So, here we are at the last icon!

Feeling that it would be best to end this project on a high note (by which I mean the icon for one of the larger factions), I've been saving this one for months. The Forever Knight Mercenary Guild is not one of the original six; but it was created a war or three later, and has been a popular faction ever since.

I immediately decided that, as with other early factions, the Mercs' icon would need to incorporate a version of the old symbol that was created for them back in the 1990s:



This appears as a header on the Merc Central site; and, as soon as I brought up the question of icon design with their Grand High Pooh-bah (admittedly very much ex post facto), she immediately said she thought it should be included. So it's just as well that I'd already done so!   ( A bit of history.... )

Once the basic design of the icon was done, I added the name of the faction, looked upon my handiwork, and—decided that something was missing.

After all, if the Mercs are associated with anything besides gold, it is chocolate. How could I possibly do a proper Mercenary Guild icon without chocolate?

I googled "chocolate".

Well! Most of the images were of truffles. (Strange but true.) And truffles, let me tell you, do not reduce acceptably to icon size. All you get is a little brown blob. Even truffles with squiggles on top turn into unrecognizable blobs.

I did in the end discover, though, that chocolates in paper cups do reduce to a minute size yet remain recognizable.

So here (blare of trumpets) is the icon for the Forever Knight Mercenary Guild.



( And here is the big version...! )

I specifically started this project to create icons for Forever Knight factions. However, it wasn't long before people started asking me to show versions larger than the basic little 100px square so that they could see more of the detail.

Okay, there are a few cases where this isn't possible; but there are certainly many icons that lose a lot of detail in the final miniaturizing. Over the past months, therefore, I've posted several collections showing the designs at a larger size, usually 350px square. Now, though, the icon project is almost at an end.

Obviously this collection contains the newest icons. However, looking through past posts, I realize that there are some older icons yet unseen. So there are a round dozen here, for factions both old and newly created.

( The final collection of enlargements.... )

It's been a while since I last posted any faction icons. However, during the factioneering back in September, there was actually quite a flurry of interest among the Vaqueras. Vachon's motorcycle and guitar are particularly cherished; and they wanted to create factions for them. Nor did I have much difficulty coming up with designs for the icons.

Nevertheless, there has been quite a delay, for—as the Vaqueras themselves would be the first to admit—they are a slackerly lot. Oh, the name "Triumphants", which I suggested might be suitable for the motorcycle faction, proved immediately acceptable. (Vachon's motorcycle is a Triumph.) A name for the guitar faction was another matter.

One obvious possible name was "Gibson Girls" (for Vachon's guitar is a Gibson). However, this has a fatal flaw: it is really only appropriate for female faction members. Admittedly, there do seem to be only women in the group at the moment. However, it was generally agreed that that is no excuse for excluding potential male members. Then waltd came up with quite a little list of possible alternatives. Among them, "G-Strings" (referring, of course, to guitar strings) immediately struck the eye. However, it elicited a strongly polarized response, with a few people loving the pun, while others found the name quite offensive.

So all had to wait while the membership was polled at their leisure—and, as I said, the Vaqueras are a slackerly lot! They have eventually decided, though, on the non-sexist "Gibsons".

( So here are the icons.... )

Although, when fkcommentfic opened, I quickly posted a couple of drabbles, I always intended to go back and linger a little over some of the other prompts. However time passed, and more time passed, and then the deadline loomed....

On 27 September, I finally posted a ficlet, "To Dine in", based on one of amilyn's prompts, “Janette deals with amorous advances from a stranger”. It was duly posted to FKFIC-L, and provided with a webpage. However, my trip to Stratford interrupted things pretty thoroughly: not only did it take up a whole day, but left me feeling very tired and stiff from the bus trip; and the kinks did not work out with a good night's sleep. And Saturday brought its own schedule, entailing rather too much walking, leaving every old cramp re-knotted.

However, the next day was the final day of fkcommentfic; so I simply had to go back to the prompts. I wound up spending hours writing, and finished no fewer than four ficlets: "The Church of the Holy Blood", "Truth and Consequences", "Rat's Tail", and "Trilemma". One or two other prompts looked mildly tempting; but not enough for me to be able to churn turn out a story in the time available.

All have now been posted to my website. ( Each of the webpages has its own design. )

No truly new icons in this post. Rather, a couple of old icons with new logos, and another old icon revised to look better.

Although I've done two versions of the Ravenettes icon already ("Ravenettes" and "Raven/ettes"), I decided that I ought to do a third one specifically for any members who prefer to be known as "Ravens". Since this is a shorter name, I had to shift it sideways a bit; however, the icon is otherwise the same as before:




Then we have the Stonetree-ites. Now "Scorpions" was an early suggestion for a faction for Stonetree. Indeed, it still has a member or two. However, it never gained a large membership. Believing it to be defunct, someone put forward another name couple of years later. Mind you, "Stonetree-ites" really doesn't have the same pizzazz. (What it is with the "-ites" names, I don't know. They're surely an admission that the proposer lacks imagination.) Nor did the faction gain many adherents this time, either. After all, Stonetree had, by then, been replaced as captain, first by Cohen and then by Reese. If I'm doing icons for all factions though, the Stonetree-ites have a right to one. However, as they are essentially only a temporary successor to the Scorpions, I've simply given them that icon with a new logo:




Finally, I've straightened the Unnamed Faction. (Wait! Hang on! Let me rephrase that!) I've rectified the UF icon. (That's better.) I realized a while back that the letters in the logo didn't line up properly. They're vertical, and I didn't—as I should have done—drop a guide line so I could get them properly centred. Well, it's now been done:




( Naturally, all three also come in a larger size.... )

Among the various tiny Forever Knight factions of the "miscellaneous assorted" variety, these are the last three to get icons. I think it's fair to say that they are very "miscellaneous".

The Friends of Gillian take their name from one of the scriptwriters on the series, Gillian Horvath. More than once, she wrote fans into the show by using their names for characters (though I think the faction can also be claimed by those whose names were used by other writers). From what little is written about the Friends of Gillian, I gather that fans could sometimes be quite enthusiastic in assuming that an identical personal name meant they'd been honoured by character-dom. However, it definitely did happen a few times for real.

The DracPack are fans of both Forever Knight and a slightly earlier show, Dracula: The Series. Geraint Wyn Davies appeared in a couple of its episodes; and quite a number of guest stars were also in the show, either as regulars or as guests. The DracPack is, however, not affiliated with the actors but with the various characters these actors play in Forever Knight.

As for the MacGregors: they're actually fans of Nigel Bennett, and got their name after he read a Beatrix Potter story aloud at a convention. Not a formal fan club, but a purely fan thing, they are generally counted among the factions.

( So here are their icons.... )

Once again, I'm posting icon designs at the larger (350px) size. There are ten of them this time, in alphabetical order. Most of them are for "real" factions, albeit mostly rather small ones.

( You can find the icon designs here.... )

There was enormous response on FORKNI-L (not to mention some here) when I issued my challenge to find faction names to put on two new icons, one for fans of Schanke's duck lamp, and one for fans of Nick's fireplace.

The names suggested were numerous, though a fair number were clearly tossed out more for humour than use. However, among the "serious" contenders were the Odd Ducks, Lame Ducks, Duckers, and Donald's Ducks—as well as the Quackers, which was the one with the most votes. And we had the Hearth-Huggers, Firelighters, Gloires de Cheminée, and Grate Expectations; as well as the Old Flames, which was the clear winner when second choices were taken into account.

( So here are their icons. )

When I started this project, I did not plan to do icons for all the many tiny factions in Forever Knight fandom. Indeed, even as things progressed and the number of icons grew, there still were factions that I intended to omit. They were too small, too little known, or too similar to other affiliations.

For example, the Caddy-Whackers are better known than the NickKnack CaddyWhacks; and the Woof Pack are more inclusive than the PerryHounds. I have, by now, though, done so many icons for so many factions that it seems wrong to leave them out. Indeed, the third icon here, is for a subfaction so minor that even its creator said not to bother!

( Nevertheless, in the spirit of completism.... )

Here are three more Natalie-related faction icons. In fact, I think this finishes all the Nat-factions—though I can't actually be sure. As the Knaughtie Knighties have proved, there may well be (or once have been) subfactions out there which no one has mentioned before. At any rate, this post contains what I think are the last three Nat-faction icons.

You may have been getting the impression that I'm trying for a comprehensive collection.   :)   To achieve this, I have asked people on FORKNI-L for information; but I have also perused every faction list I know about. Although I was not initially planning to bother with the small fry, I've clearly changed my mind.

That meant that I needed to look into the "Dark Natties", "MadNatters", and "NatVampCamp". At least one faction list treats these as more or less synonymous; but it turns out that's a misunderstanding. My research, such as it is, suggests that each term does, in fact, have a distinct meaning.

"Dark Natties" seems to be an early name for the Dark NatPack. At any rate, I've found no instance where the two names appear together; and it is "Dark Natties" that appears on the earliest faction list we have, Meredith's Affiliation FAQ from 1996, which does not mention the Dark NatPack. I can see how the latter might have seemed a more formal choice for their faction name, especially if they wanted to parallel the NatPack. Of course, I've already made an icon for the Dark NatPack, which can be found here.

The NatVampCamp have a Yahoo! Group named "Forever Nat"; and, at one time, they also had a website of the same name, with a gorgeous picture on the main page of Nick with a vamped-out Natalie. Whereas the Dark NatPack are attracted to the "dark" side of Natalie, which may mean writing her as a vampire, the NatVampCamp prefer her that way.

Then, we have the MadNatters. I'm not sure, but I think the "Mad" in their name is actually directed towards the members of the NatPack. You see, during the first flurry of factioneering, people basically declared their affiliation with one, and only one, of the small number of available factions. (Or to none at all, whence the Die-Hards.) However, as the number of factions increased, people often wanted to declare multiple affiliations—especially as things like chat rooms and e-groups began to proliferate, so that they needed to join multiple lists in order to engage in all the various discussions that interested them. Indeed, most factions were quite easy about multiple memberships.

Not so the NatPack. Somewhere, I came across something that indicated that, in order to join, one had to not belong to any other faction. I don't know whether they forbade NatPackers joining such groups as the Knights of the Cross or the Cross-Stitchers; but they certainly didn't allow them to belong to other character-based factions. That did not, though, stop fans from liking Natalie as well as other people. So these rejected prospective NatPackers decided to form their own faction so that they could discuss her among themselves. They called it the MadNatters; and there is at least one person still on list who puts it in her sig.

So that's two icons: for the NatVampCamp and the MadNatters. What's the third?

Well, okay: you probably don't remember the Morgue Maniacs. Unless, that is, you're also on FORKNI-L, because I posted about it recently. ( However, behind this cut you can find out the details I gleaned from the FORKNI-L archive. ) It's one of those suggested factions that never actually got organized.

However, that doesn't mean that there's no place for it! The truth is that, however much the old couple factions may have claimed to cover each of their relationships "in all its aspects", they were really factions for "couples" in a romantic sense. Even the obvious exception, the Cousins of the Knight, was formed less out of the wish to start gen factions than from the wish to counter a sense of creeping UFfishness.

Nevertheless, the Crew is also a faction of fairly long standing, albeit small and not at all well known. And, more recently, we've created the PotM (Nick & Schanke), and three family factions (Brabantines, LambKins, and Vetterans). So a Grace & Natalie faction seems well in order.

( You can find the three faction icons here.... )

Last week, I provided the members of maryrenaultfics with a prompt; so I have, of course, been working on my own story. However, the "apple"-fic has not yet been finished, because I had a Forever Knight story that I was also working on. (What with spending a fair amount of time with my mother because of the holiday, I think it's fair to say that I've had a busy weekend!)

"Let's Go to the Ex" was sent to FKFIC-L on September 3rd, and just posted to my website. It had to be finished first, you see, because it had a "due date". It references the Canadian National Exhibition, which runs for the last two weeks of the summer, ending on Labour Day. So the story simply had to be posted on or by the holiday. (Now, though, I can get back to working on my "apple" story with a clear conscience.)

For the webpage for "Let's Go to the Ex", I wanted to give the impression of the carnival side of the Ex. At the same time, since the climax of the story is after dark, I wanted that as well. So, for the background, I worked on one of the many starbackings that I have collected. First, I tinted it to a rusty off-black: the CNE is, after all, held in a city; and city skies are never that pitch black you get in graphics. I also did a version with a yellowish tint, from which I trimmed out the stars to paste over the now-pink ones on the first version. Then, having tried out the result, I decided to blank out a fair number of the stars themselves. Let's face it, lights downtown wash out most of the sky in any big city.

To represent the carnival aspect of the setting, I selected graphics in red and gold for the borders to the story panel. However, I also went through the animated tiles that I'd collected from Light Speed Web Graphics, years ago when I started to make webpages. As far as I can tell, they don't exist any more; but that doesn't mean I can't use their animations. Too many, of course, would induce a migraine! Judiciously applied, though, they simulate the flashing lights that decorate the attractions on the midway.

Another day, another dollar (or so they say). In this case, of course, we are talking about icons—four of them, to be precise. One has been in the works for ages, since I had to redo it almost entirely. Another has simply been waiting its turn for a while. The remaining two are very newly completed indeed.

( Another mixed bag, in other words.... )

Believe it or not, I am still learning about new factions! (Or at least subfactions.) However, the first of the two icons here is one that I have had in mind for some time, in the belief that, even though the Knighties never had a subfaction called the Crusaders, they should have. Nick's days as a Crusader were not only interesting in themselves, but had a profound influence on his subsequent life. Or unlife, if you prefer.

As there are so few factions left without icons, I decided that, if I was going to mention the Crusaders at all, it was time I made their icon, too. I then sent it off to Nancy T. (a/k/a NAT), who is not only a fairly senior Knightie (and the source of all the screen captures I've been using), but also a friend. She was immediately charmed by both the notion and the icon.

Then she told me of a little subfaction of Knighties to whom she belongs, who chat now and then. Recently, they have been wondering whether they should ask me to make an icon for them. Well, within a very short time it went off for inspection—and obviously passed muster, since I'm posting it here.

How many other unlisted subfactions there may be I have no idea. I'm sure, from time to time, other factions have also budded small chat groups—ones that have never been mentioned on FORKNI-L (and hence never wound up on one of the lists of affiliations), being purely a faction thing.

( So here are the icons for two more Knightie subfactions.... )

Here are another dozen icon designs at the larger 350px size. I've simply put them in alphabetical order.

Most of these designs are for actual (not newly created) factions. However, most of them are pretty small; and I think quite a number are no longer active.

( Read more... )

These two stories are only drabbles; but even drabbles deserve a webpage. Of course, neither story will be new to anyone, since they have already been posted to fkcommentfic, as well as to FKFIC-L. Now, though, they are up on my website: "On the Doorstep" is here, and "Fangs in Paradise" is here.

"On the Doorstep" was written as a thank-you to brightknightie; but it qualified for fkcommentfic as it also fulfilled her request for something about either Reese or Screed, neither of whom featured prominently in any of the longer fkficfest stories. No especial feature of "On the Doorstep" inspired me with a design for its webpage—though, given the subject matter, it obviously needed to be done in subdued tones. I selected a simple textured background whose colours are echoed in the border around the central panel.

"Fangs in Paradise", on the other hand, sees Nick hiding in a conservatory; and I immediately decided that I wanted the webpage to reflect this. I hunted through my collection of background tiles, but found that the only floral and foliar designs that I had were all emphatically outdoor and daytime. However, I continued to search, and was delighted to find a graphic which gives the impression that one is seeing through frosted glass into something green-toned. There is a remarkable three-dimensionality to this background graphic: the panel for the story actually seems to be lying on the glass.

The bluish green tones of the background gave me the colour scheme. I found an icy marble for the main graphic in the border; and, to echo the night scene, I used a black panel for the story itself.

The joke, of course, is that in the end the only picture of an actual plant I used on the page is a silhouette of bamboo up near the title.

Here we have another mixed bag of icons.

The first, at least, is easy to characterize. The Vachonettas are, I think, the last of the couple factions to have their icon done. As they involve the pairing of Janette with Vachon, they must have few members. Offhand, I can't think of any stories involving those particular characters as a couple. Indeed, they never actually meet in canon!

Like the Early Birds (whose icon is posted here), the Third Shift was a faction by courtesy, being primarily a chat room for people whose schedules made it hard for them to join in the regular group. Whereas the Early Birds rose early, the Third Shift worked late. They therefore held their chat in the late morning, around brunch time.

As their name suggests, the Nitpickers revelled in closely examining the aired episodes in order to uncover mistakes. It didn't matter whether these lay in the script itself; the various stages of filming each episode; the backstory to the characters, flashbacks, and plots; or continuity throughout the series. They also tossed in trivia and gripes. Sadly, the Nitpickers never got through analysing all the episodes. It's a serious business, after all, and needs time to do thoroughly. Still, the results of their endeavours can be found on their website.

And finally, there are the Pinheads. No, they don't appear in any faction list I've seen; but they had a nice little webpage honouring the object of their adoration.

( The icons for these obviously major factions can be found behind the cut. )

In my post about the story, "Unattainable", I mentioned that I'd been trying a little "couple factioneering" on FORKNI-L. Indeed, I posted a Challenge—and, according to the traditional rules for Forever Knight challenges, this means that I had to come up with an example of my own. Given the story, this simply had to be a Janette/Schanke faction called the Unattainables. For which (of course!), I have made an icon.



As you can see, I tried to pick a pair of screen captures that would be appropriate to the characters. The faction symbol combines Janette's raven with a doughnut for "Donut Don". I had to tweak the raven a little so that it had an open beak to grasp the doughnut; but I think the result is in keeping with the spirit of the faction.

(Alas, no one seems to have taken up my challenge. Ah, well.)

Mind you, my notion of a round of couple factioneering was not inspired by the Unattainables, who would probably never have been named had my eye not been caught by a plot bunny. Rather, a few weeks earlier, I had discovered an old thread on FORKNI-L about creating a slash faction for Nick/Schanke.

That a gen faction for the two of them had never been created had always struck me as a pity. Not surprising, though: I have come to realize that the traditional couple factions tend to interpret their pairings romantically, even when they nominally deal with all aspects of the relationship between the two parties. However, there are certainly many stories that would be easier to describe if there were a quick shorthand faction name for "Nick & Schanke buddycop fic". So, when Brenda suggested the "PotM", it was one of the first new factions for which I made an icon (which you can see here).

( But it never occurred to me that people would want a slash faction for Nick and Schanke.... )

Of the stories that I've written lately, there is one that will be new to anyone who isn't on the FKFIC-L mailing list: "Unattainable". Sadly, as it doesn't fit any of the prompts posted to fkcommentfic, I couldn't include it in that collection. Still, ideas come as they will, don't they?

Once "Phases of the Moon" was safely uploaded to AO3, I happily returned to making more faction icons—in between reading fkficfest stories on AO3, that is. Among the icons I had already made were pretty well all those for character-based factions, including quite a number invented for the occasion. So my focus was on completing the rest of the icons for couple factions.

( Mind you, from a logical perspective, there are quite a few couple factions that are missing. ) However, although I recently tried to interest people in a little "couple factioneering", no enthusiasm could be whipped up. Janette/Miklos? Miklos/Urs? Schanke/Myra? No takers. Nor did anyone want to suggest a name for the trio of Nick/LaCroix/Vachon. (I have seen a few names factioneered for that trio in old FORKNI-L digests; but none of them particularly appeals to me. Nor to others, clearly).

I kept returning to Janette/Schanke, though. To me, there was an obvious name—and an obvious scenario. The bunny seemed easy to catch, but then slipped out of my grasp for a while. Eventually, though, I did get the story revised to my satisfaction, and posted it to FKFIC-L on the 16th of August. ( Of course, I also put it up on my website.... )

It's been a while since I've made a post discussing the graphic design of the webpage for a story—but then it's been a while since I uploaded any stories! Now, though, I've put up four in quick succession. "Phases of the Moon", which I did for fkficfest, is by far the longest, coming in at about 6K words (not to mention a ridiculously long section of notes of one sort or another). For that reason, I'm going to discuss it on its own. The three "small fry" will get a separate post.

Once fkficfest was over, I immediately posted "Phases of the Moon" to FKFIC-L and my website. In the intervening period, I'd had plenty of time to work on the design. You can see the page for it here. It's a big story, in my opinion, and so I wanted to give it a special webpage design.
( Naturally, I wanted a design to suit the story.... )

Another day, another collection of icons: four this time, one of which has been in the works for literally months.

However, let's take them in order.

The Skeletonites are one of those jokey factions for fans of props in Forever Knight—in this case, the peripatetic skeleton that decorated the set for the morgue. Les Chevaliers de la Nuit ("Knights of the Night") are a faction for fans who enjoy riding. The Lonely Hearts are a small couple faction for Natalie/Vachon. As for the fourth faction...well...! Its members are, in a way, universal. However, as a faction, they are, I think, unique to Forever Knight fandom.

( So here they are.... )