I love today's XKCD.

I also love all the amazing stories that keep being posted daily at mcshep_match. Funnily enough, twice now similar stories have been submitted by different teams and to different prompts. Makes you wonder about that fannish hive mind. The only thing that's a little disappointing is that hardly anyone plays the "guess the writers" game. Come on, people! Read! Vote! Play! It's fun!

Story: Never Going Home
What it's about: John has been discharged and finds himself very much at loose ends.
Why I like it: The mood of the story mirrors John's depression marvellously, and the ending is incredibly satisfying.

Story: A Moment's Consideration
What it's about: AU in which John takes over his father's company and screws up his very first deal. Thankfully lawyer!Rodney is there to help him.
Why I like it: It's a lawyer AU. Duh. ;) Seriously though, the characters all work in their new settings and the plot isn't half-bad either, so this is an AU that really works for me.

Story: Tied Up Inside
What it's about: John wakes up in another universe.
Why I like it: While this story does have a happy ending, it's still a little heart-breaking. One way or the other, John leaves someone behind.

Story: Blink
What it's about: I'll just quote the author's summary here: I am going to tell you a story. About Dr. McKay and how he bought an eye from me, and how that one small act led to the strangest night in my entire life.
Why I like it: It's... a creepy Cyberpunk AU told from an outsider PoV. Quirky. I love quirky.

Story: Now You See It, Now You Don't
What it's about: Rodney is the engineer behind magician!John's tricks.
Why I like it: Another pretty quirky AU. John and Rodney obviously have a history, and it's just as obvious that they're completely smitten with each other.

This is probably where I mention that the Home Team had some very, very good stories as well (they are certainly the ones turning out the really long stories). But I still encourage you to vote for the Away Team. *g*

Poll #1210191 If Parrish were a flower
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

He'd be a

The first week of posting at mcshep_match is coming to a close, and so far we've had some truly amazing stories from both sides. Since I'm on Team Away, however, I'm only going to pimp theirs. Why, yes, I'm biased. ;)

Story: Perchance to Dream
What it's about: Every time John and Rodney fall asleep, they wake up on another world.
Why I like it: Rodney and John get thrown into a situation they don't understand and can't control. It's always interesting to see them deal with that kind of thing, and the tension between them is very believable and well done.

Story: Little By Little To the Truth; or a Narrative of the Atlantis Expedition
What it's about: It's 1904 and Lady Elizabeth Weir, Dowager Countess Menlow and Head of the Atlantis Expedition, is the widow of an English noble; Colonel John Patrick Sheppard, US Army Reserve, is a Spanish-American War veteran who's also piloted airships and tested aeroplanes and motorcars, and Doctor Meredith R. McKay, smartest man in two galaxies, is the inventor of the first Patented Completely Portable Personal Computing Machine. And yet, things are strangely familiar.
Why I like it: It's a steampunk AU. Duh.

Story: By Whirlwind Scattered
What it's about: There's a jumper crash, and Rodney ends up stranded on a planet alone with John Sheppard. Or does he?
Why I like it: This is brilliantly written and it hurts in all the right ways. I wouldn't recommend reading this when you're depressed, but if you're up for a seriously creepy character study, this is your story.

Story: Less to Say
What it's about: The Atlantis expedition has moved on, and John writes to Rodney.
Why I like it: The pace of this story is awesome, a slow unravelling of what's happened, of what's happening still, and of how John tries to hold on to a relationship that Rodney doesn't seem to care about anymore. It's lovely and it's Romance and left me smiling.

Story: Future Imperfect
What it's about: John has the perfect life. Until he wakes up.
Why I like it: This deals beautifully with John longing for something he thinks he can't have. And it really does read true to the character we know from the show, especially the ending. It's a bit bittersweet, but hopeful. I like it a lot.

Story: All the Pharaoh’s Men
What it's about: Rodney has to build a pyramid, waits to be rescued, and while he's at it, instigates an uprising.
Why I like it: This story isn't really funny (or even meant to be) but it still made me grin. Because Rodney starts off at the very bottom of the slave camp's ladder, but in true Rodney fashion ends up making friends and earning respect despite everyone's resistance to let themselves be impressed. He really isn't the weakest link at all.

The posting weeks on mcshep_match have finally started! Two stories a day, 25 days of continuous posting, 50 authors who will do their best to anonymously entertain you until the fifth season of SGA finally starts! How could you not love that?

The first story for the Away Team is Perchance to Dream. I didn't get to read it yet (or maybe I wrote it?), but if you followed that challenge last year you'll know that the quality of the posted fics was ridiculously intimidatingly amazingly high, so my guess is this one's going to be pretty good. ;)

Internet connection allowing, I'll try to rec as many stories as I can in detail. But even if I can't: go forth and read, people! Go forth and vote!

For the Away Team, naturally. Although I suppose you can give the other team a few points. If you must.

In the fine tradition of sgastoryfinders users to reduce 7,600 words of BDSM AU to "Rodney gave John a blowjob for a sandwich" (no offense, rellan!), I'm daring you to find these stories for me:


1. John was going nuts so Rodney adjusted the comm. system so it plays music in his room. Found by mausi: Distraction by laceymcbain

2. Aliens blow up John's couch. Found by stasha2g: And Sometimes You Get Toasters by giddygeek

3. John is drunk and throws up on his boots and Rodney throws them away but it's a bad idea really and then Teyla throws up, too. Found by spacedmonkey: Slow and Steady by kelliferfic

4. The one where Rodney is a grumpy butterfly. Found by argosy: The Reverse of Fascination by shrift

5. John is luminous. Found by calime33: Balcony Sessions by Leah

6. Rodney wants to hire John even though Elizabeth isn't interested in him. Found by iiyorinn: String Theory, A Concerto for Violin in D Minor by toft_froggy

7. John repairs things for food. (I couldn't possibly resist that.) Found by looking4tarzan: Junk Cheap by devildoll

8. Jeannie falls in love with John and Rodney is jealous and tries to keep them from getting together. Found by neostar0114: Sky Full Of by rageprufrock

9. Rodney gives John the key to his secret coffee stash but John doesn't want it. Found by debris_k: Five Impossible Things Rodney McKay Did Before Breakfast by laceymcbain

10. I think at one point Rodney was a prophet fighting John for a halo. Found by stasha2g: Rebuilding Babel by fiercelydreamed

11. The one where John and Rodney work at Starbucks. Found by aurora_84, unamaga, and clear_as_blood (obviously a hard one): The one where John and Rodney work at Starbucks by runpunkrun and thesabrary

12. Rodney has a hard-on in the gateroom and John's kind of obsessing about it. Found by berlinghoff79 (sort of): One Leg at a Time by Mallory Klohn

13. Uh, Rodney tells Jinto about castration? Found by bergann: Sleepless by villainny.

14. John could turn on Britney Spears with his mind. Found by clear_as_blood: The Scientific Method by cupidsbow

15. Teyla complains she can't open the little milk pouch things and Ford offers to do it for her and pokes the straw right through. Found by looking4tarzan: The Best Things in Life are Free by smittywing

16. John goes shopping and buys Playstation games or maybe Xbox or both, he plays flight simulations. Found by Anonymous: King of Wishful Thinking by margarks

17. I don't quite remember, but John tried to drown himself because he thought Rodney didn't love him or something like that. Found by thingswithwings: Vapor Lock by auburnnothenna and eretria

18. The one where they celebrate Christmas and Rodney can't fix the blinking lights except it turns out one of the lamps isn't properly in its socket and he gets blinded when the thing explodes. Found by villainny: Bell Curve (Or Ladies' Night at the Boom Boom Room) by rageprufrock

19. Um, there are magic rocks and Rodney plays the piano. Found by bergann: Time in a Bottle by astolat

20. John and Rodney take a taxi and John pays way too much. Found by stasha2g and [Bad username: fiordeligi"]: Five People John Sheppard Didn’t Kill on P11-23R by sardonicsmiley


To make things easier, all of these are McKay/Sheppard, are pretty well known and have been publicly recced. To make things harder, some of these might be remembered wrong. Only one guess per comment, please (and don't go leaving 10 comments in a row). That way the game's going to last longer, I think. I hope. ;)

ETA: All found in not even 24 hours! You guys are scary! *g*

Title: The Ice Queen
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: John/Rodney
Word Count: ~ 9,200
Warnings: Canon character death (i.e. neither John nor Rodney in any permanent way)
Summary: The Ice Queen might be beautiful but her kisses were deadly, they said. Freezing soul and body alike, stealing warmth and breath and life; she might be beautiful, but she was evil.
Notes: This story is an AU that vaguely uses Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen and The Ice Maiden as inspiration. One bit of dialogue was inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Huge thanks go to my beta-readers villainny, winkingstar and neevebrody, who were all a great help (and whose advice I ignored here and there, so if you find anything off? That's probably where I should have listened).

~~~

@ sga_flashfic

Here is the poll for the current election to the LJ Advisory Board. I don't think whoever's elected is going to have more than a shiny title, but just in case I'm wrong, please do go check out fandom_votes. That community is dedicated to getting a fannish representative on the Advisory Board to represent fannish interests. svmadelyn explains that a lot better here.

There's a very good post by seperis that introduces the fandom candidates in more detail here. Also, icarusancalion put together two detailed posts with links here and here that should give you an overview about the the general goings-on and the election process.

In general, I recommend reading the comments on the official LJ voting post. They're rather enlightening.

You know, I've been getting several messages last night from people whose freshly-opened LJ sites offer the same stupid movies and music (as I know several people have). The IP addresses vary from New Delhi to Japan, so apparently there's some strange, world-wide conspiracy out there trying to direct people to ParisRocksAgain for nefarious purposes that, at this point in time, elude me.

Long story short, I'm going to ban_set every single person who comments thus on my LJ, just because I can and because it satisfies my vindictive streak. It's not going to change anything, but god, it feels good.

As I said last night, winkingstar has generously turned Antarctic Drift into podfic. Her reading voice is gorgeous, so if you like podfic, the download post is here.

♥

So one day, while he's scratching the third draft of his Great Unifying Theory into the bark of a young birch, Rodney overhears two hunters saying that he's the last unicorn.

Following the strange stories of Daniel-the-absent-minded butterfly, he grudgingly embarks on a quest to find his kin (because that's what you do when you're the last of anything, and also who's going to properly understand and admire his brilliance - humans? Feh.). He's captured and put on display as part of Daddy Lucius's freak show but escapes with the help of bumbling alchemist Carson Beckett (who cries bitter tears as he leaves his mentor except freeing the unicorn is of course The Right Thing To Do). Together they journey on. Soon, they are joined by the beautiful lady-in-disguise-as-a-maid Samantha, who instantly falls in awe with Rodney's beauty (insert snigger here).

The trio arrive at King KMichael's castle, encountering the Red Wraith (the only thing that can kill even an immortal being) he keeps to drive all unicorns into the sea for him to look at. Carson saves Rodney by turning him into a human and they move into the castle where everyone pretends they don't know exactly what's going on.

Blah blah, Rodney meets John-the-handsome-prince who is probably the only one who genuinely doesn't know what's going on, blah blah, talking cat, blah, Rodney starting to think that maybe the time for unicorns is over anyway and the prince's eyes look that much more beautiful than white fur shining in the moonlight while the unicorn belonging to said fur prances on a secluded clearing, blah blah, talking skeleton in the basement, Rodney gets turned back into a unicorn to escape the Red Wraith.

John-the-handsome-prince is also foolishly brave and tries to protect Rodney from the Wraith and ends up losing his life. Grief-stricken and enraged, Rodney turns on the Red Wraith and drives it back into the ocean, for the first time in his life fighting for someone else and not himself. He frees the other unicorns, who (like the flighty, careless things they are) immediately disappear into the surrounding hills, the sound of their hooves causing the castle to crumble into the sea and King Michael to die between water and stone. Carson and Samantha watch Rodney revive John, who is confused and maybe a little angry that Rodney was lying to him the whole time he was staying at the castle. Rodney leaves back for his forest, realising that he is the only unicorn ever to feel love and regret and that he will remember John for centuries after John has died.

Except John is a stubborn bastard and more in love than he is angry, so he goes to find Rodney's forest and stay with him (it's not like he has a castle left anyway). And really, there's no reason Rodney can't let Carson turn him into a human for a while longer, is there? After all, what's a human lifetime to a unicorn? And then there are many adventures on which they meet Teyla and Ronon as... oh, dunno, maybe a dragon and a genie, and after stealing the apples of the Hesperides passing many trials, John achieves immortality as well and they live happily ever after.

Okay, now excuse me while I go take my meds.

Title: Thumbling Down
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~1,700
Warnings: None.
Notes: For cupidsbow, who was about one email away from snapping (and that probably would have been mine, so thanks for the warning! :D). And yes, this is totally somewhat the ending of Thumbelina (I'm too lazy to do the whole thing, sorry!) and therefore could be considered crack. Emo crack. Plus it's not been beta-read. Uh. Sorry?

ETA: Look at unaccompanied_g's artwork!

~~~

( Thumbling Down )

Unsurprisingly, I'm mostly known as an SGA slash fic writer. People mostly associate me with flower porn, John-as-an-android-or-maybe-not, and penguins (in that order). The rating associated with my stories is either R or outright NC-17, which is kind of funny considering most stuff I write is around PG-13. So I'm guessing the associated rating comes from the associated stories, which once more cements my belief that slash stories are generally somewhat less popular if they don't contain porn.

What did surprise me was that slightly (two) more people associate me with romance and/or friendship/romance stories than outright crack. It's also a relief, mind, as I was afraid that "crack" would end up the sole answer. I also liked that more people connect me with fairy tales than porn, as I wrote only about ten of them but love them a lot.

As for the themes of my stories, angst, true love and friendship got about the same amount of votes, which, yeah, I guess. Quite a few people also ticked "turning a cliché on its head", which kind of thrills me as I only did that on purpose once (that I remember, anyway).

In conclusion, lavvyan seems to stand for romantic, cracked-out slash stories with a rating of R or higher and revolving around angst, friendship and true love.

Thanks again, cupidsbow, for letting me copy your poll. The answers were fascinating and explain quite a bit about the amount of comments on various stories. I won't copy your statistics post, though – I'm far too lazy. Also thanks to everyone who indulged me by filling out the poll! :D

cupidsbow raised the very interesting question how much of a brand name an LJ persona can be and posted a poll to find out. Because she got some fascinating results and I'm a sheep (and curious, baaaah!) I asked if I could post a slightly changed version to my own journal, and she said yes. She's awesome like that. :)

So, if you have a minute: what do you expect of my fan fiction?

Poll #1185227 When you think of lavvyan, you think...
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

LJ activities?

Which fandom?

What story do you most strongly associate with lavvyan?

How smutty is my writing?

What genres do you expect from me?

Which themes?

If there's anything else, you're highly encouraged to leave a comment. Thank you for taking the time to indulge me!

I'm restructuring my journal over the next few days. If you're here for the fic you can still find it on Wraithbait. Everything should be accessible again on Monday latest.

Stories are back, except for one or two I decided to get rid off.

I am not going to keep the current layout. It just makes the editing easier. The Header of GeekGodness will be back.

ETA: I will finish tagging 2006 today. I will. I won't.

Title: After, Or Maybe Between
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~ 500
Summary: She didn't see them until she nearly stumbled over them; literally.
Notes: For 2of7 to the prompt of "John/Rodney, headache". Set some time between Trio and Midway, methinks.

~~~

After, Or Maybe Between

Title: Games of Chance
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~1,500
Warnings: Torture
Summary: Rodney wishes that they'd never picked up the faint energy readings, that they'd never stumbled across this civilisation, that Sheppard's eyes were another colour. Sheppard, who is both the prize Rodney is playing for and a measure for how badly he's losing, and God, Rodney really needs to win this game, but he doesn't know how.
Notes: Written for berlinghoff79's birthday to her prompt of John/Rodney, deck of cards. Don't blink, or you'll miss the John/Rodney part.

Edit: Now with comment tag by villainny! ♥

~~~

( Games of Chance )

Thanks to villainny for playing audience and telling me to drop what was the last sentence. ♥

Atlantis, Mon Remora by villainny is a "fish noir" story and retelling of Grace Under Pressure, featuring Sam Whale, PI. That stands for Private Ichthyologist, and Sam is hired to find out what, or who, is behind the case of the mysteriously disappearing fish. But can he trust his employer? And why are the carps keeping the case quiet? Click the link and find out.

I wish I could say I knew she was trouble the moment she drifted into my current, wish I could say I knew her for a remora at first sight, but I've always been a sucker for a sucker.

I've read quite a bit of SGA fic over the last few days, and I kept stumbling over various author's notes, two sentences in particular: I'm sorry, this hasn't been beta-read and Thanks to my fabulous beta [insert name here], both followed by cringe-worthy mistakes in the first few sentences. And if this comes from she-who-will-never-get-her-prepositions-right? There's something really wrong.

So if you are new to writing or English isn't your first language or you think you are above such mundane tasks as having your stories vetted before you post them; if you think beta-readers are for other people because you never make mistakes: this post is for you.

1. ( Why would I need a beta-reader? )

2. ( But other writers don't have beta-readers either and they're doing fine! )

3. ( I don't need a beta-reader. I use spell-check. )

4. ( But what makes a beta-reader a good beta-reader? )

5. ( Okay, you have me convinced. How do I go about finding a beta-reader? )

6. ( So I found myself a beta-reader and they don't send the file back. What now? )

I'll admit that more often than not I forego having short stories (< 1,000 words) beta-read. That's because I'm lazy, and as a result I usually get at least one or two comments pointing out something I did wrong. For longer stuff? I find a beta-reader, because I know I'll be doing my readers – and myself; so much better not to look like an idiot! – a favour.

Aaaand this got way longer than I thought. Sorry!

~~~