The Slain God

Big Bang art claims open!

valtyr — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:10:28 GMT

Hi there - the c_im_bigbang claims are up here.

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Rrrrrrampage!

valtyr — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 21:22:40 GMT

tsukinofaerii wrote me a present! Did you like Rampage in Secrets of a Successful marriage? Do you want Pepper to blow more shit up? Then you will enjoy Early Retirement almost as much as I did. And while I'm clapping my hands, let me also point out her latest fic, a fic about the importance of communication. Kiiiinda. I betaed it, and it made me laugh greatly. :D

Also, I rebuilt my computer and now it is white with blue glowy. Looks very Sixties space-age. And it is very quiet and cool. My internet is being totally lumpy recently, though. Reinstalled my OS, too, and it was surprisingly simple to get everything set up like I like it.

I'm not quite finding the Clint/Natasha I want; lalaietha writes some great short pieces on them, with bonus Liv Tyler Betty/Bruce. But I would enjoy more wild adventure, action and shenanigans! Anyone writing this?

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English summertime, ie we have flooding and a hosepipe ban

valtyr — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:58:32 GMT

I have been on a writing dry patch, which is most frustrating; I have quite a backlog of thoughts that I need to get down on paper (screen). Sadly, most of my thoughts are movieverse right now; 616 is turning me off, MA is beloved but defunct, and Ultimates... *stares at Ultimates* well, Steve should be back soon and I have high hopes he's going to be a woobie in relation to Spider-Man. Equal odds as to whether this will be 'due to guilt over Peter I will fiercely defend and support you' or 'due to guilt over Peter I will be rabidly against any other kid being Spider-Man, and may behave outrageously towards this end'. So most of my thoughts are in relation to movieverse, as the movie was delightful, setting out interesting character dynamics between almost everyone.

Clint/Natasha: I ship it hard, bros, romance, friends with benefits, hunting in pairs, co-dependent mutually obsessed violent weirdos. Has anyone written a romance-adventure historical AU where Natasha is a deadly spy a la Milady de Winter but treated much better than in The Three Musketeers? In fact, something like the recent movie, with steampunk airships and maybe they can just push Athos off the airship. (putz) And Clint - not entirely sure about Clint, but perhaps his love can persuade Natasha to give up her rakish roguish ways. Or she could fight a duel for his honour. Somehow. (Perhaps this is more of a historical-ish AU. I enjoy both historical and historical-ish.) The image of Fury as Cardinal Richelieu is a special one which I will treasure.

I'm playing the hell out of Diablo III. I have plenty of thoughts about the sexism of the character design, and the Witch Doctor class is... well, pretty racist, I guess. (Also, if you search 'witch doctor racist' on Google, you get a lot of results on the Blizzard forum. Click through... thread deleted. Search for 'racist' on the Blizzard forums... nowt. Charming, Blizzard, charming.

Having to be constantly online to play=also not cool.

It's an excellent game, classes seem well-balanced, lots of fun, intriguing skills. But I suspect I won't buy Diablo IV - and I pre-ordered this game two years ago. Still, if anyone else is playing and wants to co-op - bear in mind I am very much a casual player - hit me up. I've got all five classes playing through together, I'm working on the second half of Act II right now.

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Coloured lanterns and the sound of waves

valtyr — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:20:15 GMT

I am writing this from a seafront restaurant in Dahab, Egypt, which sounds wonderful, but is sadly undermined by the exciting upper respiratory tract infection that has lain me low for the past nine days, IE my entire holiday so far. :| I went to Cairo and didn't even see the pyramids, can't dive because of congestion, and I'm too weak to bus out to Jerusalem or Petra. Sigh. I've spent most of the time sleeping and not eating - they put me on a drug cocktail drip for a while to fix that damage, but I'm still a little weak and wobbly. So, if you're waiting for a response for me on anything, give me a couple days more, okay? I'm not ignoring you, just running slow. :) (Unless it's urgent, in which case feel free to prod me along. But you know, please only prod if it is urgent, I am still quite sick.) On the bright side, rescheduling to go home early means I'll make the UK Avengers opening, and catch Hunger Games in theatres.

In other news, the divine Ironfries drew the most wonderful fanart for Secrets of a Successful Marriage; it's just perfect. Go here, and marvel. I mean - their faces. All of them. So precious and expressive. I tried to leave feedback in her ask, but I'm a Tumblr n00b and don't know if I did it right, so I'll just roll and squee here about my all-encompassing ecstasy. I literally cannot pick a favourite picture; Steve's amazing disappointed face, his fish-related ecstasy and Tony's helpless fondness for Steve's fishlove, Tony despairing in the Pontiac, and them dancing, oh, the dipping ♥. Maybe Steve's disappointed face is my favourite. It is so very, very, disappoint. Like, you practically don't need to read the story now. You can just look at these pictures and it's like taking a highly distilled version of the story and rubbing it on your face.

The diligent kalakirya has podficced Tomorrow Belongs To Me! Ten hours! Due to being abroad, I haven't had a chance to download and listen, but I'm pretty psyched. And impressed. That is some serious patience! cybel has made it into an audiobook.

And thanks to pkai7, who gave me a blue dragon that made me smile when I was down. ♥

Going back a little further, I got two delicious gifts in the C-Im Secret Santa, which as usual went very smoothly due to the general good behaviour of the participants. I got a sweet fic by snowynight, Join Your Hands which is a nice external voice on Ult Steve and Tony and the little personal ways they interact. Ult Jan is always one of my favourites, and Steve has some lovely quirks here. :) And plingo_kat wrote me buy the brooklyn bridge about Steve happily spending money, which is just delightful - lovely spun fluff with just enough weight to be comforting, like a favourite blanket. All told, an excellent haul. I wrote three fics I was generally pleased with; my favourite was Elizabethan privateers, although I made poor muccamukk tear out her hair.

muccamukk: you're certainly ticking the costume porn box
valtyr: With a thick pen. Twice.
muccamukk: in the first two paragraphs
valtyr: Ah
you wait
muccamukk: ahaha
valtyr: That's more costume light flirtation
muccamukk: what kind of ship is it!
valtyr: I own multiple books on Tudor costume
valtyr: IDK
muccamukk: ?
valtyr: I don't have any books on that

Then we argued about which deck they were on and which masts people were leaning against and would a proper lady be on the main deck and was Natasha really the kind of lady to worry about being on the appropriate deck. I still don't know what holy stoning is, but I did win the debate on who had superior cannon by saying Tony Stark's presence in weapons design trumped historical accuracy. And I called the fic Pillars of Hercules, which is probably the classiest dick joke I've ever told.

Anyway. A little shaky, so I will post this now. Hope all you good people are well, and excited for Avengers time. I am excited for Avengers time. ♥

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On Writing: Fandom Edition

valtyr — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 02:57:04 GMT

I was talking to jazzypom tonight, and we were talking about our various writing styles; she and I write very differently, both in how we write, and what we produce. That's pretty interesting because we tend to have similar interpretations of the characters.

Anyway, I said we should both write about it, and try to get other people to do so, because I really love hearing/reading/talking about the writing process.

jazzypom's is here.
snowynight's is here
tsukinofaerii's is here
derryderrydown's is here.
Mine's under the cut. I'd love it if other people wrote about theirs in their journals and dropped me a link. :)

She mentioned she was trying to open up her fic, be a little less focused; I said I was planning to work on making my fics tighter, less sprawling, more polished.

Jazz writes fics that are gorgeously efficient; I envy that. She uses words with great precision, and she focuses on a single idea, everything that happens reflecting back to that one central point, like a magnifying glass.

Me, I - well, I start with dialogue, usually. I start by writing down the things the characters say to each other. A conversation from a scene near the start, something from near the end, a few from the middle - soon I have a string of conversations that are the spine of the work. Then I start throwing ideas at it. For a little while, every thought I have is thrown at the fic. "I like Maria Hill" = add Maria Hill to fic. "Peggy totally ran towards the grenade in CA:TFA"=Steve mentions that in the story. "I read about the Chinese Room theory"=Tony uses it to justify mourning a Tamagotchi. "Homeopathy is bollocks"=but what if water did remember. They don't all stick, but a lot of the time they do. It's almost like adding completely random elements to a story to see what happens, see what flavour it gives the to events I have. Quite a lot of the time, they lurk in the story for a while, and then I find out they're exactly what I need to tie something off elsewhere in the story. On the other hand, sometimes they just sit there like toads in a tureen, being out of place and confusing.

I really have to work to keep my stories from being bare dialogue! I have to go back and add thoughts, and movements, and descriptions. I used to suck hardcore at action scenes, but I've been putting serious effort in, and I think I'm improving, so I'm less wary of including them. I have trouble with plots; I tend to overcomplicate them, and then drop balls, so I tweak and worry and sigh at them. I go back and read from the start time and again, which is why the early parts of my fic tends to be smoother; I have got to learn to deadline, because the later parts are often rushed.

I'm usually about halfway through the writing process when I take a good look at the opening scenes; I know that's when you grab the reader, or not. I think my favourite opening sequence out of the stuff I've written is in Secrets of a Successful Marriage - the first line snags the attention well, I think, and then it's a few smooth POV paragraphs that double as an infodump, and then Steve is unmasked. I like it, I think it's neat.

I'm usually awful at titling things; I tend to do it last, as well, and frequently that's when I'm tired out because deadlines. My favourite title is The Emperor's Fury, because it's delightfully romance-novelish, it's a decent summation of what's going on in the plot, and it's a dreadful pun. :D

Description and setting I tend to have trouble with. I tend to skim it in published works, so I don't do enough of it myself as I perhaps should - I know other readers actually do read it. My best effort at this is probably Rock Splits, Records Fall Down, where I paid a lot of attention to all the senses. Horn and Ivory also had a strange and vivid dreamscape I was quite pleased with.

I also tend to work on a story, look at a character doing X, and then say "What if he were doing y?" I have a story that was going to end with a character explaining he wasn't really a secret underground freedom fighter, it was all a hilarious misunderstanding. And then I thought, what if he were a secret underground freedom fighter and the hilarious misunderstanding was his cover - anyway, one day I will finish that story, currently known as The Beast.

I don't always write like this - sometimes, I get an idea, and the whole things rolls out neatly in my head, and then I just sit down and rattle it out, read it through, maybe get a beta check, and post. I like those! They're so much easier.

Anyway, that's a lot of talk. Talk to me about your writing style? :)

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Vague ideas abotu Spider-Man, the Hajj, and courts

valtyr — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:59:22 GMT

Some disconnected stuff...

I don't like the idea of Steve and Tony raising Peter Parker primarily because it knocks Ben and May out of the picture and I really don't like that; they were such huge influences on him. Especially May, there are so few mother figures with personality and influence over superheroes. It also loses my interest because a big part of Peter's heroism (to me) is that he kept on being a hero while people hated him for it, with virtually no support, trying to balance shitty jobs and friends who thought he was a flake and poverty with saving lives. I mean... once you take those things away, there doesn't seem to be much of Peter Parker left. Canon Pete's up there with Cap on the selfless heroism scale. (I just choked up thinking about Ult Peter, who in many ways was an adaption distillation of 616 Spider-Man.)

Changing the subject entirely, my British Museum magazine arrived with a special on the Hajj, and it made me think of sci-fi - how will Islam fare in space? Generation ships will presumably be off-limits to Muslims, unless they take the Hajj before they go and plan not to have children, which is not really how generation ships work. And at what point will there be too many Muslims for Mecca? By which I mean, all Muslims who are able to should make the pilgrimage once in their lives, so at what point will there be so many Muslims Mecca will be too full for everyone each year?

And totally different subject again, does anyone know any fantasy fiction set around a perambulatory court? All I can think of is that Diana Wynne Jones one, but in that they're moving around the realm for magical reasons. Moving courts are such a huge part of life pre-modern times, and yet almost all court fantasy seems to be stationary courts. Also, I would be all over a space Imperium with a travelling court in the shape of a General Systems Vehicle (Culture ship; essentially a huge city spaceship. Well. They're up to 200km in each dimension, but you get my drift). Is there anything like this?

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End of yeaaaar here I come.

valtyr — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:02:47 GMT

OH God. Well. I handed in my essays and finished my term. Now exhausted and have to catch up on things I neglected. One of my essays was atrocious, I should be ashamed. Despite attending almost every lecture and seminar, taking notes, doing the reading diligently, and participating vigorously in seminars, when I got to the list of essay questions they were all puzzling blanks, and I was unsure where to start. The other course, though, all the questions were interesting and linked to a specific lecture and came with lists of recommended extra reading.

Result, I did all the reading for that essay and ignored the other one in the vague hope it would go away. It didn't. I finally read half a dozen articles and skimmed two books and wrote a piece of garbage. The other essay suffered the opposite problem, with far too many thoughts and ideas being crammed in as I read and read more and more. Anyway, the essays are compulsory but don't count towards our final grade, so whatever.

It's funny, before this year started I was very interested in Tudor Britain, had read several books on it, and didn't really care about Late Antiquity. After ten weeks with our teachers, I realise Tudor Britain was really boring and Late Antiquity COMPLETELY FASCINATING.

Anyway, I have a month before classes start again and am going to try and fill in the gaps of my knowledge - I've gone through the reading lists and picked out some books to read. Currently reading a biography of Henry VII and God's Secret Agents, which is about Jesuit missionaries in England during Elizabeth's reign. Starting to find the Tudors interesting again. Then I think Decline in History, which was vigorously recommended to me last year and may or may not be relevant to my current subjects, but I guess economic decline and the Mediterranean is always useful knowledge. A book about the economy of Early Modern Britain, a biography of Wolsey, The Roman Empire at Bay as I read chapters 9-12 already and they were pretty ace. Then two books on religion and society under the Tudors.

Annoyingly, the library closes early on the 22nd and then doesn't reopen until JANUARY. So I'll read what I can of the books I have out, and then go to the library 21st evening and trade them in. I want to read The Rise of Western Christendom and The Fall of Rome: The End of Civilization in tandem, as they're sort of duelling viewpoints, and I want to read some stuff on James, Charles and the English Civil War before next term. Oh, and I want to read the book next term's lecturer wrote. :) So, uh, too much planned. Also I have to finish my exchange fic, and there will probably be pinch-hitting, and I'm not taking any holiday; but work should be quiet.

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Falconry!

valtyr — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:54:01 GMT

Today I had a half-day's falconry. :D

It was cold. :|

I wore my thermals, and warm jumper, and gloves - the major problem, ridiculously enough, was that my boobs were cold. And it's socially unacceptable to breathe on or rub them, so. But it was well worth the cold. I crossed London via public transport, and was collected at Rickmansworth by a friend who drives, and has a car. Friend had been recruited at the last minute - I purchased two vouchers earlier in the year, and then left it til they'd almost run out - only to find most of my friends either busy, or already possessed of tickets to a different falconry centre. Sigh. This friend, who I hadn't seen in several years, posted on my Facebook to quibble with me about the estimated economic growth used in pension cost forecasts. (I won, and my prize was cookies.) And it occurred to me to ask if they'd fancy falconry, and YES THEY DID. They also brought their wife to tour the centre and watch us admiringly as we threw birds around.

Sadly there was no petting of the birds - understandably, as two dozen pettings a day would wear down the feathers. I have previously petted a falcon's breast feathers at a fete, however, and can attest they are soft like clouds look.

Anyway! First, owls. There was a barn owl, and a young Black Banded Owl. It was stripey, and had HUGE eyes, and incredibly long eyelashes. Most of the birds talked a lot, screeching back and forth at each other. I held the Black Banded Owl. The owls have jesses on their feet, and they have a rope and a leather strap. You put on the thick leather glove, and they tether the rope to a ring on the glove, and then you hold the leather strap in your fist, and the bird perches on your closed fist. (Not your wrist, really, although on the bigger birds one foot may end up on your wrist.) You have to hold your forearm level for them. The owl I held was very small and light and adorable. These two owls were nocturnal owls, which you can tell by their practically black eyes. (Apparently only around 30% of owl species are actually nocturnal. Daylight species have yellow or even lime-green eyes.)

Onto bigger owls - I held a Turkmenistan Eagle Owl. I also got batted round the head several times by an English Eagle Owl, which had slightly darker colouring. These eagles were big! Still light, though, the handler brushed at the breast feathers so we could see how much of the bird was puffball. (A lot.)

Then, falcons. We held two Peregrine Falcon hybrids - Peregrines are very fast, but not very agile. One was crossed with a more agile species of falcon, the other with a more aggressive species. They do actually hire out as pest control, so the birds are working birds. I can't remember the full names, but the one I held had pale blue-grey feet, and the skin around eyes and beak was the same colour. It was the fast/aggressive combo, though all the ones we held were completely nonaggressive towards humans - which you had to remind yourself of when their sharp hooked beaks were inches from your face! Sometimes they would lunge off, though, after food or something shiny, and then they'd dangle from your hand flapping - you stood still, and after a couple of second's flailing they'd right themselves and perch again. As the big ones we held had a six-foot wingspan, this is a little breezy. Falcons were little, though, and they had stiff feathers instead of soft ones like the owls, because falcons go for speed, stooping from a great height to their prey, and owls are built for silent flight.

After falcons, it was EAGLES. :D They had a golden eagle! We didn't hold it, ha. Apparently their grip can inflict a force of up to a ton. Which as they have big sharp talons, is less than ideal. Anyway, we held Mac. I forget what he was, but he weighed eight pounds and was very docile and stared with interest into the face of everyone who held him. Tiring on the arm! And we had different gloves - the eagles have buffalo leather gloves. After this, we went to fly some birds, as time was getting on.

First, an adorable little owl. A Boobook, which is also called a Morepork. (Found on the crest of Ankh-Morpork.) :D The handler put it on a treestump, then stood behind us holding up food behind our extended, gloved hand. The owl then flew to our hand. It was more exciting than it sounds! Then a Wood Owl, which flew to our hands, and then we'd turn and cast it off and it would fly back on its own. In theory. In practice, it was lazy and we had to carry it half the way back.

Then, a kestrel! She was new to all this, and this was only her second time flying with a group. She did three runs on a sort of long string, so if she flew away she'd still be attached. Three perfect runs, flying on her own back to her perch, and then the handler untied her string for some free flights. And she flew off. And the handler was !!! and ran after her.

So there was a freezing and somewhat hilarious interlude where handlers ran in and out of tents waving dead chicks and the kestrel didn't care and sat in a tree. It was really cold, as we were on an open field and the wind was up. Eventually another handler took us in for a nice cup of tea, and that was it - no hawks for us. But after tea, we went back to the eagles.

Levi is a Chilean Blue Eagle. That picture is tagged 'Levi' so it's probably the same eagle I held. :D He was lighter and smaller than Mac, and he had similar colouring to a pigeon, soft grey-blues, but he was stunning. And he posed for pictures so beautifully. (Pictures are on my friend's camera, I will post them when I have them!)

After that, we saw a juvenile Andean Condor. He was adorable and fluffy, and he was also a vulture. And he looked very like a cartoon vulture! And so cute, and the handler petted him and cooed to him and he snuggled up and was friendly. ♥ I want one. But they're like, four foot tall at adulthood. And then we were done.

Anyway, it was ace and I strongly recommend it if you get the chance. :D

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Poor impulse control

valtyr — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:04:31 GMT

After reading marinarusalka's ace fusion between Avengers and Echo Bazaar, I am now playing Echo Bazaar.

I have no actions left for the day, and am sternly telling myself not to indulge in subscribing. (But extra actions! D:)

Also, I picked a terrible time of day to sign up - my actions rollover at about 3pm, which means I'll use them all up in the evening, instead of having something to do in spare moments at work, as was my intention. D'oh!

Am working on exchange fic; it's all behaving oddly and such. *glares* I hope everyone's getting on well with theirs. :)

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For your information:

valtyr — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:47:54 GMT

These are the most precious, wonderful things imaginable: Steve, Tony, Natasha and Coulson charms

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ARGH

valtyr — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:01:20 GMT

I am so fucking tired of Google breaking functionality. First it was Gdocs. I used to write and write in the simple, uncomplicated Gdocs. It was glorious. Now I just don't because they fucked it up and rendered it unusable. So I wrote in the Compose Email section of Gmail. Sure, I could only go up to thirty thousand words there, but whatever. Now they've 'upgraded' Gmail. Result: my work computer can't hack it, which means I have to use the 'basic' HTML view, which means a tiny, tiny compose window to work in, and I don't have access to Gchat.

Oh, and - I can't READ MY EMAILS NOW. TINY FUCKING PROBLEM HERE GOOGLE.

I wouldn't mind so much except it used to be simple and perfect and I loved it, and they are taking it away from me, and it makes it really difficult for me to write! I can't install anything on my work computer, I can't put any 'unauthorised' USB or whatever into my work computer, and I don't have the same programs on my work computer, which means cloud storage is my only option for sharing work between home and office and they've FUCKING BROKEN IT.

Is there any kind of decent, simple service like old Gdocs? I'll pay for it, whatever, I just want to be able to fucking write from a number of locations is this too much to fucking ask, seriously will someone please take my fucking money and give me a simple, functional service instead of a giant crock of barely functional rubbish?

On another note, I've been reading about the OTW stuff and all I can say is if the behemoth that is Google can't even let me share plain text between several locations, I'm surprised a fan-run volunteer website can tell its ass from its elbow.

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Bright lights, big city

valtyr — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:53:32 GMT

Way behind on almost everything - I'm caught up on cap_ironman exchange, at least. :D If you didn't sign up, but would like to write/draw someone a present, why not check out our community prompts? There are many and they are loooovely.

I have been shining bright lights in my eyes for four days, and I may feel better, or it may be pyschosomatic, haha. Have done almost all the washing up, and I'm going to do some tidying in a bit. That's motivationish. And I may do some laundry, if Housmate's laundry finishes fairly early so I can turn the heating on to get things dried out... and tonight I plan to catch up on answering feedback. So I guess things progress okay and stuff.

I bought an electric blanket of the under-the-sheet variety, and I love it already. At least I won't freeze in the night, even when it gets really cold.

Off to try and get some writing done.

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I talk about heating. It's less than gripping.

valtyr — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:24:14 GMT

bigbang_mixup is doing its final call for authors, so if you want to write fic for a fanmix, now's your chance!

Do want, but no more signups for anything until I finish the auction fic. (Except the exchange, that doesn't count.) Because I am awful awful at prioritising. *sigh* I get most stuff done in the raw panic of imminent deadlines.

My SAD lamp arrives tomorrow. I'm also scoping out electric blankets. You see, I live in a fairly sizeable mansion flat with some other people, and they're out a lot. Away most weekends, and I work at home some days when they're not there. So it really seems overkill to heat the whole flat for me, usually hunched in my computer chair. On the other hand, it does get cold. *flexes mousehand* So I want a heated blanket to wrap myself in. Sadly, all I'm finding is personal sized throws, which are glorified hankies. I want something more like a fleecey mainsail. I have very fine sheepskin booties for my feet, so they're always warm, but I want to be able to wrap this throw firmly round my neck, sit on it, and cover my knees. In fact, ideally I want like... a heated robe or snuggie. And they only seem to be available in that great country, the US. Haha. Oh well, for now I will stick with holding a hot water bottle in my lap.

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Winter woes

valtyr — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:03:04 GMT

Suffering from grouchiness. Was off sick from work yesterday, and felt guilty about a) missing work b) doing nothing while not at work but sleeping. Back in the office today, and feel strangely reassured that other people are or were sick; manager informs me there's something going round.

Have ordered an SAD lamp in the hope that bright light will help get me out of the dumps. Missed lecture yesterday, and I'm not sure if I'm going to tonight's - still feel pretty rubbish. But I don't want to miss the lecture on Justinian, but I haven't done the reading... Yesterday's lecture-missing was not so bad, as it was on the Reformation, and I did a lot of stuff on that last year so can fill in the blanks for England, I guess. But I know naff all about Justinian. I might go to the lecture and skip out on the seminar, perhaps.

Riffling grumpily through WIPs. Hookers, Vikings, fairies, mermaids, Normans and Saxons, Regency romances, one where Tony has an elaborate Extremis hallucination that he's dating Steve, one where Steve is a secret agent and Tony is, more or less, a Bond girl. And one where Ult Steve is a... slutty Space Marine? *pulls hair* This is some side effect of monofannishness. When I see something cool, I just try and jam it into the fandom I already have. Writing four continuities on a regular basis probably helps. (I've written Big Bangs in movieverse, 616, Ultimates and Marvel Adventures.) It's like having multiple fandoms, really. Argh, tentacle sex. One where Steve thinks Iron Man is really a robot and reads books on artificial intelligences to try and work out whether Iron Man can love him back. Have at least made progress on auction fic, both wordcount and structural, but then sudden busy and sick, and the damn thing's on Scrivener which means I can only work on it at home. Work IT is awful awful. Every time I log into Gmail it tells me to upgrade to a modern browser.

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Excuse me sir, you can't park your airship here

valtyr — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:40:25 GMT

Unlike huge chunks of the world, I really, really liked The Three Musketeers. I thought it was hilariously and delightfully over-the-top swashbuckling nonsense. I loved the ridiculous steampunk aspects, and think more classic novels should be adapted with airships. In fact, I'm adding WITH AIRSHIPS to every prompt I submit to the cap_ironman Secret Santa.

They didn't age up d'Artagnan. He was played by a kid, and looked it. The King, Queen and Constance all looked very young, although the actors were out of their teens. Frankly, this worked. I'm much more sympathetic to cocky and hotheaded recklessness, as well as dangerous showing off for a girl you just made eye contact with, if the person doing it is barely out of childhood. I found it easier to sympathise with the King, too, when he was very young and it was obvious people had been conspiring to keep him that way. (I know, he's not exactly sympathetic in the books, but let's face it, virtually all the characters in the books are assholes and I can see why they didn't go with that.) On they other hand, they did a nice job as showing Athos, Porthos and Aramis as mostly upper-class thugs, while still keeping them likeable. I did not have a lot of sympathy for Athos to be honest.

I thought it did a reasonable job of giving the female characters depth and agency; obviously, it's The Three Musketeers, it's all about the dudes, but they were good supporting characters.

The effects and fight scenes were delightful. Airships! I loved that whole thing. The plot is ridiculous, but doesn't have obvious holes.

Milady got such a raw deal in the book. I mean, yes, the times, but if my husband hanged me for pre-marital sexual indiscretions I would also be inclined to revenge. They've overhauled her plot entirely; here, she's Athos' girlfriend and the ally of the Musketeers in their hijinks in the opening sequence. She then betrays them, having sold out to Buckingham. (Buckingham is Orlando Bloom; he chews scenery with puppyish enthusiasm.) This background makes her much more of a straight-up villainous type, which I do think is an improvement over 'she wasn't a virgin when we married so I murdered her'. On the other hand, her motivation was a mess. She loves Athos? Apparently? But betrayed him anyway and was ready to kill him? Also, she gave the airship plans to the Cardinal. IDK. And the whole last sequence I was expecting her to reappear, having cleverly clung to the side of the airship or something. I'm sorry, but you don't survive a fall from an airship into water and then get randomly found by a passing fleet. And Athos; you're a dick for wanting to kill her and not Buckingham, and then daring to manpain about it. If you couldn't live with killing her, don't bloody kill her.

She had gorgeous costumes, too. Do want.

Frontal assault on the Tower of London! :D It was nice to see the Tower with its moat and all. And then, an airship battle! This was all great. Just, I loved the airships. We need more of this sort of thing. It had a cannon gun turret. (Although how three untrained men can fly an airship...) They ended up impaling two airships on the spire of Notre Dame cathedral. And I really enjoyed how Rochefort was just 'fuck honourable fighting, I'm just going to shoot people' and literally had to be forced into duelling when he ran out of guns. Also, nice eyepatch.

Queen Anne got a nice combination of girlish ingenuousness and political manoeuvering. She was clearly out of her depth, but hey, Cardinal Richelieu. She did the best she could in difficult circumstances. Constance was also clever and brave - after captured by Richelieu, dangled off the prow of an airship and being hostage exchanged in mid-air, she promptly came up with a solution to their new plight.

And I think I'm getting old, because my response to the Louis/Anne and d'Artagnan/Constance romances was 'aw, look at the children, bless their little hearts'.

In other news, people have been writing related works to my fic, which fills me with glee. Touch Me, I Wanna Be Dirty is loosely connected to my age is an irrational number through the theme of multiple orgasms, and I have so wanted fic where Steve, instead of superstamina, has premature ejaculation issues. And this is adorable and hot. (The White Knight is) Talking Backwards is pretty much a direct sequel to my White Rabbit, on the Ultimate side of the mirror; Ult Tony's bafflement about the MA verse is glorious, and Ult Steve is such a big ball of conflicting emotions. <3

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/100222.html. Comments:

At least my nose is unstuffed

valtyr — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:52:55 GMT

Still craving dim sum. Want, want. Not helped by the fact it's lunch time and I'm hungry. Shortly I will leave the office and acquire food. Sandwich, probably. Soup, maybe.

I was thinking of doing a NaNo challenge, to get the number of words written just to get me moving, but I had work and class and now it's day three and I haven't written much. Hmph. I was busy enough last week I fell a little behind with class reading, but I've loaded more articles onto my Kindle and I'm ploughing on. I'm finding the Late Antique course much more interesting than the British Early Modern one, and it's almost entirely due to the teacher.

Late Antique seminar: gives presenter a selection of further resources and a selection of questions, asks them to pick a question and read the relevant resources and make a presentation on the question.
Early Modern seminar: asks presenter to summarize the standard reading articles.

Yes, our early modern seminar is almost entirely people summarising articles that the whole class should have already read. What a complete, total, waste of time. *stamps feet*

I also have a cold, but it's pretty mild. Still, looking forward to spending tomorrow wrapped up with a hot water bottle, and maybe turning the heating on. Oh, and soup. Gotta have soup. Maybe buttered rum, we'll see.

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/99848.html. Comments:

Things I want to write

valtyr — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:26:10 GMT

Modern powerless AU where Steve is accidentally a hooker
Modern powerless AU where Tony is purposefully a hooker
Ults AU where Tony is a hooker instead of Iron Man
Sequel to previous Movieverse fic where Cap is a sort of patriotic hooker.

No idea why it's All Hookers All The Time in my fic brain recently.

What I Am Actually Writing
Not a whole bunch. I need to get on that. I have commitments and so on.

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/99787.html. Comments:

Strawman redux; again, skip if you don't like wank.

valtyr — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:01:26 GMT

After lying about me on Twitter, ani_bester has updated her post with this: Because one of the co-mods of Cap_Ironman REALLY wants to misrepresent what I'm mad at let me clarify:
I am not mad at the size of the S/T shippers or mad because it's popular
Also, I know the accusation that I deleted comments is being made. I did, in fact, delete comments. But not, as is being said, because I can't stand not to win. They were abusive comments that re-itterated the strawman argument of the C_I mod, which I warned her would be deleted if continued. I have only ever deleted two other people's comments before, ever,so no, it's not common and is not my default style >.> "

In a shocking twist, ani_bester is lying again. Here you'll find a screenshot of my second reply to her, in two comments. You'll note it's not, at all, abusive; I clarified that I wasn't calling her a troll, and I explained carefully how the strawman argument works. I quoted her, and addressed her words directly. She deleted my comments and froze the thread. I then left a comment I don't have a screen shot of, but I kept a copy of; reproduced below, including my quote of ani_bester's own comment that she deleted.

The fact that I repeatedly flat out say I am NOT ANGRY about the size of the fandom and you keep trying to twist it around to say I am?
That is a strawman tactics.

You won't get it, you've no desire to get it. You are enjoying being angry about the wrong thing, and even when I flat out say it's the wrong thing, you don't accept it. I'm done with this argument with you, all that's going to happen it seems is I'm going to keep saying I'm not made about that and you'll keep saying yes i am.

And I'm sorry, but I know what aspects of the fandom are upsetting me a bit better than you do.

I CAN ONLY RESPOND TO WHAT YOU SAY. YOU SAID I'm feeling especially annoyed this morning that Steve/Tony has taken over capkink to the point that it essentially a kinkmeme for Steve/Tony fans only

IF YOU POST YOU ARE ANNOYED ABOUT THING THAT YOU ARE NOT ANNOYED ABOUT, AND THEN I SAY "SO YOU'RE ANNOYED ABOUT THESE THINGS," IT'S NOT A FUCKING STRAWMAN! IT'S ME RESPONDING TO YOUR WORDS, BECAUSE I'M NOT A GODDAMN TELEPATH AND CAN'T TELL WHEN YOU'RE POSTING THINGS THAT ARE THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU FEEL!</em>

End copy-paste of comment.

You'll note this comment, while capslocked and swearing, is not abusive either. (Unless you consider all incidents of capslock and swearing abusive, I suppose. Even then, that doesn't make the first two comments she deleted abusive.)

ani_bester, it's absolutely disgusting that you are lying, that you are making up stories about how I was abusive to you. How dare you tell lies about me? Exactly how do you think it is acceptable to make up vicious accusations about me and spread them around? How dare you spread nasty lies and then two-facedly bemoan the meanness of fandom, you dishonest little hypocrite? I suppose it's foolish to hope you'll ever have any realisation of how bad your behaviour is; you'd much rather play the victim and lie about people to pretend you were somehow in the right.

This is particularly hilarious because in your first response to me, you said you do know me, and I'd have though you'd know I don't talk out of my ass or lie to win an argument. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Also, you still have no clue what a strawman actually is.

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/99552.html. Comments:

Secret Santa!

valtyr — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:27:45 GMT

The cap_ironman secret santa has opened signups! It's only a thousand words, you have over a month to write(or draw!) it, and you can just do movieverse if that's all you know. doooo eeeet!

I love this fic and art exchange; as a participant, there are delicious prompts and presents, so much fic and art; and as a mod, everyone is always so well-behaved and on time and things. I love this fandom. ♥

In other news, I went out for Hallowe'en yesterday. I wore a GIANT POOFY DRESS of doom with like, four visible layers of skirt, some of which were shimmery and some sparkly and some tacky flocked roses. I had to go through some doors sideways due to the width of my panniers. I sadly didn't have time to add all the sparkle my magpie little heart desired, but it was still a magnificently over-done confection. I plan to wear it again in a month, so will add more sparkle in the interim. Also, repair mask, as I tied so tight one strap popped off. I have another mask, but it has a foot of black feathers around the edge, which would hide my towering crazy bouffant flour-powdered hair.

Today I loafed, and went out for dim sum. Delicious garlic prawns. I always order too much, and then can't finish, but then I bring the remainder home and reheat it in the evening, so I see no need to alter my habits. Tomorrow I have to do a bunch of reading to get caught up before class Tuesday.

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/99319.html. Comments:

The Strawman

valtyr — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:23:25 GMT

An important lesson on the strawman argument! You probably want to skip this if you don't enjoy wankery.

If you post "I'm annoyed about how Steve/Tony prompts are taking over the kink meme" and someone responds with "so you're annoyed about all the Steve/Tony," that is not a strawman argument. No, not even if you secretly aren't annoyed about the size of the Steve/Tony fandom! Engaging directly with the words that you say is not a strawman argument because logical fallacies do not allow for telepathically knowing what you really think.

If you're not annoyed at Steve/Tony all over the place, don't say you're annoyed at Steve/Tony all over the place, and this way we can avoid confusion.

And don't then say "I suppose you think X is okay," when I specifically said "X is out of line." That is a strawman argument. Study it, understand it.

(Linking to threads that specifically say "I don't mind if newbies start kink memes" to prove that people get angry if newbies start kink memes also makes you look pretty stupid, FYI.)

And the reason I'm wankily posting this in my journal is because ani_bester cannot handle people telling her she is wrong, and deletes comments and freezes threads so she can pretend to be in the right.

ani_bester; before, I didn't call you a liar. I said you were remembering wrong. Now, evidence has been presented to you, and you're refusing to acknowledge it and are carrying on maintaining things that are demonstrably not true. Now you are a liar. Well done.

It's also worth noting that this person, between lying about other fans and wanting those 'entitled' fans to change their behaviour for her convenience, is also wistfully complaining about how the fandom used to be so nice. Dizzingly lack of self-awareness there, chap.

ETA: ani_bester Tweeted hereThe co-Mod of Cap_ironman just told me I’d never contribute to the fandom. O RLY? (EDIT: she's apparently chosen to delete her entire Twitter, so... screenshot here.)

No rly. That's an outright lie. I didn't say anything that could be construed as that, so she's just... making it up out of whole cloth. You should be ashamed of yourself, ani_bester.

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/98883.html. Comments:

I whine about inconveniences

valtyr — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:49:37 GMT

Annoyed today! My phone is bricked. It just... stopped responding. Won't do a hard reset. Shop says repairs start at £60. I'm scoping for replacements; I'm seriously considering a straight replacement, as I love my phone (The T-mobile G1/HTC Dream), but on the other hand it is three years old and doesn't do all I could wish for. So I'm covetously eyeing a HTC Desire Z, which is a year old and has the fold out keyboard I love. It's considerably pricier, though.

I'm lusting after the latest shiny, of course, but be damned if I'm paying £500 for a phone. I don't do contracts, as I rarely make calls and hardly ever text, so I have to outright buy the handset. At the moment, I'm holding body and soul together by surfing on my Kindle when I'm out. It's... actually okay? And I have free 3G, so.

Almost tempted to abandon phone entirely; but there are those couple of people who stay in touch by text. And I do like having pocket-sized internet.

As a result, I have no alarm clock at the moment. VERY annoying. I try to get up at six to be in work at seven. I really need a reliable alarm for this, as I generally fail at sleep.

Also, our boiler is broken, so no hot water. SO I have to go to the basement at work to shower when I leave tonight, sigh. (Also no heating. Not a problem right now, as we are hardy and had not put it on yet, but soon will be troublesome.)

On the bright side, my classes are going well - I did a presentation, and I think did well, convincing argument and reference to primary and secondary sources. And in the seminar, I knew pretty much all the answers. Another presentation for the other class next week, and then with those out of the way I can start work on this term's essay. Trying to really keep up with my background reading this year. My Kindle is helpful, as a lot of journal articles are in PDF form, and they can go on the Kindle. May experiment with note-taking facility.

Also, first go I posted this to LJ. I don't seem to be very connected today...

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/98744.html. Comments:

Writing mid-length fic is hard

valtyr — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:53:17 GMT

You know, one of the things I hardly ever have to do is delete work. I'm not sure I've ever deleted a whole scene. I get grumpy when I have to delete 500 words. I edit, of course, but rarely do I just have to sling a bunch of work into oblivion.

And I was minding my own business earlier, thinking about my most recent fic - the monster - and I was thinking about Sif and the Warriors Three, and their one scene. Because they really do only appear in one scene, and Sif calls in for another. And you know, it's a scene that has a lot of good and useful things in it! Steve is starting to feel genuinely better about things, and to accept his loss. It sets up that Steve is not straight, and lets Steve know Tony isn't straight, and is the set-up for Tony later suspecting Steve isn't straight. It elaborates on the gender-divide among Asgardians which comes in later with Tony and sorcery, and sets up Frigga's position. If I didn't have that scene, I'd have to put a lot of things elsewhere.

On the other hand, narratively, I'm not sure how tightly woven in it is. The whole random monsters generated by the Bifrost was a fairly late addition to the plot, as I developed the Bifrost's precise level of brokenness. I needed something to add immediate threat to the early parts of the story, something to add to the heap of strain on SHIELD. And that plot does just tail off as the larger ones take over, and Sif and the Warriors drop quietly out of the story.

I was thinking about how that could be fixed, and my thought train was something like. "There's always cutting. No, don't wanna. Will just have to include entire subplot to justify."

And I realised that when I am faced with scenes that are possibly extraneous, instead of killing my darlings and cutting ruthlessly, I will just expand and write thousands of words around the scene so it is no longer extraneous.

I think I may have discovered a reason my fics grow out of control.

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/98522.html. Comments:

Ponies are ace, I will fight you on this.

valtyr — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 22:18:35 GMT

Have had a busy and, I think, quite productive week. I got caught up on feedback, and then posted some kink meme fills and stuff to AO3. So now I'm a little behind with feedback, heh. Couldn't work out how to warn for pony sex; it's not bestiality when ponies have sex with each other, and pony play isn't really correct. 'Horse cock' is not a tag I wish to add to AO3. Fandom presents me with such interesting problems.

I visited a friend I haven't hung out with in a month due to argh deadlines, and we watched Resident Evil: Afterlife which holds up very well, and a couple of episodes of Being Human, which I liked. I don't really watch television, as it requires a level of organisation I don't have, and also I tend to get distracted, but I've got a bit of sewing I'm doing - making a Hallowe'en costume - so I borrowed the rest of the first two seasons and a stack of other DVDs. They're about the only thing I can do and sew at the same time. I suppose I could listen to podcasts or recorded lectures; I might look into that, especially if I can find some history ones.

I haven't had time to read fanfic, which is annoying, as all those Big Bangs are waiting for me.

I bought sparkly things to wear in my hair, and they reminded me why I love my trusty brass hairpins. Still, sparkles. Feeling generally good and happy, although I have the first of what will probably be an endless parade of winter sniffles.

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/98208.html. Comments:

SO apparently I haven't posted since April

valtyr — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:28:04 GMT

I seem to have acquired new friends - I don't get notifications, so usually I don't notice, but hi all! Nice to meet you. :) Feel free to comment or lurk as you see fit, I am always pleased to meet new people.

Since April I took my first-year exams, and did respectably. (I'm doing a history degree part-time; four years instead of three.) Last year was really my first attempt at studying anything ever (my experiences with education are hilarious, let me tell you internet), so I hope to do better this year. In a typical 'oh God my life' event, I studied superhard on Medieval history for the week, and then turned up to find it was actually Early Modern first - Medieval was the week after. D: It could have been much worse, though, as I had done the reading throughout the year, and I was able to pick out Early Modern questions that allowed me to go in-depth into the roots of events, i.e. roots that were rooted in the Medieval period. I actually scored slightly higher on that exam than I did on the Medieval exam. Ah well.

My exams were the end of May. I signed up for three Big Bangs in the Spring, but then I put on my responsible adult hat and barely touched them until I'd finished with exams. Since the end of May I have written and posted over a hundred and fifty thousand words. Insert horrified face. I really, really need to organise my schedule better - I need to actually spread the work out. One weekend I wrote seventeen thousand words in two days, which yes excellent, but when I'm relying on that kind of output to make deadlines I need to be scheduling better. I wrote the last 22k of my last fic in the last eleven days, including my beta edits and a line edit.

That fic, which I just posted on Friday, is my largest fic to date, at just over 87k. It's funny, because when I was deciding what to write for the C-IM Big Bang, I riffled through and discarded a lot of my WIPs, including the one where Maria is a fairy, because I thought... get this... they might get too big and complicated. Yeah.

For the last two weeks I've been having a dark night of the soul re this fic, as it kept getting bigger and bigger and the plot more rambly. All my hearts and flowers to tsukinofaerii, who not only beta'd that shit in like... three days, she held my hand and told me it didn't suck, my plot was coherent, and my characterisation was fine. All things I was deeply in doubt about. I'm still not entirely pleased with the plot - there are some wobbles - and ALSO I forget to say the ghost town was an old coal mining town, hence the villains had some coal tar and an escape tunnel ready-made. *facepalm* However, no one has questioned Sudden Tunnels so either everyone is kinder than I deserve (very possible) or people pay less attention to plots than I believe (also very possible).

Also, my art. It's just - go over to made_of_tin's LJ and look at everything. It's so very fantastic, and I am so lucky.

I have so far spent the weekend going 'ahhhh, no deadlines' and cleaning up. (I was kind of living in a hell of dirty dishes and empty bottles and packets.) I've also been catching up with replying to feedback, but AO3 is capricious. (I about had an aneurysm Friday, when I was trying to upload - first the fic was too big, then it just... wouldn't load.) I've been clearing out my email inbox, putting books where they belong, and generally getting back to pleasant surroundings.

I'm going to finish cleaning. Finish replying. Beta a fic I promised to do forever ago. Post a few kink meme fills to AO3. Read some real books, both for study and fun. Read all the Big Bangs, and all the fic, and leave some feedback. Do some sewing, as I have totally neglected sewing forever. Finish the auction fic I committed to multiple forevers ago. Start my next year's study - next week! I'm actually really excited for it, this year is Ancient to Medieval, and British Early Modern.

And in mid-November, time for the C-IM fic and art exchange, in which I will try to write something compact.

My big ambition for the after-exchange period is to write a large-ish fic without the pressure of a deadline. Looking at my habits, I tend to abandon them when they get hard, and I realise they're not going to be as good as I want them to be. My main issue is the plotting, I think. If I hadn't had a deadline, I would probably have indefinitely shelved both my Rome-ish AU and the huge fic for being plot disasters. (Not sure about the Mr & Mrs Smith one, that came out pretty easy.) I want to be able to push through those feelings without a deadline hanging over me. So I'll probably try and do that in the Spring.

So, uh, that's it. I think I might even turn off the computer for a bit, and do a bit of sewing and reading with the rest of my weekend. :)

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/98016.html. Comments:

Merchandise!

valtyr — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 22:06:38 GMT

I want delightful Iron Man and Cap tumblers.

$10.

But $25 shipping.

I mostly deplore materialistic culture and try not to own too many things. I bought one souvenir in Egypt.

But I want Avengers merchandise! *glares at US*

This entry was originally posted at http://valtyr.dreamwidth.org/97406.html. Comments: