mine's a tale that can't be told.

Comment to this post, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

longerthanwedo asked me to talk about...

Kara Thrace - Oh, what is there not to say about Kara Thrace? Like so many others when I first started watching BSG I was instantly pulled in by the fun of this character, and then she became so much more than that so very young person we first see. I love Starbuck as the larger-than-life hero who flies off the red moon in a Raider and makes the journey to fetch the Arrow of Apollo, as the deeply flawed human being and tragic figure, even as the never-quite-explicably-realized goddess figure...or whatever. Her overall arc is far from perfect (I was especially disappointed with how Leoben's weird and mysterious connection to her was totally dropped by the end and never came to mean anything), but I think that's because they were ultimately trying to make her into too much while trying to also keep her human and recognizable, just as so many parts of the story had gotten too big in its themes for them to possibly resolve everything in a way that could make everyone happy.

gourmet food - Hm, I could tell you nothing about gourmet food. What exactly counts as gourmet food? LOL. For real, when it comes to my very favorite things to eat, I like...cheeseburgers. And comfort food. The Dean Winchester diet basically, lol. I grew up as a really picky eater and am now a lot more open to broadening my horizons, but as it stands I'm not a person who gets excited about more exotic eating.

Shakespeare - I don't think I would have survived even the couple years I finished as an English major if I didn't enjoy Shakespeare. I especially like the wit and humor in his stuff. That's what for me makes it very much not the dense and dry and boring reading lots of people find it to be. Plus he did, you know, have a way with words in general and beautiful language. Just a bit.

Rosalie Hale - Oh God, I loved this character. From the part where we found out her history there was so much potential for her to be more than what Stephenie Meyer ultimately decided she is. She's a rape survivor who was turned into a vampire through horrific circumstances, in a way that made it essentially another kind of violation, and she had a unique and valid point of view as one of the only vampire characters who never wanted to be a vampire. Then of course later it became ALL ABOUT the maternal aspect of who she is because she most regrets that she can't have children, until that was all that seemed to matter about the character anymore, and something about her in Breaking Dawn was just especially shallow and empty when before you could believe that's just how she's supposed to seem. (In spite of myself I did find Jacob's endless supply of blonde jokes while he's bickering with her kind of hilarious, though.)

fan art - I love fanart because it isn't as time-consuming to appreciate as fanfic, lol. I wish it were as popular in every fandom as it is to draw fanart in, say, HP fandom. Especially when it comes to book fandoms that have had movie adaptations, it kind of annoys me when practically all the visual media being made anymore uses images of actors and I just really admire the creativity put into completely canon-based drawn art that is someone's unique imagining.

Stefan/Elena - Oh dear, this is going to be a good excuse to vent some of my frustrations about Season 3 and will probably get long-winded.

...That's not a good way to start. Okay, Stefan/Elena. They definitely have their moments. Really nice moments. I like them. But with TVD there are so many different relationship possibilities I'm open to, even besides Damon/Elena which I do by far prefer, so by this point for me Stelena has long-since reached a boring status of "It's been done." ( spoiler time... )

1. Guess who got tickets to see Angels In America with Zachary Quinto in it? MEEEEEEE. *flail*

And by that I mean I'm seeing AIA with Zach in it as a bonus, not just going to see Zach in a play. A lot of ZQ fans are going to go to this for him and be introduced to an awesome work of writing in the process, but this is my favorite play and one I've always hoped I'd one day get to see on the stage. So when I found out there was going to be a new production with him playing Louis Ironson, I knew I had to make this happen somehow or pretty much regret not going for the rest of my liiiiife.

2. You know...I could already write a whole book on why it's hard participating in the Twilight fandom and being associated with those people and often automatically judged because of it, even though that's the only fandom I've ever been in only out of interest in exploring the neglected potential of certain things or just generally ripping apart everything that's wrong with the foundation of canon and having a surprising amount of fun trying to make it into something better. (So I kind of like the fantasy universe of it, okay? Shoot me. I'm honestly sick of the complaining about the fact that the vampires sparkle because I've never been into vampires and am not a dorky purist about the concept and all, plus even if they weren't called "vampires" in this series, guess what, it would still be incredibly stupid and not at all appealing that the guy SPARKLES. And I'm still not ashamed to proclaim I do think a lot of characters whose names are not Edward or Bella are actually pretty awesome, as if SMeyer practically made them that way by accident.)

But anyway, I can usually deal with the annoying stuff I run into just because I'm part of a sub-fandom of people who only like certain elements of the series and generally agree that it's not too well-written but are somehow still drawn to it. Usually I understand where the hate comes from quite enough so it doesn't get to me. But when it comes to this and I'm getting random dumbass comments on my really old fanfic from obvious trolls committing their time to searching for these people and making fun of them, it goes past the point of being annoying and just gets hilarious. To think someone can actually succeed at being a bigger loser than one of the Twilight Moms.

Okay...so nobody beats the Twilight Moms at having no lives. But still.

3. Been catching up on new Mad Men and this season is SO GOOD so far. ( Some brief spoilery comments. )

4. Okay, meme...

Replace one of the questions with a new one. Tag 11 people. Them's the rules and apparently they're pretty serious.


→ What song are you currently addicted to?
"I'll Believe In Anything" by Wolf Parade.

→ What book are you currently reading?
The Picture of Dorian Gray. Coincidentally at the same time that my grandma is reading it. (Recently I randomly got a letter from her for the first time in many years telling me how she checked out a book by "that naughty, naughty, adorable, irresistible Oscar Wilde"...LMAO.)

→ What’s the latest movie you watched?
Hero. I'm in the process of some intense brainstorming for a pretty epic novel-length Avatar: TLA future-fic and so am exposing myself nearly exclusively to martial arts movies, action anime, and other related genres of stuff right now. 'Cause that's just how my brain works.

→ What is your favorite hang-out?
24-hour diners.

→ What's your favorite musical instrument?
This is always hard to say. Probably the oboe, but the erhu is also very beautiful, and I think banjos are really cool as part of unconventional instrumentation in rock/alternative music. Or how about the sampler. (Incidentally none of these are one of the three instruments I've ever learned to play, haha.)

( Read more... )

Tagging: taragel, jolinar_rosha, lunylucy, eumelkeks, ninety6tears, backinblack, meiou_set, isisgodiva, ophelietta, nikki6, xcgirl08...if you want to do it and haven't already. Tag 11? Random number.

(I'm kind of slowly facing the fact that my other journal paintedponyxox is practically dying as the outlet it used to be for anything besides actual fanworks, recs, and more organized meta such as I always post here, because I just don't have many active fandom friends on that journal anymore. This means I'll have more posts like this here from now on and generally post more, while that journal will probably become mostly for the real-life reports and drunk pics and keeping in touch with my friends who have no idea what "slash" or "meta" refers to, etc. Which really makes the most sense to do. Anyway...)


1. I now have a Dreamwidth, with my 'e' in "flowers" dammit, though I'm really not sure if I'll be doing much with it besides having my username to comment with. *shrug* I also have a shiny new Delicious. The task of adding bookmarks to that and organizing them all is practically addictive. And I've had way too much fun making ridiculous and mostly pointless tags like "drunk_kirk_is_so_cute", "gun_porn", "imprinting_is_evil", and "watson's_afghanistan_angst".

2. Oh fuck me. I saw The Wolfman, which not only also takes place in Victorian London but in the exact same year as Sherlock Holmes just so this is begging to be done as much as possible, and now I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to write a completely insane crossover because we already need more werewolf!Watson fic in the world anyway. What the ending suggests about Hugo Weaving's Scotland Yard detective character makes it all too easy. I put a prompt for something like this on the SH kink meme but now a fairly detailed idea of how it could be done has taken over my head too much and I don't think there's any fighting it. O_O

This is horrible, though. My list of SH fics I have to write is getting monstrous and unmanageable. Especially since I've also been struck with a random idea to write Irene/Mary fic. I've never done femmeslash before and I'm finally kind of resigned to the fact that my musebrain does this thing where anything I would usually think I'd never particularly want to do I'll eventually realize I have to do for that very reason just to see how I can handle something I'm not used to. LOL. And it's actually going to be pretty damn tragic by the end because even though I don't see any good reason for Mary to get dealt the same fate in the movies that she does in canon, I seem to like throwing it into fanfic. :/

(By the way, as I've been going through the books I've realized that it's never actually specified how Mary died, but so many fans talk/write about her dying of consumption that I had the idea it was canon. I swear I've even read about people drawing parallels between that and Conan Doyle's life because he had a wife who died that way. I'm kinda confused. Is this just one of those kind of things that's such a popular fanon idea that it's commonly mixed up with canon?)

4. I gotta say...I wasn't at all opposed to Tim Burton doing Alice In Wonderland when I heard it was actually happening and was pretty excited about the cast and all, but now that I've seen the second trailer I think it just looks kind of obnoxious. :(

5. Note to self: messing around looking through little_details when I'm bored is infinitely less brain-rotting than reading ohnotheydidnt or fanficrants. Now, if only I could find out what the typical penalty might be for someone arrested for public intoxication in the 1880s...

6. I finally have a new computer after my old one died, which means now I can finally get caught up on Skins and other stuff I haven't been watching. Wheee.

I have been watching Caprica and liking it but don't have much to say. Except Uncle Sam is the shit and TAURON BOYS PLAYS JACKS WITH THE FINGER BONES OF TAURON BOYS WHO LOSE THEIR JACKS. Haha Grammadama is creepy.

7. I guess all this bullshit with the "Literate Union" getting stuff deleted from ff.net is getting real. It's time like these that I'm so very glad I'm not a BNF with fics everybody knows about. I only even have a couple fics posted in the pit that are probably just explicit enough to violate the TOS and have had people ask me just in case anything happens if I archive my writing anywhere else. But it seems like most stuff getting reported and pulled is Edward/Bella fic, so I'm probably safe. I don't want to be all "LOL sucks to be you" about it, but I'm watching everyone at the_gazebo in their panic and click-saving frenzy and can't help but just think Wow, you guys must read a LOT of porn in this fandom if this is changing your life. If Jacob/Bella wasn't for whatever strange reason my one ship with a great lack of NC-17 material available it would probably be another story, haha.

1. HEY MISOGYNY, GTFO OUT OF MY SLASH FANDOMS PLZ. ( Read more... )

2. Of course it's always very nice for people to leave reviews/comments at all, and just about any review is better than hearing nothing from people, but I can't help but be a little miffed when people leave me reviews on fics that are completed with nothing to say but "Great, I hope you'll continue this" or "Please keep writing!" ( Read more... )

3. I'm honestly tired of seeing people complain about the word "bromance" like there's something wrong with the word itself as opposed to the misuse of it. ( Read more... )

4. I could really do without all the Jacob/Bella-as-friends-when-they're-kids fic that is getting so popular. ( Read more... )

5. FYI, world, most of the time if you leave me a review that ends with you asking me to "R&R back" there is very little chance I will actually feel like looking at your stuff. For one thing, it's an obvious fact that there are people who go around leaving reviews like this on tons of fics they haven't even read just to try to get more attention for their stuff, so reading this at the bottom of a very general review that gives no clear indication you actually know what happened in the fic can sometimes make me kind of :/. ( Read more... )

6. I've started to get really frustrated with a complaint I've gotten several times about "What Music They Make" because I seriously just don't get it. ( Read more... )

7. I'm officially pretty tired of Naomi/Emily being over-praised like they're the greatest thing to ever happen in Skins and one of the bestest ships liek in the history of ever. ( Read more... )

Title: The Persistence of Gravity
[Part I][Part II]
Author: Sara (paintedponyxox@flowrs4ophelia)
Characters & Pairings: Sam/Leah, some Sam/Emily
Rating: R
Summary: His father was a complete screw-up who hurt and abandoned everyone who needed him, but he tries very hard to be a good kid, a good student, a good friend and son. And he swears to himself as he watches Leah sleeping now that he'll always be good to her.
Notes: Sooo it was finally brought to my attention that due to some coding fail on my part, the previous posts of this had the text showing up really big for some people even though it looks normal on my computer. Got that fixed so it doesn't look obnoxious anymore, LOL.
And oh look, yeah, it's in four posts now because I COULD NOT STOP and it got too long for three. Jesus.

( He would like to spend one afternoon not thinking about the loneliness of wandering the forest at night... )

Title: The Persistence of Gravity
Author: Sara (flowrs4ophelia)
Characters & Pairings: Sam/Leah, some Sam/Emily
Rating: R
Summary: His father was a complete screw-up who hurt and abandoned everyone who needed him, but he tries very hard to be a good kid, a good student, a good friend and son. And he swears to himself as he watches Leah sleeping now that he'll always be good to her.
Notes: HOLY CRAP, I wrote something that's not Jacob/Bella! LOL.
Because I'm really interested in Sam and Leah as characters and their relationship we don't know much about, I wanted to write a fic trying to show their story in a very personal way that would make the heartbreak it caused Leah (and also the guilt Sam has over it) very real and understandable. Of course, this is also influenced a lot by my strong feelings that imprinting is basically everything love shouldn't be in a good love story (or, you know, life). And I was unprepared for how invested in this I actually got and how much it ran away with me and got much longer than expected, so I'm really crossing my fingers that there will be readers interested enough in these supporting characters to enjoy this fic in a bittersweet way like I enjoyed writing it.
As a nitpicky note, I know Seth's age in this is way off. At the time I started writing this I somehow had the idea that he's only about three years younger than Leah. But it's a kind of integral detail in one part that would have been hard to fix, so try to ignore it, LOL.

( You're kind of pushy, aren't you? )

Three drabbles I wrote for the Twilight uncanon drabble-a-thon, which anyone who's into Twific should totally be looking at/participating in if they're not because it's been so much fun so far but is getting pretty slow. Crackpairings FTW.


Title: The Garage
Characters & Pairings: Quil, Jacob, Embry
Rating: PG
Summary: They're friends who live by the words "bros before hoes"...most of the time.
Notes: For b_o_w_a's prompt "Jacob/Quil/Embry: remember when..." I took a more bromantic than straightforwardly shippy approach, but I just couldn't resist this idea.

( Jake's garage had always been their hangout... )

Title: Red Wedding
Characters & Pairings: Carlisle/Rosalie
Rating: PG
Summary: Carlisle sees Rosalie for possibly the last time on the night she goes to kill the men who raped her and destroyed her human life.
Notes: For kapellmeister's prompt "Carlisle/Rosalie: interceptions."

( I never got my dance with my father. )

Title: Fair Arrangement
Characters & Pairings: Paul/Angela/Jacob
Rating: hard R (I think...)
Summary: How to live with two werewolves who have both imprinted on you.
Notes: Lulzzz, I write teh pronz. With imprinting. I crack myself up. Usually my fic is so not sex-scene-oriented, but for some reason when people start kink meme type things I'm like "Hell yeah, play time!" and I'll write anything. LOL.
This one's for autumn_whispers who requested Jacob/Angela/Paul with both the guys imprinting on her.

( She is the only one in the world now... )

Title: What Music They Make
Previous chapters: Prologue + I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII | XIV
Characters & Pairings: Jacob/Bella, Edward/Bella
Rating: R
Summary: When an unexpected conflict with the Volturi brings Jacob back into her life, Bella finds that being a vampire only makes it even more complicated for her to be in love with two people.
Notes: IT'S DONE. HOLY SHIT. A very heartfelt thank you to everyone who's followed this story and left me comments. Plus huge thanks are due to Layla (ninety6tears) for being my ever-reliable beta reader through this whole madness.
It probably seems kind of like beating a dead horse to finally post this last chapter after all this time, especially because Chapter 14 actually functions okay as a final chapter. But I still have a big attachment to this fic and I really wanted to end it more or less the way I always imagined ending it since I started the fic over two years ago rather than just give up and call it finished. It'll be interesting to see if I even get many comments, but it was something I just needed to do before I could move on with my life. LOL.
The chapter ended up pretty long so it's posted in two entries.
ETA: I've done a master post for this fic with lots of extra stuff including the soundtrack playlist you can download.

( in dreams I'm moving through heavy water / the love is enormous / it's lifting me up / the water rising over my head )

Title: The Golden Phase of Dying Leaves
Author: Sara (paintedponyxox @ flowrs4ophelia)
Characters & Pairings: Jacob/Bella, Emily
Rating: R
Summary: When Bella returns from Italy after failing to save Edward, Jacob isn't sure if he can do anything to pull her out of her state of numbness this time.
Notes: This actually started as a drabble for the anonymous drabble contest at SOB, and obviously it ran away with me and got way too long. Other people can come up with the loveliest things under 500 words, but this seems to prove once and for all that I just plain fail at such things. But I guess it ended up being less inspired by the specific Death Cab lyrics chosen for the prompt than it was inspired by the whole song and wouldn't really have been appropriate as a contest entry anyway.
I'm not completely sure how I feel about this one yet. It's a little...different. LOL.

( as we walk in the dimming light / always understand that everything ends )