Otter's Rock

Title: Hard to Swallow (the Percolation Remix)
Author: beatrice_otter
Summary: Ianto Jones. Tea, coffee, and the transition from London to Cardiff
Fandom: Torchwood
Character: Ianto Jones
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,597
Original Story: Ianto Jones/Coffee by glinda_penguin
Notes: Title is taken from “Question” by The Moody Blues. Thanks to alixtii for the beta.

( Ianto, like all proper British citizens whether Welsh, English, Scottish, or Irish, was raised to be a tea drinker. )

This entry was originally posted at http://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/143390.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

So, this year I wrote not one but two fics, both Torchwood: Knocking at the Door (the Things Unspoken Remix) and Hard to Swallow (the Percolation Remix). They're not exactly a pair, but they do complement each other. They have to do with Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones, respectively, and their early days at Torchwood, learning to deal with (or really, not deal with) their lives before this point. For Jack, it's about being abandoned by the Doctor and Rose, and all the abandonment issues and other issues he already had at that point compounding on one another. For Ianto, it's about surviving the destruction of Torchwood One and Lisa's conversion. Both of them are trying desperately to ignore their issues and go on as if nothing's wrong. And, of course, Torchwood isn't helping.

I was spoiled for choice this year; my remixee, glinda_penguin, has a lot of stories in three fandoms I write (SG-1, Doctor Who, Torchwood). And while the earlier stories from when she was starting out aren't very good (as she admits herself), well, sometimes that leaves more doors for remixing than wonderfully written stories do. Not only did she have a lot of stories to choose from, I had a whole list of her stories jump out at me as having great possibilities for a remix. Even with a tight writing schedule, it was easy to pick one (Unspeakable Lists) and remix it.  The story was about Jack keeping lists of questions to ask the Doctor when he finds him again, and naturally I wanted to know what questions were on the list, so I wrote it.  But it was only just over 1,000  words long, barely over the minimum,  and I just felt like maybe I should do something more for my remixee, and I had the time, so I thought I would do another one.  And it would be nice if it related, so I went to one of the other Torchwood fics that had caught my eye--a humorous ficlet about Ianto's love affair with coffee.  Which caught my eye because you know as an American, I'd always thought that Brits were all tea-drinkers.  So how Ianto became a coffee drinker might be an interesting story, particularly if you intertwined it with how he came to Torchwood Three, and then it would complement my first story.  It turned out to be longer, but no harder to write; like the first, it pretty much wrote itself.
This entry was originally posted at http://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/143219.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

First, run, do not walk, to read the lovely remix written for me, Matters of Faith (The Ouroboros Bridge). (Babylon 5, Susan, Delenn) The noble Ivanova was known as the Strong, for she was strong in heart and in mind, in body and in faith.  This is such a beautiful exploration of both Susan and what the future will be like, past the hints JMS gave us. I love how this story pictures Susan living among Minbari, and I love how it handles the Rangers. It's wonderful.

( Remix Redux 7--Do You Feel Lucky? )
This entry was originally posted at http://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/141649.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

So, this is weird. I always have lots of angst about remixes, and it's usually because I can't find a story I can remix (I always do, it just takes me a while to find an angle). This year, it's been because my June was filled up with ficathons, and I knew I wouldn't have time to start looking at my remixee until July, which would be cutting it really close. So, June ficathons turned in, I turned to my remixees ficlist. And found a list of ten fics I could remix no problem, and four I really wanted to. And now I'm half done with the one I chose, and wondering if maybe I can do two remixes this year, because I've got some cool ideas I'd love to use. And I'm wondering wtf this is all about, because seriously--I'm never this far along at this point.

( In other news, I've decided that Question by the Moody Blues would be a perfect song for a Doctor and Jack Harkness fanvid. )

This entry was originally posted at http://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/139399.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I don't go into any ficathon with my heart set on receiving one particular thing. I do ficathons because I like writing things I otherwise wouldn't. This is particularly true of remixes, where I've already written the stories I want. I mean, this isn't about what I want them to be or how I'd like to see them; if I wanted that, I could re-write them myself. This is about what you, the remixer, see in them. I don't want to read my story again. I want to read your story. So go wild. Have fun. Take something that's here and make it your own. Don't worry about what I might want to see. All I ask is that you treat the characters with respect. (I.e. no bashing.)
BTW, if if helps, I have three more stories that will be written and posted by the end of the month. One post-finale T:tSCC and two crossovers (SG-1/BSG and DS9/FS). This entry was originally posted at http://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/136132.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

gateverse_remix is open, you should all go read the great SG-1 and Atlantis remixes. butterflykiki wrote The Weight of Non-Existent Years (The Gravity Remix) for me. I wrote an almost 13k-word Sam fic.

Title: Thine Own Self (the Lady, be Good Remix)
Author: </a></b></a>beatrice_otter
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Samantha Carter
Word Count: 12,962
Written for: Christi (</a></b></a>daisycm83) for </a></b></a>gateverse_remix.
Betaed by: the awesome </a></b></a>redbyrd_sgfic
Original story: On Your Mind
Summary: Sam’s always a good girl. Except when she isn’t.

Part One
Part Two

Everybody needs to go through the remix stories and leave lots of feedback--there are still some stories (including mine!) that don't have any, and the one that was written for me which is really cool only has my comment and it deserves more than that.

Anyway, here are the second half of my recs from remixredux08:

On the Care And Feeding Of Time Lords (La Gherardini Overdrive Remix). Rose and Romana, post season 2. Wrong Universe, wrong Time Lord. Like Rose Tyler’s gonna let that stop her…

Cruciatus (the fire and blood remix). Bellatrix Black, and Cruciatus: a love story. It ends, as it began, with the Cruciatus.

The Grass is Always Greener (the Known Temptations Remix). Stargate SG-1. All the characters, but not really "team fic." No reality is perfect.  No matter what it may look like on the outside.

Things Kept (Caliban Bass n' Drums Remix). Doctor Who, post-series 3. Harriet Jones has always had her reasons, and always had her pride.

Go check out all the lovely stories in remixredux08. Here is part one of my list of recs:

Desert Glass (Ordinary Time remix). In his years on Tatooine, Obi-Wan finds he has a lot to learn. Lyric, painful, but full of life.

Lucid Diamond Sky (the Misogynistic Lash cut-up). Two's company, three's a crowd. Doctor Who, the Master/Lucy.

More of the Stars and Sea (The Three Meals Remix). Stargate: Atlantis, Teyla and Radek. They were merely colleagues who dined together from time to time. Strangers on the cusp of becoming friends.

Copper and Moonlight (The Mimi & Rodolfo Remix). B:tVS, a beautiful, heartbreaking look at Giles after Becoming.

She Bangs the Drums (Losing, Losing, Lost Remix). Doctor Who, the year that wasn't. Lucy's tragedy is that she loves him.

Reverb (Three Toasters, One Dead Body, and Ellen Tigh Walk into a Bar Remix). BSG, written for me! Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl. Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl. Spoilers for Crossroads II.

I Have Become (Death) (The J.Robert Oppenheimer Remix). Babylon 5, Lyta Alexander and the Telepath War. You never forget your first. Or your last. Lyta Alexander would know.

Hush-A-Bye Baby (The Blackberry Remix). BtVS, Dawn and Drusilla. At night, the dark-haired girl without a name glowed at her through eddies of green light.

Enemies & Friends (The “Ogron, Ogron, Ogron” Remix). Sarah Jane Adventures/Doctor Who. In which there are Ogrons and Sarah Jane Smith struggles to figure out what the hell is going on. Starring Sarah Jane Smith, Vislor Turlough, Luke Smith, Maria Jackson, Clyde Langer, K9 Mark IV, Mister Smith, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness, Ace, Chrissie Jackson and Lots And Lots Of Ogrons.

The Art of Memory (Bold and Lonely Remix). Doctor Who. The Doctor's a hard man to forget.

Five Pay Phones Buffy Almost Called Giles From. BtVS, the summer she ran away.

Some Mother's Son (The A-Z Remix). Stargate: Atlantis, pre-series. Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

The Great Bikini Incident (The Key to Time Remix). Doctor Who/BtVS. Dawn’s suspicious of the three electricity inspectors outside her sister’s Rome apartment.

With the sending out of assignments for remixredux08, there has been a lot of discussion about remixing and hard assignments and such, and it has occured to me to ponder--if remixing is so difficult (and it is the most difficult kind of ficathon I've ever been involved in, definitely), why do we do it? Why is the Remix ... Redux such a big deal every year, right up there with yuletide? And I think it's the same reason that poets write sonnets. Because sometimes it's better to do the hard thing because it is hard, because it really makes you focus on your craft, on getting every shred of power you can out of the words and the ideas and the characters you have available to you.

So. An appropriate poem.

On the Sonnet
If by dull rhymes our English must be chained,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fettered, in spite of pained loveliness,
Let us find, if we must be constrained,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To fit the naked foot of Poesy:
Let us inspect the Lyre, and weigh the stress
Of every chord, and see what may be gained
By ear industrious, and attention meet;
Misers of sound and syllable, no less
Than Midas of his coinage, let us be
Jealous of dead leaves in the bay wreath crown;
So, if we may not let the Muse be free,
She will be bound with garlands of her own.
-John Keats, 1819

And my assignment is both ironic and frustrating. The ironic I can't explain until after the reveal, but the frustrating I can talk about--she's a slasher. Almost exclusively. And I'm ... not. Not in the slightest. I'll read slash, if it's good enough and there's a purpose to it besides smut (I don't read het that's nothing but smut, either), but I don't write it. Thankfully, there are some that could easily be genified, where the slash is not key to the plot, but it's hardly ideal. Ah, well, it's better than I had with gateverse_remix last year. I was spoiled by remix_redux last year, that's my problem. We don't always get matched up with our favorite writers, alas.

Part of my problem is that I write in too many fandoms--you need to have written a minimum of five non-crossover, non-remix, non-remixed stories in a fandom with a minimum 500 words per story to sign up. I have several fandoms with two qualifying stories, but the only one with five is SG-1. So I'll be assigned to an SG-1 writer, for sure, which means it's fairly unlikely they're gonna choose to remix, say, one of my BSG stories or Batman stories. Since most of the stuff I've written lately is not SG-1, that makes me sad.