Luzula

I was inspired by china_shop's recent posting of an old abandoned WIP, so here goes:

This is an old WIP from my days in due South fandom. Be warned: the story is incomplete and I am extremely unlikely to finish it, but it is linearly written and I hope what there is of it can be enjoyed on its own terms. People who enjoy science fiction worldbuilding are likely to enjoy this, I think? It's not a space opera, but especially in the first half it is more of an exploration of the slow terraforming and the society on the planet that is Fraser's home--I think those bits, along with the sailing and the landscape description, are the strongest parts of the story. It could be read canon-blind, I think.

This is a science fiction AU of the due South pilot episode, and the canonical character death is Bob Fraser. seascribe and exeterlinden have beta read this at various points, and sineala recently offered some comments on the section on Pigivuq language. I am grateful to them, but obviously all errors and infelicities are mine! Also, I wrote this ten years ago and there are things I might have done differently had I written it today--I'm just not capable of rewriting it now.

The Xenobiology Service (11788 words) by Luzula
Fandom: due South
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Characters: Benton Fraser, Martha Fraser, Ray Kowalski, Ray Vecchio, George Fraser, Robert "Bob" Fraser (due South), Buck Frobisher
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Worldbuilding, Terraforming, Nature, Sailing, Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued
Summary: Benton Fraser and his grandmother are working out in the field, doing their slow terraforming work on their home planet of Pigivuq, when a message arrives announcing the death of Fraser's father in the line of duty as an officer of the Xenobiology Service examining newly discovered planets.

Title: In Your Boots
Pairing: Fraser/Thatcher + ensemble
Rating: PG
Length: 3650 words
Summary: Fraser wakes up in a woman's body.
Notes: Note, this is an ABANDONED WIP. It's maybe five years old or so, though I rather like it on reread--it's a casefic with some fun ensemble elements and Fraser/Thatcher bonding. Set in S2. There are notes at the end about where I imagined the story going after this (as far as I remember).

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Title: First Posting
Fandom: due South
Characters: Benton Fraser gen
Rating: G
Length: 1300 words
Summary: Fraser's first posting.
Notes: Note, this is an ABANDONED WIP. It was to be the third part in my series about Fraser's youth, the first of which is Leaving Home and the second of which is Depot. There are notes at the end about where I imagined the story going after this (as far as I remember).

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For Yuletide I wrote two fics for my recipient Snow, because I matched on two fandoms!

A Crack in the Wall (6798 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Hadestown (Musical), Greek and Roman Mythology
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eurydice/Persephone
Characters: Eurydice (Hadestown), Persephone (Hadestown)
Additional Tags: Revolution, Poverty, Mining
Summary: Eurydice, in the Underground.

I started this fic half a year ago and talked about it in my journal, I think? It's funny, because I was wavering on my Persephone characterization, trying to decide which way to go, and then exeterlinden beta-read it for me two days before Christmas, and she was all "go to the daaark side!" And I did. *g* I also want to thank keerawa for taking a look at an early version, and moetushie for doing a super-fast beta for a stranger asking out of the blue. The fic didn't get that many comments, but my recipient liked it, and I'm happy with how it came out. I've been wanting to write something for Hadestown for a while, and I'm glad I did.

Down Among the Weeds (3887 words) by Luzula
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tam Lin (Traditional Ballad)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Janet/Tam Lin
Characters: Janet (Tam Lin), Tam Lin
Additional Tags: Explicit Consent, Ballads, Revisionist Fairy Tale
Summary: Janet brings Tam Lin out of the wild woods.

I started on this one, too, before I even got my assignment. I'm especially grateful to noracharles for very useful beta feedback, to raspberryhunter who also gave useful feedback, and to jjhunter who looked at an early draft and helped me with a bit of brainstorming. This didn't get many comments either, but I liked how it came out. I've been thinking about Tam Lin on and off for months, and I'm glad I could get my thoughts out in fic form.

Your Fading Fire (2474 words) by Luzula
Fandom: due South
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Victoria Metcalf
Characters: Benton Fraser, Victoria Metcalf
Additional Tags: Episode Tag, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst
Summary: Fraser gets on the train. It's Victoria who has second thoughts.

Um, so this is the one I was not really happy with. My recipient liked it, though, so that's the most important thing, I guess? The problem was that my recipient wanted Fraser/Victoria porn with him in handcuffs, and I'd written a Fraser/Victoria fic with a scene similar to that for the last dSSS. So I just didn't know if I had anything more to say about that. I did find a new angle on it, I guess, but I'm not really sure it worked. Thanks to seascribe for beta-reading and reassurance, and to darlas_mom for pushing me to improve it. Heh, and obviously the title is a Gerard Manley Hopkins quote.

So, I have posted two Big Bangs! \o/ I actually finished the podfic about four months ago, and the fic maybe two months ago, except for some small bits at the end, so it feels weird that they are only posted now. These are old news, people! Except they're not to you, I guess. I have still not reached the point where I can re-read the fic and tell how well it works, though--I am still too close to it.

Partners In Exile (20168 words) by Luzula
Fandom: due South, Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Diefenbaker & Benton Fraser
Characters: Benton Fraser, Diefenbaker, Bob Fraser (due South), Buck Frobisher, Gerard (due South), Ray Kowalski, Ray Vecchio, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Temeraire Fusion, Dragons, Partnership, Case Fic, Canonical Character Death, Episode Remix
Summary: A retelling of the due South pilot as a Temeraire fusion: When Benton Fraser's father dies, he teams up with his father's dragon partner Diefenbaker and together they chase his father's killers to Chicago.

Notes: mergatrude gave me the idea for this one. She said: "someone should write a modern-day dS/Temeraire fusion!" And I did. I had a lot of fun writing a gen story about Fraser and Dief (who is a dragon, obviously) and also a lot of fun with the worldbuilding. I am very grateful to my betas and cheerleaders: keerawa read and gave feedback on an early version, and so did mergatrude. sage helped me brainstorm at one point. Most of all, seascribe was with me all the way, reading new bits as I sent them to her, and Skyping with me to give me feedback. Finally, malnpudl read the whole thing at the end and gave me valuable feedback. (I hope I didn't forget anyone!) I am blessed with wonderful art by mific for this story; do check it out! Wow, I love it so much. ♥

[Podfic] Xeriscape (32 words) by Luzula (written by katallison)
Fandom: Hard Core Logo (1996)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: John Oxenberger/Original Female Character
Characters: John Oxenberger, Billy Tallent, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Mental Health Issues, Marriage, Podfic
Summary: Years after the movie, John has found a kind of peace. But then Billy calls, and he wants something from John.

Notes: So I also did a podfic! I love this story, and it was wonderful to record, in the kind of way that challenges and makes you grow as a podficcer. I absolutely love it when you manage to find a character voice that just works for a character, and John felt that way for me. Thanks to malnpudl for beta-listening! Also check out the lovely art that rose_malmaison made for the podfic! Thank you so much.

1) I posted flashfic! It's a short teenage Fraser/Smithbauer fic with, er, theoretical physics metaphors: Collapse of the Wave Function.

2) I'm in Norway for a math conference! It's up in Lofoten (the chain of islands that sticks out westward in northern Norway). I've never been there, and it's supposed to be pretty spectacular, so I'm staying a few days extra. I am really hoping to see puffin birds! I spent today on buses from Umeå to Bodø, and that was one beautiful stretch of road where it crossed the Scandes mountains. Wow. And I collected lots of interesting bryophyte specimens along a river bank when the bus took a break. \o/

3) I'm working alone up in the mountains as usual between June 13 and the beginning of July. A complication is that I just heard that a job I applied to in April is having interviews on June 26 (it's an academic job, and I really expected them to take half a year processing applications like most such jobs do, but apparently not). And they can't tell me if I'm going to be called until a week before the interviews. Based on numbers alone, I have about a 25% chance of getting called up (they'll be interviewing about 5 people out of 21) and it's a huge hassle to get down from the isolated cabin where I work, not to mention that someone else would have to take my place to ensure continuity in the fieldwork. I called them up and asked would they consider a phone interview if I do get called, and they, well, didn't give me a clear answer. And this is a job I actually do want. Arrrrrrrgh. Aside from the practical issues, I feel upset about this whole thing because I feel like the time I spend up there every year is my private time, where I can, like, recharge my social batteries and just be on my own. Sure, I work, but the work is fun and very different from my other work, and it gives me a perfect combination of freedom and structure. *sigh*

Wow, apparently being out traveling makes me productive? I think it's all the time spent on buses.

Title: American Women
Pairing and characters: Frannie Vecchio/Mackenzie King, Maria Vecchio, Ray Vecchio
Rating: PG
Length: 1000 words (in ten drabbles alternating in POV)
Summary: Frannie and Mackenzie go on a date.
Notes: This is for innocentsmith, who in a discussion of why Frannie is the little black dress of due South femslash, wanted Frannie in a little black dress, hooking up with Mackenzie King. Thanks to seascribe for beta-reading! I'm posting it for the fan_flashworks double challenge since it's a double POV. Also, this will totally count towards my rarepair badge, since this is the only fic I know of with this pairing. *g*

American Women

I want to post Yuletide recs and participate in the Snowflake challenge, but alas, my hands and back impose limits on my typing. Ah well. Nobody guessed either of my holiday exchange stories! I, on the other hand, was right in 11 of my 17 guesses for the due South Seekrit Santa exchange. *g* Anyway, for that exchange I wrote:

Turns of Tempest (7127 words) by Luzula
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Victoria Metcalf
Summary: In the end, she couldn't do it. All that planning, all the nights Victoria had spent in prison daydreaming about how she'd bring him down--when she was faced with the reality of betraying Benton Fraser, she couldn't do it. Even though he'd betrayed her, all those years ago.

I had the idea for this story a while ago, and I'm glad I could use it for dSSS. I'm reasonably happy with how it came out, and I'm grateful to keerawa and especially to exeterlinden for beta and brainstorming. While writing it, I discovered that basically all of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poetry is relevant for Fraser/Victoria, so I kind of went overboard with the poetry quoting, heh. This story makes me want all the fork-in-the-road AU:s for this pairing--like, did anyone ever write a story where Fraser lets her go up in the mountains instead of turning her in?

Building the Castle of Roses (6240 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Sleeping Beauty
Additional tags: Fairy Tales, Science Fiction, Bechdel Test Pass, Coming of Age, Closed Ecological Systems, Space Flight, Mentor Relationship, Misses Clause Challenge, Science
Summary: Sleeping Beauty in space.

This is story is an old WIP of mine that I could use since my recipient basically only said that they wanted a fairy tale retelling. I'm grateful to mergatrude, isis, and innocentsmith for beta-reading! Several people said in comments that they wanted this to be a novel, and I think I kind of did, too--it felt like I was only showing glimpses of the story, and it wandered pretty far from the original fairy tale. Anyway, I had fun with the world-building, and I grew fond of both Rose and Dr. Malfleur.

My due South/C6D Big Bang contributions! Yay! Check out the whole collection over here.

Title: Unsent
Author: nos
Fandom: Wilby Wonderful
Pairing: Dan Jarvis/Duck MacDonald
Rating: R
Length: 3 h 16 m 24 s
Author's summary: After his failed suicide attempt, Dan Jarvis is struggling to put his life back together and overcome the depression that has haunted him for years. He finds a peaceful haven in the arms of Duck MacDonald, but soon old echoes of the past, as well as a disturbing series of hate-filled letters, threaten Dan’s fragile new life and his romance with Duck.

Podfic post at AO3 (more notes there).

This one was a pleasure to read. Dan reads as pretty low-key to me, and it was interesting to try to make the reading nuanced while still staying in this quiet, restrained register. There are a few times when I do raise my voice, and it really stands out against the rest of the reading, I think. Listening to it afterwards, I sound a little bit like malnpudl to myself? Not that she's always low-key or anything, but there's something about my phrasing here that reminds me of her for some reason.

Title: To Strive, To Seek, To Find
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Rating: R
Length: 22,200 words
Summary: A story where Fraser is asexual, Fraser and Kowalski do a lot of relationship negotiation, and they also fall into Lake Michigan while in pursuit of miscreants.

Story post at AO3 (more notes there).

This story started its life as a kinkmeme prompt that I left myself. And then I wrote a Big Bang story about it. *g* In the meantime, Sock_Marionette and desiree_armfeldt also wrote stories inspired by the prompt. I didn't read them all while writing, because I didn't want to interfere with the writing of this story, but I can read them now!

I am...mostly pleased with this story, I think, although I'm probably too close to it now to be able to judge well. I don't think it's one of my best, but it's not bad, either, and I am proud to have finished it. Writing long stories is hard--this is my longest one ever, in fact--and I'm looking forward to doing some short ones now. Maybe some flashfic before I tackle a long WIP again?

Title: Mutual Interests
Characters: Fraser and Frannie (with background F/K)
Rating: G
Length: 500 words
Summary: Fraser babysits for Frannie, and then they eat ice cream and talk about skin care products.
Notes: This was supposed to be a snippet, but I didn't have the heart to cut it down. Hopefully no errors about babies or skin care products! Neither is my area of competence--I just did some googling. (And what do you mean I should be working on my Big Bang? La la la...)

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