In other words, it was a good movie. I rewarded myself with an interlude at the movies tonight - seeing as I have been and will continue to be working non-stop 24/7 until my vacation starts at the end of December ;_; - and it was a good choice; gave me a lot to think about.

I can't believe I'd forgotten about the Sapir-Whorf theory! Well, not forgotten forgotten, but that I haven't been trying to weave it more into my universal translator world-building. It was my favorite linguistic theory back at uni, I really should incorporate it more in my own writing. Hmm, I think I shall have the garnea have no concept/emotion of fear or anger, only sadness and grief. That will make for both interesting culture clashes, linguistic difficulties and works with their way of life. Yay, aliens!

Arrival made me want to read the short story it is based on. It also made me finally sniff out the story Three Worlds Collide which I read way back when and really liked but lost track of. Recommended reading as basis for interesting discussions.

Oh well, time to go to sleep and then get back to work. Hopefully I'll get enough done tomorrow that I finally can let myself read all the other stories in the Reverse Bangs I've participated in! Check out i_reversebang and ds9reversebang if you're curious; a lot of lovely art and fic over there! Fandoms are Inception and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

These are the fics I wrote for the exchanges:

Dreams of Others
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Rating: Explicit
Tags: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Sexual Content
Summary: Hiding out in-between jobs should be an uneventful thing, laying low and keeping out of the cops' search lights. But Eames learned long ago that neither Arthur nor Ariadne can resist a client who might be a target for the Others, and this latest one was sent their way courtesy of Dominic Cobb himself. Resigned to help Arthur and Ariadne play knights in shining armor Eames has no idea exactly how fast this supposed quick-fix project is about to go downhill.

Spy Games
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Pairing: Elim Garak/Julian Bashir
Rating: Mature
Tags: Holodecks/Holosuites, Roleplay, Xenophilia, Cardassians with tails
Summar: Garak and Bashir spend some time on the holodeck, enjoying a spy novel of Bashir's.

I never seem to get a clear idea of what I myself am working on when it comes to writing, which is a bit annoying. I'm going to make two posts where I try to sort out what I should be focusing on these last months of the year + what I should put aside for a while.

This first list consists of original works. The next is about fanfiction.

( The stories )

Ah, fantasy. Elves and dwarves, to be exact. (Quick and small title change).

Characters

Main:

• Jale (male, Jadestone dwarf, young, just got a "real" beard going, in love with Prince Onren, unsure of his place, brother of Warsa)


• Kaaz (male, former Deep Mine dwarf, young-ish, former fugitive, still worried about fitting in, warrior, betrothed to Fanwa).


• Narathriel (male, elf, young-ish, on a quest, clever, magician)


• Warsa (female, Jadestone dwarf, young-ish, mighty red beard!, best friends with Prince Onren, established warrior, dutiful, sister of Jale)

Supporting:

• Beswa (female, Jadestone dwarf, warrior, hot-headed, in an on-again-off-again relationship with Gelame).


• Bjana (female, Jadestone dwarf, both blood-and-true mother of Tura, Deepdigger Clan)


• Droh (male, Jadestone dwarf, criminal, brother of Bjana, Deepdigger Clan)


• Fanwa (male, Jadestone dwarf, warrior, betrothed to Kaaz, brother of Marwa).


• Gelame (female, Jadestone dwarf, warrior and bard, calm, on-and-off-again with Beswa, magical potential).


• Guthra (female, Deep Mine dwarf, cousin to Kaaz, obsessed with status).


• Hreka (female, Deep Mine dwarf, warrior, married to Marwa).


• Marwa (male, Jadestone dwarf, kidnapped and thought dead, great jewel maker, brother of Fanwa, married to Hreka).


• Prince Onren (male, Jadestone dwarf, has an older brother and sister, warrior and leader of a seven man party with special training, terrified of marriage, in love with Jale).


• Tura (female, Jadestone dwarf, daughter of Bjana, friend of Jale, magical potential, Deepdigger Clan)


• Vergar (male, Storm Cliffs dwarf, guard and warrior, magical potential)


• Zurkea (female, Jadestone dwarf, middle-aged warrior, tough as nails).

Minor:

• The Older Prince (male, Jadestone dwarf, older brother of Onren and the princess, not the heir).


• The Princess (female, Jadestone dwarf, younger sister to The Older Prince, older sister to Onren, the heir).


• Queen Luheka (female dwarf, mother to Prince Onren, ruler of Jade Stone Mountain, MIGHTY BEARD!)

Plot:
An unholy mess of action/adventure, romance, fantasy, steampunk and erotica. Long story short, elves are due to backstory reasons not popular with other species and are basically believed to be evil sirens who want to eat your soul. Because of this, they were long ago driven from the land this story takes place in; only they've decided to return. The dwarves of Jadestone Mountain (who're at war with the Deep Mines, over the underground warm water resources in Jadestone) find this out quite by accident: the young guard Jale unknowingly saves the life of one - i.e. he doesn't know it's an elf he's saved until they've already become friends. The rest of the dwarves think Jale has been magically brainwashed by the evil elf, so Jale decides to help said elf (Narathriel) home, to prove his sanity to the other dwarves. Naturally, Jale's sister and friends (*cough*Prince Onren most of all*cough*) are none too happy with this decision of his...

Notes:

• When courting, the dwarves gift each other with previous gems/jewerly/shiny stuff every year on the day of their bethroal. When they finally get married, their closest relatives help them dress in the finest of the gifts, right before the wedding night.


• Only one person of a married couple wears a sign of the marriage (a large bracelet). This is because the person without a bracelet _can_ marry another (though only being the one that gets the bracelet that time). It rarely happens, but it's not completely unheard of; and when married, the third person technically demotes the first person with the bracelet to lover or possibly second-spose to themselves.


• The royal line used to be patriarchal, until a revolution some ten generations back. This is remembered every 20 years with a ritual that I'm heavily borrowing from "Last Night of the Kings" by Van Canto <_< >_>


• Elves don't have any rituals for marriage, they just agree to be married. Dwarves on the other hand have tons of rituals (see above).

Scenes:

• Jale explaining the meaning of braids and how courtship braids can only be undone (for cleaning) by the person's betrothed - or in an emergency a very close relative to the betrothed - (he's explaining to Narathriel)


• Onren mentioning to Warsa that he thinks Jale has a very pleasant voice, when she mentions that Jale plans to become a bard


• Jale deciding to become a bard since he's no warrior-material and few other stations are high enough for him to dare think the prince would marry him


• When Jale goes off with Narathriel (to prove his own worth and that elves aren't soul-eaters). Onren & co go after him. Sadly, so do some Deep Mine dwarves, who're aiming to catch themselves valuable prisoners.


• Onren and Kaaz end up taken prisoner by Kaaz' cousin Guthra. Kaaz is to be married off to some noble (Deep Mines still have those), while Onren is to be given to one of the royals. Lots of hair drama!


• All the six warrior directly under Onren's command (ex: Warsa, Kaaz, Fanwa, Gelame, Beswa and Zurkea) ship Onren/Jale and have been dwarf-subtly trying to hook the two up since Jale came of age.

And when I say news, I of course mean "random stuff I got up to since my last post". Yes.

Got my Yuletide gift and it is awesome! I mean, a Moomin & Winnie-the-Pooh crossover? What more could I ask for?! Link here:

Moomintroll in Autumn

I've seen The Hobbit twice now, once with friends and once with family. Obviously I loved it. My favorite parts are how they managed to make each dwarf an individual with a distinct personality, while still keeping all of them very dwarf-ish in nature (I will admit to having had trouble remembering who was who when I read the book - except Thorin of course). I also liked all the extra material they put in and that the dwarf women actually had beards too (seems like muttonchops are in fashion for them) <3

But to avoid spoilers, I'll instead go on another, related rant. The Hobbitw put me in the mood for fantasy, the old fashion kind of fantasy, you might say. This led me to dusting off a story I've had in the works for some time, as well as plotting a new one in the same fictional universe.

Naturally, the new story focuses on dwarfs :)

I'm having so much fun with the world building it should be illegal! My sources of inspiration is a great mess of Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, the Pinis (ElfQuest) and a mass of my favorite fantasy tropes and cliches. I'm going to ramble on about the stories under the cut, fair warning ;)

( My current writing obsessions )

Stupid brain, being all inspired to write something completely different than the story I'm actually supposed to be writing.

Currently I'm on a Florence + The Machine binge and it has turned out that a lot of her/their songs fit characters from my All the Changed-series, the characters from A loyal man in particular. I am thus forced to make this playlist, so I can remember to listen to the songs in the "correct" order once I'm done with NaNo and can continue A loyal man.

1) The Hardest of Hearts (Aysela & Sen)
Reflections on their situations and feelings towards one another at the start of the story (after the prologue) and possibly a little way into the plot.

( Which part who sings, color coded for my convenience )

2) Galaxy of the Lost (Sen to Tiashar)

Using alcohol as a metaphor for murder and general (non-consensual) sadism here. Sen has his weak moments, when the constant act of being Tiashar's most loyal servant and lover takes its toll on his psyche. He never does give in to the mad ideas that Tiashar's influence brings to the surface of his mind, but the fantasy of letting himself turn into the sadist the rest of the world thinks he is both tempting and disgusting...

( Lyrics )

3) Swimming (Sen to Emic)

After Emic heals Sen, Sen is stirred from his half-madness, recalling what life among the rest of his own kind used to be like. In his mind, Emic becomes a symbol for altruism and kindness; later leading to his idea to set Aysela and Emic up as a romantic couple (which doesn't go the way Sen planned).

( Lyrics )

4) All This And Heaven Too (Emic)

Trying to sort out his feelings towards Sen, somewhere during the first half of the story. He's never been in love before, go figure.

( Lyrics )

5) Breath of Life (Sen)

Reflections on how stupid it was to look for relief from Tiashar's way of life and how very, very stupid (but wonderful) it is to not only be in love with Aysela, but with Emic too.

( Lyrics )

6) Heartlines (Aysela & Sen)

Aysela is finally figuring out how to beat Tiashar and doing her best not to worry about the sacrifices necessary, while Sen has a vague idea of what might be needed and knows he doesn't have the power to do it.

( Lyrics, color coded for my convenience )

7) No Light, No Light (Sen)

Ending up having to partake in a battle directly between Tiashar and Aysela, Sen mentally checks out, caught between horrible grief (for there is no way Aysela will be walking way from this one) and numbness. Half of this I think of as him telling Aysela, (and partly Aysela's corpse), and the other half is aimed at Tiashar.

( Lyrics )

8) Leave My Body (Sen)

Having finally overcome the shock Aysela's death caused, Sen steels himself for killing Tiashar, gathering all his strength. He wants the rest of his people to survive - Emic most of all - but he knows he has nothing to look forward to, other than brief joy as Tiashar dies before his eyes; killing Tiashar isn't easily done and will without a doubt cost him his life, but he's prepared to pay that price now.

( Lyrics )

9) Spectrum (Aysela)

Aysela and her allies' gambit payed off and she now returns in a triumphant final battle with Tiashar. There are also some hints of what the home world was like before the breaking and what the flight to the new dimension did to their people.

( Lyrics of the last song )

There are just so many stories I want to write right now; so many moods I want to capture!

There's the mood of moving to a new city, a big city, and getting a new job you're not sure you'll be able to do, or at least to do well.

There's the sensation of standing at the top of a viewpoint building in windy weather at night, clinging to a railing and watching the electric lights from the buildings around you.

And then there's the feeling of rushing out of woods with trees that have branches and leaves growing so thickly that when you finally reach the fields there are stars everywhere and the sky is so wide and black you think you could fall right out into it.

To only mention a few.

It's my birthday, so I've decided to indulge myself in actually writing something fun again, instead of wasting all my writing time on assignments. I won't get much done and I hardly think anyone will care, but at least I'll amuse myself :)

Current fandoms I'm obsessing the most over are Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Mass Effect. (There will be rants later, don't you worry). Naturally, the fics I'm dreaming up right now fall under these categories.

The first one is a still untitled Garak/Bashir what-if that's been prodding at my brain since I saw “Statistical Probabilities” (season 6, episode 9). My thought process went something like this:

( Click at own risk! )