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once upon a time, long, long ago, in a post lost to the mists of lj, ms yin_again mused that she would be well pleased if someone would write night of the comet crossed with either buffy the vampire slayer or stargate: atlantis. and i thought, "wow. yes, someone should totally do that." and then, about a week later, i thought, "hmmm. no one is going to do that." and then i wrote a few notes about how i would do an sga version (with botanists!). and then a few on a btvs version (sisters! roadtrip!)
and then i wound up kind of doing both. and kind of neither.
dear ms yin: i hope you like it.
Sailor's Delight
Dawn Summers, Jeannie Miller
BtVS/SGA - Night of the Comet fusion
Warnings: character death (in bulk and in convenient single-serving sizes).
Spoilers through the end of the series for BtVS, and through McKay and Mrs Miller for SGA. I take great liberties with the timelines for the rest of season 3 SGA.
Length is 23,000 words and change.
story is here.
notes (non-story spoiling version):
this story (at least the first half) was passed around like a two-dollar whore. contributing full-on and highly valued beta work were mr blackcustard, ms chr0me_kitten, and ms hillabee. ms krazyhair and ms bixie weighed in on portions. some guy at work was good enough to explain a lot to me about guns and gun stores, probably more than i really needed to know. amy, who has no lj, said generally nice things about my writing, which helped. ms nevers was kind enough to listen when i whined to her about it. sherlynhouk gave opinions *while running*. i will not enumerate the other random rl people i have pinned down whilst inebriated (whoops).
i used wikipedia so much for this. also ebay. and a rand-mcnally road atlas. also an almanac, but i don't remember which one.
if you don't recall night of the comet, then the trailer that i managed to turn up on youtube is actually pretty unhelpful. but here it is anyway.
initially my plan was to post this in two parts, on lj. then it turned out that part one was a smidge too big for that, and part two even bigger. and i couldn't find a way to break it into three bits that i was happy with. and i have a point here, really - initially there was going to be a song at the end of part one (for intermission!) and then one at the end of part two (for ending!), because i'm gimmicky like that, but that makes no sense in one unbroken webpage. so. if you want the songs, here they are.
intermission: san diego zoo
listen to this, if you like, when you get to the break labeled with two asterisks, like so: **, or as the story leaves chicago. thank you again to mr workroom for the mp3.
end: the future freaks me out
goes at the end. yeah, really. i think i probably got this one from vfc - thanks again to her as well.
one line of dialog is a paraphrase from the movie, and one non-dialog line is, too. sadly, neither of them are "bitchin'".
notes (story spoiling version):
for the past couple of weeks, i've been calling this story night of the living macguffins. which is neither fair nor accurate, but amused me greatly, and is probably an improvement over calling it thingie. and all this despite the fact that the title was the first thing i wrote.
on naming:
let me just get this out there - i hate the way the name caleb looks spelled kaleb. criminy. but that's the way it shows up on imdb.
and i'm going with meredith rodney ingram mckay. because ingram was on his damn diplomas, or at least the initial 'i' was. and my mom has a first name she doesn't use, too, and she still has three names without it. sort of. so this makes sense to me. since jeannie and rodney parted amicably, i figure she's the sort of person who will make an effort to respect his desires and try to at least not teach her daughter to call him by a name he hates. though i figure when she actually interacts with him, she can't help but call him mer. lifelong habits are tough to break.
on timelines:
i had to set this over the thanksgiving holidays, this year. i needed the threat of winter to make dawn move, and the short days to slow them down. i realize this comes up really tight against the return, so...alternate timeline with no pesky ancients? anyway, sorry about that.
on dawn:
my dawn owes a lot to a couple of stories, in particular lalejandra's as seen by the unholy and annakovsky's umad learns sumerian.
on jeannie:
if kate hewlett's damn birthdate had shown up on imdb prior to september, or if i'd noticed that prior to last night, jeannie would be younger in this story. as it is, she shares a birthdate with my little brother. he's a scientist, so close enough. there are a billion wonderful jeannies out there, and i was really hoping to have this story complete by mid-august and let my version be jossed along with all the rest. obviously, that didn't happen. she still owes a bit to the jeannie of julad's thicker than water. i wish i could say that she also came out of the wonderful jeannie in rageprufrock's bell curve, but even with matt telling me over and over again that she should be funnier, it just didn't happen.
on cleveland:
the cleveland in this owes a lot to nwhepcat's snapshots from hellmouth east, which can be found linked from her index. i would have been lost without her idea that the flats are a demon-hunting hotspot.
on botany jokes:
matt made me take them out.
well, ok. i took one out because it just wasn't working and didn't fit. the other one he raised an eyebrow over, then said, "no, i'm sure if you think it's funny then it's fine." then i grumbled for a week, then i cut it. since i had a poll and everything over the first one, i will post it at some point, because that's only fair. not right now, though.
on miscellanea:
i have my misgivings about this story. not as a story, because i'm actually really proud of it. but i think i managed to take ms yin's prompt and write it in a style that turns out to be as far from what she might like to read as possible. melancholy seems to be my default. and despite the fact that i managed nudity, bondage, and four people sharing a swanky hotel bed, none of that is sexual in any way. gen as all get out.
i was pretty uncomfortable writing the kids. it shows. if i figure out how to fix that, i will.
i couldn't be responsible for killing rodney's cat. i know that's very independence day of me.
the stovetop stuffing was a late addition. because it made so much sense when helenish pointed it out. and he had to write about something in the fake text of his letters.
and then i wound up kind of doing both. and kind of neither.
dear ms yin: i hope you like it.
Sailor's Delight
Dawn Summers, Jeannie Miller
BtVS/SGA - Night of the Comet fusion
Warnings: character death (in bulk and in convenient single-serving sizes).
Spoilers through the end of the series for BtVS, and through McKay and Mrs Miller for SGA. I take great liberties with the timelines for the rest of season 3 SGA.
Length is 23,000 words and change.
story is here.
notes (non-story spoiling version):
this story (at least the first half) was passed around like a two-dollar whore. contributing full-on and highly valued beta work were mr blackcustard, ms chr0me_kitten, and ms hillabee. ms krazyhair and ms bixie weighed in on portions. some guy at work was good enough to explain a lot to me about guns and gun stores, probably more than i really needed to know. amy, who has no lj, said generally nice things about my writing, which helped. ms nevers was kind enough to listen when i whined to her about it. sherlynhouk gave opinions *while running*. i will not enumerate the other random rl people i have pinned down whilst inebriated (whoops).
i used wikipedia so much for this. also ebay. and a rand-mcnally road atlas. also an almanac, but i don't remember which one.
if you don't recall night of the comet, then the trailer that i managed to turn up on youtube is actually pretty unhelpful. but here it is anyway.
initially my plan was to post this in two parts, on lj. then it turned out that part one was a smidge too big for that, and part two even bigger. and i couldn't find a way to break it into three bits that i was happy with. and i have a point here, really - initially there was going to be a song at the end of part one (for intermission!) and then one at the end of part two (for ending!), because i'm gimmicky like that, but that makes no sense in one unbroken webpage. so. if you want the songs, here they are.
intermission: san diego zoo
listen to this, if you like, when you get to the break labeled with two asterisks, like so: **, or as the story leaves chicago. thank you again to mr workroom for the mp3.
end: the future freaks me out
goes at the end. yeah, really. i think i probably got this one from vfc - thanks again to her as well.
one line of dialog is a paraphrase from the movie, and one non-dialog line is, too. sadly, neither of them are "bitchin'".
notes (story spoiling version):
for the past couple of weeks, i've been calling this story night of the living macguffins. which is neither fair nor accurate, but amused me greatly, and is probably an improvement over calling it thingie. and all this despite the fact that the title was the first thing i wrote.
on naming:
let me just get this out there - i hate the way the name caleb looks spelled kaleb. criminy. but that's the way it shows up on imdb.
and i'm going with meredith rodney ingram mckay. because ingram was on his damn diplomas, or at least the initial 'i' was. and my mom has a first name she doesn't use, too, and she still has three names without it. sort of. so this makes sense to me. since jeannie and rodney parted amicably, i figure she's the sort of person who will make an effort to respect his desires and try to at least not teach her daughter to call him by a name he hates. though i figure when she actually interacts with him, she can't help but call him mer. lifelong habits are tough to break.
on timelines:
i had to set this over the thanksgiving holidays, this year. i needed the threat of winter to make dawn move, and the short days to slow them down. i realize this comes up really tight against the return, so...alternate timeline with no pesky ancients? anyway, sorry about that.
on dawn:
my dawn owes a lot to a couple of stories, in particular lalejandra's as seen by the unholy and annakovsky's umad learns sumerian.
on jeannie:
if kate hewlett's damn birthdate had shown up on imdb prior to september, or if i'd noticed that prior to last night, jeannie would be younger in this story. as it is, she shares a birthdate with my little brother. he's a scientist, so close enough. there are a billion wonderful jeannies out there, and i was really hoping to have this story complete by mid-august and let my version be jossed along with all the rest. obviously, that didn't happen. she still owes a bit to the jeannie of julad's thicker than water. i wish i could say that she also came out of the wonderful jeannie in rageprufrock's bell curve, but even with matt telling me over and over again that she should be funnier, it just didn't happen.
on cleveland:
the cleveland in this owes a lot to nwhepcat's snapshots from hellmouth east, which can be found linked from her index. i would have been lost without her idea that the flats are a demon-hunting hotspot.
on botany jokes:
matt made me take them out.
well, ok. i took one out because it just wasn't working and didn't fit. the other one he raised an eyebrow over, then said, "no, i'm sure if you think it's funny then it's fine." then i grumbled for a week, then i cut it. since i had a poll and everything over the first one, i will post it at some point, because that's only fair. not right now, though.
on miscellanea:
i have my misgivings about this story. not as a story, because i'm actually really proud of it. but i think i managed to take ms yin's prompt and write it in a style that turns out to be as far from what she might like to read as possible. melancholy seems to be my default. and despite the fact that i managed nudity, bondage, and four people sharing a swanky hotel bed, none of that is sexual in any way. gen as all get out.
i was pretty uncomfortable writing the kids. it shows. if i figure out how to fix that, i will.
i couldn't be responsible for killing rodney's cat. i know that's very independence day of me.
the stovetop stuffing was a late addition. because it made so much sense when helenish pointed it out. and he had to write about something in the fake text of his letters.