Ficathon is over! :( Every year (for the past, uh, two years) I think about the work that goes into running an exchange and the timing for me schoolwise ant my head hurts, but then I read the things people write, and stalk comments to see what people write one another, and it is so worth it. There was so much awesome fic this year, in so many different fandoms! And every year it surprises me (in a really \o/ way) how many stories incorporate elements from Purim, because it's not a requirement at all – stories don't have to be about any holiday themed subjects – and still, the holiday gets mentioned, in such a variety of ways. I mean, theoretically I know there are endless ways to approach holidays in stories – Christmas fics are proof of that – and it's still pleasantly surprising to see it happen here.

Anyway, I have talked about the happymaking fics (in five fandoms!) that I got from copracat. My recipient was lomedet, and it was incredibly fun writing for her. All three ficlets are gen and pg-rated and about 1000 words long, and they are:

Masquerade: Idols in America -- American Idol/West Wing/Sports Night, Idol AU. Scenes from Sam's sendoff dinner.

Masquerade: A Night of Sports -- American Idol/West Wing/Sports Night, Sports Night AU. Where Cook and Margaret are BFFs, and Dana could really use a miracle.

Masquerade: The Whole Megillah -- American Idol, Bible AU. The Books of Esther retold, with Adam Lambert playing all the parts. (If you've ever been curious why it is we celebrate Purim but don't feel like reading ten chapters from the Bible or, you know, Wikipedia, this is a relatively short, mostly comprehensive, and liberally illustrated telling of the story.)



LOL, writing this fic can be encompassed by this quote from my LJ from a week ago: "Meanwhile I'm trying to write my Purimgifts fic but I'm cracking myself up so hard at what I have in mind that I can't actually sit down and write it, which is, you know, a problem. Like, it's nice to be laughing in my brain, but it doesn't help if it doesn't actually come out on paper. But, LOL. I'm sure it won't actually come out as funny as I imagine it -- I'd need more than 1000 words for that -- but meanwhile I keep bursting into spontaneous laughter, so you know, at least that's fun."

Basically, at a certain point I realized I wanted to retell the story of Esther with Adam as one of the parts, and I figured it'd just be another AI/WW/SN AU, this one set in Ancient Persia, with some photos added in order to fill in the graphics requirement. So all I had to decide was which character Adam would play, but I couldn't decide -- the more I browsed around Adam photo galleries, the more I wanted to -- incorporate douchey sexyface Adam as Ahasueros (he had thrones!), and some kind of Adam as Vashti, and then I found all the vampire Adams and cracked myself up for like five minutes in class realizing they'd make the perfect evil vizier, and then I found the Time For Miracles caps and was on the floor when I made the Mordechai connection, because I'd always imagined Mordechai in mourning clothes as a hobo and THERE ADAM WAS, right there for the macroing, and lo, I knew I couldn't give any of them up, and then this happened.

There's one macro in the fic that I'm a little conflicted about; it's the one that says "what the FUCK do I do about MORDECHAI THE FUCKING JEW". On the one hand it felt like it fit – you know, the story is a fairy tale but in the end it's about Biblical anti-Semitism and Haman isn't just a villain with funny hat or ears – bit on the other, writing "that fucking Jew" is just, *shudders*. Idk, it's the one joke that's also supposed to make you a little uncomfortable – just like the end of the story – and I hope it did. I actually think that it probably didn't, and that some people who didn't know the original story and came across this for the first time probably just took it as a joke, which is why I'm a little conflicted. I'm not really all that comfortable about Mordechai being called "Mordechai the Jew", but that's what he's called in my culture (I don't actually remember if he's called that in the Bible, but that's what he's called in general Israeli discourse), and since I was writing for lomedet, I figured it wouldn’t be fair to hide the bad.

Which relates to the ending of the fic. That goddamn epilogue to the Megillah! WHY MUST IT BE THERE, WHY. DNW my awesome Jewish hero queen story to end with the Jews killing a bunch of people, but much as I'd like to delete it from the story, I can't. And, knowing lomedet, I was pretty sure she'd agree. So I wrote the fourth-wall-breaking epilogue, and okay, feel free to mock me for this, but it was CRAZY FUN IT WAS LIKE ADAM WAS TALKING TO ME OKAY. Like, to meeee. And he was calling me honey!

.......yeah ANYWAY, so as I was writing it I suddenly realized that I was secretly inspired by thegaystarfish's amazing Frank/Gerard comic and its epic narrator/gay starfish romance, and also its liberal use of hand-draws montages. So, props given where do :-) And if you want to read a more serious essay that addresses the end of the Megillah, there's a good one here.

ETA: AHAHAHAHA WAIT. I just remembered what the original ending was supposed to be -- it was one of the first images I made, before I'd realized that a) the original story didn't actually end with "happily & peacefully ever after" like I'd remembered, and b) the story would take me 1000 words of text & images combined, so I really didn't have room for another graphic with text. BUT the original ending was supposed to cast Adam in one more role:



...and I'm suddenly remembering I have so many more Adam photos in my "megillah" folder that I don't know what to do with...

Oh and wait, a last PSA: if you're one of the non-Idol people on my flist reading this, then while I am on the subject of Adam, let me just pimp you this seven minute acoustic performance of Whole Lotta Love from a few nights ago that just. JUST. Just watch it ♥_♥.

eta 2 I JUST REMEMBERED and thank you amproof for pointing it out: she asked me why I'd changed Esther's banquet with the king to one night, instead of more. The answer is that basically I had to cut out some scenes because of the 1000 word limit. There are also some other scenes missing: the king catching Haman in the queen's bedchambers, Haman and Zeresh's longer conversation and subsequent hanging... basically there was some light editing going on to be able to fit the entire story in. So if you want to read a more accurate description of the events, you can, you know, look it up somewhere, or read this cracky summary I wrote a few years ago. (Fair warning, I think I recycled some stuff from there in the fic.)

Aaaanyway, I have an exam tomorrow (yay) and a full few couple of days so it will take me ages to catch up on comments, but I love you all and thank you ♥.

PS I probably won't put up recs of my own beyond what I've already posted, but nextian's recs are awesome. And you can ignore the part where she recs me, I try not to be that tactless