Come on Jessica, come on Tory!

So this journal is kind of defunct these days, but I just realized that a fair amount of people who are friends with me here aren't Facebook friends, or don't check Facebook often, and I should probably put something here too just to, IDK, get it out there.

Early yesterday morning, there was a massive (accidental!) fire in my apartment here in Japan. I'm okay. I'm in the hospital for very minor burns and smoke inhalation, but the doctor's already told me that if I wanted to go home, I could have even done so yesterday... if I had a home to go to. (No, really, he actually said that. What a winner.) My apartment is completely destroyed, and 98% of my stuff is gone. I'm currently homeless in Japan, which is like a hipster's dream come true.

The good news: Again, I'm fine. I'm staying in the hospital for one more night, mostly for stress and exhaustion. When I get out, I have several options for temporary housing, and everyone here is being absolutely amazing to me. In less than two days I've already gotten several donations from friends and been promised clothes and even furniture when I find a new place to live. I have my wallet and my passport and my phone (and even a laptop and mobile internet!), and enough money to see me through in the short term, especially with the support I've been getting.

The bad news: I have no idea when, or even if, I'll have a new permanent place to live, plus I obviously have no address. Renting a new apartment here is super hard and expensive for foreigners as it is, and any new place is likely to make me pay a massive amount in key money and security, if they let me rent at all. I also don't know what the insurance situation was at my apartment and don't know if I'm going to have to pay, or how much. I have no clothes except what people have given me and... well, I basically have nothing except what I listed above. So that all just really sucks.

I'm really lucky in a lot of ways, and I'm really grateful for them. The fire started not only in my bedroom but in my bed (it was a blanket that caught fire), so it's absolutely a miracle that I'm alive and unhurt. It's amazing that I live in a country that takes care of its people as much as this one does. Even the hospital food is pretty good! I think we should all try to be grateful and relieved as much as possible, and be exceptionally thankful that no one else was hurt or even, hopefully, displaced for more than a couple of days.

Obviously, what little online activity I have is sort of going to screech to a halt for the time being. I had to default on Yuletide and hiatus on my RPs. (Oh, hey, I should probably freeze my WoW account...) But like I said, I do have internet, so you can message/email/IM me any time. ♥

Shockingly, I am once again behind on things. WHEN HAS THAT EVER HAPPENED? I ask you.

But for real, I'm still putting together my Yuletide recs, but there was a decent amount of good stuff this year! I especially recommend, without doing the full list, the A Song of Ice and Fire section.

In the meantime, I, myself, wrote fic! Which, according to my LJ, I haven't done since spring, so wow. I totally didn't realize it had been that long.

Title: A Visit From Whitman (Or, 'Twas the Day After Christmas Vacation)
Fandom: Community
Pairing: Gen, but feel free to read Troy and Abed as a couple! I know I do.
Rating: G
Words: 2510
Notes: Written for doorrepairgirl for Yuletide 2010.

Summary: In which Troy and Abed team up to find the missing study group, with help from an unlikely source. Oh, and there's poetry.

They scoured the campus;
or at least thought they did;
They even asked Pavel and
that weird glasses kid.

I also wrote Misfits fic for New Year's Resolution 2011!

Title: The Rise and Fall of Miss Fantastic and the Invisible Man
Fandom: Misfits
Pairing: Simon/Alisha
Rating: R (mostly for language and general Nathan-ness, with a little sex)
Words: 2940
Notes: Written for alyse for Yuletide 2010/New Year's Resolution 2011

Summary: Alisha tells Simon that he's going to be a better man. Simon doesn't tell Alisha that he's getting sick of watching her wait for it.

He's working and working at it, weight training, balance, aim, reflexes—and, of course, the bloody parkour—and it's enough that Nathan sees him with his shirt off after a run and asks, “Who the fuck are you and what have you done with our Barry?”

But every time he comes home with a cut or a bruise, Alisha sees it, and he sees her seeing it.

Thankfully, I managed to get my signup in on my second attempt, and in much shorter time, so without further adieu:

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thank you so, so much for writing a story for me this year! I picked some kind of difficult fandoms, so if you got me, that means you're being bold, and I appreciate it. Don't worry too much about my particular details, because two of my fandoms are ones I will read literally anything in, and the other two will thrill me if you even include, like, one of the details I asked for. OTOH, if you're suffering and want more details, read below!

( In General )

As for my fandoms...

( Kiss Kiss Bang Bang )

( Kitchen Confidential )

( The Darkangel Trilogy )

( Community )

I hope that helps, author! If you desperately still need to ask a question, I'm leaving anon comments turned on this post so you can ask without revealing yourself.

And again, thank you so much! I truly can't wait for whatever you deliver. The most important thing is for you to have fun writing. If you enjoy writing it, I'm sure I'll enjoy reading it!

Happy Yuletide!
ncc_gqmf

New Year's was awesome, and then I came home and realized that, double awesome, Yuletide reveal happened! So now I guess it's time to fess up.

For my very first Yuletide ever, I wrote two stories:

Title: By Way of Explanation
Fandom: Slings and Arrows
Pairing: Ellen/Geoffrey (with implied Ellen/Oliver, and one-sided Geoffrey/Darren and Geoffrey/Oliver)
Rating: PG
Spoilers?: Up through the end of season one
Word Count: 2,460

Notes: Written for Petra as her Yuletide 2009 gift! When I first got this letter, I was so nervous, because I have read her S&A fic and she is awesome, and it's a pretty tough fandom to write fic for. But her prompt included this line: The way the world falls in love with Geoffrey breaks my heart, and I was instantly inspired to write this: the story of someone else whose heart is broken by it. Seriously, Petra, at the risk of going over-the-top, thank you for writing such an awesome prompt, because it made me love writing this fic for you.

Summary: Pre/early series. Everyone always wants to know what happened with Geoffrey, and Ellen absolutely doesn't want to talk about it. Sorry. But if she did, she might say...

By Way of Explanation

and

Title: Wizard Muddle
Fandom: Discworld
Pairing: None (gen)
Rating: G
Spoilers?: Minor spoilers for Unseen Academicals, but not really.
Word Count: 1,484

Notes: Written as a treat for vampirespider. I'm not normally a voracious reader of the wizards books (I love them, but am much more a Death girl), but for some reason I instantly clicked with this prompt, and I had to do something about it. It's short and quite silly, much like I imagine Ponder himself to be.

Summary: Unseen University doesn't *really* need Ponder Stibbons all that much. At least, so Ridcully thinks. But when the University faces the greatest catastrophe of its time, he starts to understand Ponder's true value.

Wizard Muddle

---

I'm absolutely thrilled by all the positive feedback I've been getting, but most of all, I hope you two (if you're reading this) loved them. Happy Yuletide, and Happy New Year!

(Oh my gosh, and of course thank you again to Grenadine for my lovely gift. I'm still so completely thrilled that someone actually wrote me Community fic! :D)