ariadnes_string

So, I was having a weirdly hard time trying to figure out what to write for the "medical kink" square on my kink_bingo card. And then Downton Abbey went and dumped a scenario in my lap. Spoilers for 2x02!

Title: Bandaging
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Thomas Barrow/Edward Courtenay
Spoilers: Missing scene for 2x02.
Warnings: a little bit of medical ickiness.
Word count: ~1.8K
Disclaimer: not mine, no profit

a/n: for the “medical kink” square on my kink_bingo card.

Summary: Bandages are just like any other linen. The human form is just another parcel to be wrapped. The only art is in making things tidy and secure.

( Bandaging )

Title: The Silver-Tongued Conman Loses His Voice.
Rating: PG-13, gen, no pairings.
Word count: ~11.5K (in two parts)
Spoilers: No specific spoilers for the show, but probably set sometime at the end of S1.
Warnings: This fic is gen, but there is discussion of human trafficking and the sexual coercion of minors, and also some crude sexual language.
Disclaimer: Not mine, no profit.

a/n: This is a very, very late fic for the wonderful rabidchild67 who first made a generous bid for my fic in the help_japan auction, then waited months for said fic, and then read the first half of this one and gave me the key to finally finishing it. I wish this were better, bb, because you only deserve the best!
a/n: I had so much help with this one! harrigan and taste_is_sweet were kind enough to read the first half and offer extremely helpful advice. rabidchild67 also read the first half and set me on the path to finishing it. And then harrigan did a superfast and helpful final beta on it. Thank you all! And all remaining problems completely my own fault!
a/n: My rendition of Hmong here is my guess as to how Neal would hear it and bears no relation to the actual language.

Summary: Sometimes you have to leave the comfort for the hurt.

( The Silver-Tongued Conman Loses His Voice )

From Jane Austen today, my favorite bit of life advice from any of her works:

"My beloved Laura [said Sophia]...take warning from my unhappy End and avoid the imprudent conduct which has occasioned it...Beware of fainting-fits...Though at the time they may be refreshing and Agreeable yet believe me they will in the end, if too often repeated and at improper seasons, prove destructive to your Constitution...My fate will teach you this...I die a Martyr to my grief for the loss of Augustus...One fatal swoon has cost me my Life...Beware of swoons, Dear Laura...A frenzy fit is not one quarter so pernicious; it is an exercise to the Body and if not too violent, is I dare say conducive to Health in its consequences--Run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint--"

(from Love and Freindship [sic], 1790)

Just passing along some of the (very cuddly) pics and video that have emerged from the TTSS premiere at NFI yesterday in an effort to quell my misery that it won't come out until Dec. here...

( pics and vids )
*sighs and goes back to listening to the audio book of Smiley's People in the car*

I had one of my boy-less weekends, and apparently what I did with it was…see movies. I’m not entirely sure it was time well spent.

( the help )

Then, yesterday afternoon, I saw Midnight in Paris with K. Which was pretty insanely amusing if you get a kick out of Hemingway and Dali impersonations. Which I do. But if you haven’t seen it, you can get the gist of it from this voice recording of Allen’s 2-minute stand-up routine on “The Lost Generation” from the sixties.



( Brideshead Revisited )

The weather was gorgeous, and I did manage to swim outside and run in my excellent new Vibram five fingers, so all was not lost to dark cinemas.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

In such a scorching age as this
Who would not ever seek a shade,
Deserve their happiness to miss,
As having their own peace betrayed.

But we (of one another's mind
Assured) the boisterous world disdain;
With quiet souls and unconfined
Enjoy what princes wish in vain.

"A Retired Friendship, to Ardelia," Katherine Philips, 1667.

You know what, folks? Certain awesome WIPs notwithstanding, if might be over for me and Suits. Huh. That was a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of infatuation.

( Read more... )

Ahem. Okay, I didn’t mean to go off like that—I just had to get that off my chest. I’ll have a post about stuff I actually enjoyed watching later.

So, I owe at least three or four people fic, but I haven't written anything for weeks, and have been in a major state of I can't, I can't, I can't. And apparently the only way around that was to write fic about completely new characters in a fandom that barely exists. Apologies, and hoping this jumpstarts those other projects.

Also sorry about the cop-out ending here--I might come back to it at some point.

nb: I'll post something more review-y about the show itself tomorrow.

Title: looking for vines and olive trees
Rating: pg-13
Characters, pairings: established Bel/Hector, Freddie (pre-Hector/Bel/Freddie, if you’re in the right frame of mind).
Spoilers: none really, but it works best if you imagine it taking place around 1x05
Word count: ~2.8K
Disclaimer: not mine, no profit.

a/n: title adapted from the first two lines of Auden’s The Shield of Achilles, published the same year as the Suez Crisis. There’s an unmarked allusion to the poem at the end of the fic as well.
a/n: for the “cuddling” square on my hc_bingo card, though this is one of those h/c fills that looks like it wandered in from my kink_bingo card. There’s always one, eh?

Summary:

“Christ,” Freddie said, trying to calculate what immense quantity of drink it had taken to reduce a great slab of military-trained manhood like Hector Madden to such a sorry state.

“Quite,” said Bel.

( looking for vines and olive trees )

Wishing everyone who's more in the path of Irene than we turned out to be dry basements, unbroken windows and uninterrupted electricity!

I woke up this morning to find the storm had more or less passed us by (4 hours inland from Cape Lookout, so no big surprise). It's windy out there, but not enough to knock down a small boy on a scooter. A branch falling on a wire could knock out the power, but that true pretty much every day.

The threat of Irene, however, was enough to have them cancel the outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream we were supposed to see last night (my ten-year-old's first Shakespeare play). I thought it would have been cool to see the play amid the flying pine needles, but I suppose the actors thought otherwise.

Anyway, have two entirely dissimilar youtube videos:

1. Thanks for lilithlessfair I have been watching The Hour with Romola Garai, Dominic West and the wonderful Ben Wishaw. It is highly entertaining, and reminding me how much I loved Wishaw as Keats. So, in honor of the summer being almost over, here he is reading one of my favorite poems:



2. And because every day is crazy bird day:



Okay, must go check and see if I'm right about the winds not being strong enough to take the boys to Oz--stay safe everyone!

Somehow, carmarthen prompted me to write my first Marcus/Esca fic since March. It’s a sequel to “In Any Tongue,” and pretty self-indulgent on a number of level. (written fast and un-beta’d).

Title: With Our Arms Unbound
Pairing: Marcus/Esca
Rating: R (for mild kink, not sexual content).
Warnings: blood play, vague reference to previous dub-con/non-con.
Spoilers: ‘movie verse, but using the alternate ending included on the DVD.
Word count: ~1.5K
Disclaimer: not mine, no profit.

a/n: a sequel to In Any Tongue. I think it will work if you just take a peek at the premise for that fic.
a/n: for the “bloodplay” square on my kink_bingo card.
a/n: title from the Decemberists, “This is Why We Fight.”

Summary: “Free as the unmoored ship is free. Honor paid or honor lost, I cannot tell.”
( Read more... )