My Fic in a Box stories

I wrote EIGHT stories for Fic in a Box! I had a really good time with this exchange - I wrote a lot, and there were a lot of great stories to read and beautiful art to admire.

Biggles - W. E. Johns

If you haven't read any of the books, all you need to know is that "Biggles" Bigglesworth and his buddy Algy Lacey have been pilots since fighting in WWI together, and Erich von Stalhein has been Biggles' nemesis since that time. Biggles and von Stalhein have a kind of "beloved enemy," mutual respect, flirt in between shooting dynamic. Canonically, von Stalhein starts out as a German spy in WWI.

Spoilers for his arc in the book series. ( Read more... )

I'm avoiding spoilers for my own stories in the body of the post, but feel free to post spoilery comments in comments.

Biggles in the Dark. Biggles and von Stalhein are forced to work together when an explosion traps them in a pitch-black cave.

This was really fun to write as they're doing all sorts of things in absolute darkness, so there are no visual descriptions for most of it. Also, Biggles is a sort of unreliable narrator in this story, as there's something very important going on that he doesn't understand but the reader does. I love writing with those sorts of pre-set rules/restrictions.

Aid and Comfort. A standoff between Biggles and von Stalhein leads to them spending the night together in a freezing cabin.

Also very fun to write. Biggles is so very Biggles that it nearly breaks von Stalhein's brain. Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Fever, Delirium, Canadian Shack, Home Improvement, Spies & Secret Agents.

With My Own Hands. When an undercover job goes wrong, Biggles is forced to torture von Stalhein.

The torture, I should note, is brief and fairly mild as torture goes. And yes, I also really enjoyed writing this. They're working together rather than enemies in this one, and I love undercover stories and people having to communicate with each other without onlookers realizing what's going on.

Danny Dunn series - Jay Williams

Mrs. Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Date. After an accident at the lab, Mrs. Dunn and Carl Ellison have their first date on the ceiling.

All you need to know to read this story is that Mrs. Dunn is the live-in housekeeper for an eccentric professor who invents things like shrinking rays, and Carl Ellison is a cop who bonds/flirts with her over coffee in one of the books.

I have always loved looking at ceilings and imagining being gravity-reversed so I have to walk around the ceiling fan.

Deliverance (Movie)

Trust Fall. Bobby tries to bury the memory of what happened to him, until his insurance agency mandates a team-building camping retreat.

I watched the movie recently. Cultural osmosis has reduced it to a joke reference to an extremely non-jokey scene, but it's much more than either the meme or the scene. It's got excellent performances, beautiful cinematography, and some interesting commentary on toxic masculinity, nature, and civilization.

But of course, my immediate reaction was that I really wanted to write a coda for Bobby. How do you deal with a trauma that's so socially unacceptable to experience?

江湖 | Triad Underworld (Movie)

Cena. Hung Yan-Jau and Lefty at the restaurant, through the years.

Probably incomprehensible unless you've seen the movie. But just in case: Hung Yan-Jau is Andy Lau, Lefty is Jacky Cheung in paisley velvet, they're gangsters, they have a restaurant.

Star Trek - The Original Series

A Diplomatic Relationship. Federation Envoy Uhura meets Princess T'Pring for diplomacy, flirting, and literary allusions.

AU suggested by recipient. I had a lot of fun with it, and with coming up with Vulcan terms and literary allusions. I now want to read the series of Vulcan pulp novels I invented.

Sandman - Neil Gaiman

Lucky's Chance. A veteran trying not to dream is visited by Delirium and Dream.

All you need to know to read this is that there are seven siblings who embody core concepts like Dream, Delirium, Death, etc.

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