potentialities

Je ne suis pas un cadeau et mes cadeaux encore moins (449 words) by Nelja
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Norse Religion & Lore
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Loki/Sigyn, Frigg/Óðinn | Frigg/Odin, Loki & Óðinn | Loki & Odin
Characters: Loki (Norse Religion & Lore), Óðinn | Odin, Sigyn (Norse Religion & Lore), Frigg | Frigga
Additional Tags: Humor, Gift Giving, Worst at Friendship
Summary:

Odin et Loki s'interrogent : qu'offrir à l'autre pour le nouvel an ? Il faut que ce soit le pire cadeau de l'histoire des cadeaux. Leur honneur est en jeu !

Norse Mythology was always a rare fandom, but now you have to craft increasingly-arcane queries to confirm just how little non-Marvel fic there actually is. And then sometimes it's in French. Luckily, I read French!

Learning Russian (1210 words) by perevision
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: William Wilcox/Amedeo Kaplan, Jake Kaplan/;)
Characters: William Wilcox, Amedeo Kaplan, Jake Kaplan
Additional Tags: Books, E.L. Konigsburg
Summary:

Several years later, Amedeo no longer feels like a member of Aloners Anonymous, but he still hears the double exclamation points when he thinks William Wilcox's name.

I love this book so much—it's one of my favorite Konigsburgs, and she was one of my favorite authors, ever. There should be more fic for it, but as there's only the one, luckily it's delightful.

When Wart met the Doctor (1470 words) by SansSerif
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who, Once and Future King series - T. H. White
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: The Doctor (Doctor Who), Arthur Pendragon, Wart, Pellinore (Arthurian), Merlyn
Additional Tags: Sword in the Stone, Christmas, Feast, Questing, dragon - Freeform, Acting, Forest Sauvage
Summary:

“It was Christmas night and the proper things had been done. … There had been mummers to play an exciting dramatic presentation of a story in which St. George and a Saracen and a funny Doctor did surprising things…” — TH White’s Sword in the Stone c.1939

I don't know the classic Doctors well enough to work out which one I think this is! Perfect idea for a crossover, though.

the beatings will continue until morale improves (1621 words) by astolat
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sherlock (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Additional Tags: Spanking, BDSM, First Time, 3x01-The Empty Hearse
Summary:

"This is why you didn't tell me, isn't it," John said.

So I actually really hate it when people slap and/or punch each other, especially if it's played for laughs, unless one or more parties are deriving sexual gratification from it, in which case I love it, so this is, like, fix-it fic for me.

I only have two stories to share this week, but they're both amazing and they both have illustrations!

Babysitter of the Daleks by sloth_in_a_box, lippian and aceattorneysho
Baby-sitters Club/Doctor Who (Eleventh Doctor) crossover. Gen/Humor/Crack. ~PG. 31,820 words.
The Eleventh Doctor comes to Stoneybrook and unlocks the alien mystery of its perpetually-looping timeline (among other things) in this Baby-sitters Club Christmas Super Special.

As a huge fan of DW, the BSC, and cracktastic crossovers, I knew I was going to love this story the minute I saw the lovingly hand-rendered cover. It is absolutely filled with in-jokes about the OTT ridiculousness of the BSC books and I love it.

Vae Victis (33405 words) by Sineala
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Eagle | The Eagle of the Ninth (2011)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac Cunoval
Characters: Marcus Flavius Aquila, Esca Mac Cunoval
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Ancient Greece & Rome, Alternate Universe - Etruscans, Alternate Universe - Gaul, Etruscans, Gauls, War, Romance, First Time, Additional Warnings Apply
Summary:

War looms on the horizon as Marcus' homeland of Etruria is faced with the unreasoning demands of the Gauls, a vicious, deadly foe. Young and lonely, Marcus begins a tentative friendship -- a friendship that could become something more -- with Esca, a prince of the Gauls. But the differences of the two nations cannot be ignored, and both Marcus and Esca must choose between the needs of their peoples and the desires of their hearts.

True story: I actually had a freshman seminar on the Etruscans with Larissa Bonfante, mumblety-mumble years ago. The Etruscans are awesome, and so is this story.

Also contains gorgeous artwork by alby_mangroves!

You know what she found at the thrift store, whilst I was sensibly looking at sweaters?

Two unopened sets of original flavor!Doctor Who DVDs, that's what. (The Tomb of the Cybermen and the Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes, neither of which I've seen anything of. Yet.) This should be fun.

I got my mother into Doctor Who perhaps a little over a year ago, incidentally, and we re/watched all of New!Who just in time for her to watch the end of year specials live with Danny and me over winter break, leading to this memorable conversation:

SOMEONE, EITHER DANNY OR I, SUBSEQUENTLY LOST TO THE MARCH OF TIME AND MORE MEMORABLE SUBSEQUENT UTTERANCES : *says something which happens to incorporate the term 'sci fi'*

MY MOTHER (as though the introduction of this term into a conversation has for the first time enabled her to express an opinion which heretofore she has been unable to put into words, for a lack of words) : Oh, sci fi! I don't like sci fi!

MAYHAP (*boggling*) : You don't like sci fi? What do you think Doctor Who is, then?

MY MOTHER : That's not sci fi! That's a documentary!

I suppose turnabout is fair play for when I was twelve, deeply immersed in historical Holmesian fandom and, not entirely tongue in cheek, insisting that Sherlock Holmes could have been a real person, and how, theoretically, might one prove otherwise? (This led to my father seriously talking to me about how injecting cocaine, in any solution, would be A BAD IDEA, as though they were actually concerned that this was something that I was somehow going to do.)

My mom's been recovering from sinus surgery, so we relaxed and mainlined a lot of fannish television this weekend:

• Both episodes of White Collar. We're both excited about this show, although not for precisely the same reasons. (Well, some of the same reasons. She giggled in the same places and remarked on the attractiveness of Matt Bomer.)
  
• The midseason semifinale of Psych, the second time for both of us, just because
  
• Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead and Midnight. I apparently found the last one forgettable when it first aired, because I had actually completely forgotten it, did not at any point remember anything about it, and am wondering if I somehow managed to skip over it. In retrospect, however, it has some really potent thematic foreshadowing for the finale, which we're saving to make sure we can watch them all at once.
  
• This week's installment of Masterpiece Contemporary. Although we're mourning the temporary passing of Inspector Lewis, the Contemporaries do have the advantage of being introduced by David Tennant (actual quote from my mother: "I keep listening to his voice and then I don't hear what he's saying").

My strategy for NaNoWriMo this year is to write a whole lot of nonsense and have fun with it and make sure that my so-called plot is flexible enough that I can make my characters take a road trip at any time if I feel like it. So far this is working out pretty well for me.

Oh my. They say you imprint on your first Doctor, and I have to say that I am finding that to be the case.

Actually, I went through this to some extent with my mother, who imprinted hard on Christopher Eccleston when we began our mother-daughter viewings. I sort of tried to prepare her for the whole idea of the Doctor regenerating as an extremely clever method of keeping the show going indefinitely with convenient casting, but I'm pretty sure it was still rather traumatic for her. When we got to Doomsday, I practically had to talk her down from becoming really terrifying Rosefen, I think because, watching the show on DVD, everything was changing much too fast and she wanted someone to stay put, for continuity's sake.

I didn't watch the first series of New Who when it was on, because I am quite easily intimidated by backstory and refuse to read books that I want to read very much until I can get ahold of earlier volumes in the series, and if, say, my library didn't have those volumes, I never did read that series, which makes for odd lacunae in my childhood reading. It was after the Christmas Invasion when pretty much everybody on my flist had posted something about Bush looking tired that I finally got annoyed, read a summary of the episode, still didn't get it, downloaded the episode, still insist that it doesn't actually make sense unless you assume the ridiculous compulsion that the Doctor exercises, which he does, oh, he does!

I followed the casting of the Eleventh Doctor and I really am quite pleased by it, except for the fact that the poor boy needs to let his eyebrows alone, or possibly have new eyebrows implanted. I thought that I was adjusting quite healthily. I think it may be that I just rewatched all of series three, my very favorite, in one single weekend, but oh, it really does hurt that my Doctor is leaving me! How can he never be the Doctor again? There are three more episodes, yes, and Stephan Moffat is taking over after that, yes, but there will never be another Ten episode written by Moffat! This hurts me.

Oh, my Doctor, my love. Why must you leave us all?

I ran out of podcasts of versaphile's Master/Doctor epic, Praxis! And ( mild spoilers )!

With my natal day fast approaching and nearly a quarter century on this earth behind me, I was beginning to feel a trifle ancient.

Accordingly, I was pleased to discover that the Doctor is still older than me. Although not by much.

My brother and I cannot install the batteries in our sonic screwdrivers.

Because we can't get the screws out.

My brother decided yesterday that it was probably time for him to purchase a new pair of glasses, seeing as how he had misplaced his previous pair something like a year ago. He brought his girlfriend and me along on this quest, although whether this was because he trusted in our excellent taste or merely because he knew that if we didn't approve of his selection, he was going to be mocked mercilessly and at great length, I cannot say.

"What kind of glasses are you looking for?" we inquired, gazing at the limited and somewhat monotonous selection of frames in the men's section at Target. He did not know. We put various pairs on his face, squinted at them, and then returned them to their little stands. The sales assisstant, rather unhelpfully, told us that we had atrocious taste, plucked one pair of plastic frames right out of Danny's hands, and told him to try a nice conservative pair of wirerims instead.

It was I who offered the suggestion that he should try to find a pair of glasses like the ones that the Doctor wears, but Danny took to the prospect instantly. He put on some more frames and scruitinized them for Time Lord-approved proportions, although this was made somewhat difficult by the fact that I do not exactly have a photographic memory and Danny hasn't even forced his girlfriend to watch Doctor Who yet, so she could have no input at all.

We ran over to the DVD section to look for a box set as a visual reference, but, shockingly, they didn't have any. Fortunately, Danny's friend Sean proved willing to do a Google images search and text us a snapshot of this image and, cell phone in hand, we scrutinized all the frames again and rejected them all.

Target having shockingly failed us in every respect, we went across the street to Wal-Mart, where, after much deliberation and forcing Danny to pose with a pen in lieu of a sonic screwdriver so we could gauge the likeness, we selected a pair of frames that we decided were more or less close enough. Best of all, they only cost $18! Sadly he is not in possession of them yet, because his last eye exam, which he vaguely remembered as being a few months ago, was actually more like two years, but he did make an appointment for a fresh examination tomorrow evening. Pictures are sure to be forthcoming.

After all that I decided that I just had to get him one of these as a sort of late birthday present. And then, you know, threw another one in for myself, because, well, I was already paying shipping, and besides, omgwant.

I have no Who icons. I must remedy this as soon as I get home.