dorinda

While at work, I took a peek into my email and HEY LOOK MY ASSIGNMENT. Wooooooo! \o/

Assignment Day feels second-only in excitement to Collection-Opening Day. The past couple days have been like an extended Christmas Eve... "Did Santa bring me an assignment yet? How about now?" That feeling of tenterhooks and possibility.

Now I have my assignment, which I can't tell you about or else I'd have to kill you, and I am excited and nervous in the best way. So I better get brainstorming.

Oh, and, the first batch of pinch-hits are out--if you felt like strolling through them, they're here:

https://nightonficmountain.dreamwidth.org/25610.html

I had such an amazing, fantastic Yuletide this year! I can scarcely believe it. Along with my assigned story, I received three (3!) treats, and they are all SO GOOD. Soooo goooood. Tailored perfectly to my interests, all in-character and well-written and well-paced and slashy and so emotionally satisfying.

Honestly, true story, as I was reading them on Christmas Eve, I kept stopping and looking up at the ceiling and just beaming with that inner bubbling feeling of utter squee. They make me so happy!

(And, I've never yet done an actual pimping post for any of these sources, but if you want to see them and cannot otherwise, please do drop me a line!)

1) SINBAD A scattering of pictures on tumblr.
First off, the assigned story, which is a Gunnar/Sinbad story for "Sinbad", the short-lived 2012 UK TV series, a show with a tone that reminds me of the Merlin-Xena-Hercules constellation sometimes...not quite historical, but magical-mythico-folklorish, with occasional purposeful anachronisms. Sinbad is a street urchin who ends up bereaved and cursed, and in the course of trying to save himself, he meets some other outcasts of one kind or another who basically become his found family. Especially the melancholy, protective ex-Viking. :D

The story posits that Gunnar (said Northman) is a literal berserker, a bear-shifter. The spot-on voices and characterizations of the whole crew! The layers of details in setting and worldbuilding! The pining! The mystery of why Gunnar doesn't shift back, and how he does, and the very satisfying answer!

The Beast Within (16058 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sinbad (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Gunnar/Sinbad (Sinbad)
Characters: Gunnar (Sinbad), Sinbad (Sinbad), Rina (Sinbad), Anwar (Sinbad), Tiger (Sinbad), Cook (Sinbad), Nala (Sinbad)
Additional Tags: Animal Transformation, Mutual Pining, Nonverbal Communication, Post-Canon
Summary:

There had not been time, Gunnar told himself afterward; there had not been any other way. But it was not true. There was always a choice.

(Or: Gunnar is a werebear. Sinbad has some issues with this; and, as it turns out, so does Gunnar.)

2) REJSEHOLDET A bunch of pics/gifs on tumblr.
A treat of nearly 10K words, if you can believe it, for Rejseholdet aka Unit One, the Danish cop show from the early-mid 2000s perhaps most notable for having Mads Mikkelsen in it (super-hot, natch). Whose character, the ambitious, aggressive Allan Fischer, has such wonderful partner and slash chemistry with the sensitive, secretive empath Thomas La Cour.

This story starts pre-canon and ends post-canon, and follows the entire arc of Fischer and La Cour's relationship, from awkward first meeting through to the finally-settled intimate relationship they had gradually been reaching for but took years to figure out. The characterizations are so so solid, and watching them learn to understand their inchoate need for each other is a sheer delight!

For All This Time (9881 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rejseholdet | Unit One
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Allan Fischer/Thomas La Cour
Characters: Allan Fischer, Thomas La Cour, Mille Fischer, Helene, Victor Fischer, Ingrid Dahl, Ida, Torben Ronne
Additional Tags: Getting Together, Partners to Lovers, First Kiss, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Canon Het Relationships Mentioned
Summary:

1996-2005. Repression, true love, crime, coffee and football.

3) THE STING (1973)
The classic Paul Newman/Robert Redford con-artist movie, if you needed telling. :D One of my very favorite movies of all time, a festival of competence kink, with Newman melancholy and worrying and gravely handsome, and Redford callow and eager and luminous, playing con men who meet and mesh (and make such heart eyes at each other oh god), and prevail over the forces of evil.

You guys I got a Henry/Johnny PRETEND RELATIONSHIP STORYYYYYY. So perfect for two grifters, to have to fake a closeted affair to draw a blackmailer out of the woodwork so they can nab him. And of course, it turns out Henry has a secret that makes the prospect of getting handsy with Johnny no hardship--except for the fact that he knows it's just for the con and will all be over soon. (OR WILL IT. :D ) It crackles with the energy both of the con and of desire, underlaid with secrets sizzling just under the surface.

truth deceived (7047 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Sting (1973)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Henry Gondorff/Johnny Hooker
Characters: Henry Gondorff, Johnny Hooker, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Case Fic, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Henry and Johnny catch a blackmailer—by pretending they've got something to be blackmailed about. Except, of course, no one's doing as much pretending as anybody else thinks they are.

4) SHETLAND
The source I fell for most recently, a Scottish drama about a police detective-inspector who lives and works in the Shetland Islands. Jimmy Perez is a thoughtful, kind, determined, melancholy man who lives to protect his communities and look after his daughter Cassie. And he has a fascinating relationship with his daughter's biological father, the more cynical/shades-of-gray figure Duncan Hunter. Jimmy and Duncan get along like grownups, which feels really rare for TV--co-parenting the best they can, communicating with each other, being supportive (even when they conflict).

The story is a quiet, tender scene set after the end of the most recent season, season 3. Jimmy, as could have been predicted, is hollowed-out by serious Empty Nest Syndrome, and Duncan looks after him in a comfortingly bossy, intimate, straightforward, comforting way. Just what I needed, and Jimmy too. ♥

Okay (1007 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Shetland (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Duncan Hunter/Jimmy Perez
Characters: Duncan Hunter, Jimmy Perez
Additional Tags: Sharing a Bed, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, empty nest feels, Feels, Angst
Summary:

Cassie has left and Jimmy doesn't feel okay. Duncan helps.

For More Joy Day, I have a link to a video I only found out about today, so apologies if you've seen this already... no wait, what am I saying, no apologies for this!:




It's the official video for the song "Happy", by Pharrell Williams. And it makes me happy, not just because the song is so positive and the groove is so smooth (almost hypnotically so), but also because of the people. All the people. So many different people.

The bigger the city I live in and the more people I have to be around in crowded circumstances, the more misanthropic I sometimes get. Since I moved here, I sometimes find myself having gone completely, you know, >:-( ARGH PEOPLE. I mean, even more than I used to.

But something like this, it actually makes me celebrate all these different people. Being happy. And I'd call that more joy, for sure.

Good gravy was there a POI season finale last night.

( Read more... )

This season will be a terrific rewatch. ♥

No spoilers here for the moment. But I had to drag myself upright just in order to communicate the following, translated from the supersonic squeaking:

OMG you guys. YOU GUYS. THE END OF THE LATEST EPISODE YOU GUYS.

*falls down*
*gets up again, just in order to fall down some more*

Spoilers another time. Once the flailing eases down a bit.

(...you guiiiiiiiiiiise)

I just read in the AV Club that Justified has been renewed for season 4.

*\o/* *\o/* *\o/*

FX, you are too good to me.


ETA: And come to think of it, AV Club is too good to me as well, considering the photo they ran with their announcement...

1. Over the weekend, I saw "The Muppets" in the theater.
2. I really really enjoyed it--the whole audience did. Kids laughed and reacted (my favorite was when the bad guy seemed to get the upper hand at a very dramatic moment, and a little girl to my left gasped, "OH MY GOODNESS!"), adults laughed and reacted (especially to the many cameos. And 80s Robot. ♥).
3. And now the songs keep going through my head, which I think is a sign of success. Makes sense, of course, since the songs were written by Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords, who has taken over enormous swathes of my brain already.
4. If you're in the mood for a little muppetaciousness yourself, Salon has a slideshow (with links to videos) of the Muppets best musical moments.

This has been your Muppet News Flash for the morning. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

ETA: I didn't even remember to mention the animated short before the movie! New Pixar, "Small Fry," with the Toy Story characters (set after Toy Story 3). Loved it. It must have been so fun to be part of the Pixar team who got to brainstorm up all of the Happy-Meal-style toy names/concepts.

Okay, signup complete, and my letter is full of content now. This year's fandoms, alphabetically, are I Spy, Peacemakers, Rubicon, and Trapeze.

Every year, rolling around in fandoms to write my signup and letter makes me so happy! Just what the doctor ordered.

I wasn't sure what to do for More Joy Day, especially without much prep. But then I remembered that there's definitely something I can share that's given me a lot of pleasure recently. Perhaps a little bit out of season, but maybe now that we're past Christmas (and, for that matter, Epiphany), your ears won't be as tired of carols.



This is the video for Annie Lennox's recent version of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen". I love the arrangement, especially the use of the djembe. But even more, I adore the video itself and its design, with that very-early-film look, like the Kinetoscope and the Zoetrope (the very final shot is literally zoetrope). Not to mention that as the video progresses, the interpretation becomes more and more pagan, which works in really interesting ways.

So, if you haven't seen it, check it out! (...Yeah, there we go, now I've totally given myself the earworm again.)

I've filled in the actual content for my Dear Yuletide Writer letter (on LJ and DW). This year's requests are I Spy, Peacemakers, Rubicon, and Trapeze.

And now I have gigantor cravings to rewatch all of them yet again! Mmmm, happy Yuletide byproduct.