Just let me lie here on the tile

So I wrote a very short story for mumblemumble for fandomtrees, about Chu Shuzhi at a slave auction, being put on display by his Lord Envoy for Reasons.

And then mumblemumble wrote a sequel that goes into more detail about the things Chu Shuzhi would do for his Lord and what his Lord Envoy would ask of him, and it is glorious and you should all read it:

Aftermath (2360 words) by A
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chu Shuzhi/Shen Wei
Characters: Chu Shuzhi, Shen Wei (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Slaves, Submission, Loyalty Kink, And About Fifteen Other Kinks, Aftercare
Summary:

"Quiet," his Lordship commands, and the room falls silent. His finger settles under Chu Shuzhi's chin to tilt his head up, his gaze heavy on Chu Shuzhi, his eyes dark as a storm underneath the mask. "This one isn't mine to discipline anymore," he says coldly, causing a victorious murmur among the crowd.

Chu Shuzhi doesn't flinch. He doesn't move at all. He has to remind himself to breathe.

Slightly more brain today means that I realize yesterday wasn't the solstice but the equinox. Neither of those words have ever held any real meaning to me though, I must admit. The Dutch word for solstice is pretty, but we don't seem to have an equinox equivalent, just like English doesn't.

I got three wonderful story gifts for guardian_wishlist !

I didn't even think to put this in my prompts, but I love "5 things" fics. There's just something about the structure that makes interesting things happen, and both of these use it beautifully in different ways:

Domesticity (2414 words) by buriedbybooks
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Da Qing (Guardian), Zhu Hong (Guardian), Lin Jing (Guardian), Jiajia (Guardian), Guo Changcheng, Chu Shuzhi
Additional Tags: 5+1 Things, Domesticity, soft moments, Fluff, SID escapades
Summary:

Five times Wēilán was caught acting married and one time it was just them.

in the smallest of ways (1837 words) by china_shop
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Zhao Yunlan & Da Qing
Characters: Zhao Yunlan, Shěn Wēi, The SID Team
Additional Tags: Caretaking in the smallest of ways, Missing Scenes, episode 14, Episode 19, Family, Lowkey get-together, Five Times
Summary:

Five times Zhao Yunlan looked out for Shen Wei.

And elenothar  took on the prompt of "Shen Wei's students Find Out" and boy, do they. I adore Shen Wei's student Jiajia, and to get her PoV of events as well as Zhao Yunlan's and Shen Wei's is so satisfying:

One for the conspiracy theorists (4638 words) by Elenothar
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Jiajia & Shen Wei (Guardian)
Characters: Shen Wei (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan, Jiajia (Guardian), Li Qian (Guardian), Da Qing (Guardian), Lin Jing (Guardian)
Additional Tags: Identity Reveal, Post-Canon, dragon city university students, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Protective Shen Wei (Guardian), hei pao shi in professor shen's clothing
Summary:

Shen Wei's identity is revealed to his students in the most dramatic way possible.

(No grad students were harmed during the writing of this fic.)

I posted about fandomtrees gifts earlier, but that was before the AO3 collection was unlocked, so I only got to rave about half and there were more stories and a VID!

Please enjoy:

• three amazing cookie recipes from different countries
• a gorgeous artwork of a heartfelt Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan embrace from grayswandir
• a terrific "Leave Me And Go" Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan story by onemuseleft (I don't know if that's the official name for the trope, btw, but it's the moment where one character is in dire straits and begs the other character to leave them for their own safety.... WELP. You can imagine how Weilan deals with that. I love that trope and would read any amount of stories featuring it, and this is a delicious angsty take.
• A WU XIE VID by trickytricky (Lost Tomb Reboot)! A perfect recruiter vid, spoiler-free, featuring everything I love best about LTR, which is basically Wu Xie being badass, sexy, innocent, flirty, snarky, and also more or less naked now and then (which is to say, we can see his bare arms and collarbone, but for Z1L that is a LOT.) It's a total mood lifter and I recommend it highly.
•  an intriguing take on a Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan moment from early Guardian canon in this story by trobadora which does that satisfying thing where I go "huh, that never really made sense to me but NOW it does"!
• a short intense Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan h/c story by laireshi full of ALL the good tropes, including cave-ins, my favorite XD

Okay, I am not the best person to rec this vid, because I can't read Chinese and so I can't name the person who made it, or the title, or what shows the footage is even from.

However: this is a constructed reality vid that is just gorgeously well done, where Bai Yu is a cop and Zhu Yilong is some kind of criminal mastermind, and it is HOT TO DEATH.

There is some dialogue subtitled in English, setting up the story very sparely, and there is a single sequence I recognize from Guardian (Shen Wei healing the scrapes on his shoulder) which just fits in seamlessly here, even though I know we didn't see Shen Wei taking a shower afterwards (and really, why not??).

The sequence starting at 00:30 where Zhu Yilong is in disguise as a waiter, recognizes Bai Yu as a cop, there is a fight, and then ZYL abseils off the building is amazing. I would watch this movie, just saying.

(Special mention for Zhu Yilong's little side-smile at 1:36, which is just perfectly placed in the middle of Shit Blowing Up that he certainly didn't have anything to do with. Yum.)

naye posted: AO3 Update relevant to C-drama fandom

Finally, no more "English as default" for new fanworks! I was one of the people who wrote in to the AO3 Support to request this, and I'm very happy with this update.

There's a new recs comm for Guardian fanworks, which is great, and which asks people who post recs to actually talk a bit about WHY they want to recommend something, and that is my jam. I love reading recs even for stories and vids I already am familiar with, just to see what others think about them.

merit_brush_recs

Welcome to Merit Brush Recs! We are a recommendations posting community for fanworks of all kinds (fic, vids, art, etc.) for 镇魂 | Guardian (both the novel and drama), related RPF, and other projects starring the lead actors, Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong. This includes commercials in which they play characters clearly separate from their own public personas.

For my first rec, I posted Fanvid: Honey Meta Edit by @lola

 This is a gorgeous vid using Zhu Yilong's commercial and behind the scenes footage, set to lovely ethereal sensual music that fits him to a T, and including that amazing Time Engraver commercial. The mood is a little subdued and pastel/black&white until 0:36 where the beat kicks in, the color explodes gloriously, and the lyric is "I got your honey, baby" - well YES. Yes, I do believe you do.

I really like the idea of everyone leaving fannish recs on Sandy's birthday. Of course, by the time I saw people's posts, it was already a day later (timezones are so handy that way) and now it's a day later still, but I'm sure Sandy woudn't have minded. I visited her recs pages so often, back in the day.

So have two recs for stories by the same author, both in Tolkien movie/book fandom.

First, an adorable Legolas/Gimli story where, as the author says, Gimli is a BAMF. This is an important part of his characterization for me, and I'm always happy to find fic that showcases him that way.

From One Age to Another (12118 words) by determamfidd
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit (2012)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Gimli/Legolas

Summary: Upon their return to Eryn Lasgalen and Erebor respectively, Legolas and Gimli each have a new adornment. Their fathers would like an explanation.

The second rec is for a much longer crossover-ish story where Thorin and crew are all kibitzing from the sidelines as the LOTR storyline progresses. What with being dead and all, there isn't much else left for them to do - or is there?

This one's a WiP, and we haven't gotten to the point yet where Legolas and Gimli are even friends, much less anything closer than that, but I cannot WAIT for that to happen, and to see the reactions from the other dwarves. And then there's the question of whether Bilbo will be allowed into the Halls of the Dead...

Sansûkh (94511 words) by determamfidd
Chapters: 14/?
Fandom: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (Jackson movies), The Lord of the Rings (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Major Character Death
Relationships: Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield, Gimli/Legolas Greenleaf

Summary: The battle was over, and Thorin Oakenshield awoke, naked and shivering, in the Halls of his Ancestors.

Two vidding things that are splendid:

Francesca Coppa did a terrific video interview with vidders Sandy and Rache, which is now online at the OTW journal. Sandy & Rache are two of my favorite vidders -- their website is a roll call of fantastic vids like Stress, Crush Story, A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness and the ever-fabulous Detachable Penis.

The only complaint I have about this is that it's too short; I would basically like a five day long interview where they talk about every vid they ever made and everything that ever happened in vidding fandom. Also, where Sandy laughs a lot, because she has the best laugh. But this is an excerpt from a longer interview, so there's more to come, yay!

The other splendid thing is that killabeez has made a shiny high-quality remaster of her gorgeous Xena vid Salome, which is one of the best vids that ever came out of Xena fandom, if you ask me. It's lush and sensual and melancholy, and it tells the story of Ares' doomed romance with Xena (with, as Killa says, a touch of Xena/Gabrielle). The vid has amazing use of color, red, black, and ice-blue; in a way, this is the dark doppelgänger of charmax's beautiful vid Boom Boom Ba.

I found out about the vid Forever by Zi thanks to mrs_underhill, who posted about it on kirkspock, and I just adore it.

It's a Russian Kirk/Spock vid, with the mythic, larger than life feeling that I also get from killabeez' gorgeous TOS vids As and Dante's Prayer -- THEIRLOVEISSOFUCKINGEPIC pretty much sums it up, and it makes me so happy. This vid is classic in terms of editing style -- no heavy effects, fairly long shots, but a great sense of mood and building up to emotional impact.

Also, I think what Forever does with landscape is really cool, and something I can't recall having seen elsewhere; the closest related vid I can think of is sisabet's due South vid Icebound Stream, where the polar bears in the snow are used as a metaphor for Fraser and Victoria. In the first minute of Forever (which is all instrumental), the imagery is intercut between Earth and Vulcan, then deserts and oceans, and then finally the two meet in a flyover shot of the beach, then up into the clouds, above the clouds into space...and to the Enterprise. It feels dreamlike and gorgeous and uplifting, and it sets the theme and the mood perfectly. I thought this was partly external footage, like the polar bears, but I am assured that it's not -- all the desert, ocean etc. shots are from Trek.

I love the Russian song, and it inevitably loses something in translation, but I did my best: I've made an English subtitle file for the vid, with the vidders' permission and based on mrs_underhill's initial translation of the lyrics. I went a bit more literal in places, because all of a sudden I had my translation professor in my head telling me to cut out the poetry, so you may like her version better!

Vid: download and streaming links - I recommend the "worksafe" version, I think it's by far the best. On their website, click the download link below the streaming video. This will take you to a Russian download site, similar to mediafire or megaupload. Here's what to do next in handy screencaps: step 1 - step 2. It may take a while for the vid to download.

Subtitle file: (right-click and save)

The way this works: you save both the vid and the subtitle files to the same directory. Then you open the vid in VLC player (or another player, but I know it works with VLC *g*) and VLC will automagically pick up the subtitle file. If necessary, you can then turn on the subtitles by clicking Video > Subtitles Track > Track 1, and turn them off again with Video > Subtitles Track > Disable. You can also change the size/color/font of the subtitles in Tools > Preferences > Subtitles & OSD.

It's a lot easier to make an .srt file than I thought; you can even do it in Notepad, but I chose to use an editor. If anyone is interested I could do a how-to post on that later?

Back again from the holidays; great fun, lots of long walks, came home with a cold. Am consoling myself with tea, eggdrop soup and Yuletide stories, which is just the best comfort there is - it's like grazing off a buffet with more than 2000 different dishes, you can't go wrong. I'm trying to leave comments as I go, and I'm bookmarking my favorites for a longer recommendation post later on.

Right now I want to draw attention to my favorite story so far, which is The Case of the Broken-Hearted Liar, a Holmes/Watson story that just about knocked me off my feet with its intensity. Gorgeous language, excellent character voices, and very lush and sensual in a believably Victorian way.

"We are here to observe to-night, Watson. I doubt there will be any events of interest for your pen, but I am, as always, glad of your company."

The rush of warmth at Holmes' heartfelt comment left me momentarily quiet, tracking his motions in the near-dark, the angling shadows created by his chilly smile. Before I could find words Holmes waved them away, uninterested in emotional demonstrations unless, it seemed, he was the one to make them.

As DVDs are coming out for more and more shows, vidders have started remastering their older vids, made with VCR footage or sometimes third-generation copies. Remasters ares a wonderful thing, IMO, and a labor of love: remastering's a lot of work, and I think it's probably not creatively fulfilling in the way making a new vid is. Also, I fear there's probably less feedback for a remaster, no matter how pretty, than for a new vid, which is why I stress once again to please let the vidders know if you like the vids I'm talking about below, all of which have been remastered recently.

Title: Haunted
Artist: Poe
Fandom: Odyssey 5
Vidder(s): flummery
Download at: http://trickster.org/vids
View Imeem version at: http://flummery.imeem.com/video/gxW22sxe/o5_haunted_remaster/
Leave feedback at: http://flummery.livejournal.com/23824.html

This vid oh-so-casually introduces you to a fandom you have probably never heard of in your life, to a whole group of characters and their relationships, to the mission they are on and the things that go wrong - and then suddenly there is a certain thing that happens (and you will know it when you see it, oh yes) and the vid has you BY THE THROAT AND DOES NOT LET GO and you are all sniffly and there's a whole science fiction story there that is starting to become clear and - wow. How did they do that?

I've been sitting in between both halves of flummery as they finished work on the remaster and I still don't know how they do it. (It involves a lot of yelling "OMG here let ME do it," I think. And possibly glowsticks, though they hid those for my visit.) But if you haven't seen this vid before, you should watch it. And if you have, you should watch it again, because the remaster is incredibly crisp, and really amazed me when I first saw it. Haunted has always been a stellar vid, but I always thought that Odyssey 5 was filmed by the same people who make Australian soap operas; it had that orange-tinted, flat lighting that makes everyone look like they're made of plastic. Well, surprise - Odyssey 5 actually looks great, and has natural lighting, and all the weird tinting came with the VCR source that was the only thing available when the vid was made. Yay remasters!

Title: Roll To Me
Artist:Del Amitri
Fandom: due South
Vidder(s): Sandy and Nicole; remaster by Gwyneth
Download at: http://www.relative-obscurity.org/belles/cb.html
Leave feedback at: see sherrold's LJ profile for email, etc.

This vid played at Club Vivid, and I heard people going "Oh yay, they remastered that vid! I love that vid!" and realized that this must be a classic vid I had never seen. I get the reactions now: it's an adorable, warm, just-right Fraser/Vecchio vid, and makes me terribly nostalgic for early due South. Love the very clean POV shift from Vecchio to Fraser, and I just basically want to watch it three more times now and go AW.

Title: History Repeating
Artist: Shirley Bassey and the Propellerheads
Fandom: Highlander, HL: The Raven
Vidder(s): killabeez
Download and leave feedback at: http://killabeez.livejournal.com/247510.html?style=mine

Oh, Amanda. See, I have watched just enough Highlander to see Tessa die (snf) and I honestly don't remember seeing Amanda around at all, but Killa has done several vids for her, and now I feel like I know her very well; in fact, I adore her. She maybe weighs 40 kilos soaking wet and yet she kicks ass, she's clever, she's tricksy, she's got a good sense of humor and an even better sense of mischief, and she has great taste in men, women and loot. She's a sticky-fingered filcher with a taste for thievery - wait, now I'm quoting another vid, and more to the point of this vid, she's been around. If anyone has ever been around, it's Amanda. The vid tells such a strong story (look at Amanda dissing the Russian revolution by comparing it with the French! And you can see her think "yeah, because that ended well", and it all happens in what, four clips?), and it's such a riot of color and movement, and both come out beautifully in this shiny new remaster. Yay!

Title: 500 Miles
Artist:The Proclaimers
Fandom: Professionals
Vidder(s): Sandy and Alex; remaster by Justacat
Download at: http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/vids/500Miles.php
Leave feedback at: see sherrold's LJ profile for email, etc.

I only know the Professionals fandom through vids, and I confess that I still don't know which one is Bodie and which one is Doyle. I can distinguish the boys themselves just fine! It's just something about the names - I think maybe Bodie looks more like a Doyle to me, or vice versa. Anyway, thank Zeus for the vidders' notes, where Sandy says: "Too many Pros stories show Bodie doing all the running; I wanted to do a visual rebuttal, showing Doyle doing the chasing." This is such a great song, and the vidders use it beautifully, and with this remaster the vid looks like it was made yesterday. I love all the determined, nobody-can-stop-me motion in the vid. Not to mention the right-on-the-beat strutting in very tight jeans. *admires*

The Cold From Hell has me wrapped up on the couch in my favorite striped fleece blanket, sniffling and coughing and drinking tea by the liter.

The story I wanted to post for 14valentines today is still unfinished; instead, here are some recs for stories that are warm and comforting and good to read when you're under the weather.

An Earthly Knight, by ltlj. SGA, NC-17. Everyone on my friendslist who even vaguely likes Stargate: Atlantis is already reading ltlj, right? If not, get thee over to the Retrograde universe and dive in; you probably won't come out for days.

"An Earthly Knight" is her latest, it's a stand-alone story, and it's fantastic in all senses of the word. Makes me want to curl up in a tree with a bunch of feral, yet very friendly elves. Mmm.

The Buried Treasure Racket, by Dorinda. The Sting, NC-17, slash. Yes, I already recced this after yuletide, but this is a pippin and a peach of a story. Perfect for rereading when you're sick and want something that's beautifully written, warm, and deliciously right. Actually, that description pretty much goes for all of Dorinda's stories.

Teal'c's five favorite board games, by Komos. SG-1, G. Who'd think board games could produce a story this rich, this funny, this acute? All that and a fantastic Teal'c portrait. I just adore this from start to finish.

Some Enchanted Evening and extra scene, by Randi DuMois. Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, NC-17, slash. Set during one of my very favorite episodes, Hero's Heart (canon amnesia! badass gang enforcer Iolaus! pining Hercules!), full of wonderful characterization, snark and hotness.

Going Home, by daegaer. Good Omens, G. I have this bookmarked as "Aziraphale is recalled to Heaven. Crowley is strangely upset. Hijinks ensue! Lovely, warm, gen, note-perfect" and I'm not sure what I can add to that. daegaer's narratorial voice is devastatingly accurate, and this story is just everything I would ever want from Good Omens fic.

Matters of the Heart, by Valentin. Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, PG. A fun, lighthearted story about Hercules, Iolaus, Iolaus' girlfriend and a devious plot by Ares, with a lovely wallowy scene that I always reread and sigh over.

14 Valentines: Reproductive Rights

My first set of Yuletide story recommendations is here.

Crumpled Pieces of Paper Found in the Wastebasket of Count Rugen. (Princess Bride). G. Short and hilarious, and a fantastic title, too. Hee.

An Unwilling Heart (Diane Duane -- Young Wizards series). PG-13. Tom and Carl's first meeting. Long, plotty, wonderfully rich in worldbuilding detail, I just adored this, and it manages to feel fresh and original and still very closely linked to the original books in style and theme.

The Taste of Honey (Sandman). G. Death and Delirium visit a city. This is gorgeous, very Gaimanesque, with a wealth of little, odd details. Not many stories written in second person present work for me, but this one does.

darkness and beauty of stars was on my mouth. (Sandman). PG. What does the New Corinthian dream of? Shivery and lush, and I love the ending.

reflection. (Sandman). G. Delight meets Delirium. Bittersweet and true-feeling, plus a perfect Delirium voice, wow. Love the socks and the tiny elephants.

A Maze of Twisty Passages, All Alike. (Lois McMaster Bujold -- Miles Vorkosigan series). PG. Ivan and Gregor are in trouble, and they'll do anything rather than wait for rescue, especially from Miles. Sheer delight from beginning (the title!) to end. I love Ivan and Gregor's competence in the face of danger - they're both so much more than they seem, and this story delivers that beautifully. The clever dialogue made me laugh out loud, and the resolution warms my heart. Oh, Ivan. Oh, Gregor.

The Long Con. (Lois McMaster Bujold -- Miles Vorkosigan series). R. Ivan and Byerly go out on the town. For spy reasons, obviously. Hee. This was just so much fun;  I adored Alys' and especially Miles' reaction, that was just perfect.

See, already this Imeem thing is paying off, as vids are showing up that I downloaded a while ago and then mislaid.

Code Monkey is an SGA vid starring Rodney, by mousewrites, to a wonderful Jonathan Coulton song. It's slashy,and it would be a bit of a spoiler to give the pairing away, so I won't, but don't worry. It's an adorable and funny vid with some terrific choices and timing, and it's the vidder's first, so go watch and comment!

You know how sometimes you're reading a story and you just want to quote bits of it to everybody?

Thanks to aka_arduinna's wonderful multifandom recs, I'm reading Taking Time by Janne, an SGA/Dr Who (Tenth Doctor) crossover, and here's the bit I love best so far:

“You don’t think “hi, my time-travelling phone box set us up” is an original pick-up?” John asked and turned back to the Doctor when Rodney just glared at him. “And I don’t know what it is you want from me, but I’m not gay.”

“And I’m not a man,” the Doctor said airily, “so that works out nicely all round. Besides, I don’t need you to have sex with me,” he went on and then paused and looked John up and down appreciatively enough to make John’s face heat, “Though I can’t say it wouldn’t be nice.”

Oh, and happy Turkey Day, those of you who have days off celebrate it! (Jammy bastards..) Me, I'm looking forward to Sinterklaas, the best excuse ever to eat chocolate letters, pepernoten, speculaas and marzipan. Yum.

mickeymvt posted a slashy coda to the Hercules episodes Armageddon I and II:

Gratitude, Hercules/Iolaus, rated NC-17.

It wasn't all that long ago that she was saying "But I don't write fanfic." Heh. Yay, go encourage her!

(Disclaimer: I beta'ed this. :-)

Someone, somewhere has to have an mp3 of Journey's Separate Ways. Please? Anyone?

Otherwise I will be reduced to blaring "SOMEDAY LOVE WILL FIND YOU! BREAK THOSE CHAINS THAT BIND YOU!" around the house all by myself, and it's just not the same.

This is, of course, all barkley and thepouncer's fault, for they made a SGA/Airwolf LKBV vid to this song that made me stupid happy. And it's not even that I have nostalgia for Airwolf, because I'd never heard of this show, but it looks intriguing in a whacked sort of way (chameleon? eagle? cello WTF?) and this is my new favorite anthem of fannish joy and John/puddlejumper OTPness.

IF HE EVER HURTS YOU/TRUE LOVE WON'T DESERT YOU! (*cue decloaking puddlejumpers behind John's head*)

Seriously, send help. Or mp3s.
ETA: Thanks to barkley I have an mp3, woo! ONE NIGHT WILL REMIND YOU/ HOW WE TOUCHED AND WENT OUR SEPARATE WAYS!

For everyone who'd like to build a vidshow of their very own:

- thefourthvine recs anime vids. I think I've only seen two of these, and those two are lovely (Mitternacht and A Godawful Small Affair). Will be downloading the rest.
- makesmewannadie asked, "What is your favorite vid in your fandom?" and bravely posted all the answers, with vid links. Unknown-to-me vids on this list too, yay!
- astolat has put up high-quality Xvid versions of all her older vids, and put some older vids online that were only available on DVD before, including Man of Constant Sorrow, one of my favorites that I will have to talk about at more length some time. (It's Indiana Jones, and one of the things I love about it is the perfect ending shot. Go watch.)

And soooon, the Vividcon vids will be coming online. Good times.

flambeau is writing what she calls SGA snippets. I think of snippets as something incomplete, or incomplete-feeling, but these are finished stories, and they're gems. (Disclaimer: I beta'ed both of them, but it was more the sort of beta'ing where you tell the writer the bits you liked best. There were lots. *g*)

Over the hills and far away is disturbingly funny, and she has just posted another: Suburban consumption rituals, which is just hilarious. And, um. Horrific. And hilarious! Really, not many people could pull that off. It could also work as a straight SF story, with a little tinkering, since the worldbuilding is detailed and delicious. This just made me grin like a shark.

My SO just showed me this: Starlords, a mashup vid of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, and it brightened my day considerably.
First it's more of a fake movie trailer, then, just when you think they've run out of parallels and jokes (Ewoks versus Orcs!), they turn it into a music vid. With dancing. Gandalf does a mean funk routine, and Gollum isn't too shabby either...go see, and giggle!

Today is merryish's birthday. Woo! Clearly this is squid party hats and balloons time. (Why squid? I don't know either. But Merry seems like a squid party hat sort of person to me. Happy birthday! *waves rubbery tentacles*)

Two SGA stories have been posted today in her honor. Both are hilariously entertaining and possibly a little whacked. I leave the reader to draw her own conclusions.

Candygram, by aka_arduinna.
Rating: G, preslash (McKay/Sheppard)
Summary: "Do you think it ate Colonel Sheppard?"

I don't care if you read it before. This is the new, extra-shiny illustrated version, with fantastic art by cynicatlantis. It will brighten your day.

Oh, God! by flambeau
Rating: PG. Characters: Dr. Chasez, Carter the marine, Sheppard, McKay, Teyla, Ronon.
Summary: Birds do it, bees do it, Rodney McKay doesn't do it, and JC Chasez, intrepid scientist, witnesses a divine intervention.

This made me snicker madly. I love the Poptarts universe, but you don't have to have read those stories at all to enjoy this one, and the focus is on Rodney. I can't say much more than that without spoiling. Just - heeeee.