while they did live happily ever after

1) AH I'M A WEEK BEHIND IN KORRA I need to fix that tomorrow morning before the next episode airs. SO, A WEEK BEHIND.

But shipping-wise I'm pretty neutral (I don't mind the apparent endgame ship but I'm not rabid about it) and so I'm able to just sit back and enjoy EVERYTHING, and EVERYTHING is so freaking awesome. Uh I haven't watched it in three weeks so I don't have anything specific in mind to talk about, but, you know! Korra! WATCH IT.

2) I finally read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, which led to a conversation between beth_shulman and myself that led to my realizing this:

So is it sad? Yes. Did it make me cry? Oh yes, though I mostly managed to keep it to sniffles. Did it occasionally frustrate me or seem a bit impossible? Yes. Would I recommend it? Yes. In the end, I really like his books--they deeply connect with me on an intellectual level, so while I'm not always emotionally invested as deeply as I might be, I'm definitely challenged and entertained. And this one slipped through and hit some emotional spots too.

If, uh. Any of that made sense. IT DEPENDS ON HOW YOU INTERACT WITH JOHN GREEN? It was definitely better than Will Grayson, Will Grayson. I need to reread Paper Towns. I want him to write more kickass female characters. I think that bit above about me saying that I connect intellectually if not emotionally actually is an epiphany for me re: John Green's books. (Like, I didn't really like the main character of Paper Towns all that much, but I LOVE what [John] [Green] [what do I even call him] did with the deconstruction of the woman-on-a-pedestal trope.)

and Beth said I wouldn't say I have very specific taste, but I do tend to like books if they're strong in writing and in characterization, and to me, he isn't strong in characterization. So maybe that's why I keep reading him.

and I thought these were good points. Granted, it's been a very long time since I read a book for fun, and I'm just dipping my toes in the water here, but, yeah, those were my thoughts.

Also reading it I couldn't help thinking about philia_fan especially because Hazel has to drain her lungs and yeah.

3) So I just remembered that finishing TFIOS is why I started watching Big, which is in the process of airing, and despite the fact that it seems to be heading into student/teacher relationship land, she was really only his teacher for like two days, and ANYWAY the student is trapped in the body of Gong Yoo of Coffee Prince fame, and they are not only showcasing his marvelous acting skills but also his post-mandatory-military-service physique. So. You know.

Anyway it's adorable so far and I hope to keep watching it.

4) I STARTED VIRMIRE LAST NIGHT. Yes I am very slowly playing my way through Mass Effect 1. I am enjoying it immensely and I am afraid to see what they change between 1 an 2 but oh well.

Anyway I'm a femShep, although this is the first Bioware game where I have actually wanted to go through the trouble of trying to play a male character for the sake of romancing one of the het female characters. Most of them (Bastila, Dawn Star, Morrigan) I haven't wanted to romance (didn't like, didn't care about, found the female friendship to be so satisfying that a romance couldn't possibly complete), but omg I am in love with Ashley Williams I love her so much. I love her family and her belief system and her tactical analysis and she's a badass and I love her. She is my femShep's BESTFRIEND, although obviously they both understand rank and regulation and all that jazz.

And then there's Kaidan.

For those of you who are skipping this section anyway, here's a comparison of Ashley and Kaidan:
[SCENE: Inside a very fancy tower with lots of decorative water features and plants and impressive staircases leading up to the Galactic Council's meeting chamber.]
Ashley: THOSE STAIRCASES AREN'T JUST DECORATIVE, THEY'RE HIGHLY DEFENSIBLE. THIS WOULD BE A HARD PLACE TO LAUNCH AN ASSAULT ON.
Kaidan: I like the fountain. It's very soothing.

basically I am romancing him because he is SpaceCarth and his voice is so soothing and I love it. I tentatively know why femShep is interested in him (i.e. why it's not one-sided because it is obviously that he just thinks she hung the moon and would do anything she asked), but she's having serious issues with the whole rank regulation no-fraternizing thing. Which is also part of why he's opened up so much to her but she hasn't felt she can reciprocate; all she can do is be quietly attracted. Anyway, at the moment he doesn't seem as damaged as Alistair or even Carth was--I mean, yeah, sad backstory, but it was fifteen years ago--Alistair is young, and Carth's tragedy was fresh. (Other Bioware romances to compare to include Sky--who was just a wimpier version of Carth I thought--and Anders--who doesn't count because it felt less like romancing him and more like manipulating him just for the sake of controlling him did I mention what a horrible person Thistle Hawke really was.)

What else. I like the battle mechanics I think. I LOVE the space travel and I love the Mako the way everyone loves the Mako and I'm SO CLOSE to finishing all the survey quests (side note: Goose finished ALL THE SIDEQUESTS. She only looked at the internet for help ONCE. My sister, ladies and gentlemen, has beaten the game before me).

PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL ME FOR ANYTHING. ANYTHING. I LITERALLY AM JUST BLOWING UP GETH OUTSIDE THE VIRMIRE OUTPOST THINGIE. I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING YET.

5) You know this is my LJ and so I'm going to babble about twinfic for a moment. See, back when I was playing Dragon Age, I had an impossible headcanon character, because I enjoy coming up with that sort of thing, and anyway it was an AU thing where Elissa Cousland was a mage, and so at age five she got sent to the Circle, but since her father is, I dunno, the Teyrn of Highever, her family did come to visit her occasionally and she was allowed to be in contact with them, the idea being that once she passed her Harrowing she would become Mage in Residence at Highever under the watchful eye of several templars, etc. etc. etc. AS IF THIS WAS NOT AU-Y ENOUGH Elissa also had a twin brother named Aidan who grows up normally at Highever. When the Blight started, Elissa got recruited into the Grey Wardens and Aidan escaped Highever by the skin of his teeth, went to Redcliffe, and proceeded to get roaringly drunk and occasionally help fight zombies. Shenanigans ensue in which each sibling thinks the other one is dead, eventually Aidan gets found and recruited to help join the team, Elissa falls for Alistair much to everyone's chagrin, etc. etc. etc.

The point of all that is that I have a history of this sort of thinking, so the fact that while I was figuring out my femShep's name I realized she has a twin sister should not be surprising. The difference here is that I never actually did an Elissa/Aidan playthrough, whereas Emma Jane Shepard totally has a twin sister named Catherine Elizabeth. (Their dad was deployed and their mom named them after Jane Austen heroines.) Both girls are biotics (Emma's a Vanguard), and they both enlisted (or whatever it is you have to do in order to become an officer in the Alliance) and went through training together and all that jazz, and then Emma went off to become a Marine and Catie went into Naval Intelligence, and while Emma went off and became a galactic star, Catie got buried so deep in Intelligence that they ended up wiping her from all official records. Basically, they've got a perfect Shepard analogue that they can send off if they want to and no one would know it's a twin and not the original because even those who know that two of them exist can't tell the difference.

And of course Emma is the ~*~serious~*~ one and Catie is an expert mimic/the outgoing popular one and yes they're almost thirty but WHO CARES, I JUST WANT TO WRITE MISTAKEN IDENTITY FIC ALL OVER EVERYTHING.

NOT EVEN BOTHERING TO CUT, OFF TO SAVE THE GALAXY.

Fandom: Neverwinter Nights 2
Pairing: Sir Nevalle/Knight Captain (specifically, Tanithar, from my fic Falling Slowly)
Theme set: Beta
Title: Harbor
Rating: K+, if that
Warning[s]: none
Notes: These sentences are incredibly spoilery for the above-linked fic; I felt like writing something fun and happy, and turned to these two. The title comes from the Vienna Teng song of the same name; loquaciousquark graciously beta'd/half-wrote these. You can find her (beautiful, BEAUTIFUL) DA2 sentences here. Any resemblance between these characters and anyone in my own life is creepily coincidental. I hope you enjoy!

( so sail your sea / meet your storm )

if I get through tomorrow I will be HALFWAY THERE maybe I will make a better post then.

I want to talk about something fandom-y! I am like three chapters away from finishing The Farthest Shore and the chapter I ended on today ended with Series Main Character mentioning wanting to see Book Two Main Character and I squealed like a little girl in the (empty) teacher's lounge because I love them that much. SO MUCH. (People on the plane with me while I was reading Book Two: I am still really sorry about that.)

Glee doesn't come back until next week! To keep watching to see if Puckleberry makes a comeback y/n.

My DA big bang fic is stalled at 1600 words, about 600 of which are going to have to change because as Jak pointed out clearly this moment comes after Darin offers Gorim to Masha and he gets really pissed off, so I have to come up with another way for her to convince him to let her meet Masha in the first place without her ordering him to do it. Maybe if it is early enough in their relationship she just bullies him into it? As they get to know each other better he becomes more resolute (and, I think, she understands his convictions better).

My main problem really seems to be that I have two story lines and I need to plot them out separate and then figure out where they link up, because we have flashbacks and then we have the present, and I can't decide if the present will be in present tense or not. Also the flashback really has two storylines of its own, but I think the whole fic is from Gorim's POV (what, me writing about the stalwart bodyguard type? Never...), which will present challenges of its own. Basically we have the ascension of a queen against the backdrop of the developments of a badass friendship and a deeply suppressed romance; what pieces of the backdrop do we need, and when?

WELL that was helpful.

My choir is doing more Handel! I love Handel.

I watched Ever After last week. Danielle and the prince kiss very sweetly. Also, that movie reminds me of my 2008 NaNo, and not just because of the Cinderella stuff--France (specifically, I think, the Loire region) permeates both of them, and watching the movie/rereading the manuscript (oh God it needs so much help) (well not really plot-wise, but individual sentences need so much attention) (never mind that I still haven't written part two because--and okay, maybe here the plot does need help--the whole thing is about Nell's development from where she starts to where it ends? [This sounds like a duh statement.] But I'm not sure how to carry that thread from the first part [a fairy-tale retelling, less obviously about Nell] to the second part [which is about marriage and therefore not really your normal YA fare at all] [maybe I should just change the whole novel from being YA] [but she's so young in the beginning!] [well, so was David Copperfield] [you begin to see my problems, I think] [OH I should reread Spindle's End and see how Robin McKinley does it] [I will reread Earthsea when I want to write Ariadne] [MC, what's that fellowship with the whole year-in-Rome thing?] [I forget what I was originally talking about])...oh, I see. Watching the movie/reading the manuscript makes me miss France like WHOA.

but then I am missing lots of things.

moving on.

Oh look! I have made it to shower time, and even worked a few things out along the way. Success!

♥

so mostly I just enjoyed this song for its ridiculous straightforwardness, but after watching the music video



I kind of love it in a shipper way! Like, it's not like he's going around and just being a jerk, but the music video is so equal-opportunity, and she's singing along too, and they're both having fun, and they're still together in the end! it is like the whole OH NO I'M A TOTAL PLAYER BUT LO I HAVE BEEN DRAGGED INTO MONOGAMY KICKING AND SCREAMING ALL THE WAY thing, only on both sides.












p.s. now this song is stuck in your head for the rest of the day, YOU'RE WELCOME.

Goose Girl is probably my favorite Shannon Hale so far. As I said in a comment somewhere else, though, I feel like part of my problem with her books might be that they are so very similar to what and how I write, I can't quite fall into them. It's not even that I'm busy dissecting them; it's like wearing a pair of jeans that just doesn't quite fit.

I read the Snow White and the Cinderella installments in the Once Upon a Time series (see: WHY DON'T I KNOW ABOUT THESE THINGS IN ADVANCE? WHY DON'T THEY EVER HIRE ME?), and they were both surprisingly good. Not as well-written as Shannon Hale, but both very creative; though short, and therefore not as in-depth as they could have been, they still struck chords of complexity in their characters.

I have received all sorts of awesome presents and cards and postcards in the mail! Just so people who sent them know.

Anyway, the whole reason I hit post was because TONIGHT'S GLEE, WAS AMAZING. AMAZING. Like, I literally have two complaints (which, considering that I couldn't even watch an entire subplot of last week's episode, is very small), and they are

1) why so overproduced, every song ever
and
2) WHY CAN'T PUCK SING IN HIS ACTUAL RANGE, WHY ARE WE PRETENDING HE IS A TENOR, oh God Puck please sing/talk all the time, I don't even care.

that is it. The right characters said the right things, and like it was smartly and respectfully done, and it was just--I don't even like "What if God was One of Us" but they redeemed it with Tina!solo and general awesome (also: Mike Chang grinning at Tina while she sang, I SHIP THEM TOGETHER SO HARD, THEY ARE THE CUTEST, also he is getting so much more screentime homgyay).

Anyway. Flist, discuss.

so I've played through the Landsmeet, now, and I won't get to play again until next Monday probably, so now I will put on some reflective music (post about that later?) and reflect!


alert! lots and lots of meta follows. Also, my perspective on some of the following stuff might change once I beat the game; we'll see what happens.


( on Laemira )

( on being an elf )

( on being a mage )

( on Landsmeet, and Laemira's decision )

( on the Teyrn of Gwaren and his daughter )

( on Alistair's character )

( on the romance )

SO BASICALLY, IN SUMMARY: I love this game, a lot, because it gives me so many options and so many things to think about and doodle with in my brain (and Zevran! I...think I love him more than Alistair. My feelings towards Alistair are complicated these days, as you um. Might have noticed), and because it's really, really good at sucking you in and making you feel a part of what's going on, and I should probably just hurry up and join the fandom and post these thoughts, which have probably been said before, in one of their comms, shouldn't I. OH WELL. I HAVE COUSINS TO BABYSIT AND AN ARCHDEMON TO DEFEAT AND FIC TO BETA. Time to go to bed.

Zutara Fic Meme


is like kink meme, only not just for kinks.

So I haven't posted in a while, and I've been meaning to. You'll notice I'm still avoiding making a graduation post. One day I will feel secure enough that that is Behind Me and that I am going on to Something Else, but right now the future is still pretty blank-slate-y and I am loathe to let go. So instead, a book/movie/TV post, mostly spoiler-free (spoilers will be noted). Maybe in that order. Maybe not.

Actually let's get the television part over so that people who don't care can skip it.

Oh God, this post is going to be much longer than I meant. Maybe I will do a book one after

( Glee, God help me )



( Alice, the channel-that-shall-not-be-named-but-did-an-awesome-job-with-this-version )



( other shows, linked by people's fondness for showing marathons on TV )



OKAY MOVIES. I WILL DO TWO OF THEM.
( Iron Man, Iron Man, Does Whatever Iron Man Can )



( Soapdish, a movie which is not at all recent but who cares I don't I need mroe of it in my life )



okay, books are going to have to wait, but not too long. I think I only have like three days to read The Curse of Chalion, so we'll see how that goes.

so what about everyone else? also, though I can't really talk, where did my flist go? Y'all can't be doing things. I'm certainly not.

1) So, in the song "Bad Romance," which I love a lot and which you should listen to, she repeats the line "I don't wanna be friends" multiple times.

Having listened to the song, do you think this line refers to
a) the fact that she wanted a solely sexual relationship
or
b) the fact that they are friends but she wants to be more?

I am doing an informal poll, and your input is welcome.


2) I wrote my Nietzsche paper in an hour (literally) and then lo and behold my knee started going all crazy on me and my good knee started tickling and so I ended up emailing the paper in and sitting on my futon with an ice pack, WOE.


3) I have grown very attached to this cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist," in a "I listen to this over and over again and want to write."


4) Speaking of writing, this is me NOT starting my post-season-3 Katara fic that I spent three hours plotting the other night with nessismore. (Y'all, I hit all the plot points. I even, like, made decisions, where normally I just keep changing it over and over in my head--I had to pick and go.) I really ought to go ahead and get the prologue down before I forget it.


5) I haven't talked about my life in forever, but I haven't really had any crazy adventures or done anything particularly fun lately. I mean, I've had fun, but I've also had a lot of long conversations that amount to "I am screwed once I leave this institution," and that's just not much fun to talk about.


6) A Room with a View is up on YouTube in its entirety, JUST SAYING, if you want to celebrate mah birfday the way I will be celebrating it. (Singing along to "O Mio Babbino Caro" is optional but encouraged. Bonus points if you can do a crazy operatic soprano not-glissando between those two syllables of "bello.")


7) Sophos's face is up, and it is appropriately pretty.


8) Idk, is there anything y'all want to hear about from me?


9) I took Pictash into the creative writing club and they liked him! (He is the singer in this post.)


10) As for that icon meme everyone's been doing, here's my answers from September. (Not!surprise: my answers are mostly the same.)


♥

SO I HAVE A SERIOUS POST TO DO LATER BUT FIRST

OMG

SOMEONE DID IT

THEY WROTE MAI/EARTH KING

ASKLDF;JASD;FJS SO HAPPY