entirely ruined her disposition with books

Can y'all prompt me some Buffy/Spike or Ron/Hermione, please? I kinda wanna write some fic (and those are the two pairings that are living in my brain for the moment, the latter for very obvious reasons, the former because it never really leaves) but it's been a while and the well is dry, I am telling you. I'd prefer S7 and on for B/S (including comics-canon) though if you have an excellent earlier scenario that's cool. R/Hr anytime.

Note: I'm not going to write most of these. I just want some ideas to see if I can get the ball rolling. And when I say prompts, I'm mostly requesting, like, scenarios or situations, not really single lines from songs or something. I might actually TRY TO WRITE PLOT THIS TIME GASP DIE OF SHOCK.

So tell me things you'd like to read! Maybe you'll get lucky and I'll write them!

This is a list of things I would like to read but have a difficult time finding. So if you know of anything that meets these requirements, I will love you forever!

+ Martha/Mickey fic. Because I was thinking about how much I love them and how I could have actually shipped them if RTD HADN'T DECIDED TO GO THERE FOR THE SAKE OF A ONE-LINE JOKE when they deserved so much more. Like, something that shows me who they are together and how they work. Bonus points if it includes some actual explanation of what happened to lovely Dr. Tom.

+ Plotty Moffat!era!Who fic. Featuring Eleven and Amy and Rory and River. Anyone know of any? Or, alternatively, any Amy/Rory fic. Basically I love Rory. Current obsession. It's okay.

+ Good 3rd Gen Skins fic. I have zero interest in Mini/Franky, though, which I imagine elminates a lot of stuff that's out there? But any good gen or het stuff would make me happy.

+ Actually, come to think of it, I'd love any good het or gen Gen 1 fic, too, because I never read much of it.

+ I know GRRM ~frowns upon~ fanfiction, but if there's any fic at all with Jon&Arya family times or Jon/Dany shipping, I would read the heck out of it.

+ Is there ANY Kelly Bailey fic out there? I imagine that all of the Misfits fic is either Nathan-centric or Simon/Alisha (fandom, you are so easy to predict). But I am a Kelly stan and would like to read about her.

+ Caroline&Stefan friendship fic? Bonnie/Jeremy anything at all? Elijah/Katherine? Elena/Bonnie/Caroline friendship fic? Damon and Stefan being brothers fic? Basically anything that doesn't involve shipping Elena in some capacity? Because all the TVD fic I've seen (outside comment fic ficlets, which are lovely but short) has been Elena-shipping, and I really have no interest in that.

+ Preemptively asking for X-Files fic. Because I'm only almost through with S3 (I know! I'm moving slowly! But I'm savoring!) but I am eagerly looking forward to reading fic. Shippy, gen-y, whatever. I know there's years and years worth of stuff, but I have no idea where to start looking for the good stuff. Recs?

+ Parks and Rec fic that has the feel of the show.

Anyone?

I'm really pleased with everyone I've cast so far, but there are two people I just can't find the right person for. It's really annoying.

I need someone to play Leo who can play grumpy old man but also have warmth and humor and dignity like John Spencer. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO FIND SOMEONE.

I also need someone for Danny, and I also CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHO TO CAST.

Oh, and they need to be people who might realistically be on television. So no suggestions of Morgan Freeman, as much as I love him, okay?

Do y'all have any thoughts? Any thoughts at all?

I say British here because the books I read where I picked up these spellings were British, not because I’m ignoring the existence of other countries who spell things that way.


Not too crazy about all those extra “u”s, and I like the letter z, so we’ll keep that one around in things like “realize.”

But!

Judgement. LOOKS WRONG WITHOUT AN E. QUIT YELLING AT ME WITH YOUR SILLY RED LINE, SPELLCHECK!

Grey. I usually use “grey” to talk about a pretty or natural shade of grey—mist or the sea or clouds or something. On the other hand, I use “gray” when I’m talking about something more metallic or ugly—concrete or an ugly building or something.

I’m sure there are others, but those are the ones that leap to mind. Got any of your own? And if you are from not-America, is there any American spelling you actually like better? English as a second language speakers, which did you learn when you were taught the language? American or British spelling and pronunciation? I AM INTERESTED.

Also, Oxford commas forever and ever and ever.

So I want to write something for halfamoon, but I'm not sure what yet? I was kind of thinking of a crossover with awesome ladies, like Buffy and Veronica meeting in a post-apocolyptic world or something? I don't know.

But since I seem to have ZERO creative powers lately, throw some ideas at me. Crossovers would be awesome (I still miss choco_cherries), or a fandom you know I’m in but I haven’t written for, or a movie you’d like to see fic for or something. I want to see if something sticks, basically. And obviously it has to be lady-centric.

I’d really rather not get prompts for things I write a lot of (for instance, if you want me to write some Buffy, please make sure that the premise is startlingly original?), just because I’m trying to stretch myself. And I think it goes without saying that I won’t be writing all of them or maybe any of them at all, but hopefully some discussion will inspire me?

Anyways…thoughts? Anyone? Bueller?

I have decided that I need to waste yet more time on fandom instead of, you know, cleaning or writing my novel or having a life of some kind, and I want to make graphics. HA. Does anybody know of any good beginner-level tutorials on just basic stuff to make pretty, pretty pictures? I...don't even know where I would start because I am hopelessly incompetent about things like this.

snickfic made an offhanded comment once upon a time that has been popping up again in my head lately because I seem to be getting sucked into Harry Potter fandom yet again (at least on tumblr) and questions have started to ~stew~. So I thought I’d get some insight from y’all.

Slash fandom baffles me. I mean, sometimes it makes sense. Spike/Angel, sure. I get where you’re coming from. Merlin fandom, from what I know of it, seems to get a whole lot of canon winks/support. Even Kirk/Spock makes sense to me. And Torchwood had slash for your big canon ship.

But there seems to be very little pattern to what makes a big slash ship and what doesn’t.

For instance. Harry Potter. Why is there not a huge Harry/Ron fandom? Heterosexual life partners, here. At least as much textual evidence to support them as to support Harry/Hermione. They even have their moments of hating each others’ guts (GoF, anyone?). And yet nothing, as far as I know (well, sometimes there’s OT3 action, which again, makes loads of sense. But not a lot). And there’s Harry/Draco and Harry/Snape out the whazoo (no wisecracks, please). And okay. People love enmity turning into sex. Got it. But still. Why one and not the other? Can someone please explain this to me?

Is Jeremy/Tyler big in TVD fandom? I am not deeply involved in that fandom, so I don’t know. And then there’s Spike/Xander which makes less than zero sense to me (well, Xander finding Spike attractive seems to be canon. But I can’t see it ever, ever going the other way), because there’s not a lot of outright hatred there, just weird contempt. Is Troy/Abed big and I just don’t know about it? If fandom always ships people who hate each other, where’s the Logan/Weevil? What about Wes/Gunn or Tim Riggins/Jason Street or Chuck/Nate or Tony/Sid? Some of those BFF pairings have really fantastic (platonic, in my eyes, but I could easily see it being otherwise for people) chemistry along the lines of Kirk/Spock or something. So what determines what’s going to take off as a pairing? How does fandom determine that in one fandom they’re going to turn the enemies into lovers and in another they won’t? Or that in this fandom they BFFs are TOTALLY DOING IT while in another they’re just friends?

Of course, one could ask the same thing about het pairings—why some are huge and others are not, but I tend to have much more of an instinct about which one’s going to be the big one (Jeff/Annie having a more active fandom than Jeff/Britta surprises me not at all, and I could have told you that people were going to ship Damon/Elena from literally their first meeting, for example, and the lack of Buffy/Riley—yes, I know there are a few of you out there, but I mean as an active fandom—is the least shocking thing ever). This instinct seems to be non-existent for me when it comes to slash, though (what’s the opposite of slash goggles? Whatever it is, I’ve got that).

This doesn’t really affect me in any way because slash = not my thing. I am just trying to find some sort of discernible pattern here, because I seem to be epically bad at predicting what will and will not be big. Thoughts?

Thank God it is finally the weekend is all I have to say. No wait--I also have this to say:

SCREW YOU, JOHNNY DEPP. YOU ARE OVERRATED. KEEP YOUR GRUBBY HANDS OFF MY ORIGINAL OTP.

And since I never actually answer all of y'all's questions whenever I post memes, I figure this time I'll let you do the work. Also, you can cheer me up about living in a world where people KEEP MAKING REMAKES OF THINGS THAT DON'T NEED TO BE REMADE. See also: Being Human, Skins, etc., etc., and so forth.

Out of utter curiosity, if I was chained up in your attic (I prefer attics, basements are damp and cold, attics theoretically at least have windows), and I had to write you one story, what would you request? (demand?) Or alternatively, what's something you always hoped I'd write but know is never going to happen?

I expect some really fantastic answers to this.



Question: how do you reply to things on Tumblr? People are reply to my posts and I feel technologically challenged since I can't figure it out.

1. For the past year or so, I've been toying with the idea of watching Gen 2 of Skins. I thought Effy was really interesting (though her relationship with Tony was by far the best thing about her), but I've heard that Gen 2 was basically a hot mess. So--your thoughts. Worth it or no? Also, do we know anything about Gen 3?

2. I've started working (again) on my gender-swap cast of Veronica Mars. Some of the casting was quite easy (Veronica, Wallace, Kendall), but there are a few people I'm having trouble with.

( see who if you don't mind being spoiled for an upcoming Lauren Production )

3. Who would want to help me make a pretty picspam for this (silly) project? Because I don't own photoshop or anything like that, and I don't know how y'all do the pretty stuff. It is beyond me, and I am in awe of your powers.

4. Firefox has decided it hates me. It keeps freezing for a few seconds, then unfreezing for a minute or two, then freezing again. It makes it very hard to do anything, especially download things. Anyone got any advice?

And now I need to go find something to eat and then beta some stuff for people.

So I'm way behind on answering comments again, but I've been reading an article over on Jezebel about a make-up free week challenge, and it got me to thinking.

I don't wear makeup as a general rule. I wear lipstick sometimes (I put it on maybe once a week, and it's always gone after I eat/drink something) and very, very occasionally mascara, but other than that? Nothing.

Part of the reason is that I never learned how to apply it. My mama only wears lipstick and sometimes eyeliner, and quite a few of my friends in high school didn't wear it either. My older girl cousins lived far enough away that they weren't around to teach me, either. My BFF has flawless pale skin and naturally beautifully bone structure (also, the best hair EVER) and never wears it--she definitely doesn't need it (I, on the other hand, know I would look "better" if I wore it, probably). So I just...didn't ever wear it. The times I've put on eyeliner, I make a big mess (also, I'm petrified of anything getting near my eyes. Eye doctor appointments? Nightmare!) and can't draw a straight line. I wouldn't know how to match my skin tone. I don't have flawless skin, but the once or twice I put on powder (not even foundation), it drove me craaaazy, so I didn't do it again.

There are other reasons. Time, for one. Ten minutes of putting on makeup or ten more minutes of sleep? I go with sleep every time. Expense. Makeup is expensive! And you keep having to replace it! It's ridiculous!

There's also the fact that I resent that men's faces are deemed acceptable all on their own, but women have to paint over ours before we go out in public. Although some guys look hella sexy with eyeliner. This societal demand that women wear makeup in order to look professional/acceptable/whatever enfuriates me to no end.

I also hatehatehatehatehate guys who say they prefer a woman to not wear makeup, but what they really want it for a woman to look entirely perfect and made up...without anyone being able to tell that they're wearing make-up. When they see what their girlfriends look like without it they're disgusted. GRRRR.

One of my friends told me a story about how when her grandmother got married back in the 50s, she would wake up earlier than her husband every single morning so that she could put her makeup on before he woke up. And she didn't take it off until after he went to bed. Her husband never saw her real face for decades. I cannot imagine.

Which is not to say that I judge women who do choose to wear it (though I'm endlessly annoyed by the "too much" look, but I realize that's my own issue). I know a lot of people have a lot of fun with it. When I watch Carmindy on What Not to Wear, she makes it look fun and simple. My little sister and all my cousins wear it (I have no idea where Sis learned to do it, since she didn't from me or our mama. It's an eternal mystery). And I know it really does instill some women with confidence, and with as looks-obsessed as our culture is, I can't blame them at all.

[This all reminds me of how whenever I straighten my hair, people FREAK THE HELL OUT. Like, suddenly I'm attractive or something. And they tell me I should do it all the time! Like it didn't take an hour and a half to get it to stay that way! I'm never going to devote that much time in my day to it! It drives me crazy.]

Most people in my life never comment on my lack of comestics, though my mama constantly badgers me to put on some lipstick. To placate her, I took her with me about a month ago to one of the counters in the mall and had the lady pick out a shade that would look good on me. IT COST FIFTEEN BUCKS. FIFTEEN. FOR ONE TUBE OF LIPSTICK. This is insanity to me. I cannot afford this.

[eta] I also want to talk about how employers can require you to wear makeup/heels/whatever and FIRE YOU WHEN YOU DON'T. Yeah, you probably need to wear makeup if you're in the performing arts so that people can see your face from a distance. But if you work in a bank? Or any other kind office? THIS MAKES ME STABBY.

So I'm wondering, because the vast majority of my flist is female--do y'all wear much makeup? If so, why? If not, why? What's your routine like? Who taught you how to apply it? Do you judge women who do/don't wear it? Talk to me!