FemmeRemix

candyheartsex has revealed, and I have received a delightful gift!

In Which Laurent Rises to the Occasion
The Wounded Name -- D. K. Broster
Laurent/Aymar, Amyar/Avoye
Canon divergence, Pre-Poly

Aymar despairs of clearing his name and leaves France, leaving only a letter behind.

Laurent is so delightfully himself, burning with passion for all the things! For Aymar! To clear Aymar's name! To tenderly care for him! And also to straighten out this mess where Aymar is determined to throw himself on his sword for Avoye's sake, without first consulting with Avoye about whether she even wants that! (If there is one thing that Laurent has learned from his association with Aymar, it is the frustration of having a lover throw himself on his sword for you without asking first! NOT THAT THIS FLEETINGLY CRITICAL THOUGHT MEANS HE LOVES AYMAR ANY THE LESS!!!!!!!)

I have strong suspicions as to who wrote the story (*casts a meaningfgul glance in luzula's direction*), especially given the central theme that maybe you should ask your girlfriend what she wants before making a grand life-altering gesture in her name. (A genre of story that luzula excels at!) But I shall refrain from offering official thanks until after reveals. (But please know I enjoyed it very much!)

unsent_letters_exchange is running again this year, hurrah! Nominations open next week, Feb 18. Anyone up for playing with me?

~

I'll post more about this later when my listing is live, but I took the plunge and signed up to offer fic for the 2026 Fandom Trumps Hate charity auction. Because shit is rough out there right now.

My current fandoms are small enough that it was a little bit of a conundrum about what to offer, but I went with:
Broster novels, Hornblower, and Vorkosigan Saga.

Fingers crossed!

~

For a couple of years now, I've been reading The Flight of the Heron to phoenixfalls over chat. We started at a sentence a day, mostly because she had gotten an idea in her head that there's a tragedy at the end and she wanted to ease into that slowly, idk. Sadly, one sentence a day was a miserable way to go through all the lyrical scenic exposition at the beginning; it was like wandering lost in a nightmare dreamscape with no way out. Also, it was really hard to build any kind of narrative continuity. I did what I could by posting multi-day recaps before each new sentence, but progress was still glacial.

Consequently, it wasn't too long before we decided on two to three sentences a day, with an option for four if I asked nicely first. (Always granted, for she is a gracious person.) That has gone much better.

It's been a lot of fun. It's a lovely excuse to say hello to Phoenix every day, and the novel bears up well to close reading. It's also encouraged me to look up all the things I gloss over at speed, which has had some interesting surprises. (When BCP suggests that letting Ewen accompany them to Lady Easterhall's will bring the party to four and make them a partie carrée, he is making a dirty joke! That they will be a perfect foursome, two men and two women! I imagine them all side-eyeing each other, trying to figure out who the women are supposed to be. “As your Highness pleases, of course,” said O’Sullivan stiffly.) There's also been a lot of time to spin pet theories and get attached to minor characters. (Saunders, Lady Easterhall's servant with the cough, is a favorite.) I've also been able to introduce her to relevant fic as we went, which has also been an opportunity for me to revisit them, too.

Since we've been very consistent, only taking a break when I was in Japan, we have been making good progress. As of this weekend, I can report a milestone: we have just now completed Part II! Hurrah us!

With the move to Part III, Phoenix is anticipating a tonal shift and thus has authorised a whole paragraph a day. (With two or even three paragraphs authorized in dialogue sections!) So we will be cruising along, and finish in... well, it will still be years. But not as many years!

On to Part III! Hurt/comfort, here we come!