a conspiracy of cartographers

Ooh Mr. Loki: A Fan Fiction! Spoilers: not actually a fanfic, just a parody of Kate Beaton's Mr. Darcy comic.

In other news I am fairly sure I don't have a new fandom, despite the fact that, um, I have a Loki icon and a Thor tag and have been trawling tumblr and reaction posts and the kinkmeme. I shouldn't have a Thor tag anyway, I should have a Loki tag. I think Loki lights up the same areas of delight in my brain that Methos does, actually. Obviously Methos and Loki need to hang out, viciously scheming and turning on a dime and sounding entirely reasonable and deep down just wanting to be loved. But I won't write it because it's too ridiculous for words.

Today my hair is doing hilarious flippy things! Hair, you are not Chloe Sullivan.

Apparently there really is going to be a remake of the Highlander movie? Google tells me that they have the writers from Iron Man signed on and everything, although most of the news links are from 2009, so who knows. Look, it is absurd to reboot your franchise when the whole premise is "there can be only one", or at least it is if you want another final showdown with the Kurgan. I think they should just make a movie about Methos, but I understand that Really Old Guy Who Is Seriously Awesome But We're Not Quite Sure Where He's From is a less catchy film title.

Anyway, I'm more occupied with staring in fascination at the much more up-to-date reports that Zack Snyder will direct the next Superman. And Chris Nolan will produce! Seriously, every time I remember these facts, I sit very still in a state of dazed paralysis, trying to wrap my mind around the sheer cracked insanity that could result.

In other news, I thought I would try my 50,000 November word count by just adding up all the various things I'm writing, but then ... I started writing an actual goddamn non-fanfic novel. I understand that one should be writing roughly 1667 a day in order to hit the minimum complete word count by the thirtieth, which means that tonight I should be at 15000. Alas, I only started three days ago, and am at 7495 words. That means I am 15% done! And ... halfway to the current word count I should have. Whatever! I have great tabs open; I keep staring happily at the googlemaps street view of Scottish towns, I have two google books of Sir Walter Scott laying around, and I am drowning in ballads. GOOD TIMES.

Two pieces of related, absurd conversation:

Aria: OH MY GOD DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY WIPS I HAVE
Aria: IT IS FUCKING UNREAL
Amelia: HEE HEE HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Aria: I have nefarious plots to make you watch bits of Highlander
Aria: PURELY SO THAT YOU WILL BE EXCITED ABOUT MY HIGHLANDER WIPS
Amelia: I would not be averse to this!
Amelia: I mean dude, cheesy eighties immortal Celts with swords
Amelia: That's pretty much my secret soul, I think
Aria: Yesssss. :D
Aria: Although technically the TV show is 90s cheese instead
Aria: It wants to hang out with due South and be earnest!
Amelia: AWESOMESAUCE
Amelia: Fraser would be the most hilarious immortal
Aria: Oh my god, don't even. I AM TRYING NOT TO WRITE THAT FUSION.

Aria: do you have a halloween costume yet?
Aria: if not, BE CKR.
Amelia: I don't yet!
Amelia: dude, you bring the mountie suit and I'm there
Aria: well, I think I was going to be a vulcan, although I would be quite happy to mountie it up instead!
Amelia: I think you would be an awesome vulcan!
Aria: I could be VULCAN FRASER.
Amelia: HA
Aria: IMMORTAL VULCAN FRASER
Aria: that is so not a stretch
Amelia: YOU ARE SILLY

A very important question: why did no one tell me that Dramatic License is the best Highlander episode ever?? EVER. So far I am eight minutes in, I have never seem Adrian Paul have such fun before, both Amanda and Duncan have dramatically read aloud from a romance novel, and I have already choked half to death on my own laughter about ten times.

I mean, okay, Dramatic License is sort of like The Naked Time in that it's only screamingly hilarious if you already know the characters, but someone should have mentioned it anyway! Only I'm not sure who 'someone' is, because everyone I know who's seen Highlander either saw it because I mentioned it, or is mostly there for Methos, or both. So, okay, possibly I should finish the episode first, but consider this an extremely enthusiastic rec (with perhaps a caveat if you have a really active embarrassment squick? YMMV).

...It would be even more amazing if Methos was in it, though. Universe, why have you not conspired to have Peter Wingfield dramatically read purple prose porn starring Duncan? Not on, universe.

I think I have contracted some sort of disease of polyfannishness. I mean, I'm not actually complaining, but ... my usual fandom mode is total immersion. I am currently writing a ridiculously epic Highlander fic, simmering some due South, White Collar, Doctor Who, Dark is Rising, and possibly Avatar fics on the backburner, still meaning to go through that Babylon 5 rewatch because I love that show like mad, and, at the moment, tearing joyfully through Star Trek TOS. And this is leaving aside how I have to clean all the things, remember to feed myself, act like someone capable of normal human interaction with real live other people, and do the reading for my job. There is no way I can do total immersion in all the fandoms I actually want to. Maybe I could give up sleep?

I'm sure I'll figure it out. (I can stop watching TOS anytime I want to!!) In the meantime, I was seized with the sudden urge to make Post Secrets for characters, possibly because I am awful at having any fandom secrets myself. So I broke out Paint and Googleimages, and I made twelve secrets! I thought it might be fun to guess what character made any given secret; I think some of these are painfully obvious and some of them are weirdly unobvious, but I figure enough of you know how my brain works anyway.

( Behind the cut: characters from Babylon 5, Doctor Who, due South, Highlander, Star Trek, and White Collar have secrets! They are probably things you already know, but don't tell them that. Last secret is perhaps mildly NSFW. )

An email exchange:

aria: Update on the goddamn Methos fic: the Horsemen section is beginning to feel like the naming of things in reverse. Here is the story of how Methos broke up with his boyfriend and went sane. WHAT IS THIS EVEN.
oliviacirce: ...okay, that is totally because it IS the naming of things in reverse! OH LOOK AT THAT PAIRING TYPE.

The finished draft of part one of five is ... 11,000 words. Maybe my brain has this unwritten rule that I MUST write a minimum of 50k every summer. Oh brain.

Okay, enough of this nonsense. Back to being a productive member of society.

I occasionally do the srs biznes version of talking about my WIPs, but this way has been making the rounds again, and is much more fun.

( Eight WIPs beneath the cut! Sometimes I wish that I could write short fic. )

My roommate's boyfriend will be moving in when I move out. He is in the process of bringing all his stuff over in boxes and, consequently, is also getting rid of stuff he no longer wants.

He just gave me a two-disc DVD of Highlander: Endgame.

BRB LAUGHING FOREVER OH MY GODDDD.

The problem with going out and getting things done is that I now have a backlog of things I want to talk about! Anyway, the best thing I have discovered recently: Six Things from History Everyone Pictures Incorrectly. Dazzlingly glittering pyramids! Technicolor Parthenon! Sneaky historical clothing! It makes me want to write all the fic warms my geeky heart.

My currently-open wikipedia tabs are pretty great. What do the deluge myth, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the University of Paris have in common? Three guesses, and the first two don't count. I am now tempted to click the 'random article' link and then make myself write Methos fic about it, actually. Trying it, the first article that comes up is on Beryl Davis. I have never heard of Beryl Davis before, but apparently she was a singer during WWII and knew both Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra. The fic writes itself. I could do this for hours.

More importantly, though, because I have talked through my shame for loving Highlander (no more shame! yay id show! \o/) I think it is high time that I recced some fic. Alphabetically and with enthusiasm:

Adam and Joe by genteelrebel, Methos/Joe & Duncan/Methos. I don't actually know where to begin talking about this one, because it is kind of amazing in its scope: it's a recounting of Methos' life from 1986 to 1998. In certain ways, this fic is downright evil. It blends canon so seamlessly, turns it into such a coherent emotional arc, and explains Methos so damn well, that it is threatening to rewrite all the personal canon in my head. It has a pretty unique and fairly creepy (but awesome, so awesome, and about as kinky as I have never known I always wanted) take of Methos and Duncan's relationship, complete with a really different interpretation of the Double Quickening than is the norm. It also has an OC I am quite a bit in love with, and an actually happy ending for Cassandra. And Joe is the best Joe ever; I want to take him home and keep him. Caveats for this being one of those deliciously long fics (we're talking in excess of sixty chapters here) that are probably best savored over the space of a week or so.

Brothers and Other Strangers by Valentin, Duncan/Methos. After Bordeaux, Methos takes avoidance to really impressive new levels. (On reflection, Methos-with-amnesia is a weirdly more common fandom trope than one might expect.) I love this one because I love stories about Adam Pierson the defense mechanism. Caveats for the usual frustrating treatment of Cassandra and a, ah, early-2000s website background. Can't do much about the former, but setting a blank page style should fix the latter.

The Fourth Son by Lanna Michaels. This is everything I have ever wanted in a fic about Methos and Kronos, and it's just them talking for a few pages. I spent most of it clawing at my face with joy anyway. But then, I can be a bit strange about Methos and Kronos. (Didn't I say? Id show. Also, pairing type. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.)

Sacred Trust by Lanning, Duncan/Methos. All my favourite fics are necessarily ones that I think understand Methos, but this one really gets it; there's such a depth and intricacy to the bits of Methos' past we do see that I've been many things suddenly starts to make sense as a concept. This is another one of those fics that I find difficult to separate from canon; of course this is the true story of Darius' Light Quickening, and of course the Watchers are terrified of this particular Immortal, and &c. Caveats for length, a narrative that is quite angry with Duncan, actually, and for the general unpleasantness of Methos' past.

And lastly, a vid: Commercial for Levi by Gianduja Kiss, wherein she was actually awesome enough to put my Theory of Methos' Boyfriends into vid form. (By which I mean that it feels like she reached straight into my head, not that she actually knows me from, heh, Adam, and did it with any particular intent.) Actually, hell, this is a blanket rec, just watch everything this woman has ever vidded. It's all fabulous.

AHAHAHA WHAT.

Occasionally I have incredibly vivid dreams. This one is full of excruciating detail and lots of absurdity, but since I woke up about an hour ago and I still remember the whole thing, I think I am going to record it for myself.

( Cut for length and dream inanity/absurdity. In which Aria goes to the opera, wears a top hat, and discovers that Highlander is awkwardly taking over her brain. )

Enough of that nonsense. Time for some s3 Avatar over breakfast!