netgirl_y2k

Here, have some random thoughts on Being Human S4 so far.

( I won't live anywhere that doesn't have central heating, carpets and Radio 4 )

I survived ordeal by evil spinach (yippee) only to fall victim to a cold (less yippee.) Still, I was slightly heartened by receiving two valentines cards on Tuesday from the Mr & Mrs Tequila Boy, which I imagine were a well meant but unnecessary attempt to cheer me up. I was tempted to put them straight in the rubbish, thereby validating my belief the valentines day is a crass and tasteless holiday based on commercialising women's fears. Instead I put them on the coffee table, hoping someone will ask me about them and I can freak them out by pretending I'm being courted by both halves of a married couple.

*

There is a mutant pigeon which is, I think, nesting in the eaves of the house and keeps freaking me out by only narrowly missing colliding with my bedroom window. On Sunday I tried to scare it off by brandishing one of the dogs at it.

If I ever had to get rid of that dog - not that I'd want to, but if I couldn't look after him or whatever - it'd be something I'd need to remember to tell his new owners. Charlie needs two long walks a day, thinks veteranarians are one of the major food groups, and does not appreciate being brandished menacingly at local fauna.

*

My rarewomen assignment arrived and is excellent. Not the one I was angling for, but the one I would have been angling for if I hadn't seen that first one, if that makes sense? Anyway, it's excellent.

Anyway, if you've come to check me out rarewomen person, then I'm sorry I never got around to writing you a letter. I never know what to say in those things beyond repeating my requests and saying that I'm generally more invested in women's stories and don't much appreciate female character bashing. Which, you know, I'm guessing is kind of a gimme with this one. Uh, but, nothing is f-locked here so feel free to look around if you think it'll help. Or, you know, don't.

*

Oh, and because I forgot to mention it earlier and just on the off chance, I've got a fic offer up at the fandom_helps auction, thread here.

You know, I know I should be used to this by now, but I honestly don't understand how that even just happened...

Anyway, for those of you who are not insanely over-invested in Scotland's baffling rubbishness at rugby, allow me to share some fatherly advice my dad gave me, apropos of nothing, this afternoon:

"Blakes 7 is better, but Red Dwarf is more useful in day to day life."

Rereads:

Eric - Terry Pratchett
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rowling

Eric as part of my epic and yet glacial reread of the Discworld series in publication order, and the three Harry Potters as comfort reads and a displacement activity from family worries. And very good they were too. Although, it has given me the most peculiar craving to read epic Harry/Hermione fics. Odd, I'm sure I never shipped them before.

I also managed four new books.

New reads:

Bossypants - Tina Fey
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
The Reapers are the Angels -Alden Bell
The Last Werewolf - Glen Duncan

Bossypants was because I'd read Mindy Kaling's book last year, and thought it had a couple of very funny chapters, but mostly thought that it felt half finished and wished I read the Tina Fey book instead; so I did, and very good it was too.

The other three, I guess I was on a kick of, what's the term, literary genre novels? Damn I hate that term. But they were all excellent anyway. The Night Circus is just completely gorgeous, nineteenth century magical realism and the most amazing circus you could never imagine. I'd put off reading it for ages because I thought it sounded kind of... pretentious? But it ended up being the sort of book that I just wanted to swim around in. The Reapers are the Angels, well, I'm probably not the best judge, because of how I'm easy for zombies, but I really liked the setup of telling it from the pov of a girl born after the apocalypse, who doesn't know any other world and to whom zombies are just particularly aggressive predators.

I liked The Last Werewolf a lot, if not quite as much as the previous two. I really liked the premise that werewolves have to kill someone once a month, so locking yourself away for the full moon isn't an option. And given that it starts with the last werewolf on earth counting down to his own murder, well, it's pleasantly free of manpain, but it did do this thing that always annoys me ( spoiler )

-My Gran has been on a much more even keel this week, which is good for both her and me, but it did prompt my dad to ask, "Maybe we spoke too soon, asking for an assessment for 24hr care?" Which, just, no. It's like one step forward, two steps back.

-So I am focusing on my tiny accomplishments of the weekend, as is right and helpful.

-Tiny accomplishment the first: I fixed my car, all by myself. Admittedly, it was only the battery. But I had left it at the bottom of the hill and needed to push it up to the garage with the charger in it. And generally, with me, you're barking up the wrong lesbian for any sort of physical labour. I don't have the right shoes for it, for one thing. This problem was overcome by texting Tequila Boy and asking if he wanted to come round for a couple of beers, and neglecting to mention that the beers would be by way of a reward for helping me push the car up the hill.

Before you feel too sorry for him, last weekend he invited me to his housewarming party, which turned out to be just me, him, and his wife drinking tequila and unpacking endless boxes. I'm pretty sure there's some stuff that may well never turn up.

-Tiny accomplishment the second: I got a haircut, which I'd been meaning to do for ages since I was frightening the children and horses. I actually have nice hair, I get it cut and I look like I've escaped from a Legend of the Seeker fight sequence for about six weeks, the trouble is I don't go back to the hairdressers for another five months after I stop looking like that.

Partly because I don't like staring at my reflection for an hour and a half straight, it's depressing, and partly because I become baffled by the hairdresser's many technical questions, "How do you wear your hair, usually?" Well, um, every day I wake up and there it is, and we sort of muddle through from there, really.

-I have finished Prisoner of Azkaban in my displacement activity of reading all the Harry Potter books. For Harry Potter only loves me and wants my happiness. At least, I'm sure he would if he didn't have bigger problems on his hands.

-I am very tempted by the rarewomen ficathon (a shock to you all, I know, try not to faint) but I am not allowed to so much as browse other people's sign ups until I finish my got_exchange fic. Seriously, the half of my brain that isn't devoted to Sansa Stark appreciation is pretty much all femslash all the time, WHY IS THIS SO HARD?

-And to end, as seen today on tumblr, one of the great unanswered questions of Merlin canon, Why is she brandishing a parsnip at me?

For the fic commentary meme mcdoh1902 asked for a commentary on Walk Softly and Carry a Magic Sword, which, it has just occurred to me, is kind of a crap title, so it shall henceforth be known as The One Where Kahlan is the Seeker and Cara is Foiled by Evil Geography.

The version without all this nonsense lives here.

Walk Softly and Carry a Magic Sword (DVD Commentary Edition)
Legend of the Seeker; Cara/Kahlan; PG-13

( In which I have feelings about Cara's feelings, shipping in the LotS universe, and appropriate things to wear when sword fighting )

So for the fic commentary meme woldy asked for a commentary on Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle (probably better known as the Lesbian Morgana fic) and anjali_organna asked for any of my Merlin fics, which I am choosing to interpret as meaning Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle, please.

The version without my insane ramblings lives here.

Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle (DVD Commentary Edition)
Merlin; Morgana/various female characters, Arthur; PG

( In which there are many FEELINGS, my Merlin headcanon, and overuse of the phrase 'the tragedy of Morgana' )

I am planning to do a couple more of these through the course of the week, but I shall endeavour to keep any future ones to a less insane length.

I picked my parents up at the airport last night. I'd sort of been sugarcoating the situation with my grandmother while they were on holiday because I didn't want to cause any unnecessary panic or alarm, but they're back now and I can cause all the panic and alarm my little heart desires.

I suppose I should feel bad for passing the buck so utterly, but at this stage I pretty much need to crawl under a duvet with a good book and listen to Radio 4 for three straight days. But one of the things that's been keeping me sane is that the fandom_stocking reveals were this weekend and I, what's the correct term? Oh, yes, made out like a fucking bandit.

--From weaselett I got some Lost girl icons which was terrific as there are very few situations where Kenzi's face isn't relevant.
--froggimus_rex recorded a fabulous podfic of my Legend of the Seeker fic The Zombie Dilemma, in which Cara battles zombies and feelings.
--daystarsearcher wrote me a Romana/Leela drabble of girl kissing and zombies, which are basically my two favourite things.
--My ultimate Doctor Who OTP will always be Donna/her awesome Time Lord brain and paranoidangel wrote me Five Things Donna does with her Time Lord Brain which is fabulous and also has zombies. I just, er, really like zombies.
--Whereas my Being Human OTPs are Annie/her mysterious ghost powers, and THE ENSEMBLE! and glinda wrote me Five places Annie teleported by accident before she got the hang of it (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) which has perfect Annie and her powers and her friends and her giant heart.
--wnb_darklord wrote me 5K (I know) of Ten & Donna fic with werewolves, where Ten turns into a big soppy puppy around Donna. Literally. It's hilarious.
--Oh, and in recent perfect fic is perfect news fitz_y wrote me A Far Far Better Thing 10k (seriously. like. a. bandit) of O'Brien's secret feelings about Cora and snarky friendship with Thomas. It's gorgeous, and subtle, and understated and everything I want from a Downton Abbey fic.

And this wasn't part of fandom_stocking, but it has my name on it so I'm counting it as a present: sophinisba recorded a gorgeous podfic of gnimaerd's Merrily on High. Lengthy Merlin femslash podfic? Of one of my favourite fics? Read by my favourite reader? YES PLEASE.

Sometimes I worry about the extent to which I use fandom as an emotional crutch when my life isn't going brilliantly, but what an emotional crutch!

I really wanted to write lots for people, but my life conspired to make sure I spent most of this holiday period gently rattling with stress and crying. So. Sorry. I did manage to finish one thing:

Our History in Cat Years (Merlin; Morgana/Morgause, Aithusa; Reincarnation fic)
Okay, so the talking cat. That probably deserves an explanation.

It's possible I'm a little obsessed with Morgana and her baby dragon. Actually, as I appear to be thinking about Morgana again, I have a theory about her in S4 (I don't have any other theories, I only watched the Morgana bits.) My new headcanon is this: Morgana doesn't especially want to be Queen of Camelot, she hates everything about the place. But she doesn't have a reverse gear, all she can do is keep going in a straight line until it kills her. She's basically a walking death wish at this point. When, really, what she needs is to get the hell out of dodge and find herself a nice queen to serve, she'd be so much happier. Which suddenly explains a lot of my shipping choices for Morgana (Vivian, Elena, Annis, Mithian, etc)

I was thinking about how come I wrote so much less in 2011 than I had in previous years, because God knows I wrote the first two paragraphs of any number of stories that I then deleted in a fit of God, this is awful, why do I even bother? and how this was probably less about writing than it was my total lack of self-esteem or confidence in the last year. (Being better about this is one of my New Year's Resolutions, btw.)

Anyway, this meme was doing the rounds yesterday:

Day One: In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator.

And I thought it might do me no harm to remind myself that I am occasionally rather good at this. So, the three fics that I think back on and smile, somewhat smugly are:

Her Heart Beat Like a Wolf (A Song of Ice and Fire; Sansa Stark & siblings; PG; 3200 words) All of my feelings about Sansa Stark.
Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle (Merlin; Morgana/various female characters; PG-13; 8900 words) All of my feelings about Morgana.
Walk Softly and Carry a Magic Sword (Legend of the Seeker; Cara/Kahlan; PG; 5500 words) All of my feelings about Cara, and about Cara's feelings for Kahlan.

Um, I don't know what that says about me, other than that I have many feelings about female characters and enjoy telling you about them.

And then day two was:

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create. See if you can rec fanworks that are less likely to be praised: tiny fandoms, rare pairings, fanworks other than stories, lesser known kinks or tropes. Find fanworks that have few to no comments, or creators new to a particular fandom and maybe aren't well known or appreciated. Appreciate them.

And a few days ago I was putting together a recs list for ASOIAF/GoT for someone, and I thought a few of you might appreciate it too.

( 8 ASOIAF/GoT fic recs, and a bonus Merlin vid rec )

For anyone who paid slightly more attention to S4 of Merlin than I did, did it say anywhere if Aithusa is a boy dragon or a girl dragon? I need to know because of, um, reasons.

Right, I really should be cleaning because I'm supposed to be having people round tonight, but I've met my friends, the last time they were here they left handprints in red wine on ceiling, after that cleaning feels somehow redundant.