stop me quick!
Ack. I've been watching Rain play it for a couple weeks... so I finally caved and got an account on the AdventureQuest RPG. Shoot me now. I've only made one character -- Baldwin the Leper. He's training as a paladin. (I find this inordinately amusing... XD)
I keep getting vague bits and pieces of new story ideas, but they all refuse to coalesce. A couple of Buffy bunnies leapt on the plotbunny bandwagon a few nights ago -- a missing-scene sort of thing from Band Candy, and some sort of forced meeting of Faith and Ethan Rayne. (Just finished rewatching the third season, and ye gods I always forget how much I love Faith and the Mayor, especially the interaction between the two!) I want to see a Faith-meets-Ethan fic with a distinct undertone of Ethan/Giles. Ethan/Giles = my new Buffy OTP. I'm only surprised it didn't occur to me earlier. It's the awesomest.
I got my roommate assignment for the W. Still need to email her. Didn't meet her at orientation that I can recall, so I have no clue what to expect.
Also (finally) got some clue as to how I did on my AP English test -- I got a letter from the W saying I've been given 6 hours of credit for my score. Now if only the actual scores would show up so I could know how I did. x_X.
I started another fanfic100 piece on my birthday -- for the "birthday" prompt, appropriately. Dio-centric. May be done soon.
Lastly, been reading this history book about Baldwin IV by Bernard Hamilton, and, dude. Philip of Flanders? Not someone I want on my side. Stupid, stupid, incompetent assholeism embodied. Try this one on for size: Amalric (Baldwin's father), Raymond of Tripoli (Baldwin's regent) and Baldwin himself had all been trying to get this joint Frankish-Byzantine attack on Saladin's stronghold in Egypt on its feet for years. Philip comes down to Jerusalem and Baldwin offers him the regency (himself being too ill to rule at that point). Philip dithers and refuses, having come down to the Holy Land to crusade but not actually wanting to be bound there in any way. (Wtf?) Baldwin then offers him command of the Frankish army. More dithering, another refusal. All this time Byzantium, which has had no problems on the navy-building front, is going, "Are we starting or what? Hey, guys, get your act together!" Baldwin asks Philip (who has his own army) to at least join the Frankish army to march on Egypt from the landward side. Philip, yet again, dithers/refuses. Without him, the Franks are too weak to move. Without a Frankish attack from the land to back them up, Byzantium can't move from the sea. They are, understandably, pissed. Philip pops over to Ascalon to ask Maria Comnena how Byzantium would feel about him not fighting; she says, Pretty damn pissed, and it'll all be your fault; Philip does a double-take and tells Baldwin, Suuuuuure I'll fight Egypt whenever ya want. But Byzantium, being not entirely stupid, tells Philip he has to take a solemn oath that he'll fight in the campaign. The oath is worded in such a way that Philip can't take it without exposing his own dishonorable/hypocritical actions, and he ends up going home in a huff. Asshole. The whole thing is totally defused, with the lovely final consequence of Saladin having gathered a massive army in preparation for war in Egypt and ending up not needing to use it. So guess what? He campaigns! Into the land that now has no Byzantine navy on its side (they went home in disgust), a largely disbanded Frankish army, and no aid from Flanders whatsoever.
Next year Philip comes back to join up with Raymond of Tripoli to attack Hama. They're halfway to Hama when Bohemond III says, Hey guys, come help me with Harim over here. Having the apparent attention spans of 3-year-olds, Philip and Raymond traipse off to Harim. Saladin, once again, had built up a defensive force -- at Hama (a border city) this time -- that was never attacked; at that point Saladin realized that, dude! he was sitting on a gaping opening into the Latin Kingdom and no one was coming to fight him. So he waltzes right on in, so confident in his numbers (120,000+) that when the final, desperate, totally sans-ally army of Jerusalem (2500 at most) marches out, Saladin marches right past them and lets them get behind his rear. That's the setup for the miraculous victory of Montgisard, at which Baldwin was present and nearly killed Saladin personally. Meanwhile, idiots Raymond and Philip were getting their asses kicked at Harim, it being a bad winter and Ascalon threatening to mutiny because they couldn't afford to keep feeding multiple Frankish armies during a famine. Then, when they finally got the upper hand, they simply quit -- made peace with Aleppo, took half of Harim and a little money in the agreement, and went home -- all because dear Philip couldn't stay and help out any longer, chaps; he wanted to recognize Holy Week in Jerusalem and go on home.
Yeah. I'm a dork. But history really is inordinately fascninating when you get your head around it.
Ugh. Rant time over. Sleepy.
Hopefully new stories soon. Hopefully test scores, late birthday presents, and email from roommate soon, too, but am not holding my breath.
-rave
I keep getting vague bits and pieces of new story ideas, but they all refuse to coalesce. A couple of Buffy bunnies leapt on the plotbunny bandwagon a few nights ago -- a missing-scene sort of thing from Band Candy, and some sort of forced meeting of Faith and Ethan Rayne. (Just finished rewatching the third season, and ye gods I always forget how much I love Faith and the Mayor, especially the interaction between the two!) I want to see a Faith-meets-Ethan fic with a distinct undertone of Ethan/Giles. Ethan/Giles = my new Buffy OTP. I'm only surprised it didn't occur to me earlier. It's the awesomest.
I got my roommate assignment for the W. Still need to email her. Didn't meet her at orientation that I can recall, so I have no clue what to expect.
Also (finally) got some clue as to how I did on my AP English test -- I got a letter from the W saying I've been given 6 hours of credit for my score. Now if only the actual scores would show up so I could know how I did. x_X.
I started another fanfic100 piece on my birthday -- for the "birthday" prompt, appropriately. Dio-centric. May be done soon.
Lastly, been reading this history book about Baldwin IV by Bernard Hamilton, and, dude. Philip of Flanders? Not someone I want on my side. Stupid, stupid, incompetent assholeism embodied. Try this one on for size: Amalric (Baldwin's father), Raymond of Tripoli (Baldwin's regent) and Baldwin himself had all been trying to get this joint Frankish-Byzantine attack on Saladin's stronghold in Egypt on its feet for years. Philip comes down to Jerusalem and Baldwin offers him the regency (himself being too ill to rule at that point). Philip dithers and refuses, having come down to the Holy Land to crusade but not actually wanting to be bound there in any way. (Wtf?) Baldwin then offers him command of the Frankish army. More dithering, another refusal. All this time Byzantium, which has had no problems on the navy-building front, is going, "Are we starting or what? Hey, guys, get your act together!" Baldwin asks Philip (who has his own army) to at least join the Frankish army to march on Egypt from the landward side. Philip, yet again, dithers/refuses. Without him, the Franks are too weak to move. Without a Frankish attack from the land to back them up, Byzantium can't move from the sea. They are, understandably, pissed. Philip pops over to Ascalon to ask Maria Comnena how Byzantium would feel about him not fighting; she says, Pretty damn pissed, and it'll all be your fault; Philip does a double-take and tells Baldwin, Suuuuuure I'll fight Egypt whenever ya want. But Byzantium, being not entirely stupid, tells Philip he has to take a solemn oath that he'll fight in the campaign. The oath is worded in such a way that Philip can't take it without exposing his own dishonorable/hypocritical actions, and he ends up going home in a huff. Asshole. The whole thing is totally defused, with the lovely final consequence of Saladin having gathered a massive army in preparation for war in Egypt and ending up not needing to use it. So guess what? He campaigns! Into the land that now has no Byzantine navy on its side (they went home in disgust), a largely disbanded Frankish army, and no aid from Flanders whatsoever.
Next year Philip comes back to join up with Raymond of Tripoli to attack Hama. They're halfway to Hama when Bohemond III says, Hey guys, come help me with Harim over here. Having the apparent attention spans of 3-year-olds, Philip and Raymond traipse off to Harim. Saladin, once again, had built up a defensive force -- at Hama (a border city) this time -- that was never attacked; at that point Saladin realized that, dude! he was sitting on a gaping opening into the Latin Kingdom and no one was coming to fight him. So he waltzes right on in, so confident in his numbers (120,000+) that when the final, desperate, totally sans-ally army of Jerusalem (2500 at most) marches out, Saladin marches right past them and lets them get behind his rear. That's the setup for the miraculous victory of Montgisard, at which Baldwin was present and nearly killed Saladin personally. Meanwhile, idiots Raymond and Philip were getting their asses kicked at Harim, it being a bad winter and Ascalon threatening to mutiny because they couldn't afford to keep feeding multiple Frankish armies during a famine. Then, when they finally got the upper hand, they simply quit -- made peace with Aleppo, took half of Harim and a little money in the agreement, and went home -- all because dear Philip couldn't stay and help out any longer, chaps; he wanted to recognize Holy Week in Jerusalem and go on home.
Yeah. I'm a dork. But history really is inordinately fascninating when you get your head around it.
Ugh. Rant time over. Sleepy.
Hopefully new stories soon. Hopefully test scores, late birthday presents, and email from roommate soon, too, but am not holding my breath.
-rave