and there i go jumping before the gunshot has gone off
More randomosity, so again with the post in list form. Buckle up - it's a long one:
+ I am on vacation! Today and tomorrow at least! Envy me! I was afraid, all day at work yesterday, that something would happen and I wouldn't be able to be out, but nothing did, and so here I am. I did some much needed grocery shopping this morning - well, mostly paper products and eyecare stuff, but still, necessities.
There will be reading and, hopefully, writing, and watching dvds, and sleeping in and staying up all night and stuff. Tomorrow, I may go for a haircut and a pedicure.
*is giddy as a schoolgirl*
+ *looks at topics dominating flist*
*does internal check*
Nope, still don't care about either SGA or bandslash, though I'm happy all y'all are having a good time. However, I feel this does call for the obligatory KNIVES! IN HIS HAIR! exclamation regarding Ronon. That will NEVER stop being cool. And also hot.
+ Insta-rec!
Mockingbird by hiyacynth
Supernatural; Dean and Sam (Sam/OFC); adult; novel-length; no AHBL spoilers
The story is AU after WIaWSNB, i.e., AHBL never happened, so things with the psykids etc. played out differently here, and Sam and Dean are still recovering from what it cost to defeat the YED, when Sam starts having visions of fire again. But he's been hollowed out by his experiences with the YED, and Dean's just barely holding the two of them together when they arrive in a small town in Oregon, and try to figure out what's triggering Sam's abilities now that the YED is gone.
Sam gets involved with one of women who works at the motel (yes, it's Sam/OFC, which I generally don't care about one way or the other, but I know is a selling point for some folks), and in my personal favorite part of the story, Dean develops a wonderful friendship with the woman's three-year-old daughter. Dean + kids = WIN in my book, as you know, but this story has a lot more going for it, so even if that's not your thing (though it is a large part of why I was teary-eyed throughout the last chapter), give it a shot.
It's magnificent - long (probably about 80K words, if I had to guess, split into ten chapters), tightly plotted, well paced, seriously engrossing, heartbreakingly true to both Sam and Dean and their mythos, and full of wonderful original characters I came to really care about and want to see more of. There's the formation of a family of choice for Sam and Dean, and a really smart use of To Kill a Mockingbird, both literally and thematically.
*cough*
Obviously, I really enjoyed it (that's kind of an understatement, if you couldn't tell), and I think many of you would, too (though not, perhaps, if you are hardcore OTP about Sam/Dean). So, you know, carve out some time and give it a whirl. Make sure to leave fb if you enjoy it, too.
+ I don't suppose anyone can send me a copy of "New Jack Hustler" and "OG: Original Gangster"? I wore my cassette version of "OG: Original Gangster" out many years ago and never replaced it on CD, but with a number of people out there sharing some rap and hip hop, I was reminded of how much I loved that album. Also, um, the Public Enemy/Anthrax collab on "Bring the Noise" would be awesome. And PE's "Nighttrain" and "Don't Believe the Hype." And "Fight the Power."
*smiles hopefully*
+ I started my FNL rewatch (OMG SO MUCH LOVE), and I was talking to luzdeestrellas yesterday about how in the pilot we get the same kind of intercutting of the football game with something so much more important - in this case, Street's injury and treatment - as we did in "Mud Bowl," and yet on first viewing, I didn't have the same kind of questioning reaction that I did with "Mud Bowl." I did on third viewing, though, with the weight and knowledge of the whole season behind me, and at first it looks like, well, Street got hurt in the game, and they're trying to bounce back and win it "for him" as it were, but the subtext is still the same, I think - that compared with something like Street's injury or what happens to Tyra, football isn't just not important, the culture surrounding it in Dillon is downright dangerous.
Which is a point I think the show makes repeatedly, without heavy-handedness, without preaching, just by showing us these people's (they don't feel like characters, do they? god.) lives, and how football impacts them, regardless of whether they are intimately involved in it (Smash, Coach Taylor, Jason Street, Matt Saracen) or not (Tyra, Landry).
+ I posted fic last night:
Like a Nursery Rhyme in Braille
Supernatural; Dean/girl!Sam; AU; adult; 3,890 words
In which Dean freaks out when Sam isn't where he left her, and Sam freaks out when she gets back from her trip through the looking glass. Companion piece to Double Vision.
This one isn't quite as meta as "Double Vision," but there is still that knowing tension between the "canon" and "au" versions of the characters. I put that in scare quotes because 1. only the show is ever actually canon, so characterization that suits my read of canon gets labeled (by me) "canon-compliant" and characterization that doesn't gets labeled (again by me) "out-of-character"; and 2. because characterization in fanfic is a spectrum, and I personally shift my place on the spectrum a few degrees in either direction (gen/het or Wincest, though not really that much, given my predilection for Dean still occasionally sleeping with women even if he and Sam are fucking) depending on what I'm writing, though generally not as much as I do with this particular pair of stories, where canon!Dean is emphatically not disposed towards Wincest and AU!Sam has always been a girl.
It also includes something that I'd been wanting to write for a while with girl!Sam, where she basically asks Dean to hold her down while they fuck. I ... I find that incredibly hot, for reasons that don't need discussing at this juncture. And it seemed really suited to this particular story, given the issues in play between them, so I was kind of irrationally happy I got to write it.
Anyway, posting a sequel to an already highly self-indulgent meta AU genderswap hetcest fic is probably the height of self-indulgence, and narrowing my little niche even more, but obviously I am still in thrall to girl!Sam. Sigh.
I wanted to say thank you to the people who've read and enjoyed it. And who've read and enjoyed the other stories I've posted recently. I'll be getting to comments soonish, but I am behind as always. Also, possibly the freakish productivity has ground to a halt as I decide what to work on next.
Um, I don't suppose the world really needs girl!Sam/Jess girlslash, does it? *bites lip*
+ Speaking of Sam/Dean and wincest, and stuff, maybe it's just me, but I find the romanticization of the relationship - not in the capital R Romantic way but in the "ooh, let's go steady and doodle each other's names on our notebooks" way somewhat inexplicable. I realize that a lot of slash - most of fanfic, really - wholeheartedly embraces genre romance tropes - I myself certainly do quite often - I have often proudly called myself a writer of romances - but it doesn't work for me with incest relationships, because there is already a serious relationship in place, regardless of whether Sam and Dean are fucking. One may or may not get along with one's family, but family (blood in this case, but also found family/family of choice) is ALWAYS serious business (I am not even joking), in terms of relationships, and I would say that for the Winchesters, that's multiplied a hundredfold, so the emphasis of that kind of idealized romantic relationship where progress is measured in who says "I love you" first or whatever just kind of baffles me.
Since I know amberlynne hasn't watched the season 2 finale yet, I won't be explicit, but let me say that Dean's actions say he loves Sam more than anything else ever, and Sam's response says that he knows this, so I guess I just don't feel the need all that often, in fiction, and especially in SPN fic, for people to be saying "I love you" - it doesn't generally carry the weight for me in fic (though there are exceptions) that it does in real life, where I feel it should be said often and con brio. In fiction, I prefer the coded declarations (e.g., "I wouldn't stop for red lights") to the outright ones most of the time.
Obviously, mileage varies.
+ So I keep seeing people talking about Coffee Prince, a Korean drama featuring a girl who dresses up as a boy to get a job, and her (male) boss falls for her? Um, that's one of my bulletproof kinks, so would this show work for someone who generally doesn't go for soaps, or for foreign language programs?
+ RIP, Pavarotti. Sigh.
+ I feel like there was something else I was going to talk about, but my god, could this post be any longer or more rambly? I'll just go away now.
***
+ I am on vacation! Today and tomorrow at least! Envy me! I was afraid, all day at work yesterday, that something would happen and I wouldn't be able to be out, but nothing did, and so here I am. I did some much needed grocery shopping this morning - well, mostly paper products and eyecare stuff, but still, necessities.
There will be reading and, hopefully, writing, and watching dvds, and sleeping in and staying up all night and stuff. Tomorrow, I may go for a haircut and a pedicure.
*is giddy as a schoolgirl*
+ *looks at topics dominating flist*
*does internal check*
Nope, still don't care about either SGA or bandslash, though I'm happy all y'all are having a good time. However, I feel this does call for the obligatory KNIVES! IN HIS HAIR! exclamation regarding Ronon. That will NEVER stop being cool. And also hot.
+ Insta-rec!
Mockingbird by hiyacynth
Supernatural; Dean and Sam (Sam/OFC); adult; novel-length; no AHBL spoilers
The story is AU after WIaWSNB, i.e., AHBL never happened, so things with the psykids etc. played out differently here, and Sam and Dean are still recovering from what it cost to defeat the YED, when Sam starts having visions of fire again. But he's been hollowed out by his experiences with the YED, and Dean's just barely holding the two of them together when they arrive in a small town in Oregon, and try to figure out what's triggering Sam's abilities now that the YED is gone.
Sam gets involved with one of women who works at the motel (yes, it's Sam/OFC, which I generally don't care about one way or the other, but I know is a selling point for some folks), and in my personal favorite part of the story, Dean develops a wonderful friendship with the woman's three-year-old daughter. Dean + kids = WIN in my book, as you know, but this story has a lot more going for it, so even if that's not your thing (though it is a large part of why I was teary-eyed throughout the last chapter), give it a shot.
It's magnificent - long (probably about 80K words, if I had to guess, split into ten chapters), tightly plotted, well paced, seriously engrossing, heartbreakingly true to both Sam and Dean and their mythos, and full of wonderful original characters I came to really care about and want to see more of. There's the formation of a family of choice for Sam and Dean, and a really smart use of To Kill a Mockingbird, both literally and thematically.
*cough*
Obviously, I really enjoyed it (that's kind of an understatement, if you couldn't tell), and I think many of you would, too (though not, perhaps, if you are hardcore OTP about Sam/Dean). So, you know, carve out some time and give it a whirl. Make sure to leave fb if you enjoy it, too.
+ I don't suppose anyone can send me a copy of "New Jack Hustler" and "OG: Original Gangster"? I wore my cassette version of "OG: Original Gangster" out many years ago and never replaced it on CD, but with a number of people out there sharing some rap and hip hop, I was reminded of how much I loved that album. Also, um, the Public Enemy/Anthrax collab on "Bring the Noise" would be awesome. And PE's "Nighttrain" and "Don't Believe the Hype." And "Fight the Power."
*smiles hopefully*
+ I started my FNL rewatch (OMG SO MUCH LOVE), and I was talking to luzdeestrellas yesterday about how in the pilot we get the same kind of intercutting of the football game with something so much more important - in this case, Street's injury and treatment - as we did in "Mud Bowl," and yet on first viewing, I didn't have the same kind of questioning reaction that I did with "Mud Bowl." I did on third viewing, though, with the weight and knowledge of the whole season behind me, and at first it looks like, well, Street got hurt in the game, and they're trying to bounce back and win it "for him" as it were, but the subtext is still the same, I think - that compared with something like Street's injury or what happens to Tyra, football isn't just not important, the culture surrounding it in Dillon is downright dangerous.
Which is a point I think the show makes repeatedly, without heavy-handedness, without preaching, just by showing us these people's (they don't feel like characters, do they? god.) lives, and how football impacts them, regardless of whether they are intimately involved in it (Smash, Coach Taylor, Jason Street, Matt Saracen) or not (Tyra, Landry).
+ I posted fic last night:
Like a Nursery Rhyme in Braille
Supernatural; Dean/girl!Sam; AU; adult; 3,890 words
In which Dean freaks out when Sam isn't where he left her, and Sam freaks out when she gets back from her trip through the looking glass. Companion piece to Double Vision.
This one isn't quite as meta as "Double Vision," but there is still that knowing tension between the "canon" and "au" versions of the characters. I put that in scare quotes because 1. only the show is ever actually canon, so characterization that suits my read of canon gets labeled (by me) "canon-compliant" and characterization that doesn't gets labeled (again by me) "out-of-character"; and 2. because characterization in fanfic is a spectrum, and I personally shift my place on the spectrum a few degrees in either direction (gen/het or Wincest, though not really that much, given my predilection for Dean still occasionally sleeping with women even if he and Sam are fucking) depending on what I'm writing, though generally not as much as I do with this particular pair of stories, where canon!Dean is emphatically not disposed towards Wincest and AU!Sam has always been a girl.
It also includes something that I'd been wanting to write for a while with girl!Sam, where she basically asks Dean to hold her down while they fuck. I ... I find that incredibly hot, for reasons that don't need discussing at this juncture. And it seemed really suited to this particular story, given the issues in play between them, so I was kind of irrationally happy I got to write it.
Anyway, posting a sequel to an already highly self-indulgent meta AU genderswap hetcest fic is probably the height of self-indulgence, and narrowing my little niche even more, but obviously I am still in thrall to girl!Sam. Sigh.
I wanted to say thank you to the people who've read and enjoyed it. And who've read and enjoyed the other stories I've posted recently. I'll be getting to comments soonish, but I am behind as always. Also, possibly the freakish productivity has ground to a halt as I decide what to work on next.
Um, I don't suppose the world really needs girl!Sam/Jess girlslash, does it? *bites lip*
+ Speaking of Sam/Dean and wincest, and stuff, maybe it's just me, but I find the romanticization of the relationship - not in the capital R Romantic way but in the "ooh, let's go steady and doodle each other's names on our notebooks" way somewhat inexplicable. I realize that a lot of slash - most of fanfic, really - wholeheartedly embraces genre romance tropes - I myself certainly do quite often - I have often proudly called myself a writer of romances - but it doesn't work for me with incest relationships, because there is already a serious relationship in place, regardless of whether Sam and Dean are fucking. One may or may not get along with one's family, but family (blood in this case, but also found family/family of choice) is ALWAYS serious business (I am not even joking), in terms of relationships, and I would say that for the Winchesters, that's multiplied a hundredfold, so the emphasis of that kind of idealized romantic relationship where progress is measured in who says "I love you" first or whatever just kind of baffles me.
Since I know amberlynne hasn't watched the season 2 finale yet, I won't be explicit, but let me say that Dean's actions say he loves Sam more than anything else ever, and Sam's response says that he knows this, so I guess I just don't feel the need all that often, in fiction, and especially in SPN fic, for people to be saying "I love you" - it doesn't generally carry the weight for me in fic (though there are exceptions) that it does in real life, where I feel it should be said often and con brio. In fiction, I prefer the coded declarations (e.g., "I wouldn't stop for red lights") to the outright ones most of the time.
Obviously, mileage varies.
+ So I keep seeing people talking about Coffee Prince, a Korean drama featuring a girl who dresses up as a boy to get a job, and her (male) boss falls for her? Um, that's one of my bulletproof kinks, so would this show work for someone who generally doesn't go for soaps, or for foreign language programs?
+ RIP, Pavarotti. Sigh.
+ I feel like there was something else I was going to talk about, but my god, could this post be any longer or more rambly? I'll just go away now.
***