maculategiraffe

...as follow-up to another one of the drabbles.

(god, writing SB 'verse is such comfort food)


( Ella )

...Slave Breakers summer solstice fic. Part of the post-Lee series begun here (winter solstice) and here (spring equinox).


( Summer lovin', had me a blast )

Several people expressed interest in seeing this drabble extended (and others at various times have expressed the desire for a similar encounter) so...

( Is this where Bran Olafsen lives? )

Okay, so I've been all writer's blocked what with, um, everything-- I had three stories (one post-Lee, one early Jer, one Wonder Girl) almost ready to go from before, and two others that I was in the middle of, and I haven't really had the heart to work on any of them and I didn't know what else to write and I just haven't been writing, which as you guys know is not normal for me, I'm always writing SOMETHING.

And today I really needed to write something (I actually ache and twitch if I'm not writing, it's kind of like sleeping or eating, or talking to people, for me-- stress makes it harder, but if I don't do it, it affects me very negatively, my overall state) but I still couldn't really bring myself to look at any of the stories from before, and finally I just wrote this scene, which is like... basically this is my writerly id's Thing That It Does, if left to its own devices. I mean if I don't have an outline, or a plot, or a prompt, or an idea-- if I just sit down and am like, hey hips, wiggle for me.

So-- at least I WROTE something. For the first time since the end of the world as we knew it; so hopefully that will help with the block on the other stories in the wings. So here it is, you can read it; post-Bran, pre-Jesse, ~1200 words.


( Read more... )

This was a fairly popular write-in request on the post-Lee-chapter-49 poll (complete and utter Lee spoilers in that link, it goes without saying).

( Prefatory author's note )


( And there's a hand, my trusty fiere/ And gie a hand o thine... )

Oh, this graph is so accurate. XD

(I LOVE fantasy and speculative fiction, not least because they both often have lots of good slavery, but! How often does it look like this! "The swaggering annuntiptorius looked down at his trembling, manacled mesticima with a cruel expression. 'Fowclestes,' he sneered, using the pejorative term for a frail young boy-slave intended for use in the bed of a burly pederast, 'see that you do not misbehave before his exaltedness the bundlefret, or your back shall surely bleed from my spinnaminder, which is like a whip, but lashier...'")

Also, y'all, I am catastrophically behind on comments again, but y'all know I always catch up eventually, right? And that I value each and every one of your comments, and replying to them, and the conversations we start that way, beyond any possible measure, y'all know that, right? I've been sick and sleepy and busy with work, but I will get caught up, because I want to get caught up, but I also want to go ahead and post this story now because I already missed the actual equinox.

So, even though I vaguely feel that it is rude to keep posting stories when I haven't replied to all the comments from the last one (kind of like getting married again before you've written all the thank-you notes for the gifts from your first wedding), here is the last in the series of stories set on the yearly festivals: winter solstice, vernal equinox, summer solstice, Bran's birthday, and:

( Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?/ Think not of them, thou hast thy music too... )

Written quite specifically to wickhouse2005's request, off the general talk of makeup in the last story, here: How about Lisa gifting Bran with some makeup, Jer helping Bran apply it and then Holden's reaction. I'll send virtual sand dollars and star fish your way for this story. ^.^

I never turn down virtual starfish. Takes place (as does so much!) between "Bran" and "Jesse."


( Maquillage, c'est camouflage, et je n'aime pas... )

So. Something is happening that I still can't quite get my mind around: People are writing fanfic of "The Slave Breakers." And it's awesome.

The secret belief that this is actually all some sort of ridiculous egotistical hallucination on my part has kept me from pimping it here before now, but its awesomeness has now officially overpowered that. So.

me_ya_ri has written "Finding Home", a one-shot with original characters and cameos from Holden and Bran, and is writing "Losing Yourself To Find Yourself" (parts one and two), a multi-chapter WIP with different original characters.

morgan_cian is writing "Welcome to Tenarus", a multi-chapter WIP where a (slave-owning) family of original characters moves to Holden and Alix's hometown.

cgravenstone, as part of the undefined semi-collaborative work that is me putting his original fictional LJ persona into an ongoing Slave Breakers-'verse side story, has written a one-shot with original but semi-canonical characters, "Anniversary". (By the way, Crimson, baby, I love you, and I would never discriminate against you for being fictional, but oy vey, the semantics of it all!)

anne_squires has written a one-shot with Holden and Bran, "Encounters".

And now wickhouse2005, whose teeming imagination has given me more plot bunnies than I can possibly ever do justice, has finally caved (despite her protested and entirely chimerical "lack of writing talent") and written a perfectly lovely Jer/Holden vignette. (Check the comments of that post for a nice little follow-up ficlet by morgan_cian.)

But wickhouse2005 agreed to post her bit of fic to LJ only when I bribed her with the promise of canonizing one of her throwaway references. So here's the story I promised her, which takes place in the fourth week of Bran's initial training process. (Hope those of you who've been wanting more scenes of Bran's training enjoy, too.)

( Did you ever attend your former masters in the bath? )

Some of you have seen this already, but I think it's time to make it official, as a recent reader's response to the first version of the scene (hi, kaydyy!) reminded me that it doesn't seem to have conveyed precisely what I wanted it to convey.

So: this is the rewritten version of the chapter. I'm linking it on the index instead of the old one. The changes start about halfway down. (I also made some minor edits to this chapter, for continuity. If anyone spots any other discontinuity, please let me know?)


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( Bran Chapter Six: Newly Canon! )



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