Odds and Ends

[kungfuwaynewho]

Yay!  It's finally fall!  Actually fall, and not just teasing fall that lasts for a few days before it warms up again.  My sisters and I are planning our epic Halloween dinner, to be eaten as we watch the most triumphant premiere of The Walking Dead.  I would be excited about a zombie show anyway, but it's Frank Darabont, and Bear McCreary is doing the music, so you know it's going to be amazing.  As far as meal planning goes, so far all we have are barbeque meatballs and green chile bacon cheddar croissant things.  Maybe some sherbet punch?  And I think ghost sugar cookies.  We're still working on it.

scifiland had a fic challenge that I actually did, but then I missed the deadline.  I'm still kind of pissed about it, heh.  Anyway, since I didn't get to submit in time, I'm just going to post it here, since it's ineligible for voting.  We had to pick one of three sentences and build the fic around it, which was a really fun exercise. 

Title: Untitled Drabble (IDK, dudes)
Specs: Battlestar Galactica, Laura, no spoilers, 250 words
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I did not bother getting out my DVDs to check these numbers, so they're probably off.  Eh.
Prompt: "She's been dreaming and not sleeping, on a road not meant for traveling."

72 days.  46,326 survivors.  68 ships.  Laura wakes, and the numbers are already waiting, there in her mind before anything else.  A narrow couch, not meant for sleeping.  She could acquire something better, this job does have its perks after all, but she prefers this skinny bed, this rough blanket, the thin curtain an inadequate partition.

Laura's been thinking about the coldness of space.  She's been imagining white-hot flashes, blasts of wind, the sound skulls make when they click together.  She's been dreaming and not sleeping, on a road not meant for traveling.  She's been listening to her body, the quiet whispers of malignant sneaks hiding in dark corners.

Laura's fingers shake this morning.  Brushing her hair.  A stranger brushes her hair in the mirror in front of her.  She only packed three suits, and she pulls one on now; slick satin shirt rough against her skin, jacket buttoning too loose and she'll need to cut a new buttonhole, this jacket used to fit.  A president should look presidential.

Laura takes a pill with water, and she prays today there are no visions.  She coughs.  She's heard this cough before, at a lunch at that bistro in Thebes.  Her mother didn't tell her for another two months, but she knew hearing that cough, that dry little cough, and her meal grew cold.

Laura hopes today is boring.  She hopes the Dradis stays clear.  She hopes the Raptors find something, anything.  She hopes this fragile calm knitting them all together holds for one more day.

She hopes.

Comments

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was really good. Most of the fanfic I've read hasn't been nearly so good with visuals, or creating a specific realistic mood.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Oh, ha, I've already made that point to you about fanfic. I... sometimes get confused re: whose lj I'm reading and commenting on. Lol [facepalm].

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Pffft! Anyway, thanks. I find with drabbles it's kind of difficult to try to do too much plot, and working with mood and style is a lot more effective. I say like I've just written ~tons of drabbles, heh.

Why don't I have any Roslin icons? Hmm.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

And, well, at least I'm consistent in my opinions, right?

Srsly! Get on that! ;)

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

I have a couple, but someone on my flist is just in S3 and I'm trying to not to spoil her if at all possible. (Though I totally used a one-eyed Tigh icon by accident before she got to S3, WHOOPS.)

I really do need to sit down and do a comprehensive BSG icon rewatch. Along with all my other show rewatches. Why don't I have more time to watch TV?!

BTW, where are you in TNG?

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Monica's in 2.5, so I'm trying to be sort of careful w/icons on my blog. Only sort of careful -- no huge spoilers, and I'm avoiding s4 in general, but I've done some s3 pics. She doesn't pay much attention anyway. ;)

Oy. My main complaint in life right now is NOT ENOUGH TIME TO DO ANYTHING EVEEEER [whiiine].

I stopped dead in s5 back when I discovered BSG. I've got one friend I watch TNG with and we've watched the occasional episode since... I think we just finished Power Play. (I've also seen some s6 and the occaisonal s7 episode... I'm not too worried about spoilers.)

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

I have one episode left in S5. I've quit because I became very aware that my TNG was finite, LOL. I have like five different shows that I've done this with - as long as I don't watch, I still have new episodes! It's kind of dumb, because it means that I'm not watching them, which is sort of the whole point?

How are the art school apps going?

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHahahaha, art school aps. I am so bloody behind. THIS WEEK, dammit, this week I am going to get my ass in gear. I swear it.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you need a proofread on essays or anything like that.

Heeeeeee that icon. ♥

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Thank you! (x2!)

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. [Winnie the Pooh "thinking" motion] ...One nice thing is that TNG would be very conducive to rewatches once you do finish. It's not like BSG where it's so plot-driven you pretty much have to start over at the beginning and take it to the end on a rewatch (major chunk of time).

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

This is true. And I've rewatched a few eps already. (Like "Cause and Effect," which I think is my fave episode so far.)

And Lord knows I can just skip right past S2.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Cause and Effect is the episode I made like twelve Beverly icons from, LOL. It was also a Jonathan Frakes directorial effort. It's S5, so you should be close.

Yeah, there's like three episodes in S1 I care about watching. The Big Gooodbyyyyyyye.

ETA: Haha you were too slow. Too slow!

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

(Heh, oops, sorry! I wish you could edit comments, grr.)

Yes, that one's pretty fabulous. And I like Measure of a Man from S2, too.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Oh, Measure of a Man. It's a good episode, but a few times I was like, are they seriously having a TRIAL to decide if Data is a PERSON or not?

Mostly S2 is just so writer's strike bad, plus there's no Crusher, so eh. I slogged through it because I'm a completist, but I can't see watching any of it again. (Man, if I'd been watching it when it was on, having no idea that Crusher was going to come back? I probably would have cried forever.)

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

I know, the lack of Crusher killed me. Who is there to imagine Picard gettin' snuggly with??? Not Guinan, certainly -- the hats would get in the way.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to remember who Guinan was talking to when she confessed her attraction/love/whatever for bald men. I was like, "IS THIS FORESHADOWING? DID I MISS READING ABOUT GUINAN/PICARD?"

Hee the hats. Lord.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

It's WEIRD, because they do have some sort of oddly close past relationship that they never delve into, and although I don't seriously suspect shippage, I do wonder what exactly went on (plus there's that bald men quote you mention, too).

K, ha, I have to drive home from work now. "Work." Hrm.

...AND WORK ON MY ART SCHOOL APS! YES.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

HOW DID YOU EDIT THAT????

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

I HAVE A PAID ACCOUNT! (UM, BECAUSE I NEEDED MORE ICONS. NO SERIOUSLY, THAT'S THE ONLY REASON.)

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

I desperately want more icons, but I'm unwilling to pay $2 a month for it. (Apparently I'll buy these shows new on dvd, but am unwilling to put much less money toward other areas of my fandom? I have weird financial priorities.)

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

I never got around to making up the promised present packages (October was biz-zay) - would you prefer extra icons to a gift card and some chocolates?

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Promised present packages??? I do not even remember promised present packages!! You're amazing. I, um, yknow, actually, that would be awesome. (Part of it, I have to say, is that I sort of object to paying for something like space on a webpage when I already have a free blog... it's not that it's actually very expensive. Also, it's sort of like saying that this fandom part of my life which I haven't been treating remotely seriously is actually worth something to me. Which is a line I hadn't been willing to cross yet. But maybe it's time, and a gift from the girl who got me into it would be an appropriate way to get started. ;)

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Hee, you probably don't remember because it was like two months ago. You emailed me your snail mail address in preparation for it? Yeah.

You know, I figure twenty bucks or whatever for a year of fun happy fandom things isn't too much to pay, considering how much I get out of it. I could spend my money on a lot worse.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

...:o :o :o

...icons. ICONS. ICONS!!!!1

Dude, you're ...so incredibly awesome! You got me a whole year???? :o :o Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

What's the occasion for the gifties??

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

When you workshopped my pilot! :D And every day I don't make up my thank you packages is another day when I feel like crap about it, and it starts to be like when I put off replying to totally normal emails. "If I reply NOW, they'll just realize I didn't reply A LONG TIME AGO."

I think, if I don't work tomorrow, that I will do it tomorrow. Argh, I need to start making Christmas presents, too. EVERY YEAR I AM LIKE, DO NOT WAIT TILL DECEMBER. AND THEN I DO.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Oh do not even GET ME STARTED on the little item I was going to mail you for your birthday in, when was it, February?? I was working on it desperately until I knew it wasn't going to make it in time, then I way slacked off, and now I just get horrendously embarassed whenever I think about it. I've picked it up to work on it a number of times since then and would be done by now, but this one little important part has been giving me a world of trouble.... no excuses! I should go work on that now, hm.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Haha, I'd forgotten about that. Um, maybe we should take this as a lesson to never announce we've bought/made something until we've actually done so?

(These comments are like poems, now. Very narrow poems.)

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

I know, right? And what're the chances the lesson's going to take? Hehhh.

Yes. I keep picturing your other friends clicking over to check out the massive amount of conversing going on in your comments and discovering it's just the two of us. And I claim I have no free time. [3rd facepalm of the day]

Edit: Heeeeyyyy check me out correcting typos without deleting and reposting!

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I haven't gotten to that one yet.

My goodness, yes. *twitch*

(Awwwww your icon <3<3<3. That's from the batch that got me started on all this nonsense -- I remember it perfectly!)

[ghanimasun]

Aw that sucks you didn't it submitted in time, I probably would have voted for this one!

Love the fic, very visual and descriptive.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (I may or may not have complained in my team thread about the deadlines changing for every challenge, and how it's hard enough to keep track of everything without also having to remember the specific time of day, too. Then again, it was clearly posted from the beginning, so it was my own fault.)

[ghanimasun]

The deadlines (and weird times) can definitely be annoying in their randomness, I agree. Thankfully my team is pretty good with the reminders.

(My fringeverse team is pretty much forgetful of everything though, we are sooo behind!)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I just finally got back to this, and I love it so much. ♥ The little details really make it perfect.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you! It was...kind of weird, writing fanfic that wasn't B5, heh.