dragonyphoenix

In your own space, rec three fanworks that you did not create.

First some oldies but goodies
Alive in your blood now: A Vorkosigan fic where Miles' daughter inherits the countship. Delightful fic, I really adore it, that explores discrimination. Author's summary: When the roll call comes to “Vorkosigan,” Helen Natalia smiles, throws back her head, and casts her vote.

Radio Silence: Eeeee! This is so great. The author describes it better than I ever could: The Gentlemen (BtVS) drop by Night Vale. This poses something of a problem for a radio host who depends on his voice to communicate. Not to mention for the people in town who aren't too keen on having their hearts cut out.

And some I discovered this past year
It Will All Come Out in the Wash: (The Untamed) I recently went to town over feline_somnanbulist's Jiang Cheng overcoming family trauma stories. Don't know what it is about them, but so much fun.

grave goods: (The Untamed) Wei Ying, PhD candidate, licensed mortician, and world's second best boyfriend, after Lan Zhan, of course, thinks he knows all there is to know about grief until the sudden deaths of his adoptive parents upend the lives of everyone in their orbit. A study in grief, mourning, and semi-intentional child acquisition.

Mass in B Minor: A Good Omens vid that makes me want to run out and rewatch. 

In your own space, add something to your fandom’s canon.

This mutates canon, and I'm not sure that's what we're meant to do here, but in the movies, I hate how Pepper enables Tony. For example, he has that reporter woman overnight and then expects Pepper to kick her out in the morning. I think we're supposed to admire Pepper for being a total bitch to this woman who's just been treated terribly rudely. I honestly want to see Pepper realize that being around Tony's philandering when she has feelings for him is turning her into somebody she doesn't want to be. I want her to leave, to get herself out of that situation. Now that's a Pepper I'd admire. 

And since people are posting canon-compliant stories, in the Fray comics (BtVS), Fray comes across an ancient Council library. In my canon, Andrew creates it for the next Slayer to come along in And I Shall Defend My Queen. 

 

I'm working on a MingCheng spy AU, and I'm so tempted to call it The Spy Who Loved Me.  

Lan Qiren’s glare suggested a gross dereliction of duty. “While you were away …”

 

“To be fair, uncle, we did agree to let him take a vacation.” Ah, Meng Yao had wondered if the suggestion had come from Xichen alone. Apparently not. If the family had discussed Meng Yao, that suggested they were starting to see him as a problem.

 

“While you were away,” Lan Qiren repeated, “Wangji married that, that …” He petered off as if he couldn’t find a word bad enough to describe Wei Ying. “You were hired to prevent exactly this type of …”

 

“Mistake?” Xichen interrupted.

 

“Atrocity,” Lan Qiren thundered. 

At first, I enjoyed Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Certain Dark Things. Excellent descriptions of Mexico City's underbelly. It's set in a world where different vampire lines emerged, so vampires are different breeds with different characteristics and abilities. That's so interesting and I can see her doing a lot with it. The characters of Atl and Domingo are engaging and interesting. 

But the antagonist, Nick, a Necro vampire who's little more than a stupid bully, about half-way through the novel, rips open a blood bag and dumps the blood on himself. The story lost me there. I won't be finishing it. 

 Brought a story to my writing group today. I was nervous as it crosses genres: psychological, horror, post-apocalypse sci fi. And the PoV character hallucinates so there are jumps in the narrative.

A Declaration on the Rights of Magicians by H. G. Parry. Fascinating world-creation. She takes the idea of inherited magical abilities to a new level. There's the usual control of water or fire, but also mesmerism, necromancy, and vampirism. It's set during the French Revolution in Jamaica, Saint Dominique, London, and Paris. Hundreds of years ago, in response to the vampire wars, the Knights Templar started using talismans to block the powers of magic users but commoners only. Aristocrats can still use their powers. It's very much caught up in the politics of the day, with William Pitt and Robespierre being main characters, but with the twist that they are magic users, and the last remaining vampire is manipulating behind the scenes to build his own empire starting with France. I guess I'm not great at describing why I like a book, but this one is on the list of books I want to own. 

I also finished Heartstopper Volume 2. The Heartstopper series is a graphic novel about two high-school boys in love. At the end of the first volume, Nick and Charlie kissed. In this volume, we have Charlie's angst of I kissed my best friend who's straight and now he won't want to be friends and Nick's realization of I kissed a boy and I like it. I like the characters, the boys are very cute, but I didn't connect with this volume as well as I did with the first. Too much working through and talking about feelings? But that's what the overall story needs at this point, so I'm a bit disappointed with myself for not enjoying it more. 

 One of my housemates tested positive for COVID this morning.