clach na ben

candy hearts 2025 letter

2025-01-04T21:30:22Z

Hello! Thank you for signing up to write one of my requests, I hope you have a wonderful time in the exchange and find something in my letter that inspires you. You don't have to incorporate everything or even most of what I talk about here, please find something that inspires you and write something you have a fun time making! I accept treats, and my fic and bookmarks are here if you want to get a sense of things I enjoy.

( Read more... )

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Yuletide

2024-10-18T09:26:53Z

Hello yuletide writer! Apologies for the late letter, but I was on holiday and hope I have not delayed your ideas. Everything here is a reccomendation/suggestion, aside from a small number of DNWs. I hope it gives inspiration, and you can write something that makes you excited for yuletide this year. My fic and bookmarks are here if you want to get a sense of things I enjoy. I also accept treats!
( cut for length )

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book report

2024-03-04T23:45:15Z

Books

( Take A Hint, Dani Brown )

( Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow )

( The Fifth Head of Cereberus )

( Winter's Orbit )

( The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi )

( John Le Carre books )

( A Power Unbound )

( The Day of the Triffids )

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candyhearts letters

2024-01-07T23:45:20Z

yuletide letter

2023-10-18T21:02:18Z

Hello yuletide writer! Thanks for signing up to write one of my requests. I hope you have a wonderful yuletide and write something you enjoy - you don't have to incorporate everything or even most of what I talk about here, please find something that inspires you and write something you have a fun time making. My fic and bookmarks are here if you want to get a sense of things I enjoy. I also accept treats!

( cut for length )

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#FicRecFebruary compilation week(ish) one

2023-02-08T21:36:21Z

I'm trying to channel my sadness about twitter getting worse, and also the fact that I don't have strong fannish energy (this is because I've been homeless for three months, and am tired) into putting more content on mastodon so that people will feel more comfortable moving over there, (Try it out! It's basically just twitter! People making it seem more complicated are wrong!)

So, in that spirit, I started #FicRecFebruary which is just a hashtag fest thing on masto, and I'm posting one rec per day for all of Feb. I'm also compiling the recs in vaguely weekly-ish posts to have them all in one convenient place. If you are also unsure about how to start posting on masto, come and retweet my post about #FicRecFebruary and maybe tweet a rec of your own! No need to do every day of the month like me, even someone just adding one rec to the hashtag is awesome!

( cut for the recs )

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Yuletide Recs

2023-01-01T18:49:10Z

I always love spelunking in the yuletide collection, and try and read as broadly and widely as I can, and did a lot of reccing at quaiching and on mastodon. But I'm compiling them here, by fandom. There were some real gems in the collection this year, so hopefully if you missed them, this gives you some fun things to open in tabs. My categories are extremely scientific.

( Wow!! This blew me away! )

( Fun and enjoyable sweet canon moments or additions )

( Sexy!! )

( I don't know what category to put these in but you should still read them )

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Yuletide 2022 Letter

2022-10-18T09:13:32Z

Hi! Thank you for offering these fandoms for yuletide! I hope you have fun writing these year, and find something that inspires you. I tried to talk about the things I like about these fandoms, and I hope you feel drawn to something in those elements.
( cut for length )

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Yuletide Letter 2021

2021-10-20T22:27:17Z

Hi! Thanks so much for signing up for yuletide and offering one of of my requests. I hope you have a good time writing, and can find something in my letter that you will enjoy. Don’t feel you have to do everything, or even most of what I talk about here! Find an element that speaks to you. Please know that whatever you choose to write will be an amazing gift and I’ll be really pleased with it. Write something that you enjoy writing, and I’ll love it - my favorite fics are ones that the writers clearly had an amazing time writing, so please do what makes you happy.

( cut for length )

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No Raids Auction

2021-05-17T11:25:02Z

Some people may have seen the news about the Kenmure Street picket on twitter last week - a dawn immigration raid picked up two men in Glasgow, and then activists and neighbours picketed the van until the police and immigration officers were forced to release the men they'd detained. It was a rare piece of good victory news about the UK's hostile environment, and it was possible because of years of community building done by community organisations and charities in Glasgow and the UK.

I'm running noraidsauction, a fan auction to get some money to the organisations that made this all possible. The hostile environment is everywhere in the UK, and people resisting it need money, to support migrants and asylum seekers, to drive to detention centres and top up their phones, to man phone lines and pay lawyers and review cases in court. Even small amounts of money can be very effective in these organisations, so it can really make a lot of difference.

Offers are open at noraidsauction, all the information is in the information post, and schedule is below. Everything's on dreamwidth, and we've already got some great offers up!

Absolutely any fan labour can be offered, and I would super love it if people could offer anything - can you so x-picking, or translation? Can you write drabbles, record podfic, make cover art or edit podfic, or draw art? Even £5 can get a welcome pack to a refugee in Glasgow, or make sure a crisis hotline is answered when someone needs it.

More Info:
Schedule:
Offers Posted - May 14th-19th
Bidding/Buy-It-Now - May 20th-May 24th (11.59PM BST)
Donation Verification - no later than June 5th, please
(Ending 11.59PM BST/Beginning 12.01AM BST)

What is this?
noraidsauction is a fandom charity auction in the style of [community profile] equalityauction, Fandom Trumps Hate, and countless others. Fans offer works they can create to be bid on, the winning bidder makes a donation to charity and receives the work.

noraidsauction is seeking to raise money to benefit community organisations supporting migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and Scotland. After the events of the Kenmure Street raid and community action to rescue the men taken, we want to support the organisations building community support and resilience, resisting the hostile environment, and helping migrants and refugees.

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Thursday Recs

2021-03-11T16:28:31Z

Been reading a weird grab bag of stuff, but some of it's been good!

Ship's Gossip (5748 words) by Spatz
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Rating: Mature
Relationships: William Laurence/Tenzing Tharkay
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Privateering, Post-Tongues of Serpents, Internalized Homophobia, Angst with a Happy Ending
Summary:

Laurence is beginning to enjoy life as a privateer - though he cannot figure out why Tharkay should still be sailing out with them - when Temeraire decides to ask him about sodomy.

This is a really sweet Temeraire story about the persistent theme - Laurence having some realisations. Lovely period feeling, great Temeraire.

Left Side Advantage (61150 words) by susiecarter
Fandom: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, DC Extended Universe, Man of Steel (2013)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne
Additional Tags: Superbat Reverse Bang, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Identity Porn, Bad Flirting, Bad Decisions, Antagonism, Self-Sacrifice
Summary:

Post-MoS AU: A year after Black Zero, the Metropolis city government decides to hold a commemorative gala, with Superman as a guest of honor. And after a year of trying to gather intelligence on Superman without all that much success to speak of, Bruce Wayne is definitely going to attend. Except it turns out he may not be the only one with plans for Superman, and there might be a few other pieces of the puzzle that he's been missing.

Very good plotty Superman/Batman that I enjoyed a great deal but please observe that they do not fuck at the end because I forgot and was disappointed! but if that doesn't matter to you, it's good

Twenty Questions (5023 words) by dexwebster
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: DC Cinematic Universe, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne
Additional Tags: Choking, Breathplay
Summary:

Clark tries to figure out why Bruce is asking him all of these questions.

This is a Superman/Batman where they do, in fact, fuck, and I liked it a lot. Dives into what it's like dating someone with as twisty a mind as Batman, which I liked

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It's a rebrand baby!

2021-02-13T22:45:51Z

I've been girlmarauders for a long time (probably more than 10 years at this point) but it had reached a point where I knew it was time for a change, for a bunch of reasons. So, I'm rebranding! I'm now clachnaben (or clachnabenn, if the one-n version was taken) everywhere. I'll have a note in my profile pretty much everywhere, so if you forget who I am, there's a reminder.

I'll do my best to update obvious old links to my twitter or ao3, but I won't catch everything. If you see somewhere it's broken, let me know. Otherwise, you can find me everywhere I was:

clachnabenn clachnaben

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Ghost and the Garden outtakes & thoughts

2021-02-09T16:29:58Z

I was originally going to do another "talk to the voice recorder in my phone until I feel like stopping" commentary thing for the ghost and the garden, but then I realised I had way too many thoughts for audio (no one wants to listen to TWO HOURS of me rambling my way through the witcher canon) and also I wanted to include the outtakes that I eventually cut from the final text, but stil enjoyed writing and want to see the light of day.
( Pavetta )
( Witcher universe )
( witcher fairy stories )
( Geralt and Emhyr )

( Outtakes )

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KJ Charles exchange

2021-02-07T22:05:38Z

A quick drive by post to say the KJ Charles Fanworks Exchange is open for sign ups! Sign ups are open from the 1 Feb to 16 Feb, with podfic, art and fic all welcome. It's a 1k minimum as well, so low pressure. (I'm one of the mods! I'm very excited about all the KJ Charles works that will come out of it!)

You should sign up!

Links: AO3 Collection, kjcharlesxchange, kjxchange, kjcharlesxchange.

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can we bring yesterday back around

2021-01-25T15:06:35Z

Very slowly losing my mind, but in a way that is very boring to talk about, even more boring to listen to, and boring to experience. Everything sucks! Let's take that as read.

In a spate of missing home and social interactions and being drunk at a party, I listened to ceilidh music for nearly two weeks without stopping. Ceilidh music doesn't have singing, but if you want to listen to some popular traditional Scottish music, I've been listening to Skipinnish a lot, especially like About You Now and Walking On The Waves.

I'm watching Lupin on netflix - I watch tv slowly because I only like watching it alone, but I'm really enjoying it. Good episodic structure but with an overarching story, Assane is a great character and Oscar Sy is really fun to watch. Love heist stuff, love a good show about Doing Crime For Good Reasons. There is NO fic but there's already some good pairing potential, and I'd also just read thousands of words about Assane's journey and his relationship with his kid and him and Benjamin's friendship. It's going on the "when your wips are done" list.

I'm almost finished by old guard exchange fic for the server exchange. It's fun! I like it. It'll be fun to share it with people. In fact, I'll probably finish it today, if I do my word count.

Reading has not been going great, on account of the aforementioned losing my mind, but I did finish one back issue of Uncanny I've had on my kindle for ages. Unfortunately, the many other back issues of Uncanny remain.

I'm in a kind of fic rutt right now, mostly just rereading old things, which is kind of frustrating since they're good, but they're not very satisyfing because I've read them before. If you have a rec for a fic you've read recently that you really liked, especially anything over 7k, I'd really appreciate it!

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New Witcher Fic!

2021-01-12T10:24:49Z

Quick drive-by post to say I posted a new fic! It's 37k of Witcher adventure story with a maybe-ghost and lots of plot and late night conversation. Geralt & Ciri are family! Emhyr and Geralt have long conversations! I absolutely loved writing this and hope people read it and enjoy it as much as I loved writing it.

It's based on the Witcher 3 game canon, rather than the show, but I think if you've read some witcher fic you probably will be fine, and I haven't even finished the game yet (I keep getting distracted by side quests) so I'm sure little to no canon knowledge is fine.

the ghost and the garden by clachnaben
Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Category: M/M
Fandoms: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Relationship: Emhyr var Emreis/Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia
Additional Tags: Case Fic, ghost story, Post-Canon, Grief/Mourning, Moving On, Found Families, blood families, Canon-Typical Violence, Father-Daughter Relationship, Pavetta of Cintra, Intercrural Sex

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running up that hill

2021-01-07T14:07:51Z

We're all dealing with lockdown/winter in our own way:

I dealt with it by writing 37k in under four weeks, and re-reading The Left Hand of Darkness for the one thousandth time. It's a good book to read at winter time - all the yearning and nearly freezing to death in the snow. I hadn't reread it in a couple years, but a year or so ago I went to The Second Shelf, which is a rare bookstore for books by women, and spent the most I've ever spent on a single book to buy a rare-ish (not very rare! I'm not rich. Just a little rare) copy of it, so I finally have a paper copy and I very carefully read my expensive copy and finished a couple days ago. I've also been listening to Meg Myers' cover of Running Up That Hill constantly.

Everyone who follows me on twitter knows I've basically only been talking about LHoD and the fic I've been writing for several days. The fic is done and getting read by other people to confirm it's not completely unhinged and will get posted soon! I'm currently experiencing a lot of existential dread about picking a title for it. It's post-canon Witcher 3 (game, not show) Geralt/Emhyr fic with ghost stories and a mystery and lots of talking about grief and past lives etc. I've really enjoyed writing it and hope people like it too!

Left Hand of Darkness is still amazing - it still pulls me in absolutely and completely. Leguin really could imagine such complete and alien worlds, and Genly is so lovely as a character. You feel so attached and connected to him, his loneliness, his struggle to understand Gethen, his stuggle to make himself understood. It's such a familiar feeling, but also so located in the alien world he's in. You feel so close and attached to him, especially as he's so vulnerable.

Also SO MUCH weird stuff happens in the book that everyone FORGETS ABOUT because of the space gender distraction. Eyeball licking!! Telepathy!! Incest! Mystical space religion! Literally actually seeing the future! Rereading it is always an exercise in "well I'd completely forgotten that happened".

The ice journey that is the last third or so of the book is so, I don't know, powerful and all-encompassing, and both practical and mystical all at once. All of the book is good but that's the really the killer part. Leguin goes for the jugular there. Obviously I've never lived somewhere that cold, but it made me miss home, the way the sky will be totally bright and blue, completely empty and cloudless, and the air viciously bitingly cold. It doesn't get properly cold here, or ever properly empty of people, and there is this part of me that misses it so desperately.

This time I was really struck by the back and forth between Estraven and Genly's POVs. The bit when Genly talks about trying not to cry and later Estraven notices how Genly always looks away when he cries, and it must be shameful in his culture. God, bullseye. Estraven is such a wonderful character, so understandable and yet with this complete backstory to their life, fully realised. They're so bitten by grief, so defined by being an exile, from their home, from their country, from their dead lover, and maybe that's why they're so read and willing to accept the Ekumen and other worlds. They've been an exile so much, what is it to be an alien as well?

I had kind of forgotten how incomprehensible the book is about women. There's a scene where Estraven asks Genly to describe women and Genly actually cannot come up with anything sensible. Urusla Leguin, 0 faith in men's ability to relate to women, even in her utopian space federation future. Obviously, thinking about how the thinking behind the book has changed over time is really interesting too. Comparing it to its "successors", like Ammonite by Nicola Griffith, or Ancillary Justice, which take really different approaches to science-fictional gender, and I like seeing fic take different approches too.

I've skimmed big chunks of the Left Hand of Darkness tag and enjoyed these:
( left hand of darkness recs )

This is an open call to please tell me your thoughts and opinions about Left Hand of Darkness (and any other related ~science fiction gender books!) because I could happily talk about it forever and I unfortunately live with two people absolutely fundamentally disinterested in science fiction, which is killing me.

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Yuletide Recs Part 1

2020-12-27T23:06:43Z

My quick and dirty Yuletide recs! I'm not all the way thought my tabs yet but this is to get me started

Other Beginnings - Portrait of a Lady on Fire - daemon au. feels like watching a new version of the film all over again. painful, poignant and beautiful

jette-toi dans la mer - Portrait of a Lady on Fire - lovely short fic from Heloise's POV

Aere Perennius - Eagle of the Ninth - they're in love and they fuck!!

A Long Way Back To The Light - God's Own Country - Gheorghe's pov on the film, him and johnny fucking and falling in love and him coming home to Johnny

Accept a Double - Society of Gentlemen, Will/Jon/Cyprian, sexy threesome with double penetration!!

Ashen-tree, Ashen-tree - Simon Feximal, Simon/Robert, casefic with ghost possession sex!! and Jo & Sam & Simon & Robert found family!

Of Scars and of Wounds in the Heart - Spectred Isle - Max/Barney tentacle sex!! and sweet conversation! the fic I've wanted for these guys since the book came out tbh

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First Lines Meme: 2020

2020-12-22T13:34:51Z

A meme I saw going around: the first line of every fic I posted in 2020

to watch the moon eat the sun - The Witcher (TV), Yennefer/Geralt/Jaskier
Geralt had gotten too used to running into Yennefer on the road to be suspicious when they were both guests at the Coach and Horses on the border of Temeria.

honey on a spoon - Hockey RPF, Andre/Tom
It was early morning when Andre woke up and saw the tag on insta.

wholeness cascades into many shapes - Hockey RPF, Tyson/Freddie/Auston
Tyson came over to his just before everything went down.

stand up in my holy terrain - The Old Guard, gen
Nile woke with a start, shaken gently by a hand on her shoulder.

beneath the hip and plow - The Old Guard, Joe/Nicky
"I got you something," Yusuf said, when he came home from the market that evening.

convergent evolution - Hockey RPF, Nolan/TK
Fucking around with Patty was, like, the best thing ever.

unique in beauty - The Old Guard, Joe/Nicky
When they lay in bed together that night, Joe traced his fingers over the growing stubble on Nicky's jaw.

mud in the heart - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, gen
The Bajoran trade fair on the station was a nuisance in a lot of ways, but it had its benefits.

suddenly grown green - Tortall, Daine/Numair
Daine woke up early, to the sound of Numair snoring and the familiar, annoying feeling of her mouth full of his hair.

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WIP Wednesday: who will keep me company if not all these wips

2020-12-16T15:27:24Z

I have like five or six wips currently on the go and it is too many. I need to finish one of them to at least whittle down the list, but unfortunately that is not happening. Please take this snippet of my current Witcher wip as tribute. It is brought to you by the fact that I have done nothing but play the Witcher 3 for the last two weeks.

( this fic is a vehicle for me to make Geralt talk about his feelings but that does not happen in this snippet )

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WIP Amnesty December: nate/tyson brofucking

2020-12-04T09:55:25Z

This is one that I actually am very sad I never finished. I think it was nearly my first Avalanche idea, and definitely came near the beginning of the group chat with growlery and frecklebombfic, which has produced essentially every good idea I've ever had. The original idea here was that Nate and Tyson are buddyfucking/boyfriends and then they incept themselves into having the hots for Gabe by accidentally dirty talking about him during sex. Then they can't get the idea out of their heads so decide to "invite" him to have a threesome with them by having him constantly catch them fucking in increasingly more implausible places/positions. and Gabe eventually cracks and they end up going out.

However, I didn't write any of that, I wrote the first 1000 words about Nate & Tyson fucking, and like ten words of a joke I wanted to include later in the fic. Still, I think several of the jokes are funny, and that's what matters. This also marks potentially the last time I wrote in present tense, which I now find bizarre.

( 1.3k of Tyson realising they're boyfriends )

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Beneath the Hip and Plow commentary

2020-12-03T20:34:52Z

Ages ago (July) I wrote a 10k Old Guard fic (Beneath The Hip and Plow) for which I did a great deal of research. I kept lying to myself and saying I'd eventually type up my thoughts on all the reading I'd done but that turned out to be a lot of work and I am lazy. So I indulged myself even more by recording myself talking about my thoughts about the fic and the reading I'd done. I've edited out all the "Ums" and very long pausing, and now I've put it up on dropbox to stream! It is very self-indulgent, and I don't know if anyone wants to listen to it at all, but it exists!

There is no real "ending" to the commentary, because I stopped recording that segment and never went back to it and this is me making peace with myself that I will never go back to it and that's okay. Please enjoy me ending many minutes of rambling with enthusing about Andromache the 90s lesbian.

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Wip Amnesty December: long distance sid/geno

2020-12-03T09:46:21Z

This idea was to write a series of snippets of different hockey pairings making long-distance work over the summer or when they weren't on teams together, but I wrote 600 words of it and then realised I didn't love the idea that much and had better wips in the pipeline. It is however 600 words of Geno jerking it over snapchat, which I love. There's also a blink and you'll miss it Carey/PK snippet that I wish I had more of.

( long distance )

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WIP Amnesty December: Caps and Pens de-aging fic

2020-12-02T09:50:44Z

Today's amnesty was a silly funny de-aging fic I was noodling around with the summmer after the Caps won the cup, only wrote 2k of, and then got distracted by other ideas I liked more (and getting really into the Avalanche). It was intended just to be a vehicle for me to write jokes, and maybe work in some emotions about growing up/becoming a parent, but the 2k I wrote is mostly jokes to be completely honest.

I do think "Zhenya and he shared a very special bond, one which mostly involved hating each other and every couple of years crying very manly tears together after Russia inevitably did not win gold." is probably one of the funniest lines I've ever written though, so here's me letting it see the light of day.

( de-aged caps )

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WIP Amnesty December: Peter Parker & Dr Strange MCU

2020-12-01T14:18:04Z

I have a bunch of bits and pieces in my wip folders that are almost certainly never going to get finished, either because I've lost interest, the fandom has moved on, the idea wasn't that good to begin with, or a combination of all three. I'm amnestying them this December by posting them here! Some of them are almost complete ficlets, some are just bits and pieces.

This is an idea I had after watching Infinity War, where Peter comes back after the film and ends up having a found family experience with Dr. Strange. Like MJ and Ned and Peter keep going to Bleeker Street to do their homework and Strange is like why are these CHILDREN always around Wong stop encouraging them!! and I wrote the first couple hundred words, stalled forever, Endgame came out, I lost 90% of my interest in the MCU, I'm amnestying it because writing Peter's inner monologue was fun!

( Peter & Strange post-Infinity War )

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