I got some new comments on Navy Cross, the Agent Carter story I wrote back in 2016 in which Jack is exposed to lethal doses of radiation (contains no actual character death, due to handwavy MCU science), and I reread it and really enjoyed it. I genuinely think I did some of my best writing in that fandom. (Also, now that I've experienced a major health crisis, I think it's kind of hilarious how I nailed my own emotional reactions to it almost exactly in that story - I don't think there's anything I would write differently now.)

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sheron reminded me that Biggles, even in middle age, is canonically a bit of a hottie. From Biggles Goes Alone:

Her name was Vera Harrington. A vivacious brunette with a ready smile, quick-witted, always well dressed and neatly groomed, she was undeniably attractive, so it was easy to understand why Paul was obviously more than a little interested in her. According to Gower she had for a time worked in London as a model, but having decided she preferred a country life she had returned to her mother, who had a house in the village and at that time was still alive. Biggles knew her well by sight, but had never spoken to her, Paul having pointedly declined to make the introduction.

He's the guy you don't introduce your girl to. XD

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It's been a bit of an animal-lite summer so far, but as well as the moose, I heard a pair of boreal owls calling while I was out walking around yesterday evening (or maybe 1 owl, or 12 owls, it was sort of hard to tell because the call was deceptive and seemed to be coming from all over). I've occasionally heard them very far away - it's a unique call that sounds absolutely nothing like an owl, a yodeling sound (Orion said he thinks they sound like Muppets XD) - but this was by far the closest I've ever heard them. I spent some time trying to see if I could see them, because apparently they're rarely seen; they're a small, shy, nocturnal owl, and it would be really neat to see one. Alas, wherever it/they were, it wasn't close enough to see. But that was neat! Boreal owls use woodpecker holes for nests, and we've had a ton of those around lately due to the leaf-miner-related aspen die-off, so it makes sense that a pair might be nesting around here.

I saw and heard great horned owls quite a bit early in the spring, so evidently it's a good owl year.

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I decided to sign up for a field sketching class in July. This is kind of a gamble, because I'm having to go out of town a lot for family stuff right now (aging parents and health/life/etc issues, nothing really bad, but they need me around a lot more than they used to). I have decided to cross my fingers and gamble that I can get two uninterupted weeks in the middle of July. TBH I think they'll be willing to work with me on this, because they know they've been imposing on me a bit lately.

*

That being said, though, my trips out of town this spring have really helped a lot with the burnout that crashed down on me like a ton of bricks in the middle of winter, and I'm writing much more easily. I'm really looking forward to reveals for both fluffityfluffexchange and hurtcomfortex, I'm also signed up for justmarriedexchange and summerofhorrorexchange. Fingers crossed this isn't too much, but so far it hasn't been, and it's nice to be back in the exchange ecosystem again.

There are two SSRC Agent Carter pinch hits available at the comm! They're due Mon., June 28, with the possibility of an extension. Comment over there, or here if you're more comfortable (comments are screened) or PM me if you want one! There are a number of pairings available - gen, F/F, het, and poly.

After writing the previous book review for the one I just finished, I figured I'd write about the other ghost-solving-mysteries books I've read lately, which are a series of cozy murder mysteries by Traci Wilton, Mrs. Morris and the Ghost and Mrs. Morris and the Witch.

I will just flat-out tell you that I loved reading these books not because they're especially good, because they aren't, but because they read exactly like an Agent Carter modern-day ghost AU in which widow!Peggy buys a house haunted by ghost!Jack. I mean, I don't think it is actually serial-numbers-filed-off Agent Carter fanfic, it's more obviously someone thinking that what The Ghost and Mrs. Muir needed was Moar Crime Solving, but ... the ghost, though. HIS NAME IS EVEN JACK, and he's handsome and flirty and lounges on things and enjoys teasing the heroine by trying to get her attention when she's in a room full of people and can't actually react to Jack popping up unexpectedly or making sarcastic comments. The heroine, meanwhile, is a stylish and slightly uptight widow who is trying to deal with all of this Sexy Ghost around the place. There's also a human cop love interest who could even function as a vague Daniel analog, although I just gotta say she has infinitely more chemistry and a much more charming friendship with the ghost.

As actual murder mysteries, these are pretty bad. The first one's not so terrible because she's solving Jack's murder, but in the second one she has no connection to the victim and no reason to keep showing up at crime scenes, and keeps doing mind-blowingly stupid things because of it. Just let the police handle it, lady. Sheesh. I don't blame not!Daniel for yelling at her about it a lot.

However, this leads to an interesting situation where part of the reason why she has so much more chemistry with Ghost Jack is because he actually enjoys solving crimes with her, while not!Daniel spends most of his time getting upset at her for showing up at crime scenes. On the one hand, this makes perfect sense because he's a cop and she's a civilian with absolutely no boundaries or common sense ... but it also leads to a dynamic where she actively tries to hide things from him and only guiltily tells him what she's been up to (and then often gets yelled at anyway), while she can't wait to run home and talk over her latest finds with Jack.

It made me stop and think about why sometimes bickery romances slam down all my buttons and sometimes they slam down my "nope" button just as hard, and I think that's actually the fundamental crux of it, though it took having both types of relationship contrasted in the same book to actually make me realize it. Not!Peggy bickers with Jack constantly. But there's also a fundamental, underlying sense that Jack really loves that idiotically curious aspect of her personality, loves solving mysteries with her, and while he hates her putting herself in danger, he doesn't try to stop her; he just backs her up. Meanwhile not!Daniel does nothing but try to stop her. And it's not really his fault, part of it is baked into the setup (he's a cop! he can't have her tramping all over his crime scenes!), but you also get the feeling that he would love it if she'd just stop being a curious busybody, whereas Jack really enjoys being a curious busybody with her even when she's annoying the hell out of him by doing it, and I think that's what makes all the difference with their respective character dynamics. It's not even so much not!Daniel trying to argue her out of doing things, because Jack does too, but when most of his interactions involve him scolding her and not!Peggy defending herself, it comes across that he simply doesn't appreciate her as a whole person. I think this is a trap that romance can easily fall into when the author is either trying to create conflict for the sake of conflict, or has set up the characters on opposite sides a little too well - it's actually going to be tough to avoid in a situation like this where you have a by-the-book cop on one side and an amateur sleuth on the other.

(But you can totally do it. White Collar managed it for several seasons, and they did it mostly by suggesting that Peter loves and appreciates Neal's loose-cannon qualities in equal measure with how much they drive him bonkers. Which is exactly what this series is failing to do with these two characters.)

Anyway, these books are not particularly good but they are very charming brain candy, and god help me, I will totally be buying book 3 when it comes out this fall. And I will continue thinking of it as an Agent Carter modern-day AU and shipping her with her ghost because they have chemistry out the wazoo.

Agent Carter Valentines and Chocolate Box both released this week and I lucked out. MY GIFTS ARE AMAZING.

If This Room Was Burning by glorious_spoon (Agent Carter, 10K, Peggy/Jack/Daniel)
Peggy, Daniel, and Jack are retrieving canisters containing another one of Howard's stolen experiments when they get trapped in a cave in, and one of the canisters is breached. Problem is, Howard was a little less than forthcoming about what exactly was in them...

Absolutely wonderful pollen P/J/D get-together fic (minus any actual sex, it's more like h/c pollen) with hurt/comforty dubcon cuddling!! This COULD NOT POSSIBLY be more relevant to my interests.

true north by anonymous (Agent Carter, 10K, Peggy/Jack/Daniel)
Jack's a suspicious soul at heart. He doesn't trust anyone, least of all himself.

Yes, I got TWO long P/D/J get-together stories, and both of them are delightful: well written and plotty and wonderfully characterized and idtastic. This one is incredibly hurt/comforty with Jack being tortured literally and emotionally, and ALSO about as relevant to my interests as it is possible to get. ♥

Look After You by anonymous (Punisher, 3500 wds, Leo & Frank gen)
Leo knows only two people who got their wisdom teeth out before her, and Mom said no way did it hurt as much as everyone tells you it will, and Dad said no, it really didn’t, but, uh, he wasn’t chewing anything harder than mashed potatoes for almost three weeks afterward.

This is SO GOOD, perfectly bittersweet and richly characterized and full of subtle, well-chosen details. Leo's narrative voice is fantastic.

Post by anonymous (Banshee, 300 wds, Carrie Hopewell + ensemble)
She has no reason to think he’ll receive any mail she sends to the PO Box scrawled across the back of the otherwise-blank postcard from Truth or Consequences, NM. No reason to expect that, even if he is living in the desert and checking his mail, he has any interest in pictures from the Banshee Elementary Penny Carnival.

I GOT A BANSHEE FIC! This was so delightful and unexpected, and it's a glorious little gem of post-canon perfection, beautifully capturing the fabric of life in Banshee and Carrie's place in it.

I loved every single one of these. I just want to cuddle them and enjoy them. Everyone else should read them too. ♥_____♥

In my July fic prompt call, muccamukk gave me a brilliant (and diabolical) prompt for established Peggy/Jack/Daniel in which one of them loses their memory and forgets everything since early season one. I went with Peggy, and I usually offer to write 100 words when I do these, but I am now 20K into this thing and it just won't quit. Anyway, I've posted a few brief teaser snippets on Tumblr: first snippet, second snippet, third snippet. In case this is relevant to anyone's interests. :D

I've posted a few things on AO3 lately that I forgot to crosspost/link here:

Too Close for Comfort (Agent Carter)
Peggy + Jack gen bed-sharing fic.

Worth a Thousand Words (White Collar)
Short fic from a Tumblr prompt in which Neal has laryngitis.

Riding the Rails (White Collar)
This was a Fandom Stocking AU in which Peter is the con and Neal is the FBI agent, but now there's another little installment with con!Peter on the tracking anklet. (For a prompt by lov_pb, I think?)

I also wrote a couple of ficlets for this commentfic meme:

Christmases, Peggy/Jack/Daniel, for the prompt Any poly grouping: okay but WHOSE FAMILY gets [culturally significant family holiday] when?
Ant-Man ficlet for the prompt Scott Lang takes his daughter trick-or-treating

And this one is not mine, just a rec, but I ran across this adorable fanart of my Agent Carter babies a little while back, and right now I have it open in a tab because it makes me happy. (There is so little fanart of them!)

And with this, my seventh AC vid, Agent Carter has passed SGA to become my most-vidded fandom. (Though honestly, White Collar probably would have been, if I hadn't been having technical issues during most of the time I was watching it that made vidding prohibitively difficult. I planned a lot of vids in the later seasons that I never actually made.)

Song: Try Everything
Artist: Shakira (from the Zootopia soundtrack)
Fandom: Agent Carter
Summary: Seasons 1 & 2, Peggy + ensemble. I wanna try even though I could fail. They all get knocked down, but they keep getting up again.

Streaming: https://vimeo.com/179973614
Downloads: 87 Mb DivX (zipped) | 125 Mb MP4 (zipped)
(Smaller download options at the Vimeo link.)
Tumblr: http://sholiofic.tumblr.com/post/149392705078/try-everything-agent-carter-seasons-1-2-peggy

Embed and lyrics under the cut.

( Embed and lyrics )

This one has been in the works since last year. Right after the end of last season, I heard this song on the radio and thought, "Wow. That HAS to be a Peggy vid." The problem was that I couldn't figure out what to do with the third stanza. The Captain America movie and the first season of Agent Carter fit the first and second stanzas, but then there was all this extra song on the end. And then we got another season and everything clicked.

Title: Night Changes
Artist: One Direction
Fandom: Agent Carter
Footage: Seasons 1&2, plus movies
Summary: We're only getting older, baby. Peggy moving on with her life after Steve: finding the place where she belongs, and the people that she belongs with.

Streaming: https://vimeo.com/174006301
Download: 142 Mb MP4 | 116 Mb DivX
(Smaller download options at the Vimeo link)
On Tumblr: here at sholiofic

( Embed and lyrics under the cut )

There is a post over at CollarCorner on the next few months' themes and activities, including the possibility of a small, low-pressure, gen White Collar fanworks exchange.

Also, the Vacation prompt at starwarsflashmeme is extended for another week ('til Saturday) since SOMEONE (me) forgot to post a new prompt this weekend.

I seem to be mostly talking about fan stuff on Tumblr these days, which isn't something I MEANT to happen, but then interesting pieces of meta come along and I reblog them with notes and, well, yeah. My recent tumblr-reblog meta:

- A gifset and meta on how everyone's reactions to the "suicide mission" in 2x10 are little capsule versions of their personalities
- Daniel's moderating influence on Peggy, and Jack as a cynical balance to their shared idealism

I also stumbled across a tumblr-organized Agent Carter ficathon (not an exchange) with the theme Summer Nights. OF COURSE I signed up, because apparently I now have a Pavlovian reaction to anything with "Agent Carter" and some variation on exchange/ficathon/challenge in the name. >__> Luckily it's only 1000 words and it's not for someone else or anonymous (at least I don't think so), so I can write whatever I want. And just recently I had been wondering if anyone used the word "ficathon" anymore. It's actually very old-school, even though it's on Tumblr! There is a fairly distinctive current style to most fanworks events (run through AO3 exchange-style, anonymous period, fic & art both allowed, etc); either that, or everything is bingo cards. And although I enjoy both of those, it's nice to run across one that's set up differently.

I'd been thinking lately that Agent Carter fandom feels very scattered, compared to LJ-based fandoms; it's harder to find out about the events that are going on, or find all the places where people hang out. But actually, thinking about it and reflecting on past fandoms of mine, I don't think that's true. I think it FELT less scattered when fandom was mostly on LJ if you could manage to get hooked into the "where things were happening" places and get to know people who tended to post about events going on around the fandom. But not everyone was able to do that, and not all fandoms had that, and even so, they tended to localize into little pockets of activity centered around a particular ship or shared interest. Like, when I first got into SGA fandom on LJ, it was the gen everyone-who-met-on-ff.net crowd that I was hanging around with, and while I had a vague idea that things were happening elsewhere in the fandom, I really had no clue about either the het or slash parts of the fandom; aside from a few nexuses like sga_flashfic or the Big Bangs, which involved people from all corners of the fandom, there just wasn't THAT much overlap. Or A:tLA fandom, where the corner of the fandom that I got to know was a small and fairly well-connected one on DW, but I had the vague sense that there was a LOT going on elsewhere, it just wasn't here.

The existence of comms and newsletters did help centralize things, or at least made it easier not to miss events until after they happened. Newsletters don't seem to have made the jump to tumblr and I kinda hope someone will reinvent them someday, though I am certainly not going to be the sucker who has to comb through all the tags to find things. Or maybe they won't; maybe tumblr tags and the fact that most fanfic ends up on AO3 means that newsletters aren't necessary as they once were, just like people don't tend to have dedicated rec sites or directory sites anymore.

Agent Carter is officially cancelled.

I'm sad, but ... surprisingly not as sad as I thought I'd be. The thing is, I didn't believe we'd get a season two. And because of that, the second season felt like a gift. I didn't expect to get it, and then it came along and was so gloriously, perfectly just what I wanted, and left all of the characters exactly where I hoped they'd be. (Well, except for that CLIFFHANGER, but even the cliffhanger is a wonderful jumping-off point for fic.)

If the show had to end somewhere, I don't think it could've been a better place -- well, okay, not having an eternal cliffhanger would have been nice, but I came out of the season so much more inspired to write stuff than if it'd tied everything up neatly, so for fanficcing purposes, it's great. (I was also very gratified to find out that the fandom didn't assume the worst in fanfic with the cliffhanger ... I was braced for something like Carnivale, which ended very similarly but literally ALL the fic, what little exists, assumes the worst-case scenario. AC fandom hasn't done that and hopefully will continue to explore all the post-canon hurt/comfort possibilities.)

So, yeah, I wanted a season three so bad. But it's ours now, guys. They can never kill anybody off or take the show or any of the characters in a direction so terrible that it taints everything that came before. And I have multiple LONG post-season-two fics I want to write, and more vids I plan to make. I'm not even that worried about the fandom contracting, as fandoms always do in the post-canon period, because the fandom wasn't that big to begin with; it's not like something like SGA where half the fun was being in a big, active fandom, so losing that was sad. Here, the fandom has always been small but hardcore, and hopefully we can pull a Firefly, where the fandom is still going strong long after the tiny amount of canon is over.

I can't do this tonight or tomorrow because I have houseguests, but as soon as possible (this weekend hopefully?) I'm going to do another ficlet-prompt session (or two), because canon may be over -- unless it gets a new lease of life on Netflix or Hulu, which would be LOVELY, but I'm not holding out too much hope -- but that just means we can take it in whatever direction we want, and I'm going to be there for that ride.

And I watched the first episode tonight. (My comments as I go through these episodes will contain spoilers for the whole series, including season two.)

Don't expect anything particularly insightful, just random natterings.

( Comments and squee after rewatching 1x01 )