Flutterings

Altogether Your World (9554 words) by Slantedlight
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Bran Davies/Will Stanton
Characters: Bran Davies, Will Stanton (Dark is Rising), Jane Drew
Summary:

Will Stanton has been watching for years, and now it seems there's something to see.

What I keep coming back to in this Yuletide 2020 story is the happy Will/Bran dynamic, where they're cheerfully sassing each other, as they did from their very first meeting. For instance, when Will hosts Bran at the place he's house-sitting . . .

"Speaking of kettles – tea or coffee?”

“Have you got the kind that percs in the kitchen, or do you make all the noises yourself?”

“Nothing but Nescafe’s best for you…”

“Tea it is, then,” Bran said easily, following him down the short hallway to the living room, and dropping his rucksack onto the floor.

And:

Bran struck a pose, lifting a foot onto the sofa, one hand on his hip, and the other flourished in the air, then held Will’s gaze and declaimed.

“Mi gerddaf gyda thi drwy weddill f'oes,
Pan fydd yr haul ar fryn neu'r dyddiau'n groes;
A phan ddaw'r alwad draw, pwy wyr pa awr,
Mi gerddaf gyda thi i’r freuddwyd fawr. ”*

He should have looked ridiculous, and he’d started with a mocking twist on his lips that suggested he’d meant to, but the light from the fire caught him so that his hair shone white-gold, and his eyes flashed with age and history, and for that minute he was the Pendragon again. There was a pause when he’d finished, until he tossed his head in dismissal and plonked himself back down on the couch beside Jane.

“Well I never,” Will said at last. “And do you speak Welsh?”

And they were off then – Bran launching himself across the table to Jane’s surprised shout, tussling and giggling until they were breathless.

---

Die ich retten kann is incapability87's German translation of "Those I Can Save," which I wrote for Snupin Santa 2007. That fic also sparked three delightful illustrations by Dido, featuring Hooch, Snape, Lupin, two kids, and a cow.

Dido's Assorted HP Gift Fanart by Didodikali
Chapter 3: Illos for Those I Can Save for Bronze Ribbons

---

I keep humming "Lo, How a Rose Is Blooming." It's used so well in When Harry Met Santa (the Norwegian postal service m/m romance par excellence), and last night I was caught up in a rendition by Sting and friends in a Durham Cathedral concert (about 18 minutes in).

The recs:

[series]
Four Cups of Wine and related stories by borealowl

Fandom: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings for Part 1: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens), some OCs - Character
Additional Tags: Pesach | Passover, I Don't Even Know, Pining, Shavuot, Crowley Has PTSD (Good Omens), Jewish Character, Lesbians, Rosh HaShana | Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur | Atonement Day, Sukkot | Tabernacles, Hanukkah, Purim, Jewish Good Omens (Good Omens), Found Family


Summary of Part 1:

Crowley is terrified of losing Aziraphale again, but unable to confess his feelings. He follows Aziraphale on an errand to America, where they end up invited to a seder and spend the next year being invited to other holidays and gatherings on both sides of the Atlantic. Is Crowley's pining painfully obvious to everyone but Aziraphale? (Yes.) Are the rabbi and her wife going to try and get them together? (Yes.) How many Jewish holidays will these two ineffable idiots be invited to before they finally admit their feelings to each other? (Read it and see!)

Note from Ribbons: chapter 7 of the first story takes place during Chanukah, and includes scolded azaleas, starry socks, gossiping in Yiddish, and kids with dreidls:

Crowley decides to see what the children are doing.

The kids are playing a game with a four-sided top and a pile of chocolate coins of various sizes. Two of them recognize him from the seder and invite him to join. It’s a very simple game, but the kids are having fun making up increasingly arcane house rules (and also eating the chocolate). Crowley starts to participate in the impromptu game design session, a surprisingly involved process. He doesn’t notice Aziraphale approaching until her hears an indignant “Crowley!”

He stands up. “What?”

“Are you teaching children a gambling game?”

“No, angel, the children are teaching me.”

Later in the series . . .

Menorah Conspiracies and Other Distractions (7075 words) by borealowl
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens), same OCs as the rest of the series
Additional Tags: Menorah, Vatican, not quite as light as I was intending but still very silly, author has spent too much time on Jwitter
Series: Part 8 of Four Cups of Wine and related stories
Summary:

“Wait,” says Crowley. “You’re talking about a giant seven-branched candelabra? About this big?” He spreads his arms to gesture at the rough size.
“That’s what the descriptions say, anyway,” says Lori. “Why? Have you seen it?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Crowley says. “I would never set foot in the Vatican.”

Crowley loves a good conspiracy theory, and when he learns about the persistent rumor that the Temple menorah is hidden in the Vatican, well, what demon could resist?

[Makes note to self to dive into the Good Omens is Jewish and so are we collection sometime after Tu B'shevat . . .]

[TDiR/GO crossover]
Familiar Faces (1842 words) by Ghostinthehouse
Fandom: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (TV), Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Merriman Lyon, Crowley (Good Omens), Will Stanton (Dark is Rising), Adam Young (Good Omens), Bran Davies
Additional Tags: Mistaken Identity, Aziraphale's Bookshop (Good Omens)
Series: Part 3 of Stand Alone Omens
Summary:

Aziraphale paused on the town bridge, listening to the music that spilled from the entertainer's lyre. The song ended, and a deep voice requested an old, old tune.

I especially enjoyed Chapter 3, where a grown-up Bran Davies stops by Aziraphale's shop to chat with Adam Young: ""Will Stanton sent me, as I was in the area anyway. He said that this rising was more my thing than his, and I'd be needed here."


A look back:
A Face of Faith (11518 words) by ribbons
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Harry Potter - Rowling
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Severus Snape
Additional Tags: Holiday, Hanukkah, Pesach, Rosh Hashanah, tashlich, Romance, Hurt/Comfort
Summary:

"In the months that followed Albus's death and Severus's disappearance, Remus Lupin resumed reciting the prayers of his childhood, even though he hadn't stepped inside a synagogue in years..." Written for Ellid for the 2005 Snupin Santa fest (pre-Book 7).

For lore. G, Snape/Lupin, pre-DH (15-year-old fanons in effect)


Over the years, Snape had applied layer upon layer of ink to his arm. To the untrained eye, it would have looked like a solid black sleeve, but only Lupin ever saw Snape shirtless, and Lupin could read between the lines.

Lupin knew about different kinds of silence, too. He rarely disturbed any of them, but sometimes his fingertips lingered over certain words, as if he wanted to lift up and rearrange them.

“Do you hate it?” Snape suddenly muttered one night.

“No,” Lupin replied. “It stores the unsayable.” His hand closed around Snape’s wrist. “It helps keep you here.”

A wicked fun thing about teaching a community ed course is that it's a version of getting to have my cake and eat it: everyone who shows up is there because they want to be, and I get to point them towards nifty resources and new ways of thinking about the books, the universe(s), and whatever else nudges our collective boats.

And, there's no grading. *dodges red pens hurled from certain corners of my readership*

FWIW, I've posted my exceedingly messy working notes to sessions 3 and 4 at the fandom journal (bronze_ribbons) (sessions 1 and 2 were ad-libbed more so than not). The posts are locked, but if you want a peek and you have an LJ account, comment below (or e-mail me) and I'll "friend" you so you can access 'em (they're tagged under "dls"). (No need to reciprocate, especially if you'd rather not cope with Whomping Willow smut showing up on your own friendslist. *g*)

A friend pointed to Irregular Webcomic #402...

Oh, oh dear.

Awwww...

marymary, there's a riff on Pericles!

catrinella: So much for Galadriel vs. Miss Piggy...

This one screams xochiquetzl to me. ;-)

I suspect half of my flist agrees with this one.

And this...

I'm sorry, but Lego-Draco resembles Newt Gingrich...

Whoa. Steve Irwin/Cthulhu/Potterverse crossover. And people think I'm twisted...

I'd intended to spend the day on work, but a long-postponed non-profit chore poked its way to the top of the queue this morning. That, and not being able to stand the mess in my kitchen. *sigh* On the other hand, I'd wanted an excuse to stay home, and I've got Rameau playing in the background (Les Boreades. Weird, creepy, and beautiful).

Other happy things:

Apple pie.

Yeah, it's over a month old, but I only now saw it and it cracked me up: Snapes on a Plane

I don't ship Lucius with anyone -- come to think of it, when he's mentioned in my fics, he's usually dead -- but this Jason Isaacs interview is wicked fun. (Via daily_snitch.) Interviewer: "Shared cell: Lucius Malfoy and Captain Hook. Who's the bitch?"

Also, from January, an article on Carol Ann Duffy:

This week the judges at the TS Eliot poetry awards were unanimous in awarding Duffy the £10,000 prize. The decision, they said, marked "a rare moment of agreement between the critics and the booksellers as to what constitutes great poetry".

In Duffy's case, however, this consensus is hardly new. Not since Philip Larkin has a living British poet straddled the commercial and critical arenas with such finesse. This has prompted several critics to seek common ground between the two authors, some thematic preoccupations to link the dyspeptic Hull librarian with his more expansive, approachable descendant. For her part, Duffy jokes that there is only one similarity. "We are both lesbian poets," she says.

ETA: What M'ris says, about context and sides of the coin and putting down what one picks up. Which is, not incidentally, why working on sermons is actually work. *knits brows, stares at stack of notes some more*

ETA II: Ok, Les Boreades - Paris Opera production, 2003? Music: gorgeous. Choreography: too hyperactive for me, mostly, but it had its moments -- particularly the pas de deux during the hero's reviving of everyone around him, and Apollo's descent from the heavens. Have minor crush on Nicolas Rivenq now. Some incredibly clever staging -- am glad the director got the largest ovation.

[subject line = elisem's description of her current story-writing]

Several of you have asked for more about "Placetne, J.K. Rowling?", the Sayers-Rowling poster I presented at Lumos, and _lore suggested that I put it up on my website -- which is a fantastic idea, only I'm unlikely to get around to it before next year. But, for now:

a snapshot of the poster

the PDF of the text published in the conference proceedings

[If you attended Lumos, it's on the purple and white CD in the goodie bag; I believe it's file 026 or thereabouts if you're running a version of Acrobat in which the TOC links don't work.]

The portraits on the poster (of Harriet, Peter, and Severus) were rendered by karasu_hime. The text on the CD contains more schtuff than I presented on the actual poster, but the actual poster had some sections I hadn't included in the CD text.

Anyhow, I do need to reorganize and expand it all for a course I'm expecting to teach next spring, so a web-based version is definitely now on my list. In the meantime, it's back to the eels...

The Tennessean printed part of my minister's sermon on marriage equality (which she delivered on Mother's Day) this past Sunday. Rah!

I'm thinking of doing a Harry Potter-inspired sermon for a back-to-school service in August, in part because I think some of the points raised in a recent Lupin-Snape discussion would be of interest to non-fans (if I can devise a way to share them without being too spoiler-rific), and because analyzing perceptions of belief vs. skepticism and science vs. religion is a exercise that bears revisiting.

In the meantime, I was browsing through my home church's newsletter earlier tonight and came across the youth group's summer schedule: they're hosting an HP book group on Sunday afternoons (including a session on "Imagining Book 7") and sponsoring Wednesday movie nights, culminating in the Hogwarts Halloween Ball on October 28. Hee!

"Characters certainly develop as you go along, so much so that you find yourself looking in shop windows and choosing things for them." - Dianne Hofmeyr

---

"Dorothy L. Sayers, who is queen of the genre said — and then broke her own rule, but said — that there is no place for romance in a  detective story except that it can be useful to camouflage other people's motives. That's true; it is a very useful trick. I've used that on Percy and I've used that to a degree on Tonks in this book, as a red herring." - J.K. Rowling, in answer to an interview question about the romances in Half-Blood Prince [emphasis mine]

(Yes, yes, there are many ways one could interpret this. Me, I want the more interesting theories to prevail.)

---

. . .There are days
where I care for nothing but the dignity
of these birches, this solemn green water,
the wild geese in formation below cumulus clouds,
days beside the river when I have no desire
for anyone's trouble, not even my own
or an angry child's, the one who crawled
onto that precipice jutting over the river to scrawl
a name and a curse onto the limestone wall.

- Katherine Smith, "The Serpent," in Shenandoah (Spring/Summer 2005)