Whispers

Yes, I got two and I'm so over the moon about it that I am shamelessly gloating over my two.

Ahem. So on to the recs:

Lime juice and other hazards (2913 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Thor (Movies)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Foster (Marvel), Sif (Marvel), Darcy Lewis
Additional Tags: Asgard, Alcohol, Danger, Friendship, Science, lime juice
Summary:

It is raining and Darcy is bored.

I asked for epic Jane and Darcy friendship with a dose of Sif and this adorable little rainy night shenanigans fic delivers. Darcy's doing shots (wrong), Jane wants alcohol for her gear not herself, and Sif has arrived with grave misgivings to haul them back to Asgard. Naturally, Darcy stalls her with poptarts. Kinda ends on a cliffhanger but it's a nice little ditty nevertheless.

A woman's world (1516 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Agent Carter (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Peggy Carter, Natasha Romanov, Jemma Simmons, Melinda May, Bobbi Morse, Maria Hill


A series of ficlets about these awesome, amazing women and hit sooo many of my asks, giving me little peeks under the covers of theses ladies. I can't even pick a favorite. It's layers and snippets of character study and just go read, okay?

So. Prepare for the fangirl.

Divergent, Insurgent, by Veronica Roth.

First, on the matter of Four and Tris: I liked them. The relationship works within this world. They were both wrong. They were both right. They were both in character.

Four was not overprotective: he was perceptive enough to recognize that the girl he loved had a death wish and that he didn't feel he was strong enough to put himself through watching her commit "selfless" suicide and be left shattered to pick up the pieces.

Tris was not whiny, self-centered, or in any way immature. She was grieving. Do you know how long that normally takes to deal with? A lot longer than the passage of time in the story. She was dealing with her whole family torn away from her, her whole world going to you know where in a handbasket, and her sense of self being completely shattered. All in all, I think she handled that very well.

Second, on Caleb: I was so, so right not to trust him, but... This works. Within the framework set up through the entire book, his actions make sense. He was always better at being selfless than Tris. Tris is selfish enough to ensure her loved ones stay safe (sounds oxymoronic, but bear with me), regardless of who else had to die to make that possible. Caleb is selfless enough that if he thought it would save the world, he would sacrifice his loved ones. Mournfully, but nevertheless. I hate it, but I get it. Okay?

Third, Jeanine. Well-drawn. Everything fit perfectly in the whole story, except...

Well, it wasn't really her. It was:

Fourth, on the matter of the endpage reveal: dismal. Total logic failure. That brief message makes everyone who sees it lose their moorings, their sense of foundation, and willing to go to war to protect or destroy it? I'm not seeing it. Here's why.

1) The Message

Let's parse this for a moment.

• There's a horrible world outside the fence, which they already knew; now, they just know what kind of horrible.


• Their great-grandparents or great aunts and uncles willingly had their memories wiped. Weird, but not very personal to the current generation.


• The Divergent are supposed to be able to help stop the horror outside the fence. Great, but who says they want to?


• The Divergent are the whole point of the factions. Okaaaaaay. Weird, but processable.


• The fence should be opened permanently. This is mind-bending how?


• The person who recorded the message is probably Tris' great-aunt and Andrew Prior's aunt. (Women don't pass down last names, and it's doubtful that she just entered the city as a wife to be his mom.)

Okay.

There is only one thing in that message that would truly unmoor me:

• Those who are not Divergent have something wrong with them and cannot learn to live in or create a society without horrors. Follow the logic. If the Divergent are the Cure, who is the problem?

2) The Response

And this is where I start getting logical here. Jeanine is a genius. She stated that this message would "unleash hell on the city." How did she come to this conclusion? Maybe because she feels the city should be protected from the horrors outside. Okay.

Parsing again.

• Jeanine was still a kid and the Divergent were already in danger of being killed off. Natalie Prior's Dauntless mom shipped her off to Abnegation because of it.


• The leaders of Erudite, Abnegation, and Dauntless knew about the message. Erudite probably handled accessing the message, due to their technological bent. Dauntless is unclear.


• Guess: The Dauntless were daunted by the idea of opening the fence or dealing with the outside and decided to kill off the Divergent so they wouldn't fulfill the requirements of "readiness."


• Jeanine grows up and decides to solve the issue of potential societal breakdown by creating simulation serum. Or else, she was just planning to oust Abnegation because she figured they would open the fence.


• Jeanine figures out the Divergent can't be controlled. Revert to killing them off.


• And then, here goes genius: In order to prevent unleashing hell on the city by allowing them to go outside the fence where horrors await, she unleashes hell on the city by bringing all those horrors inside the fence. Epic fail.

Finally, on the whole book experience: I'm willing to give Roth the benefit of the doubt because she delivered everywhere else but the end. The story is intense, gripping, well-put-together. The characters are perfect. The reveals have otherwise been satisfactory.

Book three better do something with the logic though. Until it rolls around, I'm going to remember all the pages but the last two.

Next week: Awake, Season 1 (and only :cries: ).

Favorite Hawkeye and Black Widow fic. Read part II first, then hit the back arrow button for the prequel.

those who are afraid of wolves

Headcanon.

Thorazine for the Lady, Knives for the Gentleman

Insurgent Day #1
I'm stuck without being able to buy Insurgent yet, but I had to taste it, so I went on B&N and read the sample.

First Reaction: I don't trust Caleb. And oddly enough, I think Marcus was telling the truth.

---

Awake
So I haven't made a squee post yet because by the time I get ready to do it, another episode comes out and I'm back processing. But I've hit a few solid things now:

Captain Harper: I've loved her because I could tell she cared about Britten and because she's a woman and softspoken and a police captain. Seriously.

Story about the brownie thief, skinny, redhead "narcotics" detective that always watched Michael's back... Oh, wow, my bittersweet fuzzies started leaping. She's trying, Michael, but you're not making it easy.

I want to know how she got twisted up with Carl, but there are enough pieces there to draw a hundred million possible conclusions.

And as for not being exciting enough, I'm glad they're keeping the story grounded. They're treating it as if there's only one gimme: Michael's dual reality. Heroin felt real to me. It fit the character. I'm glad I never saw the actress in anything else, 'cause it's all the character for me.

Emma: I love her as a character. I've heard people rag on the whole baby storyline with "predictable," and "Michael shouldn't have asked her," and "of course, Hannah was the only one who figured it out," and :growls:

Let's start off with, yes, I knew from the moment Emma got out of the car that she was pregnant. The miscarriage threw me. So did the NONmiscarriage.

Second off, Michael said this may be inappropriate and she gave him permission to ask. 'Nuff said.

Third off, of course, Emma wanted to keep the baby. She was so relieved to tell Michael and held onto him, this was obvious. Of course, Michael didn't notice. He supported Hannah's desire. He wanted to be a grandfather, not a dad again. He saw Hannah wanting the baby and reacted to that. Emma's parents were more his focus than Emma.

Fourth off, Emma and Hannah were both right. Emma wanted the baby but had talked herself out of it to keep peace with her parents, something she made clear to Rex that she values, and Hannah told herself whatever, but yeah, it was about Hannah when she walked in and Emma felt that and reacted accordingly. People are people. I still love them both.

The Procedural Side: I like the cases. Even the ones that don't feed into the other world or the bigger picture. They keep us guessing as to which side is real.

The Balance: And no, they can't always deeply develop Rex and Hannah and Michael and his partners and the cases and have therapists. It's maybe 40 minutes of screen time. Goodness, people!

There. That at least starts a bit on what I feel about Awake.

I still love this show.

From lithiumlaughter, xenokattz, and likeadeuce:


1. Clear your schedule for five minutes (or longer if you have time, I'm not gonna turn down more fic).
3. Then look under the cut tag, where you will find ten prompts, all of which are song titles (selected at random from my iTunes).
4. Choose one of the prompts, and - using any appropriate fandom/character[s] (meaning ones you think I might enjoy) - write. I'll take original or fanfiction.
5. Reply with your teeny weeny story in the comments to this post.
6. Repost this in your journal and make your friends write for you!


( Read more... )

Yep. I am. Daily Science Fiction is a professional market that pays a whopping 8 cents per word and tagged a PS on their form e-reject that said, "This one was an almost." I danced. I whooped. This was a barely edited draft that I can now see how to improve and on a whim, I sent it to the best-paying market for the story that seemed a good fit and they almost published it. Happy me.

On a fandom note, I got two gorgeous stocking stuffer fics:

By in_the_blue, Erntedankfest
(The Uncanny X-Men, featuring Kurt Wagner & Kitty Pryde)

By vialethe, Life Is Changing [one] and [two]
Pairings: Colin/Sara, Mary/Dickon, Mary/Colin (one-sided)
a/n: This prompt ran away with me in a big way! It's meant to be set a good ten years after both books, I'd think.

Also, accidentally defaulted on a beta chapter due to sickness, temp job woes, and aunt in the hospital, but hopefully this next week will be a wee less hectic, yeah? :sends prayerful thought heavenward:

On the other penname note, sold a copy of a Christmas short story I put online Friday. More dancing and jubilation. I'm just happy today. :grins:

Told you RECS were coming soon.

So I rec La Femme Nikita, X-Men, Andromeda, and Roswell at more_to_fic. I promise to do more of the X-subfandoms next time. I've just been keeping head above water recently. :shakes head at self:


So, I'll play more catch-up soon. I've got some betas to do, stories to edit/post, and a couple of comms to convince I haven't abandoned. Ah, well. 'Tis life.

I love therefore...
• I'm a sucker for beautiful worldbuilding and this has made me wish once again I was an artist so I could make Vardin as beautiful as I envision it: The Morae River by Brynn Metheney.


I read therefore...
• Eight Against Reality | Panverse Publishing
So this is one I won from the lovely Juliette Wade, whose story opens this collection. Eight SFF short stories. Overall: well worth the buy.

"The Eminence's Match" by Juliette Wade was fabulously written and well nuanced. My only gripe is I wanted more. It didn't feel finished to me, but ah well. It was awesome anyway.

I normally like Aliette de Bodard and everything she writes. I hated this story of hers—"The Lonely Heart," I think—and actually cut it out of my book so I'd never have to see it again.

This was followed by a squid scripty/story thing. It was gross. It didn't merit my scissors—yet, anyway—but I won't reread it. Ever.

Now, "Man's Best Enemy" by Janice Hardy was an awesome little adventure story with a lot of heart and big, nasty dogs. I doubt they'll ever redomesticate these guys.

"Kip Running" by Genevieve Williams disappointed. The action was great, the idea was great, the goal and lack of achieving it was a letdown. The story didn't mean anything, unless it was, "Don't live in a fantasy world."

"Spoiling Veena" by Keyan Bowes was...um...interesting. Veena was certainly spoiled, but it was portrayed as all working out okay. I was uninspired and did not really like it. Kids are not meant to always have their way.

"Dancing by Numbers" by Dario Ciriello was a bit odd with multiple universes through one dancer finding her center of focus, but it reminded me of some of L'Engle's best work and I admit, I enjoyed it. Not sure if it'll become a reread for me, but it was definitely nice for a one-off.

"Love, Blood, and Octli" by T.L. Morganfield was exactly what I would have expected from Aliette de Bodard, a god with two opposing natures and the humans battling for power or goodness. I loved this story.

Best of the batch: "The Eminence's Match," "Man's Best Enemy," and "Love, Blood, and Octli." I give it an 8 out of 10.


I write therefore...
• Complete: Giftfic for ineedmyfics. So excited. Weighed in at 1110 words all said, and I finally figured out the names of these two characters (mentioned once each in a 500 pg book!). And it's good too!

• My regular fiction pen name has been suffering lately. I need to get 2-3 items written for the week and am coming up brain-dry. Somebody, please prompt me.


I hope therefore...
• I want to find a good artist for Vardin. But... I am currently on the poor side. So, hm. I'm trying to think if there's anyone I know that would be willing to illustrate for free to start and we put a tip jar out for their art. Of course, first I got to finish some more stories.

• This post is an exercise in patience. My goal is to only post one major post with all the brain litter I've collected throughout the day. (Note to self: don't count on it, but try anyway.)


I think therefore...
• I think I'm going to let ficspam die by way of neglect. It never did for me what I was hoping, and it's gorgeous, but I like 15_minute_draft better. Eventually, I want to get all my websites up better, instead of just trying to move the whole lot of madness onto LJ.

• I don't think I like AO3. I've tried it again and again, and it's a pain to upload on, it's a pain to browse on, and it's a pain to use. Plus, nobody there knows me, and I don't feel like transferring 70 fics to a place that doesn't really seem to have much use for me. I won't pull it down, but I think I will let my AO3 account die by way of neglect.

• I've noticed Calindria and Vardin are quite similar in tone. However, I still want to keep the work separate 'cause there is such a different focus. Haven't figured out yet if the different pen name is enough on that front.

• Patience is a virtue—that I am still acquiring.

New ravenfirstclass banner.



Now it's just put together a posting schedule, ask folks if there's anything else they'd like, and then ask a bunch of comms if I can do a promotional blitz. :grins:

Happy me. Still got a bunch to rec, and let's not discuss the ignored writing docket. The creative brain is only starting to rise again from the mush of what Wednesday did to it. :shakes head at self:

Reading Now

Just a Whim | pygmymuse
I'm still in love. Digging into chapter 4.


Awesome Stuff I Just Read

xenokattz | D'Ancanto X-Men: The Movieverse
Cadet!Rogue Drabble
Kissing Her Feet Drabble

Check out the rest of the entry too. Awesome stuff.


karabair | Emma Frost in X-Men: The Movieverse
Brief Kissing Incidents
Mitzvah


Lady Sidereal | Origins Included X-Men: The Movieverse
Better Left Forgotten