whynot | here comes the new boss, same as the old boss

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here comes the new boss, same as the old boss

Erasures! They're cool, no?

zempasuchil has brought up the idea of a multifandom fanfic erase-a-thon. I think: AWESOME. As for you,

[Poll #1426879]
I just watched Ocean's Thirteen, and someone has totally written fic about the Molloy brothers' exploits (lol see what I did there) in Mexico, right? RIGHT??! In other news, it appears someone is writing Merlin/Will Big Bang fic omfg jskfjd;kajlfsfds OMFG JFLDJSKLFDJ SFD AAAAAAAHH \o/!!

IN OTHER NEWS. Today Indonesia went to the polls to vote for the next president \o/. Looks like it's gonna be five more years of Yudhoyono. This is... actually the first time I've ever voted. SO, to celebrate I was going to upload bunch of Indonesian music, but my connection is kind of shit. Have some links to

If you like Portishead and the triphop sound in general, you might like Tika's "Fever Fairytale". The video is part beautiful, part creepy.

"Jakarta City Blues" by Indra Aziz is a cappella jazz. I think Aziz multitracked himself doing all the parts? There's a 30-second cigarette ad before the actual video, because cigarettes sponsor everything cool in Indonesia. There was also that time cigarettes sponsored a badminton scholarship, which is also cool, but mostly facepalmingly amusing.

ADORABLE "Dance Will Drop" by Overload Romance IS ADORABLE. It's all, "Dancing with your lover / dancing with your mother / dancing / until we drop." OH DANCING EVERYWHERE. OH HAPPYMAKING. Also: surprise cameo! hflksjfldk <3333

"Boleh Boleh" by Karon 'n Roll sort of reminds me of "Wooly Bully". Retro and cute. You'd totally twist to this song.

"Rocket Ship Goes By" by Goodnight Electric is maybe Postal Service if it tried to do everything on a Casio keyboard from the 80s. It's got the new wave touch, the soaring synths, and the video is trippy as hell.

"Aku Cinta J.A.K.A.R.T.A." by C'Mon Lennon is a delightful shout-along (and clap-along!) for Jakarta-lovers everywhere, I suppose to balance out the Jakarta city blues.

"Mereka Sebut Timur" by Lipgloss reminds me of The Academy Is..., all energetic and heartfelt.

"Mighty Love" by Zeke & the Popo. Infectious chorus and a nifty vid!

ETA: Best ever picture of Morgana or best ever picture of Morgana? Also, this video. God, I love her dorky glasses.

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I totally feel Will on that though, which is in fact a confession of cowardice. But he is trying to look out for their skins in the way he knows how - they pretty much just barely resisted effectively, it's clear, and w/o Arthur and his leadership they probs wouldn't have stood a chance, and all that. And yeah! he fights in the end and gives up whatever pride/jealousy/cynicism thing that sets him against Arthur! and that's what counts.

sfdljsdflksdfksd ahahahaha, Uther probably steps on Gaius' feet and Gaius has to stifle his complaints and be very, very, very patient for the king. part of his many, many talents. and Ygraine insists that they practice in front of her, because they need someone to tell them if their form is right of course. and it has to be her, of course! HEE. Geoffrey asked to see once (in a teasing tone) and Gaius nearly had an aneurysm.

But I bet Uther has danced with Morgana, maybe once. ooooOOoooo.

YA, so many stories are like "fight for the sake of fighting!" which sometimes sounds like "fight for our pride!", and sometimes that's just not productive. If I were him, I would probably run away, having had little to no sword-training at all, and also with the whole "father died in battle" thing. Dang. I recently started reading this book called "The White Flag Principle" which is about how to lose wars and reap the benefits of defeat. I can't tell how serious the author is.

YES YES. And Ygraine has to like crack a whip and be like BACK STRAIGHT UTHER and like STEP THEN TURN, and she gets in Gaius's face about posture and timing also because "honestly, Gaius, is that how you think I dance?" And Gaius remembers a time when he thought being court physician meant mostly making soothing herbal teas and having access to an awesome library. No one ever told him about the dancing. Or the counter-intelligence conspiracies. Ygraine is like WE WILL DO THIS UNTIL YOU GET IT RIGHT, and honestly, Gaius thinks he and Uther would probably dance a lot better if Ygraine would just leave them alone ~~if you know what I mean~~ and stop hollering in their ears. But such is his queen. Such is his king.

"Perhaps instead of dancing and a ball, we can entertain our guests with a joust or archery contest," Uther suggests.

Ygraine is like lol you're adorable.

Gaius just wishes Uther would wear lighter boots.

"You know," Gaius says to Ygraine. "Geoffrey is quite the dancer. Perhaps you should invite him to practice tomorrow and have him show Uther a thing or too."

Ygraine looks contemplative.

jlkldf Uther has tooooooootally danced with Morgana. I think even as a kid, she would stand on his feet. Then, you know. Then she grows up. Morgana has totally danced with Arthur, and she practices dancing with Gwen.

That sounds like... a really weird book. The benefits of defeat? How to lose wars?? I am not sure the village would have benefited from losing the war. but maybe they could've run away. I dunno.

Well you can see how the tournament won out once Ygraine was gone. There was still the feast, though, which probably had some dancing. can't stop the rock!

HAHA GET BACK AT HIM GAIUS you know Uther would make Geoffrey and Gaius dance together because he was tired of it and wanted a demonstration from the masters, and Geoffrey would step all over Gaius' toes on purpose, and then Ygraine is like No no no, you're doing it wrong, let Gaius lead, and then Gaius would smirk and Geoffrey would scowl and be very ill and unable to dance the next time dancing lessons rolled around.

awwwwwwww morgana standing on uther's feet AWWWWW!! sdflkdk maybe if Uther drinks enough she can get him to dance with her again. or I imagine that one day she is feeling very sad and sitting out the dances and Uther wants her to feel happy again so he asks her to dance <333 I wonder if Arthur likes to dance. He probably does. He probably just has a stick up his butt about it because it's not very macho, and also he always falls into the trap of dancing with Morgana because she's hot and then they just fight with each other, so he thinks he hates it.

And Morgana practices dancing with Gwen <33333 I am imagining one of those cheesy scenes where Morgana has Gwen help her practice in her chambers and Morgana leads at first because Gwen doesn't know how, and then they switch places and Gwen leads damn well, with confidence in her body and strong arms, and Morgana feels all swept up in her arms and it makes her a little short of breath. She almost forgets the steps and it's a small room, so eventually she stumbles as the back of her knee hits the bed as she steps back and Gwen goes "Oops! Aaaahh!" and she falls onto Morgana on top of the bed. And Morgana doesn't let go of her hand. LOL oh man dancing fic!

Apparently it's satire. I just... couldn't tell. Le facepalme.

ahahaha you can't stop the rock, man, not even in Camelot. omg Geoffrey and Gaius dancing <33333 oh crotchety old men before they became old and crotchety! Before the practices are through, everyone would have danced with everyone else. Maybe Hunith gets some dancing time in too. Like, one night Geoffrey and Gaius are telling her about it and she laughs and laughs, and Gaius says, "Oh it's easy for you to sit there smirking, you didn't get your feet tramped on Sir Two Left Feet here." Then Hunith shows them a thing or two.

"I didn't know you could dance, Hunith," says Gaius.

"There's a lot more to me than you think," she says, "which you'd know if you bothered to stop your bickering and chasing around after the king for a second or two."

awwww don't be sad Morgana, Uther will dance with yoooouuuu! And: then they just fight with each other, so he thinks he hates it -- YES. hahaha.

fjslfjlsjflds MORGANA/GWEN OMG SHE DOESN'T LET GO OF HER HAND. And it's like gaspy breathing and looking stunned at each other, and Gwen should probably get up now but Morgana is still holding her hand. And Morgana is not pushing her away or anything, so like... But it's not like that's an excuse for Gwen to not get up herself. Right? The stunned silence goes on for a little too long.

I want to see more Hunith awesome. Because she is awesome. Raising Merlin can't have been easy - he's a sweetheart, sure, but keeping his magic a secret must've been a huge problem. he was probably an awkward klutzy child who always put his foot in his mouth and will led him around and got them in more trouble AWWWW MERLIN AND WILL they must've been the most adorkable little boys EVER <333 And Hunith, well, she cleaned them up and made them do chores and protected them from the mean neighbors who are yelling to get those kids off their lawn!

HAR HAR CHASING AFTER THE KING. they so do.

I want to write Gwen/Morgana. I did before and then I went and read some and I read some bad stuff and then I despaired at the state of femslash in general :(((

MERLIN AND WIIIIILLLLL and Hunith sighs at Will's troublemaking ways, but far be it from her to tear the boys apart, because Merlin obviously adores him and Will is the only boy in the village who hasn't tried to give Merlin a wedgie. Or whatever the Ealdorese equivalent is. I mean, not that the boys usually succeed, what with Merlin accidentally turning on his magic defenses in a fit of rage anyway, or something like that. And when people make fun of Merlin, Will usually jumps in and tries to knock their block off, then Merlin has to magically save HIM. Quite possibly, Will found out about Merlin's magic because he was going on and on about his fighting prowess, and Merlin gets fed up and goes, "That was ME, you idiot!"

OMG PLEASE WRITE GWEN/MORGANA. I had the Gwen/Morgana comm friended for a while, I was just kind of underwhelmed by it in general. And even when I try to find it through other people's tags, they're always background to The Ship That Ate Fandom aka prat/idiot.

Wedgies seem timeless. As long as people have been wearing anything that is not just a skirt or kilt, there have probably been wedgies among young boisterous troublesome boys. YOUR STORY LOL I LOVE IT that is SO WILL and SO MERLIN (before his mother and Gaius had impressed upon him the grave importance of keeping his abilities a secret, actually has he entirely learned that?) What if Will were the one with magical abilities, the troublemaker and not the shy funny foot-in-mouth Merlin? were you the one who brought up that question and began to write Will-as-Arthur's-manservant? or your thing was Will-comes-with-Merlin-to-Camelot.

I have been thinking of doing these past few days but lord knows I can't get a moment to do it - when I'm riding in the car I get headaches if I read and I just fall asleep anyway, when I'm driving I can't write, and my days are full of either that or walking around San Francisco (I LOVE THIS PLACE BTW OMG CITY LIGHTS BOOKS OMGOMGOMGOGM *fangirl*). But if I were to write it it would be like dancing lessons and ancing practice and when Gwen first started working for Morgana Gwen was much more shy and Morgana sort of was too but she was also looking for a friend, and you know Morgana taught Gwen how to fight with a sword and Gwen taught Morgana like self-defense. there is probably so much to be said for their day-to-day interactions and their slumber parties and Morgana's restlessness and how hard Gwen works.

UM WHAT. SOMEONE SOMEWHERE WROTE MAGICAL WILL AS ARTHUR'S MANSERVANT?!?!? is there a link?? Yeah I was the one that AU'ed ep10 and Will follows Merlin back to Camelot. I have been contemplating this more and more lately, maybe at some point in the future this will actually be written. AND AND Merlin has always hated hunting anyway and so makes Will go with Arthur on a hunting trip once, and Arthur finds Will surprisingly competent, and then grudging respect happens (http://mrinalinee.livejournal.com/5552.html?thread=22192#t22192). Bonus Will/Gwen in the actual post!

ALSO. I've written four letters from Lancelot thus far. Approx 1000 words thus far. Here is an excerpt:

Though I know it was no fault of mine, I feel compelled to apologize for how abysmal our first international phone call experience was, what with the lags and the crackles. At one point I think we might have crossed wires with the fellow in the wartel booth next to mine. It was lovely to hear your voice again, though. Am I to understand that Morgana’s poetry is gathering a following? If so, that’s wonderful. Don’t worry about her. We all need to fight our fights while we still can. And don’t worry about me – I knew what I was getting myself in to when I came here. You mentioned the desaparecidos, well let me tell you: there are many ways to disappear, and the one way I won’t do is with my tail between my legs.

You are one of the bravest people I know, Gwen. You inspire people everyday, and I wish you’d let us make use of the courage you give us. The Indonesian word for courage is ‘keberanian’. The word for love is ‘cinta’. The word for peace is ‘damai’ and war is ‘perang’. This is how Indonesians say ‘I miss you’: saya rindu kamu. Everyday.

Lancelot

Any direction you want to give Lancelot? He's been waxing philosophical in his letters a lot ("In this, Nimueh was wrong: articulations of magic is every bit as important as magic itself. Magical materialism is not a discourse to be easily dismissed, especially when it’s supposed to be the thing that compels us all."), and I've yet to write the parts where Indonesia descends into chaos and people start disappearing. I also want to write more about MAGIC ("For the sake of some misguided notion of national cohesion, the language is crippled, and so magic is crippled. Imagine how much magic will be lost because your children won’t know the words to conjure it: Chinese charms, Indian transfigurations, Arabic divination. All of it, gone.").

is City Lights not OMGAWESOME?? Have you hit up the Haight and Castro?

there is probably so much to be said for their day-to-day interactions and their slumber parties and Morgana's restlessness and how hard Gwen works.
I know what you mean. But on the other hand, that would totally be what is compelling about Morgana/Gwen, girls being girls in a normal way, the tenderness of female-hearted friendships fraught by repressed class issues.

I could swear I've read it! except I can't remember a thing about it, honestly, augh. awwwww bickering Will and Arthur! I love that Will has something to share with Arthur. Lord knows we never see that with Merlin - all his talents are secrets, I guess.

omg girl you are so productive and that bit is WONDERFUL! I think Lancelot would be more likely to talk about magic and be very practical in a progressive way, than to be so very philosophical - after all he is a country boy and I really like his homespun honesty and strong sense of Right. He is out getting world experience and he is getting philosophy, but he's getting it from people rather than books, conversationally and not so formally. aw I love him, he is so gentle. I have done 0 work on this, I'll have you know, and you are making me feel bad ;) I am blaming the road trip though I have had my laptop on me. oh vacations, good for doing nothing. car rides, good for doing nothing.

I could spend my life, my LIFE, in City Lights. I almost feel like I am betraying Chicago and falling prey to the most cliche kind of liberal California romanticism, but I think I would love to live in San Francisco. With only one day we couldn't do much, and we didn't really squeeze opportunity out of every minute like we could have, so I didn't really see the Haight or Castro, but we drove through Golden Gate Park (How does a piece of nature THAT ENORMOUS exist in such a dense city??? omg amazing <3) and then to the Principio, which was really neat; I would've liked to see more. of everything, ever, there. man.

yes, they are compelling because they are so normal and they are close and they love each other. they are girls being girls in a weird universe with motherfucking pendragons and weird Seer abilities and Merlin's big gay destiny, and their normalness is just refreshing.

and he is getting philosophy, but he's getting it from people rather than books, conversationally and not so formally.
THIS. exactly this.

I visited San Francisco with my boyfriend for spring break and it was amaaaaazing holy crap. We went to Fisherman's wharf (and got rained on, but whatever), and Alcatraz (CREEPY), and went to the MoMA on the free admission day, and at the museum I was contemplating the meaning of this piece of modern art, y'know, until my boyfriend came up to me and whispered, "I think that's the fire extinguisher."

I wish we could've gone to Golden Gate Park! We were at the edges of it, but we were tired from walking up Haight Street, so we were like fuck it let's go home. What we SHOULD'VE gone was take the tram up to the top of the Haight hill and walked downward. I don't think we made it to Principio either, actually I'm not sure where that is.

yeah yeah yeah, what I like about them is that they are unabashedly girls, all soft and tender and affectionate, and not girls trying to be boys (ummmm ep10 aside). Not Cosmo girls who are SEXAYYYYY and ~*independent*~, either, but are simply sexy and independent.

HAHA FIRE EXTINGUISHER :D I cannot help but make fun. But you did go to Alcatraz and I didn't so you do win. I kind of don't want to go because creepy things creep me out, but. it is alcatraz. and that is inescapably awesome. I would also love to go to MOMA! I would also love to SPEND FOREVER in SF! oh man. That park is really really huge, and they have museums and conservatories and everything in there, still with tons and tons of nature in between. You could probably get lost in it. I don't have anything to compare it to, I've never seen Central Park, but it's full of evergreen and eucalyptus and it has palms. swoon! The Principio looks like it was an old army barracks in the Spanish style, it's a park on the northwestern tip where the Golden Gate bridge lands.

I like that! Not Cosmo sexy and independent, but realistically and simply so. They are and they're past it, they don't have to be sexy and independent for the sake of it because they've got jobs to do. Gwen's job is taking care of everyone and Morgana's job is wrapping Arthur around her little finger and provoking/cajoling Uther, and then ep 10 comes along and their jobs get to be battle for a while, but it is all about what needs doing. I like that. they have real lives offscreen!

omg so i'm rewatching episode five and Geoffrey is COURT GENEALOGIST???????

HAHA YEAH WHAT IS THAT ABOUT
He is probably just like "the guy who keeps track of papers and does research for everything that isn't Gaius' job."

HA, Gaius and Geoffrey are totally like, "We didn't sign up for this."

UNRELATEDLY, I am watching the BBC version of the Narnia stories and omg. I don't remember if I've watched these before, perhaps I did. Jadis is so HAMMY and BAD oh man, she's just like SCREAM SCREAM SCREAM, and Aslan is so awfully fake, but daresay Susan acts a bit more compassionate. The forests of Britain are no match for the forests of New Zealand though.

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here comes the new boss, same as the old boss

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