Aurora's Sundry Notes

Time of various exchanges and fests is upon us! I've successfully finished my Yuletide fic in time, though it still needs some editing (when have I not edited up to the reveals?), and I've taken a bit of a look at requests to consider treats. Though there are also so many other options for fic-writing in the near future! Such as fandom_stocking, where the sign-ups ended last week. Here is my stocking if you want to take a look at it and maybe even drop something in there!

public_call fics are in the process of being revealed. I wrote a Jack/Ten story, which has been posted: find the post with the link here.



And I got this lovely Bill/Heather fic from the exchange!

Bubblegum, Fire, Salt Water (1141 words) by florencedrunk

Also, more on the femslash front, due to my general posting fail I haven't posted links to all of my previous exchange fics either, so here's my femslashex fic, a Thirteen/Missy fic I wrote for the dear trobadora and had ever so much fun writing.

Hope and Chocolate (2442 words) by AuroraCloud
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who (2005)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Missy
Characters: Thirteenth Doctor, Missy (Doctor Who)
Additional Tags: Fix-It of Sorts, Femslash, Femslash Exchange 2017, Crossing Timelines
Summary:

The Doctor goes back to find Missy during her time in the Vault. She has a plan. Also, there is a date.

I'm mostly caught up on Doctor Who now - I'm struggling in early S9 because I just don't like Clara enough and I don't like her and Twelve together (I love Twelve, but he works so much better with Bill!) and the writing has been getting steadily worse, and I don't think I'm finishing it before the Christmas special airs. But anyway, it means I've pretty much seen all the Missy episodes there are to see, and whatever I think of other things, Missy is freaking fantastic. I'm not even often fond of villains or quasi-villains or whatever she is, and I wasn't as into Simm!Master as much of the fandom seems to be, but Missy is my lady.

I really hope we will somehow get her and Thirteen together on the screen at some point.

What else? I basically binged through S1 of Broadchurch this weekend. Damn, it's so good. And the cast is fantastic, Olivia Colman and David Tennant are fantastic in the leads, I freaking love Jodie Whittaker's acting, and Arthur Darvill is at least as lovely in this as he was as Rory. And many others gave wonderful performances, too, and I just loved the writing, the way it focused so much on the characters and the community and the effect of the events on all that, not just solving the mystery.

I'll try to post more things some time soon. Like more thoughts about Doctor Who, and other things I've watched and read. I know I've been really quiet on the journalling side of things, but I'll be trying to fix that in the near future! I miss this.

Dear Rare Pair Fest writer,


Awesome, you’ve offered to write for one of these fandoms and pairings I’m really into! Can’t wait to see what you create! So don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll be thrilled with what I get.

NOW FINISHED UPDATING. SORRY IT TOOK FOREVER. Life just kind of happened and I was too exhausted to string many sensible sentences together. I'm not sure I'm still capable, but I'll do my best to write what I'm going to write here. So this should be the final state of this letter, unless I notice some typos and such I want to fix.

Fic likes: I love femslash, slash, het, and am fine with various polyamorous scenarios for any of these relationships. I love hurt/comfort, adventures, daily life moments and domesticity, angst (but hopefully with a happy/comforting ending), fluff, porn (though preferably so that the sex tells something about the characters), first times, established relationships, kisses, space, history, loyalty, found family, characters coming to accept some previously neglected/repressed part of themselves, canon divergence AUs (various ”what if”s changing some event or element of the canon but still keeping the world basically the same) etc. etc. Really a lot of things, so feel free to let your imagination roam as long as you respect my Do Not Wants / dislikes.

Many of these characters come equipped with teams, friends etc. and I’m very fine with these making an appearance in the story, should it work out for the story. There can be no sex or a little sex or lots of sex, however you like. Any rating from General to really really Explicit is fine.

Do Not Wants/Dislikes: graphic violence, gore and torture, non-con, sexual abuse, character bashing, mpreg, wildly different AUs of the coffee shop / high school / werewolf etc. variety. It depends a bit on the canon how much violence/torture/abuse I can deal with, but generally, please not higher level than the canon. That basically means that in Torchwood I can deal with worse stuff than others, because it comes with the canon. Also, no abuse/rape/consent issues between the requested characters or their canon significant other. Please no 2nd person POV, and in fic 1st person doesn’t work often either unless it’s in diary/epistolary format.

Now onto the pairings and requests. My request in italics and any additions in regular font. If I'm not adding much to the actual request, doesn't mean I care less about that pairing, just that I actually managed to say what I wanted before the sign-ups closed.

( Wayfarers (Becky Chambers) - Rosemary/Sissix )

( Parasol Protectorate - Genevieve Lefoux / Alexia Tarabotti  )

These books have been one of my favourite fun-and-fluffy-yet-smart with strong women and LGBT rep books for the past years. I love that unlike most steampunk I can find, it's not incredibly violent and depressing, yet manages to be more subversive and rebellious than looks on the surface. Alexia and Madame Lefoux are among the most delightful characters in the books (okay, I do adore Biffy and Lyall and Akeldama like any sensible person would) and some of my favourite sf/f ladies. I love that while Alexia is all sorts of kick-ass, she still is a woman of her era and confined by many of the standards of the Victorian ages, because let's face it, we all are affected by the mores of the society we grow up in. And I would absolutely love to see Geneviève make her defy those standards even more than she does. There's this undercurrent of attraction Alexia feels towards her, and the very obvious attraction she feels towards Alexia, and while Alexia and Lord Maccon are my favourite of Gail's het pairings (ie. the only one I do like), I still ship these two more. Feel free to either ignore Lord Maccon, have Alexia break up with him, have him never have entered her life, or have them enjoy a happy open relationship - everything is fine and nothing more preferable than the other.

I haven't yet read Romancing the Inventor, though it's on my to-order list, so might be I will before the stories go live. I'm fine with setting this story any time during the Parasol Protectorate books or after them. One possibility is also setting it during The Custard Protocol or after Imprudence - how would an older Alexia and Geneviève romance after everything else they've been through?


( Torchwood - Jack Harkness / Martha Jones )

( The Count of Monte Cristo - Euǵenie Danglars / Louise d'Armilly )

( Doctor Who / Torchwood - Tenth Doctor / Ianto Jones )

I've been going through my re-watch Doctor Who S3 quite quickly, and ooh, I just watched Blink again. That episode is so. damn. brilliant. And just suitably creepy and exciting. Ah, I can't get over how brilliant it is.

And in the end of the episode, the trailer for Utopia! I actually squeed at seeing those brief moments of Jack returning, despite the fact that I already knew he would and I've already seen the episode and the last time I did wasn't so long ago, and I've quite recently watched all of Torchwood S1 so, um, a lot of Jack there, but all that still didn't stop me from squeeing. Ooh, I think I'm going to enjoy watching the final episodes. Had a bit of a hard time not going on right away, but Blink and Utopia are so different, I think I'm getting the most out of them by watching them on different days.

I've had a lot of fun watching S3. There are a few not-so-good episodes in the early-to-mid part of the series, but from Human Nature onwards it's such brilliance (and I generally enjoyed 42, too, as long as I put the science and logic departments of my brain to sleep). The over-emphasis on Martha's crush on the Doctor doesn't bother me as much this time around, probably because I knew to expect it so it's easier to not pay so much attention to it. I love Martha even more this time around, and besides, Freema is so gorgeous and I love her voice and guh. It's also interesting picking up the Saxon references and other things foreshadowing things in the final episodes, now that I know what's coming. And S3 is the beginning of the Tenth Doctor that I really, really adore. It's maybe odd because he's less likeable here than in S2 - first there's the way he often makes Martha feel second-best and takes half a season to even allow her to stick around (rather than just "one trip more"), and then there'll be the stuff with Jack. But I guess that's exactly what makes it more interesting. Characters with issues are fascinating. Guess that's why I became such an intense Doctor/Jack shipper after this season, too. With that relationship, definitely not running out of issues any time soon.

Anyway, I think Tennant's acting also improved tons between S2 and S3, he's just a lot more detailed and complex and interesting at this point. And while I found much of the Rose/Ten interaction in S2 cute, and enjoyed the connection they had, I also have to say that their "exclusive mutual admiration society" got a bit much and is not half as interesting as the issue-wrought relationships and complexities of S3.

Reminds me, I still need to write up my thoughts on Torchwood S1. Because at this rate I'll be watching S2 very soon, and would be nice to write up my main thoughts before that. Going to try to do it soon.

Hi, Public Call Writer!

Being rather new to the fandom, I thought I'd like to include a letter. I don't know how often people do them or how they usually do them, but here you go. I found Doctor Who about a year and a half ago - of course I'd heard of it before, but I don't watch a lot of TV series, and I'd just kind of missed out on the fact that this one could interest me. Once I did watch it, however, I was promptly hooked on the characters, the weird and wonderful world, the emotions, the starry-eyed wonder and the mixture of darkness and fun. I watched all of Ninth and Tenth Doctor, but after that I felt I'd like a re-watch before I go on, and I'm now in the middle of that, having re-watched S1 and S2, and being about to go onto S3 once I've finished Torchwood S1. Therefore the request in my details about avoiding spoilers beyond the Tenth Doctor era or beyond early S2 of Torchwood - I expect I'll have made some progress both with my DW re-watch and with Torchwood by December, but best to keep it within the limits I specified.

All of the relationships I requested are something I would be equally happy to receive fic for. And you can do anything you like, as long as you're mindful of my dislikes (some of them are things that are likely to make me feel emotionally and even physically bad, so while there are moods when I'll read stuff that's beyond my usual boundaries, or stories which deal with them in ways that work for me, it's better not to take chances in a fic exchange). The stuff in my likes, and ideas I'm throwing around in the rest of this letter, are just to give you an idea of what might interest me, in the case you're not sure where to go, have too many options or need something to spark you. But don't by any means let yourself be constricted by them or think you have to include something I mentioned - it's equally likely I'll be excited by something I didn't think to mention here, so if you have other ideas, just go along with them!

Repeating my dislikes from the sign-up: Graphic violence, torture, rape/non-con/sexual abuse, mpreg, character bashing. Also I'd prefer not reading much about any real-world wars or other strongly violent real-world events. Referencing them happening is fine, if the story needs it, but I'd prefer the story doesn't spend a lot of time in them. Though I don't mind the WWII stuff in The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, but I prefer not to see the war in more detail than that.

And please no radical AU of the college/high school/coffee shop/vampire/etc. kind, I prefer the Doctor Who universe. Also, I'm very behind in my watching: so far I've watched all of Ninth and Tenth Doctor eras and S1 of Torchwood, and I'll probably be a little further along with Torchwood by December, but please avoid spoilers for Doctor Who beyond the Tenth Doctor era (ie. after End of Time Part Two; and I also haven't seen Classic Who yet), or Torchwood beyond early S2.


You can browse the Doctor Who tag in my journal if you feel like it - I occasionally post thoughts about characters and episodes. But while I originally intended this journal to be mainly just for such fannish thoughts, in practice I haven't yet had the energy to get that many detailed thoughts into written form, so it's a bit random and mostly it probably isn't all that helpful. And in any case there's no need to look at it, just mentioning that there is such a tag and there are a bunch of posts in it if that helps you.


These are the relationships I requested:
Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Ninth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Ninth Doctor/Jack Harkness/Rose Tyler
Martha Jones/Rose Tyler

It says so also in the rules of exchange, but still, I'm happy either with slash/femslash/threesome or gen for these. And if you do write pairing/threesome, with any of them I'm happy with anything ranging from longing looks and sweet words to steaming, detailed sex. With sex I do prefer if the story isn't pure PWP, but I am very fond of seeing character and emotions shown through sex, so that will already count as "more than PWP" in my book, without them necessarily having to do anything else if that's how the story comes out.

Here are a few thoughts and possibilities about the relationships I requested, but you don't need to use anything I mentioned, or even read them if you don't want to. Feel free to discard them or use them as a starting point and bounce off to an unexpected direction. I'm just as likely to enjoy that.

( Read more... )

That's all I can think of now. Like I said, if anything I said constricts you, apart from my specific dislikes, please forget about it and do whatever works for you! The important part is that you're having fun and enjoying the writing, and above all I love to read stories where the writer has been doing their own thing that feels right for them.

I had half of a "let me explain why I love Jack so much" post written, but then I re-watched School Reunion, and am not in the right mindframe for continuing that post. Instead, I want to write thoughts about the episode. Who cares that everyone else saw it 10 years ago. So here are some disjointed thoughts about it, musings about the Doctor and companions, and I'm even managing to mention Jack though he's nowhere near it.

( Read more... )