The Very Model of a Modern Major Slytherin

I've been largely out of touch and behind on things I need to do. A lot of the last two weeks has been taken up by job hunting. (I did find a job -- but now my time is going to be eaten up with working! Ack!)

I owe comments and stuff all over the place. I owe replies to comments on my snapelyholidays fic. sabethea, I owe you comments on a couple of things. acatnamedeaster, I owe you comments on a lot of things. snegurochka_lee, I owe you a PM. I owe a few others PMs as well. I'm also still a tiny bit behind on a couple of daily_deviant mod things.

Essentially this post is to say: I haven't forgotten about you all! I'm getting there.

I also have a fic that needs to be written ASAP! Gah! ::forces self not to jump out window::

Update on the job thing coming in another post...

Reveals have been posted at snapelyholidays, so I should probably now take the credit/blame for the one and only fest fic I managed to write this year:

Title: A Carol Sung Off Key
Author: r_grayjoy
Pairing: Snape/Lupin
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~13,900
Warnings/Content: wall!sex, frottage, masturbation, somewhat unintended voyeurism, snark, silliness, Dickens is spinning in his grave
Summary: Seven months after the end of the war, Severus is as much of a miserable, disagreeable misanthrope as ever. Then Lupin arrives bearing a message. Said message is absurd, not to mention unoriginal. Also, Lupin makes a terrible Jacob Marley.
Author's Notes: My most heartfelt thanks to those who kept me from falling in the muck while I slogged my way though this and then were even still speaking to me afterward! LOL Much, much ♥ to eeyore9990, someoldcat, and nehalenia for putting up with me.
Also, I realized that my beta and support crew this time around can be abbreviated "SNERT", which, considering the tone of this fic, amuses me far more than it probably should. XD (Thank you, someoldcat, nehalenia, eeyore9990, ragdoll, and tjs_whatnot!)

A Carol Sung Off Key -- on IJ
A Carol Sung Off Key -- on LJ

Huge, huge thanks to those of you who read and left such lovely comments. This is really a very silly fic, but I had ludicrous amounts of fun with it in between bouts of tearing my hair out. ;) That some of you also had fun with it totally made my fest season. ♥

Holy shit, ya'll. I have to take the time out to post about this one, because it's quite possibly the most hilarious thing that's ever happened to me. I'm dying here, OMG.

Okay, so. My shoulders have been all kinds of messed up lately, leading to some crazy knots in my shoulders and neck, which in turn have been leading to some horrid tension headaches and migraines. I finally got fed up with this situation and decided that I wanted to buy one of those super-powerful, hand-held massagers in the hopes that it might help loosen up the worst of the knots. Yes, the kind that women often buy as vibrators. I genuinely wanted it as a massager, though.

I looked around a bit, and I found one (new, of course!!) on ebay for about $10-15 less than I would have paid elsewhere. I ordered it. And it just arrived.

You guys. They automatically assumed I was buying it as a vibrator! They sent me brochures for sex toys. They gave me AN ATTACHMENT.

I shit you not.

AN ATTACHMENT.

Oh, god. Can't breathe; laughing too hard! ::dies x1,000,000::

I know some of you trying to catch up on some fest reading/viewing now. As far as Kinky Kristmas goes... I can help! Over on daily_deviant I've just posted the complete list of all the fic and art from this year's KK. Reveals don't happen for almost a week, so you have loads of time to look and see what you might have missed. :)

Also! If any of you make recs from KK, please take a minute to drop them in the comments to this post in case I miss them on my f-list. And if you see recs from people who aren't on my f-list, go ahead and drop 'em in there as well. Recs, recs, recs; wooo!

And finally, a last reminder... no matter what fest(s) you're reading, please remember to keep commenting and reccing. Your comments don't need to be epics. A basic "I really enjoyed this" or "Snape was so in character" or "This made me laugh out loud" will be much appreciated, especially with commenting being down in general this year.

There are some really great pieces out there that aren't getting the attention they deserve.

Now, I'm about to go do some catching up of my own...

Goodbye, 2011. I can't say I'm the least bit sorry to see you go. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, you cunt.

Hello 2012! Nice to meet you. I sincerely hope we get on better than 2011 and I did. It wouldn't really take much, truthfully.


Happy New Year, f-list! I hope 2012 treats you all well. Here's to another year of fannish geekery and getting to know you all better. ::glomps::

Stuff's been extra crazy this year, so I've been very tardy in commenting properly on some of my holiday gifties and pointing to them here. On the plus side, though, it does allow me to show them all off in one giant post o' squee. ;D

So! Without further ado or delay, my holiday fest season 2011 haul:

From snapelyholidays:

Cornerstone by ???
Snape/Godric; R/adult; ~6,200 words
Okay, right off the bat the author gets huge kudos from me for choosing this pairing. Then they get major applause for pulling it off so well. Snape's reason for entering Godric's time is one that I would never have come up with myself, and the author does a great job of bringing it full circle. The themes fit brilliantly with those found in canon; so much so that this story feels like it could easily slot right into the canon timeline. There's a ton of historical detail and nice descriptive writing to bring the setting to life. And the ending...! Wonderfully ambiguous. Definitely a nice read for a pairing that's entirely too rare.

From daily_deviant's Kinky Kristmas:

At Practice by ???
Severus/Sirius; NC-17; 1,992 words
Ahaha, the author has represented the entire Severus/Sirius relationship as exactly what it is: One big cock-measuring contest. XD This is Marauder's era Snack, and the boys here are just being such... boys. Ha. Their bitching is so perfect it's like they've rehearsed it. LOL Yet some things go in directions that I'm sure neither of them would have expected... ::smirk::

Complicated by ???
Severus/Remus; NC-17; 1,391 words
Ohhhh, maaaaaaaaan. Yeah, "complicated" is one way to put it! The entire relationship with all of its problems and complexities and need need need and things left unsaid is just perfect. The desperation oozes off the monitor. And did I mention hot? OMG, so effing hot! Oh, HELLO, my bullet-proof kinks! Nice to see you again! ::faints::

Love Thyself by ???
Moody; R NWS ART
I asked for Moody wanking and... bwaha! Boy, did I get it. :P What really grabs me about this piece, though, is the dark, dirty, gritty feel of it. Very, very neat stylistically. Also, the story behind this and the precise moment that's captured are interesting to me, and kind of make me want to fic it. ;)

Goodies not from fests:

Chains by shellydkitty
Severus/Sirius; PG; 545 words
OMG! This ficlet...! I'm simply astounded at how brilliantly Shelly has captured the Severus/Sirius dynamic in so few words. Snape is perfect here -- bitter, self-loathing, and believing nothing good can happen to him... yet having a bit of hope nonetheless. The interaction between him and Sirius is just spot-on as well -- snarking because it's comfortable and familiar, because "normal" expressions of affection would be strange and frightening, especially in their current circumstances. Seriously, if you're even remotely inclined toward this pairing or want to know why I like it... go read this!

Out of Time by celandineb
Severus/Sirius; general; 379 words
Aaaand another one that does so much in so few words! An entire relationship (such as it is...) in under 400 words. Severus' initial reasons for getting involved with Sirius and his denial that it means anything are so perfectly him, as is what comes later. It's a truly tragic, doomed pair here, and it's represented amazingly well here.

Untitled Moody/Snape ficlet by sabethea
Moody/Snape (gen, or possibly pre-slash); PG; 189 words
Scroll down a bit for this one. This is Moody and Snape coming to terms with each other (and themselve) after the war; Moody asking forgiveness (in his own way...) for doubting Snape's loyalties, and Snape giving it (also in his own way) in completely true-to-characters fashion. There's lots said in what's not quite said, and the possibilities for more are lovely!

Eeeeeeehehehe, Snack and Snupin and Snape/Moody and Snape/Godric, YAY!!! Lucky Rowan is lucky!

1. My second (and third, though they arrived at the same time) postcards of the season came! Thank yous going out to ariadneelda and isisanubis! ♥ ♥

2. The Kinky Kristmas Week 2 roundup is now up! And once again, I'mma copy pasta it here for your convenience. Comments are already dropping off, which is unfortunate all the way around, 'cause some of the very best stuff has only just been posted or has yet to post. So do yourselves and the fantastic authors/artists a favor, and set aside some reading/viewing/commenting time soon. :D

( Kinky Kristmas Week 2 Roundup )

I very much need to make a post in which I flail and link to the totally awesome things with which I've been gifted this month -- but that'll have to come a little bit later...

Kinky Kristmas begins posting at noon U.S. Eastern time TOMORROW!


A heads up about the posting times: They won't be quite as regular this time around as they have been in the past due to my "real life" obligations. Yes, this makes the perfectionist organization freak in me shriek and tear its hair. ;P Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know not to panic if you see pieces going up a bit early some days.

A somewhat abbreviated Pansy update with some new photos (along with some Ari thrown in for good measure)...

Pansy was spayed a couple of weeks back. (And huge, huge thanks again to drinkingcocoa for her assistance!) She was remarkably chill about the whole experience. Didn't make a peep in the carrier or car, and when I picked her up in the evening, she was just hanging out in her carrier among the many, many just-spayed-or-neutered cats in carriers. (One of said cats was very angry and wanted everyone to know it, b'god. He was rattling his cage and taking swipes at anyone who came near. LOL)

The vet's instructions: Feed her half what she normally eats that night and restrict her to light activity for seven to ten days. My response: AHAHAHAHAHA, RIGHT!

The first thing Pansy did when we got home was eat all the food I gave her, then go eat most of the roommate's cat's food, then go eat some of Ari's. After that, she proceeded to spend the next two hours gleefully batting her mousie around the apartment. (Honestly, how is one supposed to restrict a kitten's activity without the use of strong sedatives and/or duct tape?!)

I kept a close eye on her incision site, but she healed up jut fine. She clearly wasn't bothered by the experience at all. She was so unbothered, as a matter of fact, that she was voluntarily playing inside the cat carrier the day after her surgery. ::shakes head:: Either she shares some characteristics with simple dog, or she figures she has loads of lives left.

Oh, and at the time of her spaying (at just under six months old), she was 6.4 pounds. :)

Anyway, the long-awaited new pics:

Princess Pansy poses for her admirers (and she's not terribly shy about her shaved belly!):



( A few more under here )

I've spent a big chunk of last night and tonight going through and clearing out emails and LJ/IJ comments and the like. I'm finally almost caught up with all of that and feeling a bit less overwhelmed. I had to give myself permission to just delete anything that was non-essential and not terribly recent. Relpy amnesty this time, please?? If I've missed replying to something important, let me know, all right? It probably just got lost in the backlog. I do still have two or three very belated fic/art comments that I need to make, and I'm working on those.

I'm also very nearly caught up on Kinky Kristmas mod stuff, and hope to be completely on top of that before the night is over. If you're a KK participant who's sent something in but hasn't received a confirmation from me, let me know -- it means I didn't get it. On a similar note, I do hope a good number of people intend/expect to make the deadline, since I have very few (member) pieces to post so far! (I know there's still quite a bit of time. I'm not biting my nails quite yet. ;) )

As far as my own fic writing is concerned... My snapelyholidays fic goes apace, though I've had to put in for a bit of an extension this year. Boo. I finally had to admit defeat and accept that there was no way I was going to finish the fic I'd started in time. So I recently began over from scratch with something shorter and less complicated. I do still intend to finish the long'n'complicated one at some point post-fests, and when I do, it'll get dedicated to my Snapely recipient, 'cause I think it's kind of perfect for them. (Though I do think the new fic will be good for them as well; I don't mean to say I'm copping out of attempting to write something they'll dig!)

Anyway! So the plan is to get caught up on all (or at least most) of the smaller things tonight, then spend the week writing like a fiend and dealing with academic stuff. I might even manage to do some writing tonight; it'll just depend upon how long the other things take and how much brain I have left afterward. :P

So that's where I've been. How are you all doing?