FINALLY. THANK GOD.

Title: Mildred: A College AU
Authors: causeways and walkawayslowly
Artist: sillyshy, her art post is here. Tell her she is awesome!
Word Count: 62,131
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Official Summary: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jared in possession of his heterosexuality will immediately switch teams upon enrollment in college and first contact with Jensen Ackles.
Original Summary: Jared goes to college and is gay for Jensen Ackles. It's a real shocker, sports fans.
Real Summary: No really, that’s all that happens. For 60,000 words.
Disclaimer: Jared, Jensen, and all of the other real live people we mention belong to themselves. Sadly. The OCs are ours, all ours.
Authors' Notes:

Kelly thanks: walkawayslowly, for suggesting that we cowrite in the first place, and for waiting patiently for me to move past the laughing-in-her-face stage and into the "omg fine" stage; for not murdering me during the many, many periods of story-related emo; and for still being my very favorite person on the entire internet (and beyond!) at the end of it all. I can't think of anyone with whom I would rather have a child that is also a piece of fanfiction. You say that's slightly creepy? I say that's how we roll.
girlmostlikely, for a very fantastic beta, and for being one of my very first fandom friends, back when I was new and writing about Wincestuous adventures in prison. Those were good times.
nemoinis, for being so excellent as to offer to beta even when she did not know half of the authors, and for doing a fantastic job while she was at it.

Merrin thanks: causeways. I understand the key smash when I first asked her to cowrite now, and all the laughter. See, she'd done this before, and I really hadn't. If you are not familiar with the process, it is one arduous task. Similar to giving birth, I would imagine, or climbing a mountain, even though I have only done the latter and not the former. I have a new measure for a friend now, and it’s someone who will cowrite 60k of coming-of-age (and out-of-the-closet) rps with you and still be your friend at the end of it.
girlmostlikely, for agreeing to beta even though she knew how long it was going to be, and how much time we weren’t going to be able to give her. thanks also for pointing out our ACTUAL posting date as opposed to the posting date we THOUGHT we had. Love you, babe, you are the BEST.
nemoinis, for ALWAYS betaing everything, even my crappy popslash. and for being one of MY first fandom friends, back when I thought "slash" fic meant "stabbing people with pointy knives."

Kelly and Merrin both thank: sillyshy, for picking our lame summary out of a whole list of summaries, and being an INCREDIBLY awesome artist; and the spn_j2_bigbang mods, for running this wild rumpus again.

MILDRED: A COLLEGE AU

I've been reading a lot of Merlin fic, as one does, a good bit of which has been modern day AU. I really love modern day Merlin AUs. (There are four fics in particular that I love like burning; two of them are still WIPs, though, so I think I'll save that rec post till they're done.) And I've been thinking about other Merlin AUs I would want, and there is one that I have not seen and am pretty much dying for.

I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how much I would love to have a Merlin footballer AU. Normally if I were dying for something I would at least consider writing it myself, but since in this case I know shit nothing about football, I am not even close to the person who should be writing this. Clearly someone who knows football should make this happen. Arthur the international man of mystery football star! Merlin the . . . sort of incompetent keeper who manages to make these saves out of NOWHERE and it just doesn't make a damned bit of sense and maybe he is slightly magic! (This is another thing I love -- when Merlin's still got magic in modern day AUs.)

I don't have a fully fleshed-out plot or anything, and just in terms of not knowing British/football culture I do NOT feel like I should be writing this -- I think it would be a much better and richer story written by someone who does -- but anyway, the idea was inspired by this blind item on Dlisted a while back*:

Which star athlete is having an affair with one of his teammates? In the macho world of sports, homosexuality is rarely discussed. However, these two teammates - one much more high profile than the other - have been practically joined at the hip for the past several months. Both are married, and both of their wives are in for a nasty shock if they find out. Team managment does know, and is seriously considering trading the lesser player to prevent a full-blown public scandal that might diminish their star’s reputation and ticket sales.

*How much do I LOVE Michael K, btw? SO MUCH. Never has anyone managed to gross me out so consistently in so many new and hilarious ways.

I would cut the line re: the marriage and the wives, and just leave it as "Arthur is the huge star and Merlin is the teammate," but anyway. If this kind of AU already exists and I just missed it, clearly you need to link me now. Otherwise, fly free, little footballer AU idea! Fly free!

Oh and here, have another couple of ideas for stories in other fandoms! Two first lines for stories I am never going to write:

Sam/Dean: In Stone Creek, Alabama, on a night when it's too hot to sleep under the covers, Dean pulls Sam's boxers down and licks up the length of his cock.

John/Rodney: Not that Rodney was opposed to being bathed in milk and honey, exactly, even when the milk came from cacti and the honey was the secretion of a creature that looked a lot like a yak. The women doing the bathing were all kinds of hot, and in the next tub over Sheppard definitely looked like he was enjoying himself.

I don't care if you credit me for anything above, but do shoot me a link if you do anything with them, so that I can see these stories actually existing in the world. ESPECIALLY THE FOOTBALLER AU.

And okay, hopefully this won't be confusing: now for some stories I AM writing!

Post a single sentence or two extract from each WIP you have (or as many as you want to pick). No context, no explanations.

Some original fic, some fanfic. A couple of these are rather less in progress than more, but they're all in some state of partial completion. And again, these are the stories I'm currently writing myself, so these ideas belong to me (and in one case, also to walkawayslowly). They are not up for grabs! (Although personally, I think the stuff above sounds way more exciting. FOOTBALLER AU.)

1. The rental house sprawls over its beachfront lot. It's a Cape Cod, two gables, cedar shakes and a widow's walk; it's not a beach house, it's a mansion.

2. Charlie's proximity brought me great comfort. And there were other benefits, too, to this arrangement, beyond the warmth.

3. An army is only as strong as its weakest man. Uther had drilled this into Arthur's head repeatedly, until it stuck; until it was the only thing Arthur could think about when he was on the training pitch until supper each night—that he would not be that man.

4. So Jared tells him about the dining hall, and then he remembers that he never got to tell Jensen about last night either, so he backtracks to tell Jensen about that, and then goes back to the dining hall, and ends with knocking over the trays and having the dining hall lady glowering at him as he knelt in the middle of orange juice and left over eggs.

5. The taxi dropped Jared off on Jensen's street before, but the West Village is a rabbit warren of streets.

Oh, little Merlin story, be done already.

I posted about this before, but now it is finished so I can post again:

The First Annual Padalecki-Ackles Christmastime Extravaganza is complete!



The First Annual Padalecki-Ackles Christmastime Extravaganza by walkawayslowly
Jared/Jensen | NC-17 | 10,151 words
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

It's twelve days of Christmas fic -- which might seem out of season except actually TODAY, January 6th, is the last day of Christmas! because it's when the three Wise Men showed up! (aka the Wise Guys, as my mom always called them) -- and it's really, really cute, and involves pining. And pranking. And awesomeness.

Also, I did art! The actual pictures are at the bottom of each section of the fic, which is where you should REALLY go to look for them, but beneath the cut is a mosaic-y set of thumbnails. Each thumbnail links to the part where you can find the art, but you should really just read the fic in order. Because it is awesome.

( art for The First Annual Padalecki-Ackles Christmastime Extravaganza )

In 2008 I:

- graduated from college
- got a full-time job
- decided I actually like my job
- spent the entire month of November at my job, frequently to the exclusion of sleeping
- drove cross-country for the second time
- wrote far less than in 2007
- had far more ideas for stories, and better ones
- lost some very close friends
- made some better friends
- met up with some fandom friends (multiple times!)
- moved to New York
- worked in three states and lived in a fourth
- yelled from the roof of my apartment building on Election Day
- yelled from the streets of Lower Manhattan on Election Night
- kissed someone in an elevator
- bought the first decent bed I have ever owned
- fell a little out of love with SPN
- fell a lot in love with Entourage
- rediscovered board games
- discovered that I have an inner '50s hostess
- frequently decided that walking a mile and a half cross-town in the cold was a better choice than riding the train one more stop. Note to self: wrong.

2008, you were weird. Mostly good weird, but definitely weird. Overall I'm happier than I was this time last year, though, so 2008 can count for a win.

Oh! Haha! In 2008, also, I watched Twilight.

Unpopular fandom opinion time! I think Twilight kicks The Christmas Cottage's ass to hell and back. Both of these movies are pretty freaking atrocious! But Twilight is absolutely the sort of atrocious that is so bad it is also AWESOME, and it sinks its teeth into you and holds on for dear life and you LOVE IT. (YES YES. I KNOW ABOUT THE PUN.)

There are some pieces of fanfic that I have very similar relationships to. I shall call this multifandom recs list:

( Those stories you should really stop reading because the rational part of your mind is screaming for mercy and yet you cannot stop, ever, even if there were a pack of rabid dogs at your heels. Or beautiful, sparkly vampires. )

Regardless, the point of this is, Twilight! Really bad, but deeefinitely the kind of really bad that comes right back around to sort of totally amazing. I hear the books are extra awful, and Stephenie Meyer makes the universe cry, but I'm going to go read them now anyway. YUP.

Dudes, dark_reaction wrote me fic!

The Fortress of a High Mind by dark_reaction
Jared/Jensen | hard R | 12,384 words
Jensen and Jared are seniors at an elite private boarding school, competing for the same girl, and they can't stand each other.

She also says: "This story was written for causeways, I don't actually remember why. That's how long this story has been in the making."

The best part of that true statement is that I DON'T REMEMBER WHY, EITHER. Apparently once upon a time I managed to convince Lauren to write me prep school J2, and I am awesome for having done so, but I have no memory of the event at ALL.

Anyway, my random blackouts are not the point of this post. The point of this post is, J2 boarding school fic, GO READ IT. Jared wins Jensen's love with a sandwich! High school rivals! Angsting about college! It's awesome.

ETA: Okay, okay. I'll admit it. I plied Lauren with alcohol and various illicit deeds. My secret, it is out.

I stayed up waaaay too late last night reading fic in fandoms I'm not even in, so I was still awake at three a.m. when luvplatinumbaby posted podfic of Lingering in the Golden Gleam, aka the Family Man J2 I wrote nearly a year ago. (And swore there would be a sequel to nearly a year ago. Ha ha! Don't rush my ~creative process, okay.)

I didn't have any particularly strong feelings about podfic, but I figured, hey man, somebody wants to make a podfic, have at it! Good times!

And then I opened the file and my reaction was basically OH MY GOODNESS SOMEONE RECORDED MY STORY WITH ACTUAL VOICES, THIS IS THE COOLEST SHIT EVER. EVER! Again, it was three a.m., I was too tired to listen to the whole thing, but I repeat: COOLEST EVER.

luvplatinumbaby's post (with both streaming audio and download links) is here. Check it out!

*

Also, in my effort to avoid going in to work (yes, it's a Saturday, gross that I have to work, but at least it's only for a couple hours and it's going to make Monday suck infinitely less) I finally got around to uploading a bunch of music I've been telling walkawayslowly I was going to upload for her ages ago. Plus some other stuff. This is a really friggin' random mix, consider yourselves warned.

( Track listing behind the cut. )

I hear you all going, "causeways still writes fic? Whaaaat?" Trust me, I'm as surprised as you are.

Title: Accidents Happen
Author: causeways
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Word Count: 3,100
Disclaimer: Jared and Jensen belong to themselves.
Summary: Jared wakes up one morning, rolls over, and kisses Jensen. And then freaks out about it.
Author's Notes: A few days ago I was talking to balefully, and I said I wanted to write a fic about guys getting together after being in a club. And Lucy said, "Write it! Make it J2!" And I said, "No way, dude, they LIVE TOGETHER. If they were going to get together, it wouldn't be because of a CLUB." And then this fic happened. So this is for balefully. Also, big thanks to walkawayslowly, not just for being awesome, but also for betaing and killing all those colons.

( Accidents Happen )

Title: Workin' Hard for the Money
Author: causeways
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Word Count: 1,807
Disclaimer: Jared and Jensen belong to themselves and are not actually fucking in real life, nor is either of them a hooker.
Summary: After Jared gives Jensen the most fantastic blowjob of his life, Jensen runs into him again, and they go back to Jensen's house and fuck.
Author's Notes: This is the sequel to balefully's J2 hooker fic Heart of Gold, which she wrote for me and which you'll want to read first. I seem to have agreed with everyone who thought it needed a sequel, because I went and wrote one. Thanks to walkawayslowly for all kinds of good advice, as always, and to vinylroad for the title.

( Workin' Hard for the Money )

The authors just got revealed over at the spn_gleeweek [guess the author competition], so I get to claim my story!

Title: In the Telling
Author: causeways
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Word Count: 1,391
Disclaimer: Belongs to Kripke, not to me!
Summary: After Sam gets him out of the deal, Dean fucks a lot of girls.
Author's Notes: Thanks to memphis86 for looking this over!

( In the Telling )

I sort of want to insert a long paragraph of blah about warnings and how I hate them (this is related because in spite of the fact that Dean sleeps with like a dozen girls in my spn_gleeweek fic I would never, ever warn for het in it), but I think I'll save that for another day.

Right now, I want to point you over to girlmostlikely's [accidental schmoop meme] where I got coerced into writing ~400 words of Sam/Dean, gruffness, the giver being more surprised than the receiver. Coerced, yup. Writing that was REALLY PAINFUL, let me just tell you. *g*

And speaking of the accidental schmoop meme and of the GtA competition, have some shortfic recs!

Jared/Jensen, off-season, missing each other by dontyouwaitup
PG | 565 words | from the accidental schmoop meme
I love the matter-of-fact-ness and also their banter SO MUCH.

Sam/Dean, taking a bath together by memphis86
R-ish | 556 words | from the accidental schmoop meme
My comment on this was something along the lines of, "I just made a happy noise so high-pitched that ONLY THE DOGS HEARD IT." First time Sam/Dean in a BATHTUB.

The lady of the right hand by fleshflutter
pre-series Dean-centric gen | PG-13 | 1,789 words | from spn_gleeweek
Dean's last night in New Orleans with that voodoo gig.
This is one of those fics that makes me wonder why I don't read more gen than I do. Or maybe it's just that fleshflutter's really awesome. Dean and a TOTALLY FANTASTIC original character.

Joie de Vivre by memphis86
Sam/Dean | PG-13 | 1,906 words | from spn_gleeweek
This is just a really cool short fic that TOTALLY MESSES WITH YOUR MIND. I'm a big fan of that. Sam in the South of France!

The Eyes Have It by __tiana__
Jared/Jensen | PG-13 | 1,200ish words
This isn't actually from either the accidental schmoop meme OR from the GtA entries, but it's short and also all about Jared realizing that there are 28374 pictures of Jensen staring at him like he is COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH HIM, so I really don't see how this could not get included.

*

I haven't actually read all of the spn_gleeweek fics yet, so there may be a part two to this after I get my act together. And now back to doing . . . whatever it is you do at your internship after you are already finished researching replacement refrigerator parts. Writing fic?? We shall see.

Ugh, grossness. I got drunk both last night and the night before last, and on both occasions then proceeded to eat ENORMOUS AMOUNTS OF FOOD. I blame girlmostlikely and dark_reaction for Friday night's gluttony; for last night's I could TRY to blame RL people, buuuuut mostly I have no one but myself to blame. Friday's wasn't really that terrible, but last night I was like a TINY HUMAN PACMAN. It might be time to hit the gym this afternoon—I have been awful about it lately—but not before this afternoon, because I feel FAR too gross to do it before then. It's a vicious cycle!

Ahaha, anyway! Wendy commented on the J2 I posted recently talking about how she really loved the idea of Jared and Jensen moving in together in L.A. but also keeping a house in Texas that they could return to, and it made me think of this poem—which I told her I would type out and then didn't. Finally I have remembered!

( where we are by Gerald Locklin )

Ack, there was something else I was going to talk about and now I have no friggin' clue what it was. Uh, I started my Big Bang, finally? Slightly over 3,000 words is better than no words at all. \o/ Never mind that I now get to spend the day working on things that AREN'T BB, such as revising a short story and oh, right, my thesis. I also spent about an hour yesterday looking at jobs for next year and becoming increasingly discouraged. Fun!

For header information, please see part one.

( Farther Away from Where We Are (2/2) )

Title: Farther Away from Where We Are
Author: causeways
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Word Count: 17,842
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles and all other people mentioned herein belong to themselves.
Summary: In which Jensen goes to Texas and gets drunk all the time, and wishes he were Prometheus, because then his poor dead liver would grow back every night. Also, eventually there is J2.
Author's Notes: This was written for Sweet Charity for a really awesome person who asked to remain anonymous. walkawayslowly went above and beyond with the beta work. This fic wouldn't be anywhere near what it is without her help. memphis86 also looked it over and fixed my huevos rancheros. Tragically not real ones, because those would be delicious right now.
Notes You Should Really Read: This is even more fictitious than the usual J2 fiction in that, for the purposes of this fic, Jared never proposed to Sandy. Also, randomly, there's a spoiler for 3x12 'Jus in Bello'.

( Farther Away from Where We Are (1/2) )

Happy Saturday! Have a short list of things that are happy-making! This list is totally random, so first I will cunningly distract you with a rec!

• A Little Hopeful, a Little Lucky by luzdeestrellas
  Jared/Jensen | PG-13 | 1,460 words
  Jensen has no intention of going to the party, is the thing.
  Short and lovely first-time J2! This is one of those fics that is exactly what I hadn't realized I was wanting until I read it.


• CHOLULAAAAA.
  
  
  Fried eggs over easy with Cholula hot sauce made my late-night thesis writing date at Denny's soooo much better in the middle of last week.


• JIM FREAKING BEAVER.


• unamaga's awesome post about the Sandlot, a.k.a. MY ONE TRUE CHILDHOOD MOVIE LOVE.


• The new hoodie I went and bought myself after I finished taking the big fat Goethe Prüfung (C1) this morning:
  
  


• The fact that I am DONE DONE DONE with my Sweet Charity J2 (17,455 words before the beta, oh dear God), so as soon as walkawayslowly stops drunk-dialing me and speaking in Whale, I should have that up! EEEEEE. I CAN WORK ON MY BIG BANG NOW. Or my senior thesis, either one . . .

This is entirely memphis86's fault. I was talking about how I've done that thing where I'm overwhelming myself with writing long fic again, and she said, "Write a drabble! I'll prompt you!" So uh, in that universe where a drabble is 443 words long, this is a drabble!

( And the Birds Too )

Um. I might have been extremely bored at my internship earlier. That is my excuse for all of this. But anyway, shannon_doll is just getting into SPN, and I told her I'd give her some recs, SO:

( A big ol' list of recs. Nine SPN and six CW RPS. SPN recs are either AUs or do not contain spoilers past the end of S1 -- or at least, they shouldn't, if I did my job right! )

A short Saturday-afternoon list of Things That Are Awesome!

1. The fact that today is regala_electra's birthday! Reg is so fantastic, and I love her.

2. Cobra Starship last night! Gabe Saporta's creepy purple sweatshirt, and his fabulously bad dancing, and the fact that I am hilarious and know the words to all the songs, and that the average age of the crowd was 11.5, no joke. Also, the opening bands, omg. The moment when the two guitarists and the bassist from We the Kings all flung their hair forward and back in unison! I wish I had it on video. I bet they practice it. "All right, when we get to the third line of this song, HAIR FLING!"

3. thehighwaywoman's abouttwoboys fic!

Stand by Your Man
Jared/Jensen | adult | ~30,000 words | AU based on The Wedding Singer

So cute, you guys. SO CUTE.

4. SPN 3x11! OH. MY. GOD. I rewatched it earlier and flailed at the screen SO many times. SAM WINCHESTER. I love him so much. ( spoilers )

This was meant to be an entry about how freaking terrified I am of second semester of senior year, my thesis and its 2,500 pages of primary source material, etc., etc., but no one really wants to hear me whine, and anyway I would much rather talk about the fact that apparently I can MAKE THINGS HAPPEN WITH MY BRAIN.

Yesterday evening I was talking to belyste, and bemoaning the fact that I had never, ever seen 69ing porn in SPN or CW RPS fic. She said she'd seen it maybe once, but it was still incredibly rare.

WELL. Since then, people have posted not one but TWO awesome fics that involve 69ing!

So Close to My Heart by audrarose
Jared/Jensen | NC-17 | 15,900 words
Dr. Jared and single-dad Jensen in Seattle, with love and complications.

Junk in the Trunk by lazy_daze
Sam/Dean | NC-17 | 1,500 words
Sam and Dean got locked in a trunk. There is porn.

AMAZING. walkawayslowly then went, "Ooh, say, 'I wish Sheppard and McKay would make out on the next episode of SGA' out loud! MAYBE IT WILL HAPPEN TOO." I hope this also works for my senior thesis! "My senior thesis will appear on my desk RIGHT NOW!"

Tragically, I suspect it only works for porn, but here's hoping I'm wrong.

I'm in a creative writing class this semester where the professor specifically said, "No genre fiction!" on the first day. I have a story (~10 double-spaced pages) due a week from Wednesday, and I so very badly want to turn in a story about a pair of cowboys falling in love in space, just to be ornery. It could be a VERY LITERARY story about cowboys falling in love in space! She is cramping my literary fiction genius.

One of these days memphis86 and I will totally get around to answering comments. Sigh. We are just apparently both lazy like really lazy things.

Anyway, things I'm intensely excited about:

• abouttwoboys posting starts in ten days! A week from Friday!
• Steve Carlson with notthequiettype and reallythateasy on Thursday!
• Speaking of Thursday! Those two boys on that TV show with the car? Yeah, I heard they get cursed into Sammypus and Deanigator, and they have EPIC SEA BATTLES. Dean makes a lot of seamen jokes, and Sam cries enormous tears of angst because he HATES having tentacles. And then they cling to each other lovingly and all is well with the world. That's totally what happens, you guys, I SWEAR.

For header, notes, etc. please see part one.

( Wasted on the Young (2/2) )

Title: Wasted on the Young
Authors: causeways & memphis86
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17 (alternately, G for Gratuitous Assflap)
Word Count: 15,000
Warnings: Crack. Age-regression. Ducky ex machina.
Thanks: walkawayslowly for the beta!
Summary: Once upon a time when Jared was five and dinosaurs roamed the earth, rubber duckies appeared out of thin air and submarines surfaced in Jensen's bathtub. Also, two very pretty boys got stuck in very sexy situations.

( Wasted on the Young (1/2) )

Uh, I have a new default icon! Dean Winchester looking down was my icon since I first got into SPN (so uh, since March, omg):



But much as I love him, it was sort of time for a new one. So, pretty, colorful unamaga icon!



No one will recognize me on the internet EVER NOW, will they, Ash? Ahaha.

Anyway, I am currently working on four different things in three different fandoms. Er, two fandoms and an original TV show, I guess I should say. (The last of which is a BOARDING SCHOOL STORY, and I am in love with every single character on it, and yes, it might never see the light of day, but WHATEVER, IT ROCKS, THE END.) For ages I only ever worked on one story at once, and now I am more-or-less actively working on FOUR. Two J2, one McShep (which walkawayslowly and I keep calling McSheep, because we are ridiculous, and it cracks us up) and the TV show, not even counting the at least . . . four? five? other stories that are in progress or in some state of revision, and wow, I didn't it was possible to love this many stories and this many characters THIS MUCH all at once. Does anybody else feel that way? Like, just sort of FULL OF LOVE for a whole big bunch of characters or different permutations of characters, and incapable of choosing which ones you love the most at any given time because they are all that awesome? Yeah.

I think I had something more to say, but instead I think I am going to go hang out with McKay and Sheppard. Or maybe the Never Been Kissed Js. Or maybe the TOTALLY AWESOME Js from memphis86's and my crackfic. I can't decide! But whichever ones I pick, I know it'll be so much fun, and that is a pretty amazing thing.