Precious and Fragile Things

I've been writing...or trying to do something that closely resembles writing. I've not been terribly successful. Between real life stress and a sudden inability to be able to type more than 100 words or so in a sitting, this year has been exceedingly difficult. However, last night I realized I'd challenged myself way too hard by trying to do something overly complicated for origfic_bingo. I made the decision to scale back and just do a simple one-line Bingo and not focus on lengthy stories that link together.

Naturally, I decided to write a little smut. (Who here is really surprised by this?) I thought I'd share a little snippet of what I managed to produce last night, and then I hope by Tuesday to have five little stories to post. (Not all of them will be erotica, okay?)

First, just a little background and some a lot of rambling:

( Rambling about consent issues, power dynamics/kink. )

Sorry for so much rambling and over-thinking. It's just something my brain had to pick apart.

( And the NSFW exerpt. Not terribly explicit, but also not exactly vague. Warnings for dubious consent. )

And this is why you do not give god-like powers to every single hero and villain who makes it to level 50. Upon discovering the first of Ninjaweazel's clones, Selene, who is currently recovering from having an entire building fall on her (a long story I may or may not write), makes a crack about not wanting to wake up to a world full of Weazels.

NinjaWeazel: *laughs* Making one damn near killed me. I'm not sure if I could do a second one whole-cloth.
NinjaWeazel: Yet.
Selene: ...there is just the one, yes?
NinjaWeazel: Yes. Technically.
Selene: *pinches the bridge of her nose and inhales sharply* It was a yes or a no question. What do you mean 'technically'?
NinjaWeazel: Well, I sort of... infused part of my energy into a dying Praetorian soldier.
Selene: How do you sort of *infuse part of your engery into a dying soldier,* particularly one that is in an *alternate dimension*?
NinjaWeazel: Well, I was in Praetoria.
Selene: And you thought, "Well, I've seen the sights now to complete the tour by finding someone near death and giving him part of myself"?

To be fair to NinjaWeazel, there was a little more to it than that. Just a little. Selene thinks the screening for the Well of Furies needs to be a lot more rigorous.

(My boyfriend has the craziest RP characters, I swear. Let us never forget the Black Mage in one FFRPG campaign who punched monsters in the face rather than burn them to a crisp from a safe distance.)

Title: Homesick (Part 2/?)
Fandom; Pairings: Original; AU Selene/Ballari
Prompt: #252 - Samurai
Warnings: Talk of murder, assassination.
Rating: R (Eventual NC-17)
Word Count: 2,117
Summary: John stops by the beach house with a job for Selene. Trouble is Ballari might not like what this job requires Selene to do. (You don't need to read part one to be able to understand what's happening here, but here's a link just in case.)
Notes: This is something I banged out this afternoon, and it is a set-up for some kinky smut in part three, which I don't think right now I can fit into next week's prompt (Any joke in a storm), but we'll see. Either way I will write a part three soon and do my best to fill next week's prompt even if it's not Selene/Ballari. And this is one of those things where I sat down with one thing in mind and what came out was totally different. However, I happen to like what I wrote and I felt like I was in the zone, and that I've got Selene's voice nailed back down.

ETA: Now with the proper version up here and less copy-paste fail on the part of the author!

Every day Ballari would wake up before dawn and go outside to run through her katas with the sunrise as her backdrop. It never seemed to matter how little sleep she got the night before or how sore she might be from training and sparring. As soon as the eastern sky began to lighten, she was on her feet repeating the same movements she’d probably started learning the day after she took her very first steps.

( Not being a morning person in any sense of the word, I usually slept in, rousing before noon most days. But sometimes I’d stagger out of bed to make coffee and watch her from the large bay window in the den. )

Title: The Weavers
Fandom: Original
Prompt: #214 - Splice
Warnings: None
Rating: G
Summary: Volos wonders if the Weavers (Fates) could alter the strands of life.
Word Count: 545
Notes: None. Late again, but before the prompt closed. The writing is bad, but I'm slowly adjusting to my new home.

( Read more... )

Title: Hallucinations
Fandom: Original
Prompt: #212 - Your prison is walking through this world all alone.
Warnings: Language, adult themes.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Drugged with Dreamdust, Selene gets an unpleasant visit from her mother.
Word Count: 1,051
Notes: A rush job that I worked on in between packing boxes and loading up my truck. Had to post this now as I'll be moving to North Carolina Saturday and will be without internet access for a few days afterward.

( In the days following Mykolas’s death, I dreamed. I dreamed of him, of blood, and of death. )

I have another august_writing challenge done. Once again it can be found over at my writing journal, jade_inspired. I'm not entirely pleased with how it turned out, and I don't think I actually managed to convey that falling in love is very much unchartered territory for Selene. <Geek Moment> She's very much like Faith in that season four or five episode of BtVS when she and Buffy switch places. When she freaks out over Riley wanting to make love to her because she can't figure out what he wants. That's Selene when it comes to Karl in a way. </Geek Moment> *Ahem* Sorry you had to see that. Moving along...

I have to admit I loved writing it and the words came easily. That hasn't been happening lately. I've had a lot of false starts and writing that went absolutely nowhere. Though it might suck, this has been very refreshing. It's like when the anniversary of Dad's death passed so did this creative blockage I've had for so long.

I really ought to get off my butt and write out all my ideas, and I know I should make a post where I explain, in detail, all about Selene and her world. Then I'll do one for Pasha as well (since I have an idea to write about her as well, and there's this epic idea in my head to tie the two stories together in a weird way - I don't know if that'll ever pan out, but it's there because I'm insane).

Also, writing about Selene and Karl is something of a catharsis for me considering Karl is based on another Aria character played by a former friend. It's weird to be able to write it and not have any odd conflicted feelings.

All this makes me wonder why I'm on a Selene kick, and maybe that's because her story is what seems most solid in my mind at the moment. I'm hoping I can maintain this boost of confidence I have and keep writing.

In other news, I finished reading Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, the first novel in her Sookie Stackhouse series and the basis for the HBO series True Blood. I must confess I enjoyed the television series much better than the book, and not because of the sex. I just think the changes HBO made for the series worked out better than it would have if they just followed the book. (Can someone please tell me why there is no Tara? And why is Lafayette mentioned only a handful of times? Oh, and don't get me started on "Bubba." That shit nearly had me throwing the book against the wall.) Despite all of this, I am already starting in on the second Sookie Stackhouse book Living Dead in Dallas. So while Dead Until Dark wasn't the best thing I've ever read, it was entertaining enough that I'm continuing.

After this, I have another set of Brust novels to read before Sam starts pestering me about it. (No, I haven't forgotten about it, Sam. :P)