blueinkedfrost

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing for me! I hope you have a wonderful Yuletide. Our shared rare fandom is joy, optional details are optional, and please don't get eaten by bears. I hope that you and yours have a happy and safe season.

Things I like to read include: adventure, ghost stories, humour, horror, slice-of-life, worldbuilding, alternate universes, love, tragedy, suffering, hope, irony, drama, mystery, complicated characters, complicated relationships, character development, underexplored parts of canon universes, plot twists, banter, capable/competent characters, female characters having adventures and being central to the story, femslash, gen, het, slash, rare characters in the spotlight, unusual stories, being surprised, and many other things that hopefully cover what you enjoy writing. I'd love to read a story you want to write.

In general, I'd much rather read fic that went in a direction you liked writing than a story that stuck to a prompt that wasn't working for you.

Treats are welcome.

Fandoms

• Mansfield Park - Jane Austen (book)


• Paula Monti - Eugene Sue (book)


• 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (play)


• Baldur's Gate (video game)

( Read more... )

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing for me! I hope you have a wonderful Yuletide. Our shared rare fandom is joy, optional details are optional, and please don't get eaten by bears. I hope that you and yours have a happy and safe season.

Things I like to read include: adventure, ghost stories, humour, horror, slice-of-life, worldbuilding, alternate universes, love, tragedy, suffering, hope, irony, drama, mystery, complicated characters, complicated relationships, character development, underexplored parts of canon universes, plot twists, banter, capable/competent characters, female characters having adventures and being central to the story, femslash, gen, het, slash, rare characters in the spotlight, unusual stories, being surprised, and many other things that hopefully cover what you enjoy writing. I'd love to read a story you want to write.

In general, I'd much rather read fic that went in a direction you liked writing than a story that stuck to a prompt that wasn't working for you.

Treats are welcome.

Fandoms

• First Date on a Lake - Saturday Night Live Sketch (short video)


• Mansfield Park - Jane Austen (book)


• Pink Punch - Laura Kinch (book)


• Baldur's Gate (video game)

( Read more... )

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing for me! I hope you have a wonderful Yuletide. Our shared rare fandom is joy, optional details are optional, and please don't get eaten by bears. I hope that you and yours have a happy and safe season.

Things I like to read include: adventure, ghost stories, humour, horror, slice-of-life, worldbuilding, alternate universes, love, tragedy, suffering, hope, irony, drama, mystery, complicated characters, complicated relationships, character development, underexplored parts of canon universes, plot twists, banter, capable/competent characters, female characters having adventures and being central to the story, femslash, gen, het, slash, rare characters in the spotlight, unusual stories, being surprised, and many other things that hopefully cover what you enjoy writing. I'd love to read a story you want to write.

In general, I'd much rather read fic that went in a direction you liked writing than a story that stuck to a prompt that wasn't working for you.

Fandoms

• The Tempest - Shakespeare (play)


• 'Tis Pity She's a Whore - John Ford (play)


• Baldur's Gate (video game)

( Read more... )

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing for me! I hope you have a wonderful Yuletide. Our shared rare fandom is joy, optional details are optional, and please don't get eaten by bears. I hope that you and yours have a happy and safe season.

Things I like to read include: adventure, ghost stories, humour, horror, slice-of-life, alternate universes, love, tragedy, suffering, hope, irony, drama, mystery, complicated characters, complicated relationships, character development, underexplored parts of canon universes, plot twists, banter, capable/competent characters, female characters having adventures and being central to the story, femslash, gen, het, slash, rare characters in the spotlight, unusual stories, being surprised, and many other things that hopefully cover what you enjoy writing. I'd love to read a story you want to write.

In general, I'd much rather read fic that went in a direction you liked writing than a story that stuck to a prompt that wasn't working for you.

Fandoms

• 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (play)


• Judge Dee Mysteries - Robert van Gulik (novel/short story series)


• The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass (manhwa)


• Baldur's Gate (video game)

( Read more... )

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing for me! I hope you have a wonderful Yuletide. Our shared rare fandom is joy, optional details are optional, and please don't get eaten by bears.

Things I like to read include: adventure, ghost stories, humour, horror, slice-of-life, alternate universes, tragedy, suffering, irony, drama, mystery, complicated characters, complicated relationships, character development, underexplored parts of canon universes, plot twists, banter, capable/competent characters, female characters having adventures and being central to the story, femslash, gen, het, slash, rare characters in the spotlight, unusual stories, being surprised, and many other things that hopefully cover what you enjoy writing. I'd love to read a story you want to write.

If there're any questions about this letter, feel free to go through the Yuletide Mods, or simply write the story you want to write - I'd much rather read fic that went in a direction you liked writing than a story that stuck to a prompt that wasn't working for you.

Fandoms

• Die Lustig Witwe | The Merry Widow (operetta)


• Baldur's Gate (video game)


• Legendsong (book series)

( Read more... )

Historical Sexual Violence Warning: This story could have been written as a dark exploration of the psychological trauma of being enslaved by multiple bloodthirsty warlords, but is actually written more like a bodice ripper that provides the heroine with an excuse to have a lot of hot sex with lots of sexy pirates and warlords. I've chosen to follow the second interpretation.

Cautionary Note to Readers: If you kidnap a woman in real life, she will probably not want to have sex with you.

—

Once upon a time, there lived the Princess Alatiel of Babylon, who was beautiful, intelligent, resourceful, and engaged to marry the King of Algave, a man she had never met. Alatiel's father sent her to her bridal on board a ship. Sadly, the ship was overwhelmed by a storm. Alatiel lived through the tempest, and was found washed up on the beach by Pericone, a landed gentleman.

Not a word of language did Alatiel and Pericone have in common between them. But he was an extraordinarily handsome and pleasing man, as was Alatiel a lovely woman, and sign language was well enough for them. Warmed by hot wine after her ordeal, Alatiel treated Pericone as if he were one of her ladies' maids, undressing in front of him.

And then, through a mixture of liquid courage and body language, Alatiel enjoyed the first of many long nights of delight with Pericone. If I had sufficient words to describe their creativity, endurance, and acrobatic talent, dear reader, then I would be a famous dictionary publisher.

Pericone had a brother, Marato, who was younger than he and still more handsome. Marato looked upon Alatiel and found that she, too, was taken with him. Marato ordered a ship, gathered trusty companions, and one night abducted the lady to the ship. Sad at the loss of Pericone, Alatiel soon consoled herself with Marato's substitution.

Little did Marato know that two of his trusted sailors had also fallen under Alatiel's spell. In the night, he was thrown overboard by the twain. The two then fought each other to determine which should woo Alatiel, ending with one dead and the other wounded. To Alatiel's relief, the wounded man soon ordered the ship to be brought ashore and she tended to him in his convalescence.

The Prince of Morea, staying at the same inn as Alatiel and her lover, discovered that the lady was still more beautiful than rumour credited her. While he did not know Alatiel's true identity or speak her tongue, he recognised her royal bearing, and she too appreciated a man of similar rank to her. She left her previous lover and soon waxed in joy with the Prince, who treated her as a wife rather than a mistress.

The Duke of Athens, kinsman to the Prince, visited his cousin and teased him that his lady could not be so charming as claimed. The Prince brought them together, and when their eyes met another fatal attraction was born. The Duke killed the Prince, abducted Alatiel, and started a war. The Emperor of Constantinople sent his son Constantine to fight at the Duke's side, while the Prince's kinsmen arrayed themselves against Athens.

The Duke of Athens was married to a clever Duchess, who wished to avert war. She visited Alatiel and Constantine, brokered an alliance between them, and sent them away together to quell the rising tensions.

Alas for Constantine! While he and Alatiel dallied upon Chios, a well known pleasure island, enjoying themselves in every way, his enemy Osbech caught up to him. Osbech set the island on fire, killed Constantine, and took Alatiel with him. Osbech was a well-favoured and highly attractive young man, so Alatiel was soon consoled for Constantine's loss. In addition, one of Osbech's trusted attendants, Antioco, spoke Alatiel's language, so she no longer felt like a deaf-mute.

Osbech left Alatiel to go to war, and was mourned by her until Antioco succeeded him in the lady's bed. Although he was an older man, he was skilled and sensitive in many tongues. Osbech never returned from his warfare, and thus Antioco and Alatiel were obliged to flee to Rhodes. There Antioco caught a fatal illness, but ensured that Alatiel was well provided for after his death. She grieved for a few days then booked passage on a ship to return to Babylon and her father.

"I was shipwrecked and landed in an isolated convent of nuns on an island," Alatiel explained. "We did a lot of praying and nunlike devotions. I was all alone on the island of nuns, and never saw any men. It was very boring. I am glad to be back."

Alatiel's father sent her with all pomp and ceremony to the King of Algave, as she was originally betrothed. Either luckily or unluckily depending on one's point of view, this voyage saw no further shipwrecks or accidents. The King of Algave was a handsome, kind, and generous man who was not overly burdened with brains. Many of his courtiers were also very good looking. Queen Alatiel lived happily ever after.

Once upon a time, there was a lusty woman with red hair, who was married to a man who was one hundred percent gay.

Dissatisfied with her husband’s lack of interest, the wife soon found an attractive lover. Whenever her husband was away, she invited her lover to stay and help her work off her frustrations, and she became much happier in her marriage.

One day, she and her husband were invited to dine with a friend. The woman had already made arrangements with her lover, so she feigned a headache to stay at home, knowing that the friend and his wife would host a dinner such that her husband would be well out of the way for most of the night.

Alas for best laid plans! No sooner had the wife’s lover arrived and the two of them begun to set about their business, than did her husband return. Frightened, the wife told her lover to hide in the hen-coop.

“Prepare me a good dinner, wife; I have been cheated out of mine,” grumbled the husband. “No sooner did we sit down at table than we heard a sneeze. Madam spilt a pepperpot and sneezed on purpose, yet we knew the sneeze came not from the table - but from the cupboard! That wicked woman had concealed her lover there! Such a fuss ensued from her husband, and I never did get my supper.”

The wife, all too conscious of her own misconduct, set about to heartily agree with her husband. “Only a truly wicked, despicable, and depraved woman would do such a thing!” she told her husband. “An immoral woman like that cannot be trusted! That madam ought to be tied to the back of an ass and whipped through the town.”

But then a noise from her chicken coop caused her to rush to her window - and her husband too. Her lover had left his hand outside the chicken coop, only to be trampled upon by the ass in the yard. He cried out in pain. As much as the woman tried to assure her husband that the noise was nothing, he stalked out to the chicken coop and returned dragging his wife’s lover behind him.

“What were you saying about immoral women, darling?” her husband asked.

The lusty red-haired wife was not a cowardly woman. Moreover, she noticed something interesting in the way her husband looked at her handsome young lover, and the way that her lover looked back at him.

“I declare the two cases are entirely different,” said the lusty red-haired wife. “Women suffer from a lack of love-making. We cannot divert ourselves with business and hobbies as men do. All we are good for is to love while we are young, and build up a store of memories to savour when we are old. Madam your friend is not married to a gay man. Her husband would serve her any time she asked for it, so she had no right to look elsewhere. You, on the other hand, have always deprived me. I had every right to get the sustenance you refused to provide. Do you think that there is a way we could settle this peacably?”

And then, dear reader, the three of them lived happily ever after.

I'm posting a fantasy adventure story.

Out, Brief Candle by Blueinkedfrost

Swords, sorcery, blood, and destiny. A bored young noblewoman is weary beyond words of her life of tedious parties and petty bullying. She thinks she's found a chance to rebel when she dances with a mysterious man in black at the Grand Dukes' ball. Little does she know she'll get far more than she bargained for, when she's drawn into the blood-soaked saga of the bastard children of the dead god of murder.

Tags: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Don't Have to Know Canon, Wrong Characters Get Married, Writing on Skin, Magical Tattoos

Fanfiction.net

This is just about as close as I come to writing romance, which is to say 'Will They Or Won't They' is settled in chapter two, and then the murders begin.

I've finished posting a long fic, complete at 60,000 words. It's an alternate universe with superpowers, a fantasy kitchen sink, and a giant toad.

Chandler and a Death Foretold by Blueinkedfrost (AO3)

Heather McNamara gets possessed by ghosts in the cafeteria. Heather Duke reads tarot cards. Heather Chandler knows they're both faking it, until she gets a prophecy about her own death. To avoid her own murder at her best friend's hands, Chandler recruits a co-conspirator - the new kid in town, Jason Dean. Chandler/J.D., Veronica/Duke.

Fanfiction.Net

This is probably the only Heathers fanfic in existence where Chandler battles a giant toad in a game of insults. This is probably a good thing. (As I had to reassure my friend, it was strictly a PG-13 rated toad.)

On my knees.
Brother, even by our mother's dust, I charge you,
Do not betray me to your mirth or hate;
Love me, or kill me, brother.

On my knees.
Sister, even by my mother's dust I charge you,
Do not betray me to your mirth or hate;
Love me, or kill me, sister.

John Ford's Carolinian drama, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, first performed between 1629 and 1633, has almost everything sensational possible - incest, murder, torture, mutilation, abuse, revenge, corrupt churchmen, a Spaniard, infidelity, duelling, disguises. While Ford's methods of forcibly dragging eyeballs onto his play seem crude, they are nonetheless effective.

Giovanni and Annabella, brother and sister, love each other. Their love is intense, aberrant, destructive, devoted unto death. Giovanni and Annabella are almost heroic, beautiful and poetic and intelligent and shining more vibrantly alive than any other characters, but brought down by their fatal flaw.

Ford's language is flawless and compelling, the terrible and terrifying situation building as a storm you must watch without escaping.

The world is a dark patriarchy. Annabella's father prefers her wealthiest suitor despite his protestations otherwise; Annabella's husband abuses her; Annabella's brother slays her; Annabella's tutoress is tortured and killed.

Must I not do what all men else may - love? asks Giovanni. The answer is yes. He builds on his argument: Must I not praise that beauty which, if framed anew, the gods would make a god of? ... And kneel to it, as I do to them? He may praise beauty. And if that beauty belongs to his sister, should he not love it? He and his sister were born to the same family and share much. Perhaps it is most fitting they should love because they are so near.

Such a pair of stars
As are thine eyes, would, like Promethean fire,
If gently glanced, give life to senseless stones ...
Wise nature first in your creation meant
To make you mine; else 't had been sin and foul
To share one beauty to a double soul.
Nearness in birth and blood, doth but persuade
A nearer nearness in affection.
I have ask'd counsel of the holy church,
Who tells me I may love you; and, 'tis just,
That, since I may, I should; and will, yes will:
Must I now live, or die?

This is a specious argument, of course. Giovanni makes excuses grounded in Neoplatonism philosophy and beautiful language to love his sister (it is good to love beautiful things; his sister is beautiful; therefore, Giovanni should have sex with his sister - I think Giovanni's logic needs work).

Annabella returns Giovanni's feelings.

GIOVANNI. Come, Annabella, no more Sister now,
But Love, a name more gracious; do not blush,
Beauty's sweet wonder, but be proud to know
That yielding thou hast conquer'd, and inflamed
A heart, whose tribute is thy brother's life.

ANNABELLA. And mine is his. Oh, how these stolen contents
Would print a modest crimson on my cheeks,
Had any but my heart's delight prevail'd!

At least Giovanni and Annabella have youth and beauty and wonderful language in their sins. The world is otherwise dark. Smaller people caught in the middle of duels and honour and demands for blood are slaughtered and brutally tortured without a second thought. The religious are hypocrites who are only greedy for money and will release murderers if they are nobly born. The Cardinal's speech here shows what he truly desires.

Take up these slaughter'd bodies, see them buried;
And all the gold and jewels, or whatsoever,
Confiscate by the canons of the Church,
We seize upon to the Pope's proper use.

The corrupt Cardinal, though, also delivers the epitaph of the play.

[N]ever yet
Incest and murder have so strangely met.
Of one so young, so rich in nature's store,
Who could not say, 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE?

Perhaps there is pity for Annabella. Young, beautiful, vivid, loving, and treated as a toy for men to use and discard and kill. Pity is the only salvage of hope in the end of this story.

Read this play if you want something that's dark and intense and a masterwork of grim tragedy.

’Tis Pity She’s a Whore - PDF
’Tis Pity She’s a Whore - Adelaide E-Books

'Tis Pity She's a Whore was used to excellent effect in the Midsomer Murders television adaptation of "The Killings at Badger's Drift". The novel also referred to this play, but the TV adaptation made the excellent choice to use it in a much more extensive way, where Ford's beautiful language resonated against the themes of the episode.

Here's an excellent set of articles on the play.