starseverywhere

Dear hippo,

Some general stuff up-front, previous letters are under the yuletide tags and I've stolen shamelessly from them, everything said then applies now. I'll be in #yuletide all the time as stars, so feel free to come stalk.

I am amazingly easy to please with fic, I read anything and everything from AU in space to five times and mpreg and everything in between and if you want to do that to any of the below, go for it! I read gen and slash and het (less so with femmeslash), so if you're happier writing any of the characters I've suggested in ships or just as friends then feel free. I love angst and fluff and PWPs and cliche-fic, dark humour and silly humour and banter, kill everyone off and let the zombies decide. Focus on plot or focus on character, whatever makes you happiest to write!

All of my fandoms are short and very easy to acquire so I hope that there's something in there that makes you happy to write.

I don't really have any major squicks, or fic no-nos, so go where the winds take you and don't worry about anything in that regard.

Lastly, OPTIONAL DETAILS ARE OPTIONAL. I'll love a story you loved writing way more than one you shoehorned into fitting my details.

1) The Long Earth - Pratchett/Baxter - any

Optional details: I honestly cannot narrow down my request for this as I need to READ ALL THE FIC. I'd love to see anything about Joshua's and Sally's continuing travels (romantic or entirely platonic), the history of Sister Agnes or more of Monica's story. Alternatively just go for pure worldbuilding and pick an Earth and tell me its story, write about the elves or the trolls and their POV of all these people stepping in and out and the trials and tribulations of setting up a new society from scratch. Or, how about Earth zero and the chaos of those left behind?

Extra bits- I think I want fic for this because I found the ending... unsatisfying in many ways. It built for so long and then poof, resolved and everyone lives happily ever after (ish). It also felt in parts that the book needed to be longer, it just skimmed over all these amazing worlds and then wham, on to the next, tantalizing and leaving me wanting more. I'd be overjoyed with fic that stayed on one world, but equally if you want to write snippets from a couple of places that pass through, then that would be just as fabulous. If you do want to include any other characters then feel free, however neither Lobsang or first person singular top my list of those I'm burning with desire to read more about, so would be happy if they stayed more background.

2) Deep Impact, any

I'd really love future fic (or really in between) for this as there's just so much to write about and the movie sort of glosses over the year between the speech and the impact. I'd love to see more on the reconstruction of the cities, how the asteroid changes (or doesn't) people's world view and attitudes. Sarah and Leo raising the baby and any other additions to their family or perhaps they don't even stay together. What life is like for those who went into the arks, or even go wild and write something in the world but with your own characters. Even though the movie had a 'happy' ending and I would be more than pleased to get something that carries on that optimism, if you want to go dark and twisty, feel free!

extra bits - This movie is one I go back to again and again and cheers me up despite the content. I adore the bits of science they got right (quiet in space!) enough to let me gloss over the bigger errors, and if you want to explore any of the geeky bits I will adore you forever. (Which I'll do whatever you write actually). I think the potential for worldbuilding here is huge and if you just want to play in the really messy sandpit of almost-destroyed-Earth then go ahead. I'd really like a fic that focuses more on Earth and the whatnext parts rather than something that's set during the film, and while I do love the crew of the Messiah, for the first time I'm my life I'm more interested in the ground based parts rather than the in space ones.

3) Political Animals- Elaine, Margaret, Susan

I picked this fandom because I love the strength of the women and how they still remain human and not caricatures. I love Elaine's competence and her conflicted feelings about Bud. I love Susan and how you see her falling and yet still doing what she needs to get what she wants, I love Margaret's unapologetic and uncompromising behaviour and how it fits with the love of her family. I haven't picked them for this request, but I also really like the way that Bud and Garcetti were written despite their flaws, so would also be happy if they were included as long as the women stay centre stage.

extra bits - I'm not sure I have that much more to say on this one (but it doesn't mean I like it any less than the others!), I just don't have any particular ideas to fling around. Saying that, given how unlikely this is to get another season (woe), I'd love a view on what happens next with the campaign and its family implications or the fallout of the crash and its political ones. Does Elaine win? What sort of president is she? Does Susan get her Pulitzer? How does the country cope without Garcetti?

4) Avengers Academy - Robert Baldwin

Robbie went back to being Speedball after being turned into the ridiculous, super dark Penance. I'd love a story about how he feels, trying to help all these young students with terrible powersets.

extra bits - What interests me about the suggestion I made was that Robbie still seems to struggle with some guilt and depression, and I wonder how that affects his interactions with his students. Does he see working with them as a kind of penance?(hah!) Does he worry about what might happen to them, or have any fear that he might become Penance again? As Penance, his powers were activated by pain -- how does he react to pain now? Is there any part of him that misses it, or is any way he hurts himself yet *more* penance? *g*
(This prompt also known as how many times can stars type penance in one paragraph :D)

For many, many years now I have been obsessed with the polar regions - with the endless nights and the endless days, with the aurora, with bears and penguins and birds nesting endlessly on cliffs.

I've looked longingly at photos others have taken and sat in front of nature documentaries with my heart aching at the beauty of it all.

Four years ago I went to Iceland for the first time and was immediately smitten. In January I made it back and had the most wonderful time (with wonderful people) and since then I have not been able to stop thinking about landscapes of snow and ice.

I've found myself constantly refreshing spaceweather and the aurora forecasts, treating frozen planet like it was porn and visiting polar trip travel agencies in an almost masochistic fashion.

Last week I decided that I have wanted this long enough and I booked a trip. In 82 days I am leaving to travel up to Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago where I will board an ice-reinforced scientific research vessel and cruise around the islands for a little over a week. The cost is, quite frankly, ridiculous and I that's even though I managed to get a very good deal on flights and am in a quad-share cabin. I don't care if I have to live off noodles for the rest of the year/decade, I am so excited to be doing this.

Now, I just have to take a step back and stop researching, buying probably unnecessary equipment and fretting over weather patterns, not being able to see polar bears, dropping my camera overboard etc. My biggest concern at the moment (and this says so much about me) is that I've always been terrible at sleeping in moving vehicles of whatever sort because I'm petrified that I'll miss something awesome out of the window while I sleep. It's why I have to have a window seat on planes or I get all antsy and stressed and why 6 weeks travelling around Australia on greyhound buses led to some pretty impressive sleep deprivation. I'm really not sure how I'll cope on a ship in the most spectacular location imaginable where the sun never sets and the light at night is the best for photography. You know what though, it's a problem I couldn't be more thrilled to have to work out a solution to because it means that I'm going to be at 80degrees north and only 500 miles from the north pole.

Ice Ahoy!

I've been back from Iceland now for nearly a week, and have been putting off this post as I'm really not sure how to articulate my feelings, and once it's down, it's really over.

I had such a wonderful time with the marvellous emily_shore and makioka that I really didn't want to come home, and usually, however much I enjoyed myself, by the end of the trip I am ready for my own house.

Things I learned:

1) When it gets to -15C, all your fingernails will snap off at the slightest provocation
2) Grinning everytime Strokkur explodes is obligatory
3) Icelandic horses are awesome
4) Icelandic firework displays are a terrifying display of natural selection and the Darwin awards would have their work cut out for them there
5a) If you are properly dressed, then spending hours outside kneeling on snow and rock in -15C with windchill isn't a problem at all
5b) Until you take off gloves to fiddle with camera settings. Then it takes about 3 seconds to lose all sensation in your fingers
6) If you do 5a&b then people stare at you strangely
7) Jokulsarlon is the most heartrendingly beautiful place on Earth
8) Always stop to let geese cross the road
9) The Blue Lagoon is magic
10) Icelandic petrol station attendants are amazing
11) Standing at the top of a church tower just underneath the bells as they ring for the Sunday service is pretty special
12) Drinking tea at 1am and watching everyone else bar crawling is also awesome
13) Cambridge spies are in Reykjavik
14) Spending time with like-minded people and the giggling that ensues makes for a perfect trip
15) Reindeer has an unbelievably pervasive odour
16) Taking 56GB of photos in 6 days isn't really that hard
17) Iceland steals your heart.

If anyone can be bothered, I've put many of my favourite pictures up on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gengen/sets/72157628827699579/ with bonus horses, aurora borealis, lots of snowy landscapes and exploding jets of water.

I am going to Iceland! So so so much excitement. I've just booked for most of a week in early jan with emily_shore and makioka and am a bundle of awesome yayness.

This clearly means I'm going to be unbearable to be around for the next month and a half as i do nothing but read guidebooks, plan excursions and generally act like a hyperactive chipmunk with the bouncing and the squeeing.

I've been once before, but if anyone out there has thoughts on things to see and places to visit and anything else that catches your fancy, just yell.

Wheee! Aurora and snow and stars and blue lagoon in the dark and glaciers and everything wonderous and good.

It was my birthday on Wednesday and in the grand tradition of trying to avoid the whole thing I left the country.

The mama and the papa and I went to Barcelona and I fell in love with a city.

It did not matter that it rained like raining was its job and it had to do it really hard and constantly or it would fail, I still had a lovely time.

Things what I enjoyed mostest.

1) The inside of the Sagrada Familia took my breath away and is quite literally, awe inspiring. If nothing else, I'm going to keep going back to the city to see what they do next and how it continues to develop.

2) We did not get mugged! Given the family history there (three muggings in one weekend last time) this is something of an achievement.

3) The palau de musica catalana is quite simply, the prettiest building I have ever seen. It is pastel coloured flowery confection and is AMAZING. Sitting there, watching Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez, I giggled with the sheer wonder of it all. Love.

4) Tapas.

5) I have never been somewhere where there is no such thing as an architecturally unimaginative building, every corner held a new and wonderful surprise and I spent so much time looking up i'm impressed I didn't fall into a manhole.

6) the two new beautiful desigual tops that the parentals purchased for me as my present.

7) the pear eclair that the bakery around the corner from the hotel made. There were inappropriate noises while eating, my father thought it was *hilarious*. That should probably concern me more.

8) the food markets were just brilliant, yes I saw bits of animals that I really wish I hadn't, but Iove how much joy the people clearly take in all the food and they really care about where it comes from.

Home now and picked up a chest infection somewhere along the way. I am currently feeling sorry for myself and trying to breathe around the elephant deposited on my chest. If someone could arrange it so that I can have a week off work that would be great, kthxbai.

 Any H50 fans should definitely watch the last scene of last night's entourage. Still giggling. 

 I have just watched the last ever episode of Friday Night Lights. Sobbing like a baby and so in love with these people I can't even. 
Clear eyes, Full hearts, Can't lose.