estirose

Time for reveals!

This year I wrote in Captain Marvel (2019), The Tomorrow People (1992), Villains by Necessity - Eve Forward, Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, Fatal Frame II, Hustle Cat (Visual Novel)

0.7734 (Captain Marvel (2019))

I'm sure my recipient figured out that I wrote this, because my recipient was

tptigger, who I have known for 20+ years! I would like to say that I wrote in the MCU to throw her off, but it was more like I matched her on the 90s version of the Tomorrow People and then discovered that I could not find either my broadcast canon or a critical novelization. (And much to my frustration, the novelization for Culex doesn't cover the scene I need from that story.) I did find a copy of that canon online, but I lost my plot and never found it again.

So, I was looking at her letter again, and saw that she wanted fluff for Captain Marvel, so I rented the movie, fell in love with Monica, and promptly plotted 1000 words of fluffity fluff for her. I wanted Monica to have a reason to be "Lieutenant Trouble", so I consulted with family about it and came up with the insect hunting aspect and Monica getting in trouble over it. I didn't want to write a five year old, so I placed it post-movie, and I wrote it in Monica's POV because my knowledge of MCU canon outside this movie is basically the Thor movies and the various television series (at least the Defenders and the Runaways), and the rest I've picked up by osmosis.

I made Monica love math because I wanted her to be headed into the sciences, and made reference to her eventually becoming a superhero. I had her a fan of Fraggle Rock because that was airing when she was five! And of course, because I had to stick Tomorrow People in there somewhere, she became a fanfic writer and her mom had just let her onto TPFICT.

The title is the word "Hello" typed out on a calculator - fitting for the interests I gave for mid-nineties Monica!

Even the woodworkers (1990s Tomorrow People)

This was a tidied up version of the story I was trying to write for

tptigger's main fic. This bit had a beginning, middle, and an end, so I figured it would be nice to post it as well. I wanted to have Jade and Ami spending some quality time together after "Living Stones", and I figured that I was familiar enough with San Francisco that I could have them pop in there. I stuck a taqueria in the middle of Fisherman's Wharf in the place of my favorite restaurant in the area. (Hot Spud, a very lovely baked potato place!) The whole bit about currency is because I am well aware of the fact that most 1990s teens probably don't carry foreign currency and it might look a bit odd if they kept changing money on a regular basis in the same places. (Except Adam; the original bit mentions that he often did things like washes and other day labor type stuff to get the local currency, but it didn't fit in here.)

The title came from a (possibly misquoted) piece of dialogue from the game Fantasy Life - one of Eric's speeches, I believe, when the Player Character gets to a certain high level.

This tiny bubble (Villains by Necessity)

I picked this up on the post-deadline pinch hits. I try to pick up a pinch hit every year, and this was my pinch hit for this year. The book had come out on Kindle a while earlier, and while there were some typos in there, I at least had it hand. I formulated a plot in my head involving Kaylana and Sam which got modified as I reread the book. I set it post-canon as for one, they didn't know each other, two, I wanted to write more Kaylana; I'd written a lot of Arcie's guild and I didn't need to write more. The herbalist that Kaylana talks to is Neri from "Still To Witness" and she's developed a follower/apprentice (her friend Det has also had some luck in the matter) - I figured that those who read "Still To Witness" would recognize that I wrote this almost immediately.

The mark that commissioned her own assassination was dying and wanted her family to have a story to tell. (She was... eccentric, to say the least!) She'd argued her relatives into letting her do this. It was probably the weirdest assassination Sam had done. I was going to have her go get poisoned, but I checked canon and it seemed that Sam would be okay with this as strange as it was.

The title comes from a line of poetry.

Peregrines are we (Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir)

For those not familiar, Spirit Camera is a 3DS spinoff of the Fatal Frame games. This is still a new fandom to me, but I wanted to write something for FireEye and I knew that this was a short canon. I didn't have time to replay the game myself, but I was able to refamiliarize myself with the canon via a Let's Play.

Probably it was obvious that I wrote it, because there are three regular writers including me for Fatal Frame in exchanges and two of them commented on this fic.

I loved writing quiet, now-not-so-amnesiac Maya, who was still trying to cope with what she'd done and what had happened. I wanted to make it a bit happy, however, so I had her hold her hand out to her diary-self and get ready to start whatever life she would have after the game.

The title comes from a line of poetry.

With Confidence (Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly)

The idea of Sae becoming attached to Mayu after May's fall gave me a plotbunny! It was originally going to be a Madness ficlet, but I kind of wanted it to end in main, so I kept adding detail to it. I'm very glad I did, because I think the added detail helped the fic instead of being just filling to make wordcount.

Writing Sae as Mayu's shadow was fun! I had just come out of writing for Spirit Camera, so the idea of her being some kind of invisible friend along the lines of Other Maya was really interesting. Sae did save Mayu at least once! It was unfortunate that the kind Sae that was below her corrupted self started being submerged as Mayu got older, though I have surmised from canon that Sae protected Mayu from other ghosts during her full-on possession. (I think the same thing with Mafuyu and Kyrie in Fatal Frame I.)

I wanted Mayu to have a reason beyond the butterflies to run to Minakami village so I had Sae urge her to come. As soon as she steps past the stone, she's possessed by Sae and gets some of her meories (even weird, altered ones like the four kids and Itsuki's post-ceremony white hair).

Other things: Mayu loves historical novels, and no, Mio was not connected to Yae like Mayu was connected to Sae.

I can't remember where this title comes from, likely another piece of poetry.

Waffley Leaded (Hustle Cat)

I promised myself I'd stop writing (and only edit) after Chrstmas dinner, so this was the last fic I finished. I didn't have time to review canon, but I have done Graves' route so many times that I can practically recite it verbatim (I kept getting Graves' route when I was trying to do other routes after I finished the game). I made Avery male (I usually do agender Avery) to throw people off. I don't ship Graves/Avery myself (I prefer to pair Avery with one of their coworkers), but I can understand why people like the ship and I tried my best to write post-canon fluff that combined two prompts in the background: Avery with magical relatives (yeah, Leah is a reference to Stardew Valley Leah), and Avery's parents meeting Graves.

The title was another bit of Fantasy Life dialogue: it's one of Duglas' misphrasings in the intro quest when you are playing a female character in the North American version. It may be in other versions, I don't know. (He got it right the second time: "Lawfully Wedded".)