So in my bits of free time, which are sort of legion when I travel, I have been considering S5 fic in the vein of dwseason4. The thing is, my question now is not "Do I want to sacrifice myself to the madness of another season project?" because the answer is a resounding "HELL YES;" rather the question is "Do I want to pick up where the s4 project left off, or do I want to pick up after the real s4 ends?" And um. I am unsure!

OPTION 1: Picking up where dwseason4 left off, PROS: I already know where the characters are emotionally! I have my own universe to play in. A sizable number of people asked me if I was planning to write a continuation piece that was a virtual s5, so I assume they would not be adverse. I like the format. I am curious as to what happens in New Cephei. I really like my s4's Martha and she can still be engaged to Tom Milligan, who is not invisible.

CONS: I already know where the characters are emotionally ie I have already worked out my (somewhat extensive) issues with s3 and I now have a whole new shiny set of issues with real s4. Wouldn't I rather deal with the new issues, which I cannot logically do if I do not take real s4 into account? After s1 Torchwood I wrote decent Torchwood characters but now that I have seen s2 Torchwood which was astonishingly good I sort of hate the way my s4 project treated Torchwood (which was ... basically as set pieces for Jack to move amongst). How would I fix/address this tragedy? Also I would want to involve Donna somehow and I have no idea how I would do this thing.

OPTION 2: Picking up where the real s4 ends, PROS: I would probably recycle bits of fear of the dark in order to bring the Master back but bringing the Master back is sort of overwhelmingly easy and there are a great number of ways to do it. I have lots and lots of fun writing Doctor/Master when they are angry and codependent and have not really confessed any of this to themselves or consummated it in any way. As mentioned above I have worked out my s3 issues and since I now have lots of s4 issues to tackle I can do so! Also I can make Tom not the invisible fiancé and one assumes bring Donna in a bit more easily.

CONS: We still have four episodes to go. For all I know Rusty will bring the Master and Gallifrey back and Martha will turn out to be Davros and kill Donna and Rose will come back as Queen of the Weevils and also Romana and then what the hell would I do. By which I mean the season finale could either take some of the ideas I already have since they are technically ideas that have to do with a plausible season arc, or I will actually be satisfied enough by the finale to want to play in the continuation of my own s4's sandbox.

I am vaguely leaning towards Option 2 [a] because the s4 project is self-contained and cuddly and I am satisfied with it as it is and [b] because I am easily seduced by an element of unpredictability, but who knows, maybe you want more of my universe instead. Thus it is POLL TIME.

Poll #1203033
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

What should Aria write?

Inquiring minds want to feverishly brainstorm all the possibilities.

So I did this thing where I was writing weird surreal Life On Mars fic and being wistful about being a good girl and waiting to write more Doctor/Master until after s4 was over. And then at around ten I found myself with this blank Word doc and thinky thoughts and ... ended up just typing for four hours. I am not sure I would call this "Doctor/Master fic" so much as I would call it "weird reflections on regeneration and yet another way for the Master to not be very dead". Plus it has Donna!

All my research comes from wiki and Chaucer, and all the language bits are definitely initially inspired by this fic of fahye's. It was far too good an idea not to play with a bit. In fact, don't bother reading mine, go read hers instead.

Anyway: fear of the dark.

I have no idea when "attempt Life On Mars fic and wait until s4 is done airing" became "start plotting season arcs and coming up with episode titles and write a fecking page of episode possibly six" but it ... did.

I think pretty much the only way I won't be writing this is if I am internetless at the apartment. I've just. I've really missed writing the Master.

Have some contextless Master from episode maybe six! ( my document title is 'fragments', but I think that is a torchwood ep )

Okay, I have a question. Actually, what I really have is a big bundle of related questions. For the sake of clarity, though, my question goes: as far as pairings you like in your TV shows go, are you usually content going with the text and the stuff the writers explicitly say, or does the text make you uncomfortable and wanting to go someplace else with your interpretations?

( Cut for length, although also for talk of Buffy + a little bit of Angel & the comics, if you do not want various spoilers )

Now is not the time for epic novellas of any sort. Nevertheless, besides the ~25 page Dark Is Rising epic novella that is stalled because I have come up against the immovable object, or: plot, I also seem to have turned vague tentative Xander/Andrew scribblings into, uh, an epic novella post-Chosen. Yay me, this is mostly for my own fun/indulgence of insanity/&c, but I am also curious as always to see if anyone else would want to read it. Um, right now besides five pages and a tentative plot and absolute disregard for the comics but not Angel s5, I have THEMES like storytelling and cookie dough and &c, and also not Willow/Kennedy and definitely Buffy/her delicious baking self. Um. Yes.

Poll #1174200
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

interested?

(Things were a lot easier when I just wanted to write The Doctor And Master's Adventures In Time And Space.)

Will I actually finish this before Real Season Four airs? Probably not, but I'm giving it my best go.

( Commentary: The Quantum Room )

This episode, warning for Torchwood s2 spoilers.

( Commentary: The Illusive Ms. Ingram )

Next: the Doctor and Master's adventures in quantum! Because it is quantum I will both do commentary and not do commentary tonight, and you will not know if I have done it until it is posted.

Having been possessed by the Spirit of Crazy, have some dwseason4 commentary. Tell your friends!

( Commentary: Prologue & Bliss )

And now I go on a quest for dinner. Probably not more tonight, but now that I have started, unless I am attacked by a sudden case of sanity, you should have roughly twelve more of these babies coming your way over the next shortish while.

I am totally doing my homework, but if I was not doing my homework and was, say, compelled to take a break from Dark Is Rising fic by doing a seriously epic commentary of dwseason4, hands up for those of you who would actually take time out of your life to read it.

(I figure now's the time to do it, since Real Season Four starts on Saturday. asklfdhjgf oh god.)

So, interested?

Poll #1164800
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

yes?

Item the first: Back in December, flushed with the joy of writing a Yuletide story about Narnia and discovering that I had good things to say about books from my childhood whose message and conclusion made me genuinely uncomfortable, I decided that I wanted to tackle a stocking stuffer (Yuletide Treat, whatever, &c). Now, my first choice series I had tragically left at school, so I wrote Dalemark fic; but upon returning to school I had the Dark Is Rising Sequence back in my possession, and now I have both Silver On The Tree and unfulfilled Yuletide requests before me, and I really want to write something. I want to write Dark Is Rising fic more or less the same way I wanted to write Narnia fic, in the way where my copy of Silver On The Tree is now full of dogeared pages, and I really want to work through the ending; figure out why the manipulation of memory bothers me, whether Merriman is right, how much in that world one controls one's own destiny. Well, all that and I think there should be more Will/Bran & the Drews fic in the world.

Item the second: Vaguely related to me being unceremoniously attacked by a Buffy bunny the other night (somewhere, Anya is horrified) I am wondering something! Well, first I am wondering why it is that the idea of writing Buffy and Xander and Giles does not intimidate me but I'm convinced I will fuck up with Willow, but in the realm of non-rhetorical questions I want to know: why Buffy/Angel v. Buffy/Spike? I have the same feeling about it as I do about Doctor/Rose v. Doctor/Martha, actually, except with a different conclusion; in the latter case, the answer is "neither, really" and in the former case the answer is "well, both, but differently". I mean, I understand the compulsion to take sides, and perhaps I am just not paying attention and there really are Relative Merits Of Cordelia V. Anya debates too, but -- I am curious, for those of you who have seen the show(s) and care enough to answer, are you in the Buffy/Angel or Buffy/Spike camp or are you staked out (haha) somewhere in the awkward middle ground, disinterestedly watching rogue Riley Finns drift past and cheering Buffy on whomever she decides to make out with?

So: POLL TIME. Answer is relevancy warrants.

Poll #1155765
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Re: #1: Aria writes epic plotful Dark Is Rising fic with Will/Bran and bonus Drews. Interested?

Re: #2: what are your thoughts on whomever Buffy decides to make out with?

And now it's time for new year's flist clean-up!

I don't like just defriending people, though; there are people on my flist of whom I'm quietly in awe and would really like to talk to more, but instead I lurk in a corner and think "But I can't possibly do that, I friended them months ago and it'd be weird to start talking now!" I expect everyone has a few lurkers on their flist who want to get to know each other better but never really get around to it. So:

Comment here if you want me to keep you friended.

No need to comment if I've actually met you offline; this gives you automatic staying power. And you also probably don't need to comment if we talk a lot. All the same, if you do want to stay and aren't sure if you will, drop me a line! Introduce yourself properly, and I will be absolutely thrilled to say hello in return.

(Also feel free to comment if I don't have you friended and you've been lurking or something. Now is a great time to introduce yourself.)

For nextian, DVD commentary on... an untitled origific about Henry King, actually. I don't have it publicly posted anywhere, so if you want to read it bear with the bolded commentary in between the actual words.

( you are the third son )

For pushingmetaphor, DVD commentary for Life on Earth.

( help me, mister master )

At deutscheami's request, DVD commentary for the Who fic Manifesto.

( moth and flame )

FIFTEEN MINUTE FESTIVAL. Again. :D Go forth and cheer one another up!

Usually I am v. pants at art and wouldn't want to subject you to my drawings, but I'm sort of proud of this one.

( snip for a girl with a corset and a gun )

And, uh, while Emma's in class I am entertaining myself as best I can. The following was dashed out in ten minutes (is approx. 300 words) and is therefore not even remotely worth putting up on the fic journal, but it amused me, so here it is: Whofic, more or less, inspired by a conversation Emma and I had last night.

( He'd been in exile for-- oh, not too long, now. )

Zomg Yuletide!

Um, just in case whoever was assigned my prompts stops by in an effort to know more about me and discovers that I compulsively lock everything, here is an open letter.

( Dear Yuletide Santa )

FIFTEEN MINUTE FESTIVAL, or: Emma holding a pick-me-up drabblethon with questions answered, icons made, sympathy exchanged, &c. My week has not been particularly awful but I know I am in the minority here, so get thee there and I will probably end up writing things for you.