Northwest Passage

Better get this post done before the next round starts ;)

seasonsofdrabbles was fun once again. I wrote a due South drabble and received two lovely triple drabbles. The Doctor Who gift is for the Eighth Doctor Adventures but can be read without specific canon knowledge – and it's really beautiful, so do check it out! I was delighted to receive a Poirot TV gift since I just finished watching the show and adore the characters.

My story:

Small (100 words) by lomelinde
Fandom: due South
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Characters: Ray Kowalski, Benton Fraser
Additional Tags: Drabble, Post-Canon, Introspection, Nature
Summary: On the quest with Fraser, Ray muses

My gifts:

Death of an Unremarkable Clerk (300 words) by Small_Hobbit
Fandom: Agatha Christie's Poirot (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Hercule Poirot, James Japp, Felicity Lemon
Summary: Japp goes to see Poirot with a difficult case

Recursion (300 words) by lurking_latinist
Fandom: Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Adventures - Various Authors, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Anji Kapoor, The Doctor's TARDIS
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Insomnia, Libraries
Summary: Anji finds the perfect spot to read herself to sleep.

The Candy Hearts Exchange has come and gone, and it was tons of fun. I got a wonderful due South fic that I love to bits:

Freshmint (2399 words) by feroxargentea
Fandom: due South
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Characters: Benton Fraser, Ray Kowalski, Diefenbaker, Renfield Turnbull, Margaret Thatcher (due South)
Additional Tags: Truth Spells, Romance, Mutual Pining
Summary: It started out like any other day.

***

I also wrote two little due South ficlets:

Coffee and Friendship (608 words) by lomelinde
Fandom: due South
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Benton Fraser & Francesca Vecchio
Characters: Francesca Vecchio, Benton Fraser
Additional Tags: Friendship, Found Family, Homesickness
Summary: Francesca can tell that something is bothering Fraser

Weekend with the Wolf-in-Law (457 words) by lomelinde
Fandom: due South
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Diefenbaker & Ray Kowalski, background Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Characters: Ray Kowalski, Diefenbaker (due South)
Additional Tags: Humor
Summary: Take care of Dief for the weekend? Sure, sounds easy enough. Or so Ray thinks …

I’m trying to catch up on my round-ups and have decided to sort them by fandom this time around. First up – due South (from multifandomdoodle, ds_ssdiscussion and seasonsofdrabbles):

[ART] The Fire that Burns Between Us (Preview links to AO3)



( My recent due South stories )

—

( My lovely due South gifts: )

Dear Festividder,

Thank you for making me a vid for me! I love surprises and am bound to enjoy whatever you create for me. (Gifts are enabled and welcome.)

( Music/Vid Likes and DNWs )

FANDOMS:

( Danger Man (TV) & The Prisoner (1967) [UMBRELLA], due South, Hell on Wheels (TV), Miami Vice (TV), A Single Man [SAFETY], Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV), The Streets of San Francisco, Wilby Wonderful [SAFETY] )

Dear Santa,

Thank you for creating for me! I'm lomelinde on AO3––I love surprises and have very broad tastes, so while I have added some optional prompts and likes below, feel free to follow your own creative instincts. I generally prefer happy or hopeful endings, but I do also enjoy bittersweet of ambiguous ones - just not something deeply depressing for this exchange.

I’m a F/K shipper at heart (and have added a some prompts for that ship below), but I see this exchange as a great chance to also explore the many other friendships and characters I love on this show. I’d be delighted to receive a gift for any of the requested relationships (the number of prompts should not indicate a preference of any kind).

( DNWs, General LIkes, Art Likes, Vid Likes )

( Characters and Relationships: )

( Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski (Art, Fic, Vid) )
( Benton Fraser & None (Art, Fic, Vid) )
( Benton Fraser & Martha Fraser (Art, Fic) )
( Benton Fraser/Original Male Character(s) (Fic) )
( Diefenbaker & None (Art, Fic, Vid) )
( Diefenbaker & Ray Kowalski (Art, Fic, Vid) )
( Ray Kowalski & Francesca Vecchio (Fic) )
( Francesca Vecchio & Renfield Turnbull (Fic) )
( Maggie MacKenzie & Francesca Vecchio (Fic) )
( Benton Fraser & Francesca Vecchio (Fic) )

due South Seekrit Santa 2022 AO3 Collection

The WIP meme inspired me to look through my Procreate app, and I found an unfinished F/K drawing I’d almost forgotten about. Since I had some time on my hands before work gets crazy in just over a week, I worked on it some more. At some point, I figured I had to stop tinkering and just post. Now on to working on some Big Bang complimentary art. Fun!

Preview (links to AO3)

I've received some amazing drabbles at the Merry Month of Drabbles fest that I'd like to share:

Doctor Who (1963, BFA, EDAs)
lurking_latinist wrote me three (!) drabbles that I adore:

In Cambridge: Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Liz Shaw, Clare Keightley, G, Prompt: Unexpected visitor
Liz love! <3>

See Through My Eyes: Doctor Who (Eighth Doctor Adventures), Eighth Doctor & Fitz Kreiner, G, Prompt: The blind leading the blind
A delightful glimpse at one of their adventures, with the Doctor being cool in a crisis and Fitz quietly freaking out.

Stolen Moments: Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Eighth Doctor/Charley Pollard, G. Prompt:: Stolen moments
This is so bittersweet and beautiful. I might have something in my eye...

ceruleantactician treated me to this wonderful baby-at-UNIT HQ drabble, with a delightfully exasperated Brig and oblivious Doctor
UNIT Daycare: Doctor Who (1963), Third Doctor & Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, G, Prompt: Exasperation

This wonderuflly evocative drabble from waterfall8484 perfectly captures Charley's love for travelling with the Doctor: Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Eighth Doctor/Charley Pollard, G, Prompt: discoveries 

due South 
alchemise wrote a beautiful, Fraser-centric drabble. I love how it focuses on his awareness of sounds and what they mean to him:
Cacophony: due South, Benton Fraser, G, Prompt: Lost

Merlin (TV)
And then I got a gorgeous Merlin drabble from tarlanx about Merlin and Arthur and the different meanings thunderstorms have to them
Merry Month of Drabbles - MAY 2022: Merlin TV, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, G, Prompt: Thunderstorm

Star Trek TOS
This Spock/McCoy drabble by senmut  made me laugh out loud. It's so delightfully them: Star Trek (The Original Series), Spock/McCoy, M, Prompt: Exasperation

As you can see, I've been spoiled :) (I hope I didn't miss any! If I did, please let me know!)

Thank you for creating for me! I love surprises and have very broad tastes both for fic and art. If you want to get the creative ball rolling, I added a few prompt words and phrases below. (Feel free to choose a prompt from any of the fandoms or to create something completely different.) I’m happy with any rating and any ship (between requested characters). I equally enjoy genfic and stories focusing on individual characters and/or friendships. (You can also browse previous exchange letters for more character specific prompts.)

( Genereal Likes )

( DNWs )

Fandoms (due South, Miami Vice, Doctor Who (Eighth Doctor Adventures), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Doctor Who (1963), Starsky & Hutch, Merlin (TV), Start Trek (TOS))

( due South )

( Miami Vice )

( Doctor Who (Eighth Doctor Adventures) )

( Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio) )

( Doctor Who (1963) )

( Starsky & Hutch )

( Merlin (TV) )

( Star Trek (The Original Series) )

I've been working on some ds_c6d_bigbang stuff, which has been fun. The chat was great, and it got me motivated to make a Hard Core Logo vid over Easter. Now that I've done a vid for one of CKR's projects, I'd like to try another C6D for a Paul Gross show. I was originally thinking maybe Chasing Rainbows or Eastwick (which I have not seen yet), but then I rewatched an episode of Slings & Arrows again, and damn, that show is so good. It has some storylines that I find irritating, but I love the rest to bits. I did a S&A vid for last year's Big Bang, but was mostly about the Geoffrey/Ellen relationship. So maybe I could try one that focuses more on Geoffrey and his state of mind, or maybe the Geoffrey & Oliver relationship. Still looking for a good song though.

The dS F/K fic for the Big Bang is finally moving along nicely. I just added the word counts, and apparently I'm already at 14K :O. How did that happen LOL? Story-wise, I'm about at the half-way point, though knowing me, the end might grow in length. I'll still need to do quite a bit of work on what I've written so far, but at least I've now got something to go from. Huge thanks to wicked3659 for being my sounding board and reading all the stuff I send them ;)

I'd love to write some shorter due South fic too, but I can't come up with any decent ideas. Maybe rewatching some episodes could help. (Any excuse hehe.)

Exchanges:

Looking forward to genfreeformexchange reveals next weekend. I didn't participate, but some of the requests looked really cool, also I'm excited to see what will be in the collection.

I claimed a pinch hit for a different exchange, and I was stuck there for a while, but now I finally got the ball rolling and am about halfway done. It still needs some work but I think it's shaping up ok, so yay. 

I just signed up for charactorex, which looks like a fun, low key character-matching exchange with a low minimum word count (500 words or clean sketch). I'll need to come up with some prompts for that. Two exchanges I'm keeping an eye on now are seasonsofdrabbles and due_south_summer_swap, but I don't know if either of those will be happening. EDIT: Just after posting this I came across a new Drabble Fest here!

Currently watching/reading:

We've reached season 5 of Miami Vice - first time watching. I must say, I'm really enjoying the show (a lot more than I expected). Visually it's often stunning, and the music is great too. (It doesn't hurt that they use tons of songs from "So", my favorite Peter Gabriel album.) I like the actors and characters, and I love how quite a few stories are morally ambiguous or open ended. Plus there a whole lot of guest starts show up who later became big names but are just starting out here (Helene Bonham Carter, Liam Neeson, Bruce Willis, Wesley Snipes, Lawrence Fishburn, Julia Roberts), and quite a few musicians too (Phil Collins, Willie Nelson, Miles Davis, Leonard Cohen). Some episodes and storylines are clunkers, but all in all, I'm on board.

I've been having to take a forced break on the EDAs due to my eyes being crap. I started Frontier Worlds, and so far it looks good, so I hope to get back to it soon.

Dear author,

Thank you for writing for me in the fandom5k exchange! I have love surprises and would be delighted to receive a gift for any of the fandoms below. My AO3 username is lomelinde

I’ve added some plot ideas for those who like to have specific prompts to work from, but if you’d prefer to write something completely different then please feel free to do so! I have very broad tastes, so as long as you avoid my DNWs, you can't got wrong. (Some fandoms have more prompts than others, but that shouldn’t imply a preference.)

( General Likes )
( DNWs )


REQUESTED FANDOMS:

( Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio) )

( Doctor Who (1963) )

( due South )

( Merlin TV )

( Starsky & Hutch )