measured_words (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
measured_words) wrote2010-12-27 10:50 am
measured_words) wrote2010-12-27 10:50 am
Entry tags:
Stories, Stories, rah rah rah!
I am slow to do this, but I think it is time to make a gushing post-yuletide OMG stories post! :D I'm not very good about it, but here we go!
People wrote me stooooories for Yuletide! :D : D :D *hugs them all* I got two for YT proper, and one for madness. They are all great!
The first is a Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser story (after the books and stories by Fritz Leiber). I'm not sure that I have mentioned it over here before, but he is one of my favourite authors. I love his turns of phrase and his crazy adventures - how they are sometimes very silly, and sometimes very heavy, and often a liiiittle creepy, and never apologetic for any of it! The stories themselves, though less well-remembered today, are about as influential to the genre of Sword and Sworcery as the Robert Howard Conan stuff, and all the other bits that went along with. And when I say 'genre defining', I also mean that Leiber coined the term. You have your burly barbarian from the north (Fafhrd) who is emotional and superstitious, but not lacking in cunning, and the 'swarthy little southerner' whose only name we have is The Grey Mouser. He is an acerbic-witted rogue who dresses all in grey and carries a rapier called scalpel and a dagger called Cat's Claw. I think the fact that he is the sort of person who names his weapons is very telling ;p They are a pair of adventuring rogues, who each occasionally work for a different wizard (who are of course feuding), and mostly they go around stealing things, drinking, and wenching. It's lovely.
With that set-up, the story I got this year, titled very aptly along the conventions of the series, is called Two of Swords. It captures the characters exceedingly well! Fafhrd has an encounter which unsettles him, and sends him into a deep melancholy that the Mouser can't shake him out of despite his best efforts. But when the barbarian giant decides to go off to meet his doom, he finds he won't be given peace to do so alone. They go off together to face a hellish monster that has escaped into Nehwon (their home world) through the caves that connect all worlds, expecting to find their end together. Only of course, what they really find is each other... <3 I was so thrilled about this story that I still can't find the words. The way they talk to each other, and pointedly *don't* talk, their interactions and actions, Fafhrd's saga recital and manly weeping(!), Mouser's attempts to bring his friend back to himself, his gaming, his peevishness... it is all spot on. Another commenter said that it was like reading a lost Leiber story, and I can't disagree. Mystery author, you really sold it, and I love you to pieces! For peopel who are curious - it is so in tone with the stories, and uses the character so well, that I don't think you need to know the canon to appreciate it, mas long as you like the genre at all.
Both of my other stories (one in the main collection, and a shorter piece for madness) were based on the board game Arkham Horror by Fantasy Flight games. This is one of my favourite games ever, for many reasons - it is cooperative, it is Lovecraftian, the gameplay itself is fun, and the game is challenging but not *actually* impossible. I hadn't noticed it on the fandoms list initially, but once we had a source for looking at fandoms that hadn't been requested, I jumped all over it! There is just so much potential for this game - I already talked about some of it with 'dear yulegoat' letter. Anyway! I admit, I secretly hoped that because it was SO AWESOME that whoever nominated it would want to see it written even if we weren't matched. I think I was correct ^-^ And I looooove you mystery authors! As I said, I got two stories, but I am 99.9% sure I know who wrote me the Madness one, as it was based on a game that a bunch of my friends were playing last week :D to see more about what happened, you will have to read it! It is called 'Lost' - as in getting lost in time and space. And it is lovely!
The full-length treat (I think this one is a treat!) is also quite spectacular. It is non-explicit femslash set in the library, aclled 'The Library by Day and by Night'. I got *Arkham Horror* *Librarian* *femslash*. Of course, because we are in Arkham, it ends in tragedy! I seriously want to make a house-rule Library encounter card that is like.... "If character is a female, make a luck roll. If you fail, you are devoured by the Book of Anubis. If you succeed, gain a clue token, and begin your next turn in the French Hill Streets. If male, nothing happens." That's the risk you run at the library - hot lesbian action, or devoured by an evil book :x Thank you so much, mystery author! This was awesome!
Since I have now gotten mythos stories two years in a row, and I am at A&M after all, I think this is on its way to becoming a tradition :V We will just have to see what next year brings :)
People wrote me stooooories for Yuletide! :D : D :D *hugs them all* I got two for YT proper, and one for madness. They are all great!
The first is a Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser story (after the books and stories by Fritz Leiber). I'm not sure that I have mentioned it over here before, but he is one of my favourite authors. I love his turns of phrase and his crazy adventures - how they are sometimes very silly, and sometimes very heavy, and often a liiiittle creepy, and never apologetic for any of it! The stories themselves, though less well-remembered today, are about as influential to the genre of Sword and Sworcery as the Robert Howard Conan stuff, and all the other bits that went along with. And when I say 'genre defining', I also mean that Leiber coined the term. You have your burly barbarian from the north (Fafhrd) who is emotional and superstitious, but not lacking in cunning, and the 'swarthy little southerner' whose only name we have is The Grey Mouser. He is an acerbic-witted rogue who dresses all in grey and carries a rapier called scalpel and a dagger called Cat's Claw. I think the fact that he is the sort of person who names his weapons is very telling ;p They are a pair of adventuring rogues, who each occasionally work for a different wizard (who are of course feuding), and mostly they go around stealing things, drinking, and wenching. It's lovely.
With that set-up, the story I got this year, titled very aptly along the conventions of the series, is called Two of Swords. It captures the characters exceedingly well! Fafhrd has an encounter which unsettles him, and sends him into a deep melancholy that the Mouser can't shake him out of despite his best efforts. But when the barbarian giant decides to go off to meet his doom, he finds he won't be given peace to do so alone. They go off together to face a hellish monster that has escaped into Nehwon (their home world) through the caves that connect all worlds, expecting to find their end together. Only of course, what they really find is each other... <3 I was so thrilled about this story that I still can't find the words. The way they talk to each other, and pointedly *don't* talk, their interactions and actions, Fafhrd's saga recital and manly weeping(!), Mouser's attempts to bring his friend back to himself, his gaming, his peevishness... it is all spot on. Another commenter said that it was like reading a lost Leiber story, and I can't disagree. Mystery author, you really sold it, and I love you to pieces! For peopel who are curious - it is so in tone with the stories, and uses the character so well, that I don't think you need to know the canon to appreciate it, mas long as you like the genre at all.
Both of my other stories (one in the main collection, and a shorter piece for madness) were based on the board game Arkham Horror by Fantasy Flight games. This is one of my favourite games ever, for many reasons - it is cooperative, it is Lovecraftian, the gameplay itself is fun, and the game is challenging but not *actually* impossible. I hadn't noticed it on the fandoms list initially, but once we had a source for looking at fandoms that hadn't been requested, I jumped all over it! There is just so much potential for this game - I already talked about some of it with 'dear yulegoat' letter. Anyway! I admit, I secretly hoped that because it was SO AWESOME that whoever nominated it would want to see it written even if we weren't matched. I think I was correct ^-^ And I looooove you mystery authors! As I said, I got two stories, but I am 99.9% sure I know who wrote me the Madness one, as it was based on a game that a bunch of my friends were playing last week :D to see more about what happened, you will have to read it! It is called 'Lost' - as in getting lost in time and space. And it is lovely!
The full-length treat (I think this one is a treat!) is also quite spectacular. It is non-explicit femslash set in the library, aclled 'The Library by Day and by Night'. I got *Arkham Horror* *Librarian* *femslash*. Of course, because we are in Arkham, it ends in tragedy! I seriously want to make a house-rule Library encounter card that is like.... "If character is a female, make a luck roll. If you fail, you are devoured by the Book of Anubis. If you succeed, gain a clue token, and begin your next turn in the French Hill Streets. If male, nothing happens." That's the risk you run at the library - hot lesbian action, or devoured by an evil book :x Thank you so much, mystery author! This was awesome!
Since I have now gotten mythos stories two years in a row, and I am at A&M after all, I think this is on its way to becoming a tradition :V We will just have to see what next year brings :)