Study of Running

back

2015-04-11T23:21:22Z

Haven't been on LJ since 2012. What are the good comms for fic writing and spoiler-free Doctor Who now?

Also hi.

Tumblr: idgi

2012-08-16T05:06:49Z

Just got a Tumblr. Does anyone on the flist understand Tumblr? There is so much I don't get that isn't covered in the help and I can't find any good newbie guides that answer the obvious questions instead of regurgitating the site help pages.

Like how do you reblog a reblog so you are actually reblogging the person's response and not just the original post? Is there a way to browse a tag that has a hyphen in it? Why is it that when I upload something high-res, you can click on the thumbnail and it pops up a version scaled to your screen (clearly down and not up), but if you right-click on that and select "view image" you get the 400px thumbnail? How do I make it simple to get the full image without uploading it somewhere else and just linking? Is there a free layout that actually shows all of the things, like all the tags and an obvious "next page" button and the date of the post and the like and reblog buttons and a direct link to the post? I can fix an ugly layout that works, but I can't do anything with a pretty layout that cuts half the information and features.

I don't expect someone to answer all that. I just can't even find where to ask questions aside from abusing their support email and if you learned how to use Tumblr, how did you do that?

Other sites make sense. :(

just a plug

2012-08-01T03:38:34Z

The First Annual Cheering Up Meme, for fic and art in any fandom. Requests so far include: Doctor Who, Cabin Pressure, Torchwood, Harry Potter, and BBC Sherlock. All relevant to my flist, except maybe Cabin Pressure. What's Cabin Pressure?

Not sure yet if I'm brave enough to be the weirdo who requests Yu-Gi-Oh.

i'm sure at one point there were icon people on this flist

2012-07-20T06:03:11Z

Anyone know a general anime- or animation-themed 20-in-20 that's still active? Or an unthemed one that regularly gets anime entries. It's kind of hard to just search for comms sometimes.

for dwo_stillness 20in20

2012-06-30T13:48:51Z

22 icons and some alternates for Doctor Who series 5. For the 20in20 at dwo_stillness.

The first fifteen are based on the words. The last five are based on five of the icons in the inspiration post.

open

separation

freedom

divide

starlit

air

cosmic

flight

solar flare

high

timeless

void

black hole

beyond

icon 4

icon 5

icon 6

icon 8

icon 15

I started counting from below the cut of the inspiration post. You may need to add three to match them up to the originals. It should be obvious when you've got it right.

Alternates and a couple extras I rejected for not being "space" themed -- don't consider these for the icontest:

icon 11

interval

icon 13

cosmic

freedom

separation

solar flare

icon 4

icon 8

icon 15

Rules for use: Credit and comments are optional (though appreciated), just don't take credit for them. Don't repost except for by using them yourself. Don't hotlink. Don't edit. (I still have the .xcfs and can probably change things for you if asked.)

Resource credits. In addition to my normal texture collection listed there, I used the contest's inspiration textures by luminousdaze (cloudy mind, in starlit, open, and separation) and whitebamboo (galactica, in up and the one based on inspiration icon 15). So if it matters, I didn't ignore that part of the inspiration post.

Almost all caps were from Sonic Biro.

also another post because remixes

2011-05-18T23:01:03Z

So while I was busy ignoring everyone again, Remix happened. My brave remixer decided to tackle Integration in Reverse, which a couple of you will remember is that thing I wrote once that almost nobody knows wtf even happens in it. So I was kind of already impressed before I even read it. The result is a neat fixity remix which, given a certain line from The Neil Gaiman Episode, is probably a good prediction as well.

It can be found here: Disintegration (The Next Chapter Remix) by such_heights (Doctor/River and characters from the Library episodes, gen though I suppose it's also het, probably around PG just for one character hitting on another, no warnings I can think of, about 2k words).

That was one concise mini-header I just wrote.

I really wish I still had my data ghost icon.

Thoughts on Sherlock

2011-05-18T22:14:51Z

1) It's going to be hilarious when he doesn't actually set off the bomb, and nearly all the fic out there is instantly Jossed. I may applaud.

2) Have strong desire to write genderswap fic in which John is still named John but Sherlock has a feminine equivalent of his name. It will be plotty and not just a weirdly structured essay on feminism. Sherlock will actually be a sociopath.

I don't know how to write genderswap. I almost never even read genderswap. Is there a manual somewhere? Have any advice? What would I know if I were familiar with the genre? And what can I possibly call Sherlock?

Who Fic: The Console

2011-03-21T02:59:19Z

Title: The Console
Characters: Mickey, Ten, Rose
Rating: Everyone
~1700 words
No spoilers as it's just set in some vague part of early series 2.

Summary: Mickey thought the console room needed more console. The Doctor almost objected, until Mickey added, "The princess is blonde." This was the result.

-

"It's completely ridiculous, of course."

The Doctor said this out of the blue. He and Mickey had been sitting wordlessly in the console room, waiting for Rose to rejoin them.

"What is?" asked Mickey, not even looking up.

"That," said the Doctor. He pointed at the screen on the console, which had Mickey's full attention, and the small grey box attached to it. Mickey could just see the gesture on the edge of his field of vision.

"I don't see anything ridiculous about it," he said.

"Well think about it. You mean to tell me the only way to rescue her is to jump up onto a series of increasingly difficult to reach platforms while being chased by improbably fast turtles, and the only person capable of doing it is an overweight plumber?"

"Him and his brother, yeah."

"And what's his obsession with coins? There he is, princess to rescue, monsters to drive away, and he's spending all his energy searching the world for coins. I can understand being a collector, but they're all identical!"

"You see, well, I guess...they're just shiny."

"Oh," the Doctor said slowly, understanding beginning to make its impact at last.

- - - - -

Three quarters of the way through the level, killed by fireballs. Again.

GAME OVER

Mickey threw the controller at the TARDIS console and earned a scornful look from the Doctor. It was undercut by how the Doctor was sticking his head out from under the floor, where he was repairing something or other, but still.

"What? I've seen you hit that thing with a mallet before."

"Well yes. But lovingly," the Doctor said as he climbed out. He inspected the switches and knobs where the controller had landed. Apparently satisfied that they hadn't been thrown off course, he turned his attention (at last) on Mickey. "Why exactly are you throwing things at my TARDIS?"

"Timing puzzles," said Mickey. "Hate 'em."

"Timing, huh?" The Doctor picked up the controller.

Mickey was skeptical.

"Are you trying to help?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of showing off."

Mickey remained skeptical.

"Alright, time lord, let's see how long you last."

"Oh, all the way to rescuing the princess, I'm sure."

"Right." And then something occurred to him. "You wanna bet?"

- - - - -

"I find it disconcerting that this game knows how many lives I have left."

Mickey decided not to ask.

- - - - -

"Two-hundred seconds remaining!" The Doctor looked joyfully up at Rose.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well," she said at last, "at least you're not throwing that thing at the TARDIS this time."

This was not the reaction he'd hoped for.

"Two-hundred," he repeated. "That's really good!" He paused. She stared at him. He set the controller aside, reluctantly, and stood up. "Alright. Where should we go next?"

Rose thought about it for a moment.

"A beach," she said. "With seashells. And sunsets."

- - - - -

Mickey had an inkling things might have gone too far when he caught the Doctor trying to play the Overworld Theme on a pair of Weilaian singing shells. After having explained that they were carnivorous. And venomous.

- - - - -

Rose was drawn to the console room by the sound of the TARDIS materializing somewhere. It took her a couple minutes to get there — she'd been a ways away and in the middle of getting dressed — and apparently in that time, the Doctor had gone back to playing that game of Mickey's. At least that meant Mickey himself was unoccupied.

"So, what's out there?" she asked, nodding toward the doors.

"Dunno. Er, 'Beddaja' or something," said Mickey.

"Bedãja. It means 'the large castle of very good sonic insulation.' How do you pause this thing?"

Mickey reached over and pushed the start button on the Doctor's controller.

"That's really what it means?" asked Rose.

She crossed the room to the doors, opened them, and stuck her head out. It was indeed very quiet. There were some vents through which she could hear the rhythmic whump of what were probably fans, but otherwise, nothing. No voices, footsteps, no activity at all. She turned back into the TARDIS where, it seemed, the Doctor had also learned how to unpause the game.

"There are people out there, right?" she asked.

"Of course," said the Doctor.

"So does that mean they haven't heard us arrive because it's so well insulated, or they have heard us because it's so quiet?"

"No idea," said the Doctor.

"Right, well, feel free to join me later," Rose said under her breath. Then, unseen by the Doctor, she left to find out.

To his credit, Mickey caught up with her a minute later.

- - - - -

THANK YOU MARIO!

BUT OUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE!

The Doctor stared bemusedly at the text.

"Why do they always have to wander off?"

- - - - -

"Doctor. Doctor!"

Mickey pounded on the door until it opened and the Doctor appeared and asked, "What?"

"It's Rose! They've taken Rose!"

"What??"

"She's been kidnapped. We've gotta go find her."

"What?! Where were you when it happened?"

"I'll show you."

Mickey turned and ran. The Doctor ran a few paces after him and then stopped. He looked regretfully back at the TARDIS.

"I really wish that thing could save my progress," he said.

- - - - -

"That's cheating. Just so you know, you've lost the bet by cheating."

"What? No it isn't."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes, it—really? Look mate, sonicing the NES automatically voids all bets on it."

"Aha! So the entire bet is void, and I don't owe you anything."

"Wait, that's not what—"

"Shh!"

"Hey! I—"

"No, really, shut up. Do you hear that?"

There were footsteps approaching. Mickey spotted a dark corner where another hallway branched off from the one they were in, and pulled the Doctor into it. They waited there until the people had passed.

"That's them! The ones that took Rose! Let's follow them."

"Shh! Mickey, look around you. Every wall in this castle is covered in insulation." The Doctor poked a finger into one of the soft, foamy walls to make his point. "Hardly any sound can escape from one room into the next. Why do you think that is?"

Mickey shrugged and guessed, "Privacy?"

"No. It's because they're very very sensitive to sound, and if you don't keep your voice down, they will find us."

"Are they really?" said Rose.

"Rose!" They said it in unison, the Doctor shouting her name in surprise while Mickey nearly whispered it.

"How did you escape?" asked the Doctor.

"Lazy jailer," said Rose.

The Doctor wrinkled his nose in disapproval. "Back to the TARDIS, then."

"Not so simple. I tried that already when I was looking for you. There's a bunch more of them right outside where we parked."

"Maybe there's a back way," Mickey suggested.

"Let's find out," said the Doctor.

- - - - -

"Well, I can see why they wouldn't bother guarding it," said Rose.

The three of them stared ahead at the only other path they'd found. By going to the one place loud enough to drive away the locals, they'd found a single unguarded passage leading in the direction of the TARDIS: the heating system. Short stairs lead down to a series of massive fans turning slowly, each one glowing orange with heat and covered in ridges to act as a radiator. This was the whump Rose had been hearing through all the vents, as the fans heated the air and pushed it out into the rest of the castle. And beyond this gauntlet, a service exit which would probably lead to the TARDIS.

After a few moments where they all just stared, silently weighing their options, Mickey spoke first.

"Timing puzzles," he said.

"Hate them," added the Doctor.

Then the Doctor stepped forward, eyes closed, his breathing slow and deliberate, his body tensing. He was focusing, finding just the right moment to run through the fan. But after only a few seconds, he just shook his head and stepped back.

"I used to be good at these," he said. Rose wondered if he meant before he changed.

In response, Mickey squared his shoulders and stepped forward himself.

"Well maybe you're no good at this, but I've been practicing," he said.

Rose hoped he didn't mean in videogames. She stopped him with a hand on his chest.

"Or, you'll die horribly."

Then finally she stepped forward, down the first two stairs, and started tugging on the handrail.

"Help me with this, will you?"

The handrail was metal, but thin and not very strong or well-secured. With the three of them pulling at once, they were able to first pull one end out, bending the the handrail into a hook by doing so, then free the whole thing from the wall, bending it even more in the process. At last it fell to the floor.

Rose told the others to stand back, then picked up the twisted line of metal in both hands and aimed for the first fan.

"Er, Rose?" Mickey. She twisted to look back at him over her shoulder. "I only see two rails. There's more than two fans."

The Doctor agreed. "If we could bend that with our bare hands, how likely is it that you can jam a whole fan with it? Think about it. That motor must be very powerful."

Grinning, she just turned wordlessly back to the fans. She counted the timing, carefully, tapping one foot. Then she threw the rail into the fan, where it caught around one of the blades. The blades kept spinning, dragging the rail against the round outside of the fan and making a horrible, high screetching sound.

Covering her ears, Rose ran back up the stairs, shouting "Run for it!" as loudly as she could.

They ran back the way they came, the screetch chasing them the whole way through the vents. The kidnappers, incapacitated by the noise, barely noticed the three running past them and into the TARDIS.

- - - - -

The Doctor never did pay up.

Who Fic: The Rooftop Scene

2011-03-20T05:39:47Z

Title: The Rooftop Scene
Characters: Jo, Eleven, Mickey, Lazarus
Rating: PG for a monster?
~1500 words.
No warnings, spoilers only for The Lazarus Experiment.

Summary: A scene from The Lazarus Experiment, with the cast swapped out for The Eleventh Doctor, Jo Grant, and Mickey Smith.

Notes: For the Doctor Swap Fic Meme. Though I'm not sure I really changed enough. It's pretty much all little character stuff.

Jo admired him, her boss, the sponsor of the new life she was making for herself. This old scientist who, faced with his own limited days, chose to spend every last one of them trying to rescue humanity from aging. She hadn't really believed it would work, of course. It was just a job she was familiar with, being in someone else's laboratory moving things around, putting things away. Preventing the odd catastrophe. She hadn't believed it would work, until tonight.

Tonight her boss had stepped into a machine they'd never even tested and stepped out of it regenerated into a younger man. From "Professor Lazarus" to "Richard". And then he'd come and found her and together they'd sneaked out of a floor full of press, security, catering, and all the other guests because he'd wanted to bring her up to the roof, to show her the view.

They'd barely ever talked. She was just an assistant to him. It was only now, on the way upstairs, that he'd even asked where she'd worked before this. He'd never mentioned until tonight that Lady Thaw had left him, had been on the verge of it, really, for months. Then naturally, they had to talk about tonight.

"What did it feel like?" she asked him. Maybe it was obvious but she was curious, having only ever aged the normal way herself.

"I can hardly say."

"You mean you've forgotten already?"

"The mere seconds the process took don't compare to the elation of knowing it worked." He smiled, proud, on top of the world. "It feels so very good, to be young and looking to my future in a time when nature would have me be withered and only looking back."

Jo, who should have been about sixty, could understand that. She couldn't really tell him, however, so instead she just said, "That sounds dreadfully complicated."

"Here we are," he said, still smiling, holding the door open for her. She stepped through it out onto the roof and was surrounded by a million tiny lights.

"Oh, it's beautiful," she said. She turned in place, taking it all in. Then he lead her, gentleman-like, to the edge of the roof to look down at the magnificent buildings below. He had really been turning up the charm tonight.

For the guests, of course. For publicity. But then he replied.

"It is. Soon, everyone down there will be, too. Young and beautiful, as many times over as they like." His focus on her was so intent as he said it, Jo felt as though he were only describing her. He reached out to her, one smooth hand touching her cheek. Before she recovered, could think how to respond, he was looking out at the cityscape again. His hand fell back to his side. "Look at it all," he said. "It's going to be ours. We've made history, now let's make the future."

"Do you know, you're the second man I've met who wasn't as old as he's supposed to be."

That was a risky thing to say, she thought, and even winced when she realized what she'd said. But he just raised an eyebrow and responded, "Is that so?" so she knew he hadn't really understood. She at least kept her momentum up.

"But in a way, you're only breaking even. Sure, you've got a second lifetime now, but you spent all of your first one getting it. I bet you've done nothing else since the day you thought of building that device."

"True," and she thought she heard approval in the word, "you do lose a lot of time when trying to achieve something so monumental as this. 'Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act'—"

"—'Falls the Shadow.'"

"Jo!"

She turned to find the voices that had interrupted them.

"Doctor!" Running the few steps to where he and Mickey had appeared, she wrapped him in great big hug. He returned it, but then Lazarus interrupted them right back.

"So the mysterious 'Doctor' knows his Eliot. I'm impressed."

"You mean you've met?"

Letting go of Jo, the Doctor continued as though neither she nor Lazarus had interrupted him.

"Shakespeare seems appropriate: 'Between the acting of a dreadful thing and the first motion'." Then a sudden and random change in tone as something occurred to the Doctor. "Though inserting one into the other would completely destroy the meter. Not that there was one to begin with. So maybe it would change the flow. Eliot it is, then! What you're doing is wrong. Just look at yourself. Take a good, hard look because what you've done hasn't made yourself younger. You've made yourself less human."

Jo gave Lazarus a look that would have said "Yes, he does go on like that a lot," but found that he was no longer paying any attention to her. That when she'd run to the Doctor, Lazarus had instantly lost interest in her. Well if the two men had some problem with each other, Jo knew which side she was on.

"Who are you to judge me, Doctor?" he demanded.

"Who are you to change human nature, Professor Lazarus? Are you actually named Lazarus?"

"Yes. I find that people often grow to match the names they're given, though not all of them as well as I've done tonight. But I asked a real question. Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor," he stated in his usual, helpful manner.

"He sort of...fixes people," Jo said with a shrug.

"Admirable, Doctor. But in this case, unnecessary."

"But it isn't. You're mutating. You're becoming a monster."

"Monster?" Jo turned around to face Mickey, who at least seemed like he could spare a moment from this pointless stand-off to explain things to her. "What does he mean, Lazarus is 'becoming a monster'?"

"It's true. He's some sort of blood-crazed...vampire or something. He killed Lady Thaw!"

Jo's eyes went wide, "What?" So did Mickey's, reacting to something behind her, where Lazarus was standing. She turned back around to see him and instead saw parts of him, morphing themselves into a grotesque, giant, inside-out monster of human body parts.

She screamed. There was a moment when she was just terrified and nothing else. Mickey's hand found hers as he ran past her, following the Doctor back into the building beneath them. Then they were running past him down stairs, and she could hear the sonic screwdriver and the Doctor's voice shouting "It's not worth it, Lazarus. It's a curse! Life is very long," and then they ran down the hallway and by the time they reached the elevator doors at the end, the terror was already gone. Jo took her hand free from Mickey's to press the down button.

Somehow, she felt like herself again. More than she had in months.

The Doctor caught up to them.

"I sealed the door behind us, but it won't stop him for long," he said.

"Doctor, what is going on?" asked Jo.

Just then, a voice began announcing "Security breach. Security breach." The words repeated from speakers all around, alarms rang, and the elevator stopped rising floor by floor to meet them.

"I'll explain later," said the Doctor.

"What now?" asked Mickey, nearly shouting to be heard over the noise.

"Now all the doors automatically lock us and all the guests in, to keep us from getting out with corporate secrets," she told him.

"So we're trapped? Trapped in a dead end, with that thing chasing us!"

"Pretty much," she said.

Her and Mickey's eyes met and they both broke into grins, and then all three of them were laughing.

"It's good to see you," said Mickey.

Jo hugged him.

Then she rounded on the Doctor.

"It's been months! We wouldn't be in this situation if you were any good at programming that TARDIS of yours properly. We could have been gone before it even happened!"

"You see? I told you this wasn't February," added Mickey.

"Jo," said the Doctor. He took her face in his hands and bent to put his forehead against hers. "Jo. Jo, I'm sorry."

It was so unusual for him that it snapped her right out of being upset. Really, she didn't know what there was to be mad at him for. She'd been having fun here in the future. She'd just missed him, was all. Him and Mickey.

"None of that, Doctor. It's not really you I'm angry with. It's Professor Lazarus."

Who at that moment interrupted them again by loudly beating down a door not far away.

Moment over, the Doctor set to work getting them an elevator. On the way down, Jo thought about what to do next and realized that there were two escape artists and two electronics geniuses between them, and there were only three of them. Lazarus and his "security breach" didn't know what they were in for.

With a combination of Mickey's cracking, the Doctor's sonicing, and Jo's fast talking, they got the guests out of the building safely.

That was the easy part.

fic discussion

2011-03-20T03:06:54Z

I need some kind of writer's group thingy, but for fic. Or just like, a good fic-discussing friend or two. To bounce ideas off of each other, and so there's someone to lament to and ask for advice when I realize hours into a project that it's deeply flawed and I can't fix it. Where do I find such people? Are you interested? (And familiar with Doctor Who?) Are there any active comms for this?

(To be clear, I don't mean a beta. I mean for discussion way before finished fic appears.)

And apologies in advance for the four or five posts I'm going to spam up your flists with this weekend. Blame Remix. And procrastination.

edit: There's a fanfic writing support comm on Dreamwidth called writethisfanfic. In case anyone wanders by and wishes this post had had more resolution. It seems to work like fic_rush, only never-ending and in slow motion. Their resources post looks great, too.

studyofrunning @ 2011-02-28T00:55:00

2011-02-28T09:10:54Z

I direct everyone to this nifty fic meme where you post a mix of Doctor and companion(s), and then someone gives you an episode and you stick your team into a scene from it. Yes, it is available to you new series-only and Torchwood types. If you get there quickly enough, you can tell me to use your favorite episode and there's a chance I'll actually do it.

Also once I stop being angsty over the fact that the Doctor doesn't sound like the Doctor and the second half has almost nothing to do with the first, I need a beta for a 1700-word fic where Mickey gets Ten hooked on Super Mario Bros., and then Rose saves the day.

(Yeah I know, way to sell it.)

NaNoWriMo Sucks

2010-11-10T07:09:07Z

0 words. Seriously.

A big cold hit me when I was supposed to be planning. Then IRL stuff came up, which is why I haven't posted since October.

I also defaulted on a ficathon. Go me.

My River fic is at 5,688 words and nothing close to done. I may cheat and try to make that 56k words. I want to get it done before it gets jossed by the Christmas Special. 56k would take a pretty serious B plot though.

I need guidance. Or like, words. :(

regenerations quote

2010-10-18T07:32:17Z

There was an RTD quote from an interview, or a panel, or a commentary, or a confidential, or that book. It was along the lines of:

'There were so many times when I almost put in a line saying "Thank goodness we all got 200 extra regenerations to fight in the Time War."'

I would like the exact quote. Does anyone know where this is from? Anything to narrow it down would help. Google gives me lots of Rassilon and Master stuff with "for the time war" and lots of spoilers for about anything else I can think of to try.

The quote is at least as old as 2009. (I found someone else referencing it in December.)

edit from the distant future: I found the quote here. It's apparently from DWM 415.

shameless advertising

2010-10-17T01:07:21Z

Hey everybody, check out eleven_romana, a ficathon about like some time lords or something. Signups are open until the 23rd and due dates are scattered throughout November (you claim a day). They take pretty much any length and genre, too. They even take art and graphics, but you should do fic because then I could read it.

There's still most of a day left of fic_rush. The perfect way to work on your eleven_romana submission! There will also be a round in the middle of NaNoWriMo. The perfect way to work on your nearly overdue eleven_romana submission!

Handwriting Meme

2010-10-06T02:48:00Z

From platoapproved.

1. Find a sentence / stanza / paragraph from a book / poem / what have you that you adore.
2. Write it out, along with the name of the source and the author's name, using your usual handwriting (and for extra points, your favourite pen)
3. Scan it / take a picture of it / etc. and post it in the comments.
4. Copy this to your journal

I present to you the following IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION.

I AM SURE THIS WOULD FOIL THE DOCTOR.

The next page helpfully contains a sketch of a grey, with an arrow pointing out the general area where the eyes are. (The head.)

I will probably hide this post in December to cover my shame.

2010-10-03T20:51:42Z

I asked this in fic_rush and lolmac helpfully suggested a poll. Which doomed fic idea should I use for NaNoWriMo, which I have stupidly decided to attempt?

1) An occasionally faithful novelization of the ancient and fandomless RPG, Septerra Core. (Which I hear is $10 on Good Old Games, if you're into games which are old and also good.)

Pros:
-The protagonist has blue hair.
-Easier to get much-needed prose practice in without getting bogged down in planning.
-Set in a really interesting world with decently interesting characters and a mythology that, while important, can be explained in about one paragraph.

Cons:
-Going to waste time planning the "occasionally faithful" part anyway.
-No audience.
-50k is an order of magnitude larger than the total wordcounts of all extant Septerra Core fics so far.
-Hard to find a beta for.

2) A Doctor Who fic.

Pros:
-Actual time travel plot.
-Conveniently happens to use the prettiest Doctors.
-People will read it.

Cons:
-What exactly is Susan's motivation, anyway?
-Huge potential to waste all my enthusiasm on planning and then not write the fic.
-Going to have to ignore lots of continuity, including everything about the Time War from Journey's End and The End of Time, because this concept used the most common/logical fanon from the time when I thought of it. Eight isn't properly EDA or BFA, and Romana probably isn't either.
-Kind of shippy.

I may need someone to bounce ideas off of if I go with this one.

View Poll: POLL OF NOVEMBRIC AWESOME

Unrelatedly, anyone want to help me nail down the details of this River Song horror fic I've been plotting? It may possibly involve reading an overly long outline. It just feels like things are missing and the characters are going to come off flat. It's not quite long enough to be a NaNo, though.

not dead

2010-10-03T05:52:21Z

Was going to just post "Not dead. More later" and then vanish again, but realized I was a bit lacking in the "more later" department.

Basically I didn't ever pop back in and let people know I was leaving because I was sure I was a couple days away from coming back anyway, and then after the first month or two I forgot all about it. Then I didn't come back as soon as I could have because that involved 116 gmails and figuring out what to put in this post and how to apologize to all the people who I was supposed to be helping run comms and stuff.

Sorry everyone.

Now I will go start leaving comms I'm still in and shouldn't be. Then I will ponder the expense of getting my paid account and icon expansion back. And whether I should continue where I left off in the 30-Day TV Meme even though it probably wouldn't be funny to anyone but me if I did.

Hilariously, nowgold still hasn't noticed that I accidentally got left as maintainer of wlbronze after helping run a game one afternoon in May.

Squall's Dead

2010-06-04T02:00:38Z

Procrastinating on the 30-Day TV Meme because I can't think of a best scene ever. Might cheat and do a top 10 good ones I can think of right now, or something.

In the meanwhile, I want to ask the world where all the Squall's Dead-compatible fic is. Come on, people!

I'd probably write some myself (ad for fic_rush here) if I had any ideas for it. Which I'm open to, btw.

30 Day TV Meme

2010-06-02T00:44:47Z

Day 08 - A show everyone should watch

The original Star Trek.

Star Trek is the great grandmommy of all those other scifiish shows about a crew having a series of adventures in space. You know, Stargate. Battlestar Galactica, mostly. Babylon 5. Blake's 7. Farscape. Other versions of Star Trek, and Andromeda. Basically an entire genre -- a big, popular one -- is copying, drawing from, and attempting (attempting) to improve upon Star Trek, directly or indirectly. I know Gene Roddenberry didn't invent the concept, but he did permanently make it a part of TV by creating a really good show.

Which also, as a bonus, has Uhura in it. <3

For such an old show, Star Trek holds up really well. The pacing doesn't suck, like with a lot of other old shows I've seen. The plots often make sense. While imperfect, Star Trek is a lot more politically correct than you'd expect for its time and even beats some shows being made today. The characters were so memorable that they've stayed in the public's mind for 40 years. Everyone knows who Spock is.

So basically, taking "everyone" to mean "people who have ever shown an interest in scifi" (other people don't count anyway), Star Trek is something everyone needs to see.

30-Day TV Meme

2010-06-01T05:48:54Z

In an effort to spend at least five minutes today not thinking about awesometopia (which you should all join, especially if you're into pirates, fish, or dragons), I'm going to catch up on a couple days' worth of this meme. I keep forgetting about it. :\

BTW, since I'm advertising things and the rest of this post is about RTD-era Doctor Who, I might as well mention rewatch_tennant. It's a live-blogging-style rewatch of Tenth Doctor episodes. We meet Sundays at 9AM PDT. I think Gridlock is next. Some of us are conspiring to make the mod do Hamlet at some point.

Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite T.V. show

I don't really know if I have a favorite. I could maybe give you a top ten list for anything that makes a good show, like the best-written episodes, though only with a disclaimer that there's probably something even better buried in nearly 50 years of canon. Worse still, peeking ahead in the meme I see that there's a day for an episode I've watched more than five times. The one I was going to put as my favorite is the only one I'm sure I've seen that many times, and I haven't got enough to say about it to fill two posts.

My standard answer when I'm asked for more than one is "the Moffat episodes and Midnight". There are serials that could be my favorite if they were about half as long. The Sea Devils comes to mind, followed closely by everything else with Jo in it.

Taking favorite to mean best, and best to mean the one I'd show a new viewer to hook them, I'll pick The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. The writing is clever, there are televised Who's first ever genuinely scary moments (you heard me), the OCs don't suck, the plot mostly makes sense, and everything is just so cool.

And then there's Jack. I'm iffy about Jack. He kind of creeped me out the first time I saw him. He has that sort of you're-supposed-to-find-this-attractive vibe that I get from pop stars, models, and the occasional actor (mostly in older films). I could go on trying to explain that, but it's not really the point and it wore off eventually. But Jack has his moments, and some of his best are in these episodes. Plus they set up the Nine, Rose, and Jack dynamic, which is one of the best Team TARDIS dynamics there's been.

Though they have a sad lack of Mickey. And now I sort of want to rewrite this to talk about how great Boomtown is. But I wouldn't use that to sell anyone on Doctor Who.

I'm also iffy about Nine, but he's the Doctor and I can't bring myself to dislike a Doctor. Even Matt Smith won me over in like three episodes.

Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite T.V. show

Love & Monsters.

Well first, the episode at face value is this: our heroes have only a cameo, there's some terrible music, then a really horrible monster shows up and saves us from the terrible music. Gross-out "humor" abounds. The Doctor shows up just in time to trap an innocent girl in a slab of concrete forever, and then she gives her boyfriend a blowjob.

The more horrific the events on the screen, the harder they're played for laughs.

The meta is this: fans of the Doctor are dorks. Giant honking dorks like can never have friends. They're so creepy in their obsessive, fannish ways that only other fans of the Doctor can stand to be around them. Their fannish works are amusingly bad and serve as physical evidence of how pathetic fans of the Doctor are. Also, filk sucks.

Fun fact: RTD started his Doctor Who career by writing profic.

I just don't get why Love & Monsters happened.

I have no idea what to do for the next two days, but I'm sure at least one of them won't be about Doctor Who. This meme starts with the obvious questions and then gets more creative, so my answers will get more varied as it goes on.

JOIN AWESOMETOPIA

2010-06-01T01:57:43Z

awesometopia, is up and running. Signups are open right now, and the first challenges are up with more on the way soon. I'm going to steal a blurb from co-mod crumplysnorkack:

awesometopia is a multi-fandom land community. (If it's geeky, it's welcome here.) Members compete in graphics and writing contests, play games, and do all manner of weird and awesome things to earn points for their teams: Team Dragons, Team Piratefish, or Team Rocketgeese. At the end of the round, the team with the most points wins.

The intro/faq post is here, and this is the sign-up post.

Pass it on. :)

30-Day TV Meme

2010-05-30T01:12:43Z

I may make a big post about Lost, Cold Blood, or both later tonight. In the meantime, here are some days I missed in the 30-Day TV Meme.

Day 04 - Your favorite show ever

Doctor Who.

The Doctor is my favorite story. He's a story about freedom, about being able to run away from things he doesn't like and go have adventures and matter, and no one can invent consequences big enough to hold him down.

In Doctor Who, the universe is a huge, open place. It's full of life and things to do and see. Exploring it is as easy as looking up at it. It's not just, you know, there's the moon, and like three astronauts ever get to see it, but only if they've spent their lives getting good grades and making the right friends and have absolutely no disabilities or imperfections (besides their grades and friends). The Doctor is this cool guy, and he meets random people of every sort but the kind that get to be in NASA, and they go to places much further and more different than the moon.

Everything that's wrong with the world is right with the Doctor.

Doctor Who has this great advantage over other one-story-per-episode type shows, in that it can use the setting as part of the plot. You can do that with an ongoing plot (Lost, most things set in space or a fantasy world), but because of the TARDIS, the Doctor can go to an interesting, plotty location every week. It gives Doctor Who an opportunity to do stories that would be impossible with Earth-bound shows.

Between the many dozens of people who've written Doctor Who over the years, the tone has been all over the place. The basic formula is still something along the lines of: fun, fun, fun, tiny bit of drama, save the world, fun. Which is, you know, fun. Even on a shallow level, Doctor Who is just awesome.

The Doctor is a scientist, but the action heroes back him up.

Plus, to get a bit political, until RTD came along, the world had two TV shows with an asexual main character. I appreciated that.

Day 05 - A show you hate

This is tough. I usually ignore stupid shows. I've never really had a lot of celebrity- or reality TV-obsessed friends. If someone makes a bad show, it's probably obvious from the previews. If it's not, I probably still won't remember it once I've quit watching.

So while there's probably some other show of even lower quality out there, the show I hate the most is Torchwood. Not so much for being bad, as for being bad and attached to Doctor Who. I don't want to tell people I like Doctor Who, in case they're more familiar with Torchwood. I know Doctor Who is more famous, but for someone who doesn't watch either, it could happen since Torchwood's entire premise is based on attention-whoring. Doctor Who was old news when Torchwood started getting press. I don't know, I just never got over the horror of the announcement of Torchwood. And then I actually saw it, and until then I didn't believe any show could suck that much.

I hate that these uninteresting characters and their tedious, poorly-conceived, Earth-bound stories, all of which are just an excuse to try and be shocking with sex anyway, are now officially part of the world of my favorite show. I hate that they were on Doctor Who at one point.

If RTD wants to grab for more attention, he can make all the horrible shows he wants and I don't care. But he brought my favorite show into it. He tacked it onto Doctor Who. He didn't make Doctor Who. He didn't even bring it back; Doctor Who wasn't dead before RTD showed up. There's nothing that gave him the right to do something like Torchwood.

Now that it's here, it won't go away. I have to share the fandom with people who like this embarrassing, plotless filth. My options are to either never talk about my favorite show with other people who like it, or accept constantly hearing about the Innuendo Squad for years to come. It will always be there, getting thrown together with my show in ficathons and contests, being cited as part of "the whole story" in any discussion about Doctor Who characters, and of course, right there on screen, with either Jack or the name "Torchwood" showing up in about a third of all episodes from RTD's era.

Other bad shows just kind of sound bad, and then I never think about them again. Torchwood is there every day I check my flist.

But Children of Earth was amazing.

TV Meme

2010-05-26T00:27:47Z

LJ is being incredibly slow for me these last few days. I'm now looking at a tab bar full of "http://...l.com/" because pages here aren't even loading without trying them several times. Is this happening to everyone? Did I miss a maintenance announcement?

30-Day TV Meme, day 2: A show that you wish more people were watching
(Off by a day because I was planning to skip days 2&3, and then I decided to steal someone else's answer for day 2.)

The Sarah Jane Adventures!

Basically, RTD took his Doctor Who and split it in half, putting all the good things about it into SJA and all the bad ones into Torchwood. So SJA is made of cracky adventures, silly aliens, and best friends running around having a crazy fun time. In the middle of all the ridiculous alien plots, there are often deep emotional messages. Things that the main characters learn and grow from. This kids show can be deeper than most serious "adult" shows. But mainly, it's the cracky adventures.

The one good thing that's missing from Doctor Who is, of course, the Doctor. But you know what SJA does have? LUKE AND CLYDE. Definition of adorable. And Clyde is one of the coolest, funniest characters on TV. Also, I heard there's some old companion or something on the cast, idk. The whole team are BFFs there to have fun together. I really enjoy watching that.

SJA is just a very fun and heartwarming show. I can't think of any good reason that it isn't more popular.

Still skipping day 3 because it asks for my favorite new show this season. The only new show I can even name is Happy Town.

Lost

2010-05-24T19:04:46Z

At this point, I feel comfortable saying that Lost is a good show.

I understand everything except this: why is it so important that Claire raises her son, and not anyone else? Kate ended up raising him, and then presumably Claire's mom, and everything turned out fine. So what was that about?

I'm also a little vague on the numbers. Since I saw them in the cave, I've been assuming that they were calling out to the world to bring the six candidates to the island. But since there were at least 42 numbered candidates, I don't understand what makes the last six so special, as opposed to the last five or seven. Or especially the two who turned out to matter.

meme, question

2010-05-23T08:01:28Z

Question and then a meme. I need to replace my external HDD. I'm going to buy one where the connection between the cord and the drive is just another USB slot, so that if the cord wears out, I can replace it with a new one and not have to replace the drive itself again.

Do any of you know of good brands or models, or ones I should avoid?

Now this meme:

From joking, faeriesfolly, and in the time it's taken me to get to this, pitry as well: the 30 Day TV Meme.

Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled

ARGH TV NETWORKS! I don't take a show seriously until it's been canceled, they're so bad about this. I grew up in a world where Doctor Who was a canceled show. There are so many obvious ones here: Firefly, Farscape, Star Trek (I mean come on), Dollhouse, Angel.

I'm going with Invasion.

Invasion was basically Invasion of the Body Snatchers reimagined as a big network TV series of the same vintage as Lost. (In fact, the only Lost I ever watched on actual TV was a bit of a rerun of the pilot, while I waited for Invasion to come on.) It had a fascinating ongoing plot that was never resolved because of the cancellation. Invasion had some great dramatic scenes that stuck in my mind for years between when it aired and when I finally got to rewatch it. The characters weren't as great as those of the shows above, but most of them were interesting, and some had mysteries surrounding them that were also never resolved. Plus there were actually kids. Sometimes TV is a bit like Morrowind, and I'm sitting there waiting for Emma to make a mod to fix it. But not Invasion. It was also pretty, on account of the big network budget.

But apparently, there's only room for one big Mysterious Plot Show at a time, and Lost won. (By the way, don't bet on Happy Town as the next one. Just saying.)

Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show ( aired this t.v season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite t.v show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite t.v 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 t.v show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
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 t.v show obsession
Day 29 - Current t.v show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death