I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays!*

[bending_sickle]

Sickle's Social Squee (and the Not So Squee):

• Wednesday, Part 1 - I had lunch with a coworker \o/ Well, not so much coworker, as we don't actually work together, but we're across the hall from each other and I help him with translations and anyway, we're in the same workplace. Anyway, lunch was had - and it wasn't our first lunch together, so sucess! - and this time lunch was had with a friend of coworker's (FoC). FoC was nice and, funnily enough, was celebrating his birthday the next day. So before I know it I'm invited to his birthday get together at Circo Massimo. My outward reaction was \o/ and my internatl reaction was *screaming internatlly* because I'd just agreed to going to a social event where I could probably only know one or two people there. Still, these things must be done if we don't want to be Crazy Social Isolation Monkey (and no, we do not).
• Wednesday, Part 2 - I went out for a walk at 8:30 at night because for the past few weeks I've been mostly jut coming home and collapsing on the living room floor and trying to not die from the heat. I thought, "hey, it's night, it must have cooled down a bit!"
  
  Oh, how wrong I was. It was so hot still I kept wondering where the invisible sun was hiding. But no matter, I needed to stretch my legs, so I ended up walking all the way to the Colliseum. Once there, I sat on a bench amidst some trees, just chilling, listening to music and looking at the lit arches cut against the sky. There were a couple of girls on the bench too. Then, oh, then...
  
  This guy sits beside me. This past-middle-age twitchy thing of a man. He asks me something, and I take off my earphones, a bit miffed because I'd think that "sitting alone looking at the Colliseum with your ears plugged into music" might give one at least a hint of "do not disturb", but whatever, I have this flaw of being overly responsive and polite to strangers. Trust me, it's a flaw. Evidence? What happened next.
  
  The man asks me if I speak English. I say yes, thinking he's some poor lost tourist, of which there are many. Then he asks me if I speak French, or Spanish. Yes. And yes. He doesn't seem to get it. Streamrolling on, he asks me if I know whether the Colliseum is open at night, because he wants to check it out at night, with all the pretty, pretty lights. I tell him I have no idea, I'm not a tourist and anyway, I do not carry a catalogue of times and schedules and prices and anything else touristy. (I also wonder why the hell he can't just, oh, I don't know, walk up to the Colliseum door.)
  
  He thinks I'm a tourist. I correct him with a "no, seriously, I have no idea about tourism hours for the Colliseum, you're shit out of luck with me". He asks me where I'm from. I tell him the country, he picks a city, and I say, "sure, yeah, I'm from there, whatever" because it's getting strange. He asks me what I do, whether I work there, or live there, or whatnot. I flounder and give the shortest, vaguest answers possible. Things start to get very, very uncomfortable and I'm waaaay past my "be nice to strangers asking for directions" stage - that line's been passed so fast it's got skid marks - and I'm trying really hard to give off a subtle "fuck off and die" aura. No such luck, so I finally just say, "fuck it and fuck politeness, I'm out of here". I stand up. He asks me where I'm going. "For a walk." You fuckwad. He asks if he can come along. "No." I'm not even looking at him at this point, just giving off "you are a creeper creeper and are making me uncomfortable fuck off I was just chilling what the fuck stop talking to me go away or I'll go away".
  
  So yeah. That was distressing.
  
  And I don't know whether he was just the skeeviest man alive, or he thought I was a prostitute. I wasn't dressed like one - not that there's a dress code and believe me, I see enough hookers in my neighbourhood to know that - but fuck, I was just sitting there in a highly touristic area, chilling and taking in the monument, and then alskjfla.
  
  So add that to the list of why I'm not walking around alone at night in Rome. Y'know, just after the "violent thievery" and before the "blood thirsty mosquitoes" and "unending firey heat of death and summer".
• Thursday - Le partay! Or, well, the socializing and chilling and hanging out thing. I wasn't at all in the mood for it, what with having only four hours of sleep in the bank and then having to work for an extra hour because the two coworkers I was going with were leaving at six, whereas I usually leave at five. (We're under this flexible time schedule thing, where as long as you put in the hours, you can make your own hours, within limits. I'm one of those who actually want to squeeze in an afternoon of not-being-in-the-office.) So I wasn't feeling particularly hip to anyone's jive.
  
  So we three met up with one of the coworker's boyfriend and hung out for an hour at a bar until seven, at which time the birthday thing was supposed to start. Then we went to the thing.
  
  And I had fun.
  
  I know, I'm shocked as you are. But I had fun and I talked to a lot of new people and nothing embarrassing happened, and that moment of incrediblye shyness and I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-myself lasted only for a short while until I found someone I got along with really wel and together we meandered between social groups. So yays.
• Friday - I had lunch with the aforesaid person. Le squee.

In other news, I've watched all of the guest-starring-Mark-Sheppard episodes of BSG and am still a bit on the fence over whether I like the show or not. I can see that it's good, but it hasn't quite gripped me. Still, I've been reading Television Without Pity's recaps of the episodes I watched, and apart from being astonishingly well-written in the analytical and poetic sense of it all, they make me want to watch the show in full, if only to get a sense of these vast sweeping themes. So BSG is still on the List of TV Shows to Watch.

However, that's not what I want to share today. What I want to share is reason 2349 why Romo Lampkin is awesome.



He's handcuffed and has a big bad soldier with an even bigger, badder gun aimed at his *squints eyes* well, ass, really. And you know what? He kills that solder dead. With a pen. A stolen pen.

Did I mention he's a lawyer?

GIF Meme:
Your OTP is having sex in your bed. The sixth gif in your gif folder is your reaction.



...accurate.

Video of the Day: BBC's Choosing to Die (2010), with Terry Pratchett

Click to view

Meme: 30-Day Original Story Development Challenge
Here is a 30 day original story development challenge. It can be filled by prose or illustration or comic or even just script, whatever works for you and how you’ll be displaying the setting. Feel free to reveal as much or as little as you want.

Day 14 - What is a character's biggest regret?

He won't let himself think that it should have been him. It shouldn't have been either of them, and he wouldn't wish his pain on Steve, wouldn't wish Steve in his place, this grieving, lost, lonesome place. He wouldn't want Steve to hurt like that.

He didn't want Steve to hurt at all, for all the good that wishing did. Because it shouldn't have been Steve; that much he knew, and that much he could shoulder. Not Steve.

He won't let himself think about what he could have - should have - done, either. All the little things that might have - would have - saved Steve. If only he'd been faster. Or stronger. Or better.

If only.

Day 15 - What are a character's bad habits?
Day 16 - What was a character's first romantic and/or sexual encounter like?
Day 17 - What are popular sports and hobbies in your setting?
Day 18 - What would your protagonist do if they saw your antagonist on the street?
Day 19 - What would your antagonist do if they saw your protagonist on the street?
Day 20 - Demonstrate a character and their best friend and/or love interest interacting as they most commonly do.
Day 21 - What is a character's deepest desire?
Day 22 - What animals appear in your setting?
Day 23 - A unique place in your setting.
Day 24 - Where did you draw inspiration for the setting/story from?
Day 25 - A character's proudest moment.
Day 26 - What special talents or abilities does a character have?
Day 27 - An average day to a character.
Day 28 - A character's most embrassing moment.
Day 29 - An important thematic element.
Day 30 - A major event in the setting's history.

Links of the Day:
Supernatural:
Anon's Doctor Who Fic An angel and a Time Lord walk into a bar...
Misha Collins' Twitter Divine: The Series launch date

• Lameassmadeupmaidenname's Meta GIFMysogyny and Supernatural - "You made that choice. You are the ones who perpetuate the mysogyny. Stop blaming us.
• Crowleyismyco-pilot's Sherlock Crossover Fanart You are rather tall. ; Photo Mark Sheppard from behind - ;) Also, tattoo! ; Photo Mark Sheppard, sitting, with his hand in his pocket - ...adorable. ; GIF and Quote Richard tells Mark a joke. "How is my hand like pie?" ; GIFs Mark lurks behind Jim - His wee tiny little smile in the first one! ♥ ; Fanart I'm fine in the fire ; Screencap Mark's tattoo - Also? Wee!Mark!
• Eastcollins' Photo Dat ass ; GIF Bitchface-o-meter
• Henrik_vanger's Dear Sera Gamble... ; Fanmix War Child ; Doctor Who Crossover GIFs *bang* ; Fanmix The Floating Mass
• Onlydeathpaysforlife's Video Mark Sheppard, during his wee drummer days - ...I still can't quite believe it.
• Enochian_license_plate's GIF and Meta Mark Sheppard's "stance shift" move
- ...of sex

Doctor Who:

• It's Sorcery's Fanart Literary Daleks
• Crowleyismyco-pilot's Fanart All the TARDIS

Sherlock:

• Oxymoronish's Fanart Bored.
• Crowleyismyco-pilot's GIF and Quotes Benedict, on Holmes and Watson's relationship ; Meta Why I ship it: Sherlock and John Edition

Other Fandom:
Examiner's Leverage Mark Sheppard Interview - \o/

• Henrik_vanger's Hamlet Macro and GIF The derp face of Hamlet
• Oxymoronish's Quote Nerds like us.
• Lameassmadeupmaidenname's BtVS Meta The reason I will defend Xander Harris to the death ; Meta Yes, my ship is complex. (Spike/Buffy) ; GIFspam All the versions of Buffy ; Video Season 3 Bloopers,
• It's Sorcery's GIFs Michael Fassbender enjoys dressing as a woman ; X-Men: First Class Video Deleted Scene - Hilarity! ; Harry Potter Fanart and Text Fuck the Dark Lord, I have fire!
• Eastcollins' Video Brokeback Mountain Twilight

Multifandom:

• Tacoface's Geek car emblems

Random:
MSMagazine's Top 10 historic advances for women now at risk

• Seschat's Diagram The vicious panic and apathy cycle
• Tacoface's Recipe Cinamon bun pancakes, Cake Batter Martinis
• Murrehtrishoos' Short Story Paradise - "So for my English class last year, we had an assignment called “Paradise” in which we would have to explain our idea of paradise and also explain why every paradise has a fatal flaw. It was a contradictory two-paragraph assignment in which we had to utilize the five senses..."
• It's Sorcery's Quote No one is in charge, and honestly, that's even cooler.
• Henrik_vanger's Meta How media clearly reflects the sexism and the racism we cannot see in ourselves ; Audio Where's Da Judas At (Judas & Where Them Girls At mashup) ; Photos I built a Question Block and hung it up outside. Seems like everybody knows what to do with one of these things.
• Eastcollins' 5 Unexpected downsides of high intelligence - The genes thing is indeed a sad, sad thing.

* Battlestar Galactica