and every stranger's face i see
They gave me a new PC at work today, and more importantly, they gave me a huge-ass wide-screen monitor, which is big enough to use as a television set. I am not even joking.
It's still disgustingly, nauseatingly (and I mean that literally - I get queasy in the heat and have a hard time eating; I had ice cream for dinner last night at about 9 pm, when I finally wasn't queasy anymore) hot outside. (and I generally like heat! I am good to go up to about 95°F. It was 103° yesterday, and they think we might break 100 again today. Oy.) Last night, I made some espresso granita and some whipped cream, and this morning I loaded it into a water bottle with some extra milk to smooth it out (the espresso was a little stronger than I expected) and took it to work; by the time I got here, it was like an iced coffee, light and sweet (a little too sweet, actually; I need to cut back on the sugar, or possibly leave out the whipped cream and just add milk), and it was good. I will definitely be doing that again.
***
So I posted a story last night:
Two Weeks Out
Supernatural; Sam, Dr. Lee (from Croatoan); pg; spoilers through 5.19; 1,912 words
"The virus is coming in less than two weeks, and I'm the only one who can stop it. And I thought, I hoped you'd be able to help."
I first got the idea probably around the time "99 Problems" aired, maybe even before that (I could poke around my journal and check, but I’m too lazy to do that), and basically my idea was, "SAM IS AWESOME AND SHOULD SAVE THE WORLD WITH HIS DEMON BLOOD" because I was really annoyed with how the show treated it as this huge taint that could never be redeemed, when the first infection wasn't even his fault and the later addiction was partly in service of 1. saving the world (or so he believed), and 2. making sure he didn't lose Dean again (and also a host of far worse reasons, like revenge and despair and arrogance, but let's face it, Sam's still kind of broken from "Mystery Spot" and his time in hell is only going to make that worse, so while he made some godawful decisions, I also understand how exactly he rationalized them to himself) and I was also annoyed with Dean after that episode, so originally, I was going to set this while Dean was running off to Lisa and Sam would be like, "fine, I will save the world myself then." (and this time, he would be right.) Which is kind of where Sam was at that point anyway. *pets Sam*
And I liked the idea of EVERYONE IN THE WORLD being infected with demon blood as a preventative measure against the Croatoan virus. Take that, Kripke. Hmph. And who would Sam go see to get this ball rolling, and get the world vaccinated properly? Well, he’d start with the doctor who identified the virus and would believe it existed when he brought it up - Dr. Lee (no first name in the transcript, so I made one up) from the episode "Croataon."
So I started writing, and then the rest of the season happened and I changed my conception (I was amused when Niveus showed up and they were using the H1N1 vaccine to distribute the virus, because I was thinking of something like that for the story, way to both joss and kripke me at the same time, show!) because I wasn’t annoyed at Dean anymore and wanted him to be there. But unfortunately, when Sam was all, "I can save the world with my demon blood!" Dean raised every single objection that Dr. Lee raises in the final story, and a few more to boot (like, who is going to do this and how are we going to convince them the virus is real?). I had the logistics all worked out in my head, too - since it was an AU, Gabriel could be alive and have the juice to take the doctor back in time to work on a vaccine, thus Sam's certainty that there would be time and also that they would somehow take control of Niveus (or another pharmaceutical company) in order to have the resources to do it, and they’d just piggyback it onto another vaccine without worrying about FDA approval, and if not Gabriel (and to be honest, it’s not even because I don’t like Castiel that it couldn’t be him, but because he’s out of mojo at this point), then maybe they could convince Kali to help them out - either way, I (Sam) had a plan, if only he could get someone to go along with him.
But instead of "SAM SAVING THE UNIVERSE WITH THE SHEER POWER OF HIS AWESOME (AND HIS DEMON BLOOD)" it turned into a "THE UNIVERSE HATES SAM WINCHESTER, NO LIE" story. Poor Sam. He can’t catch a break. I mean, sure, Dean’s past five years have been shitty, and we’ve heard all about it, but Sam’s have been just as bad, if not worse, and not least because no matter what he does, someone out there thinks he’s the antichrist and wants to gank him. They only want to kill Dean because they know if they kill Sam, Dean’ll come after them. He’s the collateral damage, while Sam’s walking around with a huge bullseye on his chest. *pets Sam* He needs many, many hugs.
Of course, as I was trying to figure out how to wrap the story up last night, I was hit with the idea that while maybe Dr. Lee couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do it or even believe what Sam was telling her, you know who would? Dr. Walter Bishop. So now I want to write an AU of this story where she’s like, "I can’t help, but you should track down Dr. Walter Bishop." And Walter would be ALL OVER it. He’d be like, "Give me a week, and I will reverse engineer a vaccine from the antibodies in your blood! Time travel? Of course I’ll go along for it! I scoff at the laws of biochemistry and physics!"
I don’t know if I’ll actually write it, but I really want to (if only to have Walter geeking out, and maybe also to have Dean flirt with Astrid as she cooks something in the lab), and it might be a good way to get a handle on the Fringe folks - I do often start out in new fandoms with crossovers.
It was also in the writing of this story that I realized that a lot of the time, when contemplating plotty casefile type stories, I really don't care that much about the details, which is why I find them so hard to write. I don't care about the obstacles in the way of, say, finding Walter, taking him to the past so there's time to experiment and work out the kinks in a delivery system, etc. I care about the conversation about doing that. Like, I would love to READ a story about that, but in writing it, the things I'm interested in most are not the things that make for suspenseful thrillers. Which is unfortunate, because I would love to be able to write suspenseful thrillers, but mostly, any casefile I write is mostly a framework to hang the emotional/relationship components off of. Which is something I know, but I forget sometimes and have to have the epiphany repeatedly.
Possibly you can tell I've had some caffeine and sugar, eh?
***
30 Days of TV meme
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Serenity! How is that even a question? *g*
(Yes, I know everyone who does the meme does a variation on that joke, but that’s because it’s funny, and also true.)
I'm one of those weird fans who actually likes many canon het ships, so I can rattle off a list of old favorites here: Willow/Xander, Syd/Vaughn, Mulder/Scully, David/Maddy, Sam/Diane, Michael/Hope, O’Connell/Fleischman, Natalie/Jeremy, Luke/Lorelai; and new favorites like Jim/Pam, Peter/El (though I like Neal in the mix too), Booth/Brennan and Peter/Olivia, and though they’re not actually canon (though they basically vowed to be together forever in that Alaska episode), Morgan/Garcia.
But I think the choice has to be between Josh/Donna, which I waited seven years for! And the expectation of it finally happening was what kept me watching through the less good bits. True story - when I first watched "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen," I was like, "So Josh and Donna are together?" (because I was still catching up on season 1 at that point - I started watching regularly in season 2, with ItSoTG), and my mother was all, "It really looks that way, doesn’t it? I think they had an affair on the campaign trail." (My mother, the shipper. No, really.) and Eric/Tami Taylor, because they are SO AWESOME and so married in such a real, vivid, believable way - they’re not perfect, not by a long shot, but they do the best they can with what they've got. Eric can be kind of a dick sometimes, but he always KNOWS when he’s being a dick and he usually apologizes and makes up for it, and is there anyone more awesome than Tami Taylor on television at this moment? I don't think so. Eric and Tami are awesome to each other, and fantastic to the kids who depend on them for guidance. So, you know, COACH AND MRS. COACH FOR THE WIN! ♥
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/189120.html.
people have commented there.
It's still disgustingly, nauseatingly (and I mean that literally - I get queasy in the heat and have a hard time eating; I had ice cream for dinner last night at about 9 pm, when I finally wasn't queasy anymore) hot outside. (and I generally like heat! I am good to go up to about 95°F. It was 103° yesterday, and they think we might break 100 again today. Oy.) Last night, I made some espresso granita and some whipped cream, and this morning I loaded it into a water bottle with some extra milk to smooth it out (the espresso was a little stronger than I expected) and took it to work; by the time I got here, it was like an iced coffee, light and sweet (a little too sweet, actually; I need to cut back on the sugar, or possibly leave out the whipped cream and just add milk), and it was good. I will definitely be doing that again.
***
So I posted a story last night:
Two Weeks Out
Supernatural; Sam, Dr. Lee (from Croatoan); pg; spoilers through 5.19; 1,912 words
"The virus is coming in less than two weeks, and I'm the only one who can stop it. And I thought, I hoped you'd be able to help."
I first got the idea probably around the time "99 Problems" aired, maybe even before that (I could poke around my journal and check, but I’m too lazy to do that), and basically my idea was, "SAM IS AWESOME AND SHOULD SAVE THE WORLD WITH HIS DEMON BLOOD" because I was really annoyed with how the show treated it as this huge taint that could never be redeemed, when the first infection wasn't even his fault and the later addiction was partly in service of 1. saving the world (or so he believed), and 2. making sure he didn't lose Dean again (and also a host of far worse reasons, like revenge and despair and arrogance, but let's face it, Sam's still kind of broken from "Mystery Spot" and his time in hell is only going to make that worse, so while he made some godawful decisions, I also understand how exactly he rationalized them to himself) and I was also annoyed with Dean after that episode, so originally, I was going to set this while Dean was running off to Lisa and Sam would be like, "fine, I will save the world myself then." (and this time, he would be right.) Which is kind of where Sam was at that point anyway. *pets Sam*
And I liked the idea of EVERYONE IN THE WORLD being infected with demon blood as a preventative measure against the Croatoan virus. Take that, Kripke. Hmph. And who would Sam go see to get this ball rolling, and get the world vaccinated properly? Well, he’d start with the doctor who identified the virus and would believe it existed when he brought it up - Dr. Lee (no first name in the transcript, so I made one up) from the episode "Croataon."
So I started writing, and then the rest of the season happened and I changed my conception (I was amused when Niveus showed up and they were using the H1N1 vaccine to distribute the virus, because I was thinking of something like that for the story, way to both joss and kripke me at the same time, show!) because I wasn’t annoyed at Dean anymore and wanted him to be there. But unfortunately, when Sam was all, "I can save the world with my demon blood!" Dean raised every single objection that Dr. Lee raises in the final story, and a few more to boot (like, who is going to do this and how are we going to convince them the virus is real?). I had the logistics all worked out in my head, too - since it was an AU, Gabriel could be alive and have the juice to take the doctor back in time to work on a vaccine, thus Sam's certainty that there would be time and also that they would somehow take control of Niveus (or another pharmaceutical company) in order to have the resources to do it, and they’d just piggyback it onto another vaccine without worrying about FDA approval, and if not Gabriel (and to be honest, it’s not even because I don’t like Castiel that it couldn’t be him, but because he’s out of mojo at this point), then maybe they could convince Kali to help them out - either way, I (Sam) had a plan, if only he could get someone to go along with him.
But instead of "SAM SAVING THE UNIVERSE WITH THE SHEER POWER OF HIS AWESOME (AND HIS DEMON BLOOD)" it turned into a "THE UNIVERSE HATES SAM WINCHESTER, NO LIE" story. Poor Sam. He can’t catch a break. I mean, sure, Dean’s past five years have been shitty, and we’ve heard all about it, but Sam’s have been just as bad, if not worse, and not least because no matter what he does, someone out there thinks he’s the antichrist and wants to gank him. They only want to kill Dean because they know if they kill Sam, Dean’ll come after them. He’s the collateral damage, while Sam’s walking around with a huge bullseye on his chest. *pets Sam* He needs many, many hugs.
Of course, as I was trying to figure out how to wrap the story up last night, I was hit with the idea that while maybe Dr. Lee couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do it or even believe what Sam was telling her, you know who would? Dr. Walter Bishop. So now I want to write an AU of this story where she’s like, "I can’t help, but you should track down Dr. Walter Bishop." And Walter would be ALL OVER it. He’d be like, "Give me a week, and I will reverse engineer a vaccine from the antibodies in your blood! Time travel? Of course I’ll go along for it! I scoff at the laws of biochemistry and physics!"
I don’t know if I’ll actually write it, but I really want to (if only to have Walter geeking out, and maybe also to have Dean flirt with Astrid as she cooks something in the lab), and it might be a good way to get a handle on the Fringe folks - I do often start out in new fandoms with crossovers.
It was also in the writing of this story that I realized that a lot of the time, when contemplating plotty casefile type stories, I really don't care that much about the details, which is why I find them so hard to write. I don't care about the obstacles in the way of, say, finding Walter, taking him to the past so there's time to experiment and work out the kinks in a delivery system, etc. I care about the conversation about doing that. Like, I would love to READ a story about that, but in writing it, the things I'm interested in most are not the things that make for suspenseful thrillers. Which is unfortunate, because I would love to be able to write suspenseful thrillers, but mostly, any casefile I write is mostly a framework to hang the emotional/relationship components off of. Which is something I know, but I forget sometimes and have to have the epiphany repeatedly.
Possibly you can tell I've had some caffeine and sugar, eh?
***
30 Days of TV meme
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Serenity! How is that even a question? *g*
(Yes, I know everyone who does the meme does a variation on that joke, but that’s because it’s funny, and also true.)
I'm one of those weird fans who actually likes many canon het ships, so I can rattle off a list of old favorites here: Willow/Xander, Syd/Vaughn, Mulder/Scully, David/Maddy, Sam/Diane, Michael/Hope, O’Connell/Fleischman, Natalie/Jeremy, Luke/Lorelai; and new favorites like Jim/Pam, Peter/El (though I like Neal in the mix too), Booth/Brennan and Peter/Olivia, and though they’re not actually canon (though they basically vowed to be together forever in that Alaska episode), Morgan/Garcia.
But I think the choice has to be between Josh/Donna, which I waited seven years for! And the expectation of it finally happening was what kept me watching through the less good bits. True story - when I first watched "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen," I was like, "So Josh and Donna are together?" (because I was still catching up on season 1 at that point - I started watching regularly in season 2, with ItSoTG), and my mother was all, "It really looks that way, doesn’t it? I think they had an affair on the campaign trail." (My mother, the shipper. No, really.) and Eric/Tami Taylor, because they are SO AWESOME and so married in such a real, vivid, believable way - they’re not perfect, not by a long shot, but they do the best they can with what they've got. Eric can be kind of a dick sometimes, but he always KNOWS when he’s being a dick and he usually apologizes and makes up for it, and is there anyone more awesome than Tami Taylor on television at this moment? I don't think so. Eric and Tami are awesome to each other, and fantastic to the kids who depend on them for guidance. So, you know, COACH AND MRS. COACH FOR THE WIN! ♥
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/189120.html.
people have commented there.