Okay, okay, I am still working on the drabble meme. Promise! But here are three I already wrote:

For medize, who wanted "Ooh! Can we do Swordspoint? It's hard to decide what to request - maybe something with Alec and Richard and either of their families, or Richard and Jessica, or Alec/Richard before Richard retires to the countryside or, you know, anything really. :D"

( Medize's drabble )

For veleda_k, who wanted "Hisoka: Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

( Veleda's drabble )


For parallactic, who wanted "Hisoka and the Necronomicon."

( Parallactic's drabble )

Title: Compass and Knife
Author: Brigdh
Ratings/Warnings: PG; vague death-by-sword
Summary: After The Privilege of the Sword, Kyros is not as different as Richard might have expected.
Notes: Written as a Stocking Stuffer for Thornsmoke in Yuletide 2007. Kyros is based liberally on my memories of Cyprus. Title from John Gorka's The Gypsy Life.

( Compass and Knife )

I got terribly lucky this year, and got three (three!) lovely Swordspoint stories. Which all of you should read:

If Man Were the Sky and Could See the Earth Clearly. This is my Yuletide story, and it is good and long and all about Alec just before Swordspoint and I am so pleased.

Baubles. This is a Yuletide treat, and is also excellent and sweet and funny. Alec and Richard, just after Alec becomes the Duke.

Love is Blindness. And another treat for me! Best Christmas ever! Set just before TPotS (with spoilers for it), and it's sad, but oh, I love the ending.

So read them all! Because they rock! And I adore the writers.

And now, the traditional Yuletide game: guess which story I wrote! I wrote two this year, actually, a Yuletide and a treat, but they're both full-length. So you have twice the chance to be right.

Title: Like Crumbs
Author: Brigdh
Ratings/Warnings: PG-13
Notes: Written for the "five ways to die trying" prompt over at 31_days. 250 words exactly. Crossposted also to _riverside. Title from the poem 'The Dark Garden' by Traci Burns. OMG I'M SUPPOSED TO BE WRITING A PAPER RIGHT NOW.
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Ellen Kushner.

( Like Crumbs )

Yuletide sign-ups are open! Best ficathon of the year. You have until the 18th, so be sure to join in and play with everyone else.

CUTEST BABY MONKEY EVER.

Lol Secretz: Lol_catz and Post Secret, two great tastes that taste great together.

World Cat Libraries.org This is my new favorite website. It searches through all nearby libraries for whatever book you put in. So much easier than trying to go to ten or so seperate library websites in an effort to track down some obscure volume I need for research.

Turning All Manhattan Into a Broadway Stage. A really interesting NY Times article and video.

Someone other than me wrote some Swordspoint stories! Always a cause for celebration.

A meme I saw on threewalls's LJ ages ago and which I thought was interesting:

1. Comment to this post with the name of a character that I have written in fic.

2. I will comment telling you the following:
a. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about him/her.
b. One of his/her best traits
c. One of his/her worst traits
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character
e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character
f. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future (which may be more optimistic than realistic, but rousing old muses does sometimes gets work written)

Disclaimer: I have not, by a long shot, read all of the remix stories. I haven't even read all the stories in my fandoms. But since I'd like to make some reccommendations before the reveal, here are my favorites of what I've read so far:

Displays (I Don't Wanna Grow Up! Remix). (Swordspoint, Richard/Alec, PG-13) Alec becomes the Duke; this is a problem. Yes, this is mine, and yes, I'm reccing it again. But you really should read it! It's very good.

The Fickle Nature of Swordsmen (the blood and scar remix). (Swordspoint, Richard/Alec, PG-13) Swordsmen are fickle creatures, but not without reason. Oh, this story is lovely. I absolutely love the language of it, and the portrayal of all the different parts of the characters' lives is so neat. It's a cool twist on the original that works very well.

The Angled Math of Shadows (Dark Chocolate Remix). (Yami no Matsuei, Hisoka/Tsuzuki, PG-13) A dead girl, a fall-out, and a cold Christmas in Kyushu. This is a really lovely take on the relationship between Hisoka and Tsuzuki, somewhere between friendship and romance. It's a quiet, subtle story, but with a genuine sweetness to it.

Something Like Normal (The Burnt Offerings Overdub). (Yami no Matsuei, Tsuzuki/Hisoka, R) Hisoka's okay with things. Really. And the opposite: this story is dark, dark, dark, but like chocolate, it's all the richer for it. A very neat twist on the original story (which is itself an excellently dark piece), and I'm fascinated by all the implications of this story.

Two Dishes, But to One Table (Hungry Ghost Overdub). (Yami no Matsuei, Hisoka, Muraki, Eileen, PG-13) His fate is in the cards, one way or another. I adore this story. The details of it are so vivid, and the characterization of Eileen is fascinating: memorable and sharp. It's an amazing picture of Hisoka in the King of Swords arc, and full of fever-dream brilliance.

One Bird to Sing (the Origami remix). (Saiyuki & Saiyuki Gaiden, Goku, G) Birds and bees, life and death, and the sun shining through it all. This story somehow manages to be both insanely sweet and heart-breaking. So much of the writing here is incredibly good. Goku in heaven, Goku in the cave, and Goku afterwards.

Hi, Ma (Sunrise, Sunset Remix). (House, House/Wilson, PG-13) Wilson is seeing a man. Wilson's mother isn't handling it well. Wilson's grandmother adds Yiddish to the mix, and maintains that mothers only want what's best for their children. This story is so funny. An established relationship story (which I always enjoy), and Wilson's grandmother is a vivid, hilarious, fascinating character.

Around the World and Back Again (Grace Jones’ Polar Opposite Remix). "Why are you hauling your butt halfway across the globe for a three-day conference you’re not even speaking at?" (House, House/Wilson, NC-17) I really enjoyed House's voice in this story, and the dialouge was excellent; they both felt very true to the characters. The portrayal of Singapore was also excellent; not that I've ever been there, but it felt sharp and real in this story.

Fix (Power Corrupts Remix). (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawn, R) Dawn held the universe in the palm of her hand, and she was going to shape it to her liking. God, this story is creepy. Such a real possibility of another way Season Five could have ended, but this is a horrifying trap of how things might have gone.

What Will Be Told (the Gospel remix) (The Sandman, Prez Rickard, PG) The good news is spread in many ways. Oh my God. I think this might be my very favorite story out of all Remix this year. I loved the original story when I read it in Yuletide, and this is an amazing take on it. It's all about how stories change, how people influence them and are influenced in turn, and the idea of adding elements of Christian mythology is genius; I mean, it fits perfectly with the canon anyway, but the way it comes into play here is just So Cool.

Title: Feeling Is First
Author: Brigdh
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 for inexplicit m/m sex.
Word count: 1000 exactly.
Summary: Written for sprinkkink. The prompt was, "Alec/Richard: Fur on skin - 'You are the dawn that arrives in the middle of the night'". Spoilers for The Privilege of the Sword.
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Ellen Kushner.

( Feeling Is First)

Remix stories are up! And, oh, mine is awesome. Displays (I Don't Wanna Grow Up! Remix) eeee, Swordspoint. It's a different way to look at the story I wrote, and I love it and am so pleased. Excellent, excellent.

Also, guess which story I wrote, and I will write you a drabble! Comments are screened.

Title: And In Possession So
Author: Brigdh
Rating/ Warnings: R. Bloodplay; activities engaged in by fictional characters with tenuous holds on both sanity and morality should not be re-enacted by real people, or at least not without safety precautions not featured here.
Word count: 500 exactly.
Summary: Written for springkink. The prompt was, "Alec/Richard, bloodplay, masochistic".

( And In Possession So )

Not that I think there are many people here who aren't already members of fst, but I thought I'd point out that I made a Richard St Vier (from Swordspoint! Yes!) mix for their current theme of 'Singles'- mixes that are only three or four songs. (Unlocked version posted here to _riverside.)

Wooooe, it's been far too long since I finished a story for them, but actually I have a springkink story due on Sunday, so I should shut up and go do the necessary finishing editing for that.

Currently I'm reading Swords and Deviltry, the first one of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd* and the Gray Mouser series, it being one of those books that I kept finding references to for the last few months, and had in the back of my mind that I'd need to buy if I happened to stumble over a cheap copy. This morning I was playing around on sans_daily, and found that they were apparently turned into a terrible comic in the 70's, which inspired me to walk over to the Strand and see if they didn't have a copy. (A decision probably helped in no small part by the fact that what I was currently reading this morning was Kim Stanley Robinson's Blue Mars, and I seem to have waited too long between the second book of the trilogy and this one, because I no longer care about any of the characters At All. Of course, a cast of hundreds might have caused the problem all by itself.) And oh, this book is awesome! It's funny and entirely in-tune with its wish-fulfillment, but most of all it's incredibly evocative of all the pulp fantasy I used to read when I was little. From the first paragraph, it was like finding something you used to love.

I didn't expect that at all. I expected it to be one of those things that are celebrated because they were influential and important, but which are not, actually, all that good. Like H. P. Lovecraft. (Um, don't kill me if you like Lovecraft. I like the idea! But I don't know how anyone can stand to read more than a handful of his stories; they all start to blur together and seem like the exact same plot over and over, to me.) But this isn't like that at all; it's fun and interesting, and sort of cheesy, but it knows it is and can laugh at that. I'm in love.


*How on earth is that pronounced?

It has been gloriously warm the last few days, and is supposed to get over 60 by Tuesday. I am so happy! I bought flowers at the farmers' market this weekend- a pot of daffodils and a pot of red tulips- and they're just starting to bloom; it's lovely. Generally I am incapable of keeping houseplants alive, but I figure if I can manage to keep these around at least until the flowers fall off, it will still be longer than a bouquet of cut flowers would have lasted, and was just as cheap.

The guy who sold them to me had been getting his picture taken by someone when I came over to pay; he came over with me to the cash register as the other guy told him to come back after, because he wanted another photo. "I think he likes me!" the plant-owner said to me, and I just laughed politely. "I mean, likes-me likes-me! What do you think? Yes or no?"

"I don't know!" I said, incredibly amused at these two older guys, in their late forties or early fifties, acting like high school students. "But I don't get strangers asking to take my photo."

Random things I have discovered on the internet: Jonathon Rhys Meyers, who I have several icons of, including the one I'm currently using, because I pretend he could play Alec, was in the remake of The Lion in Winter. Which means he actually acted out a scene wearing old-fashioned clothes and seducing someone named Richard (the relevant part starts about two minutes into that clip, but I don't know how to make it skip ahead). Too bad the personalities are entirely wrong and that everyone is such a bad actor (or maybe they only seem like it, since the poor boys have to compete against the original The Lion in Winter); I still so pleased that this exists.

Right now I have strawberries and wine and am going to go take a bath; what are y'all doing this fine evening?

Title: Demons'll Charm
Author: Brigdh
Ratings/Warnings: R for violence, I suppose.
Summary: Alec causes collateral damage.
Notes: Written for the "demons'll charm you with a smile for a while" prompt over at 31_days. 500 words exactly. Crossposted also to _riverside.
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Ellen Kushner.

( Demons'll Charm )

Title: Secret of Its Skeleton
Author: Brigdh
Ratings/Warnings: NC-17 for m/m sex, with some mild BDSM overtones.
Summary: What do you do when you're stuck inside from the snow? Or, Alec sulks and winter sucks.
Notes: No spoilers. Title taken from T. S. Eliot's Rhapsody on a Windy Night, thanks to ranalore. Even though she intended to give it as a prompt to someone else, it fit so well that I stole it.
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Ellen Kushner.

( Secret of Its Skeleton )

I finally managed to force myself to start writing that paper at around 1am last night. By 3:30, I'd written all six pages of it, around 1,700 words. I... did not know I was capable of that. I had assumed I just wouldn't be sleeping last night, but I suppose this is far preferable, if surprising.

I've decided that the issue I have with this linguistics anthropology class (and possibly all cultural anthropology!), is that everything is either so entirely abstract and vague that it could be applied to anyone anywhere, and thus is almost meaningless, or is so context- and culturally- specific that it can't work outside of this one place and moment in time. And then people try to use either set of evidence as a way to generalize about people's thoughts, and it makes me flail and go No! You can't know that! You're just guessing! It's certainly interesting to say "every speech act is intended to do more than one thing", but where do you go then? You can't set up any general theory of social meaning off of that, and so I never have anything to say. I want proof and statistics and graphs! I want to talk about which models best fit the physical evidence! Which clearly is why I'm in archaeology instead, and I suppose at least now I know.

Anyway, louiselux posted a link to the Gender Genie, which can supposedly guess your gender based on a sample of your writing. I've been playing around with it, and the different results that come up are insteresting. This paper was very male (M:2786/F:1400), my last livejournal post was slightly male (M:723/F:699), but my last story was pretty female (M:695/F:1106). Which clearly proves that, when speaking in my own voice, I'm a guy, but Richard is a girl*.

Or something.

Currently I'm wasting a few hours before I go out to meet people for karaoke (yeah, I don't know, it wasn't my idea). Given that I've finally written all these papers and so on, I will have free time this weekend! I'm excited. I have interesting posts I've been thinking about and planning, and can take a look at the stories I've got half-finished, and hopefully polish them off. Plus, Remix assignments come out on Saturday! I'm all anxious.


*After I thought of that joke, of course I had to stick the only piece of Alec-POV I've written into the system to see what would happen. Though it was too short to work well, Alec is apparently male (M:232/F:155). Ha!

YOU GUYS someone who is not me made an ALEC FST and it has ELECTRONIC MUSIC including SOME OF MY VERY FAVORITE SONGS from when I went through a CRAZY TECHNO PHASE LAST YEAR and GO DOWNLOAD IT RIGHT NOW.

Link!

Title: Of Smoke and Gold and Breathing
Author: Brigdh
Ratings/Warnings: G for actual happenings, rather higher for implications
Summary: Alec washes his hair.
Notes: No spoilers. Written in a few hours. Short, fairly pointless, hopefully pretty. Title from Leonard Cohen's "Winter Lady". Lyrics here.
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Ellen Kushner.


( Of Smoke and Gold and Breathing )

threewalls has written Retreat! (Richard/Alec, PG, spoilers for Privilege of the Sword) And it is lovely and sad and you should all go read it.

Title: Letters
Author: Brigdh
Ratings/Warnings: PG-13
Summary: A collection of letters. Rose, Katherine, Alec.
Notes: Spoilers for The Privilege of the Sword. Written for yuletide 2006.
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Ellen Kushner.

( Letters )

I got an excellent, wonderful, gorgeous story for yuletide: Unveiled (Swordspoint, PG, spoilers for Privilege of the Sword). It is amazing, and everyone must go read it right now, because it's really that good. The language is so lovely; I'm half-convinced that it must have been written by someone I know, because I can't believe a stranger could write something to my taste this well. The images! A story about blindness shouldn't be this pretty, but oh, it is, and so perfect.

I'll have more recs once I manage to be on the computer for more than five minutes at a time. I'd offer flash-fiction for anyone who can guess which story I wrote, but I suspect the people who would be most likely to try are already disqualified by virtue of my having, well, essentially told them which I wrote. Other people may feel free to try, though!