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02/18/10--18:44: and I remembered it again tonight (chan 2250285)

Many moons ago -- my senior year of high school, maybe? either that, or junior year -- my English teacher showed us a very odd film version of, I think, Antigone. The characters were in the woods, dressed in furs and dirt. There was no spoken dialogue -- just voiceovers. They jumped from rocks and made faces and the whole thing was recorded on poor film stock. It was arty, where "arty" is a bad word.

Except. Except except except.

Right before my classroom booed the film and my teacher turned it off, right before I never saw it ever again, Antigone began to speak of her brother. It was all about how she would bury him despite the edict against it, out of love and honor and-- And the camera came close, into the mind of Antigone, and it showed us why she would die for this. A ghost's caress -- in that moment she remembers the touch, the feel, of her brother's skin against her own, hands sliding, mouths breathing in tandem, as her voice says lowly, I shall rest, a loved one with him whom I have loved, sinless in my crime; for I owe a longer allegiance to the dead than to the living: in that world I shall abide forever.

And the screen shut off.

I've never found that recording, and that teacher has retired to who-knows-where -- but it haunts me. The camera comes close, and I can see it in my mind.


02/18/10--18:59: and after all that (chan 2250285)

Well! The power of the internet astounds me again.

I found the film.

It's this one: Antigone - Rites of Passion. I kind of wish I hadn't read the reviews, because it's a sad endnote to my startled memory -- I always wondered whether the movie suddenly got amazingly better right before it got shut off, and from the look of these reviews, I'm thinking perhaps not.

If anyone else sees it though, do let me know -- now I'm curious about people's responses.


03/10/10--08:32: in that crazy time again (chan 2250285)

(Every once in a while I go... sort of mad. I end up wanting to create things. Weird things. Plan things I will never produce, learn skills I will never use, read up on techniques I will never have the time to practice. It will probably settle down shortly, but in the meantime...)

1. Learn autoCAD or some other similar 3D design program so as to --> design the interior layout of the magic shop I will never have

2. Create an image library so as to --> illustrate the storyboards in --> the screenwriting program that --> I would use to finish my screenplay OR start a screenplay based on Salt and Silver OR block out the action for the historically inaccurate romance novel

3. Create an image library so as to --> create a planned garden that --> I will construct in Illustrator, which --> would require that I learn Illustrator. And also how to garden

4. Learn Illustrator or some other similar Photoshop-esque program so as to --> plan that garden OR learn how to make photos look like drawings so as to --> make the storyboard for my soon-to-be-written screenplay so much cooler OR animate them

5. Learn animation software so as to --> WRITE CARTOONS (or perhaps so as to illustrate my screenplay OR novel in animated form)

6. Create a sound library so as to --> make my animation that much cooler OR to add a level to my storyboarding

7. Read howto's regarding line art so as to --> more effectively draw with my crayons, which --> I am totally jonesing for at the moment. Maybe to outline my historically inaccurate romance novel? Why do that, when I could STORYBOARD it?



Things I have actually done:

1. downloaded storyboarding software

2. started looking at screengrabs from BBC historicals

3. thought longingly of my crayons

4. tried to be reasonable


03/12/10--19:52: calling College of My Heart alums (chan 2250285)

People! Is anyone here planning on going to reunion? INQUIRING MINDS.


04/02/10--05:59: wait, it's April? (chan 2250285)

First off: Happy birthday, baldanders! Someday I will get out to NYC again, and there will be revelry.

Secondly: I'm not posting nearly as much as I used to (obviously). I'm spending most of my spare writing time... well, writing. I'm trying to up my daily word counts, improve my plotting/outlining/characters, and actually start producing stuff in a timely fashion. (Like, for instance, the sequel to the silly book.) All of this means that the brains I would use to write posts are being used elsewhere; and the time I would use to write posts is already in high demand, what with infants and home-life and all. About the only thing I actually write off the cuff is on twitter (yes, I succumbed).

Additional news: If all goes according to plan, and our basement didn't get flooded out, we'll be moving on the 11th into a house! Photos of the mature blueberry bushes and raspberry canes in springtime may or may not be forthcoming.

Finally: BABY. I have one. Did you know? Indeed. A crawling, talky, amazing baby. With teeth. If you want more daily-news-ish sorts of info about the infant, I would suggest looking at my "favorite" tweets, here. Ones at the top are most recent. But if you hate the idea completely, and wish only to see glorious full-color photos, I CAN DO THAT.



Claire in animal cracker jammies, eating a block, 7 months


Claire manically delighted in her jumperoo, 8 months



04/07/10--13:34: cherry cherry cherry cherry boom boom (chan 2250285)

We have achieved HOUSE.

(Not the Hugh Laurie variety. The "basic needs" one.)

The movers come on the 11th.





...And now, I will write a private post consisting of nothing but all the MANY THINGS I MUST PACK.


04/12/10--15:28: we can haz house (chan 2250285)

The movers came yesterday -- and now I've just gotten home from my untinkered-with commute, to sit on the couch of my new living room.

There are also cherry cordials and coconut creams here, but that's really a secondary perk.


04/19/10--07:55: well, here I am (chan 2250285)

I've migrated a bunch of my stuff over to dreamwidth, at trifles. At the bottom of this post, if you're reading on LJ, should be a crosspost link. Let me know if you're on DW -- I'd like to move as much of my reading list over there as possible.

(In case you're wondering: this is pretty much the last straw, though I've been prepping for it ever since Strikethrough 2007, and actually started doing something after gender!fail.)

Anyway. If you've friended me on LJ, please feel free to come on by and friend me on DW if you have an account there. If not, then, ah, don't. Hurrah.

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06/17/10--13:34: Dear Claire (chan 2250285)

It's June 17th, 2010, and you're officially one year old.

It is really, really trippy to say that.

I remember with complete clarity the day you were born, the weeks leading up to it... heck, I forget that I'm not still pregnant. So looking back at photos of you from the day you were born is more than a little amazing -- I don't feel like I've changed, but you've completely remade yourself, grown in body and brain, and every day you come closer and closer to telling me exactly who you are.

I had a pretty good guess about your personality when I was carrying you around. I thought you were curious, busy, musical, and not likely to put up with garbage. I also thought I was probably making half of it up -- but no, you totally are all of those things and then some.

I said (about, oh, a year ago) that I would write up the story of my labor. I was planning on doing it today, but it seems I'm still not quite in the right frame of mind for it. But the gist is: I almost lost you that day. If it hadn't been for your Mommy backing me up and believing me when I said something was wrong, if we hadn't bullied the medical establishment into doing just one more ultrasound... well. There's a reason Momma had a C-section, and it wasn't for giggles.

I feel so happy to have you, baby girl. You're amazing. You make every day better just by being in it. I love you so, so much. Happy birthday, sweetheart -- I'll be home soon.

Love,
-Cass

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07/09/10--06:40: upcoming appearances (chan 2250285)

Readercon! We will be crashing it. Expect to see us in the lobby sometime early afternoon Saturday (we'll be taking the sibs out to lunch, but will hang about afterward). We may also pop in on Sunday, if only to show off the infant yet more.

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08/13/10--20:03: what it means (chan 2250285)

Inspired by a conversation on eredien's livejournal:

For me personally, the following are three separate things:

-marriage
-wedding
-legal joining

I list them here in order of (personal) importance. Here are my definitions:

marriage: Practically speaking: Not really that different from long-term dating, except there's been a wedding. It is a different state of being, though, even if the expression of that being is exactly the same. The language involved is different, social expectations are different, and, again, there's been a wedding. There's also an expectation of permanence, even (especially?) within the marriage itself. If dating... well, options are open. If married, then there's at least the idea that it's supposed to be forever (even if, practically speaking, we all know that "forever" may not be attainable).

wedding: Ritualistic act of social alchemy. It's magic, essentially. You perform a ritual, and on the other end you become something else. This is why the government/law can't take this away -- all you really need are the words and the belief that the words mean something. The words can be anything, incidentally -- you can choose your promises, define your terms. My and Beth's wedding ceremony was performed by an Old Catholic archbishop, and we absolutely mangled the traditional Catholic ceremony to make it fit the magic we wanted. Added a bunch of stuff about Abraham and Israel, for one thing. Because for us, and I think for many queer couples, the traditional marriage ceremonies are just a template-by-necessity, because we feel we have to make it fit our reality. But really, it's all about crafting a spell.



Excellent love charm: Inscribe by scratching on a tin lamella. Write / and lay it down, walking over it. And what is written is this: "I adjure you by the glorious name of Bacchios" (and add the usual, whatever you wish). -The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, pg 130



legal joining: Entering into a situation that is recognized by a government that has the ability to grant/enforce various legal rights. This is the contentious, political stuff. The rights, the marking on public rolls, the paperwork (mounds of paperwork!). This is the thing, incidentally, that can be controlled by outsiders. Beth and I were married in 2007, but we got legally joined in 2009, about a month before the baby was born, so that I could change my name easily/cheaply and Claire would have the same last name as Beth and me. That's... about it. Yes, I have a piece of paper I can wave around now if I have to, but it's a separate thing from marriage. (Note: Changing my name is a fairly big thing -- but that's a different sort of magic, and not part of this discussion.)


These are, again, just my personal ideas about these things. I do, though, think it can get problematic if these three separate ideas are conflated into two or even one idea.

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08/19/10--06:00: dreamwidth codes, anybody? (chan 2250285)

I have five available -- I'll give them out on a first-come, first-served basis.

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09/18/10--13:58: that old time religion (chan 2250285)

My sister is sitting at the dining room table, attempting to write a short paper on Donne's "A Valediction: of Weeping". I say attempting, because I have stolen the computer and have helpfully added text. Specifically:



The tempest inherent in the rhythm scheme employed by Donne demonstrates a polemic discourse metaphorically related to the political forces of the day and age, signified by the figure of the subaltern that is referenced in the colonial's "emblems of more" (8).



I have no idea what any of that says. But I am glad that I managed to get that many lit theory keywords in there (minus "agency", unfortunately -- I didn't have enough time). It reminds me that I used to know how to do this, once.

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09/26/10--17:05: all around the mulberry bush (chan 2250285)

We sing an awful lot of children's songs now (unsurprisingly). After a long stretch of singing "Crazy Man Michael" when Claire was an infant, I've taken to singing "If I Knew You Were Coming I'd've Baked a Cake", which has a lot less murder, and more of the aforementioned cake.

Beth, on the other hand, has always had a good mental collection to choose from, and one of them is "Pop! Goes the Weasel." What I didn't realize is that it has a second verse, one that is kind of incredible.

All around the mulberry bush
The monkey chased the weasel
The monkey thought it was all in fun
Pop! goes the weasel.

I've no time to sit inside
No time to wait till time goes by
Quick, be quick, I'm off, good-bye!
Pop! goes the weasel.

More incredible, though, is that I just tried to look this verse up on Google, and it's completely different from the "actual" verses -- which I guess just goes to show you that lyric shift is something you're never too young to learn.

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10/08/10--20:39: St. Crispin's Day (chan 2250285)

Tomorrow is my ten-year high school reunion. I am... confused in my feelings about this. Nevertheless, I am bringing the entire household northward tomorrow morning, and We Shall See.

I suspect I will have something to say on it when I return.

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10/27/10--18:16: and another, and another (chan 2250285)

Dear Beth,

Today is your birthday -- you are twenty-nine! You are, once more, older than me. I love saying that, because it makes you wrinkle your nose and explain, again, how you're always older than me. The nose-wrinkling thing is the important part; you hardly ever do it. It's worth repeating an old joke just to see it.

I love you. You know that, I tell you often. It's not just a random platitude, though, or a conversation filler, or a parting salvo at end of a long day -- every time I say it, I really mean it. I thought I should tell you, in case it isn't obvious. (Sometimes, I am not obvious.)

I took a marvelous picture of you today, grinning at the camera, holding a dressed-up Claire beside you at my office's Halloween party. I'll be printing out a copy of that one to put on my desk to see and smile at, like I do the picture I have of us at the zoo five years ago. The zoo picture is the one I used to tell everyone we were engaged. This Halloween picture, I think, will be the one I use to show off my family.

My prose is being a bit spotty here, and throughout this; my brains have leaked elsewhere, spending all my decent words writing fiction. Another thing you support and love me for -- do you know how rare that is? Rare enough. I'm grateful. Your pride in me makes me want to do better. You have made me a better writer, which is as close as I'll ever get to admitting there are such things as muses.

Did you know that you're beautiful? You are. Your hair, your skin -- the flex of your ankle, the curve of your collarbone. Your eyes.

(Also several other things that don't belong in a public letter.)

It is still astonishing to me that if we both look out into a crowded space, we will both be looking at the exact same small detail. Time and time again, we have demonstrated this to one another. It doesn't work when we try it with other people. Just us. I don't know how it happens that we do this -- did we each of us come this way, or did we learn it together? What would have happened if you and I were always the ones to notice that detail, us and no one else, and we never met? I don't like thinking it, even if the answer is that we would never know or miss it. I prefer the life I have, where we don't have to wonder. And that, you'll find, is as close as I'll ever get to admitting there is such a thing as fate.

Today is your birthday. You are incalculably special to me. I hope we see many, many more such birthdays together. I love you.

-Cass

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11/03/10--20:47: and then everybody died (chan 2250285)

On another journal, there was a discussion of murder ballads, and the linking of the same. It seems a shame to waste perfectly good download links, so here, have some dead-people songs and summaries to go with.



Battlefield Band - The Cruel Brother
member of the Cruel family kills his sister for not asking permission to marry; sister lives long enough to implicate him and get his wife too

Blackthorn - Step It Out Mary
double-suicide due to a father's pressure to marry. there are many versions! for instance, Hair of the Dog's and Tears for Beers's

Boiled in Lead - The Newry Highwayman
dude gets hanged for totally being a highwayman

Boiled in Lead - The Man Who Was Boiled in Lead
fairly obvious. apparently the guy was kind of a dick

Cluster of Nuts - Ned Kelly's Letter
a musical interpretation of, ahem, Ned Kelly's letter. then he put on some homemade armor, got shot at, and later was hanged. several people die "by accident" during the course of the letter

Fairport Convention - Crazy Man Michael
crazy guy kills his best gal, goes crazier. alternate version by Natalie Merchant!

Fairport Convention - Matty Groves
cheating wife and her love interest get totally caught, then killed

Jim Moray - The Suffolk Miracle
the love interest snuffs it halfway through. a tricky one. could be interpreted as just a "dead travel quickly" song, but I tend to think the girl's dad had the love interest killed

Lothlorien - The Cruel Mother
member of the Cruel family gets knocked up, kills her babies when they're born, gets subsequently haunted

Martin Carthy - The Famous Flower of Serving Men
woman's mom gets bitchy, sends brigands to kill off daughter's entire family; woman crossdresses and joins king's court; king totally falls for woman-as-dude; magic bird tells king what happens, and also true identity of woman; king makes out with woman and also sets mom on fire

Miranda Lambert - Gunpowder and Lead
woman gets hit by boyfriend, boyfriend goes to county lockup. subsequently boyfriend comes home to a face full of shotgun

Mr Fox - Mr Fox
my favorite! wait, no, I love them all equally. nice guy comes to town, proposes marriage to girl; girl gets creepy vibe, asks for delay; guy storms off, girl follows for the hell of it; girl spots guy totally murdering other chicks; next day girl reveals murdered-chick's gross body part to prove she was right all along; guy gets eaten by dogs

Pentangle - Cruel Sister
member of the Cruel family competes with sister for love interest; cruel sister tosses ostensibly nice sister off cliff; nice sister's bones show up and ruin wedding. has many other alternate versions, including this one by Old Blind Dogs

Reba McIntyre - The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
brother returns to town to discover that wife has been the town bicycle; goes home to discover wife's current lover shot; does something decidedly stupid and gets subsequently arrested, tried, and executed; little sister reveals that she shot the lover and the wife, but could not save brother before Justice got him first

The Corries - The Massacre of Glencoe
the Campbells show up and break a bunch of hospitality laws. murderously

Tom Waits - Lucinda
dude was obsessed with a girl, and then kills her? sees her killed? definitely pinged for her murder, gets hanged


Zip file of the lot


Bonus: Songs I don't personally have, but that I remember fondly as being deadly:

Fairport Convention - John Lee
I actually prefer the live version of this, but this is what I have on hand. song itself is a short character piece about "John Lee", followed immediately afterward by the real news report of the murder he committed

Traffic - John Barleycorn
technically a metaphor for making beer. technically

Boiled in Lead - Son O Son
near-relation of the Cruel family knocks up his sister, then kills her

Steeleye Span - Marrowbones
wife tries to murder her husband, gets killed for her trouble


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11/22/10--10:36: Yuletide (chan 2250285)

Dear Yuletide Author:


First of all, thank you! Don't worry about me -- whatever you do will be amazing, because all of these fandoms need love. But if you want some more details, or some help with the canon, I am all over that.

Singin' in the Rain
I never realized that there was something I was missing in Singin' in the Rain until I read Cimorene's and write that symphony, which is utterly perfect. Of course Don/Cosmo/Kathy -- how else could the film end? It makes complete sense, and I just want more for this fandom. Something that fits the movie -- how they all got together, first times, whatever. I think I'd prefer no actual on-screen sex, but if it's important for the story, dude, GO FOR IT.

WordGirl
I have a small child, but I can't blame her for loving this PBS kids' show. Particularly the titular WordGirl and the villain Tobey McCalister (Tobey makes robots!). Tobey has a thing for WordGirl, but competes with WordGirl's human persona Becky Botsford. Tobey reminds me a little of fanon Draco Malfoy, tbh.

Here, have some canon! A slight introduction to Tobey/Becky's antagonism, a slight introduction to Tobey's obsession with WordGirl, as well as Becky's sort-of interest in Tobey, and of course the episode where Tobey and WordGirl go on a "date". Here is a tiny overview of Tobey in particular.

All I'm looking for is really a decent teenage-angst relationshippy getting-together issue fic. The show itself is funny, but I'd rather have something serious and fantastic than something that follows the show's style.

Francis Child Ballads - The Famous Flower of Serving Men
Oh my god, this ballad. Genderbending, murder, issues! Here is the version I know. Ellen Kushner wrote an excellent novel version of it (though in a highly Medieval language), called Through a Brazen Mirror -- she goes into a lot of what I'd like in a fic: the sexuality issues faced by the king, the magic, and the sexuality issues faced by Fair Eleanor. I included a tag here for "women being awesome" -- because, dude, yeah Eleanor's awesome, she totally buried all her family and then dressed up like a man to make her way in the world, and she was good at it. Recognize.

Bluebeard
I'll take anything. Literally, anything, provided the horror is still there. I want something that will make me think, and make me worry, and make me wonder. I secretly think everyone's got a closet of secrets somewhere -- I always want to know what's in it, and what it would take for that person to reveal it. Here's a breakdown of the fairy tale; here's an annotated version; here is a list of variants to give you ideas (I particularly love "Mr. Fox"); here is a movie I want to see; Buffy did a version of it--

I cannot speak highly enough of the awesomeness of this fairy tale.

And that's it! In the end, I'm just glad you're writing something in one of these fandoms. ♥s to you, Yuletide Author. If you want more info for your brain-box, I have a fiction account on the AO3 under the "trifles" (or "parsnips") name, and here is my delicious account. Have fun!


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12/23/10--18:21: Christmas. Hello. (chan 2250285)

Oh, Christmas. How far we have to travel for you. How unfortunate our current state of illness is.

Internet access will be spotty at best for the next couple of days, but we love you all. Happy holidays, and we'll see you on the other side.

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12/29/10--10:55: recs! (chan 2250285)

It's been a while (a very long while) since I did fic recommendations, longer since I did Yuletide fic recommendations, and a supremely long time since I've done any sort of fic recommendations under this journal name. SO. Clearly the time has come! Have some recs.



I was graced this year with not one, not two, but five Bluebeard stories. Why hello, embarrassment of riches, it is nice to meet you. In the order I was alerted to them:

The Silver Whistle by Anonymous
Fandom: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Summary: Sister Anne makes her choice.

Probably the most traditional of the adaptations I received -- this is the story from the POV of the sister who accompanies our heroine, and highlights the importance of the decisions we make (every decision. all the decisions). Very dreamlike, and the story-logic is almost circular, coming sweeping to the same spots over and over. The formatting's a bit buggered, but I adore the punch of the last line.


Recommend Thyself To God by Anonymous
Fandom: La Barbe bleue | Bluebeard - Charles Perrault, Rapunzel (Fairy Tale)
Summary: "Then he wandered, blind and miserable, through the wood, eating nothing but roots and berries, and weeping and lamenting the loss of his lovely bride." The Prince finds by misadventure the hospitality of a country lord of unique appearance.

This one takes two fairy tales I wouldn't have thought would work well together, and does a lovely job of showing how the faults of one character play into the faults of the other. The Bluebeard figure here is nearly a sympathetic character, almost like a darker Beast in a "La Belle et La Bete" story, reluctantly loving and then having that love betrayed anyway. A very nice intertwining, and one that somehow gathers together themes I saw in the other Bluebeard stories and makes them sing.


Bloody by Anonymous
Fandom: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Bluebeard (Fairy Tales) - Fandom, Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Summary: “I don’t want to marry him.” Laura threw a slipper at the wall. “He’s ugly and old and he’s been married thirty times and lives in this creepy house on the edge of the creepy woods and he dies his beard blue. Blue.” She fell back on the wide soft goose down tick. // Carmilla, who knew that Bluebeard dyed not died his beard, and did not find the woods or the house especially creepy, wanted only to be alone with Laura.

AHAHAHAHA it's a Carmilla/Bluebeard SHOWDOWN. The author took Carmilla's awesome lesbian super-amazingness and let her go to town -- taking the narrative place of the bride's sister, and out-creepying Bluebeard at his own game. I also just love the juxtaposition: Bluebeard's a man who plays at being a monster, and Carmilla's a monster who plays at being a woman. The monster wins out, but somehow the woman does too. The narrative place in time seems a bit wonky (moving from Victorian to "random fairy tale medieval"?), but like Recommend Thyself to God, this is a mashup I would not have anticipated, and yet seems to work pretty damn well regardless.


707 Bluebird Lane by Anonymous
Fandom: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, La Barbe bleue | Bluebeard - Charles Perrault, Duke Bluebeard's Castle - Bela Bartok
Summary: As inclined as she is to just have another round against the front door, Judy decides they’ll have lots of time for that, and she can make him wait a little. “Come on. Give me the tour.”

A modern retelling, using the narrative structure of Bartok's opera. This one may be my favorite of the bunch, though that's a bit like picking out one's favorite child (the correct answer: THERE IS NO FAVORITE CHILD). This... this has been haunting me. I wasn't familiar with the opera, so I went into this just reading it as a Bluebeard variant, and it's heartbreaking. I love how very real the Bluebeard character here is, and my heart hurts for him. Again, like Recommend Thyself to God, I feel like Bluebeard is the one who suffers here.


Blueblood by Anonymous
Fandom: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Summary: A re-imagining of Bluebeard on the West Side Piers. Note that the story contains harsh language and violence which some people may find triggering. If you are sensitive to depictions of violence, please proceed with caution.

Have I mentioned that I love modern retellings? So very much. The main character's a homeless lesbian, and Bluebeard is renamed Blueblood, a rich guy hunting trans prostitutes on the West Side Piers. Violent, and wallowing -- lovely. The last line just ties it all together, dreams of danger and wealth and longing -- a lot of longing, for things that won't come true for any of them, no matter how much they wish it. It's like an inside-out take on the "everyone has a closet of secrets" idea -- everyone wants something. Nice.


Other fics that have caught my fancy sufficiently enough for me to recommend them (I commented on several others, and gave kudos to many, many others, but these are the ones I'm still grinning over):


What You See Is What You Get (If You're Looking Hard Enough) by Anonymous
Fandom: The Mentalist
Summary: Patrick Jane is only human.

Steampunk modern-fantasy AU. A pitch-perfect CBI, a good and fitting mystery, and a brilliantly outlined world. But the real winner here is the reveal -- of course, of course that's what's going on, but I didn't see it coming, and it was amazing.


It's the Muppet Doctor Who Special, With Our Very Special Guest Star, Matt Smith! by Anonymous
Fandom: Muppet Show, Doctor Who
Summary: Tonight, the Muppet Theater is proud to present the Muppet Doctor Who Special, the Muppets' tribute to the long-running BBC television series! SPECIAL GUEST STAR: Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor! // Admission reasonable. Concessions very reasonable. Budget marginal. Free parking.

An episode of the Muppet Show that manages to encapsulate the entire run of Doctor Who. Starts a bit uncertainly, but around the time Scooter says, "Congratulations, you're Captain Jack Harkness," this whole thing turns epic. And then there's Beaker, man. Beaker.


Observe and Detect by Anonymous
Fandom: Castle
Summary: In which there is an early morning call-out, breakfast food betrayals, the pulling of pigtails, and a groove that gets lost and found.

The best Ryan/Esposito fic I've come across so far. Pitch-perfect lines, just as amusing and clever and awesome as the source. "I should probably tell you that my curiosity only continues to grow the longer you refuse to answer the question," Ryan said.



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