Small Gifts returns!
Sep. 12th, 2013 01:16 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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small_giftsTitle: You, Me, and the Muggle Internet
Characters: Remus and Sirius, of course!
Word count and rating: 1000 words, rated PG
Summary: You know Sirius would fit right in here in fandom. In fact, with wifi installed at Grimmauld Place, he's in danger of vanishing into the internet entirely...
"Psssst!'
Then, less quietly: "Moony?"
And then again, even less quietly: "Are you awake?"
Remus hesitated, caught halfway between sleep and response, his head propped up awkwardly against the headboard, the magazine he'd been reading now flat across his chest. He glanced across the darkened bedroom at the clock: almost midnight, time for bed.
Closer to him, Sirius' face was alight in the blue glow of a laptop propped up on his knees.
"Mmmmmmmm," Remus said.
"We're back!" Sirius crowed. "Small Gifts is running again this year."
"Mmmm?"
"Do you remember? The fest about us?"
Remus did not. Much of what Sirius talked about lately was still foreign to Remus: fandom, fanfiction, role play, whatever that was. Ever since Sirius had gotten his wireless router set up in the sitting room downstairs, he had been living in a different world. At first Remus had worried--thirteen years in Azkaban and a stint behind the Veil had been hard on Sirius--but Harry had pointed out that anyone who managed to bring wifi to Grimmauld Place still had a pretty powerful command of magic. And wizards had had odder hobbies.
Besides, the world had changed since Madam Rowling had published her histories. Hermione recently told him privately that she thought Sirius would make a fortune off his wizarding internet start up, once he got it going. That had changed Remus's attitude toward Sirius and his computers quickly. He didn't want to live in Grimmauld Place forever.
In bed next to him, Sirius was typing on his laptop. "Remind me again?" Remus asked.
"Fanart, fanfiction, it's the Remus/Sirius holiday exchange. All about us."
Ah, right, fanfiction. Remus winced. He still wasn't completely comfortable with the fame that Rowling's histories had brought them, despite reassurance that Muggles universally believed the stories to be fiction. Eventually someone would figure it out, wouldn't they? They were Muggles, not children.
"That's nice," Remus said, stretching and sitting up. Time to brush his teeth and go to bed. He put down his glossy magazine on the bedside table. (W: The Lifestyle Magazine for Wizards and Witches Living with Lycanthropy--not the kind of thing he ever would have purchased for himself, but Molly had given him the subscription, wasn't that kind of her? He could hardly refuse it.)
"More stories about our work for the Order?" Remus leaned over, talking a harder look at the screen. "Are you reading one right now?"
Sirius shifted abruptly, so that Remus couldn't quite see the screen. He was oddly flushed. "Ah, yes, yes. This is a story about the, erm, about the Battle in the Department of Mysteries, about the moment I fell through the Veil and how I entered the afterlife."
Sirius had been "scrolling" through something online, if that's what the word was, but now he stopped and typed a few more words, and Remus had a revelation.
"Sirius, are you writing something yourself for one of those sites? You know that violates the Statute of Secrecy, don't you?"
From the stricken look on Sirius' face, Remus knew he'd touched a nerve. "Of course not!"
"Because you were typing right now."
"That's just, that's just computer stuff you don't understand, Remus."
"I'm serious, Sirius."
"No, I'm Sirius," Sirius said, snickering.
Remus sighed. It never got old, did it? "Sirius."
"I'm just, erm, correcting a misunderstanding," Sirius said. "Pretending to be a Muggle, don't worry! The Ministry will never know."
Remus squeezed his eyes closed."I can't lose you to New Azkaban because you want to correct the way a few Muggles understand magic." Sirius had said once that there were tens of thousands of stories about magic online, perhaps even hundreds of thousands. Apparently the Muggles were fascinated by magic, even if they didn't believe in it. Sirius could spend the rest of his life correcting them, all the while missing his opportunity to work on his start up.
And Remus wanted to retire one day.
"Just be certain you're not caught, okay?" he said.
Sirius, still tapping away, nodded. Remus slid out of bed, walked to the bathroom, and brushed his teeth. "Well done, Lupin," the mirror said in satisfied, Head Boy tones while Remus rinsed his mouth and dried his face. "For a moment there I thought you'd skip brushing your teeth altogether tonight. Make sure Black comes in before bed, all right?"
Remus shrugged noncommittally. He'd never been able to make Sirius do anything.
Sirius was still typing as Remus came back to bed. Another thought occurred to him. "Why am I always there?" Remus asked.
"Why are you always where?"
"In those stories about magic, the fest you just mentioned. You said it was Remus and Sirius, right? I mean, wouldn't it make more sense if all those stories were about you and...Harry, say? Or other members of the Order? If the Muggles wanted to understand what happened in the War, and how magic really works?"
"Oh, there are stories about me and Harry," Sirius said with a knowing look. "And stories about me and Hermione, and even--"
Abruptly, Sirius broke off and looked at Remus. Softening, he smiled. "Mostly they're stories about Remus and Sirius because we belong together."
That made Remus smile, too, despite himself. You, me, and the Muggle internet, he thought. "Don't stay up too late, all right?"
Sirius didn't even pretend to promise. "Night, Moony."
Remus snuggled down beneath the covers to block out the computer's blue light. After all these years, Grimmauld Place was still cold, even on a mild autumn night. Perhaps with the fortune Sirius made with his start up, they could retire somewhere warmer. "Night, Padfoot."
***
Small Gifts 2013
Sign ups begin on Saturday, October 12, one month from today
Claiming begins one week later, on Saturday, October 19
Small Gifts runs throughout the month of December
***
Welcome back, everyone! We hope you're as excited for another round of Small Gifts as we are. Free free to drop us a comment if you have any questions.
Your mods,
Sambethe, Mindabbles, and Magnetic_pole
P.S. Anyone good at icons or banners? We'd love some help getting a new look for 2013 and spreading the word. Thanks!
Characters: Remus and Sirius, of course!
Word count and rating: 1000 words, rated PG
Summary: You know Sirius would fit right in here in fandom. In fact, with wifi installed at Grimmauld Place, he's in danger of vanishing into the internet entirely...
"Psssst!'
Then, less quietly: "Moony?"
And then again, even less quietly: "Are you awake?"
Remus hesitated, caught halfway between sleep and response, his head propped up awkwardly against the headboard, the magazine he'd been reading now flat across his chest. He glanced across the darkened bedroom at the clock: almost midnight, time for bed.
Closer to him, Sirius' face was alight in the blue glow of a laptop propped up on his knees.
"Mmmmmmmm," Remus said.
"We're back!" Sirius crowed. "Small Gifts is running again this year."
"Mmmm?"
"Do you remember? The fest about us?"
Remus did not. Much of what Sirius talked about lately was still foreign to Remus: fandom, fanfiction, role play, whatever that was. Ever since Sirius had gotten his wireless router set up in the sitting room downstairs, he had been living in a different world. At first Remus had worried--thirteen years in Azkaban and a stint behind the Veil had been hard on Sirius--but Harry had pointed out that anyone who managed to bring wifi to Grimmauld Place still had a pretty powerful command of magic. And wizards had had odder hobbies.
Besides, the world had changed since Madam Rowling had published her histories. Hermione recently told him privately that she thought Sirius would make a fortune off his wizarding internet start up, once he got it going. That had changed Remus's attitude toward Sirius and his computers quickly. He didn't want to live in Grimmauld Place forever.
In bed next to him, Sirius was typing on his laptop. "Remind me again?" Remus asked.
"Fanart, fanfiction, it's the Remus/Sirius holiday exchange. All about us."
Ah, right, fanfiction. Remus winced. He still wasn't completely comfortable with the fame that Rowling's histories had brought them, despite reassurance that Muggles universally believed the stories to be fiction. Eventually someone would figure it out, wouldn't they? They were Muggles, not children.
"That's nice," Remus said, stretching and sitting up. Time to brush his teeth and go to bed. He put down his glossy magazine on the bedside table. (W: The Lifestyle Magazine for Wizards and Witches Living with Lycanthropy--not the kind of thing he ever would have purchased for himself, but Molly had given him the subscription, wasn't that kind of her? He could hardly refuse it.)
"More stories about our work for the Order?" Remus leaned over, talking a harder look at the screen. "Are you reading one right now?"
Sirius shifted abruptly, so that Remus couldn't quite see the screen. He was oddly flushed. "Ah, yes, yes. This is a story about the, erm, about the Battle in the Department of Mysteries, about the moment I fell through the Veil and how I entered the afterlife."
Sirius had been "scrolling" through something online, if that's what the word was, but now he stopped and typed a few more words, and Remus had a revelation.
"Sirius, are you writing something yourself for one of those sites? You know that violates the Statute of Secrecy, don't you?"
From the stricken look on Sirius' face, Remus knew he'd touched a nerve. "Of course not!"
"Because you were typing right now."
"That's just, that's just computer stuff you don't understand, Remus."
"I'm serious, Sirius."
"No, I'm Sirius," Sirius said, snickering.
Remus sighed. It never got old, did it? "Sirius."
"I'm just, erm, correcting a misunderstanding," Sirius said. "Pretending to be a Muggle, don't worry! The Ministry will never know."
Remus squeezed his eyes closed."I can't lose you to New Azkaban because you want to correct the way a few Muggles understand magic." Sirius had said once that there were tens of thousands of stories about magic online, perhaps even hundreds of thousands. Apparently the Muggles were fascinated by magic, even if they didn't believe in it. Sirius could spend the rest of his life correcting them, all the while missing his opportunity to work on his start up.
And Remus wanted to retire one day.
"Just be certain you're not caught, okay?" he said.
Sirius, still tapping away, nodded. Remus slid out of bed, walked to the bathroom, and brushed his teeth. "Well done, Lupin," the mirror said in satisfied, Head Boy tones while Remus rinsed his mouth and dried his face. "For a moment there I thought you'd skip brushing your teeth altogether tonight. Make sure Black comes in before bed, all right?"
Remus shrugged noncommittally. He'd never been able to make Sirius do anything.
Sirius was still typing as Remus came back to bed. Another thought occurred to him. "Why am I always there?" Remus asked.
"Why are you always where?"
"In those stories about magic, the fest you just mentioned. You said it was Remus and Sirius, right? I mean, wouldn't it make more sense if all those stories were about you and...Harry, say? Or other members of the Order? If the Muggles wanted to understand what happened in the War, and how magic really works?"
"Oh, there are stories about me and Harry," Sirius said with a knowing look. "And stories about me and Hermione, and even--"
Abruptly, Sirius broke off and looked at Remus. Softening, he smiled. "Mostly they're stories about Remus and Sirius because we belong together."
That made Remus smile, too, despite himself. You, me, and the Muggle internet, he thought. "Don't stay up too late, all right?"
Sirius didn't even pretend to promise. "Night, Moony."
Remus snuggled down beneath the covers to block out the computer's blue light. After all these years, Grimmauld Place was still cold, even on a mild autumn night. Perhaps with the fortune Sirius made with his start up, they could retire somewhere warmer. "Night, Padfoot."
Small Gifts 2013
Sign ups begin on Saturday, October 12, one month from today
Claiming begins one week later, on Saturday, October 19
Small Gifts runs throughout the month of December
***
Welcome back, everyone! We hope you're as excited for another round of Small Gifts as we are. Free free to drop us a comment if you have any questions.
Your mods,
Sambethe, Mindabbles, and Magnetic_pole
P.S. Anyone good at icons or banners? We'd love some help getting a new look for 2013 and spreading the word. Thanks!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2013-09-12 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-12 07:32 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, hi! COME BACK TO SMALL GIFTS THIS YEAR!!! M.
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Date: 2013-09-12 07:36 pm (UTC)Hi to you too! I will be back this year and I'm bringing a guest!
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Date: 2013-09-12 07:39 pm (UTC)Meaning: we're amusing characters, but not likely to produce icons or banners. :) Perhaps we'll charm a reader into helping us out.
And: YAY!!! M.
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Date: 2013-09-12 10:58 pm (UTC)Maggie, this was totally wonderful, btw. Yay!!
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Date: 2013-09-15 04:52 pm (UTC)I'm excited for this fest. Now I have to start thinking of the prompts I might want to use.
Thank you for organizing it.
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Date: 2013-09-16 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2013-09-28 11:14 am (UTC)OOHH!!I usually used to come and
stalkcheck out this place for RS fics!!Awwh,I don't know if I can participate,it does look like fun!And I'm always happy to read! *flies in happiness, it's the nargles, I tell you**gasp*! I hear something about making icons and them banners?! <3 OHHMGG!!
Sooo*cough*-um-I'm a liiittle bit confused.When you say the signups begin on 12 and claiming on 19th,does it mean sign-ups are from 12-19th?!
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Date: 2013-09-28 01:01 pm (UTC)Yes, sign-ups last the full week. We run a kind of "low-mod" process--folks who are interested in participating commit to the exchange by leaving a comment with their preferences and requests at some point during the sign up period (from the 12th to the 19th) and then return to the site during the claiming period to choose the request they want to fulfill (most folks do it immediately on the 19th, but the claiming period will probably last 48 hours or so). Let us know that doesn't make sense? Instructions will go up soon. M.
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Date: 2013-09-28 03:45 pm (UTC)