So everyone else is doing a Yuletide letter, and because they're great for prompts, here's my attempt.

First the General:
What I like. I have no idea how to state this in general. It seems like what a lot of other people are listing things that they enjoy in fic, theme, kink, or style wise. I like description, but am not overly fond of pages and pages of it. By description I guess I mean detail, I like witty dialogue, but my sense of humor is probably a bit different than yours. Um, I like plot with my porn (you know, cause plot and character development are the point) and actually with the requests I have year romance is preferred over porn.

What I dislike. Please no death fic, angst is fine. I'm fully okay with tear your heart out and stomp on it stories, but please, have it be based in the cannon in some way (Franz is given to this, possibly one of the reasons I love him, same applies to Vanyel, yeah. I'm totally okay with that angst). But I'm not very big on melodrama, no hair tearing please?


The Specific (i.e. what my prompts were):
( Blood and Smoke )
So In Short: Tony centric, talking perhaps about media industry/film, with possible Lee, Henry, Amy (Zev is cool too)

( Gankutsuou )
So In Short: Franz

( FAKE )
So In Short: Dee/Ryo familial domestic fluff with Bikky.

( Eastwick )
So In Short: Kat, femmeslash. Kat->Roxie, Kat chat with Penny, Penny->JoAnna (Penny/JoAnna). Friendship, deep conversation.

So, hope this is useful. I look forward to seeing whatever you right!

Thanks,
Rhea (Pi)

I've been meaning to make one of these posts for a while. So I figure I will since I have a bit of time.

Podfic:
I am currently working on Other Ways (part of the A Deeper Season Vorkosigan verse). I'd like to finish podficcing all of the ADSverse. I have been somewhat distracted from the ION arc but have intentions of finishing it (i.e. recording maybe one to two of the stories per year). I have recently discovered Due South, so that's been the majority of what I've been recording lately. This probably won't change all that much as there are a few more stories I wish to do. I also am interested in recording for Wilby Wonderful (if I get the go ahead on certain stories) and Boondock Saints (because it's a travesty there's only one podfic over there). I can safely say I probably wont be doing any Merlin podfic in the near future, but there might be some more Gundam Wing as I recently got permission for a few other stories. This year I've had less recording time due to my schedule so I'm doing a bit less than I'd like. I'm currently in the process of editing recordings for flyakate's elementary verse (I really just need to convert them to MP3 at this point), and The Bodygaurd, which I hope to have done in the next two weeks.

Fanfic:
I've signed up for Yuletide, something I'm both way excited, and extremely nervous about. Other than that I'm working on very little fic wise, and that probably wont change until I have free time and inspiration. In all actuality I honestly have a fair amount I want to write but haven't the time to do it, what with papers, and so I've got a backlog of things I want to attempt. Whether they'll ever see the light of day, who knows.

Fandoms:
Currently I'm spending most of my fannish energies catching up with the Due South fandom. I have basically set aside Supernatural and Stargate: Atlantis except for reading the occasional rec. Aside from the shift to Due South, my most recent panflash fandoms (love them greatly, small fandoms, read through in a day or two) have been Wilby Wonderful and Boondock Saints. I'm interested to see where the Eastwick fandom goes but so far haven't been motivated to set up shop.

So I'm moving on from the bigger playgrounds of the last year or so and somehow winding up hanging out in the 90s, and all things Canada related (sorta). This, I'm guessing will probably be a transitional period till I find the next thing I'll be crazy about.

So, life has been interesting recently, mainly just with cramming all this stuff in.

Thursday was a day to feel like a moron, but a successful one. I set my alarm for 8 so I could get up for class, and didn't check if it was on am or pm. LaSheena's alarm went off at 8:30. I woke up. I have an 8:30 class. I made it out the door and across campus in 6 minutes and 43 seconds (Tessa timed me). I'd say that's freaking impressive. Also I was barefoot, and failing the whole way, but it worked.

Then I had geology, in which we were supposed to do review and wound up learning new stuff we hadn't covered that was going to be on the test. Then we reviewed. I was a bit annoyed through the first part of the class because I had *questions* and wanted to get to the review bit. Anyways it all worked out and I felt very confident about the test.

Thursday night was Dress Rehearsal for Dance Alloy and it went swimmingly. I'm quite pleased. Then Tessa, Terah and I listened to music I'm considering choreographing to next semester. Tessa went to hang with Owen after that and Terah and I went back to her room. We ate ramen/pho (omg they have instant pho, not quite as good but awesome still) and watched fanvids until 1 am. It was genius and now Terah is crushing on Justin and has decided to watch all of QaF over the summer...it's really not my fault. Anyways we enjoy being uberdorky and she's my fellow fannish-soulmate here on campus so it was quite fun.

Today was my day for feeling awesome. I'm now officially done with classes. I've turned in all but one of my papers which is due Wednesday. I did lots of efficient work at work today and then chatted with my supervisor for an hour while it poured and thundered outside because we'd both finished our work and he didn't want to walk home in the rain and I was still on the clock until someone could think of something for me to do. They also had doughnuts. My work loves me and that's awesome. I also sent my last few paychecks to my bank and got to add 300$ to my name which is lovely. I feel very rich now (this is what happens when the only things you buy are DVDs of choir concerts for your parents).

Then I read one of my poems at the lit-mag publishing party, ate dinner and had our first Dance Alloy recital. My dance wasn't as good as it was dress rehearsal, but that means we'll have a great show tomorrow and the two goofs I noticed weren't bad and actually work within the piece just fine. Hannah's dance went marvelously. So that was really enjoyable. Sitting around with Tessa, Terah, LaSheena and McKenzie is much more fun than being without any other close friends last year. It makes the waiting for your dance go much faster and the stage make up application sessions far more fun.

So now I get compliments on my dancing, my choreography and my writing, ergo I'm an awesome person. Which means I should write my paper, do my two finals, pack and get back to amplificathon at which I've been slacking because of crunch week and finals. I feel really inspired to be inspriational. And do more choreography, and take lots of photos. This is how I can tell I'm becoming less stressed/it's the end of the year. I feel like being really creative and doing lots of art projects. Maybe I'll finish that scarf even.

And as a final note, this is being crossposted from Dreamwidth to my LJ as I'm no over there/here as 'Pi' so all ya'll who're Dreamwidthing feel free to look me up. My intention is to monitor both places, though my Dreamwidth circle seems far more on the 'fannish people who are awesome' side than the 'people I know and who care about my rambling' so possibly this will be my one personal-esque post here and fannish work will just go both places. Not quite sure yet. Either way, life is full of new and exciting endevours.

So, Racefail09 keeps creeping into my friendspage. It's confusing since I've really had no idea where it was coming from. So I spent some time today following links back out of curiousity. I had to look SF/F up on google (silly since it seems to be straightforward Scifi/Fantasy right?). But I'm used to seeing rumblings out of SPN and to some extent SGA (though in my eperience of fandom SGA is one of the least combative fandoms) and Merlin a bit as well. So of course I kept trying to see the ties but wasn't finding them. I suppose it makes sense it should be coming from an outside source of people I totally don't know and haven't been paying attenion too. So in all I probably have nothing to say here and should keep my mouth shut because my flist is generally uninvolved. Only, most of the folks I LJ with have shared my experience and will possibly understand why I'm going to go on a bit here. Seeing all of these posts reminds me of my education.

Anna will understand from SGS. "If we hear one more time the phrase 'future women world leaders' we're going to kill someone". I went to an all girls school for middleschool. The school had a mission that as a private school they wanted to have a diverse class. We were the inagural class as well and it was pretty clear. Individually most of us got along really well. But in my first real experience of people who didn't look like me what I discovered is that everyones great on their own but if you put people in groups things can get ugly. I didn't know hiphop, I disliked Lil'Bowwow and Lil'romeo, I couldn't cornrow. My clothes were too weird (I wore leggings which is apprently bad) and I liked fantasy novels. I bonded with the other people who understood the way I spoke and my cultural view. We had a 'book club' and those people became my friends. We were the pagan/wiccan/atheist/catholic/quaker group.
So this is what I learned from middleschool: how to cornrow, how to dance hiphop (and Irish), the lyrics to rap songs, and that most important is where you grew up and what you find cutlurally valueable. And most important of all distinctions is religion. As a Quaker I was "safe" Quakers are close enough to Christians, but my friends who weren't so protected... I'd never experienced or seen bullying before then, but when there is different cultural baggage in play it can become really sad. I would bet not all african american females are Fundamentalist Southern Baptist but our middleschool seemed to be mainly populated with them and they all seemed to want to get Anna. Our middleschool tried to foster diversity, and I think it worked. I definitely learned a lot about getting along with people who were unlike me. Marita and I still enjoy talking at reunions. I still think Allisha is hiliarious (great sense of timing and improv) as long as she's not stealing my books or shoving chairs into Anna or Morrow. And Keyanna was always fun to work with. She could agree to disagree with someone and it made it really fun to talk with her because we could see eye to eye about not understanding eachother. These things were all good, but I also learned how to find the people most like me and and band together because no one can ask if you eat babies and grab a book out of your hands if you have ring of people protecting you.

I continued "diversity work" through high school. I was the head of our schools GSA and as such went to a lot of diversity leadership confernces and the like. Leadership confrences are the best places to meet diverse people, because even with our different cultural backgrounds we're all there for the same reason and with that in common there's not all that much difference. I got to make friends from all over the place and if we all thought harry potter slash was amazing well that's just one more thing in common. Whether we're scholarship kids, or paying full tuition, or whatever color of eyes hair skin, or gender and sexuality we've all got the same background, important private school. We share an interest in diversity and leadership and talking about annoying classes and Shakespeare.
Then I went to PoCC, which was in my city that year so we didn't have to buy plane flights which made it possible. As the representative of GLAM I had my niche. The GSA group bonded really well, race aside we're all in the same or similar boat and there to talk about allies and friends and sexuality. Afterward our group from NWS got together to debrief. Each person went to a different group (for the most part). We were composed of the GSA kids, Bi-cultural/multi-citizens, asians, and african americans, and one 'white person'. Of all of us at the conference our white representative had the least fun. A white affinity group sometimes seems an odd idea, but at a diversity conference where is a straight white guy to go? His account of the white affinity group was that it was a bunch of "we suck, how can we make the world better, well we can't because we suck." A fair amount of the 'allies' at the GLBTQ affinity meeting showed up because they didn't want to be in the white affinity group. Who want's have a 'white affinity', that's like alligning yourself with the oppressor. I totally understand this logic too. I've been to "unpacking white privalege" meetings, and the AFSC's Anti-racism summer program and volunteering course. I have yet to have a revelation on how to fix things. I understand white privalege and can diagram it several different ways. I can talk about corporate oppression and how Monsanto and Wallmart and multinational corporations are the devil. I have a vague understanding of Nafta. I've built and refurbished houses for migrant workers in the agricultural areas of our state. And yet I'm not better. I'm still a white person with all the privalege that brings. And I enjoy my privalege. I like that people are polite to me and smile at me and all of that, I don't get followed in stores, I don't have stories for my race's oppression and I've never actually heard a "pollock joke" so I have nothing to be offended by (except for TVs homophobia).

And maybe that's the thing, I don't have the background. I've been taught what to do and say, how to mediate conflict and talk to people different from myself. I have a backpack full of material on how to be respectful, but I am annoyingly human. I say "that's a nice outfit" to Vania and then realize she's probably wearing her cultural heratige and clothing and have a minor freak out about thinking about it as a costume and use that to flail in her direction till we're both confused/laughing and I get to learn about traditional Angolan dress. I suppose what I've learned is to take my privalge, my cocoon and recognize it so maybe I work with it to make connections to people.
Sometimes it's just in walking to the bus stop. The older black gentleman who reminded me of someones grandfather and told me how his father hid a bike beside the house once as it was a christmas present only he found it and that was how he knew his dad was really santa, and then went on to ask me about football and my family's christmas. One of the international students who came up to me during study hall and asked if I was "half" (half what? half asian. uh, no I don't think so.) And then we talked about facial features for 20 minutes until class which was a weird conversation but fun in a strange way. The native american man who said "nice braids" as I walked to the bus stop (I've not had a greater compliment on my hair I do believe), or the guy in the pickup who was idling at the stop light by my bus stop and called out that my braids reminded him of growing up in Nebraska. I don't really know what to make of all this except that perhaps as the privaleged white girl (and maybe this goes for others like me.) I like to hear that I'm okay, that I'm not just 'another white person with privalege'. Having a minority makes someone "unique" and it's also a pain in the ass. When I first started doing the whole 'questioning sexuality' thing I kept wondering if maybe this was my attempt to be different/a minority/special. After lots of thought the answer is no occasionally I do like girls. Not as often as boys but yes it happens and that's not a figment of my imagination trying to be 'special'. But I wonder if we do all search for our niche, however we find it. Fandom is definitely one of mine.
My best friends are still people like me. Cara may be Asian, but she's shares my brain when it comes to novels, and is a LGBTQgeek foremost. We can relate to eachother because we think similarly, we speek the same fannish language, we share a culture. This is what I am learning: to find that shared culture. Deema and I both like similar music. I don't speak arabic and it sucks when her friends are around because I cannot understand the conversation because it's literally not my language but in talking with her one on one it can be fun. I see her rarely but we live in the same building so on occasion. Fiona and I still sometimes talk via email, as do Ayano and I. We all like anime, the english language, and japanese. Lin Lucas is a comic book geek and we call each other every once in a while, and get together when I'm in town. As soon as he sees Watchmen he's promised to call. These are all people who don't look like me, but what matters is that they are *like* me. We share something and that's how we are friends.

Anica and I had a conversation in the lunch line one day about how "all you white people look the same" which was *such* a relief because all you asian folks, kinda the same. I couldn't tell you if someone's from Taiwan, China, Japan or Korea unless I heard the language. Anica said "that's easy it's all in the face, and hair!" which no, I don't see but "How can Nicole and I look the same to you. She's a red head!" Anica "yeah, you do look a little different, but you an Sorina, or Kaya, or Kayla. When I first met you I couldn't remember who was who. You all look the same." And that's the thing. When I First Met You.

Back to Racefail09, basically people have rows and get angry and say stupid things, or well worded things and get defensive and all that and it goes a lot of nowhere. It's making relationships that count, finding the cultural context in common, talking about what the differences are. Learning. I think everybody's probably going to fuck up at some point. We all say idiotic things we either regret later or have pointed out to us as being totally bigoted the thing is to go "crap my bad, so explain why I suck so I can be a better person in the future" and this applies to everyone. A person could be offended to hear ' you white people are all the same' in fact I probably would be, just the same way it's offensive to generalize anyone (unless apparently you are that thing, as FGC talent show night goes to prove. Quakers can make quaker jokes all they want because you know, we *are* that). So we all need to learn to learn from mistakes and take suggestive criticism and then apply that to our futures. But most importantly get to know people. Be kind and find something you agree on. We're all in fandom so that's something we've got in common, let's try and build on that rather than yelling about it. If you've got problems, vent em. If you've got problems with somebody's problems think carefully before replying. Speak what is true for you and know others will do the same. Try to use it to get closer rather than tearing apart. As far as I can tell, nobody here is meaning to hurt anybody else. Some folks are deluded, some folks are deluded in thinking other's are deluded. There's nothing wrong in feeling what you feel, but be smart in how you use your feelings. Understand that you may not have all the information and someone else's truth is just as true as yours. Listen to that and try to grow from that dialogue rather than shutting it out and shutting down a friendship or communication. We're all in this together and we all care about the same things. Let's learn to talk together and Listen. And now I'm preaching so I'll stop. Dunno if this was useful to anyone else.

Title: Barney and Family
Author: Rhea314
Rating: PG
Summary: The boys come across a station playing childrens songs, random conversation ensues. Drabble. Not wincest but includes discussion of incest/homosexuality in kids shows.
A/N: I had the darn "we're a happy family" song stuck in my head and I'd just read a pile of SPN fic and the two sort of mixed together, and this is what I got.

( Barney and Family )

Title: Kid Rhymes
Author: Rhea314
Rating: G/PG
Summary: One of Sam's friends teaches him a new song and Sam thinks about his family.
A/N: This song terrified me as a kid, I wanted to work it into an SPN fic about Sam Winchester, this didn't turn out quite like I was intending, but I do actually like it. I hope I conveyed a childs voice well enough. I'm working on the assumption that there was a time before Sam became involved with the family business when he was too young and John and Dean kept it a secret.

( Kid Rhymes )

Fanfiction (or fanfic) is a new form of literature in which the author writes using pre-existing situations, locals, and characters. It first came into popularity with Star Trek, today fanfic comprises a large portion of the internet. FanFiction.Net hosts 349,318 Harry Potter fanfics, 132,273 Naruto fanfics, 14,278 Supernatural fanfics, 8,174 Smallville fanfics, and 17,595 fanfics (fanfiction.net). Most of these stories are written by women. One particular female drive genre is Slash. Slash is a genre of fanfiction that features romantic relationships between males. This type of literature is a host to discussions of relationships and sexuality, deconstructing negative images of women and homophobia from the sanctioned media. Slash should not be labeled as immoral or pornography, even though it may deal with issues that appear delicate the way in which the writers and readers of slash treat and explore their topics makes it an important venue for female exploration and speech. This article will discuss more of these phenomena and outline the steps so that you too dear reader can become a slash fangirl.
( extended intro )

( Step One: What Should I Read? Connecting to fandom through the original source product )

( Step Two: Learn The Language. It is important to know what the link you’re clicking will take you to. Click here for a fan-speak dictionary )

( Step Three: Finding Fic. Before you can read it you have to know where to look for it. )

( Step Four: Figuring Out Your Preferences. Fandom is huge, so finding your niche and interests is a major part of what it’s all about. Don’t read what you dislike, try lots of things, and use common sense. )

OMG. OMG. OMG. I don't have an awesome enough icon to encompass my feelings.

So season finales tonight. Watch me flail. I'm not going to cry yet (I was) but first.

1 SV has won over my heart. If you're going to go out, that's the way to do it, really. Nice work MR. Can I say my little CLexer heart missed a beat. ( spoilers and joy )

Then I saw the promo for SPN. I hopped up and down on one foot, cursed, and stubbed my toe. I almost started crying before the episode started. My parents got home. The both want to watch the finale, even my dad, weird. ^^
( spoilers and the amazingness that is the awesomest show in history )

Supernatural is the most amazing thing. I need to go buy season 3 right now. Okay as soon as I get paid but still!

And, I was super productive this afternoon too, I wrote two papers and watched more BSG, which is still good, still overly long (as in no episode breaks and logical stop points) but I'm enjoying it more as we go. Starbuck's still my fav.

So I wouldn't have a full break until I'd written at least something. This story is the product of very little sleep and staring at the sparkley for too long. Originally I was going to write a totally normal original fic involving a sapphire ring, for the obvious reasons but I just finished S6 and was thinking about Lana and plotlines and falling asleep and bamb there was this plot.

Title: I will only marry someone with eyes the color of this stone…
Author: Rhea314
Rating: G
Fandom: SV
Warnings: none
Summary: As a child Lana makes a vow that she’ll only marry someone with eyes as green as the stone that killed her parents. Intended fairy tale structure. Pairing: Lana/Jason Teague and maybe Lex/Clark if you want to read it that way.
A/N: I’m disregarding some timeline bits, mainly because I don’t remember everything, heck I had to go look up Whitney’s name, or else I’d have been calling him Kevin or something.


( I will only marry someone with eyes the color of this stone )


Feedback is greatly appreciated.

In my free time I've actually gotten around to stabing at the few ideas I've had stuck in my head. This is my first attempt at anything in the SV universe and therefore may not have a full grasp of character yet, which is why if anyone wants to give me a pointer, or any sort of reaction, that'd be great.

Title: She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy
Author: Rhea
Rating: G (PG?)
Summary: Not a song-fic, but song inspired. A look at Martha and Jonathan's relationship over the years and the importance of tractors.
disclaimer: none of these characters are mine.
( she thinks my tractor's sexy )

Title: Secret Garden
Author: Rhea
Rating: PG-12
Summary: I wanted to do a Secret Garden remake Smallville style, there's the house/manor on the hill, and a dead mother named Lilly (Lillian) there already, I wanted to have it more within the framework of the musical than the book (which I've sadly never read) or the movie which I don't remember. It sort of spun out from there. I always did think Archibald was the bad guy...This could be a WIP, but since I tied it up well enough for my own piece of mind I doubt it, unless as readers it doesn't sound like it ends. I think it's a fine conclusion but that's my mind. Minorly Clex-y
( The Secret Garden )

Title: Luthor's Will
Author: Rhea
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Clark finds a large amount of money suddenly appears in his account and decides to investigate.
I tried to write this one more in keeping with the Superman novels, they have a very clear tone, I think I got it towards the beginning, and then lost it, it's a little too fluffy I feel, but good enough for a fist try. I hope you enjoy it.
( Luthor's Will )