I am appalled by the lack of zombiefic, people. It's not going to write itself!

In other news, oh Supernatural. I want to like you, I really do. It'd be nice to be involved in an active fandom, and most of my flist is there anyway. And you seem like you'd be right up my 'pretty people smashing stuff and making wisecracks' alley, except for the no female regulars thing. And yet, somehow, nothing. SIGH.

So, I had this idea, and Amy -- and Erica, obliquely -- encouraged it, and really, that's all I need to do something these days.

ANNOUNCING

A weekend fic(let) battle.

Still no cable at home. Thank god we have DVDs, because we've got no TV and no Internet. It remains absolutely horrific.

We have, however, got a new couch! It is an absolutely hideous color (at least, it's hideous in our living room, which is bright robins-egg blue), but the blue brings out the brown, and brown + light blue is an okay combination, so. Besides, it's also unbelievably comfortable, and that makes up for a lot.

And I am also suddenly really feeling an urge to write some Buffy/Anya. Which is awesome. Maybe I'll even get around to finally writing that AU S6, where they hook up instead of Spuffy and X/A and it's fun and healthy and sweet.

Wow, so I totally didn't notice that comments were disabled on the poll entry. That's some EPIC FAIL right thar. They've been reactivated, so if you had thoughts, go for it. I thought the discussion seemed a bit quiet.

In other news, it's only been up for about half an hour or so, but the poll is already yielding some interesting results! This got started, by the way, after I was thinking about that Mary Sue meme that's going 'round, where you write 100 or so words about a Mary Sue in your fandom of choice. And I realized that I have spent far too much time thinking about this. Basically, in every fandom, she's roughly the same, and even has one of two jobs (cop or museum conservator), but the problem is that I've put a lot of thought into this, and where in the world my MS would fit, etc.

Given a convo I had with roz_mcclure last week¹, for instance, it seems obvious that she'd be a Slayer in the Buffyverse, but the thing is that in Buffyverse, Buffy is basically my Mary Sue, and an original character there would be less whiny and angsty, probably, but she would also mostly just be Random Slayer #3 who meanders around in the background, because honestly I wouldn't like to hang out with any of the Buffyverse characters all that much.

Additionally, I've been focusing a lot on the latest original project, and doing that always gets me thinking about my preferences as a reader and how they influence my fannish choices/activities/involvement. So between the two, the Mary Sue thinky thoughts and the original fic thinky thoughts, I thought a poll might be fun.

Given how crap I am at meta, we'll see whether anything comes of the results, but, you know. Still interesting.

¹It was, as I remember it -- I was rather drunk at the time -- thus:

Me: Okay, so, in this story, Stella is a Slayer after "Chosen", and she and Giles --
Roz: Is everyone a Slayer in your world?
Me: No! Well, not everyone. Well, yes.

I was thinking about my fannish ins yesterday, and thought I'd throw a few questions out there. Possibly I will actually do some srs bzns analysis of the data later, we'll see.

Poll #970120 The In
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

For me to feel fannishly involved in a show (or comic, or movie, or etc.), I need to be grabbed by...

The MOST IMPORTANT of the above in determining whether I become fannishly involved or not is...

My "in" character, around whom my fannish activity primarily revolves at least at first, is usually...

i. HAY AMY, YOU KNOW WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS?

Due South/Princess Diaries.

I am just putting that out there.

ii. So, like I said a few entries ago, in writing something new (by the way, I'm up to 27k on the new project! \o/) I often start thinking about what works for me story-wise: what tropes, what character conventions, etc. This tiime, I'm working on something with horror-ish notes to it, as well, which means I've been doing a lot of thinking about horror specifically, and what really scares me.

The upshot of this is that I have, in progress, a story that I truly adore; it's got all the character types and relationships I love to see, all the plot elements, everything, and it works for me as a horror story too, because I've got some truly creepy stuff in there.

The less upshotty part: I have seriously just scared myself silly writing a scene. YOU GUYS, SOMEONE PLZ HOLD MY HAND?

iii. A virtual series in which four young ladies (who coincidentally bear remarkable resemblances to myself, fox1013, pearl_o, and roz_mcclure) travel around solving mysteries, blowing shit up, kicking supernatural butt, and generally being awesome: great idea, or greatest idea?

Buffy is a Dashing Lady Pirate who kidnaps Ray and Fraser for adventure and sexytimes on the high seas. Also Frannie.

CHECK YES NO OR RAPE

You know it's a nerd party when...

1. a playful threat to a friend of "we're at a party, and don't think I won't hold your hand in a jar of acid" prompts the entire room to start quoting the George Washington song
   
2. the beginning of a video game fight is met with 'FOR SPARTA!' and then, shortly after, 'THIS IS CAKETOWN!', and about a thousand lines from Sparta macros, because we all know the macros and jokes regardless of whether or not we've actually seen the movie
   
3. other people in the room actually know what the phrase "His wife? A horse!" refers to.

SO GUESS WHO GOT ADDICTED TO DUE SOUTH.

It would be very easy to blame pearl_o, norabombay, and lol_meme, you know. And it would likewise be very easy to blame roz_mcclure and inkdot for this companion piece to Meet It And Live It I have in the works, another in the "what if Buffy fell into another world instead of dying in 'The Gift'" series, where she ends up in Chicago.

So yeah, I'm just going to blame all those people!

(Roz's response when I said this: "I WOULD BE LISTENING TO YOU BUT I CAN'T STOP STARING AT YOUR ICON AND WILLING THEM TO HAVE SEX." This is why I end up like this, people; she encourages me. Also, apparently she and I are now as OTP on lol_meme, which amuses me endlessly.)

inkdot: Oh, lord. I can totally picture Fraser being stoic/weird and Buffy giving him her priceless, "what planet are you from?" look, and Ray would basically not know what to do with himself, he has such a thing for mouthy blondes. Eeeee!
Me: And Buffy would so be kind of mutually hot for Ray too, except for being so repressed she probably wouldn't even be aware of it. He even has Angel's hair. But she totes needs someone like Fraser in her life; all patient and sweet and competent-but-kind-of-clueless.
inkdot: I'm totally picturing the three of them huddled around Ray's desk at the station, having a whispered discussion about whatever demon they're secretly hunting, and Stella shows up and Ray's all hopeful, only to be shut down, and Buffy's all raising her eyebrows and Fraser gives her a Look.
Me: OMG I have to write this. They would just. Yes. And Buffy would bring donuts with her every morning by way of flirting, and also making fun of cops. Like the language of flowers, but less gay. Unless they were donuts with pink frosting, but that's still less gay than, say, a pink carnation. It's more gay than a daisy, though. Also, you know she and Fran would get along like a house on fire.
inkdot: God, they totally would. They would sit at Frannie's desk, kvetching, and make Ray all anxious and frowny. Fraser would patiently explain that it's natural for Buffy to seek the companionship of another woman, and that Ray should certainly not take such behaviour personally. Naturally Fraser would then illustrate using some kind of example with muskox or Lou Skagnetti! Basically the cutest crossover OT3 ever.

From bantha_fodder: (no guarantees) Pick two of my fandoms and I'll write you a crossover drabble. You can request specific characters, if you like (but in that case I reserve the right to refuse to write specific characters -- anyone who wants Spikefic will probably be LOL N00Bed, for example).

My fandoms...well, you all know what they are.

OKAY WHO BROKE JOURNALFEN, AND ARE THEY GOING TO LET US MEME IN THEIR JOURNAL UNTIL IT'S FIXED?

ETA: So hay we can all get some use out of omg_twatwaffle on GJ again, amirite?

I have a whole entry of things that are making me happy right now, including the fact that the weather is FREAKING GORGEOUS, but I have to say this first:

Dear patron,

I'm sorry you've got all the way to your doctorate studies without having learned how to use a schedule. :(

Also, calling the guy who can forgive your fines "a fucking idiot"? Probably not the best way to get him to forgive them.

-Jules

Right. I've been tossing this idea around for...god, for months now, and every now and then I come back to it, and I've come back to it so many times that I may as well just toss it out there and see what the response is.

There are a number of writing communities out there that basically run with the idea of theatrical_muse -- not quite RPGs, but not quite just writing communities. One claims a character, then has to respond to prompts specifically writing as that character. There was also, for awhile, a trend of communities like fannish versions of Post Secret -- postcards designed as though they were revealing the secrets of fictional characters.

My idea is something of a combination of the two, incorporating both fic and graphics. Given a prompt, and having claimed a character the people in the community have to create a "postcard" (probably of a predetermined size) and write something on the back of the card. Rather than the minimum word count TM requires, there would be a maximum -- it might even be drabbles, specifically, but it might just be a maximum word count, something like 150 at the most. With the goal being succinctness, and thinking about how the words and images might go together and how they might go together for the character in question.

And as for the graphic portion, skill isn't what's important, really. As long as you can a) string words together into a few coherent sentences and b) crop a photo to the right size (hell, there are Firefox extensions that allow you to do some rudimentary graphic editing; it's not like you'd need to be a Photoshop whiz). I'm thinking the way to do the prompts is four prompts once a month, and people have to do at least one of them. There'll probably some variety in the prompts -- one word, one line of a song/poem, maybe an interview-type question or something.

With a view towards RPG possibilities -- because I find it rather disingenuous of TM to maintain an ostensibly neutral stance on roleplay when three-plus years of the comm's existence have proven that it's a scenario which lends itself easily to RPing -- possibly there ought to be some kind of super-/meta-structure as well, though. Last time I was whinging about not being able to find an RPG that fit my needs and lamented that I'd start one myself if I had an idea that wasn't played-out, someone made the awesome suggestion of a cruise ship. Maybe a resort or something -- or an airport. Or just a separate tie-in comm that people can join if they want to do RP. In which case I might need to recruit some other mods.

Leaving aside the question of RP for the moment -- that's something that can be worked out later -- does the comm concept itself sound interesting to anyone?

I love more than I can articulate how quickly the memers took over vmanonmeme.

So I decided to poke around in search of an RPG to play in, because I kind of miss it and it's something that gets me writing on a regular basis and thinking about characters and stuff.

MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF WANGST.

Seriously. There needs to be something like snitched, but pan- or multi-fandom. IS THAT REALLY SO MUCH TO ASK?

I'd make one myself, but most of the possible settings (bar -- which you can only get away with if you're Milliways -- hotel, school, or resort) are so played out at this point. Maybe a hospital, though? Which offers plenty of opportunity for wangst, if that's your cup of tea, but also for silliness and stupid injuries and wheelchair races.

(And, Buffy is pointing out to me, cute doctors.)

Alternately, a universe from some other work of fiction. I love the idea of a bunch of characters forced to go to Sunnydale High, or Hogwarts, and the Firefly 'verse offers plenty of opportunity for all sorts of crazy business.

• Happy birthday, darkrosetiger! :D
  
• Why won't the timesheet on PatriotWeb let me finish filling in my hours worked this week. NOT COOL. Especially since I have to submit it in the next few hours if I want to get paid in the next two weeks.
  
• I would say LOL FRANK WHORESWHORESWHORES MILLER but the really sad bit is that apparently he had very little to do with the film after he signed over the rights, and the comic is nowhere near as bad. I'll just let you all think about that for a minute. And then go cry.
  
• Oh, David Wenham, what will Viggo say when he finds out what a piece of pro-Iraq War racist misogynistic crap you've co-starred in? :(
  
• Seriously. Timesheet. This is NOT AWESOME. I guess I'm just going to have to talk to one of my managers tomorrow, just to let them know, because they have to approve it and all anyway.
  
• We're having a SuperBowl party, not because any of us particularly care about the sport or the game but because it's a good excuse to stuff ourselves on delicious snacks and sit in front of the tv.

How do I suddenly have so many awesome original ideas? *flail* I kind of blame Shakespeare for the character development in the WWII story I want to write (have had a vague idea for a story set in England during the early years of the war and the Blitz, but no characters, who have just started showing up) but now I need to do some research on a couple of specifics. So I might do that after work tomorrow; just stick around for twenty minutes and look for books that might fit my needs. HMM.

Okay. Tonight: finish the Titus Andronicus re-read, or at least finish Act IV then take a break before reading the last act, then do some more revision on the second Young Lady In Question novel. Also I have to run out to the shop for bobby pins.

Have been persuaded to write the essay, the which is mostly a study of how women are treated in fandom by way of writing a fannish response to Much Ado About Nothing. Because zomg, Don John is such a misunderstood woobie, and Claudio could do SOOOO much better than WHORE-ro, and don't even get me started on BITCH-atrice!

So you know how there are all sorts of LJ preferences and Greasemonkey scripts and Firefox extensions and stuff that will make it so you don't see images when you're browsing?

What we really need is the opposite of that, something that will get rid of everything but images, when browsing pic comms. That will take care of all the annoying/creepy fangirls. You just see empty entries, except for the pics.

IT WOULD BE SO BEAUTIFUL.

This message brought to you by my attempts to search for good pics to use in my imaginary cast image for the fantasy novel.

A wee bit belatedly, happy birthday to katemonkey!

Also I got woken up early this morning by the buzzer, and it was that kind of situation where it's early enough that you shouldn't be up but late enough that you're not really going to get any sleep if you try again because your alarm will go off soon. I HATE THAT. But it was my package from Amazon (US), featuring a paperback of The Beekeeper's Appentice, which is not to be found anywhere in London, apparently, and my Pride and Prejudice dvd.

So that's okay.

Also, zombieslash. Any slash in which zombies are featured. Doesn't have to be the zombies you're slashing, there just have to be zombies. WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE.

And now whiichever of my flatmates is in the shower needs to get out. &fistshake;