Jain

Thanks for offering to write in one or more of my requested fandoms! If you want a better idea of what I like, you can check out my general fic kinks and squicks post. Particular to Purim Gifts, I've listed my favorite pairings in the fandom details below, but all four of these fandoms are ones in which I'm very happy to receive gen fic about any of my favorite characters. And do have fun with whatever you decide to write; I'm sure I'll love it!

The Avengers
My favorite eligible characters are Natasha, Pepper, Jane, and Maria Hill. Favorite pairings, etc. include Bucky/Steve/Natasha, Steve/Natasha, Pepper/Tony, Pepper/Rhodey/Tony, Pepper/Natasha/Tony, and Jane/Darcy. Oh, and Clint/Natasha intimate gen, where they may or may not be having sex (it's up to you), but either way it doesn't change their fundamental partnership.

Inception RPF
So, when I say I want Inception RPF, what I really mean is I want Joseph Gordon-Levitt fic. I do prefer his being written as gay (Tom Hardy/JGL is particularly nice), but you should also feel free to write gen in which his sexuality isn't mentioned if that's your preference. And if you offered this fandom in the hopes of writing one of the Inception actresses, then Ellen Page gen or femslash is a more than acceptable alternative.

Nobuta wo Produce
Mariko's my absolute favorite, though I also love Nobuta a lot, and I'm charmed by the unlikely understanding Bando shares with Nobuta. Favorite pairings, etc. include Nobuta/Mariko, Akira/Mariko, Shuuji/Nobuta/Akira, and Nobuta/Shittaka.

Suits
I love Jessica and Donna best, though Rachel and Scotty are also awesome, and I wouldn't say no to a story about the mysterious Vanessa. I'm two or three episodes behind on the current season (no worries; I'll be caught up by the time stories are revealed), but Zoe seems pretty cool, too. My favorite pairings, etc., are Jessica/Harvey, Donna/Jessica/Harvey, Donna/Rachel, and Donna/Jessica.

Thank you so much for participating in this exchange and for offering one or more of my requested fandoms! A few important things I wanted to tell you:

* Optional details are optional. I've offered some possible hooks for a story in each of my requests because that's how I like to write for exchanges, but if your creativity is sparked in other ways, or if you just don't like any of my suggestions, then feel free to ignore them and write a different story for those characters.

* Yuletide tends to be a high-pressure exchange for a lot of people, and while I'm not trying to invalidate your feelings if you're one of them, I do want to encourage you to not worry too much. Three of my fandoms are tiny even by Yuletide standards, and the fourth fandom has a heavy preponderance of self-insert fic. (Not that there's anything wrong with that! It's just not what I'm looking for in fanfic.) So there's very little you could write that I wouldn't be delighted by, just for the fact of its existence.

* I'm chattier about some of my requests than others this year. Please don't think that this indicates a preference on my part for one fandom over another. I promise, I'd be equally thrilled to receive a story in any of these fandoms.

As I said, I tend to prefer more info rather than less when writing for exchanges. If you feel the same, then please check out my general fic kinks and squicks post and/or continue reading:

( Holes, Iskryne series, Le Corsaire, Smooth Criminal )

This is not the story that I'm supposed to be posting next. (That fic is still in progress; it started going in a PWP + feelings direction, and I'm working out whether I should just let the story do what it wants or force a semblance of a plot onto it.) But when I opened this Numb3rs fic recently, I discovered that it was this close to being done; all it needed was a bit of editing and a title. So I edited and titled, and here it is.

Title: Show and Tell
Author: Jain
Characters: Don Eppes, Charlie Eppes, Alan Eppes
Rating: PG
Word count: 1200
Summary: It can be difficult having Charlie as a little brother.
Warning: Includes a teenager using the word "retarded" as an insult.
Permanent link: "Show and Tell" on AO3

( Show and Tell )

Until recently, my desk/computer chair was a rocking recliner, which 1) took up a lot of space in my somewhat cramped room and 2) made it far too easy for me to settle in and not move for hours on end. Not healthy at all. So I moved the recliner downstairs and bought this semi-recumbent stationary bike. It arrived yesterday and my brother put it together for me, and it's lovely: sleek and comfortable and very, very quiet. I rode it for 40 minutes yesterday while reading some fanfiction and for 50 minutes this morning while watching The Mentalist, with the eventual goal of riding it every time I'm at the computer and not typing or actively using the mouse.

For periods of active computer use, I've revived the desk chair I used in college: a kneeling chair that's comfortable enough for extended sitting but not so cozy that I never want to leave it. It's only been a week since I switched desk chairs, but so far I've been really pleased with how much more I've been moving around. (And with how much more water I've been drinking! It's a lot easier to stay hydrated when I'm not curled into a recliner with a comforter over me and completely disinclined to go to the kitchen for a glass of water.) The dog is less happy about all this, since he can no longer sit on my lap while I'm at the computer; he's taken to coming into my room and lying on the floor with his head on his paws, looking mournful. Though at least the bike is quiet enough that it doesn't scare him, so really he should be grateful. :-)

Thanks for offering to write in one or more of my requested fandoms! If you want a better idea of what I like, you can check out my general fic kinks and squicks post. Particular to Purim Gifts, I've listed my favorite pairings in the fandom details below, but all three of these fandoms are ones in which I'm very happy to receive gen fic about any of my favorite characters. And do have fun with whatever you decide to write; I'm sure I'll love it!

Inception RPF
So, when I say I want Inception RPF, what I really mean is I want Joseph Gordon-Levitt fic. I do prefer his being written as gay (Tom Hardy/JGL is particularly nice), but you should also feel free to write gen in which his sexuality isn't mentioned if that's your preference. And if you offered this fandom in the hopes of writing one of the Inception actresses, then Ellen Page gen or femslash is a more than acceptable alternative.

Suits
I love Jessica and Donna best, though Rachel and Scotty are also awesome, and I wouldn't say no to a story or two about the mysterious Vanessa. My favorite pairings, etc., are Jessica/Mike, Jessica/Mike/Harvey, Donna/Rachel, Jessica/Donna/Harvey, and Jessica/Donna. Just, please, no Trevor, Jenny, or Louis, and no Mike/Harvey (except as part of a Jessica/Mike/Harvey threesome, if you're going that route).

X-Men: First Class
My favorite eligible characters are Erik, Angel, and Moira. If you're interested in writing shipfic, I'd love any of: Erik/Charles/Angel, Erik/Moira, Angel/Raven, Alex/Darwin/Angel. This fandom is one where I really don't mind if you break my heart--angst; heavy depictions of racism, homophobia, sexism, and/or anti-Semitism; and ambiguous or downright unhappy endings are all fine by me. Which isn't to say that you have to write angsty or serious fic; happy or romantic fluff is equally welcome! Just, the option is there if you want it.

I was doing a bit of AO3 housecleaning, addressing gift fic to people who hadn't had AO3 accounts when I'd originally posted the stories, and I became curious as to the ratio of gift fic to non-gift fic that I've written. The results were fairly dramatic: 102 : 66. (I counted fic written for remix exchanges as gift fic and didn't count fic written for kink meme prompts.) This means that 65% of my fic was written for other people! Of course, when one considers how prone to procrastination I am, the reasons for this become abundantly clear; I pretty much require a sense of social obligation to force me to get shit done.

If I were a better person, I'd consider this a sign that I ought to work to become more self-motivated. As it is, however, I'll instead rely upon you to give me a much needed nudge. I have a baker's dozen WIPs, any of which I ought to be able to finish within a week or two if I really buckled down, and all of which I've been dragging my feet on finishing (some of them for years). Help me decide what to write?

You know what would be awesome? If big bang challenges allowed writers to sign up to create complementary works: remixes or sequels or prequels or missing scenes or etc. of the big bang stories. I'm thinking 2500 words minimum of complementary work per 10,000 words minimum of big bang would be reasonable, so, e.g., for a big bang challenge with a 20,000 word minimum, the complementary work would have a 5000 word minimum. If the moderators chose, they might allow the original authors to specify in their sign-ups what type(s) of complementary work they preferred, just as some big bangs currently allow authors to state a preference for art or fanmixes.

As a writer, I'd love to be able to participate in big bang challenges (even as I'm resigned to the fact that I'll likely never write a story exceeding 8500 words), and as a part of the audience, I'd really enjoy reading the complementary stories that big bangs could produce, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. And there are plenty of authors who would like having their work engaged with in this way, right? Win-win-win, all around.

Title: In the Job Description
Author: Jain
Characters: Donna, Harvey
Rating: G
Word count: 786
Summary: Two people, one hotel bed.
Author's notes: Written for lionessvalenti for fandom_stocking.
Permanent link: "In the Job Description" on AO3

( In the Job Description )

So, 2011 went out with a bang for me, in the sense that three of the most important machines in my life experienced a critical mechanical failure:

1) my cellphone died

2) my computer crashed (I haven't yet tried to retrieve data; cross your fingers for me!)

3) the car's transmission failed...or perhaps is failing? I can't be sure because:

3A) I got a flat tire at the same time as the transmission failure, so I can't tell how much of the resultant grinding and jerkiness of the car was due to the transmission and how much to the flat tire.

Oh, and I also developed a topical allergy to coconut oil, which is really inconvenient considering that my preferred soap, shampoo, and deodorant all contain the stuff and straight coconut oil is my favorite winter moisturizer.

So, yeah, 2011 has not been the greatest (and that's not even getting into the earlier part of the year). I'm obscurely reassured by the fact that most of my dwircle and flist also had bad 2011s, and I'll repeat--somewhat belatedly--everyone's wishes for a better new year for all of us!

And I've not really been one for New Year's resolutions, but this year I'm feeling the urge, so:

My 2012 New Year's Resolutions

1) Read a book per week. This past year my fanfiction : published fiction reading ratio was completely unbalanced, and I'd like to correct that a little.
2) Exercise once a week. Obviously, more than once a week would be healthier and better, but it would also be less likely to get done. I'm opting for practicality in this.
3) Post to DW once a week. (This post counts! Only 51 posts to go.)
4) Write a story per month. Last year I wrote ten nine (miscounted due to 3 Ships, which straddles the end of the year) stories, which is actually better than I thought I'd done before I just counted them, but I'd like to write more next year.

The Good Wife: A Little Less Conversation (Alicia/Kalinda); 1493 words
Hornblower: One Night (Horatio/Archie); 1075 words
Inception: Home Safe (Arthur/Eames); 2946 words
The Losers: Observation (Clay/Cougar/Jensen); 1409 words
The Losers: Option B (Cougar/Jensen); 1845 words
Regeneration: On Leave (Wilfred Owen/Robbie Ross); 1202 words
Sherlock: A Quiet Evening In (Mycroft/Sherlock); 1619 words
Sherlock: Solid Comfort (Mycroft/Sherlock); 3334 words
Sherlock: Straight Through the Heart (John/Lestrade); 1998 words