Purim Gifts Reveals

My gifts received:

My writer gave me Leverage with acting out the Purim story and Parker as Vashti and Eliot griping about Hardison's baking prowess (or lack thereof) in the kitchen.

I love everything about this fluffy, in-character, fork-referencing priceless trio. Go read!

Part I: The Set-Up (344 words) by rocknlobster
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Leverage, Megillat Ester | Book of Esther
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Sophie Devereaux (Leverage), Nathan Ford, Parker (Leverage), Eliot Spencer, Alec Hardison
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1
Series: Part 1 of The Purim Schpiel Job
Summary:

There's something going down at the Purim Schpiel, and it isn't just Haman!

Part II: The Job (483 words) by rocknlobster
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Leverage, Megillat Ester | Book of Esther
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Sophie Devereaux (Leverage), Nathan Ford, Parker (Leverage), Eliot Spencer, Alec Hardison
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2
Series: Part 2 of The Purim Schpiel Job
Summary:

There's something going down at the Purim Schpiel, and it isn't just Haman!

Part III: The Aftermath (418 words) by rocknlobster
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Leverage, Megillat Ester | Book of Esther
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Sophie Devereaux (Leverage), Nathan Ford, Parker (Leverage), Eliot Spencer, Alec Hardison
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3
Series: Part 3 of The Purim Schpiel Job
Summary:

There's something going down at the Purim Schpiel, and it isn't just Haman!

What I wrote:

I wrote 7 pieces for purimgifts between my assignment and pinch hits.

Passing On

I have classics_lover to thank for helping brainstorm where to go with the three assigned fics/ficlets. The first one just came out of my research into Jewish traditions and yarzheit, one of the traditions canonically kept by Kitty in the comics. I had two Jewish characters in the X-Men 'verse, so I wanted at least one fic that contained both of them. This was it. The recipient liked Jewishness, unexpected connections, touch, and hurt/comfort, so this was it.

Passing On (327 words) by Remember When
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men (Movieverse)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Characters: Erik Lehnsherr, Kitty Pryde
Additional Tags: Community: purimgifts, Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Deathfic, Shema, Canon Jewish Character, Female Jewish Character, Rites of Passage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Unexpected Connection
Summary:

No one should be alone when dying, especially not a Jew.

Yarzheit

This would not have happened without findthesea. I wrote this out of a lot of feels about Raven, about Erik and his Jewishness, about what I read about yarzheit, about the three of them with Charles together, and then I freaked out thinking there's no way I respected the actual reality enough, no way I have any right going there, so I begged her to read and tell me if I'd screwed it up. She did the handholding and beta necessary to get me to post and here it is: a story about love and loss when death is only peripherally involved, but it feels like death and becomes death all the same.

Yarzheit (800 words) by scribblemyname
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: First Class (2011)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Raven | Mystique
Characters: Erik Lehnsherr, Raven | Mystique
Additional Tags: Community: purimgifts, Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Yarzheit, Judaism, Emotional Hurt, Coping, Established Relationship
Summary:

Raven sits up on the bed and sets the report aside, climbs over his lap, and pushes him down to kiss him as though he loves her because he does love her. She cannot be Charles but she is her own kind of beautiful.

Order of the Day is Rest

The recipient apparently especially liked someone gets sick and the other cares for them h/c, so this was my attempt at that. As usual for me, it went funny.

Order of the Day is Rest (425 words) by scribblemyname
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men: First Class (2011)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr & Raven | Mystique
Characters: Erik Lehnsherr, Raven | Mystique
Additional Tags: Community: purimgifts, Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic, chosen family, Established Relationship, Mystique Takes Care of Business
Summary:

Raven stared at him unimpressed in the doorway as he forced himself out of bed on shaky feet and reached for his shirt. "The mighty Magneto," she chided, "taken down by the common cold."

With You Now

So my first pinch hit ran me for a loop because misunderstandings fic actually isn't my specialty but they liked misunderstandings and Natasha with anyone and breakup/makeup and makeup sex and I just couldn't resist trying it, okay? Honestly, the fic was hard mostly because of the word limit. purimgifts has a limit of 300-1000 words per piece and you can make it one three part fic, but this story called for about 5K in my opinion, so I just shrank it and hoped it worked.

My recipient like it, so there's that.

First Love (719 words) by Remember When
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Captain America (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Previous James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov
Characters: Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes
Additional Tags: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Community: purimgifts, Misunderstandings, Established Relationship, Angst, Reunions
Series: Part 1 of With You Now
Summary:

Bucky smiled at her with that besotted smile Clint knew he often wore on his own face when looking at Natasha.

Clint felt something twist inside him and held just a little tighter to Natasha's other hand.

Need (874 words) by Remember When
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Captain America (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Previous James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov
Characters: Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes
Additional Tags: Community: purimgifts, Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Break Up, Misunderstandings, Angst, established relationships - Freeform
Series: Part 2 of With You Now
Summary:

Natasha could feel the ghost of the words Clint wasn't saying. You said Bucky needed you more than I do.

But she'd never meant—

Say the Words (625 words) by Zdenka, Remember When
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Captain America (Movies)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Previous James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov
Characters: Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov
Additional Tags: Community: purimgifts, Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Makeup Sex, Angst, Established Relationship, Misunderstandings
Series: Part 3 of With You Now
Summary:

Clint focused on the feel of them: thumb, index, pinkie. I love you in sign language. I love you even though you're deaf and not Bucky.

Poem: The Voice of God

Do any of you have any idea how much I love Tzipporah? I love her. I love her story and all the stuff I feel like is hiding between the lines of her story, and I want more stories about her all the time. Well, a pinch hit came up where the recipient wanted her (and/or other women from the Tanakh) in a poem. A poem, peoples. Yes, I wrote this and then Ishouldbewriting put it to art. I loved this one best of all.

Poem: The Voice of God (511 words) by Remember When
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: תנ"ך | Tanakh
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Moshe/Tzipora | Moses/Zipporah
Characters: Moshe | Moses, Tzipora | Zippora
Additional Tags: Community: purimgifts, Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, The Exodus, Reflection, Character Study, Shepherding, First Meeting, Established Relationship, Prophets, POV Female Character, Poetry
Summary:

Tzipporah, Moses, and the voice of God

I was the shepherdess of my father's
House, the guardian of sisters and flocks
He gave me the staff when I was still young
I kept his motherless tents

Lessons in Plot

For those of you who are relatively new to me, plotting is not. my. thing.

At all.

I can plot you an emotional arc like no tomorrow, but throw in external goals and a bunch of them conflicting, and my head hits the desk and the fic takes literally years to write, even if it ends up quite good in the end.

This is why my collab rework and trovia's fic are not yet done. Because I'm actually working hard on them and I'm having to plot.

I finally figured out I'll probably get further by plotting out the emotional arc, but the first one kind of requires I hammer out all the kinks in the external one.

I've been busy intentionally learning from my writing process on exchange fics and that includes plot. As I figure out what I'm doing on these, I'll proably post more.