Kivrin

I wrote three stories for my first Yuletide.

The first, my assignment, was for The Bletchley Circle:

Clerical Work
They said, afterwards, that they’d done clerical work at Bletchley. They said that they were friends. Both were a little bit true.

Or, as my lovely recipient put it, "Susan being thoughtful, Millie being grumpy and smug and just very Millie in general, Lucy being so very darling and Jean as a matchmaking matriarch who knows and sees all. Period detail, gorgeous writing and a liaison in a storage cupboard."

(I'm particularly please with Jean as a matchmaking matriarch, myself.)


and two pieces for Foyle's War (because I am nothing if not predictable):

The Faithful
March, 1932. A meal at Carlo's restaurant brings encouragement to a grieving Detective Inspector Christopher Foyle.


A Good Work
“Crime is horrible,” Sam said, after a moment, “but isn’t it better that there should be good people working to stop it? And doesn’t that… matter, as much as making munitions or nursing casualties?"
[A missing scene from "Eagle Day" (series 1, episode 4)]

Hello, Yuletider! This is my first time at this rodeo and I am very excited both to write and to see what others write.

My name on AO3 is also Kivrin.

I will be so very happy to see fic in any of the fandoms I've requested. I've babbled a good deal here about what I love about each, and listed some prompts, but please don't feel limited by those if there's something else in the fandom that you're drawn to write.  You'll see there are a disproportionate number of prompts for Foyle's War - that's because I requested Any character there and so wanted to be sure to have prompts for characters individually as well as in combination, not because the other canons are of less interest to me!

What I like best: I love stories that fit into the interstices of canon - aftermaths of canon events, elaborations of references to past events, backstories, explorations of what-was-happening-back-at-the-ranch-while-[insert other action], and things like that. I love found families and deep friendships, so in romantic stories I particularly like it when the romantic partners' other relationships (friendly or familial) also play a role. Hurt/comfort, particularly with both physical and emotional elements, and with stoic or older characters needing to accept aid from others, is my bulletproof narrative kink.

Things I'm not fond of: Stories in which suicide plays a prominent role are very difficult for me to read, and at this point I don't want to read nominated-character death, please.


FOYLE'S WAR
Requested Characters: Any (Andrew Foyle, Christopher Foyle, Paul Milner, Samantha Stewart)

( what I love about it )

( Foyle's War Prompts )


ADAM DALGLIESH  (novels by P.D. James)
Requested Characters: Adam Dalgliesh

( what I love about it )

( Adam Dalgliesh prompts )

QI RPF
Requested Characters: David Mitchell

( what I love about it )

( QI RPF prompts )


FAKE NEWS RPF
Requested Characters: John Oliver, Andy Zaltzman, Jessica Williams

( what I love about it )

( Fake News RPF prompts )

Thank you so much, and happy writing!

The first ten people to comment in this post get to request a drabble of any pairing/character of their choosing from me. In return, requesters should post this in their journal, offering in return fanworks of the kind they enjoy doing. Fic? Icons? Meta?

I'll drabble or meta-rant on Buffyverse, Firefly, BBC Merlin, New Dr Who through "The Last Doctor," any Star Trek but Enterprise or the new movie (though I've only seen half of DS9), seaQuest if anyone else remembers back that far, or... well, try me. If I don't know the canon I'll make something up (or beg you for a different request.) :)

Antenna tagged me here.

1. When They Take You In. A story of young Rupert after Eyghon. Still my favorite child.

2. Never Spoken and Don't Forget, two points of view on Giles coming down after the chocolate high in "Band Candy." I'm happy with what I was able to do with the voices, especially in the shorter Giles pov piece when he's in such a violently liminal state. I hope I managed to steer far enough away from the silly Ripper-as-separate-personality trope.

3. There are several of my drabbles that I like, but The Archivist may be my favorite. Giles/Buffy and the keeping of records.

4. Winter Garden, post-series Giles/Xander. I'm pretty damn proud of the descriptions here, and of the calling-Xander-"Harris" thing, which I confess I hoped might catch on. I also have pride (mingled with insecurity) about this story, because it was remixed into the amazing Walking Higher by liz_marcs.

5. There are a lot of things I wish I'd done differently with my first remix fic, The Wild Iris, not least being damning anonymity and begging a beta from antennapedia or sahiya, but there are parts of it that I like very, very much. I am pretty pleased with how I handled Tara, and I'm ridiculously fond of the substance, if not the execution, of her conversation with Buffy about beind dead. (I will say, also, that I hadn't yet read Curse of Chalion when I had Tara relishing the specificity of mortal life.) And, to my recurrent amazement, I really enjoyed writing Spike and Tara's interaction.

Anyone who's not done this meme, or not done it recently, please consider yourself tagged, unless you hate being tagged, in which case consider yourself cordially invited.

Title: A Proposition
Rating: Teen for mild innuendo
Author: kivrin
Disclaimer: I am not Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, or a pipe.
Summary: In certain quarters, an unemployed watcher is an interesting commodity.
Notes: Thanks to sahiya and glimmergirl for beta.
Word Count: 1,200.

( Read more... )

Title: The Wild Iris (Resurrection Remix)
Author: kivrin
Summary: What do you do with the rest of your life?
Rating: Teen
Fandom: BtVS/AtS
Warnings: Musings on the nature of life and death
Spoilers: All of Buffy and Angel:the Series.
Title, Author and URL of original story: Feels Like Coming Home by globalfruitbat
Author's Notes: Thank you to adarog for the beta and sahiya for additional handholding.

( The Wild Iris )

Meme walks at midnight! For antennapedia, who requested the Top Five things Wesley and Giles did in a sports car but probably shouldn't have.

[edited to cut the picture and fix a typo.]

[ETA: This is set in the Liminal Spaces 'verse.]

Five Things Wesley and Giles Did in a Convertible Lotus Elise (With The Top Down) But Probably Shouldn't Have
( picture behind the cut )


5. Transported every surviving document bearing a reference to Cruciamentum procedures across Cornwall in October.
G: That really was reckless of us.
W: But it was such a sunny day. Who could have expected the wind to be so strong?
G: In any case, I should have taped the record carton shut.
W: Or not taken that curve so fast?
G: ...or not taken that curve so fast.
W: In any case, those records are now lost.
G: Every one.
W:Irrecoverably.
G: Damn it.

4. Picked up Dawn at the airport in Crete one sunny afternoon.
W: What? She adores the Lotus.
G: Well. Not the fact of using it to retrieve her as what we were... well. She was a bit shocked, is all. It would have been better to give her an opportunity to adjust gradually.
W: Buffy'd told her about us. She's an adult, Rupert. Though really, it was rather a miracle we didn't come in for more harassing than we did on that trip. The islands are beautiful but they can be so bloody homophobic.
G: So... snogging in front of Dawn is fine, but snogging in front of anonymous holidaymakers who've never seen us before and never will again is the problem?
W: Well, the latter is more likely to get us pelted with olives or harder objects.
G: I think I'd rather have a fistfight than face a revolted Dawn.
W: Rupert. She wasn't revolted. Just startled.
G: As I said. Probably shouldn't have.
(Wesley pats his arm indulgently)

3. Driven past Wolfram & Hart's London office, whilst wearing sunglasses and laughing.
G: It's dangerous. We have enough evil without provoking it.
W: I do like to think of them scrambling, though.
G: As do I.

2. Brought Roger Wyndam Pryce up to Yorkshire for a Council meeting.
W: Oh, God. I thought you were going to bend the steering column.
G: I thought I was going to break my teeth. Was there a single pebble on a roadside that he didn't caution me to avoid? And how many times did he ask how fast we were going?
W: I stopped counting after fifteen. (pause) I'm sorry. I thought it might earn us some credit with him.
G: As did I. Well, not driving him would certainly have lost us some, so it was a reasonable decision. (pause) Never again.
W: God, no.

1. Provoked a late-night drag race with fellow Watchers while returning from said Council meeting (fortunately without RWP)
W: Don't even try to tell me you regret that.
G: I never said I regretted doing it, simply that we shouldn't have. And we shouldn't. It was juvenile, and imprudent and... do you remember Elliot's face when we pulled ahead? I knew his piece of American rubbish wouldn't keep up.
W: I think I had my eyes closed at that particular moment. But I did see your face when we crested that hill outside the village.
G: (cleans his glasses)
W: But it really wasn't sporting to lift the protective glamour on his car. And just as he passed the camera, too.
G: I didn't... Wesley?
W: Very bad form, that. Even though he had it restored before he got any points. Well. Many points.

Another top five, this one for taffimai, who asked for Five Times Angel Took Care of Wesley.

Five Times Angel Took Care of Wesley During Angel Investigations' First Year(As Told By Cordelia)


5. That time we exorcised a really minor poltergeist from this completely over-designed hipster bar, and the cheapass owner wouldn't actually pay us but said we could drink free for a night, and no matter how much I flirted with the bartender he wouldn't comp us even a basket of IPA-battered herb-salted fried potato wedges. Wesley had four Smirnoff Razzmatazz Cosmopolitans and two dishes of cocktail peanuts, so he spent twenty minutes telling Angel how much he respected him and how hard he would work for him and then sat down in the corner and put his head on the cheesy lacquered table moaning "come, sweet death" and "tell the Slayers I'm sorry I failed them." Angel got the bartender to give him a quart of ginger ale (I should have gotten Angel to flirt with the bartender) and a whole pitcher of ice, and he made Wesley drink the soda in little sips, and bought an asiago-and-sundried-tomato-pesto pizza pretending he wanted it and then pretending he didn't like it so Wes would have to eat it. It was totally clumsy but Wesley was drunk enough not to see through it.

4. The allergies thing, turns out, wasn't totally made up to cover emo meltdowns. As I found out the day he came in late because he'd walked because his eyes were too bleary to drive. I know, I know, what grows in LA? Not much, but whatever does, it was turning Wesley into the pink-eyed monster. Ew and EW. Angel totally couldn't figure it out, and of course Wesley was being really loudly stoic about it. But finally Wes admitted he was totally whacked on antihistamines, and Angel took him downstairs to sleep it off.

3. When Wesley called his family to give them his new address he had to do it from the office because he didn't have a phone at his apartment, which was probably even more horrible than the crappy room I had before I got the place with Dennis. I was running lines for acting class, so I didn't listen, but Mr. Social Skills in the other office probably used his super hearing and got both sides of the conversation. Anyway, Wesley was sitting at my desk looking like someone had just stomped on his teddy bear, and Angel came out and just looked at him for a minute and then said "Wes? I've got to touch base with some sources. You got a few hours to come with me?" I said "You mean you're going to go kick the crap out of some minor demons." And Angel said, "Well, yeah. Wesley?" And Wesley said "Just let me get my adze."

2. The last time Wesley wore the leather pants, they split, (yes, there) and Angel loaned Wes a pair of his, which didn't fit at all but which I'm not sure he ever got back.

1. So, you know, when I have the killer death cold I stay home and watch Jerry Springer, like a normal person, unless I have an audition, in which case I need to go out anyway, and so I might as well go to the office and get my paycheck, right? Just for a minute, though. So it was totally not fair for Wesley to say that I got him sick and so I shouldn't complain about him croaking and sneezing and coughing like a contagion demonstration. The sniffling, oh my god. I was ready to cut his head off. Angel, though, ANGEL went through the sewers to the supermarket and came back with eggs and milk and oatmeal to make this thing called a posset. Which he gave to Wesley, and which looked like puke, but, okay, smelled sort of tasty, in an old Irish grandma kind of way. Angel watched Wesley drink it like he was watching JFK on the red phone with Moscow, or something, and when Wesley said it was good, Angel smiled like he'd just, like, saved the world or something.

(You too can request a Top Five List in the meme post here!)

For penwiper26, Giles' Top Five Varieties of Tea, and Their Primary Uses


5. Old English Fruits (Whittards of Chelsea, loose.) For those times when he wants a sweet but really shouldn't indulge, or for those absurdly long cloudless Californian afternoons when he misses English seasons and feels nostalgic for interminable duty visits paid to his Great-Aunt Harriet, who made vile shortbread but very good fruity tea. Also useful for training the palates of Americans who think something's not a beverage unless it's half sweetener. Jenny liked it. So does Buffy.

4. Formosa Oolong (loose.) For nights of solitary research or reflection, and memories that are not as bitter as he thinks they ought to be.

3. Darjeeling (both loose and in bags.) For lazy mornings when he can go back to bed with a novel, or potter around the kitchen making himself (or a guest) a full English breakfast, or for after dinner, or occasionally when he very much does not wish to be tense but doesn't quite dare get out the Scotch.

2. Earl Grey (Bigelow and Twinings, bags.) Because everyone seems to expect it, and Willow always asks for it.

1. Barry's Red Label (bags.) An Irish brand that inexplicably but mercifully appears from time to time in the tea aisle of the Sunnydale Shop 'n Bag. Good, strong, black tea, the sort that one can get in the feeblest greasy spoon anywhere in the British Isles, but not at any price in an American restaurant. For late nights, early mornings, long research sessions, quick cuppas at the kitchen counter, and any other general occasion.