Otter's Rock

fandom5k 2023 has revealed the authors, and here's what I wrote! Greenygal was an excellent beta, and helped both with canon details which I had mixed up with fanon and also helped me to articulate and bring out the thematic elements. My original thought with the ghost story idea was something at least mildly spooky, but it didn't turn out that way, alas. But I do like the way it did!

My one regret is that I don't think anybody has picked up the dual reference in the title. Alas.

Title: The Green Lady
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Characters: Delia/Duv
Written For: desertvixen in Fandom 5k 2023
Rating: G
Length: 11,879 words
Betaed by: Greenygal, who was deeply helpful with both canon and thematic elements. Thank you so much!

Summary: The first time Delia saw the woman, it was after a party at the Residence and she assumed that the woman had gotten lost.

But then it turned out nobody else had seen her and she did not appear on the Residence security logs ....

On AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Pillowfort. On tumblr.

The first time Delia saw the woman, it was after a party at the Residence and she assumed that the woman had gotten lost.

The woman was at the other end of the hall, so Delia didn't get a good look at her face, but she was either one of those elderly women who refused to adapt to changing fashion, or playing dress-up. And she was wearing a day dress, not a gown suitable for a Residence event. All this Delia took in at a glance, years of experience with Tante Alys having trained her eye.

Regardless, she shouldn't be here, in the North Wing, which was mostly offices and infrastructure, and not somewhere party guests should wander freely. "Can I help you?" Delia called.

( The woman glanced back at Delia and glided silently around a corner.  )

rarepairsexchange is live! There are 101 works in 128 fandoms, and so many are awesome, go check them out! Can you guess which are mine?

I received not one but TWO excellent fics:

A Quiet Place (1752 words)
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ro Laren/Jean-Luc Picard
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Bajor, United Federation of Planets (Star Trek), Resistance
Summary: In a world where Bajor was one of the founding worlds of the Federation, the Cardassian occupation took place on Earth instead. Jean-Luc Picard, a former human Resistance fighter, managed to escape the violence and oppression on his home world by enrolling in Starfleet. After years of service, he is secure in his acceptance by the Federation, finding a coveted post on the Kejal and love with his crewmate, Ro Laren. But trauma travels with him, and there are some things that cannot be left behind.


Except For This One (1126 words)
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Stonn/T'Pring (Star Trek)
Summary: Over the years she'd had a variety of partners, and each encounter had been satisfying, if short lived, because of the presence forever in the back of her mind. She had never let them develop beyond the fleeting, except for this one, except for Stonn. T'Pring pre and post Amok Time


In addition to these, there were a lot of other fics that are really great. Here are the ones I liked. There were a couple of others I would have recced too, but they didn't have the Share button.

( Recs )

Given the very diverse views I've heard on this book (everything from love to hate), I've been quite curious as to what I'd think of the book.  And I can see why some people don't like it; it's very different, in tone and scope and style, from most of the Vorkosigan books.  To top it off, it's part of a genre that there isn't much of, and certainly not within the SF/F field.  Bujold often genre-hops within SF, going from mystery to intrigue to comedy of manners to coming of age space-opera.  All of which are things there are a lot of, both in SF/F and outside of it.  They're things we're used to, things that have defined audiences already.  If you like space opera but not comedy-of-manners, you know to read The Warriors Apprentice and skip or skim A Civil Campaign.  And going into them, you know what to expect.  Within the first couple of chapters there are the cues for what sort of genre it's going to be, and you can calibrate your expectations accordingly.

With Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen ... not so much.  I've tried to think of what genre it is or how to describe it, and I really can't.  There are undoubtedly other works like it out there, but not many, and I can't think of any at all in SF/F.  It's sort of like a middle-aged coming-of-age novel, except that that carries connotations of middle-aged middle-class white guys being douchebags as part of a mid-life crisis, and this is most definitely not that.  It's about two middle-aged people coming to a natural transition point in their lives and figuring out what they want to do with their remaining time.  Sensibly, quietly, maturely, after having had a couple of years to recover from a devastating loss.  There's no huge drama, no great adventure, nothing like that.  It's not domestic enough to be what in fanfic would be called "curtain fic," but it's that sort of thing.  A lot of it is general day-to-day life stuff, albeit with uterine replicators and on an alien planet with really weird biology and foreign diplomats.  A lot of it is about having an interesting internal life when you're of an age that most people younger than you assume you're beyond such things.  A lot of it is about just doing all the mundane ordinary things that any job entails.  Even Miles showing up doesn't result in fireworks, because it's not his story, on a very fundamental level.  There's humor and romance and minor intrigue and minor action, but that's not what it's about.

I really enjoyed it.  I don't know that I would have ten years ago.  And I wonder what I'll think about it when I'm closer to Cordelia and Oliver's age.  It's not even close to my favorite Vorkosigan novel, but I'm glad I read it and I'm glad it exists.

(Note: if you're annoyed by the Vorkosiverse focus on children and parenthood, this is probably not the book for you.)

Bujold Ficathon 2015 | Archive of Our Own is open for business!  There are already a lot of great prompts.  No pressure, no deadlines.  You can prompt without claiming and claim without prompting.

Fic written for me:
Turn and Face the Changes (1384 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan
Additional Tags: Remix Redux
Summary: Two Armsmen's daughter break with tradition, each in her own way.


Other recs:

Always Another One (The Robin Recruitment Remix) (1821 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Gotham Central
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Harvey Bullock, Renee Montoya, Jim Gordon, Maggie Sawyer, Josie MacDonald, Crispus Allen, Romy Chandler, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne, Batman, Robin (DCU)
Additional Tags: Dead Robins, Harm to Children, Remix
Summary:

There have been Robins in Gotham City for almost twenty years. The detectives of the M.C.U. have opinions about that.

books, nooks, and crooks (keep your eyes open remix) (1524 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Digory Kirke, Mrs. Macready, Original Characters
Summary:

His role was not to interfere with the Adventures, and therefore, neither was the housekeeper.


A Factual Account of the Important Details of Eustace Scrubb's First Visit to Narnia (1052 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Eustace Scrubb, Jill Pole, Puddleglum, Reepicheep
Additional Tags: Friendship, Loss, Animal Transformations, dragon - Freeform, remembering, Remix
Summary:

So Eustace recounted the facts of his previous adventures in Narnia, beginning in the middle with the dragon.

Men of Few Words (1027 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, John Benton, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
Additional Tags: Remix
Summary:

Aliens or teenaged daughters; it’s all in a day’s work for the Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.


The Peculiar Case Of The Man With The Missing Soul (the Turn! Turn! Turn! remix) (8651 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Elementary (TV), Chalion Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Joan Watson (Elementary), Sherlock Holmes, Ms. Hudson (Elementary)
Additional Tags: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, The Bastard - Freeform, Case Fic, Character of Faith, Canon Trans Character
Summary:

At first, Curtis Atherton's death appeared a simple suicide. Of course, nothing is simple when the Bastard is involved.
Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Joan Watson, and Ms. Hudson, Acolyte of the Bastard, are on the case.

Lighthouse (The Lost in the Fog Extended Mix) (1146 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Elementary (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Joan Watson & Mary Watson (Elementary)
Characters: Joan Watson, Mary Watson (Elementary)
Additional Tags: Remix, Relapse, Season/Series 03 Spoilers
Summary:

People who are in grief come to Mary Watson like birds to a lighthouse. Joan is no exception.

Like No Business I Know (the Climbing Uphill Remix) (3802 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Galaxy Quest (1999)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Gwen DeMarco/Jason Nesmith
Characters: Gwen DeMarco, Jason Nesmith, Alexander Dane
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Sexism, Sexist Language, Sexual Harassment, just so much sexist crap, Show Business, Angst and Humor, Mentions of Stalking
Summary: At the time she read for Galaxy Quest, all Gwen had was a bunch of background credits and two national shampoo commercials, so she wasn't feeling very optimistic about this one.

“Don't get your hopes up, honey,” her agent had said, coughing around the Lucky Strike dangling from her lip. Then she tapped the ash from her cigarette into the coffee mug on her desk and looked Gwen straight in the breasts. “Wear a low-cut top.”

Five years in the life of Gwen DeMarco.

Suppression Systems (the Boardroom Boogaloo remix) (2882 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Characters: Pepper Potts, Natasha Romanov
Summary: Four days in the hospital, waiting, have been more than enough, as far as Pepper is concerned. Her vital signs are stable. Her blood work is as normal as it’s going to get. She's going to have to learn to live with the effects of Extremis eventually.
In the meantime, Stark Industries is beginning to implode from the rumors circulating about her condition.
Pepper needs to go back to work.

[set post-Iron Man 3]

Under Your Shield (1350 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Natasha Romanov, Sif (Marvel)
Additional Tags: Post-Thor: The Dark World, Friendly Sparring
Summary: Sif might be tall, proud, and beautiful, but she is also terribly lonely. Natasha can relate.


Embrace the World in Gray (The La Cosetta Nostra remix) (6363 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Pacific Rim (2013)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Alison Choi, Stacker Pentecost, Mako Mori, Hermann Gottlieb, Kaidonovsky, Hannibal Chau, Tendo Choi
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Black Markets, Remix, Dad Sweaters
Summary:

Alison may run a thingy mafia, but she's not sure where the Marshall got the idea that it qualified her to negotiate with a mafia mafia.

As Food to Life (6024 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson
Characters: Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Natasha Romanov
Additional Tags: 5 Times, Canon Character of Color, POV Sam Wilson, Food, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Interracial Relationship, Bisexual Male Character, Gay Male Character, Travel, Grief/Mourning, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Relationship Negotiation, Fluff, Dick Jokes, Up all night to get Bucky
Summary: Or: Five meals Sam Wilson shares with Steve Rogers


Victory Conditions (The Rashomon Remix) (8655 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Kostolitz, Miles Vorkosigan, Ivan Vorpatril
Additional Tags: Remix, Hijinks & Shenanigans
Summary:

Ivan always looked like an actor playing a model cadet in a training vid. This impressed the hell out of Kostolitz when Miles first introduced them, but he'd since amended the comparison to 'an actor in a training vid, who's perpetually on a break between shoots, and is eager to get back to a party – to which common folk are not invited -- going on in his trailer.'
Miles looked like, well, Miles. That had taken some getting used to with the way Kostolitz had been raised. But Miles strategized like he was two meters tall and plasma-arc proof, and that fit Kostolitz's idea of a Barrayaran officer just fine.

And four other perspectives

I'm signing up for femmeremix, a remix ficathon for female-focused fics, and realized that if I wrote one more Vorkosiverse fic with a woman in an important role, I could add the Vorkosigan fandom to my signup. And, thinking, I got a REALLY awesome idea for a genderswapped Aarl, which I now have to write. And then I realized "but genderswap doesn't count for signup purposes," but I'm going to write it anyway because it's such a cool idea.

And then I realized, "but wait, if I say instead that Aral died in Mad Yuri's massacre and his unnamed sister survived instead, that would qualify!"

Brilliant solution. Only problem being she is so firmly GIRL!ARAL in my head that I don't know if it would work.

Her backstory: canon!Aral married Ges' sister in an arranged marriage. Given an arranged marriage, wouldn't girl!Aral likely be married to a man from the same family? OMG, SHE WOULD HAVE MARRIED GES HERSELF! Except Ges would not treat a wife like an equal the way he treated canon!Aral, so he abused her, and given Aral's temper, she killed him, and now lives in semi-disgrace down in the Vorkosigan district. That is where the story starts.

Now, the main things that she has in common with Aral are a) brilliant tactician, except used socially instead of militarily, b) that infamous temper, and c) bisexuality. And sure, I can say that the sister had all of those too, but ... isn't that kinda denying the sister's individuality?

Sigh.


On a completely different note, what happened to the rich text posting option? And tag autocomplete?

laurajv asks: What's your favorite character, from any media, and why?

And the problem with this is the same problem I have with any "what's your favorite?" question, and that is that I've never had any one book or character or movie or anything that I could point to and go "this one is my favorite."  Even if you narrow it down, so it's "what's your favorite character on a particular show?" I almost always go, "well, that depends on my mood."  My fannish affections are extremely poly; I've never had anything resembling an OTP or OTC.  I mean, I have pairings that I like (I'd never choose to pair Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade with anyone else, nor Han and Leia with anyone but each other), but it's not a strong enough thing to go THEY CAN'T EVER BE WITH ANYONE ELSE.  Like, if someone wrote an interesting, well-written story with no character bashing where one of those two pairs broke up or never got together in the first place, I'd read it and enjoy it.  (Well.  Let me clarify that.  If you were going to pair Luke with Callista, you would have to re-write the end of Children of the Jedi so that she didn't end up in Cray's body, because that really, really weirds me out.  Like, ew, and then after that she went off the rails in the other two books she appeared in, but if she weren't in Cray's body to begin with those other books would be different, so.)  But my favorite Star Wars characters are probably Corran Horn and Mara Jade, if you take all things together.  (But then there's Thrawn!  Pelleon!  Padme!  Winter!)

Star Trek characters, well, Saavik and Spock for classic trek, everyone on DS9, B'Elanna Torres and Tuvok on Voyager, Trip and T'Pol on Enterprise, TNG I can't pick favorites, and TOS everyone but Kirk.  (He's too much of a fratboy.  They took out all the character's good points and exaggerated his bad ones.)

Babylon 5, um.  HOW CAN ONE PICK FAVORITES?  They're all awesome!  I start off with Delenn and Lennier, but then would I put them as more beloved than Londo and G'Kar?  And Vir and Na'Toth and Susan and Marcus?  Er.  Well, no.  I mean, my favorite culture to do worldbuilding with is definitely the Minbari which would normally dictate what characters I want to write about.  (Boy, howdy, does that happen with Star Trek.)  But I love Londo and G'Kar and Vir and Na'toth and all the rest so much I love to write them too even if their culture is less interesting to poke around in ...

Battlestar Galactica, I love me some Cylons.  Love 'em, love to hate 'em.  Particularly the Final Five.  And then there's Bill and Laura, love them!  Billy!  Felix!  Lee and Kara annoy me separately and together, but mostly because the show focused on them.  Like, Kara was not the only screwed up person in that fleet.  Neither was Lee.  And the last season and a half there were so many stretches that were all about their issues when I wanted to know what was happening to all the other characters that I love, but we didn't get it because we had to get Yet Another Go-Around on the Lee and Kara show.  (Or the Lee's Daddy Issues show.  Or the Kara is Messed Up Because Life Done Her Wrong show.  And I appreciated in the abstract how rare it is for a heroine to be allowed the kind of damage that Kara was while still being a hero, and it's rare for a heroine to have a Traumatic Backstory not involving rape (I mean, the messed up stalker guy who may/may not have raped her in that creepy New Caprica apartment came long after Kara was screwed up by her mother's abuse, it was a complicating factor not THE REASON FOR EVERYTHING), but still, it was too much for my taste.)

Once Upon a Time.  I ship Belle/Rumple but I'm glad she kicked him out--that's what I like about that pairing, that she's the kind of person who would do that if she had to, they love one another but Twu Wuv doesn't conquer all, and I have been so worried since the beginning that they would try to paper over the ethical issues inherent in that relationship and go "it doesn't matter that he's evil because she loves him!"  So I can't read much fic in that pairing because most of the fic tends to be in that vein.  I hate, loathe, and despise Hook with the passion of a thousand burning suns.  I love Emma, Regina, Neal (I miss Neal!) ...those three are actually probably my favorites on the show, and my favorite character that doesn't get enough love is definitely Neal.  (I mean, I prefer Emma with Neal than anybody else, but like I said I'm not really an OTP type person, and there's a lot of gen Emma and Swan Queen both, and lots of Outlaw Queen as well, to give my my Emma and Regina fixes.  Not much Neal at all.)  Other than that, Mulan and Aurora had so much potential, sigh.

MCU, my favorites are (in no particular order) Peggy, Sam, and Steve.  My favorite character there that fandom that fandom doesn't much care about is Maria Hill.  I believe in Jasper Sitwell.

Doctor Who!  Eleven is my favorite doctor, but Martha and Donna are my favorite companions.  I loved early!River, before she was ruined by making EVERY SINGLE THING IN HER ENTIRE LIFE EVER ABOUT THE DOCTOR AND SHE'LL DO INCREDIBLY SELF-DESTRUCTIVE THINGS BECAUSE OF HIM AND HIDE IT FROM HIM SO HE DOESN'T FEEL BAD.  Gah.  I don't have enough time watching Classic Who to have informed opinions there.  I like Rose as seen on the show, but get really annoyed by Rose as seen by fandom, where SHE IS THE ONE TRUE COMPANION AND EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS ABOUT HER AND THE DOCTOR GETTING TOGETHER AND/OR STAYING TOGETHER AND HE COULD NEVER CARE ABOUT ANY OTHER COMPANION THE WAY HE CARES FOR HER.  Because of this I rarely read any fanfic in which Rose occurs.

Stargate: Sam and Teal'c and Sha're and Hammond are probably my favorites, but I love them all.  And I was never into SGA enough to really have favorites, as such.  It was okay, and I think I saw every ep at least once, but eh.  I read a lot of McShep because there was a lot of it, but the two of them, separately and together, are my least favorite characters on the show.  It's not that I dislike them, but, look, they were the most formulaic and least interesting.

Terminator, I love Sarah Connor and Catherine Weaver and James Ellison and John Henry and Cameron and Jesse and ... look, the Sarah Connor Chronicles are definitely my favorite part of that franchise, and I love almost everything about that show except that it wasn't longer.

Vorkosiverse, again, there's nobody that I don't absolutely love.  Ivan, Simon, Alys, and Elli are the only major characters that I don't think I would ever say is my favorite.  All the rest, yeah, at different times and in different moods I would choose different ones from among them as my favorite.

I've been quiet enough this year that I am not sure anyone will have noticed that I have been especially quiet this last month.  What have I been doing instead of reading and writing fanfic and being on DW/LJ/AO3?
( Real Life Stuff )

What I have been missing fannishly: The 2012 Bujold Ficathon.  There are so many awesome prompts, but I just do not have the time or mental energy to tackle any, right now.
Also, the heroines_fest sounds awesome, but what I know about comic books I know exclusively from the movies and fanfic, so I could only do the movieverse prompts, and see above re: time and mental energy.

Cool stuff: on the way home, listening to my CD collection, I found a couple of perfect songs for vids, and since I don't vid I am releasing them for anyone who wants them.

( Legend of a Mind--Perfect for psychedelic Dr Who vid about regeneration and companions )

And, for Once Upon A Time, two songs.
( You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You--isn't that the whole theme of Once Upon A Time? )

( More I Cannot Wish You (than to find your own true love)--again, perfect for the theme of the show )

Title: The Times, They Are A-Changin'
Author: beatrice_otter 
Fandom: Vorkosiverse
Written for: salable_mystic  for Winterfair 2012
Prompt: Something about the Armsmens' wives and mothers - do they all meet up regularly, at events? Have the equivalent of a stitch-n-bitch? How do they interact with the members of the families their sons and husbands are sworn to?

At AO3


( Helena Vogti Braud stared at her daughter in blank incomprehension. )

Title: Family Values
Fandom: Vorkosiverse
Characters: Duv Galeni, Mark Vorkosigan
Rating: Gen
Betaed by: isiscolo
Word Count: 2210
Written for: trobadora inyuletide  2011
Summary: How does one make polite conversation with someone one's father tortured, physically, mentally, and emotionally, their entire childhood and adolescence?

On AO3

( Duv Galeni sat in the parlor at the Koudelka residence and sipped his coffee. Across from him, Mark Vorkosigan did the same. It was almost amusing, how studiously they were focused on their drinks. )