Life on Queen Street

Adapted from various places around Elle-Jay:

1) List 10 characters of any gender (I went for a 50-50 split, which tilted the list a little shippy YMMV):

1. Sarah Connor
2. Veronica Mars
3. Sam Carter
4. Aeryn Sun
5. Helen Magnus
6. Kyle Reese
7. John Crichton
8. Teal'c
9. John Druitt
10. Logan Echolls (it was a coin-toss between Logan and Wallace. I went for the angst over the pure of heart. And I hate myself just a little for it)

2) Write a fic of 25 words or less for each of the following prompts:
( Pick your characters before you read the prompt list )

3) Write 12 fics totalling not more than 300 words:
( Here Be 11 Very Short Ficlets and one longer ficlet: Farscape, The Terminator, Stargate SG-1, Sanctuary, Veronica Mars )

Snurched and adapted from about the Flist:

1)Tell me who your favourite(s) female character(s) is/are and I'll tell you 3 things I believe about her/them.

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2) List five characters you'd want on your side in any kind of trouble. Bonus points for assembling an "Action Team" with complementary skills:

Team Leader: Ellen Ripley - she's a survivor, she's cool in a crisis and she doesn't flinch - from anything. If you're going someplace hellish, it's good to follow someone who knows the countryside. Ripley can also pilot deep space freighters, run exo-suits and solves munitions crises with duct tape. Leave the cats and small children at home, though - Ripley's relentless decency can be her own worst foe even though we love her for it.

2nd/Tactician/Geek: Colonel Sam Carter - career military with more than 10 years experience in all forms of small unit combat, she's an astrophysicist and engineer who can make computers and all sorts of alien technology sit, lie down and roll over for her on command. And if it doesn't, she'll blow it the fuck up. Besides, math is a universal language and Carter speaks it fluently. That's gonna come in handy.

Medic: Martha Jones, MD - between Ripley and Carter, something's bound to explode sooner or later and you want someone there to deal with the inevitable flash burns, shrapnel wounds and radiation poisoning (Carter and Ripley are scarily fond of nukes) that follow. Jones trained as a doctor before traveling with The Doctor and then went on to work for UNIT and Torchwood, which means she's now qualified to treat everything from an Alien infestation to passing a four-day liberty with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (or a night with "Captain" Jack Harkness). More importantly, Martha just doesn't know how to quit - if push comes to shove, she'll go to the ends of the Earth to save a friend: that's the kind of determination you want in your doc. Dislikes: tiny blonde chavs; men who can't see a good thing when it shares a Tardis with them; traditional Gallifreyan drumming. Likes: black leather.

Pilot/Muscle/Badass in Black Leather: Aeryn Sun - centuries of selective breeding and a training regime designed to weed out the unfit have made the Peacekeepers the most feared military force in their corner of the galaxy, crushing all resistance under the heels of their shiny black leather boots. Aeryn Sun was among their best until she got caught in the middle of her insane commander's blood feud with displaced astronaut, John Crichton. Four years later, Aeryn's just another working mother, trying to juggle a busy career as galactic fugitive with raising her toddler son and keeping her husband out of trouble, a career in itself. Because Sebaceans are long-lived, Aeryn has more piloting experience than pilots twice her apparent age and that dash of Pilot DNA she picked up along the way gives her an affinity with the Uncharted Territories' most interesting species, the living Leviathan ships. She's also fiercely loyal to her comrades, compassionate, believes shooting something will cure most ills, and doesn't mind hanging around with nuclear weapons, so she'll fit right in with Carter and Ripley.

Fixer/Sage/Handler/Intelligence: Emma Peel - James Bond wishes he were this suave or this deadly. Mrs. Peel is everything that is most elegant and shit-scary about British women - she can wield a tea cup and a stiletto with equal grace; apply a sleeper-hold as easily as lipstick. Spy, genius industrialist, adventurer and Avenger, Mrs. Peel brings a necessary sang froid to our band of heroes as well as an impeccable dress sense and an infectious elan to the proceedings. She is, as they say, "extremely good in the room."

eta - I know, I know I didn't pick Sarah Connor but there's no "my son's destined to save Humanity from The Machines if I don't stop the Robot Apocalypse" in t-e-a-m. Now, if the question were "who would you want to save your ass from killer robots" Sarah Connor would definitely top the list.

Honourable Mentions: Toshiko Sato, Zoe Washburn, Julie Parrish, Ashely & Helen Magnus (Helen Magnus & Emma Peel - there needs to be fanfic), Barbara Gordon, The Black Widow, Carolyn Fry, Elizabeth Swann (who should be reborn as a Space Pirate now), EVE, Marion Ravenwood (Helen Magnus and Marion Ravenwood walk into a bar... inevitably, they throw some guy out the window) and Tara Chace.

I said guess!

And then, check out these pandas. They're awesome! Awesome, awesome pandas.

Is JJ Abrams the new Joss Whedon? That would explain why I lost interest in FRINGE 30 seconds after I finished watching the pilot (also my kneejerk instinct to slap people telling me how good it is and shout “Get over it!” See all: LOST, the new STAR TREK...).

Release date for The Road pushed back: how about never? Would that be a good release date? *shudder*

Review of new MacBook and MacBook Pro - I wants it, Precious, I waaaaaaaaaaants.

Ooooooh, and this, too, Precious.

Hey, I’m going to see Let the Right One In tomorrow night. Maybe I should bring spare underpants.

There’s gonna be a new GI Joe comic and I am… reasonably excited (shut up, I was 12 in 1985. What’s your excuse?).

There’s gonna be new V series and I am… afraid it’s going to suck (shut up, I was 12 in 1985.).

Q&A with Paul Gross. PASSCHENDAELE opens tomorrow. And I need a poppy.

Filed under “self-evident propositions”: Gerard Butler is hot. Rain is wet. The new Star Trek movie will be a piece of shit.

Also a piece of shit: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but it was nice to see Karen Allen again.

New Doctor Who set for Easter 2009 (wait, isn’t there going to be a Christmas special this year – ‘hold the roast a sec, Ma, I’ve got to set the download’). Doctor Who and I are officially broken up but I can be talked into pity sex viewing if there’s enough beer.

This link fell into my browser from the link faerie fairoriana but it is literally too funny not to re-post: Staying Alive by the BeeGees could save your life (don’t nobody tell Dennis Leary. On second thought…).

We only had to wait 436 years but the Spanish Riding School admits its first female riders:

The country's prestigious Spanish Riding School, for centuries a bastion of masculinity, is modernizing: On Wednesday, the 436-year-old institution officially presented its first female riders-in-training… .
Allowing women to sit in the saddles marks a distinct break with tradition. But for Elisabeth Guertler, the director, opening up the exclusive club reflects the realities of modern life.
“What speaks against it?” she asked reporters. “Today, ladies and gentlemen both have to earn their keep and prove themselves.”

I did not see inside the Spanish Riding School when I visited Vienna in March. Maybe it’s time for a return trip…

Dear God, I’m such a fucking nerd (see also, "self-evident proposition" above, QED, etc.).

Finally, fic meme by way of cofax7: Sometimes it's ok to pimp yourself out. Post a list of your top five fic - favorites you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most.

Okay, here goes:

Watershed – Sarah Connor reflects on the way her world has changed. Set between the last two scenes of THE TERMINATOR. I wrote it all in the second person while trying out some new stuff stylistically and it mostly works. Someday, I’ll write the second half, including the scene that got me started on the story in the first place. And, y'know, Sarah Connor.

Pinocchio Does Outer Space - ALIEN RESURRECTION - it’s all from Call’s point of view so I got to make Ripley the badassest badass in every scene she’s in (‘cause Call’s the only one who knows just how bad Xeno-Ripley can be). The story’s really about friendship and responsibility and how those things bring together and jar apart people who care for each other.

Undercover Blues - Farscape - Wrote it for a ficathon and I hated the character and I found the very idea the prompt represented revolting so I tried to cheat but the story came together like a piece of clockwork anyway.

Mother Wolf and Cub, vol. 1: Devil’s Bargain - Farscape - pastiche a-go-go. Take one cup FARSCAPE, add one cup Ogami Itto, one cup the Bride, combine with gratuitous child-death and stir until thoroughly blended: Aeryn Sun Iron Samurai style. Maybe the fanfic I’ve written that I love the most. Try as I might (and I’ve been trying for four years), I’ve never been able to write a sequel.

Out of Their Clothes - Farscape - my first attempt at writing sex (at least where other people could see) done on a dare. The writing horrifies me now but the sex holds up pretty well, I think.

For more of my fic, click here.

tricksy HTML, how I hates you

I've been thinking a lot about character and relationships in fiction lately.

I'm trying to kick-start my very stalled novel and wondering why I'm having trouble coming up with a male character that interests me at the same time. That's a post for another time, though. Right now I want to reflect on what drew me towards FARSCAPE, which is still and will probably stay my favourite genre SF TV of all time. There are three really good reasons for that.

One is named John Cricton.

The other is named Aeryn Sun.

And the third is John and Aeryn together.

Although I loved John Crichton, I quickly came to adore Aeryn Sun but John gets first place because if it weren't for the way Ben Browder filled out his grey tee in "Til The Blood Runs Clear", I would never have hung around to discover the cleverest, most daring, most utterly bent TV ever. Not only did FARSCAPE have muppets, it had sexually active muppets. Watching FARSCAPE was the cantina scene in STAR WARS on uppers and a six-pack of XXXX, a 90-episode-long antidote to decades of stultifying STAR TREK and Faux-Trek navel-gazing about the nature of man and his place in the universe. FARSCAPE was Thomas Hobbes in outer space, a universe where life was nasty, brutish and too, too often short. It even had its own Leviathan.

And the only reason I tuned in originally was because I thought Ben Browder had a nice chest.

Sometimes, it really is about the marketing.

Aeryn Sun isn't the reason I stayed. Not entirely - I love John Crichton: saviour and destroyer of the universe; fate's personal whipping boy; somehow still the most hopeful person in the room. But I bleed for Aeryn Sun. In a lot of ways, FARSCAPE is more her story than John's. He may be the hero but her arc is what gives shape to the journey and together they were magic.

Of all the rules of the genre that FARSCAPE broke, the one that gave me the most satisfaction was seeing John and Aeryn get together in Season One rather than spending years playing a will they/won't they game (X-FILES, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, STARGATE and every other fucking show on the planet). FARSCAPE was smart enough to acknowledge the blindingly obvious - that John and Aeryn fancied the arse off each other - and let them at it only to have them discover that good sex didn't solve your problems. After all, he's human (an alien) and she's not (human). It was never going to be easy.

But God, it was fun.

I think I shall rewatch all of Farscape this month.

For Thea and FBF

Beware of spoilers for the last aired episode of all series (although the Vala story is probably safe).

( Stargate SG-1 -- Five Things Vala Really Likes About Earth )

( Battlestar Galactica -- Five Things Lee Wishes He Could Tell His Father )

( Veronica Mars -- Five Things Veronica Mars Wishes She Didn't Know )

( Farscape -- Five Things Aeryn Wanted to Do on Earth But Didn't )

( Farscape -- Five Ways D’Argo Didn’t Die )

A little something for simplystars:

( Two Years Ago... )

In the better late than never category?

Title: Undercover Blues
Rating: PG
Words: 2,220
Setting: Post-Peacekeeper Wars
Pairings: there's a mention of J/A
Characters: Grayza, Aeryn, little D, (Crichton and Rygel are seen but not heard)
Summary: Grayza's undercover. Aeryn isn't. This could end badly.
Written For: lady_smith.

Sorry I'm late. I hope you like it. Or find it interesting at the very least.

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( Undercover Blues )