First song was “Beautiful Lie” from the Batman v Superman soundtrack, which okay I adore but it has not lyrics, so next on the list:

Hozier “Someone New”. Not my favorite song of his by a long short.

Some like to imagine
The dark caress of someone else I guess any thrill will do

3, 6!

Okay, first I need to figure out what qualifies under ‘written this year’ to answer this. Posted to AO3 this year, but Swanships and the Indis/Nerdanel stuff was technically last year. So looking at everything, it’s the latest chapter of Of Ingwë, Making Friends, Howl, Promise You Won’t Forget, Eyes Bright with Honor. Also a few meme responses using the Batman(and other) inspired fantasy world (Rose Red) here and here. Or the Elwing meme answer where I channel GRRM in an acceptably safe way.

3. Which of your fics was most different from what you usually write?

Eeeeou… Cheap answer would be the second snippet from the Rose Red universe, because it’s almost solely dialogue but I tried to set up several characters and history and a world and magic system- but every paragraph is a new line in the conversation.

Or since it counts as a fic, sort of, this rambling unpolished Melkor does not enjoy “heget’s favorite AU” as much as I found here, because I wrote in the style of my blog posts, liberal use of parenthesis and snarky asides instead of ‘author’-voice. Aimed for bias-filtered POV and especially humor. I want to write more purely humor fluff fics as those are more popular, but I don’t write those as often for odd reasons.

I know which ones where imho less successful versions of my usual style or theme, but I think the silm fics have been very ‘me’ in tone and subject. That they’ve been parts of series helps.

6. What’s your favourite piece of dialogue you wrote this year?

Not a lot of dialogue in the few Silm fics this year. Making Friends has a lot, and I think Finwë’s prattle was more successful than the first draft versions. Chapter 5 of Of Ingwë is basically Oromë’s extended monologue, but my favorite line from that is:

“If my sister’s dance is the expression of joy indescribable, then the song of grief from Nienna was the expression of sorrow no words of mine can recount. Not even the poetry of my king can match the articulation of feeling.”

tagged by @crocordile

rules: tell us your one favorite characters from 10 different fandoms and then tag 10 people

  1. Misao Makimachi (Rurouni Kenshin) – weasel girl! welcome to our spy inn, enjoy the cheerfulness with a side of angst, giving up on finding the people you love with never bring you happiness
  2. Lara Nostil/Gara Petothel (EU Legends/X-wing series) – best double turned triple agent with idenitity crisis, you and Myn and other other Rogues and Wraiths are why I cling to any part of the old EU
  3. Duv Galeni (Vorkosigan) – ex-history professor turned Imp Sec chief, sorry your friends and coworkers are crazy
  4. Nynaeve Al’meara (Wheel of Time) – MY FAV~ will out-stubborn death and everything else
  5. Nahrmahn Baytz (Safehold) – chubby scheming prince with more honor and integery than anyone realized, so glad you’re not-quite-dead
  6. Ahiru/Duck (Princess Tutu) – a duckling who is a girl who is a swan ballet savior
  7. Elu Thingol (The Silmarillion) – how the heck did this asshole bet out all the other assholes (and sweethearts) to win my affections? Two or three years ago, this would not be so
  8. Yuna (Final Fantasy X) – emotionally suppressing self-sacrificing HERO
  9. Jason Todd (DC Comics) – so glad Rebirth is giving you better stories, sorry you still don’t get much happiness and still had to crawl out of your coffin, my poor murdered/murdering child soldier-hero/criminal anti-hero
  10. Jeyne Poole (A Song of Ice and Fire) – GRRM if she doesn’t get a modicum of safety and healing, I swear to god I’m stealing her and sending her into witness protection down to @crocordile. she’ll be warm in Brazil.

Okay I never tag, but hey, any mutual that hasn’t been tagged yet, use me as your excuse to do this meme

14 & 23!

14. Go on, who are your BroTPs?

Which Fandom of mine counts as “current”… Well, in DC/DCEU/Batfam fandom in particular, I adore the movie version of the relationship between Perry White and Lois Lane. The ex-Robins as bickering but supportive brothers and sisters Batgirls, especially Jason with any of them, Dick the surrogate father to Damian, Babs the cool aunt/big sis to everyone but especially Cass, Steph and Tim solely as a BroTP. Mera and Diana’s friendship in Bombshells.

RuroKen – Kenshingumi. Easy. Also the bond between Yumi, Chou, Hoji, and Soujirou- it’s like the Juppon-gata as an Addams Family.

Vorkosigan- Miles and Ivan, all the way. Duv as their long-suffering friend.

SW: anakin and Obi-wan. Han and Luke, Han and Chewie, R2 and 3PO. EU Legends- Rogue and Wraith Squadrons.

Silm: too many, but Ossë and Uinen’s friendship and support of the Teleri soothes my bitterness. House of Bëor and House of Arfinfinwë anything and everything.

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

Release from Bondage I think has some of my strongest, most polished and evocative prose. That I cover so much of the Silmarillion from a neglected/unusual angle. That the romance is sweet and slow burn, and the angst and horror at the forefront but not gratuitous. 

WIP guessing game: Finrod, blue, sword

AHA! I have a long, unwieldy WIP passage that has all three words. So you get the entire mess that needs editing. Without further adieu, Bân of Nargothrond (aka Zack Fair the elf):

The young man had joined the mass exodus of Noldor eager to avenge their king’s death and the destruction of the Trees without informing his parents. The guilt over that decision to forgo goodbyes struck later, somewhere in-between the gusts of wind on the Helecaraxë, when his lips were as blue as his eyes and the repeating memory of the Doomsman’s dire proclamation was drowning under the shrill creaks of splintering ice. He had no experience with snow or cold, this boy from a village between the Pastures of Yavanna and Lord Oromë’s forests far to the south, a place warm and lush and safe. He survived the ice desert. He survived the early battles and would survive the later one when the man who trained him did not. He stood in the first sunrise and vowed to become a hero so eventually his parents would forgive him for leaving without farewells. He studied fighting under an older elf, one who had noticed how Bân shivered while crossing the Helecaraxë and yet still dared the people around him into snowshoe races up the sides of the glaciers and tried to coax the small white foxes to share his portion of dried seal jerky. According to his mentor, Bân showed tenacity and generosity of spirit, plus the competitive courage that would make a good fighter. Or he had decided Bân was hyperactive and simple-minded and thus would not complain when forced into unending sword drills and muscle-building exercises.

Bân’s mentor had been trusted by the Noldor princes and their commanders, and that trust passed down to Bân. That Bân had learned enough of the new language of the Sindar in those first few months to be judged as proficient, though he had no easy knack for the subtlety of dialects and accents like Captain Heledir or Prince Finrod, earned him a place in the prince’s company as they visited the great city of the Sindar. 

Bân had heard rumors of this city of a thousand caves, Menegroth with its goddess queen and the tall proud king of Beleriand, Elu of the three who had first seen the Two Trees, leader of the third tribe, equal and friend of King Finwë and High King Ingwë.

Prince Finrod and his brothers had visited King Elu and Queen Melian several times by now, and Prince Finrod’s sister, Lady Galadriel, was already living in Menegroth. Bân thought it odd that while everyone else was shortening their names to adapt to the Sindarin tongue, the new name for Princess Artanis was longer. Stories of Doriath, its ancient forests fenced by a Girdle that Morgoth could not penetrate, the city of a thousand caves decorated and festooned with carved images and tapestries of unimaginable beauty, of its music and lore, people and half-divine royalty, excited and intrigued the Noldor long before Prince Angrod returned with testimonials of its truth. Bân had not been immune to this draw, been overjoyed when nominated for a place in the upcoming visit. 

Yet Bân was a country boy from southern Aman who had never seen either King Finwë or High King Ingwë from afar, and as much as the prospect of close proximity to such high royalty excited Bân, it unnerved him. The majority of his time spent preparing for the visit focused on pestering his mentor for protocol and advice on how to bow to nobility and what topics of discussion were appropriate. Bân’s mentor made it clear that Bân was to stay silent. His place in the entourage was least in status, an extra bodyguard for the ride to the Fenced Kingdom, someone to hold horses and porter gifts, to be a visible reminder standing behind the ambassadors of what the arriving Noldor were promising the king and queen in Doriath. Bân was the promise of fresh sharp swords to protect the people of Beleriand from the monsters of Morgoth. Bân could be that. He wanted to be that.