a conspiracy of cartographers

December posting meme! Today's topic: the thing I most want to see in upcoming MCU films, for such_heights.

I ... feel like I have two different answers; one of them is about my ideal MCU films, and one of them is about what I can reasonably hope and expect to see in the future. Obviously there is some overlap! So I'm just going to go through upcoming films that I know are happening, be WILDLY OPTIMISTIC, and list some things I would love:

+ Heaps and heaps of well-done Natasha backstory! Like, ideally I want a Black Widow movie buuut obviously that is not in the cards, so instead I want lots of Natasha in Age of Ultron (and for those bits from the trailer that hint at backstory being done well), and lots of Natasha in Cap 3, and ... surprise Natasha in everything else?? LOTS OF NATASHA.

+ Uhhhh I am in mild despair about the Ant Man film but, let's be real, what I desire is a minimum of Hank Pym, and JAN PLEASE JUST GIVE ME JAN AND DON'T FRIDGE HER, and for most of the film to be about Jan and Scott Lang. ...A girl can dream.

+ A girl can also hope that Carol Danvers gets a casting like Katee Sackhoff or Katheryn Winnick, though I'm not wedded to either of these and I bet there are tons of excellent options out there. But I would be really into either of those!

+ I am trying to be restrained but seriously though I want a Thor 3 that's about Loki WRECKING EVERYTHING while being king (lolol I'm going to get literally Jossed about this in May) while Jane tries to save it with SCIENCE and becomes friends with Sif and they both have to help Thor with politics as well as hitting things and also ... everyone hangs out and Loki keeps being allllmost redeemable ...? Stop talking and write fic, Aria.

+ Tbh my most important want for any MCU film ever, though, is for the characters I love to have meaningful connections and hang out and be friends! This is a lot of the reason I really loved Winter Soldier; this is the reason that despite rolling my eyes a lot at the Age of Ultron trailer, I'm still way too optimistic about the movie because I adored the clip of the Avengers trying to lift Mjolnir. I want all the movies to be, at their core, like that.

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!

Woke up to a tweet from Polaris that said Look, I found the perfect Valentine for you and linked me to a tumblr post with the following text:

blood is red
love is redder
ur morally accepted ship is good
but incest is better

Guys, my BFF is a lovely human who mocks my ridiculousnesses in the best possible way. Happy February 14th, I guess! The housemates and I are breaking out chocolate cake this evening and hopefully just hanging out for a bit, and that is in fact exactly the way I want to spend Valentine's Day, because unsurprisingly, proscriptive heterosexual narratives are not my jam, and I love my friends, and also I love cake! (I did buy a nice card that is not explicitly couple-y, and I'm going to give it to my sweeties tomorrow, but, y'know, in the spirit of Lupercalia, as you do.)

Also, hell, this meme is going around, and it looks like fun: Let's play this game where you guess my favourite tropes and fictional character types.

I ... doubt much guessing will be involved. But you get no points for incest, Polaris already lampshaded that one.

Last night, I dreamed that Sherlock was going to be canceled. Unlikely, self! Obviously I was projecting my ongoing Community anxieties.

In any case, here, have a Sherlock vs Doctor Who meme ( beneath the cut )

Happy Galentine's Day
my thread

(Despite that this claims to be LADIES CELEBRATING LADIES, the post also says And if you identify outside the gender binary and want to join in: Galentine's Day is for you, too! Anyone who would like to participate, in any capacity, is welcome so THAT MEANS ALL OF YOU.) In between Getting Things Done today I plan to cruise threads and leave love.

I ... am not going to do the fic year in review meme this year, because it asks such questions as what your favorite fic was, what your best fic was, what your sexiest fic was, &c &c, and it is not actually interesting if I just sit here typing SHATTER SHATTER SHATTER. Instead, have a quick fic roundup to end the year.

( 12 fics in 10 fandoms, some navel-gazing, & a list of WIPs to finish in the new year. It's like the meme in short form! )

Screw it, today is not a Getting Things Done day. (I will SUBDUE MY YULETIDE WITH STICKS. But ... tomorrow.) Anyway, it is obviously meme time.

Give me a ship and I will tell you:

Who is the big spoon/little spoon
What is their favorite non-sexual activity
Who uses all the hot water in the morning
What they order from take out
What is the most trivial thing they fight over
Who does most of the cleaning
What has a season pass in their DVR
Who controls the netflix queue
Who calls up the super/landlord when the heat’s not working
Who steals the blankets
Who leaves their stuff around
Who remembers to buy the milk
Who remembers anniversaries

Considering the number of ships I have involving people who just don't do domestic, I may have to improvise slightly for some of these.

And before I go, a meme!

Take any one of the fandoms you know I write/rec/read AND give me a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, etc) or another time period (Ancient Rome, Regency England, etc). I will then explain the gist of the story I would write for that AU.

I should add that any historical AUs will be EXTREMELY INACCURATE, and you are probably safer with superheroes.

Hell, why not. NPR's top 100 SF/F books. Bold if you've read, italicize ones you fully intend to read, underline if it's a book/series you've read part but not all of, strikethrough if you never plan to read.

( I have read approximately a quarter of these books. )

And, because this is skewed hilariously White Dudes Write Serious SF, eruthros has a post taking nominations for your top 100 speculative fiction works. Go forth! Nominate! I'm excited about the sort of recs that fandom is likely to generate.

THE FANFICTION LOVE MEME
If you have a thread, absolutely link me to it! I need occasional distractions from the Loki Fic That Will Not End or I will go mad. That, and it's fun to enthuse about what I like in my friends' writing.