Some things I cannot change

Okay, so, I have a confession to make. My Best Friend's Wedding is one of my all-time favourite films ever. It's the "feel good" film that I put on when I'm feeling down. With this in mind, I've long harboured a secret desire to write an SGA AU based on the premise of the film - character A and character B are best friends who were once involved, but decided they were better off as friends. Then suddenly character A finds out that character B is getting married and A freaks out - A wants B for themselves, gosh darnit! A was there first! So A dashes off to [city] with the intention of stopping the wedding. As the story continues, A has a lot of hilarious misadventures trying to split our devoted couple up, and along the way realises that they do actually love B. I won't spoil the end on the off chance that anyone would care, but it's just a totally cute film.

So, today one of my favourite, long-quiet communities - sga_reel - posted a romcom challenge, and what was there on the list, at number 41? Yes, that's right, My Best Friend's Wedding.

I'm quite tempted. I keep refreshing the page to see if anyone's claimed it. ;) That said, I haven't written a single fictional word in over three years, and the deadline is in 8 weeks - within that 8 weeks I have a few other little things going on, like possibly buying a house, certainly moving out, passing my driving test (I hope!), and buying a car. So am I really going to be able to hit the deadline? Also - important factor to consider - I'm incredibly lazy.

But it would work really well. I'm planning it out in my head already. Ahrg!

ETA: Oh yeah, I also had my "away day" with my new work on Thursday. It went really well. Everyone seems very nice. I've got an awful lot to learn, not least NHS jargon, but I'm really looking forward to starting there. I was in a foul mood all day and terribly short-tempered with colleagues when I was back in work today, partly because of PMS but partly because I just want to get out of there and start my new job now.

Also I'm going to look at some houses tomorrow. Not as many as I'd like, but a start.

Okay, I got tagged by niannah, and I'm working myself back into writing on LJ, so a meme is probably just what I need.

Presented here for your delectation and delight! The Five Favourite Fics meme!

Post a list of your top five favorite fics you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most. Then tag five other people to do the same.

1. Dark Magic AU: Part 1 | Part 2

“You call at 5am after, what, eight months, about nothing special.” He tries to sound incredulous, surprised, and maybe there’s an edge of it in his voice, but really, it can’t be a surprise. There’s only so many times something can happen and still be a surprise, after all.

“I’m just tired,” Tucker says, quiet and empty and with just enough need that Warren feels his skin prickle. “I’m so tired of them all, Warren. It’s been great and all, but ..” He sighs and Warren shuts his eyes again. “I just .. I’m need to rest. I can’t keep doing this, I can’t, it’s too much.”

Warren lies for a few seconds and listens to him breath down the phone. “What do you need?” he asks eventually.

“Come get me?” Tucker asks, with so little question, so little hope in his voice, Warren knows that Tucker is already sure he’ll come.

This one will probably always be my favourite of the things I've written. I love the length, I love the characterisation, and I love that it feels so complete. So often things (College AU, for example) just sort of die, or reach a natural stopping point without concluding. With this one I really felt that I'd taken it from beginning to end via middle, and I never felt the need to go back and "finish" it.

The characterisation of Tucker, particularly the dark magic elements, were first posited by someone else (niannah? Or packmentality? I can't remember, I'm afraid), and I loved developing them and seeing them grow into something full and fascinating. I also loved writing Warren for this one. With the Warren/Andrew stuff, Warren was almost always the one in control. With this, he was completely lost, muddling through life and trying his best to keep things together while the whirlwind that was Tucker kept appearing and throwing everything into chaos. I really enjoyed making him that vulnerable.

2. From here to St Tropez: Part 1

No one had wanted to be the one to say it, but they'd all known that it was time. The Trio was officially breaking up. Going their separate ways. Artistic differences.

I only really love the first part of this one. There are bits about the later parts that I like, but it should have stayed a one shot. It makes me feel like there's sun on my skin and sand between my toes, and I love that there's hope in it, and a sense of peace that the show never managed.

From my notes, it seems to be one of the first times, if not the first, that I wrote Warren POV. What an odd thought. It's probably the closest I got to canon, though, taken from that start point.

3. Where the Streets Have No Name: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

To say that it was something of a surprise would've been a gross understatement, and given that Andrew was prone rather to overstatement than its reverse, his version of the tale, when he told it years later, became far more dramatic than the actual reality of the day. However, it was a hell of a shock, and while Andrew didn't really collapse on the sidewalk and have to be resuscitated by a passing ER doctor, he was pretty floored by it.

God, I've just reread the end of this one. I'd forgotten how it finished. I love fic like that, that catches you unawares. I remember when I was writing this, I was at University doing my Masters, and one day, walking over the bridge across the Wear, it just occured to me how it had to end. Warren's a bit off, I think, but overall I love the concept, I love the softness of the language, and I love the feeling of it.

4. Zen and the Art of Necromancy: Part 1

"You have to talk to someone eventually," [Andrew] says, all business and if Tucker were capable of feeling it, it might hurt to get such a non-reaction. "It'll probably be easier if it's me."

"What, because all the other Watchers are such assholes, but you just want to be my friend? Fuck off." Tucker pulls his knees up to his chest and concentrates on staring out of the little, barred window of his cell. He already knows help is on the way, he can feel it right down to the subatomic level of his skin, dancing.

I love this one. I don't think anyone else appreciated it quite the way I did. I love the mood, and I love the concept, and I love the ending. I love Tucker, I love that it's sort of Dark Magic AU-verse, but not. I love Andrew the Watcher, being on the Other Side. I love Giles. I love the black jeeps. Haha! :) I love the magic, and I love the ending. Mmm :)

5. In Theory: Part 1

It seems stupid to say that he looks bigger, but that's the first thing that Zelenka notices. That and more .. just more. As if being up close brings with it all the intensity previously defused throughout a hall full of delegates.

McKay turns and looks at him. "What the Czech for lemon?" he asks, and Zelenka thinks it's an oddly fitting way for him to have introduced himself.

Ah, my one and only SGA fic, written (I hate to admit it) before I'd actually seen more than a handful of episodes of the show. If I wrote it again now, I'd undoubtedly do things differently, but I do have a special place in my heart for this one. There are things about it that I love very much. Overall, I'm fairly happy with it. Ironically, it's also one of the fics I've had the most feedback for.

There are actually more as well. I thought I'd struggle to find five, but I also love Ten Thousand Spoons, my post-Chosen, BtVS/AtS Warren/Knox fic, and I love Divided, my Warren/Buffy Wishverse fic, and I love After the Storm, with Tara, Warren and Andrew, because it's so fricking weird! And I love Juliet and Romeo, because it's Warren/Cordelia OMG but it makes total sense to me!! I had this whole AU planned out in my head for AtS, but, alas, it never got written.

I also love All Blue and Gold and Black, because it has Caleb and Buffy, and Catholic school uniforms (I have issues). And there's also Three Things That Never Happened..., which I love love love, but no one else loves it.

And there's also Superhero, my Buffy/Jonathan fic, set in niannah's Unabomberverse. I love this one. I love giving Buffy a normal life, giving Jonathan some happiness, and I love the softness of it all.

So yeah. That's my slightly-more-than-five-actually favourite fics written by me ;)

I really want to read some post-HBP fic, but I don't even know where to look for any. Woe, for my non-plugged-in-ness.

I feel a compulsion - one which I will not give in to, mind - to write (or read, if one's already been done) a HP college AU, where they're all music and/or drama students at college. Dumbledore's the headmaster, McGonagall is the composition teacher, Remus takes brass and jazz band and they all adore him, Snape teaches strings, and Sirius wears a leather jacket and tells the kids about how he toured with Led Zeppelin. Lavender is a highly strung drama prima donna, Hermione already has grade 8 in at least four instruments (classical guitar, flute, piano, cello) but she doesn't sing in public, Harry plays the guitar and he's learning the saxophone, but he's not devoted to the music and does other A level subjects too (biology maybe?), and Ron tries really hard, but is constantly in the shadow of his older brothers, and indeed his younger sister who is in the year below and is a Drama Student (omg!! wtf!!), and his best mate from primary school, so he writes lots of angsty, angry, teen-grunge-indie songs about how no one understands him, but he doesn't play them to anyone ever. Oh, and Neville. Neville who plays the tuba. And maybe the trumpet too.

Mmm AUs :)

This one, of course, is purely inspired by the fact that I spent tonight at a local college, who were doing a music concert. I was lured there under the utterly false pretense that the Boychild (my cousin) was going to be performing with his future-classmates (it's the college he's going to next year). Instead he played one drum for one part of one song, and the rest was current first and second years at the school. I was Not Happy. Okay, some of the music was all right, but if I'd know he wasn't even going to play, I could've come home four hours earlier. And saved myself a few quid train fare too. Pah.

It did make me want to write the above fic though (I won't, I don't feel comfortable enough in the HPverse to ever write there), and it also made me appreciate that while college was okay at the time, I wouldn't go back to all that for a million pounds.