thedarlingone

Lyrics meme from Pedanther:

1. Open up your music player. Hit shuffle.
2. Record the first few lines of the first thirty pieces of music that come up, with the title, if it appears, redacted. Skip instrumentals, but don't skip the embarrassing ones.
3. Make hapless internet denizens guess the song names and artists. Google is cheating. For musical songs, the name of the musical is acceptable in place of the artist. Leeway is also given for traditional ballads, jazz standards, etc.

Under a cut!

( Read more... )

A Chill In The Air (6178 words) by camshaft22, thedarlingone
Chapters: 1/2
Fandom: Star Wars Legends: X-Wing Series - Aaron Allston & Michael Stackpole
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Wes Janson/Derek "Hobbie" Klivian, Wes Janson/Original Male Character
Characters: Wes Janson, Derek "Hobbie" Klivian
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Fae, Tam Lin inspired, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, POV First Person, Mutual Pining, Samhain, Halloween, Original Character(s), Worldbuilding, i have opinions about tam lin retellings okay, Hobbie narration
Summary:

Halloween. I had a week. It would be a lot of work and a significant risk to myself, but I had to save Wes before he was whisked into Faerie forever.

***

So, uh, I didn't mean to write a Tam Lin coffeeshop AU. That is definitely not a thing I had ever planned on doing. But Leia found an interesting tweet, and we wound up bantering it around into... this. Apparently I have a lot of opinions about Tam Lin retellings.

This is chapter one. Chapter two is written and I'll post it tomorrow. Originally we were planning to give it a few days between the two chapters, but work has been kicking my ass so hard that I only realized we'd originally posted the wrong draft when I went to look at chapter two.

So I need financial help again. I really fucking wanted this part of my life to be over with, but I guess not yet. :P

So in brief, my car battery and alternator both died the night before last. The final repair bill comes out to about $650, plus I had to miss work to get it fixed. This in a month where I calculated I'd have about $300 left in the bank by payday.

So, yeah. I was able to get the actual repairs made, but I had to finance them through one of those payday loan types of things where you pay 200% interest if you're not paid off within 30 days. So it's pretty imperative that I raise at least $350 by Halloween, because if I pay this off on schedule I'm using the rent money to do so.

(It would be nice to, you know, also have money in the bank instead of a $0 balance. :P I'm having a lot of trouble with the "but if I eat I'm wasting money!" brainweasels right now, and convincing myself to actually buy groceries. But the $350 is the "oh god if I don't raise this I'm homeless and/or in spiraling debt again oh fuck" part.)

Anyway. So. My PayPal is ethanrabbits@gmail.com and my Ko-fi is justiceturtle. (Ko-fi is basically a third-party PayPal donate button, if you're unfamiliar. PayPal is pretty strict about letting their internal donate button be used only by registered charities.) Feel free to hand them around, signal boost, repost, link, whatever.

Internet hugs would also be really helpful, because I'm getting super flashbacky about all the previous times I've spiraled into debt and homelessness (I think I'm just barely outside the criteria for chronically homeless here) due to unexpected major expenses at the wrong time. :P

Thank you.

I have a bed that came in a box, and a dishwasher that goes swish, and a lamp and a bathtub and an air conditioner. The stove does not have any temperature markings on it, so they're putting a new stove in tomorrow. There is pizza in a box in the fridge, because the fridge is big enough to hold a pizza box. The fridge also has a freezer but that does not have anything in it yet because I forgot my ice cube trays I bought, cause I did not have room in the minifridge freezer for ice cubes. I did not take a bath because it was a long day and I am wobbly but there will be a bath tomorrow hopefully. Also I bought a Halloween doormat.

look at this pop-up trombone

it's adorable and hilarious and makes noises

I haven't even started intoabar (I have a couple of vague ideas but I haven't had the chance to talk them out enough to pick one) but the rewrites on Dutybound are coming along spectacularly, so lemme just boost that again, cause we're posting chapter 5 around noon CDT (US) today and I'm really fucking excited.

Dutybound (13546 words) by camshaft22
Chapters: 4/?
Fandom: Star Wars Legends: X-Wing Series - Aaron Allston & Michael Stackpole, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Derek "Hobbie" Klivian, Wes Janson, Wedge Antilles, Tycho Celchu, Leia Organa, Ackbar (Star Wars), Airen Cracken, Garik "Face" Loran, Tyria Sarkin, Kell Tainer, Rogue Squadron Members (Star Wars), Wraith Squadron Members (Star Wars)
Additional Tags: Depression, Presumed Dead, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Suicidal Thoughts, Temporary Amnesia, Wakes & Funerals, Survivor Guilt, Captured by The Empire, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary:

After the Battle of Distna, Rogue Squadron is presumed dead, except for one survivor.

Hobbie Klivian is the Last Rogue. He hates it.

---

aka, this is what happened when I was thinking out loud on a tangent about the whole Infinity War Part 1 thing, which tells you how long ago we started this (not very long ago really? but also like, an age of the earth), cause there was this tumblr post about "which half of your otp gets disintegrated" and I was like "well see the thing is neither option would be worse than Distna", because seriously, ( I are rambly tortellini )

Anyway. Yes. If the depression (lots) and suicidal ideation (some) will not be a Bad Idea for you, you should maybe possibly read our story? The fandom is ten people and a bag of crisps, but like six of us are active writers, it's pretty spectacular for a canon from the mid-1990s. (Also if you need a source for canon I might be able to uhhh help. Although for Distna stories you really shouldn't need canon, because me rambling about Chris Claremont interviews here is a more coherent primer. ;P)

Also if you're like "hey this fandom sounds pretty cool where do I find people", we have a Discord server! Pretty slow-moving, very welcoming, full of queers. :D

Welp, I got my intoabar assignment and it's "Wes Janson meets Tali'Zorah". I have no idea what to do with that... I'm kind of turning my head upside down looking for a good angle on it, because it feels like it ought to be interesting, but anything I do with quarians tends to go straight for the Issues and turn into a piece about robot rights and the geth genocide. (I have *feelings* about the retaking of Rannoch, okay.) Which also brings up the question of what universe it is; Tali is a lot more closely tied to the Mass Effect 'verse than Wes is to the Star War, but it could also be your basic bar between universes. A Reaper War AU setting for the Rogue Squadron pilots could be really interesting though, especially because there really don't seem to be space snubfighters in Mass Effect (and thank fuck, because Commander Shepard would have to fly one).

I mean, given that Wes is the person who hired Squeaky for Wraith Squadron's quartermaster, robot rights would be an interesting conversation to have, but it's always awkward when one of the parties in your conversation is Very Wrong about shit like that... :P

So intoabar is happening this year. Signups are open through July 14. Word minimum is 500, which is usually doable for me. And cracky crossovers used to be my jam. I've never actually done intoabar due to life shit, but I am pondering whether to sign up this year or whether (as so often happens) I'll get an assignment and draw a complete blank.

So the way intoabar works is that you pick one character, plus up to four fandoms that character is not from. Your chosen character walks into a bar (or any establishment where one can similarly strike up conversation with strangers) and meets a randomly chosen character you are assigned from one of the fandoms you picked. You can wind up with some pretty minor characters, and we all know random number generation has an evil sense of humor, so "I would definitely be able to write literally any recurring character from this fandom" is quite a commitment. I couldn't do SG-1, for instance, because the cast changed so heavily for the last two seasons.

I might be able to pull off "Wes Janson walks into a bar and meets anyone from the Mass Effect trilogy". Might. Would it be fun? I genuinely don't know. I'd probably get Thane. ;P

I mean, there's no penalty for defaulting, other than me going "omg i am a Failure" a lot... o_O So I could hypothetically sign up and then if I don't like my assignment just be like "nah I can't write this character I'm out". But in practice, I would keep fretting about it.

Also, the last several times I tried to do ficcish things with time components, I wound up losing my job or being homeless or moving cross-country or something equally disruptive. I'm a little wary there. :S

So that "three random things that I may or may not have any opinions about" meme, via shadaras:

1. Owls: I always think of barred owls first, as (due to a sequence of logic I do not remember) the barred owl was by some definition our "school mascot". (I was homeschooled, hence the scare quotes.) I used to be able to draw a fair approximation of a barred owl sitting on a tree limb, but I have almost no memory of how that went anymore. I know barred owls are native to Indiana and the surrounding area, and they are the only dark-eyed "true owl" in the eastern US - other owls, like the great horned owl, tend to have yellow eyes. I don't know if I found them less threatening for that reason, or if I appreciated the fact that they were local, or what, but I'm still rather fond of barred owls.

2. The Oort cloud: So because my astronomy knowledge, while extensive, was about fifty years out of date through my childhood and teen years, and because of the general atmosphere of suspicion toward new scientific discoveries in which I was raised, it took me a long time to come around to the existence of the Oort cloud. I forget exactly why it would have seemed a bit heretical, but there was definitely a feeling that "believing in" the Oort cloud was something We did not Do. (This probably sounds absolutely lunatic to people not raised in that sort of atmosphere. It was the kind of suspicious attitude where you're not sure exactly how the Oort cloud is going to start you down a slippery slope toward climate change or reproductive rights or saving the Texas prairie chicken, but you feel there is a high probability that it has been made up by Those Sort Of People to nudge you somehow in that direction, and a general skepticism is the only safe option.)

3. Weaving: One of the fiber arts I have less practice at, due to the fact that it's large and not particularly portable. I never have figured out any of the portable methods, backstrap or card weaving, or whatnot. I did have a rigid-heddle Fisher-Price plastic weaving loom as a teen, approximately the size to make placemats with, but I could not for the life of me develop any kind of steady tension, so my placemats tended to pull in dramatically toward the middle, and then I became dissatisfied and did not finish them. And of course I've done the little potholders on the little plastic potholder looms with the teeth, but I never could figure out how to bind them off, although I remember having an awareness that a crochet hook was involved. I may have somehow gotten it into my head that one made a long string of chain crochet and then somehow applied it to the edges of the potholder? Now that I am more familiar with more sorts of fiber arts, I think I could probably figure out the process should a potholder loom present itself to me, but I don't feel any particular urge to seek one out.

...I don't know, is it just that I have opinions on everything? ^_^ Feel free to either ask me more sets of three things or ask for your own set of three things, or both! :D

Being an accidental BNF in a tiny but active fandom is weird as hell. It's not even just "this is the second time this year that me going off about my lack of relationship options has inspired someone else to write fic... oh look this one's a bigbang", or seeing an author talking in comments about how much their characterization owes to your meta, or realizing "oh right, of course this porn is hitting all my buttons, because I defined this character's kinks for the current iteration of the fandom". Those are all part of it, but it's...

( this probably counts as humblebragging or something )