Imagery and Insight

Holiday Ficathon

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:34:22 GMT

If your fandom(s) is/are too big for yuletide but too old to have a dedicated holiday exchange this year, perhaps you need to be signing up over at oldschoolfic for their holiday exchange.

Official fandoms include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Firefly, Forever Knight, Highlander, Nancy Drew, Veronica Mars, X-Files, and West Wing, with even more fandoms available through the wildcard.

It looks like fun, for those who have time to participate.

Signal Boost

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:30:14 GMT

Reposting from snowpuppies:

"A friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend has a 5-yr old son in his last stages of a 2.5 year battle with Neuroblastoma cancer. They are celebrating Christmas next weekend and he's requested Christmas cards. Anyone who would like can send a card to: Noah Biorkman, 1141 Fountain View Circle, South Lyon, MI 48178. Let's see how far away... he can get a card from! Come on all you great people across the country, help out a little boy!"

(That's a US address, btw.)

Fanfic Reruns of the Seasonal Nature

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:03:58 GMT

Because my journal doesn't need to be so stressful, these are the closest things I have to Halloween fic:

Badfic!Pete and the Temple of Doom (Stargate SG-1, Sam/Jack, humor/action)

The Almost Slayer (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gen, creepy angst)

Institutionalized (Star Trek Voyager, Janeway/Chakotay, a different kind of creepy angst)

Masquerade (Star Trek Voyager, Janeway/Chakotay, silly holiday fluff)

Please remember to glance at the ratings and warnings before reading. Enjoy.

I Hate Cliches

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:55:33 GMT

People keep telling me, "If they believed lies about you, they weren't your real friends anyway." How does that make anything better? I'm just supposed to not care about people any more because they got tricked by the same person who tricked me a hundred times? So if they're not worth knowing, because they got tricked once, then what about me? That pretty much translates to me deserving to lose friends.

Which pretty much is how I feel -- right or wrong, logical or not -- anyway. If I get outplayed by the troll, then I lost my friend, or whatever, fair and square. So I always feel like I deserve whatever happens as the natural consequence of my own mistakes. Because I believed her lies, because I let her use me, because I let her silence me, because I fell for another one of her tricks.

Every time I go to comment on someone's journal, and I see that "you are banned from commenting on this journal" message, it hurts. They weren't your friend anyway. So fucking what.

And Here Comes the Crapstorm

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:55:03 GMT

I'm not sure how much fake bravado I can manage as another round of nasty accusations are flung my way, so I'm going to say my piece and retreat. I'm not dead -- I'm not planning to be dead or faking my own death or anything of that sort, I'm just retreating. And by this retreat I do not intend to plead guilty to anything, as I have done nothing wrong.

I have not plagiarized anything, ever, in my life. I don't even know what story is involved in this new round of accusations, and I'm just too drained to find out. All of the stories on my website have dates on them. I trust that the wayback machine can back me up on those. The bottoms of my older fics include archiving information -- what yahoo groups they were posted to, etc. All of my fics have information as to challenges or ficathons or whatever in the author's notes, which should verify dates. Fics that lacked adult content and in my opinion were examples of my strongest work are also on ffnet, usually a few months after they've appeared elsewhere.

In any case, a few minutes of research should prove my innocence. Or, you know, people could ignore the baseless accusations and refrain from emails of rage. That would be good, too.

Ask me again why I'm so paranoid. This crap just never ends.

Um, What?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:45:38 GMT

Is anyone else getting that creepy "full body massage" message from LJ over and over again in their inbox, or is that just me? I keep deleting it, and then it's back yet again. Is it a Halloween prank or a bug or what?

WWII Veteran Speaks on American Values

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:49:00 GMT

Thank you to whisper99 for posting this before me. Pass it on.

Well Frak

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:44:39 GMT

So, I have a sudden vid idea. I don't need a vid idea. I don't make vids. So, hopefully someone will steal it from me, and put me out of my misery. Here's the vidbunny:

The Buffy episode Him, to Carrie Underwood's Cowboy Casanova, featuring J.T., Dawn, Buffy, Willow, and Anya. Yes, I want a vid of a one-off character. Clearly what I actually want is a good excuse to listen to this song entirely too much.

About That Meme

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:51:50 GMT

Yesterday I posted a meme and I haven't responded to people's replies. Sorry. I promise I'll get to it tomorrow. Today was just too hectic for memes, plus you people are all cruel and evil. Except nicole_anell, who is now officially my favorite person on LJ because she gave me a character for whom I actually have answers. The rest of you? Yeah, not so much. Chell? Really? Thanks kizmet_42, I'll remember this.

It's a Meme!

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:17:37 GMT

Give me *any character, and I'll tell you ten things about them from my personal canon.

*Any character means any character from a show I actually watch, or a movie I've actually seen, or a comic I actually follow, or a book I've actually read.

Sci-Fi Fans: Watch Dollhouse

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:01:11 GMT

Meme

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:17:46 GMT

Name a fandom, and I will tell you my:

+ OTP
+ Runner-up
+ Honorable mention(s)
+ Crack pairing(s)
+ Ship everyone else seems to like, but I don't

Request

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:26:59 GMT

Anyone care to point me at a mood theme featuring Jennifer Garner? She's very expressive so I have this suspicion that such a mood theme would come out fantastically well, but alas I'm too lazy to make it myself.

It could be Jennifer Garner in multiple roles, or Sydney Bristow, or even Elektra I suppose. My current mood theme has too many really lovely sad moods and too few happy ones.

Or you could rec me random mood themes based on my usual tastes and interests. I have this weird mental thing where I think my mood theme should be an actress, though. It feels weird using a male character or a group of characters to express my mood. IDK, it's probably just me being weird.

The Mushroom Fic

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:58:59 GMT

This post has been highly filtered for months. Why? Because I was allowing my enemy to silence me. Then, I deleted it. Guess what? I'm reposting it, sans filter, and it will eventually contain the links to all of the fics I wrote over the last year but didn't share due to the aforementioned silencing.

Not everything will be betaed before I share it in this post. Most of it has sat around for long enough. There are more, many more, and hopefully I can get my act together and share them sooner rather than later. Once I've straightened out the whole mess, each fic will get its own post, and of course my index will be properly updated.

But for now, here's what I have. And to be completely honest, I could really use some feedback on these:

Title: No Place Like Home
Author: spiletta42
Rating: M
Warnings: Please see the more detailed header found on the fic.
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Characters/Pairing: Vala, Daniel, Daniel/Vala
Category/Genre: Ship, Het, Drama, Humor, Action, Hurt/Comfort, Team
Word count: 38,531
Spoilers: Memento Mori, Company of Thieves, The Pegasus Project, Counterstrike, Quest, Children of the Gods, Hathor, Secrets, Forever and a Day, and Upgrades.
Summary: Daniel and Vala discover that letting the NID deal with Athena is easier said than done. A Memento Mori sequel that resists simple classification.

Title: When the Gloves Come Off
Author: spiletta42
Rating: T
Warnings: violence
Fandom: X-Men movieverse
Characters/Pairing: Rogue, Rogue/Iceman
Category/Genre: Movieverse, Ship, Het, Drama, Action
Word count: 8,218
Spoilers: X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand
Summary: Rogue faces the challenges that stem from life-altering decisions.

Title: So Then
Author: spiletta42
Rating: T
Warnings: none
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Characters/Pairing: Daniel/Vala
Category/Genre: Ship, Het, Drama, Romance, Episode Tag
Word count: 2,239
Spoilers: Quest, The Shroud
Summary: An alternate ending for The Shroud that's somewhat light on plot, but heavy on the fruitcake.

Title: The Verse That Was
Author: spiletta42
Rating: T
Warnings: mild violence, mention of verbal abuse
Fandom: Firefly
Characters/Pairing: Inara (primary), Mal, Kaylee, Zoë, Wash, Jayne, River, Simon
Category/Genre: GEN, Action, Drama
Word count: 4,936
Spoilers: War Stories, Trash
Summary: When Serenity visits Inara's former home, the crew gets hired for an unusual job. Pre-BDM.

If Anyone Cares . . .

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:25:06 GMT

I made an icon. It's spectacularly obscure and I plan to use it always.

Bring the Glee

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:34:28 GMT

My journal has been a little bogged down in warning-label panic and troll fallout the last couple of weeks, so I'm going to start a Bring the Glee meme. To play, post a list of gleeful things in your journal, or in the comments here, or in the comments of another player's entry.

Things of Glee

Escala is in my stereo.
jarrow made a D.E.B.S. fanvid just as awesome and campy and sweet as the movie.
My new action figures: Daniel Jackson (Atlantis variant), Bender and Kif from Futurama, Max Guevara from Dark Angel (with season two hair), and a custom of Athena from Battlestar Galactica by the amazing jsebold87.

ETA: Don't credit me for starting this! My comment-screening settings are set on the side of over-cautious right now and I don't want to offend anyone.

How to Have Fun for Almost Six Minutes

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:02:23 GMT

Step one: log out of amazon.com -- yes, log out, that bit is important and I know you're logged in there.
Step two: search "Shatnerquake"
Step three: click on the book, and enjoy the cover and description, both of which meet the expectations the title inspires.
Step four: put Shatnerquake in your shopping cart (yes, you're logged out, do it anyway)
Step five: check out what amazon now recommends for you, when its only knowledge of you is that you put Shatnerquake in your shopping cart.

Buffy Quotes

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:09:48 GMT

When you see this, post another Buffy quote in your LJ. Let's see how long this can go on.

Andrew: Where the hell have you been? This funnel cake is kicking my ass.

Robin: Yeah, I hear they're tricky.

Buffy: Robin Wood, this is . . . Andrew.

Robin: It's a pleasure.

Buffy: Andrew is our -- actually, he's our hostage.

Andrew: I like to think of myself more as a guestage.

Robin: So, you -- hold him here against his will?

Buffy: Well, he was evil, and people got killed, and now he bakes. It's a thing.

Robin: Oh.

-- Get It Done

I think I owe like six of these since the last time I posted one. More later.

meme

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:27:26 GMT

Via masqthephlsphr: When you see this, post another Buffy quote in your LJ. Let's see how long this can go on.

"Don't warn the tadpoles!" -- Willow, What's My Line.

Wow, I can't believe that was the first thing that came to mind.

Fic Rec: SG-1, Daniel/Vala

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:34:42 GMT

I recently had the honor of betaing a wonderful piece of work, and it's finally posted, so everyone with any interest in Stargate SG-1 needs to check it out immediately:

No Turning Back by risti

Buying Magnets

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:40:32 GMT

Spi: Today's the Hellmouth Festival. I need to buy a magnet. Let's go!

Spi's Friend: Okay. *foolishly gets in Spi's car*

Spi: *drives in a giant loop around town ignoring all the signs for parking*

SF: All the signs point that way. *points*

Spi: I don't want to park there. *drives in the opposite direction*

SF: Um, where are you going?

Spi: I want a good parking spot. *drives through the liquor store parking lot, across Main Street which is closed, into a closed gas station, and down an access road*

SF: Um.

Spi: *drives around police roadblock into private parking* Could you get out and move that police tape?

SF: Um. *does noting*

Spi: *drives car half-under police tape, gets out and unties police tape, drives up to back of building, replaces police tape* There, all parked.

SF: Are you trying to get towed?

Spi: It's fine, really.

SF: *looks at police tape, looks at giant no parking sign* Um, are you sure about that?

Spi: *points at other car behind police tape* My mom parked here already, it's fine.

Anyway, I fear I've gone native.

The Douglas Adams Meme

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:20:54 GMT

Via wneleh

When you see this, post a Douglas Adams quote.

"As she lay beneath a pile of rubble, in pain, darkness, and choking dust, trying to find sensation in her limbs, she was at least relieved to be able to think that she hadn't merely been imagining that this was a bad day. So thinking, she passed out."

And how is it that I don't have an icon for this?!

meme time

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:35:55 GMT

Ganked from fifmeister

The Anti-ship meme.

The rules are simple: List 10 popular (or even unpopular... and preferably canon, because it's more evil that way) ships that you just do.not.ship./can.not.ship./will.not.ship. period. It doesn't matter what your reasons are, but tell us why anyway! Because anti-ships deserve as much passion as real ships do!

I'm not sure if I agree with that last sentence, but I'm stuck in waiting-mode and I'm bored.

10. Tara McClay/Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): (fanon) The fans aren't loud and obnoxious or anything, and I'm usually willing to ignore implausibility in non-canon ships, especially when they're limited to minority fringe pockets of fandom, but this one always makes me pause and blink stupidly at it. Tara is very openly gay, and I don't see her changing that for a vampire. It just makes no sense. And that's even before you factor Willow into the equation.

9. Buffy/Parker (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): (canon) This one doesn't actually have any fans, to my knowledge. It's canon, although brief. My issue with it is that I'm not completely convinced Buffy would have taken sex lightly enough to move that fast, especially after the consequences of her first night with Angel, although I do concede that it's a year and a half later at this point, and I further concede that we weren't meant to like it. Parker hurt Buffy, which furthered character and plot in a number of ways, and also gave fandom someone to hate instead of Riley, although of course the writers only had limited success with that -- fandom wanted the slayer with a vampire.

8. Max/Alec (Dark Angel): (fanon) I actually don't care that much, I'm just surprised at the sheer volume of fic for this one, when the canon ship (Max/Logan) has so much going for it. Had this been canon I would have spit nails, but it's not, so I can ignore it.

7. Liz/Kivar (Roswell): (fanon) This one's implausible on so many levels that it makes my head hurt. I know lots of people have written a single fic for this ship for the lulz or whatever, so I try not to judge people for it, but for frak's sake, fandom, if your characters can't breathe the same atmosphere then how do they accomplish so gorram much porn? Also they live in completely different galaxies. Them being on opposite sides in a war is obviously a lesser argument compared to that, as is the fact that both parties are desperately in love with or obsessed with other characters. Again, I don't so much dislike the pairing as find it baffling.

6. Gwen/Owen (Torchwood): (canon) I lost respect for Gwen when she slept with Owen, and then had a really hard time forgiving her when she dealt with her guilt by confessing the affair to her then-boyfriend Rhys only to slip him an amnesia pill. Obviously Owen Harper at that point in canon will have sex with anything that holds still long enough, unless of course it dares actually love him, so my problem with it rested on Gwen and the way she failed to face consequences. I expected more of her, and maybe that's a double standard, but I did, and I should point out that I'd given up all respect for Owen 30 seconds after meeting him in the pilot episode, when he attempts rape-by-alien-aphrodesiac, and two counts of it no less.

5. Simon/River (Firefly): (fanon) Incest pairings are gross.* All of them, in every fandom. Geez, fandom, I get how you have trouble telling the difference between friendship based love and sex, since you think sex and love are the same thing, but stop icking up all the touching sibling relationships on television. Yuck. (Same applies to Peter/Nathan, the Weasleys, etc., but it would ruin the meme to list them all.)

4. Starbuck/Apollo (Battlestar Galactica): (canon) They're just too messed up for me to have any tolerance for all the fluffy bunny twu luv fics floating around out there. They're interesting, but they aren't omg perfect for each other! They need industrial strength therapy.

3. Spock/Chapel (Star Trek): (canon) This is canon, but one sided. I find her obsessive behavior regarding this crush uncomfortable and embarrassing to watch.

2. Claire/West (Heroes): (canon) Probably the worst executed canon ship I've ever watched. West was a terrible character, and his treatment of Claire was offensive. Her character actually had a growth-backslide due to this ship. She was like the lobotomized version of the strong female character we so often see in badfic. Gah. He'd better be gone when the new seasons starts, um, crap, is that tonight?

1. Chakotay/Seven (Star Trek Voyager): (canon) This one is allegedly canon, although since it popped up out of left field in a series finale there's some room for debate on that point. I just found this to be a slap in the face to so many of the fans. The show specifically included numerous instances of leading towards Janeway/Chakotay and EMH/7. All four of those characters were shown in canon to have feelings that were leading somewhere, for years. Then suddenly Chakotay and Seven are together? Does not compute. It's like the writers deliberately tried to punish their fans for years of loyal viewing. It's not even the non-canon ship with the largest following. That would be either Janeway/Seven or Chakotay/Paris, which are also rendered null by C/7. I defy you to find a single person who actively shipped C/7 prior to Endgame -- there are certainly precious few who wrote the pairing afterwards, except in breakup fics, of which there are many.

(I also find all versions of clone sex to be highly creepy. I don't think any Starfleet officer would have sex with their own transporter duplicate, and some of those fics go about ten steps beyond completely disturbing. Just no. But I consider all of that to be mindless porn, and not by definition shipping.)

(I also avoid reading fanon pairings that mess with my OTPs, but I recognize that as my decision and try to respect other people's fun. So I won't read Sam/Daniel, Jack/Daniel, Sam/Cam, Mal/Kaylee, etc, but I refuse to 'hate' them. Also I gave up my dislike for Sam/Pete because I enjoy the badfic version of Pete too much.)

*ETA: That opinion of mine does not extend to vampires. Any combination of Spike, Dru, Angel, and Darla is fine by me. They're vampires. Also, awkward situations between cousins who did not grow up in close proximity to each other? Not actually gross, and possibly hilarious.

Urgent Vid Rec

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 03:05:55 GMT

An awesome vid just made my entire week. If you're a Doctor Who fan you'll want to check out this amazing work by the incredible butterfly as soon as is humanly possible:

No Air

(Warning: Spoilers through the season four episode Stolen Earth.)

first line meme

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:47:11 GMT

Snurched from htbthomas

Post the first line from your 25 most recent fanfics and try to find a pattern.

"We'll next be setting down on Sihnon." Mal, despite his usual lack of an invitation, leaned against the bulkhead in the doorway of Inara's shuttle.

"We're gonna beat this bitch."

"Do you trust me, Slayer?"

Inara in red. That sort of thing had a way of turning Mal all manner of stupid.

It's the last place she'd seen him -- her Doctor -- and Rose couldn't bear to just drive away and leave it.

It's wrong. She knows it's wrong, but Spike's dead -- well, deader, actually, dust, gone, really dead -- and Anya's dead too, and she doesn't even know the names of some of the dead girls, and she'd rather blame the numbness on something other than her own cold apathy, something other than that slayer part of her that got the job done, and is glad, even if it cost lives.

Kennedy lived for that breathy sob Willow made when she flicked her tongue right there.

Kennedy led the way down the dark hallway, sword at the ready.

Daniel bent over the translation spread across his desk.

He had dreams about her.

Dr. Daniel Jackson braced himself for an icy blast of winter and stepped through the stargate.*

Jack O'Neill eyed the rickety cart dubiously.

Lieutenant Tom Paris listened to the Doc complain about Seven of Nine's recent holodating.

The doorbell rang, and Kyle Valenti dropped the box in his hands onto the bed.

"Mulder, my date is not an alien."

Moving bodies brought the dance floor to life as they followed the beat of a rather good band.

Jack had no idea how long it had been.

The day started out on an increasingly familiar bad note for Major Samantha Carter when, once again, her boyfriend presented her with an incorrectly prepared cup of coffee.

Kyle Valenti looked down at the woman asleep in his lap, her tear-streaked face illuminated in brief flashes as the van moved down the highway.

So many realizations in Samantha Carter's life arrived in blinding flashes of insight -- usually with lives at stake; often her own life; even more often the lives of the people close to her -- that it therefore made perfect sense that falling in love would fit the same pattern.

Sam went home first.

She watched her blood drip down onto the Seal of Danzalthar.

The kiss lived in her memory, cavorting through her dreams.

The knowledge barreled into her and drove the air from her lungs.

The Turok-Han was dust in the wind.

My conclusion is that I have some weak-ass first lines in the mix here, particularly in comment-fics from various prompt free-for-all thingies. Dialogue is a good option in those cases. I'll try to remember that.

ETA: Those first lines rewritten/tweaked after the fic was finished have now been bolded, per htbthomas's request.

*This one's actually clever in the way it fits with the second and third lines: Dr. Daniel Jackson braced himself for an icy blast of winter and stepped through the stargate. He froze. Balmy weather, green grass, smiling natives -- this was definitely not P4X-322.