neotoma

I've been hit by a DC Comics plotbunny, since I was foolish enough to look on Tumblr and see how pretty the art is for the new 52 Flash (really pretty guys).. so I've been searching through my music library for songs to weaponize, because if I'm writing a Flash story, I'm writing Pied Piper, and if I'm writing Pied Piper I really should know what music he's using.

It's pretty sad that I looked through my 'fierce' playlist and rejected Black Sabbath songs as 'not aggressive enough'. Also, apparently I don't have enough Queen or Jethro Tull songs -- Queen because Piper canonically did blow up a planet using The Show Must Go On and Jethro Tull because that's the only rock band that I can that used a flute regularly.

Currently, I've got a few contenders for the ominous, 'you've fucked with the wrong guy, assholes' scene. In the Land of the Pigs (The Butcher is King) by Meatloaf, Exterminating Angel by The Creatures, or Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult, which might just be a little on the nose. Of course, I could go with something completely instrumental like Avanti by Corvus Corax (which is an excuse to use the quakepipes!) or just Verdi's Dies Irae.

I'm also trying to figure out some alternative names super-hero/villain for some of the legacy characters I'm going to have in this story, since they don't want to disrupt their predecessors' lives by running around using a name they inherited from someone who doesn't know them from Adam. Currently, I'm trying to figure out what might work for Captain Boomerang II, Stargirl, Atom Smasher, and maybe Obsidian. Manhunter wouldn't feel the need to change hers, because it's quite generic, Spoiler gets to remain herself if she goes back to her original handle, and Impulse would be the first one of that name since the DCnU has Bart as Kid Flash but never Impulse, and I've already figured out what Piper gets stuck with, due to an ill-timed snarky remark from Boomerang.

So the other week I was listening to the radio, and up came a story about a new theory about how homing pigeons may use 'sound maps' to navigate. This is going right into the Big Bang -- I'd already thought the angels use infrasound to communicate over long distances, but the idea that they use the sounds created by seismic energy from deflected deep ocean sounds to orientate themselves is just too fun to resist.

Yeah, I'm such a nerd.

Otoh, this explains how angels communicate, and it will also explain how the traditionalist/isolationist communities of angels hide themselves. They simply sing at wavelengths that don't travel as far as other angels, so they've limited the distance their communications travels. Of course, the research centers probably have listening stations in those areas specifically to pick up the infrasound, but it probably takes the researchers a lot of time to go through and translate the songs, even with the help of the friendly angels, so they're behind on what's going on in the isolationist communities.

Also, I'll have to remember this because it might eventually be a neat thing to put in an original SF story...

On Sunday I went down to the National Book Festival with greenygal, holli and ellen_fremedon to hear Lois McMaster Bujold speak -- well, greenygal and I got there early to hear Craig Thompson's talk which was scheduled before Bujold, and the other joined us.

Bujold's talk was a reprise of the one she gave this year at the ALA -- "what would the world be like without science fiction as a genre?" -- which was interesting and posited that since Mary Shelley's Frankenstien is really the first SF story, there would be a lot of changes. Frankly, I'm not sure you can get through the Industrial Revolution without developing something like science fiction -- possibly it's an idea for another science fiction story -- but it was an interesting speech. She then read a short excerpt from Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, and took some questions from the audience; sadly, it seems like she has nothing in the works right at the moment, though she does want to write a fourth and fifth Chalion book.

Everyone else got their books signed -- I still haven't found my in the unpacking. We also chatted with some nice people in the signing line -- blushingflower and her SO (or friend, I wasn't sure). It's hilarious how type-y fangirls are -- we talked books, SGA, knitting, and historical costuming, among other things.

For myself, I haven't gotten any real revisions done on my sabriel_mini, which is bad because posting starts soon. I don't suppose anyone wants to read the draft and give me a push? It's about 20K.

I think much of my problem is work. I'm alternately busy, bored, and frustrated with the new position, and it makes an impact once I get home too. Often, I'll be tired and go to bed by 9 -- and then wake up at 4:30 restless and not be able to sleep again.

I do have ideas for other stories rattling around as well -- the spaceship AU, some kind of Kali/Gabriel story, and a story that I was collaborating on a while ago that I'm having more ideas for, but I need to see if the other author has GAFIATed, been swamped by Real Life, or what, and whether she'd be okay with me finishing it on my own. I really shouldn't commit to anything else until I get some revisions done, but I kind of want to sign up for team_free_love's Secret Lovers Exchange -- I didn't do it last year, and I missed the fun I had the year before.

I kind of want to do Yuletide this year -- I actually have fandoms I want to nominate: The Almighty Johnsons, Bite me! by Dylan Meconis, and Mirabile by Janet Kagan -- though I think I only want to write for Mirabile or maybe Bite Me! Yuletide is such a crazy commitment (not enough time for me to be comfortable), and the last time I did it my recipient really really wanted a story about giant lizards eating people, since that was the only common thread in all the requested fandoms I got. And I have no idea what I'd request this time round, either...

Title: Homo Homini Lupus Est
Author: neotoma
Artist: satavaisa
Betas: mistalagan and owleyes_arisen
Genre/Pairing: Gabriel/Jo, Gabriel/Kali, Gabriel/Sam, Dean/Castiel (background), Castiel/Gabriel (implied)
Rating: NC17
Word count: 30066
Warnings/Spoilers:Werewolf AU, MPRG/hermamphroditic pregnancy, rape-recovery, alpha/beta dynamics, sex toys, Castiel and the Winchesters as antagonists

Summary:Gabriel ran away from his home and his pack. He had his reasons. But a werewolf without a pack is a vulnerable thing -- Gabriel skids through his life until he ends up on Kali's doorstep. His life seems to have come together, until a face from his past comes to town, and Gabriel is hauled back to his family, and the grasp of his brother, Lucifer.

( Title art, cut for space )

Prologue
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Epilogue

Link to fic: also at AO3
Link to art: at satavaisa's Livejournal

Title: Homo Homini Lupus Est
Author: neotoma
Artist: satavaisa
Betas: mistalagan and owleyes_arisen
Genre/Pairing: Gabriel/Jo, Gabriel/Kali, Gabriel/Sam, Dean/Castiel (background), Castiel/Gabriel (implied)
Rating: NC17
Word count: 30066
Warnings/Spoilers:Werewolf AU, MPRG/hermamphroditic pregnancy, rape-recovery, alpha/beta dynamics, sex toys, Castiel and the Winchesters as antagonists

Summary:Gabriel ran away from his home and his pack. He had his reasons. But a werewolf without a pack is a vulnerable thing -- Gabriel skids through his life until he ends up on Kali's doorstep. His life seems to have come together, until a face from his past comes to town, and Gabriel is hauled back to his family, and the grasp of his brother, Lucifer.



( Lucifer's study was bright with the morning light )

Title: ANGELS & OSTRICHES
Author: neotoma
Artist: hrymfaxe
Genre: teen!chesters, au
Characters, Pairing(s): Sam/Castiel, Anna/Gabriel, Dean, John
Rating: NC-17363
Word Count: 19363
Warnings: het, underage/teenagers having sex, baby/egg.fic
A/N: thanks to greenygal, chaosraven and owleyes_arisen for betas of various kinds. If you want to comment here and don't have a DW account, you can use Open ID to sign in with your LJ, or you can sign up for a DW account -- they're free through the end of December. Written for the sassy_minibang 2011 challenge.

Summary: When John settles Dean and Sam in a town for months because Dean broke his leg badly, Sam finds his love of mathletics, home-cooking, and the weird boy next door. Meanwhile, Gabriel and Anna are raising their awkward teen-angel on earth to keep off Heaven's radar.

Fic link: Fic at AO3
Art link: Art Masterlist




( Read more... )

I am deep into the revisions of my gabriel_bigbang story, which is going to be posted on the 23rd.

It has gone from a draft that was almost exactly 40,000 words, to a revision that is definitely going to top out at *over* 50,000 words. So far, only one story that long has been posted, so I have no idea whether people will even be interesting in reading it.

Fortunately, my alpha readers have been great, a friend has offered to do a line proofread, and I don't think I'm screwing *too* much with the Jericho characters -- beside squishing a religious horror universe into their nice hard SF post-nuclear cosy catastrophe world, I mean...

Right now, I have to beat off idea for sequels, for other fics, and better titles and just keep chugging through the revision and expansion.

ETA: Broke 50,000 words tonight. Hopefully won't get up to 60,000 before this is finished enough to post... but I still have to revise most of the climax, and maybe flesh out a sex scene.

Title: We Sat Down and Wept
Author: neotoma
Rating: Gen
Genre and/or Pairing: Kali, OCs
Warning: Spoilers to Episode 5.19, Hammer Of The Gods – Norse mythology
Note: Beta by ellen_fremedon, greenygal and mikhala_c
Summary: Angels are brothers, but gods are kin.

( She is Kali, who walks the cremation grounds )

Title: In The Rot and the Rust
Author: Neotoma
Characters: Piper, Desaad, Brother Eye, Trickster
Rating: K
Summary: An AU from Countdown #9. Offering Piper godhood was perhaps a mistake…
Notes: Thanks to jeff_morris for a quick beta. And hopefully katzedecimal won't mind that I took a line or two from our discussions. Also, a few lines are lifted directly from Countdown #9.


IN THE ROT AND THE RUST

I did this in about three hours, which is amazing considering I usually take 6 weeks to finish a story. It's short, and 750 words.