Thing the first: Baseball is back, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, or at least pitchers and catchers are hanging out, and today I watched three real live innings of the local college squad playing itself at practice and the world couldn't be more perfect if it tried.

Thing the second: Oh, it is is hella embarrassing to be so late in doing this (I actually first read this story back in October (October! for shame!), and have been putting off posting about it, but eveyone on earth needs to know about it, for serious), but:

y'all,  pentapus deserves a thousand blessings on her house and riotous public acclamation for this astonishing and wonderful and perfect New Year's Resolution story: King's Sword, Kingdom's Own. Tamora Pierce, Tortall verse, a kingdom building story about the second year of Jonathan's reign. A Raoul story, but...so much more than a Raoul story. The palace is a shambles, the highways are filled with bandits, and Raoul is trapped in the palace, drunk. It's a story about how peace is almost as bad as war, and worse are the times when you can't tell which is which. It's a story about the ways in which the strongest, best things about you can also work against you: Raoul is a warrior who can't really be broken to palace service; Jonathan is a politician who sometimes forgets to be human; Alanna is a hero who can't handle the boring parts of regular life.

It's awesome, did I mention that? You should all read it.

Just to reiterate: 

King's Sword, Kingdom's Own. Tamora Pierce, Tortall 'verse, by pentapus . Go read.

So I am always of course mostly silent on LJ, having my little lurker life, but I've fallen face-first into baseball (Red Sox, Red Sox baseball mostly, say what you will) over the past...well, a while. Like, I can't remember the last time I watched scripted television a while. Apparently SPN has girls on it now? Like that long. Haven't even seen the last four episodes of BSG long.

Anyway, there's a week to go in the regular season, and I'm feeling a little crazy. I was so spoiled last year, watching the Red Sox, feeling naively certain about them.

The jist of this is, I'm taking solace in baseball fandom, because imaginary baseball is soothing in a way real baseball never, ever is, especially not this time of year. And besides, fandom is how I know to read a text, even when the text is Jonathan Papelbon in drag.

So that is what I'm wading around in now; we'll see what happens.

Oh, my goodness. This was my first year doing Yuletide, even though I've watched it grow and watched friends do it for years. Perhaps you have not noticed, but I'm a bit shy. Yuletide has always seemed so scary and complicated and I can really be a terribly nervous person, so I stayed away. I thought I would use this year to ease in, kind of get my feet wet. I was so worried about my own story that I barely thought about the one someone was writing for me, and I'm a little overwhelmed.

They are this:

The Highest Reaches of Hell. Batman Begins.

"You'll have to ask someone else about that," Bruce laughed easily, sliding an arm around her shoulders. She accepted the gesture but didn't simper and giggle like the brunette of two weeks ago had done. "I spent all my time in hell."

This is awesome; I'm obsessed with the idea of how Bruce gets away with it, and Batman Begins is such a rich source material for that. It's not just the late nights or the injuries; this is the first movie to deal with Bruce's very public, years-long absence, and I want to know more about how he explains dropping out of sight. For a decade. This is a great exploration of the lies Bruce tells, and the small number of people who realize they are lies at all. The ending, especially, made me gasp with glee.

And! Two Yuletide treats, both Batman Begins as well.

Life in Black and White. A party; a socialite; a library with a book of maps. I love the division here between the low-level clamor of a society party and the quiet hush of an (almost) empty library. I love the way Bruce switches from deception to honesty and is good with children. This is a great

Q & A Vicki Vale knows Bruce Wayne didn't burn down his own house. This is, one, an awesome story about writing a story, about putting together a narrative and finding things out, and, two, a story that features one RENEE MONTOYA, YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT. I love Renee Montoya, obviously, and her appearance here is a delight.

Three stories! I am, like I said, a little overwhelmed; it's an embarrassment of riches. I'm thrilled that the prompt grabbed y'all's imaginations like that, and I love how the canons interact with each other and bring in familiar characters. So, go read these! They're fabulous. And, if you wrote them, thank you so much. You're fabulous.    

Meme first!

Reply to this entry with your name and post these instructions in your own journal. I will go poke around your list of interests on your profile and ask you one question about one of them. You wax rhapsodic on the subject of your interest for the edification of all and we'll learn something keen about you.

Or in simple terms:

Reply to this meme, I'll pick one of your interests, and you tell me a whole bunch of stuff about it and we all learn a bit more.

( semi-actual semi-fannish content second )

Title: Ill Season
Author: Ana (sinquepida)
Rating: PG-13, for language.
Prompt:
today was ice-clogged rivers and thick black
leather, blue cigarettes and no lung cancer
yet. -Sheila Black
Disclaimer: House is owned and operated by David Shore, Heel-to-Toe Productions, and FOX. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: For the House Rareathon. Betaed by tangleofthorns, a true game-day player. Title from Robert Lowell.
Summary: She's been in Michigan for almost three years, and the winters last much longer than that.

( Ill Season )

Yeah, you read that right.

Sigh. Some people's crack is improbable porn. My crack is improbable crossovers.

'toonverse. Set a few months after "The Dogs of War" for TWW and a few years after "Return of Joker" for DC.

( The Harriet Lane Sitting Room )

comicsverse. set sixth season for TWW, I-don't-know-when for DC.

( Head Over Heels )

No. I don't know what I was thinking either.

So, as much as I love the fiction floating around fandom, and fiction generally, my big guilty pleasure is (obviously, scroll down if you need convincing) work-in-progress amnesty day. I love seeing how writers think; I read meta about shows I've never seen. I adore Author's Notes. I've read a ridiculous number of "writing memoirs"; I just like the stupid hints and tricks different writers use. I always read people's "writing soundtracks," even if I don't read their writing. I love drabbles (especially any sort of generator drabble) because they reveal so much of what the author was thinking at that moment. I like snippets; every time one of those memes goes around, I go to my happy place. So, basically, I like process.

Which is why I'm sharing with you this totally-naval-gazing-not-composed-of-actual-fiction list. Since I've stopped writing in any formal capacity but have remained in fandom, I keep jotting things down (lines, ideas, pieces of scenes) as they come up, thinking I'll use them. I never, ever will (well. maybe. possibly. probably not.), so I'm throwing them here. Make of them what you will.

( West Wing, Jed and Abbey )

( Harry Potter, Remus and Sirius )

( DC- Batman, Superman, assorted Robins )

( Mandy Hampton drabble )

Thank you, Cleveland! Drive safe and hug your gramma!

I got your random fannish babble right here, punk.

So, I adore justpopemotion. And I love reading other people's writing or character soundtracks, and I want to make my own, but I never, ever will.

( The reason I can't make character soundtracks )

And, you know, fandom is something I think about a lot. Especially when I get a new one. Like. Um. DC Comics. (Which, incidentally, I now drive a ridiculous distance to my local comics shop, if by "local" you mean "in a 50 mile radius". Actually, that's exactly what I mean, but beyond that, it has the most hysterically Dungeons and Dragons name ever, and it's in this creepy little stripmall, and the owners are both Marvel fans, and if you needed proof that we're looking at the Good Crack? That's it. The gas costs me more than the books.) And I've found that the best time to think about my fandoms (and, really, my favorite characters in those fandoms, and who they're sleeping with) is when I'm working out, because there aren't a lot of other things to think about.

( So I was all sweaty, and I was thinking about Tim Drake )

It's possible that there are entries coming on fannish evolution, "War Games" and "Identity Crisis", and the historical tomfoolery required to make polyamory socially acceptable in a post-industrial society.

But I make no promises.

I usually try not to do memes here- I have weird mental rules about what is "fandom" and what is not- but this is my favorite poem of all time, anywhere, ever.

( Skunk Hour, Robert Lowell )

My fandom fights The Man.

thete1 is talking, with both wit and eloquence, about why queer women like slash. Jessica Ruth came up with a wonderful theory here, and a lot of what she said is similar to what I'm gonna say. I think we all think about it, on some level, and for me, it's part of a series of bigger, interconnected questions- about slash, about fanfiction, about women, about community, about having really unorthodox fucking hobbies. But mostly, it's just about me, and my body, and how those two are the same thing.

Disclaimer: This is just me, talking. I like fandom, and I like you. Yeah, you. With the hat. I like you.

( Six years' worth of meta )

Would anyone be willing to look at a fandom-at-large meta post in the next few hours? It's a bit of a riff on- well, fandom-at-large, and I'd like to show it to at least a couple people before throwing it at the world.

If you're interested, IM me at the name in the user info? Thanks, guys.

Just saw Harry Potter; must sleep; full recap tomorrow, for anyone who leans in a Hogwarts-ly direction. But rest assured...

( cut for spoilers )

I'm doing the WIP meme now because I'm late to every party, and because my desktop has treasures that my laptop just doesn't. I think I've somehow consolidated a meme and...WIP Amnesty Day, maybe? Anyway, these aren't the fun snappy dialouge summaries everyone else did; they're just excerpts. Make of them what you will.


( Harry Potter, copfic )

( West Wing/Sports Night crossover )

( some sort of Smallville thing )

( Pirates of the Caribbean, something about the North Atlantic )

lcsbanana, who is thoughtful and apparently shares my love for geography, said:

I love what ratcreature said about Gotham and Metropolis being "aspects" of real-world NYC.

And then I typed out a comment that tried to eat the entire DC universe, and so I moved it over here. This is actually only a fraction of what would no doubt turn into a friggin' dissertation if I let it, but, eh. It's a first draft at the very least.

( New York, Gotham, and Metropolis: Three Words that Mean the Same Thing )

Bad fic is the ultimate crack. That is all.

Watched Batman Forever today because I am a huge dork and because I missed The Ten Commandments (apparently it was on on Palm Sunday, bah.) and Val Kilmer seemed like a fitting substitute.

Anyway.

Dick Grayson: I need a name. Batboy, Nightwing, I dunno. What's a good sidekick name?

Bruce Wayne: How about Dick Grayson, college student?

And my inner DC fangirl gives a tiny "squee!" and dances about in circles.

D'y'think, now that Hoynes is no longer VPOTUS, he still gets to go to the AA meeting in the OEOB basement? I know that a big tenet of AA is to be forgiving of yourself and others, and to be non-judgemental of others in their recovery efforts, but-

Somehow, I think that would be a very awkward card game.

But- what's he going to do, go to a meeting in church hall? Start his own, "Disgraced Former High-Level Government Officials With Addictions"? Because, honestly, I'm thinking that would just be him and Bill Clinton, and, between you and me, I'm not so sure Bill Clinton is ready to admit he has a problem.

Just sayin'.