to revel in a proper-style boarding school story.

Leaving Home at 8 Years Old:

A rewatch, essentially off the back of Malory Towers. God, I still feel sorry for these littlies, but it was a good reminder of the modern set up and it’s solid writing fuel at the back of my brain.

Harrow: A Very British School:

This is essentially a 6 hour long documentary on Harrow School. Yes, I was in a boarding school mood and felt ill. Also a 5-6 hour discourse on Privilege and How Connections Get You Places.

It was interesting, in that I’m a private school brat, so some of this felt rather more familiar than I expect it was pitched to be (though I was marvelling at how easily destroyed their hats were, I definitely know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about uniform policies, enforcing hat wearing off the grounds, and the downsides and perils of dark felt hats in wet weather). Every time the tradition vs modern debate was raised, I had to smile; I’ve heard principals give that speech often enough, including the very pointed use of uniform policies to reassure the Old Boys/Girls Union that Standards Are Being Maintained even as they slip some modern update past them. In terms of ultimately pointless traditions, my school had not nearly so many, but also my school had only been incubating them for 120 years or so. Having to learn school history as an actual part of a subject, the amount of weirdness you can inculcate into a House, the established school slang that is sort of useless outside of it… yup.

I did end up cackling to myself about the speech over the Albert Hall Concert which only happens every 5 years – so you lot only have to endure one, is it? And you’re singing school songs mostly? Hah. (TBF my school only ran to three things that could qualify as ‘school songs’, being the school song, the school hymn, and the particularly difficult arrangement of the Lord’s Prayer they preferred which contained several unfair notes and a less-popular translation of the lyrics. They’d have needed a bigger range to sustain a whole concert off it)

I got very attached to various students and teachers, even as I know I would have hated them in person.

A fascinating look inside the school in terms of the rhythms of how the school runs and the expectations.

And yes I had to laugh at all the boys and teachers going on about how good the long term contacts are, considering I have spent the past 15 years or so systematically destroying most of the benefits and privilege I attract from having been at a Right School via my choice of university and law firm. Though the accent hangs around: I habitually talk Educated Australian, even at home (living with an old schoolmate exacerbates the problem, I guess; we both grew up Westie and can broaden but contextually tend not to).

This shouldn't count, but was most of last week for me. Thanks, dubiously legal internet streaming website that facilitated my US election obsession around geoblocks over the past few months. I now have strong opinions on particularly the wee hours of the morning of blanket election coverage from MSNBC, as I was trading off with a Canadian friend, S1, and we would update each other on the shenanigans that occurred while the other was asleep, and so I got all the excitement of 3am-caffeine-highs-no-sleep hosts and then could trade out once daytime coverage resumed.

I would like to repeat to the universe that I set my alarm for 5am last Thursday to get up to watch the procedural performance, thank you very much, as I was looking forward to getting more numbers updates around the pro forma objections, and the handful of Aus political tragic friends who also set their alarms to do the same got the funsies of turning our streams on right as things were starting to go down.

It was a very long day. At least time zones cooperated to allow me to still see the procedural performance once everyone got back to it later on.

Seriously, America.

I meant to do this last year, but never got around to it, so let’s do 2019 and I'll get to 2020 later in a week or two.

2019

Stories published:  6

Fandoms published: 5

Most popular story: You poured out honour like a fountain, all around you – it’s an ATLA fic involving Zuko. I wasn’t prepared for how popular this was going to end up. I was anticipating it would be rather niche, as I thought the appeal would largely be to ATLA fans who also like the Vorkosigan series, but apparently the appeal of Zuko was overpowering. It’s still #1 during 2020 at the time I write this, though I expect it’ll slip to second by 31 December.

Favourite story written: I think it has to be Teach the Children Well, simply because ‘Zahri once again creates an AO3 fandom tag’ is hard to go past (and it amuses me that I’ve now done it twice, with how few stories I have on the site).  Also, this one was just FUN. I got to spend a lot of time working out when certain things occurred during the 90s, matching up timelines, and salting in references. Also, emotionally, giving two people a Yuletide story they’d asked for but not received made me quite happy, as the reception was so enthusiastic.

Best reception: Coming Home. Yes, my ATLA story is more popular, but in terms of how the fandom reacted to it, Coming Home had a better reception. HEAPS of people dropped by to comment on Coming Home, which reminded me that smaller fandoms really are my jam and cup of tea.

Favourite title: Oh god, I hate titles. Probably Teach the Children Well? I don’t think I was particularly clever in any of the titles I used, really. We’re looking at: one song lyric, one quote from canon, two quotes from a DIFFERENT canon (Vorkosigan for ATLA, Shakespeare for Toby Daye), and two simple descriptives.

Hardest story to name: You poured out honour like a fountain, all around you. I knew what I wanted – one of Aral’s quotes on honour and reputation – but I had to go through the books to find something both concise and explicable to people who aren’t familiar with the Vorkosigan series. (The ‘belly button reset’ concept was what I actually wanted, but that’s pretty difficult to convey concisely, so instead I went with Aral telling Cordelia part of why he loves her).

Commentary: I hadn’t expected to go back to writing again, then I was gossiping about meta in comments with Lanna, as we have a tendency to do, and For the Honour of Vorhalas appeared in my head. So thanks, Lanna. Me starting writing fic again was due to you. She’s the cause of three of the six stories I wrote during 2019 (if it’s a Vorkosigan fic, the idea probably germinated during a discussion we had about the series, plus I said “I think Zuko needed to learn Aral’s lessons about honour”, Lanna said “I don’t know ATLA” and then I wrote my feelings out).

Then I was poking around the Yuletide requests for some reason, and saw MULTIPLE people had requested something about Nightcare at Cyclone, and I eventually hammered out Teach the Children Well. And I was back not just writing, but letting other people see it.

The Fantasies

These are the movies that you think about when someone says 'Studio Ghibli' or 'Miyazaki'.

I think Spirited Away remains my overall favourite of this genre. It was probably the first of the Ghiblis I ever saw, when it first came out, and it remains a complicated, complete story on its own.

Next I have to put My Friend Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle, both for their rewatchability. Howl is not a perfect adaption, by any means, but it's a very strong spiritual adaption, and the joy intermixed into Totoro with the art makes it so easy to return to, over and over.

Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service are next, with both magical for the way that their towns interact with the magic around them. They both remind me how down to earth and PRACTICAL and working class Ghibli gets, even as they're making magical mystical stories.

Princess Mononoke affected me somewhat less than I was expecting it to, having never seen it? I LOVED the forest around the story, with the spirits and the heart of the forest. It was still probably my favourite of the heavy environmentalist messaged films.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky - I feel I have to talk about these two together as there is a LOT of overlap in the storylines. Nausicaa clearly was referenced in Chrono Trigger, which makes me feel more generously towards it, but they both suffer from heavy handed messaging and minor characters being lightly drawn stereotypes painted with very broad brushstrokes. (Also Pazu in Laputa irritates the living shit out of me). There's a couple of scenes that stick with me (The garden in the eponymous Castle in the Sky; the tree caves in Nausicaa) but all in all they're not top of my rewatch list. I think I lean slightly more to Nausicaa over Laputa.

Tales From Earthsea is interesting in that it is contextually set in such a complicated point in the Earthsea narrative, while lacking so much of the surrounding context. I can't in good faith call it a good adaption, and I'm fully aware of Ursula Le Guin's issues with it, but where I think it really falls down is that it just doesn't put enough time into supporting the backstory for why certain things happen, leaving audiences to guess (badly) from context and book readers to sigh in aggravation over what's missing.

Arrietty - It's actually a reasonably faithful Borrowers adaption, to my memory. It's also boring. Come for the highly detailed and accurate botanical art and doll set, ignore the plot.

There was a ten favourite characters from various fandoms meme going around, and I wanted to do it. Then I realised I wanted to justify it. So I posted here.

1. Vorkosigan Saga – Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan

Reasons I love Cordelia: her sheer determination. The way she manages to navigate an alien culture and its rules yet still remain herself. The fact that she continues to have personhood and establishes ways to work within the system she’s presented with to get her agenda to work.

That time she sat Drou and Kou down and made them SQUIRM to get Kareen permission to take ‘an option’ on Mark, which I regard as the best pay off in the entire series, even more than the dinner party.

Reasons I love Sahra: Muslim ninja police officer! I love that she looks at what Peter has, rolls her eyes, but sought her own path (via Michael). I love her attitude that if magic is real, she doesn’t need to become a spellcaster, with all the imperialist baggage of the Folly, but she absolutely is up to learn how to magic parkour and fight with a sword. I love that she chooses the demi-monde, and continues to choose it. I love every time she rolls her eyes at Peter when they’re out on a job together and the two of them are just so over the assumptions (and then due to Magical Shenanigans Sahra gets stuck with the less appealing job AGAIN).

 
3. Star Trek Discovery – Sylvia Tilly

Reasons I love Tilly: She walked into the cabin in Episode 3, tried to explain to Michael that Michael had stolen her bed and that it was a problem because her sheets are very particular, and I looked at her, saw she was likely autistic, and fell head over heels. Tilly said she was allergic to normal sheets because she has a TEXTURE issue (and honestly? Having seen some of the fabrics they’ve used for bedding in Star Treks over the years, I would cringe away from many of them too). She’s bright and excited and determined. She’s a bit too loud and makes social faux pas and has a past she’s trying not to fall into and a goal she’s running towards. She’s seen some of the terrible sides of herself and had to face up to the idea that her brain has betrayed her, and come out the other side stronger and still idealistic. I definitely find myself identifying with her and I wish I’d had her in my own teens and early twenties.

 
4. Discworld – Susan Sto Helit

 Reasons I love Susan: Her practicality, devotion to science, lack of belief in the supernatural (even though the supernatural believes in her) and determination to make the magic of the world she inhabits useful and accessible for the children she cares for. Susan is ‘good with children’. Society and the Disc and the magic of the Disc have told her that she should and has to be one way, but she forges her own path anyway. Also she has the BEST girlie moments when she lets loose and decides she just really wants to be feminine right now. (Also she’s dating the PERSONIFICATION OF TIME and she is the back up avatar of Death. I love her so much.

 
5. Galactic Milieu – Rogi Remillard

 Reasons I love Rogi: the universe doesn’t ACTUALLY have it out for Rogi. He just has an (overly) helpful great great nephew who doesn’t always bother to explain his plans. Or intentions. Or the reasons for anything. Rogi’s the character that stared down head on all the disaster and trauma that the Remillard family has faced, and he cared for and loved and socialised generations of little fey nephews (and a few nieces) who felt disconnected from the society around them, and taught them how to love, how to care and that they always had a home. Unlike most of the family, he presents very quietly, just running his bookshop, while being the heart of the family in a way that outsiders seem to miss.

 He taught Denis and Severin and Marc and Jack and Dorothée and so many of the other kids how to be human, to be a good person, to stand on your own feet in a world that doesn’t understand you and seems so foreign and terrified of you. He’s always ready (with a few complaints) to go and try to save the universe again. He’s the hug and reassurance at the end of the quest; the person who will always go that little bit further if you ask. He is sceptical of Unity and has always held himself outside of metaconcerts whenever possible because of his fear of losing his identity and self within them, and everyone younger than him (which is… everyone bar the Lylmik characters) simply don’t seem to appreciate. He doesn’t want his head sorted out and people interfering with his brain. Staying away from metaconcerts is a protective instinct that has saved Rogi’s life on numerous occasions, because he’s seen and lived the horrors of how it could go wrong since his early teens. (Like: Donny AND Victor AND Fury all tried to kill him and/or subsume his personality via metaconcert over the years. I think he’s allowed to be avoidant)

 He’s just a gorgeous crotchety old man (who isn’t as grumpy as he presents) who is fine with the fact that he has never received recognition for exactly what he’s done (and only wrote this memoir because Unifex ordered him to).

 
6. Harry Potter – Ginny Weasley

 Reasons I love Ginny: Ginny is a fundamentally mid 20^th century Girl’s Own/Boy’s Own character and I love her for it. Yes, she’s set up from the very first chapters to end up with Harry (she’s the first girl he sees; she shows him how to enter the magical world via Platform 9 ¾; she’s his best friend’s little sister. I love Harry and Ginny’s dynamic as much as I love Wally and Norah’s, and believe me, I love Wally/Norah a RIDICULOUS amount: it’s my favourite relationship in all of Girl’s Own literature). She’s a fundamental British archetype of a character (the bright sporty girl – the sort of girl who ends up going up at Awards Night for academic AND sporting achievements and is probably also in the choir). She quietly faced personal trauma in CoS and fought back against it as best she could. She’s got her mother’s temper and her father’s drive to make things work. She’s quietly battled social isolation and is still happy to be friends with Luna, despite the fact that this might drive others off. She effectively guilts Harry and her brothers on their nonsense when she sees it. She’s important to me in so many ways that I think Hermione is important to other women my age: no, she’s not loud and openly campaigning like Hermione is, but she learns within herself how to fight back and to stand up for herself and face her past trauma. She’s kind and thoughtful and devoted and sarky. Loudly rioting in the streets is not what Ginny is about, but she could and did drive the staff of Hogwarts in Book 7 to the point where she had to hide for her own safety and undertake vigilante missions at night.

Personally I have no doubts that Ginny went back to Hogwarts the next year and was Head Girl and took Os and Es in her NEWTS, while championing Gryffindor to win the Quidditch Cup again while multiple teams approached her to ask if she was intending to keep on playing in the National leagues.  

Yes, she’s Harry’s story ‘reward’, in that marrying her cemented a truth that was always there – Harry desperately, desperately wanted a family to love him, and the Weasleys took one look at this undergrown, neglected child with wild hair and oversized, faded hand-me-down clothes and went “you’re one of us now”. But the relationship was an agreement BETWEEN the two of them. The bedtime story of the Boy Who Lived who Ginny fell for as a kid transmuted over time into the damaged, devoted man she married, and she chose him again and again over that time; through everything that happened and the more of his personality she understood.

 
7. Chronicles of Narnia – Lucy Pevensie

Why I love Lucy: The image of Lucy Pevensie standing by the lamp post, marvelling at the snow is one of the earliest stories I fell in love with. I love her determination and stubbornness and self-belief. I love the way she is always ready to accept new folk/creatures as sapient and equally worthy of respect. Lucy very rarely doubts herself, and when she does, she works through why she feels that way and solves the situation.

I also love that she grew up wild and she grew up in a very different culture to wartime Britain and that fundamentally for every book after LW&tW she is no longer a Good English Girl. All four of the Pevensies had to face puberty twice, with memories and experiences of adulthood; Lucy out of all of them was shoved back to facing pre-adolescence for a second time, not just puberty. Susan coped with the pressure of a society that told her all of her previous experiences were wrong by working out exactly how to conform and play the game and appear to the public as a Proper English Woman as if her past didn’t exist; Lucy, in many ways, no longer had that early childhood to reach back and assume, and so learnt to be a Good Narnian Girl who didn’t offend English sensibilities TOO much.

 
8. October Daye – The Luidaeg/Annie

Why I love The Luidaeg: She’s just so tired and constrained, but she keeps fighting anyway. The Luidaeg’s the oldest and most prominent of Maeve’s daughters who hasn’t been hunted down under Titania’s orders. She is so tired of being used, but is so ready to accept family members who WANT to be related to her and treat her with respect (see why she loves Captain Pete). She was so ready for Toby to be yet another disappointing relative, and bound her in debts so that they had to remain polite to each other. And even now, she and Toby continue to make sure that there is at least one debt lying between them for protective reasons, as whatever they may be forced to do, they must acknowledge that debt, which keeps them together.

I think the book that truly crystallised why I love the Luidaeg is The Winter Long. The weight of her bonds and her determination are so clear in it, and the scale of the power she’s holding back. My particular loves are: “You’re a thirsty little vampire when you want to be” and “You are my niece and I am your aunt, and when you ask my help, it is within my power to give it.” She feels and acts with the power of the cold, rising tide, but that lurking power is more binding than that which Evening holds. She is water and blood magic (and that pearl encrusted chest is a hope chest variant, I am CERTAIN of it)

(It all comes down to the blood)

 
9. Star Wars – Luke Skywalker

Why I love Luke: A long time ago in a galaxy, there was an ace icon. His name was Luke Skywalker. I love Luke because he’s a hero who doesn’t have and doesn’t need a love story. He’s devoted and determined and the irony of the universe is that part of the reason that Anakin and Luke are Those To Bring Balance To The Force is that they were BOTH born in the wrong time and place: Luke would have fit in as a Jedi during the Old Republic with no issues, and Anakin would have happily run around blowing things up with the Rebellion and gotten married without any problems.

Luke is, fundamentally, a Good Person, who continues to do the best he can and the right thing under impossible situations.

 
10. Les Miserables – Cosette

Why I Love Cosette: the first time I saw a production of Les Mis, I was nine years old. I imprinted on Cosette early and I imprinted hard. Yes, she’s constrained by her circumstances, but she’s not as light and flighty as everyone makes her out to be. She’s faced her past, learned to live with it, cares deeply about her adopted father and is willing to risk many things to help protect him.

Of course she doesn’t want to go back to a life of hardship, but she was a charity case up until she became an adult (she was educated at a convent and came out with Respectable Marriageable Homemaking Skills. The fancier-background girls there absolutely would have known she didn’t have the parents they did). She’s determined to make a better life for herself and to fulfil the respectability that Jean has always treated her as having. She’s straddled a bunch of different class structures over her years growing up and copes with those differences. And she GETS her happy ending, unlike pretty much every other character.

1. Outright shame: while I’m not particularly close to any riders, I do know a bunch of the commentators well enough and they know who I am so that SHAME SO MUCH SHAME.
2. You write this and you have to write commentary for it. (Me, doing the eyes sideways: …I’ll just pretend Phil & Paul are doing the commentary, all right? Everyone good with that? We can all have a little cry over classic Sherliggettisms together. Because I refuse to write Ooroosport Hatch and Kelly commentary, Ant is an absolute sweetheart but doesn't have a regular commentary partner, and if I write Robbie and Keeno it's just going to be a stream of in-jokes involving highlighters, the grapes are a lie, and going for a swim. Though using Keeno's Tinkoff Medal calls would work for The Kiss)
3. I just spend half my time matching people up and chuckling to myself.
4. *stares at cycling* Sooooo my equivalents to use as analogues for Victor are:
   1. Voldemort (no) (no no no) (fucking no)
   2. It's Victor Nikiforov. Spelled M E R C K X. or possibly H I N A U L T. But probably M E R C K X.
   3. I have to write him on Sky/Ineos (eurgh).
5. Okay, LBR, It's Nikiforov, spelt F R O O M E. Georgi is spelled either T H O M A S or R O O M I E. (Spelling it R O W E is inaccurate and the wrong sort of shadow) Right at this second, Plisetsky is spelled B E R N A L.
6. "Nikiforov loves to surprise audiences!" [running up that hill] [the breakaway with Sagz in the same tour]
7. Okay, yes I could write Victor as Sagan, that also works, particularly jerseywise, but sprinter -> road captain is not a standard move. The level of extra is equivalent though. Victor personality-wise in public is a bit of a sprinter.
8. … Actually, commentary injoke that works amazingly: Leroy = the Roche/Martin dynasty. Poor JJ – everytime someone brings him up we have to discuss Alain and Nathalie's results. And his siblings results.
9. Chris = Fabian Cancellara. Yes, everyone, Chris is Fabs. Unless Chris = the French housewives favourite, Thomas Voeckler. Jokes jokes.
10. I mean I guess Chris could also = Marcel Kittel. Damn. Too many cyclist jokes to make. Heck, even FS!Chris could easily be sponsored by Alpecin.
11. Otabek is obviously currently on Astana. Duh. Though he's one of those riders who moves his contract around every 1-2 years.
12. Phichit and Yuuri are on BMC. With the usual BMC lack-of-support issues. Yuuri's changed teams this season, due to this, as Trek has just been established. Nikiforov rather than coaching is doing the Road Captain Jensie over at Trek, despite not being Jensie. [Phichit still wins like one stage and then disappears into the 'oh what might have been' of BMC. Maybe Phichit is Tejay? MAYBE YUURI IS TEJAY??? Tejay why you gotta rip my optimism out of me every single season by underperforming?]
13. I cannot think of a mess equivalent to Movistar to translate onto. So we just have #freelanda running alongside everything else.
14. What's going on with the Wolfpack? Quickstep are busy winning all the Classics. They're not planning to spend 17 stages trying to defend a jersey they're going to lose because one of their riders is being stubbornly awesome (hi Alaphilippe I love you).
15. Okay Mickey and Sara could be the Schlecks. Sara is Andy. Mickey is Frank. Both of them forget How Does Riding Work at the first hint that the other is not around.
16. …The other option, if I want a team with both a solid Men's and Women's team, is that Mickey and Sara are sorta the Yates twinnies? Except Mickey is Simon and Sara is Adam while simultaneously being …Gracie Elvin, let's say. And I'm definitely not saying Adam and Simon have the Mickey-Sara dynamic. Why they are over at Orica-Michelton-Scott-Edge instead of an Italian team? Because twinnies)
17. …Yes, this makes Emil's equivalent Christopher Juul-Jensen. Loveable pranksters for all. You're all welcome.
18. I realise this is a horrible hodgepodge of seasons and teams, but oh well.
19. Still giggling to myself at Leroy = Roche and Chris = Voeckler.
20. … FAARK. Oleg Tinkov is Plushenko. Yes. Yes he is.
21. With that in mind, Nikiforov very much could = Sagan.
22. I'm going to go die now.

In no specific order (vaguely organised by when I fell in love with them, perhaps?):
 

After the End, by Arabella and Zsenya. (Harry Potter)

Yes yes, the grandmother BNF fic of the Ron/Hermione fandom. It’s a post-Year 7 fic written pre-OotP. It’s good. It was interestingly speculative. Reading it gives you a solid insight into some of the tropes and speculations of the Three Year Summer from the OBHWF side of the fandom. But honestly? The reason it’s on this list is for Chapters 27 and 27 & 3/4. Two of the best chapters of Quidditch that have ever been written, in my opinion, and “Harry Potter is happy.” is guaranteed to make me cry every time I read the line.

Some days I need to be reminded what good journalism is, and why I love Harry and all the Weasleys. 27 and 27 & 3/4 remind me of that.

Okay yes, and the line ‘Neville turned left’ still makes me sob like a baby. But that’s a bit harder to reread.

 
Bagenders, by Lady Alyssa and Random Dent. (Lord of the Rings)

This one is only accessible by the wayback machine these days, I believe.

Lord of the Rings fanfic! Is it in character? Not really. Is it a Modern!AU, something I generally hate? Yup. Is it still hilarious and do I still quote bits of this series? Hell yes.

The Fellowship all living in a three bedroom semi together, immortal, and getting on each other’s nerves.

I’m here for ‘All Hail Delia’ and the Christmas stories and mince pie freezer tetris and ‘Vadko’ and the weird knitting circle of old ladies obsessed with Master and Commander.

Lust over Pendle and sequels, by AJ Hall. (Harry Potter)

I couldn’t do this list without an AJ Hall story, and Lust over Pendle narrowly edges out the Sherlock contenders in the ‘I will spend a rainy weekend rereading these’ stakes.

Yup, it’s that fic that everyone introduces to you as “the Harry Potter mystery series set in a tiny Wiltshire village called Malfoy Intrinsica  …yes it is that Draco/Neville fic, why are you running away? I promise it works!” I should hate it, given my dislike of Draco Malfoy and the strand of Weasley-bashing that runs through it, but honestly it rises above those automatic nopes for me.

Draco Malfoy in this fic isn’t actually canon Malfoy, but he’s not completely LeatherPants!Draco either (though he has many of the snark tendencies of same). Draco has the problem that a lot of British aristocrats have: his family estate is extensive, cash-poor and in desperate need of structural repairs. Neville has a problem: his extended family remain deeply useless, underestimate his abilities constantly, and several are deeply disapproving of his relationship with Draco (on the ‘he’s a guy’, ‘he’s a MALFOY’ and ‘wasn’t he working for You Know Who?!?’ axes in about equal proportions). Together with Hermione, they hatch a plot to solve the first problem, only to be caught by the fall out from the second problem. Dissipation and Despair introduces the Rev. Peter Blakeney, as what is the genre of cosy British mysteries without the local helpful vicar? (I love him).

Intensely British, always heavily researched and set in their landscape, and just plain satisfyingly GOOD. If you like Dorothy L. Sayers, or you like the writing of people who like Dorothy L. Sayers you will probably enjoy this.

Graduate Vulcan for Fun and Profit, by lazulisong. (Star Trek XI)

You can try and tell me that this isn’t actually canonical, and I will ignore you.

Jim Kirk was the youngest crew member of the USS Kelvin, and every other person who survived the voyage likes to remind him of that fact. And keep an eye on their adopted nephew. This causes Jim some issues, as he would rather not have 300 terrifying Starfleet aunties and uncles poking their noses into his business. He’s especially not thrilled when, due to signing up late to Starfleet because of Pike, he finds himself stuck in Vulcan 101, as all other language options are full. Unfortunately for Jim, the professor teaching the class happens to be one of those interfering Starfleet uncles…

All the Bridge crew are here. It’s delightful, it’s heart-wrenching, it’s highly quotable, and best of all, it’s Tarsus fic.

The Sith Who Brought Life Day, by ophelia_interrupted. (Star Wars: OT)

This is an annual Christmas reread for me.

A couple of random Imperial officers make a bet that leads to one of them frantically researching to figure out the biggest mystery in the Galactic Empire: who was the pilot who blew up the Death Star? That officer then has to go and tell Darth Vader the results of his research.

The outsider point of view of the story is what makes it so good to go back to, time after time, because the audience knows what’s coming and the POV character does not. It’s the ultimate squirmy ‘I know something you don’t and it’s killing me to keep the secret’ story, with a killer last line.

Incident Report, by K’Sal. (Star Trek: TOS)

Kirk and Spock have to write incident reports about a conflict that has occurred aboard the Enterprise while they are hosting negotiations for two hostile species they have encountered. Both of them are leaving a lot of details out of those incident reports, which is gradually revealed through the fic.

Purely on my list as it’s my absolute favourite all time ‘no really, K/S are secretly Vulcan married. Except they’re also concealing it from EACH OTHER’ story. Those doofuses.

Petyaverse, by Lanna Michaels (Vorkosigan)

You want me to choose between my children? Then it’s definitely the Petyaverse, above and beyond any other Vorkosigan fic. If I had to pin down one particular fic, it’s probably either Asylum, which is the start of the Escobar AU split (it’s the ‘I doubt the existence of the Emperor’s honour’ conversation that does it), or A Child’s Winterfair On Barrayar, though be fair the former works well enough on its own as long as you understand the concept who Petya is, whereas most of the joy of the latter comes from knowing Petya’s deeply, deeply broken perspective on the universe and seeing it in a 6 year old.

Piotr Pierre Vorkosigan is the big brother Miles deserved.

Epic, sprawling, full of internal AUs and an ever-expanding timeline, Lanna will stab you through your heart with a knife when you least expect it. I’m still waiting for the fic where Petya actually goes through with his constant threat of marrying the nearest respectable High Vor woman to obtain a Proper Heir and then angsting for approximately 80k over the fact that he gave his wife permission to ‘seek affections elsewhere’ so it’s not cheating, but he’s still too noble to do so himself. (Whichever AU it is where Petya marries Alys because Padma asked him to – I think it might be Escobar? – DOES NOT COUNT due to it sidestepping the majority of Petya’s angst).

The Stone Gryphon, by rthstewart (Chronicles of Narnia)

A Narnia series set in England during World War 2, looking at the impact on the Pevensie siblings being adults in children’s bodies, featuring a lot of Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer and adding Eustace and Jill once their Narnia adventures occur? Yes please.

Peter is sent to Oxford over the summer to study with Professor Kirke in anticipation of his upcoming university entrance, where he meets colleagues and friends of Digory’s who are palaeontologist archaeologists. Susan goes to Washington DC with their parents and ends up involved in the SOE spy ring operating over there. Edmund and Lucy have been dispatched to the Scrubbs for The Dawn Treader to occur. While there, Edmund encounters the American neighbours of the Scrubbs who include a Colonel who works at Bletchley Park and his family, while Lucy’s sense of political activism is awoken by news articles regarding the German concentration camps and the aiding and abetting of Polly.

And then it gets even better (Chapters 13 and 14 of Apostolic Way are also on my Christmas reread list).

Meticulously researched (read the recommended books; it’s worth it, trust me), it’s a joy and I really wish rthstewart was able to get to more of Lucy’s story, as she is my absolute favourite, but what we do get is So Damn Good.

The extended universe version of this is Everyone Lives, Nobody Dies, and features some delightful stories set well past the 1950s where all the characters get to grow up and get married and have families. My favourite story, if you twisted my arm, is probably Pigeon 40TW194 Reporting For Duty, because it's such a sweet look at the Pevensies in 2012. (My next favourite bits are 'any scenes at Lucy's school' and 'the time that Asim met Lucy').


Well Met at Mechanicsburg, by Persephone Kore and khilari. (Girl Genius)

Yes I am a living stereotype.

Do you like Girl Genius? Have you ever felt the desperate desire to knock all the characters’ heads together and get them to communicate? Then congratulations! This is the ‘Barry Actually Talks To Klaus After Rescuing Agatha’ fic. Everything gets immeasurably better. The OT3 have simultaneous breakthroughs as kids. Somehow everyone survives.

‘The Characters Actually Communicate’ is a deep well of fic in Girl Genius fandom, given the amount of the plot that hinges on pretty much everyone being too stubborn to tell another character what is going on, and assuming the worst of everyone’s motives. This is a classic of the genre and one of the best.

Pyeongchang and Prejudice, by AMarguerite. (Jane Austen) 

Again, this is another story that I should hate, but god does it work. It’s a modern AU of Pride and Prejudice, including a handful of other favourite Austen characters, set in a Yuri on Ice!!! fusion with Figure Skating RPF. (Generally, you will not get me through the door on Austen modern AUs, fusion fics, or most RPF. A combination of all three? Argh)

Five times World Champion and Two Times Olympic Gold Medallist Fitzwilliam Darcy of Canada has recently retired at the age of 27 to coach rising star Charles Bingley in Men’s Singles. Jamie and Elizabeth Bennet are currently one of the US premier ice dancing couples, but placed disappointingly in the Sochi Olympics after Jamie had a panic attack and are only just getting back on track with their eyes on Pyeongchang.

At the 2016/17 Grand Prix Final banquet, Darcy comments to Bingley that the Bennet siblings are tolerably proficient, but will never get anywhere without better coaching and are lifelong bronze medallists. Lizzy overhears…

It’s Pride and Prejudice, you know how this story goes.

Featuring several tango-offs with Virtue-Moir, cameos by various Austen characters and international figure skaters, and a lot of YOI-based insights into the characterisation of the main characters, it’s funny and rereadable and manages to sneak the Stammi Vicino pair skate in as part of the last scene at the Pyeongchang Olympic exhibition.

Unless you already have a copy, you unfortunately can’t read this one, as the author has taken it down to shop it around as an actual novel (one of the perennial issues in Austen fandom). I’ll be fascinated to see the novel version and I’ll buy it, but I suspect a good chunk of the RPF references will disappear in the editing. There are a LOT of serial numbers to file.

If you want a AMarguerite P&P fic you can actually read, go for An Ever-Fixed Mark, a soulmark P&P fic, which is also wildly good. There are three separate endings to the fic: Lizzy ending up with Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam and the Duke of Wellington respectively, and if I had to choose one, I’d plump for the Colonel Fitzwilliam ending as the best one, though all three have their charms.