whynot | AND THEN SETH GREEN IN FLANNEL GUEST STARRED ON X-FILES

The end of the paid account was like Y2K or something. I was all OH NO OH NO, but in the end all I lost was icon space and poll-making abilities. I didn't even lose my mood theme! So, okay. Also: GIP! If I were still doing the adjacent icons meme, I would be writing a drabble about Susan Pevensie and Bender hanging out.

Speaking of memes,

lovestories gave me 5 things to talk about:

erasure poetry
This is all

zempasuchil, actually. She took a whole course about it, and was posting links to Humument.com and other examples, posted her own erasures, and I became intrigued. Erasures appeal to my love of stories within stories. I suggested we erase each other's fics, and to my delight she said yea. Speaking of which, have ya'll already signed up for

erasureathon?

Merlin/Will
Ah, Will: fandom's buttmonkey. Here's the thing. He is obviously a big part of Merlin's origins story, and he and Merlin obviously adored each other ~~and perhaps canoodled in the pastures~~. I like his realistic reaction to certain doom (run awaaaaay) -- but he does come back to fight in the end, guys -- and I like his utter normalcy. Also, he's the only other person except Hunith who knew about the magic! Merlin may not end with Will by his side, but he begins with Will by his side, and this is just as valid as Merlin and Arthur's superspecial destiny. I said most of what I had to say about Will in Halcyon Days, though I suspect there may at some point be an AU where Will survives and follows the gang back to Camelot, then this happens. Have a Merlin/Will vid. I've recced it before but god, it gets me every time.

insanely glorious Narnia AUs
<3! AUs are insanely glorious fun! Oh, the 'what if?' game. These days I tend to blither on about Merlin AUs more, excepting this one I'm on with

marycontraire wherein Merlin and Arthur are FBI agents and the Pevensies are the mafia, and Arthur and Edmund have secret meetings where Arthur tries to wrest information out of Edmund about Morgana's kidnapping. Thing is, I never used to like AUs, but then you start asking questions like WHAT IF ARTHUR WAS A DINOSAUR and how can you turn away?

Peter/Susan
What have I said about them that I haven't before. They are the inappropriate OTP of my heeeaaarrrrt. I think I've Peter/Susaned myself out, in that although I still ship them, I tend to write around them more now instead of directly addressing the issue. In the rambling meme, I talked about Peter/Susan.

Indonesian shadow puppets
I never got around to writing the drabble about Edmund and the shadow puppets, but it would involve comparisons to Plato's cave, and how the shadows cast on the cave wall are like the puppets' shadows on the screen. The 'real' thing may be the leather puppets and the human voices and hands that animate them, but what the audience is meant to see are their shadows. And the brighter the light, the sharper the shadows, and that's where the story lies. So, uh. I guess that's what it means to Edmund.

Here are a couple of things that have improved my Monday. First, a most gracious lady remixed me and

zempasuchil's Narnia geek-off, Sea Change, for

remixredux09. It is so lovely, please read it: into something rich and strange (the tempus aeternum backbeat). Awesome #1: there is more Lucy. Awesome #2: "Edmund has spent hours puzzling over black holes and maths and the curious turn of gravity trying to find a way to say, in the language of these scientific men, what he himself knows with an utter intimacy." <3 "Einstein's Dream" is now on my to-read list.

Second, my Merlin/Monty Python fusion, Only a Model, has been nominated for

excalibur_award under Best Crack Fic, Best Humor Fic, and Best Crossover Fic. \o/! Thanks, nominator! If any of ya'll are inclined to agree with this nomination, uh, vote for me? I promise to reform the health care system!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Caspian di Telmar is only a young man, but then again, so is Edmund. So are they all. What Caspian lacks in experience, he makes up in money and allies inherited from his late uncle. He better learn how to use them, else there's going to be people like Edmund phoning in the middle of dinner calling in a favor promised years ago for reasons they all worked hard to keep out of the papers.

"Caspian," Edmund says, "would you mind finding out some information for me?" Like Caspian actually has the option to say no.

There is a knock on the bathroom door, and then there is Susan's voice. "Ed, are you going to hide in there all night?"

"Can't a man have some privacy?" Edmund calls out, cellphone flattened against his shoulder.

"Well, you've been in there twenty minutes. Lucy wants to know if you've fallen in."

"Funny, Su. Look, I'll be out in a minute."

"We're about to open another bottle, Edmund."

"I said I'll be out in a minute." He waits for Susan's footsteps to fade, then he says into the phone, "Look, I gotta go."

"Me too, man," says Caspian.

"We'll be in touch soon."

"Doubtless," and there's something wry in Caspian's tone that Edmund has to roll his eyes. "Merry Christmas to you and yours," Caspian says.

"Back atcha, buddy."

Edmund hangs up.

AND THEN SETH GREEN IN FLANNEL GUEST STARRED ON X-FILES

and more.