A Lightkeeper's Log

Day Fifteen: In your own space, share a favourite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone.

I've had so many wonderful times staying with friends I met through fandom. The earliest was rohan_lady, who I met in a romance roleplay board on Tolkien Online. Our characters dated for years, but never got past first base. She turned out to be this wonderful, effervescent Aussie chick, who came to visit me here and we roadtripped across the province. It was amazing. I remember hanging out at this Hostel in Jasper and sweet-talking this English guy and a Kiwi (who hadn't met before either) into driving us down the Icefield Parkway, and just spending the day all four of us going Holy Fuck! Mountains!

My first about six months on LJ, I was into Master & Commander fandom pretty seriously. I had seen the film but was just starting to read the books and like cruisedirector, esteven, seascribe and sparowe were about my only friends (and we're still friends!) The only one gone of that crowd is Bronzelionel, who I still miss fiercely. I used to enter in the drabble challenges over at mandc100, I think Pullings was my favourite character, so I used to award all my rum to him (you got a virtual shot of rum for every drabble that fit the prompt), and everyone was so friendly and lovely even when I hadn't read the books at all.

I stayed with esteven and saw windmill museums and the Wall and ancient churches full of modern art, and watched Starsky & Hutch and The Professionals

Later, I was hovering at the edges of SGA fandom and svmadelyn hosted the Summary Ficathon: The SV and SGA Version, where people wrote terrible, terrible summaries then other people wrote stories for them. I didn't even get a story but I still had a fantastic time. I hadn't written anything in an age, and my story wasn't even very good by crack standards, but people liked it, and I loved reading all the other stories.

Immediately hitting it off with artemis_rain at a party because we both loved Ianto in that TW ep where he thought he was a serial killer, and then dating her for eight months and staying friends to this day.

I spent a week with linaelyn and her beautiful family, and we went to the Computer History Museum to watch a working model of Babbage's Difference Engine, ate wonderful food, and watched Iron Man.

Then there was comics fandom. Man, that's been my fannish life for years now. I remember the excitement of writing again, writing because I loved it, Sea Stars taking shape under my fingers as I inhaled canon and altered as I went. Getting and leaving reviews and reading all the fic I could find. Deciding to step up as co-mod of the ship comm and meeting two wonderful friends in my sister mods. Having to stretch myself as I learned to run challenges and moderate a quickly growing community of fellow fans. Still wanting to write and read all the fic imaginable.

I visited culurien and marinarusalka and went on tall ships, and lighthouses and city tours, and had more amazing food and watched SPN and read comics and lost at Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit.

Going to WisCon, stayed with garrideb, my first convention ever, and the amazing feeling of wow, this is my species. Here's a conference of a thousand fannish women and men, who I can talk to and who want to hear what I have to say and who think so many fascinating shiny things. We stayed up too late and got up too early every day, and being absolutely exhausted by the end. We read piles of comics and watched Buffy and... god, I don't even remember. STUFF! It was amazing. I ate so much fried cheese and drank so much local beer. Wisconsin is AMAZING.

And of course I met Nenya through fandom. Oddly neither of us remember which one. Possible The Lord of the Rings, through the PPC. She's sitting across from me reading Doctor Who/B5 crack fic, and I love her very much.

Thank you, fandom.

Day Six: Rec at least 3 fanworks you thought you wouldn't like (because they weren't your fandom or they pushed against your boundaries or you thought you just wouldn't be interested) and that you ended up loving.

Title: Admiration
Author: cruisedirector and ashinae
Fandom: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Words: 7,600
Rating: Mature
Summary: Stephen tells Jack the truth; how could Jack be other than honest in return?
Notes: I was a wee young fan, and I'd just come out of The Lord of the Rings fandom. I'd certainly run into slash there, but it had mostly been Aragorn/Legolas staring Legolas: The Prince of Woobies, which, as a book fan, I found rather off putting. I actually marked my gen fic NOT SLASH. I know. I was wee. I'm sorry. So I saw this film and loved it, but I found that reading gen wasn't getting me very far. There's a couple old archives by book fans, and the Pit of Voles, and since I was just finding LJ at the time, that was kind of it. The choices were: start reading slash or run out of fic. So I read this, not really expecting to like it, and suddenly thought, oh, I get it.

Title: Bell Curve, or, Ladies Night at the Boom Boom Room
Author: rageprufrock
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Words: 44,000
Rating: Explicit
Summary: In his rational mind, Rodney knew that following a girl who'd just dumped you into a strip club was really, really pathetic.
Notes: Okay, so a couple years later, I was down with slash, but I wasn't too sure about stripper AUs. However, I was having a shitty day at school, sat down in the lab, thought whatever, opened the tab and read the thing through in one go. I think I missed Psychology 204 that day. And I broke Lent because I'd theoretically given up fic. I regret nothing.

Title: Dutch Courage
Author: jazzypom
Fandom: Marvel Comics (The Ultimates)
Words: 6,000
Rating: Mature
Summary: Tony's secret is revealed, Steve is at a loose end and well... they make out?
Notes: I wasn't new in this fandom, but I still wasn't really that caught up with my comics. I had heard, repeatedly, from multiple sources, that Ultimate Marvel was a rotten no good very bad universe that ought to be avoided at all costs. However, I in the flush of new fandom and was pretty much reading all the fic (not that there was a hell of a lot back then). So I shrugged and read the thing. It blew me away. If this was the evil universe, I didn't want to know what the good one looked like. Cheers to Jazz for getting me into good comics.


Day 7: In your own space, create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a fannish wish-list of sorts.

I don't think I'm afraid to ask for much, but here's three things that I really want.

Luke/Danny or Misty/Colleen: Gloriously over the top h/c, preferably long, preferably plotty. I would like it to be full of clichés like I Thought You Were Dead, and On the Run From the Law, and oh, you know, just like canon but with more slash. I would like there to be hope in the face of despair. I would like there to be angst.I would like there to be hugging. I would like there to be proclamations of undying loyalty.

Steve/Tony: I want the fic where one is in love with the other but the other is straight/ace/not interested, and in the end they stay best friends forever, but they don't have a romantic relationship. I don't care which way around it goes. I would like pining, but I would not like the person in love to be a Nice Guy dick about it.

Rip and Booster, or Jaime and the Peacemaker: I would like mentor and student h/c where feelings are talked about. Alternately, I would like mentor and student h/c where feelings are not talked about but are implied heavily. I want the issues left hanging by the comics resolved, and I want the characters to be happy, or at least at peace.

Does there exist fic wherein the Season One or Film Stargate team, or just Daniel, meets the Season Ten or post-series team?

I know I've seen one where Jack and Daniel run into an AU where Jack and Daniel are living on Abydos. I'm looking more for Non-Military Daniel and Buffed Up Army Daniel interacting. Really Jaffa Teal'c and Rather American Teal'c would be a plus.

First off, read this review of Thor (mild spoilers), which is excellent.

So I watched some of the new Hawaii Five-0, which is quite addictive, and have thoughts.

It's funny to me that the fast-talking guy from New Jersey with anger management issues is the Responsible One on the team. Not that that makes him very responsible, in that the competition is a Navy SEAL who is, to quote a fic, fondly treasuring his delusion that his crazy-ass quest to grow up into Inigo Montoya is a secret; what tv tropes (no, I'm not linking) refers to as a Lawful Badass Biker dude with all the emotional maturity I had as a clinically-depressed twenty-three-year-old with malaria*; and a former professional surfer who climbs palm trees and punches dudes out for stealing her waves.

I have to say it's a nice change. Especially as I was saying the other day that I was getting a little bored with fanon -- and canon tbh -- slotting women into the Responsible One role so we essentially don't have to deal with them. Like the difference between Sosa and B.A. in The A-Team film (especially in fanon) is essentially that, while they are both more responsible than the others, B.A. still goes with all the completely goofy plans, while Sosa grudgingly admires them, but doesn't get to play too. Weir on Stargate: Atlantis got to spend most of the time telling Team Sheppard to be careful, but only when she was possessed by an evil alien did it seem like she got to have some fun. The same was often true of Teyla, who would watch whatever nuttiness the boys were up to and shake her head in amused condemnation.

Sidebar: slashers, and I absolutely include myself as I've done this, twist things in a similar way. Canon female love interest is too sensible to be with the dude we want to slash with someone else. I like that way out better than canon female love interest is a total bitch or canon female love interest is dead. However, when I did that, I was essentially shuffling the woman away from my favourite character who I think is awesome and shiny, saying, oh, no, he's totally not good enough for you, you deserve better, sweetie (which I think is some fable involving a rabbit or something, possibly by La Fontaine, but I honestly don't remember which one. Anyway, the point being that it's all a shell game).

Granted, there are worse roles, and I like the Responsible One better than the Ditzy One or the Vindictively Shrewish One (who is actually often pretty much the same as the responsible one, just seen less charitably by canon). However we don't watch cheesy cop shows or read superhero comic books or go to plotless summer action films to see people be responsible. We, on the whole, go to see wacky hijinxs and batshit seat-of-the-pants plans, and general silliness. This is what fandom on the whole rejoices in, not people being responsible. What fun would that be? If there is a straight man character, the point is often to get him to loosen up and learn to live a little. (Granted, at the end, characters are often shunted into stolid, Roman roles, but that's what Pirate AUs are for!)

So, to conclude, I'm totally happy that Kono seems to spend too much time with Steve learning to blow things up and Chin learning to angst, and not enough time with Danny learning to do things properly. I know which would be better for her in RL, and I know which is more fun to watch. They are not the same.



*You will not convince me that Chin Ho ( spoilers for his arc up to 1x20 or so )

Someone noted that having just read through two archives, several rec lists and the pit of voles, I ought to pass on my hard-earned wisdom and put together a rec list.

Unfortunately, I bookmarked nothing, so this is brought to you by vague memories of what I enjoyed, and is in no way exhaustive. ( Nine Recs Behind the Cut (By Author) )

Stargate: SG-1
Jack/Teal'c in general, or Jack and Teal'c, h/c preferred. They had some great d'awwwwww moments on the show, but I've never seen much fic.

due South
Fraser/RayK or Fraser and Ray K. I kind of want to see some stuff with Ray starting to fall for Fraser/realising he's hopelessly in love with Fraser, but feeling unsure because there's the chance that Fraser is only talking to him at all because of RayV.... Only less over-the-top teenaged angst than that sounds.

Leverage
Eliot and Parker or Eliot, Hardison and Parker. Something with the boys being protective and older siblingy, and her feeling like it's good to have a family.

So apparently I like emotional h/c?

Saw the pilot. Due to race fail, potential gender fail, the knowledge that I couldn't really handle lesbian fail, and the lack of Lou Diamond Phillips in a major role, I will not be watching it again.

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lab.drwicked.com

Random Note: I would like to note my continuing amusement at the fact that the worst thing Cam Mitchell can think to do to his evil double from an alternate universe is take away his pants. That that is all his evil double can think to do to Cam makes it even better.

The one who seduced you and fucked you over and broke your heart in a million pieces and laughed about it: Battlestar Galactica

The old flame you don't see very often any more but whom you still really enjoy getting together with for a few drinks and maybe a pleasant nostalgic romp in the sheets: Stargate

The mysterious dark gothy one whom you used to sit up with talking until 3 a.m. at weird coffee houses and with whom you were quite smitten until you realized ze really was fucking crazy: The Sentinel

The one you spent a whole weekend in bed with and who drank up all your liquor, and whom you'd still really like to fuck again although you're relieved ze doesn't actually live in town: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The steady: Currently single in fandom.

The one you repeatedly cheat on your steady with: See above, but currently Starsky & Hutch

The one you find yourself too tongue-tied to do anything but stare at adoringly, clinging to hir every word: The Middleman

The alluring stranger whom you've flirted with at parties but have never gotten really serious with: Harry Potter

The one you hang out with and have vague fantasies about maybe having a thing with but ultimately you're just good buddies 'cause the friendship is there but the chemistry ain't: Doctor Who

The one your friends keep introducing you to and who seems like a hell of a cool peep except it's never really gone anywhere: Farscape

The one you slept with on the rebound who still smiles at you, yet you have no interest in any more: Bones

The one who's slept with all your friends, and you keep looking at hir and thinking, "Hir? How the hell did ze land all these cool babes?": Heroes

The one your friend has fallen for like a ton of bricks and whom ze keeps babbling to you about on the phone for hours, and you'd be happy for hir except you just know it's going to end badly: Lost

Title: Some People Walk in the Rain, Others Just Get Wet
Author: live_brave
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Words: 1,400
Rating: PG
Summary: In which they go undercover, John learns the value of cultural offerings, and Teyla has a laugh at his expense.
Notes: Delightfully funny friendship/gen written for me for the John-Teyla Thing-a-thon over at john_teyla_fic. There's lots of other lovely stuff there too (masterlist here).