a conspiracy of cartographers

I caught myself thinking "I have so many things to tweet about, but I don't really want to limit myself to soundbites," and then remembered that I have a Dreamwidth, c'mon, self. So here are some things I was going to tweet about, in more than 140 characters:

i. I have completed 90% of my holiday shopping for my parents! As usual I have fifty gift ideas for my mum and very few for my dad, so I'll try to just locate some nice chocolate for my dad and not go on some sort of tea and mugs and earrings rampage for my mum. I also have wrapping paper! And I should find some nice things for my housemates, and Jessie & co's white elephant gift exchange, and ... maybe for some other people? Idk, my general policy is to get physical gifts for in-person friends and bang out a few giftfics for fandom friends generally, but I actually have a lot of friends in the area this year, and lots of nice wrapping paper. Only my parents' stuff was urgent, though, as I'm going to see them next week. This weekend, though, the tree! (I really love December, and festival-of-lights gift-giving style Christmas. I would like some snow, though, c'mon, let's get winter up in here.)

ii. I have a new laptop! The old kind of broken one (m key hasn't worked for aaages, lid will no longer close because it was winching off slowly) is called Methos, which was apparently a terrible idea, because it kept dying but never stayed dead. I think I'm calling the new one Frigga, and it will hopefully be a much better-behaved immortal until its time comes. I haven't set it up yet, though, because that really feels like a day-long task to transfer all my files and get my music in order and make sure it has the right browsers and useful programs like VLC &c. It is also going to have much better processing power than my current one, which means it is time for me to LEARN HOW TO VID. Seriously, I want to try this! So, vidding friends: anyone know what vidding program would be good? Keep in mind that I'm still on a Windows OS, so all the nice Mac-only programs are right out.

iii. Speaking of vids! The Aims vid project, in which vidders are making a vid to each song on said Vienna Teng album. The latest is The Breaking Light, a Pacific Rim vid by such_heights, which I knew was going to slay me going in, because anytime she vids a Vienna Teng song I basically become a sobbing mess. That it's also Pacific Rim just made everything 1000% betterworse.

iv. And speaking of Vienna Teng, I had this theory that the song Never Look Away is just one of those great songs that is applicable to basically any pairing one is currently having feels about. I was fairly sure of this when I was having lots of Thor/Loki feels about it, and now I am entirely sure of it, because I've started showing Housemate A due South and suddenly Never Look Away was this ridiculous amazing torrent of all my old Fraser/Kowalski feelings. So yeah! I am showing Housemate A due South! We're still only in first season, and I'm enjoying it immensely; it's been at least two, possibly three, years since I watched it last, and oh gosh I just love it so much, what a perfect show to watch in the drawing-in of winter.

v. I hear there is a meme going around where you suggest topics and then I post a response to one a day! I ... really don't have the wherewithal to be that diligent, but if you like, please do comment with a topic, anything you like, and I'll choose some to talk about!

So a lot is going on all at once right now -- my sweetheart has major surgery tomorrow! I just started a new job! and ... probably some other things, but the confluence of these two events, and particularly everything about the former one, is enough to be going on with -- and I could really do with a pick-me-up.

Specifically: music! Rec me happy songs? Songs that cheer you up, make you walk with purpose when you listen to them, make you smile? I really want to make a playlist to listen to on loop to get through things, but off the top of my head I only have two songs. (For the curious: Surface of the Sun by the Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir; Starships by Nikki Minaj. The first one is and has been a comfort to me for at least three years, and the second is just full of joy and SPACESHIPS.) So yes! I would love all your musical recommendations -- just title and artist is fine, I can track them down myself via YouTube/iTunes/&c.

Now that I am caught up the show, it is time to bask in the fic! But the thing about Supernatural fandom is that it is prolific; I'm having to really fine-tune tag queries on the AO3, I have no idea where to even start on LJ, and, well, delicious isn't really a font of helpfulness these days. Therefore, this is officially a shameless plea for Supernatural fic recs post!

Obviously if you know anything off the top of your head that must be read, by all means rec it! But I figure talking about the sort of things I'm looking for might be helpful. So:

+ Sam/Dean. Hit me with all the fic about them being psychotically, irrationally, erotically codependent on each other. I honestly don't care when it takes place, how compliant with all of canon it is (although I don't think I want anything from before the end of second season, unless it's a specific episode tag and un-Jossed), whether or not they're allowed to have nice things, any of it. All I really need here is well-written epic codependency.

+ Dean/Cas! I ... am honestly not sure what I want from my Dean/Cas, so hit me with your favorites. My only hard rule is that the narrative also likes Sam. (Not, necessarily, is nice to him, because when is any narrative nice to Sam; I just don't want to read anything that hates him.) I suspect I would also be especially easy for anything that explores Dean and Castiel's weird twisty power dynamics, but really I'm up for anything.

+ FIC ABOUT LADIES. Give me all your fixes and reclamations of Jo and Ellen! All the subversive things you can think of about Mary or Ruby or Bela or Anna or, hell, Lisa or Cassie or Madison or I don't even care, LADIES. Ladies saving the world and giving the refrigerator the finger and not having their narratives end with those boys.

+ Angels! I would love anything that messes about with the mythology; I would happily take Good Omens or American Gods or Murder Mysteries crossovers. (Or even crossovers with things Neil Gaiman hasn't touched, as presumably those must exist too.) I would love more with Anna; I am fairly sure I need fic about Gabriel like air, oh my god Gabriel. I don't care about demons quite as much, but give me good Crowley and I am so there. None of this has to be gen, either; even though I do have specific Sam/Dean and Dean/Cas wishes, I'm basically there for any ship done well.

+ TEAM FREE WILL. Membership not limited to Sam, Dean, Cas, and I guess Bobby, either; I would love fic written mid-season that wildly theorizes, or AUs about what could have happened, all that good stuff. Other favorites for Team Free Will are Jo, Ellen, Gabriel, Anna, and Crowley. God, wouldn't have a season about all of their world-saving adventures have been great? Anyway! Maybe there will be fic that provides at least some elements of that.

+ And this is not fic, but if you know of any particularly tasty meta on any aspect of the show, I am so there.

Hopefully the above narrows it down some, and I didn't actually just say "Give me every well-written fic this fandom has ever written," buuut it is entirely possible that I did. In any case, all recs greatly appreciated, and I might even come back and leave you excited flaily comments about the fics in question. Have at it!

A question: what is the general protocol for the original things that are written for NaNoWriMo? Do we hoard them jealously in the faint hope that we may one day publish them? Do we post them proudly for the world to see? I mean, I am not even properly signed up for NaNo because I am in the hoarding camp, but I will probably be throwing my novel at people in emails, and I am at least in theory interested in seeing other people's work too. I ... realize that if there was a question, I have in fact lost it in the shuffle. Uh, basically, what is the kosher writing distribution here?

And a meme: Comment with a fandom and I will tell you my

› favorite character
› least favorite character
› prettiest character
› character I wanna marry
› favorite pairing
› favorite episode
› unpopular opinion

What are your favourite stories/fandoms/&c that take place in The Future? I mean things that are specifically in the future as in undated or set obviously after 2010; therefore things like 1984 or 2001: A Space Odyssey are out, but everything from Star Trek to The Road to, god help us, 2012 are in, but if you really want to tell me you like 2012, you'd better be prepared to really sell me.

(And yes, this is for a reason! It is a crossover fic reason. If this in any way informs what comes to mind, all the better.)

Hah, wow. I haven't been online at all in days; nor have I done any homework in days. This is because I've been far too busy going to every possible panel at my college's sci-fi/fantasy/&c con, and going to a cabaret show and its afterparty and being mildly amazed that I actually got out of bed this morning, and generally having an excellent time! So if world-shaking things have happened on the internets, I am blissfully unaware.

My college's con is a lot more book fandom than my own experience at WisCon was last year; a lot of that probably has to do with the guests. I don't think all three of them have been in a panel at the same time, but in the last few days I've seen a lot of Tamora Pierce and Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen, so I posit that the guest list has something to do with the tone. I do not mind at all, because, oh my god, my inner ten-year-old is hanging out with Tamora Pierce and Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen!! It is just a bit weird to be harkening back to the time when my fannish experience was less media-based.

That said, I had a couple of friends dress up as Ten and Simm!Master (and when I saw them in costume together unexpectedly for the first time, I may have COLLAPSED WITH JOY); we collectively ran into a Fourth Doctor from a neighboring college; she was awesome and invited us to her con, luring us there with the promise of Doctor Who panels. There are probably pictures, but songofsongs has all of them.

I think the real point of this post, though, is a Doctor Who-related question that was brought up at one of the panels, namely, if the Doctor spontaneously turned up and asked you to drop everything and go away with him, would you? The majority of the room did raise their hand, and to my mild alarm I was among them, but I really am curious now. It would be the worst awesomest idea ever, but I would still do it! And I want to know who else would. I am a bit brokenhearted, because it just occurred to me that I currenly have no poll-posting cabilities, so I cannot actually poll you guys about this, but: talk to me! Would you go with the Doctor? Why? Why not? If so which one(s)? (Mine are probably Two, Three, Five, and Ten, not that this would save me. I would not go with Six or Eight, oh my god.)

Ahhh, I need to run to another Tamora Pierce panel. :D

i. Link o' the day: What About, a multifandom vid about women being awesome. As sometimes happens when I watch things about women being awesome, I started crying for reals, because I'm kind of a nutcase.

ii. In other reasons I am kind of a nutcase, this Hark! A Vagrant! strip is a really good depiction of my day:



I'm most of the way through Breaking Dawn, guys. I can't put it down. It's so crushingly terrible. It's full of so many creepy things that I deeply disagree with! I'm so sad we ever got Jacob's POV because it's 1000x more entertaining than Bella's! The less spoken about the demonbaby pregnancy the better! BELLA IS THE ~*BESTEST VAMPIRE EVER*~! It's like they put crack in the pages. I can't wait to see the poor actors do all these scenes when they get to adapting this one for film. I can absolve myself of my shame by writing filthy Jacob/Edward porn, right? Right?

[On that note: I'm probably asking in the wrong place, because I expect most of you are kind of judging me for Twilight-talk already, but does anyone know where there's good fic? Any good fic at all? The AO3 is giving me nothing, and I'd like me some Jacob/Edward! Alice/Bella! Awkward cross-species OT3 fic! Carlisle/anyone! Just ... anything that fucks with canon, basically. And I can't write it all myself. Help?]

iii. White Collar is back tonight! It was not actually exciting enough to deserve cut text. :( STEP IT UP, WHITE COLLAR. Needs moar Elizabeth, I think. Actually, I just want the whole show to be like 1x08: subtext & trust & El!! Next episode looks promising, anyway.

iv. I absolutely have an essay due tomorrow that I have barely started writing! I can't tell if my complete failure to be stressed about this is faith in my writing abilities, sheer hubris, or really epic senioritis. All three? Anyway, I'm probably not sleeping much tonight.

Although by some miracle I have trained myself out of reaching November and going into full-on procrastination mode, it is still November and this means that I am being mostly responsible but still flirting with the idea of procrastination.

In the spirit of this, I should be using my hour-before-bed free time to, say, work on fic or perhaps catch up on Merlin and SJA and maybe Flashpoint. Instead I find myself rereading all the due South fic I have bookmarked, listening to a lot more Barenaked Ladies than is perhaps healthy, and steadily losing my internal battle to not rewatch Stargate Atlantis. This is how it goes in my head:

PROS
+ He's an emotionally inarticulate guy with a failed marriage, funny hair, and mad skills with a gun! He's a snippy Canadian scientist with a genius IQ and very few people skills! Together, they fight Wraith!!
+ RONON. Enough said.
+ The first time I watched it, it was literally one of the first TV shows I'd sat down to watch in a remotely fannish way, and although I certainly enjoyed it I was mostly watching it as Something To Do With Friends and it didn't particularly speak to me. Now I think of it and the idea of writing John Sheppard makes me go weak in the knees, okay.
+ I can probably find all the good fic and meta in about 0.5 seconds: go after the old due South stuff and work forwards!

CONS
+ I can probably find all the good fic and meta in about 0.5 seconds. My life would disappear!
+ It's not -- uh, it's really not that good? Obviously I would be in it for the fandom, and I am starting to get spoiled and like shows where I can just watch the show without getting a headache. (First Michael plotline, end of s2: I WANT TO BEAT EVERYONE WITH CLUEBATS. For example.)
+ Did I mention that the idea of writing John Sheppard makes me go weak in the knees? I think the only real question here is, how many fic projects do I need? (I understand that this may be only my own personal con.)

The fact that I am even mentioning any of this means I am tipping dangerously close to just caving and doing a (possibly selective, Best Of, Watch Rodney Do Awesome Things) rewatch, and I am about 80% sure that this is a thinly veiled ploy to get someone to talk me into it. On the other hand, this should probably be a project for the new year.

On the mutant third hand I really desperately want to write improbable Fraser/Ray/John/Rodney fic, but shhh.

A few things that have been percolating in my brain:

i. I'm writing a fic with ghost!Fraser haunting Kowalski, which is fun in a slightly horrible way, but as always when I write things that distress me I'm simultaneously tossing around other fic ideas in my head (ie at this juncture ones where Fraser is not dead). The idea-in-the-shower du jour is a due South/Young Wizards fusion, because if anyone in the universe is the posterchild for a YW-style wizard, it's Benton Fraser. I think it could be a genuinely fun and weird and engaging story, too -- he first comes to Chicago on the trail of the killers of his father, of course, and because I think it would be brilliantly hilarious, obviously Welsh and Vecchio are the Chicago area's Advisory wizards. I'd probably age Fraser way down to being in his late teens so that he can still do his action-hero thing, and maybe Kowalski can be a teenage wizard too, and likes to go to Vecchio's house and yell at him when he's stressed out about his current assignment. Obviously Frannie cannot appear in this story because she would be stunningly indistinguishable from Carmela. Anyway, that's for another day, when I am not writing upsetting things about Fraser being a ghost.

ii. Slightly relatedly, I am way too excited about Eastwick airing tonight. Ask me about how I love horrible tasteless silly things! Seriously, I pretend to have taste sometimes, but for whatever reason I caved and watched High School Musical for the first time ever yesterday, and really loved it in a hiding-behind-my-hands going "why god why" way, so ... I think my excitement about Eastwick is a related animal. Of tastelessness.

iii. And in news that is hopefully unrelated to my tastelessness, what I have been more seriously percolating in my brain is the idea of getting a tattoo. This has lots to do with various of my friends going "DO IT" and even more to do with the fact that I recently realized that since I was about nine I've had the same answer to the "What would you get if you got a tattoo?" question, which means I am obviously pretty damn sure of the design. (The Elvish script of the One Ring poem around my ankle, to be specific. Because -- pretty, unobtrusive, and the Lord of the Rings was my fannish place before I even had one, and will always be really important in a way that doesn't have much to do with my various mayfly-attention-span fandom enthusiasms.) This of course means the new questions are not of the are you sure/wouldn't you regret it/&c variety, but instead questions like, "Aria, tattoos are pretty expensive, aren't you supposed to be worrying about funds for grad school?" and "Aria, don't you hate, say, needles and pain and introducing foreign substances to your body, which by the way includes ink?" I believe those are the pressing questions. THOUGHTS PLZ.

Kicking off the blog's inaugural fandom post with wingfic is kind of weird (particularly because except in special cases I don't really get the intrinsic appeal), but what the hell: I think it is very important that I rec Lift, because in my determined read-through of the entirety of ds_flashfiction's archive, I've hit the Reality vs Whimsy DS Match and am very much in love. Lift is about Ray Kowalski waking up with wings, except in this one they're there instead of his actual arms and are actually a horrible impediment; it's also a Ray/Ray fic that turns into a Fraser/Ray/Ray one partway through, which is how I am discovering I really like my OT3.

Tangentially, I am in the midst of a DILEMMA. It is not a very terrible dilemma, because it is about ... how I will waste my time watching tv ... but it goes: I had this wonderful plan wherein I would get out of school and promptly spend my first week or so of relative freedom mainlining a rewatch of due South. I want to do this [a] because I love dS but I suspect I do not give Vecchio enough of that love, and also there is something horribly wrong with a world in which I can quote all of Mountie on the Bounty but none of Call of the Wild, and [b] because then I can take Really Epic Notes (probably to be inflicted shared here) and consequently finish any of the roughly ten due South WIPs I have lying around. On the other hand, the stupid Star Trek film has filled me with Star Trek love, and I have seen about a total of zero Star Trek ever -- so I am equally tempted to go track down all of TOS on YouTube. Me & silly sci-fi are good buddies, and possibly I am not a very good geek if I only know the vaguest things about Star Trek. Also, wintercreek was kind of evil and linked me to a site which includes historical notes with some of the oldest known slash; it should be unsurprising that this phrase turns my knees weak with joy.

So what is better, Epic Due South Rewatching or Epic Star Trek First Watching?? IT IS A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION.