fluffyllama

banner by capitu

I'd better start with hp_drizzle since the reveals are coming up first:

FIC: In the arms of an ocean, Sirius/James, PG-13 but by no means harmless.
This starts out dreamy and hazy before descending into madness. I love this pairing, but considering the huge potential for it I don't think I've read many on the dark side. I love it to bits.

ART: Shower, Snape/Black, G.
Yeah, this is my life on a daily basis (times two)! Lots of fun in a pic, though.

ART: The Lightning Strike, Charlie/Draco, G.
Not my pairing, but definitely my kind of weather. Gorgeous colours.



I was pleased to see minerva_fest posting at a time when I have chance to read and rec.

ART: Minerva's Day Out, Minerva/mystery person, R.
Every one of these is perfect. Seriously, unless you can't stand to see Minerva on your screen for some reason, check this one out. Just lovely.

ART: Moonlight Meeting, Minerva, Crookshanks, Sirius, G.
Hmm, a suspiciously familiar style! This time Sirius in human form, but Minerva as a cat. Along with Crookshanks I love their stripiness and the setting is beautifully done too.

FIC: Twist me and turn me, Minerva, PG.
A short fic that managed to surprise me at the end. I'm quite fascinated by the idea of what happens here, and Minerva is fabulous, of course.



rs_games has also started posting. I haven't had chance to read many yet, but one summary grabbed me by the throat and I'm so glad it did.

FIC: Any other night, Sirius/Remus, R.
Oh my god. It's another one with a darker look at a pairing that, in this case, is even more rarely explored that way. A great part of that is Sirius's insanity, which yes, is a thing I love to see. But it's so much more than that. It's also sweet, it's funny, and it's dark. It's set in two entirely different places and times, with the moon tying it all together.

I'm not remotely doing it justice, because my feelings about this story can't quite turn themselves into words. Sigh. It's been a few hours and I'm still having trouble thinking about anything else - not because of the pairing or anything shippy, but because of the writing.

Anyway, hurray for getting a Rectober post done for the first week! If you want to join in click on the thingy at the top *waves vaguely*.

Oh, and I put some of my rarer pairing fics in for the remix, so you all need to as well now.

Aside from pesky health stuff as always, the main thing that has happened is that we have finally moved house. It took a year to sell the house after Jon was made redundant, which he spent driving over the Pennines and back every day. There were lots of hassles with the sale, and we ended up moving out of our old place before we could move into this one, and at the end of it all I felt like I'd personally picked up every box and walked here with it *g*

On the positive side, my beloved has a better job which he enjoys greatly, and I finally get to live in Yorkshire!

The house is weird, because the front rooms feel like you live in a town (apart from the rather rustic stone walls and huge fireplaces) because there are cars going past, but the back has cobbled lanes, cows, a nice view of the valley and sometimes a visiting rooster, with or without his companions. Oh, and a bat. We've named him Eric, but he's camera shy, I'm afraid.

The cows have apparently been known to not only wander up the lane on occasion, but also venture onto the road at the front, so there's something to look forward to *g* So far no cow escapes have been spotted since our arrival, but I'm watching them. Actually, the dogs are, they are obsessed with the cows. If they go for a walk and the cows aren't in the shed as usual, they go looking for them and are only satisfied once they've seen they're safely in the barn or out in the fields.

Anyway, I have been recovering from the move in my new rather farmhouse-ish kitchen, enjoying a much improved view, and occasionally forcing myself to unpack another box. We'll get to the end of them eventually, and I am never, ever moving again. I hope!

( Photos )

I've not been around much as I'm trying to get our house ready to go up for sale. We're very close to that point now, and I have estate agent fatigue already and yet another one turning up this afternoon. So my reading time has had to be grabbed here and there, but of course Beholder is always worth making time for!

I'm hoping to make another recs post yet, but I thought I'd start with some posted later in the fest as they've had the least time out there to be read, and reading/commenting always seems to drop off as posting continues in any fest. I still have a lot to read, and I apologise for not getting to a lot of them yet, especially the longer stories!

I haven't included any warnings since you have to highlight to read them at the community, so do check those if you need to.


Straight On 'Till Morning (Moody/Scrimgeour, PG-13)

I have to start with this one, because it's my gift! Mine, all mine... but I suppose you can read it too :D

I sometimes think we get carried away with the list of likes and dislikes when signing up for fests, and I do try to assure the author that they should write something they will enjoy creating above all, but when the two happen to coincide the results are fabulous! Ministry/auror/order goings on, politics, history, plotting, Moody's relationships, wonderful world-building and details and so much more. *happy sigh* Mine! Go read :)


A Gramarye of Folk Magic (Snape/Aberforth, NC-17)

This is beautiful. Aberforth keeps on doing his own thing while the plot thickens and Albus manipulates in the background, visible only to us through Snape as he appears to Aberforth. Definitely a must read from the fest.


A Short Treatise on the Social Lives of Ghosts (Cuthbert Binns/Grey Lady, Cuthbert Binns/Horace Slughorn, Moaning Myrtle/Nearly Headless Nick, The Fat Friar/The Wailing Widow, PG)

The ghosts (and some non-ghosts) of Hogwarts getting on with their deaths, each in their own way. Myrtle's diary is hilarious and the Fat Friar even more so, while Binns looks for companionship and struggles with names. Just lovely.


Working Things Out -aka- The Delicate Dance of the Happy Tentacula (Secret pairing, R)

First - I love that title! The story is marvellous too, though hard to say too much about with a secret pairing, as it should be in a mystery story. A really fun read with lots of Hogwarts staff!


we lay together on a cold hard floor (Snape/Pettigrew, R)

Peter slash! There's so little of that out there, relatively speaking, and he's always been so underappreciated. The comments to this fic say it all better than I ever could, so you should check those out, but this is fascinating Peter and great Snape, and well worth a read, even if you're not sure why anyone would find Peter interesting.

More later if I'm not eaten by voracious estate agents. Eep.

P.S. Any guesses which Beholder fic is mine? I suspect at least one person has guessed...

My head is determined to torment me this weekend, so I may have to have an early night like a big wuss instead of going over my recs and putting the names in, but I'll do my best.

For TW Holidays I wrote Peter/Stiles to my total lack of surprise. I think it was the only one in the fest, though annoyingly I still have a couple left to read due to this stupid headache. I did manage to correctly guess that my recipient was also the writer of my marvellous gift though!

Thousands of Others Like You Peter/Stiles (Mature).

Only a bit of dubious consent, I restrained myself *cough* And it's 10k! I can't remember the last time I wrote that much for a single fic at once, but it's a long time ago. Possibly not since the M.E. started, so that's eight years or so.

I keep forgetting that Public Call isn't anon, so I can post that I wrote a pinch hit for that recently too. No Refunds or Exchanges, a silly bit of Eleven and Clara.

Reveals are tomorrow and I'm looking forward to thanking the author of my gift (still gleeful! and just a prod there for those who haven't seen the shiny Chris/Stiles yet*) Anyway, I'll try to post more recs before it happens, but I wanted to do an under-appreciated recs list first. These all deserve a lot more readers than they seem to have had so far.

These first two have apparently been overlooked in favour of sparkly festive fics and easier (or any) pairings, but if your tastes run a bit darker give them a try!

Once More With Feeling Peter and Lydia (Mature for horror, death etc.)
Wow. Sparse and horrifying, with obsessive psycho Peter and Lydia who still knows more than he does. ( Spoilery )

An Unwelcome Friend/Something She Has to Do Peter/Lydia (Mature)
I'm not sure why this has two titles (or is it just two lines from a song? I don't know the song, so *shrug*) but I am sure it's a crime how little attention this fic has had. It's a great, creepy read and Lydia (mostly) gets the better of Peter, or at least makes him suffer. Much as I love Peter, he deserves everything he has coming.


And strangely, these also feature Lydia – is everyone just off her at the moment? It's very odd. Gen to gen-ish and much lighter.

An CaoineadhLydia gen
Great look at Lydia working out what she is for herself in a few missing scenes.

An Average Wednesday Night Lydia/Allison (though I'd call it Lydia & Allison with a hint of more)
Lovely interaction, some great lines, and I love Lydia's view of Allison.


And one where the Lydia pairing isn't the focus, but it is there.

Scenes from a Resurrection Talia Hale, Lydia/Allison.
This is great in itself, but I have particular love for it due to the discussion Talia has with Scott about wolves in the wild. It's the projection of human values/assumptions onto animals that stops me watching wildlife programmes, it drives me beyond insane, and I love how this questions how true the acknowledged rules etc are for werewolves too.

(* And can I just say here, that leaving a comment just asking 'is there going to be a part two?' on a 25k fic someone wrote for an exchange may be the rudest behaviour I've seen yet in one of this year's fests. Ugh. They need a slap.)

I kind of fell into Teen Wolf this time last year (still no shame here, it's still made of puppies and rainbows as far as I'm concerned), in time to do a pinch hit but not take part from the start in fests like tw_holidays and tw_fallharvest.

I was still finding my way around then but now I have a much better idea what I like (hint: it gets disturbingly closer to *everything* all the time) so have some tw_fallharvest recs. I just picked my absolute favourites out but there's plenty more good stuff -- if the first week is anything to go by there will be lots more recs. I have to do some from the fabulous rare pairs fest too, but for some reason I find it a lot easier to do without endless deliberation when the writers are anon.

Let's Make Up Our Own Tradition (Lydia, PG-13)
Wonderful Lydia, and great writing. I could have read pages and pages more of this, but purely because it's so good and not because it wasn't perfect as it is.

Grin Like a Madman and Dance (Derek/Stiles, NC-17)
Gah, I have such a weakness for future!fic, especially when there are teenage characters involved, because I love seeing where they *could* go. Mix that with rain and some lovely smut without the whole True Love scenario having to be spelt out and I'm a happy Llama. Now I just need one of these for the other 3 million pairings I like in this fandom and I'll be set. *rolls about in this fic some more*

Inside of your Smiles (Lydia/Cora, NC-17)
Cora keeps interrupting Lydia so she feels she should... make it up to her. Wonderful smutty fic that has definitely convinced me I need to read more of this pairing.

Taking Over This Town (Allison/Lydia, not worksafe)
So pretty, I can't stop looking at their hair. Lovely.

Historically Inaccurate (Derek/Stiles, NC-17)
AU (not normally my favourite thing) but still with werewolves etc. which helps a lot. Nice setting with Stiles working at a historical tourist site, and a fun read.

Wow, look at all those appearances by the girls. I love this fest already :)

Now back to the neverending TW holidays fic!

Hmm. Does anyone know of a Christmas/holiday exchange for the HP fandom that's welcoming to (and with participants who will actually request and offer) odd pairings, older characters, cross-gen etc.? Preferably something open to any pairing, any kink (or none).

I'm drawing a blank at the moment. I wasn't sure smutty_claus was going to be possible this year as I've definitely been a tiny minority as far as tastes go there, but the sign-up form changes have removed all doubt.

It would be weird not to have a HP exchange fic to write this year. Any suggestions?

Just in case anyone hasn't seen it yet who might want to take part - there's a poll up here to see if there's enough interest to make a final (seventh year!) McShep Match fest viable. Decision soon!

We're off out to take my Mum to lunch for her birthday, and hopefully buy her more plants for the garden. Then more reading at HP Beholder!

Oops, I've missed posting a few, but here's the flash fic silliness for this week. Mmm, spanking. Shame it's not long enough to count for my long fic bingo 'corporal punishment' square. *will not write epic Scott/Mr Harris fic, no no a thousand times no*

Title: Discipline
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing/s: Adrian Harris/Stiles Stilinski
Rating: R
Summary: There are many things Adrian likes to think about doing with Stiles.
Warnings: Underage student/teacher, abuse of authority, spanking, some humiliation.
Author's Notes: Written for the prompt 'fire' at Full Moon Ficlet. This fic was inevitable after Harris's little speech about discipline in 2.01. I'm surprised it took this long, but werewolves are sooo distracting.

Discipline

Title: Scratch
Pairing: Peter/Stiles
Rating: R
Warnings: Underage (canon ages), age difference, manipulative relationship, dubious consent, hints of amnesia
Summary: Stiles isn't waiting for Peter to visit him again. Not at all.
Word Count: 1750
Author's Notes: Written for Full Moon Ficlet, for the prompt 'scars'. Stands alone with minimal reading between the lines, but it follows on from Kryptonite and Prey (Transactions series).

I'll add it to AO3 tomorrow, as we can't crosspost the actual fic until the masterlist goes up for the week's challenge.

Scratch