foxyfurs

...and it's a DOOZY!!

Series: Loaded March (link goes to AO3)
Author: loaded_march
Fandom: BBC Merlin (though it's a modern AU, I guess you could think of other faces)
Rating: R to NC-17
Word count: 331,461 Not even kidding, folks. AND EVERY WORD WAS AWESOME.
Warnings: Modern AU, Military, BANTER! First meetings, a smidge of homophobia
Author Summary (part 1): The reason SAS Captain Arthur Pendragon can't keep a communications specialist in Team Excalibur is because none of them are good enough. And then Lieutenant Merlin Emrys gets assigned to his squad, and Arthur does everything he can to prove that Merlin isn't good enough, either. Except he is.

MY AWED SUMMARY: Read this. Read it now. Yes, yes, yes, it's in seven parts -- and four behind-the-scene snippets -- but this entire story is made of win. Don't let the word count scare you!! Each part can be read as a stand-alone, though you should probably read them in order to get the full "oomph" effect. The dialogue and banter are brilliant and the characters -- all of them! -- make me squirm on my seat with joy. There are plots that evolve and shift like you're watching a chess game played by masters. I stayed up till five in the freakin' morning just devouring the whole thing, my brain was so in love.

Just. Just do it, okay? I swear, it's good. And you know I don't swear much, okay??

So I'm a part-time cashier, right? And, me being me, I tend to talk a lot to the people as they come up to buy things. (I don't get that I shouldn't do this. I mean, it's *good* to relate to your customers, right?)

Anyway, one of the questions I'm supposed to ask for October is if anyone would like to donate a dollar for breast cancer. Sponsored by the American Cancer Society, it's just a buck added on to your bill. No tax. Sometimes people say yes. Sometimes people say no. And a lot of times people give me *reasons* why they say yes or no. I'm glad, really, because I think it's important for the customer who wants to share about his/her Aunt or Mother-in-law dying from or overcoming cancer to pass that message along to other people. Even if it's a message I've heard already, or that I can't benefit from, that person *needed* to tell me.

And then you get ones like this lady. She gladly donated, I thanked her, and she mentioned that there's a breast cancer awareness movement, which is a wonderful thing. But that she's sad there's practically no brain cancer awareness movement, which is what she has.

...After a moment of wide-eyed silence, I asked her how her treatment was going, how her family was holding up, because I think it's important for her to be able to tell others. And I spent the rest of the night wondering how many other illnesses and problems are borne by the people I smile at and cheerfully greet every five minutes.

I've got a list of authors' sites that I go back every once in a while and check. Because, like I say in my profile, if you've managed to hook me with your writing, I will follow you. Into other fandoms. Into other pairings. At this point, my "fandom" is spread out between shows/stories like a scant half-teaspoon of butter on rye. On the minus side, I don't have time to read all the wonderful recs and writings that come up on my flist. On the plus side, I'm *swamped* with wonderful recs and writings that come up on my flist!

This one took me three days and it is ohhhhh so good. 147,000 words. MIND THE WARNINGS!

Title: Two Wolves
Author: Xanthe
Fandom: NCIS
Pairing: Gibbs/DiNozzo
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Violence, rape/non-con, whipping
Keywords: Angst, hurt/comfort, drama, action, first time
Summary: "While investigating the disappearance of a Marine, Gibbs is abducted, sold, and forced to fight in a brutal tournament where the price of winning is almost as high as the cost of losing..."

Okay, this maybe isn't working out well.

Last week I did:
Monday ~ 20 minutes of stretching
Thursday ~ 20 minutes of stretching, 10 minutes walking
Friday ~ about 10 minutes of (badly done) strength training, 10 minutes stretching

And I'm dreading this upcoming week. Why? For the same reason I've never been able to stick to an exercise program since I was 10 years old and Mousercising with Disney: These moves are boring!

So that's my focus for this week, really. I'll continue the stretching, but I'm going to try to find alternatives to achieve the same results that may be repetitive? But not monotonous.

Fic: The One Where the Train was Crowded (link goes to AO3)
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: Second person modern setting, could really be anyone, I only picked Merlin fandom because I needed to tag it with *some*thing. The reader is encouraged to imagine anyone they like. :D
Word count: about 2k
Pairings: Male/whoever-you-want.
A/N: I got tipsy last night and a friend asked me to help her unwind, and I chose to do it with a stream-of-consciousness fic. This hasn't been beta'd, the pronouns are all over the place, I ask that you be understanding. I blame the Shiraz.

It's total schmoop. But it's *MY* schmoop and it's the first 500+ word thing I've written in almost four years.

It felt good.

Arthur/Merlin, A Thousand Lives I've Searched Wherein there is tea and suits and a teeny bit of despair and kissing!