nineveh_uk

Fic: The Road to Bianliang
Fandom: The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan
Rating: T, CNTW
Length: 1858
Summary: Once a man has been told of the existence of an organised conspiracy among his superior officers to kill the Prince, seize the army, and march on the imperial capital, there is only one answer he can give if his life is not to be very short.

Fic: A Felicity of No Common Order
Fandom: Persuasion - Jane Austen
Rating: G, CNTW
Length: 1551
Summary: 'Sophy,' said Captain Wentworth, 'my business is serious. I go to call on Sir Walter to inform him that Anne Elliot and I are to be married. That is, that Miss Anne Elliot has done me the greatest honour and accepted my hand. Now, will you congratulate me?'

There's one further thing to discuss after an engagement - how to break the news.

Fic: Conversations in Raingold
Fandom: Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh
Rating: T, CNTW
Length: 2531
Summary: There's a lot still to talk about even after the end of the world.

*

I'm counting this as a 2024 fic, as I essentially wrote it then, but didn't have the opportunity to do a final edit until this morning, which makes 2024 was five works and two new fandoms, if not a high word count, and my most sexually explicit one by some margin!

I never made a post about Some Desperate Glory, which I enjoyed a lot. It was the right book at the right time, and one that fandom managed to sell to me correctly as "readable SF novel about a girl who grows up as an enthusiastic member of a space fascist cult and then discovers that the leopards want to eat her face," and I felt it delivered on that premise in an entertaining way. There are some structural flaws, but I found it engaging from beginning to end.

Fic: Meeting the Competition
Fandom: The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan
Rating: G, CNTW
Length: 1090 words
Summary:
'Ouyang's a general,' said Esen defensively. 'Of course he values skill in a warrior.'
'Tell yourself that. But when was the last time Ouyang introduced you to a friend?'

When the Spring Hunt is rained off, Baoxiang is forced into a change of tactics.

*

Forgot to link this when I posted. Indicative of the general franticness of the last month or so, probably. Rather behind on responding to AO3 comments, too. Ah well, the hibernation of winter will be with us soon.

Fic: A Bargain Undone
Fandom: Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik
Rating: G, CNTW
Length:1506 words
Summary: 'There is a question I would ask of your parents,' he said, 'and among my people it is a question that a lord should ask first of them, and so I believe it is in the sunlit world, at least where there is rank. But in your world, you have no rank, and in my world you have given me to know your character, and so I do not think you will be insulted if before I speak to your parents, I speak to you.'

On the day that winter comes and he takes her home, the Staryk King asks, and Miryem gives a different answer.

*

It's only taken slightly more than a year since I jotted down a complete outline/first draft, and about 2 and a half months since I got the hardback book from the library to check a few things, but this is essentially the AU ending 'fix it by breaking it' mentioned in this DW post. Not that that is anything like the longest time I've had a WIP active!

Fic: The Spring Hunt
Fandom: The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker Chan
Rating: M, CNTW
Length:4411 words
Summary: Everyone knew it didn't count with eunuchs.

The Third Prince has something General Ouyang wants - but there's a price.

***

Total title fail. Hopefully better luck next time, but looking at the next fic in the queue (a different fandom) I wouldn't count on it. With titles, I seem to either come up with one right at the start and really like it, it may even be the inspiration for the fic, or can't think of anything and struggle for something at the end. Particularly badly in this case.

Never mind, Sainsbury's delivered today and I have a chocolate eclair for pudding. Indeed, I have four chocolate eclairs, substituted for the unavailable two. However will I cope?

Fic: You'll go far, using me
Fandom: The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker Chan
Rating: T, CNTW
Length: 2378 words
Summary: 'Don't think I haven't noticed,' the Minister chided. 'You've been the last one in the office every night for the last half month or more.'

The Minister of Revenue offers Wang Baoxiang another road.

I saw this one somewhere on tumblr, and thought it would be fun to reproduce: the first sentences of my last ten fics, and is there any apparent pattern to my writing. Possibly there was more to it than that, I can't remember.

In reverse order:

1. 'Xiao Shu,' murmured Prince Jing, one hand cradling Mei Changsu's head as he kissed his ear, the other working purposefully within his robes, 'oh Xiao Shu, you - ' (Lay down your arms (and surrender to mine), Nirvana in Fire)

2. 'No,' said Lord Peter, withdrawing the foremost part of his person from below the sofa where he had extended it, 'it ain't here. (Best Laid Scheme, Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers)

3. Cheng Fengtai looked about the room. (The Paths of Duty, Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome, Winter Begonia (TV))

4. 'Perhaps if you gave an interview?' suggested Mr Challoner cautiously. (Feeding the Vultures, Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers)

5. Destroying what someone else cherished never brought back what you yourself had lost. (Grief like a contagion, The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan) This one is a quote from the novel.

6. The Grand Empress Dowager loved all her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren equally, regardless of age or blood, but she did not love blindly. (The spring wind blows, Nirvana in Fire)

7. Esen awoke and wished that he hadn't. (Remorse is memory awake, The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan) A line I could probably have written about Peter Wimsey, and have written about Harriet Vane, despite the characters having almost nothing in common. Apparently I like truth in hangovers.

8. The morning after Mr and Mrs John Smith had enjoyed that cheerful family dinner of roast lamb, Drusilla sat at the kitchen table with a bank book and a copy of last year's newspaper working out some sums. (Free of plain brown forever, The Ladies of Missalonghi - Colleen McCullough)

9. The great cauldrons on the battlements flared against the darkness, illuminating the imperial banners of crimson and gold. (A Taste of His Own Medicine, Nirvana in Fire)

10. General Zhang Shide had not hesitated when early in the morning two days after the Prince of Henan's death, he received a message requesting he join General Ouyang in his ger. (Sister's Are Doin' It for Themselves, The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan)

I'm not sure whether this really suggests anything, beyond my preference for the past tense, and a grudging and inconsistent acknowledgement that a lot of fandom isn't using standard title case. But it was interesting to run through.

Fic: Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves
Fandom: The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker Chan
Rating: T, CNTW
Length: 6840 words
Summary:
Ouyang was staring at his own face: smaller, paler, set on a slim neck and woman's shoulders, but unmistakably his own.

'Brother, you must help me. I have killed the Great Khan.'

Ouyang was never the only survivor of his family's punishment - merely the only man.

*

No spoilers for He Who Drowned the World, because I was working on the fic and had written about half, before mid-August - my plan to finish while on holiday did not come to pass! Not that that is anything new.

I had been writing a different NIF fic, but was not in the mood for angst so turned to this one instead, as a more cheerful fix-it. This is the one in which Lin Chen discovers the placebo effect and decides to employ it on Mei Changsu.

Fic: A Taste of His Own Medicine
Fandom: Nirvana in Fire
Rating: G, CNTW
Length: 4441 words
Summary: 'I've changed my mind that it's your decision' said Lin Chen. 'I will tell the Crown Prince you are fit to go to the battlefield against Da Yu, and give you the bingxu pill on one condition: you allow me to cure it.'

I was really tired last night and in need of taking my mind of things, so watched the first 20 mins of episode 1 before bed. The animatronic dove remains inadequate (why?? All the other doves they use are real), but actually, when not being overwhelmed with Nineveh's first Cdrama, the beginning is nothing like as confusing as it feels like when unable to tell apart Lin Chen and Mei Changsu, and Prince Yu and the Crown Prince. lLus I finally remembered to confirm that it is Xie Yu whose face is shown stabbing Lin Shu in the battle. But I still think that the writing on the bracelet should be subtitled.

Life continues to be ridiculously busy - or at least, ridiculously busy for the energy I have to give to it. It is not that I lack time, so much as capacity. Not unexpectedly, I collapsed a bit after Monday's Giant Meeting and felt very rough the rest of the week, though I've been OK this weekend. The Long Covid is not too bad just at the moment in some respects, although it continues full of lively incident*, and of course the list of things to organise never gets less. But I did manage to do some fic writing this afternoon, though I think I might need to re-watch Nirvana in Fire. I've always found catching the dialogue incredibly hard, and I think I need to get my ear in again. I also did a bit of sorting out of fic files (cue the "how long is it since I worked on that??" feeling), and found this in a set of NIF notes. And as it is very silly, a bit vulgar, and definitely not going to turn into anything else, I tidied it up and here it is.

*Me, in bed this morning. My legs are aching a lot. Particularly my left leg. Argh, DVT???? No, of course not, you did some cleaning and tidying in the kitchen yesterday, this is clearly the result of excessive crouching.

NIF drabble: The contest

The announcement of a fourth stage of Princess Nihuang's marriage contest was unexpected. But was it not essential, remarked Sir Su, that the heroes prove their manhood in all respects? Mu mansion must not be shackled to a man whose sword rose only in war.

One by one, each of the ten contenders strode proudly into the arena, knelt at the feet of the princess, lifted his robes, and then - failure. Even the mighty Baili Qi was unmanned by the task, bowing his proud head to the dust in defeat at last and acknowledging himself unworthy.

Su Zhe smiled.

antisoppist gave me The Ladies of Missalonghi for Christmas, and I can confidently report that it is every bit the The Blue Castle plagiarism (supposedly inadvertent) that was promised. Also very well-written and I shall read something more by McCullough at some point. But first, I had no choice but to write an immediately post-canon one-shot. It's actually the first on AO3, the very definition of a niche audience, especially as it doesn't even feature the heroine, but a bit of fun.

Fic: Free of plain brown forever
Fandom: The Ladies of Missalonghi - Colleen McCullough
Rating: G, CNTW
Length: 1612 words
Summary: Life was looking up at Missalonghi! Drusilla and Octavia anticipate a brighter future, and the pursuit of justice from the Hurlingfords.

One day I shall be brilliant at summaries, but not this day!

Challenge #9

In your own space, celebrate a personal win from the past year: it can be a list of fanworks you're especially proud of, time you spent in the community, a quality or skill you cultivated in yourself, something you generally feel went well. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I started this post writing the things I haven't done, but that is too gloomy. I shall celebrate!

I have posted four fics on A03, including three fandoms I haven't written in before (Winter Begonia, Arthur Ransome, SWBtS) and the pleasure of a new Wimseyfic. I've got ideas, notes and drafts for other fics that I hope to write this year. Prince Jing will finally get to share his bed with 5 + 1 soldiers! I haven't worked on the Giant Wimseyfic or original writing, but that's OK - I have recognised that I've lacked the energy to do so, and turned instead to trying to be productive where I can.

I've also enjoyed my efforts to get back into watercolour painting. It's a bit galling at times to see the things I've forgotten in the twenty years since I did any regularly (colour mixing!), but also encouraging to see that I am picking it up again, rediscovering skills, and enjoying myself.

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring an image of a coffee cup and saucer on a sheet with a blanket and baby’s breath and a layer of snowflakes. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Fic: Remorse is memory awake
Fandom: She Who Became the Sun
Rating: T, CNTW
Chapters: 1
Length: 1020 words
Summary: Behind a cut as spoiler for the book (and if you've any intention of ever reading the novel, a warning: DO NOT go and look at the AO3 page until you have finished it. It is, inevitably, covered in major spoilers.) ( Summary )

Amazingly for me in this fandom it is not a fix-it, although as if in compensation, during a new year novel re-read my brain decided to come up with yet another fix it, and the desire to re-write a single scene in about five different ways.

Fic: The spring wind blows
Fandom: Nirvana in Fire
Rating: G, CNTW
Chapters: 1
Length: 1268 words
Summary: When Xiao Xuan tells her of the Chiyan rebellion and that her beloved grandson Prince Qi is to die, the Grand Empress Dowager takes drastic action.

Inspired by chapter 7 of a little nonsense now and then.

*

Once again not one of the many fics I was supposed to write. But a fic in the hand is worth two in the head.

Fic: Grief like a contagion
Fandom: She Who Became the Sun
Rating: T, CNTW
Chapters: 1
Length: 1978 words
Summary: "There are people who say that grief will hurt as much as it's worth. And there is nothing worth more than a father."

Esen asks how long grief endures; Ouyang accidentally answers honestly.

***

Apparently my creative response to SWBtS is to imagine all the art and start writing all the fix-it fics. Three so far. This one doesn't actually fix everything, or even anything more than the particular scene, on the other hand that makes it only moderately spoilery. I even managed not to include

Through finally applying the seat of my pants (trousers) to the seat of my chair, I achieved writing fic today. Admittedly I achieved very little else but that's ok, it was a good mental break. Of course it wasn't the fic I intended to write, which itself was not the fic I ought to have been writing, but I'll take it.

The other notable achievement this weekend, and the reason I haven't mown the lawn, is that yesterday I broke or badly bruised my toe getting into the shower. This makes me much less depressed than I'd normally be about needing to keep off my feet a fortnight before a holiday in the Dales, as I wouldn't be walking much anyway. It is not particularly painful, so hopefully it is just bruised and I'll know that by next weekend, but after last time I broke a toe, didn't realise, and thus it took much longer to heal, I'll be behaving with all due caution this week regardless.

Took a bit longer to finish off than I had hoped, as Easter holiday appears to have brought the phenomenon of 'aha! Now that you don't have to do anything, you are going to collapse' so my plans for a relaxing weekend of a bit of art and writing were replaced with a relaxing weekend of cleaning the bathroom very slowly and sewing a patch on the sofa because my brain revolted at the prospect of the screen. But tis done, and it was a lot of fun to writes a good old Harriet Vane-centric type of fic. I literally got the idea for this at 3am and jotted down the rough version. My current dodgy sleep is good for something, it seems!

Fic: Feeding the Vultures
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L Sayers
Rating: G, CNTW
Chapters: 1
Length: 2557 words
Summary: Miss Harriet Vane may have been cleared of murder, but there's no escape from publicity.

This one is not so much niche fic as 'tiny crack visible only under microscope' fic, being a crossover of two almost entirely unrelated and both very small on AO3 fandoms. Also, lesson to self: never, ever try to write your first fic in a fandom as a crossover with another fandom, one of which is in a foreign language, making it that much harder to refer to canon to try and catch the character voices.

Fic: The Paths of Duty
Fandom: Swallows and Amazon - Arthur Ransome and 鬓边不是海棠红 | Winter Begonia (TV)
Rating: G, CNTW
Chapters: 1
Length: 2005 words
Summary: Two young people called home from their education in England to take over their father's business - how could they not meet? And having met, how could they not understand one another?

*

Everything I read about China in the 1930s makes the bandit plotlines of Winter Begonia feel more rather than less plausible. And obviously if Missee Lee meets a canon-certified Safe in Taxis English-speaking Chinese man of about her age who is also on his way home due to a family crisis and forced to leave behind a passion for the arts to devote himself to business out of a combination of personal affection and a principle of filial piety, they're going to get talking!

Not the fic I was intending to write, but the fic I have written. Some seasonal Wimsey-fluff from a pre-Harriet era.

Fic: Best laid schemes
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L Sayers
Rating: G, CNTW
Chapters: 1
Length: 1611 words
Summary: Lord Peter Wimsey is looking forward to a new year's eve cocktail party at Duke's Denver as much as ever, which is to say not at all. But first he must avert a potential disaster - the appearance of some uninvited four-legged guests.

Fic: The Road to Bianliang

Fic: A Felicity of No Common Order

Fic: Conversations in Raingold

Fic: Meeting the Competition

Fic: A bargain undone

Fic: The Spring Hunt

Fic: You'll go far, using me

First lines from 10 works

Fic: Sisters are Doin' It for Themselves

Fic: A Taste of His Own Medicine (Nirvana in Fire)

Drabble: Nirvana in Fire

Fic: The Ladies of Missalonghi

Snowflake challenge #9

Fic: SWBtS, Remorse is memory awake

Fic: The spring wind blows

Fic: She Who Became the Sun

The native hue of resolution

Wimseyfic: Feeding the Vultures

Fic: Winter Begonia/Swallows and Amazons

Seasonal Wimseyfic: Best laid schemes

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