Alyse: last of her breed

So, now that the yuletide stories are no longer anonymous, I can do the reveal thing. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain ::g::

I was originally assigned to write for Dessie, matched on Press Gang. Much as I love that show, it was the same fandom I was matched on last year, so there was a teeny element of 'okay ::sigh:: but I've done that'. So when I realised that she'd also requested a fic in another teeny fandom of my heart, of a kids' show that I utterly adored (and already owned the boxed set of series 1 for, even if I'd put off buying the rest of the series until they came down in price) but hadn't spotted to offer, I may have gone 'eeeee!' rather a lot.

If nothing else, it meant I could buy the rest of the boxed sets and then make up my mind which to write. And, as it happened, they had come down in price quite considerably, meaning that it was obviously meant to be.

The fandom? Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, in all of its anarchic, proto-feminist glory, wherein Marian is female and utterly fabulous, and she's the one who leads the Merry Men in battling the Sheriff of Nottingham and his very gay for each other soldiers, Gary and Graeme. Dessie's request was a story in which Robin realises that he loves Marian and what he does about it, and I noticed from her Dear Yuletide Goat letter that she also loves 'five things' fic. It was therefore logical to write a story in which Robin tries to woo Marian in five different ways, failing each time of course, and attempt to capture some of the zany spirit of the show, up to and including the musical interludes.

In short, I learnt how to html code musical notes. I am still very proud of that ::g::

The end result was Woo The Day. Writing it made me happy and I managed to work most of my favourite characters in, including Gladys and Snooker, even if I didn't quite manage to get the Sheriff, Gary and Graeme, or King John in.

After I finished the fic, I watched the pinch hit list avidly and volunteered for a few as they sailed by before the list died a death due to the moderator being banned for spamming. Eventually, I managed to nab a pinch hit for twistedchick who, among her requests, listed 'any' for Primeval. I wrote Watermarked for her, an Abby and Connor fic set after the end of series 3, where Abby and Connor make it home. It's quiet and self-indulgent, but I know that twistedchick tends to write thoughtful, character driven and introspective stories, so I wanted to give her back something I hoped she'd enjoy.

Official assignments out of the way, I went on a bit of a tear, writing fics for people I love where I could, and one additional story for Primeval and Abby/Connor for someone I wrote the same pairing for last year. The stories were:

Last Christmas for moonlettuce, which is Primeval and Nick/Stephen (with some canon Nick/Helen). Apparently Claire accused temaris of writing it, which promptly resulted in Tem turning around and pouncing on me (thereby earning herself a ficlet). Equally apparently, I should stop thanking 'A' for the beta in my notes, because Claire's reasoning was that that was me betaing for Tem, and Tem's was that that was Aithine betaing for me. Dashes. Foiled again.

'Twas the Night for temaris, which is a gen Dresden Files (the books) story. Not a fandom I've ever written in before but one that she requested that I recognised. The only one of her requested fandoms I recognised. I didn't recognise any of aithine's, but more on that later. Tem claims that she has her suspicions, but wasn't sure, but just confirms that I should stop thanking 'A' as my beta until after the reveal.

Then I wrote Mistletoe Mishap for cadhla on the grounds that she had the good taste to request Abby/Connor Primeval fic again this year, and when have I ever passed up the opportunity?

I thought I was done, especially as I couldn't write in any of the fandoms that Aithine requested. Come Christmas Day, however, I realised that there were only 665 stories in Yuletide Madness, and that since aithine actually had her main assignment, I could write her anything in any Yuletide eligible fandom if I thought she'd like it. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I totes could write an extra madness fic and be number 666
Tem: It would have to be less than 1,000 words
Me: I totes could do it!
Tem: *eyes me*
Me: I could write Primeval for Aithine!
Tem: Consider it a challenge!

I hit 980 words and went like this \o/ only to realise that madness uploading had closed. But the main Yuletide collection was open, and so I ended up adding enough words that it qualified for that (like that's ever a problem for me - it's not like I ever know when to shut up at the best of times ::g::). aithine came online just as I was uploading it, and guessed straight away that it was me, but yes, I did write Christmas Caresses (Abby/Connor, R) for aithine, just as a small thank you for everything she's done for me this year :)

Title: Friday, I'm In Love
Author: alyse
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing: Nick/Stephen pre-slash, Nick/Helen established relationship
Rating: R
Spoilers: Set pre-series 1 but with hints of things to come
Disclaimer: Primeval and its characters belong to Impossible Pictures. No copyright infringement is intended. This is fanfiction, written solely for love of the show.
Word Count: ~6,000.
Status: Complete
Warnings: None.
Author's Notes: Written for the primevalathon Primeval Ficathon for aithine, whose prompt was How did Nick and Stephen end up working together if Stephen was Helen's student first? Bonus points if it includes first time Nick/Stephen..

Lyrics from 'Friday, I'm in Love,' by The Cure.

Summary: I don't care if Monday's blue.

( Friday, I'm In Love )