Jan. 1st, 2015 02:30 pm
Mischief & Mistletoe reveals
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subjunctiveWith a few more details and thoughts.
For Mischief & Mistletoe I wrote Summit, a 10k AU where Loki fell to Earth and Sif followed him. There are a lot of things I like about this story - some particular scenes - but the idea probably needed 5-10k more for the premise to be executed really successfully. I toyed with the idea of Loki slipping away on the last night or Sif letting him go at the end (and then gearing up to follow him again), and that might have been more interesting. Not sure how much the beginning scenes really belong (I almost started at the foot of the mountain), but ultimately I left them because one of the recipient's requests was more Jane or Heimdall.
My gift, syn aisthesis, was a lovely domestic fic featuring Loki as an artist. Nice working in of little details of the relationship dynamic, which I love.
The other two stories I'd rec (with the caveat that I haven't read everything in the collection):
The lovely and sad Where You Can't Return, which is about Frigga and Sif and Loki, with some post-The Dark World parts and some pre-canon. I had guessed correctly that it was written by Barkour. I've read so much of her fic - including fandoms I'm not even in or are barely familiar with on the strength of her writing, which is not typical for me - I practically consider myself a connoisseur of her style. She seems to have mostly moved on from Loki/Sif and the MCU more generally, which is sad but fine. I hope she writes more plotty stories for The Flash; I really liked her Barry/Iris snippets.
The other is Armistice, which is ... hard to summarize, but one of the best things I've read recently. A summary of what happens in the fic could be "Futurefic in which Sif and Loki meet in a tavern while she's hunting him down," but that is really not a great description of what the story is actually about or like. Great outsider POV and scene-setting and very funny. It's short, so check it out. It was written by my recipient, damalur, who was a pretty intimidating recipient to receive since I love her writing a LOT. It's no surprise I loved this too. Armistice in particular is not very ... fanficcish, if you know what I mean? I don't mean that in a bad way (or a particularly good way, even). But there can sometimes be a certain "feel" to fanfiction because the relative insularity of the community - everyone reading and writing each other's stuff - produces a certain set of tropes and stylistic conventions like any other type of writing. A lot of the elements of "Armistice" - the third-omni POV (utterly rare in fic and getting rarer in pro writing), the setting influenced by both fantasy and scifi writing more than the canon itself, the particular brand of humor and dialogue - seem more influenced by pro genre writing than fic writing. It was a breath of fresh air. It also rewards re-read.
For Mischief & Mistletoe I wrote Summit, a 10k AU where Loki fell to Earth and Sif followed him. There are a lot of things I like about this story - some particular scenes - but the idea probably needed 5-10k more for the premise to be executed really successfully. I toyed with the idea of Loki slipping away on the last night or Sif letting him go at the end (and then gearing up to follow him again), and that might have been more interesting. Not sure how much the beginning scenes really belong (I almost started at the foot of the mountain), but ultimately I left them because one of the recipient's requests was more Jane or Heimdall.
My gift, syn aisthesis, was a lovely domestic fic featuring Loki as an artist. Nice working in of little details of the relationship dynamic, which I love.
The other two stories I'd rec (with the caveat that I haven't read everything in the collection):
The lovely and sad Where You Can't Return, which is about Frigga and Sif and Loki, with some post-The Dark World parts and some pre-canon. I had guessed correctly that it was written by Barkour. I've read so much of her fic - including fandoms I'm not even in or are barely familiar with on the strength of her writing, which is not typical for me - I practically consider myself a connoisseur of her style. She seems to have mostly moved on from Loki/Sif and the MCU more generally, which is sad but fine. I hope she writes more plotty stories for The Flash; I really liked her Barry/Iris snippets.
The other is Armistice, which is ... hard to summarize, but one of the best things I've read recently. A summary of what happens in the fic could be "Futurefic in which Sif and Loki meet in a tavern while she's hunting him down," but that is really not a great description of what the story is actually about or like. Great outsider POV and scene-setting and very funny. It's short, so check it out. It was written by my recipient, damalur, who was a pretty intimidating recipient to receive since I love her writing a LOT. It's no surprise I loved this too. Armistice in particular is not very ... fanficcish, if you know what I mean? I don't mean that in a bad way (or a particularly good way, even). But there can sometimes be a certain "feel" to fanfiction because the relative insularity of the community - everyone reading and writing each other's stuff - produces a certain set of tropes and stylistic conventions like any other type of writing. A lot of the elements of "Armistice" - the third-omni POV (utterly rare in fic and getting rarer in pro writing), the setting influenced by both fantasy and scifi writing more than the canon itself, the particular brand of humor and dialogue - seem more influenced by pro genre writing than fic writing. It was a breath of fresh air. It also rewards re-read.
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