All Bingo

It's 2 a.m. and I just closed the AO3 collection: Twenty-two works across 17 fandoms.

I've been persuaded to create a sub-collection for stragglers sometime during September, so if you happen to put together your content during September, there should be another collection to add it to. But I need a bit of time to catch my breath here, so I'm not gonna worry about that for a few days.

Besides me, six authors made it into the collection, writing a total of ten fics. AQuietThinker managed three; Cornerofmadness and Ysabetwordsmith posted two apiece; idrilhadhafang, Siberianskys, and Signamino posted one apiece.

Which means that I managed 12 fics, though four (and my podfic) are works in progress, including my main BINGO entry. I hope to update them sometime during September, though this is the point at which I switch gears and start working on my Creepyfest entries (October content). Plus, I need a bit of a break before anything else, and I've got a shiny new copy of modable Skyrim that I might or might not get into this month. (Kindly vaguely hoping not, 'cuz there goes my productivity, but OTOH... Skyrim. With lightweight potions and a way to bypass the poorly thought-out opening sequence. I do want to enjoy that before the end of the year....)

I didn't complete it in time, but since my policy for the August Intimacy event has been "as long as you get the first chapter up," I figure that getting the first section posted is sufficient to make it into the collection.

Ergo, here's the first part of Back Rub by April_Valentine, a Person of Interest fic that focuses on physical intimacy (and a touch-starved character).

Y'know, it took me decades to run across the term "Touch-Starved" and realize that it applies to me. I live in a house with three other people, and yet I could literally go an entire year without any significant, memorable physical touch. (It was this realization that I'd gone a year without a hug that made me finally start connecting some dots. Or, more precisely, that the most amount of touch I'd gotten that year was being passed fries by a friend every week as we carpooled.) I really hate having to ask for a hug; it feels needy, and I'd much prefer to have my friends and family understand that I want occasion hugs, and just give them to me randomly.

Anyway, this is part of why I am so attracted to fics with strong elements of nonsexual physical intimacy. And I've had this podfic in mind for a couple of years now; it's just, the last time I'd tried to record it, I'd had a cough that would not quit, so I had to give it up for a while. The scenario is a great delve into nonsexual sensuality and the sheer pleasure that physical intimacy can bring. I hope I've done it justice.

P.S. Last day to add works to the AO3 Collection! I'll be closing it down a couple of hours after midnight, Pacific Time, just to give stragglers a chance to get in. Meanwhile, I'm trying to finish up as many pieces as I can manage. Remember that posting a single chapter is enough to qualify for the collection, so you don't have to have a complete fic if you have at least a complete chapter. Thanks for participating!

ETA: Debated about allowing an extra week for the main collection, or adding a sub-collection for stragglers. Have been persuaded to go with the latter; I expect to open up a new sub-collection sometime mid-September for anything that didn't get added to the collection during August.

They're under the Spreadsheets and Simple Lists folder, as text files.

I hope this is sufficient for anyone to make their own BINGO cards, if mine don't cover enough ground. There's a bit of overlap between the categories (it's about focus), but I tried to cut down on that. If you're using a random generator then you might get multiple prompts that are close to each other, though differentiated by nuance (e.g. different shades of loss: older than you, younger than you, peer group, or being comforted).

As I understand it, the easy-ish way is to stuff the lists into randomizers and then put the top five from each list into the board, thus preserving the categories. There should be plenty of variety for that much ^_^